Hong Kong  - The benchmark Hang Seng index surged 8.66 per cent Monday to its highest level in seven weeks amid investor confidence of stimulus moves by China and the United States.

Turnover topped 63.87 billion Hong Kong dollars (8.19 billion dollars), following Friday's turnover of 37.3 billion Hong Kong dollars.

London, Dec 8: English pop musical group ‘Take That’ has landed at the top of the British album charts with their new album ‘The Circus’.

The band’s members, Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Howard Donald and Jason Orange made a remarkable comeback with their album, which has sold 432,000 copies in a week.

“We set out to make a record each of us was really proud of and we did that,” the Sun quoted Barlow as saying.

“To then have it fly off the shelves like it did this week has been just amazing,” he stated.

The new album became the fastest-selling album of the year in the UK, with only Oasis’s ‘Be Here Now’ and Coldplay’s ‘X&Y’ selling more.

Washington, Dec 8 : New dating of an important hominid site in Ethiopia has suggested that the road to advanced cognition in modern humans was a long and winding one, and they developed their greater intelligence gradually.

About 1.7 million years ago in Africa, Homo erectus, an ancestor of modern humans, started using large hand axes and cleavers.

This know-how spread to Asia and Europe and remained cutting-edge technology for well over a million years.

Sydney, Dec 8 : Injured spinner Jason Krejza and all-rounder Shane Watson have been recalled to Australia’s 12-man squad for next week’s first Test against South Africa beginning in Perth.

Off-spinner Krejza has been selected subject to fitness after missing the second Test win over New Zealand in Adelaide due to an ankle injury, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The 25-year-old hasn’t played a Test since taking 12 wickets on his debut in the final Test against India in Nagpur last month. Watson edged him out in the opening match of the NZ series in Brisbane.

Melbourne, Dec 8 : A rhinoceros managed to escape its enclosure in an Adelaide zoo in a bid to find his love.

The white rhino named Satara escaped it enclosure in Monarto Zoo near Murray Bridge to gain access to the female object.

The 18-year-old amorous animal was found inside the zoo''s perimeter fence and was tranquilised by zookeepers.

It seems Satara''s sense of direction was somewhat lacking - and he was not able to gain access to the female object of his desire, reports Courier Mail.

Melbourne, Dec 8 : Indian born taxi driver, Jalvinder Singh who was repeatedly stabbed by a passenger, has told a Melbourne court that he believed he was going to die.

Part-time driver Singh spent nearly a week in an induced coma after the April attack in Melbourne, which sparked protests by cabbies and forced the Victorian government to improve safety measures, The Age reported.

The Melbourne Magistrates Court has been told that the accused, Parish Charles, 46, was paranoid and behaving irrationally after he stopped taking his HIV medication two weeks before the attack.

Charles is facing charges of attempted murder, intentionally causing serious injury, recklessly causing injury, and theft, the paper said.