China has moved a step closer to developing a home-grown mRNA vaccine against Covid-19, with the publication of early trial results for its prime candidate ARCoV.No serious adverse events were recorded in the phase 1 clinical trial data, published la...

A series of studies published since December have shed light on the potential agricultural impacts climate change could wreak on East Asia and China.In one study, published in December in Nature Food, scientists found that climate change contributed ...

The resolution on human rights adopted in Japan’s parliament, the Diet, this week is a “symbolic” move, according to analysts, as Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attempts a multifaceted balancing act.Not only must Kishida balance the fractious fac...

Japan needs about four times more foreign workers by 2040 to achieve the growth path the government has outlined in its economic forecast, a group of Tokyo-based public think tanks said on Thursday.The findings highlight a growing Japanese reliance o...

The Beijing Winter Olympics drew a frosty reception in India on Wednesday after a Chinese soldier involved in a deadly Himalayan skirmish took part in the traditional torch relay.Qi Fabao, a regiment commander for the People’s Liberation Army, was ...

Japan should do more to pressure China on human rights, an adviser to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a rare interview, backing a path that could increase tensions between Asia’s biggest economies.Gen Nakatani, appointed to a new human rights ...

Richard Liu Qiangdong, founder and chief executive of Chinese e-commerce juggernaut JD.com, is giving more than US$2.2 billion in stock to charity, making him the latest Chinese tech billionaire to donate an unprecedented sum amid Beijing’s efforts...

Iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest on Thursday said he was launching criminal proceedings against Meta Platform’s Facebook in an Australian court, alleging that it breached anti-money-laundering laws and its platform is used to scam Australians.Forres...

US special forces carried out what the Pentagon said was a successful, large-scale counterterrorism raid in northwestern Syria early Thursday. First responders at the scene reported 13 people had been killed, including six children and four women.The...

Joe Biden is planning several stops during an upcoming visit to Asia, which will be his first to the region as US President and include a summit with three key regional allies in Japan, a senior administration official told Reuters.The US official br...

The Philippine presidential elections in May are likely to delay any investment decisions by investors and developers, as they wait and see if the new administration will be business-friendly, analysts said.This in turn will potentially worsen a mark...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said China and Russia would resist Western sanctions pressure at “every opportunity”, on the eve of his arrival in Beijing for the Winter Games.In remarks given to Chinese state media ahead of his arrival, Putin a...

The fourth of nine US Navy officers who were headed to trial in the “Fat Leonard” bribery scandal pleaded guilty on Wednesday.Former Captain Donald Hornbeck, 61, pleaded guilty in San Diego federal court to one count of bribery of a public offici...

A top mainland Chinese social scientist will be appointed as a deputy chief of the Beijing agency overseeing Hong Kong affairs, the Post has learned.An analyst said the expected appointment of Wang Linggui, an expert in national security and internat...

More than 50 civilians were killed when machete-wielding militiamen attacked a site for displaced people in strife-torn eastern DR Congo, sources said.Fifty-two people, some of them children, were killed, a source with the UN’s peacekeeping mission...

Massive, illegal fireworks displays, while not quite as impressive as the annual, government-organised ones formerly held over Victoria Harbour, have lit up the sky across Hong Kong on recent nights to celebrate the start of the Year of the Tiger.Sin...

Teachers are threatening statewide street protests in Bihar, northeast India, after being ordered by the education ministry to work as informants in a crackdown on illicit alcohol.With schools in the state closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, teacher...

Hong Kong health experts called on the government to refine its Covid-19 strategy, stockpile drugs and make better use of resources as concerns mounted over a worsening fifth wave of infections, which brought another 142 cases on Thursday.The city sh...

Australian maritime experts on Thursday said they believed they’d found the wreck of a historically significant British ship after it was scuttled in the United States more than 200 years ago.But archaeologists in the US quickly countered by saying...

President Joe Biden calls himself a union guy and a car guy, and he is embraced electric vehicles as vital to his economic and climate ambitions.But there’s one US car company he won’t talk about: Tesla, the world’s most valuable carmaker and t...

The Beijing Olympics, which officially begins on Friday, will be streamlined, safe and splendid, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said, as the head of the IOC decried boycott ghosts “rearing their ugly heads again” over human rights concerns.Addr...

China’s response to last week’s military takeover in Burkina Faso was markedly muted compared to its statement after the coup in Guinea in September.Instead of the forthright condemnation that followed the overthrow of Guinean president Alpha Con...

Mexico’s president said Wednesday he will create a state-owned company to mine lithium and appeared to suggest he will seek to cancel one of the few existing permits held by a Chinese company.President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had said in Octobe...

New Zealand on Thursday announced a phased reopening of its border that has been largely closed for two years, but the travel and airline industry said much more was needed to revive the Pacific island nation’s struggling tourism sector.Vaccinated ...

Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck Hong Kong in 2020, Yan* looked forward to the Lunar New Year as a time of celebration, when she returned to her hometown across the border with her husband and two daughters.But she has made no plans for the festiv...

Two years into the coronavirus pandemic and with the Beijing Winter Olympics just around the corner, Nartay Li has seen more visitors flocking to the General Mountain ski resort in northwest China than ever before.Before the global pandemic, the Alps...

Over two decades after his divorce, Wang Rulin, 62, decided it was time to give marriage another chance.It only took two weeks for the retiree, a former auxiliary police officer from Jiangsu province in eastern China, to find someone he believed coul...

There is nothing quite like the durian to divide opinion. To some, it is a foul-smelling pod that is so overpowering it is banned on some cities’ public transport systems. For others, its creamy texture and custard-like flavour make it the “king ...

Hong Kong leader’s handling of her disgraced home affairs minister served as a salutary lesson to officials that they risked the axe if their conduct – even in non-official settings – breached expectations of their role, analysts have said.The ...

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he has no intention to travel to Beijing for the Winter Olympics, ending speculation about his plans two days before the Games start.“I have no travel plans. You can’t assume that I’ll suddenly show up and say...

The enactment of the national security law for Hong Kong in June 2020 attracted much criticism, mostly unfair. One provision in particular, involving the choice of judges to try national security cases, irked some people.The national security law req...

Some of the 1,000 US diplomats and intelligence officers hit by a mysterious illness known as Havana Syndrome could have been targeted by electromagnetic energy pulses, according to a report to US intelligence leaders released on Wednesday.“Pulse e...

Monica Vitti, the versatile movie star of Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Avventura and other Italian alienation films of the 1960s, and later a leading comic actress, has died. She was 90.Her death was announced Wednesday on Twitter by a former cultu...

The risk of an accidental military conflict between China and the United States is high despite efforts by both countries to ease tensions, according to a senior Chinese foreign policy adviser.In an interview with Shenzhen Satellite TV on Tuesday, Wa...

Canada’s opposition Conservatives have ousted their leader after he failed to defeat Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in last year’s election.Erin O’Toole, who has held the top job since August 2020, lost a secret-ballot confidence vo...

The Democrats’ fragile hold on the US Senate majority became even more tenuous on Wednesday with the sudden illness of New Mexico Senator Ben Ray Luján, which sent shock waves through the party and threatens President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court p...

The United Nations and China have been accused of fabricating a “mutually convenient stalemate” after its top human rights body confirmed it will not publish a report on alleged abuses in the Chinese region of Xinjiang before this month’s Winte...

CNN President Jeff Zucker abruptly resigned on Wednesday after acknowledging a consensual relationship with another network executive – an entanglement that came to light during an investigation of now-fired anchor Chris Cuomo.Zucker said he was as...

Two suspects died after falling from the 10th floor of a commercial building during a police raid on a gambling den in Hong Kong at around 6pm on Wednesday night.A force insider said officers from a regional crime unit carried out the operation at Ts...

The world’s first “human challenge” trial in which volunteers were deliberately exposed to Covid-19 to advance research into the disease was found to be safe in healthy young adults, leaders of the study said on Wednesday.The data supports the ...

The United States deployed several thousand troops to bolster Nato forces in eastern Europe, as the leaders of France and Germany flagged trips to Moscow to address Western fears of an invasion of Ukraine.With Russia refusing to pull back 100,000 tro...

China’s domestic box office sales topped 2.3 billion yuan (US$361 million) by day two of the Lunar New Year on Wednesday, despite rising ticket prices and sporadic coronavirus outbreaks forcing cinemas to close in some parts of the country.Sales to...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will voice their shared views on international security at a meeting during the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, a Kremlin adviser said on Wednesday.The two leaders will meet in ...

At a classroom screening of North Country at a US university in October, students were startled to find their Chinese-born teacher sobbing uncontrollably.Little did they know that the film – based on the woman who won the first class-action sexual ...

Hongkongers are giving less money amid muted Lunar New Year celebrations due to the fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic as people have been reducing social interactions over the festive holiday.Security guard, Leung Ling-po, 58, said he had less l...

The worst of the Covid-19 pandemic will be over gradually and China is well placed to handle it, two of the country’s top respiratory experts said.However, both also warned against a rushed approach to achieving post-pandemic normality.China would ...

The bodies of 12 migrants who froze to death have been found near Turkey’s border with Greece, the Turkish interior minister said on Wednesday, accusing Greek border guards of pushing them back over the frontier.Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu twe...

More than 100 hamsters were dumped by Hong Kong pet owners after the government announced a cull as a precaution against animal-to-human transmission of the coronavirus.Animal welfare volunteers said dozens of hamsters had been left to die in the str...