Let us pray for the 36 people who died in the Hong Kong ferry tragedy, 1st october 2012

Source : Reuters

At least 36 people died and dozens were injured when a ferry carrying more than 120 revelers on a company outing collided with another ferry and sank near an island south of Hong Kong on Monday night,1st october 2012, in one of the city's worst maritime accidents.

The ferry belonging to the Hongkong Electric Company, controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing, was taking staff and family members to watch fireworks in the city's Victoria Harbour to celebrate China's National Day and mid-autumn festival when it hit the other ship and began sinking near Lamma island.

Survivors said they had little time to put on life jackets before the ferry flooded, trapping passengers.

"Within 10 minutes, the ship had sunk. We had to wait at least 20 minutes before we were rescued," said one male survivor, wrapped in a blanket on the shore.

Some survivors said people had to break windows to swim to the surface. "We thought we were going to die. Everyone was trapped inside," said a middle-aged woman.

HongKong Electric, a unit of Power Assets Holdings which is controlled by Asia's richest man Li, said the boat had capacity to hold up to 200 people.

The tragedy was the worst to hit Hong Kong since 1996 when more than 40 people died in a fire in a commercial building.

The other ship, owned by Hong Kong and Kowloon Ferry Holdings, suffered a badly damaged bow in the collision but made it safely to the pier on Lamma, an island popular with tourists and expatriates about a half-hour boat ride from Hong Kong.

Several of its roughly 100 passengers and crew were taken to hospital with injuries.

"After the accident, it was all chaos and people were crying. Then water began seeping in and the vessel began to tilt to one side and people were all told to stand on the other side and everyone started putting on life jackets," a male passenger who was on the Lamma ferry told reporters.

SEARCH FOR SURVIVORS CONTINUES

Hong Kong is one of the world's busiest shipping channels, although serious marine accidents are rare.

The waters around Hong Kong were busy on Monday with numerous passenger ferries, private leisure boats and fishing vessels out to watch the city's fireworks, but it is unclear why the two ferries collided.

"Our ferry left Lamma island at 8.15 pm to watch the fireworks display out at sea, but within a few minutes, a tugboat (ferry) smashed into our vessel," Yuen Sui-see, a director for Hongkong Electric, one of the city's two main electricity generators, told reporters.

A spokeswoman for Hong Kong and Kowloon Ferry said they were assessing what had happened.

"Our captain is not well and we have not been able to talk to him so far," the spokeswoman told local television.

A maritime department spokesman told reporters: "Normally vessels ought to stay and help other vessels in distress. But what we heard was that the other ship had passengers who were injured and needed help."

The nighttime collision sparked a major rescue operation involving dive teams, helicopters and boats that saw scores of people plucked from the sea.

Television pictures showed the red and blue bow of the Hong Kong Electric Company ferry pointing skywards, surrounded by rescue vessels. By Tuesday a large crane on a barge had been connected to the stricken ferry.

"We will continue our search. We also don't rule out that some may have swam to shore themselves and haven't contacted their families and so may not be accounted for," Ng Kuen-chi, acting deputy director of fire services told local television.

The search was hampered by the vessel being partly sunken, poor visibility and too much clutter inside the vessel, Ng said.

Teams of men in white coats, green rubber gloves and yellow helmets carried corpses off a police launch in body bags on Tuesday. Local media reported that children were among the dead.

At one of the city's public mortuaries around 50 grieving relatives gathered, some crying, while others were called into identify the dead.

More than 100 people were sent to five hospitals and nine people suffered serious injuries or remain in critical condition, the government said in a statement.

Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying visited survivors of the collision and pledged a thorough investigation into the crash.

Flags flew at half mast at Li's Cheung Kong Group headquarters in the heart of the city's financial district on Tuesday, as well as at government headquarters.

Thousands of Hong Kong residents live on outlying islands such as Lamma, which lies about three km (two miles) southwest of Hong Kong island.

God bless the souls and their families.

Scandal-hit ex-BMF chairman Lorrain Esme Osman dies in London

Lorrain Esme Osman who was involved in the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) financial scandal in the 1980s, died of cancer in London on Monday, 8th August 2011.

The 79-year-old former BMF chairman had been living in the English capital quietly after serving time for his involvement in the scandal, which saw the financial institution losing about RM 2.5 billion.

He moved to London after the scandal shook the nation in the 1980s.

Cambridge-educated Lorrain Esme, a lawyer by profession, had helped to set up Bank Bumiputra Malaysia Berhad (BBMB) in the mid-60s and BMF was a subsidiary of the bank.

Lorrain’s downfall came after a Malaysian-owned company based in Hong Kong, the Carrian Group, went into liquidation.

The company, which was formed by George Tan Soon Gin, had expended tremendously in a short span of time with assets across the globe but it crashed in 1982.

In Malaysia, BMF directors were held personally responsible and Lorrain was alleged to have accepted bribes for the approval of loans to Carrian Group.

Lorrain and other BMF directors resigned soon after and he was arrested in London in December 1985.

What followed subsequently was a tedious and lengthy drama with the former BMF director going to the European Commission of Human Rights to fight his extradition to Hong Kong while being in custody in London.

Lorrain was freed from a Hong Kong jail in 1993 after serving a year’s jail.

Meanwhile In GEORGE TOWN, Penang, former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hazmah extended his condolences to Lorrain’s family.

Razaleigh was Finance Minister during the height of the BMF scandal.

Kes Hello Kitty murder pernah gemparkan Hong Kong pada Mac 1999

Hong Kong adalah kota metropolitan bekas jajahan British, kini mempunyai Wilayah Pentadbiran sendiri.






Hello Kitty adalah karakter cute ciptaan Jepun yang popular di seluruh dunia khususnya di kalangan remaja dan kanak2.

Namun pada Mac 1999 kes Hello Kitty murder pernah menggemparkan Hong Kong apabila 3 gangster menculik, mendera dan membunuh seorang pelayan kelab malam, Fan Man-yee, 23 tahun hanya kerana gagal bayar hutang HK2,500.

Pada Disember 2000, 3 gengster itu dikenali Chan Man-lok, 34; Leung Shing-cho, 27; dan Leung Wai-lun, 21, telah dihukum penjara sepanjang hayat.

Ketika menjatuhkan hukuman, hakim Mahkamah Hong Kong, Peter Nguyen berkata kes sebegini kejam belum pernah didengar di Hong Kong sejak sekian lama.

Kes ini mendapat jolokan Hello Kitty murder case kerana mayat mangsa dikerat kerat dan kepalanya dimasukkan dalam beg Hello Kitty.

Bagaimana kes ini diketahui polis??? Setelah remaja perempuan berusia 14 tahun kawan gangster itu tiap tiap malam dihantui roh mangsa Fan Man-yee.

Dia tidak tahan lalu tampil kepada Polis Hong Kong...

Semoga Tuhan memberkati roh Fan Man-yee.

Rest in Peace.

The Hello Kitty Murder that shocked Hong Kong in March 1999

Hello Kitty is a globally famous and cute fictional character produced by a Japanese company Sanrio, first designed by Yuko Shimizu in 1974.

The character is portrayed as a female white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow and became hugely and immensely popular among children and youngsters particularly female, not only in Japan but also Asia and all over the world including the United States of America.

Sanrio earned over USD $1 billion annually in sales outside of Japan, as of 2003.

It has a cult-like following around the globe where Hello Kitty adorns cars, purses, jewelry, dolls, stickers, greeting cards, clothes, accessories, school supplies, dishes and home appliances and many other high-end consumers products.



So popular that Hello Kitty once jolted Hong Kong. Why?

This is because on 6 December 2000, three vicious and heartless men were sentenced to life imprisonment by a Hong Kong court for abducting and torturing a nightclub hostess for a month in March 1999, before murdering her and cutting up her body and stuffing her skull into a Hello Kitty doll.

Thus, earning the infamous nickname, The Hello Kitty murder.

This is one of the most gruesome cases in the history of Hong Kong.

Before sentencing, Justice Peter Nguyen said that never had a Hong Kong court heard evidence of such ''cruelty, brutality, depravity, callousness, violence and viciousness'' committed by ''a human being on another human being.''

The court was told that the 3 men, Chan Man-lok, 34, Leung Shing-cho, 27, and Leung Wai-lun, 21, kidnapped Fan Man-yee, 23, in March 1999 and tortured her for a month in a flat in Tsim Sha Tsui, a shopping district in Hong Kong, apparently over a debt dispute.

Fan was beaten and tortured daily by the three, who are all triad members, the court heard.

After the woman's death, the gang was said to have spent hours dismembering and then boiling down her body.

They hid her skull in a giant-sized Hello Kitty mermaid doll and discarded most other body parts.

Only the woman's skull, one tooth and some internal organs have been recovered and the exact cause of her death has not been established, the court heard.

The killing was exposed after the 14-year-old girlfriend of one of three men reported the case to police in May 1999, 2 months after the gruesome crime was committed.

She said she was frequently haunted by Fan's ghost...!!!!!

Apparently the young girl took part in the daily beatings of poor Fan but was not involved in killing her. She became the prosecution's main witness during the 6 week trial of the Hello Kitty murder.

God bless Fan Man-yee, Rest in Peace.

Anita Mui - we always remember you....

Hong Kong icon, Anita Mui left us almost 6 years ago, on the 30th of December 2003.

She lost her battle with cervical cancer and died at the age of 40.

But her legacy continues...

In early September 2003, after Mui made the public announcement that she had cervical cancer, and knowing that she would not make it past the illness, she had a final series of shows entitled the "Anita Classics Moments Live Concert".

It was held to say Goodbye to all her fans....

The series consisted of 8 shows held at the Hong Kong Coliseum in 2003. It was her last concerts before her death.

Her final symbolic act was to "marry the stage", which was accompanied by her hit "Sunset Melody" as she exited the stage for the final time.

Her very last song performed on stage was "Cherish When We Meet Again, rendition of The Manhattans' "Let's Just Kiss And Say Goodbye".

Mui eventually lost her battle to cervical cancer and died of respiratory complications leading to a lung failure at Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital on 30 December 2003 at 02:50 (HK local time).

Thousands of fans turned out for her funeral in North Point in January 2004.

She was known for her deep haunting voice and extravagant & energetic performance on stage...

We miss you Anita Mui, rest in peace........

close to 470,000 views on youtube!!!!! - video of hysterical woman who missed flight in Hong Kong

A VIDEO of a hysterical passenger screaming at airline staff and writhing on the floor after missing a flight to San Francisco at Hong Kong airport has become a sensational YouTube hit.

By Monday, the 3-minute clip of the furious woman had racked up close to 470,000 hits in 4 days on the video-sharing site.

The video, posted by jackal 575 recorded 465,726 views as at 5 pm Monday 16 February.

The video starts with the screaming woman running towards the departure gate and bouncing off a female security guard, after she learned that her flight is about to take off without her....!!!!!

She then started banging a desk before collapsing to the floor and rolling around, while maintaining a high-pitched wail. A man unsuccessfully tries to comfort her and get her off the floor, but the shrill screaming continues.

The footage, entitled 'A woman missed her flight at the boarding gate HKIA' appears to have been shot with a mobile phone from behind the staff desk. The woman was travelling on a Cathay Pacific flight to San Francisco on February 4, a Cathay spokesman told AFP.



Coincidently, Malaysia's opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also missed his flight to Kuala Lumpur today from Doha, Qatar.

Therefore he was unable to attend the opening of the parliament session by the Malaysian King.

Full report by Bernama here.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 (Bernama) -- Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has not attended the opening of parliament session today as he missed his flight from Doha, Qatar, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said today.

"That is what he told me personally," Mohamed Nazri said when asked on Anwar's absence at the opening of the session by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) vice-president Mohamed Azmin Ali said the party had written official letters to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker and also to the Private Secretary to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong explaining Anwar's absence.

Mohamed Azmin said Anwar would return this afternoon.