The competition was held April 30 to May 7 in Delhi and attracted 156 contestants from 21 countries and regions.

Pui Shing Catholic Secondary School Secondary Five student Lam Ho-tat won the gold prize for Hong Kong. The bronze medalists were Secondary Four student Tam Pok-man from Sing Yin Secondary School and Secondary Five student Lum Kai-chun from Queen’s College.

The honourable mentions went to Wong Yiu-man (Secondary Five, Queen Elizabeth School), Man Siu-hang (Secondary Five, CCC Ming Yin College), and Tony Shing (Secondary Five, Wong Shiu Chi Secondary School).

source from: news.gov

Walter Kwok, ousted as head of Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. in 2008, was arrested Thursday in connection with a bribery probe by the city’s anti-graft body. The move comes a month after his younger brothers Thomas Kwok and Raymond Kwok, who pushed the elder brother out to become joint chairmen, were arrested in the same case.

The Kwoks control a vast real-estate empire stretching across China, having built some of the most prominent skyscrapers in Hong Kong’s skyline, and turned Sun Hung Kai into the city’s largest property developer by market capitalization. The family hasn’t been without drama along the way, including the kidnapping of Walter Kwok in 1997 by a local gangster, and a growing dispute between the brothers in recent years.

The arrests, which have also included city’s former No. 2 official Rafael Hui and Sun Hung Kai executive director Thomas Chan, are now starting to rattle investors’ confidence in the blue-chip firm. Further details of the case remain scarce, with the agency leading the probe, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, declining to comment further.

“The investigation appears to be bigger in scope than expected. The longer it takes for the ICAC to investigate the case, the more uncertain investors will feel about the long-term management of the business. Of course, the big question next is who among those arrested—if any—will be charged and for what,” said Kenny Tang, an analyst at AMTD Financial Planning Ltd.

The arrest and subsequent release on bail of Walter Kwok may quell speculation by analysts that he was the person who made the corruption complaints against his brothers to the ICAC.

Following the death in 1990 of Sun Hung Kai founder and the father of the three brothers, Kwok Tak-seng, the brothers were left in charge with Walter at the helm. His relationship with the other two unraveled in 2008 when the married Walter had a relationship with a female “confidante,” according to another Sun Hung Kai director, Lee Shau-kee. Walter Kwok doesn’t deny the accusations of infidelity but has declined to comment on the matter.

The brothers removed Walter Kwok from the board, alleging that he had bipolar disorder and wasn’t fit to head the group, following a high-profile court battle in 2008. Their octogenarian mother later took him, though not his family, out of the family trusts. Walter Kwok still insists that he is entitled to a one-third stake in the trust, which he believes is worth over 100 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$12.9 billion).

Walter Kwok declined to comment Friday, but he did say through his spokeswoman on Wednesday that he wasn’t involved in Sun Hung Kai’s recruitment of Mr. Hui, Hong Kong’s chief secretary from 2005 to 2007, and didn’t know what Mr. Hui did at the group. Mr. Hui, one of those arrested in the case, served as a consultant and a director for one of Sun Hung Kai’s listed units before 2005.

“[Mr.] Hui worked for my two brothers and he was not a consultant to me or my mother,” Walter Kwok told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday through his spokeswoman.

Raymond Kwok has said earlier he is innocent of wrongdoing and believes his brother Thomas is, too. The two brothers and Mr. Hui all couldn’t be reached for comment.

No one arrested to date in the case has been charged and all have been given bail. Hong Kong’s laws, which are modeled after the British legal system, empower law-enforcement agencies to detain or offer bail to suspects before deciding whether to file criminal charges against them.

The company, which made the announcement on Walter Kwok’s arrest Friday, said it believed the news won’t affect the group’s operations but declined to comment further.

source from: wsj

“The landlords have seized our harvest! We must get back our farmland!” actors shout in Cantonese, in a compelling performance onstage.

Hong Kong’s award-winning director Fredric Mao selected each of them to participate as part of his theatre mentoring project. It is a fine example of the type of cultural co-operation the Hong Kong and Macau governments are seeking to achieve.

For years, Mao’s mentoring project has helped train up theatre participants in Hong Kong. This year Mao extended it to Macau.
“We need some kinds of developments for these already established young artists, how to make them go further and to make them really think that they have a future, for them to take charge eventually,” he said.

Fanshen is a dramatic adaptation of a book by American scholar William Hinton which recounts his observations of a village in Shanxi in 1945, when poor farmers rose up against their landlords to improve their lives. Mao himself participated in Fanshen years ago, in the original English version. Now, he is the artistic director of the world’s first Chinese version.

Impressive impresario
In the production, 11 actors and actresses play the roles of more than 30 characters. This means each performer must take on more than one role. Actor Sam Weng-kan, aged 67, says he has found Mao to be a professional instructor who can choose the most suitable characters for each performer, by observing their personalities and styles of acting.

Anna Ieong, a young actress, has taken part in productions in Hong Kong and Macau. She appreciates Mao’s fun style of teaching, and his expertise.

“He is very professional. He is very clear about every dramatic instruction, and also stage directions, spacing, directing notes, so it’s really helpful for the actors to do on stage,” she said.

Ieong also believes the mentoring project benefits drama development in Macau and allows more local artists to gain experience and hone their skills.

Co-operation key
Two young directors, Johnny Tam, 27, and Philip Chan, 28, are co-directors of Fanshen. Mao selected them to work together under him, as both graduated with drama-related degrees, and have worked in theatre for years, as actors, assistant directors and musicians.

The mentoring project is not for newcomers, Mao said, but for training talented and experienced people, to help them reach their full creative potential. The project requires them to interact and respect each other. The pair of young directors set a good example as they discuss with each other the best way to reach an objective.

Mao made a weekly commute from Hong Kong to Macau for the past eight months to help shape the production. From casting to script analysis, action and backstage management, he provided his professional input for every aspect of the show, to make it flawless and allow every participant to shine.

Following its successful run the last weekend of April, the team hopes to stage it in other cities. They also anticipate collaborating on new projects, to share the valuable lessons learned from the master.

source from: news.gov

It features 50 artefacts, including photographs and letters.

The pair married in 1884, as arranged by her parents. They had a son and two daughters. However, they divorced and Sun married Soong Ching-ling in Japan in 1915.

Sun travelled the world throughout his life seeking support for the revolution, while Lu cared for the family.

The exhibition shows Lu was a typical Chinese wife and mother, whose life centred on her family and who seldom involved herself in her husband’s political activities.

The museum on Castle Road, Central, is open 10am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, and 10am to 7pm Sundays and public holidays. It is closed Thursdays except public holidays.

source from: gov

Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing, Macau Secretary for Social Affairs & Culture Cheong U and Director General of the Guangdong Department of Culture Fang Jianhong attended the meeting.

Mr Tsang proposed future co-operation focus on rolling out more outstanding art works and productions, strengthening the network of public cultural service systems and developing a healthy and vibrant Internet culture.

On performing arts, they agreed that in the coming year the mode of co-operation will be refined to reach a clearer consensus on arrangements for staging selected roving performances in the three places.

The content of the Greater Pearl River Delta Cultural Information Website will be enriched and a photo competition on architectural heritage will be organised.

The three places will also strengthen cross-boundary ticketing services.

Large-scale roving exhibitions on cultural relics will be held. Exchange and co-operation on public library services will be further enhanced.

The three places will organise the Chinese Creative Industries Forum 2012, the Hong Kong Comic Camp and other collaboration projects.

source from: gov

While the city overtook Tokyo and Yokohama this year on quality-of-life indicators, it did so only because the two cities were affected by last year’s earthquake and nuclear disaster in northeast Japan, says ECA International, which conducted the study.

Among the 49 Asian cities covered by the group’s study, Hong Kong now ranks third in livability, just behind Singapore and the Japanese city of Kobe. With its excellent schooling, top-notch cuisine and impeccable transport systems, the city’s no slouch.

But on other measures, “Asia’s World City”—as Hong Kong prefers to brand itself—continues to fall spectacularly behind. When it comes to air pollution, the city is one of the world’s worst destinations, ranked alongside cities such as Cairo and Mexico City. It’s one of Asia’s most smog-shrouded cities, with air quality that ranks just behind Beijing and New Delhi.

Pollution is Hong Kong’s “big Achilles heel,” says Lee Quane of ECA International. For the last 13 years that ECA’s conducted the current iteration of its survey, Singapore has consistently outranked Hong Kong.  Mr. Quane says “the main reason is basically air quality,” an issue he says has become especially apparent in the last five years.

A 2010 survey by the Clean Air Network, a local environmental group, found that one out of four Hong Kongers have considered leaving the city because of its choking air quality. Likewise in 2011, fully 75% of business managers surveyed by an office services firm said that air pollution damages Hong Kong’s ability to attract and retain talent.

“There’s been a deterioration, or at the very least, no tangible improvement in Hong Kong’s air quality,” Mr. Quane told China Real Time, noting that companies may have to begin shelling out more in order to persuade expatriates to set up home in Hong Kong—especially those with young children.

Across the border, Shanghai was ranked as mainland China’s most livable city, followed by Beijing. They ranked 83rd and 99th in global livability measures, respectively, followed by Nanjing at 104th in over 400 locations surveyed worldwide. Hong Kong currently ranks 11th, making it the most livable city in greater China.

source from: wsj

The premise is simple: a group of five women mostly in their 30s put themselves in the hands of love and life coaches to for six months, with the hopes of boosting their marriage prospects. Along the way, with a documentary film crew in tow, they go to cosmetic surgery clinics, get makeup tips, learn what length of an SMS message will keep a man tantalized and finesse their ability to keep their mouth shut.

“When you don’t speak, you look like Central, but when you speak you look like Mongkok,” one woman is told. For those not familiar with the city, Central is a sophisticated business district, whereas Mongkok is a dense, chaotic neighborhood on the other side of the harbor.

Academics and scholars are up in arms over how the drama endorses some stultifying ideas about femininity. A Facebook page, “Say no to Bride Wannabes,” has already generated well over 2,300 “likes” since it was created a week ago. Still, Hong Kongers have stayed glued to their TV sets. The show claims a nightly 1.7 million viewers—suggesting that nearly 25% of the city’s population can’t get enough of Gobby, Mandy, Suki, Florence and Bonnie’s antics.

There’s a reason why the show has struck such a chord. Hong Kong’s demographics means a lot of potentially lonely female hearts: women outnumber men 10 to 9, according to 2010 UN statistics. The number of single, unmarried women in Hong Kong has been on the rise: between 1996 and 2009, the number of such women jumped by nearly 50%.

“Hong Kong is facing a great sense of crisis among both men and women,” says Susanne Choi, whose research at the Chinese University of Hong Kong focuses on marriage trends. As the status of women has risen, she says, both men and women are struggling to readjust to new norms. Even as their education and job status has improved, she says, many ideas of traditional feminine roles at home and in the workplace have stayed the same. “And if they choose not to conform to these ideas,” she says, “they face a lot of pressure.”

The show’s Chinese title, “Blossomed Women Ready for Combat,” is a play on how “盛女,” or “blossomed woman,” can also work as a pun on the phrase “剩女,” or leftover woman—a term used to describe a woman typically over age 28, often well-educated and financially independent, who hasn’t yet married. Though the term may have originated in Hong Kong, says Ms. Choi, it’s since spread to the mainland, where the number of single, college-educated, financially independent women has been on the rise. In Shanghai for example, the number of unmarried women between ages 20 and 50 has experienced what the nationalist tabloid Global Times calls “ominous growth,” to the point that today, there are over half a million of them. (Unlike Hong Kong, the gender ratio on the mainland is heavily skewed with a glut of men: 108 men per 100 women,according to the UN.)

The 10-episode series ends tonight, however TVB, the show’s producer, has already floated the idea of a sequel—one focused on men—much to its critics’ disgust.

“After watching this show, narcissistic materialistic girls will become even more narcissistic and materialistic, and those who aren’t will be brainwashed to become that way,” wrote one critic on the “Say no to Bride Wannabes” Facebook page.

Still, perhaps the best indictment of the show comes from one of the show’s hopefuls, Mandy. She’s already quit the program, saying she’s better off finding someone by herself.

source from: wsj

The government won an appeal Wednesday against an earlier lower-court ruling that would have allowed the city’s nearly 300,000 foreign guest workers to apply for permanent residency, which allows the right to remain in the Chinese territory indefinitely.

Although Hong Kong allows other expatriates to secure permanent residency after living in the city for seven years, the city’s domestic helpers, mostly Filipina and Indonesian, are excluded from that entitlement.

The case has raised concerns among some Hong Kongers that the city could become overwhelmed if domestic helpers receive permanent residency and then bring their children and otherfamily members to Hong Kong. Ms. Vallejos’s lawsuit prompted dueling protests last year, with maids carrying placards reading “I love HK” and Chinese protesters shouting slogans about protecting local employment.

Tensions also have been rising with the mainland as Chinese mothers cross the border to give birth in the city, straining the local health-care system.

In Wednesday’s decision, the judges affirmed the government’s argument that it has discretion to decide who can settle permanently, noting that such discretion exists even in other countries that also have antidiscrimination protection.

In one section of Wednesday’s 66-page ruling, the court declared that numerous exceptions to the city’s Immigration Ordinance have existed since 1971, including exclusions of those imprisoned, as well as the issue of Vietnamese refugees between the late 1970s and mid-1990s, who were permitted to remain in Hong Kong as refugees pending resettlement but were denied permanent residency rights.

“What makes us different from other expatriates?” said one female worker at a news conference convened after the decision’s release. “We also work hard to support our families.”

Mr. Daly, Ms. Vallejos’s lawyer, criticized the decision, saying it isn’t right for the government to create “second-class citizens.” “People in Hong Kong should be proud to have [people like Ms. Vallejos] as full permanent residents,” he said.

Ms. Vallejos wasn’t in court Wednesday.

source from: wsj

Keeping a rabbit, or any other pet, is a lifetime commitment. That is why the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department urges people not to buy one on the spur of the moment, nor to treat them as gifts.

“Pets are for life. Think before you have one,” the department’s senior veterinary officer Dr Mary Chow said in an interview with news.gov.hk.

Rabbits can be delightful companions, who are inquisitive, intelligent, sociable and affectionate. But keeping one entails serious responsibilities. Are you, or the recipient, prepared to care for a rabbit for the next seven to 10 years? That is the furry creature’s average lifespan.

Sadly, many bunny buyers do not consider the consequences before their impulsive purchases. When the novelty wears off and reality sets in, they simply abandon them. From 2009 to 2011, the department received 198 abandoned or stray rabbits, Dr Chow said.

In some cases, their owners neglected to ask family members before bringing them home, and faced strong objection. Some discovered family members had allergies.
Responsible ownership
Do you understand rabbits’ daily needs? Some people mistakenly believe they are “low maintenance” pets that are easier to keep than dogs or cats. On the contrary, they have specific dietary and veterinary needs, and must be handled with care, not simply kept in a small cage and given water and carrots.

Joanna Chow, a committee member of the Hong Kong Rabbit Society which finds suitable homes for abandoned rabbits, notes these creatures mainly eat Timothy hay, and will have stomach trouble if they eat too many carrots. Rabbits’ teeth grow continuously throughout their lives, she says, so chewing hay also helps file them naturally.

Although they do not need to go outdoors for walks, as dogs do, they should not be kept inside a cage all day long. They have powerful hind legs designed for running and jumping, and must be allowed to run freely at least three to four hours a day.

Do you understand a rabbit’s habits? They have natural urges to chew and dig. Before setting a rabbit loose, you must rabbit-proof your home, covering all electrical wires and anything else the pet is likely to chew, and removing dangerous or valuable items. They need appropriate toys, such as cardboard boxes and commercially made chew sticks.

Rabbits can reproduce quickly. Do you know a female bunny can become pregnant as early as three months of age, and have as many as 10 litters a year? The AFCD strongly advises pet owners to have them desexed to prevent unwanted pets.

Adopt, don’t buy
If you understand the responsibility involved in caring for a rabbit and are prepared to commit to it, the AFCD encourages you to adopt one to save a life rather than buy.

After receiving abandoned or stray animals, the department’s veterinarians give them health checks and assess their temperament. If they are deemed suitable, animals are sent to approved animal welfare organisations that will ensure they are desexed and will find them permanent loving homes. From 2009 to 2011, 50 rabbits were successfully adopted through its pets re-homing scheme.

Thirteen animal-welfare organisations participate in the scheme. Three of them – the Hong Kong Rabbit Society,Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Society for Abandoned Animals - provide rabbit adoption service.

“Rabbits that were abandoned may lose trust in people and have a bad temper,” said Jobi Kwan, Society for Abandoned Animals’ Project Co-ordinator, who participated in a recent Bunny Adoption Day with the AFCD and the two other rabbit re-homing groups.

She arranges times for potential new owners to spend with rabbits to see whether they get along, and urges applicants to seek approvals from all household members before bringing a rabbit home.

“These rabbits were abandoned once, we don’t want them to be abandoned twice,” she stressed.

Learn more about the pets re-homing scheme at the AFCD website, or call the 1823 hotline.

source from: gov

Mr Tam and Electoral Affairs Commission Chairman Barnabas Fung today officiated at the launch of the 2012 voter registration campaign.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Tam said the “one person, two votes” arrangement will be introduced in the LegCo Election on September 9. For the newly established District Council (second) functional constituency, about 3 million electors who do not belong to any constituency will cast their “second votes” to return five lawmakers.

He has urged people to provide and update their residential addresses.

source from: gov