A Myanmar army officer who defected and fled the country has detailed battlefield losses to rebels in the southern part of Chin state, with at least 50 soldiers killed and 200 badly wounded in 2021 by opposition fighters with home-made weapons.Kaung ...

The Chinese military embarked on three sets of simultaneous maritime exercises this week just days after the United States and Japan held a massive joint naval exercise in the western Pacific.In the East China Sea, China’s Eastern Theatre Command c...

Chinese spies sought to fund candidates for Australia’s centre-left Labor opposition party in an upcoming federal election but the plot was foiled by the Australian national security agency, multiple media outlets reported on Friday.The plot was ar...

Twenty-three Hongkongers were fined a total of HK$115,000 in Kwai Chung district on Thursday for breaching the city’s mask mandate while smoking, police said on Friday.The 17 men and six women, aged between 18 and 73, were seen maskless while smoki...

Confrontation with Beijing is not inevitable, but the United States must stand up with its allies for a rules-based system threatened by Chinese aggression, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.Blinken was speaking shortly before a meetin...

China cannot dictate who Somaliland can have relations with as it is a sovereign nation and was “born free”, the foreign minister of the breakaway Somali region said during a trip to Taiwan which has been condemned by Beijing.Somaliland broke awa...

China’s biggest semiconductor foundry has set aside a record amount for capacity expansion in 2022, after its profits more than doubled in 2021 thanks to strong demand for chips.Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) has earmarked US...

A 103-year-old man with a history of heart illness died in hospital early Friday morning after passing out while eating a chocolate cake at his home in Hong Kong.Emergency personnel were called to his flat on Sau Chuk Yuen Road in Kowloon City shortl...

As if worries about Omicron were not enough, recent weeks have seen alarm bells ringing over inflation. Disruption of fresh vegetable supplies, as infected truck drivers have been held at the mainland border crossing, has combined with the usual Luna...

Tonga and China held a signing ceremony on Friday for construction equipment that will be used to build infrastructure in the tsunami-hit Pacific island, a day before the top US diplomat arrives in the region to discuss development aid.Tonga is in lo...

The construction of another makeshift hospital of the kind erected in Wuhan in the early days of the pandemic will be among the topics of discussion between Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials during a meeting over the weekend, the Post has lear...

Slumping marriage and birth rates – and the knock-on effects of economic stagnation and an ageing workforce – are leading China’s Communist Party to increasingly act as matchmaker.Zhang Shaoge, 30, put his heart in the hands of the party when h...

Australian residents will need to receive booster shots to be considered fully vaccinated against Covid-19, although authorities said foreign travellers will continue to need only two shots to enter the country.Australia’s national cabinet late on ...

China has developed the capacity to produce enough Covid-19 test kits to screen 51 million people daily, providing “strong” logistical support to pandemic control measures, according to the country’s drugs and medical devices regulatory body. ...

Against the backdrop of lush green paddy fields, men dressed in traditional dhotis and striped shorts with colourful turbans slice meat, crack eggs and cook on makeshift stoves. Chillies, coriander and turmeric are ground fresh on a traditional grind...

Hong Kong confirmed a record high 1,325 Covid-19 cases on Friday while preliminary infections soared past 1,500, as public hospitals ramped up infection control measures for staff.Two more coronavirus-related deaths were also reported, an 88-year-old...

The Asia-Pacific aviation industry’s slow recovery from the pandemic amid government restrictions will cast a shadow over the Singapore Airshow next week, though there are nascent signs of improvement as concerns over the Omicron variant recede.The...

Australia’s “substantial trade interest” has seen Canberra officially request to be included in consultations as part of the European Union’s dispute with China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Beijing’s alleged trade curbs on Lit...

US President Joe Biden urged Americans Thursday to immediately leave Ukraine, as Russia’s live-fire drills and build-up of troops around the ex-Soviet state deepened fears of an invasion.Washington-Moscow tensions are at their highest since the Col...

France plans to build six new nuclear reactors and to extend the life of its existing nuclear plants as part of the country’s strategy to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday....

China’s family planning agency says it will “intervene” when unmarried women and teenagers seek abortions and promote traditional values to encourage people to have more children, as it tries to reverse declining birth rates.In a plan outlining...

Hong Kong couples planning to tie the knot this month were shocked to find out their weddings would be restricted to only two witnesses under the government’s latest social-distancing rules announced on Tuesday.Among those affected was a 32-year-ol...

Whether it is tours of prisons or talks in classrooms, “scared straight” programmes have existed for decades to deter people from committing crimes, but strict Covid-19 protocols have made them less tenable in China.Now, virtual reality (VR) is b...

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and a unit of Sony Group Corp have unveiled plans for a new production facility in southern Japan, becoming the largest beneficiaries to date of the subsidy scheme set up by the Japanese government as the...

A US judge found Guo Wengui in contempt and ordered him to pay US$134 million to a creditor, ruling the exiled Chinese businessman moved a yacht out of US waters to shield it from debt collection.Judge Barry Ostrager of New York state court found tha...

Hong Kong’s ban on cross-household gatherings has left small businesses operating in private places wondering if they will be caught out by the latest round of social-distancing curbs, while security guards working at residential properties say the...

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin’s words illustrate the value of experiential learning. But how can students be actively engaged in learning when studying online? How can they conduct a ...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected the notion on Thursday that the informal “Quad” alliance of the US, Australia, India and Japan exists only to counter a rising and more assertive China.“This is not about standing against anyone in ...

The Biden administration on Thursday approved a nearly US$14 billion arms sale to Indonesia, as the US presses ahead with steps it believes will help counter China’s increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.The State Department announced the US...

Chinese tech giant Xiaomi Corp will ratchet up its challenge to Apple by focusing on the high-end segment of the global smartphone market, according to company founder and chief executive Lei Jun, as the mainland’s major handset makers rush to fill...

London’s police chief announced her resignation Thursday after a string of scandals rocked the British capital’s force, including racism, sexism and a serving officer murdering a young woman.Cressida Dick, who became the first woman to head Londo...

China is to step up its testing of rail guns to an unprecedented level, according to a military researcher, as the US gives up on the futuristic weapon after decades of research.A rail gun is a kinetic energy weapon that can fire a projectile at seve...

Authorities in France, Belgium and Austria on Thursday banned road blockades threatened by groups organising online against Covid-19 restrictions, in part inspired by protesters in Canada.Citing “risks of trouble to public order”, the Paris polic...

French President Emmanuel Macron refused a Kremlin request that he take a Russian Covid-19 test when he arrived to see President Vladimir Putin this week, and was therefore kept at a distance from the Russian leader, according to two sources in Macro...

A Russian gallery has said one of its security guards was implicated in vandalising a 20th century avant-garde artwork, after he drew eyes onto figures of an abstract painting with a pen.In December, a painting by Anna Leporskaya – a student of leg...

Documents ripped up, stuffed down the toilet or carted off to Florida – the list of former US leader Donald Trump’s alleged flouting of laws on preserving presidential papers grew longer and more bizarre on Thursday.The details emerged alongside ...

In the chaos surrounding the stand-off over Ukraine, last week’s extraordinary summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping stands out. Putin visited the Winter Olympics in Beijing last week and became the first ...

In late 2020, a student at Occidental College in the US sent a text message to a friend that read: “all asian people need to die.”She followed with another text saying Asians are “responsible for the pandemic so they need to die for that too”...

The son and namesake of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos cleared a major obstacle Thursday in his bid to become the next Philippine president when the government’s election body refused to disqualify him over a decades-old tax conviction.The ruling...

Beijing’s deepening ties with Moscow show a united front against threats from the United States, but there is concern within China that a quasi-alliance could come with economic consequences should the Ukraine crisis escalate.Following a meeting be...

A former Goldman Sachs banker charged with helping to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund will go on trial in the United States next week, in a case that could shed light on how the bank responded to ...

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has published an updated draft data regulation with stricter requirements for the management and transfer of data, which gives it a clear say in reviewing cross-border data transfers.Th...

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to scrap self-isolation rules for people in England who test positive for Covid-19, ending the last of the pandemic restrictions that have dominated daily life for the past two years.The dramatic step is due to t...

Mainland Chinese officials and experts will meet their Hong Kong counterparts in the “coming days” in Shenzhen to discuss the best way to help the city fight a surging fifth wave of Covid-19 infections.In a late-night statement on Thursday, the c...

Hong Kong restaurants categorised as Type D have reported a relatively smooth launch of new vaccine pass arrangements on Thursday as an exponential spike in infections lead to an acute shortage of diners.The new arrangements for so-called Type D rest...

China arrested a former senior official at the nation’s banking regulator over alleged bribery, adding to a long list of executives and policymakers caught up in the nation’s latest anti-graft crackdown.Cai Esheng, the former deputy chairman at t...

China is aiming for more than 50 space missions once again this year, alongside 140 spacecraft launches and the completion of its Tiangong space station.Plans also include having six astronauts from two separate crews carry out space missions in orbi...

The 50th Hong Kong Arts Festival has cancelled most of its in-venue performances.Organisers of the festival, which opens on February 28, made an early decision after the number of Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong rose sharply following the Lunar New Year ...

China is facing a heightened threat from terrorism, its top envoy to the United Nations said, after a UN report that members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement had called for jihad, or holy war, in Xinjiang.Speaking at a UN meeting on Wednesday, ...

Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech has revealed that it plans to begin clinical trials for a jab to treat the highly transmissible Omicron variant this month, and hopes to begin global distribution by May.Meng Weining, vice-president of Sinovac (H...