Hong Kong - A Hong Kong police detective was Tuesday beginning a seven-year jail term after being convicted of raping an 18-year-old girl.

Crime squad officer Choi Chai-him, 33, met the teenager over the internet and lured her to his home with the promise of downloading games onto her portable PlayStation games console.

The court was told the married policeman began molesting her and when she resisted, took her to his bedroom and raped her, Hong Kong's High Court was told.

Hong Kong - Police in Hong Kong were investigating Monday whether an alleged assault by the wife of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe during a shopping trip was captured on video.

Investigators were told that Grace Mugabe allegedly repeatedly punched a newspaper photographer in the street took beneath a security camera on the side of a shopping centre.

Hong Kong  - More than 60,000 new jobs will be created by the Hong Kong government in 2009 to offset the effects of the global financial crisis, the territory's leader announced Monday.

Speaking at the opening of a financial forum in the city of 6.9 million, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang said the government had speeded up infrastructure projects to provide the new jobs.

Hong Kong  - A record 8.62 million people are expected to come in and out of Hong Kong during the Chinese New Year holiday starting at the end of this week, immigration officials said Monday.

The predicted total would be 8 per cent more than during the same period last year and would set a new record for travel numbers in and out of the former British colony at a Chinese New Year.

Around 3.2 million of the people are expected to travel between Hong Kong and China using the land border crossings which are among the world's busiest.

Hong Kong  - The Hong Kong branch of the international language school Linguagphone has filed for liquidation as bankruptcies soar in the former British colony, official statistics showed Saturday.

The local holder of the Linguaphone licence posted a notice on its website this week announcing it had ceased operating and asking students and those who had bought self-learning packages to contact an appointed provisional liquidator.

Hong Kong  - Cathay Pacific Airways on Friday announced it was putting a 4.8-billion-Hong-Kong-dollar (620-million-US-dollar) project for a new Hong Kong cargo terminal on hold because of the economic downturn which has hit profits, cargo and passenger numbers.

A spokesman said that the Hong Kong Airport Authority had agreed to let its subsidiary company Cathay Pacific Services Ltd defer the completion of the new terminal by two years to mid-2013.