A four-member delegation of mainly Malaysian legislators yesterday met officials of the Independent Commission Against Corruption to urge the graft-buster to reopen an probe into money laundering that saw Malaysian timber businessman Michael Chai arrested at Hong Kong airport with the equivalent of more than HK$107 million in his possession four years ago. Chai was alleged to have laundered money gained from illegal logging activities on behalf of a top government official. Delegation member William Leong Jee Keen said: "The ICAC had been investigating Chai … But it stopped the investigation based on information given by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission that the [funds were] a 'political donation' … We are here to demand the ICAC reopen the case."

Building homes on a large parcel of undeveloped land in Tuen Mun would threaten the city's most important butterfly reserve, green groups have told the government. The land is in any case unsuitable for housing, being opposite a steelworks and an aviation fuel tank farm and near two closed public landfill site, say Green Sense and Green Power. The two groups made their points in a letter to the Environmental Protection Department at the end of a two-week consultation over a government study of areas 40 and 46, near Pillar Point in Tuen Mun. They could be rezoned into various uses, including for residential. The redevelopment would threaten the Siu Lang Shui site, known as an important winter location for scores of butterfly species.