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A school bus driver died in hospital and a passenger was slightly injured after their vehicle, which was carrying nearly 50 children, crashed inside Hong Kong’s Shing Mun Tunnel on Wednesday afternoon. The coach was travelling towards Tsuen Wan when it suddenly went out of control and struck the tunnel wall at around 3.30pm. Emergency responders found the driver, 71, unconscious at the scene. A wo...
A school bus driver lost consciousness and another passenger was slightly injured when the vehicle carrying about 50 children crashed inside Shing Mun Tunnel on Wednesday afternoon. The coach was travelling towards Tsuen Wan when it suddenly lost control and struck the tunnel wall at about 3.30pm. Emergency responders found the driver, a man in his fifties, unconscious at the scene. A female adult...
In Japan, complaints about bears have strained the resources of 40 per cent of local governments amid a surge in encounters with the animals this year. According to a government survey of 40 prefectural and municipal councils, 17 said bear-related complaints had disrupted their operations. Of those, 10 reported complaints that took up a lot of time, such as phone calls lasting more than an hour, w...
Officials have sold a potential US-led Pax Silica hub in the Philippines as a chance for the country to move up the technology supply chain, but as domestic backlash grows, Manila’s top diplomat to America has warned of losing the opportunity if they “drop the ball”. Analysts say Jose Manuel Romualdez’s message appeared aimed at critics but should be taken seriously, as regional rivals are also co...
The Hong Kong government has demanded that a contractor rectify faulty lifts in a new block at Queen Mary Hospital after multiple glitches delayed the launch of all clinical services at the building. A veteran electrical and building services engineer said it was unusual for 24 out of 28 lifts in a new building to malfunction, while a lawmaker said the situation involving Anlev Elex Elevator was “...
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has a role to play in Hong Kong’s plans for its economy. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu signalled as much when he touched on the city’s first five-year plan in his August 7 meeting with Asean Secretary General Kao Kim Hourn. For businesses, however, the central question is not whether Hong Kong-Asean economic ties will continue to grow. They will. The h...
A veteran Malaysian politician’s resignation from parliament and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s People’s Justice Party (PKR) to join a fledgling progressive rival widens an exodus of reformist figures as the ruling coalition reels from a string of electoral setbacks. Wong Chen, a three-term lawmaker who had spent nearly two decades in PKR, said on Wednesday that he had applied to join newly rebran...
We have put together stories from our coverage on science from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. US and Israeli physicists hail China’s glueball discovery as a ‘triumph’ The international physics community has hailed a Chinese-led discovery as a “triumph” after researchers presented the strongest evidence y...
Chinese AI start-up ModelBest has kicked off its pre-initial public offering (IPO) tutoring process for a listing in mainland China, capitalising on growing demand for compact artificial intelligence models that run locally on devices like smartphones and laptops, and in cars. The four-year-old company also appears to be banking on its small-model strategy to overcome China’s acute shortage of adv...
A man has suffered minor burns in a fire that spread to two huts and four speedboats in Hong Kong’s Sai Kung. The Fire Services Department said it received multiple reports of a blaze that broke out near a minibus terminus in Po Toi O village at 8.33am on Wednesday. It was classified as a No 1 alarm fire, the lowest in Hong Kong’s five-tier system. Firefighters arrived at the scene 14 minutes late...
A prolonged power outage since Sunday has forced a funeral parlour to limit burnings of paper offerings due to poor ventilation, though some of its other services have resumed. Power was restored at Global Funeral Parlour in Hung Hom on Wednesday, with lights and air conditioning returning across its five floors and large fans and air coolers deployed to further cool the premises. But the burning ...
When Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian told state television last week that he found it “very difficult” to reach the country’s supreme leader, it sparked fresh speculation about the whereabouts of Mojtaba Khamenei who has not been seen in public since taking over as the country’s ultimate authority in March. By Monday, Pezeshkian told the official broadcaster that the two had in fact recently he...
Snooker star Jimmy White, known as “The Whirlwind”, has become a Hong Kong resident through an official talent scheme, and has revealed plans to establish a snooker academy in the city to nurture local talent. The Hong Kong Immigration Department announced on Wednesday that the English player recently obtained his identity card and took up residency through the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme, jo...
The United States and 40 other nations have called for at least 24 hours’ notice before long-range ballistic missile launches, following a rare Chinese missile test in the Pacific last month that they said raised concerns over accidents and military miscalculation. In a joint statement released by the US State Department on Tuesday, the governments called on countries – particularly nuclear-weapon...
Deliveries of electric vehicles (EVs) in China fell 3.9 per cent in July from a year earlier, extending their decline to a seventh consecutive month as fading government incentives and weaker consumer demand weighed on the market. Domestic sales of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles last month also fell 5.8 per cent from June, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA...
A pyramid scheme mastermind has been uncovered, having transformed himself into a traditional Chinese culture guru who “educates” students through corporal punishment. In July, a pre-recorded video by a 16-year-old Chinese girl named Lin went viral among her friends. In the video, Lin pleads for help: “I don’t want to be sent to an internet addiction treatment school or a behaviour boot camp. If y...
A pyramid scheme mastermind has been uncovered, having transformed himself into a traditional Chinese culture guru who “educates” students through corporal punishment. In July, a pre-recorded video by a 16-year-old Chinese girl named Lin went viral among her friends. In the video, Lin pleads for help: “I don’t want to be sent to an internet addiction treatment school or a behaviour boot camp. If y...
A Hong Kong student has been spared jail for seditious acts in breach of the domestic national security law, after a court ruled that his good background, young age and the limited impact of his offences constituted “exceptional circumstances”. Leung Kai-lok, 19, is potentially the first person to avoid a custodial sentence for violating the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, although he wa...
This article was first published on August 14, 2016. Lion City celebrates first golden hero by James Porteous Singapore exploded into celebration as it feted a new sporting hero yesterday (August 13, 2016) after swimmer Joseph Schooling did the improbable – beat his one-time idol Michael Phelps – to win the Lion City’s first ever gold medal. Schooling completed a wire-to-wire victory to deny Ameri...
Chinese scientists who crossed a lychee with a longan are preparing to test its market release after the first substantial harvest of the high-yield, cold-resistant fruit is expected to ripen next month. The new variety, named “Cuimi”, was bred using the Shixia longan – a popular cultivar in Guangdong province – as its maternal parent and a lychee as its paternal parent, according to the research ...
North Korea’s recent missile launch may be a test of upgraded exports to Russia, observers say, as the war in Ukraine gives Pyongyang opportunities to improve its weapons. At about 6am on Wednesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) detected a missile launched from the North’s southeastern port city of Wonsan. It flew roughly 700km (435 miles) eastward before falling into the Sea of Japan....
A doctor and his friend who were arrested during a raid at a villa on Singapore’s Sentosa Island were sentenced on Wednesday to one year’s jail each for taking drugs. Dr Rayson Lee Rui Sheng, 36, and 29-year-old Tan Li Ming both intend to appeal against their convictions. The pair had contested their respective charges of taking MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, claiming their drinks had been spiked. H...
Hong Kong authorities have charged a woman on suspicion of keeping 136 dogs without valid licences at a shelter previously investigated for alleged animal cruelty, the South China Morning Post has learned. A spokesman for the Agriculture, Conservation and Fisheries Department (AFCD) said on Wednesday that the department commenced prosecution after conducting a raid in response to complaints about ...
Hong Kong was once again gripped by extreme heat on Wednesday as temperatures reached 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.5 Fahrenheit) in parts of the city, prompting calls for a district-level index to better protect outdoor workers. The very hot weather warning and the amber heat stress at work warning remained in effect by 5.50pm on Wednesday, as temperatures in parts of the New Territories reached extre...
Hong Kong remained gripped by extreme heat on Wednesday with temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) in parts of the city, prompting labour representatives to urge authorities to introduce a district-level index to better protect outdoor workers. The Very Hot Weather Warning and the Amber Heat Stress at Work Warning have been in effect since Wednesday morning, with parts of northe...
China’s quantitative funds have built trading strategies so closely tailored to the mainland market that foreign rivals cannot replicate them, even as a regulatory clampdown on trading speed reshapes the industry, according to a prominent economist. “If a top US quant team goes to Japan or India, they can beat virtually all the native quants,” Xia Chun, founder and chief economist at Chinese finan...
At a time of year when Beijing’s vegetation should be at its greenest, thousands of trees of various species in a park in the city’s Chaoyang district have withered and died because they were too wet. Beijing Daily, the city’s official newspaper, said on Monday that rising groundwater levels might be to blame. Jinzhandian Park, a lush flood-storage wetland park nicknamed Beijing’s “Little Lake Bai...
Colombian rescuers pulled a 32-year-old woman alive from the rubble of a collapsed building on Tuesday, sparking cheers and applause as exhausted crews raced to find more survivors from the country’s strongest earthquake in a century. Daniela Largo was carried from the wreckage wrapped in a blue blanket as rescuers embraced and relatives shouted out with joy. Soldiers, firefighters and volunteers ...
Beijing has started airing a heavyweight documentary on former Chinese president Jiang Zemin as part of commemoration events marking the centenary of his birth, expected to culminate on Monday in a grand ceremony presided over by President Xi Jinping. In the lead-up to the anniversary, state broadcaster CCTV launched a 12-episode documentary titled Jiang Zemin, with the network’s flagship CCTV-1 a...
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) will push ahead with talks on extending stock market trading hours by releasing a discussion paper, even as it faces brokers’ concerns over a longer trading time and cancellation of the trading lunch break, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. The paper may well pave the way for the first change to the city’s market opening time in 14 years...
