HONG KONG- Hong Kong has ordered pubs and bars to close for 2 weeks from 6 p.m. on Friday as the financial hub steps up social distancing restrictions and joins cities around the world in the battle to halt the spread of coronavirus.
Anyone who violates the new law faces 6 months in jail and a fine of HK$50,000 ($6,450).
The extraordinary move in a city that never sleeps comes a week after the government stopped all tourist arrivals and transit passengers at its airport and said it was considering suspending the sale of alcohol in some venues.
"Any premises (commonly known as bar or pub) that are exclusively or mainly used for the sale or supply of intoxicating liquors ... must be closed," the government said in a statement late on Thursday.
It added that 62 confirmed coronavirus cases in the city had been linked to bars, leading to 14 further infections, including a 40-day-old baby. Hong Kong has 802 cases of coronavirus and four deaths from the disease.
Alcohol will still be available in supermarkets and convenience stores across the Asian financial center.
Global coronavirus cases surpassed 1 million on Thursday with more than 52,000 deaths as the pandemic further exploded in the United States and the death toll climbed in Spain and Italy, according to a Reuters tally of official data.
-Reuters-
HONG KONG, China -- The majority of Hong Kong's subway stations remained closed Sunday as the city braced for more protests with pro-democracy activists vowing to hit the streets and opposition lawmakers trying to overturn a face mask ban.
Thousands of protesters staged unsanctioned marches and flashmob protests at multiple locations on Saturday, a day after the city's leader outlawed face coverings at protests, invoking colonial-era emergency powers not used for half a century.
The finance hub has been convulsed by widespread chaos in recent days as hardcore protesters trashed dozens of subway stations, vandalized shops, set fires and blocked roads.
Pro-democracy lawmakers are seeking an emergency injunction later Sunday in a bid to overturn the face mask ban and declare the emergency powers invalid because they bypass the city's legislature.
Last deployed in 1967, the powers allow chief executive Carrie Lam to make "any regulations whatsoever" during a time of public danger.
The move was welcomed by government supporters and Beijing.
But opponents and protesters saw it as the start of a slippery slope tipping the international finance hub into authoritarianism.
"I would say this is one of the most important constitutional cases in the history of Hong Kong," lawmaker Dennis Kwok told reporters outside court on Sunday.
"This could be the very last constitutional fight on our part. In the name of law they are trying to hurt the people and they try to crush the opposition.
"If this emergency law just gets a pass just like that Hong Kong will be deemed into a very black hole."
2 TEEN PROTESTERS SHOT
Hong Kong has been battered by four months of huge and increasingly violent pro-democracy protests.
The rallies were ignited by a now-scrapped plan to allow extraditions to the mainland, which fuelled fears of an erosion of liberties promised under the 50-year "one country, two systems" model China agreed ahead of the 1997 handover by Britain.
After Beijing and local leaders took a hard line, the demonstrations snowballed into a wider movement calling for more democratic freedoms and police accountability.
Lam has refused major concessions but struggled to come up with any political solution, leaving police and demonstrators to fight increasingly violent battles as the city tips into recession.
The worst clashes to date erupted on Tuesday as China celebrated 70 years of Communist Party rule, with a teenager shot and wounded by police as he attacked an officer.
A 14-year-old boy was then shot and wounded on Friday night when a plainclothes police officer who was surrounded by a mob of protesters throwing petrol bombs fired his sidearm.
That night masked protesters went on a rampage in dozens of locations, trashing subway stations and businesses with mainland China ties.
The city's subway system -- which carries four million people daily -- was shut down entirely on Friday night and throughout Saturday, bringing much of the metropolis to a halt.
Major supermarket chains and malls announced they were closing leading to long lines and panic buying as residents stocked up on essentials.
Thousands of masked protesters still came out onto the streets throughout Saturday despite the mask ban and transport gridlock, although the crowds were smaller than recent rallies.
SUBWAY PARTIALLY REOPENS
On Sunday, the subway operator said 45 stations would open but 48 remained shuttered, many of them in the heart of the city's main tourist districts as well as those neighborhoods areas hit hardest by the protests and vandalism.
Online forums used by the largely leaderless protest movement to organize were encouraging protesters to hold an unsanctioned rally in the city's Victoria Park later Sunday.
But with most of the stations in that area of the city closed it was unclear if they would be able to muster decent numbers.
Lam has defended her use of the emergency powers and says she is willing to make more executive orders if the violence continues.
"We cannot allow rioters any more to destroy our treasured Hong Kong," Lam said in a stony-faced video statement on Saturday.
But protesters have vowed to keep hitting the streets.
"The anti-face mask law is the first step," Hosun Lee, a protester in Causeway Bay, told AFP, saying he feared more laws under the emergency order were on the way.
Protester demands include an independent inquiry into the police, an amnesty for the more than 2,000 people arrested and universal suffrage -- all requests rejected by Lam and Beijing.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
HONG KONG - Hong Kong activists called off protests on Wednesday in remembrance of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and denounced a Chinese state newspaper report that they were planning "massive terror" in the Chinese-ruled city.
Hong Kong has been rocked by months of sometimes violent unrest, prompted by anger over planned legislation to allow extraditions to China, but broadening into calls for democracy and for Communist rulers in Beijing to leave the city alone.
"Anti-government fanatics are planning massive terror attacks, including blowing up gas pipes, in Hong Kong on September 11," the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily said on its Facebook page, alongside a picture of the hijacked airliner attacks on the twin towers in New York.
"The 9/11 terror plot also encourages indiscriminate attacks on non-native speakers of Cantonese and starting mountain fires." The post said "leaked information was part of the strategy being schemed by radical protesters in their online chat rooms."
The former British colony of Hong Kong returned to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula that guarantees freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland, including an independent legal system, triggering the anger over the extradition bill.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has said she would withdraw the bill but many Hong Kong residents fear Beijing is steadily eroding the autonomy of the Asian financial hub.
China denies meddling and has accused the United States, Britain and others of fomenting the unrest.
"We don’t even need to do a fact check to know that this is fake news," said one protester, Michael, 24, referring to the China Daily post.
"The state media doesn’t care about its credibility. Whenever something they claimed to have heard on WhatsApp or friends’ friends, they will spread it right away."
The protesters called off action on Wednesday.
"In solidarity against terrorism, all forms of protest in Hong Kong will be suspended on Sept. 11, apart from potential singing and chanting," they said in a statement.
The China Daily report was worrying, said another protester, Karen, 23. "When they try to frame the whole protest with those words, it alarms me," she said. "They are predicting rather than reporting. I think people calling it off today is a nice move."
FAMILY FRICTIONS
The chairwoman of the Hong Kong Federation of Women, Pansy Ho, a prominent businesswoman and daughter of Macau casino operator Stanley Ho, said she was worried about violent extremism.
"Children of all ages are indoctrinated with police hatred and anti-establishment beliefs at school and online mobilized to conduct massive school strikes," she told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Lam said in a speech on Wednesday that Hong Kong was grappling with significant challenges.
"My fervent hope is that we can bridge our divide by upholding the one country, two systems principle, and the Basic Law, and through the concerted efforts of the government and the people of Hong Kong," she told business leaders.
The Basic Law is Hong Kong's mini constitution.
Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd has become the biggest corporate casualty of the unrest after China demanded it suspend staff involved in, or who support, the protests.
Cathay Pacific said on Wednesday inbound traffic to Hong Kong in August fell 38 percent and outbound traffic 12 percent compared to a year earlier, and that it did not anticipate September to be any less difficult.
Joshua Wong, one of the prominent leaders of the 2014 "Umbrella" pro-democracy movement which brought key streets in Hong Kong to a standstill for 79 days, said in Berlin that the fight for democracy was an uphill battle.
"I hope one day not only Hong Kong people, but also people in mainland China, can enjoy freedom and democracy," he said.
The protests spread to the sports field on Tuesday, as many football fans defied Chinese law to boo the national anthem ahead of a soccer World Cup qualifier against Iran.
Several peaceful protests are planned for the next few days, combining with celebrations marking the Mid-Autumn Festival.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
