Joint South Korean and US military drills set to kick off next month could for the first time in years include more weaponry and troops, and more aggressive messaging as tensions with North Korea rise. Neither the South Korean or US militaries have c...

The Solomon Islands on Thursday said it had inked a wide-ranging security pact with Beijing, an agreement Western allies fear will pave the way for the first Chinese military foothold in the South Pacific. “Officials of Solomon Islands and the Peop...

A Hong Kong woman dating the son of retired judge Woo Kwok-hing has denied allegations that she was assaulted by her boyfriend in an incident that left her with injuries, saying in a social media post that she had actually lost her footing and fallen...

China’s plans to build an information “expressway” connecting China, Europe and Africa have taken a step forward with the arrival of an undersea cable in the Kenyan port of Mombasa. The Pakistan & East Africa Connecting Europe (Peace) cable is ...

Most of the Pudong area of Shanghai is likely to remain locked down beyond Friday, according to sources, after a four-day effort to contain the spread of Covid-19 on the eastern side of Huangpu River proved insufficient. The lockdown of the area of 5...

Scientists who spent years spraying oxytocin up the noses of lions found the big cats became much friendlier with their neighbours and less prone to roaring at strangers when dosed up on the so-called “love hormone”. The results, published in the...

Beijing’s diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan represents a threat to all democracies and the United States is committed to helping the island defend itself, the top US diplomat in Taipei said. Speaking at an American Chamber of Commerce in T...

Hong Kong residents may be asked to take part in mass at-home Covid-19 testing via kits set to be distributed from Saturday in order to help the government better gauge the current epidemic situation, the city’s leader has said. Chief Executive Car...

The sky and seas off Sri Lanka’s coast are crystal blue, but a worsening economic crisis has kept fishermen moored at Negombo harbour, out of gas and unable to reel in the day’s catch. The waters nearby are a tropical bounty of fist-sized prawns ...

Amid a surge of Omicron infections sweeping China, Tang Lin has watched business dry up at her small noodle soup restaurant in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi province in southern China. Though the city has reported only three cases of the highly tra...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has added five New York-listed stocks to its latest list of companies liable under a US auditing oversight law, including four Chinese internet companies. Futu Holdings Limited, iQiyi and Baidu are among t...

As the United States prepares to accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees following Russia’s invasion of their country, existing communities in cities like Sacramento and Seattle are already mobilising to provide food, shelter and support to those f...

When the Indian government announced it was restarting international travel on March 27 after two years of limited flights amid the pandemic, Jaideep Kelkar immediately booked a week-long holiday for his family of five to the Maldives. “Before the ...

The Shanghai government admitted on Thursday it was ill prepared for the latest wave of Covid-19 infections and had failed to meet all the needs of areas under tough restrictions as the financial hub recorded another surge in cases on the fourth day ...

Tencent Holdings’ WeChat, China’s largest social network with more than 1.2 billion users, has frozen multiple accounts that market digital collectibles, the term typically used in China to refer to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that cannot be bough...

A New Zealand man on Thursday was sentenced to one year in prison for threatening to kill Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Prosecutors said Michael Cruickshank, 56, sent 88 lengthy emails to government officials in 2019 and 2020, calling them criminals...

The city’s leader has accused Britain of undermining judicial independence after it withdrew its two remaining judges from Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal, saying the move was “politically planned”, and calling the country’s concerns over...

US Vice-President Kamala Harris, whose father emigrated from Jamaica, met the island nation’s prime minister on Wednesday at the White House, marking another historic moment for the first Black and Asian-American vice-president. The meeting marked ...

The president of the Federated States of Micronesia has sent an impassioned plea to the Solomon Islands’ prime minister, urging him to reconsider a controversial and “unprecedented” security pact with China. President David Panuelo voiced “gr...

Shanghai’s small businesses are scrambling to maintain daily operations and minimise losses, as the city endures a strict lockdown to combat its worst outbreak of Covid-19 so far. Businesses in the Chinese commercial hub are facing a serious hit to...

Thousands of lives could be saved as Japan begins to actively promote the HPV vaccine – which can prevent cervical cancer – after a decade of misinformation and weak policy left inoculation rates dismally low, advocates say. The percentage of tee...

China has “great potential” for a higher fertility rate if the standard of living and access to public services are improved, according to a leading demographer In an article in The Beijing News on Wednesday, Cai Fang, a demographic economist wit...

The Biden administration is considering releasing up to 180 million barrels of oil over several months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), four US sources said on Wednesday, as the White House tries to lower fuel prices. The International Ene...

Four one-time leaders of what was formerly the city’s biggest opposition-leaning trade union have been taken in for questioning by national security police after the disbanded group was accused of breaching a law governing the registration of local...

A heavy security presence is in place outside the Beijing court where Australian journalist Cheng Lei is due to face trial on Thursday morning after more than 19 months in detention. Cheng, who was a television anchor for Chinese state broadcaster CG...

Hong Kong stocks capped a third straight quarterly loss on Thursday after a contraction in Chinese manufacturing deepened concerns about a further slowdown in growth, and the risk of China’s offshore companies being thrown off American bourses ling...

Chinese aviation authorities have pledged to publish a report on the investigation results of the China Eastern Airlines plane crash within 30 days of the accident. All rescue missions have been completed, with both black boxes found and all DNA test...

After spending two years being socially distanced in his home country of South Korea, Kim Hoe-jun booked a last-minute flight to Hawaii, where he had enjoyed his honeymoon six years ago, giving in to his craving for overseas travel. “I bought the t...

European Union officials plan to press China’s top leaders over their support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday during a long-delayed summit that will be dominated by discussion of the war, now in its second month. EU leaders doubt they ...

Activity in both China’s manufacturing and services sectors simultaneously contracted for the first time in two years in March, data released on Thursday showed amid an ongoing coronavirus resurgence in the country. The official manufacturing purch...

Cemeteries are being closed and officials are pushing online channels to honour ancestors during the upcoming Ching Ming Festival as China tries to neuter an Omicron-driven Covid-19 outbreak. Local governments have either closed cemeteries or will li...

Will Smith refused to leave the Oscars ceremony after striking comedian Chris Rock, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed Wednesday, as it began disciplinary action against the mega star. Smith could face expulsion from the Academy...

While talking with friends the other day about the latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, I was asked how many countries have imposed sanctions against Russia. Soon after I began to count, I was somewhat stirred by what emerged: outside ...

While legal experts and political pundits have locked horns over whether it is justifiable for Britain’s top court to withdraw its judges from Hong Kong, they appear to agree on one issue – the city’s judicial system is still respected and seen...

The US must step up efforts to stem deteriorating press freedoms across East Asia, including supporting media outlets on mainland China’s periphery, lawmakers were told on Wednesday. A panel of rights campaigners issued the recommendations – incl...

A pregnant US citizen was held in China for eight months and warned she could not leave unless she convinced her mother to return to China, authorities revealed Wednesday as they criminally charged a man who they said enlisted a US law enforcement of...

The United Kingdom government said it is planning to keep in place anti-dumping measures on cold rolled flat steel from China and Russia first put in place six years ago. The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA), a new agency created following Britain’s ...

Russia’s war in Ukraine presents China with “awkward questions”, as Moscow’s actions contravene the very principles that Beijing relies on to back up its position on Taiwan, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Wednesday. Spea...

China has stepped up its efforts to rally support for its stance on the war in Ukraine, by warning that Western-led sanctions on Russia are already hurting developing countries. On Monday, Dai Bing, the country’s first deputy permanent representati...

South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix has expressed interest to take part in the acquisition of British semiconductor design company Arm, months after the SoftBank Group Corp-owned firm started preparing for an initial public offering when Nvidia C...

Eleven years ago, Facebook was caught red-handed after it hired a prominent public relations firm to try to plant stories harshly criticising Google’s privacy practices in leading news outlets. In 2018, it hired the PR firm Definers to do oppositio...

Former journalist Luo Changping stood trial on Wednesday, accused of defamatory comments about Chinese soldiers depicted in a blockbuster movie about the Korean war. The Chengjiao People’s Court in Sanya, Hainan province, announced on its official ...

Washington’s top trade official said on Wednesday that negotiations with Beijing are not progressing and that the US must deepen economic relations both with traditional allies and countries beyond that sphere, particularly in Asia and Africa. Spea...

Several Russian servicemen are seeking legal help to avoid being sent to fight in the war in Ukraine, two lawyers said, after 12 members of Russia’s National Guard were fired for refusing to go. Lawyer Mikhail Benyash said around 200 people had bee...

Astronomers have discovered the farthest star yet, a super-hot, super-bright giant that formed nearly 13 billion years ago at the dawn of the cosmos. But this luminous blue star is long gone, so massive that it almost certainly exploded into bits jus...

The World Health Organization on Wednesday released an updated plan for Covid-19, laying out key strategies that, if implemented in 2022, would allow the world to end the emergency phase of the pandemic. The plan includes three possible scenarios for...

US action hero Bruce Willis, star of the Die Hard franchise, is to retire from acting due to illness, his family announced Wednesday. “Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting h...

The tragedy of the war in Ukraine has elicited a plethora of opinion pieces trying to divine lessons learned for the Indo-Pacific. Some of them make sense, but others reflect fuzzy or wishful thinking. Those lessons that do make sense are rather gene...

President Vladimir Putin is being misled by fearful advisers as his Ukraine invasion goes awry, with mutinous Russian troops sabotaging equipment and even accidentally shooting down their own aircraft, US and British intelligence agencies say. The cl...