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World Briefing | Asia India 4 Soldiers and a Gunman Killed
Four Indian Army soldiers and a gunman suspected of being a rebel were killed in fighting in the Indian portion of Kashmir on Friday, officials said. Lt. Col Ankur Vashist, an army spokesman, said gunmen ambushed and fatally shot three soldiers near the village of Buchoo. After reinforcements arrived, another soldier was killed in an exchange of gunfire with the gunmen, Colonel Vashist ...
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Asia Stocks Cap Worst Week Since XXXX Japan Plunges
Asian equities fell the most since July this week as Chinese manufacturing data missed estimates and amid concern that the U.S. might begin to unwind stimulus. Japanese shares had the largest one-day plunge since March 2011. The Topix Index plummeted 6.9 percent on May 23, wiping $314 billion from the world's best-performing stock market this year. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. ...
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Senate confirms Sri Srinivasan 97-0 to Court of Appeals in US Capital
Indian-American Srikanth Srinivasan whose nomination to the US Court of Appeals for DC Circuit as a judge was unanimously approved by the Senate in Washington. (PTI ...
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Tokyo plunges more than 7pct as Asian markets fall
Asian markets fell Thursday with Tokyo plunging more than seven percent as investors took profits after weak Chinese data and signs the US Federal Reserve could start tapering off its massive stimulus measures. Tokyo dropped on record volumes in the afternoon as investors panicked in the rush to take profit, with the index suffering its biggest daily percentage fall since the March 2011 ...
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Is China Inserting Itself Into the Taiwan-Philippines Spat
This week a Chinese warship and a couple of maritime agency vessels conducted a patrol in the areas of the Spratly Islands that the Philippines claims, prompting an official rebuke from Manila. According to Philippines officials, at least three Chinese ships and 10 fishing boats were spotted near the Ayungin Shoal, which is part of the Spratly Islands and about 200 kms off the coast of the ...
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Obama’s silence on Taiwan masks its significance in Asia
For decades, when US policymakers contemplated conflict with China, their fears focused on Taiwan. Today, by contrast, Sino-American tensions seem to be on the rise everywhere but Taiwan, where relations between this island and the mainland have significantly improved. Since Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008, the government in Taipei has inked 18 agreements with China, ...
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Japan slams Korea daily’s ‘A-bomb’ op-ed comments
Japan yesterday accused a South Korean newspaper of ';dishonourable'; behaviour for publishing an editorial suggesting the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were ';divine punishment';. The editorial in the Korean and English versions of the Joongang Ilbo daily on Monday said the 1945 nuclear bombs dropped by US planes, which together killed more than 200,000 people, ...
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Chinese restaurant chain hopes to popularise hot pot in US
A popular chain of hot pot restaurants from China is set to be exported to the US this fall in the hopes of popularising the community style of eating among Western diners. According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, the first US outpost of Chinese restaurant chain Hai Di Lao will open in Los Angeles this fall, where diners will partake in what could be described as the Chinese version of ...
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US China Set Pact On Auditor Access
The US and China have struck an agreement giving US accounting regulators access to documents from Chinese accounting firms. The deal, expected to be announced Friday, could help US regulators investigate the auditors of US-listed Chinese companies that might have been involved in accounting fraud. The agreement will allow the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to see audit records ...
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New concerns for China’s rising middle class
With two cars, foreign holidays and a cook for their apartment, one Beijing family epitomises the new middle class created by China’s decades of rapid economic growth – and its resulting worries. Li Na, 42, a caterer at the capital’s zoo, and her husband Chi Shubo, 48, who works for a state-owned investment company, have seen their fortunes transformed since she arrived in ...
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The Powerful People Arguing for US-China Free Trade
Recommending that the US and China work toward a free-trade deal is a bit like stepping into a prize fight and asking the boxers to settle their differences peacefully. But some powerful people on both sides of the Pacific Ocean are doing exactly that. A report by a blue-ribbon, binational panel assembled by the China-United States Exchange Foundation said this week that the countries ...
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Huawei’s Middle East revenue rose 18pct in 2012 executive
China’s Huawei Technologies Co’s Middle East revenue rose 18 percent to $2.08 billion in 2012 and the roll-out of 4G mobile networks and IT outsourcing will be among its main regional growth drivers, the firm said. The world’s second-largest telecom equipment maker also expects Middle East telecom operators to prioritise improving network efficiency, Shi Yaohong, president of ...
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Japan’s Meiji Yasuda can start buying 10-yr JGBs at 1 pct
Japan’s Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co said on Friday it will shift some of the money earmarked for foreign bonds to Japanese government bonds given their rise in yields. Japan’s third-largest private life insurer said it can start buying 10-year Japanese government bonds at 1 percent and 20-year debt at 1.7 percent. The 10-year yield was traded at 0.825 percent on Friday ...
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Singapore economy basks in a rare burst of sunshine
IT was a good day for Singapore’s economy, with positive surprises on three fronts: An unexpected upgrade to gross domestic product (GDP) meant the economy grew 0.2 per cent instead of contracting in Q1, April inflation plunged to a three-year low of 1.5 per cent, and April factory output bounced 4.7 per cent not just on pharmaceuticals but also the first year-on-year electronics expansion ...
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Indian companies line up to raise funds in Singapore
Easy access and a diversified investor base in the Singapore bond market is increasingly attracting Indian firms looking to raise money at cheaper rates. They have raised S$1 billion this year, already 30 percent higher than the whole of 2012, according to Dealogic, the global deal tracker. Recently, four Tata companies, including the marquee Tata Motors Ltd, raised $624 million in Singapore ...
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Scientist’s family seeks US Congress Thai expert’s help
The parents of a US scientist found hanged in Singapore last year said Thursday they will seek a US congressional inquiry and tap a celebrity Thai pathologist to prove their son was murdered. Mary Todd, mother of the late researcher Shane Todd whose death in June 2012 was ruled a suicide by the Singapore police, indicated the family did not expect the US government to intervene because of its ...
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HSBC Plans to Sell First Yuan Bond to Be Cleared in Singapore – Sources
HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) plans to sell the first yuan-denominated bond to be cleared out of Singapore, in a step forward for the city-state which is trying to build itself into an offshore trading hub for the Chinese currency. The UK banking giant’s plan comes as Singapore is set to kick off its long-anticipated yuan-clearing service Monday, after Beijing in February approved Industrial ...
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Philippines exports 15 metric tonnes of rice to HK
A shipment of 15 metric tonnes (MT) of black, brown and red rice from the Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative (DBMPC) in Cotabato was exported last May 15 to Hong Kong, the department said in a statement. This is the country’s second rice shipment this month. The first shipment was on May 6 where 35 MT of organic black rice and aromatic Jasponica rice was sent to Dubai. Agriculture ...
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Philippines business sentiment at all-time high in Q2 Central bank survey
Business sentiment in the Philippines soared to an all-time high during the second quarter after the country was awarded investment grade credit ratings by Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s, the central bank said on Thursday. The result of the central bank’s quarterly Business Expectations Survey showed the overall confidence index rising to 54.9 per cent from first ...
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Philippines cemetery provides Manila’s poor a place to live among the dead
Every morning, Alberto Lagarda Evangelista, 71, leaves the two-storey, lemon-yellow home he has lived in for the past decade and walks to work at the cemetery next door. As a caretaker of about 20 graves, Evangelista earns just 20,000 pesos (GBP 315) a year, a sum so small that he must share his house with seven other people – all of whom are dead. Evangelista lives and works in the ...
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Philippine capital angered by ‘Da Vinci Code’ author
Philippine authorities Thursday reacted angrily over ';Da Vinci Code'; author Dan Brown’s portrayal of Manila as ';the gates of hell'; in his latest novel. The book ';Inferno'; includes a character who describes the capital as a city of horrible traffic jams, suffocating pollution, massive poverty and a thriving child sex trade. The chair of the government ...
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Grounded ship is Philippines’ last line of defence
A handful of marines living on a World War II-era ship that is grounded on a remote, tiny reef is the Philippines’ last line of defence against China’s efforts to control most of the South China Sea. The soldiers are stationed on Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands aboard a former US tank-landing vessel that was deliberately abandoned there to serve as a base, according to ...
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Forum on Pan-Asian traveler trends
/enpproperty--> Set for June 3 at the Shanghai Theater, Portman Ritz-Carlton in Shanghai, the International Luxury Travel Market Asia 2013 opening forum will hear leading industry experts discussing the ongoing rise of the region's luxury travel industry and explore opportunities to build business across the region. Continuing until June 6, the expo will host nearly 500 elite ...
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Reforming Telecommunications in Burma
This 24-page report outlines steps necessary to promote adequate protections for Internet and mobile phone users in Burma, and ways to foster responsible investment in Burma's telecom sector. In January 2013, the Burmese government announced plans to open the country's telecom sector to foreign investment and is scheduled to award two nationwide licenses to companies by June 27. As of ...
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Asias Week China Still on Flu Watch
Qingdao, for a while, grew to the sky. (Photo: Wikipedia) While Asia basked another week in generally favorable economic winds-minus that little 7% stock squall in Japan in Thursday, whatever that was about-there remained an undercurrent of worry about China. ...
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