Cryptocurrencies in Asia: Singapore & China

WeChat, or Weixin in China, is being evolved to become Facebook’s biggest rival in providing consumer communication and value-added services via the mobile app.

As the coronavirus brought the global economy to its knees, Thai businessman Yod decided to buy himself an $872,000 treat — a lime-green Lamborghini.

When Singapore’s Yung Raja remixed “Gucci Gang” by US rapper Lil Pump, he swapped the original’s flashy cars and a prowling tiger for a beer can and Tamil food in a viral YouTube video that reeled in hip-hop label Def Jam.

Malaysia’s extraordinary 1MDB corruption scandal allegedly saw top officials loot billions from a state fund and go on a worldwide spending spree — buying up super-yachts, paintings by Van Gogh and Monet, and financing a Hollywood blockbuster.

Indian lawmakers approved Friday the scrapping of a tax rule that allowed huge retroactive claims, badly hurt its image for foreign investors, and led to embarrassing attempted asset seizures from Paris to New York.

One of India’s top jewellery retailers has withdrawn an advert featuring an interfaith baby shower after a vicious backlash on social media by Hindu hardliners who said it glorified “love jihad”.

The ultimate guide to the achieve the radiant-looking Asian Skin complexion

Arms covered in cling film and torches in hand as they drop into the sewers, clusters of pro-democracy protesters still inside a Hong Kong campus are plotting increasingly ingenious — and desperate — ways to escape a police siege.

Leyna Bloom and Yumi Nu are the newest Sports Illustrated models that have made history this year. The first Black-Asian, and curvy Asian models, respectively, are proving that women of all sizes and colors can stand out in fashion.

Here are all the things you need to know about Japan

China has announced a temporary ban on its fishing fleet — the world’s biggest — from catching squid in parts of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans after overfishing pushed populations to the brink of collapse.

Hundreds of Nepalis staged a mock funeral procession in the capital Kathmandu Friday after the rape and murder of a teenage girl drew attention to a rise in sexual assault cases.

Beijing on Monday banned written exams for six- and seven-year-olds, as part of sweeping education reforms aimed at relieving pressure on pupils and parents in China’s hyper-competitive school system.

Priests delivered blessings from the back of trucks and motorised tricycles in the Philippine Sunday, adapting the deeply Catholic nation’s traditions to the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

Converge, a Philippine-based internet provider is in talks with Elon Musk’s SpaceX for a potential collaboration in the country. According to Converge, the plan is still in its premature stage. Do you think it can finally give Filipinos the reliable internet they deserve?

Henry Tong and Elaine To were preparing to spend their first wedding anniversary in separate prison cells — until their acquittal for rioting during Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests.

Waving rainbow flags and shedding tears of joy, two Taiwanese same-sex couples tied the knot on Friday at a mass wedding hosted by the military in another landmark for Asia’s LGBT community.

Hong Kong’s economy jumped back into growth in the first quarter of the year, official figures showed Monday, ending the city’s most pronounced period of recession in its modern history.

Japan will halt the use of 1.63 million doses of Moderna’s Covid vaccine after reports of contamination in several vials, drugmaker Takeda and the health ministry said Thursday.

Singapore on Thursday launched what it billed as a coronavirus-secure hotel and meeting complex where visitors communicate via intercom through glass panels, as the Asian financial hub slowly opens up to the world for business.

Hundreds cheered as the three beauty contest finalists strolled out into the middle of the grounds and raised their painted trunks to the judges – symbols of all that is admired and denounced at Nepal’s annual elephant festival.

The Taliban’s stunning and rapid takeover of Afghanistan was the result not only of their battlefield strength, but also a sustained push to force surrenders and cut deals.

A sumo wrestler in Japan said he had “no choice” but to quit the sport after his request to skip a tournament for fear of catching coronavirus was rejected.

It is the world’s most pressing scientific puzzle, but experts warn there may never be conclusive answers over the source of the coronavirus, after an investigative effort marked from the start by disarray, Chinese secrecy and international rancour.

The internet shutdown in Myanmar’s conflict-ridden northwest, described by rights groups as the world’s longest, entered a second year Sunday with locals and campaigners appealing for an end to the blackout as coronavirus fears grip the region.

Love music from Asian artists? Then you’d want to tune in to 88Rising, the first 24-hour broadcast radio channel in North America that will showcase All-Asian music from around the world.

The novel coronavirus outbreak in China may end up saving one of the world’s most trafficked animals after Beijing announced a total ban on the sale and consumption of the pangolin.

A Singaporean woman who starved, assaulted and ultimately killed her domestic worker was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday, with the judge describing the case as “among the worst types of culpable homicide”.

Hundreds of animals have died in Dhaka’s biggest pet market after stores were forced to close during Bangladesh’s coronavirus lockdown, leaving owners desperate and rights activists angry.

China on Wednesday tightened overseas travel restrictions for its citizens as part of efforts to contain rising coronavirus cases, after reporting its highest number of infections in months.

A Hong Kong waiter was jailed for nine years on Friday after he became the first person convicted under a sweeping new national security law that Beijing imposed on the city to stamp out dissent.

Chinese shoppers splurged more than $100 billion in the world’s biggest shopping event of the year, in a huge spending spree that suggests the country’s all-important army of consumers is fighting back after months of pandemic agony.

The last time the Taliban were in power, social networks were a thing of the future — but this time around, the militants’ takeover of Afghanistan poses tricky questions for the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

Taiwan’s aid shipments to countries battling the coronavirus have sparked a fierce debate on the island about whether it should rebrand its national carrier China Airlines.

At 29, Spandan Sharma doesn’t own a flat, a car, or even a chair, Indian millennials bucking traditional norms and instead opting to rent everything from furniture to iPhones.

The pro-democracy group behind Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen Square vigils set up a showdown with authorities on Tuesday as they defied a police deadline to cooperate with a “national security” investigation into their activities.

Get to know who Maria Ressa is, the most controversial and talked- about journalist in the Philippines and the future that awaits her

It is the skyscraper that replaced the Twin Towers in New York’s skyline. Inaugurated in 2014, the One World Trade Center has become a symbol of resilience after the horror of 9/11.

Indonesia’s bid to lure more visitors by spreading halal tourism across the archipelago is facing a backlash, with a Christian celebration of pigs — forbidden for Muslims — the latest act of dissent.

Tokyo on Sunday opened its first major community hub for LGBTQ people, part of a pre-Olympics project that campaigners hope will tackle stigma and raise awareness of discrimination.

In Beijing’s exclusive Haidian district, Zhao says she ploughs $10,000 a year into extra classes for her eight-year-old, a leg up in the competitive scramble of modern China — and an advantage the state now wants to restrict.

Zhang took his elderly father to a Wuhan hospital for a surgical procedure in January, just as coronavirus was consuming the central Chinese city. Within days, his father was dead of the contagion.

Commuters in Japan are fighting back groping with an app

How blurred is the line between respecting a culture and insulting it?

Pool isn’t just a game in the Philippines but a way to make a living, driving a fiercely competitive scene that has produced some of the world’s top players.

LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury company, said Tuesday that a strong pickup in Asian sales and robust online business helped contain the damage from Covid-19 in its 2020 results.

Canada, Britain and the United States have expressed alarm after Ottawa revealed authorities in Hong Kong forced a dual citizen to choose one nationality, enforcing what they said was a little-used regulation for the first time in decades.

With an intelligence network so good they have been compared to the CIA, Thai street vendors are often first on the scene at “guerilla” democracy protests in Bangkok, where they hawk sour pork and fishballs to a democracy-hungry crowd.

Thailand’s monarchy is protected by one of the world’s toughest defamation laws, making any criticism of the powerful King Maha Vajiralongkorn very risky inside the country.

Lady Gaga added her voice to the diplomats and dignitaries sending condolences to Japan on Thursday to mark 10 years since its catastrophic earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.