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Hong Kong halts raw oyster sales from French brand...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

Hong Kong food safety authorities have ordered an immediate halt to the sale of oysters from a French brand after suspected gastroenteritis cases emerged in the Netherlands. The Centre for Food Safety on Wednesday ordered the trade to suspend imports of raw oysters from the French brand Josephine that were produced and packed between March 5 and 25. Traders were instructed to stop using or selling any affected batches still in stock. A spokesman said the authority had received a notification...

US-Iran ceasefire unlikely to cause major fuel price...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

A two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran is unlikely to significantly ease fuel prices in the near term without a complete end to the conflict, Hong Kong economists have warned, citing uncertainties in the volatile situation. Economist Simon Lee Siu-po of the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Shenzhen Finance Institute said that uncertainties remained, adding that fuel prices were still subject to volatility unless a permanent ceasefire was achieved. “There are lots of variables

China biotech flow picks up as Everest seals US$250...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

China’s biopharmaceutical sector is seeing an uptick in deal-making, with sovereign wealth funds from Singapore and the United Arab Emirates joining Chinese state-backed investors to back next-generation drug developers. Shanghai-based Everest Medicines agreed to spend US$250 million to acquire a Singapore company holding rights to 14 chronic-disease treatments across the Asia-Pacific region, according to a stock exchange filing on Wednesday. Its Singapore unit will acquire 100 per cent of...

Frustration, speculation mount in Japan as search for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

Frustration and desperation are growing in Japan amid a search for an 11-year-old boy who disappeared more than two weeks ago in a rural part of Kyoto prefecture, with 700 police officers scouring abandoned properties in the mountains surrounding the town of Nantan.The lack of sightings and clues has triggered speculation – a good deal of it sensationalist – on the boy’s fate and focused renewed attention on the number of children who go missing every year in Japan. The father of Yuki Adachi...

China-backed solar project powers up in Laos amid...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

China has completed one of Southeast Asia’s largest solar power projects in Laos, at a time when regional economies are stepping up efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels amid global energy disruptions in the Persian Gulf. The initial phase of the 1 gigawatt (GW) solar project was officially connected to the grid on Tuesday, becoming the country’s first large-scale mountainous photovoltaic installation. Located in northern Laos, the installation is expected to generate about 1.65 billion...

North Korea tests electromagnetic weapon and carbon...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

North Korea conducted a slew of new weapons tests, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, including one involving an electromagnetic weapon system and a carbon fibre bomb. The tests, which were conducted over three days from Monday to Wednesday, were overseen by General Kim Jong-sik, the KCNA report said. The weapons tests come at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty. Pyongyang has moved closer to Moscow in recent years, supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine, and is now...

AI fuels global trade growth as China-US flows shift,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

Artificial intelligence has emerged as the driving force behind global trade growth, fuelled by a surge in data-centre buildouts at a time when geopolitical tensions are redrawing trade flows, according to McKinsey & Company. Global trade grew 6.5 per cent last year, outpacing the world economy, with AI-linked goods accounting for about one-third of that increase, McKinsey’s research showed. The category – including semiconductors, graphics cards, routers and servers – has been propelled by

Chile exposes smuggling ring that shipped US$917m in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

Chinese buyers were the end destination of a five-year smuggling pipeline that drained an estimated US$917 million worth of stolen copper from Chile, authorities said on Wednesday after police dismantled the network in one of the largest organised crime operations ever uncovered in the country. The group trucked stolen metal to Iquique, a port city in Chile’s far north, and shipped it to China in containers disguised as scrap cargo. Over the same period, it collected more than US$55 million

Iran war: is the US shifting away from its strategy...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

Whether the US-Israeli war on Iran wraps up quickly or drags on, the repercussions will be felt for years, reshaping warfare, geopolitics and energy security as well as how the world sees the United States and its tactical and strategic capabilities. In the final instalment of a three-part series, we look at the move away from precision strikes on limited military assets. When Iran’s South Pars gas field was hit at the start of the US-Israeli war on the country, Tehran retaliated with attacks

Bondi won’t appear before US lawmakers over Epstein...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

Former US attorney general Pam Bondi does not plan to appear for a planned interview with a House of Representatives committee on the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files following her firing by US President Donald Trump, the Justice Department told Congress on Wednesday. Bondi was subpoenaed ‌last month to testify in her formal role as attorney general, rendering the demand invalid now that she no longer holds that title, a Justice Department official wrote in a letter to the House Oversight...

Asia’s flood of cheap Ozempic generics opens gates to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

As Asia grappled with the impact of the Iran war, a major pharmaceutical milestone quietly made the headlines. On March 20, the patent for semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy drugs, expired in several countries, crucially India and China – two countries renowned for their production of generic drugs, which are drugs with the same active ingredient as the branded original but typically sold at much lower prices. Ozempic, first approved in 2017 by the US Food...

US ceasefire with Iran sets diplomatic clock for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

The two-week ceasefire the United States agreed to with Iran on Tuesday not only sets a deadline to seal a deal with Tehran, but leaves just days before the expiration of the 60-day legal limit for waging war without congressional authorisation that is set out under America’s War Powers Resolution. This has left open the question of how the conflict will proceed if diplomacy fails and the legal clock runs out. “Almost all the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the...

Strait of Hormuz: is a Trump‑Iran joint venture...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

Control of the Strait of Hormuz has emerged as the central fault line in US-Iran negotiations, with US President Donald Trump appearing to recast an earlier off-the-cuff idea into a more formal proposal that seeks to bridge Tehran’s push for dominance and Washington’s insistence on open passage. Following his Tuesday announcement of a two-week ceasefire, Trump on Wednesday told the American Broadcasting Company that his administration may seek a “joint venture” with Iran to safeguard the

Canada’s Carney on verge of majority after another...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

A Canadian opposition legislator defected to the ruling Liberal Party on Wednesday, leaving Prime Minister Mark Carney on the verge of a parliamentary majority that would make it easier to push through his agenda. The centrist Liberals, ‌governing with a minority after the April 2025 election, need opposition support to pass key legislation. Carney says he needs a majority to deal with US President Donald Trump’s trade measures. The prime minister welcomed the defection by Marilyn Gladu – a...

Uganda man says he killed 4 children as human...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

A man has admitted stabbing four children to death at a kindergarten in Uganda, saying he believed killing them as human sacrifices would make him wealthy, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The defendant, Christopher Okello Onyum, 39, who holds both Ugandan and American citizenship, appeared in court to have the charges formally put to him. He is thought to have gained access to the kindergarten by posing as a parent, before attacking children with a knife, killing four of them – ranging in age...

‘Ketamine Queen’ gets 15 years in jail for selling...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

A US federal judge on Wednesday handed down a sentence of 15 years in prison to a woman who pleaded guilty to selling actor Matthew Perry the ketamine that killed him in 2023. “You’re going to have to show some epic resilience,” Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett said to Jasveen Sangha, echoing the defendant’s words earlier in the hearing about her self-improvement. Citing the unique role Sangha admitted to playing in Perry’s death and her broader drug-dealing business, the judge gave the

US man pleads guilty to murdering 7 women and admits...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

A Long Island architect who led a secret life as a serial killer pleaded guilty on Wednesday to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings. Rex Heuermann, 62, entered the pleas in a courtroom packed with reporters, police and victims’ relatives, some of whom wept as he detailed his crimes for the court. He will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at a later date. Heuermann’s guilty...

Why the US-Iran ceasefire is seen as a failure for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

The United States boasts military superiority over Iran but has emerged as the strategic loser in the five-week conflict, with gains limited to a fragile two-week ceasefire and conditional passage through the Strait of Hormuz, according to analysts. Shortly before US President Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran to meet his demands or face destruction of its civilian infrastructure, the US and Iran entered a two-week ceasefire agreement mediated by Pakistan. Beijing reportedly intervened at the...

Xi Jinping backs services sector to power China’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

President Xi Jinping has signalled a renewed focus on China’s services sector, calling for a demand- and tech-led strategy to reshape growth and create jobs, as policymakers met to chart the path forward. “The focus must be on demand-driven development and reforms as well as empowerment by technologies,” Xi said in a message to a two-day conference on the sector that concluded on Wednesday, according to state-run news agency Xinhua. Highlighting the role of services in tackling some of

Who is Asim Munir and why are Trump and Iran praising...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

As the United States and Iran agree to a two-week ceasefire, Pakistan’s strongman military chief is emerging as a major diplomatic player on the international stage. When announcing the truce, both US President Donald Trump and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi expressed appreciation for the diplomatic efforts of Asim Munir. Munir, who last year became Pakistan’s first ever chief of defence forces, is widely seen as the most powerful man in the country. According to one prominent

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