Hong Kong  - A restaurant chef ended up in hospital as a turtle bit his foot to escape the cooking pot in a Hong Kong restaurant, a news report said Tuesday.

The 60-centimetre wattle-necked, soft-shelled turtle sank its teeth into the chef's foot, during a dash for freedom as it was about to be put in boiling water on Monday, the South China Morning Post reported.

Hong Kong - Wealthy Hong Kong businessmen are switching from expensive private golf clubs to public courses to keep their handicaps up during the downturn, a news report said Monday.

The number of people using the city's public golf course on Kau Sai Chau island shot up by 48 per cent in October compared to the same month in 2007, the South China Morning Post reported.

Hong Kong  - Half of Hong Kong businesses expect the city's recession to drag on for at least two years, according to a survey Saturday.

Ninety per cent of businessmen and businesswomen said they believed the recession would last through 2009 while half said they expected it to continue through 2010 and beyond.

Andrew Brandler, chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce which conducted the survey among its members, called on the government to help businesses in the city survive the downturn.

Hong Kong - A 22-year-old Chinese gigolo who tried to blackmail his wealthy married Hong Kong lover with a video of them having sex began serving a two-year jail sentence Saturday.

Peng Jun threatened to expose the affair using a secretly filmed video unless the 50-year-old woman gave him 1 million Hong Kong dollars (129,000 US dollars).

Peng, from China's poverty-stricken Hunan province, met the woman in 2007 at a nightclub in Shenzhen, the southern Chinese border city where Hong Kongers regularly go for entertainment and affairs.

Hong Kong  - A 46-year-old hiker was recovering in hospital Saturday after falling 20 metres into a Hong Kong reservoir while running away from a monkey trying to steal her food.

The woman was hiking with friends on Friday when a large adult monkey tried to snatch a bag of nuts she was carrying, according to a spokesman for the emergency services team who rescued her.

She ran away and tumbled down a steep bank before ending up in the reservoir. The woman was taken to hospital with injuries to her head, arms and legs.