Taipei - Hong Kong and Macau, which have served as the transit points for China-bound Taiwan passengers for six decades, will lose that role when Taiwan launches regular air links with China in June, a Taiwan newspaper reported Monday.

Taiwan and China are expected to discuss regular flights in March and implement them in June, according to the Economic Daily News.

Hong Kong - More than 10,000 Indonesian women working as live-in maids in Hong Kong are being illegally underpaid, with some receiving just half the legal salary, according to a survey Monday.

The survey of foreign domestic helpers found that 12 per cent of Indonesian maids in the city of 6.9 million are paid less than the government-set minimum wage of 460 US dollars a month.

London/HongKong  - Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has spent more than 5 million US dollars on a luxury Hong Kong hideaway, a news report said Sunday.

The three-storey home at the JC Castle development in Hong Kong's Tai Po district was bought in June last year by a middle-man acting on behalf of Mugabe and his wife, the Sunday Times in London reported.

The newspaper speculated that the property may have been bought as a Far East "bolt-hole" for the dictator whose 30-year stranglehold power appears to be finally ending as his country sinks into economic and political chaos.

Hong Kong  - A Zimbabwean students' union was Sunday calling for Hong Kong to deport the daughter of President Robert Mugabe, who is studying at the city's top university.

The Zimbabwe National Students Union petitioned Chinese diplomats in Africa after learning that 20-year-old Bona Mugabe is an undergraduate student at the University of Hong Kong.

Students in the impoverished African nation, which is in the grip of a spiralling economic crisis and political turmoil, say Mugabe's daughter should be made to study back home.

Hong Kong  - The economic slump has cost Hong Kong around 10,000 jobs so far and unemployment will continue to rise in the months ahead, the territory's labour secretary said Saturday.

Matthew Cheung said it was "difficult to predict" when the city's jobless rate would peak and said there would be further pressure on the labour market when graduates leave schools in May.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong's stock market rose by nearly 2.5 per cent Friday, breaking a two-day losing streak that saw nearly 5 per cent wiped off the value of shares.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 326.37 points, or 2.47 per cent, to end the week on 13,554.67. Turnover was a modest 36.1 billion Hong Kong dollars (4.65 billion US dollars.)

Friday's rise was driven by the announcement of mortgage subsidies in the US and renewed confidence in China-listed stocks which performed strongly.