A poodle was found locked in a private car for three hours in Ma On Shan and was later rescued by firefighters on Friday night as they broke one of the windows to retrieve the dog. The citizen then spotted the poodle inside as he was about to leave the car park. Firefighters, police, and staffers from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals soon came but failed to contact the car owner. According to security camera footage, the car entered the car park at about 9 pm, and it was estimated that the dog had been trapped for about three hours. There was a small plastic cage in the car’s trunk, and officers believed the poodle left the cage on its own.

Twenty-five people were arrested as police busted 20 scams in which the suspects defrauded victims out of HK$13 million, including one case that saw the highest loss at over HK$5.5 million. They were arrested for obtaining property by deception, evasion of liability by deception, conspiracy to defraud, and money laundering. They lost about HK$688,000 altogether, and one saw the highest loss of HK$268,000. Police further located and arrested a 23-year-old man also named Chan, who collected the crime proceeds from the duo in Tuen Mun on Friday night. Police also mounted a series of anti-scam operations from Monday to Friday and arrested 22 others.

Bivalent vaccines rolled out next weekHealth Secretary Ted Herbosa yesterday urged members of the A1 (health care workers) and A2 (senior citizens) population to receive their bivalent vaccines as soon as possible.“People should not be complacent, especially the senior citizens, who are high-risk individuals, and persons taking care of those with COVID-19,” Herbosa said in a statement. Vaccines are proven to be safe, effective and free,” he added.Herbosa said they must still avail themselves of the bivalent vaccines even if COVID-19 cases in the country are already on a downward trend. “We encourage all eligible individuals to get vaccinated as the threat of infection continues,” the DOH chief stressed.The formal ceremony to launch the bivalent COVID-19 vaccination will be on June 21 at the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City, with President Marcos in attendance. The country received the more than 390,000 donated vaccines from the Lithuanian government last June 3. The DOH said the bivalent vaccines shall be used as third booster shots of HCWs and senior citizens after at least four to six months from their second booster shots.

TOKYO: Nissan top executive Ashwani Gupta is leaving the company, the Japanese automaker said on Friday, in a surprise departure that will revive concerns about the stability of the firm's leadership. AFP PHOTOBut ahead of Friday's announcement, a source close to the matter told AFP Gupta was stepping down, citing in part "rivalry" between him and chief executive Makoto Uchida. Earlier this year, Nissan and Renault signed a deal to reboot their troubled 24-year relationship, following months of painstaking negotiations and repeated delays. They said Masakazu Toyoda, a second senior director at the firm who opposed Nissan taking a stake in Ampere, had also been forced out. Gupta's departure is a "loss for Nissan," given he was a "driving force of bringing a battered Nissan back from the brink," said Tatsuo Yoshida, an auto analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

Villar, ‘Ambassador of the Women in Organic Agriculture in Asia’MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Cynthia Villar was appointed as “Ambassador of the Women in Organic Agriculture in Asia” in the Philippines or WOAA-Ph, by IFOAM-Asia and the League of Organic Agriculture Municipalities, Cities and Provinces during the 6th Organic Asia Congress hosted by Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte on June 4-6. “As organic agriculture ambassador, I am determined to continue promoting the transition to affordable, environment-friendly agricultural practices and making available to many Filipinos healthy and affordable nutritious organic food, abandoning the use of costly and soil degrading chemical fertilizers and pesticides,“ Villar said. Villar was appointed Organic Ambassador because of her significant work in promoting organic agriculture. The law also provided for the inclusion of representatives from NGOs in the National Organic Agriculture Board, the policymaking and implementation arm of the organic agriculture programs of the Department of Agriculture. Mayor Rommel Arnado spearheaded the event which showed the best organic practices of the municipality, which is now 100 percent organic.

Starting from July 8 for five consecutive weekend evenings, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) is hosting the Harbour Chill Carnival, a free, relaxing, and fun event for the public and visitors to enjoy a variety of street performances, music shows, and X-game performances in the Wan Chai harbourfront while taking in the beauty of Victoria Harbour. Members of the public can register for an account on the Discover Hong Kong website now. The performances will showcase a special theme each week along the Wan Chai Waterfront Promenade, from European-inspired acrobatics and juggling, dynamic and passionate Samba drumming to time-honored kung fu and diabolo performances. Among them, the former Australian artistic gymnastics champions will bring Hong Kong an attractively lit hula hoop show, dazzling across the city’s streetscapes at night. During the ten days of the Carnival, Victoria Harbour will host a waterfront pyrotechnic edition of the multimedia show, lighting up the harbor with a vibrant summer scene.

(UPDATE) A MUNTINLUPA City judge has inhibited from hearing the remaining drug-related case against former senator Leila de Lima after his impartiality was questioned. Just last week, Regional Trial Court Branch 256 Judge Romeo Buenaventura denied the bail petition of de Lima and her co-accused Joenel Sanchez, Ronnie Dayan, Jad Dera and Franklin Bucayu. Former senator Leila de Lima. File Photo Former senator Leila de Lima. De Lima's case will be reassigned to a new judge by the RTC.

realme C53 arrives June 22Launching publicly via Facebook, TikTok and YouTube simultaneous livestream on June 22 at 6 p.m., the realme C53 is positioned as a stylish, segment-leading device for the young. Get to know more about the Champion looks of realme’s latest C-Series model, launching via Facebook, TikTok and YouTube on June 22 at 6 p.m.MANILA, Philippines — realme Philippines confirms the arrival of its latest Champion in the budget segment, the all-new realme C53. Here are three things to get you hyped up for the upcoming realme C53! It will be realme’s thinnest phone to dateAt only 7.49mm thin, the realme C53 will be realme’s thinnest phone to date. It comes in two gorgeous colorsLastly, the realme C53 will have two colorways: Champion Gold and Mighty Black.

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will continue to head the Department of Agriculture (DA) until "systems are all in place" to ensure the country's food security. The President, who is concurrently the Agriculture secretary, and the ambassador were joined by some members of the Cabinet and local officials. Six trading centers reported a decline in prices of red onion ranging from P2 to P35. Brown sugar was selling between 25 centavos and P6.13 in six trading centers, with Cebu City having the biggest increase. Cooking oil went down by 37 centavos to P27.50 in six trading centers with the biggest decline posted in Digos City.

Ben Stokes, left, insists England won't curb their aggression while Steve Smith is interested to see how home batsmen perform against Australia's attack. REUTERS Previous NextEnglish cricket's "Bazball" revolution is about to get its ultimate test, as the Ashes - the most famous Test cricket series of them all - starts today with the promise that the five matches between England and Australia could be among the wildest since the first one was played in 1882. Under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, England have gone all-out in attack and won 12 of their last 17 Tests. In Australia, they are taking on just that: the newly crowned world Test champions. And the message from the Australians, who beat India in the World Test Championship final at The Oval on Sunday?

SING TAO Previous NextHong Kong's interbank rates rose above 4 percent as the US Federal Reserve warned there would be another two hikes in interest rates this year. Interbank borrowing costs have been rising due to seasonal demand as the half-year point nears, and yesterday saw the overnight Hong Kong interbank offered rate - Hibor - climb to a three-week high of 4.25 percent. Hong Kong's monetary policy moves in lockstep with the Fed as its currency is pegged to the greenback. But experts warn there may a further rise in prime rates. This came as the European Central Bank increased interest rates by another quarter-point to 3.5 percent yesterday, the highest in 22 years, and signaled more hikes.

Bill Gates meets Xi Jinping at Microsoft's main campus in Washington in September 2015. REUTERSBill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder, is set to meet President Xi Jinping today during his visit to China, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The last reported meeting between Xi and Gates was in 2015, when they met on the sidelines of the Boao forum in Hainan province. In early 2020, Xi wrote a letter to Gates thanking him, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for pledging assistance to China, including US$5 million (HK$39.13 million) for the country's fight against Covid. The meeting would mark the end of a long hiatus by Xi in recent years from meeting foreign private entrepreneurs and business leaders, since the pandemic.

Such perhaps is the case of BRICS, where many have asked about its impact on our lives. This being the case, BRICS countries are all large with fast developing economies and, not to mention, a growing middle class with a continuously increasing need for natural resources. Interestingly enough, in recent times, the BRICS countries have indeed become even more influential in terms of global affairs by, for instance, establishing their own development bank (New Development Bank) as an alternative to the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund), as well as forming the BRICS PLUS which includes other emerging economies such as Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey. The BRICS is a reflection of the change in the global scale of power that veers away from traditional western powers towards emerging economies. If we talk about leveraging, the BRICS countries seem to be doing just that and some, if not many, may wonder where the Philippines can see itself in terms of the BRICS.

SOUTH Korean superstar Song Joong-ki announced on Wednesday that his British wife Katy Louise Saunders has given birth to a baby boy — their first child — in Italy. "Song Joong Ki became the father of a baby boy in Italy," read a statement released to the media by the actor's agency, High Zium Studio, on Wednesday. Song Joong-ki Song Joong-kiThe "Descendants of the Sun" and "Vincenzo" actor also shared the joyful news in a letter posted on his fan cafe. Both the baby and his mother are in very good health. Earlier this year, Song confirmed that he and Saunders had registered their marriage and that they were expecting a baby.

LeCun spoke as Meta announced image-based Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture, or JEPA. That seeks to move beyond ChatGPT-like generative AI and gives machines the ability to conceptualize abstract ideas and not just regurgitate what exists online. "We will abandon them in favor of joint embedding predictive architecture. LeCun has been a critic of the hype around generative AI models that power ChatGPT. He believes fears about generative AI grossly inflate its capabilities.