Former Hong Kong police chief Andy Tsang Wai-hung’s home has been burgled, the Post has learned. The extent of the potential losses remained unclear as of Monday night. Police vehicles were spotted at Hong Lok Yuen, a residential estate in Tai Po where Tsang was believed to live. Investigators reportedly asked his neighbours for security camera footage earlier on Monday. A media report suggested Tsang might have lost belongings worth at least HK$100,000. Tsang served as police commissioner from January 2011 until his departure in 2015, shortly after the conclusion of the 79-day Occupy demonstrations in December 2014. More to follow … Source link

From US sending migrants back to China to Singapore’s Pritam Singh trial, here are five stories you may have missed over the weekend. Source link

Hong Kong residents should expect the weather to remain hot over the coming days, with the mercury hitting as high as 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit), although a larger temperature difference between day and night is expected later in the week. The Observatory on Sunday also provided an update on the formation of a possible typhoon, noting an area of low pressure over the western north Pacific to the east of the Philippines was intensifying gradually, although uncertainties over its movement remained. The forecaster said its weather station on Lau Fau Shan in the New Territories recorded a maximum temperature of 33.2 degrees. Temperatures were predicted to range between 22 and 33 degrees this week. A dry northeast monsoon was also expected to reach southern China on Tuesday. The Observatory said the weather would be slightly cooler in the morning and at night in the middle and latter parts of...

Hong Kong is expected to start taking enforcement action against landlords of unregistered or poor-quality subdivided flats from as early as 2028 after the proposed clampdown’s grace period of up to two years comes to an end, a minister has said. Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin on Sunday shared more details about the road map for tackling the city’s notorious subdivided flats, after the chief executive’s policy address outlined plans to phase out homes smaller than 86 sq ft that lacked windows and independent toilets. The government was set to start the legislative process in 2025, followed by a registration period that could take 12 to 18 months, she said. Under the proposed shake-up, registered landlords will be given a grace period of one to two years to make the necessary changes to their properties. They will be able to continue renting out the homes in the meantime. Registered...

Hong Kong police have arrested three people on suspicion of deceiving a man over cryptocurrency trades involving at least HK$1 million (US$128,690). The force said it received a report on Thursday from a 46-year-old man, who said he had traded Tether coins four times involving a total of HK$1.4 million with a person he knew from a cryptocurrency trading group on WeChat. The victim then accompanied a woman who claimed to be an agent for an exchange office to a location in Kwun Tong to make a fifth trade, this time buying Tether, and handed over HK$1 million in cash to a man. The man allegedly asked other purported employees to take the money out of the office and claimed he had already transferred the cryptocurrency to the electronic wallet of the victim’s agent. The victim suspected he had been scammed and alerted police. Officers arrested a 56-year-old woman and...

Melioidosis has returned to the public spotlight after health authorities confirmed on Friday that the disease caused the death of nine monkeys at the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens. The disease, caused by the Burkholderia pseudomallei bacterium, is endemic to the city, with a previous outbreak involving dozens of cases in Sham Shui Po in 2022. The Post breaks down what this disease is and how you can keep yourself safe. 1. What happened this time? City officials said on Friday nine monkeys that died at the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens succumbed to sepsis brought on by a melioidosis infection, confirmed by necropsies and laboratory tests. The announcement followed the discovery of the death of eight monkeys at the zoo last Sunday, with another animal dying on Monday morning. Among the nine dead monkeys, there were three cotton-top tamarins, four white-faced saki monkeys, a De Brazza’s monkey...

A typhoon may soon form and affect Hong Kong, the city’s weather forecaster has said, as it tracks a developing low-pressure area in the northwestern Pacific. The Observatory said on Friday the southern coast of China had benefited from fair weather over the past week due to drier easterly airflow, with calm conditions prevailing. But the tranquillity could be disrupted as a broad low-pressure system was expected to increase convective activity. This occurs when warm air rises and cool air sinks, leading to the formation of clouds and precipitation. The Observatory said the phenomenon was expected over the coming days and was predicted to move towards waters east of Luzon in the Philippines. While the exact path of the system remains uncertain, the forecaster said it was considering several scenarios that could impact Hong Kong. “Some computer models predict that the low-pressure system will move westward and cross the central...

Hong Kong has the potential to transform itself into an artificial intelligence (AI) applications development hub, on the back of the government’s forward-looking policy initiatives and as part of the broader information technology ecosystem in the Greater Bay Area, according to a panel discussion at InnoTech Forum 2024. “It’s almost essential for Hong Kong to become an AI development hub in the next three to five years,” said Sony Han, IBM iX leader at IBM Consulting Hong Kong, in a panel discussion of AI in action. “Hong Kong within the bay area will have the most diverse digital ecosystem around the world because of the convergence of many different digital ecosystems.” Still, that transformation in Hong Kong will need more funding from both the public and private sectors, so that the essential computing and energy infrastructure can be put in place in the city, according to Maryann Tseng, head of...

Hong Kong taxi drivers are not required to learn Arabic, the commerce minister has said after authorities suggested providing service information in the language as part of the latest policy blueprint to attract new visitors. Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau Ying-wah on Friday clarified the government’s proposal, following heavy criticism in which some cabbies described it as “nonsense” and “a waste of time”. “I think learning the Arabic language is not easy,” Yau said, noting that the government was not demanding cabbies to do so. Commerce chief Algernon Yau says cabbies can learn basic Arabic phrases if they are interested. Photo: Eugene Lee “If taxi drivers are interested in learning Arabic … they can try to learn some basic phrases such as greetings or ‘thank you’.” He said authorities only suggested cabbies provide information in Arabic because the government was hoping to attract investment and tourists from...

An elderly man in Britain who suffered from a life-threatening flesh-eating disease after being injected with pesticide by his partner’s son, a Hong Kong-born doctor, has told a court he was “left a shell of an individual” and felt he had been “to hell and back”. Former environmental analyst Patrick O’Hara spoke about his ordeal as he gave a victim impact statement at a sentencing hearing in Newcastle Crown Court on Thursday morning, local time. O’Hara, 71 at the time of the incident on January 22, was injected with a pesticide administered by Dr Thomas Kwan, 53, under the guise of being given a Covid-19 booster jab. He later developed a flesh-eating disease on his arm, with part of it needing to be amputated and he spent a week in a high-dependency unit at hospital. Kwan, a partner at the Happy House Surgery in the nearby city of Sunderland, initially...