Attention TV/radio announcers:

Please broadcast the following as soon as possible:

Here is an item of interest to swimmers.

     The Leisure and Cultural Services Department announced today (April 13) that due to big waves, red flag has been hoisted at Silverstrand Beach in Sai Kung District. Beach-goers are advised not to swim at the beach.

Attention TV/radio announcers:

Please broadcast the following as soon as possible and repeat it at regular intervals:

     Here is an item of interest to swimmers.

     The Leisure and Cultural Services Department announced today (April 13) that Tai Wan Shan Swimming Pool in Kowloon City District has been reopened. The swimming pool was temporarily closed earlier due to power failure.

     Christian & Missionary Alliance Church Union Hong Kong Limited has been issued a Public Subscription Permit to hold a territory-wide flag sale from 7am to 12.30pm today (April 13), a spokesman for the Social Welfare Department (SWD) said. 

     For enquiries, please call the SWD's hotline at 2343 2255, or the designated hotline of the 1823 Call Centre at 3142 2678. Information on flag days is available at the SWD's website (www.swd.gov.hk/en/index/site_whatsnew) and the GovHK portal (www.gov.hk/en/theme/fundraising/search). Permits for flag days containing contact information of the flag-selling organisations and information on the approved flag-selling activities have also been uploaded to the SWD's website (www.swd.gov.hk/en/index/site_pubsvc/page_controlofc/sub_recentlyap). For enquiries about the detailed flag-selling arrangements, please contact the individual flag-selling organisations.

     Details of the charitable fund-raising activities covered by the Public Subscription Permit issued by the SWD have also been uploaded to the GovHK website (www.gov.hk/fundraising).

     If any flag day activity is suspected to be fraudulent, people should not make any donation and should immediately report the matter to the Police, the spokesman added.

     The Secretary for Justice, Ms Teresa Cheng, SC, today (April 12, Paris time) continued her itinerary in Paris, France and also visited Luxembourg to promote Hong Kong as a deal-making and dispute resolution services centre. She also met with leading figures in various sectors to explore opportunities of collaboration on the legal side.

     Ms Cheng departed Paris for Luxembourg to visit the European Union Court of Justice in the morning, during which she met with Judge Christopher Vajda, Judge Bay Larsen and Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston. She said that the principle of "one country, two systems", the rule of law and the independence of the Judiciary have been upheld under the Basic Law since Hong Kong's return to the Motherland.

     Ms Cheng will then return to Paris to pay a courtesy call on the Chinese Ambassador to France, Mr Zhai Jun, in the evening. She will also attend the dinner hosted by the ambassador.

     Upon her arrival in Paris yesterday morning (April 11, Paris time), Ms Cheng met with members of National Assembly of France to give them an introduction of the work of the Department of Justice and Hong Kong’s legal and dispute resolution services.

     Ms Cheng also attended a business luncheon organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in which she delivered a speech on the safeguards and opportunities offered by Hong Kong legal services in the Belt and Road Region and the Greater Bay Area. She outlined the significance brought by the two development plans and highlighted the features of "one country, two systems" as well as Hong Kong's laws in relation to deal-making and dispute resolution services.

     In the afternoon, Ms Cheng attended a conference, co-organised by the Department of Justice and Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, on the promotion of Hong Kong's roles as deal maker and dispute resolver. Speaking at the conference, she stressed that Hong Kong has always been a strategic gateway for foreign businesses to tap in the Mainland Chinese market. On the other hand, Hong Kong is the springboard for Mainland companies, including the Chinese State-owned entities, to "go global". Hong Kong has rich experience in deal-making and dispute resolution for China-related businesses and it is the Hong Kong Government's long standing policy to support and strengthen our position as a leading hub for deal making and dispute resolution. Ms Cheng was glad to learn that the panel of experts in the conference acknowledged that the Arrangement Concerning Mutual Assistance in Court-ordered Interim Measures in Aid of Arbitral Proceedings by the Courts of the Mainland and of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region signed on April 2 has strengthened Hong Kong as a hub of legal and dispute resolution services centre.

     Following the conference, Ms Cheng joined a cocktail reception hosted by the Invest Hong Kong to meet with the legal and business sectors in Paris.

     Ms Cheng will continue her visit in Paris in the next two days and depart for The Hague in the afternoon on April 15 (Paris time).

                    

     Police today (April 12) laid a holding charge against a 37-year-old non-ethnic Chinese (NEC) man with one count of murder.

     The man was arrested on April 10 in suspected connection with a murder case happened in Kowloon City on the same day, in which his 40-year-old NEC wife died.

     The case will be mentioned at West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts tomorrow (April 13).