Hong Kong - Hong Kong's unemployment rate has risen to 3.8 per cent - the highest level in more than a year - as the global economic slump takes its toll, the government announced Thursday.

There are now 136,000 people out of work in the wealthy city of 6.9 million which has a workforce of more than three million, according to figures released for the period from September to November.

The jobless figure was 0.3 per cent higher than in the time from August to October.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang Thursday appealed to Beijing to allow more tourists from mainland China into the former British colony to help revive its flagging economy.

Tsang made the appeal at a meting with the chairman of the national Tourism Administration, Shao Qiwei, during a three-day duty visit to the Chinese capital.

The Hong Kong leader said a combination of the global financial crisis and the introduction of direct flights between China and Taiwan, which means that Chinese visitors to Taiwan no longer need to transit via Hong Kong, had affected tourism.

Tsang told Shao a further relaxation in the regulations on mainland visitors to visit Hong Kong would compensate for the recent drop in tourist arrivals.

Hong Kong  - A Hong Kong magazine editor was given a suspended jail term for publishing a naked photograph of an actress that was taken when she was abducted by gangsters, it was reported Thursday.

At a hearing Wednesday, former chief editor of Eastweek magazine Mong Hong-ming received a six-month sentence, suspended for two years, for publishing obscene material, the Hong Kong Standard reported.

The sentence means Mong will not have to serve six months in prison, unless he re-offends within the next two years.

The picture of Carina Lau, published in Eastweek magazine in 2002, was taken in 1990 when the actress was kidnapped by gangsters, stripped and forced to pose for photographs.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares rose by more than 2 per cent Wednesday following the cut in interest rates in the US and the rise in prices on Wall Street overnight.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index gained 330.31 points, or 2.18 per cent, to close at 15,460.52 points. Turnover was 56.4 billion Hong Kong dollars (7.27 billion US dollars).

The surge in share prices came even though Hong Kong's HSBC and Standard Chartered Banks announced they would not follow the lead of the US and cut interest rates further.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang arrived in Beijing Wednesday for talks with China's leaders over the effects of the global economic slump on the former British colony.

Tsang is to meet President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and other top officials during his annual reporting trip to the Chinese capital, which was expected to be dominated by the impact of the recession.