Hong Kong announced Friday it will end mandatory hotel quarantine, scrapping some of the world's toughest travel restrictions which have battered the economy and kept the finance hub internationally isolated.. The announcement leaves mainland China as the only major economy still hewing to lengthy quarantine for international arrivals.
Cubans will vote on Sunday in a referendum on whether to allow same-sex marriage and surrogate pregnancies, which experts say could turn into an opportunity to voice opposition against the government.. Many could vote "No" or even abstain altogether as a way "to make the government pay for the crisis," Arturo Lopez-Levy, a Cuban academic at Holy Names University in California, told AFP. The referendum, he added, amounted to a unique "opportunity to show approval or disapproval" with the communist government.
The New York Philharmonic is tuning up to open their brand-new performance space next month -- and it's not only the instruments that need to strike the perfect pitch.. The hall's tuning, which began in August, marks a homecoming for the philharmonic, which has been a nomadic symphony since March 2020.
At a time when prickly questions are being asked about Qatar and its hosting of the World Cup, Khalifa Al Haroon offers a smile, a sigh and a shrug as he seeks to explain its mysteries.. Haroon, who is now a consultant to the Qatar Football Association and an eSports entrepreneur, said he is excited about the World Cup "because people can now come here and experience it for themselves and make their own judgements instead of just believing what's written".
Canada on Thursday launched a long-awaited review of its cannabis regulations, four years after becoming the first major economy to legalize its recreational use.. At a news conference, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said preliminary data this year showed 69 percent of the cannabis market has moved from illicit sources to legal, regulated suppliers.
Japan on Thursday announced that it will lift tough Covid restrictions on foreign tourists, reopening the borders after two and a half years.. "Finally, Japan will reopen the border," Digital Minister Taro Kono wrote on Twitter.
Emmanuel Mignot is one of the world's leading experts on narcolepsy, a sleep disorder that he finds both "strange" and "fascinating.". As for sleep, Mignot remains fascinated by it even if he has uncovered one of the great mysteries.
Women setting their headscarves ablaze and chanting anti-regime slogans.. The protests have featured chants of "death to the dictator" as well as other anti-regime slogans and the emergence of a new rallying cry, "Zan, zendegi, azadi" ("Woman, life, freedom").
As Iranian women bare their heads and burn Islamic veils in demonstrations that have met nationwide repression, hopes and emotions are also running high among those living abroad.. Especially in Kurdistan province, women have "burned their veils to burn the ideological foundations of the regime", Kian said.
Taiwan will fully reopen its borders by ending mandatory Covid quarantine for arrivals next month, the government said Thursday.. The government started to move away from its zero-Covid strategy in April towards accepting endemicity once its population was well vaccinated.
