A Myanmar military tribunal has sentenced 28 people to 20 years in jail with hard labour for arson attacks on two factories, state media reported, after a string of mainly Chinese-financed businesses were torched during unrest in Yangon in March.The ...

A frenzied police manhunt in the Caribbean for fugitive Indian businessman Mehul Choksi, who was arrested in Dominica on Wednesday, has once again spotlighted the messy issue of India’s runaway billionaires.Choksi, owner of defunct Indian jewellery...

The organisers of Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigil have accused the government of using the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse for banning the event, questioning why other large gatherings such as concerts are allowed to go ahead but theirs is not.Po...

JD Logistics, the second unit to be spun off from JD.com for a listing, has put a brave face on its Hong Kong trading debut, as its stock changed hands with a smaller premium than the market’s expectations. The company’s shares began trading at H...

Hong Kong’s property tycoons are holding an unprecedented lottery to encourage a hesitant public to get vaccinated against Covid-19, offering a brand new flat worth HK$10.8 million (US$1.4 million) as the grand prize.The Sino Group, Ng Teng Charita...

A 21-year-old student has been jailed for more than four years in Hong Kong over rioting and possessing an offensive weapon in a violent clash with police two years ago that stemmed from a protest against controversial performers in a park.Lee Ho-min...

A new crowd is flocking to Singapore’s offices: technology companies. Steadily growing their footprint in recent years, tech behemoths are chipping away at the dominance of banks in the island-state’s central business district. Exemplifying the t...

The United States and Taiwan have discussed ways to bring an end to the Covid-19 pandemic, while Taipei has appealed for support in securing vaccine doses from America to help it fight a local outbreak that saw 557 new cases and 19 deaths reported on...

Colombia on Friday marks a full month of anti-government protests that have claimed dozens of lives and invited international condemnation of its police response. Observers fear the end is nowhere in sight.Protesters first took to the streets on Apri...

A mobile sample collection station for coronavirus tests in Hong Kong’s Tsuen Wan caught fire in the early hours of Friday, prompting a police investigation into suspected arson.Four tents at Sha Tsui Road Playground were burned, with many damaged ...

A Japan ruling party committee will recommend the government provide part of the national supply of Covid-19 vaccines secured from AstraZeneca to Taiwan, a party official said on Friday.The move comes as Taiwan battles a spike in domestic infections ...

Aye Mar sits with her seven children in their Yangon kitchen and worries whether their meal of rice and stringy vegetables – all she can afford in coup-stricken Myanmar – will satisfy their hunger.The national economy and banking system have been...

A key stretch of the long-overdue Sha Tin to Central link, Hong Kong’s most expensive rail project, will fully open on June 27 after repeated delays and cost overruns, the city’s transport minister has said, while pledging the government will lea...

Nearly a year after Hong Kong came under a Beijing-imposed national security law, China’s top legislature passed a sweeping resolution in March to overhaul the city’s electoral system.The shake-ups were seen as necessary for Hong Kong to uphold s...

Two men exchange longing glances, a frisson of sexual tension in an on-screen relationship which must otherwise go unspoken – China’s “boys’ love” phenomenon is gripping video streamers, slipping by censors of LGBTQ themes with their subtle...

A Hong Kong court sentenced jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying to another 14 months in prison on Friday for his role in organising an illegal rally on National Day two years ago, while seven other opposition figures were handed terms of up to 18...

Vietnamese authorities on Friday ordered restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City to stop accepting dine-in customers and restricted a range of activities amid rising coronavirus cases.Beauty parlours, tourist sites, libraries, night markets and parks were am...

After four decades of operating in the United States, HSBC is preparing to exit its American retail banking business for mass-market customers and small businesses to focus primarily on wealthy clients and big, international corporations.As a stand-a...

For Hong Kong’s pro-establishment politicians and officials, passing the legislation on Thursday delivering the Beijing-imposed overhaul of the city’s electoral system was the easy part.With the new law effectively expanding the pro-establishment...

Police and education authorities in southwestern China are investigating a claim made by a mother who said a kindergarten forced her three-year-old daughter to eat human faeces.The woman, surnamed Li, said her daughter was forced by her teacher at Bi...

Tenants evacuated from a commercial skyscraper in Shenzhen that began shaking last week are seeking compensation, as investigations continue into the cause of the mysterious wobbling.The owner of an electronics trading company in the 72-storey SEG Pl...

Paul Yip Siu-fai saw the writing on the wall for Hong Kong’s baby crisis a long time ago.Decades of watching the city’s couples shrink from having babies has left him convinced the deteriorating situation has become too dire to turn around.Last y...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad won a fourth term in office with 95.1 per cent of the votes in an election that will extend his rule over a country ruined by war but which opponents and the West say was marked by fraud.Assad’s government says the ...

The US Senate voted on Thursday to include a bipartisan amendment to a wide-ranging bill meant to boost America’s competitiveness against – and bolster efforts to confront – China, increasing the likelihood that the chamber will pass the legisl...

The slogan “Nihil de nobis, sine nobis (Nothing about us without us)” has been used by the disability movement and other rights activists to highlight the importance of representation.Paying attention to representation is not just a matter of pol...

The United States called on Thursday for the World Health Organization to carry out a second phase of its investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, with independent experts given full access to original data and samples in China.A WHO-led te...

China’s defence ministry on Thursday said the United States should show “sincerity” about improving communication between their militaries after reports that US attempts to set up talks were rejected by Beijing.The defence ministry also warned ...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Michael Stratford on politico.com on May 27, 2021.Colleges and universities are rushing to fend off a new round of federal scrutiny of their foreign dealing...

Catherine Qinqin Shen and Jing Lu started out as strangers in 2005, on a Chinese internet forum for people planning to immigrate to Canada.But the insults soon started, setting in motion a 16-year feud online and in the Canadian courts.Shen called Lu...

The year the Berlin Wall fell and the formerly communist Eastern bloc countries embraced democracy, a parallel liberal movement in China ended abruptly with a violent military crackdown against protesters calling for greater democracy and government ...

When the University of Adelaide launched its Confucius Institute in partnership with Shandong University in 2007, Australia’s foreign minister Alexander Downer oversaw the opening ceremony.The Chinese cultural centre was not only uncontroversial, i...

Azerbaijan captured six Armenian servicemen in the early hours of Thursday morning, the defence ministries of both countries said, the latest twist in a simmering border dispute.The Azeri defence ministry accused the Armenian soldiers of trying to cr...

Leting “Leo” Cai was hanging out at a playground near his home in the New York City borough of Queens earlier this month with his Asian-American friends when five teenagers approached, called them “ching chong”, cursed at them and started to ...

The Biden administration informed Russia on Thursday that it will not rejoin a key arms control pact, even as the two sides prepare for a summit next month between their leaders.US officials said Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told the Russi...

Facebook has reversed its policy banning posts suggesting Covid-19 emerged from a laboratory amid renewed debate over the origins of the virus, raising fresh questions about social media’s role in policing misinformation.The latest move by Facebook...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has condemned a measure the Hong Kong legislature passed on Thursday meant to align the city’s electoral process with Beijing’s declaration that only “patriots” can hold leadership roles there, changes tha...

The UN Human Rights Council decided Thursday to create an open-ended international investigation into violations surrounding the latest Gaza violence, and into “systematic” abuses in the Palestinian territories and inside Israel.The resolution, w...

Taiwan is working on a Covid-19 vaccine that uses DNA technology and can be stored at room temperature, according to a study published on Thursday.The jab uses genetic material from the coronavirus’s spike protein to trigger an immune response in h...

Last Sunday, a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius (two EU capitals) was forced to land in Belarus on the pretext that there was a bomb on board. People on the plane were forced to disembark, the most noteworthy being an outspoken critic of the Luk...

Hong Kong patients’ concern groups lashed out at members of the city’s medical establishment on Thursday by backing a government proposal to bring in foreign-trained doctors, saying the move would be like pumping fresh blood into an “anaemic”...

Boeing, struggling in China with sales of passenger planes due to trade tensions and the grounding of its 737 MAX, is upbeat about the outlook for freighter plane sales there as e-commerce demand booms.A three-year deadlock on Boeing plane orders was...

Like many Moscow residents, Davlatmo Khadamshoyeva has her doubts about coronavirus vaccines developed in Russia, and is in no hurry to be immunised.“I haven’t got the jab yet. I don’t really trust it,” the 23-year-old international student, ...

A company backed by former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying has lost its legal bid to force authorities to take action over an illegal structure found at the luxury home of an ex-opposition lawmaker.The High Court rejected on Thursday the judicial re...

A court in Thailand reduced a life imprisonment sentence for a Chinese man who pushed his pregnant wife off a cliff to 10 years on Tuesday.The woman, named Wang Nan, who survived the 34-metre (112-foot) fall but was severely injured, said she would a...

A Spanish court on Thursday sentenced three members of a jihadist cell responsible for attacks in Barcelona in 2017 in which 16 people died and more than 100 were injured to lengthy jail terms.Spaniard Mohamed Houli Chemlal and Moroccan Driss Oukabir...

A worsening Covid-19 outbreak in neighbouring Guangdong province has prompted an urgent top-level meeting by Communist Party officials, but Hong Kong infectious disease experts do not expect the situation to derail the city’s efforts to reopen the ...

As the snow melts in the Himalayan heights along the disputed border between India and China, analysts and military officials warn warmer weather could lead to renewed conflict.For the past year, thousands of troops have been locked in a stand-off at...

China has tapped 12 of the country’s top universities to build “schools of future technology” in yet another move by the country to become a global science and technology powerhouse.The prestigious Peking University and Tsinghua University in B...

An Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced hardline Muslim cleric Habib Rizieq Shihab to eight months in prison and fined him 20 million rupiah (US$1,400) for violating coronavirus restrictions by hosting crowded events after his return last year fro...