Hong Kong - Middle-class victims of the economic slump are seeking help from a food bank for the poor in Hong Kong, a charity said Monday.

The charity said there had been about 10 instances in the wealthy city of 6.9 million in recent months where former business owners who had fallen on hard times had sought help.

Connie Ng, supervisor of the Saint James Settlement Food Bank, told government-run radio station RTHK the number of people seeking help had doubled in the past three months.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong has the greatest rich-poor divide of any developed country with more than 1 million people living in relative poverty, a party political leader claimed Sunday.

Democratic Party leader Albert Ho called the divide between the rich and poor in the wealthy city of 6.9 million "an embarrassment to our society" and called on Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang to act.

"The government has made it an article of faith and told all of us to believe in the 'trickle-down effect' in the market economy," Ho said on state-run radio.

Hong Kong  - The recession isn't just affecting people in Hong Kong: it's also having an impact on animals as dogs are left behind by departing expatriates, a relocation company said Sunday.

Jenny Wong, manager of ReloPet, said her company had seen a 400 per cent increase in business in the past 12 months as more expatriates are laid off and said many dogs were being left behind.

"We have seen a massive increase in people and pets moving out of Hong Kong because of this financial tsunami," she said.

Hong Kong  - A jobless Hong Kong man who repeatedly slept with prostitutes and then tied them up and robbed them began serving a nine-year jail term Saturday.

Chong Kwonk-hung, 24, stole hundreds of dollars from four prostitutes he slept with between October 2006 and June last year, Hong Kong's High Court was told.

He tied up his victims with tape, threatening one of them with a knife, and then ordered them to hand over money to him before fleeing the apartments where all four women worked alone.

Hong Kong - A pop star at the centre of a celebrity sex photo scandal was Friday narrowly beaten to the title Person of 2008 in a Hong Kong government radio station poll.

Edison Chen, 27, who fled Hong Kong after pictures of him romping with a string of young women starlets appeared on the internet, was runner-up to US president-elect Barack Obama in the poll.

Chen collected just under 30 per cent of votes in the Person of the Year survey by government-run RTHK radio compared to Obama's 35.67 per cent.

Hong Kong - Ten sailors had to be rescued from a sinking Chinese cargo ship in rough seas close to Hong Kong, rescue officials said Thursday.

The crew sent out a distress call Thursday morning after their ship began taking on water about 120 kilometres south-west of Hong Kong.

The Government Flying Services (GFS) sent out two aircraft which picked up the men from the sinking ship and carried them safely back to shore.