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6 hurt as truck and minibus collide on Hong Kong’s Castle Peak Road
Business

6 hurt as truck and minibus collide on Hong Kong’s Castle Peak Road

Six people taken to Pok Oi Hospital in Yuen Long with neck injuries Six people have been injured in a collision between a truck and a minibus on a section of Castle Peak Road near Yuen Long in Hong Kong. Police said they were alerted at 4.27pm on Thursday to the traffic accident involving a 24-tonne truck and a green-topped minibus on the Yuen Long-bound lane of Castle Peak Road-Tam Mi. Six people suffered neck injuries, police said, adding that they would be sent to Pok Oi Hospital in Yuen Long for treatment.

ICAC charges 3 former HSBC managers over accepting bribes to fast-track accounts
Business

ICAC charges 3 former HSBC managers over accepting bribes to fast-track accounts

Hong Kong corruption watchdog alleges managers at Causeway Bay branch took bribes to help customers jump the queue and open bank accounts Hong Kong’s anti-corruption watchdog has charged three former HSBC relationship managers with allegedly accepting bribes to help customers jump the queue when opening bank accounts. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said on Thursday that Chan Fu-kwan, 32, Mike Chan Wai-pak, 29, and Bernie Yau Kai-lung, 33, face a total of six bribery charges. All three worked at the bank’s Causeway Bay branch at the time of the alleged offences and were formally charged on Wednesday. An ICAC investigation found that Chan Fu-kwan allegedly accepted bribes from an insurance agent, ranging from HK$1,000 (US$127) to HK$1,200 per referred customer, to facilitate opening their accounts. He also allegedly referred some customers to three other HSBC relationship managers, including Mike Chan and Yau, for help in opening accounts, and offered bribes of HK$300 to HK$500 per customer referred to them. He also asked the trio for help when he could not handle those customers himself.

US launches more strikes on Iran as conflict spreads across region
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US launches more strikes on Iran as conflict spreads across region

Pentagon retaliates against attempted attacks on American forces as fighting draws in Tehran-backed proxies The US carried out fresh strikes in Iran on Wednesday, the US military said, further intensifying a five-month-old war that was already expanding beyond its main fronts to embroil additional countries in the region. “US forces began launching strikes against Iran at 8pm ET today,” US Central Command said in a statement. “The strikes are a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on US forces based in the Middle East.” Earlier on Wednesday, a drone hit a US-owned gas storage tanker at Egypt’s ‌Mediterranean port of Damietta, British maritime security firm Ambrey said in an initial assessment, while US and Saudi forces launched strikes against Iran-aligned groups in eastern Iraq and Iran fired missiles at US troops in Jordan. A statement from Egypt’s petroleum ministry confirmed a fire at the port but made no mention of a drone attack. It was not immediately clear who was responsible. The latest strikes in Iraq and Egypt threatened to draw more Middle Eastern countries into the conflict, after the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen last week declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia.

‘So absurd!’: Chinese cosplayer draws crowds by selling lemonade ‘feet juice’
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‘So absurd!’: Chinese cosplayer draws crowds by selling lemonade ‘feet juice’

Stunt sparks mainland social media fury, with many demanding severe punishments for participating cosplayers An anime convention in southern China recently evicted several cosplayers after they put their bare feet in water and sold the so-called “feet juice,” which attracted large crowds of onlookers eager to buy. This activity mirrored a similar stunt at a US anime event in May, where a number of participants sold their feet juice for US$10-30 per cup, generating widespread controversy and heated discussions globally. According to a report by Fengmang News, at the Firefly Comic Convention in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, some Chinese female cosplayers sat on chairs with their feet submerged in large boxes filled with water infused with lemon slices. Their companions used disposable cups to scoop the “feet juice” to sell to spectators for 50 yuan (US$7) per cup. “It is for entertainment only. We do not intend to guide in an inappropriate way,” read a notice displayed near the cosplayer’s stall.

How does Hong Kong’s new end-of-life law affect patients and medical staff?
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How does Hong Kong’s new end-of-life law affect patients and medical staff?

The SCMP explores family rights under the law and what happens to healthcare professionals who fail to comply with end-of-life directives A new law allowing patients in Hong Kong to reject life-sustaining treatments when they are terminally ill will take effect on Friday. The South China Morning Post looks into how the law will affect patients and healthcare professionals. The Advance Decision on Life-sustaining Treatment Ordinance will come into effect on July 31, following its passage by the Legislative Council in November 2024. The law gives patients the power to reject certain life-sustaining treatments when they are terminally ill and mentally incapable of making decisions. It also provides legal protection to healthcare professionals and rescuers who honour these medical directives. Both documents are key instruments in end-of-life care, and have been in place in public hospitals since 2010 under common law.

Zhongji Innolight shares fall on Hong Kong debut amid global AI sell-off
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Zhongji Innolight shares fall on Hong Kong debut amid global AI sell-off

The Chinese firm has completed Hong Kong’s biggest IPO of the year, but its debut comes amid waning investor confidence in AI-related stocks Zhongji Innolight saw its share price drop as much as 3 per cent after its hotly anticipated debut on the Hong Kong stock market on Thursday, as the Chinese firm felt the impact of a global downturn in investor sentiment towards the artificial intelligence sector. The Chinese firm – a leading producer of optical transceivers used in AI data centres – had earlier completed Hong Kong’s biggest initial public offering of the year, raising HK$53.4 billion (US$6.8 billion) at a market capitalisation of over HK$1 trillion. But the listing has coincided with a global sell-off of AI-related stocks, with Innolight pricing the IPO at HK$980 per share – below its upper marketing limit of HK$1,010. The company’s share price in Shenzhen had slumped 16 per cent since the launch of its H-share public offering as of Wednesday, closing at 951 yuan per share. That narrowed the discount between its new H shares and existing A shares from 20 per cent to just 11 per cent.

Could you identify a criminal? It’s harder than you think
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Could you identify a criminal? It’s harder than you think

If you witnessed someone committing a crime, how confident would you be that you could correctly identify that person later on? As it turns out, studies consistently reveal that we tend to overestimate our ability to recall past events accurately and recognise people we think we have seen before. A 2011 United States study showed that a majority of participants (63 per cent) believe that human memory works like a video recording. What an eyewitness is doing, on this view, is akin to running back...

Malaysia moves to protect local firms as cheap Chinese goods fill market
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Malaysia moves to protect local firms as cheap Chinese goods fill market

Malaysia is stepping up scrutiny of foreign-run businesses amid concerns from local operators over competition from China. The government wants to retain Chinese investment, technology and affordable consumer goods, while assuring local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that foreign competitors are not subject to different rules. Former trade and investment minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz, now chairman of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, said government social media analysis had...

OpenAI agent’s autonomous hack a warning to the world
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OpenAI agent’s autonomous hack a warning to the world

Three years ago, I warned in these pages that the greatest existential threat to humanity might not emerge from a stray asteroid or a cosmic cataclysm but from uncontrolled artificial intelligence (AI). Today, the trajectory towards an AI Armageddon has not merely accelerated, it has violently careered off the rails of human oversight. The academic debates of previous years regarding a voluntary six-month pause in AI development have been buried under an avalanche of hyper-autonomous, unaligned...

Singtel weighs Optus stake sale as Australian watchdog launches court action
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Singtel weighs Optus stake sale as Australian watchdog launches court action

Australia’s ⁠communications ⁠regulator has taken Optus to court over last year’s network outages, which were linked to four deaths Reuters reported in 2024 that Singtel ⁠was in advanced talks to sell a significant stake in Optus to ‌Brookfield Asset Management, although the company denied a deal was imminent. The telecoms services provider is under heightened ‌scrutiny following two outages involving Australia’s emergency call service that affected thousands ⁠of users ⁠and were linked to four deaths. The incidents led to the departure of two ‌senior executives, including its finance chief.

New yacht travel scheme makes waves but can Hong Kong cash in on marine economy?
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New yacht travel scheme makes waves but can Hong Kong cash in on marine economy?

Boat owners and maritime experts say Hong Kong must seize the opportunity to upgrade marine infrastructure to attract mainland yachts For the first time, veteran sailor Thomas Wong Kam-chuen and his partners set sail from Hong Kong on their 46-foot yacht on a two-day trip earlier this month to a holiday island in Zhuhai, testing the waters for more leisure travel to mainland China. After a five-hour voyage from the Causeway Bay typhoon shelter on a sunny weekend, they anchored their Danish-built yacht, DBX2, at Guishan Island, went ashore for a seafood lunch with beer and stayed overnight. “Food is really economical. We had 11 people, and a seafood meal was only HK$112 [US$14] per person. If you eat seafood in Hong Kong, it is at least HK$600 to HK$700 a person,” said the 79-year-old structural engineer, who has 52 years of sailing experience. DBX2 joined nine other vessels in a flotilla organised by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club in collaboration with the Zhuhai Yacht Association, with the early batch of sailors navigating Greater Bay Area waters under a new individual yacht travel scheme.

‘Negotiation fatigue’ risks stalling South China Sea code of conduct progress
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‘Negotiation fatigue’ risks stalling South China Sea code of conduct progress

Efforts to finalise the code between Asean and China this year are hampered to a large extent by differences between Manila and Beijing Any consensus on the code is likely to be broad and symbolic, and while “negotiation fatigue” could set in, it is still important to keep dialogue flowing, according to analysts. During a media briefing at the 59th Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting last Thursday, Lazaro said all parties intended to finish the code “within the year”. In a joint communique issued on the same day, Asean ministers said they were pleased with the “sustained positive momentum” in talks and welcomed the “significant progress achieved”. “We looked forward to continued efforts in endeavouring to conclude the negotiation of an effective and substantive COC that is in accordance with international law,” the document stated.