More people were diagnosed with Covid-19 during the past seven days than any other week since the start of the pandemic - topping 5.2 million globally - with the worst outbreaks accelerating in many countries that are ill-equipped to deal with them.T...

A 30-year-old Hong Kong man managed to escape his burning New Territories flat without injury after being awakened by choking smoke, though three of his cats were killed in the predawn blaze on Monday.An initial investigation indicated a short circui...

People who have fought off Covid-19 will be deliberately reinfected in a first-of-its-kind trial at the University of Oxford that may shed light on how to develop more effective vaccines against the pathogen.Researchers are looking for 64 healthy, pr...

A leading government adviser on Hong Kong’s Covid-19 response has recommended extending quarantine for arrivals from three high-risk countries to 28 days if the infection risks remain elevated once a flight ban has been lifted.Professor David Hui S...

New Zealand’s foreign minister said the country was “uncomfortable” with expanding the scope of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, following months of joint statements from the Western partnership about human rights concerns in China.N...

Otters at an aquarium in the US state of Georgia have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the zoo said on Sunday.The Georgia Aquarium said that “geriatric” Asian small-clawed otters tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Cov...

Hundreds of people queued up on Monday at Tsim Sha Tsui’s Harbour City, Hong Kong’s largest shopping centre, to be compulsorily tested for Covid-19 after a patient carrying a mutated strain of the virus was believed to have visited the mall about...

China has played down US concerns about its ambitions for the yuan, with the new deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) insisting “our goal is not to replace the US dollar or any other international currency”.The gathering momentu...

A surge in China-bound shipments saw Japan post its strongest export growth in more than three years last month, in a sign that the economic recovery from last year’s deep coronavirus slump remains intact.However, the trade data is unlikely to comp...

Tensions between Moscow and Prague spiralled with Russia ordering out 20 diplomats, a day after the Czech Republic accused the suspects in the Skripal poisoning of being behind a deadly 2014 explosion on its soil.Czech authorities on Saturday announc...

India has once again overtaken Brazil as home of the world’s second-largest Covid-19 outbreak, with the South Asian nation adding a record 273,810 new infections and 1,619 deaths on Monday. A new Covid-19 variant, which has a so-called double mutat...

China is trying to reshape its pharmaceutical industry and take on an unprecedented role as a major vaccine supplier to the rest of the world in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.It aims to produce enough doses to vaccinate 70 per cent of the co...

After a slow start fans have returned in droves to see the re-released Tolkien fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Chinese fans flocked to theatres over the weekend, celebrating the return of the Oscar-winning trilogy to screens, driving its box o...

Taiwan is bracing for aftershocks after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake, quickly followed by another at 6.2, struck the eastern side of the island on Sunday, with no reports of damage.The first quake, which shook buildings in the capital Taipei, had a dep...

Standard Chartered plans to hire about 400 people in its retail banking and wealth management businesses in Hong Kong this year and transform its branch network as it seeks to tap greater demand from affluent customers for wealth planning.The bank, o...

 Two people were killed in Texas in the fiery crash of a Tesla and authorities say there was no one in the driver’s seat at the time of the crash, although it’s not clear whether the car’s driver-assist system was being used. A Harris County ...

Macau’s Portuguese-language journalists are bracing themselves for restrictions on press freedom following recent events at the gambling hub’s public broadcaster. Some journalists have resigned in recent weeks, while others are worried about inc...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers.Hong Kong has detected its second locally transmitted Covid-19 case involving a mutant strain, raising concerns about its circulation within the community.Health officials, ...

For years, the Southeast Asian countries that are party to the South China Sea dispute have faced criticism over their approach to advance their respective cases.Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei each contest China’s sweeping nine-dash ...

It recently came to light that five more Hong Kong district councillors have skipped town. Two had said openly they would rather quit than take a new oath of allegiance to the city, but didn’t mention their intention to flee. Some reportedly left...

Hong Kong’s biggest broadcaster TVB has received a flood of complaints against its new variety show for lampooning the city’s leader and other prominent public figures, prompting one of the programme’s stars to quit.Critics put off by the show ...

Hundreds of passengers filled Australian airports on Monday as an open border system began with New Zealand, a pandemic milestone that allows Australian residents to fly to the neighbouring nation for the first time in more than a year without having...

Pakistan’s foreign minister has welcomed mediation efforts by the United Arab Emirates between his country and India but told United Arab Emirates newspaper Khaleej Times that he was not planning to meet his Indian counterpart in the country.Pakist...

Li Liang is chasing a ghost particle.For almost a decade, the professor of particle physics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University has given up every summer and winter break to join an international search for an unknown particle that will, in the best-cas...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Sunday that the federal government will send resources and support to Ontario, the province battling a worrying spike in Covid-19 infections.Ottawa will mobilise health professionals from different ...

Union of European Football Associations (Uefa) and English, Spanish and Italian football authorities announced on Sunday that any clubs who take part in a so-called European Super League would be banned from all other domestic and continental competi...

More government hospital beds will be freed for Covid-19 patients, India’s health ministry said on Sunday, as the vast nation grappled with a worsening virus crisis and states appealed for additional supplies of oxygen and treatment drugs.The count...

Relations between China and Australia have become fraught over the past year after Canberra pushed for an international probe into the origin of the coronavirus without diplomatic consultations beforehand, and Beijing eventually responded with a nu...

Nasa hopes to score a 21st-century ‘Wright Brothers’ aviation moment on Monday as it attempts to send a miniature helicopter buzzing over the surface of Mars in what would be the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet.L...

Egyptian authorities say a passenger train accident on Sunday north of Cairo has killed at least 11 people.Railway authorities say that at least four train wagons ran off the railway at the city of Banha in Qalyubia province.Egypt’s health ministry...

One of Claude Monet’s “monumental” water lilies paintings will go under the hammer in New York for an estimate in the region of US$40 million.Le Bassin aux Nympheas has been described by auction house Sotheby’s as “among the most iconic and...

A bush fire on the slopes of South Africa’s Table Mountain forced University of Cape Town students to evacuate on Sunday, as runaway flames set several campus buildings ablaze and firefighters used helicopters to water-bomb the area.One firefighter...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Connor O’Brien on politico.com on April 18, 2021.US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser warned on Sunday that there will be repercussions ...

The former employee who shot and killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis legally purchased the two assault rifles used in the attack despite red flag laws designed to prevent that, US police said.A trace of the two guns found by inves...

Police in Pakistan said a hardline Islamist group had taken at least six security personnel hostage at its headquarters in Lahore on Sunday after a week of violent clashes following the arrest of the group’s leader.The Tehrik-i-Labaik Pakistan (TL...

Russia on Sunday said Czech accusations that Russian spy services were behind an explosion in an ammunition depot were unfounded and absurd and it would retaliate for Prague’s expulsion of 18 Russian embassy staff.The Czech Republic said it had inf...

International pressure against China over its Xinjiang policies has gained traction in recent months, with China criticised over the treatment of Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. China has denied allegations of forced labour and det...

“Gas is over,” proclaimed European Investment Bank chief Werner Hoyer at the beginning of this year as he stated the bank’s vision to end the unabated use of fossil fuels. European officials have since called on the World Bank to phase out lend...

Octopus Holdings, Hong Kong’s home-grown cashless payment operator, will soon launch a new transit card that works in more than 300 cities in mainland China as its business at home faces growing pressure from digital payment rivals such as Alipay a...

Police in Bangladesh on Sunday arrested an influential leader of an Islamist group that led violent protests against last month’s visit by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Muslim-majority nation, officials said. Hundreds of hardline Is...

Beijing has hit out at Western countries for voicing their concern at a Hong Kong court’s decision to jail media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and several opposition figures over their role in 2019’s social unrest, accusing critics of applying “do...

Japan should increase the transparency of its controversial plan to carry out a second round of treatment of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant to reassure neighbouring countries and other stakeholders, experts said.About 1.25 ...

Health officials revealed on Sunday that a Hong Kong resident had received three doses of Covid-19 vaccine, and urged private doctors taking part in the city’s inoculation drive to check jab records before administering shots.The 32-year-old man ha...

Myanmar’s neighbours have to negotiate with a newly formed government of national unity if they want to help resolve the turmoil triggered by a February 1 military coup, a representative said on Sunday. The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian ...

A seaport built by a Chinese company on the Kenyan island of Lamu will go into operation in June as Beijing aims to recreate an ancient Silk Road more than 600 years after Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He visited the area.According to historians, Zheng�...

A Hong Kong hiker missing for more than two days was found dead on Sunday, after a massive search and rescue operation ended in emergency personnel retrieving her body from the side of a cliff.Authorities located 24-year-old Shek Lok-kiu on Kowloon P...

Just when there seemed to be a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel in Hong Kong’s year-long fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, the shadow of uncertainty has returned.The government expanded vaccine access to a wider population by lowering t...

Stress among Hong Kong’s students and teachers has risen to worrying levels during the coronavirus pandemic, according to two local groups, with one suggesting minimising educators’ administrative workload and implementing self-learning days for ...

Hong Kong should crack down on money laundering and economic support of terrorism to ensure its financial system will not be exploited to carry out acts that endanger national security, a government minister has said.Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-...

A senior Chinese diplomat has warned that the “negative tendency” of the United States to be tough on China could lead to “catastrophe”, as he slammed Washington’s criticism of Beijing’s alleged human rights abuses.Foreign vice-minister L...