The roll-out of a new system to screen refugees has been mired in confusion and lack of transparency, says a report out today.

In China's biggest cities, well-educated women in their 20s are turning down promotions at work or even quitting their jobs, fearing they might become too old or too successful to find a husband.

Erwiana Sulistyaningsih would not be travelling to New York for an event organised by Time to celebrate being named among the magazine's 100 most influential people in the world this year - as she cannot afford the trip.

Rights group Vision First says a defamation lawsuit filed against it by a government contractor is a welcome opportunity for public scrutiny of the contractor's work with asylum seekers.

The creator of an alternative map of Hong Kong's MTR system, where Cantonese names are translated into their literal English versions, is looking for help with tricky translations so he can update his work.

More questions emerged about how Indonesian authorities are treating former domestic helper Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, whose Hong Kong employer is being prosecuted for allegedly abusing her.

Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, the domestic helper allegedly abused by her employer, returned to Hong Kong on Monday afternoon to help with evidence in the trial.

They were armed, but not very dangerous.With pillows at the ready, some still in their pyjamas, they marched into battle. An hour later it was all over.

Hong Kong's laws on human trafficking are too narrow and fragmented to protect victims, says a report published today. It says the city's focus on trafficking for prostitution means it is failing to address the wider problem of forced labour.

Hong Kong will overhaul its regulatory system for foreign domestic helpers and revise punishments for unscrupulous employment agencies that are currently set "too low", the labour and welfare secretary told the South China Morning Post on Thursday.

After cavorting about on the roofs of 15 skyscrapers in Hong Kong, including the 78-storey, 374-metre-high Central Plaza in Wan Chai, two daredevils from Ukraine and Russia plan to return to the city next month to get to the roof of the IFC, some 400 metres above ground.

Lawmakers and 67 local advocacy groups have cast doubt on Hong Kong's progress in meeting its international obligations to improve women's rights.

In the space of just three years, online sales on the mainland soared from US$3 billion to US$64 billion in 2012, a figure that took the United States a decade to achieve.

Indonesian maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih was forced to break contact with her family for six months and was barred from leaving her employers' flat, her parents have claimed.

A woman accused of wounding two Indonesian domestic helpers - including one who says she suffered prolonged torture - was in police custody last night after being arrested at the airport.

The Indonesian domestic helper who claims she suffered eight months of torture at the hands of her Hong Kong employer may sue the city's government. Representatives of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, 23, who is in hospital back home, claim the city's human rights laws could have been breached.

Thousands of anti-government protesters will march through Bangkok this week to build momentum ahead of their planned January 13 shutdown of the capital. Reporter Joanna Chiu took to the streets to find out what city residents think of the latest political developments.

The bitcoin revolution is shifting to the east, say the Americans behind the world's first cash machine for the virtual currency, as they prepare to open a second one - in Hong Kong.

When 16-year-old Casper Cheng Tsz-chun of the New Territories started creating, or "mining" for, bitcoins two years ago using his father's computer, he never imagined that the value of the digital currency would reach a high of US$1,242 a piece.

Along Kowloon's teeming Nathan Road, it is common to see multiple Luk Fook jewellery stores on the same block.

It is a family brand that has sought to infuse Italian passion, elegance and heritage into its leather handbags and stilettos. Now, it has its sights set on making China its largest market within the next five years.

Any change to rules governing Hong Kong's financial system must enshrine appropriate checks and balances that safeguard the interests of all market participants, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Chan Ka-keung said yesterday.

Lan Yueliang, who now runs an online support group for wives of gay men in China (called tongqi), was one of the speakers who shared stories at the first annual Rainbow China Forum in Hong Kong last month. It was a rare gathering of over 200 gay rights advocates from across China.

"The government will not allow massive privatisation to happen but it will allow state capital to flow more freely and allow the private sector to take funding pressures off state-owned enterprises. Otherwise, the [current] rate of growth in the mid-7 per cent won't be sustainable," said Kai Hu, vice-president of Moody's corporate finance group.

"Mainland companies have been sweeping the categories for listed companies for the past several years, and I'm not surprised [with this year's result]," said Kelvin Wong, the chairman of the institute, which also gives awards to private companies and non-profit organisations.