Talking points
Our editors will be looking ahead today to these developing stories ...
HKU welcomes back education professor
The University of Hong Kong hosts a briefing to introduce Professor Mark Bray (left), the first holder of its new Unesco chair in comparative education, to the media. The university says Bray's field of expertise is the study of private supplementary tutoring, a sector that allows wealthy families to secure a good education for their children while those from low-income families fall behind. According to HKU, Bray first joined the university in 1986 and from 2006 to 2010 was director of Unesco's International Institute for Educational Planning in Paris.
Tenders close for New Territories land
Tenders for two residential sites in the New Territories close at noon. The responses will reflect developers' outlook on the local property market. The 46,845 square foot Tseung Kwan O site, on which 310 to 326 homes can be built, is expected to fetch between HK$979 million and HK$1.03 billion, or HK$3,800 to HK$4,000 per buildable square foot, according to five surveyors and analysts polled by the South China Morning Post. A site for luxury homes at Kau To, Sha Tin, is expected to sell for HK$270 million to HK$403 million, or HK$5,332 to HK$8,000 per square foot.
Official opening for Picasso exhibition
The president of France's National Picasso Museum, Anne Baldassari (left), presides over this evening's opening ceremony of the Pablo Picasso exhibition at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, which runs until July 22. The collection of the Spanish artist's work is on a world tour while its home in Paris is closed for renovation. It has already visited the United States and Australia, as well as Shanghai and Chengdu .
Expo highlights environmentally friendly funerals
The fifth annual Asia Funeral Expo and Conference is being held at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai until tomorrow. Some 23 speakers at the conference will address a variety of topics, including 'green' cemeteries and cremations, 'discoloured skin cover make-up' and 'environmental cremation-casket making'. Organisers expect more than 2,000 professional visitors and buyers from over 40 countries to attend.
Olympic flame lights up Britain
The Olympic torch arrives in Britain in the hands of football celebrity David Beckham, who is doing duty as an ambassador for the London Games. Beckham and his entourage will collect the torch at a ceremony in Athens, from where it will be flown to an air base in Cornwall, southwest England. The torch will then be carried in a relay involving 8,000 bearers on a 70-day journey, with the flame's route taking it to within an hour of 95 per cent of the British population, 'bringing the excitement of the Games to everyone', according to organisers.
AmCham focuses on China opportunities
The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong reinstates its annual China Conference, with a one-day symposium 'on the status of China's efforts at economic reform, near-term prospects for investment, and new business opportunities for Hong Kong-based companies in China's 12th five-year plan'. The opening keynote speaker will be Charles Li Xiaojia (left), chief executive of the city's stock exchange.
