China’s top leaders have backed a corruption investigation into Zhou Yongkang, a former security tsar and one of the country’s most powerful politicians of the past decade, according to a report.

The United States won’t be scrambling military jets or engaging in high-level diplomatic bartering to get National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden extradited, President Barack Obama said today.

A former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for revealing highly classified surveillance programs has been allowed to leave for a “third country” because a US extradition request did not fully comply with Hong Kong law, the territory’s government said today.

China’s political elite has been shaken by a lurid new scandal over the death of a senior official’s son who crashed his Ferrari during what appeared to be a sex session with two women.

Hong Kong police have made their biggest ever cocaine bust, seizing more than 560kg of the drug with an estimated street value of about 600 million Hong Kong dollars (€56m) and arresting eight people.

Birmingham owner Carson Yeung has been arrested and charged with five counts of money laundering involving £59m (€65.5m), according to a report.

Hong Kong has become the latest high-profile venue to express an interest in staging a Formula One grand prix.

A woman who faked her own pregnancy has pleaded guilty to cutting open the belly of a pregnant woman and trying to remove her baby, it was reported today. The infant later died.

THE Chinese bureaucrat who oversaw construction projects for this year’s Beijing Olympics has received a suspended death sentence for corruption in a case that involved bribery and lavish living.

Former England international Brian Moore has claimed plans to stage a one-off match between the Six Nations and Tri-Nations champions would only serve to “devalue” existing international clashes.

The International Rugby Board will discuss plans to stage a one-off match between the Six Nations and Tri-Nations champions when the governing body meets with rugby union’s leading nations in Hong Kong on Sunday.

HONG Kong newspapers said yesterday that the massive turnout at a pro-democracy rally in the Chinese territory indicates demands for far-reaching reforms are more pressing than ever and urged the government to respond.

All Blacks winger Jonah Lomu is hoping to make a return to competitive rugby in England.

The Vatican wants to cut formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognise the island’s rival China because the move would give Catholics more freedom on the mainland, Hong Kong’s bishop said in a newspaper article today.

Exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama has said he wants the region to remain part of China so it can benefit from that country’s economic boom.

An upmarket Hong Kong grocery store is being prosecuted after a customer allegedly discovered 575 beetles in a jar of cereal, officials and media reports said today.

David Beckham’s image in the Far East has taken a battering following his dismal showing in Euro 2004.

Jonah Lomu is hoping to undergo a kidney transplant by the end of the year.

HONG KONG plunged deeper into crisis yesterday after the resignations of two top Cabinet ministers added fuel to demands for democratic change and put further pressure on leader Tung Chee-hwa.

Star TV plans to lay off or redeploy 100 Hong Kong employees, many of them on the technical side of the business, the South China Morning Post reported on Saturday, citing company officials.

One in 10 of Thailand's Buddhist monks are said to have asked for secret help in conquering drug addiction.