Health officials have announced that with immediate effect, all locals infected with different Omicon subvariants will be subject to the same quarantine and isolation rules. As Damon Pang reports, that means these patients can now quarantine at home if conditions allow:

The Secretary for Justice, Paul Lam, says morale is high in the Department of Justice despite a recent call by a United States’ China policy panel for Washington to sanction him and 15 public prosecutors. He says the report is baseless and, as such, no one in the department has indicated they want to quit over the saga. Maggie Ho reports:

The Hong Kong government has rejected a report on human trafficking from the United States, which gave the SAR its second-worst "Tier 2 Watch List" rating. Officials here described the ranking as “biased and unfair” and stressed that they had maintained their anti-trafficking efforts despite challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years. Tom McAlinden reports:

The Law Reform Commission has proposed introducing new offences to better tackle cybercrime, such as hacking. It says this is necessary in order to replace piecemeal or outdated legislation. Timmy Sung reports:

A member of the Law Reform Commission's cybercrime sub-committee says many overseas jurisdictions have dedicated provisions to deal with cybercrime. Senior counsel Derek Chan, told Ben Tse that Hong Kong lagged behind and treated such crimes under laws that dealt with physical damage to computers:

Many top-scorers in local university entrance exams say they plan to study medicine. Eight top students - all from different schools - received perfect scores as more than 40,000 secondary school students got their results on Wednesday in the Diploma of Secondary Education exams. Wendy Wong reports:

Some students who have demonstrated exceptional talent in specific disciplines have already been offered university places under a special early admission programme. This includes some outstanding ethnic minority students, who are already looking beyond their schooling to think about how they are going to give back to the community. Frank Yung reports:

The Secretary for Education, Christine Choi, has weighed in on a controversy over school rules governing the length of hair of male students. She says schools have clear guidelines on such matters and should handle the issue in a professional manner. The school involved says it is discussing the issue with the Equal Opportunities Commission. Violet Wong reports:

Macau says it will soon relax its pandemic restrictions as its latest Covid-19 outbreak eases. From Saturday, non-essential businesses can resume operation on a limited scale as long as they comply with anti-infection measures. Priscilla Ng reports:

The People's Liberation Army says the United States is a "maker of security risks" in the Taiwan Strait with its frequent provocations there, after a US warship again sailed through the waterway. The comments come after the USS Benfold sailed through the waterway in what the US Navy called a "routine transit through international waters". Damon Pang reports:

The contest to become Britain's next prime minister has been narrowed to two candidates: the former finance minister, Rishi Sunak, and the foreign secretary, Liz Truss. They squeezed out the trade minister, Penny Mordaunt, in the last of a string of votes by fellow Conservative MPs. The final choice now goes to party members. The contest arose after Boris Johnson announced his resignation, after dozens of ministers quit following a series of scandals. RTHK's UK correspondent Gavin Grey told Samantha Butler that Mordaunt was derailed at the last moment by bad press:

Sri Lanka's new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has called for unity to tackle the huge challenges facing the island. After comfortably beating his nearest rival in a parliamentary vote, Wickremesinghe predicted his election would mean an end to divisions in Sri Lanka. The 73-year-old takes charge of a bankrupt nation that is in bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund. RTHK's South Asia correspondent, Murali Krishnan, told Annemarie Evans how Mr Wickremesinghe was chosen: