IV. International
(06-15-07)
.
Consumer credit-card
lending in
fast-growing Asian economies in recent years has been
marked by sharp boom & bust cycles that
can jeopardize financial stability, a report by the
Bank for International Settlements said.
.
The UN ordered an audit
of the US accusations that the UN Development Program
had funneled million of dollars in hard currency to
North Korea with little assurance that the country’s
leader Kim Il Sung used it to help his people, and
instead diverted it to “illicit purposes,” including
developing nuclear weapons.
.
A former Laotian general
(Vang Pao) and a former CIA National Guard officer (Lt.
Col. Harrison Ulrich Jack) were among nine people (8
were Hmong) charged with plotting a violent overthrow of
Laos’ Communist government were arrested in San
Francisco.
. The memoirs
of 2 Australian soldiers killed in the Vietnam War were
being sent home for burial in the first repatriation for
Australia since the war ended in 1975, officials said.
Australia sent almost 50k troops to fight alongside US
troops during the war.
.
Vice-Premier Huang Ju, a
reformer who helped guide
China
through a period of swift economic change, died after a
long illness. He was reported to be suffering from
cancer and largely disappeared from public view in the
past year.
. Not far
from the Old Silk Road, Chinese government scientists
have begun boring holes deep into granite in the first
steps toward building what could become the world’s
largest tomb for nuclear waste.
.
A Chinese city (Xiamen) has halted construction of a
chemical plant after residents sent more than 1 million
mobile phone text messages protesting possible pollution
dangers, news reports said.
.
The majority of Japanese
voters choose social security issues as a key factor
when deciding on the candidates and political parties in
July’s House of Councillors election.
.
Japan’s
aging population and decreasing birthrate will reduce
domestic economic activity and ultimately affect the
quality of life of all its citizens. The government
reluctantly recognizes that any solution to this problem
would involve bringing in many foreign workers.
.
The Financial Services Agency ordered the Bank
of Tokyo-Mitsubishi to improve its business
practices in view of numerous problems with investment
trust services and foreign operations.
.
The two
Koreas
ended 4 days of talks, unable to agree on anything other
than to keep in touch, with the north demanding rice aid
and the south refusing until its impoverished neighbor
starts nuclear disarmament.
.
The nomination race in
the Grand National Party kicked off its 2 leading
presidential hopefuls (Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye)
registered their candidacy for the primary elections.
The loser is banned from running in the presidential
election.
.
Government-affiliated institutes are walking away from
the deficit-ridden National Pension Scheme in
pursuit of higher return and stable fund management. The
reform of the national system has stalled in the face of
political wrangling.
.
Making a bullish
assessment on the country’s economic outlook, HBSC
Philippines
said it was committed to supporting financing
requirements of local firms, using its own in helping
perk up business activities in the country.
. The
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will soon lift
documentary restrictions and make it easier for local
investors and companies, such as insurance firms to free
up capital, invest and transfer funds overseas.
.
The government, through joint efforts of Departments
of Energy (DoE) and Science & Technology
(DOST) are reiterating commitment to pursue new round of
studies in tapping nuclear as an option to meet the
country’s future energy needs.
. Thailand’s
state railroad halted all train services in the
rebellious Muslim far south after a derailment, probably
caused by insurgents, injured 14 passengers and crew
members, a senior railroad official said.
. Thailand’s
condom czar (Mechai Viravaidya) and patron saint of the
prevention program accepted the $1 million Gates
Award for Global Health on behalf of a group that
used showmanship, public education and once
unmentionable devices to slash birth and HIV infection
rates in the country.
.
The Constitution Tribunal judges climaxed a
day-long reading of the verdict on the political party’s
case by ordering the powerful Thai Rak Thai Party
of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra dissolved for election
cheating, and barring 111 top members from political
life for 5 years.
.
A komodo dragon
attacked and killed an 8-year old boy in eastern
Indonesia,
the first recorded deadly attack on a human by one of
the giant lizards in 33 years, a national park spokesman
said. The komodos are found only in the wild in a small
archipelago in eastern Indonesia. They can grow to a
length of 10 feet and weigh up to 365 lbs.
.
Nine men, including
Chinese, French and Dutch nationals, were sentenced to
death in Indonesia by the Supreme Court for producing
millions of pills of the illegal recreational drug
ecstasy.
. Indonesia’s
rainforests, especially those on
Borneo island,
are being stripped so rapidly because of illegal logging
and palm oil plantations for bio-fuels that they could
be wiped out altogether within 15 years, some
environmentalists say.
.
P.M. Nguyen Tan Dung of
Vietnam
said he appreciated the country’s reaching a gross
domestic product of 8% during the first five months of
the year.
.
A delegation from the National Assembly, headed
by Deputy Chair Truong Quang Duoc, met with Swiss
officials to cap off its tour of
Greece, Italy and
Switzerland.
.
Securities firms continue to struggle with a shortage of
qualified managers, brokers, traders and analysts –
problems that will likely worsen as more companies come
online.
. India
rejected any attempt to put legal limits on greenhouse
gas emissions at the G-8 summit. The nation’s
environment minister (Pradipto Ghosh) said any curbs
would hold back India’s economy and damage attempts to
eradicate poverty.
.
“Am I living close to a
nuclear power key? No one among the authorities – atomic
or otherwise – is telling me or my neighbors. They are
keeping us guessing by giving us both the answers
alternately. They are playing it safe without making us
feel secure.” (J. Sri Raman)
.
In India, the blood-sucking money lenders that enslave
people financially are called banias that lend
and sit to take control over borrowers’ lives.
.
When Pres. Pervez
Musharraf of
Pakistan
survived back-to-back assassination attempts in 2003, he
might have thought the worst was behind him. But now,
after easily quelling any threat to his power during the
8 years of military rule, the general appears trapped in
a labyrinth of his own making.
.
Out of weakness in the face of Allah’s madmen who
control a growing number of mosques and Koranic schools,
Pres. Musharraf is unable to undertake the promised
decentralization of institutions and has left the
country prey to the wave of fundamentalism.
. The
Minister of State for Finance (Omar Ayub Khan) said
that the consistent economic growth, which has been
witnessed by the country in the past 6 to 7 years, can
only continue through participation of the entire
population.
. Sri Lanka
evicted hundreds of minority ethnic Tamils from the
capital and sent them back to the war-torn north, citing
concerns for their safety, as the military battled Tamil
Tiger rebels in the east.
. Denying any
plans to restrict the amount of oil distributed to
consumers, Petroleum Minister A.H.M. Frowzie said
that the government will look at alternative energy
sources to address problems caused by the rapid increase
in oil prices.
.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa urged Korean
investors to make a bigger commitment to Sri Lanka,
pledging the government’s fullest cooperation for their
endeavors.
