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A monthly trip to Costco has become routine this year for Kim Eun-young. The 42-year-old mother of two living in Seoul’s Gwangjin district used to pick up what she needed at a nearby supermarket, but rising prices prompted her to change her shopping habits. She said buying groceries and household essentials in bulk seemed more economical, at least for her family of four. “The bill is bigger each t...
Some 5 metres (16.4 feet) underground near one of China’s oldest cities lies the life-size army of thousands of terracotta warriors. The purpose of the army, located 35km (22 miles) northeast of historic Xian, was to protect China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, in the afterlife. The Terracotta Army was buried with him after his death in 210BC. Now, a new study shows that a portion of the terracot...
Some 5 metres (16.4 feet) underground near one of China’s oldest cities lies the life-size army of thousands of terracotta warriors. The purpose of the army, located 35km (22 miles) northeast of historic Xian, was to protect China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, in the afterlife. The Terracotta Army was buried with him after his death in 210BC. Now, a new study shows that a portion of the terracot...
Some 5 metres underground near one of China’s oldest cities lies the life-size army of thousands of terracotta warriors. The purpose of the army, located 35km northeast of historic Xian, was to protect China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, in the afterlife. The Terracotta Army was buried with him after his death in 210BC. Now, a new study shows that a portion of the terracotta warriors was largely...
A drone strike on a market in Abyei, a border region disputed by Sudan and South Sudan, hit a nearby fuel depot, killing at least 153 people, a local official said on Tuesday. Yohanna Akol Ngor, the Abyei administration’s caretaker information minister, blamed Sudan’s military for Monday’s attack on Amiet Market, north of Abyei town. Ngor told Associated Press by phone that the death toll was cont...
China’s tax authorities are accepting reasonable explanations when enforcing new rules on offshore trust gains, according to an executive who says their appeal was successful, offering some reassurance as a 90-day grace period expires on Thursday. The approach appears to be translating into greater clarity from regulators. Earlier this week, the State Taxation Administration published a question-a...
Fresh from walking down red carpets laid out by his Southeast Asian neighbours, Myanmar’s ex-military chief Min Aung Hlaing appears to have a new diplomatic feather in his cap: re-engagement with the United States. Washington slapped sanctions on Min Aung Hlaing just 10 days after his February 1, 2021 coup and the ensuing bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Waves of subsequent sanctions ...
Hong Kong police have arrested four boys on suspicion of inciting another person to become a member of an unlawful society and assault causing bodily harm, after a clip of a back-alley dispute in the early hours on Monday went viral. A police spokesman said on Wednesday that officers arrested four local boys aged 13 to 17 the day before, following an investigation based on a clip of a suspected at...
Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has fully open-sourced an internally developed framework designed to run AI models efficiently, as a senior researcher at the company described the growing divide between open-source and closed-source AI as a battle between “light and darkness”. The company on Tuesday released DeepInfer, an inference framework tailored to support its DeepSeek-V4.1-...
Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has fully open-sourced an internally developed framework designed to run AI models efficiently, as a senior researcher at the company described the growing divide between open-source and closed-source AI as a battle between “light and darkness”. The company on Tuesday released DeepInfer, an inference framework tailored to support its DeepSeek-V4.1-...
Laddli Khatun pulled one document after another from a yellow bag, desperately hoping one would be enough to keep her name on India’s electoral rolls. As the world’s largest democracy overhauls its voter lists, millions like Khatun are scrambling to re-establish their credentials, despite having voted before. Critics and opposition parties say the exercise risks mass disenfranchisement, and those ...
Hong Kong’s exceptionally warm October weather is being driven by a combination of a super typhoon, El Nino and global warming, a climate expert has said, warning that higher-than-usual temperatures are likely to persist through the winter. The warning came as autumn temperatures across the city topped 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) over the past few weeks. Professor Amos Tai Pui-kuen, of the ...
Chinese scientists have developed what they say is the world’s smallest wearable mini brain monitor that can track the activity of thousands of neurons at the same time. Weighing in at one gram (0.35 oz), the wireless “Airscope” is the lightest device of its kind and enables researchers to track a wider range of brain activity in untethered laboratory animals. The device was jointly developed by s...
Malaysia’s border control chief pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to two charges of assaulting junior police officers at the country’s main international airport last month, after a video of the confrontation went viral. Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain, director general of the Malaysian Border Control and Protection Agency, was filmed confronting two men at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on September 28...
In the latest showdown from Brazil’s increasingly rancorous presidential race Tuesday, both candidates called for the disqualification of their rivals over allegations of social media malfeasance, according to court filings and campaign officials. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s campaign said Tuesday they will request the disqualification of right-wing rival Flavio Bolsonaro on Wednesday ove...
Malaysia is negotiating with Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia to establish overland transit routes for fresh durian exports to China, according to Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu. The minister said the move would reduce transport costs and improve access to the lucrative Chinese market. “Durian is a favourite among Chinese consumers, but they sometimes find it difficult to ...
A Singaporean couple who regularly abused their first child after he was born, resulting in his death at the age of eight months, were sentenced to jail on Wednesday. Chloe Gan Ci Xuan, 23, and Neo Jia Ming, 27, were sentenced respectively to 15 years and three months’ jail and 16 years’ jail for various charges over the death of their son, Trevor Neo Yu Hin. Gan pleaded guilty to three charges co...
Only 3 per cent of Hong Kong companies have fully integrated AI into their workflows, with many facing hurdles including resistance to organisational change and outdated digital infrastructure, a survey has found. Consultancy Accenture, which polled 150 companies and released the results on Wednesday, said the survey suggested businesses had a strong desire to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) in...
A Russian satellite moved within just 100 metres of a European commercial spacecraft that supports Ukraine’s military at the weekend, orbital tracking data showed, raising concerns about Moscow’s activities in space. Russia launched the Cosmos-2612 military satellite into low Earth orbit in April. It began changing course late September and eventually moved into the same orbit as ICEYE-X36, a sate...
Machines whirred around Siddiqui as her vision blurred and her heart hammered. The garment factory on the outskirts of Karachi was sweltering. The room was packed with sweating fellow workers and huge industrial equipment that radiated heat. The air felt thick with the humidity of this summer’s monsoon. Siddiqui, who asked to be identified only by surname, felt like she was suffocating. Concerned ...
An unconventional course at prestigious Nanjing University encourages students to call strangers to hone their social skills, challenging the traditional value of “do more, speak less”. At the top-tier institution in Jiangsu province, eastern China, former television producer and director Xu Kai launched a course called “Oral Expression” in 2015. Over the years, it has become one of the students’ ...
The BBC announced more than 100 job cuts and the closure of two channels Tuesday as the cash-strapped UK broadcaster aims to save £500 million (US$668 million) over the next two years. BBC News announced the “net closure of just over 100 roles”, according to an internal note by director Rachel Jupp, part of some 2,000 job cuts the broader organisation is eyeing to achieve its planned savings. The ...
Taiwan’s defence ministry has confirmed for the first time that it has allocated funding for the US Indo-Pacific Command to send a retired general and other personnel to observe the island’s largest annual war games. The disclosure sheds rare official light on military exchanges that Taipei and Washington have traditionally kept out of public view, as security cooperation between the two sides dee...
Getting relations with China right is widely seen as Britain’s epoch-defining challenge. It is also one it is woefully unprepared to face. So concluded a recent audit by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), which highlighted that top negotiators lacked basic Chinese language skills. More critically, it exposed a deeper deficit: a poor grasp of China spanning political elites and the p...
Christina Applegate, who has candidly shared raw details about her journey with multiple sclerosis for years, revealed on Monday her doctor says she does not have the autoimmune disease and was misdiagnosed. “I’m back at square one where I don’t know what’s going on with me,” the actor said on the latest edition of her podcast “MeSsy”, along with co-host Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who has been public abou...
With her government entering its second year on Wednesday, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi may face growing questions over whether her leadership style, oft-described as assertive, could fuel discontent within her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Bolstered by high public approval ratings and an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives, Takaichi has pushed through divisive legisl...
The family farmers who produce the lion’s share of Brazil’s staple foods are opening their arms to cutting-edge Chinese artificial intelligence in a bid to modernise operations and secure their future. Brazil and China agreed to a five-year cooperation programme in September aimed at giving smallholders – the backbone of the Brazilian agricultural sector – an AI boost after a decade of declining e...
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[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] The HKUST-SINO One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition and Impactathon take different approaches to helping promising ideas move from early concepts to practical applications in businesses and communities. Across these initiatives, Sino aims to connect innovators with communities, universities and businesses at cri...
Despite a downturn in Hong Kong’s food and beverage sector, foreign enterprises are still betting on the city as a fine-dining destination, with a South Korean hydroponic ginseng grower and a 123-year-old Japanese confectioner choosing it for their first overseas ventures. Jack Kwon, founder and CEO of Seoul-based Biofx, signed a deal with Hong Kong hydroponics firm Farm66 last Thursday to grow Ko...
Singapore’s recent parliamentary debate over primary school admissions has put a familiar parental strategy in the city state under the spotlight – parents moving house to improve their children’s chances of getting into popular schools. Speaking with This Week in Asia, property agents say some families in Singapore have been approaching them with the intention of buying or renting particular resi...
