Latest Asia News
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Asia Called Mixed on Fed Minutes
Minutes from the last Fed policy meeting released on Wednesday noted that "a number of participants expressed willingness" to reduce quantitative easing as early as the June meeting if economic data shows evidence of strong and sustained growth. ...
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China Submission by Human Rights Watch to the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council
Submission by Human Rights Watch to the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council on the proposed amendments to the Regulations of Education of Persons with Disabilities in ...
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Asia-Pacific film festival cultural base to be built in Sanya
Hongkong’s ITC Properties Group Limited will invest RMB 6 billion in the construction of an Asia-Pacific film festival cultural base in Sanya, Hainan. After the base is completed, an Asia-Pacific film festival and TV festival will be held in Sanya every year, and the base will be the permanent and high-end site of film conventions and exhibitions in the Asia-Pacific area. The ITC ...
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HK hails the return of the duck
Hong Kong on Tuesday joyfully welcomed the return of a giant inflatable rubber duck, which drew tens of thousands of visitors before it was abruptly deflated for maintenance for almost a week. The southern Chinese city has taken the 16.5-metre-tall (54-feet) yellow inflatable duck, conceived by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, to its heart since it was towed into the harbour on May 2 to ...
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China Galaxy soars 11 pct in debut after $1.1 billion HK IPO
China Galaxy Securities Co Ltd rose as much as 11.3 percent in its trading debut on Wednesday after raising $1.1 billion in a Hong Kong IPO, underscoring a surge in retail investors’ demand for new listings in the city. The debut of China’s seventh-biggest brokerage, and that of Sinopec Engineering (Group) Co Ltd on Thursday, will be bellwethers for a slew of Hong Kong offerings in ...
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Why Taiwan Won’t Let The Philippines Off Easy
Veteran Taiwanese political scientist George Tsai cringes at the anti-Philippine hysteria that swept his homeland like a typhoon after May 9. That day Taiwan began its campaign for an apology from Manila over the shooting of a local fisherman. What got into us, asked George Tsai, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy vice president and professor at Chinese Cultural University in Taipei. ...
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Taiwan fares well in US’ religious freedom report
Religious freedom is ';generally respected'; in Taiwan with no major problems last year, according to an annual US Department of State report issued on Monday. Taiwan’s record was in stark contrast to that of China where – according to the report – Beijing routinely enforces laws that restrict religious freedom. Findings for last year of the International ...
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Taiwan Dollar Forwards Gain a Third Day Before Bernanke Speech
Taiwan dollar forwards rose for a third day on speculation Federal Reserve Chair Ben S. Bernanke will signal today the need to sustain stimulus policies that have spurred fund flows into emerging markets. Bernanke is due to address Congress today and the Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to release minutes of its last meeting. Fed Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said ...
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Kenneth Bae American Jailed In N Korea Spoke Of ‘Collapsing’ Country’s ‘Walls’ In 2009 Sermon
A 44-year-old American citizen, jailed last year in North Korea accused of seeking to topple the government, said in 2009 that he wished to ';collapse'; the ';walls'; separating North Korea from the rest of the world and that he had asked US churches to send members to worship in the hermetic communist nation. According to a recently unearthed video, Kenneth Bae, who was ...
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Fishermen free but China angry at N Korea
The North Koreans have released 16 Chinese fishermen who were captured and held for ransom for a fortnight, but the ordeal has angered its sole ally and trading partner. The owner of the fishing vessel, Yu Xuejun, confirmed the men had been set free yesterday after their boat was seized in waters between China and the rogue ...
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N Korea’s hidden labour camps exposed
Even with new leader Kim Jong-un at the helm, North Korea remains the most reclusive and closed country in the world: It is a police state inside a totalitarian system ruled by a family dynasty that encourages a cultish ideology and following. The regime controls everything. There is no free speech, free trade, fair court, no Fox News or MSNBC equivalent. Outsiders are not allowed to freely ...
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Korea’s Iran crude imports for April down 44.4 pct yy
South Korea’s imports of Iranian crude in April fell nearly 45 percent from a year ago to 4.18 million barrels, official data showed on Wednesday, below expectations just ahead of talks with Washington to extend a waiver for US sanctions on Tehran. The world’s No.5 crude buyer and one of Iran’s top four customers bought 139,400 barrels per day (bpd) from Iran in April, up 7.5 ...
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S. Korea advised to focus on expanding nuclear exports
South Korea’s new administration needs to focus on finding ways to expand its nuclear exports, especially to the Middle East, as it plans to resume talks with the United States on their civilian nuclear cooperation, experts here said Tuesday. Seoul and Washington are moving to hold talks on the issue in Seoul in the first week of June, which would be the first round since they agreed to ...
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Greek PM invites China to ‘join Greece’s success story’
Officials in Brussels and Washington may view China’s global shopping spree with alarm, as the Asian power house continues to buy up companies, sovereign debt, ports, and bridges around the world. But the Greeks are already dusting off the red carpet. On a five-day visit to Beijing that ended Monday, Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras eagerly invited the Chinese to ';join ...
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Yet Another China Growth Downgrade
Another week, another downgrade as pessimism spreads about China’s economic prospects. This time it’s UBS Securities (UBS), which cut its 2013 forecast for gross domestic product expansion from 8 percent to 7.7 percent. ';Increasingly evidence suggests that growth will be weaker than we previously envisaged,'; writes Tao Wang, UBS’s chief China economist, in a May 21 ...
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China factory blast leaves 13 dead 20 missing
A blast which ripped through an explosives plant in China has left 13 people dead and another 20 missing, an official said Tuesday, compounding the country’s poor industrial safety record. Another 19 people were injured in the explosion on Monday at a three-storey workshop owned by Poly Explosives (Jinan), a state-owned company in the eastern province of Shandong, the Xinhua news agency ...
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China’s Li offers to help end Pakistan’s energy crisis
China and Pakistan should make cooperation on power generation a priority, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said, as Islamabad seeks to end an energy crisis that triggers power cuts of up to 20 hours a day, bringing the economy to a near standstill. Li arrived in the Pakistan capital on Wednesday on the second leg of his first official trip since taking office in March after a visit to ...
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Chinese PM on Pakistan visit
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrives in Pakistan Wednesday for a two-day visit where he will meet prime minister-elect Nawaz Sharif as the long-time allies look to boost trade ties. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party swept to victory in the May 11 general election on a promise to revitalise Pakistan’s struggling economy and help from its giant neighbour to the north will ...
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In film market China allures but also deters
In just a few years, China has become the world’s most enticing movie market, but the pitfalls there for foreign filmmakers are many, experts say. Censorship, bureaucracy and piracy head the roster of concerns, according to specialists interviewed in China, Hong Kong and at the Cannes Film Festival. ';China is extremely complicated when it comes to the cinema,'; said Jerome ...
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PM Li Keqiang faces litmus test in Pakistan China’s ‘iron brother’
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang faces the challenge of meeting conflicting demands for his attention and Beijing’s purse when he lands in Pakistan on Wednesday at the end of his India visit, his first foreign tour after assuming office. Li needs to pay equal attention to the aspirations of newly elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the armed forces led by Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, sources ...
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China Space Programme Ramping Up Capabilities Pentagon Says
China’s growing space prowess shows no signs of slowing, the US Department of Defense said in its annual report to Congress on military and security developments involving the People’s Republic of China. The Pentagon has been carefully monitoring China’s space activities, and pointed out that last year, the country conducted a total of 18 space launches and expanded its ...
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China arrests 13 over protest ‘rumours’
Chinese authorities have arrested 13 people for Internet posts that sparked a rare protest in Beijing, highlighting tensions between officials and migrant workers, police said. The 13 held include the boyfriend of Yuan Liya, a 22-year-old woman who fell to her death from a shopping mall, igniting the hours-long protest by hundreds of people earlier this month, Beijing police said late ...
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Japan to Follow Own Path on Abductee Issue With N Korea
A senior Japanese official said on Tuesday that Tokyo will stick with its policy of making its own overtures to North Korea on what it believes are abductions of its citizens, dismissing US and South Korean concerns that the North may try to drive a wedge between the three nations. A surprise trip to Pyongyang last week by a top aide to prime minister Shinzo Abe irked Japan’s allies, who ...
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Fed’s Bullard Says ECB Needs ‘Aggressive’ QE to Avoid Japan Fate
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said Europe risks an extended period of low growth and deflation like Japan’s unless the European Central Bank acts with an aggressive quantitative easing programme. ';You should worry about it, and then take policy action to avoid it,'; Bullard said in Frankfurt today in response to an audience question after a speech. ...
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Japan April exports rise 3.8 pct yearyear – MOF
Japanese exports rose 3.8 percent in April from a year earlier, marking a second straight month of gains, Ministry of Finance data showed on Wednesday, in a sign that a weaker yen and a pickup in global demand are helping the export-reliant economy. The MOF data also showed that Japan logged a trade deficit in April for a 10th straight month, with higher import costs offsetting export gains ...
Asia Feature
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Asia's largest ever infastructure project
The Trans-Asian Railway has been faltering since it was first proposed in the 1960s by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (ESCAP). Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s the project was hindered by political instability, the wars in Indochina, the reticence of China and a subsequent lack of finance in Asia for mega-projects of this kind.
Now, however, with China emerging as the number two most dominant economy in the world, the project to link two major continents (Asia and Europe) is finding its feet once more and the Chinese are looking into investment opportunities, with some aspects of the project, such as the several thousand kilometers that pass through Thailand, being slated for possible construction in 2013. Read more
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