Hong Kong police have frozen HK$30 million (US$3.8 million) held in the bank account of a 36-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of theft after he allegedly refused to split a winning Mark Six jackpot with his colleagues. The arrest was made on Friday after a 53-year-old man reported to police on Wednesday that he was one of 15 colleagues who had chipped in to buy the winning ticket for the draw last week, according to a source. The group reportedly included some staff members of the Food...

Syrian government plans to turn a former military airport in Damascus into a ⁠hub for private jets are raising alarm among rights groups and residents who say redevelopment could disturb suspected mass graves and override private land claims. Syria’s civil aviation authority said last week it was preparing to reclassify Mezzeh military airport for limited civilian use, focused on private and executive aviation, to complement Damascus International Airport. Rubble removal and infrastructure...

Hong Kong police have frozen HK$30 million (US$3.8 million) held in the bank account of a 36-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of theft after he allegedly refused to split a winning Mark Six jackpot with his colleagues. The arrest was made on Friday after a 53-year-old man reported to police on Wednesday that he was one of 15 colleagues who had chipped in to buy the winning ticket for the draw last week, according to a source. The group reportedly included some staff members of the Food...

The Hong Kong government will table a bill at the Legislative Council in the first half of 2027 to introduce a statutory cooling-off period for prepaid beauty and fitness contracts, the commerce chief has said. Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau Ying-wah revealed the timeline on Saturday, two weeks after the government concluded a two-month consultation on the policy proposal to address limitations of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance on August 31. “We hope to table the...

Macau will hold its first national security trial behind closed doors next week, a court said on Friday, in a case against a former pro-democracy lawmaker charged with “subversion”. Former Macau lawmaker Au Kam San. File photo: Au Kam San, via Facebook. The Chinese casino hub expanded the scope of national security laws in May 2023, and a new bill passed earlier this year allows judges to hear national security cases behind closed doors. Lawyers and rights groups have warned that the rule could undermine the functioning of government departments and apply to “any judicial case”. Former Macau lawmaker Au Kam San in July 2025 became the first person to be arrested under the expanded law, with authorities alleging he had ties to foreign groups endangering China. The judge decided to “hold the trial behind closed doors in order to ensure that national security interests are not compromised”, a statement released by Macau’s final appeals court said. After Au’s arrest, details about the case remained scarce until this July, when judicial authorities in Macau confirmed that he would stand trial as a “principal offender” of subversion and other crimes. The court said the trial decision had been confirmed by Macau’s national security committee, following a request from the city’s public prosecutions office. The proceedings are set to begin September 16. Au, 69, is a primary school teacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy legislators before deciding not to seek re-election in 2021. Authorities said that a court-appointed lawyer previously accepted by Au will continue to represent him. Macau flag. Photo: gavindeas, via Flickr. Michael Polak, a London-based barrister representing Au, said earlier this year that authorities having “appointed a state lawyer does not remedy the fundamental deficiencies in these proceedings which have all the appearances of a show trial”. “He is a Portuguese national and has been kept incommunicado for one year without access to his family or an independent lawyer,” Polak added. Au’s daughter Cherry said the family is not allowed to visit or communicate with him. “All we ask for is a fair trial, due process, and for his more than three decades of dedication to the people of Macau not to be erased or forgotten,” she said in a statement in July. Under Macau’s security law, subversion offences are subject to a prison term of up to 25 years.

Yu Zidi made history last year aged 12 when she became the youngest-ever medallist at the swimming world championships. Now a teenager, she headlines China’s bid for Asian Games domination and has Olympic glory in her sights. China’s swimmer Yu Zidi prepares for the final of the women’s 200m butterfly swimming event during the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore on July 31, 2025. Photo: Oli Scarff/AFP. The 13-year-old school girl with a pixie hair cut stunned the sporting world last year with a series of eye-popping times. At the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore she helped China reach the 4x200m women’s freestyle relay final. She did not swim in the final but China came third, earning Yu a historic bronze for swimming in the heats. Yu just missed out on medals in the 200m and 400m individual medley events and the 200m butterfly, coming fourth in all three races. In November at China’s National Games, having just turned 13, she clocked a blistering 2:07.41 in the women’s 200m medley for what was then an Asian record. While training with the China team in Beijing, she told local media this month she was “excited” for her Asian Games debut. “Train well, don’t slack off. Demonstrate the level of your training and work hard to break past yourself,” she said, according to state news agency Xinhua. The Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan open on September 19. Pressure ‘like a stone’ A coach, Ha Sinan, once described Yu with a Chinese saying that translates as “a newborn calf fearless of tigers”. But the teenager has spoken of struggling to deal with the heavy load placed on her. Yu grew up in the city of Baoding, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of Beijing. She started swimming aged six and since then has juggled schoolwork with training. “Being in class all day and still having to train was really tiring,” she said in January. “Sometimes I was so tired I could fall asleep even while eating,” she said at an event celebrating Hebei province’s National Games wins. Yu said she “never considered quitting” and always dreamed of being a national champion. But during the tune-up to last year’s National Games she said the pressure of wanting to win the 400m medley nearly became too much. “It was like a big stone that weighed on me and made it hard to breathe,” she said. Yu eventually told her coach she wanted to do anything other than train. Her coach told her to persevere and “believe in yourself”, she said. Yu went on to win four medals at the National Games. Some in the swimming world have questioned the mental and physical impact of high-level training and competing on Yu at such a young age. Under World Aquatics rules, the minimum age for international championships is 14 but exceptions can be made for younger swimmers if — like Yu — they are fast enough. Olympic dreams It seems certain that Yu will compete at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, when she will be 15, and on current trajectory will be a major medal threat. Embed from Getty Images She is aware that her success for someone so young has made international headlines. But she knows hard work outweighs innate talent. In June she won the women’s 400m medley in 4:30.79 at China’s national championships, a time which would easily have earned her silver at the Paris Games in 2024. “Although talent determines where you start, going further and standing taller is dependent on perseverance and effort day after day,” Yu said at the January event. “There is still a long road ahead,” she added. “I will keep holding fast to my original dream, drawing strength from my team, to stand on the Olympic podium.”

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