Briefs | Nine proposals to develop central library

The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) received nine proposals to develop the city’s new central library yesterday, just as the deadline for their submission expired, reported public broadcaster TDM. The IC plans to reveal the details of the proposals later today. The project is to be developed on the site of the Old Court Building and former Judiciary Police headquarters. It has come under fire several times in recent years from lawmakers and political commentators who disagree with its proposed location and budget.

Property price index up 5.4 percent

The overall residential property price index increased by 5.4 percent to 265.0 between March and May this year, compared with the previous period (February to April 2018), according to the Statistics and Census Service. The indexes for the Macau Peninsula (266.7) and Taipa and Coloane (257.0) rose by 6 percent and 2.3 percent respectively. The index for existing residential units (285.2) went up by 3.4 percent, while the index for pre-sale residential units (274.3) increased by 9.2 percent. Analyzed by year of building completion, the indexes for residential units built more than 20 years ago and those built in 5 years or less rose by 3.7 percent and 1.5 percent respectively. In comparison with the period between March to May 2017, the overall residential property price index increased by 8.7 percent.

Nine-year-old told to smuggle smartphones

A 9-year-old boy from Hong Kong was told by his mother to smuggle 40 smartphones to Zhuhai from Macau via the Gongbei border checkpoint last week but was stopped by mainland customs officers, public broadcaster TDM has reported. According to the report, the boy was walking alone through the “nothing to declare” channel in Zhuhai, where he drew customs officers’ attention. After the customs officers checked the boy, they found the 40 smartphones hidden around his waist and in his backpack. The boy admitted that he had been instructed by his mother to carry the mobile phones through the checkpoint. The boy informed the officers of his mother’s mobile phone number, and she agreed to meet them and her son. The report did not say whether she was arrested.

Plans to provide drinking fountains in gardens

The Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) is considering installing drinking fountains in public gardens. In a response to lawmaker Lei Cheng I’s written inquiry, the IACM noted that installing room temperature drinking fountains in gardens and recreational areas has been considered for a trial period. In the future, the range of such installations might be expanded on the basis of the trial period’s results. The Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) also reported that the SAR government is researching how to reduce the use of plastic bottles in public activities.

Requests for problem gambling assistance expected to rise

The Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) expects the number of requests for assistance with gambling problems to increase after the World Cup ends in Russia.  Head of Problem Gambling Prevention and Treatment Division of IAS, Wu I Mui, said that some people would realize they have a gambling addiction after gambling during the tournament. Past experiences also show an increase in the number of requests for help after each game. The IAS has already launched a pre-education campaign to inform residents about gambling addictions during the World Cup. Recently,the  IAS also organized an event attended by 80,000 people, hoping to instill good values in young people regarding sports activities.

Taiwan flights canceled ahead of typhoon

Commercial airline Air Macau has announced that several Taiwan flights have been cancelled today and tomorrow due to the approach of Typhoon Maria.

The canceled flights tomorrow are NX618 and NX620 from Macau and bound for Taipei, as well as the Taipei-Macau flight NX615. The Taipei-Macau flight NX619 scheduled for tomorrow has also been canceled. The company says that passengers booked on the above flights may re-book or refund the tickets. Air Macau will waive re-booking and refund fees for the tickets of the affected flights.

Taxi complaints hotline recorded 114 cases in a week

The dedicated hotline for taxi infraction-related complaints launched on June 29, recorded a total of 114 complaints between July 1 and July 8, the Public Security Police Force revealed yesterday. The 114 calls received were mostly related to cases where drivers overcharged or denied transport to passengers. The police also noted that the line should only be used to report taxi infractions, and that in cases where drivers’ behavior is criminal, such as threats and locking passengers inside the vehicle, passengers can and should use any of the emergency lines including 999, 110 and 112 to connect directly to the authorities.

UM professor’s joint paper receives award

Shu Lianjie, a professor of decision science from the University of Macau’s (UM) Fculty of Business and Administration, has received the Best Application Paper Award in the IISE Transactions Focus Issue on Quality and Reliability Engineering for 2018. His paper, titled ‘A False Discovery Approach for Scanning Spatial Disease Clusters with Arbitrary Shapes’, is co-authored by Professor Li Yanting from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Professor Tsung Fugee from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Identifying unusual events that are spatially scattered is a challenging problem commonly seen in a large variety of applications. Aimed at automatically and simultaneously detecting multiple clusters of any shapes, this paper explores the false discovery approach that originated from multiple hypothesis tests.