World

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX was due to launch the next long-duration astronaut crew to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA early on Wednesday (Apr 27), including a medical doctor, turned spacewalker and a geologist specialising in Martian landslides. The SpaceX launch vehicle, consisting of a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket topped with a Crew Dragon capsule dubbed Freedom, was set for liftoff with its four-member crew at 3.52 am from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. If all goes according to plan, the three US astronauts and their European Space Agency (ESA) crewmate from Italy will reach the space station about 17 hours later to begin a six-month science mission orbiting some 420km above Earth. During a pre-launch briefing on Tu...

SINGAPORE: A driver and two passengers were charged in the State Courts on Saturday (Apr 9) after crashing into the counters at Tuas Checkpoint while trying to evade departure clearance. Singaporean Teo Thiam Leng, 46, the driver of the Malaysia-registered car, was charged with dangerous driving in the incident that took place early on Friday morning. He is accused of reversing his vehicle at the motorcycle arrival zone of Tuas Checkpoint and hitting an Immigrations and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer, causing hurt. He was also given a charge of abetting the importation of 33g of methamphetamine into Singapore in 2016. The court heard that Teo has a previous conviction for drug-related offences. In 2007, he was sentenced to five years' jail and five strokes of the cane for traffick...

In a photograph from the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, Ukraine, a woman stands in the yard of a house, her hand covering her mouth in horror, the bodies of three dead civilians scattered before her. When Aset Chad saw that picture, she started shaking and hurtled 22 years back in time. In February 2000, she walked into her neighbor’s yard in Chechnya and glimpsed the bodies of three men and a woman who had been shot repeatedly in front of her 8-year-old daughter. Russian soldiers had swept their village and murdered at least 60 people, raped at least six women and plundered the victims’ gold teeth, human rights observers found. “I am having the most severe flashbacks,” Chad, who now lives in New York, said in a phone interview. “I see exactly what’s going on: I see the same military, the same Ru...

HONG KONG: A veteran Hong Kong journalist was arrested by national security police on Monday (Apr 11) for allegedly conspiring to publish "seditious materials", a police source and local media said. The arrest is the latest blow against the local press in Hong Kong which has seen its media freedom rating plummet as Beijing cracks down on dissent. Allan Au, a 54-year-old reporter and journalism lecturer, was arrested in a dawn raid by Hong Kong's national security police unit, multiple local media outlets reported. A senior police source confirmed Au's arrest to AFP on a charge of "conspiracy to publish seditious materials". Police have yet to release an official statement. Au was a former columnist for Stand News, an online news platform that was shuttered last December after authorit...

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Friday (Apr 1) it was assisting Chinese investigators with the download of the cockpit voice recorder in Washington from an China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 jet as it sent a team of investigators to China. The US safety board told Reuters it was helping the Civil Aviation Administration of China "with the download of the cockpit voice recorder from China Eastern Flight 5735 in our lab in Washington." China's decision to send a key piece of evidence to Washington for assistance shows the urgency of the investigation at a time when two nations have been at odds at other issues. The plane crashed into a mountainside in southern China on Mar 21 killing all 132 on board and was mainland China's deadliest aviation disaster in 28 ...

HONG KONG/LONDON : HSBC is shunning prospective Russian clients and declining credit to some existing ones, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, as the bank seeks to shield itself from Western sanctions against Moscow. The measures affect HSBC's individual and business customers globally and go further than the bank's previously stated intentions to wind down its relations with lenders such as VTB, which were placed under Western restrictions after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The moves by Europe's second biggest bank show how sanctions aimed at Russia's financial system and its political and business elite are also ensnaring Russian nationals outside the country as lenders seek to avoid falling foul of the restrictions and potentially hefty fines. HSBC had said ...

Hong Kong is the top destination in Asia for foodies this year, according to new rankings released by the 50 Best organization. The city is home to 16 of the region's "best" 100 restaurants, as shown in the list, released in two parts in March. Thailand and Japan tied for second place, each with 13 restaurants on the list. The small city-state of Singapore punched above its weight with 12 establishments named among Asia's best. William Drew, director of content for William Reed Business Media, which organizes the awards, told CNBC that Hong Kong had an "unusual experience" this year since it was largely closed to foreign visitors. "However, restrictions aside, many restaurants have been very busy on a local level," Drew said. "It's likely that local voters dined in a wider variety of resta...

China said on Wednesday the black boxes of a Boeing 737-800 jet that crashed last month were badly damaged, leaving virtually no publicly available clues to explain its violent plunge into a wooded hillside, killing all 132 people on board. China Eastern flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou plunged from cruising altitude into the mountains of Guangxi on March 21 in China's first fatal air crash since 2010. Summarizing its preliminary crash report, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) did not include any information from the cockpit voice and data recorders, which had been sent to Washington for analysis. "The two recorders on the plane were severely damaged due to the impact, and the data restoration and analysis work is still in progress," CAAC said in a statement. CAA...

A joint statement from both prime ministers, published by Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said they agreed that actions by Russia are a "flagrant violation" of fundamental principles of international law and risk long-term global instability. They also called on all parties to protect civilians and respect human rights, and facilitate unhindered humanitarian assistance to those in need in Ukraine. Ms Ardern said the Ukraine conflict is putting "considerable pressure" on the international rules-based order, stressing that disputes must be solved through dialogue and not "intimidation or coercion". "We look forward to continuing to work with like-minded countries such as Singapore to support the resolution of such conflicts through peaceful means, including conflicts and issues s...

It was a top-level summit that was supposed to emphasize the need for cooperation on global challenges. Instead, the much-anticipated virtual meeting between the leaders of China and the European Union held earlier this month became an exchange of opposing views that highlighted the diverging paths between the two powers. The topic du jour was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Brussels urging Beijing to take a clear stance on the war, use its “considerable influence” on Moscow to help achieve an immediate cease-fire, and give assurances it would not support Russia militarily nor help it circumvent international sanctions. “More than 40 countries in total have joined these sanctions. So, we also made very clear that China should, if not support, at least not interfere with our sanctions...