Shanghai’s market regulator on Friday issued a new directive that puts a cap on the price of so-called blind boxes – popular sealed packages that contain collectible goods – and restricts sales to young children.The Shanghai Administration for ...

An underwater volcano off Tonga erupted on Saturday triggering a tsunami warning for several South Pacific island nations, with footage on social media showing waves crashing into homes.Tsunami waves were observed in Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa an...

With participants who look like characters from K-dramas and storylines that wouldn’t be out of place in a film script, reality television dating shows have captured the imagination of South Korean audiences.But while it is hard to doubt the popula...

Hong Kong customs officials have arrested three suspected drug traffickers in connection with a total of HK$69.4 million (US$8.9 million) worth of narcotics discovered in two separate cases.In one case, 110kg of cannabis worth HK$22.5 million was hid...

Management hiccups and blunders at a government-run quarantine camp in Penny’s Bay during a growing Omicron outbreak in Hong Kong have left many residents upset and prompted an apology from the city’s leader.Prolonged isolation, postponed tests, ...

University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax over the last five years has repeatedly enraged students with her racist comments, first calling into question the academic ability of black students and most recently saying the US would be better off...

It all started with the milk.In May, Chinese fans of popular boy band talent show Youth With You were given the right to vote for contestants by scanning a QR code printed on the bottle cap of a sponsor’s product.The promotion led to frenzied buyin...

The prices of China’s newly built homes declined at a slower rate in December, offering a bit of relief to dozens of property developers that are struggling with a cash crunch and mounting debt.The average price of new homes across 70 cities fell b...

Children in Hong Kong as young as five could receive the Chinese-produced Sinovac coronavirus vaccine from next week, the city’s civil service chief said on Saturday as authorities pressed ahead with their inoculation drive amid a fifth wave of inf...

Researchers from the University of Cyprus last week reported a new strain of the coronavirus that appeared to be a hybrid of the Delta and Omicron variants.But doubts later emerged about the “Deltacron” hybrid – with some attributing it to data...

Even as India grapples with a third wave of Covid-19 infections fuelled by the Omicron variant, with every fourth person testing positive in recent days, its election juggernaut has not stopped.Political parties have held massive rallies bringing tog...

About an hour before midnight on December 21, Hong Kong finance professional Jackson Leung turned on his personal computer and clicked on a link to obtain a non-fungible token (NFT) from the popular local project Monkey Kingdom.It did not take long, ...

Two high school students taking Japan’s unified university entrance exams and an elderly man were attacked with a knife on Saturday at the University of Tokyo and a 17-year-old man has been arrested, the operator of the nationwide tests and police ...

The Covid-19 pandemic forced 151 gyms in Hong Kong to close last year, but 365 opened, with operators taking advantage of cheaper rents and catering to a surge in fitness enthusiasts.A new round of social-distancing restrictions to deal with the outb...

The already strained ties between Beijing and Tokyo are set to worsen with the sealing of a deal for Boeing to upgrade Japan’s warplanes into “super interceptors”, analysts warn.According to the US Defence Department, the contract was agreed in...

Some of the biggest Chinese tech firms are seeing investors boost their proportion of Hong Kong-traded shares away from American Depository Receipts, as tougher US regulatory oversight and elevated bilateral tensions darken the prospects for such fir...

The world’s major space powers should avoid repeating the mistakes they have made on the ground and instead define new relationships in space to share knowledge to make space exploration more efficient, according to Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astro...

Workers in Singapore who are not inoculated against Covid-19 may risk losing their jobs as new restrictions on office access take effect.From Saturday, a prior concession that allowed unvaccinated employees who test negative to go to workplaces will ...

Who would have thought that all it would take was a basket of dim sum – which costs around HK$20-$40 (US$2.50-US$5) – to convince Hong Kong’s elderly population to finally get their Covid-19 vaccines?For about a year, nothing could persuade Hon...

An Indonesian college student has become an internet sensation after trade-in the digital rights to his selfies fetched more than US$1 million on a platform for non-fungible tokens.Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali, who studies computer science at a universit...

A year after China adopted a 30-day cooling-off period for divorce seekers amid climbing divorce rates, marriage registration authorities have seen a drop in marital dissolution that many local governments claimed was because of the controversial mea...

Hong Kong industries reeling from an unfolding outbreak involving the Omicron coronavirus variant have been left disappointed by the government’s HK$3.57 billion (US$457.7 million) aid package and its decision to extend social-distancing curbs.Indu...

When Wang Ximing (not his real name), a recent Chinese graduate in nano materials and technology, started looking into universities to pursue postgraduate studies some time back, Japan was his top choice.But the 23-year-old, who asked to use a pseudo...

In a sweeping operation, Russia detained members of a notorious ransomware gang at the request of the US, including a hacker behind last year’s attack on the Colonial Pipeline.Law enforcement raided the homes of 14 members of the gang REvil and sei...

An air force helicopter crash that killed India’s military chief and 13 other people was caused by an unexpected change in weather that disoriented the pilot, a military court said in preliminary findings released Friday.The helicopter was flying t...

The Netherlands will not send diplomatic representatives to the Beijing Winter Olympics because Covid-19 curbs will prevent talks with Chinese officials on human rights, the Dutch foreign ministry said Friday.But officials insisted that the move, whi...

A research team in Changsha in central China’s Hunan province said it had developed the world’s first lightweight, flexible body shield to protect soldiers from armour-piercing weapons.Three rounds of armour-piercing incendiary (API) bullets were...

US prosecutors have recommended dropping the case against a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who is accused of masking his ties to China in federal research grant applications, according to a source close to the case.The criminal actio...

Britain’s Prince Andrew is facing calls to pay for his own security and lose his dukedom as the fallout from his civil sex case continues.Criticism of the Duke of York is mounting after the queen stripped him of his remaining patronages and honorar...

Fifteen years after leaving office, Tony Blair has received what UK prime ministers wait for – a knighthood.But the resulting furore, including more than a million signatures on a Change.org petition asking Queen Elizabeth to rescind the title, sho...

Denmark’s Queen Margrethe marked her 50 years on the throne of Europe’s oldest ruling monarchy on Friday, with some of the planned festivities postponed for September due to the pandemic.The outbreak, which also stopped public celebrations for th...

A bipartisan piece of legislation introduced in the US Senate on Friday would force defence contractors to stop buying rare earths from China by 2026 and use the Pentagon to create a permanent stockpile of the strategic minerals.The bill, sponsored b...

The European Union’s top diplomats hope to de-escalate Lithuania’s dispute with China as they also seek to secure a summit meeting with Beijing before the end of March.Following a two-day session of the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers in the French...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office apologised to Queen Elizabeth on Friday after it emerged that staff had partied late into the night in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, at a time when mixing indoors was banned.Jo...

The Biden administration has determined a Russian effort is under way to create a pretext for its troops to potentially further invade Ukraine, and Moscow has already pre-positioned operatives to conduct “a false-flag operation” in eastern Ukrain...

China’s economic growth is likely to slow further in the last quarter of 2021 amid fallout from the Evergrande crisis and a resurgence of Covid-19 outbreaks, according to analysts.The world’s second largest economy is expected to report its gross...

The FBI is searching for two Chinese citizens accused of running an illegal money transfer business in Southern California.A federal indictment filed on Thursday charges Wang Dianwei, 31, and “Ethan” Song Zhili, 36, both formerly of West Covina, ...

Indonesia’s devastating forest fires in 2019 burned nearly twice as much land as was officially reported, according to a recent study, raising concerns among environmental campaigners over the government’s transparency regarding deforestation.The...

China’s export machine is expected to keep roaring over the short term due to the global spread of Omicron, but Beijing has warned of increasing downside risks in 2022 after the nation’s exporters saw record-high exports last year.Despite geopoli...

A safety panel of the European drug regulator on Friday recommended adding a rare spinal inflammation called transverse myelitis as a side effect of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine.The vaccine has faced several setbacks, including production delays ...

China’s Generation Z is displaying a high level of overconfidence in the country’s power and hostility towards Westerners, a prominent Chinese academic on US affairs has warned.“Post-millennial students usually have a strong sense of superiorit...

Japanese optical product maker Canon will close part of its Zhuhai factory in southern China, with a full shutdown of the 32-year plant being considered, due to shrinking demand in the digital camera market and continued fallout from the coronavirus....

A Chinese state think tank has listed a “targeted decoupling of supply chains” as one of the top 10 global risks in 2022, along with mutations of the Covid-19 virus, underlining how serious the issue is viewed by top scholars in the country.The l...

Thailand’s health minister said on Friday the country planned to develop the antiviral pill molnupiravir to combat Covid-19 infections amid rising infections driven by the Omicron variant.The molnupiravir Covid-19 treatment pill for adult patients ...

Four flights from the United States were among 26 suspended by China on Friday as it moved to lower the risk of further Covid-19 infections being imported.The suspensions, which take effect from the week of January 24, include two flights apiece oper...

A judge has asked the feuding family of late Hong Kong tycoon Henry Fok Ying-tung to consider alternatives to their lawsuit over his multibillion-dollar estate, warning relationships could worsen should the hearing continue.Mr Justice David Lok Kai-h...

A Hong Kong businessman who wants to buy Taiwanese news website Apple Online said the potential acquisition did not involve any funding from mainland China.Kenny Wee, owner of Avengers Limited, one of the potential buyers of the Taipei-based site, to...

Hong Kong’s financial chief has faced mounting calls to roll out a fresh round of consumption vouchers as he admitted related industries and the labour market faced short-term pressure amid the emerging fifth wave of coronavirus infections.Speaking...

North Korea launched at least seven attacks on cryptocurrency platforms that extracted nearly US$400 million worth of digital assets last year, one of its most successful years on record, blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis said in a new report.“F...

Taiwan on Friday commissioned new navy minelayers to add to its defences against mainland China.President Tsai Ing-wen presided over a commissioning ceremony for the navy’s First and Second Mining Operations Squadrons, which will operate ships able...