15 fined for smoking at bus stops in 7 days

Inspectors fined 15 people for smoking at bus stops in the first seven days since the toughened version of Macau’s anti-smoking law took effect on New Year’s Day, the Health Bureau (SSM) said in a statement yesterday.The Legislative Assembly (AL) passed the government-initiated Tobacco Prevention and Control Law’s amendment bill during a plenary session in July last year.The new version of the law bans smoking within a 10-metre-area of all bus stops and taxi ranks.A bus stops at a bus

January 9, 2018 | BY admin

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Delta bridge car park to have 5,143 spaces

The West Car Park of the border checkpoint of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge will have a capacity of 5,143 spaces, according to a regulation published in the Official Gazette (BO) yesterday.The parking spaces comprise 3,089 for cars and 2,054 for motorcycles and scooters.Various types of vehicles are barred from using the car park, such as vehicles for more than 9 seated passengers including the driver; vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonnes; vehicles with a height exceeding 2 metres;

January 9, 2018 | BY admin

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Delta bridge to open in Q2: report

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) will open in the second quarter this year, the quasi-official China Daily reported yesterday, quoting unnamed informed sources.Although the exact date has not been fixed, the bridge will start services officially around May to June, the sources told the newspaper.The final commissioning date will partially depend on the construction progress of port facilities in Zhuhai and Hong Kong, according to the sources. PLEASE READ THE FULL ARTICLE IN OUR PRINT

January 9, 2018 | BY admin

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Wong ‘deeply shocked’ by car driving straight through checkpoint

Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak was “deeply shocked” by an incident in which a man from the mainland managed to illegally cross the Macau side of the Cotai-Hengqin without going through immigration procedures late last month, the Secretariat for Security has said in a statement.The policy secretary said the incident reflected serious security “loopholes” at the city’s border checkpoints, as well as “insufficient” communication between local and mainland border protection

January 8, 2018 | BY admin

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Lawmaker finds lawyer for disobedience trial

Directly-elected lawmaker Sulu Sou Ka Hou and fellow non-establishment activist Scott Chiang Meng Hin have hired Jorge Menezes as their defence lawyer for their trial for alleged aggravated disobedience which is scheduled to start tomorrow, the New Macau Association (NMA) said in a statement yesterday.Sou and Chiang are members of the grassroots association which was established in 1992.Over the past few weeks, Sou had told local media repeatedly that he and Chiang were unable to hire a lawyer

January 8, 2018 | BY admin

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Diocese ‘disagrees’ with in vitro fertilisation

The government has started a public consultation on a bill that regulates in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and the local Roman Catholic Diocese yesterday held a signature campaign in front of the churches of Macau’s nine parishes against the use of assisted reproductive technology.It was reported by local Catholic weekly O Clarim (“The Bugle”) on Friday that the Diocesan Family, Marriage and Life Commission was of the view that the diocese “absolutely disagrees” with IVF.“Besides

January 8, 2018 | BY admin

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Flu virus ‘getting more active’: Health Bureau

The seasonal flu virus is “getting more active,” a statement by the Health Bureau (SSM) warned on Friday.According to the bureau, 152 flu cases were recorded in the first week of the year, a “significant increase” compared with the last week of 2017, when 89 cases were reported, and with the same period a year ago, when the number of reported cases stood at 43.The statement pointed out that four of last week’s cases were considered serious since they involved pneumonia, affecting one

January 8, 2018 | BY admin

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Insufficient support to developmental disorder kids: forum

Some guest speakers and several members of the audience at yesterday’s Macau Forum said that the government was failing to provide sufficient support to children with developmental disorders and their parents.The weekly open-air debate is hosted by government-owned broadcaster TDM in Areia Preta Park every Sunday.Guest speaker Warren Tai Wa Hou, who heads the government’s Paediatric Joint Assessment Centre, said that, on average, about six percent of Macau’s new-borns every year are

January 8, 2018 | BY admin

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Mercury forecast to fall to 6 degrees tomorrow

The local weather station forecast yesterday that the mercury will drop to as low as 6 degrees Celsius tomorrow, which would be the lowest temperature since the start of the new year.The Macau Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) said on its website yesterday that as an intense winter monsoon is expected to reach the South China cost today, northerly winds in Macau will intensify and the temperature will start to drop significantly.According to the prediction, there will be rain today

January 8, 2018 | BY admin

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PLA garrison gets new commander

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has appointed Liao Zhengrong as the commander of its local garrison, according to an order issued by President Xi Jinping, also chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the army’s local garrison said in a statement on Friday.Liao has succeeded Wang Wen who will return to the mainland for a post in the army, according to the statement.The Chief Executive Office (GCE) said in a statement on Friday that Chief Executive Chui Sai On had met Liao who

January 8, 2018 | BY admin

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Govt to amend storm surge, typhoon signals

Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) Director Raymond Tam Vai Man said yesterday his bureau will amend its system for the issuing of storm surge and tropical cyclone warning signals.Tam made the remarks yesterday when replying to oral interpellations by directly-elected lawmakers Ng Kuok Cheong and Ella Lei Cheng I during a plenary session of the legislature.According to the weather bureau’s website, there are currently three levels of storm surge warnings. The bureau issues the

January 5, 2018 | BY admin

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CE did not duck responsibility for Hato disaster: Wong

Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak said yesterday that Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On had never avoided responsibility for the disaster caused by deadly Super Typhoon Hato in August.Wong made the remarks when replying to oral interpellations by directly-elected lawmakers Ng Kuok Cheong and Ella Lei Cheng I during a plenary session of the legislature.In his interpellation, Ng said that the Committee for Responding to Unforeseen Incidents, which was established in 2012 and chaired by

January 5, 2018 | BY admin

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Investment firm says it’s optimistic ‘but headwinds remain’

The Guernsey-registered Macau Property Opportunities Fund (MPO) saw average rentals at The Waterside property grow by 6.4 percent between the third and fourth quarters to HK$19.85 per square foot per month, the StockMarketWire online business news service reported yesterday.Quoting an MPO statement, the report said the company was hopeful that Macau’s VIP gaming segment will recover further, which would facilitate the continued recovery of rental values and improve occupancy rates.The

January 5, 2018 | BY admin

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Airport handles record 7.1 million passengers in 2017

Macau’s single runway airport handled a record 7.16 million passengers last year, a year-on-year increase of 8 percent, the facility’s operator MIA said in a statement yesterday.According to the statement, the airport handled about 58,000 aircraft movements (takeoffs and touchdowns) last year, up 2.8 percent.The statement pointed out that last year’s passenger movement was the highest since the airport started operating 22 years ago, adding that last year’s number of passengers amounted

January 5, 2018 | BY admin

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