Chinese New year

Multiple casualties reported in Los Angeles area shooting

Los Angeles county sheriff Robert Luna said during a press conference the motive for the shooting was not known. He identified the suspect as Huu Can Tran, 72, who wielded a pistol with a high-capacity magazine.

"We want to know how something this awful can happen," Luna told reporters.

Luna said Tran turned a handgun on himself on Sunday morning as police approached a white van he was driving in Torrance, about 34km from the site of the shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park.

Chinese New Year: Clamping down on going home for the holidays

For some, it is the only time they will see their families all year and is an event not to be missed.

But there are fears the Spring Festival travel season, or Chunyun in Chinese, could become a superspreader event. After all, last year's Chunyun is believed to have played a significant role in the spread of Covid-19.

So the Chinese authorities have been left with a problem: how do you encourage people to stay local, without actually cancelling the country's biggest annual celebration?

Malaysia wishes wrong New Year with a barking rooster

The Year of the Rooster - based on the Chinese zodiac - has just ended, giving way to the Year of the Dog.

The trade ministry's advert wished people a prosperous Year of the Dog - but showed a rooster emitting a dog's bark in Chinese.

The ministry apologised for the "technical error".

The cultural quagmire is complicated by a view held by some Malaysian Muslims that dogs are unclean animals.

Why this Chinese New Year will be a digital money fest

But this year, a record number of these red envelopes will be digital and sent online over social messaging services such as Tencent's WeChat, usually via smartphone.

The numbers are breathtaking.

Over the six-day Chinese Spring Festival period last year, 516 million people sent and received 32 billion digital red envelopes - 10 times the number as over the same period in 2015.

And this year forecasters are expecting up to 100 billion digital envelopes to be sent and received by Chinese well-wishers around the world.