Hong Kong - The majority of consumers in Asia are skeptical about the motives behind companies that sponsor environmentally friendly initiatives, a global study published Tuesday claimed.

Most believed companies only sponsor green initiatives to improve their public image or to sell more products rather than because they cared about the environment, the study of green perceptions, attitudes and behaviour concluded.

Of the six Asian countries included in TNS Our Green World study, the Koreans emerged as being the most skeptical, with only 5 per cent of those questioned believing companies went green because they cared.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong stocks sunk 4.5 per cent lower Tuesday amid increasing pessimism sparked by news of layoffs in the financial sector.

The Hang Seng Index lost 613 points to close the day at 12,915. Turnover was 44.8 billion Hong Kong dollars (5.7 billion US dollar).

Analysts said investors were disheartened by news of job losses with the financial sector leading the fall.

Hong Kong - Two undercover policewomen posed as potential prostitutes to help crack an international sex syndicate that was sending women to work in overseas bars, a Hong Hong court report said Tuesday.

The two officers arranged a meeting with a man called Ho after answering an advertisement in a Chinese-language newspaper offering "quick money overseas by being public relationship officers in Japan, Taiwan and the United Kingdom" between December 2006 and June 2007.

At the meeting the women were told they could earn tens of thousands of dollars a month entertaining and having sex with customers in a bar in Chiba-Ken in Japan.

Hong Kong  - A Hong Kong golfer is suing a fellow player for 65 million Hong Kong dollars (8.3 million US) after being hit on the head by a wayward shot, a news report said Tuesday.

Computer expert Alan Deakins, 40, claims he has been unable to work since receiving head injuries in the incident on Christmas Eve 2006 at the former British colony's upmarket Clearwater Bay Golf and Country Club.

Hong Kong - Banking giant HSBC axed 450 jobs in Hong Kong Monday because of the impact of the global financial crisis, a government-run radio station reported.

The bank blamed the cuts among the 20,000-strong Hong Kong workforce on the deteriorating global economy and a pessimistic outlook for 2009, according to Radio Television Hong Kong.

Both front and back office staff have been affected by the job cuts, the radio station said.

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.