The Pulse

According to President Barack Obama the war in Iraq is over, and if all goes well United States troops in the country will be back home for the holidays. There were concerns that the US had no clear exit strategy in Iraq, and despite the removal of Pre...

Hong Kong doesn’t have squatter villages on the hillsides any more but more than 10,000 people are now living in dismal cubicle homes in industrial buildings. Why? Well, there isn’t enough public housing, and rents in these buildings are 20% to 30% low...

Hong Kong likes to say it’s a free market. But how free is a market where no law enforces fair competition? Economies of scale mean that chain stores and supermarkets can sell things cheaper than smaller organisations. And yet, when they don’t want to ...

We live in a period when the global balance of power seems to be shifting immensely. Hardly a day passes without some news organization or pundit talking about whether or not China is going to be able or willing to bail out the economies of Europe or t...

In Bangkok, floodwaters are still threatening the centre of the city and forcing the evacuation of the suburbs. Evacuations have been ordered in almost a quarter of Bangkok’s 50 districts. The floods have spread across 63 of Thailand’s 77 provinces ove...

But if more people don't come out to vote, will it be partly due to media restrictions?There are stringent rules designed to control how much coverage candidates can get, to ensure it’s more or less balanced, and to limit even how much they can campaig...

The District Council elections may be just a day or so away, but the voting atmosphere isn’t exactly intense. On Thursday, the University of Hong Kong released the results of a pre-election survey in which 65% of registered voters say they plan to vote...

Thalassaemia and haemophilia are genetic diseases of the blood that can be fatal but that with good primary medical care can be controlled. Those with these conditions can have reduced life expectancies and still face risks and ongoing symptoms. Suffer...

You may not have noticed, but trade unions are not particularly strong in Hong Kong. That, and the lack of a reliable social security safety net means it tends to be an employers market more than an employees market. In many companies, the concept of a...

Discussing the election with us in the studio are Michael DeGolyer of the Hong Kong Transition project, and former district councillor Ada Wong.