Hong Kong - Six workers from Hong Kong hospital morgues were being investigated Wednesday for allegedly taking bribes from funeral directors in return for giving corpses special treatment.

They are accused of accepting monthly payments of up to 130 US dollars to speed up funeral arrangements and allow funeral directors to collect them outside normal hours.

The workers also allegedly dressed the corpses in shrouds and prepared them for funerals, a role usually performed in funeral parlours, investigators claim.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares dropped 2.85 per cent Tuesday as banking stocks dipped lower on worries over profit losses and capital.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index lost 300.22 points to end the day below the 12,000 level at 12,959.77 points. Turnover was a relatively low 39.5 billion Hong Kong dollars
(5.07 billion US dollars.)

Global banking giant HSBC continued its decline, sinking 7.7 per cent to 57.5 Hong Kong dollars, bringing the share price down more than 20 per cent since the beginning of last week.

Hong Kong - Police in Hong Kong were Tuesday questioning 27 suspects after smashing a triad gang operation that recruited young members in school playgrounds.

The arrests came after dozens of cases in which youngsters were approached in playgrounds in Hong Kong schools and threatened with violence if they did not join triad gangs.

Youngsters acted as recruiters and teenagers signed up for gangs in school playgrounds and games arcades were made to pay 3.60 Hong Kong dollars (46 US cents) as a joining fee.

Hong Kong - A Hong Kong police detective was Tuesday beginning a seven-year jail term after being convicted of raping an 18-year-old girl.

Crime squad officer Choi Chai-him, 33, met the teenager over the internet and lured her to his home with the promise of downloading games onto her portable PlayStation games console.

The court was told the married policeman began molesting her and when she resisted, took her to his bedroom and raped her, Hong Kong's High Court was told.

Hong Kong - Police in Hong Kong were investigating Monday whether an alleged assault by the wife of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe during a shopping trip was captured on video.

Investigators were told that Grace Mugabe allegedly repeatedly punched a newspaper photographer in the street took beneath a security camera on the side of a shopping centre.