In today's coals to Newcastle file, The Standard reports that Hong Kong's finest are sharing the valuable head-kicking lessons learnt during the WTO conference with the one group of people you'd think wouldn't need the help at all...China's police:

Hong Kong police are sharing their crime fighting and crowd control skills with their mainland counterparts in an effort to ensure harmony in a country where public demonstrations and police-civilian clashes are on the rise, Police Commissioner Dick Lee said. In a speech to the Lion's Club Thursday, Lee disclosed that 100 junior police staffers were recently sent to Chinese People's Public Security University in Beijing and other law enforcement agencies and police training schools throughout the mainland.

In addition to sharing the experiences they faced during December's World Trade Organization demonstrations and the 2004 tsunami relief efforts, the Hong Kong cops also received some training and observed their mainland counterparts on the job.