Hong Kong said Thursday that domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines will be allowed to fly into the city starting Aug. 30, a move expected to ease a shortage of helpers in the city.
Hong Kong has approximately 370,000 domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines. Flights have been banned from both countries because they were considered high-risk for the coronavirus; under current arrangements, only fully-vaccinated Hong Kong residents from high-risk countries are allowed to enter the city.

North Korea will convene its rubber-stamp parliament next month to discuss efforts to salvage an economy strained by pandemic border closures after decades of mismanagement and U.S.-led sanctions.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday the Supreme People's Assembly will meet on Sept. 28 in Pyongyang to discuss economic development, youth education, government organizational matters and other issues. The report didn't mention any plans for discussions on foreign policy.

World stocks were broadly lower on Thursday following a charge on Wall Street that drove indices to all-time highs for the second straight day.
Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.3% to 7,127.10 and France's CAC 40 declined 0.2% to 6,665.06. The DAX in Germany also fell 0.2% to 15,822.87 in early trading.

Israel said that it would be easing commercial restrictions on the Gaza Strip and expand entry of goods to the Palestinian enclave following days of heightened tensions.
The announcement came after hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated Wednesday near the Israeli border, calling on Israel to ease a crippling blockade days after a similar gathering ended in deadly clashes with the Israeli army.

It's been nearly a quarter of a century since Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal all sat out the same Grand Slam tennis tournament.
That changes next week, when the U.S. Open will start at Flushing Meadows without any member of that distinguished and dominant trio. Williams, whose 40th birthday is in September, withdrew on Wednesday, joining Federer, who turned 40 this month, and Nadal, who is 35, on the sideline because of injuries. Williams' older sister, 41-year-old Venus, also pulled out of the field Wednesday.

Few Palestinians in the occupied West Bank get to board an airplane these days. The territory has no civilian airport and those who can afford a plane ticket must catch their flights in neighboring Jordan. But just outside the northern city of Nablus, a pair of twins is offering people the next best thing.
Khamis al-Sairafi and brother Ata have converted an old Boeing 707 into a café and restaurant for customers to board.

The international scientists dispatched to China by the World Health Organization to find out where the coronavirus came from said Wednesday the search has stalled and warned that the window of opportunity for solving the mystery is "closing fast."
Meanwhile, a U.S. intelligence review ordered up by President Joe Biden proved inconclusive about the virus's origin, including whether it jumped from an animal to a human or escaped from a Chinese lab, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The ground at the summit of Kilauea volcano in Hawaii has been rumbling and swelling in recent days, prompting scientists to warn that the mountain could once again disgorge lava. But there's no indication an eruption is imminent. The volcano, which is among the world's most active, has behaved similarly in the past without any magma breaking the surface.
Here's an overview of the latest developments at Kilauea:

A 30-year-old man who appeared nude at 4 months old in 1991 on the cover of Nirvana's "Nevermind" album is suing the band and others, alleging the image is child pornography they have profited from.
The lawsuit, filed by Spencer Elden on Tuesday in federal court in California, alleges that Nirvana and the record labels behind "Nevermind" "intentionally commercially marketed Spencer's child pornography and leveraged the shocking nature of his image to promote themselves and their music at his expense."

A wildfire that burned several homes near Los Angeles may signal that the region is facing the same dangers that have scorched Northern California.
The fire in San Bernardino County erupted Wednesday afternoon, quickly burned several hundred acres and damaged or destroyed at least a dozen homes and outbuildings in the foothills northeast of LA, fire officials said. Crews used shovels and bulldozers and mounted an air attack to keep the South Fire from the tiny communities of Lytle Creek and Scotland near the Cajon Pass.
