Organisers of the annual Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon say they have attracted a vibrant crowd of international runners this year, with many elite athletes expected to be in attendance. 74,000 runners are set to participate this Sunday, including over 15,000 international athletes from 101 countries and regions. There will also be 14 male a…

Financial Secretary Paul Chan on Monday said he is cautiously optimistic about the city's stock market performance in the Year of the Snake. At an opening ceremony as the bourse began its first trading session of the new year, Chan noted that stocks saw their best performance in seven years during the Year of the Dragon, with the benchmark index ri…

Financial Secretary Paul Chan on Sunday said he expects Hong Kong interest rates will remain high for some time because of the tariffs the US has imposed on China, Canada and Mexico. An executive order from US President Donald Trump on Saturday introduced an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports, with a rate of 25 percent for the other tw…

How noisy 50,000 excited football fans can get will be put to the test this week as the roof of the main stadium is retracted for the first time in a series of trial runs at the new Kai Tak Sports Park. Officials say the stadium will be packed on Tuesday for a Hong Kong Premier League U22 match between Kitchee and North District. At a press briefin…

There is broad public agreement that changes have to be made to Hong Kong's HK$2 transport fares for the over 60s, Paul Chan said on Sunday, as he suggested healthcare and education could also be in line for government spending cuts. On a Commercial Radio programme, the financial secretary said the intentions behind the HK$2 scheme were very good, …

Canada will hit back at US tariffs with 25 percent levies of its own on select American goods, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday. "Canada will be responding to the US trade action with 25 percent tariffs against Can$155 billion (US$106 billion) worth of American goods," he said in a dramatic tone as he warned of a fracture in longstandin…

Shenzhen authorities are investigating an explosion near the Man Kam To control point on Saturday night. Officials say they believe an oxygen tank on a lorry ruptured shortly past 7:30 in the evening, causing an explosion and a fire that was caught on a video and went viral on mainland social media. No one was injured, and the fire was put out with…

Education Secretary Christine Choi said on Saturday that a rise in school fees will not hurt the competitiveness of the SAR’s universities. Starting the next academic year, the government will hike the current tuition fees of HK$42,100 for eight public universities by just under 18 percent in phased increases over three years. The fees have been fr…

Preliminary figures for the Lunar New Year point to a rebound in tourist numbers, including overseas visitors. The Tourism Board said on Saturday that Hong Kong attracted close to 680,000 tourists from Tuesday to Friday, a 6 percent year-on-year increase. The board's executive director Dane Cheng told a Commercial Radio programme that the percentag…

Chief Secretary Eric Chan said on Saturday that things went smoothly at the border crossings during the Lunar New Year holiday, despite changes from last year's travel arrangements. Unlike last year, border checkpoints at Lo Wu and Shenzhen Bay didn't extend their hours, leaving Lok Ma Chau/Huanggang Port and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Port …

The Tourism Bureau said the Travel Industry Authority is working with Miramar Travel to help relatives of a male tour guide who died in a traffic accident in Shanghai on Friday. The coach was taking a 16-member tour group to Shanghai Pudong International Airport when the accident occurred. Miramar general manager Alex Lee said the travel agency wou…