Hong Kong’s tabloid newspaper The Standard has been loudly playing up the fact that its circulation is now double that of its only real competitor, the South China Morning Post. Of course, the fact that the SCMP charges for the paper and TS is free would account for a big part of the reason. But I suspect that TS’s tabloid approach is also paying off.

Here’s a story from today, one of those tales that impacts no one’s life except those involved and their immediate family. This is the full article as posted in the SCMP:

A Hong Kong man appeared in the Kowloon City Magistrate’s Court on Friday charged with the murder of 16-year-old Wong Ka-mui.

Transport worker Ting Kai-tai, 24, appeared in the court charged with killing the girl – who earlier this year had been attending secondary school. The man has been remanded in police custody and the case has been adjourned to May 15.

Another man – arrested in connection with the murder – has been released on bail pending further inquiries.

Police officers are continuing to investigate the case.

Early this year, Wong Ka-mui had been a top secondary school student.

She had been living in Tai Po with her mother, step-father and a sister, before the 16-year-old decided to leave school in January.

Zzzzzzzz. So boring, why bother to even print it. To find out, let’s see just some excerpts from The Standard’s coverage, starting with the lead paragraph:

Police have charged a transportation worker with the murder of Wong Ka- mui, 16, whose body was reportedly dismembered and her parts flushed down the toilet and others dumped at sea.

Whoa! Body dismembered and flushed down the toilet! How did the SCMP miss that? The Standard also has a photo of the victim, taken from her blog. And there’s more:

According to a police source, Ting had used the internet to hire a prostitute.

When Wong arrived at his subleased flat on the second floor of Yan Fat Building on Shek Kip Mei Street, they both took ketamine.

The police said Ting had confessed to killing Wong when they were both high on ketamine and after Wong had expressed a desire to die.

16 year old hooker! Drugs! And even more:

Ting then allegedly chopped off her head and limbs and stripped off the flesh, some of which was flushed down the toilet and the rest dumped at Shek Kip Mei market.

The girl’s head and limbs were allegedly weighted with bricks and thrown off Kowloon City Pier.

Holy crap. This guy Ting is clearly a monster. What punishment could possibly fit this crime?

Aside from that, you know the Chinese newspapers probably went into even greater detail on this. An earlier article in the SCMP did have the photo and a mention of prostitution and that the police feared her body may have been dismembered. But all of that disappeared from their latest update. Why?

And the SCMP seems to have missed this one in its entirety, something of particular interest to Fumier and other avid Hong Kong motorists.

In a landmark ruling, a magistrate yesterday branded the Road Traffic Ordinance requiring the owner of a car to disclose the name of the driver involved in a traffic violation as both draconian and a breach of a persons right to silence.

The way it works is there are traffic cameras, some hooked up to radar guns, they take a picture and then mail you something (I’ve never gotten one, by the way) and they then order you to tell them who was behind the wheel at the time.

So when this happened to journalist Richard Latker, he refused to provide the information. He said it was a violation of the very basic right of freedom against self-incrimination. And the judge agreed.

Another headline in TS today: Hu in Charm Offensive. I agree, I find Hu quite offensive.

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What’s even more unspeakably offensive is the military junta that is ruling Myanmar. With 22,000 confirmed dead, up to 100,000 dead and who knows how many injured and homeless, the generals are not allowing any foreign relief workers into the country and have been seizing all shipments of food and relief equipment. As reported in the New York Times:

“The frustration caused by what appears to be a paperwork delay is unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts,” said the official, Paul Risley, a spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program, in Bangkok. “It’s astonishing.”

Who will rid me of these meddlesome generals?

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Not quite as offensive but still way up there would be U.S. Republican presidential candidate John “Boom Boom” McCain. At the end of April, McCain showed that there were no depths too low when it comes to his slavering thirst for power. In an interview session, the “man” actually said, “I think it’s very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States.” If he’s sinking to the sewer level now, what subterranean depths will he plunge as the election gets closer?

And now that despite a firsthand account (corroborated by two witnesses) that at a dinner party McCain confessed that he did not vote for George Bush in the 2000 election, rather than ‘fess up to it, McCain is allowing his attack dogs to make personal attacks on the writer who went public with this.

And, oh yeah, McCain’s wife has said that come hell or high water, no way she’s ever going to release her income taxes for public scrutiny. Wonder what she’s hiding.

Here’s what the NY Times recently had to say about Mr. Straight Talk: Senator John McCain is shaping up as Bush the Sequel — neverending war in Iraq, tax cuts for the rich while the middle class struggles, courts packed with right-wing activists intent on undoing decades of progress in civil rights, civil liberties and other vital areas.

Republicans. Scum and scummier.