Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi on Saturday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to strengthen international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and ...

Chinese women are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) generated footage of vagabonds at their homes to test how much their partners love them. The unusual trend has sparked concerns over the abuse of AI-generated content. On mainland social media platforms, several women said that they asked AI to generate images and videos of homeless men ...

When US tariffs slammed shut the doors to one of Malaysias most important export markets, menswear designer Bon Zainal Harun didnt flinch. His answer to Washingtons volley of levies was as sharp as the suits he makes: Hustle. Until recently, Zainal exported his bespoke suits and formalwear to the United States, but the 19 per cent tariff imposed by US ...

Hong Kongs investigative authority has retrieved two black boxes from the crashed cargo plane that killed two security workers earlier this week, pledging to release a preliminary report within a month. The Air Accident Investigation Authority (AAIA), which is responsible for investigating the accident, said on Saturday that it had managed to recover two ...

In the forests of rural northern Japan an old terror is stirring, as a record year for deadly bear attacks revives memories of a historical massacre that has haunted rural communities for generations. Authorities on Wednesday confirmed that a man in his seventies, discovered lifeless in Iwate prefecture on October 10, had died as a result of a bear attack ...

Chinas sanctions on Hanwha Ocean will drive up the firms costs in the medium term but may also end up boosting South Korean ties with the US over the long term as Washington seeks to expand naval shipbuilding capacity, analysts said. Last week, the Chinese commerce ministry announced it had imposed sanctions on five US-based affiliates of Hanwha Ocean, one ...

Veteran Hong Kong lawmaker and senior government adviser Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee has announced she would not seek another term in the coming Legislative Council election, bringing to a close her 17-year stint in the legislature. The 75-year-old chairwoman of the New Peoples Party, who has served in Legco since 2008, is not on the eight-person aspirant list ...

For the first time in more than a decade, Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit South Korea next week, travelling to the historic city of Gyeongju for talks with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung as well as to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit. While the trip carries limited expectations for immediate breakthroughs, it is seen ...

North Korea is circumventing UN sanctions by using cryptocurrency to trade raw materials and military weaponry, and by deploying large numbers of IT workers abroad to launder funds and generate income for Pyongyang, an international sanctions monitoring group has reported. Under leader Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang has ramped up cyber operations in recent years, ...

On a Sunday morning earlier this month, five friends from Bangkok stepped through the marble lobby of the Studio City Hotel in Macau the kind of place better known for gaming tables and stage shows than medical check-ups. Instead, they were heading to iRad Hospital, tucked inside the resort complex, for a round of beauty treatments and wellness sessions. ...

Despite weeks of frantic diplomacy, the chances of South Korea and the United States sealing a trade deal before next weeks Apec summit appear to be slim, with strong domestic backing enabling Seoul to resist a compromise seen as perilous to the national economy. Under a framework agreement reached in July, US President Donald Trumps administration offered ...

A unique caf in Japan is charging 4,000 yen (US$25) for customers to experience being a maid by serving members of staff posing as clients. The quirky new trend launched by a creative team dedicated to maid cosplay culture in Japan has attracted much attention from male customers. This spring the group introduced a pop-up concept called the Cafe Where You ...

In a months time, 22-year-old Hongkonger Tony Lam Chun-ho will be graduating from Polytechnic University with a degree in business administration. But instead of following his peers into a professional career, he is choosing to fight for the legacy of his familys six-decade-old grocery store. Lam Kee Grocery Shop is one of only a handful of small businesses ...

Thailands Queen Mother Sirikit, who supervised royal projects to help the rural poor, preserve traditional craft-making and protect the environment, died on Friday. She was 93. The Royal Household Bureau said she died in a hospital in Bangkok. Since October 17, she had been suffering from a blood infection but despite her medical teams efforts, her ...

Wee Ee Cheong leans back in his chair in the boardroom of UOB Plaza and behind him a deep green bonsai peeks into view from a shelf, poised like it is meant to be part of the conversation. Wees minders had told us not to be surprised if he talks about his beloved plants. It is his hobby, after all. A lush bonsai graces the cover of the banks annual report ...

Deep Robotics, a Hangzhou-based start-up, is facing a severe talent shortage, hindering its efforts to commercialise the results of its research and development, according to its chief technology officer (CTO). Li Chao, who is also a co-founder of the robot maker, said at the Bund Summit Financial Forum in Shanghai on Friday that highly skilled ...

A French court on Friday sentenced an Algerian woman to life imprisonment without parole for raping, torturing and murdering a girl in Paris, making her the first woman to receive this maximum sentence. Dahbia Benkired was handed an irreducible life sentence for killing 12-year-old Lola Daviet in the French capital in 2022, in a case that horrified the ...

Hong Kong-based charity GX Foundation is broadening its public health initiatives in belt and road countries, as Chinese enterprises are increasingly expected to consider the social dimension of their operations beyond foreign investment pursuits, its chairman, former city leader Leung Chun-ying, has said. The foundation signed a memorandum of understanding ...

At a conference in December, Wang Xingxing the robotics guru who founded Chinas industry-leading Unitree Robotics had a sharp critique. China is at a disadvantage in terms of talent reserves because its education system has decided that knowledge learned in school is often outdated, whereas overseas students study the worlds most cutting-edge ...

All eight publicly subsidised universities in Hong Kong have secured a place among the worlds top 350 institutions, according to the 2026 World University Rankings released by Times Higher Education earlier this month. This is the first time all Hong Kongs public universities have made the prestigious list. Even more exciting is the fact that six of them ...

Britains justice minister on Friday said he was appalled after an Ethiopian asylum seeker and convicted sex offender whose crimes sparked protests was released from jail in error. The high-profile case earlier this year ignited demonstrations which swiftly spread to other towns where asylum seekers were believed to be housed, as well as counter-protests. ...

Two people have fallen victim to scammers who impersonated courier workers and sent fake text messages to steal bank account information in Hong Kong, with one person losing more than HK$1 million. Police revealed the cases on their CyberDefender social media account on Friday, warning that the force had recorded more than 60 phishing scams over the past ...

India trialled cloud seeding over its smog-filled capital for the first time, spraying a chemical from an aeroplane to encourage rain and wash deadly particles out of the air. Cloud seeding is the practice of using aeroplanes to fire salt or other chemicals into clouds to induce rain. New Delhi city authorities, working with the governments Indian Institute ...

Hong Kong police will issue summons to 31 minibus passengers after undercover officers discovered that commuters were not wearing their seat belts. The force said that the operation took place on Friday and involved undercover officers from its Kowloon East traffic enforcement and control division checking for anyone not wearing seat belts on minibuses. ...

A diamond brooch owned and abandoned by Napoleon Bonaparte after the Battle of Waterloo will go up for auction for the first time. The brooch, made of nearly 100 diamonds, was left behind after the emperor fled Waterloos battlefield to return to Paris, and was given to the king of Prussia three days later as part of the trophies his armies took back. The ...