Asia

A Hong Kong cabinet minister resigned on Monday for attending a birthday party alongside dozens of officials and lawmakers just days after the city’s government had called on people to avoid large gatherings to fight a coronavirus outbreak. “I have today tendered my resignation to the Chief Executive and intend to leave the post today,” […]

Taiwan will not send an official delegation to the opening or closing of the Beijing Winter Olympics due to China’s strict pandemic controls and flight disruptions, the self-ruled island’s governing body for sport said. The decision comes at a time when relations between Beijing and Taipei are at their lowest in decades with China ramping […]

Hong Kong’s oldest university covered up one of the last public tributes to the deadly 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on Saturday, as Beijing continues to muzzle dissent in the financial hub. Hong Kong was the only place in China where mass remembrance of Tiananmen was tolerated, but authorities have driven such activities underground after imposing […]

Beijing — After watching a fight break out among visitors, zoo animals allegedly followed suit and imitated what they just witnessed. “A big fight that occurred at the Beijing Wildlife Park yesterday apparently set a very bad example for the animals witnessing it,” wrote one Manya Koetse on Twitter on Sunday (Aug 8). She shared […]

Tokyo — At least 10 passengers onboard a commuter train in Tokyo were stabbed on Friday (Aug 6) by a man wielding a knife. The man told police that he became incensed after seeing women “looking happy,” sparking a desire to kill them. The 36-year-old was arrested by police after the attack, which occurred at […]

Singapore — Popular vlogger Nuseir Yassin of the Nas Daily fame is finding himself embroiled in not only one but two controversies in the Philippines. In the fallout, he lost 72,200 followers between Aug 4 and 5 alone. Ms Mary Pauline Del Rosario, the head of social media for The Philippine Star, tweeted a screenshot […]

Singapore — It was announced on Friday (Jul 30) that the US Justice Department seized a 2,734-ton tanker that violated international sanctions by bringing petroleum products to North Korea. The M/T Courageous is said to be owned and operated by a Singaporean national. The seizure of the vessel occurred in Mar 2020 with Cambodian officials […]

Yet another social media influencer has died, this time it was a young woman who was uploading a post to Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Twenty-three-year-old Xiao Qiumei, who was popular on the site, was a mother of two. She worked as a crane operator at Quzhou, in western China’s Zhejiang Province. The videos […]

It was rumored a few days ago that billionaire businessman Richard Li moved on from one beauty queen to another. However, an official email has been sent clarifying that there’s no truth to the rumour. Mr Li, who belongs to one of Hong Kong’s most prominent families, dated 2015 Miss Hong Kong runner-up Karmen Kwok, […]

A 32-year-old influencer fell 16 feet to her death from the edge of a waterfall last Saturday (Jul 10).  Ms Sofia Cheung had been taking a selfie with her friends at Tsing Dai stream near Yuen Long, Hong Kong when she accidentally fell. The influencer, whom The US Sun called a “daredevil,” had enjoyed and […]

A Hokkaido, Japan resident in his 80s secretly got two extra doses of Covid-19 vaccines, telling authorities he thought multiple jabs would afford him more protection. Fortunately, the man has suffered no adverse effects from the double dose of the vaccines, and the health officials of Teshikaga, the town in Hokkaido where the man lives, […]

Singapore has recently been hailed a standard to measure up to with regard to its Covid-19 response by former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. In a recent public post, he called out the current Australian government’s failure to follow suit, saying the reason for this is that it “does not want to be accountable.” This […]