- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
- Ohtani set for MLB playoff debut as Dodgers face Padres
- Pogba's drug ban cut to 18 months from four years
- Devine leads New Zealand to big win over India in Women's T20 World Cup
- Bosnia floods kill 16 people
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Prosecutors seek dismissal of rape charges against French rugby players
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- Bolivia's Morales says claims he raped a minor are a 'lie'
- MLB Reds hire two-time champion Francona as manager
- Daniel Maldini receives first Italy call-up for Nations League
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- Ancelotti points finger at Madrid's 'lack of intensity'
- Haiti reeling after 70 killed in gang attack
- Five Czech kids in hospital over TikTok 'piercing challenge'
- What happens next in Iran-Israel conflict?
- Country star Garth Brooks denies rape accusations
- Stubbs hits maiden century as South Africa make 343-4 against Ireland
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Odegaard injury has forced Arsenal to be 'different', says Arteta
- Ratcliffe refuses to guarantee Ten Hag's Man Utd future
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Mauritius to hold legislative election on November 10
- Britain qualify for America's Cup final after 60-year wait
- IMF asks Sri Lanka to protect hard-won gains
- Morata returns to Spain Nations League squad after injury
- Irish regulator to probe Ryanair use of facial recognition
- Public allowed to see video evidence in France mass rape trial
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- Under-fire Ten Hag 'together' with Man Utd hierarchy
- Guardiola talks of Man City love affair as financial hearing rumbles on
- De Bruyne out of Belgium Nations League squad
- Japanese trainer Yahagi hopes Shin Emperor achieves 50-year-old Arc dream
- UK's Starmer hails 'landmark' carbon capture funding
Shanghai Covid curbs drag on despite officials declaring victory
Locked in their homes as neighbours celebrate freedom, hundreds of thousands of Shanghai residents are finding the path out of lockdown more complicated than the victory trumpeted by Chinese state media.
The metropolis of 25 million people was closed in sections from late March after becoming the epicentre of China's worst Covid outbreak in two years.
After gradually relaxing some rules over the past few weeks, authorities on Wednesday began allowing residents in areas deemed low-risk to move around freely again.
But while many celebrated with boozy street parties and shopping sprees, swathes of the city remained dormant with multiple neighbourhoods returning to lockdown on Thursday over new infections.
Liu, a 29-year-old woman in Shanghai's Minhang district, told AFP her apartment compound had been hastily resealed on Thursday morning after a man in one of the buildings returned an "abnormal" Covid test result.
She said shocked neighbours bombarded the compound's group chats with complaints that the lockdown was "never-ending", while many waited at the gate for couriers to deliver laptops they had left at offices on Wednesday -- the first day back at their desks.
"I had just one happy day yesterday," Liu said.
Another compound in the central Jing'an district had its gates chained shut on Wednesday night, after a confrontation between residents and officials that was seen by an AFP reporter.
Authorities said more than half a million people were still under movement restrictions, which are swiftly reinstated whenever suspected or confirmed infections appear.
Under China's stringent zero-Covid approach, all positive cases are isolated and close contacts -- often including the entire building or community where they live -- are made to quarantine.
One Shanghai manager tried to skirt the rules after an employee produced an abnormal test result. He drove the worker to a hideout under a suburban overpass before being caught by police, authorities said in a statement Thursday.
The manager was "worried the company's operations would be affected", according to the statement.
The events contrast with the triumphant reopening portrayed by Chinese state-run media, which ran celebratory videos on Wednesday showing brightly lit skyscrapers and traffic returning to the city's streets.
The official Xinhua news agency has begun memorialising the lockdown, announcing that it would soon release a documentary on the city's travails, "The Great Battle to Defend Shanghai".
But Eva, a 26-year-old Shanghai resident whose compound in Jing'an also re-entered lockdown on Thursday, found little consolation in optimistic official statements.
She said she was told on Thursday morning that her compound would be sealed off again for two days after suspected cases were found inside.
"I didn't feel this reopening was real in the first place. I had suspicions after all that we've been through in the past two months," she told AFP.
"What if we have more cases? Is it possible we'd be thrown back to March?"
G.Teles--PC