Three charities have been issued Public Subscription Permits to hold flag sales from 7am to 12.30pm today (June 29). They are, on Hong Kong Island, Suicide Prevention Services Limited; in Kowloon, Light and Love Home Limited; and in the New Territories, Tai Po Baptist Church, a spokesman for the Social Welfare Department (SWD) said.

     Arrangements have been made with the charities to help people distinguish between the three flag-selling activities.

     Information on the three flag-selling organisations on June 29 is as follows:
 

     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).
 
     In the case of suspected fraudulent flag day activities, people should not make any donation and should immediately report the matter to the Police, the spokesman added.

     â€‹Hong Kong Customs seized about 1 kilogram of suspected ketamine with an estimated market value of about $540,000 at Hong Kong International Airport on June 20.

     Customs officers inspected a postal parcel arriving in Hong Kong from Malaysia on June 20 and seized the batch of suspected ketamine inside the parcel.

     After follow-up investigation, Customs officers today (June 28) arrested a 24-year-old man in Tuen Mun suspected to be in connection with the case.

     The man has been charged with one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug. He will appear at West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts tomorrow (June 29).

     Customs will maintain close contact with Hongkong Post and the logistics industries to step up action against drug trafficking through postal parcel and express courier channels.

     Under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, trafficking in a dangerous drug is a serious offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $5 million and life imprisonment.

     Members of the public may report any suspected drug trafficking activities to Customs' 24-hour hotline 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).

    

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Development, Mr Michael Wong, at the question-and-answer session of the media session today (June 28) on the quarterly land sale programme for July to September 2019:
 
Reporter: Mr Wong, are you concerned that the recent unstable social and political environment may affect the government’s land sale, like maybe more cancel of sale like the one in Kai Tak? And, how confident are you that you can meet the supply target for the whole year?
 
Secretary for Development: If you look at the site (in Kai Tak of which the tender awarded) this week, the land price is around $18,000 per square foot. Some commentators said it is different from the land price of a previous site we sold a month’s back, that stood at some $19,000 per square foot. But if you take a longer-term view, and you look at a piece of land, also in the same adjacent area, it actually fetched a price of $17,000 per square foot. So our observation is that property prices, especially for residential housing, have stayed quite stable in 2019. So it is not our assessment that the coming residential market will be unduly affected by the social sentiment recently.
 
Reporter: Are you confident that you can meet the supply target for the whole year?
 
Secretary for Development: A key element in our supply package is the amount of units to be delivered through private redevelopment. We have always explained that it is an element over which the government does not have that much control. If you look at the figures of this financial year, for the first two quarters, some 1,170 flats have come from this source. That is actually better than the figure of the (first half of the) last financial year, which stood at close to 1,100 flats. If this trend can continue in the third and fourth quarter of this financial year, we are confident that we will be able to meet the target. But of course, there always remains some degree of uncertainties.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

     The Assistant Commissioner of Police (Support), Ms Rebecca Lam Hiu-tong, met with the Director (Quality and Safety) of the Hospital Authority (HA), Dr K L Chung today (June 28) for candid and frank exchanges on how to enhance co-operation and communication. Both sides promised to strengthen co-operation in serving members of the public on the basis of mutual respect and understanding.   

     At the meeting, the Police referred to the HA a number of cases in which frontline police officers were being impolitely treated by medical staff at the accident and emergency department (A&E) of hospitals.   

     The HA also reflected to the Police the concerns of their frontline staff at work. Both sides agreed to address the concerns of frontline staff and take appropriate follow-up actions in a positive manner.

     Noting the recent cases were merely isolated incidents, both sides stressed that the long-established relationship between the Police and HA has worked well all along and it was their common goal to provide quality service to the public.

     In order to strengthen communication and cooperation, both sides are actively considering the setting up of a two-tier communication platform. At headquarters level, management of both parties will meet regularly to discuss on policy issues. At district level, police district which has hospital with A&E service will set up a liaison mechanism with the hospital concerned to enhance mutual trust and cooperation.

     The HA has reiterated the importance of setting up police post in hospital, acknowledging that the police officers stationed in police post can greatly assist the medical staff or public seeking medical treatment.

     The Police will continue to review the present arrangement temporarily carried out at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Yan Chai Hospital.

     The Registration and Electoral Office (REO) today (June 28) urged eligible persons who have not yet registered as electors to submit applications for new registration by the statutory deadline of July 2 so that their registration particulars can be included in the final register to be released in September this year, and they can vote in the District Council Ordinary Election to be held in November.
 
     Members of the public can submit completed application forms in different ways, such as by fax to 2891 1180; by email to form@reo.gov.hk; or submit in person during office hours to the REO at 10/F, Harbour Centre, 25 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong or at 13/F, Kowloonbay International Trade and Exhibition Centre, 1 Trademart Drive, Kowloon Bay, Kowloon.
 
     "The public should avoid sending an email to REO's email account attached with a large number of completed application forms as it may cause delivery failure because of the large file size," an REO spokesman said.
 
     The REO has received a large number of voter registration application emails recently. Due to a significant increase in traffic, the operation of the email account has been temporarily affected. The REO will closely monitor the situation and will speed up the processing of the voter registration application emails.
 
     Members of the public are advised to check, after sending their voter registration application through email, if they receive a confirmation email (as attached) automatically sent by the REO email server. Applicants are advised to resend the voter registration application email or apply through the other ways aforementioned if the confirmation email is not received. The REO will process the applications as long as the application forms reach REO office or REO server by the statutory deadline of July 2.
 
     Forms for voter registration can be obtained from the REO, the District Offices and management offices of public housing estates. They can also be downloaded from the voter registration website (www.voterregistration.gov.hk).
 
     For enquiries, please contact the REO hotline 2891 1001.