Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares plunged by more than 7 per cent Friday, falling below 15,000 for the first time in three years, as panic gripped regional markets.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index lost 1,146.37 points, or 7.19 per cent, to close at 14,796.87. Turnover was 69.3 billion Hong Kong dollars (8.9 billion US dollars).

Analysts said they saw no end to the rout in sight and expected losses to continue into next week as confidence collapses in the rescue packages rolled out by governments worldwide.

Hong Kong - Eleven years after British rule ended, only one in seven Hong Kong people consider that they speak good English, according to a survey released Friday.

More than 40 per cent of people in the former British colony describe their level of English as below average or worse while 15 per cent describe it as good and only 3 per cent say it is excellent.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong stocks plunged by 8 per cent to below 15,000 points in early trading Friday as fears over a global economic meltdown heightened.

After the first half hour of trading Friday morning, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index was down 7.97 per cent, or 1,270.29 points at 14,672.95 points. It was earlier down more than 8 per cent.

The sell-off followed a minor rally in stock prices Thursday when the Hang Seng Index rebounded by more than 3 per cent following successive interest rate cuts.

Hong Kong  - Two bell captains and three other staff from a luxury Hong Kong hotel were Thursday jailed for taking bribes from a well-known tailor for referring wealthy guests to his shop.

Wong Hing-cheung, 60, Yeung Wing-wai, 32, both former guest relations agents of The Marco Polo Gateway Hotel, and former bell captains Cheng Chi-chiu, 59, and Leung Siu-ho, 45, all admitted accepting bribes.

They were jailed for two months each at the hearing in Hong Kong's Kowloon City Court and ordered to pay compensation of 1,000 Hong Kong dollars each (128 US dollars) to the hotel.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares rebounded by 2.65 per cent Thursday morning as officials tracked the US Federal Reserve by cutting interest rates by a further 0.5 per cent.

The interest rate cut, which brings base rates down to 2 per cent, follows a 1 percentage point cut by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority Wednesday.

Announcing the cut, the authority's chief executive Joseph Yam said the impact of the reduction might take some time to filter through to the markets.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong's flagship airline Cathay Pacific said Wednesday it had seen "significant drops" in first and business class bookings as the global economic crisis deepens.

Companies are shifting their executives from first class to business and from business to economy as the financial crisis deepens, airline staff were told in a newsletter.

Cathay has been hit particularly hard because 16 of its top 20 corporate clients are in the financial sector, the newsletter claimed.