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Taiwan and Singapore conclude trade pact talks
Taiwan and Singapore have concluded two-year talks about a bilateral trade pact and will release an official report once an assessment has been completed, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The two sides are in the process of selecting appropriate legal texts for an official report, the Taipei Representative Office in Singapore and the Trade Office of the Republic of ...
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Philippines fears for workers in Taiwan amid row over death
The Philippine envoy to Taiwan on Friday advised thousands of Filipino workers there to eat at home and avoid the streets while emotions run high on the island over the shooting death of a fisherman by the Philippine coast guard. Philippine representative Amadeo Perez said after returning to Manila from Taipei late Thursday that his government has verified at least one attack, in which a ...
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UN panel says sanctions are delaying development of N Korea’s…
North Korea is still trying to import and export nuclear and ballistic missile-related items but financial and trade sanctions are slowing progress on development of their prohibited weapons, UN experts say in a new report. Key parts of the expert panel’s report, obtained Friday by the Associated Press, provide further information on North Korea’s attempts to evade four rounds of ...
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N Korea condemns media freedom but praises two US reporters
How does North Korea celebrate World Press Freedom Day? First of all, two weeks late, on May 15 rather than May 3, presumably (and tellingly) because that’s how long it took to get around to it. But get around to it North Korea did, with a special editorial in the state-run Rodong Sinmun, the country’s preeminent newspaper. Entitled ';Mockery of Press,'; it targets the US ...
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Japan’s ‘secret’ trip to N Korea disrupts united stance against…
A small crack has appeared in the international show of unity against North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons, following the ';secret'; visit to Pyongyang this week by a special adviser to Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe. Isao Iijima arrived in the North Korean capital on Tuesday for a four-day visit that many believe was aimed at restarting talks on the ...
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China joins e-tail superhighway – The Age
When you think about centres of technological innovation, Silicon Valley, Seattle and Seoul are probably the first places that come to mind. After all, they are the homes of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft and Samsung – companies whose innovations transform the way other sectors, from financial services to telecoms and media, do business. Now, however, the rise of ...
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Foxconn says needs more time to further cut workers’ overtime
Foxconn Technology Group said on Friday it needs more time to reduce overtime at its China factories after labour monitors appointed by top client Apple Inc said cutting workers’ hours by a July 1 target would be a challenge. Apple last year commissioned the Fair Labour Association (FLA) to investigate working conditions at the plants after Foxconn, the holding company for Hon Hai ...
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China urban private sector wages up 17.1pct in 2012
China’s private sector wages in urban areas grew 17.1 percent in 2012, official figures showed Friday, even as the country’s economy expanded at its slowest pace in 13 years. Average urban pay in private companies increased to 28,752 yuan ($4,681) last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its website. But the rise was slower than the 18.3 percent of the previous ...
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Some Chinese tourists ‘uncivilised’ top official
The dire manners and ';uncivilised behaviour'; of some Chinese tourists abroad are harming the country’s image, said a top official who lamented their poor ';quality and breeding';, according to state-run media. Wang Yang, one of China’s four vice premiers, singled out for condemnation ';talking loudly in public places, jay-walking, spitting and wilfully ...
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Chinese ships in disputed-islands waters Japan
Three Chinese government ships entered the waters of disputed islands on Friday, Japan’s coastguard said, more than a year after then-Tokyo governor set off the row by announcing plans to buy them. The Chinese maritime surveillance vessels were spotted off the Senkaku islands, which China calls the Diaoyus, in the East China Sea at around 2:30 pm (0530 GMT), the coastguard said. It is ...
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Japan PM says shrine visits ‘natural’
Prime minister Shinzo Abe defended in an interview Friday the right of Japan’s leaders to visit a controversial shrine to war dead but hit back at critics who accuse him of revisionism. Amid the latest flare-up with China and South Korea over history, Abe quoted a US scholar as comparing the Yasukuni shrine to Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, which has a section for ...
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Philippines’ shooting violates international law ministry
The fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fishing boat by a Philippine government vessel may involve criminal conduct and violates the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday. A joint patrol of the Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources shot up a Taiwanese fishing boat, the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28, while it was ...
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Philippines Economy Booming But Poverty and Unemployment Remain Problematic
Shortly after my piece on the Philippines’ continuing structural economic vulnerabilities, which generated considerable controversy and heated discussions among experts and observers alike, the country’s stock markets managed to record new historic highs – breaching the 7,000 mark and beyond. Meanwhile, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, following in the footsteps of ...
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Kingdom Philippines to finally sign worker agreement tomorrow
The long-awaited labour agreement on Filipino household service workers (HSW) will finally be signed by the Kingdom and the Philippines tomorrow. Labour minister Adel Fakeih and his Philippine counterpart Labour Secretary Rosalinda Dimapiliz-Baldoz are scheduled to ink the bilateral labour agreement. Baldoz arrives today with key Filipino labour officials for the signing, said Labour Attache ...
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Philippine ‘massacre clan’ enjoys election wins
A clan whose chiefs are on trial for the Philippines’ worst political massacre secured big wins in local elections this week, results showed Friday, deepening fears that justice may never be served. Leaders of the Ampatuan family and their gunmen are accused of massacring 58 people, including 32 journalists, in the southern province of Maguindanao more than three years ago in a bid to ...
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Indonesia Philippines and Burma Doing Well But Leaders…
Voters in the Philippines appear to have delivered a resounding victory to President Benigno Aquino in midterm elections. The son of former President Corazon Aquino looks set to control both houses of Congress, giving him a mandate to continue his reform policies. His biggest worry now is making them stick. In the first half of his six-year term, Aquino arrested his predecessor on corruption ...
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Thailand agrees to offer duty-free mkt access of select Bangladesh products
Thailand has agreed to offer duty free market access of selected Bangladeshi products to its market as it seeks to increase bilateral trade and investment, a commerce ministry statement said. The agreement came at the 3rd meeting of Bangladesh-Thailand Joint Trade Committee, held from May 14-15, 2013 in Bangkok. Commerce minister Ghulam Muhammed Quader led an eight-member Bangladeshi ...
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Tata Motors plan to develop Thailand plant put on hold
Struggling to cope with a slump in demand, Tata Motors has taken a call to postpone the development of its new assembly plant in Thailand worth 10 billion baht (around Rs 1,839 crore). The automaker has instead decided to break into Thailand’s passenger car market during the third quarter of this year with the introduction of its Nano budget car. At the end of 2012, Tata Motors had ...
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Rescuers digging through rubble of tunnel at Freeport’s mine in Indonesia to reach 23 trapped
Rescuers are working for a fourth day to dig through a caved-in tunnel at a giant US-owned gold and copper mine in Indonesia to try to reach 23 trapped workers. The operator of the Grasberg mine in Indonesia’s province of Papua, PT Freeport Indonesia, said Friday that rescuers had successfully cleared two passages to provide access for heavy equipment to help expedite the rescue ...
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Malaysia’s economy to grow stronger in Q2 – The Star Online
Malaysia’s economy will grow stronger in the second half this year, driven by the removal of the political uncertainty and the government’s firm economic policy, said Credit Suisse Securities (M) Sdn Bhd managing director Stephen Hagger. He said Malaysia would join an exclusive club currently comprising the Philippines and Thailand which had all the three certainties: primarily ...
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Malaysia’s UMW may raise $1b in energy unit IPO
Malaysia’s UMW Holdings Bhd plans to sell 39 percent of its oil and gas unit in an initial public offering this year that could raise up to $1 billion, a source said Friday. The state-backed conglomerate’s announcement is the latest in a slew of planned listings, looking to build on last year’s momentum that saw the Southeast Asian nation become one of the world’s top ...
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Australia’s deadly lyssavirus infects first horse
Australia reported its first ever case of the deadly bat-borne lyssavirus in a horse Friday, warning that transmission to humans was possible as it quarantined a property. Biosecurity Queensland said the horse was euthanised last week after falling ill with what was initially suspected to be infection with another deadly virus, Hendra, which has killed four Australians since its discovery in ...
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US visit endorses ‘Burma’s Spring’ Thein Sein aide
President Thein Sein’s historic invitation to the White House is an endorsement of ';Myanmar’s Spring'; and a further sign that the former pariah’s reforms are irreversible, a senior Myanmar official said. Washington will welcome the former general on Monday in a hugely symbolic reward for sweeping changes since he took power two years ago. He will be the first ...
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Burma leader frees dissidents ahead of US visit
Myanmar released about 20 political prisoners on Friday, a top official said, hours before its reform-minded leader was due to leave on a landmark visit to the United States to meet President Barack Obama. President Thein Sein, a former general, has freed hundreds of political detainees since coming to power in early 2011 as part of sweeping changes that have led to the end of most Western ...
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At Cannes shock movie tests China’s boundaries
Disgusted by corrupt local leaders, an angry miner picks up a shotgun. A migrant worker returning home looks to armed robbery to escape a life of relentless bleakness. A pretty receptionist at a sauna is driven to the limit when a gangster tries to rape her. And a young man drifts nightmarishly from job to job to try to make ends meet. These tableaux would not be out of place in a gritty ...
Mongolia Digest
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Mongolia coal mine sparking international interest
The government, after much deliberation, has announced that it will sell a 30% stake in the state-owned company that owns one of the largest coking coal reserves in the world, generating a flurry of interest in the industry.
Tavan Tolgoi is a huge coal mine in the Tsogttsetsii district of the southern Mongolian province of Ömnögovi. It is an extremely rural open pit coal mine that is hundreds of miles from any form of efficient transport and faces many difficulties because of this, the nearest railway, for example, is over 400 kilometers from the mine, making the transport of coal time-consuming, expensive and laborious. Read more
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