Posts Tagged ‘Hong Kong’
Written by admin on 02 December 2009
Hong Kong, Dec 2 (DPA) An Indonesian maid working in Hong Kong was in custody Wednesday after allegedly posing as a burglar to break into her 79-year-old employer’s bedroom.
The 25-year-old woman allegedly put a mask over her face and snatched a gold necklace from her employer at knife-point as she lay in bed, breaking one of her teeth in the struggle.
However, police said her cover was blown when the old woman bit her finger and recognised her maid’s voice when the burglar screamed.
The maid, who has worked for the 79-year-old for two years, was arrested Tuesday morning and remained detained on suspicion of robbery and assault.
More than 130,000 Indonesian women work as live-in maids for Hong Kong families, earning a government-set minimum wage of around $460 although many of them work for less.
Tags: Hong Kong
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Written by admin on 01 December 2009
Hong Kong, Dec 1 (DPA) The Hong Kong government Tuesday began a controversial trial project to test 22,000 secondary school pupils for drug use.
From Tuesday, urine samples were being taken from pupils in 23 schools and results shared between teachers, police and social workers in a move to tackle a growing tide of youth drug abuse.
The scheme, described as voluntary, has triggered criticism with academics and youth welfare groups saying it unnecessarily infringes civil liberties.
Pupils are selected for testing during normal school hours, heightening concerns that anyone who gives a positive test will be identified by the length of time they spend out of class.
The government brushed off the complaints, however, and insisted that it will be extended to all schools in Hong Kong if successful.
Under the plan, parental consent is required to obtain urine samples from pupils aged under 18, while the consent of both parents and students is required for pupils aged 18 or above.
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Written by admin on 26 November 2009
Hong Kong, Nov 26 (DPA) Forty passengers were injured Thursday when two double-decker trams were involved in a head-on collision in a busy Hong Kong shopping district.
The trams collided in the city’s Causeway Bay district throwing passengers to the floor.
An emergency services spokesman said most of the injuries appeared to be minor and no one was seriously hurt. An investigation was under way to establish the cause of the crash.
Accidents are rare on Hong Kong’s 100-year-old tram network which has a fleet of 163 trams and carries 240,000 passengers a day. Each ride costs 2 Hong Kong dollars (25 US cents).
The Hong Kong tram system is one of only three in the world operating double-decker trams on a daily basis. The other two are in Blackpool in Britain and Alexandria in Egypt.
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Written by admin on 26 November 2009
Hong Kong, Nov 26 (DPA) Police in Hong Kong were Thursday trying to trace the founder of a Chinese-language Facebook group whose members claim to be planning a mass suicide on Dec 21.
The investigation was triggered after a 15-year-old member of the group was stopped by friends as she tried to throw herself off the roof of a Hong Kong school a fortnight ago.
Police found she was one of 190 people who had signed up to the Facebook group called ‘I have to practise suicide’. The group has been removed from the popular social networking site.
Members shared tips on the best ways to kill themselves and goaded each other to join in a mass suicide on Dec 21. A social worker who interviewed the suicidal schoolgirl alerted police.
Some reports in Chinese-language newspapers Wednesday said the group had been disbanded while others quoted members saying that a core ‘suicide team’ remained active.
Headmasters from 35 schools have been contacted about the Facebook group and advised on how to monitor students for any signs that they may be involved, police said.
Youth suicide rates are notoriously high in the wealthy city of seven million with experts saying the pressure to achieve good grades in school and emotionally detached parents are to blame.
Hong Kong’s overall suicide rate has fallen markedly in recent years thanks to initiatives such as erecting suicide barriers on tall buildings and putting helpline labels on packets of charcoal. Burning charcoal in a confined space to produce carbon monoxide is a common suicide method in Hong Kong.
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Written by admin on 25 November 2009
Hong Kong, Nov 25 (DPA) The Hong Kong government Wednesday warned people with respiratory illnesses to limit their time outdoors as air pollution in the city soared to potentially dangerous levels.
Pollution readings at roadside monitors recorded very high levels Wednesday morning as a dense winter smog, triggered largely by factory fumes from neighbouring China, enveloped the city of seven million.
Hong Kong has been plagued for more than a decade with worsening pollution despite government efforts to clean up the air by making taxis and buses use environmentally friendly fuels.
Eighty percent of the city’s smog comes from the vast industrial belt of Guangdong in neighbouring southern China, experts said.
A recent survey found that most Hong Kong people believe air pollution is worsening but less than half want to pay more for buses or electricity in an effort to ease the problem.
University studies have found that the persistent smog in Hong Kong is driving away foreign investors and jeopardising the health of tens of thousands of residents.
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Written by admin on 25 November 2009
Hong Kong, Nov 25 (DPA) Airbus said Wednesday it was investigating a series of mystery toilet blockages on Cathay Pacific planes which forced one passenger jet to make an unscheduled landing in India.
Toilets on the Hong Kong-based airline’s A330 and A340 Airbuses have become blocked three times in the space of 11 days, with one flight diverted and two others forced to reduce passenger numbers.
In the worst case, a flight from Riyadh to Hong Kong on Nov 17 with 278 passengers on board had to divert to Mumbai when flight attendants discovered none of the 10 toilets on board were working.
The diversion resulted in an 18-hour delay for repairs and a crew change for what should have been a routine eight-hour flight. Passengers received an apology and vouchers as compensation.
Two other Hong Kong-bound flights — one from Rome Nov 9 and another from Dubai Nov 19 — had to cut passenger numbers when crew found before take-off all toilets on one side of the plane blocked.
Cathay Pacific and Airbus both said they were unsure about the exact cause of the blockages but an airline spokeswoman said the problem was being tackled with a cross-fleet maintenance operation.
Passengers might be partly to blame, she suggested. ‘You would be amazed at what we find in the pipes when we clean the system — not just face towels but medicine bottles, socks and even children’s stuffed toys,’ the spokeswoman said.
Aircraft toilets use a high-speed pipe mechanism that carries waste into a holding tank. Two vacuum systems operate separately down each side of the plane, meaning a blockage usually affects all toilets on one side of the aircraft.
Cathay Pacific regulations stipulate planes should have a minimum of one toilet per 80 passengers.
Engineers are now fitting new pipes and carrying out deep-cleaning treatment on the toilets of its entire fleet, starting with its worst-hit 15 Airbus A340s and 32 Airbus A330s.
In a memo to staff, the airline’s director of flight operations Nick Rhodes said the problem was ‘possibly due to a change in the cleaning procedure introduced approximately six months ago’.
Sean Lee, Singapore-based Asia communications director for Airbus, said the plane maker was working with Cathay Pacific engineers to try to find out the cause of the recent spate of toilet blockages.
There were no similar outbreaks of toilet blockages on other airlines, he said, adding: ‘We appreciate that it is very inconvenient for passengers and we are looking into it.’
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