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Cuba pardons 2,010 prisoners in ‘humanitarian’...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/03

Cuba’s government announced on Thursday that it was pardoning 2,010 prisoners as a “humanitarian” gesture during Holy Week, after pledging in March to release dozens amid heightened US pressure on Havana. The major announcement comes days after US President Donald Trump eased a de facto oil blockade of Cuba by allowing a Russian tanker to deliver crude to the fuel-starved island. The Trump administration has called for change in communist-run Cuba’s system of government and the US president

Indonesian grandmother freed from Malaysian death row...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/03

An Indonesian woman who spent nearly 15 years on death row in a Malaysian prison for drug trafficking has returned home after receiving clemency, in a case rights groups say highlights the exploitation of poor migrant women in cross-border drug operations. Ani Anggraeni, also known as Asih, boarded a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta late on Thursday after being freed from custody. In a video message shared with This Week in Asia while en route, the 66-year-old said she was still struggling

Strait of Hormuz crisis

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/03

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Hong Kong police on the hunt for 2 men who attacked...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/03

Hong Kong police are on the hunt for two men who allegedly attacked a taxi driver with whom they had an argument in Yuen Long in the early hours of Friday. The force received a report from the 57-year-old victim at 2.50am. The cabby said he had asked the two men blocking his vehicle off at 3 Kau Yuk Road to move aside, but his plea triggered a quarrel and led to him being attacked by the pair. The two men, both described as non-ethnic Chinese, fled after the attack. Officers arriving at the...

‘I can’t breathe’: Korean Air sued over in-flight...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/03

Korean Air said on Friday it will faithfully respond to legal procedures in the United States, where a lawsuit was filed in Virginia on behalf of the estate of Porscha Tynisha Brown, who died at age 33 in March 2024, during a flight from Washington to Incheon operated by the airline. Burns Charest, the law firm representing the complainants, claimed her death resulted from a series of critical failures by Korean Air flight personnel. According to the complaint, Brown experienced sudden...

More Hongkongers to travel over long Easter break...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/03

More Hongkongers are expected to travel elsewhere during the five-day Easter weekend from Friday despite a sharp jump in fuel surcharges, according to industry leaders.They also expect more visitors from mainland China during an overlapping Ching Ming Festival holiday, but doubt the influx will deliver any significant boost to the city’s tourism revenue. Some noted that the Easter break might have encouraged travel to the Middle East, but many tour groups have been cancelled until October

Chinese man uses septic tank trucks on wedding day;...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/03

A man in China who followed his parents into the sewage removal business has used nine septic tank trucks to greet his bride on their wedding day. The nuptials, the first of their kind in China, unfolded on March 28 in Suixi county of central Anhui province, the hometown of the groom Pan Haonan. The event trended on social media and a video of the proceedings was viewed 5 million times, receiving nearly 20,000 likes, the news outlet The Cover reported. Pan’s father has been engaged in

Solomon Islands residents live in fear of WWII bomb...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/03

After playing in a forested area in the Solomon Islands, Billy’s children often break out in rashes or itchy boils at home. A few years ago, the family became dizzy, suffered headaches and vomited – they believed it was due to the clams from nearby mangrove beds that they had eaten. “It was lucky that we stopped the children from eating them,” said Billy, whose family lives a hand-to-mouth existence in the village of Yandina in the Russell Islands. The 50-year-old farmer suspected that...

After car crash, Tiger Woods told officer he was...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

After crashing his SUV last week in Florida, Tiger Woods took out his phone and told a deputy, “I was just talking to the president,” according to body camera footage released Thursday showing Woods’ arrest on a DUI charge. The phone conversation was not captured on video, but Woods could be heard saying, “Thank you so much,” as he hung up and the deputy approached. It was not clear if Woods was referring to US President Donald Trump, whose former daughter-in-law, Vanessa Trump, is dating...

The US-China trade war 1 year on: who really holds...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

As China and the United States wrapped up their sixth and most recent round of trade talks in Paris this March, a minor mishap briefly stole the spotlight. A sudden gust of wind toppled two American flags in the background, where journalists were waiting for US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Officials rushed to tape them to the wall – a fitting tableau for a trade war that, one year on, is patched together by a truce yet remains far from resolved. At their respective press appearances,...

Nasa’s Artemis crew gets green light to make big push...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

Nasa gave the four Artemis astronauts circling Earth the green light on Thursday to head for the moon and carry out the first crewed lunar fly-by in more than 50 years. Nasa Flight Director Jeff Radigan told the astronauts the mission management team had approved firing up the engine of their Orion capsule to send the spacecraft on a trajectory towards the moon. The 5 min and 49 second burn is scheduled to take place at 7.49pm and send the astronauts out of Earth orbit to begin the three-day...

From the US to Hong Kong, there’s no excuse for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

The mighty Zambezi River has its source in northern Zambia, and flows north, west, south, then east, tracing borders for several countries including Zimbabwe. As the river enters Zimbabwe, the water molecules begin to flow faster, unknowingly energised – developing first into a rush, then eventually a torrent as they plunge down the Victoria Falls. This is an excellent analogy of the extremes of stock market price movements. In a stock market crash, prices move slowly, then very fast. My...

Hegseth ousts army’s top uniformed officer, even as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked the Army’s top uniformed officer to step down, the Pentagon said on Thursday without giving a reason for the departure as the United States wages a war against Iran. General Randy George “will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately”, said Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesman. George has held the post of Army chief of staff, which typically runs for four years, since August 2023 under the

Iran war: music and barbecues in Tehran despite...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

In a leafy Tehran park on Thursday, Iranians gathered for picnics on the final day of the Persian new year holidays, shrugging off US President Donald Trump’s threats to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages”. The country has been at war for more than a month and Trump – who launched the conflict alongside Israel on February 28 – has vowed to strike Iran hard for another “two or three weeks”. Powerful blasts shook the Iranian capital on Thursday. Still, hundreds of families sat out under mild,...

Rubio raises concerns over China’s detention of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has voiced “serious concerns” over China’s intensified inspections of Panama-flagged vessels, vowing that the US “stands firmly” with Panama amid the Latin American country’s escalating fallout with Beijing. Rubio said China’s recent actions “raise serious concerns about the use of economic tools to undermine the rule of law in Panama, a sovereign nation and vital partner for global commerce”. “Detentions, delays, or other impediments to the movement of

Trump fires Pam Bondi as US attorney general, amid...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

US President Donald Trump removed Attorney General Pam Bondi from ⁠her post on Thursday, a White House ⁠official said, following mounting frustration with her performance, including her ⁠handling of investigative files related to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Trump had also reportedly grown frustrated that Bondi was not moving quickly enough to prosecute critics and adversaries who he wanted to face criminal charges. During her tenure as the top US law enforcement...

Trump tariffs cast shadow as US-China trade shrinks...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

Direct trade between China and the United States continues its shrinking trend, new US government data showed on Thursday, as the anniversary of “Liberation Day” highlights how last year’s tariff escalations deepened tensions between the two global powers. The figures come ahead of a planned leaders’ meeting in Beijing next month, where both sides are expected to explore ways to stabilise relations after a period of renewed economic strain. The February international trade data by the US

Tai Po blaze hearing: property firm failed to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

An employee of the property management firm at Hong Kong’s inferno-ravaged Wang Fuk Court housing estate has admitted the company failed in its contractual obligations to identify and follow up on fire hazards, while none of its top management testified at an evidential hearing into the disaster. The eighth day of the hearing by the independent committee investigating the November 26 blaze that claimed 168 lives centred on Cheng Tsz-ying, a property officer at ISS EastPoint, the property...

Man stabs 4 children to death at Uganda kindergarten

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

Four children were stabbed to death on Thursday at a kindergarten in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, police said. The male suspect, in his thirties, gained access by posing as a parent before attacking children aged around two and three with a knife, police said. “We confirm a tragic incident at the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Program school in Makindye Division, Kampala City, where a male suspect brutally stabbed and killed four juveniles,” police spokeswoman Racheal Kawala said. The

Britain says 40 countries discuss reopening Strait of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

About 40 countries are discussing joint action to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to stop Iran holding “the global economy hostage”, Britain said on Thursday, after US President Donald Trump said securing the waterway was for others to resolve. British foreign minister Yvette Cooper said Iran’s “recklessness” in blockading ‌the waterway was “hitting our global economic security” as she chaired the virtual meeting, which included France, Germany, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and India. “We

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