#Technology

by Jean-Baptiste OUBRIER With its deserted streets and closed shops, the centre of Walsall bears witness to Britain’s retail crisis that political parties campaigning for election have vowed to fix. It’s difficult not to be struck by the multitude of “to let” signs on unoccupied shop fronts in the town in central England, near Britain’s […]

Pictures by Sam Yeh and Philip Fong. Video by Sean Chang by Amber Wang, with Yan Zhao in Hong Kong Protests that have paralysed Hong Kong for nearly six months are pushing residents to seek new lives abroad, with many turning to nearby democratic Taiwan to escape the uncertainty at home. Taiwan has long attracted […]

US online sales are set to hit a new record on this week’s “Cyber Monday,” Adobe Analytics said, as e-commerce outlets gear up to lure shoppers in the opening days of the holiday season. Internet purchases are expected to reach $9.4 billion, a jump of nearly 19 percent over last year’s record-setting $7.9 billion take, […]

Hindus are seeking an apology from Hollywood singer-actress Selena Gomez and multinational sports brand Puma for ‘blatant cultural insensitivity’ in their recent advertising campaign. The advertisement shows Gomez standing-sitting-foot resting on books. Books commanded immense respect among Hindus who saw a reflection of goddess Sarasvati in the books. “It was highly insensitive by Gomez and […]

Toshiba Corp.’s latest technology has put them at the forefront of the fight against cancer—they have developed a device that is able to detect 13 types of cancer from a single drop of blood from a patient with a staggering 99 percent accuracy, the company announced on Nov 25. The diagnosis method, which can reportedly […]

South Korean stars Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon have been sentenced by a South Korean court to a jail sentence of six and five years in prison, respectively, for sexually assaulting drunk and unconscious women. Jung, who was also charged with filming the rape and distributing the footage, was given a longer prison sentence than Choi. […]

Airport delays are some of the most stressful hiccups to deal with when you’re travelling. A delayed flight—especially a connecting flight—can throw a wrench in your plans and ruin everything. Besides the hassle of rebooking flights, possibly shelling out more money, and wrangling schedules, there’s also the emotional distress (plus jet lag and exhaustion!) that […]

TVB actor Raymond Lam reportedly applied for December leave to get married, earlier this year. His fiancee Chinese model Carina Zhang and his mother were photographed visiting a wedding boutique. Lam’s fan-club celebration of his 40th birthday which falls on 8 December was cancelled. The wedding which was scheduled for 8 December is now postponed […]

Donnie Yen, star of popular kung fu franchise Ip Man just made an announcement that Ip Man 4 will be his final kung fu film. The 56-year-old martial artist said that he has to keep exploring to grow and he hopes that Ip Man can be written on a valuable page in Chinese film history. […]

In a recent interview with Women’s DongA magazine, South Korean actress Ku Hye Sun candidly shared her thoughts. She is now in the midst of divorce proceedings with Ahn Jae Hyun. When news of their marital issues became public, both of them made headlines. Ku shared that when her divorce was first published, her parents […]

No one is exempt from military service, not even K-pop stars from hit boy band BTS. The boys were informed by the defence ministry of South Korea that mandatory service will remain mandatory, regardless of their celebrity status. The announcement has sparked conversation and debate in South Korea about whether people like artists and athletes […]

With gene editing now presenting such low risks that it can be used in human embryos, genetically-modified babies aren’t just the tales of science fiction. According to a newly published scientific paper, such “designer babies” are “ethically justifiable”, “highly desirable” and could become a possibility in about two years’ time. Dr Kevin Smith, a bioethicist […]

Singapore’s two leading universities—National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU)—have done the country proud, after making it as the top two universities in Asia on the latest Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) university rankings. Besides snagging the top spots in the region, both institutions also tied at 11th place on the recently released (Nov 27) QS’ World […]

Actress Jun Ji Hyun is set to join the cast of ongoing Netflix original Korean drama series Kingdom for seasons 2 and 3 according to reports on 28 November. It’s been reported that the drama’s staff as well as Netflix Korea carried out negotiations to bring Jun Ji Hyun on board very secretively as filming […]

K-pop group Super Junior’s Choi Siwon made Chinese fans furious after he liked a tweet about the demonstrations in Hong Kong a few days ago. While Choi has since apologised and “unliked” the tweet, fans don’t easily forgive (or forget). On Nov 24, the K-pop star liked a tweet from Korean news outlet Chosun. The […]