A wildlife park in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou reopened for visitors on Saturday after arousing national outrage when the random sighting of escaped leopards revealed a cover-up.The Hangzhou Safari Park kept a low profile in its reopening, s...

The overall success rate for children to secure a place at their preferred primary school may have reached an 11-year high this year, but some parents who received the allocation results on Monday said the competition for elite schools remained keen....

Officials have warned that inflationary pressure is rising as new figures reveal the cost of living in Hong Kong continues to increase, driven by higher utility bills and more expensive fresh vegetables.The overall consumer price index (CPI) recorded...

Hangzhou, China’s eastern e-commerce hub that is home to Alibaba Group Holding, has levied hefty fines on two popular live-streamers for tax evasion, signalling greater scrutiny of live-streaming e-commerce amid a broader crackdown on the booming i...

A fire that broke out in a cold storage centre in Hong Kong on Monday killed one worker and left two others injured.Emergency services were called to the Tung Yuen Street building in Yau Tong when the blaze broke out shortly before 2pm.Sixteen fire e...

China has raised the importance it places on Southeast Asia in its diplomacy, pledging to upgrade relations with the region to focus more on security cooperation and development funding.The move was announced on Monday by Chinese President Xi Jinping...

A fresh wave of protests has broken out in several European cities and in some French overseas territories, as protesters reacted, sometimes violently, to moves to reintroduced coronavirus restrictions.Police and protesters clashed in the Belgian cap...

An elderly Hong Kong man was being treated for smoke inhalation on Monday after helping firefighters pull seven pet cats, two of which would later die, from his burning flat.About 200 residents were evacuated after the blaze erupted at Tseung Kwan O�...

The United States has joined an annual list of “backsliding” democracies for the first time, the International IDEA think tank said on Monday, pointing to a “visible deterioration” it said began in 2019.Globally, more than one in four people ...

Australia on Monday said it would again welcome foreign students and skilled workers from next month, easing some of the world’s most stringent pandemic travel restrictions.Twenty months after Australia slammed shut its borders, some visa-holders �...

Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai gave assurances about her safety in a video meeting with the International Olympic Committee president on Sunday, according to the IOC, amid international concern about her welfare.A photo of the 30-minute video call re...

A joyous scene in the US of marching bands and children dancing in Santa hats turned deadly in an instant, as an SUV sped through barricades and into a Christmas parade in Wisconsin while spectators watched in horror.One video showed a woman screamin...

A mainland Chinese delegation conducting a four-day inspection of Hong Kong’s coronavirus control measures will focus on the city’s contact-tracing efforts at a Monday meeting with local innovation and technology officials, sources have said.The ...

JPMorgan Chase will give its staff in Hong Kong up to US$5,000 each in reimbursement for quarantine stays when returning to the city, if they want to travel overseas to visit immediate family, according to an internal memorandum.The new policy will a...

Over the past six years, Taiwanese luger Li Sin-rong has sped down sloping roads and mountain highways on her duct-taped green sled – using wheels, not blades – in the hope of securing a place at the 2022 Winter Olympics.Winter athletes on the su...

In 2017, BTS performed for the first time at the American Music Awards (AMAs). Four years later, the K-pop boy band made history by winning artist of the year at the prestigious US awards show.BTS took home the award on Sunday evening in the United S...

The United States has shared intelligence including maps with European allies that shows a build-up of Russian troops and artillery to prepare for a rapid, large-scale push into Ukraine from multiple locations if President Vladimir Putin decided to i...

The United States has promised to treat Africa more fairly as it seeks to revitalise its relationship with the continent and counter Chinese influence.On a visit to Nigeria on Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “The United States firml...

Henry Kissinger has said he does not believe Chinese President Xi Jinping will launch a war within the next decade to take Taiwan under Beijing’s control.“I don’t expect an all-out attack on Taiwan in, say, a 10-year period, which is as far as ...

Welcome back to the weekly China update. I hope you caught a glimpse of the longest partial lunar eclipse of the century last Friday.I’m Holly Chik, a reporter on the China desk of the South China Morning Post who follows science developments. I’...

Australia on Monday formally embarked on a hotly-contested programme to equip its navy with nuclear-powered submarines in a new defence alliance with Britain and the United States.Defence Minister Peter Dutton joined American and British diplomats in...

Pupils from low-income families in Hong Kong lack opportunities for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education despite efforts by the government and schools at promoting such classes, but a local charity plans to change that.T...

China has one of the world’s longest Covid-19 quarantine periods as part of its zero-Covid policy, which it has credited for its success in keeping the death toll from the pandemic low within its borders.Under the strategy, community cases and thei...

Scientists believe 500-million-year-old fossils found in China from strange-looking sea animals colloquially called “penis worms” might be the earliest known example of a “hermit lifestyle” and may move back the timeline of that evolutionary ...

Extreme weather. Swine flu. Rising energy prices. Labour shortages. Bottlenecks and supply chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. All these factors have helped drive the price of food to its highest level for a decade.World food prices...

The Hospital Authority has started a pilot project with homes for the elderly in Yau Tsim Mong and Hong Kong Island West districts to curb the spread of MRSA, the antibiotic-resistant superbug.This comes after the incidence of superbug infections was...

Several dozen people gathered below the wind-whipped Wisconsin flag at Kenosha’s Civic Centre Park on Sunday and warmed up with chants for justice before taking to the streets in protest of the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse.Demonstrators traced the...

Third parties should not be forced to choose sides in a great power competition, the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday.He compared China and the United States to two giant ships and said they must not collide with each other, repeatin...

China has long been recognised as the world’s biggest e-commerce market, driven by technology giants that helped revolutionise consumer spending behaviour in the second-largest economy behind the United States.The value of these Big Tech companies ...

The French overseas territory of Guadeloupe was hit by a third night of looting and rioting amid protests against Covid-19 measures, with gunmen shooting at police and firefighters, the authorities said on Sunday.Police arrested 38 people as shops we...

Two of the 17 North Americans who were abducted by a Haitian gang in mid-October have been freed, the church that they were affiliated with said on Sunday, reporting that they were “in good spirits.”“Only limited information can be provided, bu...

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth attended a double christening on Sunday for two of her great-grandchildren.The 95-year-old monarch, who has cancelled several recent public appearances on her doctors’ advice, watched the baptisms of August, son of Princ...

Violence broke out at a protest against anti-Covid measures in Brussels on Sunday, in which police said tens of thousands of people took part.The march began peacefully but police later fired water cannon and tear gas in response to protesters throwi...

The former Oklahoma zookeeper known as Joe Exotic, a prominent figure in the Netflix documentary series Tiger King, has been transferred to a medical facility in North Carolina for federal inmates after a cancer diagnosis, according to his lawyer.Joe...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday he had received a third dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, as the country struggles with a fresh wave of the virus.“I had it two hours ago,” Putin said on state television channel Rossiya 24, assuring view...

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned on Sunday that the migrant crisis on the Belarus border may be a prelude to “something much worse”, and Poland’s border guard said Belarusian forces were still ferrying migrants to the frontier.Th...

A Hamas militant on Sunday opened fire in Jerusalem’s Old City, killing one Israeli and wounding four others before he was fatally shot by Israeli police.It was not immediately clear whether Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel’s dest...

Britain’s Lewis Hamilton claimed an emphatic victory from pole at the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday while rival Max Verstappen recovered well from a grid penalty to finish second but saw his Formula One championship lead further shrink.Back-...

Pop star Justin Bieber is facing growing calls to cancel his concert in Saudi Arabia next month as the fiancée of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi joined a chorus of voices on Sunday urging him not to perform at the kingdom’s Formula One race.In a...

Gunmen killed a police officer and kidnapped five Chinese nationals working at a gold mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s conflict-plagued east on Sunday, military sources said.Regional army spokesman Major Dieudonne Kasereka said that “at...

In response to a new Anglo-Saxon military alliance and more US-designed nuclear-powered submarines in the Indo-Pacific, Beijing will likely step up efforts to avoid encirclement and expand its own nuclear submarine fleet, according to current and for...

Uber is considering forging a partnership with Hong Kong’s minibus operators, despite its ride-hailing business still being illegal in the city.In an exclusive interview with the Post, Estyn Chung, Uber’s general manager in Hong Kong, said it was...

The Philippines’ defence chief said on Sunday a military resupply mission for the country’s troops stationed on an atoll in the South China Sea will resume this week, after it was aborted last week when it was blocked by Chinese coastguard.Defenc...

Five police officers were injured in the Netherlands and at least 40 people detained across three provinces as violent protests against Covid-19 restrictions continued for a second night into Sunday.Dutch authorities used water canon, dogs and mounte...

The recent decision by China’s antitrust regulator to fine a number of domestic tech giants for misconduct committed years ago shows that Beijing is serious about its anti-monopoly crackdown targeting the internet industry, said an analyst.On Satur...

El Salvador intends to issue the world’s first sovereign bitcoin bonds and build Bitcoin City, which will be free of income, property and capital gains taxes, President Nayib Bukele announced in the beach town of Mizata to a crowd of cheering bitco...

China is bracing for a severe cold snap to sweep much of the country, with the worst coming over the next two days.Winds from Siberia are expected to bring winds and freezing temperatures across wide swathes of the country, including heavy snows in t...

Nidhi Paliwal, 30, and Sumeet Kher, 32, are tying the knot next month and an opulent Indian wedding is the last thing they want.The Delhi-based computer analysts say they’re trying their best to ensure minimal carbon footprint for their big day ...

Members of the body that regulates Hong Kong’s 27,000 social workers will be required to take an oath of allegiance to the city under a government plan aimed at safeguarding national security, according to the labour minister.Law Chi-kwong, the sec...

Nearly a month after Sudan’s top general ousted the prime minister, they signed a breakthrough deal on Sunday to reverse the military takeover that had sparked international condemnation and mass protests.General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan appeared at ...