Red liquid sets off acid scare

Red liquid plunged from a high-rise onto five pedestrians in North Point Thursday afternoon, a rousing fears that another acid attack had taken place.

Four women and a child were splashed while walking beneath a building near the junction of King's Road and Fuk Yuen Street at 2 pm. All were taken to hospital for examination.

It's believed the red liquid, which is not corrosive, had been used to detect leaking in pipes.

Protestor gets sentenced

A member of the League of Social Democrats Lau San-ching was sentenced to 120 hours of community service at the Eastern Magistracy Thursday for standing on top of a police van during a protest at the Central Government's Liaison Office on October 1 last year.

Lau was convicted early in June, of disorderly behavior in a public place. Magistrate Anthony Yuen Wai-ming said though Lau had been convicted of similar offences before and a deterrent jail terms would be handed down, if the previous offense hadn't occurred 10 years ago. He urged Lau to exercise restraint at future protests.

Midwife guilty of assault on maid

A registered midwife was convicted at the Kowloon City Magistracy, Thursday of assault for slapping her Indonesian maid. The woman was released on bail, pending sentencing on July 8.

The Indonesian maid, Yuni Atik, 24, said Tsang Wai-yin, 35, had forced her to work long hours and to swear that she would keep silent about the matter. Atik refused and Tsang slapped her on October 3.

The defense lawyer claimed Atik was about to be fired and had lied to remain in Hong Kong. The argument failed to convince magistrate Raymond Wong Kwok-fai, who pointed out that Atik had worked for Tsang for one year and four months before the incident occurred.

Drug-resistant germ infection

A 38-year-old man living in Kowloon City has become infected with community-associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA), a drug resistant bacterium, said the Centre for Health Protection Thursday.

The man with a record of good health developed an abscess on the left side of his neck on June 15 and was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital on the same day.

He is currently in stable condition. A blood specimen from the patient revealed the presence of CA-MRSA.

Tin Chung Court flats withheld

The 825 flats in Tin Chung Court have been withdrawn from the sale of surplus Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats Phase 6 because existing residents are in dispute over the management fee.

N M Chan, assistant director (Housing Subsidies) of the Housing Authority, said Thursday that the 825 flats were withheld for the time being to prevent the applicants from making decisions based on unclear information. Once the dispute is resolved, the flats will be offered again and the chances for successful applications will be not affected.

Application for 3,219 Phase 6 flats starts today. The deadline is July 8.

China Daily

(HK Edition 06/25/2010 page1)