Hong Kong - The head of HSBC bank in Asia Thursday warned of the dangers of "financial nationalism" by banks because of the recent crop of stimulus packages by governments worldwide.

Sandy Flockhart, chief executive officer for the bank's Asia-Pacific banking operations, also warned of bail-out funds being swallowed up by "fringe projects."

Hong Kong  - A passenger arriving at Hong Kong International Airport from Thailand was arrested with 46 rare animals including tortoises and hedgehogs in his luggage, officials said Wednesday.

The Hong Kong resident was caught with two highly endangered Angonoka tortoises, 21 hedgehogs and 23 sugar gliders - small marsupials from Australia which are popular as pets.

Hong Kong  - A 17-year-old Hong Kong youth was being treated in hospital Wednesday after losing most of his left hand when a home-made bomb went off in his high-rise apartment.

Hundreds of people were evacuated when the block of flats in Hong Kong's Yuen Long district was rocked by a powerful explosion that went off at around 10.30 pm (1430 GMT) on Tuesday, a police spokesman said.

Taipei  - Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, after successfully launching a newspaper and a magazine in Taiwan, will soon launch his television channel in Taiwan, Jimmy Lai's Apple Daily said Tuesday.

The Apple Daily said Jimmy Lai has appointed King Pu-tsung, a former Taiwan journalism professor and former deputy Taipei mayor, as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the TV channel.

Hong Kong  - The wife of a wealthy American investment banker Tuesday won the right to appeal her life sentence for killing her husband in the so-called "milkshake murder" case.

Nancy Kissel, 44, drugged husband Robert, a senior Merrill Lynch banker, with a strawberry milkshake then killed him by smashing him over the head with a statuette in their luxury Hong Kong apartment in 2003.

Hong Kong  - Three illegal immigrants from China have been found dead in waters off Hong Kong after they apparently tried to swim to the wealthy former British colony, a news report said Tuesday.

The bodies were found in separate locations on Saturday and Monday and the victims are believed to have come from southern China, where tens of thousands of people have been made jobless by factory closures.