This is very sad news, that something like the Flu can still do this, I wonder if they did a thorough inspection of the surrounding of what caused this.

Four reports of flu outbreaks involving 88 people in kindergartens and primary schools in Yuen Long, Tuen Mun and Yau Tong were announced last night. Most of the patients, aged from three to 42, had recovered, the Centre for Health Protection said.

Legislator for the medical sector Kwok Ka-ki said the Hospital Authority should be better prepared for flu outbreaks. "Faced with demands in admission, hospitals should try to scale down other services and provide additional beds for paediatric and medical patients who are most affected by flu outbreaks," he said.

The tragedy-struck Ho family had happier news yesterday with the birth of a baby, four days after their three-year-old daughter died of flu.

The baby came into the world yesterday morning at Tuen Mun Hospital, where Ho Po-yi died on Saturday. The child’s death sparked allegations by the family that doctors had been remiss in not admitting her earlier.

On what should have been a joyful occasion, the children’s father and grandfather were unsmiling as they went to the hospital yesterday, not even willing to disclose the sex of the new child, Mrs Ho’s fourth.

Also in the hospital is another daughter, Ho Yuen-yi, six, suffering from the same H3 flu strain that struck Po-yi.

Yuen-yi was confirmed yesterday to be ill with the H3N2 substrain, known as Brisbane flu after the Australian city where it first emerged, but the exact substrain that infected her sister had not been established last night.

Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok said the authority was very concerned by the sisters’ case. Dr Chow said he hoped the coroner’s court would be able to provide a clear account of the medical procedures involved and what had happened. He said the case was rare, as flu did not normally kill so quickly.

Po-yi died on Saturday afternoon after she was admitted to the hospital, a few hours after being sent home from the emergency room with a high fever.

Her sister, under treatment with the flu drug Tamiflu, is also having psychological counselling to help her deal with the tragedy.

"Yuen-yi is now stable, and she has started to eat again," grandfather Ho Kwai-ming said.

"Doctors say she may be discharged within two days. We are glad."

He did not answer when asked whether Yuen-yi had taken in the news of the death of her sister, but said he was still angry with the hospital. Mr Ho wondered whether mistakes had been made.

Beleaguered actor-singer Edison Chen Koon-hei returned to Hong Kong yesterday and apologised unreservedly for his involvement in the nude pictures controversy, saying he would quit the local entertainment scene indefinitely.

He admitted for the first time he had taken pictures of female celebrities engaging in sex acts with him. His lawyers issued a statement warning that further publication of the images would be a breach of copyright, a move that could foreshadow legal  action.

It is interesting to see how legal action against proprietary images is being used, since they were "stolen" and published without consent, does this mean we will be seeing multi million dollar lawsuits headed towards media outlets that published these photos?

"I would like to say sorry to all the people of Hong Kong. I give my apologies sincerely to you all unreservedly and with my heart," the Canadian-born Chen, 27, told a packed press conference at the Hong Kong International Trade and Exhibition Centre in Kowloon Bay. "I hope you all will accept my apology. Give me a chance."

He added: "I admit that most of the photos being circulated on the internet were taken by me. But these photos were very private, and have not been shown to people and were never intended to be shown to anyone. These photos were stolen from me illegally and distributed without my consent."

Chen said he would leave the local entertainment industry after fulfilling current commitments. His  lawyers released a statement saying Chen was the owner of the photographs and images "featuring himself and his lady friends in intimate circumstances", in an attempt to stop the pictures being circulated on the internet or published in the press.

The statement said that downloading the photographs was an act of copyright infringement and the  reproduction and dissemination of the photographs to the public was an "even more serious act of copyright infringement".

The photographs, featuring Chen and seven female celebrities including Gillian Chung Yan-tung of girl duo Twins, actress Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi and his current girlfriend Vincy Yeung Wing-ching, niece of Emperor Group tycoon Albert Yeung Sau-shing, have been circulated globally since the scandal broke nearly four weeks ago.

During his seven-minute speech, Chen repeatedly apologised to the  female stars who had been  embroiled in the scandal.

"I would like to apologise to all the ladies and to all their families for any harm or hurt that they have been  feeling. I’m sorry," he said calmly. He added: "I know young people in Hong Kong look up to many figures in our society. And in this regard, I failed as a role model. I will wholeheartedly fulfil all the commitments that I have to date but after that I have decided to step away from the Hong Kong entertainment industry."

Albert Yeung said last night Chen had spoken well and was "very sincere". "I think we should give him a chance." On Chen’s decision to quit local showbusiness he said: "It’s a pity, but this is his personal decision."

Gary Chan Chi-kwong, director of East Asia Music, said the company supported Chen’s decision.

Defending his decision to disappear after the scandal broke, Chen said: "I have never escaped from my responsibility … I have been assisting the police since the first day the photos were published, and I will continue to assist them."

Chen said he would dedicate his time to charity in the next few months and hoped his predicament would be a lesson for the wider  community.

After the press conference, police went to Chen’s home in Magazine Gap Road to continue their investigation and search for evidence.

"We have collected evidence including some computer-related items and a computer," said Chief Inspector Kenny Wong Tak-cheung from the Commercial Crime Bureau.

Apple Daily and The Sun continued to have Edison Chen on the front page.  Apple Daily said that Edison Chen has backed off on his plan to return to Hong Kong, while The Sun went further by saying that he threatened to slash his wrists in order to force his girlfriend Vincy Yeung into marrying him. I suppose if I was Edison I might not want to come back either but now he might be branded a coward together with everything else people are calling him these days.

In the meantime

The first man arrested over the celebrity sex-photos scandal was freed yesterday when the charge against him was abruptly withdrawn after he had spent two weeks behind bars. Amid a storm of criticism over police handling of the case, Chung Yik-tin, 29, walked out of Tuen Mun Court disguised in a surgical mask and hat after the Department of Justice withdrew a charge against him of publishing an obscene article. On Thursday the Obscene Articles Tribunal, in response to an application by a newspaper, ruled that photographs circulating on the internet of a woman, allegedly Canto-pop star Gillian Chung Yan-tung, naked and spread-legged on a bed with singer-actor Edison Chen Koon-hei, were indecent but not obscene. Its ruling is an interim one. “After a thorough review we found the possibility is low that the tribunal will make a [final] classification of the photo as obscene. For justice to be seen to be done, we’ve decided to withdraw the charge,” senior government counsel Hayson Tse Ka-sze told the court.

A good article on globalvoices today. The most striking comment being that even possession of the photos were illegal by a Police commissioner who clearly did not know better. A major protest was out on the streets to protest the obscene photo case and relevant arrest.

There is now even a facebook group calling for Edison Chen’s arrest.

Depending on the source, anywhere from 250-500 people were marching on the street, a sample from hkdigit.

More than 250 Hong Kong people included members of the League of Social Democrats(Organizers Article23.net said more than 500 people attended) marched from Victoria Park to the Wan Chai Police headquarters to protest against the police’s handling of the obscene photo case involving local pop and film stars including Edison Chen Kwoon-hei(陳冠希), Gillian Chung Yan-tung (鍾欣桐), Bobo Chan Man-woon (陳文媛) and Cecilia Cheung Pak-zhi (張栢芝), implicated Edison’s current girlfriend Vincy Yeung (楊永晴). They accused the police of selective prosecution.

For more information on this there is even a Wikipedia entry.

There are several events of hypocrisy, starting from the lie that the pictures were fabricated, to the innocent and quick arrests of people and the police threatening to jail people simply for possession. I guess being a celebrity gives you some extra benefits in Hong Kong society?

Gillian Chung makes a public appearance after the Edison Chen scandal, here a brief sample from the article.

Gillian Chung began by saying Happy New Year to those present. She said that this incident has caused great distress and hurt to herself and those around her. She admitted to being very naïve and very stupid before, but she has now grown up. She expressed her gratitude towards the company, her family and her friends for their concern and support. She apologized for the effect of the affair on society at large. In the future, she will continue to work hard and live actively. Finally, she thanked the media for their concern and the fans who never abandoned her.

The Internet forum response has been quite negative. Throughout her statement, there was no description of what the affair was about. The netizens did not take kindly towards her description of being “very naïve, very stupid.” People pointed to the KY jelly in the background of one of her photographs and asked: “If she had been ‘very naïve, very stupid’ at the time when she was using KY jelly in a hotel room, then what is she doing now that she has grown up?”

Why is the Internet forum public so hostile towards Gillian Chung this time? When photographs of her changing in the dressing room appeared in EasyFinder magazine in August 2006, the public was overwhelmingly on her side. But the tide appeared to have swung the other way around. One reason was that her company Emperor Entertainment Group had claimed initially that the photographs were computer modifications. When more photographs appeared, EEG went silent and refused to comment on the grounds that there was an ongoing police investigation. Even at today’s press conference, EEG stated that the company and all its artistes will decline comment in the future in the interest of not causing more social harm. The Internet forum users consider Gillian Chung and EEG evasive.

The whole video of the interview is here:

While my compatriots in China are still in vacation mode, in Hong Kong the holidays are already over, it was just way too short.

-_-

In other news,the fireworks are up at YouTube. What’s also interesting is that the HKTB Hong Kong Tourism Board has started a YouTube promotion.

The videos are promotions, and it’s interesting and has already got quite a few views. What I don’t understand is, why it is all in Chinese? That seems very useless because in Hong Kong we do not need promotion about Hong Kong but outside of Hong Kong it should be promoted in different languages, especially YouTube, it’s not even properly promoting us from the Motherland.

Very strange.

The full text is here.

HONG Kong actor and singer Edison Chen has apologised over images of him partially nude with several starlets which were found in the Internet.

The 1 min 28 second-long apology that was recorded on video was reported by all Chinese dailies – Sin Chew Daily, China Press and Nanyang Siang Pau yesterday.

The apology signalled that Chen, who had been missing since the photos involving six female artistes were widely circulated in the Internet since the end of last month, admitted that he had taken those photos.

Chen provided the media with the video statement through his lawyers.

Previously there was a lot of discussion over the “fake pictures” and how people who owned any of these would be prosecuted according to a police statement, which of course is both favoritism and abuse of a different kind given the recent GOD scandal were the furniture store was raised for T-shirts that were somewhat controversial. If after all this sabre rattling it turns out that they were not fakes what does this all mean?

Over in this article describing this as Hong Kong’s biggest sex photo scandal ever. The interesting bit being this:

According to an informed source close to the person who was the source of the photographs, several months ago Edison Chen sent his pink Apple Powerbook laptop to a Central computer shop for repairs. The technician made the accidental discovery that there were several hundred photographs and videos of Edison Chen and/pr more than a dozen celebrities/artistes and he downloaded them onto his own computer.

Source from Sing Tao.

The story continues.

His apology is below.

UPDATE: follow up articles are here and here.

It’s hard to believe that a whole year has almost passed already, I probably won’t be blogging until next year so incase I don’t, a HAPPY NEW YEAR! Perhaps we should be celebrating it with a bottle of these cute little party offerings! Hello Kitty Wine?!

Anson Chan was slammed in her legco debut in what was an apparent personal attack.

Chan was labeled a "sudden supporter for livelihood" after her maiden Legco speech on an innocuous social enterprise motion debate by the Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing who is also Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress, i.e. very pro China.

Chan won in a landslide victory against pro-Beijing opponent Regina Ip which was an important victory needed for the democratic Camp in Hong Kong and is not without its detractors.

Mr. Tsang’s comments would have perhaps been better received if it wasn’t so obvious that he represented an opinion that was pro-Beijing and therefore labelled anti-democractic. This is a tactical and infantile blunder if the intent was to discredit Anson Chan because all it did was create more support for the need of a stronger democractic voice, most likely because Hong Kong Government that is very pro-Beijing fears the influence Ms. Chan has, and her landslide victory is a surprise for them.

It is hard to not imagine this as a concerted attempt by the Government to attack an influential pro-democrat, how silly.

A pregnant woman has complained to the Department of Health after being told she won’t be able to have her baby at Adventist Hospital in Hong Kong even though she had earlier been assured of a bed.

"The hospital had told my doctor that my booking was no problem," Ms Ip said. "That is why I had not booked with another hospital. I was shocked that the hospital turned me away."

She said the news had caused her and her family a great deal of stress.

"I’ve had insomnia since receiving the bad news. I had three weeks of depression when my daughter was born last year, now I am so worried that I can’t sleep well. I don’t know how to handle it," she said.

"It is a complete black-box operation. We don’t know why suddenly there is no place for local mothers. I suspect some of the places have been given to mainland mothers, because hospitals can earn more from them."

Ms Ip, 33, said she had saved for the past year to cover the HK$60,000 to HK$80,000 cost of having her baby at a private hospital.

She gave birth to a daughter last year at Adventist Hospital and said she preferred private hospitals because of better service and privacy.

"Some of my friends have had very bad experiences in public hospitals. There are no doctors to do the deliveries and when they were breastfeeding, several men just peeped through the curtains. They were very scared."

Ms Ip said the department had responded to her complaint, saying the hospital denied passing maternity bed places to mainland mothers.

"But I think it is an issue which demands serious concern," she said.

"I wonder why there is no policy in Hong Kong that hospitals should give priority to local mothers.

"It is our home and yet we cannot enjoy good services."

Get used to it, last I heard Hong Kong was part of China not the other way round. Local media reports this case as a concern and the whispers in town are that "Mainland mothers" are taking away space for local mothers. If Mainland mothers will pay more, then why is that a problem? I didn’t hear anyone complaining coming to Hong Kong and spending "Mainland money" in Hong Kong a few years ago. Mainland tourism is fueling the Hong Kong economy, you don’t get to pick and choose, without China would Hong Kong be as prosperous as they are today? This type of xenophobia is the reason why Hong Kong will not become an open society if we cannot even open our doors to our own!