Hong Kong - A secret "hit list" of nearly 200 pilots Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific considered for sacking during a bitter 2001 dispute with cockpit crew was Wednesday circulating among staff.

The list - leaked by an unknown member of the management panel that decided which pilots to fire - includes the 49 pilots fired during the dispute and around 100 pilots still with the airline.

Serving pilots on the list include a deputy chief pilot with the Boeing fleet and a number of senior training captains. All but a handful of them had no idea they were once shortlisted.

Hong Kong  - The booming market for Chinese art appears to be the latest victim of the global economic downturn, a Hong Kong news report said Monday.

A Sotheby's auction of 20th-century Chinese art Sunday in Hong Kong saw 71 of the 110 lots go unsold, the South China Morning Post reported.

The most expensive work sold, an abstract painting by Zhao Wuji, fetched 4.22 million Hong Kong dollars (543,000 US dollars) after the auction house estimated it would bring in 4.7 million to 5.5 million Hong Kong dollars.

Hong Kong - Around 200 people marched through Hong Kong on Sunday calling for a minimum wage to protect low-paid workers in the wealthy former British colony.

The marchers, organized by a group called the People's Alliance for Minimum Wage, said they wanted to see an immediate minimum wage of 33 Hong Kong dollars (4.24 US dollars) an hour.

Holding up banners and chanting slogans, they presented a petition at Central Government Offices calling on Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang to set a timetable for the minimum wage as soon as possible.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares fell back nearly 3 per cent Friday as jittery investors waited to see if the US economic rescue package would be approved in Washington.

The Hang Seng Index lost 528.71 points, or 2.9 per cent, to close the week at 17,682.4 points, one of its lowest levels for two years. Turnover was a weak 53.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (6.84 billion US dollars.)

Hong Kong - When wealthy residents of one of the world's most ostentatious cities - Hong Kong - start cutting back on luxuries, as reports suggested Friday, you know the global economy is in trouble.

High rollers in the high-rise city of 6.9 million which has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world are eating out less, spending less on holidays and buying fewer luxury cars.

"The coming 12 months will definitely be difficult," Leon Roy, general manager of Rolls Royce Hong Kong told the South China Morning Post.