A shooting in the tourist heart of Poland’s second city of Krakow on Saturday left five people dead and around a dozen wounded, police said. “A man drove a car onto Krakow’s main square and began shooting at random people,” a Krakow police spokesman said. “As a result of the incident, five people were killed and around a dozen others were wounded.” He said the gunman was “neutralised and shot” by police officers and transported to hospital. The police service for the Lesser Poland region said on...

Hong Kong firefighters have rescued a 67-year-old woman from a flat in Tin Shui Wai after a blaze broke out, prompting about 100 people to flee. A preliminary investigation suggested aromatherapy items ignited objects in the flat. Police said officers were alerted at 5.39pm on Saturday after smoke was seen billowing from a flat at Locwood Court in the Kingswood Villas private estate. Firefighters forced entry into the flat, where they found the woman, and extinguished the fire, police said. The...

A Guatemalan ⁠lawmaker and three ⁠police officers were ⁠killed in an armed attack in the eastern department of Zacapa, President Bernardo Arevalo said, condemning the violence and ordering security forces to ‌help identify those responsible. Lawmaker Julio Cesar Portillo Paz was attacked on Friday in Rio Hondo, Zacapa, and initially taken to a hospital with serious injuries. His death was later confirmed by the ⁠National Unity of Hope party, or UNE, to which he ‌belonged. Arevalo said the three...

A decade after hosting a politically hobbled Barack Obama at a Group of 20 (G20) summit in Hangzhou, China is preparing to welcome another “lame-duck” US president for a multilateral gathering: Donald Trump. Following the Republicans’ loss of both chambers of the US Congress in the midterm elections on Tuesday – a drubbing that reached deep into historically red states – Trump is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in two weeks on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation...

Gustav Mahler’s rarely performed Symphony No 8, a work requiring such a large orchestra and choir it is known as “Symphony of a Thousand”, finally received its Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra premiere on Saturday, heralding an ambitious new chapter as the 26-year-old Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski officially took the podium as music director. The 5pm performance at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre involved nearly 600 musicians and singers from six choirs: the Hong Kong Philharmonic Chorus; the...

China’s ruling Communist Party has warned of “zero tolerance” for bribery and other attempts at election interference as delegate selection begins for next year’s national congress, which is expected to feature a major leadership reshuffle. The party issued guidelines on selecting the delegates, a process that would be overseen by its Organisation Department, state news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday. The 21st national party congress, to be held in the second half of next year, will select a...

New Zealand’s ruling centre-right National Party and main opposition Labour were nearly deadlocked in the popular vote after initial counting in the nationwide general election on Saturday. Results from the Electoral Commission show that with more than 95 per cent of the ballots counted, both parties were polling just short of 30 per cent of the popular vote, with just a few thousand votes separating the two. A projection from New Zealand’s Electoral Commission ‌showed the current three-party...