first smart id cards ready in five weeks The new smart identity cards will be launched in about five weeks. Card holders are expected to be allowed the choice of two photos to use on the document, the Department of Immigration said yesterday. Applications for the new cards will be accepted from June 23. The first people eligible to apply are applicants for juvenile cards, first-time applicants for adult cards and anyone seeking a new card because their old ID has been lost or damaged. Wide-scale replacement of ID cards will commence in August, with all card holders aged 34 to 39 required to apply. All residents are scheduled to have their cards replaced by 2007. walker drowns trying to retrieve his bag A man, 74, drowned off Tuen Mun after he waded into the water to retrieve a plastic bag containing his belongings. The victim was exercising at the Tsing Yan Street waterfront near Kadoorie Beach when his bag was blown into sea at 8.30am. He was declared dead at Tuen Mun Hospital. reporter in a serious condition after fall A crime reporter from Sing Pao Daily News is in a serious condition in hospital after he fell out a window of his third-floor apartment in Sai Kung. Cheung Ngai, 32, lost balance and fell from his Lakeside Garden unit in Chui Tong Road at 5am when he tried to open the window. Police said he had been drinking with friends. BOY FIGHTS FOR LIFE AFTER HIDE-AND-SEEK FALL Doctors at the Caritas Medical Centre were early this morning battling to save the life of a 14-year-old boy who was injured in a fall while playing hide and seek in a building in Shekkipmei at 9.30pm. The boy, who suffered serious head injuries, was admitted to the Shamshuipo hospital in critical condition. During the game, the teenager hid in a flower bed on the fourth floor of Shui Tin House in Pak Tin Estate but lost his balance and fell onto the second-floor roof of a car park.
