Hong Kong

A major fire has broken out at the World Trade Center in Hong Kong. The fire brigade is on the scene en masse, and more than 300 people are trapped on the roof.   The smoke overcame some people; a man in his sixties was taken to the hospital like three others. The fire broke out around 12:37 p.m. local time, at a time when hundreds of people were working in the building, and many people were shopping and eating in the shops and restaurants. The fire brigade rushed to the spot en masse and fought the flames with fire-fighting aircraft. Meanwhile, more than 300 people have climbed to the roof of the 38-storey building. They're stuck there. The fire brigade makes frantic efforts to get them off with ladder trucks. Five people are said to have been overcome by the smoke. A woman in h...

A Hong Kong court has sentenced noted activist Joshua Wong and two fellow dissidents to prison for leading an illegal protest against the government.   Wong was sentenced to 13.5 months in prison. His fellow activists Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam were sentenced to 10 months and 7 months in prison respectively. Wong, along with the two other activists, was on trial for their involvement in last year's protests against the Hong Kong government. Shortly before the trial began, Wong had already announced that he would plead guilty.

WhatsApp, one of the most widely used chat apps in the world, still refuses to help justice in Hong Kong.   Requests from the authorities in the autonomous city for user data will not be processed for the time being. WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, says it wants to know first how the new security law will affect human rights. Hong Kong has been part of China since 1997, but the inhabitants of the former British colony always had far more liberties than people in the rest of the country. For example, residents can use Google, Twitter and Facebook, which are blocked in mainland China. Such services are also used by demonstrators to keep in touch. For example, they warn each other via encrypted chat apps where the police are. China recently passed a law that would severely punish crim...