First authorised protest since the lifting of Covid restrictions went ahead in China's self-governing territory under watch by police, who required organisers to cap the number of participants at 100.
City's Chief Executive John Lee says masks will no longer be required both outdoors and indoors but some high-risk areas including hospitals and elderly homes can still require their use.
More than a dozen of activists who did not plead guilty are accused of conspiracy to commit subversion for their participation in an unofficial primary election organised by democracy supporters in 2020.
Officials hope lifting curbs will have a massive visitor influx in self-ruled cities and will help inject cash into the tourism sectors.
Cordeiro became a household name in the 1960s by hosting easy listening shows for Hong Kong's public broadcaster RTHK which became a hit with teenagers.
Hundreds of millions have started returning to their hometowns ahead of Lunar New Year period to spend holidays with their families and relatives amid a surging wave of infections across the country.
The bans targeted 1,120 accounts on the Sina Weibo social media platform as the Chinese New Year travel rush starts amid a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalisations.
Zero-Covid policies kept families separated, cut-off tourism and severed most business travel, with Hong Kong hit especially hard and ending 2022 in a deep recession.
The decision comes after a surge in cases and "limited epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data available on these cases," Canadian Health Ministry says.
The former Catholic leader and five others were arrested under a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed in 2020 after the outbreak of protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.
The former executives, who worked for the newspaper Apple Daily, were arrested last year after Beijing imposed the tough National Security Law to curb anti-national sentiments in China's self-governing territory.
Customs officials find a record-breaking 2 tonnes of liquid meth hidden in cartons of coconut water en route for Australia, which they say likely involves a massive international drug trafficking ring.
Subscribe to our Youtube channel for all latest in-depth, on the ground reporting from around the world.
Copyright © 2023 TRT World.
Like
Follow