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A former customer services officer with Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific has been jailed for one year and eight months for accepting at least HK$18,000 (US$2,295) in bribes to help smuggle mainland Chinese travellers overseas 17 years ago. Tsui Ying-kit, 45, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to four counts of conspiracy for an agent to accept advantages at Tsuen Wan Court, which now handles District Court cas...
In an affluent neighbourhood in New Delhi, electric vehicle charging stations near a popular shopping area were busy with drivers powering up their scooters, trucks and cars. India’s capital city is in dire need of more charging facilities, EV drivers say, to implement an ambitious plan to phase out petrol vehicles in one of the world’s most polluted cities. “Charging facilities are not up to the ...
This article was first published on July 30, 1996. Our golden girl by Nazvi Careem and Scott McKenzie Cheers and tears swept Hong Kong yesterday (July 29, 1996) on the back of the golden victory for Olympic windsurfer Lee Lai-shan. The 25-year-old from Cheung Chau won a gold medal for herself and glory for Hong Kong after 44 years of fruitless Olympic competition when she crossed the finish line a...
When a ride-hailing driver suddenly experienced severe stomach pain and requested his passenger to take over the wheel to exit the highway, she instead drove him directly to the hospital. On July 14, He Shimin, a blogger, arranged a ride-sharing service as she planned to travel from Guangzhou to Shunde, both located in southern Guangdong province. While on the highway, the driver, surnamed Wang, s...
Chinese toymaker Pop Mart International ramped up its global expansion on Wednesday by opening a new store on Singapore’s Sentosa Island – alongside its first overseas Pop Bakery dessert store in the same venue – with observers predicting that more overseas locations would help drive growth, especially those in underpenetrated markets. The launch comes amid softer domestic sales and normalising de...
Malaysia is finding it increasingly difficult to stay neutral in the US-China rivalry as the superpowers lock horns over trade, investment and the security of advanced technology, according to a top government adviser. “They don’t make us take sides when it comes to foreign policy,” Tengku Zafrul Aziz, senior political adviser to Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, told This Week in Asia. “Th...
Malaysia is finding it increasingly difficult to stay neutral in the US-China rivalry as the superpowers lock horns over trade, investment and the security of advanced technology, according to a top government adviser. “They don’t make us take sides when it comes to foreign policy,” Tengku Zafrul Aziz, senior political adviser to Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, told This Week in Asia. “Th...
Malaysia is finding it increasingly difficult to stay neutral in the US-China rivalry as the superpowers lock horns over trade, investment and the security of advanced technology, according to a top government adviser. “They don’t make us take sides when it comes to foreign policy,” Tengku Zafrul Aziz, senior political adviser to Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, told This Week in Asia. “Th...
A Hong Kong ophthalmologist has been cleared of professional misconduct after the city’s medical watchdog decided to offer no evidence against him, 15 years after a complaint was lodged over his handling of laser eye surgery procedures. The three disciplinary charges against Dr Yiu Man-kit stemmed from a complaint submitted in 2011 by a patient, Chan Man-chi, over a bilateral Lasik surgery perform...
A senior Pentagon official on Tuesday said US-China military communication was “stronger than it has been in years”, marking a rare bright spot in the broader strategic rivalry between the world’s two most powerful countries. “Under the leadership of Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, we are actively repairing a once broken military-to-military channel and making clear, steady progress,” said Alvaro Smith,...
A senior Pentagon official on Tuesday said US-China military communication was “stronger than it has been in years”, marking a rare bright spot in the broader strategic rivalry between the world’s two most powerful countries. “Under the leadership of Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, we are actively repairing a once broken military-to-military channel and making clear, steady progress,” said Alvaro Smith,...
The UN’s migration agency is warning that criminal networks have been trafficking hundreds of thousands of people – many of them educated English speakers – to work in online scam centres, and the caseload is growing. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says victims are often lured by fake job advertisements – mostly through social media – promising work abroad, only to get locked u...
Soldiers and emergency workers combed through a badly damaged shopping centre and collapsed houses looking for trapped survivors on Wednesday after a powerful earthquake that killed at least 18 people in southwestern Japan. The magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit a day earlier in the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu, also left at least 62 people injured, six of them seriously, the...
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said 13 people have been found dead after a powerful quake shook part of southwestern Japan and rescue work was continuing Wednesday morning for the missing. A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu late on Tuesday afternoon. “There are people who are still waiting to be rescued, and it’s a race against time,” ...
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said 13 people have been found dead after a powerful quake shook part of southwestern Japan and rescue work was continuing Wednesday morning for the missing. A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu late on Tuesday afternoon. “There are people who are still waiting to be rescued, and it’s a race against time,” ...
A 50-year-old independent bookshop has announced it will close when its lease ends, following a raid by Hong Kong national security police earlier this month. Greenfield Book Store, located on Sai Yeung Choi Street in Mong Kok, took to social media during the early hours of Wednesday morning to announce its plans to close. “The shop will close down after the end of the lease. Thank you, everyone, ...
A 50-year-old independent bookshop has announced it will close when its lease ends, following a raid by Hong Kong national security police earlier this month. Greenfield Book Store, located on Sai Yeung Choi Street in Mong Kok, took to social media during the early hours of Wednesday morning to announce its plans to close. “The shop will close down after the end of the lease. Thank you, everyone, ...
The US Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as Donald Trump’s top intelligence official Tuesday, putting a permanent chief in charge of the country’s spy agencies as the president revives unsupported election fraud claims ahead of the midterms. Senators voted 51-47 to confirm Clayton’s appointment, with all Democrats in the upper chamber voting against it. “Jay is outstanding in every way, and will do a s...
The European Union’s upgraded partnership with the Philippines signals the bloc’s aim to diversify its Indo-Pacific strategy beyond trade into the security arena. Such a move shows Brussels is seeking a larger role in a region where maritime disputes and challenges to the rules-based order could damage its extensive interests, according to analysts. On Friday, Philippine Foreign Secretary Maria Th...
China is widening its lead over the United States in the race to develop humanoid robots, with Chinese firms accounting for six of the world’s 10 most innovative start-ups in the sector, according to a new report tracking global patent data, as Washington moves to restrict imports of robots, including those made in China. Firms from China dominated the ranking released by legal research platform L...
A man was killed and nearly 80 people were forced to evacuate after a fire broke out at a village house in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Authorities said they were alerted at around 4.30am to a blaze at a metal house in Ling Shan Tsuen in Fanling. Police said some electrical wires were spotted burning when rescuers arrived at the scene. Seventy-eight people, in addition to four dogs and cats, were evacu...
HSBC Holdings will relocate its group chief people and governance officer, Aileen Taylor, from London to Hong Kong later this year, as the lender doubles down on expanding its Hong Kong and Asia operations, according to sources at the bank. A source told the South China Morning Post that an internal decision to relocate Taylor to Hong Kong had already been made, as part of a push to strengthen the...
The United States has released a rare photo of the American and Taiwanese coastguards operating together at sea, as Beijing expands maritime law enforcement in waters east of the island. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) – the de facto US embassy in Taipei – posted the undated image on social media on Tuesday, saying the two sides were coordinating on search, rescue, disaster relief and marit...
Washington’s new AI Spark initiative to promote American artificial intelligence systems in Southeast Asia’s public services and digital infrastructure is seen as a move to counter the region’s deepening partnerships with Chinese firms in the deployment of the technology. However, the initiative is unlikely to force Southeast Asia to choose between AI Spark and the Chinese model, as the region is ...
During the opening ceremony of Ride to Shine Hong Kong this month, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui challenged Hongkongers to cycle more than 1.2 million km – a distance equivalent to circling the Earth 30 times – to commemorate Hong Kong’s 30th anniversary of returning to China next year. Cycling is more than a trend and worth developing. Since the invention of the b...
An 18-year-old Chinese girl recently lost her last living relative as she embarks on her university journey, yet she has declined donations, asking that they be given to others in need. Zeng Zixuan scored 564 out of 750 on this year’s gaokao, the national higher education entrance exam, and has been admitted to the petroleum engineering programme at Yangtze University. She chose this university be...
Beijing should step in to fill the global “vacuum” in rules on artificial intelligence as a Chinese AI model opens up a policy divide in the United States, according to various institutions within China. The calls came after Beijing-based start-up Moonshot AI launched its Kimi K3 model earlier this month, sending shock waves through Silicon Valley and the White House. The model is reportedly almos...
Hong Kong’s export surge will extend into the coming months, driven by the global AI boom, economists have told the South China Morning Post, adding that GDP growth could surpass official forecasts. Billy Mak Sui-choi, an associate professor at Baptist University’s department of accountancy, economics and finance, said global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) remained far from saturated and ...
Researchers in South Korea say they have finally worked out how the brain flushes away waste – offering a clearer picture of the processes involved in dementia and other brain disorders that could one day be harnessed to treat them. The breakthrough, published this month in journal Cell, solved a puzzle that has stumped scientists since lymphatic vessels around the brain were first discovered roug...
China is pushing a new model to boost international sales of its domestic bonds, with the Shanghai Clearing House (SHCH) leveraging global financial networks to expand the offshore yuan pool. Writing in a recent article, SHCH chief Ma Jianyang noted that the initiative was designed to solidify Shanghai’s dominance in offshore yuan derivatives clearing while insulating the domestic market from cros...
