Hong Kong - Scores of office workers were evacuated from central Hong Kong Monday as police detonated a suspected Second World War bomb unearthed on a building site.

The bomb was discovered on the site of the new government headquarters next to Victoria Harbour on Hong Kong island on Monday morning, police said.

Bomb-disposal experts were called in, the site was cordoned off and a section of the busy harbour-side road closed down while the detonation took place. No one was injured.

Hong Kong was heavily bombed throughout World War II as British and Japanese armies battled for control of the strategically located former colony.

New Delhi - India's stock indices dipped downward by more than 3 per cent Monday after a meeting of the world's leading economies failed to throw up any immediate solutions to the global economic crisis and Japan announced its economy had slid into recession.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark 30-share Sensex was trading at around 8,990 at noon, about 4.21 per cent below its previous close.

The broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was hovering around 2,704.80, 3.76 per cent below Friday's close.

Washington  - Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said Saturday in Washington that he looked forward to working with US president- elect Barack Obama.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the Group of 20 nations to address the world economic crisis, Aso was asked about his thoughts on Obama.

"Obama-san?" he asked, before saying they had spoken over the phone since the November 4 election. And though it was difficult to know much about his personality from the brief discussion, Aso said that Obama appeared to show an interest in Asia.

Tokyo - Asian stock markets were in a downward spiral Thursday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street and falling on persistent worries over a US recession.

The Tokyo stock market extended its losing streak with the Nikkei 225 Stock Average falling 456.87 points, or 5.25 per cent, to close at 8,238.64, a two-week low.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also down 4.31 per cent at 837.53.

New Delhi - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Thursday for focussed cooperation, especially in the area of maritime transport, in his opening remarks at a regional summit.

Top leaders and officials from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand attended the daylong summit in New Delhi of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).