Hong Kong police have arrested seven people over robbery of six gold bars worth HK$7 million (US$893,102), with some suspects believed to have fled to mainland China. The force said on Saturday that four men and three women were arrested on Thursday after a 36-year-old man reported the robbery at about 12.30am the same day at a car park at the airport. ...

Led by Japan, East Asia seems to be setting off along a road to nowhere beyond tension and maybe eventual conflict. This may seem a harsh indictment yet consecutive Japanese leaders have shown a lack of vision on the constructive role their country could play in achieving regional peace and economic integration. The latest manifestation of this is Japanese ...

Bolivias crisis intensified on Saturday as President Rodrigo Paz declared a state of emergency, enabling wider military deployment to clear blockades and restore order after protests brought the economy to a halt over the past 50 days. The emergency declaration gives Paz broader constitutional tools to restore order, such as sending armed forces to clear ...

Hong Kong could position itself as a magnet for international organisations and lead on setting standards, according to analysts who have weighed in how the city can contribute to Beijings global governance reform after the publication of a new white paper expanding on that initiative. The white paper published by Chinas State Council on Wednesday, titled ...

A 77-year-old man in southeastern China has spent nearly six decades turning homesickness, hardship and family duty into letters sent across the sea. Jiang Mingdian, from Quanzhou in Fujian province, is regarded as one of Chinas last active professional letter writers, though no public figures show how many still practise the trade. Over 59 years, he has ...

Hong Kong will review the age threshold of elderly residents in need to better identify priority cases and prevent more tragedies from happening, the welfare chief has vowed following the latest suicide by an elderly resident. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han made the pledge on Saturday after a 70-year-old man was found hanging in his flat ...

More areas within the Northern Metropolis development could benefit from new measures to ease cross-border flows of data, materials and capital, with pilot initiatives set to launch this year in Hong Kongs innovation zone with Shenzhen. The details were revealed on Saturday in a paper submitted to the Legislative Council by the Development Bureau, which ...

Thousands of residents have flocked to a military base of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Hong Kong Garrison as it opened its barracks to the public to celebrate the coming 29th anniversary of the citys return to Chinese rule. The Ngong Shuen Chau Barracks opened to visitors at 9am on Saturday, with hundreds of people queuing early and waiting in ...

As Southeast Asia grapples with energy supply uncertainty, fallout from the Iran conflict and intensifying rivalry between the United States and China, Russia appears to be presenting itself as a viable third power option for the region, analysts say. Moscows pitch was on display at the Asean-Russia Commemorative Summit in Kazan on Thursday, where Russian ...

US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi were both headed to Switzerland for talks, Axios said on Friday, as a ceasefire in Lebanon appeared to revive efforts to turn an interim Iran war pact into a lasting regional deal. Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon on Friday after escalating fighting cast doubt over ...

China has tested what it calls the worlds first intelligent squid fishing robot that can mimic the motions performed by humans to attract the deep-water creatures to the surface. The smart machine is currently undergoing sea trials aboard the Song Hang scientific research vessel, which is expected to conduct a survey in the northwestern Pacific Ocean until ...

Celty arrives at a cosplay venue in Kuala Lumpur and does not look the part yet, dressed in jeans and a plain t-shirt. He finds a toilet, locks a cubicle door, transforms his looks and is ready to turn heads dressed from head to toe in a helmet, boots, choker, corset and a glossy black latex catsuit. The Kuala Lumpur-based latex enthusiast has rehearsed ...

Hong Kong should do more to leverage its traditional festivals to draw international visitors and build its competitive advantage in cultural tourism, Shangri-La Group chairman and CEO Kuok Hui Kwong has said. Kuok, the daughter of Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok, said Hong Kong had done well since the Covid-19 pandemic to entice international visitors back to ...

Everyone knows the story: when Spanish conquistadors rode into the New World, Native Americans were stunned by a towering, four-legged creature they had never seen before. Horses, the theory goes, were a European import to the Americas. But a new fossil DNA study indicates that horses actually originated in North America millions of years ago and only ...

Scientists have detected the H5 strain of bird flu in Australia for the first time, meaning the highly contagious variant has now spread to every continent. Australian Agriculture Minister Julie Collins told a press conference on Saturday that the disease had been found in a migratory sea bird, a brown skua, in remote Western Australia, and the result was ...

South Korean e-commerce companies are increasingly turning to Chinese platforms to help sellers tap rising demand for Korean products, offering a lower-cost route into China and other overseas markets without building local operations. 11street, one of South Koreas major online marketplaces, recently opened a storefront on JD Worldwide, JD.coms cross-border ...

The runway at Clark International Airport was built to launch American air power across Asia. Now, it is being repurposed to project German industrial ambition. Analysts say the multimillion-dollar deal to develop the former US military base in the Philippines illustrates how economic investment has become the new language of strategic power. The deal, ...

Carl Jung was a big fan of the I Ching, also known as the Book of Changes. He was also a close friend of Richard Wilhelm, whose German translation was probably the most influential Western version of the ancient Chinese text in the last century. But over the years, I have become convinced that the great Jung didnt really get it. A red flag is that he thinks ...

Norway is imposing a near ban on the use of generative AI tools by elementary school pupils while also restricting their use in the education of older children to prevent a negative impact on learning, the countrys prime minister has said. Facing a broad decline in education test scores, the government in 2024 banned smartphones from schools and has given ...

A three-month-old infant in China suffering from poisoning had to be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) after his parents fed him with baby milk formula prepared with vegetable juice. The baby boy was rushed to Zhongshan Women and Childrens Hospital in southern Guangdong province when his body turned purple, his mouth turned purplish-blue and he was ...

In the second of a two-part series tracing new trends in illegal betting in Hong Kong amid excitement over the football World Cup, Connor Mycroft looks at the rise of prediction markets and the risks. Read part one here. When 25-year-old Jean Pierre* started betting on Polymarket last year, his reasoning was simple: I was just looking to see if I could make ...

In the mist-wrapped hills of northern Thailand, where cacao trees erupt from the rich, nutrient-dense soil, three little words are spreading fear through a community of farmers. There is no way to know for certain, Koranut Rattanayanyong told This Week in Asia. But it could be a total wipeout. The weather event Koranut is dreading? A super El Nino. Earlier ...

For much of the 20th century, many were accustomed to thinking of people as an ever-expanding resource. As the number of people grew, so did labour markets, consumer markets, scientific communities, production systems and armies. In 1950, the worlds population was about 2.5 billion. In 2026, it is reaching 8.3 billion. In just 75 years, the population has ...

Emergency services rushed to the scene of a collision between two trains north of London on Friday afternoon that killed at least one person. A passenger reported that he was thrown forward by the impact then saw fellow travellers with broken bones and bloody injuries. Both trains were travelling south to London St Pancras station when they collided outside ...

Polands nationalist president Karol Nawrocki announced on Friday he was stripping Ukraines Volodymyr Zelensky of the countrys top award, escalating a row between the neighbours and allies over World War II massacres. Relations between Warsaw and Kyiv have been tense for days over Zelenskys naming of a Ukrainian army unit after a WWII nationalist insurgent ...