Japanese authorities have further revised rules for flights from Hong Kong following an outcry from the government. It says they can now land at all of its international airports as long as they are not carrying passengers who have been to mainland China in the previous seven days. But as Frank Yung reports, local airlines say they will still need to operate a reduced schedule due to a limit on the number of Hong Kong flights allowed to land in Japan:

Hong Kong's health chief admits the relaxation of Covid rules may lead to a further increase in infections. Nearly 25,000 new cases were reported on Thursday. Of those, 1,300 were imported while another 62 Covid patients died. But Lo Chung-mau made it clear he believes the healthcare system is now more capable of handling outbreaks than it was before, as Maggie Ho reports:

Beijing has questioned the scientific basis for the United States' new requirement for travellers from Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland to take PCR tests before flying to the US. The move comes after other countries, including India, Malaysia, Japan and Italy, imposed restrictions on Chinese travellers amid concerns over infections on the mainland. Aaron Tam reports:

A China analyst said it was hypocritical of countries like the US, Japan, Italy, India and Malaysia to impose travel restrictions on arrivals from the mainland. Einar Tangen, a senior fellow at the Taihe Institute and chairman of Asia Narratives, said the countries that have imposed such measures are the same ones calling on the country to open up. He told Vicky Wong the US travel restrictions come out of concern about their own Covid situation and flu, and also political posturing:

Development Secretary Bernadette Linn says the artificial islands project will generate more revenue than the cost of the massive reclamation project, which has already risen 16 percent from the original estimate in 2018. Authorities have raised the price tag for building the islands off Lantau to HK$580 billion, from the earlier prediction of HK$500 billion. Frank Yung reports:

The chairman of the Direct Subsidy Scheme Schools Council says he is confident schools will be prepared for full-day, face-to-face classes when they start resuming after the Lunar New Year holiday. Dion Chen also believes the removal of most Covid curbs will have a positive impact on pupils. He spoke to RTHK's Ada Au:

The past week has seen at least seven international aid groups temporarily suspend their operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban barred female employees of NGOs from coming to work. Thousands of Afghan women usually work for these organisations but have now been banned from doing so, in the latest move by the country's hardline Islamist government to curb the work and education of women. It follows a recent ban on women studying at university. Annemarie Evans asked our South Asia Correspondent Murali Krishnan about the impact of the NGOs' withdrawal from Afghanistan: