IV. International (6-01-09)

. Pres. Obama chose UT Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. ® as his choice for ambassador to China, tapping a moderate Republican governor to be his envoy to the world’s largest country. The announcement was made with his large family, including his wife, parents, 7 children, including 2 adopted from China and India.

     . A Japanese company (Shriko Gyorui Ltd) announced that traces of dichlorvos, an organo-phosphorus pesticide found more in the sliced frozen mackerel that had been processed in China. The company recalled the product but only a few were returned.

     . The Chinese Ministry of Public Safety said there was evidence that dumplings that poisoned dozens in Japan were contaminated with pesticides at a factory (Tianyang Factory) where the dumplings were made.

. Japanese stocks fell (5/21) with exporters under pressure on the back of a strong yen, and sentiment weak amid concern about a possible downgrade of the British GOVT debt that sent Wall Street down.

     . An investment fund unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it will take over Universal Studios Japan Theme Park for about $108.7 billion yen ($1.2 billion) after completing a tender offer.

     . Tokyo’s Showa U. Hospital banned people who have recently been in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures from visiting patients, due to fears of swine flu spreading, it has been learned.

. Taiwan’s jobless rate dropped slightly in April but still remained high by historical standards. April unemployment stood at 5.76%, down from 5.81% in March. The rates had increased for 11 consecutive months.

     . Its economy shrank by a record 10.2% year-on-year in Q1 on slumping export, the government said as it forecast a deeper contraction this year. The global recession continued to hurt its exports, the main engine of its economic growth.

     . China and Taiwan are seeking new business ventures in each other’s territories like never before as investments and travel barriers fall between the once bitter enemies amid warmer political ties.

. Former Pres. Roh Moo-hyun, a embattled reformer shamed by a corruption scandal that tarnished his image as a clean politician, jumped to his death, while hiking in the mountains behind his rural home in South Korea. He was a self-taught lawyer who lifted himself out of poverty to reach the nation’s highest office.

     . The Fair Trade Commission said the Korean GOVT and EU will sign a “cooperative agreement on competition law enforcement” upon completion of the Korean-EU Summit 5/23 in Seoul. The two countries agreed to notify each other before one enforces competition significant enough to affect the other’s interests.

     . Economic recovery will be weak and slow, countering burgeoning optimism that he nation will come out of the crisis fast. According to GOVT data, facility investment plunged 22.1% in Q1 from a year earlier, compared with a 14% year-on-year decline in Q4.

. More than 1k Jews fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany found refuge in far-flung Philippines due to its “open doors” policy that Israel plans to honor with a monument this month, officials said 5/21. Preparations were made to accept 10k Jews a year but only 1200 made it to Manila. Its only synagogue, Temple Emil, was destroyed during the heavy US bombing that preceded the 1945 liberation of Manila.

     . In a bid to keep elementary, high school and alternative learning system (ALS) teachers from going abroad, House Bill 6200 seeks a 9k pesos increase in their monthly salary, allowances and other remuneration funded from local school board funds and a 1k-peso per year medical allowance.

     . One year after he survived abduction by a GOVT team, a star witness (Rodolfo Lozada) in the aborted $329.5-million national broadband project, finds himself in a curious situation: He is in danger of going to jail on charges of perjury and graft filed against him by persons involved in his kidnapping.

. A key global conference on oceans opened 5/11 in Indonesia with a warning that the climate change will accelerate the destruction of already precarious marine resources.

     . International bank HSBC Group said 5/21 it has acquired nearly 89% of the shares in Indonesia’s PT Bank Ekonomi Raharja for $607.5 million cash. Through its subsidiary HSBC Asia Pacific Holdings, it would make a mandatory tender offer for the remaining Bank Ekonomi shares.

     . An Indonesian military plane crash killed 100 people. The defense minister said all C-130 Hercules could be grounded if mechanical problems were to blame. It was the 3^rd military aircraft accident in just 2 months after complaints it was struggling to maintain its aging fleet and hold on to experienced pilots.

. Malaysia is a SE Asian nation of 27 million people; it has been remarkably stable since the weeklong mayhem of May 13, 1969. As the country marked the 40^th anniversary of its riots, its uneasy racial détente is coming under duress.

     . Ethnic Chinese and Indians, the 2 largest minorities, have become more vocal in demanding racial equality in part because of growing economic hardships, and Indians staged unprecedented public protest in Nov 2007.

     . As Malaysians have grown wealthier and better educated, they have demanded a more open discussion of race and the government has acquiesced to a degree. But the shift is also stirring old passions—the Malays and Chinese, in particular, don’t fully trust each other. Therein lies the risk!

. Myanmar’s military junta charged pro-democracy Aung San Suu Kyi with breaching the terms of her house arrest over the bizarre incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside house. If convicted, it would stretch her detention past expiration date last month and through controversial elections due in 2010.

     . The military leaders allowed foreign diplomats and Burmese reporters to attend the widely criticized trial of democracy advocate Suu Kyi, a move that observers said showed the junta’s growing confidence in its legal case for continuing her incarceration.

     . Diplomats said they had not changed their opinion of the trial simply because they been allowed to attend, the AP reported. Most said they assumed that she would be found guilty.

. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee of India said he would take steps to protect the economy from the adverse impacts of the global slump and promised to return the country to a high growth path.

     . The gold deposit balance of SBI has attracted 548 kilograms of pure yellow metal deposits in a short span of 2 months in bank vaults. The scheme (started in 3/16/09) aims at tapping the gold from the homes of the people.

     . Airfares for traveling abroad will soon rise as the travel industry expects traffic to pick up from late June due to 2 reasons: increase business travel to India with a stable government being sworn in & school holidays abroad.

. Pakistani planes bombed the Taliban in their Swat bastion 5/8 after PM ordered the elimination of “militants and terrorists” and are the heels of a commitment to Washington to fight extremists.

     . Mainstream religious leaders have formed an alliance to openly oppose the Taliban, a development that promises to give authorities broad-based support to fight militants who have imposed a reign of terror on much of the NW. Intensified fighting has displaced an estimated 1.3 million people, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

     . Donations to help refugees fleeing Pakistan’s offensive against the Taliban surpassed $200 million (5/21) as the country’s allies sought to ease a crisis that risks eroding public support for the military push.

. Sri Lanka declared total victory after Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) leader Kellupillai Prabhokaran took control of the entire country for the first time since 1993. Special Forces troops killed KP as he tried to flee the war. It ended his 3-decade quest for an independent homeland for minority Tamils.

     . The Rajapakra brothers (president and defense minister) were able to do what 5 Sri Lankan presidents, 8 governments and 10 ceasefires could not: win a war against what the FBI called “the most ruthless and efficient terror organization in the world (LTTE).

     . The US and UK, two key members of the IMF have said they will link the release of a $1.9 billion bailout loan to improvements in Sri Lanka’s treatment of war-displaced civilians.

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