Hong Kong - A pirate radio station in Hong Kong has been ordered to halt broadcasts after a show for gay youngsters interfered with air traffic control transmissions, a news report said Thursday.

The Wednesday night broadcast of Love Ark on rebel radio channel Citizens' Radio was picked up on the frequency of air traffic controllers last month, the South China Morning Post reported.

Washington/New York  - The strength of tropical cyclones - especially hurricanes in the Atlantic and typhoons in the northern Indian oceans - have increased over the last 25 years as sea temperatures have risen, according to a study published in the journal Nature on Thursday.

Researchers found that an increase in water temperature by 1 degree Celsius corresponded to a nearly one-third rise in the number of strong storms worldwide, from an average of 13 to 17 per year.

Wellington  - A Pakistani immigrant told New Zealand officials he had not paid nearly 200,000 New Zealand dollars (about 134,000 US dollars) in income tax because "where I come from we didn't have to pay tax," a newspaper reported on Thursday.

Farrukh Hashmi, 42, pleaded guilty in the Napier District Court Wednesday to 37 charges of failing to pay tax on earnings from his grocery store between 2002 and 2007, the Dominion Post reported.

San Jose  - The purchase by China of 300 million dollars in Costa Rican bonds and the involvement in the transaction of a Costa Rican bank with ties to the Central American country's current ambassador to China spurred a great controversy.

The opposition were demanding the resignation of Ambassador Antonio Burgues on Wednesday.

Washington  - The United States will provide 1 billion dollars in humanitarian aid to Georgia following the Russian invasion of the former Soviet republic, while the International Monetary Fund offered 750 million dollars in loans on Wednesday.

"Georgia's needs are great, especially its economic needs," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday. "The free world cannot allow the destiny of a small independent country to be determined by the aggression of a larger neighbour."