These are some of the leading stories in Hong Kong newspapers on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
_0">SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
-- More foreign carmakers are expected to cut prices under pressure from anti-monopoly investigations by mainland regulators, with market forces expected to play a bigger role in pricing as competition intensifies. (bit.ly/WVgkFg)
-- Seven patients who underwent medical procedures in Hong Kong in the first quarter of the year had surgical objects left inside their bodies, the most since 2010, according to new figures revealed by the Hospital Authority. The items included a 12 cm drainage tube left in a patient's abdomen and a 4.5 cm catheter tip left in a kidney. (bit.ly/1tIsQFw)
-- The stock through train has already helped boost turnover and profitability at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, according to brokers. HKEx, which will report its results on Wednesday, is expected to chalk up profit growth of 5 to 10 percent for the first half of this year. (bit.ly/1sjchNA)
THE STANDARD
-- A 1 percent cut in government spending is not intended to "turn off the water taps" but just slow the rapid rise in spending to ward off a projected fiscal cliff, the financial secretary said. John Tsang Chun-wah confirmed that the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau issued letters to all government departments to announce the 1 percent cut across all departments from 2016 to 2018. (bit.ly/1udhXcc)
-- More young Hongkongers will be going to Germany this year for a working holiday as the quota has been doubled, according to Labour Department. (bit.ly/1uZ9ayJ)
-- McDonald's Hong Kong is putting the original Big Mac back on the menu with the familiar patty, lettuce and onion for just HK$10. The fast food giant is banking on Hongkongers' short memories to start "lovin" Big Mac and three other big-sellers from Monday, two weeks after being embroiled in the Shanghai contaminated food scandal. (bit.ly/1s2kIf5)
HONG KONG ECONOMIC JOURNAL
-- China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd, which is due to release interim earnings on Thursday, is expected to post a profit of between 6.71 billion and 7.07 billion yuan ($1.14 billion), up 26.1 percent to 32.9 percent from the first half in the previous year. Second-quarter profit is seen ranging from 3.41 billion to 3.77 billion yuan.
HONG KONG ECONOMIC TIMES
-- China Merchants Land Ltd said it would buy from its controlling parent a 49 percent stake in real estate firm Merchants Property Development (Guangzhou) Ltd for 1.21 billion yuan ($195.81 million) cash.
For Chinese newspapers, see............... ($1 = 6.1794 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Sunil Nair)