Former Malaysian transport minister Ling Liong Sik died on Saturday. He was 82. Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) president Wee Ka Siong confirmed the news to Bernama when contacted on Saturday. “We received the sad news of Tun Dr Ling’s passin...

Thousands of Hongkongers braced for heavy rain as they crossed the border into Shenzhen on the second day of the Easter holiday, taking advantage of the break to enjoy a wider range of shopping, dining and entertainment options at bargain prices. Man...

The United Arab Emirates has begun retaliating against Iran’s incessant air strikes on its industrial infrastructure by squeezing the economic lifeline it has long extended to the sanctions-bound Islamic Republic. Rather than taking sweeping measur...

Iran on Saturday executed two men convicted of membership in a banned opposition group and carrying out disruptive actions aimed at overthrowing the Islamic Republic, the judiciary said. The executions were the latest in a series targeting members of...

A team of researchers in China has unveiled what they describe as the world’s first open-source flight control system designed specifically for bamboo-frame drones, helping the push for low-cost, eco-friendly unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The sy...

A Chinese woman who sacrificed her job and life to get revenge on a neighbour who poisoned her pet dog to death has shown her face publicly for the first time. After her beloved pet dog Papi, a 13-year-old white West Highland Terrier, was poisoned an...

The Israeli military said on Saturday it had begun striking “Hezbollah infrastructure” in Beirut after it destroyed a bridge in eastern Lebanon to prevent the Iran-backed group’s reinforcements from crossing. Two loud explosions were heard in t...

“You don’t even have to look for it,” nine-year-old Anaqi said of the short videos he watches online. “It just shows up automatically, and it’s super interesting.” That instinctive pull is familiar to his father, Firdaus Omar. The 39-year...

Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog and police are investigating a large-scale data leak involving over 56,000 patients served by the Hospital Authority, which reported the unauthorised retrieval of a variety of information. The Office of the Privacy Comm...

Many of Tokyo’s popular and iconic Somei Yoshino cherry blossom trees were planted during Japan’s post-war advancement in the 1960s, and are now getting old and frail. Some have fallen and many others require support, triggering safety concern as...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong is bracing for a series of thunderstorms over the weekend, with the weather forecaster having issue...

The Hong Kong government has demanded that the city’s largest franchised bus operator investigate the malfunctioning of its fare rebate machines, which provided free trips to passengers on the day a revised HK$2 (26 US cents) transport subsidy sche...

From glimmering floral-patterned glassware to the vivid colours of intricately designed Persian carpets, artefacts from Iran have captivated visitors to a museum in northern China, where they have avoided the risks of damage in the war waged by the U...

A Workers’ Party disciplinary panel looking into secretary general Pritam Singh’s conduct has completed its investigation into whether the chief had contravened the party’s constitution, after his court conviction for lying under oath to a parl...

Armed police guarding London Mayor Sadiq Khan left a bag of guns outside his home which was found by a member of the public, it was reported. Scaffolder Jordan Griffiths told The Sun that his pregnant girlfriend found the bag in south London on Tuesd...

They are sipping smoothies, snapping phone pics, dealing with crashed email and fixing broken toilets: astronauts, they are just like us. The four crew members zipping through space towards the moon are carrying out a mission unlike any before it, bu...

Soon-to-be brides and grooms seeking ⁠short cuts to shed pounds before the big day have become the latest consumer target ⁠for weight-loss drugs in India. New Delhi wellness clinic Klarity Skin Clinic touts a “Mounjaro bride” package, while o...

There was a surprise guest speaker at Nvidia’s widely watched GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, California, last month: Yang Zhilin, the founder of Beijing-based Moonshot AI, the developer behind the Kimi family of foundational artificia...

South Korea has spent a decade and billions of dollars trying to build a world-class fighter jet. Now that the finish line is drawing near, it’s nearly time to find out who will buy one. The first mass-produced KF-21 Boramae, developed jointly with...

State-run public transport in Pakistan’s capital and most populous province will be free for the coming month, officials said, after the government drastically raised fuel prices due to the Iran war. The announcement came after street protests and ...

While enjoying a foot massage in Buenos Aires’ Chinatown, I chatted with my masseuse, a Fujianese woman in her late 50s surnamed Wang. Her life, it seemed to me, mirrored that of many recent Chinese immigrants to Argentina. She eats exclusively Chi...

Efforts by South Korea and France to secure safe passage for vessels through the Strait of Hormuz are likely to be centred on a post-war defensive armada with other countries. Analysts also say both nations are wary of joining the Middle East conflic...

A sick woman in China who spat out blood on an underground train then wiped the bloodstain from the floor with her coat has received 400,000 yuan (US$58,000) in donations from internet users moved by her plight. A video of the woman taken by a passen...

Hong Kong International Airport has opened a sensory corner to ease travel stress for passengers with invisible disabilities, ranging from autism to dementia. Major airports around the world, including Singapore Changi and London Heathrow, have intro...

Later this month, Indonesian cinema-goers will finally get to see what audiences in Berlin saw in February: Jokor Anwar’s Ghost in the Cell. The horror-comedy, which had its world premiere at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival, has ...

Australian comedian Jenny Tian set off a wave of deep laughter across an Adelaide audience at a recent comedy festival by saying she had tired of democracy at home. So, Tian explained, she moved to the US to give “fascism” a whirl instead. The 30...

The compound is modern with air conditioning in every room. Inside are a medical clinic, massage parlour, and Vietnamese barbecue, Chinese hotpot and halal eateries – a full range of conveniences. Yet the residents are gone – and they appear to h...

The whole world has come to oppose the Iran war, including most Americans. Just as Israel took part in the 1956 Suez crisis, which signalled the last hurrah of European imperialism, it is now jointly prosecuting a pointless but destructive war that i...

A 12-year-old has been arrested in connection with the death of a classmate who was hit in the head with a metal water bottle during an alleged bullying incident at a Los Angeles school, authorities said Friday. The juvenile, whose age and gender hav...

Pope Leo lifted a wooden cross and held it aloft from his waist at the start of the 14 stations of the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum on his first Good Friday as pontiff, marking the first time in decades that a pope has set out to carry the cross...

US President Donald Trump is seeking congressional approval for US$1.5 trillion in defence spending in his new budget proposal, underscoring his administration’s focus on military investment as the country remains engaged in conflict in the Middle ...

One crew member from a US fighter jet shot down over Iran has been rescued by US forces, multiple news outlets reported on Friday, citing two US officials, while a second crew member remains missing. A separate US aircraft was also hit near the Strai...

The Artemis II astronauts have captured our blue planet’s brilliant beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon. Nasa released the crew’s first downlinked images Friday, 1½ days into the first astronaut moon shot in more than half a century. The...

A French container ship and a Japanese-owned tanker have crossed the Strait of Hormuz, in what appear to be the first such transits since the war in Iran closed the crucial waterway. The CMA CGM Kribi container ship exited the strait on Friday, accor...

Police have arrested a domestic helper on suspicion of child neglect following the death of a six-month-old baby in northern Hong Kong. The force said it received a report from the baby girl’s family at 11.39am on Friday that she had been found unc...

Russian strikes killed at least eight people across Ukraine on Friday, including in a “massive” missile and drone attack near the capital, local authorities reported. Ukrainian officials claim the Kremlin is changing its tactics to increase civil...

Police in Sri Lanka arrested 152 foreign nationals, mostly Chinese, on Friday for allegedly running a cyberscam operation out of a hotel in the island’s northwest, officials said. The raid took place in the coastal town of Chilaw, 80km (50 miles) n...

American employers added a surprisingly strong 178,000 new jobs last month, rebounding from a dismal February, while the unemployment rate dipped to 4.3 per cent. The Labor Department reported on Friday that hiring marked a rebound from the loss of 1...

Chinese researchers unveiled a gravity detector with world-leading precision last month, potentially expanding the military applications of the technology. It uses a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) to detect objects by measuring t...

Chinese companies engaging in artificial intelligence activities are required to set up internal “AI ethics review committees” under new rules released by Beijing on Thursday, effective immediately. The notice comes as policymakers look to ensure...

Hong Kong customs officers seized 6.5kg of suspected drugs worth about HK$3.4 million (US$433,800) and arrested two men in separate cases earlier this week. The Customs and Excise Department said on Friday the first arrest occurred two days earlier a...

President Donald ⁠Trump on Friday said the ⁠US can open the Strait of Hormuz with a little more time, as pressure mounts for his administration to find a ‌quick resolution to a war against Iran. “With a little more time, we can easily OPEN TH...

The dust and debris of the US-Israeli war on Iran have yet to settle, but its strategic shock waves have reached East Asia. From Tokyo to Taipei, a reassessment is under way. The conflict, intended to project American resolve, has been a brutal stres...

Pakistanis faced record fuel price increases on Friday, as petrol and diesel prices rose by up to 54 per cent driven by the war in the Middle East that has caused global oil prices to surge. The increase adds pressure to a cash-strapped nation alread...

In a rare condemnation of its strategic partner, China has come out in opposition to Iran’s attacks on Gulf nations, calling for a ceasefire and a guarantee of the safety of shipping lanes. Addressing a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday, Fu C...

Tencent Holdings has launched a new OpenClaw tool for enterprises that promises easy deployment of the artificial intelligence agent as part of the Chinese internet giant’s efforts to capitalise on the “lobster” frenzy in the country. ClawPro, ...

Malaysia has given the family of missing pastor Raymond Koh access to a long-classified government report after dropping a legal challenge, but questions remain unanswered over his case, according to rights groups and lawyers. The situation surroundi...

The former chairwoman of Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), has called for cross-strait dialogue to break the state of “cold peace”, rebuild trust and avoid conflict. “The key to cross-strait relations lies not in radical c...

The US government has unveiled an AI export initiative designed to cement American technological leadership while countering China’s growing influence in the sector. Washington is inviting US companies to form “preset” consortiums to offer full...

Xiaomi has raised prices on several smartphone models, joining a broader wave of increases across China’s handset makers as surging memory chip costs ripple through the global consumer electronics supply chain. The company said on Friday that price...