What the local media says
A Primary Five student was refused a ride on his school bus after his mother failed to pay the fees on time. The school bus driver gave the boy, who attends the Carmel Alison Lam Primary School in Sha Tin, HK$4 instead to take a bus to school. The boy became lost after taking a wrong bus. He was found three hours later after a passer-by lent him a mobile phone to call for help. The boy is now receiving psychological counselling and his parents are demanding that the authorities investigate the incident.
The Development Bureau has recruited six local and foreign tree experts to join the Tree Management Office. The move follows the collapse of a banyan tree on Park Lane Shoppers' Boulevard in Tsim Sha Tsui in July. Ken So Kwok-yin, chief executive of the Conservancy Association, is among the experts. So says they will examine trees across the city for signs of disease and rot. They are expected to complete inspections of 400 banyan trees by the middle of this month.
Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan has halted fresh water supply at two of its wards to install water filters since a case of legionnaires' disease was reported on August 24. But the slow progress of the installation has sparked criticism. One patient could not shower for four days and had to buy wet baby wipes to clean himself. He criticised the hospital for failing to explain the stoppage of water supply, and said he was deprived of the right of personal hygiene.
A public housing flat with an alarming history is among 1,503 unpopular homes available in the latest round of the Housing Authority's Express Flat Allocation Scheme. All its tenants died one after another within six months of occupancy before the flat, located in Shun Tin Estate, Kwun Tong, was reclaimed a year ago, the authority's records show. A record 70,000 applications was lodged for the scheme's latest round. Of the homes available, 153 were involved in suicide and homicide cases.
A 13-year-old girl who's won many swimming awards for Yuen Long district is suffering from an inflammatory heart disease triggered by influenza virus despite having no history of heart disease. Lam Yin-chi is receiving treatment at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam and is relying on a heart machine to live. Dr Adolphus Chau Kai-tung, chief of paediatric cardiology at the hospital, said Lam had to get a heart transplant as soon as possible to survive.
