Three people, including South Korean soldiers, were injured in a suspected mine blast inside the demilitarised zone (DMZ), South Koreas Yonhap News TV reported on Monday. The DMZ, which has divided the peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean war ended with an armistice, is among the most heavily mined places in the world. A soldier was seriously injured during ...

A fierce 30-minute bidding war for a rare Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama pumpkin bag seized in Singapores S$3 billion (US$2.35 billion) money laundering case sent its final price soaring on Sunday night. The limited-edition yellow monogram leather piece, which was a collaboration between the luxury fashion house and the Japanese artist who recently died at ...

Japans Environment Ministry is stepping up measures against longhorn beetles that are devouring cherry trees, with a request for 6.7 billion yen (US$43 million) to counter invasive species in the next financial years initial budget. According to the ministry, the requested amount, which is an increase of 11 times the initial budget of 600 million yen for ...

Hong Kong authorities have captured three stray mongrels near a road in Yuen Long after a female cyclist was suspected of having died in a fatal dog attack in the area. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said on Monday that it had worked alongside police to capture three stray dogs near Pok Wai South Road on Sunday evening. But ...

When Chinese artificial intelligence developers want to train their next-generation frontier models, they all face the same daunting wall: they cannot legally buy the worlds most powerful AI chips. However, the countrys tech giants and start-ups have still managed to quietly keep pace with global rivals. Their secret is an elusive workaround: moving heavy ...

A woman in her 70s in northern China briefly exhibited signs of life after being placed in a coffin, but ultimately died two days later. The woman, from Hebei province, had been suffering from cerebral thrombosis for decades and was also battling cancer, according to reports from mainland sources. After doctors concluded that her cancer was no longer ...

Tribal leader Petronila Munoz walked across the sweeping Philippine grasslands she has called home for generations, uncertain about its future, as a sprawling tech hub for a US-led initiative takes shape. With little information and no prior consultation, the indigenous chieftain said her Aeta Hungey tribe was uncertain how much of their land could be ...

Europe faces a fourth-quarter jet fuel deficit, even as it turns to far-flung suppliers including South Korea, which is set to boost its jet exports to Europe to a four-year high in September, according to analysts and shipping data. The continent has been importing more jet fuel from nations including Nigeria, the United States and Canada since the ...

Mainland Chinas stock exchanges have stepped up lobbying of companies and regulators to prioritise domestic listings after Hong Kong stole their thunder in fundraising activities in recent years, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The domestic exchanges recently met representatives of some mainland companies planning Hong Kong listings, ...

Chinese chipmaker Hygon Information Technology is set to release a new chip targeting physical-world applications including robotics, expanding from its current focus on data centres, according to Chinese media reports and company information. The product launch, slated for Tuesday, marks Hygons move into a new chip category powering machines that interact ...

Eighteen suspects in the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise have been taken to Florida to stand trial, US officials said on Sunday. Moise, 53, was shot dead on July 7, 2021 at his private home by a hired group of about 20 military-trained Colombian mercenaries. His security detail did not intervene to protect him. Todays multi-location ...

The Philippines rise to upper-middle-income status was supposed to mark a new phase for one of Southeast Asias most closely watched emerging economies. Instead, analysts say the milestone has done little to shield the country from short-term pressures weighing on growth: sluggish public spending, delayed infrastructure, high living costs and the fallout ...

Hong Kong customs recorded a nearly 50 per cent year-on-year rise in drug seizures during the first half of 2026, driven by notable increases in smuggling activities via air and sea routes. The Customs and Excise Department confiscated 5,704kg (12,575lbs) of illegal narcotics in the first half, a 49 per cent increase year on year, according to figures seen ...

A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and wounded a man on Sunday afternoon in Austin, Texas, local authorities said, and anti-ICE protesters quickly gathered at the scene. The unidentified man was in a serious but stable condition at a hospital after being shot once in the torso on the capital citys north side, Austin officials said ...

Competition between mainland China and Hong Kong for hi-tech initial public offerings presents emerging technology firms with a dual-track strategic choice rather than a zero-sum battle, according to an executive at a national cross-border innovation platform. There is naturally a degree of competition, Lu Peng, general manager of Beijing-based Zhongguancun ...

The professional body for Hong Kong barristers has dismissed as premature and largely academic calls by solicitors for legal changes so fellow lawyers can gain recognition as senior counsel and rights to represent clients in higher-level courts. The Law Society, the governing body for the citys solicitors, is calling for the higher status for its members as ...

Pascal Lamy served two consecutive terms as director general of the World Trade Organization from 2005 to 2013. Before that, he spent decades in various French government roles, contributing to the building of the European Union. He was chief of staff to European Commission president Jacques Delors from 1985 to 1994, and European trade commissioner from ...

In early July, China fired a test missile from a nuclear submarine into the South Pacific for the first time, a weapon capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Washington and Canberra were livid. The Pacific has long been the exclusive testing ground for such long-range missiles from the United States. How dare China! The reaction from Pacific island states ...

Russia vowed on Sunday to intensify its strikes on Kyiv in response to Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow, as an exit poll showed the ruling United Russia party on course to win tightly controlled parliamentary elections. Ukraine fired waves of drones at Moscow and the surrounding region on the final day of voting, killing two people and setting an oil ...

Thousands of people marched in Paris and other French cities on Sunday against a proposed law on the legitimate use of force that critics say would be a licence to kill for police and gendarmes. In July, deputies in the National Assembly approved the bill which says that any police official who uses force is assumed to have acted legally when using their ...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suffered a bruising electoral setback in two state elections on Sunday, including a historic defeat for his party, but vowed to press ahead with potentially painful reforms to Europes biggest economy. Exit polls by public broadcaster ARD on Sunday night indicated that Merzs centre-right Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, ...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday she will soon introduce a measure to her government that would cap the number of foreign pupils in classrooms and ban the wearing of burkas and niqabs in schools. Meloni told the youth wing of her nationalist conservative Brothers of Italy party that the measure would also make Italian language lessons ...

Chinese President Xi Jinping and other top leaders sent condolences from Beijing as Hong Kong bade farewell to the citys first postcolonial leader, Tung Chee-hwa, at a sombre yet poignant state funeral on Sunday. A report by the official Xinhua News Agency praised Tung, who died on September 8 at the age of 89, as an outstanding contributor to one country ...

A new study finds that prenatal exposure to rare earth elements can raise the risk of low birthweight, with some substances increasing the danger by more than three times. Researchers tracked 4,891 pregnant women who gave birth at Wuhan Maternal and Child Health Hospital between 2012 and 2014. They measured the concentration of 13 rare earth elements ...

The recent opening of a new road bridge between North Korea and Russia may look like a modest infrastructure project. In reality, the 1km stretch across the Tumen River carries implications far beyond the movement of vehicles between two border towns. For China, it is a reminder that its influence over North Korea is no longer as secure as it once appeared ...