Long-time Republican US Senator Mitch McConnell said he was released from a rehabilitation centre on Thursday and would continue his recovery from a fall and from pneumonia at home. On the advice of my doctors, Ill maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and Ill continue to engage with my staff and ...

A British sociologist who became famous as the youngest black professor ever at the University of Cambridge has resigned after the university opened an investigation into new information about his academic qualifications. Professor Jason Arday, who was 37 when he became a Cambridge professor in 2023, announced his decision late on Wednesday following weeks ...

Argentina has renewed its currency swap with China for five years, preserving a US$19 billion lifeline that Washington spent more than a year pressing it to give up. The Argentine central bank and the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) signed the extension of the 130 billion yuan line on Wednesday, a day before the existing deal was due to expire. The new term ...

China has bought at least another 10 cargoes of US soybeans, three Asian traders said on Thursday, the latest in a flurry of purchases ahead of President Xi Jinpings expected US visit next month. State-run buyer Sinograin bought 10 to 15 cargoes on Wednesday, the traders said. At least 10 cargoes were for October-November shipment, one trader said. The ...

Congolese health authorities were screening more than 300 people travelling on a river boat intercepted near Kinshasa on Thursday after the death of a passenger suspected of having Ebola raised concerns the virus may have spread on board, officials said. Authorities deployed a mobile laboratory to the vessel after it was stopped in Maluku, around 65km (40 ...

The United States sanctioned Cubas senior military representative in Beijing on Thursday, accusing him of helping procure military-related equipment from China for the islands armed forces. Waldo Perez Cortes, Cubas military, naval and air attache in Beijing, was among six Cuban nationals and five entities added to the US Treasury Departments Specially ...

A swimming pool at a private housing estate in Hong Kongs Happy Valley has been ordered to close after authorities discovered a lifeguard on duty was suspected of using fraudulent credentials. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) said on Thursday that the lifeguards credentials did not match records held by the Hong Kong China Life Saving ...

China honoured two coastguard personnel who died in a vessel collision in the South China Sea last year, state media reported on Thursday, marking the first official confirmation that the incident resulted in fatalities. The Peoples Armed Police (PAP) on Thursday announced the latest recipients of its Loyal Guards of the Chinese Peoples Armed Police honour. ...

Jetstars plan to charge passengers for overhead locker space is set to test how far budget airlines in the Asia-Pacific region can go in making travellers pay separately for what was once part of a basic fare. The Australian carriers move comes as rising costs and competition push airlines to find new revenue beyond the ticket price, potentially giving ...

A US Senate committee voted on Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after the former top US infectious disease official refused to answer questions about his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved a referral pushed by its Republican Chair Rand Paul of Kentucky, a long-time ...

Imagine a woman sitting at her vanity as a robotic arm reaches across the table, picks up her lipstick, and applies it to her lips while running through her morning schedule. Meet Iron Bestie, a personalised make-up assistant that just snatched top honours at what organisers billed as Hong Kongs first physical artificial intelligence hackathon, beating more ...

Britain on Thursday gave the green light to Paramount Skydances US$110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, as the entertainment and media mega-deal still faces a key hurdle in the United States. The UK government and the antitrust watchdog both cleared the deal after initially raising concerns over media plurality and competition, respectively. The ...

Hong Kong should require a double-check mechanism for all embryo biopsy procedures and overhaul its reproductive technology law, the citys largest political party has proposed following a rare mix-up of specimens at a fertility clinic. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) issued the call on Thursday, nearly a month ...

Two former relationship managers at Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong have been jailed for three years for swindling HK$28 million (US$3.6 million) from 21 Japanese investors who believed their money would fund development projects in Africa. The District Court on Thursday sentenced Woo Man-ho and Chan Tak-ching on a total of four counts of conspiracy to ...

The recent decision by the US government not to extend its Hong Kong-related state of emergency saw the effective lifting of sanctions on nine mainland Chinese and Hong Kong officials. At a Ministry of Commerce press briefing, a spokesman called it an important step in fulfilling the consensus reached in negotiations. Some view the move as a part of the ...

The fate of a five-year-old boy starved to death by his mother, who had a history of drug abuse, could have been different had social workers noticed he was just skin and bones, a Hong Kong judge lamented in her ruling. Just three months before the boy died in September 2022, a worker from the Social Welfare Department handling the case visited the ...

In a show of space surveillance strength, a newly launched Chinese satellite tracked a piece of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashing into the moon and captured footage of its impact. No visible plume can be seen in the images that appear to show the moment of impact, which is consistent with what other scientists and telescopes reported immediately after the ...

A dramatic drop in US student visas issued to Chinese and Indian nationals is the latest flashpoint in the debate over education and security after an American think tank framed the decline as a benefit for US students and national security. The report by the Washington-based Centre for Immigration Studies (CIS) has triggered a backlash in China, where ...

Two women who were switched at birth 37 years ago grew up just 4km apart in southern China, discovering that a hospital error had set their lives on divergent paths. Huang Xiaolin and Li Hui were born 55 minutes apart at Qingyuan Peoples Hospital in Qingyuan, Guangdong province, in October 1989, according to China Newsweek. Nurses briefly presented the ...

A German court on Thursday handed an Afghan man a life sentence for a car-ramming attack in Munich last year which killed a two-year-old girl and her mother and left dozens injured. The court in Munich found the man, named only as Farhad N., guilty of two counts of murder, 23 of attempted murder, and 22 counts of bodily harm, 19 of them serious. The court ...

In China, robots are being used to inject pigs with vaccines to support intelligent pig farming and meet the production demands of the worlds biggest pork-producing nation. While eating, a pig may not notice the machine approaching from behind before the robot uses a camera to locate the base of the pigs tail before delivering a needle-free vaccine ...

Scores of travellers at Hong Kong International Airport faced delays and were forced to take alternative routes to their boarding gates after an automated train serving Terminal 2 broke down on Thursday. Photos circulating on social media on Thursday morning showed crowds gathered outside the platform doors, while signs erected at the terminal said the ...

Chinese state television has broadcast rare footage apparently showing the US Air Forces Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan as a target of the PLAs missile force. During an episode of the CCTV documentary Securing Victory on Monday, a satellite image of an airbase was seen in the background as Peoples Liberation Army Rocket Force officers discussed an ...

A pilot allegedly caught with tens of thousands of Ecstasy pills in Jakarta is the most high-profile case in a recent string of arrests that police and criminologists say points to a growing problem: transnational syndicates are using Malaysia to move drugs and recruit couriers. The case was followed within days by other arrests involving Malaysians in ...

A gunman killed a social media influencer during a live stream in Mexicos volatile northwestern state of Sinaloa, authorities said on Wednesday, a public killing that underscored ongoing violence targeting social media personalities in the Latin American nation. The influencer, Cesar Gastelum, was killed on Tuesday night in the Sinaloa state capital of ...