Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares dipped lower Thursday, losing more 3.3 per cent to a seven-week low on more worries over the worsening recession.

Hong Kong  - China is planning to present Hong Kong with a collection of endangered giant salamanders - despite the recent death of three rare sturgeon given to Hong Kong as gifts to mark the Olympic Games, a news report said Thursday.

A yet unknown number of the salamanders are to be offered to the city's Ocean Park recreation park as a way of increasing public awareness of the rare amphibian.

Hong Kong  - Hong Kong's tourism industry is gearing up for a disappointing Year of the Ox with visitor numbers dropping by about 500,000, officials said Thursday.

Around 29 million people are expected to visit Hong Kong in 2009, the Chinese Year of the Ox, according to estimates by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

This would be a drop of 1.6 per cent from the 2008 figure of 29.5 million. Longhaul travellers will account for a large proportion of the fall, offsetting a predicted 4-per-cent rise in the number of visitors from mainland China.

Hong Kong - The Hong Kong pop star at the centre of a sex photos scandal is to testify against the man accused of downloading pictures from his computer in Canada, a news report said Wednesday.

Edison Chen, 28, has refused to return to Hong Kong for court proceedings surrounding the pictures showing him with a string of naked young starlets that circulated on the internet early last year.

Hong Kong  - A Hong Kong woman who slapped her Indonesian maid across the face for getting up five minutes late has been fined 2,000 Hong Kong dollars (256 US dollars), a court report said Wednesday.

Housewife Lok Hung-tan, 29, claimed she was depressed and sick with a kidney disease when she accused her 25-year-old employee called Yanti of being late last December.

She fined her 12 US dollars and when the maid objected slapped her face, causing abrasions to her lip, said the report in the South China Morning Post.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares fell to their lowest level in more than a month Tuesday, shedding more than 2 per cent after overnight losses on Wall Street.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell by 302.95 points, or 2.17 per cent, to end the day at 13,668.05. Turnover was 47.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (6.08 billion US dollars.)

Tuesday's losses continued a losing streak that began with a 3.37 per cent fall last Wednesday and on Monday saw the index fall back through the 14,000 points barrier.