Hong Kong has reported a drop in new Covid-19 cases, with the figure still hovering around 400. The city also saw its second Omicron BA.5 infection. Meanwhile, authorities say veteran actor, Kenneth Tsang - who died in a quarantine hotel on Wednesday - had tested negative for Covid. Frank Yung reports.

The Chief Executive Carrie Lam says the government has learnt from what she described as the "painful experience" of the deaths of over 9,000 people in the fifth wave of Covid-19. In the article published on Thursday, she also says her administration will continue to push for a return to normality. Mike Weeks reports.

More public spaces have been closed in Beijing, while checks have been stepped up at others, as most of the capital's 22 million residents embark on more mass testing for Covid-19 aimed at averting a Shanghai-style lockdown. Meanwhile, in China's commercial capital, the number of infections has fallen for a fifth-straight day to around 10,000. Jimmy Choi reports.

The Office of The Ombudsman has called on the government to release operational data for its recycling bins regularly, in order to enhance transparency of the facilities' effectiveness. As Violet Wong reports, a green group also said officials needed to plan ahead and consider the city's long-term recycling strategy.

Greenpeace campaigner, Leanne Tam, says the government focuses up to 80 percent of its efforts on recycling when it wants to tackle the waste problem. But she says more effort should be put into promoting waste reduction at source, and the importance of re-using items. Tam told Samantha Butler that the tri-coloured recycling bins were under-used because people could see they were overflowing with trash and doubted their effectiveness.

The Fire Services Department is investigating a blaze that broke out on Thursday morning in a construction site under the Hoi Kok Street elevated bypass in Tsuen Wan that left the area blanketed in smoke. Two people were injured in the fire, and one of them is in a critical condition. Vanessa Cheng reports.

The Transport Department says it will bring back a ticketing system for selected licensing services in a month's time. As Vicky Wong reports, it made the announcement a day after the Audit Commission urged officials to relieve overcrowding in its licensing offices.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority says it may have to intervene more frequently to keep the Hong Kong dollar from breaching the weak end of its narrow trading band with the US dollar, as the US Federal Reserve raises interest rates. Joanne Wong reports.

A nationwide strike in Sri Lanka forced the closure of many schools, shops, banks and transport services on Thursday. More than 1,000 trade unions called the industrial action, demanding the resignation of the government. Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis for almost 75 years with rocketing prices, a shortage of key goods, and no foreign currency for vital imports. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has refused to step down, and says he is working to resolve the crisis. Annemarie Evans spoke to RTHK's South Asia correspondent, Murali Krishnan, about the one-day strike.