Singapore’s highest court granted a stay of execution for a Malaysian man, whom campaigners say is mentally disabled, after he tested positive for Covid-19.The Court of Appeal had been due to hear at 2.30pm on Tuesday a case that was a last-ditch a...

Electricity bills in Hong Kong will increase by as much as 7 per cent beginning on January 1, the city’s two power companies have revealed.The rate rises were widely expected with fuel costs increasing globally and natural gas, now the city’s mai...

Social e-commerce app Xiaohongshu, known as China’s answer to Instagram, has raised US$500 million from existing investors in a new fundraising round after the company was forced to put its plans for an initial public offering on the back burner am...

A “zero tolerance” approach to Covid-19 will not succeed now that the coronavirus has fully adapted to people and cannot be eliminated, according to a renowned scientist whose work helped China avert a second Sars outbreak in 2004.China should fo...

A librarian on Indonesia’s Java island is lending books to children in exchange for waste they collect in a novel way to clean up the environment and get youngsters to read more.Each weekday Raden Roro Hendarti rides her three-wheeler with books st...

A debt-ridden Hong Kong man and seven family members escaped unscathed after two petrol bombs exploded outside their flat in a Tuen Mun public housing block on Monday night.The 31-year-old and his relatives were playing mahjong when the two firebombs...

Hong Kong’s leader has expressed hope that Beijing will soften its stance on a potential circuit-breaker for suspending quarantine-free travel between mainland China and the city should Covid-19 infections emerge locally, saying the mechanism shoul...

China does not want differences over specific climate targets to hold up action on bigger issues at COP26, according to Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua.Xie said a major hurdle at the talks had been the suggestion by some countries to limit global w...

Local authorities in a northern Chinese city on the border with Russia are offering a cash reward to anyone who can help trace the source of its Covid-19 outbreak.Officials in Heihe, Heilongjiang province, said a 100,000 yuan (US$15,500) reward was a...

On a field ringed by rolling green hills in Iceland, fans attached to metal structures that look like an industrial-sized Lego project are spinning. Their mission is to scrub the atmosphere by sucking carbon dioxide from the air and storing it safely...

More than 250 million Covid-19 cases have been recorded worldwide since the start of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.Globally, more than five million deaths from Covid-19 have been recorded so far, but the vast majority ...

Hong Kong and mainland Chinese authorities are in talks to set up polling stations at two checkpoints to allow residents across the border to vote in the coming Legislative Council election without the need to serve quarantine.Chief Executive Carrie ...

In recent days, Indian social media has been abuzz with rumours that Asia’s wealthiest man Mukesh Ambani is considering a move to Britain with his family to live in the £57 million (US$77 million) country estate his company Reliance Industries bou...

Professor Wei Shyy is resigning as president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and will step down about 11 months before his contract is set to end, triggering a global search for his successor.Shyy, who was appointed to ...

Four astronauts returned to Earth on Monday, riding home with SpaceX to end a 200-day space station mission that began last spring.Their capsule streaked through the late night sky like a dazzling meteor before parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico off...

The notice sent out last week by China’s Ministry of Commerce was supposed to be a general reminder to the public to be prepared for emergencies.In a seasonal notice before the onset of winter, the ministry urged households to stock up on basic nec...

Senior Chinese diplomats have called on the United States not to show off its power over the South China Sea, as former leaders in Southeast Asia warned of the risk of a misfire in the disputed waters with increasing presence of naval vessels.Speakin...

An international investigation has struck a blow against hackers alleged to be behind thousands of ransomware attacks.Operation GoldDust involved 17 countries – including the US, Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Canada...

Eight years after he shot dead his girlfriend, Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius is up for parole, but first he must meet with her parents.Pistorius, a world-famous double-amputee athlete who competed at the 2012 Olympics, has been eligible for parole s...

Unvaccinated people are 16 times more likely to end up in intensive care units or die from Covid-19, Australia’s New South Wales state said in a report, with officials urging people to get inoculated as Australia begins to live with the coronavirus...

Diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease in 2000, Alsa Kwok King’s vision has since worsened to the point that she cannot see anything clearly, even up close.But that has never stopped the 60-year-old from serving the underprivileged in society.Si...

[Sponsored Article] Academic research has always been the cornerstone of innovation and, in recent years, the Hong Kong government has placed increasing emphasis on ways to translate breakthrough research into real-world solutions which can have a p...

The UN’s humanitarian chief urged Myanmar’s military leaders on Monday to provide unimpeded access to the more than 3 million people in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance since government forces seized power on February 1 “because of g...

The story of a 33-year-old man who has taken China’s gruelling university entrance examination 13 times in an attempt to get into the prestigious Tsinghua University has sparked heated discussion on the internet.Tang Shangjun, from southwestern Gua...

Cathay Pacific will allow passengers to verify their travel and health documents in advance, in a bid to slash check-in times and prevent a flight ban triggered by administrative errors.The airline’s new “Fly Ready” feature lets passengers subm...

Beijing’s crackdown on the property sector and local government debt is likely to do more harm than good to provincial economies amid wider concerns about national growth, Chinese economists say.Some domestic economists have called Beijing’s tigh...

At least 26 children aged between five and six burnt to death when their straw and wood classrooms caught fire in southern Niger, seven months after a similar tragedy in the capital Niamey.“Right now, we have 26 dead and 13 injured, four of them se...

Sharp rent increases in many parts of the country are eating up a bigger share of Americans’ monthly income, squeezing tenants already grappling with rising prices for gasoline, food and other necessities.Households with a median rent of US$1,179 i...

Poland said it had repelled an attempt by hundreds of migrants to illegally cross the border with Belarus on November 8, but thousands more were on the way and future attempts to breach its frontier could be “armed in nature”.The US called on Bel...

In recent days, lawmakers in Washington have taken new steps to signal their support for Taiwan, a rare show of unity in an otherwise extremely polarised Congress.A bipartisan pair of senators on Friday introduced a resolution declaring support for t...

The United States on Monday urged Beijing to release jailed citizen journalist Zhang Zhan and expressed concern over her well-being, amid fears by her family that her deteriorating health has left her perilously close to death.Known for her on-the-gr...

Anxious travellers and their relatives have rejoiced, wept and breathed sighs of relief as the US reopened to vaccinated visitors, ending 20 months of Covid-19 restrictions that separated families, hobbled tourism and strained diplomatic ties.From Ra...

China’s new J-16D electronic attack jet has begun combat training alongside other advanced warplanes, according to state television, a dogfight strategy said to be inspired by that of the US Air Force.The J-16D – an electronic warfare version of ...

Former US President Barack Obama has returned to the international spotlight in Glasgow, urging young people to pressure their leaders to do more to combat climate change.Agreeing with youth campaigners, Obama said “time is really running out.”�...

A breakthrough in brain-computer interface (BCI) has enabled a man with paralysed hands to type 90 characters a minute just by thinking about the words, making him the world’s fastest mind-typist using that brain-reading technology, according to re...

Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church has opened a coronavirus vaccination centre in one of its Kyiv cathedrals – the first religious institution to do so in a country where infections have spiked.Ukraine recently reported record numbers of daily Covid...

In Kabul’s main children’s hospital, two-and-a-half-year-old Guldana is sitting up in her bed, but she is too exhausted to even open her eyes. Her tiny body is wrapped in a blanket, only her emaciated face showing.She is one of a growing number o...

China’s domestic tourism market plunged in the third quarter, setting back the recovery achieved in the first half of the year as intermittent coronavirus outbreaks put a halt to interprovincial travel.The number of domestic trips in the third quar...

France on Monday showcased its military muscle with a tour of its new frigate Auvergne in the eastern Mediterranean, seeking to underscore what the ship’s captain said was the importance that Paris attaches to ensuring security and stability in the...

For much of the past few decades, China’s growth has been powered by fossil fuels, particularly coal. While the economic gains have been vast and rapid, the toll on the environment has been huge. In the first of a four-part series, Echo Xie looks a...

Several countries including Japan, Britain, and the United States are urging Chinese customs officials to pause the roll-out of regulations on food imports, arguing the measures risk further disrupting global supply chains. Diplomats from seven econ...

Beijing has refrained from any direct criticism of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) after the world’s largest contract chip maker responded to Washington’s request for supply chain information, but that has not stopped a swirl of spec...

Former US president Barack Obama on Monday faulted China and Russia for what he called a “dangerous absence of urgency” in cutting their own climate-wrecking emissions as he delivered a speech at the COP26 summit.The UN climate conference in Glas...

China’s top Communist Party officials have started a landmark closed-door meeting where they are expected to adopt a monumental motion that reviews the party’s achievements in its 100-year history.Little had been revealed about the agenda for the...

Iran on Monday demanded US guarantees it would never again pull out of the 2015 nuclear accord and warned Tehran will not accept any partial return to the deal.Washington “must guarantee that no other American government can flout the world or inte...

As archaeologists dug up a 19th-century home amid the constant wind and sandy soil of northwest Utah, it would be hard not to daydream about this bustling outpost described by Pacific Tourist in 1882 as “a railroad town on the edge of the Great Ame...

The former boss of a British engineer who has accused his ex-employer of discrimination has admitted using the Cantonese slang “gweilo”, but said it was odd to call them foreigners in Hong Kong’s dialect.Lai Chiu-nam told the District Court on ...

A surprise tournament victory for a Chinese esports team has dominated newspaper headlines and drawn praise from state media in China, giving the country’s video game industry, which has suffered a months-long government crackdown, a shot in the ar...

A controversial Hong Kong government plan to build a new metropolis on man-made islands off Lantau should be scaled back if studies show its impact on the environment will be too destructive, the head of the environmental watchdog has said.Stanley Wo...