SJ on high-speed rail link co-location and mainland enforcement; Last call for DC votes.
Photo: Chris Lusher
Rimsky Yuen: Mainland officers enforcing law at high-speed rail link Hong Kong terminus a “consensus”
– Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen said it would be inevitable to have mainland officers enforcing Chinese law at the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link’s West Kowloon terminus if the co-location arrangement is to go ahead
– Yuen, who went to Beijing with Secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung to discuss the issue with mainland officials and reached some “basic consensus”, said the main discussion would be how to enable mainland enforcement without breaching the Basic Law
– Civic Party’s Dennis Kwok said the arrangement would simply be infeasible under the city’s mini constitution while his former colleague Ronny Tong said amending an annex of the Basic Law was the only possible alternative
Secretary for Education defends government works on vacant schools
– Secretary for Education Eddie Ng defended government works on vacant schoolsfollowing a report by the Audit Commission
– Ng said among the 71 vacant schools left idle as mentioned in the report, 29 premises fell under the purview of the Education Bureau and only four were yet to be settled between the time of the Commission’s investigation since they were built on private land
Health chief on fatal medical blunder at North District Hospital
– Responding on a medical incident at North District Hospital in which a woman, aged 84, died from morphine overdose 28 times too much, Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing-man the incident could have involved “human error” and supervision issues
– Ko also said the Hospital Authority should review its policies on “the required double-check procedure for medication, especially high-risk medication”, and “the supervision of healthcare workers in learning”
Last call for support ahead of DC vote
– The pan-dem camp made a last call to call on supporters to come out and vote in fear of low turnout among pro-Occupy voters
– The three running pan-dem ‘superseat’ lawmakers, namely Albert Ho, Frederick Fung and James To, are all facing fierce challenges from both sides of the political spectrum
– Meanwhile, a recommended list (ch) of 194 pro-est candidates running in New Territories East and New Territories West was rumoured to be released by a Beijing-loyalist group, with 85 candidates from DAB, 28 from New People’s Party, 22 from FTU, 8 from BPA, and only 2 from Liberal Party
Pharmacists’ union pressure for more representation in government’s healthcare strategic review committee
– The Hong Kong Pharmacists Union (ch) said it was planning a sit-in to pressure for more representation in the Pharmacists Sub-group under the Steering Committee on Strategic Review on Healthcare Manpower Planning and Professional Development
– The union said the sub-group, which now have six pharmacists and only one is representing small- and medium-sized pharmacy, lacked transparency and proper representation from front-line pharmacists
– Dozens of protesters marched through Hollywood Road, where many of the city’s ivory shops are located, to call on the government to impose total ban on ivory trade
– The protest was joined by a Kenyan Maasai tribesman and conservationist Daniel Ole Sambu
– Hong Kong is one of the few remaining places that allow domestic trade of ivory pieces despite a ban on ivory import