China detains activists in year-end crackdown
by Jing Xuan TENG Over a dozen Chinese lawyers and activists were detained or went missing in the final days of 2019 in a crackdown on participants of a private…
Tesla delivers first batch of China-made cars
Tesla delivered its first batch of China-made cars on Monday, less than a year after the electric vehicle company broke ground on its first plant outside the United States. Work…
Bushfires reach Melbourne as heatwave fans Australia blazes
Around 100,000 people were urged to flee five Melbourne suburbs on Monday evening as Australia's spiralling bushfire crisis killed a volunteer firefighter battling a separate blaze in the countryside. Authorities…
Nepalese worker dies in Malaysia meat machine accident
A Nepalese worker was killed Monday after he fell into a meat-mincing machine in Malaysia's Malacca state, an official confirmed. The Malacca fire department's Zulkhairani Ramli told AFP the 47-year-old…
China jails scientist who gene-edited babies
by Patrick BAERT A Chinese court on Monday sentenced the scientist who claimed to be behind the world's first gene-edited babies to three years in prison for illegal medical practice,…
China jails Protestant pastor for 9 years for ‘inciting’ subversion
by Jing Xuan TENG China on Monday jailed the leader of an unofficial Protestant church for nine years for "incitement to subvert state power". Pastor Wang Yi, whose Early Rain…
China denies Uighur academic secretly sentenced to death
China denied on Friday that detained Uighur academic Tashpolat Tiyip was secretly tried and sentenced to death, after UN experts demanded answers from Beijing. The foreign ministry said former Xinjiang…
Locust invasion destroys crops in northwest India
A massive locust invasion has destroyed thousands of hectares of crops in northwest India, authorities said, with some experts on Friday terming it the worst such attack in 25 years.…
Quake strikes near Iran nuclear power plant
An earthquake struck Iran on Friday less than 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the country's only nuclear power plant, monitors said. There were no immediate reports of any casualties or…
Sex, Hitler and IKEA: protesting Indians get creative
by Jalees ANDRABI From Netflix to Hitler, protesters are tapping pop culture and history as they vent their anger against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new citizenship law -- and with…