Author: frkhokhar@gmail.com

Raphael Chan* entered Hong Kong’s construction sector in the mid-1990s convinced that quality building works could improve people’s lives. But he quit more than two decades later, disillusioned by what he called rampant corruption in the industry. The former senior project manager at a consultancy company said he had witnessed how syndicates, often led by…

As the waters begin to recede across Sumatra, what lingers is something far colder than the floods that swept through Aceh, darker than the landslides in North Sumatra and more unsettling than the rubble left behind in West Sumatra at the close of 2025. It is the chill of bureaucratic silence and the paralysis of…

The cryptocurrency ecosystem faced another challenging year in 2025, with stolen funds continuing their upward trajectory. Chainalysis’ analysis reveals a shift in crypto theft patterns, characterized by four key developments: the persistence of North Korea, 0r the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as a primary threat actor, the growing severity of individual attacks on…

This writer is old enough that his view of Australia and Australians was only reinforced by the laconic, tough-as-nails Crocodile Dundee. Instead it was formed much earlier from a photo of Australian troops (at least what was left of them) in formation after stopping the Imperial Japanese Army on the Kokoda Track in New Guinea…

Voter turnout in the recent Legislative Council election was affected by Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades, recording the second-lowest rate since the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, despite a modest rise from the previous poll, the constitutional affairs chief has said. Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai stressed on…

A Chinese woman who worked as an art director made headlines after quitting her job to become a professional combat athlete, ultimately achieving the milestone of being China’s first female participant in the World Slap Fighting Championship. Ding Miao, 33, first majored in oil painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, one of the…