Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with Gabonese President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, who is on a state visit to China, in Beijing on Friday.
A Hong Kong paediatric expert has called on parents to arrange influenza vaccinations for their children ahead of cooler temperatures next week, warning of a double whammy of overlapping summer and winter flu seasons. The city has recorded 29 cases of severe paediatric influenza infection this flu season, two of which were fatal. Dr Mike Kwan Yat-wah, former president of the Asian Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases, warned on Saturday that the city could see a longer flu season with the...
For former Wang Fuk Court resident Dorz Cheung, seeing will be believing when it comes to reforms initiated after the deadly inferno in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district. The 34-year-old questioned whether the new oversight bodies would prevent another disaster, saying systemic reforms to tackle shoddy building maintenance and bid-rigging could be undermined by poor implementation. “No matter how well the system is reformed, it is people who put it into practice. Even the best system will achieve...
Kim Min-seok, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and former prime minister, is facing a test of his credibility after an internal investigation failed to substantiate his claims of a “secret alliance” involving his leadership rival and the nonmainstream religious sect Shincheonji. On Friday, Kim apologized again during the party’s Supreme Council meeting. It was his third apology over the controversy, following remarks at Tuesday’s closed-door meeting of party lawmakers and on the party’s YouTube channel on Thursday. “I once again offer my apologies to everyone who was hurt as I raised serious concerns and warned about religious interference in politics during the party’s leadership election,” Kim said. He was referring to his allegation in the run-up to the Aug. 17 party leadership election that the anti-President Lee Jae Myung faction within the party and Shincheonji had formed a secret alliance. The claim targeted the camp of his leadership rival, former Chairman Rep. Jung Chung-rae. After raising the allegation and winning the leadership race, Kim
In an unconventional lifeline for Korea's traditional press, a diverse corporate coalition spanning tech, retail and entertainment has agreed to rescue JoongAng Ilbo, one of the nation’s most influential conservative daily newspapers. Under a 520 billion won ($388 million) conditional agreement approved Wednesday by the boards of Daou Technology, Saramin, CJ Corp. and Shinsegae, the newly injected capital will flow directly into the newspaper to clear its debts and pull the media outlet out of a creditor-led workout program it entered this summer. According to an assessment by Korea Investors Service (KIS), a Moody’s affiliate, the acquiring companies possess the financial capacity to comfortably fund the transaction. Under the agreed funding structure, Daou Technology will cover 36.5 percent of the total, or about 189.8 billion won, while CJ Corp. will contribute 35.7 percent, or 185.6 billion won. Shinsegae is participating alongside CJ as a financial investor with a 14.1 percent stake (73.3 billion won), and online job portal Saramin will provide 13.7 percent (71.2 billion won).
Korean sellers are finding new opportunities in the global collectibles market, as overseas buyers are willing to pay a premium for rare, hard-to-find items, with trading card sales by Korean sellers on eBay more than tripling year-on-year in the third quarter. EBay said Friday that Korean sellers in the Collectible Card Games Category saw the highest sales growth among all Korean sellers on the global e-commerce platform from July to September this year. Trading cards featuring characters, artists or celebrity athletes fueled platform users’ attraction toward the Korean resellers. The most popular trading cards featured characters from the globally popular animated franchise Pokemon and iconic League of Legends esports team T1. The top-selling item in the category was the 2026 KOREA MEGA FESTA Magikarp card, which also ranked ninth in overall sales among Korean sellers on eBay. The Riftbound X 2025 World Champion T1 Signature Edition Card fetched a premium even during prelaunch sales, demonstrating a global fandom around the product itself and the team represented by professional gam
Mirae Asset Securities Co. said Saturday that it suffered cyberattacks that resulted in the leakage of account numbers some 3,800 customers and personal information of over 35,000 current, former employees and contractors. The South Korean brokerage said unauthorized external access occurred Wednesday and Thursday, targeting its mobile web phone authentication login service and internal system, respectively. They resulted in the leakage of some 3,800 customer account numbers and information on 35,255 current, former and contractors. The non-customer, corporate data leaked included names, employee ID numbers, email addresses, mobile phone numbers and passwords. Mirae Asset said it immediately blocked the affected access routes after detecting suspicious activity from external IP addresses and activated its emergency response system. The company also said it reported the incident to the Financial Services Commission, the Financial Supervisory Service and the Personal Information Protection Commission.
The Hechyeomoyeo (HCMY) opened its 18th mass exhibition at KOTE in central Seoul's Insa-dong on Wednesday. The opening party featured music, live drawing, face painting, clowns and flash tattoos, as art lovers from Korea and all around the world crowded into all five floors plus the roof and basement of the aging building that houses KOTE. “My approach is straightforward: If someone tells me they have a creative skill to share, I try to find a place for them in the event,” Neil Wheelock Deforest Smith, the American artist who started HCMY, told The Korea Times. HCMY is an independent art initiative that began in Korea as an effort to make exhibition opportunities more accessible to Korea-based artists. It has grown into an international community, connecting hundreds of creators across continents. Despite its global reach, HCMY maintains a strong connection to its Korean roots. Smith estimates that approximately 65 percent of the participants at HCMY's Korean exhibitions are Korean nationals, while around 20 to 30 percent are foreign residents, and the rest are international artists
Chinese lawmakers are proposing to restrict a contentious form of detention and police surveillance measure, among other changes to the country’s Criminal Procedure Law. Known as residential surveillance at a designated location (RSDL), the measure was originally intended as a mild restriction of personal freedoms to lower the rate of detention and arrest. Since RSDL’s introduction in 1996 and expansion in 2012, it has become the harshest form of detention used in state security cases, including...
A foreign domestic helper in Hong Kong has been arrested on suspicion of ill-treating a child after she allegedly spat into the food of a girl under her care, according to police. The mother of the four-year-old girl filed a police report at 9.28am on Friday, saying her 37-year-old Filipino helper had treated her daughter inappropriately. Initial police investigations at the family’s flat at The Belcher’s, a private residential estate in Kennedy Town, indicated that the helper had spat into the...
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) president Nancy Ip Yuk-yu has been awarded a United Nations prize for her “outstanding contributions” in neuroscience, which have enabled the earlier diagnosis and better monitoring of Alzheimer’s disease. Ip was presented with the Unesco-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences on Friday in Paris. “Dr Nancy Yuk-yu Ip, president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, is a world-renowned...
Chinese insights power this Canadian new launch
The International Forum on Mutual Learning among Civilizations 2026 will open in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) on November 9, bringing together nearly 300 representatives from over 20 countries for two days of discussions on cultural heritage, exchanges among civilizations and the challenges of the digital age.