Singapores southern holiday island of Sentosa has halted all water activities after a crocodile sighting on Saturday night. The islands main coastal recreational stretches Siloso, Palawan and Tanjong Beach remain open but the Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) has banned all water activities, including swimming and kayaking, as wildlife officials ...

Xia Xian, a virologist who was formerly a project scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, has left the United States to take up a position studying highly pathogenic viruses which have a strong ability to cause severe disease or illness in infected hosts at his alma mater, Wuhan University, in central China. According to the universitys ...

When Hong Kongs Housing Authority launched the Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS) in 1998, it embodied the citys aspiration of home ownership for all. Then the chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, envisioned public housing tenants buying their flats at a discount, transforming renters into homeowners. That year, the first batch of 25,000 flats was rolled out. In ...

A woman from central China has made waves by selling courses that teach women the techniques of seductive gazes and flirtation to rejuvenate their marriages. Now in her late 40s, Zhou Yuan, from Changsha, Hunan province, left her career in banking to start a beauty salon before founding the Black and White Sexual Intelligence School. Zhou has become known ...

Hong Kong authorities have uncovered robot-operated accounts booking public indoor sports venues just a week after a new anti-touting policy took effect, prompting experts to call for stronger measures against scalping. A Leisure and Cultural Services Department spokesman told the South China Morning Post that authorities had detected bots being used to ...

For Choi Yu-jin, a 31-year-old Seoul-based fashion designer, the perfect getaway requires three elements: value, spotless streetscapes and unforgettable flavours. And Shanghai, she says, delivers on all counts. Three visits since 2024, with a fourth planned for April, are testament to a city that is increasingly capturing the imagination and wallets of ...

It has been just over a month since Lee Hyun-jun* was discharged from his mandatory military service, but the 22-year-old college student already feels he has hit an invisible wall regarding his future. Whenever I search for jobs, internships or fellowship programmes on online platforms, they always ask for the name of your university, Lee told This Week in ...

A five-year-old boy and his father must be released by Tuesday from the Texas centre where they have been held after being detained by immigration officers in Minnesota, a federal judge ordered Saturday in a ruling that harshly criticised US President Donald Trumps administrations approach to enforcement. Images of Liam Conejo Ramos, with a bunny hat and ...

A new PLA missile could provide a cheap and widely deployable option to knock out fragile US sea-lifting capabilities in an attrition war, a Chinese military magazine has suggested. The YJ-18C, a subsonic land-attack cruise missile first revealed in Beijings September 3 Victory Day military parade, has the potential to be repurposed for anti-ship use, ...

The IndiaEU trade agreement marks a significant moment in the development of the global political economy. Described by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the mother of all deals, the agreement links one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies with the worlds biggest single market. Yet, within hours of Brussels and New Delhi ...

Italys Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni joked on Saturday that she does not look like an angel, after a row blew up in the media over a restored fresco in a Rome church. Some of Italys press have been asking whether the premier served as inspiration for a cherub painted in a chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, located a few metres (yards) from the ...

Britains former prince Andrew was again engulfed by the Epstein scandal on Saturday, after newly released files included photographs of him kneeling on all fours over a woman lying on the floor. The images were among millions of new documents disclosed Friday by the US Justice Department from the Jeffrey Epstein files, which also featured the late sex ...

Hong Kong authorities swift U-turn on a law requiring bus passengers to wear seat belts came about because of a lack of public consultation during policymaking and a less than thorough crafting process for the regulatory fine print, political observers have said. Failures on both fronts should serve as a wake-up call for officials and lawmakers to do much ...

An explosion took place on Saturday at a building in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas on the Gulf coast, state media reported, although the cause of the blast was as yet unknown. State television said the explosion occurred at an eight-storey building, destroying two floors, several vehicles and shops in the area of Moallem Boulevard in the city. Rescue and ...

Dressed like 1970s rock stars evoking bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Velvet Sundown look the part of a real band with one key difference: despite millions of listeners, they do not exist. The group is generated by artificial intelligence. AI-generated music is exploding, with the rapid expansion of platforms like the United States Suno and ...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMPs journalism by subscribing. Hongkongers should brace for cooler weather on Sunday as temperatures are expected to drop to as low as 13 degrees Celsius (55.4 Fahrenheit). The Hong Kong Observatory said on Saturday that the mercury would plunge to ...

Separatists from Pakistans Balochistan province claimed responsibility for nearly a dozen coordinated attacks across southern Pakistan early on Saturday that targeted civilians, a high-security prison, police stations and paramilitary installations. Eleven civilians, 10 security personnel and 67 insurgents were killed, authorities said. Though Baloch ...

Chinas unrelenting anti-corruption drive will improve not compromise the militarys fighting strength, two signed commentaries published in the PLA Daily have argued. The articles one on Friday and the other on Saturday in the Peoples Liberation Army mouthpiece called corruption the number one killer of battle effectiveness and cautioned against both ...

Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings is expected to move forward with selling its remaining port assets, despite Panamas Supreme Court nullifying its contract for two terminals at either end of the countrys geostrategically vital canal, according to experts. But the effort by billionaire Li Ka-shings conglomerate to offload the rest of its ports would ...

A documentary about a community resisting an immigration raid in Scotland has won an award at a major film festival. Everybody To Kenmure Street was recognised with the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance at the Sundance Film Festival in the US. The film documents events on May 13, 2021, when hundreds of people gathered in ...

Ukraines power grid experienced mass outages on Saturday after a technical malfunction caused electrical lines between Moldova, Romania and Ukraine to fail, Ukraines energy minister said. The outages knocked out water supplies to Ukraines capital, Kyiv, and prompted a complete shutdown of the citys metro network, paralysing transport for thousands. Today at ...

Hong Kongs private schools could be ordered to cease operating or have their registration revoked if their management is deemed unsatisfactory under new guidelines issued by education authorities. The Education Bureau released a code of practice on Friday for private primary and secondary schools, following reports of poor management including some ...

The Peoples Liberation Army has moved to tighten control over fuel supplies as part of its latest efforts to improve logistics a cornerstone of combat readiness. New regulations issued recently aimed to standardise the process of military fuel management in areas such as procurement, transport, storage and disposal, the official PLA Daily said on Tuesday. ...

Labubu toymaker Pop Mart plans to establish its European headquarters in London, as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met the companys founder during a high-profile China visit aimed at rebuilding Britains economic ties with the worlds second largest economy. That plan was revealed at a closed-door CEO round table on Friday during the UK-China Business Forum, ...

China carried out naval and air patrols around Scarborough Shoal on Saturday just days after joint US-Philippine drills nearby underscoring tensions in the disputed South China Sea waters. The PLA Southern Theatre Command issued a statement on the combat readiness patrols near the shoal, which China calls Huangyan Island. They were aimed at countering ...