Taipei - Taiwan Saturday welcomed a US decision to remove the island from the so-called Special 301 watch list of countries failing to protect intellectual property rights.

"This shows our efforts to stamp out violation of intellectual property rights have borne fruit," said Wang Mei-hua, director of the Intellectual Property Office under the Economics Ministry.

She said the government will do all it can to uphold protection of IPRs in Taiwan.

Hong Kong  - The Hong Kong branch of the international language school Linguagphone has filed for liquidation as bankruptcies soar in the former British colony, official statistics showed Saturday.

The local holder of the Linguaphone licence posted a notice on its website this week announcing it had ceased operating and asking students and those who had bought self-learning packages to contact an appointed provisional liquidator.

Singapore  - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the city state's economic growth projections for this year would be revised to reflect the economic downturn as the economies of major trading partners have taken a turn for the worse, news reports said on Saturday.

"Growth numbers have come down all over Asia. The trade numbers have come down very drastically all over Asia," the Channel News Asia quoted Lee as saying.

Washington - US government figures released on Friday showed that do

Tokyo - Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa expressed concerns on Friday that "the nation's economic conditions have been deteriorating" and its financial conditions are getting "rapidly severe" in a quarterly report.

Companies have reduced production, reported lower earnings and cut capital investments as exports slowed down and yen gained strength against major foreign currencies, the bank's report said after Shirakawa met with nation's regional branch managers.

Harare/Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's central bank says it will soon introduce a 100-trillion-dollar banknote as the country battles to keep pace with hyperinflation that has left the once-vibrant economy in tatters.

A statement dated Thursday from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) said the new notes - in denominations of 100 trillion, 50 trillion, 20 trillion and 10 trillion dollars - would be released for the "convenience of the public."

The first 10-trillion-dollar notes were expected to appear on Friday. On Thursday, a loaf of bread cost 300 billion Zimbabwe dollars.

When the new 100-trillion-Zimbabwe-dollar note appears, it will be worth about about 300 US dollars.