A Malaysian man on Thursday won the country’s first legal challenge against Islamic laws banning gay sex, a victory hailed as “monumental progress” in combating persecution of the LGBT community.He was charged in an Islamic court in 2019 with a...

A Russian court sentenced a man to eight years in prison on Thursday after finding him guilty of state treason for allegedly handing over secrets to China, the TASS news agency reported.Vladimir Vasilyev, 52, was arrested in Russia’s eastern Siberi...

A Chinese woman was sentenced to six months in prison last year for posting on social media what the authorities deemed to be misleading information about the Covid-19 outbreak.Zhang Wenfang, from Hebei province, was detained by police on April 4 aft...

The HK$8 billion (US$1 billion) earmarked in the government’s latest budget for safeguarding national security has nothing to do with Beijing’s office in Hong Kong charged with the same task, but details of how the money will be spent are “conf...

After sitting on the sidelines as the US and Europe started vaccinating against Covid-19, the part of the world that contained the coronavirus most successfully is finally starting to administer shots.Japan, Australia and New Zealand have started vac...

Two Hong Kong men sentenced to three months’ jail for acting as lookouts during the beating of a policeman after an anti-government protest last year were ordered back to prison on Thursday, after an appeal court extended their jail terms to 10 mon...

Hong Kong police have confiscated more than HK$63 million (US$8.1 million) worth of suspected cocaine and arrested a man after shutting down a newly set up drugs storage centre.The latest seizure brought the total worth of illegal narcotics uncovered...

A 73-year-old psychiatric outpatient at a public hospital was arrested on suspicion of killing her husband with a meat cleaver at their home in a Hong Kong public housing estate on Thursday.The 69-year-old man was asleep when the attack took place in...

The Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine proved 94 per cent effective in a huge real world study published on Wednesday that involved 1.2 million people in Israel, confirming the power of mass immunisation campaigns to end the coronavirus pandemic.The Israeli stu...

Audiences are cramming into Chinese cinemas to watch a sentimental comedy that has rapidly become one of the most popular films of all time in the country and marks a triumphant debut for its female director.Since its release a fortnight ago, Jia Lin...

At least 10 Chinese bombers took part in maritime strike exercises in the South China Sea, immediately after an escalation of US military presence in the disputed waterway.Military experts said the exercises – which involved the Chinese navy’s mo...

Raising the tax on stock trading in Hong Kong will not undermine the city’s competitiveness as a global financial hub, a top official has said, arguing it is innovative policies rather than low costs that will energise the market.A day after reveal...

Hong Kong recorded 13 new Covid-19 infections on Thursday, of which three were untraceable, according to the Centre for Health Protection.The latest batch of cases also included one imported from Indonesia.Among the untraceable cases was a 34-year-ol...

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday lifted a freeze on green cards issued by his predecessor during the coronavirus pandemic that lawyers said was blocking most legal immigration to the United States.Former president Donald Trump last spring halted t...

Hongkongers will be able to use their promised vouchers of HK$5,000 (US$645) at the city’s wet markets and restaurants in a bid to boost local consumption, the finance minister has said, while pledging to prevent people from misusing the coupons.Fi...

Hong Kong’s finance minister on Thursday dismissed suggestions that hefty increases in taxes and fees for private vehicles owners were aimed at easing the government’s cash crunch, insisting the measures were taken to curb traffic congestion.Fina...

Social media giant Facebook announced on Thursday it was banning all accounts linked to Myanmar’s military as well as ads from military-controlled companies in the wake of the army’s seizure of power on February 1.It said it was treating the post...

Ghana received the world’s first delivery of coronavirus vaccines from the United Nations-backed Covax Facility initiative on Wednesday – the long-awaited start for a programme that has so far fallen short of hopes that it would ensure shots were...

A traditional enamel “fruit basket” sold on e-commerce giant Amazon for up to 20 times the price paid by people in China has sparked hilarity online after its real use was revealed - as a traditional spittoon or chamber pot.The “fruit basket”...

The United States has backed an independent Australian lawmaker’s proposal for Canberra to ban the import of all goods made through forced labour in China, including those produced in its westernmost region of Xinjiang, where the United Nations est...

An Istanbul court on Wednesday sentenced three Turks to four years and two months in prison for helping smuggle former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn in a musical instrument case to Lebanon from Japan.The court convicted two pilots and an employee of a sma...

The head of a top Beijing think tank has called on businesses and leaders in Southeast Asian countries to seize the opportunities offered by the Chinese government’s Greater Bay Area plan, which he said would be key to Hong Kong’s continuing succ...

Find out the cost of living and if you’re eligible for the new BN(O) visa that would allow eligible Hong Kongers to live, study and work in Britain.  

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister said the 99-year lease of the Hambantota port to China could be extended to 198 years, calling it a “mistake” made by the previous government, after reports that Colombo was revisiting the agreement.The port deal �...

Vague language in a proposed bill aimed at ensuring the allegiance of public office holders would grant Hong Kong authorities broad powers to disqualify those deemed insufficiently patriotic, and would give Beijing another avenue for quashing dissent...

An Oklahoma man who had been released early from prison in January as part of a mass commutation effort is now accused of three killings, including the death of a neighbour whose heart he cut out, authorities said.A judge denied bail on Tuesday for L...

Australia’s parliament passed a world-first law to force digital giants such as Facebook and Google to pay local publishers for news content – a move that may unleash more global regulatory action to limit their power.The legislation was passed o...

US biotech firm Moderna said on Wednesday that doses of its new Covid-19 vaccine candidate aimed at the South African coronavirus variant had been shipped to the US National Institutes of Health for testing.“We look forward to beginning the clinica...

The Hong Kong finance minister’s latest budget has drawn criticism and praise in equal measure, with some lawmakers saying it was insufficient to alleviate unemployment fears, but business leaders praising him for addressing their most pressing nee...

A new study has found death rates did not rise in China at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, except in the ground-zero city of Wuhan where the outbreak was first reported.That showed the country had been successful in limiting the spread of the cor...

China has devised a big plan to encourage the country’s tech talent to move to the countryside and help transform this vastly underdeveloped market, as it tries to narrow the digital divide between rural and urban areas.While the latest blueprint, ...

China’s political elite will face a number of challenges when they gather in Beijing next month for the year’s biggest legislative set piece – the meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Co...

The rollover crash on a steep road in Rancho Palos Verdes that badly broke legendary golfer Tiger Woods’ leg and may have jeopardised his career was an accident, and no criminal charges will be filed against Woods, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex V...

More Chinese women are putting off having children or choosing not to have any at all, but a businesswoman has bucked the trend by giving birth to seven.Despite the Chinese government’s two-child policy, which fines violators of the rule, Zhang Ron...

Andrew Cuomo’s former economics aide on Wednesday published a detailed account accusing the New York governor of giving her an unsolicited kiss in his office and inviting her to play strip poker on a jet.Lindsey Boylan, who worked for Cuomo from 20...

More than 3,000 litres of wine from Penfolds and nearly 20,000 litres from a second Australian winery, Badger’s Brook Estate, were detained at Chinese ports last month as an import ban continues to hit Australian products, the latest Chinese custom...

Bruce Springsteen has been fined US$540 after pleading guilty to consuming alcohol in a national recreation area where drinking is banned, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.The Thunder Road superstar was arrested on November 14, 2020 for drinking what ...

A New York student has become the latest person to accuse acclaimed American designer Alexander Wang of sexual assault.Keaton Bullen, a fashion student at the New York’s Parsons School of Design, told the BBC that Wang assaulted him in a nightclub ...

US President Joe Biden’s nominee to be director of the CIA, William Burns, told a Senate committee on Wednesday that he saw competition with China – and countering its “adversarial, predatory” leadership – as the key to US national security...

US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday directing a broad review of American supply chains for critical products including semiconductors, aiming to reduce reliance on countries such as China.The order requires federal agencies ...

Gerard Depardieu’s giant frame may have ballooned over the years, with his love of food and drink overshadowing his art, but until now the French actor’s outrageous talent has always ensured he would be forgiven – even as he cosied up to Russia...

Prosecutors have acknowledged that an attack at a rail station in northern Hong Kong during 2019’s anti-government protests was initiated by a white-clad mob, but they have no evidence that six men on trial were the organisers.The admission was mad...

President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s top counter-intelligence agency on Wednesday to redouble its efforts to address what he described as Western attempts to destabilise the country.Speaking at a meeting of top officials of the Federal Securit...

Hong Kong finance minister Paul Chan Mo-po on Wednesday adopted a cautious and targeted approach in helping the unemployed and the businesses devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic, while dishing out fewer sweeteners for the public.He also took a bold s...

Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot Covid-19 vaccine appeared safe and effective in trials, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) staff said in documents published on Wednesday, paving the way for its approval for emergency use.The FDA’s panel of indepe...

The European Commission was forced to defend its investment deal with Beijing from intense criticism in the European Parliament on Wednesday, signalling the challenge it faces in getting it over the line next year.In a lively session of the Committee...

Hong Kong businesses on Wednesday received a HK$9.5 billion package of relief measures, a much-needed shot in the arm to help them stay afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic, although sweeteners for individuals were cut back.Raising the borrowing limit...

The United States is seeking election to the UN Human Rights Council, three years after former president Donald Trump’s administration withdrew, America’s top diplomat told the rights body on Wednesday.“I’m pleased to announce the United Stat...

A day before Malaysia deported more than 1,000 people to Myanmar in defiance of a court order and protests from human rights groups, a young mother worried about her illegal status killed herself by jumping from the first floor of her apartment build...

Hong Kong has set aside HK$8 ­billion for safeguarding national security, but the ­finance minister has not said how, and on what, the money will be spent.Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po only said the ­allocation of the funding in his budget h...