A housewife in Hong Kong has lost nearly HK$2.5 million (US$320,500) in an online shopping scam after she tried to buy collagen drinks for HK$530, according to police. The victim saw a Facebook post advertising collagen drinks and transferred HK$530 via Faster Payment System, police said on their CyberDefender Facebook page. The seller later claimed the item was out of stock and offered a refund, sending the woman a link to a fake Facebook page that asked for her online banking...

Staff at the property management company at Hong Kong’s inferno-ravaged Wang Fuk Court housing estate acted with disregard for legal requirements, taking such actions as deactivating the fire safety system despite knowing they needed a registered contractor to do so, an evidential hearing has been told. Victor Dawes, lead counsel for an independent committee investigating the November 26 blaze that claimed 168 lives, also pointed to the management company’s workflow as a contributing factor in...

Four of 15 Hong Kong public primary schools at risk of closure due to insufficient enrolment plan to shut down, while nine are seeking to merge with other institutions, the Education Bureau has said. One intended to run Primary One classes privately from the coming school year, it said. The bureau said four schools would gradually wind down operations or at the latest end their services by the 2029-30 academic year, and nine had applied to merge with other institutions. But one of the...

With Washington’s objectives in the Iran war shifting, the evolving goals could allow US President Donald Trump to justify success and finish the conflict sooner than expected, Chinese analysts said. However, the observers cautioned that a wide gap with Israel over the conflict’s endgame could hinder the White House from swiftly moving past the war. The assessment coincides with growing international scepticism regarding the duration of the war in the Middle East. With global oil markets already...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering Latin American relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. As Trump ramps up pressure on Cuba, China has ‘very limited options’ As Washington stepped up rhetoric and pressure on Cuba after the start of its campaign in Iran, Beijing found itself torn between geopolitical reality and ideological affinity. Read the full story here. 2. US threats...

France suspects a pro-Iranian group known as HAYI to be behind a foiled attack on Bank of America’s Paris offices, its anti-terrorism prosecutor said on Wednesday, while stressing the link has not yet been formally established. HAYI, which stands for Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya, or ‌Movement of the Companions of the Right Hand of Islam, had posted a video on social media on March 23 targeting Jewish interests and communities in France and Europe, the prosecutor’s office said in a...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering US-China relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Trump-Xi summit will be very amicable, predicts former Biden official US President Donald Trump’s focus on short-term deliverables and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s bid for bilateral stability are likely to mean an exceptionally amicable summit when they finally sit down, despite “unusual”...