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Hong Kong authorities have arrested 50 people, including some with alleged triad backgrounds, in a crackdown on bid-rigging activities involving 27 housing estates and buildings and about HK$500 million in contracts. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), police and antitrust regulator the Competition Commission on Monday revealed details of their joint operation, which was conducte...
A UN committee has said countries are legally obliged to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and take other measures to address the enduring legacy of racial discrimination it says persists today. Guidance published on Monday by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination stated that the obligations arise from a legally binding 1965 convention on racial discrimina...
Singapore will commit S$220 million (US$173 million) over three years to boost its fintech sector, including co-funding at least 1,000 internships in a strong push to build talent for AI and other emerging technologies. The funds come under the latest iteration of the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Scheme (FSTI), which aims to strengthen the country’s fintech space and accelerate innov...
China’s Hengdian World Studios, the world’s largest film and TV studio, is now offering tourists the chance to shoot their own short dramas for about 200 yuan (US$30) per person, as a response to the recession caused by artificial intelligence. Previously, tourists flocked to Hengdian World Studios to admire the sets of their favourite dramas and explore the national 5A-rated attraction, which fea...
As China ramps up its efforts to build an orbital data ecosystem and counter the US in the commercial space race, Shanghai – home to several major domestic players – has kicked off an inaugural space-computing forum alongside a new industry hub. The dedicated centre in the city’s southwestern Songjiang district, unveiled at the forum on Sunday, brought together aerospace developers, semiconductor ...
Singapore plans to introduce legislation early next year requiring social media platforms to roll out stronger safeguards for teens, including possibly setting a daily time limit, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo has said. If a platform could not or did not want to introduce these stronger safeguards, Singapore intended to raise the minimum age of access to that platf...
An executive at a Chinese military trading company has been arrested for leaking sensitive defence information to intelligence agencies from two countries, Beijing’s top spy and anti-espionage agency revealed on Monday. The Ministry of State Security regularly publicises espionage cases to raise public awareness, but the vast majority of these disclosures focus on individuals targeted by a single ...
An executive at a Chinese military trading company has been arrested for leaking sensitive defence information to intelligence agencies from two countries, Beijing’s top spy and anti-espionage agency revealed on Monday. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) regularly publicises espionage cases to raise public awareness, but the vast majority of these disclosures focus on individuals targeted by a s...
From big banks to fashion brands, tenants are taking advantage of potential lower rents for retail space in Hong Kong’s prime areas as they utilise eye-catching locations to boost visibility towards customers, according to agents. HSBC is unveiling its first flagship branch at the Capitol Centre, which was previously occupied by fashion retailers such as Chanel, Victoria’s Secret and Forever 21, a...
Hong Kong’s retail sector recorded growth for a 15th consecutive month in July, with the government reporting a 4.5 per cent increase year on year, although the pace of expansion slowed amid adverse weather and continued outbound travel by residents. Retail sales value for the month reached HK$31 billion (US$4 billion), while sales in the first seven months of the year grew by 8.9 per cent compare...
The long-standing rivalry between Asia’s two leading financial centres is heating up. As Hong Kong and Singapore compete harder for investment talent, tax incentives for fund managers have emerged as the new battleground. A government bill working its way through Hong Kong’s Legislative Council would result in sweeping changes to tax rules on carried interest. The legislation, which is expected to...
With China rolling out a stronger-than-expected package of measures to transition the housing market away from a presales model, analysts said the shift carries a double-edged sword for real estate developers: tighter regulations are poised to squeeze cash inflows, even as the reforms aim to stimulate sales and stabilise prices over time. Under new rules released by the People’s Bank of China (PBO...
A South Korean court sentenced the leader of the secretive and powerful Unification Church on Monday to two years in prison on charges of bribing officials, including the then president’s wife. Han Hak-ja, 83, was accused of providing luxury items, including a designer handbag, to former first lady Kim Keon-hee while her husband, Yoon Suk-yeol, was president, in an attempt to secure policy favours...
A student has admitted forging a reference letter to secure admission to a doctoral programme at a university in Hong Kong, after repeatedly failing to secure a place despite high hopes for her academic career. Fanling Court heard on Monday that 31-year-old Li Zuer from mainland China pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining services by deception. She commissioned a Shenzhen-based agent to rewrite...
Hong Kong police have arrested an 87-year-old man after the gravestone of late movie star Linda Lin Dai was found damaged. Lin’s grave at St Michael’s Catholic Cemetery in Happy Valley was discovered with its marble altar covered in cement. In response to a South China Morning Post inquiry, a police spokesman said officers had earlier received a report from a cemetery staff member that a grave was...
Hong Kong police have made an arrest after the gravestone of late movie star Linda Lin Dai was found damaged. Lin’s gravestone at St Michael’s Catholic Cemetery in Happy Valley was previously found damaged, with its marble altar covered in cement. In a reply to the South China Morning Post, the cemetery office said it had referred the case to police and that the suspect had been charged. It declin...
Hong Kong school students and other at-risk residents can receive influenza vaccines one week earlier this year, after the government diversified its procurement efforts and streamlined administrative measures. Authorities also said on Monday they aimed to boost the injection rate among people aged 65 or above and children aged six months to two years, adding that they would rely on reminders from...
Hong Kong school students and other residents deemed at risk can receive their influenza vaccines one week earlier this year, after the government diversified its procurement efforts and streamlined administrative measures. Authorities also said on Monday it would aim to boost the injection rate among people aged 65 or above and those aged six months to two years, adding that they would rely on re...
Air pollution in Malaysia’s Bornean state of Sarawak has surged into hazardous territory, with the air pollutant index (API) topping 400 in the worst-hit district, as forest fires raging in Indonesia continue to send thick smoke drifting across the border. Serian in Sarawak, closest to the frontier with Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, recorded the highest reading of 476 as of Monday morning....
Indonesia, the United States and more than a dozen allies launched annual joint military exercises on Monday to boost defence capabilities and “deter aggression” in the Asia-Pacific region. Jakarta maintains a neutral foreign policy, what it calls “free and active”, as it walks a diplomatic tightrope seeking good relations with both Washington and Beijing. The Southeast Asian giant held a joint na...
China’s six largest state-owned banks recorded their first simultaneous rise in first-half revenue and net profit since 2022, according to interim results released last week, as margins that had been under pressure for two years showed tentative signs of stabilising. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Construction Bank (CCB), Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), Bank of China (BOC)...
China’s home-grown artificial intelligence chipmakers are starting to cash in on Beijing’s self-reliance drive, but a fresh wave of first-half earnings reveals a stark divide between the industry’s rising profit stars and loss-making players. Shares of Chinese AI chipmakers traded mixed on Monday as investors digested the financial updates. MetaX Integrated Circuits saw its Shanghai-listed stock r...
Shares of Chinese artificial intelligence chipmakers are seeing mixed trading on Monday as investors digest a fresh wave of first-half earnings, highlighting a growing profitability divide among the country’s graphics processing unit (GPU) champions. MetaX Integrated Circuits saw its Shanghai-listed stock rise 1.4 per cent to 684.5 yuan by the midday break after reporting a swing to profitability ...
China warned on Monday there was a “major risk” of further glacier collapses and landslides along the border with Nepal as the death toll from last week’s deadly mudslide rose to close to 1,000. The Ministry of Water Resources said there was an ongoing threat along the Cuojian River in Nepal, a waterway that flows into the Purepuqiang River in Tibet, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported. Downst...
Rescuers from China and Nepal continued searching landslide- and flood-affected areas on Monday while efforts to reopen roads to the heart of the disaster-hit area at Gyirong Port entered a “critical stage”. The death toll in Nepal had risen to 903 as of 9am on Monday, with 4,247 people still missing, according to data released by the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Autho...
Chen Ye, a semiconductor quality control expert with more than 16 years of industry experience in the United States, has been appointed as a Qiushi Distinguished Professor at Zhejiang University’s College of Integrated Circuits, the university has announced. The university, based in Hangzhou, overtook Harvard University to become the world’s top academic institution in the 2026 Nature Index, endin...
Chen Ye, a semiconductor quality control expert with more than 16 years of industry experience in the United States, has been appointed as a Qiushi Distinguished Professor at Zhejiang University’s College of Integrated Circuits, the university has announced. The university, based in Hangzhou, recently overtook Harvard University to become the world’s top academic institution in the 2026 Nature Ind...
A proposal in Malaysia’s Perak state to pay young people 500 ringgit (US$124) for marrying for the first time has triggered a backlash after officials confirmed the scheme could apply to children as young as 15. Critics say extending the state-funded benefit to minors risks legitimising child marriage, reigniting a fraught debate in Malaysia over laws that still allow some under-18s to wed. The on...
A proposal in Malaysia’s Perak state to pay young people 500 ringgit (US$124) for marrying for the first time has triggered a backlash after officials confirmed the scheme could apply to children as young as 15. Critics say extending the state-funded benefit to minors risks legitimising child marriage, reigniting a fraught debate in Malaysia over laws that still allow some under-18s to wed. The on...
A government clampdown following a spate of dog attacks in Hong Kong has sparked a rush for canine DNA testing, while animal welfare groups warn the aggressive enforcement could trigger a wave of pet abandonments. Amid mounting public backlash over the sudden seizure and impounding of suspected fighting dogs, an advocacy group has urged authorities to introduce a one-year grace period for owners t...
