Hong Kong  - A joint probe by customs officers in Hong Kong, India and Singapore has been launched after illegal drugs worth a record 41.3 million Hong Kong dollars (5.3 million dollars) were found at the city's airport, a media report said Friday.

Ketamine disguised as sugar and methamphetamine made to look like milk powder were found hidden in a shipment of loudspeakers that arrived at the airport's cargo terminal from India via Singapore, the South China Morning Post said.

No arrests have been made but customs officers in the three countries are investigating the source of the drugs.

Hong Kong  - Police released 24 taxi drivers Thursday who were arrested during a demonstration by about 300 cabbies who blocked the main highway from Hong Kong International Airport and caused traffic chaos.

The taxi drivers were released on bail of 1,000 Hong Kong dollars (128 US dollars) pending possible charges following Wednesday night's protests.

Hundreds of air travellers were held up on their way into the city as taxis blocked all three lanes of the only highway from the airport to downtown Hong Kong.

The drivers, who began their protest at 10 pm (1400 GMT), were angry at a new taxi fare structure that took effect Sunday which they claim has left them out of pocket.

Hong Kong  - An illiterate Hong Kong fisherman is suing the Bank of China for the return of 800,000 Hong Kong dollars (102,560 US dollars) he invested with Lehman Brothers, claiming he was deceived, a media report said Thursday.

Lai Kam-fook, who filed a writ in a district court, said he and his wife were advised by a bank executive to make a risk-free, five-year deposit with a higher interest rate, the South China Morning Post said.

Lai said he had never received or read any documentation from the bank.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong's flagship airline Cathay Pacific was Wednesday facing a rebellion from its 7,000-strong cabin crew over an offer of unpaid leave to offset the effects of the economic slump.

The airline last week offered all cabin crew unpaid leave of between two weeks and 12 months because of a downturn in business brought about by the global financial crisis.

Pilots on the airline, which earlier this year recorded its first operating loss since 2003, are also being offered unpaid leave with immediate effect as routes are trimmed.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong has the safest roads in Asia with less than one fatality every two days last year, the head of a government committee said Wednesday.

The city recorded 160 road deaths last year, the lowest level in Asia and the seventh-lowest in the world, said Hong Kong Road Safety Campaign Committee chairman Lawrence Yu.

The figure was also the third-lowest death toll recorded in the former British colony in the past 49 years, even though roads in the city of 6.9 million are becoming busier.

Hong Kong  - The widow of a Hong Kong man killed in a car crash as he travelled across Thailand to try to catch a flight out of the country was due to arrive back home Wednesday.

Fung Man-wai suffered only minor injuries in the minibus accident on Monday that killed her husband David Yick Hok-wing and a Canadian man and also left a British woman tourist seriously injured.

Fung and Yik were passengers in a minibus taking tourists from stricken Bangkok airport to the southern resort island of Phuket to try to catch flights out of Thailand when it crashed at 3 am Monday.