Hong Kong is voting in the first election since Beijing amended the laws to reduce the number of directly elected lawmakers and vet candidates to ensure that only those loyal to China can run.
Nations across Europe moved to reimpose tougher measures to stem a new wave of COVID-19 infections spurred by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, including a new nationwide lockdown introduced by the Dutch government.
Japanese police on Saturday searched the house of one of the patients at a mental-health clinic where a fire gutted an entire floor in an eight-storey building, killing 24 people trapped inside.
As COVID-19 infections soar across the country, restrictions are being reintroduced in a desperate effort to try to slow the rampant spread of the Omicron variant.
A powerful gas explosion in a sewage system in a southern Pakistani city killed at least 12 people and injured 11 others Saturday, police and a health official said.
A powerful typhoon left at least 31 people dead, knocked down power and communications in entire provinces and wrought widespread destruction mostly in the central Philippines, officials said Saturday.
With candidates limited to "true patriots" and the number of popularly elected seats reduced to from half to less than a quarter, Hong Kong's opposition has little hope of making inroads this Sunday when the city's residents head to the polls for the first time since the 2019 crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
