Hong Kong  - Jelena Jankovic has cut her losses, withdrawing from a high-powered Hong Kong tuneup for the Australian Open on Saturday and flying straight to Melbourne suffering with the flu.

The Serb will now be well short on match practise for the Grand Slam which starts a week from Monday.

Jankovic said she had been ill for several days and had managed to play only one doubles match at Victoria Park in the World Team Challenge.

Hong Kong - Chinese concert pianist Liu Shih-kun was charged with assault in a Hong Kong court Friday following a scuffle with his wife at their piano school.

The 69-year-old internationally renowned musician was detained by police overnight after allegedly attacking his 47-year-old wife, leaving her with injuries to her head, back and arm, at the couple's Hong Kong piano school Thursday afternoon.

Liu appeared before the Hong Kong court unrepresented and wearing a dressing on his face to cover an injury.

He entered no plea and the case was adjourned until January 23.

Hong Kong - Up to 80 Hong Kong schools could be given the choice of switching back to teaching in English, eleven years after a "mother-tongue" policy ordered them to teach in Chinese, government officials confirmed Friday.

The proposal, submitted to lawmakers on Thursday, is aimed at improving English-language standards which have fallen since Hong Kong ceased to be a British colony in 1997.

It would, if approved, give a number of schools where a large proportion of pupils are high-achievers the choice of teaching students in English.

Other secondary schools would have the option of using English for one quarter of lessons.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong stocks fell more than 3 per cent for the second day running on worries over more sell-offs of Chinese banking stocks and new profit-warnings.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell by 571.5 points, or 3.8 per cent, to end the day at 14,415.91. Turnover was 55.5 billion Hong Kong dollars (7.13 billion US dollars.)

Analysts blamed the sell-off of stocks of China banks, more bad news from local companies and a poor performance on Wall Street overnight.

Hong Kong  - A Hong Kong park was preparing on Thursday to send two sick rare sturgeon back to China for treatment after the death of three other fish, all gifts from the Beijing government.

The two endangered fish will be moved from Ocean Park to the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute in Xiamen where experts will try to save them following a decision by mainland authorities to take them back.

An Ocean Park spokesman said it was unknown whether the fish would be returned if they recovered.

Hong Kong  - A serial paedophile who admitted abusing more than 100 boys over a period of two decades was beginning a three-year jail term in Hong Kong Thursday.

Kenny Chung Chi-man, 41, last year gave money to two boys aged nine and 11 after molesting them in his home, months after being released from a previous 11-month jail term for child abuse.

He told police he "couldn't help touching young boys once he saw them" and confessed to sexual contact with more than 100 boys since he was in his early 20s.

Chung admitted luring scores of boys to his home in the city's urban Sham Shui Po area after meeting them in internet cafes and other places, Hong Kong's District Court heard.