Just weeks into the roll-out of vaccines to combat Covid-19, researchers are shifting their focus to a new class of potential shots to take on the threat posed by fast-spreading mutations.Dangerous coronavirus variants identified in Africa, Europe an...

The dissolution of a Skull and Bones-style private club of some of China’s most famous tycoons has raised concerns over what roles entrepreneurs will play in the country’s next phase of modernisation.The Taishan Club – a private club with about...

Medical student Ahmed Suhail, 22, returned to India on an evacuation flight from Wuhan, China, last February when the coronavirus broke out and the city was placed under complete lockdown. A year after, he wishes he had chosen to stay put.Suhail, who...

Hong Kong police are investigating a case of suspected animal cruelty after receiving a tip-off about a video showing a woman swinging around a dog tied to a tree branch.The force received a report at 9.17am on Saturday and sent officers to Wu Kai Sh...

China Global Television Network has lost permission to air in Germany, just days after the Chinese state channel’s broadcasting licence was revoked in Britain.The media authority of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia said CGTN could no long...

Opposition to Myanmar’s new military regime intensified on Saturday as spontaneous neighbourhood watch groups mobilised to thwart arrests of anti-coup activists and the United Nations demanded the release of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.The UN’...

For the first 28 years of his life, Shuhei Matsuo Post was ignorant about the impact of a patriarchal society on women and girls.The 35-year-old Tokyo businessman spent most of his adolescent years in the United States, and when he returned to Japan,...

Hong Kong confirmed 12 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the fewest in about three months, but authorities said the drop could be due to reduced testing over the holiday and warned hidden transmission chains remained in the community.Two of the infe...

China’s plans to use Ukrainian expertise to fast-track is aviation technology have suffered a setback, as Kiev tries to improve relations with the new US administration.Late last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed sanctions on Sk...

All theories about the origins of the virus that causes Covid-19 are still under investigation, the head of the World Health Organization said on Friday after international researchers wrapped up a near month-long trip to the site of the disease’s ...

A rural leader has drawn a prophecy urging the Hong Kong government to be more decisive when formulating policies, warning that a Lunar New Year fortune stick has sounded an alarm for officials and any wrong moves could worsen the city’s problems.K...

Scores of counterfeit 3M respirators have slipped past US investigators in recent months, making it to the cheeks and chins of health care workers and perplexing experts who say their quality is not vastly inferior to the real thing.N95 masks are pri...

Some pets were abandoned, stranded and left to starve to death when a sudden lockdown was imposed on central Wuhan in January last year and residents were taken away to quarantine or forbidden to return to their homes.New Covid-19 outbreaks in China ...

Beijing has touted its landmark investment pact with Brussels as a strategic breakthrough, but concerns have been raised over labour rights issues in China and the deal – which still needs final approval – may not get past European lawmakers.The ...

When a Botticelli painting went under the hammer in January at Sotheby’s in New York for US$92 million, it was assumed the buyer was a Russian oligarch since the bidding was done by an adviser to wealthy Russians.But as art journalist Scott Reyburn...

Hong Kong prisons have begun trimming the locks of female inmates to just past shoulder length, after a recent court ruling that the Correctional Services Department was discriminating by imposing different hair standards on the two sexes, the Post h...

A Thai soap opera is facing an unprecedented online backlash over a scene portraying sexual assault, in an outcry activists hope may spur change in a country which has largely avoided the glare of the #MeToo movement.Each night, millions across Thail...

Taiwan’s main opposition party the Kuomintang has revived its long-stalled plan to re-establish its presence in Washington as part of its efforts to regain support in the United States.It plans to reopen its representative office, shut down in 2008...

In a lengthy social media post, US pop star Justin Timberlake says that he wants to apologise to singers Britney Spears and Janet Jackson “because I care for and respect these women and I know I failed”.“I’ve seen the messages, tags, comments...

Almost two weeks since the visa system for British National (Overseas) passport holders went live, unconfirmed reports suggest potentially hundreds of people have had their applications approved.While Britain has yet to release any official figures, ...

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Zouk, one of Singapore’s oldest and most elaborate nightspots, easily attracted at least 3,000 partygoers a night. Now it sees only 150 patrons every evening and has had to transform parts of its 31,000 square feet ...

Hong Kong’s traditional Lunar New Year flower markets generated 83 tonnes of waste, most of which would be recycled, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said on Friday.The government department stepped-up efforts to salvage any items that...

Three more countries have said they are expecting deliveries of Chinese coronavirus vaccines this month as health authorities around the world scramble for supplies.Bolivia, the Philippines and Hungary confirmed on Thursday they would receive shipmen...

British human rights lawyer Karim Khan was elected Friday as the new prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, a politically daunting position whose incumbent was slapped with US sanctions.Khan, 50, previously led a special UN investigation int...

The Pentagon has approved the deployment of 20 more military vaccination teams that will be prepared to go out to communities around the country, putting the department on pace to deploy as many as 19,000 troops if the 100 planned teams are realised....

For many people in South Korea, 2021 started with an apology. The words “I’m sorry, Jeong-in”, reverberated around Twitter, as across the country people vowed to remember the death of a 16-month-old baby girl who allegedly suffered at the hand...

A magnitude-5.9 earthquake hit parts of Central and South Asia on Friday, jolting countries from Tajikistan to India. Strong tremors were felt across Afghanistan and Pakistan, forcing people to flee from houses and other buildings in panic.The epicen...

Crime syndicates in Asia’s drug-producing Golden Triangle region have likely begun producing ingredients to manufacture methamphetamine, enabling them to avoid restrictions on importing precursors such as pseudoephedrine and ephedrine. The develop...

Why does China need coal?China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal.Thermal coal is widely used for power generation, which accounted for 57.7 per cent of the country’s total energy consumption in 2019, a decline of 10.8 percentag...

The world should be prepared for the coronavirus to continue to circulate long-term despite the roll-out of vaccines, the head of the EU’s ECDC health agency, Andrea Ammon, said on Friday.“We should be prepared that it will remain with us,” the...

Finance chiefs from the Group of Seven (G7) countries on Friday emphasised the importance of supporting pandemic-hit economies toward a recovery, with the United States calling for further fiscal aid and vowing to return to multilateralism.The teleco...

“Prison is so exhausting you wouldn’t know,” writes fake Russian-German heiress Anna Sorokin on Instagram, under a black and white photo of herself wearing black sunglasses while in bed.Sorokin posted the image to her 75,000 followers after her...

Hundreds of Nepalis staged a mock funeral procession in the capital Kathmandu on Friday after the rape and murder of a teenage girl drew attention to a rise in sexual assault cases.Bhagirathi Bhatta, 17, went missing on Thursday last week while she w...

Fourteen people have been arrested in Denmark and Germany on suspicion of preparing one or several attacks in the two countries, Danish police said on Friday, adding that the discovery of an Islamic State group flag could indicate the suspects “hav...

The Biden administration has launched a formal review of the future of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba with the goal of reviving efforts to close the controversial facility, a White House official said on Friday.Aides involved in int...

France on Friday recommended that people who have already recovered from Covid-19 receive a single vaccine dose, becoming the first country to issue such advice.All three Covid-19 vaccines approved for use in the European Union are administered in th...

The US defence department has revealed more details about its new task force to evaluate its strategy on China, with technology among its priorities as the two countries’ rivalry looks set to continue under Joe Biden, the new American president.Ely...

Amazon.com on Friday sued New York’s attorney general to stop the state from taking legal action over its early Covid-19 response, including its firing of activist Christian Smalls.The retailer drew scrutiny 10 months ago when workers protested con...

A move by Hong Kong’s public broadcaster to pull the plug on programming from Britain’s BBC following a ban by Chinese regulators has sparked alarm in the city as analysts warned of a shrinking space for press freedom.The decision by RTHK to stop...

Huawei Technologies’ chief financial officer is seeking bank records from HSBC Holdings in a bid to prove she did not trick lenders into processing transactions that violated US sanctions targeting Iran.Meng Wanzhou, who is fighting extradition to ...

For psychology graduate Roshinee Mookiah, Malaysia’s first coronavirus lockdown last year was a chance to provide mental health resources for ordinary people via social media. Her Instagram page, @cukup.club, shared beautifully designed infographic...

Around 200 Uygurs protested on Friday in Istanbul, demanding answers from Beijing on the whereabouts of their family members allegedly being held by Chinese authorities.Protesters, including children and the elderly, held up pictures of missing famil...

Police are stepping up their patrols and volunteers are increasing their street presence after several violent attacks on older Asians stoked fear in the San Francisco Bay Area’s Chinatowns and subdued the celebratory mood leading up to Lunar New Y...

Semiconductor firms are seeking extra time to appeal last-minute Trump administration moves to block sales to Chinese telecoms company Huawei, hoping against the odds that the Biden administration will reverse course, five sources said.Several compan...

A dance performance opening China’s biggest Lunar New Year gala show has sparked debate and criticism online for putting blackface onstage once again.The performance during state broadcaster CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala on Thursday began with a gr...

As the Philippines approaches a year since it first entered one of the world’s harshest Covid-19 lockdowns, wildly uneven enforcement of antivirus restrictions is worsening inequality, critics say, as ordinary citizens are beaten and humiliated in ...

What is China’s population?China’s overall population continued to grow in 2019, rising to 1.4 billion at the end of the year from 1.39 billion a year earlier.Beijing did not provide annual population and birth figures for 2020 when it released a...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that Moscow is ready for a break in ties with the European Union if the bloc imposes sanctions that damage his country’s economy.“We’re ready for that,” Lavrov said in an interview on the Solovyev...

In 2010, the year Ken Eom arrived in South Korea, he was joined by just over 2,400 of his fellow North Korean escapees.Like many of those who made the difficult and dangerous journey from the authoritarian North to the democratic South, Eom was drive...

Thousands of Hongkongers flocked to Wong Tai Sin Temple on Friday for the first day of the Lunar New Year, though this year’s search for blessings and good fortune came amid new crowd and infection control measures demanded by the coronavirus pande...