China’s head transplant advocate Ren Xiaoping completes landmark spinal surgery in Russia

South China Morning Post - Oct 23, 2026

Ren Xiaoping, who once vowed to perform the world’s first human head transplant, has operated on a patient’s severed spinal cord in a 12-hour landmark operation in Moscow, according to the Chinese surgeon and Russian state sources. Ren said the procedure was carried out at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute for Emergency Medicine in Russia last week. “It was our Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine Second Affiliated Hospital and the Russian team working together,” Ren told the South China...

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Chinese astronomers find real 3-body system. It is not what Liu Cixin thinks

Chinese astronomers find real 3-body system. It is not what Liu Cixin thinks

In author and computer engineer Liu Cixin’s science fiction hit The Three-Body Problem, three suns throw a doomed world into chaos. Chinese astronomers say they have found a real three-star system that is far better behaved. Using FAST, the world’s biggest single-dish radio telescope in southwestern China, the researchers found two dead stars and a “living” one locked in a steady cosmic dance about 7,000 light years from Earth. One of the dead stars is a pulsar that spins more than 300 times a...

Hong Kong degree holders’ pay advantage over non-graduates narrows to HK$2,500

Hong Kong degree holders’ pay advantage over non-graduates narrows to HK$2,500

Fresh Hong Kong graduates are increasingly feeling the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) as they enter the workforce, human resources experts have said, after a survey found the starting salaries for degree holders and sub-degree graduates had narrowed. The results of the latest annual survey by Baptist University found the disparity between the starting salaries of bachelor’s degree and sub-degree graduates narrowed by 17 per cent, or HK$500 (US$63.70), from HK$3,000 last year to HK$2,500...

Seeing China differently: Ultrarunner Ria Xi's China journey

Seeing China differently: Ultrarunner Ria Xi's China journey

Seeing China differently: Ultrarunner Ria Xi's China journey

China's top diplomat holds talks with FM of Republic of the Congo

China's top diplomat holds talks with FM of Republic of the Congo

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Constant-Serge Bounda, minister of foreign affairs, La Francophonie and Congolese Abroad of the Republic of the Congo, on Thursday in Beijing.

Asia Society announces new permanent home in historic Washington building

Asia Society announces new permanent home in historic Washington building

The Asia Society announced on Thursday that it had marked out territory on the Washington policy landscape with the purchase of a US$17.5 million building that will give it a permanent spot alongside other US capital think tanks dating back more than a century, striving for influence. The 70-year-old institution, founded by the grandson of oil mogul John D. Rockefeller, has focused more on public policy in recent years, in addition to its traditional focus on arts, culture and education, under...

16 killed after M7.0 quake hits China's Xizang, rescue underway

16 killed after M7.0 quake hits China's Xizang, rescue underway

16 killed after M7.0 quake hits China's Xizang, rescue underway

At 85, Kim Hye-ja returns to film after turning down role 6 times

At 85, Kim Hye-ja returns to film after turning down role 6 times

“I just want to be like a nameless wildflower.” That was what veteran actor Kim Hye-ja told director Song Il-gon last year when he visited her home in Yeonhui-dong, western Seoul, to ask her to star in his new film. Song, whose films include “Picnic” (1999), “Flower Island” (2001) and “Always” (2011), was developing a movie about victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery, and Kim was his first choice for the lead role. But Kim turned him down. “I've never played a role like this before, and I'm scared, so I don't want to do it,” she said. Song persisted, even writing her a lengthy letter. After six attempts, Kim finally agreed. The result is “Still Shining,” which opened Wednesday and marks the actor's first film in nine years, since “The Way” in 2017. She turns 85 this year on Oct. 25. What changed her mind was the way the film chose to remember the victims. “Still Shining” follows Sun-ok and Jeong-im, two 18-year-old girls living in a remote mountain village in 1942. Played in their youth by Park Seo-kyung and Choi Ju-eun, the inseparable friends spend the

African architect's career break leads to unexpected modeling fame in Korea

African architect's career break leads to unexpected modeling fame in Korea

For Tanoé Akouba Leïla Olivia, modeling was the last thing on her mind when she came to Korea, because she was certain about her aspirations of working as an architect. Her professional training in interior design and 3D visualization in the U.K., Italy and Spain cemented her commitment to the field, until a career break in Korea made her rethink her path and eventually become a full-time model. Born in Cote d’Ivoire to an Ivorian father and Malian mother, Leïla spent her early childhood traveling between countries due to the nature of her parents’ work. Her childhood was filled with memories of the bright streets of Manchester, the antique avenues of Spain and the bustling roads of Italy. From time to time, she would find herself enjoying the flavorful food in Nigeria and exploring the historical and colorful streets of Togo and Senegal. This lifestyle led her to consider herself “un enfant du monde” — a French expression meaning “child of the world.” After completing her internship in Marbella and Valencia, she took a big leap and moved to China to work as a 3D visua

Vanished without a trace: Korea's most mystifying unsolved missing person cases

Vanished without a trace: Korea's most mystifying unsolved missing person cases

Of the roughly 70,000 adults reported missing in Korea every year, nearly all are found within weeks. But a small fraction vanish without a trace, and some stay missing for decades. According to data from the National Police Agency submitted in August to Rep. Chung Choon-saeng of the Rebuilding Korea Party, the share of missing adult cases resolved within 30 days has stayed near 99 percent over the past five years. It stood at 98.8 percent in 2022, 98.9 percent in 2023, 98.8 percent in 2024, 99 percent in 2025 and 99.4 percent through July 2026. For the slim remainder, however, investigators run out of leads. Here are some of Korea’s most baffling adult missing person cases that remain unsolved. Veterinary student Lee Yun-hee (2006) Lee Yun-hee, a veterinary student at Jeonbuk National University in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, went missing 20 years ago and has never been found. On June 5, 2006, she attended an end-of-semester gathering with professors and classmates at a restaurant roughly 1.5 kilometers from her studio apartment. She returned home around 2:30 a.m. the next day. Lee

After 35 years of searching, activist still fights indifferent system for Korea's missing

After 35 years of searching, activist still fights indifferent system for Korea's missing

Na Joo-bong has spent 35 years searching for missing people. For him, the recent case of a Jeju police officer who prematurely closed multiple missing persons cases was no surprise. “Among 262 police stations in Korea, many lack missing persons investigation teams. It’s a department officers avoid, since the work spans missing children and adults, as well as runaways, with a heavy caseload and little to show for the effort,” said Na, 69, chief of the National Organization of Finding Missing Children and Family. The severity of the problem came to light in August, when the Jeju officer was found to have closed the case of Jang Mi-ran, a 37-year-old woman missing for months, without confirming her whereabouts. Jang’s remains were later found, and the officer admitted to closing multiple such cases to avoid the extra workload involved in keeping them open. The case has raised public awareness of missing adults, but the current Act on the Protection and Support of Missing Children only covers people who went missing before turning 18, along with people with intellectual disabilities

Trump-Kim summit unlikely in near future amid N. Korean demands: US experts

Trump-Kim summit unlikely in near future amid N. Korean demands: US experts

WASHINGTON — The prospects of a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the near future remain slim, U.S. experts said, citing Pyongyang's demands for a shift in Washington's policy toward the North, including its approach to denuclearization. Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, and Ankit Panda, a nuclear policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, offered their assessments during a podcast discussion hosted by Victor Cha, Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, published Thursday. Town said the North has made clear that they reject the notion of any kind of denuclearization agenda. "The question isn't, 'Will North Korea come to the table?' The question is, 'Is the U.S. willing to do those things (change its North Korean policy)?'" she said, referring to North Korea's demands for changes in what it considers Washington's hostile policy. "I think the prospects of meeting, you know, I think are fairly low," she added, putting the likelihood of a meeting at less than 50 percent. Panda o

‘Saved my mum’s life’: Chinese cancer drug on sale in US after Americans travel to buy it

‘Saved my mum’s life’: Chinese cancer drug on sale in US after Americans travel to buy it

Global pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca on Thursday said it would start selling a cancer drug after coming under criticism for failing to bring it to the US market faster, prompting some Americans to fly to Shanghai to procure the potentially life-saving medicine first developed by China. In recent months, desperate Americans have travelled to China to obtain the Chinese-made cancer drug that was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration but remained unavailable in the country for more than...

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