The only way Amelia Wang has been able to leave her college dormitory in nearly three weeks is by volunteering at the Covid-19 testing centre on campus.The final-year undergraduate student, like everyone else in Xian, was placed under lockdown on Dec...

With each new coronavirus wave, Naowarat Khakay has been forced to let go more workers from her restaurant, hotel and apartment businesses across the Thai resort island of Pattaya.“I’ve lost over 100 employees now,” said the 65-year-old busines...

Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, 96, successfully underwent an “elective medical procedure” and is expected to be discharged in a few days, the National Heart Institute said on Sunday.“The procedure was uneventful and went as p...

Hong Kong has detected a second untraceable Covid-19 infection over the weekend, as a top government adviser earlier called for tougher social-distancing rules if more unlinked cases emerged.Professor Gabriel Leung, dean of the University of Hong Kon...

In 2021 there were a raft of reports about the Myanmar military regime’s mass killings, and the massacre in Hpruso, Kayah state, on Christmas Eve ranks as one of the deadliest attacks of the year.Anti-junta fighters, rights activists and officials ...

Japan and the United States have agreed that US forces stationed in Japan will not leave their bases except for essential reasons in an effort to stem the spread of Covid-19, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Sunday.His comments came as area...

China’s pledge to appoint a Horn of Africa peace envoy has been interpreted by some regional observers as an “official” move away from its traditional position of non-intervention in other countries’ affairs and a sign of its growing confiden...

The northern Chinese port city of Tianjin launched citywide testing on Sunday after detecting 20 local Covid-19 infections in a single district, two of them caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.Genome sequencing showed the two Omicron c...

China’s expatriate community is growing thanks to the nation’s central position in the global economy.The seventh national population census revealed the number of foreigners living in China for more than three months rose to 845,697 in 2020, fro...

Bobo Leung wants to try all the restaurants at her neighbourhood shopping centre in Sham Shui Po, but a small step at the entrance of some shop fronts is in her way.“My food choices are very limited. I really want to try the Thai restaurant, but I ...

Entrepreneur Lim Kok Cheong, 76, the son of impoverished rubber tappers who rose to establish Malaysia’s largest mineral water company, Spritzer, is now setting his sights on China, where he hopes to grow his business.Spritzer, which is listed on t...

Russia’s role in mediating between China and India should not be overlooked, a leading Chinese scholar on regional geopolitics has said, weeks after the Russian and Indian leaders greeted each other with a bear hug.Hu Shisheng, a top expert on Chin...

The man who bought Kyle Rittenhouse an assault-style rifle when he was only 17 has agreed to plead no contest to contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a non-criminal citation, and avoid convictions on the two felonies he had been facing.The Mil...

Egyptian-Palestinian human rights activist Ramy Shaath arrived in Paris and reunited with his wife on Saturday, after Egyptian authorities released him from prison and deported him.An overjoyed Shaath, the son of a prominent Palestinian politician, w...

A “who’s who” of the Democratic Party mourned late Senator Harry Reid on Saturday as a giant of a bygone era in Washington politics, when even bitter opponents found a way to get things done.The memorial service in Las Vegas was attended by US ...

At least seven people were killed and three were missing after a cliff collapsed onto boats carrying tourists on a lake in Brazil, authorities said Saturday.Rescue teams including a dive squad and members of the Brazilian Navy rushed to Furnas Lake i...

The United States and allies are prepared to discuss with Russia, in talks about Ukraine, the possibility of each side restricting military exercises and missile deployments in the region, a senior US administration official said on Saturday.With cru...

The United Kingdom’s official death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic rose above 150,000 on Saturday, government figures showed, following a record wave of cases caused by the Omicron variant.Some 313 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test...

A Saudi-led military coalition on Saturday accused Yemeni rebels and their Iranian backers of using two Red Sea ports for military purposes, after the Houthis seized an Emirati-flagged vessel.They captured the Rwabee ship on Monday, off the rebel-hel...

Kosovo police on Saturday seized hundreds of cryptocurrency mining machines and arrested one person in the tense ethnic-Serb majority north as the country suffered an energy crisis.Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are created through solving complex ...

The James Webb Space Telescope completed its two-week-long deployment phase on Saturday, unfolding the final mirror panel as it readies to study every phase of cosmic history.“The final wing is now deployed,” Nasa said on Twitter, adding the team...

Tigrayan rebels claimed on Saturday that dozens of people had been killed in a drone strike on a camp for people displaced by the war in northern Ethiopia.Getachew Reda, spokesman for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), said on Twitter tha...

Anti-vaccine protesters rallied in cities across France on Saturday, denouncing President Emmanuel Macron’s intent to “p*** off” people refusing Covid-19 vaccines by tightening curbs on their civil liberties.Macron said this week he wanted to i...

An elderly Chinese-American man who was brutally attacked in April while collecting cans in East Harlem has died of his injuries, and his case is now deemed a homicide, police said on Saturday.Yao Pan Ma, 61, died on December 31, police said. The att...

Saudi authorities have released a princess and her daughter who had been held without charge for nearly three years in the capital, a human rights group said on Saturday.Basma bint Saud, 57, a royal family member long seen as a proponent of women’s...

Hong Kong is at a “critical moment” in its fight against the coronavirus and could see about 250,000 infections involving the Omicron variant within six months if there is a sharp jump in the number of local cases and social-distancing measures a...

China is unlikely to put pressure on Tehran to agree to US demands to salvage the Iran nuclear deal despite a recent warning from Washington that time is running out to reach agreement, diplomatic observers believe.The latest round of talks over the ...

Temperatures fell to minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 Fahrenheit) amid heavy snowfall at Pakistan’s mountain resort town of Murree overnight, killing at least 22 people who were stuck in their vehicles, officials said Saturday.Atiq Ahmed, an Islamabad...

China’s Chang’e 5 lunar lander has sent back the first on-site evidence of water on the surface of the moon.The moon had long been thought to be totally dry, but scientists have confirmed the presence of water on its surface just over a decade ag...

Hongkongers eager to emigrate to Canada are being offered British postgraduate diplomas and degrees in as little as six months, without having to attend a single class or turn in any work of their own.Besides charging a hefty sum of between HK$120,00...

The Chinese-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has vowed to intervene in the Kazakhstan unrest if needed, but also backed the Kazakh government’s actions – a sign of approval for Russia’s intervention.The pledge from the group came as US Sec...

Employees at one of Hong Kong’s leading child protection groups allegedly abused at least 26 toddlers on 91 occasions, police revealed on Saturday after reviewing additional security camera footage taken from the NGO’s Mong Kok premises.As office...

Hongkonger To Chung never forgot the look of hopelessness on the faces of the children he met while visiting rural China more than 20 years ago.They had been left behind by parents struck down by Aids.“Their parents were dying or had already died, ...

Kazakhstan authorities arrested Karim Massimov, the former head of the National Security Committee and a two-time prime minister, on suspicion of treason as Russian troops helped bring an end to the biggest protests in decades in central Asia’s big...

A strong overnight earthquake shook a sparsely populated area of western China in the early hours of Saturday and forced the suspension of high-speed rail services because of tunnel damage, authorities said.The magnitude 6.9 quake struck at 1.45am in...

Morocco has become the first North African country to sign a Belt and Road Initiative implementation plan with China, as Beijing steps up its engagement with Africa.Observers said it meant China could expand its use of Morocco as a link for trade bet...

The chambers look like nondescript pyramids from above the ground, with the only exciting feature being that it was probably built hundreds of years ago.But a trip through a working hole revealed a jaw-dropping scene. The pyramids open up to expansiv...

Twenty-one Hong Kong demonstrators have been jailed for up to 3½ years for taking part in a riot near Beijing’s liaison office during the social unrest in 2019.Following a District Court-level trial, the 15 men and six women, aged between 21 and 4...

The southern Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen is bracing for more Covid-19 cases after two infections from an unknown source were discovered during routine screening.The Shenzhen Health Commission on Friday night said the infections were of the Delta var...

When Indonesian President Joko Widodo officiated the groundbreaking ceremony last month on what has been touted as the world’s largest green industrial estate, he said it would spur the country’s “economic transformation” from raw material ex...

More evidence has emerged that vaccination might be able to reduce the chances of long Covid – or symptoms that linger for weeks or months after an initial Covid-19 infection.However, although vaccines are known to be able to reduce the severity of...

Nine people have died and hundreds have fallen ill with diarrhoea in areas of the Philippines wrecked by a typhoon last month, with aid officials warning of a health crisis as millions struggle to secure clean water and food.Three weeks after Typhoon...

Traffickers of a common date rape drug will face stiffer penalties in Hong Kong than those caught with cannabis resin, under new sentencing guidelines issued by the Court of Appeal recently.Culprits will now face six to 12 months’ jail for traffick...

A Texas business owner, whose recent tweet that “Chinese students should be banned from attending all Texas universities”, is facing strong criticism, including from a US state representative who says the statements are hateful and could incite v...

Hong Kong’s growing Omicron outbreak took a worrying turn on Saturday as officials confirmed the first local untraceable Covid-19 case in three months, involving a goods handler who criss-crossed the city as she carried out her job.The development ...

Hong Kong may consider adding a tracking function to its official Covid-19 risk-exposure app to better trace close contacts of cases during the emerging fifth wave of the pandemic, the health minister has revealed, reigniting privacy concerns and pro...

Citigroup was the first major Wall Street bank to impose a strict Covid-19 vaccine mandate: Get a shot or face termination. With its deadline fast approaching, the company is preparing for action.Office workers who do not comply by January 14 will be...

Thousands of Myanmar villagers are living under makeshift tents alongside a river that borders Thailand, fearful of returning to homes which they said had been bombarded by military air strikes but reluctant to seek refuge across the frontier.Heavy f...

China is seeking to fast-track a second channel to double the supply of natural gas from “comprehensive strategic partner” Russia, which could give Beijing an upper hand in dealing with Canberra, according to analysts.The Power of Siberia 2 gas p...

Tennis world number one Novak Djokovic began a third day in Australian immigration detention on Saturday, joined by Czech women’s player Renata Voracova as a blame game between Australian authorities over handling of Covid-19 vaccine exemptions gat...