The return to Earth of three astronauts on Saturday after six months at China's new space station marks a landmark step in the country's space ambitions, ending its longest crewed mission ever.The world's second-largest economy has put billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of eventually sending humans to the Moon.China has come a long way in catching up with the United States (US) and Russia, whose astronauts and cosmonauts have decades of experience in spa

United States (US) President Joe Biden will meet in mid-May with the leaders of Southeast Asian nations, with a likely focus on the rising power of China, the host country announced Saturday.The summit, originally scheduled for March, "will demonstrate the United States' enduring commitment to ASEAN," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations."It is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration t

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:Russia Threatens Kyiv A Ukrainian military factory outside Kyiv is partially destroyed by overnight Russian strikes, AFP reports, as Moscow warns it will intensify attacks on the capital in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil.The factory produced missiles allegedly used to hit Russia's Moskva warship."The number and scale of missile strikes against targets in Kyiv will increase in response to any terrorist att

It is conceivable that by the end of the year NATO’s land mass, gross domestic product (GDP) and territorial borders with Russia may expand by nearly as much as they would have if Ukraine had achieved its distant goal of eventual membership of the western defence alliance – if not more.The brutal manner in which Vladimir Putin has tried to foreclose Ukraine’s security options has led to a sudden change in thinking in Finland and Sweden that has been all the more powerful since it seems to hav

Dozens of elderly patients at a hospital in Shanghai have died after contracting COVID-19, but official government figures claim no deaths in the city have been caused by the disease since 2020.The BBC has spoken to a hospital manager and had access to correspondence sent to relatives of patients who've died during the Omicron outbreak that is sweeping through China's biggest city.We've also had access to official documents that suggest at least 27 patients from a single hospit

China has said it held military drills around Taiwan, as a group of United States (US) lawmakers visited the self-ruled island in a show of support that Beijing slammed as “deliberately provocative”.The Chinese military sent frigates, bombers and fighter planes to the East China Sea and the area around Taiwan, the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theatre Command said on Friday, in a statement released as the US legislators were holding a news conference in Taipei.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has rejected a proposed law requiring social media users to register their real names and phone numbers, citing threats to free speech and privacy, his spokesman said Friday.The legislation, designed to combat fake news, online abuse, text scams and militant bombings, also required mobile phone users to provide their personal details when buying SIM cards.It was approved by both houses of Congress in February, but critics said it was a form of state survei

COVID-19 is far from becoming an endemic disease and could still trigger large epidemics around the globe, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday.WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said it was also wrong to think that if COVID-19 did settle down and become endemic, that would mean the end of the problem."I certainly do not believe we've reached anything close to an endemic situation with this virus," Ryan told a live question-and-answer session on the WHO's s

A COVID-19 vaccine effective against multiple variants is possible before the end of 2022, the head of United States (US) pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said Wednesday.Chairman Albert Bourla said the firm was also working on producing a vaccine that could provide good protection for a whole year, meaning people would come back annually for boosters, as with influenza shots."I hope, clearly by autumn...

The WHO's emergency committee on COVID-19 on Wednesday unanimously affirmed that the virus remains a major public health danger and insisted that countries must stop dropping their guard.With many nations relaxing public health and social measures, and drastically reducing testing for the virus, the World Health Organization's (WHO) group of experts said the pandemic was far from being at an end."Now is not the time to let our guard down – on the contrary, and this is an extrem