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US Human Rights Abuses Continue in N. Nigeria
A U.S. official said Friday the State Department has been monitoring the situation and concludes that human rights abuses are continuing. The official says Secretary of State John Kerry plans to meet with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on the sidelines of the African Union summit in Ethiopia. Nigeria has declared a state of emergency in the north, where Boko Haram extremists have launched ...
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Sydney player racially abused by fan at MCG
Adam Goodes of the Sydney Swans was left visibly upset after an apparent racial taunt from a fan marred his side's victory over Collingwood at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in an Australian Football League match. Sydney won 15.12 (102) to 8.7 (55) Friday in the opening match of the AFL's Indigenous Round after Goodes kicked three goals and had 30 possessions. The round is meant to ...
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Ex-Guatemala president extradited to US
Ex-Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo was extradited on Friday to the United States to face charges of laundering $70 million in Guatemalan funds through U.S. bank accounts. The former president was taken from a military hospital where he was recovering from liver surgery and a heart condition and put on a plane, according to his lawyer Mauricio Berreondo. He said the plane was bound ...
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UK arrests two men on Pakistan flight
Two men have been arrested on suspicion of endangerment of an aircraft after an incident on a plane flying from Pakistan to Britain, rattling the UK just days after a British soldier was killed on a London street in a suspected terror attack. A fighter jet was launched to divert the Pakistan International Airlines plane carrying nearly 300 passengers to Britain's Stansted Airport, ...
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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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‘Comfort women’ cancel meeting with Osaka mayor
Two South Korean women forcibly drafted into Japanese military brothels during World War II have cancelled a meeting with a Japanese mayor who sparked outrage by calling them a wartime necessity. Outspoken Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto and two former ';comfort women'; were to meet on Friday, but the elderly women reportedly changed their minds over fears of becoming political pawns in a ...
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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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S. Korea not moving to ease lift sanctions on Pyongyang
South Korea is not considering easing or lifting sanctions imposed on Pyongyang after the sinking of one of the South’s warships in 2010 that effectively put the kibosh on most cross-border exchanges, official sources said Friday. Seoul announced the so-called May 24 measures after a two-month-long probe that accused Pyongyang of sinking the Cheonan in waters near the maritime border in ...
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Death toll in China blast ‘rises to 33′
The death toll from a blast at an explosives plant in eastern China earlier this week rose to 33 Thursday as 20 missing people were declared dead, state media reported. Officials had said Tuesday that the explosion, which occurred the day before in the Shandong province city of Shangqiu, had killed 13 people and left 20 missing. Xinhua news agency reported Thursday, citing local rescue ...
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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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China Pakistan vow to deepen co-op in joint statement
China and Pakistan have agreed to cement their strategic partnership and deepen comprehensive strategic cooperation in various areas, according to a joint statement issued Thursday during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to the South Asian nation. The statement said both sides are satisfied with their relationship, which contributed to peace and stability in the region and acquired ...
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China US to try new tone in desert outing
China and the United States are hoping for a new chance to set the course for smoother relations through a secluded desert summit as the Asian power’s leader Xi Jinping projects a more confident style. Xi and Barack Obama will meet June 7-8 at the tony Sunnylands resort in Rancho Mirage, California, their first encounter since the Chinese president took power and three months ahead of ...
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China’s Steel Overcapacity Seen Continuing
Serious overcapacity in China’s steel industry is unlikely to ease in 2013, which could hamper steel prices and jeopardise Chinese steelmakers’ performance, a China-based analyst said Thursday. China is set to produce about 750 million metric tonnes of crude steel in 2013, while capacity will rise to 950 million tonnes a year as some 50 million tonnes new capacity is being built, ...
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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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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 ...
South East Asia Digest
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Southeast Asia's growing prominence in world trade
Southeast Asia has been, for many centuries, a major part of world trade and the recent recession has not hampered this position as the region is recovering much faster than many more developed countries.
Southeast Asia, although geographically large, covering an area of around 5 million square miles, is comparatively small economically in relation to the number of people that inhabit the area. The Southeast Asian region is home to over 500 million people and yet the region’s GDP is just US$1.5 trillion, or around US$2,500 per person annually. Read more
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