Biomedicine is set to feature in Hong Kong’s first five-year plan, due to be unveiled next week, as the city’s top officials signal closer medical cooperation across the Greater Bay Area. Lending weight to those ambitions, global pharmaceutical company GSK emphasised its interest in expanding its role in the region’s biotech development on Wednesday, at the fifth Hong Kong International Biotechnology Conference and Exhibition (BIOHK). Speaking at the event, Hong Kong Secretary for Health Lo...

Geologists say they have identified a new deposit in central China that can produce high-purity quartz comparable to the quality produced at a critical world-leading mine in the United States. The high-purity quartz from the Chinese deposit is described as having “highly similar” properties to the resources produced at North Carolina’s Spruce Pine, which is crucial to the global production of solar panels and semiconductors. In the US, there is a growing call from the industry to use high-purity...

Kazakhstan has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hong Kong’s transport authorities to establish a laboratory and discussed low-altitude economy initiatives to help manage traffic jams. Bakhtiyar Mukhametkaliyev, Kazakhstan’s vice-minister of artificial intelligence and digital development, told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday about discussions with the team of Hong Kong’s Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Summit in the...

South Korea is inching closer to a potentially risky military role in the Strait of Hormuz after sending a fact-finding team to the Middle East, with Seoul weighing US pressure to contribute against the threat of Iranian retaliation. The mission underscores the dilemma Seoul faces over supporting a major security ally and avoiding being dragged into a conflict it did not start. Observers argue that any deployment should be delayed, limited and conducted through a broader coalition rather than...

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A gunman shot and killed a kindergarten teacher on Wednesday inside a school building in eastern Thailand, where 44 children and three other teachers were evacuated safely, authorities said. The shooting took place about 11am inside a building at the Nongplalai Municipal Kindergarten in Chonburi province, about 150km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Bangkok. All 44 students were unharmed and evacuated along with the other teachers after the shooting, according to the Chonburi provincial...

Dissent voiced in an ongoing inquiry into Australia’s most ambitious nuclear submarine pact has laid bare growing uncertainty over US commitment, amid questions about the clarity of Canberra’s explanation of the Aukus deal to citizens. Under the trilateral security pact between Australia, the UK and the United States, Canberra will get eight nuclear-powered submarines at an estimated cost of up to A$368 billion (US$266 billion). Three used Virginia-class nuclear submarines will initially be...