A Malaysian man who informed his wife that he was on a business trip with colleagues was discovered to be stranded with his mistress amid severe floods in Thailand. Heavy flooding, triggered by torrential rains, has struck southern Thailand, claiming...

With rising tensions between Beijing and Tokyo disrupting travel plans, Chinese tourists are actively seeking alternative destinations for their winter getaways. While South Korea hopes to capitalise on this diverted tourist flow, it faces fierce com...

A dating platform in Brazil that markets paid encounters with Korean men styled as K-drama “oppa” is under investigation for sexual exploitation, with the South Korean consulate in Sao Paulo appealing for potential victims to come forward. KDrama...

A new Chinese AI system called Wen Dao – billed as the world’s first such model to be designed explicitly for ethical risk detection – has landed in the middle of its first major moral dilemma. Its immediate challenge is to navigate one of 2025...

More than 140 private doctors in Hong Kong have signed up to offer free basic healthcare for survivors of last week’s deadly blaze that tore through seven of eight blocks in a housing complex in Tai Po. The government said on Thursday that the sche...

Last year, Mutalib Uthman was forced to look on helplessly as his house burned to the ground and all his possessions were incinerated in a wall of flames and thick, black smoke. The book publisher from Selangor said a faulty fuse box on the lower flo...

For a sign of the degree to which US President Donald Trump’s decision in August to double tariffs on most Indian goods to a staggering 50 per cent – the highest rate across Asia – is weighing on investor sentiment, look no further than the rup...

Mainland China’s billionaires have tightened their grip as Asia-Pacific’s wealthiest after their combined fortunes swelled to nearly US$1.8 trillion, with electric-vehicle (EV) maker BYD’s founder Wang Chuanfu and bubble tea chain Mixue’s bos...

With Chinese tourists shunning Japan and Thailand’s Hat Yai, Malaysia’s Penang state is poised for a year-end tourism bonanza. Penang tourism committee chairman Wong Hong Wai said Indonesians and Singaporeans, along with Malaysians who normally p...

With their domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going glob...

We have selected seven Lifestyle stories from the past seven days that resonated with our readers. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. British film about Hong Kong immigrants showed grim reality of their ne...

Faced with growing scrutiny by authorities at home and in Singapore, mainland Chinese living in the city state are being more discreet about their wealth, in a shift that is hitting sales of luxury goods from Bentleys to private jets. Singapore, wher...

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro confirmed on Wednesday that he had a “cordial” phone call with his US counterpart Donald Trump 10 days ago amid a US military build-up in Latin America. “I spoke with the President of the United States, Donal...

Sixteen Hong Kong students from a secondary school opposite the scene of the deadly blaze in Tai Po have received financial support, new textbooks and uniforms after losing their homes to the fire, their principal has said. Cheng Sze-wang, head of Wo...

A former political aide of Malaysia’s leader and a Sabah-linked businessman pleaded not guilty to four counts of corruption each on Thursday, in a case analysts say will taint Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s anti-corruption credentials. Anwar’s ...

The pledge by Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to “work, work, work, work and work” for her country has been named the catchphrase of the year. The ultraconservative Takaichi uttered the phrase in October when she was elected as head of th...

Two brothers in southwestern China have been shocked to find that rocks they used as simple stepping stones for decades are 190-million-year-old dinosaur footprint fossils. On November 29, researchers completed a study into dinosaur tracks found deca...

A Beijing official in Hong Kong has voiced confidence in the city’s ability to handle both the coming Legislative Council election and the aftermath of the deadly Tai Po fire, calling local authorities’ decision to proceed with the poll respectfu...

This article was first published on December 5, 1970 By Staff reporters A red letter day for Hong Kong Catholics The 73-year-old pontiff, looking fit in spite of his strenuous Asian tour, responded warmly. At times he stretched out his arms in a symb...

Malaysia’s announcement that the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 will resume was welcome news for Jiang Hui, whose mother was a passenger on the plane. “I hope the truth will come out soon, the wait has been such a torment for the...

Chinese President Xi Jinping told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that the two countries should “understand and support each other” and advance cooperation during a meeting on Thursday that touched on a range of issues, including the Ukrai...

Huawei Technologies’ three-year-old patent for advanced patterning comparable with 2-nanometre grade technology without extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tools has intensified speculation about a potential breakthrough in advanced chips. The US...

Construction firms have started removing scaffold netting across Hong Kong to meet a three-day government deadline, after suspected false safety certificates for mesh were found at two building sites in the wake of the deadly Tai Po fire that claimed...

A Kenyan parliamentary inquiry has denounced a “disturbing trend of sexual misconduct” at a British Army base in the east African country “marked by rape, assault, and abandonment of children fathered by soldiers”. Since Kenya’s independenc...

South Korea’s special prosecutors have sought a 15-year jail term for former first lady Kim Keon-hee, describing her as someone who has long been “beyond the reach of law enforcement”. Kim, the wife of impeached ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol, face...

The Trump administration has renamed the US Institute of Peace after President Donald Trump and has planted the president’s name on the organisation’s headquarters despite an ongoing fight over the institute’s control. It was the latest twist i...

Hong Kong’s connectivity and talent pool could help facilitate international legal and economic collaboration, the justice minister and an expert have said, as they joined representatives from more than 25 jurisdictions this week at an annual forum...

A majority of Europeans want to maintain an equal distance from the United States and China rather than aligning with one of the two superpowers over the other, a survey published on Thursday shows. While just 4 per cent of Europeans polled would pri...

The fragile rapprochement between China and India faces a fresh test as New Delhi looks to promote its links with the sixth Dalai Lama, observers have warned. India is hosting the first international conference of the 17th century Tibetan spiritual l...

ByteDance’s TikTok will invest more than 200 billion reais (US$37.7 billion) to build a data centre in Brazil, marking its first project in Latin America. TikTok would partner with data centre developer Omnia and Casa dos Ventos, one of Brazil’s ...

A recent rediscovery of the extremely rare Rafflesia hasseltii, a giant parasitic red flower, in a forest in Indonesia’s West Sumatra has sparked backlash following an initial social media post by Oxford University that left out local researchers i...

China should focus on technological innovation to drive domestic and global development, a forum this week has heard. China would push for high-quality development and opening up to the outside world, Li Shulei, head of the Communist Party’s public...

Singapore’s highest court has upheld a S$14,000 (US$10,820) fine handed to opposition leader Pritam Singh for lying to a parliamentary committee. In February, the Workers’ Party (WP) chief was found guilty of two counts of giving false testimony ...

A Malaysian businessman escaped from the clutches of a job scam syndicate in Cambodia after his wife lodged a police report and a 6,000 ringgit (US$1,456) ransom was paid, but some 700 others are still trapped there. Many are facing torture in captiv...

China’s pharmaceutical industry is on the brink of enormous growth and transformation. In just a few years, it has moved on from being the world’s cheapest source of active pharmaceutical ingredients to becoming a major hub for pharmaceutical inn...

The Hong Kong Investment Corporation (HKIC) earned HK$2.34 billion (US$300.7 million) in investment income last year, as the city’s wholly owned investment vehicle made an impressive report after its first year of operation. HKIC posted HK$2.25 bil...

A Japanese pop idol has gone viral after posting a photograph online showing her belly fat. The picture has attracted responses asking women to embrace their imperfect bodies. Shirasu Ayano, from the six-member idol group Melty BeaR, posted a photo o...

Shortcomings in Hong Kong’s building regulations could complicate efforts to prove manslaughter in the Tai Po housing estate blaze that killed 159 people, according to legal and construction experts. Police have arrested 21 people so far, including...

Guangdong has named Huawei Technologies’ artificial intelligence chips and HarmonyOS operating system as flagship achievements in China’s drive for technological self-sufficiency. The push by China’s wealthiest province – whose gross domestic...

Public opinion in Japan is souring towards the United States, as US President Donald Trump’s strong-arm trade tactics and divisive domestic policies test the bonds of an alliance that has endured for eight decades. The Cabinet Office’s latest ann...

The path ahead for Ukraine peace talks is unclear, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, after what he called “reasonably good” talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US envoys. The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Putin accepted...

Witnesses at a US trade agency hearing are pushing officials to put economic security high on the agenda to counter China ahead of a high-stakes review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The hearing convened by the Office of the US...

The United States will redouble efforts to ensure its return to the moon ahead of China and also establish an enduring presence on Earth's natural satellite to entrench the country’s presence, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the National Ae...

Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said he was unsure whether China would accept the company’s H200 artificial intelligence chips should the United States relax restrictions on sales of the processors, following a meeting Wednesday with US...

With their domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going glob...

A doctor who pleaded guilty to selling ketamine to Matthew Perry in the weeks before the Friends star’s overdose death was sentenced to 2½ years in prison on Wednesday. Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence plus two years of probat...

Putting aside the ongoing war of words between Beijing and Tokyo surrounding Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s statements on Taiwan last month, there is a simple question that needs answering. Can Japan’s Self-Defence Forces really afford ...

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday described the United States as an ally to both mainland China and Taiwan, while at the same time asserting that its relationships have not shifted, hours after US President Donald Trump enacted legisla...

Beijing is unlikely to offer military help to Venezuela if the United States moves against President Nicolas Maduro, analysts say, but it could still benefit from a shift in Washington’s global posture that revives old notions of spheres of influen...

The Pentagon’s watchdog found that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth put US personnel and their mission at risk when he used the Signal messaging app to convey sensitive information about a military strike against Yemen’s Houthi militants, two pe...