The Afghan government on Monday accused Pakistan of killing civilians in fresh air strikes on Kabul, but Islamabad said it had conducted precision strikes on military and terrorist targets. Loud explosions rocked the Afghan capital at 9pm local time, with plumes of smoke visible from the Shahr-e-Naw and Wazir Akbar Khan areas of the city. Anti-aircraft ...

A United States diplomat has told Brazilian port industry executives that Washington does not want a Chinese company to win the concession for a major container terminal in Santos, the largest port in Latin America, in the latest sign that the race for one of Brazils most prized infrastructure assets has become a front in the broader rivalry between ...

The UK will welcome Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, British Defence Secretary John Healey told parliament, with the Ukrainian leader expected to travel to Madrid, Spain the next day. Our total determination to stand with Ukraine remains steadfast and we will welcome President Zelensky to this country tomorrow, Healey said on Monday. Healeys announcement came ...

Sean Penn, who won a best supporting actor Oscar for One Battle After Another on Sunday, was in Ukraine on Monday where he met President Volodymyr Zelensky in a show of support for the war-torn country. An Agence France-Presse reporter saw the Mystic River star getting out of a black car in central Kyiv earlier on Monday, wearing sunglasses and carrying a ...

Emirates is operating flights to Dubai that are near-empty in some cases as travellers avoid the Persian Gulf, highlighting the challenges for the worlds largest international airline to restore its network amid a protracted war. Flights from destinations in the US and continental Europe have been hit the hardest, with planes returning from Prague or ...

Draped in garlands, Bhumika Shrestha on Monday became Nepals first transgender woman lawmaker, marking a proud milestone for the marginalised community in the Himalayan nation. Nepals Election Commission confirmed the 37-year-old as a proportional representation MP from the centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which won a majority in parliament with 182 ...

An evil UK nursery worker who raped and abused two- and three-year-olds in his care was jailed for at least 24 years on Monday, weeks after another childcare worker was imprisoned in a similar case. Nathan Bennett, 30, was jailed at Bristol Crown Court in southwest England for the serial abuse of five boys at the nursery where he worked. He was described as ...

Singaporean businessman David Yong was given 12 new charges on Monday for conspiring to make false entries in accounts and for his companys illegal issuing of loans amounting to more than S$1 million (US$780,000). The 38-year-old, whose name in court papers was indicated as Yong Khung Lin, pleaded not guilty in court. The chief executive officer of ...

Hong Kongs Northern Metropolis near the border with mainland China will adopt laws to streamline land approval procedures from nine to two months in a move to speed up its development, the South China Morning Post has learned. Sources told the SCMP that details of the dedicated legislation for the Northern Metropolis would be announced on Tuesday, with a ...

Lessons from the wars in Iran and Ukraine are pushing Taipei to rethink its air-defence strategy, with officials now warning that expensive missiles alone cannot stop large waves of rockets and drones. In a report submitted to Taiwans lawmakers on Monday, the islands defence ministry said low-cost interceptor weapons were urgently needed to counter the ...

Alibaba Group Holding has reshuffled its artificial intelligence operations, creating a new top level business group and placing CEO Eddie Wu Yongming in charge as the AI and e-commerce powerhouse accelerates its push into the emerging token economy. The company said on Monday it had established the Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) Business Group, which brings all ...

Azerbaijan on Monday sentenced a Frenchman to 10 years in prison in an espionage case launched during a period of diplomatic tensions between Paris and Baku that have now eased. Martin Ryan was arrested in December 2023 and went on trial in January last year, when relations between Azerbaijan and France had deteriorated to new lows over Paris support for ...

With the Middle East ablaze and war in Ukraine showing no sign of respite, a stark new consensus is hardening in Paris, London and Berlin that Europe must rearm. Recently, French President Emmanuel Macron signalled a pivotal shift in deterrence by announcing an increase in the nations nuclear warheads and a forward deterrence plan. This follows a rare joint ...

Malaysias highest court on Monday allowed national energy firm Petronas to pursue a legal bid to challenge several laws passed by the state of Sarawak, amid a protracted dispute over gas distribution rights. Sarawak, on Borneo island, is home to more than 60 per cent of Malaysias gas reserves and has long sought greater control over its natural resources. ...

Young people can opt to make self-declarations to be exempted from producing proof of address to register as electors under a new Hong Kong government drive to boost voter numbers, lawmakers have been told. A commissioner for oaths will be stationed at each Immigration Department registration of persons office, where young people replace their juvenile ...

An undercover investigation by state-run China Central Television (CCTV) has cast a harsh light on a controversial practice in a nascent industry: the poisoning of artificial intelligence models with fabricated information. The report showed how techniques of generative engine optimisation (GEO) the AI version of search engine optimisation (SEO) could be ...

Hong Kongs finance chief has likened the powerful AI agent OpenClaw to an efficient digital employee, saying it should not be dismissed but rather improved to address security risk concerns. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-pos remarks on Monday followed the Digital Policy Offices recent advisory urging government departments to avoid installing OpenClaw or ...

The arrest of a 17-year-old stateless teenager during a school outing to buy Eid clothes at a Sabah mall for allegedly failing to show valid residence papers, has returned scrutiny to Malaysias treatment of undocumented people. Niko Ansboy, a student at Borneo Komrad, an alternative school for stateless children, was waiting outside a store during a school ...

Luxury residential property on Hong Kongs Peak Road owned by businessman Chan King-wai has been put up for sale by public tender, several years after he acquired it from companies linked to CK group. Marketing agent JLL said on Monday that the adjoining sites at 86, 88 and 90 Peak Road are being offered for joint sale by tender. The residential lots have a ...

Beijing has increased its inspections on Panama-flagged vessels entering Chinese ports, a source from the shipping industry said, an action intended to raise the Latin American countrys stress level after its courts voided the operating rights of Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison in the Panama Canal. Port state control (PSC) the inspection regime ...

The Peoples Liberation Army ramped up aircraft sorties near Taiwan over the weekend, ending two weeks of relative calm just as a defiant speech by Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te drew a strong rebuke from Beijing. From 6am on Saturday to 6am on Sunday, Taiwan detected 26 PLA aircraft sorties operating around the island. Sixteen of these entered the ...

The Philippines ranks among Asias most gender-equal societies by several international measures. Yet ask Filipino women where they truly belong and most will still tell you: at home. A new survey has found that 83 per cent of Filipino women agree being a housewife is just as fulfilling as working for pay, up from 70 per cent when the same question was posed ...

Iran plans to convert the girls school that was bombed on the first day of the war into a museum commemorating the nearly 200 victims of the strike. This school is a living document of the Americans willingness to commit crimes and must be registered and documented for preservation in the historical memory of the Iranian people, the Iranian government said ...

Tech giant Google will gradually roll out its generative AI services to all users in Hong Kong starting with the Gemini web app before introducing a mobile version for the chatbot and virtual assistant. The move is expected to eliminate the barriers that previously forced many residents to use virtual private networks (VPNs) or third-party platforms to ...

Ethnic minority groups in China have long relied on a gruesome method to predict their fortunes: beating a rooster to death and reading its femur bones, a practice that has lasted for centuries. Tracing back to the Tang (618907) and Song (9601279) dynasties, the custom is known as Dajibu, meaning chicken divination. It originated from ancient spiritual ...