The first image from the US$10 billion (HK$78 billion) James Webb Space Telescope is the farthest humanity has ever seen in both time and distance, closer to the dawn of time and the edge of the universe. That image will be followed by the release of four more beauty shots from the telescope's initial outward gazes. Part of the image is light from not too long after the Big Bang, which was 13.8 billion years ago. The world's biggest and most powerful space telescope rocketed away in December from French Guiana in South America. Webb is considered the successor to the highly successful, but aging Hubble Space Telescope.

KARACHI, Pakistan — Torrential rains caused widespread flooding and damage in Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi on Monday, even inundating the business district, officials said. One death had been confirmed in the latest spell of Monsoon rains, adding to the 29 reported since they began last month. Karachi’s main streets, which house financial institutions and bank headquarters including Pakistan’s central bank, were flooded and rescue services were using boats to reach stranded people. The Pakistan Navy was also taking part in the relief and rescue operations, the Navy said in a statement. “Deeply saddened by the tragic losses due to torrential rains in Karachi,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Twitter.

Two more designated quarantine hotels (DQHs) will start accepting room bookings and commence service from mid July. The two additional DQHs are Renaissance Harbour View Hotel Hong Kong and Tsuen Wan Panda Hotel. Renaissance Harbour View Hotel will be accepting room bookings starting from Wednesday (July 13); while the Panda Hotel will commence service from July 25 and start accepting bookings from next Tuesday (July 19). Both of them will accept room bookings starting from this Wednesday. "The government is still conducting assessments on other hotels applying for joining this cycle of the Scheme.

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's president was considering using a navy patrol craft to flee the island Tuesday following a humiliating standoff with airport immigration, official sources said. As president, Rajapaksa enjoys immunity from arrest, and he is believed to want to go abroad before stepping down to avoid the possibility of being detained. "There were some other passengers who protested against Basil boarding their flight," an airport official told AFP. It is widely considered a white elephant, with no scheduled international flights and described as probably the world's least-used international airport. Sri Lanka defaulted on its $51-billion foreign debt in April and is in talks with the IMF for a possible bailout.

Covid patients isolating at home will have to wear smart bracelets from Friday, Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau says, and their LeaveHomeSafe app will turn red when the color-coded health-code system launches to bar them from going out. On the seven-day hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals for Hong Kong and non-Hongkongers, Lo said he is mulling a change with part of the confinement to be home isolation. Lo said currently about 60 percent of Covid patients, or over 12,000 people, are under home isolation. "In addition, Hong Kong is an international hub. Long queues remained at Shenzhen Bay port yesterday as people had to take a PCR test and await a result.

HONG KONG: Asian markets and oil prices fell on Monday after a fresh Covid flare-up in Shanghai fanned fears of another economically painful lockdown in China's biggest city. Hong Kong-listed casino operators were also sharply lower after gambling hub Macau began a weeklong lockdown to curb its worst coronavirus outbreak. "The resilience of the US labor market, with the unemployment rate at 3.6 percent, as well as jobs markets elsewhere, helps to offer a compelling narrative to those who think recession concerns are overblown," CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said. Fed policymakers have said they are determined to bring inflation down from four-decade highs, even if that means hurting growth. Worries about another shock to the Chinese economy from possible shutdowns also dented oil markets as concerns about a hit to demand outweighed ongoing concerns about tight supplies.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOCOUCHBASE Inc., provider of a leading modern database for enterprise applications, announced that Nexon, a global leader in virtual world games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), selected Couchbase Capella Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) for greater developer agility. With Capella, Nexon achieved a faster time-to-market with its launch of Blue Archive, a new game first released in Korea in November 2021. Using Capella, Nexon dramatically improved data management and replication across geographies. Stuart Fisher, Couchbase regional vice president for Asia Pacific, said: "We are honored Nexon chose Capella to launch the highly anticipated Blue Archive game. Easy to develop, manage and scale, our DBaaS has the flexibility to support a variety of use cases with gaming being a key industry."

Leopold ChenCity University researchers have developed a technology to identify "clucks for help" from chickens and distinguish those sounds from sounds of distress over physical discomfort, insufficient food and water or being attacked. Prior to the research, such identification and statistics relied on labor-intensive, time-consuming and inaccurate manual annotation, the researchers said. The system contains an algorithm that covers frequency ranges from 0Hz to 11,025Hz, allowing distress calls to be distinguished from natural sounds. "Our end goal is not just to count distress calls, but to create conditions in which the chickens can live with less distress." The research was published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface and the researchers expect the technology to be deployed commercially within five years.

SUVA, Fiji — The withdrawal of the remote Pacific island nation of Kiribati from the region’s key diplomatic group has overshadowed the Pacific Islands Forum as leaders arrive in Fiji for the first in-person meeting in two years. Tuvalu Foreign Minister Simon Kofe said he was surprised and saddened by the news of Kiribati’s withdrawal and Pacific leaders would need to “look at the concerns raised by Kiribati” when they meet. Foreign ministers from 16 South Pacific nations had agreed to keep talking to Kiribati, which is seen as being close to Beijing, to “emphasise the strength of the Pacific family”, notes from a meeting held by ministers on Friday show. A key forum leaders retreat will be held on Thursday. China had proposed a video meeting between the Chinese Communist Party’s international office and 10 Pacific islands on the same day.

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Grace ToTwo local universities have proved a neutralizing antibody is effective in preventing hamsters from contracting the Omicron variant. They said it displayed potent antiviral activities against all variants of concern, including the predominantly spreading Omicron and its subvariants. Either prophylactic or therapeutic ZCB11 administration protects golden Syrian hamsters from lung infection when exposed to Omicron. The research team discovered ZCB11 after screening 34 people who received the Pfizer vaccine in Hong Kong and demonstrated that it neutralizes all variants of concern. ZCB11 administration protects lung infection against both live Omicron and Delta viral challenges in golden Syrian hamsters, they added.

A 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 winner, Rybakina’s killer serve came back in the second set, and helped her keep Jabeur at bay. Ranked #23 at the start of Wimbledon, Elena is the second highest seed to raise the trophy ever since the WTA rankings came into play. And so now, Rybakina has the bragging rights for bringing the first tennis slam to her adopted nation of Kazakhstan. Settling into longer rallies in the second set, Novak soon provided the answer and evened the number of sets, taking it 6-3. It’s the kind of Wimbledon win that Novak has carved as a template to his career.

People watch television from a bed, take pictures in a meeting room, try out the swimming pool and lounge and play cards at the presidential palace. REUTERS, ap, AFP Previous NextSri Lankans roamed through the ransacked presidential palace in Colombo yesterday as calm returned a day after protesters stormed the building and forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to agree to resign by Wednesday. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is also said to be stepping down to allow an all-party administration to take over. Rajapaksa had not been seen in public since Friday and he had not said anything directly about resigning. Frustration with the economic crisis boiled over on Saturday when a huge crowd of protesters surged passed armed guards into the presidential palace.

Secretary for Health Lo Chung Mau said the government may take references from the mainland and Macau to set up a health code system, as well as require real-name registration for the LeaveHomeSafe app. He said that the authorities will consider introducing a health code system with red, yellow and green codes, where people are categorized into three groups according to their infection risks. "If we let the confirmed patients go around freely, the freedom of us who were not confirmed will be restricted." He also said the nucleic acid test is more accurate than the rapid test, which was not enough for the high-risk groups, especially staffers of residential care homes. The government will bear the cost of nucleic acid testing and he had communicated with the nucleic acid test suppliers on July 1, hoping to increase the detection capacity.

The Lung Center of the Philippines receives modern Hino PUV unit donation from Hino Motors Philippines. CONTRIBUTED PHOTOHINO Motors Philippines (HMP), the country's exclusive manufacturer and distributor of Hino trucks and buses, officially turned over its modern PUV unit donation to the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) in Quezon City recently. The donated unit was one of three modern PUVs that HMP lent LCP at the height of the pandemic. LCP executive director Dr. Vicente Balabag shares that HMP's donation will enable them to continue offering comfortable daily transportation to their employees. Hino's modern PUV units come in fully customizable four-wheeler and six-wheeler variants.