https://www.scmp.com/rss/7009/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Fully 60 per cent of packaged foods on shop shelves fail to comply with the labelling law, the Audit Commission said yesterday in a report criticising a far rosier estimate from the Centre for Food Safety. Earlier this year the centre reported that almost 100 per cent of the foods it surveyed met the law's requirements for listing nutrients. The Audit Commission criticised the centre for taking most of its test samples from large chain supermarkets rather than small food outlets. As a result,... https://www.scmp.com/article/985052/60pc-packaged-foods-run-afoul-labelling-law?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/985052/60pc-packaged-foods-run-afoul-labelling-law?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Primary Six pupils will take only one public test instead of two in the coming three years as the Education Bureau tries to ease the pressure on them. Depending on the year, they will sit either the Territory-Wide System Assessment (TSA) or the Hong Kong Attainment Test (HKAT), but not both, as at present. The TSA will be suspended next year and in 2014, while the HKAT will be suspended in 2013. 'Under this new arrangement, P6 students will only have to take part in one of the public... https://www.scmp.com/article/984947/primary-six-pupils-will-suffer-fewer-testing-times?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984947/primary-six-pupils-will-suffer-fewer-testing-times?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Young people setting out on their working lives will be helped to live away from home by a hostel scheme proposed in the policy address, home affairs officials said yesterday. In last month's speech, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said the government would help NGOs build hostels on land allocated by the administration. The government has not said how large the hostel units, aimed at housing people between 18 and 30 years old and earning between HK$10,000 and HK$14,000, would be.... https://www.scmp.com/article/984942/budget-hostels-will-help-young-workers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984942/budget-hostels-will-help-young-workers?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 A senior health official has credited an exodus of public medical workers to private hospitals for a steep fall in the number of serious misadventures at private institutions. Responding as lawmakers questioned a record low of three such incidents this year, deputy director of health Gloria Tam Lai-fun said government monitoring had produced no evidence of any cover-up. 'We think the many public doctors and nurses switching to work in private hospitals have improved their services and it might... https://www.scmp.com/article/984845/sharp-fall-mishaps-private-hospitals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984845/sharp-fall-mishaps-private-hospitals?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Hong Kong narrowly escaped a recession, with its economy growing 0.1 per cent in the third quarter from the previous three months. Low unemployment and continued growth in visitors from the mainland meant consumption held up, but the euro-zone debt crisis dragged exports down. Compared with a year ago, the economy grew 4.3 per cent year on year, down from a revised 5.3 per cent in the second quarter. The government warned that global economic uncertainty could worsen in the near term and that... https://www.scmp.com/article/984572/hk-just-avoids-recession-exports-down?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984572/hk-just-avoids-recession-exports-down?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 A rising tide does not always lift all boats. Thanks to the introduction of the city's first statutory minimum hourly wage of HK$28 in May, the earnings of the lowest-paid workers have been pushed up, especially those in the catering industry. But contrary to warnings by employers groups that businesses would be hit hard by a 'ripple effect' - that wages of workers already earning more than the minimum amount would also rise sharply - a survey has found the wages of such workers have not... https://www.scmp.com/article/984579/wage-law-had-no-knock-effect?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984579/wage-law-had-no-knock-effect?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The family-run Chinachem Charitable Foundation has filed a High Court writ demanding PricewaterhouseCoopers replace accountants Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu as administrator of the estate of the late Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum. The trust, controlled by Wang's siblings, has asked the court to appoint Rainier Lam, Victor Jong and Peter Yu of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the joint administrators. The Court of First Instance will hear the case on November 21. Deloitte was appointed by the court in 2007 to... https://www.scmp.com/article/984489/wangs-siblings-want-new-administrator-estate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984489/wangs-siblings-want-new-administrator-estate?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Despite a plea from the labour chief, employee representatives on the Labour Advisory Board are sticking to their refusal to process applications by companies to import workers. They say the government has to promise to stop employers importing workers without consulting them. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung invoked the plight of elderly and disabled people in care homes with the representatives yesterday. He said that of 1,900 workers imported under the Supplementary... https://www.scmp.com/article/983729/ministers-plea-over-import-workers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983729/ministers-plea-over-import-workers?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Another survey has found employers are planning to give average pay rises of 5 per cent next year. The Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management said 54 out of 103 companies surveyed confirmed they were budgeting for 5 per cent raises. The 103 firms, in 17 industrial or business sectors with a total of 131,406 employees, were surveyed between January and October. Similar results emerged from a poll released last week by the Hong Kong People Management Association and Baptist... https://www.scmp.com/article/983622/new-survey-backs-5pc-pay-rises?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983622/new-survey-backs-5pc-pay-rises?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Workers' representatives on the Labour Advisory Board will stop processing Supplementary Labour Scheme applications after discovering that some firms have been 'bypassing' them and importing workers through another programme. Leung Chau-ting, part of the 12-member board, said yesterday that several companies had hired foreign or mainland workers through the Immigration Department's General Employment Policy (GEP), which had a higher rate of approval. 'We are furious that employers can apply... https://www.scmp.com/article/983513/unions-boycott-imported-labour?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983513/unions-boycott-imported-labour?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 If you think your love life is tough, spare a thought for the poor Maipo bent-winged firefly. The insect, a species only recently discovered and unique to Hong Kong, emits flashes of light to attract a mate. But the firefly's call may get drowned out by the light from 2,000 flats that a property developer hopes to build near its habitat at Mai Po. Yiu Vor, chairman of the Hong Kong Entomological Society, found that light pollution severely reduced the Maipo bent-winged firefly's chances of... https://www.scmp.com/article/983240/city-lights-throw-rare-firefly-his-game?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983240/city-lights-throw-rare-firefly-his-game?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 A coalition of foreign domestic helper unions is launching a survey to find out how many maids plan to stay in Hong Kong permanently. Amid a series of court cases over domestic helpers' applications for permanent residency, the Asian Migrants' Co-ordinating Body said the poll, the first of its kind, would ask helpers whether they wanted to take the city as their home and if they would bring along their families. 'We want to see how many helpers are really planning to stay in Hong Kong,' Eni... https://www.scmp.com/article/983143/unions-poll-maids-hk-ambitions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983143/unions-poll-maids-hk-ambitions?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's final policy address was filled with measures aimed at easing Hongkongers' discontent over issues such as housing, the problems of the elderly and the wealth gap. But political analysts were unimpressed by Tsang's efforts to alleviate grievances and bridge class divisions, saying he also needed to address political issues. Ma Ngok, a Chinese University professor of politics, said the view that unhappiness related only to housing and old age was... https://www.scmp.com/article/981724/should-he-have-looked-bigger-picture?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/981724/should-he-have-looked-bigger-picture?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Despite her landmark legal victory in the domestic helper residency case, the family of Filipino Evangeline Banao Vallejos said they had no plan to migrate to Hong Kong. In 1986, Vallejos, then a washerwoman, left her five children behind when she and husband Oria decided that he would take care of the children while she went abroad to earn a living. She has since put all five children through university, and all are employed and have their own families, the Philippine newspaper, Inquirer... https://www.scmp.com/article/981565/we-wont-move-hk-says-helpers-husband?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/981565/we-wont-move-hk-says-helpers-husband?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Unless you count yourself among Hong Kong's wealthiest citizens, it's likely that you fell behind economically in the last few years - and fell hard. Between 2005 and 2010, Hong Kong's gross domestic product grew by 26 per cent, and the top earners did well. The average household income of the top 10 per cent of the population increased by 21 per cent, to HK$104,900 a month, according to Hong Kong Census and Statistics Bureau. But incomes for the lowest-earning 10 per cent of households... https://www.scmp.com/article/981552/hks-middle-class-vanishing-act?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/981552/hks-middle-class-vanishing-act?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The residency requirement for applicants for old age allowance should be scrapped, a labour union demanded yesterday. It came after a poll by the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions found that seven in 10 elderly Hongkongers living on the mainland faced difficulty without financial support from the government. In the past two months, the federation interviewed 300 people, aged between 60 and 79, who lived on the mainland. 71.1 per cent had livelihood problems as they were ineligible for the... https://www.scmp.com/article/980927/scrap-fruit-money-rule-union-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/980927/scrap-fruit-money-rule-union-says?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The landmark right-of-abode case for domestic helpers has split the city into two differing camps that include not only Hongkongers but the helpers themselves. Although the Court of First Instance ruled that Evangeline Banao Vallejos, a Filipino domestic helper who has lived in Hong Kong for 25 years, should be allowed to apply for permanent residency after working in the city for seven years, not every helper thought this was such 'big news'. Domestic helper Maricel Delan, 28, said: 'I... https://www.scmp.com/article/980601/city-divided-right-abode?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/980601/city-divided-right-abode?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The government has vowed to follow all means of appeal against yesterday's landmark court ruling against an immigration law that prevents domestic helpers from seeking the right of abode. High Court Judge Johnson Lam Man-hon, sitting in the Court of First Instance, declared as unconstitutional the exclusion of foreign domestic workers from a rule that allows foreigners to apply for the right to settle in the city after seven years of uninterrupted residency. That provision, in the Immigration... https://www.scmp.com/article/980600/maids-victory-faces-challenge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/980600/maids-victory-faces-challenge?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 A group of workers who repair the lifts and escalators that help keep Hong Kong on the move say they may have to quit their jobs, despite securing pay rises after a four-day strike. After 96 hours of industrial action, the Construction Industry Employees General Union said yesterday that a deal had been reached between 70 maintenance workers and the management of ThyssenKrupp Elevator. Details of the improved salary package will be announced today, the General Union of Lift and Escalator... https://www.scmp.com/article/980558/lift-workers-may-quit-despite-pay-deal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/980558/lift-workers-may-quit-despite-pay-deal?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Construction workers will get pay rises ranging from 5 per cent to nearly 13 per cent from November, with more increases in the pipeline as demand for their services surges because of a building boom. However, the outlook for other trades is not so healthy amid a deepening euro-zone debt crisis and a fragile economy in the United States. The Construction Industry Employees General Union said a salary increase agreement, the biggest since 1997, was reached with contractors for 280,000... https://www.scmp.com/article/980426/construction-workers-get-big-pay-rise?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/980426/construction-workers-get-big-pay-rise?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Lift maintenance workers will continue their strike for a third day today after negotiations over a pay rise and staff shortages broke down. 'We failed to find common ground with the company,' workers' representative Mok Yun-chuen said yesterday. 'But we feel that the company has changed their attitude and that they are more sincere now.' About 70 repair workers at ThyssenKrupp Elevator - about 80 per cent of the frontline employees - stopped work on Monday in protest at their existing pay... https://www.scmp.com/article/980306/lift-strike-stuck-day-3-talks-stall?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/980306/lift-strike-stuck-day-3-talks-stall?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Workers at a lift maintenance company went on strike yesterday and vowed to continue it today. About 70 repair workers at ThyssenKrupp Elevator said they would refuse emergency jobs unless their demands for a pay rise and shorter working hours were met. The company carries out maintenance work at 600 buildings. 'Our salary is simply too low,' said workers' representative Mok Yun-chuen. 'We will fight until the company answers our [demands]. We just want to be treated fairly.' The 70 workers,... https://www.scmp.com/article/980255/lift-repairers-strike-pay-rise-and-shorter-hours?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/980255/lift-repairers-strike-pay-rise-and-shorter-hours?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 All it took was a short summertime walk in Central for Bernard Chan to see that charity fund-raising - the cheerful appeals to buy raffle tickets, the guilt-laden entreaties to dig for change - had veered out of control. 'It was just a 15-minute walk, and I have come across three different groups asking for donations,' said Chan, chairman of the Law Reform Commission's charities subcommittee. That was on June 16, the day the commission launched a consultation aimed at bringing more oversight,... https://www.scmp.com/article/979886/all-common-cause?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/979886/all-common-cause?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Consumer prices in Hong Kong surged 6.3 per cent in real terms in August, up from the 5.8 per cent recorded in July. The nominal inflation rate was 5.7 per cent, seemingly lower than the previous month's 7.9 per cent. But minus the effects of the government's one-off relief measures, the real rate of increase in the underlying inflation rate in August was 6.3 per cent, showing that inflationary pressure remained strong. An economist yesterday warned that higher rents and food prices would... https://www.scmp.com/article/979875/rents-food-drive-inflation-63pc?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/979875/rents-food-drive-inflation-63pc?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Hong Kong's jobless rate fell to a 13-year low in the past three months, but the jobs outlook may worsen soon. The unemployment rate between June and August fell to 3.2 per cent from 3.4 per cent between May and July, Census and Statistics Department figures show. There were new jobs in construction, warehousing, transport, the food and beverage sector, and professional services. The number of people in work rose by about 10,800 from 3,625,800 in May-July to 3,636,600 in the June-August... https://www.scmp.com/article/979684/employment-rises-it-may-not-last-long?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/979684/employment-rises-it-may-not-last-long?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 A former news chief at Asia Television admitted yesterday that he wrongly trusted a source and allowed the airing of an erroneous report on the death of former president Jiang Zemin. Speaking in public for the first time since quitting as ATV's senior vice-president of news and public affairs, Leung Ka-wing disclosed the background of the incorrect report to an investigating panel but remained tight-lipped on the source's identity. 'Even if you put a gun to my head, I will still not reveal... https://www.scmp.com/article/979527/ex-news-chief-admits-error-trusting-source?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/979527/ex-news-chief-admits-error-trusting-source?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The Water Supplies Department said it would try to improve meter maintenance after being chided by the Ombudsman over defects that led some consumers to unexpectedly receive bills for tens of thousands of dollars. Ombudsman Alan Lai Nin said it was also not ideal when it could take the department years to identify a defective meter as there were so many. His comments followed an investigation into the department's procedures and the issuing and adjusting of bills, following 7,300 complaints... https://www.scmp.com/article/979171/thousands-complain-water-meter-nightmare?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/979171/thousands-complain-water-meter-nightmare?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 High-profile Asia Television investor Wong Ching has pledged to tighten his grip over the media company despite concerns he had interfered in newsroom operations. Speaking yesterday for the first time since the resignation last week of news chief Leung Ka-wing over the station's erroneous report of the death of former president Jiang Zemin in July, Wong said he would continue to 'reform' the station and no power could stop it. 'I will strive hard for a higher position,' he said. Leung's... https://www.scmp.com/article/978825/nothing-can-stop-reforms-atv?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/978825/nothing-can-stop-reforms-atv?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Members of the police force will launch an unofficial boycott against the news media today by not buying newspapers. The campaign, launched through telephone text messages and Facebook, is in retaliation against the Hong Kong Journalists Association's call to journalists to wear black today. The association is protesting against what it says are increasingly harsh police restrictions imposed on reporters working in public places. A senior police inspector confirmed a campaign message had... https://www.scmp.com/article/978795/police-fightback-against-newsmen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/978795/police-fightback-against-newsmen?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The Catholic diocese of Hong Kong has joined the chorus of opposition against the government's national education plan, saying it puts the welfare of state or government ahead of that of its citizens. In an article in its weekly newspaper, the Sunday Examiner, the church speaks out for the first time on the proposal to make all Hong Kong schools include national education as a subject. 'It is the state and the government that exist for the well-being of the citizens, not the citizens for the... https://www.scmp.com/article/978588/catholics-join-opposition-patriotic-schooling?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/978588/catholics-join-opposition-patriotic-schooling?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Celebrating its contribution to helping the needy in Hong Kong over the past 30 years on one side of its headquarters in Central yesterday, HSBC faced stern criticism from protesters on the other side over its plan to lay off 3,000 people. Several senior managers, including HSBC Asia-Pacific chief executive Peter Wong Tung-shun, suddenly withdrew from attending the event, held a day after the bank announced it would axe about 10 per cent of its local workforce by the end of 2013. The ceremony... https://www.scmp.com/article/978511/protest-over-hsbc-job-cuts-plan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/978511/protest-over-hsbc-job-cuts-plan?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 An insight into how acclaimed architect Frank Gehry came up with the twisting design for his first residential building in Asia is given in an exhibition that opens today. Models and sketches made by Gehry during the creative process for the project at 53 Stubbs Road are on display in Taikoo Place, Island East, until October 27. The 12-storey building, overlooking the city and Victoria Harbour, turns as it rises, with one flat on each floor measuring up to 6,000 sq ft. In a video shown at the... https://www.scmp.com/article/978541/gehrys-latest-comes-twist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/978541/gehrys-latest-comes-twist?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 ATV journalists yesterday ignored an instruction from their newly appointed news chief to play down a Democratic Party protest over the broadcaster's editorial independence in the aftermath of the station's wrong report on the death of former president Jiang Zemin. They did so after the instruction was given by senior vice-president of news and public affairs Lau Lan-cheong to vice-president Tammy Tam, who told the news team to make their own decision as she had already resigned, according to... https://www.scmp.com/article/978427/atv-journalists-told-tune-down-report?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/978427/atv-journalists-told-tune-down-report?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 More ATV journalists may quit after the resignation of news chief Leung Ka-wing on Monday over the erroneous reporting of former president Jiang Zemin's 'death'. A person close to the ATV newsroom said the impending departures include Yonden Lhatoo, editor-in-chief of the broadcaster's English News and Public Affairs. Vice-president Tammy Tam also resigned after Leung quit. Lhatoo, who joined ATV in 1997, yesterday confirmed he has resigned. 'Yes, I'm leaving. I think it's time to go,' he... https://www.scmp.com/article/978289/more-atv-staff-may-quit-morale-slumps?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/978289/more-atv-staff-may-quit-morale-slumps?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Executive Council convenor Leung Chun-ying, who has yet to announce officially his candidacy to succeed Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, told a political commentator in March 2009 that he would seek the post, according to a US diplomatic cable published by the WikiLeaks website. In the confidential cable dated July 8, 2009 and sent by former US consul general Joseph Donovan to the State Department, Leung had 'clearly' told Allen Lee Peng-fei, a former lawmaker, of his intention to... https://www.scmp.com/article/978151/exco-chief-decided-2009-seek-top-job?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/978151/exco-chief-decided-2009-seek-top-job?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Social workers trying to connect with troubled young people are turning to the internet. Where once an outreach worker could stroll onto a soccer pitch and make contacts, these days they are tapping into cyberspace. 'Outreach services must go online,' senior government social worker Hidi Lam Yuen-ting said. 'It is not as easy to bump into youth at risk in the street as it used to be.' She said young people participated, contributed and shared feelings much more readily online than they would... https://www.scmp.com/article/977475/troubled-teenagers-reached-internet?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/977475/troubled-teenagers-reached-internet?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai has been drawn into the debate over a government plan to introduce compulsory national education in secondary schools by 2013. On the sidelines of the National People's Congress Standing Committee meeting in Beijing yesterday, Fan was quizzed on the government's proposal to make national education a compulsory subject in primary schools next year, followed by secondary schools in 2013. Asked whether she thought national education would be introduced smoothly in secondary... https://www.scmp.com/article/977287/no-guarantee-smooth-roll-out-morals-classes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/977287/no-guarantee-smooth-roll-out-morals-classes?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The minimum wage law has led more people - especially the elderly - to come out to work, said the body overseeing the city's first statutory wage floor. From May 1, when the HK$28-an-hour wage was enforced, to July, the labour force grew by 45,500, compared with a year earlier, the Minimum Wage Commission said in a review of the new law's effect. 'Though the number of young people in the labour force also increased, the notable increase was in old people,' commission member Helen Chan ... https://www.scmp.com/article/977201/wage-law-lures-more-elderly-out-seek-jobs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/977201/wage-law-lures-more-elderly-out-seek-jobs?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Confined to their hotel like prisoners, journalists trapped in the heart of the fighting for the Libyan capital, Tripoli, are still trying to get their stories to the outside world. But it's not easy. They cannot even put their heads out of the window for fear of being hit by a sniper's bullet. Even inside the luxury Rixos hotel, they wear helmets and bulletproof vests in case the building is attacked. 'Every now and then, we hear an exchange of gunfire and cannon fire and we are worried,'... https://www.scmp.com/article/977072/death-streets-tripoli-keeps-journalists-trapped-hotel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/977072/death-streets-tripoli-keeps-journalists-trapped-hotel?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The University of Hong Kong vice-chancellor said sorry yesterday over the treatment of protesters at the campus during a visit by Vice-Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday when three were pulled to the ground by police and one was locked up for an hour. Professor Tsui Lap-chee's apology came as he faced a hastily arranged and noisy meeting with students amid calls for him to step down. 'If the school board feels that I have committed any wrongdoing, I will step down to shoulder responsibility,' Tsui... https://www.scmp.com/article/976623/hku-chief-apologises-treatment-protesters?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/976623/hku-chief-apologises-treatment-protesters?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The chief executive of the Hospital Authority has apologised to a woman who suffered a brain haemorrhage after receiving the wrong type of blood in a transfusion. A day after the incident at the Caritas Medical Centre in Sham Shui Po came to light, Dr Leung Pak-yin admitted there had been a serious mistake. 'We are deeply sorry to the victim and her family,' Leung said. The 64-year-old woman developed a brain haemorrhage after being given blood type A, instead of type B. She was being treated at... https://www.scmp.com/article/976651/hospital-authority-says-sorry-blood-victim?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/976651/hospital-authority-says-sorry-blood-victim?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The government is being urged to turn 3,000 temporary posts of welfare assistants into permanent jobs before funding for the programme runs out next year. The positions of welfare assistants, formally known as programme workers, were created in 2008 as a temporary measure to ease unemployment among the young, which was more than five times the overall jobless rate at the time. But the scheme for youngsters aged 15 to 29 - which costs HK$100 million a year - will end in March if the government... https://www.scmp.com/article/976584/make-youth-job-scheme-permanent?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/976584/make-youth-job-scheme-permanent?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Hong Kong's jobless rate has declined by 0.1 per cent, amid warnings that firms are getting more cautious. Census and Statistics Department figures showed the unemployment rate between May and July fell to 3.4 per cent, down from 3.5 per cent between April and June. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said the employment situation hinged on economic performance and the corporate sector's job-creating capacity. 'While the overall job vacancy is still at a relatively high... https://www.scmp.com/article/976585/unemployment-rate-falls?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/976585/unemployment-rate-falls?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 One in six poor families with children are often hungry, says a study by Oxfam. The World Wealth Report said Hong Kong last year had more than 100,000 people worth US$1 million or more. But Oxfam said there were also 144,400 families with children that could be called poor, living each month on less than half the median household income of HK$9,500. Oxfam found one in six such families had 'high food insecurity'. Kalina Tsang Ka-wai, Oxfam programme manager, says: 'This is shocking. We did not... https://www.scmp.com/article/976544/food-prices-hurt-poor?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/976544/food-prices-hurt-poor?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 One in six poor families with children are frequently hungry and their lives are made even bleaker by rising food prices, a study by Oxfam found. One 12-year-old girl said she had dinner only about three nights a week. The World Wealth Report 2011 said Hong Kong last year had more than 100,000 people with a net worth of US$1 million or more. But at the same time, Oxfam said, there were 144,400 families with children aged 15 or below that could be called poor, with a monthly income less than... https://www.scmp.com/article/976460/poor-go-short-food-prices-bite?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/976460/poor-go-short-food-prices-bite?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Domestic helpers should not get permanent residency because the city could not sustain such an influx, an association representing employers of helpers says. About 290,000 helpers work in the city - including 146,000 from Indonesia and 139,000 from the Philippines. Five Filipinos, two of them helpers and two former helpers, are fighting in the High Court for the right of abode, which other immigrants can get after seven years in Hong Kong. The plaintiffs in three judicial reviews want the... https://www.scmp.com/article/976353/there-will-be-chaos-if-helpers-win-abode-rights?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/976353/there-will-be-chaos-if-helpers-win-abode-rights?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The government is facing the threat of a landmark court action accusing it of racial discrimination. Hong Kong Unison, which campaigns for the rights of minorities, claims they administration has failed to provide adequate educational opportunities for ethnic groups. It is seeking the backing of 100 families for a lawsuit that would be the first against the government under the 2008 anti-racism law. The group's executive director, Fermi Wong Wai-fun, said: 'We need to have 100 individual cases... https://www.scmp.com/article/975936/court-threat-over-ethnic-schooling?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/975936/court-threat-over-ethnic-schooling?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The owner of a 55-year-old To Kwa Wan tenement building had warned the authorities that it was unsafe nearly two and a half months before it collapsed, killing four people. Testifying yesterday at an inquest into the collapse of Block J at 45 Ma Tau Wai Road on January 29 last year, Chak Oi-luen, a 53-year-old divorcee with three children, said: 'I told the [Buildings Department] that if nothing was done the building would collapse and many people would die. It would become not only Hong Kong... https://www.scmp.com/article/975748/landlady-raised-alarm-over-doomed-building?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/975748/landlady-raised-alarm-over-doomed-building?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The public is being given a say on whether to bring in variable electricity tariffs as a means to reduce carbon emissions. The Council for Sustainable Development, a governmentappointed think tank, has launched a four-month public consultation on how to reduce carbon emissions from buildings. Options to be discussed include changing the tariffs, tightening laws governing energy consumption - such as for air conditioning, ventilation and lighting - phasing out energy-inefficient electric... https://www.scmp.com/article/975491/focus-variable-electricity-tariffs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/975491/focus-variable-electricity-tariffs?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The government will consider seeking Beijing's interpretation of the Basic Law on the rights of abode of foreign domestic helpers only if it loses a landmark court challenge. The judicial review granted a group of Filipino maids is scheduled to begin on August 22. They are fighting to have current residency restrictions lifted - foreign domestic workers are exempt from Article 24 of the Basic Law, which grants permanent residency to anyone who has been 'ordinarily resident' in Hong Kong for... https://www.scmp.com/article/975398/government-hold-over-beijings-view-maids?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/975398/government-hold-over-beijings-view-maids?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000