More emerges on Hui payment

Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) co-chairman Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong told the High Court on Wednesday that he asked SHKP executive director Thomas Chan Kui-yuen to transfer some HK$10.8 million to former chief secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan because he didn't want his brother Walter Kwok Ping-sheung to know. Hui faces eight charges related to bribery and misconduct in public office for allegedly receiving HK$34 million worth of sweeteners from Kwok and others.

NT re-devt plan considered

The Town Planning Board began considering the fate of a HK$120 billion redevelopment plan for the Northeast New Territories on Wednesday. This was done in a public exercise expected to last nearly six months. The plans to introduce infrastructure and residential projects into the Kwu Tung North and Fanling North areas have received more than 40,000 letters supporting and opposing the project. This is as well as more than 10,000 submissions.

Man in court for incident at HKU

A mainland man who allegedly attacked a British-born lecturer at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) because the lecturer taught in English appeared in Eastern Magistrates' Court on Wednesday to face one count of common assault. Liu Lu, who was in Hong Kong on a visitor's visa, was accused of assaulting Clifford Buddle in a classroom on Oct 6. According to media reports, he appeared to be a student sitting in on Buddle's class but suddenly lost his temper and shouted: "Why don't you teach in Putonghua?" The 26-year-old from Anhui initially entered a guilty plea on Wednesday but declared he didn't punch Buddle but thumped Buddle on the chest with a book.

Children with myopia rising

More than 60 percent of 12-year-olds in Hong Kong are myopic, according to a survey among 600 primary students by Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Optometry. The myopic children required correction of -2 diopters on average. This is more serious than the results of a similar survey some years ago.

HKUST praises Nobel laureate

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's (HKUST) Institute for Advanced Study issued a statement on Wednesday to extend congratulations to its visiting professor Shuji Nakamura, the US scientist who was awarded the Noble Prize in physics on Tuesday.

Nakamura, along with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Japan, were honored for invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes through bright, energy-saving white light sources.

China Daily

(HK Edition 10/09/2014 page7)