Talking points

Tribunal to hear claim for 'rubbish' refund

The Small Claims Tribunal will hear a petition filed by homeless people whose belongings were taken by government sanitation workers. Acting under the waste-disposal ordinance, police and Food and Environmental Hygiene Department workers confiscated half a tonne of "rubbish" on February 15 at a site under a flyover in Sham Shui Po. The street sleepers, including Cheung Muk-luen previously demanded compensation of HK$3,000 each and a government apology.

Bank of Japan to review interest rates

The Bank of Japan holds a rate review. Market players expect the central bank to hold off from an easing until October 30, when it reviews its long-term economic and price forecasts in a semi-annual outlook report. But the US Federal Reserve's decision last week to push ahead with quantitative easing may force the bank's hand.

Court to hear Wynn's ex-partner Okada

Japanese pachinko magnate Kazuo Okada will appear in a Las Vegas court, marking the first time he will face the lawyers of business partner-turned-rival Steve Wynn in their battle for Wynn Resorts, which operates casinos in Las Vegas and Macau. Lawyers quoted by Bloomberg news say Okada's testimony may show Wynn what he is up against as he fights to keep control of the US$10 billion firm he started with Okada 10 years ago.

Platinum giant to resume operations

Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), the world's top producer of the precious metal, is to resume work at its strike-hit operations just days after South Africa's government cracked down on striking miners and ended five weeks of wildcat strikes in its platinum mining industry. Forty-five people have been killed in the labour unrest that choked output in a country that accounts for 80 per cent of world platinum production.

US to honour Myanmar's Suu Kyi

Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is visiting the United States, will tomorrow receive the Congressional Gold Medal, which was awarded to her in her absence in 2008. The trip, which was made at the invitation of US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, marks Suu Kyi's first return to America since she worked in New York City at the United Nations from 1969 to 1971.

Thirty years of :-) and :-(

Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of the sideways "smiley face", or :-). The design is credited to Scott Fahlman, a computer science professor at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University in an e-mail he sent to an online electronic bulletin board. Fahlman asked colleagues to use the sign to denote jokes, and use :-( for serious posts. The suggestion gave rise to what are now known as emoticons, used when words have failed.