Hong Kong  - A former banker and his girlfriend have become the first people in Hong Kong to be jailed for insider share trading, a media report said Thursday.

Ma Hon-yeung, a former BNP Paribas vice president, was sent to prison for 26 months and fined 230,000 Hong Kong dollars (29,500 dollars), while his girlfriend, Ivy Lo was imprisoned for 12 months and fined 210,000 Hong Kong dollars, the South China Morning Post said.

Hong Kong  - Filipino migrant workers are planning to protest against Hong Kong journalist Chip Tsao who wrote a satirical article describing the Philippines as a "nation of servants," a migrants group said Wednesday.

Dolores Balladares, the chairwoman of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong, accused Tsao of being insincere even though the writer apologized several times and said he never intended to cause offence.

She said the protest would take place on Sunday.

Hong Kong  - A clerk at a law firm has been sentenced to four months in jail after blackmailing a colleague over nude pictures taken during their sexual affair, a media report said Wednesday.

Shek Wing-hung, 38, was found guilty of blackmail and criminal extortion after his victim paid 200,000 Hong Kong dollars (25,600 dollars) to prevent the pictures being made public, the Standard said.

In mitigation, Shek said that he had been emotionally overwhelmed at the time of the offence.

Hong Kong  - Consumer satisfaction in Hong Kong has dropped to a six-year low based on a survey of 68 goods and services, a Media report said Wednesday.

The report by City University of Hong Kong showed satisfaction among consumers had fallen to 69.1 per cent, and analysts said that could hit consumer spending in the coming months, the South China Morning Post said.

The survey, which is used as a performance indicator for Hong Kong business and involved more than 10,000 interviews, showed 64.3 per cent of people were least satisfied with private housing rentals.

ong Kong - Hong Kong's economy is expected to shrink by 2 per cent this year, compared with a 2.5-per-cent growth in 2008, the Asian Development Bank said Tuesday.

But the bank said the contraction will only be temporary with growth forecast to return in 2010, when it projects the economy to expand by 3 per cent.

The bank's acting chief economist, Lee Jong-wha, said measures taken by the territory's government including tax cuts and moves to boost infrastructure spending to combat the current downturn are pointing the economy in the right direction.

Hong Kong  - A man who strangled a woman and later told her family to pay a ransom for her safe return has been jailed for life after being found guilty of murder, a media report said Tuesday.

A judge sentenced So Kam-tong, 25, to life in prison for murdering Yau Hiu-yin, 21, after a jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict, the South China Morning Post said.

So also received a concurrent jail sentence of five years and four months after pleading guilty to blackmailing Yau's family.

The judge described the blackmail as cruel since So knew the woman was dead.