The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to ratify the EU’s post-Brexit trade deal with Britain, but warned London to stick to its commitments, officials said Wednesday.The vote ratifies the bare bones trade deal that was sealed on Christmas Ev...

A Hong Kong bus driver was jailed for four years on Wednesday for killing six passengers and injuring 38 others when he momentarily fell asleep behind the wheel of a double-decker in 2019.KMB driver Man Chi-kwong, 57, was carrying 72 passengers on hi...

US President Joe Biden will give his first address to a joint session of Congress, a prime time speech on Wednesday night on the eve of his 100th day in office. Biden will use the speech before lawmakers and a broader viewing audience to talk about w...

Clean-up crews worked on Wednesday to contain an oil spill in the Yellow Sea near the Chinese port city of Qingdao, a day after a tanker carrying about 1 million barrels of bitumen mix was struck by a bulk vessel in heavy fog.A preliminary study esti...

Some mainland wives are feeding their husbands drugs that induce impotence to prevent or stop them from cheating, according to a social media post. The post, which was reportedly written by someone trying to expose the online shops that sell the dru...

Hong Kong’s legislature on Wednesday passed the administration’s HK$120 billion (US$15.5 billion) budget in record time, a package that contains electronic vouchers, low-interest loans and a raft of measures aimed at relieving the financial burde...

Australia on Wednesday unveiled plans to spend A$747 million (US$581 million) upgrading its military bases and expanding joint exercises with the United States, amid warnings in the country about the risk of a confrontation with China – though anal...

Hong Kong’s lived-in home prices rose to a nine-month high in March with luxury flats recorded the sharpest growth as cash-rich investors and buyers turned bullish towards the outlook of the city’s property market.The price index for lived-in hom...

One dose of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines reduces the chances of someone infected with coronavirus from spreading it to other household members by up to 50 per cent, according to a study.The Public Health England (PHE) research found that those ...

A lack of clear guidelines for Hong Kong doctors tasked with determining if restaurant employees qualify for exemption from new Covid-19 vaccine requirements has led to confusion ahead of Thursday’s planned updating of social-distancing measures, l...

A sailor died in a Hong Kong industrial accident early on Wednesday after he was hit by a metal shackle that had broken loose while working on a cargo vessel docked at a Tsing Yi container terminal.Police believe the 21-year-old man from Myanmar was ...

A private school in Florida is barring teachers who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 from coming into contact with students, arguing against all evidence that the educators pose a health risk.The school also said it would not employ anyone who h...

Singapore officials trying to digitise the economy are targeting a tricky group of holdouts: elderly vendors who run the country’s famed hawker stalls.For generations of Singaporeans, stalls selling popular street food have been an indispensable pa...

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince struck a conciliatory tone towards the kingdom’s arch-nemesis Iran, saying he sought “good” relations, after sources said the rivals held secret talks in Baghdad.The two countries, locked in a fierce struggle for r...

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is to meet industry and tourism leaders on Wednesday to discuss how the country, in the thick of a coronavirus flare-up and a month-long lockdown of Bangkok, can ramp up its vaccination drive as it seeks ...

Japan’s parliament approved joining the world’s largest free-trade deal, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, on Wednesday as signatories aim for it to come into effect from the start of next year.The approval by Japan’s upper house...

Three Europeans – two Spanish and one Irish – were killed in an attack on an anti-poaching patrol in Burkina Faso.“Three foreign nationals have been killed and a Burkinabe is missing,” government spokesman and communications minister Ousseni ...

Samsung’s founding family will donate tens of thousands of rare artworks, including Picassos and Dalis, and give hundreds of millions of dollars to medical research to help them pay a massive inheritance tax following last year’s death of chairma...

Cathay Pacific is offering its Hong Kong-based pilots, cabin crew and airport staff voluntary redundancy, part of a deepening effort to cut costs as the airline warned its business was not improving.Hong Kong’s struggling flag carrier told staff on...

The UK government on Wednesday became the first country to announce it will regulate the use of self-driving vehicles at slow speeds on motorways, with the first such cars possibly appearing on public roads as soon as this year.Britain’s transport ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised its growth forecast for developing Asia this year on the roll-out of coronavirus vaccines and the strength of global export demand, but warned that resurgent virus outbreaks threatened the recovery.China an...

The space race between the world’s two richest men went into hyperdrive on Tuesday after Tesla chief Elon Musk took a swipe at Jeff Bezos’ attempt to challenge a major Nasa contract.The two billionaires, who have been trying to launch long-range ...

In the last year, COVID-19 has significantly slowed or disrupted the rate of international education as accessibility remained closed. However, as vaccinations continue, many international schools such as those in the United Kingdom are beginning t...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Ben Leonard on politico.com on April 27, 2021.There won’t be a designated survivor for President Joe Biden’s first joint address to Congress Wednesday n...

TikTok plans to allow European researchers and policymakers to see how its teams moderate content, how its recommendation technology works and how it handles data as it seeks to address concerns over the privacy and safety of its young users.The soci...

Former vice-governor of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong Qin Weizhong has been named as mayor of Shenzhen, China’s hi-tech hub.Qin, a former energy industry worker, was likely to focus on curbing the city’s soaring property prices and l...

Qiu, a Chinese mechanical engineer based in India’s southern city of Bangalore, developed a high fever and lost his sense of taste and smell last week. He suspects he has Covid-19 but amid India’s surging outbreak that has overwhelmed hospitals, ...

The municipal government of Shanghai on Monday named two firefighters as martyrs who died while trying to rescue a group of people trapped by a massive blaze at a factory making Apple components outside the city last Thursday.The Shanghai Municipal A...

Singapore’s education system has been ranked the best in the world by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Many parents see Singapore as a premiere educational destination for their child due to its affordability as one of t...

A day after Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong vilified Bar Association chairman Paul Harris as an “anti-China politician”, the phones of members who run the city’s professional body for barristers began buzzing almost non-stop. Monday wa...

President Xi Jinping wrapped up his visit to Guangxi in southern China by evoking Communist Party history and urging the party’s rank-and-file to uphold the revolutionary spirit of the past when preparing for tough days ahead.While the president ma...

Somalia’s president early on Wednesday bowed to growing opposition to his extended stay in office, urging a return to negotiations on the country’s delayed election and vowing that the sight of rival soldiers clashing in the streets of the capita...

Hong Kong’s largest developer by capitalisation and a prominent think tank are urging the local government to allow areas with low ecological value within the city’s wetlands buffer area to be developed into higher-density housing projects to all...

The Yarlung Tsangpo is the longest river in Tibet. And the Yarlung Tsangpo valley in southern Tibet is the world’s deepest valley with a 7,000-metre (23,000-foot) drop from the highest mountain peak to the lowest basin.China plans to build a hydr...

Hungary’s government signed an agreement with Shanghai-based Fudan University on Tuesday to set up a campus in Budapest for up to 6,000 students, opening the way for Fudan to establish a foothold in the European Union.The move is part of Hungary’...

The United States has announced an easing in some coronavirus-related travel bans, allowing entry of students, academics and journalists from various countries, including China.Journalists, students and academics covered by exchange visitor programme...

Joe Biden’s China strategy nearly 100 days into his tenure differs little from the administration of his predecessor, who erected multiple economic barriers and portrayed Beijing as a human rights pariah, amid bipartisan consensus that the country ...

India reached a grim milestone on Wednesday as its death toll from the coronavirus passed 200,000 and a devastating surge of new infections continued to overwhelm health care systems on the brink of collapse.The health ministry reported 3,293 daily C...

Cows in New Zealand are getting a cocktail typically associated with hipsters in New York or London.Branded “Kowbucha”, a nod to the popular fermented drink kombucha, it’s being tested by one of the world’s biggest dairy producers, Fonterra C...

Brazil’s Senate on Tuesday began an inquiry into the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic, a probe that analysts say could potentially jeopardise the re-election of President Jair Bolsonaro.Bolsonaro has been one of the world’s most...

The Chinese government is expected to announce soon that the nation’s population has shrunk for the first time in nearly 60 years, Financial Times reported. According to the FT, the latest census numbers for the world’s most populous nation are ...

Fully vaccinated people can safely engage in outdoor activities like walking and hiking without wearing masks but should continue to use face-coverings in public spaces where they are required, US health regulators and President Joe Biden said on Tue...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday cautioned Africa to beware of China’s growing role as he vowed a greater US commitment in talks with Nigeria and Kenya.In what was billed as a virtual trip due to Covid-19 restrictions, the top US dip...

Japan has protested to the Chinese government after Beijing’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian used an image of Hokusai’s The Great Wave Off Kanagawa to take aim at Tokyo’s decision to release treated radioactive water at the Fukushima po...

Hundreds of Hong Kong pupils taking the International Baccalaureate (IB) exams this week want to be allowed to skip the tests, calling a new policy that guarantees certain grades for those who could not take the assessment during the coronavirus pand...

A Hong Kong gym-goer was fighting for his life after a barbell attached to a piece of weight training equipment fell on his chest at a Sheung Shui gym on Tuesday.The 41-year-old man, who was alone at the time, was exercising his chest using a Smith w...

A top government adviser has backed Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to serve another term, and hailed her as the “most liberal-minded” chief executive the city has ever had.While Ronny Tong Ka-wah also acknowledged Lam had some weakne...

China pledged to set up a reserve of “emergency supplies” with South Asian nations on Tuesday during talks with five countries in the region on combating Covid-19 – discussions from which India was notably absent.In an online conference call, C...

A New York City man was arrested and charged on Tuesday with attempted murder in what could be a hate crime against a Chinese immigrant.Jarrod Powell was charged with two counts of felony assault and one count of attempted murder for Friday’s attac...

China organised a trip to Xinjiang for foreign media last week to defend its policies in the region following mounting international criticism of alleged human rights abuses.About 10 foreign media including Associated Press (AP) and TV Tokyo were inv...