HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong judge ruled Tuesday in favor of a lesbian couple’s parental recognition of their son born through reciprocal in vitro fertilization in a landmark case. The couple, identified as B and R, underwent the medical procedure in South Africa in 2020 after getting married in the country. During the…
A growing number of Hong Kong-listed firms are snapping up cryptocurrency on the back of rising bitcoin prices and the popularity of digital asset treasury (DAT) companies in the US. Investment bank China Renaissance, which helped fund many leading Chinese tech firms, and Yunfeng Financial Group, backed by Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma, are…
The scandal involving a company using fraudulent documents to win a HK$52.9 million (US$6.78 million) bottled water supply contract has put the spotlight on the Hong Kong government’s procurement mechanism. Equally worthy of concern is the long-standing practice of subcontracting works in the construction industry, with the city’s railway operator looking into a suspected fraud…
The Hong Kong government and a university have denied a claim made by a major private education chain that the tertiary institution had won the bidding process to operate the city’s third medical school, calling the statement groundless. They weighed in on Monday after Beacon College posted a clip to social media saying that “reliable…
Hong Kong has advised residents to avoid non-essential travel to Israel and Iran despite lowering the risk levels for visiting the two countries from black to red. A government spokesman said in a statement on Monday that a red outbound travel alert still “signifies a significant threat”. “The [Hong Kong] government advises Hong Kong residents…
Hong Kong authorities have lambasted the “harbouring of criminals by countries” as Australia and the United Kingdom granted asylum and residency status respectively to a pair of opposition activists wanted for national security offences. Fugitive former lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung, who lives in Adelaide, and activist Tony Chung Hon-lam, based in London, announced separately on…
The transaction, which marked the Hong Kong government’s first residential plot sale this financial year, involved a site at Hoi Chu Road in Tuen Mun, a district in proximity to Shenzhen Bay. “The sought-after site presents enormous potential,” Sino Land executive director Victor Tin said on Wednesday. “With beautiful sea views, proximity to the Greater…
The Hong Kong government is facing mounting calls to mandate stricter health checks on elderly cabbies, but the taxi industry has pushed back and demanded that drivers be fully subsidised for annual medical screenings. The taxi trade, under fire after a number of crashes involving cabbies in their eighties in recent years, also warned on…
Hong Kong authorities have deployed three “mobile powerful pumping robots” for the first time to drain at least 24 flooded locations on a day when the city’s forecaster recorded the heaviest daily rainfall for August since 1884. According to the Drainage Services Department, multiple pumping robots, including three known as “water-pumping dragons” in Chinese, tackled…
Hong Kong collected HK$189 million (US$24.1 million) from a hotel tax on guests for the first quarter following its reintroduction, with industry leaders raising concerns as to whether a HK$1.1 billion annual income target can be met. Industry veterans also called for more government support, saying the tax figures reflected that hotels were struggling and…