Hong Kong - A Hong Kong teenager who robbed seven prostitutes at knifepoint, in some cases after having had sex with them, was jailed for six years Thursday.

Li Ka-chun, 18, carried out a series of robberies in June 2008 in inner-city flats where the prostitutes worked by themselves.

He admitted seven robberies and was jailed at a hearing in Hong Kong's High Court Thursday by judge Gareth Lugar-Mawson who told him his crimes were very serious.

Hong Kong - A Hong Kong policeman on Thursday began a 28-month jail term for mugging a woman to get money to clear his gambling debts.

Leung Wai-hung, 44, snatched a 53-year-old woman's handbag in July, then kicked her as she lay on the ground as he tried to get money to pay off gambling debts of more than 50,000 US dollars.

Bizarrely, Leung is the third police officer in his family to be arrested for a serious crime, according to evidence presented Wednesday at his sentencing hearing in Hong Kong's District Court.

Leung's father, a former sergeant, was charged with murder after fatally shooting his chief inspector in 1994 but was acquitted after claiming the gun went off accidentally.

Hong Kong  - A humpback whale separated from a migrating group of the marine mammals was trying to find its way out of busy shipping lanes around Hong Kong, enthralling the former British colony.

The plight of the 10-metre adult whale made television and newspaper headlines in the normally money-obsessed city, providing a welcome distraction from a tide of bleak economic news.

Hong Kong - The trading in shares of Hong Kong telecomms giant PCCW was suspended at the company's request Wednesday.

It followed reports concerning the investigation into alleged vote-rigging in the company's 2-billion-US-dollar privatisation plan proposed by PCCW's controlling shareholders

A report in the South China Morning Post Wednesday said a court decision could be delayed, and quoted sources saying that the Securities and Futures Commission was investigating whether anyone had made false statements to the stock market or regulators.

Hong Kong - A Chinese illegal immigrant was found dead on the roof of a cross-border train travelling from China into Hong Kong, police said Wednesday.

Hong Kong police said the body of the 28-year-old man was discovered at around 10 am, after a passenger told officials at the Lo Wu border checkpoint in Hong Kong that he had seen someone lying on the top of a carriage.

The train was travelling from southern China through to Hung Hom in the Kowloon area of Hong Kong.

Wellington  - New Zealand Customs officers seized drugs worth millions of dollars on the illegal street market when they arrested three travellers from Hong Kong as they flew into Auckland over the weekend, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The three were carrying more than 15 kilograms of Contact NT, a pseudoephedrine-based cold remedy used to make methamphetamines, known as crystal ice or P, a spokesman said.