Hong Kong choked under the worst smog ever recorded in the city Thursday, with residents warned to stay indoors, away from the blanket of toxic haze, officials said.

Hong Kong on Monday vowed to push ahead with patriotism classes despite mass protests over what parents and teachers call Chinese brainwashing.

Thousands of stroller-pushing Hong Kong parents and activists Sunday protested a plan to introduce national education lessons, slamming it as a bid to brainwash children with Chinese propaganda.

Two of Hong Kong's richest tycoons and a former senior official were charged with corruption on Friday in the biggest graft scandal the regional banking hub has seen.

Hong Kong's anti-corruption watchdog said Thursday it had arrested a minister for allegedly abusing his housing allowances, plunging the new government into scandal.

Chinese workers are among the least likely in Asia to say their jobs are ideal, despite China having one of the region's lowest unemployment rates, a report by an international research company has found.

Scuffles broke out Sunday between a large group of protesters and police, following a town hall-style meeting held by Hong Kong's new leader, one week after he took office.

A Hong Kong newspaper said Saturday it had filed a lawsuit over the brief detention of one of its journalists after he asked Chinese President Hu Jintao a question about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

Hong Kong customs officers said Friday they had made the city's largest ever cocaine bust, after finding almost 650 kilograms of the drug — with a street value of about US$98 million — in a shipping container.

Pro-democracy lawmakers Thursday filed legal challenges to the election of Hong Kong's new leader less than a week after he took office amid the biggest demonstrations in the city in nearly a decade.