Hong Kong issued a red alert and advised against traveling to South Korea, where an epidemic of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is gaining pace. The virus is spreading despite attempts to contain the outbreak. In Korea, the number of infected people passed 100 this week, reaching 122 on Thursday. Tenth patient died from the disease, health officials said on Thursday. Most of the victims are... 

Jaw-dropping images taken in January show the algal bloom lighting up on the coast of Hong Kong. They say all that glitters is not gold. Nowhere is this saying more fitting than in these images of majestic sparkling blue lights on the shore of a Chinese village which are in fact an ominous sign of pollution. The spectacular phenomenon-which has appeared on the shores of Dalian City in east China’s... 

As disgraced British bank HSBC considers moving its headquarters to Asia, many UK tax payers have welcomed the news. The banking giant, which previously assisted criminals in dodging tax, cited regulatory changes as a driving factor for its move. HSBC is pondering selling off its UK retail unit in a lucrative £20bn deal, as it reviews whether it should remove its headquarters from the City of London... 

China surpasses the US as the top destination for foreign direct investment. China has surpassed the United States as the top destination for foreign direct investment (FDI), a position held by the US for 11 years, a United Nations organization says. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) recently published a report showing China had attracted USD 127.6 billion in foreign investment... 

Argentina will receive the first tranche of yuan worth up to $1 billion in a massive currency swap with China before the end of this year. The deal will boost the troubled economy’s foreign reserves. It comes as part of a loan worth $11 billion signed in July by Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during his Latin America tour shortly before... 

McDonald’s restaurants in Japan have stopped selling products that use chicken sourced in China. It comes after a scandal involving a Shanghai factory which supplied expired meat products to global fast food chains. Over 3,000 food restaurants in Japan have followed McDonald’s example and withdrawn Chinese supplies. The restaurant chain has switched suppliers from the US-owned OSI Group, the parent... 

Scotland has oil, it’s small and can adopt the same regulatory measures as Singapore or Switzerland. That’s everything it needs to eventually join the list of the richest nations of the world, Dominic Frisby, author of ‘Life After the State’, told RT. “Scotland has the oil, it’s small, its population is less than 5 million and it has the same record. It has the opportunity to install the... 

Senior National Security Agency officials in the United States say they’ve considered making a deal with former contractor Edward Snowden that would give amnesty to the leaker charged with espionage if he stops disclosing secret documents. Both the director of the NSA and the government official in charge of the agency’s Snowden task force tell CBS News that they’ve considered the possibility... 

Financial markets in Asia and Europe have been rocked over concerns that the United States’ government might be heading for a partial shutdown. Washington should agree to a new spending bill before the end of the financial year at midnight on Monday amid political divisions that have created a stalemate. If the American lawmakers fail to agree on the budget deal, essential federal services could... 

Filipino children scamper across wrecked floating shanties at a village in Paranaque city, south of Manila: The Filipino weather bureau warned that storm surges and heavy waves could cause more heavy damage tonight The most powerful typhoon of the year was eyeing landfall on Hong Kong today as it swept past the Philippines and Taiwan, sparing those countries from the worst of its wrath. Typhoon Usagi... 

The Chinese Indo-Pacific pink dolphins are rare, are getting rarer and are in line for extinction, thanks to Humankind. Welcome to the twenty-first century. These beautiful sea creatures start their lives grey, and gradually turn pink. Soon, this will not matter, will it? The pink dolphin is native to the coasts off Taiwan and Hong Kong. Industrial expansion and sea pollution are creating the conditions... 

The US has gone from ‘model of human rights’ to manipulator of internet rights, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party wrote. China has struck back at the US over its allegations that Beijing allowed NSA leaker Edward Snowden to leave Hong Kong. The damning article in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, the party’s official newspaper, came in response to Washington’s accusations... 

Ex-CIA contractor Edward Snowden was not seen aboard the plane to Havana on which he was reportedly traveling, reports RT’s correspondent on the flight. The plane has already landed in the Cuban capital. The Russian airline Aeroflot previously confirmed that Snowden had checked in for flight SU150 to Havana with two seats (17A and 17C) in his name. However, journalists on board the plane said there... 

Washington says it expects the Russian government to ‘look at all options available’ to expel Edward Snowden to the US to face espionage charges. That’s after the White House expressed ‘disappointment’ China and Hong Kong didn’t detain the NSA leaker. “We expect the Russian government to look at all options available to expel Mr. Snowden back to the U.S. to... 

US federal prosecutors have charged whistleblower Edward Snowden with espionage, theft and conversion of government property in a criminal complaint, and asked Hong Kong to detain him ahead of a move to extradite him. Charges of espionage and theft are based on Snowden’s extraction of classified documents from NSA servers, which led to publication of several articles regarding the NSA’s surveillance...