Ordinary Gweilo

I found this in the ‘In Brief’ section of today’s SCMP:

Wasps sting six hikers

Six hikers from two separate groups were attacked by wasps in Tai Lam Country Park yesterday. They were stung on their heads and hands. Police said a group of three men and two women were hiking near Ho Pui Reservoir at about noon when the wasps suddenly appeared and stung them. At the same time, a group of nine hikers were also attacked by wasps.

People being stung by wasps?  Can anyone tell me why the police need to get involved?   Or why the SCMP might think it a newsworthy event?

Maybe they were illegal immigrant bees from the Mainland.  Coming over here, stinging our hikers…

And yesterday the lead story in the Sunday Morning Post was about a Korean child who had been adopted at the age of 4 months and then brought to Hong Kong.  Last year, when the child was 7, the adoptive parents decided to hand her over to social workers because it hadn’t worked out.  Yes, that’s right, this all happened last year.   

It’s a moderately interesting human interest story, but I’m sure this can’t be the only example of a child who has been adopted and then “handed back” by the adoptive parents.  So what makes something that happened at least a year ago into a front-page story?  

And, yes, this is another ‘Barclay Crawford’ investigation. 

Update: the story seems to have been picked up by other news outlets, who have named the diplomat involved (he turns out to be Dutch).  This gives the SCMP an excuse to run a follow-up story, though there is no new information except for the name of the diplomat and a photograph of him and his wife.