Hong Kong  - An illegal immigrant has died in hospital after being shot in the head at close range by a police officer in Hong Kong, police said Wednesday.

The unidentified man was shot on Tuesday as he attacked the constable in a city park with a wooden chair, after being challenged to produce his identity papers.

The officer, who had been called to the scene after complaints about the man from residents, used pepper spray and shouted warnings before opening fire on his attacker, police said.

Hong Kong  - A speech in Hong Kong by a campaigner for Tibetan self-determination was postponed after Beijing officials complained about the event, organizers said Wednesday.

Kate Saunders, communications director of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, was scheduled to speak at Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents Club Tuesday.

Officials from China's Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong contacted the club to let them know they were "unhappy" about the speech, the South China Morning Post reported.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong's poor are being victimised with a doubling of the tax on cigarettes despite the abolition of duty on wines, legislators claimed Tuesday.

A group of legislators is trying to overturn the recent doubling of taxes on cigarettes, saying it unfairly targets smokers, the majority of whom are poorer working people.

The League of Social Democrats party planned to put forward a motion opposing the tax rise at a legislature sitting Wednesday but postponed the vote until April 1.

Hong Kong - Unemployment in Hong Kong was expected to surge in the first half of this year to its highest level since the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, a survey released Tuesday predicted.

The survey by a human resources consultancy predicted the jobless rate in the former British colony would rise from its current 4.5 per cent to 7 per cent before the end of June.

Hong Kong  - An anticipated 500-million-US-dollar expansion of Hong Kong's struggling Disneyland theme park has been put on hold, a news report said Tuesday.

Disney has laid off 30 planners and halted all creative and design work on the expansion after learning the Hong Kong government had no timetable for the work, the South China Morning Post reported, citing unnamed sources.

Hong Kong  - Hong Kong shares surged by 3.6 per cent Monday to end a whisker below the 13,000 points mark on a fifth consecutive day of gains.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index gained 450.91 points to close at 12,976.71 points. Turnover was 46.7 billion Hong Kong dollars (6.02 billion US dollars.)

The surge in prices Monday brought the index's gains since the start of trading seven days ago to more than 1,000 points in the strongest rally for weeks.