Hong Kong - Hong Kong's population crisis is likely to worsen as a survey showed Thursday that nearly four in 10 women want only one child or no children at all.

The study by the Hong Kong Family Planning Association found a growing trend toward childlessness in the wealthy city, which already has one of the world's lowest birth rates.

Twenty-six per cent of 1,500 women interviewed said they wanted only one child compared with 10 per cent in 1992, and 13 per cent said they wanted no children, compared with 5 per cent in 1992.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares rose by more than 3 per cent Wednesday as news of Barack Obama's historic US presidential election win sent a feel-good thrill through regional markets.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index climbed by 455.82 points, or 3.17 per cent, to end the day at 14,840.16. Turnover was 63.3 billion Hong Kong dollars (8.16 billion US dollars).

Hong Kong - Around the world, families are looking with apprehension at the upcoming Christmas festivities, prepared to tighten their belts as the global financial turmoil takes its toll. In wealthy Hong Kong, however, people are still ready and willing to splurge, spending 17,600 US dollars a head on lavish Christmas extravaganzas.

One of the city's upmarket restaurants, Aqua, is advertising what it calls the ultimate Christmas feast - a flamboyant, no-expense spared seven-course dinner at 1,290 US dollars per person.

Hong Kong - Checks were being carried out on lifts in apartment blocks across Hong Kong Wednesday after a lift plunged 14 floors, seconds after the only person inside stepped out.

The woman exited the lift on the 14th floor after hearing "a strange noise" just before seven of its eight steel cables snapped in a public housing block in the city's Tai Po district.

Hong Kong - A Hong Kong student has been convicted of fraud after hacking into a McDonald's website to claim all the prizes in on online competition, a news report said Wednesday.

Computer engineering undergraduate Lee Tsz-ho, 22, changed the e-mail addresses of the winners so he could claim all five prizes in the competition, the Hong Kong Standard reported.

He was caught when the genuine winners checked with McDonald's to ask why they had not been sent their winners' e-mails, the newspaper said. The prizes were five mobile phones.