Tencent Holdings reported on Wednesday a 175 per cent rise in profit for the fourth quarter, beating market estimates as the internet giant deals with increased scrutiny from the Chinese government’s crackdown on Big Tech companies.The Shenzhen-bas...

A Singapore court has ordered an opposition politician to pay Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong S$133,000 (US$99,000) in damages for defamation in one of two recent libel suits launched by the island nation’s premier over online comments about him. W...

Police arrested three Hongkongers and confiscated more than HK$1.1 million (US$141,000) worth of suspected illegal drugs while raiding a hotel room in the city on Tuesday.After receiving intelligence, officers from the special duties squad of Yau Tsi...

A cargo container ship that is among the largest in the world has turned sideways and blocked all traffic in Egypt’s Suez Canal, officials said Wednesday, threatening to disrupt a global shipping system already strained by the coronavirus pandemic....

Southeast Asian countries lose out on as much as US$6 billion a year as most of their single-use plastics are thrown out rather than recovered and recycled, the World Bank said in a new study.More than 75 per cent of recyclable plastics in Malaysia, ...

A major discovery of a gold mask alongside a treasure trove of artefacts at a Bronze Age site in China has generated online debate about whether there were once aliens in China thousands of years ago.The gold mask, possibly worn by a priest, along wi...

A Hong Kong activist who was among the eight fugitives sent back to the city this week after serving jail time in mainland China has been charged with colluding with foreign forces under the national security law.Andy Li Yu-hin – one of 12 arrested...

Beijing’s ban on pineapple imports from Taiwan has sparked a flood of buying of the fruit and forced restaurants to come up with inventive new menu choices but it has also left many questioning Taipei’s overwhelming economic reliance on its giant...

China’s local governments had 14.8 trillion yuan (US$2.3 trillion) of hidden debt last year, and the figure could climb even further this year, according to a government-linked think tank.Local governments were under pressure to increase infrastruc...

China has reclaimed land to extend a reef in the Spratly Islands, in the disputed South China Sea, satellite images show.Photographs taken by American space technology company Maxar showed that Subi Reef – which is also claimed by the Philippines a...

Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon on Tuesday survived a vote of no confidence held by lawmakers.The first minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party faced the vote after an inquiry ruled she “misled” lawmakers during an inves...

A “plague” of the world’s most venomous spiders could swarm Sydney after torrential rain and flooding, the Australian Reptile Park said on Wednesday, warning that the deadly arachnids could seek refuge in homes as they escape the deluge.Relentl...

In a display of utter contempt for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Myanmar’s military leadership has completely ignored and brushed aside the bloc’s appeal to refrain from violence and seek a peaceful solution to the current c...

Archaeologists say recently uncovered sites at the Sanxingdui Ruins in southwest China date back 3,000 to 3,200 years, according to state media reports on Tuesday.Much is still unknown about the ancient civilisation at Sanxingdui, located in what is ...

Flu virtually disappeared in China’s most populous city after the coronavirus outbreak last year, according to a new study, but researchers still cannot explain why.The incidence of influenza peaked in Shanghai in February, at the height of the Cov...

Britain’s Prince Harry on Tuesday added to a growing portfolio of post-royal jobs, becoming “chief impact officer” at a San Francisco start-up that provides mobile-based coaching, counselling and mentorship.Amid a highly public spat with Buckin...

Dan Clarke spent a good part of 2020 on the Indonesian islands of Bali and neighbouring Gili, where he spent his days working on his laptop and his down time enjoying the picturesque beaches.The cryptocurrency investor used to split his time between ...

Hong Kong health officials have revealed the decision to suspend Covid-19 vaccinations using BioNTech doses was taken after local frontline staff had reported more than 50 instances of defective packaging to the manufacturer, such as cracked and leak...

A court hearing for Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been postponed until April 1, an aide to her lawyer said on Wednesday, marking the second successive postponement in her case as 600 other detainees were freed.Suu Kyi, who was arrest...

A real estate developer in central China has been accused of ‘consuming women’ and ‘selling vulgarity’ and halted from making sales after using female models as human brochures with floor plans painted on their backs, local authorities said.A...

All civil servants must pick a side and support Hong Kong’s leader, the top official in charge of the government workforce has made clear, and those holding foreign passports can continue to serve without fear or favour as long as they toe the offi...

A Banksy painting showing a boy playing with a toy nurse as a superhero sold for more than US$20 million (£16.7 million) on Tuesday, setting an auction record for the elusive British street artist.Game Changer, unveiled last May at University Hospit...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Nicholas Woo on politico.com on March 23, 2021. Long-simmering Democratic tensions over a lack of Asian-American representation in President Joe Biden’s ...

Senior US administration officials on Tuesday said that North Korea had fired short-range missiles over the weekend, following multiple days of meetings between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his counterparts from Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing.T...

As the world gradually moves ahead of the coronavirus, Chinese students are newly confident about studying abroad. But concerns remain about China’s strained relationships with some foreign countries.Half the Chinese students wishing to go overseas...

Asset World Corporation, the property unit of Thailand’s richest man, plans to acquire distressed hotels, betting on a quick revival in tourism once the Southeast Asian nation reopens to foreign visitors.More than 100 hotels are available for sale ...

John Kerry, the Biden administration’s top climate official, joined a virtual meeting on climate change co-hosted by China on Tuesday but had “no plans” to meet with his Chinese counterpart during the event, a US State Department representative...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed victory following Israel’s fourth election in less than two years but the deeply divisive leader may again struggle to form a governing majority.Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving premier, had hoped ...

The “Yang Gang” descended on the New York City Board of Election office on Tuesday, cheering on their hero as he dropped off signatures to get on the mayoral primary ballot.“We did it through volunteer energy and passion and dedication,” Andr...

The judge in Meng Wanzhou’s extradition hearing should reject the Huawei executive’s “exciting narrative” about a conspiracy by Canadian and US authorities to abuse her rights, and throw out an application to release her, a Canadian governmen...

China’s imported coal supplies are under pressure amid a prolonged ban on Australian imports that shows “no sign of being lifted in the near term”, and new restrictions at the border with Mongolia.Coal imports into China for the first two month...

European Union vaccine shipments to the rest of the world could face severe disruptions under tougher rules set to be unveiled on Wednesday.The EU’s current export regime guarantees that supplies to some 90 countries will not be interrupted, and al...

A 21-year-old man was charged on Tuesday with gunning 10 people down in a Colorado grocery store, as America reeled from its second mass shooting in less than a week – sparking urgent new calls for gun control.The suspect, named as Ahmad Al Aliwi A...

Beijing will have the ability to invade Taiwan sooner than current predictions would suggest, US President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead America’s Indo-Pacific Command said on Tuesday. Speaking in a hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee,...

Speaking on the floor of the Georgia state Senate last week, Michelle Au implored her colleagues to “stand up” to the hatred aimed at Asian-Americans that has increased during the pandemic. A day later, a gunman shook the Atlanta area by killing ...

Pfizer said it has begun human safety testing of a new pill to treat the coronavirus that could be used at the first sign of illness.If it succeeds in trials, the pill could be prescribed early in an infection to block viral replication before patien...

After removing a laptop advertisement featuring the popular stand-up comedian Yang Li, semiconductor giant Intel is having a hard time pleasing both men and women who say the US firm is guilty of sexism – but for different reasons.Yang, 29, is know...

A Hong Kong activist who was among eight fugitives sent back to the city by mainland Chinese authorities was arrested after his return for allegedly helping the group to abscond, according to a police source.Andy Li Yu-hin was allegedly one of the co...

America was reeling on Tuesday from its second deadly mass shooting in a week, after a gunman killed 10 in a Colorado supermarket, sparking urgent new calls for political action on the fraught issue of gun control.Tighter gun control laws are overwhe...

A driver charged over his role in a mob attack at a Hong Kong railway station in 2019 has admitted playing a part in the violence, but insisted he was merely exercising self-defence and did not injure anyone.Ng Wai-nam also said on Tuesday he had no ...

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of cruelty to animals after allegedly punishing a kitten by wrapping it in cling film.Police acted after a photograph of the six-week-old female Scottish Fold cat bound in transparent plastic went viral on socia...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken used his first official European engagement on Tuesday to talk up America’s renewed embrace of the transatlantic alliance, a day after Western nations engaged in a fiery, coordinated exchange of sanctions with C...

The top official overseeing Hong Kong’s coronavirus vaccination programme has cautioned that the number of people coming forward to receive the Covid-19 shots meets only half the daily capacity, and urged the city to pick up the pace if it wants to...

China’s socialist economic model that mixes strong government direction and support within a market economy is the key to faster development and meeting technology challenges posed by US sanctions, according to Bai Chong-en, dean of the School of ...

Customs officers arrested the daughter of veteran comedian Richard Ng Yiu-hon on Tuesday after seizing 13 marijuana plants during a raid on a village house in Hong Kong.Some chocolate bars suspected to have been infused with cannabis juice were also ...

Hong Kong prosecutors last year sought to review sentencing in 17 cases – all but one related to the 2019 anti-government protests – marking a fourfold increase from the previous 12 months, the city’s justice minister has revealed.Teresa Cheng ...

The past two weeks has offered some of the clearest signs by far of what the future may hold for the world when its two mightiest powers are determined to put up a fight.It started when Joe Biden, less than two months into his presidency, took a hist...

An American think tank called for a stronger US-Europe transatlantic strategy to counter Beijing’s increasingly assertive foreign policy, amid a heightened risk in Asia of military conflict between the US and China.The Washington-based Atlantic Cou...

A former opposition lawmaker detained for allegedly breaking the national security law has been jailed for nine weeks in a separate case related to an anti-government protest in Hong Kong more than a year ago, after an appeal court toughened his sent...

Beijing has warned the European Union that its decision to impose sanctions on Chinese officials risks damaging relations, but diplomatic observers do not expect China to issue additional trade sanctions that would further jeopardise its investment d...