Buildings along Victoria Harbor at night in Hong Kong, on April 29, 2019.
Justin Chin | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Law Ka-chung stepped down as chief economist at the Hong Kong unit of a Chinese state-owned bank and has alleged he was forced to do so because he is a native of Hong Kong, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Law spent 14 years at the Bank of Communications before being forced to resign in October, the article said.
"They don't think it's appropriate for a Hong Kong guy to speak on behalf of a Chinese bank," Law told the newspaper. The report noted it was his first interview with an international English-language media organization since being asked to resign.
The Bank of Communications did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.
The former economist told the newspaper the bank has become less lenient about comments made to the media.
Law told the Financial Times that management was especially displeased with remarks he made in a local radio interview, in which he said the SARS outbreak in 2003 had a bigger economic impact on Hong Kong than the anti-government protests have.
The city's leader Carrie Lam, who has Beijing's public support, has said the opposite, that the protests hit the economy worse than the epidemic.
Largely peaceful protests that began in early June over a controversial extradition bill have turned increasingly violent in the months since, intermittently forcing public transportation, schools and government offices to close.
The region's economy contracted 3.2% in the third quarter, entering a technical recession for the first time since the global financial crisis. In October, retail sales in Hong Kong fell 24.3% from a year earlier, the worst on record and marking a ninth-straight month of decline.
This image shows the Vikram Lander impact point and associated debris field. Green dots indicate spacecraft debris (confirmed or likely). Blue dots locate disturbed soil, likely where small bits of the spacecraft churned up the regolith. "S" indicates debris identified by Shanmuga Subramanian.
NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University
The debris kicked up by the impact was small enough that it's barely recognizable in the orbiter's resolution. According to NASA, the debris Shanmuga found is about 750m from the main crash site. Last week the ISRO said Vikram crashed within 500m of its intended landing point, but didn't release any pictures. The crash was apparently due to a problem with its braking thrusters, although the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft that released it is still operational and orbiting the moon, collecting data.
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Russian scientists showed off a prehistoric puppy believed to be 18,000 years old that was found in permafrost in the country's far east.
Discovered last year in a lump of frozen mud near the city of Yakutsk, the puppy is unusually well-preserved with its hair, teeth, whiskers and eyelashes still intact.
"This puppy has all its limbs, pelage - fur, even whiskers. The nose is visible. There are teeth. We can determine due to some data that it is a male," Nikolai Androsov, director of the Northern World private museum where the remains are stored, said at the presentation at the Yakutsk's Mammoth Museum, which specialises in ancient specimens.
In recent years, Russia's far east has provided many riches for scientists studying the remains of ancient animals. As the permafrost melts, affected by climate change, more and more parts of woolly mammoths, canines and other prehistoric animals are being discovered. Often it is mammoth tusk hunters who discover them.
"Why has Yakutia come through a real spate of such unique findings over the last decade? First, it's global warming. It really exists, we feel it, and local people feel it strongly. Winter comes later, spring comes earlier," Sergei Fyodorov, a scientist with the North-Eastern Federal University, told The Associated Press.
"And the second very serious deep reason of why there a lot of finds is the very high price of mammoth tusk in the Chinese market."
When the puppy was discovered, scientists from the Stockholm-based Center for Palaeogenetics took a piece of bone to study its DNA.
"The first step was, of course, to send the sample to radiocarbon dating to see how old it was and when we got the results back it turned out that it was roughly 18,000 years old," Love Dalen, professor of evolutionary genetics at the centre, said in an online interview.
Further tests, however, left the scientists with more questions than answers - they could not definitively tell whether it was a dog or a wolf.
"We have now generated a nearly complete genome sequence from it and normally when you have a two-fold coverage genome, which is what we have, you should be able to relatively easily say whether it's a dog or a wolf, but we still can't say and that makes it even more interesting," Dalen said.
He added that scientists are about to do a third round of genome sequencing, which might solve the mystery.
YAKUTSK, Russia — Russian scientists on Monday showed off a prehistoric puppy, believed to be 18,000 years old, found in permafrost in the country’s Far East.
Discovered last year in a lump of frozen mud near the city of Yakutsk, the puppy is unusually well-preserved, with its hair, teeth, whiskers and eyelashes still intact.
“This puppy has all its limbs, pelage – fur, even whiskers. The nose is visible. There are teeth. We can determine due to some data that it is a male,” Nikolai Androsov, director of the Northern World private museum where the remains are stored, said at the presentation at the Yakutsk’s Mammoth Museum which specializes in ancient specimens.
In recent years, Russia’s Far East has provided many riches for scientists studying the remains of ancient animals. As the permafrost melts, affected by climate change, more and more parts of woolly mammoths, canines and other prehistoric animals are being discovered. Often it is mammoth tusk hunters who discover them.
“Why has Yakutia come through a real spate of such unique findings over the last decade? First, it’s global warming. It really exists, we feel it, and local people feel it strongly. Winter comes later, spring comes earlier,” Sergei Fyodorov, scientist with the North Eastern Federal University, told The Associated Press.
“And the second very serious, deep reason, of why there are a lot of finds is the very high price of mammoth tusk in the Chinese market.”
When the puppy was discovered, scientists from the Stockholm-based Center for Palaeogenetics took a piece of bone to study its DNA.
An 18,000-year-old puppy found in permafrost in Russia’s Far East, on display at the Yakutsk’s Mammoth Museum, Russia.AP
“The first step was of course to send the sample to radiocarbon dating to see how old it was and when we got the results back it turned out that it was roughly 18,000 years old,” Love Dalén, professor of evolutionary genetics at the center, said in an online interview.
Further tests, however, left the scientists with more questions than answers — they couldn’t definitively tell whether it was a dog or a wolf.
“We have now generated a nearly complete genome sequence from it and normally when you have a two-fold coverage genome, which is what we have, you should be able to relatively easily say whether it’s a dog or a wolf, but we still can’t say and that makes it even more interesting,” Dalén said.
He added that the scientists are about to do a third round of genome sequencing, which might solve the mystery.
A jihadi associate of London Bridge killer Usman Khan has been arrested by British police amid fears of copycat attacks, according to reports.
Nazam Hussain, 34, was a member of a terror cell alongside Khan that saw them jailed in 2012 for plotting Mumbai-style attacks on London landmarks — and then released early thanks to controversial laws.
Hussain was busted Saturday — the day after Khan, 28, killed two in central London — as police raided his home in Stoke-on-Trent on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts, according to The Times of London.
He was held in prison for a suspected violation of conditions of his release, the paper said. Six of the nine cell members jailed in 2012 had been released and were back on the streets, The Times said. There is no information linking Hussain to the London Bridge attack.
His deadly attack has re-focused the spotlight on other convicted terrorists now also freed as part of a legal loophole that Prime Minister Boris Johnson blamed on old laws from a “Leftie government.”
“We will keep violent offenders and terrorists in jail longer and end the automatic early release system,” Johnson, whose home had been one of the targets for Khan’s cell, vowed on Twitter.
At least 74 convicted terrorists are being vetted after the attack and sources have told The Telegraph “a number” are expected to be sent back to prison in the coming days.
Government sources also told The Times that there was “very likely to be increased scrutiny of these men.”
Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, announced that his department would be reviewing the cases of a wider group of a “few hundred people” who might not have committed terrorist offenses but hold extremist views, The Times said.
Khan is believed to have acted alone, wearing a hoax suicide bomb vest because he wanted to be shot, The Times said.
The act orders an annual review to check if Hong Kong has enough autonomy to justify special trading status with the US.
President Trump is currently seeking a deal with China in order to end a trade war.
What did China say?
The foreign ministry said it would suspend the reviewing of applications to visit Hong Kong by US military ships and aircraft from Monday - and warned that further action could come.
"We urge the US to correct the mistakes and stop interfering in our internal affairs," ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing.
"China will take further steps if necessary to uphold Hong Kong's stability and prosperity and China's sovereignty."
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) targeted by sanctions include Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the International Republican Institute.
"They shoulder some responsibility for the chaos in Hong Kong and they should be sanctioned and pay the price," Ms Hua said, without specifying what form the measures would take.
What effect will the ban have?
Several US Navy ships usually visit Hong Kong every year, although visits are sometimes suspended when ties between the two countries become strained.
The USS Blue Ridge, the amphibious command ship of the US Seventh Fleet, was the last American navy ship to visit Hong Kong, in April.
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Mass protests broke out in the semi-autonomous territory in June and Chinese officials accused foreign governments, including the US, of backing the pro-democracy movement.
In August China rejected requests for visits by the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie and transport ship USS Green Bay, but did not give specific reasons.
In September last year, China refused a US warship entry to Hong Kong after the US imposed sanctions over the purchase of Russian fighter aircraft.
Michael Raska, a security expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said that from a military point of view the US would not be affected by the latest ban "as they can use many naval bases in the region".
However, it sends a signal that US-China tensions will continue to deepen, he told AFP news agency.
What did the US do?
Protesters celebrated on the streets of Hong Kong after President Trump signed the act last week.
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However, China quickly warned the US it would take "firm counter-measures".
The new law requires Washington to monitor Beijing's actions in Hong Kong. The US could revoke the special trading status it has granted the territory if China undermines the city's rights and freedoms.
Among other things, Hong Kong's special status means it is not affected by US sanctions or tariffs placed on the mainland.
The bill also says the US should allow Hong Kong residents to obtain US visas if they have been arrested for being part of non-violent protests.
Analysts say the move could complicate negotiations between China and the US to end their trade war.
A damaged pick up truck marked with the initials C.D.N., which in Spanish stand for Cartel of the Northeast, sits on a street after a gun battle between Mexican security forces and suspected cartel gunmen, in Villa Union, Mexico, December 1, 2019.
Gerardo Sanchez/AP
Mexico City — Mexican security forces on Sunday killed seven more members of a presumed cartel assault force that rolled into a town near the Texas border and staged an hour-long attack, officials said, putting the overall death toll at 21. The Coahuila state government said in a statement that lawmen aided by helicopters were still chasing remnants of the force that arrived in a convoy of pickup trucks and attacked the city hall of Villa Union on Saturday.
Gov. Miguel Angel Riquelme said late Sunday afternoon in a statement posted online by the state government that authorities had determined the casualty count from the gun battles stood at 15 gunmen dead and four police officers killed. He said two civilians also were slain by gunmen after being abducted.
The governor said six more officers were wounded as were four young people who had been taken by the attackers.
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Francisco Contreras, an official in the state security agency, said later that the two slain civilians were a firefighter and an engineer who worked for the municipality. He said a second firefighter was missing.
The reason for the military-style attack remained unclear. Cartels have been contending for control of smuggling routes in northern Mexico, but there was no immediate evidence that a rival cartel had been targeted in Villa Union.
The governor said the armed group — at least some in military style garb — stormed the town of 3,000 residents in a convoy of trucks, attacking local government offices and prompting state and federal forces to intervene. Bullet-riddled trucks left abandoned in the streets were marked C.D.N., the Spanish initials of the Cartel of the Northeast gang.
Burned out vehicles are seen next to the City Hall of Villa Union, Mexico, December 1, 2019, after it was attacked by gunmen.
Gerardo Sanchez/AP
Several of the gunmen stole vehicles as they fled and kidnapped locals to help guide them on dirt tracks out of town, the governor said. At least one of the stolen vehicles was a hearse headed for a funeral, according to the newspaper Zocalo of Saltillo.
The town is about 35 miles south-southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas, and 12 miles from the town of Allende - site of a 2011 massacre involving the Zetas cartel in which officials say 70 died.
Rapid gunfire could be heard in videos posted to social media along with frantic people telling friends to stay indoors. Images of the aftermath of the shootout showed burned out vehicles, while the facade of Villa Union's city hall was riddled with bullets.
The governor said security forces would remain in the town for several days to restore a sense of calm.
Falko Ernst, senior Mexico analyst for the non-profit Crisis Group, which seeks to promote peace, said there are few incentives for armed groups in the country to refrain from violence.
"Solving this issue — which underpins impunity —- would have to be the centerpiece of an integrated security strategy. But such a thing is yet to be presented by (President) López Obrador and his team," said Ernst.
"The price of that absence is not least the flaring up of regional conflict scenarios."
Mexico's homicide rate has increased to historically high levels, inching up by 2% in the first 10 months of the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Federal officials said recently that there have been 29,414 homicides so far in 2019, compared to 28,869 in the same period of 2018.
The November slaughter by Mexican drug cartel gunmen of three women who held U.S. citizenship and six of their children focused world attention on the rising violence.
Arrests made in connection with massacre of American Mormon family in Mexico
Saturday's attack also showed cartels again resorting to quasi-military operations in a brazen challenge to state authority.
In October, a massive operation by the Sinaloa cartel prompted the federal government to release the captured son of a drug lord and pull back the army, which found itself outmaneuvered on the streets of Culiacan.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in a radio interview last week that he plans to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, though he declined to say what actions might follow that designation.
Mexican officials have opposed such a designation, worried it could lead to unilateral U.S. interventions in its territory.
Coahuila state itself has been far from the worst-hit part of Mexico amid violence in recent years. The government census bureau's survey of public perceptions of security found that Coahuila ranked well this year, with only three other states having a higher public perception of safety.
