A robot horse and dancing humanoids are among the machines that have been showcased by Chinese manufacturers at a conference in Beijing. The five-day 2026 World Robot Conference, which started on Wednesday, comes as the country continues to expand its robotics industry. On the day the conference kicked off, the world’s biggest humanoid robot maker…
Many among India’s Gen Z may not see Narendra Modi as a friend. But the Indian prime minister is trying to talk to them like one. The 75-year-old leader – who has long cultivated a strongman image through scripted speeches, formal broadcasts and carefully choreographed appearances – has in recent weeks adopted a more casual…
But now Zhu can sense this freedom being curtailed. She says she finds herself encountering authorities more often in Hong Kong than in mainland China. At one bookshop event, she recalls government officials entering the premises. “They just sat there listening alongside us.” Increasing raids have not only targeted explicitly political shops, according to a…
Nanda Malini, a famed Sri Lankan singer whose voice was seen as a soundtrack to some of the country’s political and social upheavals, has died at 82. Songs from her album Pawana, which touched on social issues and urged people to stand up to injustice, were banned from national airwaves in the 1980s, during a…
Two Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown have been found guilty of inciting others to subvert state power under the city’s controversial national security law. Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail after being convicted under the China-introduced…
The two Koreas are technically still at war since they did not sign a peace treaty after the Korean War. Reuniting with the South had always been a key, if increasingly unrealistic, part of the North’s ideology until Kim abandoned it in 2024. Despite this, the threats against the South haven’t stopped. Days before the…
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has been taken to a hospital in the capital, Islamabad, following complaints about his poor health. Khan was taken from Adiala jail and sent to Shifa International Hospital under heavy security, local media report. The move complied with a ruling by a three-judge panel of the Supreme Court which…
Four workers in Japan have died after being struck by a train at Shin-Kanuma Station, north of Tokyo, authorities say. The collision happened around 10:46 local time (01:46 GMT) while the workers were removing weeds from the train tracks, local media reported. When emergency services arrived at the scene three workers were trapped under the…
The body of a woman has been found in Australian bushland, following an eight-day search for a Sydney teenager reported missing last Wednesday. Police said that while the body was yet to be formally identified, it was believed to be that of 18-year-old Lily Hooper. The confirmation came after local media reported that she had…
Australia’s foreign minister has said she is “outraged” over an Israeli government decision not to prosecute those responsible for the death of aid worker Zomi Frankcom, who was killed in an IDF strike. Frankcom was an Australian aid worker with World Central Kitchen who was killed in Gaza with six other colleagues by an Israeli…