Two people, including a 17-year-old, were arrested by customs as officers raided a number of consolidated shipping companies throughout the city and busted 23 drug trafficking cases. A total of 68 kg of drug was seized, including marijuana, ketamine and “ice” drug, worth about HK$24 million. The teenager and a 64-year-old were arrested as they were caught picking up the packages at the collection points in Ho Man Tin and Tai Po respectively. Both were released on bail. Customs said there was a rising trend in these kinds of cases in the first half of this year as criminals mixed the drugs into daily goods, such as air fresheners and shampoo bottles, in order to cover up their tracks.

With the goal of deepening Hong Kong youths’ understanding and appreciation of different cultures of Southeast Asian countries through the art of storytelling in films, The Hong Kong - ASEAN Foundation (HKAF), a non-profit organisation, launched the ASEAN FILM FESTIVAL. The event was attended by over 40 youngsters and distinguished guests, including Mrs Phoeung Chanthida, Vice Consul of Cambodia in Hong Kong; Mr Daryl Ng, Chairman of HK-ASEAN Foundation; Mr Kavich Neang, the film director; and Ms Melanie Kwok, Assistant General Manager (Sustainability) of Hong Kong Heritage Conservation Foundation (HKHCF). Mrs PECH Puthisathbopeaneaky, Consul General of Cambodia in Hong Kong. “China and ASEAN countries have been each other’s largest trading partners for many years. By fostering strong trade and cultural exchange, we can further deepen China-ASEAN solidarity and friendship.”The two-week festival will end on 19 August, over 600 Hong Kong local students and ASEAN students residing in Hong Kong have been invited to the 21 film screenings across the city.

SING TAO Previous NextTwo more special bus routes will open on Saturday to take more than 3,000 visitors on the Spectrum of the Seas cruise ship to Kwun Tong and Tsim Sha Tsui. Taxi drivers will continue to be given HK$50 petrol coupons by taking passengers at the cruise terminal. "The government had always valued cruise passengers' experience in Hong Kong. Cruise terminal operators should communicate with cruise companies and travel agents to make proper plans and arrangements for each docking cruise." Cruise passengers have complained of long waits at the terminal for a taxi because of a road closure.

The 2023 Future Science Prize laureates were announced today, with eight mainland scholars rewarded for their outstanding scientific achievements with a monetary award of up to $500,000 US Dollars each. The Future Science Prize consists of three categories: Life Science, Physical Science and Mathematics and Computer Science. Four scientists won the Mathematics and Computer Science Prize, which included scholars He Kaiming, Ren Shaoqing, Zhang Xiangyu and the late chief scientist of Megvii Sun Jian. The Future Science Prize is a privately funded science prize initiated in 2016 by a group of scientists and entrepreneurs. A "Future Science Prize Week" will also be launched to further enhance the science knowledge and interests of the younger generation in Hong Kong.

Trusting the bibleWhen your words came, I ate them. — JEREMIAH 15:16Billy Graham, the renowned American evangelist, once described his struggle to accept the Bible as completely true. One night as he walked alone in the moonlight at a retreat center in the San Bernardino Mountains, he dropped to his knees and placed his Bible on a tree stump, able only to “stutter” a prayer: “Oh, God! “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight” (Jeremiah 15:16). Heavenly Father, show me new things about You as I read the Bible.

For years, the two main tollways giants – Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC) and San Miguel Infrastructure (SMI) – were rivals and competitors. MPTC holds the concessions for the NLEX, the CALAX, the C5 Link Segment, the SCTEX and the Cebu-Cordoba Link Expressway. SMI, for its part, holds the concessions for the SLEX, Skyway, NAIA Expressway, STAR Tollway, the TPLEX and the MCX. Higher revenue growth means the telcos could invest more in upgrading their technologies. By comparison, PLDT posted service revenue growth of 3 percent to P99.3 billion while Globe posted 2 percent growth to P80.4 billion.

THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) urges its clients and beneficiaries to register any member of their families who are 60 years of age or older using the National Commission on Senior Citizens (NCSC) online registration system in support of the agency's ongoing effort to create a senior citizen information system. "The national database of senior citizens, which records the information of every older person in the country, will serve as a game changer in the formulation and development of programs, interventions, and services for the sector," DSWD Assistant Secretary Romel Lopez said. Older individuals with internet access can fill out online applications and register for free at the official NCSC website, ncsc.gov.ph. Others may choose to register manually through the Office of Senior Citizen Affairs (OSCA) in their respective local government unit (LGU). According to the NCSC website, there are already over 2.6 million senior citizens registered as of posting time.

We thus should cultivate the art of avoiding announced shifts in voice, tense, person, and number in our writing, and of spotting and eliminating them every time they creep into our prose. The first thing to guard against are unnecessary shifts from the active to the passive voice. Such tense shifts give the same feeling as a movie jerking and rewinding to past scenes, or lurching fast-forward to future scenes. In fact, it's in the perfect tenses that tense shifts become mandatory: "The package we had waited for all week finally arrived this morning." Read this essay and listen to its voice recording in The Manila Times: "The art of avoiding voice shifts"Next, Aug. 24, 2023: The curse of overloaded sentencesVisit Jose Carillo's English Forum, http://josecarilloforum.com.

A 16-year-old teenager was among five people arrested in connection to 12 phishing scams valued at about HK$300,000. The arrests came between Tuesday and Wednesday as police found that victims had been receiving phishing messages that their membership points at telecommunications companies were about to expire or they could redeem gifts with those points. Victims then clicked into the phishing messages and entered their personal data and credit card information, which was used by the arrestees to make purchases without the victims knowing. After in-depth investigation by New Territories South police, they arrested two men and three women aged 16 to 75. Police said in the first half of 2023, the New Territories South police region received 533 reports on phishing scams, marking a nine-fold jump from 49 cases during the same period of last year.

MANILA, Philippines — Rights groups on Tuesday warned the police against harassing Dr. Raquel Fortun, the forensic pathologist who autopsied the body of Jerhode “Jemboy” Baltazar, a 17-year-old boy shot dead by Navotas lawmen who mistook him for a murder suspect on Aug. 2. ADVERTISEMENT“By the way, the Navotas police visited me for Jemboy’s autopsy, and the Caloocan police for Kian’s [delos Santos] bullet. Just putting this out there for whatever protection this disclosure could offer,” Fortun said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Fortun, who heads UP Manila’s College of Pathology, had conducted the autopsy at the request of Baltazar’s family. Navotas police chief Col. Allan Umipig earlier admitted that his men committed an error when they shot Baltazar, whom they mistook for a murder suspect they were chasing.

Meeting the refund requirements to claim VAT refunds is considered an uphill climb, and the associated tax administration procedures are complex and burdensome, discouraging taxpayers from claiming legitimate VAT refunds. Under the new checklist, the BIR has dispensed with submitting the annual income tax return, VAT returns, withholding VAT returns, etc. Other mandated policiesFor VAT refund applications filed beyond the two-year prescriptive period, the claim shall still be accepted. Further, the BIR will now accept VAT refund applications of taxpayer-claimants with existing tax delinquencies reflected in the Delinquency Verification Certificate (DVC). The efforts of the BIR in adhering to the Ease of Doing Business Law through these refined guidelines for VAT refund applications are indeed commendable.

(UPDATE) FORMER senator Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino 4th has been selected as a member of the 2023 Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program, which is Yale University's signature global leadership program. FORMER senator Benigno Paolo 'Bam' Aquino 4th. TMT FILE PHOTO"I am honored to be a part of this year's group of fellows who are considered the best in their respective fields. To learn governance and technology from one of the top universities in the world is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I couldn't afford to miss," Aquino said in a statement. He also co-founded PasaJob, a startup that matches individuals to prospective jobs using a patented referral technology, as well as MEE Games, a startup that develops video game developers.

Doctors had taken "all feasible measures" to save a 31-year-old mother who died after childbirth last month, according to Hong Kong Adventist Hospital. The private hospital in Tsuen Wan has submitted a report on the July 6 incident, said the Department of Health, which is still investigating the case. Doctors and nurses kept a close eye on the mother's situation and gave her medication and blood transfusion to try to save her life, the hospital said. "The patient was transferred to the intensive care unit after the surgery and the medical team used all feasible measures to save her with full efforts." The hospital recorded a similar incident in August last year when a 30-year-old woman died after giving birth.

A 17-year-old teenager was hospitalized after hitting his head on the ceiling while jumping on a trampoline in North Point on Tuesday morning. Around 3 pm today, a pair of teenagers were jumping on the trampoline at the trampoline park located in Kodak House II when one of them accidentally hit their head on the ceiling. The teen lost consciousness at one point, and the paramedics were alerted. He was then taken to the Eastern Hospital for medical attention while accompanied by his female relative. The police are currently investigating the incident.

Sugar and the food processing industryIn November last year, I had occasion to discuss the sugar industry. My two November essays on the sugar industry highlighted studies and recommendations being made to reform and liberalize trade and production regarding the sugar industry. Despite the reduced profile of the industry in foreign trade, the sugar industry as a whole – as a system of activities creating value within the Philippine economy – is still a significant industry. The problems of the sugar industry appear to be along the value-chain of the industry. Do we wonder why many of our local food industry processors cannot grow out of the domestic market?