Hongkongers can start registering for HK$5,000 (US$645) worth of spending vouchers in July provided testing of the scheme’s operating systems goes smoothly, the city’s finance chief has said.Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po told lawmakers on M...

A lesbian couple sued the Chimelong Safari Park, a zoo in China’s megacity Guangzhou, and online travel giant Ctrip after they were barred from using a discount package offered for couples.The lawsuit exemplifies the lack of official recognition fo...

Urban Indians are getting Covid-19 shots much faster than the hundreds of millions of people living in the countryside, government data shows, reflecting rising inequity in the nation’s immunisation drive.In 114 of India’s least developed distric...

Taiwan is to extend its soft lockdown by two weeks to last until June 28, as its coronavirus outbreak shows no sign of subsiding with 214 new infections and 26 new deaths reported on Monday.The extension, announced by Premier Su Tseng-chang on Monday...

The first person charged under Hong Kong’s national security law can be found guilty of dangerous driving even if prosecutors fail to prove he committed a terrorist act by driving a motorcycle into a group of police officers at a 2020 protest, the ...

A Hongkonger was fighting for his life in hospital on Monday after allegedly attacking his former mother-in-law with a hammer and then attempting to hang himself.The 41-year-old man – arrested on suspicion of wounding – was in a critical conditio...

A senior Chinese health official has called on the World Health Organization to scrap late-stage human trials as a criterion for its coronavirus vaccine emergency use listing.The call comes days after a second Chinese Covid-19 vaccine was granted the...

Right-wing populist Keiko Fujimori held a narrow lead over radical leftist Pedro Castillo following a partial vote count in Peru’s presidential election.With 52.9 per cent of the vote counted after 42 per cent of polling stations were tallied, Fuji...

A Chinese shopping app remained unavailable on Monday, four days after it was blocked in the wake of a social media post which appeared to refer to the anniversary of the deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown.According to screenshots circulating online, ...

Hong Kong health experts have urged authorities to widen their efforts to trace the source of the city’s latest Covid-19 variant case by comparing its entire genome sequence with others recently identified in Asia, including Indonesia and Taiwan.Th...

Beijing plans to jointly produce Covid-19 vaccines with Indonesia and encourage more Chinese vaccine trials to be carried out there, as Jakarta seeks to ramp up its vaccination drive after a slow roll-out.Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China w...

Shenzhen, known as China’s Silicon Valley, has imposed new requirements for travel and is conducting widespread testing to try and stem the spread of Covid-19 in a show of zero tolerance after the city confirmed one imported case over the weekend.S...

Spain opens its borders to vaccinated travellers from all over the world, hoping an influx of visitors will revitalise its all-important tourism sector which has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic.“Spain is a safe destination,” Health Mini...

Australia’s Victoria state on Monday reported its biggest rise in new locally acquired Covid-19 cases in nearly a week as authorities scramble to track the source of the highly infectious Delta variant found among infections.Authorities reported 11...

Hong Kong Airlines is preparing to cut hundreds of more jobs and temporarily carry only cargo on its passenger planes under its latest pandemic-survival plan, the Post has learned.The new blueprint drawn up by the embattled all-Airbus airline will gr...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unleashed a harsh verbal attack against his potential replacement, rightist rival Naftali Bennett, declaring it would constitute the “greatest election fraud” in Israel’s history if his own reign as the...

Two express trains collided in southern Pakistan early on Monday, killing at least 35 passengers, authorities said, as rescuers and villagers worked to pull injured people and more bodies from the wreckage.Between 15 to 20 passengers are still trappe...

China’s imports and exports grew again in May, but both missed expectations, data released on Monday showed.Imports grew by 51.1 per cent in May from a year earlier to US$218.4 billion, up from the 43.1 per cent growth in April, according to data f...

Hungary may push the fate of a controversial Chinese university campus in Budapest to beyond the next election, after thousands protested in the capital on Saturday.Weekly news magazine Mandiner reported that Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s governmen...

Colombia’s government will ask congress to approve better human rights training for police and increase oversight of officers, President Ivan Duque said on Sunday, amid accusations of police brutality during recent anti-government protests.An umbre...

Hong Kong’s major insurers are dramatically increasing their headcounts this year in a bid to boost local sales to compensate for the loss of their biggest source of income – mainland Chinese visitors buying insurance policies in the city.AIA, th...

This is the 16th in a series of stories about China’s once-a-decade census, which was conducted in 2020. The world’s most populous nation released its national demographic data in May and the figures will have far-reaching social policy and econo...

The city of Pattaya has for decades been one of Thailand’s top tourist draws, but the Covid-19 pandemic has proved catastrophic to local businesses. Wellness entrepreneur Chairat Rattanopas puts it best: “We’ve hit rock bottom.”Mass vaccinati...

Hong Kong could achieve herd immunity against Covid-19 this year, with the rate of vaccination boosted recently by lotteries and lucky draws, but medical experts warn that sustaining the momentum will be a challenge.They struck a cautious note despit...

Gunmen ambushed and killed five people helping to organise elections in southern Mexico, prosecutors said on Sunday, part of a wave of violence linked to the polls.The attack happened on Saturday when electoral authorities were delivering ballot boxe...

A group of politicians across Europe and North America launched coordinated legislative actions on Monday, calling for a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.Spanning 11 countries and parliaments, the actions look to pressure govern...

Tens of thousands of chronically ill Hongkongers are expected to benefit from an expanded subsidised drugs scheme, under which expensive medications can be available at HK$15 for up to a four-month period at public hospitals.The expansion is one resu...

British television series I May Destroy You and its director Michaela Coel won a slew of awards at the annual Baftas (British Academy of Film and Television Awards) on Sunday for its depiction of a young black writer piecing her life back together af...

As China moves to reopen its borders with the rest of the world, it faces a difficult choice. So far, the state narrative has been focused on the eradication of Covid-19 as a key indicator of legitimacy. In terms of case/fatality ratios relative to i...

The oldest male chimpanzee living in an accredited North American zoo died on Saturday at the San Francisco Zoo & Gardens. He was 63.The chimpanzee, named Cobby, had been a hand-reared performing chimpanzee before he was brought to the San Francisco ...

Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau killed himself in a fight against rival jihadist fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) according to audio Agence France-Presse obtained from the group on Sunday, two weeks after reports eme...

Kamala Harris, on her first foreign trip as vice-president, is looking to deepen diplomatic ties with Guatemala and Mexico, two Latin American nations key to the Joe Biden administration’s efforts to stem the spike in migration at the US border.Har...

Three people are dead and at least six others injured following a shooting at a Florida graduation party, the latest in a string of such violence in the Miami area, police said Sunday.One of those killed was a police officer, Miami-Dade police Direct...

An Italian nun who was stabbed 19 times more than two decades ago by three teenage girls apparently fascinated by Satan was honoured Sunday with beatification as a martyr of the Roman Catholic Church.Hours before the beatification ceremony in norther...

A Greek man on Sunday fatally shot two people near a hotel on the resort island of Corfu before killing himself, police said.A police statement said the 67-year-old man had fatally shot a 60-year-old woman and a 63-year-old man with a hunting rifle b...

The second baby for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is officially here: Meghan gave birth to a healthy girl on Friday.A spokesperson for Prince Harry and Meghan said Sunday the couple welcomed their child Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. ...

Nearly HK$28 million (US$3.6 million) worth of suspected ketamine was found hidden in boxes of spices at Hong Kong’s international airport, in the biggest seizure of the drug at the transport hub in two years.Authorities arrested two people on Satu...

China is expected to adjust its approach towards Europe in an effort to keep its “17+1” platform for engaging with central and eastern European countries on track after one member quit.Lithuania recently announced its effective withdrawal from th...

A popular but controversial Nigerian evangelical preacher, TB Joshua, has died from an undisclosed cause, his church said Sunday on Facebook.The 57-year-old founder of The Synagogue Church of All Nations, a Christian megachurch in Lagos, was one of A...

Distribution of coronavirus vaccines was top of the agenda in Asia on the weekend as trade ministers, diplomats and politicians held a series of meetings amid surges in cases throughout the region.In a joint statement on Saturday, Apec trade minister...

Pope Francis said on Sunday that he was pained by the discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former Catholic school for indigenous students in Canada and called for respect of the rights and cultures of native peoples.However, Francis stopped ...

The United States will donate 750,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Taiwan, three American senators visiting the island promised on Sunday.Their visit coincides with growing cross-strait tensions over Taiwan’s vaccine shortage and was welcomed by P...

Six hours before 8pm on Friday when Hongkongers would normally have lit candles to remember the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, police swooped in on Victoria Park and threw a tight cordon around it.Several thousand officers patrolled the grounds and...

When will China’s sovereign digital currency be launched?China has not announced an official timetable for the official launch of its Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) system.The first glimpse of the planned digital currency emerged in Apr...

Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong ramped up their Covid-19 controls on Sunday, with residents lining up to get tested after the city reported more infections in the outbreak that started two weeks ago.Guangzhou, the provincial...

Mark Meadows, who served as chief of staff in Donald Trump’s White House, pressed the Justice Department to investigate several conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, according to reports.The New York Times first reported on Saturday that in ...

To Wang Henan, her husband Wang Aizhong is without doubt a patriot. But to the authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, the veteran activist is nothing but a troublemaker who must be kept on a tight leash.The 44-year-old activist, who h...

China’s state-led development model is making it increasingly difficult to attract foreign investment and secure advanced technology for its commercial aviation industry, analysts have warned.The country’s medium and long-term economic plans incl...

A taxi driver has been arrested after he slammed his vehicle into the entrance gate of the People’s Liberation Army’s Hong Kong garrison in Central.The man, 53, was heading west on Lung Wo Road at about 6.20pm on Saturday when he drove through th...

British health minister Matt Hancock said on Sunday it was too early to say whether the government would stick to its plan to fully lift Covid-19 lockdown restrictions in England on June 21.Hancock said there had been a “very significant” impact ...