Man jumps to death

A 43-year-old man jumped to death from his flat in Fung Chak House, Choi Wan Estate in Kowloon yesterday afternoon.

His 32-year-old wife was admitted to hospital because of emotional trauma.She told police that she was woken up from sleep to find her husband trying to strangle her, before he jumped to death.

'No free plastic bag'

More than 1,000 shops have pledged to take part in the "no free plastic bag" day on April 15, said the organizer Green Student Council.

Most large-scale supermarkets, cosmetic chains, pharmacy chains and furniture chains have agreed to join the cause, the council said, adding it showed the retail sector widely supports the introduction of plastic bag tax.

On April 15, participating retailers will not give out free plastic bags. Shoppers who ask for the bags will have to pay 5 cents per bag. The money raised will be donated to charities.

Hikers fall off cliff

Two hikers were flown to hospital yesterday after they fell off a cliff near Tung Chung, Lantau Island.

The duo went on a hiking trip in Lantau Island with two others yesterday morning. Setting out from Tung Chung, they arrived at around 1:00 pm in Lantau Gorge where the two fell off a cliff about 30 feet high.

Policemen and firemen rushed to the scene and found them writhing in pain from serious head injuries and broken bones. One of them became unconscious while the other could barely speak. The rescuers asked for the Government Flying Service, which sent a helicopter to the scene.

Due to the severity of the injuries and rugged terrain, it took about two hours for the paramedics to take them onto the helicopter, and fly them to Tuen Mun Hospital.

5 injured in tram accident

Five persons were injured in a tram accident in Central yesterday.

An east-bound tram crashed into the rear end of another tram going in the same direction after 12:00 noon at 154 Des Voeux Road Central. Five passengers on the trams - three women and two children - were injured and sent to hospital.

The accident disrupted east-bound tram traffic for about an hour, causing a long line of trams stranded as far west as Sheung Wan Market. Services, however, resumed after 1:30 pm.

Hospital fees

A patients' rights body yesterday expressed serious concern over the planned fee hikes by public hospitals.

The Hospital Authority is planning to raise daily hospitalization fees from HK$100 to HK$300 and emergency ward fees from HK$100 to HK$150-200.

Chairman of Alliance for Patients' Mutual Help Organizations Cheung Tak-hei said on a radio programme yesterday that the increase in hospitalization fees would be a heavy burden on patients suffering from chronic diseases.

He suggested that the authorities should instead try to curb the abuse of public medical services through medical reform.

Hill fire reported

The authorities received reports of 32 hills catching fire by 5 pm yesterday, during the Qingming Festival when people went to clean tombs of their ancestors.

Most fire happened in New Territories.

The three large-scale fire occurred in Sai Kung's Shak Kok Mei, Cheung Ngau Hill in Yuen Long and a hill near the West Rail depot station in Pak Hueng.

Incense and paper money burning cause hill fire on the tomb-sweeping day every year.

230,000 cross border

More than 230,000 people went to Shenzhen through Lo Wu control point on the public holiday yesterday.

Most of them went sweeping tombs in their hometown in Guangdong.

The Immigration Department opened more than 100 channels for clearance, with the average waiting time shorter than five minutes.

Allianz Asia office

Allianz Private Equity Partners (APEP) plans to open an office in Asia and raise its exposure to the region, said Christian Mayert, a member of the firm's global management committee.

APEP, a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of German insurer Allianz AG, has already hired someone to man the office in Asia but has yet to decide on a specific city to set up camp.

"We plan to raise target exposure to Asia to between 10 and 20 per cent," said Mayert, an APEP managing director.

APEP has several billion euros in private equity commitments and direct co-investments in private companies. Mayert said APEP has already made three to four investments in Asia.

Copyright seminar

A seminar will be held on Monday to introduce copyright issues that are of particular concern to small and medium enterprises and how the government's latest proposals to amend the Copyright Ordinance will affect them.

The Intellectual Property Department staff will speak on general copyright issues. They include acts restricted by copyright, existing business end-user liabilities, existing liabilities related to parallel importation and licensing schemes promulgated by copyright-licensing bodies.

Unicom share reform

China United Telecommunications Corp, the smaller of the mainland's two mobile carriers, said yesterday it would offer 2.3 shares for every 10 held, compensation for a planned float of State-owned stock.

The shares were suspended on Monday when the company said it would enter the national programme under which mainland's publicly listed companies are floating up to US$250 billion in non-tradable state shares.

The company trades as China Unicom and indirectly controls Hong Kong-listed China Unicom Ltd, although the Hong Kong-listed firm will not be affected by the reform programme.

Other companies have also offered bonus shares as compensation to shareholders as the Chinese mainland prepares to float the US$250 billion in non-traded State shares.

(HK Edition 04/06/2006 page2)