Representatives from Boeing and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will leave for Jakarta this week to assist an investigation into Saturday’s crash of a Sriwijaya Air passenger jet, which hurtled into the Java Sea with 62 people on...

Indian airlines started delivering batches of Covid-19 vaccines across the country on Tuesday, getting ready for the launch of a campaign to offer shots to 1.3 billion people in what officials call the world’s biggest vaccination drive.Authorities ...

Scientists at the World Health Organization have warned that mass vaccinations would not bring about herd immunity to the coronavirus this year, even as one leading producer boosted its production forecast.The pandemic has infected more than 90 milli...

The world’s vital insect kingdom is undergoing “death by a thousand cuts”, the world’s top bug experts said.Climate change, insecticides, herbicides, light pollution, invasive species and changes in agriculture and land use are causing Earth ...

State-owned China State Construction Engineering Corporation has dropped its bid for the Australian builder of the tallest residential tower in Sydney, Probuild, after indications that Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg would block the deal on nati...

An 85-year-old man has been given a suspended jail sentence for punching a woman in the head after becoming enraged at the posting of protest slogans during Hong Kong’s 2019 social unrest.Kwun Tong Court jailed Ngan Hok-hoi for 14 days on Tuesday b...

Authorities in Indonesia on Tuesday deployed more search workers and equipment as operations resumed to find flight recorders from a passenger jet that crashed over the weekend with 62 people on board.The Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 jet plunged into...

A barking dog foiled a gang of burglars as they attempted to steal a safe from a multimillion-dollar house in Hong Kong in the early hours of Tuesday, waking its owner and leading to the arrest of four men from mainland China just 30 minutes later.Th...

A federal judge in Indiana late on Monday blocked the execution of Lisa Montgomery, a convicted murderer and the only woman on federal death row in the United States, on mental health grounds, based on evidence that she was unable to understand the g...

After a boom in sales of refrigerators and cleaners during the coronavirus pandemic, Samsung Electronics’ home appliance business is planning for the post-pandemic era by focusing on offering personalised devices to younger customers.The South Kore...

A Turkish court on Monday sentenced a Muslim televangelist who surrounded himself with scantily clad women he called “kittens” to more than 1,000 years in jail for sex crimes.Adnan Oktar preached creationism and conservative values while women in...

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Tuesday told a meeting of ruling party executives that he would declare a state of emergency for the three western prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo to stem the spread of Covid-19, Kyodo news reported.Sug...

Twitter announced on Monday it has suspended “more than 70,000 accounts” linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory following the attack on the US Capitol by a group of President Donald Trump’s supporters.The social network began its purge on Friday...

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has distanced herself from an adviser’s call for Beijing to strip residents who acquire foreign citizenship of their right to live in the city.Lam on Tuesday said her de facto cabinet had not discussed th...

When Tom Fifield first visited Taiwan as a tourist in 2008, it did not take him long to realise it was the place for him.“One of the earlier experiences that really struck home was standing on a street corner and looking a little lost,” Fifield s...

Taiwan’s representative in the Netherlands has visited the US ambassador there, in the first meeting to be made public since curbs on official interactions with the island were scrapped by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.Ambassador Pete Hoekstra ann...

Even with the roll-out of coronavirus vaccines, it will take another two years for life to return to being even “somewhat normal”, the head of Thailand’s National Vaccine Institute has warned, as a second wave of infections show no signs of ...

China is developing next generation rocket engines to power its ambitious space programme, which includes three planetary missions over the next five years, as well as a permanent station on the moon.According to state-owned Science and Technology Da...

US President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence appear to have come to a detente after nearly a week of silence, anger and finger-pointing.The two met on Monday evening in the Oval Office and had a “good conversation”, according to a seni...

Hong Kong’s leader has warned residents not to drop their guard against Covid-19 and to brace for muted Lunar New Year celebrations, as an expert called for all festivities to be cancelled with the number of cases threatening to spike again.Chief E...

Malaysia’s King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah on Tuesday approved a national emergency to stem the spread a third wave of coronavirus infections, as health care systems threatened to reach a breaking point.The declaration came as a shock as Pri...

The Chinese Communist Party has unveiled new plans to overhaul the country’s legal system in the next five years, emphasising the importance of the party’s leadership.The 15,000-word document, published by state news agency Xinhua on Sunday, outl...

A group of California WeChat users sued Tencent Holdings, the Chinese owner of the messaging and payment app, for allegedly violating their right to privacy by surveilling and censoring their communications.Citizen Power Initiatives for China, a grou...

The Covid-19 pandemic, which shows no sign of abating, made 2020 a landmark year. But it was also a milestone year from a demographic perspective. From January to November 2020, there were some 39,900 births and 45,400 deaths in Hong Kong, a natural...

An enigmatic Malaysian businessman with links to the rich and famous disappears, apparently fleeing the country and leaving in his wake hundreds of millions of missing ringgit, a string of angry investors and a host of questions about how this could ...

Even in a slump, Hong Kong’s famously lofty property prices can be enough to send a shudder down the spine. But if that doesn’t do it, how about the thought of sharing a flat with a ghost?Homes touched by untimely or violent death more often than...

China has set up a high-level government working group to oversee emergency planning as it tries to discourage large crowds from travelling during the Spring Festival, amid its highest daily Covid-19 case numbers since July.Authorities have stressed ...

The victims of a financial scandal that has led to a Hong Kong law firm being shut down and its bank accounts frozen are calling on authorities to offer them interest-free loans so they can meet looming obligations and avoid bankruptcy as they wait ...

Soon after he became Japan’s prime minister in September, Yoshihide Suga attempted to shake off the image of a strait-laced functionary by referring to himself in an interview as “Gasu”, a play on the characters in his name. It didn’t work at...

Britain is set to announce plans outlawing the import of goods suspected of using forced labour in China’s Xinjiang province, local media reported on Monday, in a move which would further strain ties between London and Beijing.Foreign Secretary Dom...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Daniel Lippman and Matthew Choi on politico.com on January 11, 2021.Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf is stepping down from his post, two DHS ...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has laid out his vision for the Communist Party for the next three decades, calling for conviction and confidence in the face of unprecedented global challenges.Xi told a top-level meeting in Beijing on Monday that he bel...

Hong Kong patients suffering from spinal cord injuries could soon be able to avoid invasive operations with a novel, non-surgically implanted neurostimulator developed by a local university and expected to come on the market in a few years’ time, a...

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has opened an investigation into the harassment of a manatee which was found in a Florida river with the word “Trump” scraped into its back, a local newspaper reported on Monday.The injured manatee was found on Su...

Several gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park have tested positive for the coronavirus in what is believed to be the first known cases among such primates in the United States and possibly the world.The park’s executive director, Lisa Peterson,...

China’s railway authority will prioritise restructuring its operations to enhance efficiency and revenue this year, rather than continuing to expand track mileage, in the latest example of Beijing moving away from debt-fuelled growth.Annual railway...

The profile pages for President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence on the US State Department‘s website were briefly updated on Monday to say that their terms were ending on January 11, nine days ahead of schedule, in an apparent hack.BuzzF...

The Trump administration on Monday announced it was returning Cuba to the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, a move that could complicate any efforts by the incoming Biden administration to revive Obama-era detente with Havana.Just nine days bef...

A Chinese company’s video advertisement for women’s make-up remover wipes has been panned by online critics, leading the company to withdraw it and issue two apologies.Purcotton, owned by Winner Medical Co. released the video last week on Douyin,...

Three people, including a PhD student from China, were killed in a series of shootings in and around Chicago on Saturday that left four others wounded.Suspected assailant Jason Nightengale, who was himself killed in a shoot-out with police, apparentl...

Outgoing US President Donald Trump’s trade chief on Monday urged President-elect Joe Biden to maintain tariffs imposed on China, arguing that they have shifted the balance of power in Washington’s favour.In an interview with The Wall Street Journ...

The FBI has warned armed protests are being planned for Washington and in 50 US state capital cities ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s January 20 inauguration, a federal law enforcement source said on Monday.Threatened with more violence from ou...

China’s car sales increased during the six months ended in December, as customers returned to showrooms amid a tentative recovery in consumer sentiment in the first major economy to emerge from the coronavirus lockdown.Sales of passenger vehicles �...

The European Union stands at a key moment in history – a post-Brexit, post-Trumpism, and post-Covid-19 era is coming. If the EU-China investment agreement is an opportunity for China to tackle the resistance to its internal reforms with the help of...

Scientists have long accepted that sex is one of the least important aspects of a good relationship, but the impact of coronavirus-related lockdowns appears to have turned that conventional wisdom on its head.A new study by Chinese scientists has fou...

US lawmakers formally introduced an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Monday, accusing him of inciting an insurrection against the American government.The impeachment resolution accuses Trump of inciting his supporters to attac...

China’s leadership has vowed to ramp up legislation to regulate tech firms and ensure the supporting legal system keeps up with the pace of the country’s digital economy as a policy priority for the next five years.The focus on regulating areas s...

Melania Trump said on Monday that she is “disappointed and disheartened” by the carnage at the Capitol last week caused by supporters of her husband. But in breaking her silence, she also lashed out at people she said have used the tragic event t...

The Beijing office overseeing Hong Kong affairs has lashed out at a joint statement by four foreign governments condemning the mass arrest of Hong Kong opposition figures, accusing the countries of seeking to foment a “colour revolution” to overt...

Images of rescuers retrieving the wreckage of Sriwijaya Air flight SJ 182 offer a grim reminder of the spate of air crashes over the past decade that have made Indonesia the most deadly place in Asia to board an aeroplane.Fifty passengers and 12 airl...