HONG Kong schools have reopened after a six-day shutdown, but students and commuters faced transport disruptions as the last anti-government protesters remained holed up on a university campus, surrounded by police.
City officials tried to restore a sense of normality as primary and secondary school classes resumed. Workers began cleaning up debris blocking a major road tunnel, but it was unclear when it would reopen.
Officials warned protesters not to disrupt elections scheduled for the weekend.
A small group of protesters refused to leave Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the remnants of hundreds who took over the campus for several days. They will not leave because they would face arrest, and police have set up a cordon around the area to prevent anyone from escaping.
MEANWHILE, Maltese authorities have arrested a prominent businessman who appears to be a “person of interest” in the assassination of a leading investigative reporter.
Yorgen Fenech was on a yacht that was intercepted sailing northwards away from Malta by the military early yesterday and forced back to port.
In remarks to reporters, prime minister Joseph Muscat did not directly tie the arrest to the murder of 53-year-old Daphne Caruana Galizia in a car bombing in October 2017, but he said it appeared to result from comments he made a day earlier the possibility of a pardon for an alleged middleman who had offered to identify the mastermind of the killing.
ELSEWHERE, days of protests over rising fuel prices and a subsequent government crackdown have killed at least 106 people across Iran, Amnesty International said.
The protests began on Friday and spread quickly across at least 100 cities and towns.
The government has not released a toll of those arrested, injured or killed, but it disputed Amnesty’s report through its mission to the United Nations, calling it “baseless allegations and fabricated figures”.
However, a UN agency earlier said it feared the unrest may have killed “a significant number of people”.
FINALLY, a woman in Australia walked into a wildfire to save a badly burnt koala.
The koala named Lewis was given water and wrapped in a blanket after being found on a road in the New South Wales state town of Wauchope.
Rescuer Toni Doherty told Network Nine it was her “natural instinct” to rescue the koala from the fire.
She said she “immediately thought just get to him, put the fire out”.
The 14-year-old animal was taken to the nearby Koala Hospital for treatment for severe burns to his feet, chest and stomach.
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