Japan says its self-defence forces are monitoring a Chinese destroyer and what it suspects is a submarine first identified just outside Japanese territorial waters off Amami Oshima on Friday.Three reconnaissance aircraft and two destroyers have been ...

Taiwan has kicked off its most important annual war games to test the defence capabilities of its forces in the event of conflict with mainland China.The five-day Han Kuang live-fire drills began on Monday, days after senior officials from the island...

Groups that endanger national security will lose their status as charities and stop benefiting from tax exemptions, Hong Kong’s financial services chief has warned, after pro-establishment legislators accused him of doing too little to crack down o...

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane carrying a handful of passengers touched down at Kabul airport Monday, the first international commercial flight to land since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan on August 15.“There was hardly anyo...

China and Cambodia have vowed to resist pressure from outside their relationship, with Beijing calling for ties that are “harder than steel” amid tension with some Asean nations over the South China Sea.“Cambodia is willing to strengthen commun...

The UN atomic watchdog reached an agreement with Iran to solve “the most urgent issue” between them, the overdue servicing of monitoring equipment to keep it running, raising hopes of fresh talks on a wider deal with the West.International Atomic...

Cathay Pacific has been warned by Hong Kong’s equality watchdog that it could be breaching discrimination laws, after the carrier fired aircrew who failed to get vaccinated against Covid-19.On Monday, Ricky Chu Man-kin, chairman of the Equal Opport...

North Sea oil and gas has helped make Norway one of the wealthiest countries in the world. But as Norwegians head to the polls on Monday, fears about climate change have put the future of the industry at the top of the campaign agenda.The ruling Cons...

Two of India’s biggest film studios have signed a silver-screen deal for about 10 billion rupees (US$135 million), betting on a robust box-office recovery from a devastating Covid-19 wave as cinemas slowly reopen across the country. Record label a...

China has exported nearly 1 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to over 60 countries and pledged 2 billion doses this year, but just how effective the Chinese jabs are, especially against more transmissible or resistant variants, was initially unclear...

Shanghai and its neighbouring coastal regions are preparing for strong winds and heavy rains as Typhoon Chanthu approaches the Chinese coast after drenching Taiwan, while causing little damage there.The storm, with winds of more than 170km/hr (105mph...

Even as they struggle with one of the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreaks, nations across Southeast Asia are slowly realising that they can no longer afford the economy-crippling restrictions needed to squash it.On the factory floors of Vietnam and Ma...

The latest coronavirus outbreak in China’s southeastern Fujian province shows no sign of abating, with 22 new local cases reported on Monday.The new outbreak has prompted the Fujian authorities to order mass Covid-19 testing for students and teache...

It is not just Malaysia’s 33 million people who are breathing a collective sigh of relief as the country slowly turns a corner in its long fight to contain a devastating surge in Covid-19.Having been hit hard by factory closures and staff shortages...

My guess is that no one in Beijing lost any sleep over Macau’s Legislative Assembly elections yesterday. And they shouldn’t. There were no surprises. It is the least contested election in Macau with only 14 electoral lists competing for 14 direct...

Supporters have proposed a new government bureau be set up to jointly handle culture, sports and tourism in Hong Kong after the city’s leader on Sunday revealed her intention to give the administration a facelift.The restructuring should also break...

As the race to replace outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party heats up, Japan’s relations with Beijing – and the issue of Taiwan in particular – has emerged as a top priority for leadership conte...

China is not taking any chances with Covid-19 as it prepares for the National Games – a critical test for next year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing.The host city Xian, capital of the northwestern province of Shaanxi, has enacted stringent restrictio...

North Korea carried out successful tests of a new long-range cruise missile over the weekend, state media said on Monday, seen by analysts as possibly the country’s first such weapon with a nuclear capability.The missiles are “a strategic weapon ...

A man who visited a Hong Kong public hospital 11 times over 10 months before he was finally diagnosed with late-stage prostate cancer wants the facility to cover all his medical expenses.Former construction worker Yeung Tak-wai, 72, has found the Hos...

Several hundred Brazilians protested against President Jair Bolsonaro and demanded his impeachment on Sunday in demonstrations called by conservative groups, days after a massive mobilisation supporting the country’s embattled far-right leader.The ...

Epic Games filed a notice of appeal on Sunday following a judge’s decision in its antitrust lawsuit against Apple Inc.US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers mostly sided with Apple, rejecting Epic’s claims that the iPhone maker is a monopoly. S...

Two French politicians kicked off their presidential campaigns on Sunday, seeking to become France’s first female leader in next year’s spring election.The far-right National Rally party’s Marine Le Pen and Paris’ Socialist mayor, Anne Hidalg...

Pope Francis met Hungary’s anti-migration Prime Minister Viktor Orban on a whistle-stop trip to the country on Sunday in which he called for greater openness, before heading for a four-day tour of Slovakia.During a Hungarian visit that lasted just ...

Tens of thousands of Danes joined Crown Prince Frederik in a Royal Run on Sunday, a popular race launched by the sport-loving heir to the throne.The event was staged in different areas. Frederik first ran in Sonderborg near the German-Danish border,...

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Saturday released a newly declassified document related to its investigation of the September 11 attacks on the United States and allegations of Saudi government support for the hijackers, following an ...

The new barracks of the Vatican Swiss Guard, the elite and colourfully dressed corps that protects the pope, will be designed to accommodate female guards even though they are not yet allowed, a Swiss newspaper reported on Sunday.Nearly all of the gu...

China opened its first plant to turn radioactive waste into glass on Saturday.The plant in Guangyuan in the southwestern province of Sichuan will be able to process several hundred cubic metres of high level radioactive liquid waste each year, accord...

The ousting of Guinean president Alpha Conde, recent military takeovers in Chad and Mali, as well as an attempted coup in Niger could complicate China’s inroads into the semi-arid Sahel region and parts of West and Central Africa.There is a growing...

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri appeared in a new video marking the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, months after rumours spread that he was dead. The SITE Intelligence Group that monitors jihadist websites said the video was released o...

A bomb threat sparked the emergency evacuation of about 30 passengers on a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong that had just landed in Beijing, the airline confirmed on Sunday.The evacuation occurred after flight CX390 landed at Beijing Capital Inte...

When Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton in effect compared the rise of China to that of Nazi Germany, Beijing hit back in kind, slamming his “extremely dangerous” remarks as befitting the “pawns of the United States”.Diplomatic observer...

China is writing a new chapter in its development strategy, and its using a host of terms that do not appear in mainstream macroeconomic textbooks. Here are some of the buzzwords on the lips of the nation’s leaders.1. Cross-cyclical adjustmentThe t...

Chinese athletes – aided by cutting-edge technology in fluid dynamics – scooped nearly all the gold medals for diving during the Olympic Games in Tokyo and impressed the audience with their tiny splashes. Chinese researchers are now using similar...

Britain will abandon plans to call for proof of Covid-19 vaccination to enter certain venues, and may soon drop mandatory testing for returning travellers as part of a further easing of coronavirus restrictions to be announced this week, even as case...

The head of Hong Kong’s oldest university has pledged to equip students with a “long-term vision and broad mind” to meet challenges faced by the city and the country while stressing it has been a vision of the institution “from day one” to ...

Hundreds of thousands of students returned to classrooms on Sunday, as Bangladesh reopened schools after nearly one and a half years of closure because of the Covid-19 pandemic.“The students of the first to fourth grades, and sixth to ninth grades,...

US citizen Michael Chu went ahead with his summer holiday to New York, knowing there was a possibility that Hong Kong’s Covid-19 pandemic rules for travellers could change at any time.Back in the city with his girlfriend after a stressful return jo...

Hong Kong’s public hospitals have “concrete plans” to address an outflow of medical talent and will reveal them next week, the head of the Hospital Authority has said, addressing growing concerns that a recent wave of emigration may negatively ...

Sittichai Komam did not waste time once Thailand in late August decriminalised kratom, a coffee-like plant native to Southeast Asia that can give users a mild high. Within hours, the entrepreneur was on Facebook selling freshly picked kratom leaves, ...

China has insisted that Canada Goose is not being targeted for political reasons after it was fined for false advertising. A statement issued by the consulate-general in Montreal on Saturday said the fine was a result of market regulation and it was...

The Chinese Communist Party’s top disciplinary watchdog said that Beijing’s ongoing campaign against monopolies will “have a negative impact on Big Tech in the short term, but will be the best choice in the long run”.The article, published Sa...

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has hinted at a government restructuring ahead of the chief executive race, saying the establishment of new bureaus to coordinate on land use and oversee cultural matters is a subject she “cannot avoid”...

Newly installed Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s proposal for sweeping institutional reforms will be in focus as Malaysia’s parliament convenes on Monday for the first time following a bitter political crisis that led to his predecessor Muhyi...

Liu Yanan, a 37-year-old from China’s eastern province of Jiangsu, quit her job as a doctor after she gave birth to her son to take care of him full-time.Like many parents across the country she finds the constant effort to ensure her son does not ...

With YouTube videos “debunking” allegations of human rights abuses and diatribes on Western “conspiracies” against China, an unlikely set of foreigners are loudly defending Beijing from its international critics.They are teachers and business...

The Taliban raised its flag over the Afghan presidential palace on Saturday, a spokesman said, as the US and the world marked the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.The white banner, emblazoned with a Quranic verse, was hoisted by Mullah Mo...

In the 1990s, Japan’s emerging phenomenon of hikikomori – young people shutting themselves away from society – prompted much hand-wringing, self-reflection and cultural criticism. Two decades later, the pressures that caused thousands of young...

Hong Kong’s consumption vouchers may provide an even bigger economic boost than expected, the finance minister has said, while new plans to expand Shenzhen’s Qianhai economic zone could further solidify the city’s role as a renminbi trading hub...

China has been hit by a fresh local outbreak of Covid-19, this time in the southeastern province of Fujian, prompting authorities to ramp up vaccination efforts for teenagers.Putian, where the current outbreak is mainly concentrated, reported a total...