Hong Kong - The mother of a Hong Kong brother and sister who climbed down drainpipes from their 34th-floor apartment was Tuesday put on probation for child neglect.

The girl, 7, and her brother, 5, were nicknamed "spider-kids" by the Hong Kong media after clambering down drainpipes on a Saturday morning in June while their mother was sleeping.

The girl was eventually pulled to safety by residents in a 28th-floor flat while the boy managed to get three floors further down before being rescued. Both children have since been put in care.

The children's 27-year-old mother pleaded guilty to two counts of neglect at an earlier court hearing. At a sentencing Tuesday, she was given a one-year probation term.

Hong Kong - Actor Brad Pitt and Fantastic Four star Jessica Alba are the celebrities Asians would most like to kiss under the mistletoe this Christmas, according to a survey released Tuesday.

Jessica Alba was voted the number one mistletoe choice by men in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia while men in Hong Kong opted for Nicole Kidman in the survey by LG Electronics.

Beijing- The World Bank lowered its 2009 economic growth forecast for China from 9.2 per cent to 7.5 per cent Tuesday while welcoming the government's stimulus package but urging more rebalancing of the economy.

China's efforts to expand its domestic demand and stimulate the economy through infrastructure spending would be crucial to how it fares against the growing impact of the global financial crisis, the World Bank said in a quarterly report.

Beijing - European companies operating in China are "generally optimistic" about the business opportunities there despite the global economic turmoil that is also putting the brakes on China's growth, a survey released Tuesday found.

The reason is because the potential for growth in the Chinese market remains high, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said when releasing its annual business confidence survey.

"This year's survey reconfirms that the Chinese market is the most important emerging market for European businesses, and given the global slowdown, it might actually rise in significance," said Joerg Wuttke, president of the chamber.

Hong Kong - The people of Hong Kong are cutting travel costs but not abandoning their holidays as they economize on luxuries during the global economic slump, a survey released Tuesday found.

A survey of people in the wealthy city of 6.9 million found they were looking at making their winter breaks cheaper rather than staying at home.

Forty-eight per cent of people interviewed said they would be more flexible on travel dates, 40 per cent said they would consider taking shorter trips and 35 per cent said they would cut holiday budgets.

A surprisingly large 78 per cent of respondents in the survey by the online travel firm Zuji said they still planned to go on holiday in early 2009 despite the economic downturn.

Amman - Jordan Monday signed two nuclear agreements with China including one allowing the Hashemite Kingdom to get a Chinese "non-critical" training system, according to the President of the Jordan Nuclear Energy Commission (JNEC) Khaled Touqan.

He said the facility would be designed and constructed in coordination between the Chinese Atomic Energy Corporation and the Jordan University for Sciences and Technology (JUST), where the unit would be built.

The second deal ivolved a blueprint for implementing an agreement initialed in August to build a research nuclear reactor in Jordan and to help the country extract uranium from at least two local areas.