To win back the public's favour, the leaders must ensure essential services are provided.

She takes over the Public Affairs Department at a time when the military is slowly embracing openness.

We have to find creative yet amazing ways to appreciate our mothers.

Her number was always the first I called whenever I was in a fix.

He claims bank accounts were opened unprocedurally with signatories not known

Two of Souza's cornermen also tested positive.

South Sudan Doctors’ Union say this may hurt millions of South Sudanese.

The International Cricket Council has said it is "exploring all options" for the tournament.

Cathay Pacific is looking at “structural change” as it investigates how to downscale its business in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the Post has learned.Hong Kong’s flag carrier is mulling scenarios that could reduce staff headcount, routes served and planes flown, as well as the possible consolidation of its airline brands, in drastic steps that would mirror those taken by rivals in recent weeks.“We are currently working with colleagues from across the airline to model varying degrees…

Hong Kong doctors have performed Asia’s first heart transplant using a new technology invented in the United States that keeps the organ warm, beating and supplied with blood during the transfer, in a medical breakthrough that will enable more life-saving operations across borders.Dr Timmy Au Wing-kuk – chief of Queen Mary Hospital’s cardiothoracic surgery department, which carried out the medical procedure – hailed the Organ Care System as a success story that could not only allow up to five…

The production of reusable masks for all Hongkongers was not for profit, a government official said as she revealed the manufacturer’s identity and defended the lack of a public tender for the project worth hundreds of millions of dollars.Annie Choi Suk-han, permanent secretary of the Innovation and Technology Bureau, said most of the masks were being made by Crystal International Group at a facility in Vietnam.The rest were assembled, disinfected and packed using three local facilities offered…

Hong Kong recorded four new coronavirus infections on Thursday, all involving returnees from Pakistan the previous night, as the city prepared to bring back more residents stranded in South Asia.The diagnoses ended a two-day streak without any new cases, and takes the city’s total number of confirmed infections to 1,044.Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable diseases branch of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), said the patients in question, aged between 11 and 47, all returned to…

Muhammad Ali offering to help free Iran hostages, a contest pitting an abacus against a calculator and an Indian hospital using patients as guinea pigs made the headlines 40 years ago this week.May 4, 1980● The Macau ferry Fatshan, which capsized during Typhoon Rose in August 1971, was brought to the surface by a Chinese salvage team. Three skeletons, believed to be the remains of three of the victims trapped in the vessel when it sank near northeastern Lantau Island, were discovered inside the…

Bars will reopen across Hong Kong on Friday after a month-long coronavirus shutdown, as Lan Kwai Fong venues prepare to slash prices and the nightlife hub’s founder predicts takings as low as half normal levels.More than 100 frontline workers have been tested for the virus as part of the Central party zone’s relaunch, which comes as the government eases social-distancing restrictions in response to the improving Covid-19 situation in the city.Pubs and bars will only be allowed to operate half…

The eyes are an important route for the coronavirus into the human body, according to University of Hong Kong research which found the strain was up to 100 times more infectious than severe acute respiratory syndrome and bird flu in two facial orifices tested by the public health experts.Laboratory tests revealed the “virus level” of SARS-Cov-2 – the strain of coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 disease – was far greater than for Sars in the upper respiratory airways and conjunctiva, the cells…

Exam authorities will carry out citywide research to develop an alternative student grading system in the event university entrance tests are cancelled because of future pandemics, Hong Kong’s education minister told the Post on Thursday.In an exclusive interview, Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung also said his bureau would review with schools how to better prepare for class suspensions, including teacher training and resources for non-traditional instruction methods.Hong Kong…

Hong Kong started returning to normal on Friday as the city eased the social-distancing rules brought in to help combat the spread of Covid-19.For the first time in more than a month, residents were able to go to gyms, beauty parlours, bars, cinemas, and other public venues which the government previously forced to close.With local transmission of the virus levelling off over the past two weeks, officials have allowed a partial reopening of eight types of business, but with conditions attached…

Bars and other entertainment venues were finally allowed to reopen their doors on Friday after more than a month of coronavirus measures, but Hong Kong’s famed nightlife scene was far from buzzing as people remained wary over the potential risk of infection.But along with the caution there was a sense of optimism from customers and business operators alike.A day after the city detected four imported cases in Hong Kong residents returning from Pakistan, the number of new infections dropped to…

The High Court has thrown out a Hong Kong resident’s challenge to his quarantine status, dismissing his application for a writ of habeas corpus over his mandatory isolation at a government-run facility.Accountant Syed Agha Raza Shah, who tested negative for Covid-19 upon his return, was sent to the Chun Yeung Estate in Fo Tan for a 14-day stay after returning from Pakistan via Qatar with about 200 other Hong Kong residents on April 29.On Thursday, he applied for a writ of habeas corpus…

Ocean Park could run out of cash by September, its CEO warned on Friday as he estimated the Hong Kong attraction had missed out on nearly 1 million visitors over three months of its coronavirus shutdown.With the health crisis intensifying the resort’s financial woes, Matthias Li Sing-chung said no decision had been made on when the park would emerge from the shutdown imposed on January 26, but said it could return within two weeks once conditions were deemed suitable, even if some social…

Police dispersed lunchtime protesters with pepper spray in an upscale Hong Kong shopping centre just 12 hours after the government relaxed some coronavirus social-distancing measures and allowed people to gather in groups of eight on Friday.Shortly after dozens of anti-government demonstrators began yelling slogans and belting out their anthem, officers entered the IFC Mall in Central to cordon off their protest site, forcing the Apple store to lower its shutters.Later, police used pepper spray…

The head of China’s cabinet-level office that oversees Hong Kong affairs has urged the city’s leader to examine possible ways of enacting a national security law and to ensure that elections for the legislature this year are conducted in a fair manner.The meeting between Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO), and Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was held in Shenzhen at the end of last month, according to sources.Hong Kong is facing mounting pressure…

A combination of three drugs suppressed the coronavirus within seven days when used on patients in Hong Kong, nearly twice as fast as a single medicine did, in a result seen as a leading hope in the fight against the pandemic, a study has found.The findings of the research, led by University of Hong Kong academics and published in The Lancet on Saturday, could signal progress in the search for a standard form of therapy for Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes the Covid-19 disease.It discovered…

After almost three months of hectic preparation, Denis Huen Yin-fan’s Hong Kong factory started delivering masks to customers last week to help protect them against the Covid-19 pandemic.Just as the supplies began reaching his clients, the Hong Kong government announced it will be distributing reusable and disposable masks to all households, free of charge, within weeks.Every household will receive reusable masks that can be washed up to 60 times, as well as a pack of 10 disposable masks.1.5…

Hong Kong recorded zero new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, as a government adviser suggested that border control measures between the city and Macau could be the first to be lifted.It was also the 20th day in a row without any local infections, although a handful of imported cases over the past week had taken Hong Kong’s tally to 1,044 with four related deaths.Health experts earlier raised the prospect of Hong Kong being declared free of local transmission if there were no such cases after 28 days…

As a journalist, you want to report the story – you never want to be the story. So after weeks of covering the coronavirus crisis, it was a shock to learn I had tested positive for Covid-19.Unfortunately, though I did not know it at the time of my diagnosis, my story with the disease would soon be taking an even darker turn when it left my 73-year-old mother Lien comatose and struggling for her life.I had arrived in Hong Kong from Britain on Monday March 23, following a holiday to see my family…

China Evergrande’s weekend sale of its Emerald Bay flats in Tuen Mun has flopped for the third time in as many months, as Hong Kong’s homebuyers shunned its meagre discounts in anticipation of further price declines.The developer managed to find buyers for 41 flats, or 12 per cent of the 335 units on offer at 8:30pm, according to sales agents.In March, the developer sold 49 of 141 flats when it launched the project in the midst of the city’s coronavirus outbreak, at a time when social…

While the coronavirus pandemic has forced the city’s tourism sector to a near standstill, agency head Christina Yuen Ho-yee is busier than ever, routinely working 12 hours a day.As the Covid-19 pandemic caused global lockdowns, sales at her firm, EGL Tours, dropped to zero between March and June, down from HK$500 million (US$64.5 million) in the same stretch last year.All of her roughly 600 staff members have been asked to take days of unpaid leave between April and June.But Yuen, the agency’s…

A top police officer told me an interesting story about the siege of Polytechnic University last year, when anti-government protesters of the militant persuasion had occupied the campus. He recalled intercepting and arresting a group of youngsters trying to flee the war zone and how he was struck by the reaction of a petrified teenager among them when she was being booked. “Absolutely terrified, shaking,” was how he remembered her. “She thinks I will take her around the back and shoot her…

Manssour Bin Mussallam, is Secretary General-elect of the Organisation of Educational Cooperation (OEC)

The post The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Reinvention of the Spirit of Solidarity and Cooperation appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Like much of the West, Argentina did not take many early precautionary actions after the Covid-19 epidemic was confirmed in January, but became the first Latin American country to act decisively with a 12 March public health emergency declaration. The presidential decree came a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic, […]

The post Argentina Responds Boldly to Coronavirus Crisis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

David Medine is Senior Financial Sector Specialist at the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP). He is also CGAP’s lead on data protection and security and works to develop novel, consumer-oriented approaches to data protection and to encourage the creation of cyber security resource centers for developing countries.

The post Financial Scams Rise as Coronavirus Hits Developing Countries appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The new coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to wreak havoc across the world, as the number of infections and deaths rapidly rise. It has the potential to infect anybody regardless of age or gender. There are grave concerns that the economic fallout from COVID-19 may be comparable to that of the Great Depression. According to Johns Hopkins […]

The post Global Impact of New Corona Virus and Population Issues appeared first on Inter Press Service.

As social distancing, quarantines and lockdowns have spread across the globe to slow the spread of coronavirus, they have imposed some of the greatest worldwide restrictions on public gatherings in living memory. These restrictions may be necessary for public health, but they require the most anxious scrutiny to prevent them being misused to quash legitimate political […]

The post How Coronavirus Makes us Rethink Youth Protests appeared first on Inter Press Service.

It’s eight o’clock in the morning and Pascuala Ninantay is carrying two large containers of water in her wheelbarrow to prepare with neighbouring women farmers 200 litres of organic fertiliser, which will then be distributed to fertilise their crops, in this town in the Andes highlands of Peru. “We grow healthy, nutritious food without chemicals,” […]

The post Coronavirus Hasn´t Slowed Down Ecological Women Farmers in Peru’s Andes Highlands appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The world’s poorer nations, reeling under an unrelenting attack on their fragile economies by the COVID-19 pandemic, have suffered an equally deadly body blow: being buried under heavy debt burdens. Abiy Ahmed, prime minister of Ethiopia who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, said last week that in 2019, 64 countries, nearly half […]

The post World’s Poor Hit by Double Jeopardy: a Deadly Virus & a Devastating Debt Burden appeared first on Inter Press Service.

As the COVID-19 pandemic worsened in April, many Americans were shocked by the extent that black Americans were being disproportionately impacted: higher infection rates, more deaths and greater job loss. But many black Americans were not surprised. This is not new. The same dynamic has been going on at times of crisis for decades and […]

The post Black Americans are Bearing the Brunt of Coronavirus Recession – This Should Come as no Surprise appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The KALPA pilots union at Kenya Airways on Thursday withdrew a strike notice issued last month, saying there had been progress on issues it had raised regarding the carrier's turnaround strategy.

Police beat anti-corruption protesters with batons and fired volleys of tear gas to disperse them in Kenya's capital on Thursday, Reuters witnesses said.

A group of suspected thieves robbed the Equity Bank, Kayole Branch in Nairobi on Saturday night getting away with a undisclosed amount of money.

The first day of the 2016 Kenya Certificate of Secondary education (KCSE) examination was marred by the death of a pupil just as exams begun.

A mobile clinic which was donated by First Lady Margaret Kenyatta remains unused causing much frustration.