Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, 78, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for national security offences, including urging foreign sanctions and publishing “seditious” articles in his now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper. The ruling, the harshest under the Beijing-imposed law, sparked international criticism, with rights groups calling it “effectively a death sentence” and a blow to press freedom. Lai will serve 18 additional years after accounting for overlapping jail time (Pics/AFP)

Firefighters battled a blaze at a high-rise apartment complex in Hong Kong for the second day on Thursday, as the death toll rose to 75 in one of the deadliest blazes in the city's modern history (PICS/AFP, TEXT/AP)