Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares dropped by more than 5 per cent Thursday an investors dumped stocks following overnight losses on Wall Street and deepening gloom over the economy.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 717.74 points, or 5.15 per cent, to 13,221.35 points. Turnover was 51.7 billion Hong Kong dollars
(6.67 billion US dollars.)

The closing figures, which took the index to a two-week low, represented a marginal improvement on earlier in the day, when shares plunged by more than 6 per cent in the first minutes of trading.

Hong Kong  - Three Chinese astronauts hailed as national heroes after performing the country's first space walk are to visit Hong Kong and Macau, a news report said Thursday.

Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, the three astronauts, often called taikonauts, whose space walk in September generated patriotic fervour, are to tour the territories in early December, the South China Morning Post reported.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong's flagship airline Cathay Pacific Wednesday released disappointing passenger figures and warned that the outlook for the industry was "challenging."

The airline's passenger figures combined with sister airline Dragonair for October 2008 were up 2.6 per cent compared to the same month in 2007, however, capacity over the same period grew 11.6 per cent.

The amount of cargo and mail carried over the course of the month, was down 7.4 per cent to 114,466 tons compared to the same month last year, Cathay Pacific announced.

Hong Kong  - Safety checks on lifts in Hong Kong's high-rise apartment blocks were being stepped up Wednesday after five people were trapped between floors in the latest of a series of scares.

In the most serious incident, a lift plunged 14 floors to the ground on October 25 as seven of its eight steel supporting cables snapped seconds after a woman stepped out.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares fell by almost 5 per cent Tuesday as enthusiasm over China's 600-billion-US-dollar economic stimulus package waned amid fresh fears over corporate results.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index lost 703.73 points, or 4.77 per cent, to close at 14,040.9. Turnover was 54.3 billion Hong Kong dollars (7 billion US dollars).