More than 100,000 Hongkongers have signed a petition urging prison authorities to roll out special measures such as the provision of cold water for inmates, as the city swelters under exceptionally hot weather.The drive, which reached its goal of ama...

Tributes have flowed for Yuan Longping, a Chinese agronomist who died aged 90 on Saturday after making leading contributions to food security.In the city of Changsha where Yuan was hospitalised before his death, traffic police had to disperse crowds ...

More than 125,000 schoolteachers in Myanmar have been suspended by the military authorities for joining a civil disobedience movement to oppose the military coup in February, an official of the Myanmar Teachers’ Federation said.The suspensions have...

Hong Kong’s sluggish Covid-19 vaccination rate puts it in an “unfavourable” position compared with other places, a top official has warned, with a medical adviser adding that mask-wearing rules could be lifted if 70 per cent of residents are in...

China is the biggest generator of plastic waste, with one-fifth of the world’s single-use plastic coming from the country in 2019, according to an Australian study.In its inaugural Plastic Waste Makers Index published on Tuesday, the Perth-based Mi...

Mask-wearing Vietnamese went to the polls on Sunday, with tens of millions expected to select a largely rubber-stamp legislature amid a rapidly spreading Covid-19 outbreak.Fewer independent candidates than before are standing in the election for the ...

China is funding and building a growing number of government and parliament buildings, police headquarters, military housing and presidential palaces in Africa, helping cement its relations across the continent.The latest is a new building to house K...

At least 21 competitors in a 100km (62-mile) mountain marathon race in northwest China died from hypothermia after being caught in freezing weather at high altitude, state media reported on Sunday.The cross-country endurance event began on Saturday m...

Remain at home and leave the house only if it’s essential. Wear a good mask with high filtration capability. Get vaccinated when your turn comes.These exhortations from Singapore’s health authorities underscore how seriously they are treating the...

Adrian Wong, a communications and engagement specialist, noticed signs of depression after using a “wellness companion” app for half a year to keep track of his mood and behaviour.The app, which uses artificial intelligence (AI), led Wong to seek...

As Covid-19 patients fill hospitals to the brim in India, the Philippines and Malaysia, the Asia-Pacific’s “zero-Covid” economies are facing an ironic conundrum: how do you convince people to get vaccinated for a virus that, as far as they are ...

At the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference last month, experts and academics from countries around the South China Sea once again gathered in Hainan, China, to discuss how to build a new regional maritime order based on cooperation. From an operat...

On March 16, 2020, Indonesia’s Minister of Education and Culture, Nadiem Makarim, supported regional government policies to close schools and universities, as the country grappled with its Covid-19 crisis.Just 12 days earlier, on March 4, Unesco ha...

Hong Kong labour officials are under pressure to speed up their handling of claims filed by workers for coronavirus-related compensation from their employers, with just 11 of 541 settled so far.Union officials said the process was moving too slowly, ...

Italy won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with rockers Maneskin stealing the show in Rotterdam as the tournament returned from a year off due to coronavirus.Clad in leather lederhosen and eyeliner, the Italians and their song Zitti e Buoni be...

The Biden administration is granting a new 18-month designation of Temporary Protected Status to Haiti, a significant move that not only alleviates the threat of deportation for thousands of Haitians but recognises that conditions are so dire in a Ha...

Flying at Mach 3 and reaching more than 55 miles above the Earth on Saturday, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s private spaceship company Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc completed its first manned space flight from its new home port in New Mex...

Chinese academics have warned of a knowledge gap with rival the United States, calling American studies in China “too weak” compared to Chinese studies in the US.The issue was first raised in a speech by Wang Jisi, president of the Institute of I...

CNN is cutting ties with former Republican senator and current TV analyst Rick Santorum over disparaging comments he made about Native American culture.On CNN, Santorum was a senior political commentator who was often tasked with giving the Republica...

Thousands have fled a volcanic eruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the flaming lava from Mount Nyiragongo appeared to have come to a halt on the outskirts of Goma city early Sunday.The molten rock, which the eruption had sent close to G...

An expert climbing guide said on Saturday that a coronavirus outbreak on Mount Everest has infected at least 100 climbers and support staff, giving the first comprehensive estimate amid official Nepalese denials of a Covid-19 cluster on the world’s...

Lithuania said on Saturday it was quitting China’s 17+1 cooperation forum with central and eastern European states that includes other EU members, calling it “divisive”.A member of the group since 2012, the Baltic country urged fellow European ...

Two Manhattan prison guards who were on duty the night Jeffrey Epstein killed himself admitted to falsifying records but would avoid prison under an agreement with US prosecutors to resolve criminal charges.Tova Noel and Michael Thomas had been accus...

US military planners pushed for nuclear strikes on mainland China in 1958 to protect Taiwan from an invasion by Communist forces, classified documents posted online by Daniel Ellsberg of The Pentagon Papers television show.US planners also assumed th...

Tony Hall, who was director of BBC news and current affairs at the time of the public broadcaster’s explosive 1995 interview with Princess Diana, resigned on Saturday as board chairman of Britain’s National Gallery.Hall, who subsequently rose to ...

Eloina Feliciano begged her mother not to sell her into marriage aged 14 under an ancestral tradition in their indigenous community in southern Mexico, but her pleas were in vain.“I don’t want to be sold,” she remembers telling her mother at th...

The gap in financial resources among China’s rich and poor schools was criticised last week after a video, and a separate blog post, flaunted the posh lifestyles of students at elite Chinese secondary schools.The posts, both of which went viral, ir...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was slow to ban travel to India, even as cases of a dangerous Covid-19 variant in the world’s second most populous country surged. Scientists and advisers now fear the UK has exposed its vulnerability, and the ...

Beijing has renewed an offer from a mainland Chinese pharmaceutical firm to supply Taiwan with coronavirus vaccines developed by German company BioNTech.The offer from Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group chairman Wu Yifang was highlighted by state ne...

China’s deployment of a powerful robotic arm attached to the core module of its Tiangong Space Station has sparked concerns in the United States over its possible military applications.Chinese scientists say the 10-metre-long device, which is capab...

Hong Kong’s property buyers took a break over the weekend, shrugging aside most of the 188 apartments on offer at two locations, as their demand had been sated by a string of property releases.In Wong Chuk Hang near Aberdeen on the southern corner ...

The Communist Party’s top official in Tibet has called for greater stress on Chinese elements in religion and a further crackdown on “separatism” as the party marks 70 years of control of the region.Tibet party secretary Wu Yingjie said on Satu...

Former Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying has urged senior officials and future lawmakers to win over opposition supporters sceptical of the central government’s overhaul of the local electoral system by delivering results for the city.But t...

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip held on Saturday as Egyptian mediators pressed on with talks with the two sides on securing longer-term calm, officials said.The ceasefire began before dawn on Friday, a...

Hong Kong people based in Taiwan have said the city’s government is effectively punishing its residents on the self-ruled island by the abrupt closure of its Taipei office, depriving them of an institution to turn to amid the escalating Covid-19 cr...

When China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi toured the Middle East in March, he pledged that China would play a “constructive role” in trying to solve the endless regional conflicts. He specifically floated an offer to host talks in Beijing between I...

Singapore reported its first case of school-based Covid-19 transmission as an outbreak in the city state showed little signs of abating.A student at a local school contracted the virus after his classmate tested positive on Wednesday, according to a ...

What is China’s population?China’s overall population continued to grow in 2020, rising to 1.412 billion at the end of the year from 1.4 billion a year earlier.Beijing began releasing the results of its seventh national population census on in ea...

Myanmar’s military chief Min Aung Hlaing said deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi was healthy at home and would appear in court in a few days, in his first interview since overthrowing her in a February 1 coup.The coup has plunged the Southeast Asian c...

Fabrics, zippers, buttons, lapel pins, chemicals for dyes and even sewing machines.As M.P. Muthu Rathinam puts it, “All accessories that make a garment look good are imported from China.”Rathinam is the president of the Tiruppur Exporters and Man...

Manila and Beijing held “friendly and candid” talks on the South China Sea, the Philippines’ foreign ministry said on Saturday.The presence of hundreds of Chinese vessels inside the Philippines 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) has been th...

Kelly Le is convinced her quality of life improved after she moved to Hong Kong’s Lamma Island in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.The media industry employee used to share a small flat with two others in trendy Kennedy Town, on Hong Ko...

China’s first Mars rover has driven down from its landing platform and is roaming the surface of the red planet, China’s space administration said on Saturday.The solar-powered rover touched Martian soil at 10.40am on Saturday, the China National...

Phuket remains high on the list for property buyers on the lookout for a second home in a post-pandemic world, but local developers say it could take years before the hospitality and property sectors that largely rely on international visitors and bu...

When Gayle Smith, the US State Department’s global coordinator for Covid-19, spoke to reporters on Wednesday about Washington’s vaccine distribution plans, one question kept coming up: would any of the 80 million doses US President Joe Biden pled...

China’s top economic planning agency has issued a public warning against an impostor claiming to be the head of a regional development office.In a short statement on Friday, the National Development and Reform Commission said the culprit had used t...

US President Joe Biden took office in January determined to focus his time and energy on the coronavirus pandemic and economic downturn at home and big challenges such as China, Russia and Iran abroad.But after a Gaza conflict that required intensive...

Yuan Longping, China’s “father of hybrid rice” and hailed for his contributions to the country’s food security, died on Saturday. He was 90 years old.The Chinese agronomist was known for developing the first hybrid rice varieties in the 19...

The leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) says he wants to review a number of deals struck with foreign mining companies in a move that could have an impact on China’s ambitions to become the world’s leading manufacturer of electric ca...

China will crack down on bitcoin mining, according to an announcement by the government‘s cabinet three days after regulators reiterated their ban of digital tokens in financial transactions, delivering a one-two punch that may further weigh on ...