Households in four areas of Hong Kong’s Eastern district have been left without fresh water after a pipe burst in Shau Kei Wan, with authorities expecting the water supply to resume before midnight. A video circulating on social media on Tuesday showed water gushing from the ground at a worksite near a bus stop, with an excavator parked nearby. The Water Supplies Department said on its website that the water supply was cut at 11am, affecting Sai Wan Ho, Shau Kei Wan, Aldrich Bay and the area...

A localised ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia took effect early Tuesday ahead of a humanitarian mission brokered by US first lady Melania Trump, as missile attacks resumed in Kyiv. The local pause in fighting started at 3am to allow an aid mission into the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine later this week. According to her office, Melania Trump led talks with civilian negotiators from Russia and Ukraine after meeting with UN officials who briefed her on the situation in the...

As the sun sets over Fiji’s tiny Serua Island, its climate-threatened inhabitants soak in one of the reasons they have rejected attempts to relocate their village – the “US$100 million views”. The island looks like a utopia from the mainland, two steep palm-covered knolls sandwiching its low-lying centre, flanked by coral reefs and rich fishing grounds. But it is on the island itself that the risk from rising seas becomes clearer, with a concrete sea wall providing the only defence against waves...

More than one in 10 Malaysian men have borrowed money to pay for dates, while nearly six in 10 usually pick up the entire bill, a survey has found. The findings come as rising living costs place a financial strain on romance in Malaysia, where money worries are increasingly complicating plans for marriage and starting a family. According to the Dating Expenditure Survey in Malaysia, released on Tuesday by independent policy research firm LEGASI Research, 13.2 per cent of male respondents...

A randomised phase 1 clinical trial conducted by scientists and doctors from Shanghai and Guangzhou has achieved encouraging results in the treatment of Type 1 diabetes using stem cells extracted from the mouth’s gum tissue. More than half of those who received the treatment showed varying degrees of improvement, while one subject was able to discontinue exogenous insulin therapy completely, the researchers said. Results of the study, which tested a therapy based on gingival mesenchymal stem...

Jordan said on Monday its air force struck what it described as militant hideouts in southern Syria after determining that the suspects behind last week’s deadly church attack in ‌the kingdom were linked to “terrorist groups” operating there. The armed forces said the operation was conducted in coordination with Damascus. Syria’s government gave a contradictory account, saying it had launched an investigation into the Jordanian attacks, and stressed in a statement the importance of field and...

The estranged half-brother of Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, has called their father a “disgusting monster” after handing over a trove of alleged child abuse material belonging to their shared parent to police in the Philippines. The four boxes containing mobile phones, computer equipment and other personal belongings were handed over to the Philippine National Police’s Women and Children Protection Centre last week by Thomas Markle Jnr, who was previously his father’s full-time carer. Markle...