The body of a 73-year-old cleaner was found on Tuesday night at the bottom of an elevator shaft in Kwun Tong’s AIA Kowloon Tower where he worked. It is believed that the man fell into the shaft from the 30th floor while carrying out cleaning work at around 6pm yesterday. Police said the man had been certified dead before rescuers arrived at the tower. Officers said it was unlikely that the accident was caused by a mechanical failure, adding that the Labour Department and the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department are investigating.

NEW YORK: Finnish forward Lauri Markkanen of the Utah Jazz was named the NBA's 2023 Most Improved Player on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) after boosting his scoring average by nearly 11 points a game. "It feels amazing," Markkanen told NBA telecaster TNT from Helsinki, where he is fulfilling Finland military service requirements. When it came to the military, Markkanen said he had plenty of others who wanted to play him one-on-one, but none yet who outranked him. He's the first European player to capture the award since Greek star Giannis Antetokounmpo of Milwaukee in 2017 and the first Jazz player ever to win the award. Other finalists for the award were New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson from the United States and Canadian guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Staff reporterThe Securities and Futures Commission has issued restriction notices to 10 brokers, prohibiting them from dealing with or processing certain assets held in 31 trading accounts, which are suspected to be related to a social media ramp-and-dump scam. The scam that happened between November 2021 and June 2022 involved the trading of a listed company's shares, the market watchdog said in a statement yesterday. The brokers are China Industrial Securities International Brokerage, Quam Securities, Futu Securities International (Hong Kong), Imperium International Securities, Lego Securities, Phillip Securities (Hong Kong), Silverbricks Securities Company, uSmart Securities, Valuable Capital, and Webull Securities. The brokers are also required to notify the SFC if they receive any of these instructions. The SFC considers that the issue of the restriction notices is desirable in the interest of the investing public or in the public interest and the investigation is continuing, said the statement.

SIM registration extended 90 daysResidents get help in registering their SIM cards at a mall in Baguio City yesterday. The deadline for the mandatory registration of new and existing SIM cards under Republic Act 11934 or the SIM Registration Act was originally set for today. “It is unacceptable for these SIM card sellers to take advantage of the situation by charging additional fees for SIM card registration. Co also called on the public to take advantage of the free SIM card registration services being offered by the DICT in their area. “Consumers should not be forced to pay extra fees for SIM card registration.

NEW YORK: Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray was suspended one game without pay by the NBA on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) after clashing with a referee following his team's game four loss to Boston. Murray was suspended for making inappropriate contact with a referee and verbal abuse. He will serve his suspension on Tuesday when the Hawks visit Boston in a must-win game five. Video showed Murray making contact with referee Gediminas Petraitis and later showed Murray yelling at someone. The league investigated the incident, with NBA rules stipulating that any intentional contact with a referee brings an automatic one-game suspension.

THE country will have cloudy skies but it will still be hot and humid in the next 24 hours, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said on Tuesday. Weather specialist Grace Castaneda said the easterlies – winds coming from the Pacific Ocean that bring warm and humid temperatures - are affecting Visayas and Mindanao. She said there will be cloud clusters but overall, sunny and humid temperatures will prevail. "We have not monitored any weather disturbance in the coming days and we also forecast that there would be a slim chance of any storm that will enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility until the end of the month," Castaneda said. "We remind again the public to please stay indoors particularly during noontime and early afternoon where heat is most intense and stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water," she added.

ELECTRONIC scooters with swappable batteries will become available for public use by the end of this year under an Ayala Corp. push to promote sustainable transport solutions. The Globe Group's 917Ventures, Ayala, and Gogoro Inc. unveiled a battery-swapping station at The Globe Tower on Monday and officials said that 70 employees would be the first to try out Taiwan-based Gogoro's battery-swapping technology. "This year, Filipinos will have access to these electric two-wheelers and Gogoro's convenient and cost-efficient battery-swapping technology, another first in the Philippines," Globe Telecom Inc. President and CEO Ernest Cu said. The venture marks the Philippine debut of Gogoro, which fostered a new smart mobility industry in Taiwan via a network of eco-friendly businesses and end-users. Gogoro also currently operates in China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Korea and Israel.

If he does declare his candidacy, the financial world is monitoring whether he will also use the occasion to announce a rumored executive order to impose a blanket ban on new American capital investments in Chinese high-tech sectors. Although the news of an imminent ban on all high-tech sectors was reported by Bloomberg recently, such a prospect has been brought up for months. Then, Chinese stocks may surprise the market with a rebound rather than a crash. Nonetheless, as less is invested by Americans in Chinese stocks, their influence wanes at the same time. China is investing heavily in its high-tech sectors in order to be self-dependent and it can be expected that the impact will also diminish each time new sanctions are announced.

A tree to healHave you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? Just three chapters into the story of the Bible, we learn how a different bad choice and a tree marred God’s good creation. Another tree would play a role in undoing this curse — the cross Jesus endured on our behalf. There we read of “the tree of life” growing beside the “river of the water of life” (Revelation 22:1–2). As John describes it, this tree will be “for the healing of the nations” (v. 2).

Many residents were terrified after seeing a wobbly tower crane in Kwun Tong on Monday and worried it could be affected and collapse in the upcoming rainy days. After the tragedy in Sau Mau Ping that took three lives and injured six in September, the general public's concern about the safety of tower cranes significantly increased. Their concerns flared up after an online viral video showed a tower crane at a construction site on Lai Yip Street swinging left and right. Passersby were worried about the tower crane's stability, as rainy days ahead and the winds would become more robust. Some stated that it was best to warn the workers beforehand as the crane was close to the traffic and pedestrian roads.

Hong Kong's latest unemployment rate dropped to 3.1 percent between January and March, with some 115,100 citizens still hunting for jobs, according to data released by the Statistics Department on Monday. The latest rate marked a 0.2 decrease compared with the one logged between last December and this February. The underemployment rate also declined by 0.1 percent to 1.2 percent. During the January to March period, the unemployment rate decreased notably in the decoration, repair and maintenance for buildings sector; and wholesale sector. Decreases in the underemployment rate were mainly seen in the wholesale sector.

Private doctors in Hong Kong said they do not have enough oral Covid drugs to prescribe to patients as cases in the territory climbed in the past two weeks. He said the doctors might be unable to prescribe the oral Covid drugs to each patient as authorities have limited private doctors to getting six courses each of the two drugs - MSD's Molnupiravir and Pfizer's Paxlovi - when they acquire the medicine from the government. He also said some doctors would not prescribe the drugs to patients aged 60 or above, prescribing them to patients with severe symptoms instead. Chan believed it was likely for the doctors to empty their inventory of Covid drugs in a single day should they prescribe it to each patient aged 60 or above. He called on patients to visit the public clinics on weekdays in order not to exhaust the private clinic’s inventory for people in need.

5.6 quake jolts IsabelaMANILA, Philippines — A magnitude-5.6 earthquake jolted the province of Isabela yesterday afternoon, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. Phivolcs said the quake, whose epicenter was located 18 kilometers east of Maconacon town, occurred at 5:19 p.m. Instrumental Intensities 5 and 4 were recorded in Peñablanca and Gonzaga in Cagayan, respectively. State seismologists said Instrumental Intensity 3 was recorded in Ilagan, Isabela. Phivolcs said the quake was not expected to cause damage to property, but it could generate aftershocks.

The Sixers romped into the next round of the playoffs with a dominant 96-88 victory over the Nets that completed their 4-0 triumph in the best-of-seven series. Philadelphia trailed by 11 points early in the third quarter but transformed the contest with an 18-4 run to take the lead before closing out victory with a fourth-quarter rally. The Sixers' win was all the more impressive given the absence of Most Valuable Player candidate Embiid, who suffered a right knee sprain in Thursday's 102-97 game three win. Tobias Harris led the scoring for Philadelphia with 25 points and 12 rebounds, while De'Anthony Melton came off the bench to produce 15 points and lead the fourth-quarter surge. They led by as many as 29 in the second quarter as they rolled to a 111-101 victory.

Police arrested a 49-year-old father recently for attempting to rape his underage daughter in December last year. Kowloon West Police District started their investigation after receiving a report on Friday (Apr 21) stating that a 12-year-old girl was nearly raped in an apartment in Mong Kok. A 49-year-old man was arrested Friday night in Mong Kok on suspicion of attempted rape and is currently remanded in custody. It is understood that the rapist and the victim were father and daughter.