Thailand, a US treaty ally, has been adding to its arsenal of Chinese-made weapons with deals for ships, tanks and other high-value hardware. Analysts put the trend down to pragmatic considerations. The Royal Thai Army has finalised a deal to buy an ...

An old Han Chinese wedding custom mandates that the bride brings her own “toilet,” typically filled with red eggs, red dates, and peanuts, which symbolise fertility and abundant blessings. Traditionally linked to filth and unpleasant odours, the ...

Hong Kong homebuyers continued to show strong demand for new residential launches over the weekend, potentially pushing primary market transactions to a five-month high, according to agents. By 3.30pm on Saturday, about two-thirds of the 108 units re...

Hong Kong authorities will extend the deadline for mandatory building inspection orders to let homeowners vet contractors’ conviction records on a new platform launching later this year, the city’s development chief said. Secretary for Developmen...

Some weighty themes were addressed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, from the apparent return of the Monroe Doctrine and US “manifest destiny” in geopolitics, to a replay of the 19th-century “Great Game” among competing nations elsewhere....

Many overseas internet users have recently embraced a new trend of “Becoming Chinese” by incorporating elements of everyday Chinese life into their routines. These lifestyle changes predominantly involve common self-care practices in Chinese cult...

A video showing three of Nepal’s most recognisable political figures walking side by side set social media abuzz late last year, stirring widespread speculation that a new political alliance was taking shape ahead of a looming national election. Bu...

The United States will use strength – not confrontation – to deter China in the Indo-Pacific, the Defence Department said, laying out its national strategy to protect the “homeland”. The US would also push allies to pay more for their defence...

Top Chinese military leaders Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli have been placed under investigation for suspected “serious” disciplinary violations, according to the Ministry of National Defence. Zhang is the first-ranked vice-chairman of the Central M...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has begun his latest trip to China – visiting a grocery market in Shanghai on Saturday after touring the chipmaker’s local office – at a time when Beijing is expected to allow imports of the company’s H200 artificial i...

An Australian boy had died in hospital after being bitten by a shark in Sydney Harbour, his family said on Saturday after a series of shark attacks along the country’s east coast. Nico Antic, 12, was attacked on Sunday as he and friends were jumpin...

A woman in central China was ordered to apologise to her cheating husband for posting a sarcastic story that damaged his reputation. Niu Na, from Henan province, revealed on social media that she had been married to her husband, Gao Fei, for over 10 ...

When Indonesian actress Aurelie Moeremans released her memoir earlier this month, she never intended for it to start a national conversation over abuse and consent. Her book, Broken Strings: Fragments of Stolen Youth, recounts how she was groomed as ...

Hong Kong lawmaker Judy Chan Kapui has apologised again for driving along a road in the wrong direction, saying that she will accept any legal consequences and refrain from getting behind the wheel for the time being. “I made a rash decision in has...

A landslide killed at least seven people and more than 80 are missing on Indonesia’s main island of Java Saturday, a disaster official said. The landslide triggered by heavy rainfall struck a village in the region of West Bandung at around 2.30am, ...

A 17-year-old in the US who expressed interest in joining the Islamic State (Isis) has pleaded guilty to trying to kill one New Jersey police officer and attacking backup police with a knife. Fasihullah Safar, of Alexandria, Virginia, would be senten...

In a printing factory, an elderly man points out numerous errors he has circled in a book on the history of movable type, his voice edged with indignation. “Many historical accounts about the industry are wrong,” the 76-year-old says. “I want t...

Japan welcomed a record 42.7 million foreign visitors in 2025, fuelled by a weak yen that made it one of the world’s cheapest major tourist destinations, but the boom may already have peaked. The number is expected to decline this year amid a polit...

This month, when China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence released a list of top 10 defence industry news items for 2025, it shed light on a home-grown aviation success story. The inclusion of the Chines...

Malaysian anti-corruption authorities have opened two investigation papers into a man bearing the title “Tan Sri” over his alleged involvement in a large-scale investment fraud amounting to more than 300 million ringgit (US$75 million). The Malay...

Hong Kong is approaching the winter flu season, but vaccination rates among most age groups remain below the 70 per cent threshold needed for herd immunity, a leading government medical adviser has warned. David Hui Shu-cheong, chairman of the govern...

Russian strikes killed one person and injured 23 others in Ukraine’s capital and the northeastern city of Kharkiv overnight, authorities said early on Saturday. The country was under an air raid alert with military authorities in Kyiv warning of dr...

The plans of Alibaba Group Holding and Baidu to list their semiconductor design units could intensify competition with other domestic artificial intelligence chip developers to unseat Nvidia as the country’s top supplier of high-performance AI proc...

This article was first published on January 25, 2016 By Naomi Ng and Ernest Kao The city’s coldest weather in nearly six decades was expected to continue into today, prompting a suspension of primary schools and pleas from officials urging the publ...

The Pentagon foresees a “more limited” role in deterring North Korea, with South Korea taking primary responsibility for the task, a Pentagon policy document released on Friday said, a move likely to raise concern in Seoul. South Korea hosts abou...

Monday’s fatal blast at a Chinese restaurant in Kabul has underscored the grave security threat China is facing, not just in Afghanistan but also in wider Central Asia. One potential area of vulnerability is Tajikistan, Central Asia’s poorest cou...

The US-China tech rivalry is no longer confined to the laboratories, fabs and boardrooms of the industry’s biggest names – the artificial intelligence battlefield has now expanded into the capital markets, where ambition is priced in real time. A...

New Zealand police have found human remains beneath mud and debris from a landslide that struck a campsite in the popular holiday spot of Mount Maunganui, and are now moving to recover more victims. Efforts to rescue at least six people buried alive ...

Chinese regulators are targeting one of the world’s biggest travel platforms in an anti-monopoly probe after complaints it had hurt travellers and travel operators in China’s expansive tourism market, analysts said. Unlike the broad legal actions...

Powdered whole milk used to make ByHeart infant formula could be a source of contamination that led to an outbreak of botulism that has sickened dozens of babies, according to US health officials. Testing by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ...

Residents of Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court have vowed to collectively fight for justice in the aftermath of the city’s deadliest inferno in seven decades, as legal experts call for authorities to press ahead with a long-stalled proposal to introduce...

A 101-year-old Chinese grandmother has dazzled and inspired many by embracing a “reverse lifestyle”, staying up late to watch TV and snacking freely, yet still leading a healthy life, complete with all her natural teeth. Jiang Yueqin hails from W...

Malaysia’s world-leading producers of latex gloves are facing tightened profit margins as the nation’s strong currency bites into dollar-denominated earnings, underscoring challenges for the nation’s exporters. “While ringgit strength lowers ...

Malaysia’s next general election may well be decided by the country’s millions of young voters and its biggest conservative Islamist party is determined to win them over. For the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), winning young people’s support...

Vietnam saw its exports of durians to China soar by US$500 million last year, as the country shook off earlier phytosanitary issues and leveraged its geographic advantages to outcompete its Southeast Asian rivals in the lucrative Chinese market. Grow...

The US military said on Friday that it had carried out a deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the first known attack since the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month. ...

The former bassist of the legendary German rock band Scorpions has died at the age of 71, his family said on Friday. “We received a message to this effect from his daughter,” Scorpions spokesman Peter Lanz said. The internationally successful ban...

TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance announced on Thursday the official creation of a new US venture – TikTok USDS Joint Venture – to operate the short video app used by 200 million Americans. The deal, the culmination of years of legal and po...

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met ‌in Abu Dhabi on Friday to tackle the vital issue of territory, with no sign of a compromise, as Russian air strikes plunged Ukraine into its worst ‍energy crisis of the nearly four-year war. Kyiv is under mo...

Chinese scientists have created fully flexible fibre chips with circuits that are integrated and embedded within stretchable strands as thin as human hair at a density rivalling those of a home computer’s central processing unit. Scientists have no...

Having studied and lived in North America in my youth and now middle age, one thing I have come to realise is that there is not one Canada but several, not one United States but many. Another is the contrasting national sentiments about equality – ...

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a phone call late on Thursday, during which both leaders stressed the need to defend the authority of the United Nations (UN) and to strengthen cooperation across the...

US President Donald Trump’s administration has pushed out a Commerce Department official whose office effectively barred ‍nearly all Chinese cars from the US market for national security reasons, according to people familiar with the matter. Eliz...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called US President Donald Trump’s comments about European troops staying off the front lines in Afghanistan ‍insulting and appalling, joining a chorus of criticism from other European officials and veterans. �...

Valentino, Italy’s haute couture “emperor”, was laid to rest in Rome on Friday, with the distinctive red ‌he championed in his collections echoed in splashes of crimson among the black-clad mourners. The biggest ‍names in fashion – includ...

Hong Kong police are following up on an alleged traffic offence involving lawmaker Judy Chan Kapui, who was filmed driving against the flow of traffic in Wan Chai on Friday. Chan confirmed on Friday night that she was the driver of the car in a viral...

Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder for Canada who was among the FBI’s top fugitives and faces charges related to multinational drug trafficking and the killing of a federal witness, was arrested on Friday, two people familiar with the matte...

The world’s largest retail show held last week in New York saw a mood of measured optimism amid the bustle, cheap swag and canned smiles – a sense that the worst of last year’s tariff turmoil was over and that Chinese goods would continue to fi...

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] We’ve never lived more interconnected lives — or felt more divided. Separated by belief, culture, and access, we turn inward to master our own fields in the hope of cutti...

At the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, world leaders warned of an increasingly fractured global order and took veiled swipes at the United States. But they held back on directly criticising China, which exp...