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Hong Kong’s newly revamped Huanggang Port is expected to handle more than 100,000 passenger trips a day over the three-day Chung Yeung Festival holiday, although the departure hall was quiet on Saturday morning. Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung said the port had operated smoothly since opening on Monday, handling about 80,000 passenger trips a day, with the figure exceeding 92,000 on F...
Hong Kong’s newly revamped Huanggang Port is expected to handle more than 100,000 passenger trips a day over the three-day Chung Yeung Festival holiday, but its departure hall remained quiet on Saturday morning. Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung said the port had operated smoothly since opening on Monday, handling about 80,000 passenger trips a day, with the figure exceeding 92,000 on F...
Ongoing fires in Indonesia that have blanketed parts of Southeast Asia with toxic haze have triggered the highest-level alert by the regional bloc’s climate and fire monitor. “Activation of Alert Level 3 for the Southern Asean region,” the Singapore Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) said on its website, seen on Saturday. Based near Singapore’s Changi Airport, the ASMC uses a four-tier...
Japan has long established itself as a pioneer of mediation in Southeast Asia. In 1990, for example, its officials helped broker talks between Cambodia’s warring factions, supplementing international efforts to end conflict in the country. Now, Tokyo is seeking to upgrade its diplomatic toolkit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ International Peace Mediation Unit was set up in March, followed by th...
Former Malaysian minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad has confirmed that he was one of two individuals detained by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) over an alleged khalwat case. Nik Nazmi, who helms Parti Bersama Malaysia, said he was at a residence in Petaling Jaya on Thursday with a woman after they decided to continue a discussion about a project there. “We had initially started the dis...
Hong Kong’s next phase of development should make room for both butterflies and buildings, conservationist Dr Yau Wing-kwong has said, arguing that biodiversity can be incorporated into parks, schools and neighbourhoods without holding back the city’s growth. Yau, founder of Environmental Association Limited, has spent nearly three decades promoting community-based conservation. He is a finalist f...
The owner of a Chinese kindergarten has been jailed for life after more than 200 children were poisoned by lead in the country’s worst food safety scandal for almost two decades. A total of six people were jailed on Friday for making or selling harmful foodstuffs by Lanzhou Intermediate People’s Court in Gansu province. Li Huifang, owner of the Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui, was handed a life se...
Distinctive features will set Hong Kong apart from London, a major bullion hub, as the city accelerates efforts to develop an international gold and precious metals trading ecosystem covering the entire value chain, a minister has told the South China Morning Post. In an exclusive interview on Thursday, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu said the city would ...
Distinctive features will set Hong Kong apart from London, a major bullion hub, as the city accelerates efforts to develop an international gold and precious metals trading ecosystem covering the entire value chain, a minister has told the South China Morning Post. In an exclusive interview on Thursday, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu said the city would ...
Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga each chose Singapore as their only Southeast Asian stop on recent world tours. Fellow American singer Olivia Rodrigo played Thailand and the Philippines, but likewise skipped Indonesia. Next weekend, however, Jakarta is finally getting the big international headline act it has been craving – in the form of Ye. The controversial American rapper, formerly known as Kanye We...
A judge has sentenced three Mexican men to more than 158 years in prison each for the 2024 murders of two Australian brothers and their American friend, a case that tarnished Mexico’s image by exposing the risks foreigners face when visiting the tourism-dependent country. Friday’s sentencing, which came a week after the men were found guilty, marked the end of a lengthy legal process over the kill...
Coconut farmer Sombat Chuekrod travelled more than 200km (120 miles) to join hundreds on the streets of Bangkok on Friday demanding that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank change how they deal with the developing world. Finance ministers, central bank governors and other top policymakers gathered this week in the Thai capital for the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings, as decision ma...
US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order that puts on hold a sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy, telling Congress the pause was in the national interest. Named after late South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, the measure had sought to clamp down more quickly on the flow of financial resources fuelling the war against Ukraine. The move comes a week af...
For cancer patients in Hong Kong, emotional distress can persist beyond the clinic, with a large combined analysis of multiple studies linking depression and anxiety to lower chances of survival. Claudia Chan Shu-ying, a medical student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), is developing CancerCompanion, a digital companion designed to offer emotional support between appointments, includi...
A man in southwestern China has sparked widespread criticism after holding a wedding with one woman and a celebration for his baby with another at the same venue on the same day. According to The Beijing News, Wu Linfeng, from Liupanshui, Guizhou province, held a wedding ceremony with Kong Sihan on the first floor of a restaurant while hosting a 100-day celebration for his son with his former girl...
Airline employees in Japan are experiencing a surge in abuse incidents from customers linked to delays or cancellations of flights or from being refused boarding due to late check-in, according to a survey. Some 30 per cent of ground staff or cabin crew reported bearing the brunt of passengers’ anger over such matters in the past year, according to the survey by the Japan Federation of Aviation In...
Almost two decades after gaining permission to conduct yuan business for local clients, foreign-funded banks are still refining their strategy in China, where the financial sector is dominated by state-owned lenders. While Citi exited its China retail banking business, other foreign banks have continued to close branches and sub-branches, focusing instead on digitalisation, wealth management and c...
China and the Philippines recently traded accusations over the medical evacuation of a Philippine serviceman from a grounded naval vessel in the hotly disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. The incident has sparked renewed worries about potential armed skirmishes in a global artery of trade. But Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr was also quick to emphasise the economic dimens...
A growing number of former senior government officials have joined the race for seats on Hong Kong’s Election Committee, a trend observers say will enhance the prestige and legitimacy of the body tasked with choosing the city’s next leader. As the two-week nomination period draws to a close next Tuesday, the Registration and Electoral Office had received 1,115 nominations for 982 elected seats on ...
Beijing’s decision to allow a bigger Japanese business delegation to go to China next month may be cause for some optimism but “hot economics, and cold politics” will continue to dominate the strained relationship between the two countries, observers say. Kyodo news agency reported this week that Beijing had agreed to allow the Japanese Business Federation – the country’s most influential business...
US President Donald Trump made a joke about the popularity of the name Mohammad in the Muslim world as he mocked Iran’s presidency during a campaign speech on Friday. “You know, if you’re in doubt about somebody’s name from the Middle East, just say ‘Mohammad’,” Trump told a crowd in Dalton, Georgia. “You have about a 65 per cent chance. ‘Hello, Mohammad.’ I’ve done it for years now. I’ve neve...
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Saturday sent a ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, regarded by Japan’s neighbours as a symbol of the country’s past militarism, at the start of its three-day autumn festival. Takaichi, known as a conservative who routinely visited the Shinto shrine before becoming prime minister a year ago, was unlikely to visit the shrine during the festival, a source cl...
In hindsight, it was only a matter of time before Esha Yusof joined the growing ranks of Malaysian shoppers being drawn to Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo. Esha is a relative newcomer. She signed up in July, more than half a year after the platform launched in Malaysia – and has been smitten with it ever since. Rock-bottom prices, a vast range of products and seamless payments through a popular...
North Korea conducted an underwater test of a new torpedo weapon system on Thursday to verify technological upgrades, state news agency KCNA reported on Saturday, describing the test as a success and a significant step in the country’s naval development. The test verified propulsion technology developed through more than 180 tests over the past five years, KCNA said, adding that artificial inte...
Beijing warned Brussels not to “fantasise” that taking a hard line will force it into concessions, as the bloc confirmed plans for a gung-ho new kill switch that will allow Brussels to “immediately” kick China out of the single market. Exactly a week after the two sides struck a surprise deal to restrict the volume of hybrid cars China ships to Europe, the flare-up suggests the threat of a trade w...
A teacher threw her phone at the teenage gunman who killed four people at an Oregon junior school, then tackled and fought with him – probably saving lives before he was shot by a father who followed him into the building, police said Friday. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz called the teacher’s actions “heroic” during a news conference and said she was not injured. He identified the attacker as 16-y...
A teacher threw her phone at the teenage gunman who killed four people at an Oregon junior school, then tackled and fought with him – probably saving lives before he was shot by a father who followed him into the building, police said Friday. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz called the teacher’s actions “heroic” during a news conference and said she was not injured. He identified the attacker as 16-y...
A US congressional committee has released details of investigations into dozens of researchers, many of them Chinese-American, revealing the scale of government scrutiny sweeping academia over alleged links to China. The documents – running to hundreds of pages – were released alongside a separate report by the House Select Committee on China. Titled “How to Stop China’s Theft of Taxpayer-Funded R...
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been moved to a federal prison in Pennsylvania after reports that the hip-hop mogul was living the high life and was injured in a fight at his New Jersey lock-up, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. The federal Bureau of Prisons is transferring Combs, 56, from FCI Fort Dix to FCI Allenwood Low, a low-security facility south of Williamsport and about 250km (155 ...
Paraguay’s technology minister said on Thursday that sanctions imposed on him by Beijing over his country’s ties with Taiwan would only accelerate joint projects with the island. Gustavo Villate, who heads the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies, wrote in a lengthy social media post that the relationship with Taipei would “never be on the negotiating table”. He also suggested th...
