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For 28-year-old Indonesian professional Evelyn Clarissa Siregar, asking strangers to help fund her MBA in Singapore was a gamble: she knew the request was unconventional but hoped putting her dream out in public might open a door. Instead, her appeal for more than S$100,000 (US$78,000) to fund her business programme at Singapore Management University (SMU) drew fierce online criticism, with some l...
Residents who lost their homes in Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po fire started choosing their replacement flats on Tuesday, with some calling on authorities to introduce stamp duty waivers to help ease their financial burden. After last November’s blaze at Wang Fuk Court, authorities rolled out a HK$7.8 billion (US$994 million) plan to buy back flats at the eight-block subsidised housing estate. Under t...
Renowned Chinese singer and songwriter Liu Huan passed away in Shanghai on September 25 at the age of 63 due to illness, prompting widespread mourning among the mainland public. The University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, where Liu taught the History of Western Music for three decades, issued an obituary but did not disclose details about the illness. His death saddened many...
Chinese researchers are drafting standards for autonomous satellite coordination and data sharing in a move analysts say could speed up military targeting and make People’s Liberation Army satellite networks more resilient. An expert panel convened by the Chinese Institute of Command and Control (CICC) in Beijing on September 21 approved work on 10 proposed voluntary standards, clearing the way fo...
Chinese memory chip giant ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) plans to invest 34.9 billion yuan (US$5.2 billion) in expansion, with a large portion of the capital going to domestic suppliers of chipmaking equipment, according to a source. The firm, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Star Market, would spend 24.1 billion yuan on a new technology research and development project and another 10....
North Korea said on Wednesday that South Korea will pay a price for shifting the blame to Pyongyang for a mine blast that seriously wounded two South Koreans at the demilitarised zone (DMZ) border and warned it will retaliate if the South opens fire on its troops. South Korea’s defence minister said on Tuesday that North Korean mines caused a blast last week and that it would take “corresponding”...
South Korea’s defence minister said on Tuesday North Korean mines caused a blast last week that injured two South Korean personnel in the demilitarised zone (DMZ), adding that the incident violated the Korean war armistice agreement and warranted a response against Pyongyang. Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul told a parliamentary committee that the mines were North Korean and appeared to have been p...
Citi Research has turned bullish on China’s 30-year government bonds, projecting that yields will fall further even as US Treasury yields climb. In a Monday research note, analysts at the Wall Street bank recommended that investors go long on China’s 30-year sovereign debt, saying they expected the yield to fall towards 1.8 per cent while the 10-year yield could edge towards 1.6 per cent. The anal...
As Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, wife of former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, was laid to rest on Monday, one poignant image stood out. Footage of her family members sobbing served as a reminder that before the 100-year-old was “Ibu Negara” (Mother of the Nation), she was first a mother of seven, grandmother to 18 and great-grandmother to four. Her latest great-grandchild, Eden Zakaria, wa...
Shares of Akeso surged after British drug maker AstraZeneca moved to advance the Chinese biotech firm’s flagship cancer drug, while a new deal from US giant Merck further underscored the sector’s global momentum amid easing fears of US curbs. AstraZeneca on Tuesday announced a US$2 billion equity investment in Florida-headquartered Summit Therapeutics, which holds the exclusive rights to develop a...
Armageddon is what will happen when billionaires, or even trillionaires, are given free rein. Could this be the final outcome of late-stage American capitalism and democracy? Imagine a human-extinction event: a rogue artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, a new world war or runaway climate change. You likely already have a fair idea of where the safest places on earth and beyond are, if you have...
Hong Kong’s High Court has sentenced a man with a triad background to three years and two months after he attacked an associate with a hammer, leaving the victim bleeding on the street before he died of an overdose hours later. The court heard on Tuesday that Mo Tai-fung, 42, was initially charged with murdering the 33-year-old, having allegedly struck him on the head 11 times at about 2am on July...
The governor of an Indonesian prison has been suspended after authorities uncovered a suspected luxury compound for VIP inmates within the grounds, prompting a parliamentary inquiry. However, Director General of Corrections Mashudi denied the accusations during a House of Representatives commission hearing on Monday. Cibinong Prison in Bogor, West Java, came under investigation after inspectors fr...
China is offering the world’s brightest young scientists generous 15-year research grants for free exploration, as the country accelerates its drive to become a global science powerhouse. Dou Xiankang, director of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the country’s top funder of basic research, told a recent academic forum that the agency was selecting a group of the brightest r...
Global investors are turning to China again in search of alternatives to crowded US asset markets, with Pimco seeing Chinese bonds as one of the safest ways to diversify portfolios after sentiment towards the world’s second-largest economy “flipped 180 degrees”. The US-based asset manager, which oversaw more than US$2 trillion in assets by the end of June, had been pointing its clients, particular...
The Philippines has 20,000 teaching vacancies to fill, a budget hearing has revealed, with sector insiders warning that the gap signals a mounting education crisis. Those in the industry are calling for transparency in the teacher hiring process, including clear figures on budget allocation and positions filled amid problems of mismatch and improper targeting of job applicants. At a House of Repre...
Behind the unmarked door of a shoplot along a quiet commercial stretch of Forest City in Malaysia’s Johor state, four customers sat tapping away, playing slot-style games on tablets. A stern-looking man stood guard at the entrance, his eyes darting around. The customers could place bets starting from around 20 ringgit (US$4.89). Instead of handing over cash, they paid for gambling credits using Ma...
Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao held a video call with German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche on Monday, just over a week before the next round of trade talks between Beijing and Brussels, amid reports that Germany and France are pushing for a new tool that would enable the EU to swiftly shut China out of the European market. Wang and Reiche “exchanged opinions on the Sino-German and Sino-...
Less than 0.5 per cent of registered Hong Kong nurses received their training outside the city, while 99.8 per cent of those working in public hospitals are locally trained, health authorities have said amid a growing row with a trade union over employment concerns. The latest figures were released on Tuesday after the city’s health minister repeatedly rejected claims that authorities had favoured...
Less than 0.5 per cent of registered Hong Kong nurses received their training outside the city, while 99.8 per cent of those working in public hospitals are locally trained, health authorities have said amid a growing row with a trade union over employment concerns. The latest figures were released on Tuesday after the city’s health minister repeatedly rejected claims that authorities had favoured...
US forces are set to pull out from their last bases in Iraq by Wednesday, a departure celebrated as a victory by Iran and its allies who now have deep influence in the country where 4,500 Americans died during more than two decades of war. Iraqi security experts say the withdrawal – agreed in 2024 under President Joe Biden and carried out by Donald Trump’s administration even as it wages war agai...
The number of Japanese companies operating in China has fallen nearly 30 per cent since its peak in 2012 and is down 22 per cent over the past two years, according to a survey conducted amid prolonged political tensions between Beijing and Tokyo. As of June, 10,118 Japanese enterprises were identified as having a presence in China, the lowest number since 2010, according to a survey and analysis r...
Hong Kong welcomed four companies to start trading on Tuesday after they raised a combined HK$14.4 billion (US$1.83 billion) – but three opened below their offer prices, adding pressure to an already sluggish month for initial public offerings (IPOs). Automated equipment manufacturer RoboTechnik Intelligent Technology was the largest company to make its debut, having raised HK$5.18 billion, but it...
Hong Kong welcomed four companies to start trading on Tuesday after they raised a combined HK$14.4 billion (US$1.83 billion) – but three opened below their offer prices, adding pressure to an already sluggish month for initial public offerings (IPOs). Automated equipment manufacturer RoboTechnik Intelligent Technology was the largest company to make its debut, having raised HK$5.18 billion, but it...
Malaysia began an operation to send nearly 1,500 Myanmar nationals back to their war-torn homeland on Tuesday, pressing ahead with a government-to-government repatriation deal despite warnings that returnees could face persecution and forced conscription. The first group of 1,476 is part of an agreement to return 5,000 people held in Malaysian immigration facilities under a programme Kuala Lumpur ...
A Hong Kong technician who won a global prize for train repair at an international competition for vocational skills has pledged to apply insights from the competition to his job, as he recalled three days of intense examination to fix railway system faults. Gordon Tang Kwong-tai, 22, an employee of the MTR Corporation for four years, said his participation in the WorldSkills Competition in Shangh...
A Hong Kong technician who won a global prize for train repair at an international competition for vocational skills has pledged to apply insights from the competition to his job, as he recalled three days of intense examination to fix railway system faults. Gordon Tang Kwong-tai, 22, an employee of the MTR Corporation for four years, said his participation in the WorldSkills Competition in Shangh...
Standing water in Thailand’s capital is expected to clear within three days if there is no additional rainfall, the government said on Tuesday, as flag carrier Thai Airways struggled to resume regular services following heavy rain and flooding. The cabinet will discuss long-term plans to address flooding and recovery measures on Tuesday, government spokesperson Ekkapob Pianpises told a news bri...
China’s top diplomat Wang Yi met Japan’s former foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya, who is leading a 50-member delegation of corporate executives, in Beijing on Monday, marking the highest-ranking Chinese official reception for a Japanese visit in nearly a year. During the talks, Wang warned that bilateral relations were facing a “severe situation” and had “yet to be normalised” ahead of next year’s 5...
Hong Kong’s media should eliminate falsehoods and expand their global reach, the chief executive has said, urging news workers to serve as “spokespeople” for good stories about mainland China and the city. City leader John Lee Ka-chiu on Tuesday outlined his two expectations for the industry in a speech for an event marking the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Hi...
