The first person charged under Hong Kong’s national security law and accused of ramming his motorcycle into police at a protest last year had done so unintentionally, according to his lawyer.A senior counsel for Tong Ying-kit suggested at the High Court on Friday that the 24-year-old defendant, who faces secession and terrorism charges, had either been hit by a police shield or distracted by an officer swinging his shield at him before he lost control of his vehicle on July 1 last year.The…

Beijing’s foreign ministry has accused President Joe Biden of “interfering in Hong Kong affairs on the pretext of press freedom”, after the US leader blamed it for the closure of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper.On Thursday, the city’s residents flocked to buy copies of the tabloid-style publication’s final edition, a week after police arrested five of its top executives under the national security law.Two of the group, editor-in-chief Ryan Law Wai-kwong and publisher Cheung Kim-hung, were…

China’s central government has expressed strong support for Hong Kong joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), after its financial secretary said the city intended to become a member of the 15-nation trade bloc in what could be a boost to its flagging logistics sector.The China-backed RCEP was signed in November and includes the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. By eliminating…

A Hong Kong gang distributing and selling fake medicine for serious illnesses had been broken up and HK$4 million (US$515,180) worth of bogus pharmaceutical products seized, a customs official said on Friday.Nine people were also arrested in raids across the city, while 110,000 tablets of counterfeit medicine, including ones used to treat blood disorders and cancer, and 1.5 litres of bogus liquefied drugs were confiscated on Wednesday.Officers raided three drug stores, as well as the…

Health authorities have pinned the source of a Hong Kong airport worker’s Delta variant infection to a sample collection centre at the transport hub, where two Covid-19 cases sharing the same viral footprint were previously detected.In a groundbreaking development in the city’s first local case involving the more infectious variant, the Department of Health on Friday said whole genome sequencing results showed the 27-year-old worker’s infection was identical to that of three arrivals from…

A gay couple has won their second judicial challenge against the Hong Kong government in the High Court, this time over a discriminatory policy that barred them from living together in subsidised housing – a situation the judge described as “oppressively unfair”.Mr Justice Anderson Chow Ka-ming on Friday ruled in favour of Henry Li Yik-ho and Edgar Ng Hon-lam, concluding that the Housing Authority’s policies on adding occupants and transferring ownership of Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats…

Hong Kong’s security minister John Lee Ka-chiu was sworn in as chief secretary on Friday while police chief Chris Tang Ping-keung took over his previous portfolio, both promotions reflecting the administration’s greater emphasis on law and order.Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the moves, the second major reshuffle of her administration, would set a good foundation for the next government as she dismissed concerns that Lee, a former police officer, lacked policy experience to be…