.
Australia is
to establish counter-terrorist centers in SE Asia to set
up federal police teams that can be deployed in the region at
short notice.
.
Malaysia hit out at Australia’s counter-terrorism plan. It
said it would not allow pre-emptive strikes to be launched from
its territory.
.
PM Howard’s plan also drew a lukewarm response from the
Philippines.
.
Brushing aside Chinese warnings of a possible challenge
to the WTO, the Undersecretary of Commerce for International
Trade said the US would limit apparel imports if American
manufacturers provided evidence that such restrictions were
needed.
.
Chinese
industrial output growth rebounded in August after months of
decline, challenging hopes that the Government is successfully
engineering an economic “soft landing” and fueling
speculation that Beijing will soon order an interest rise.
.
Bank
of China is
struggling to find foreign partners after several international
banks turned down the chance to buy a stake in the run-up to a
planed $3 billion-$4 billion listing.
.
The American
Chamber of Commerce in China and Shanghai complained
of worsening product piracy in China, and warned that lack of
patent and copyright protection is hurting high-tech investment.
.
China has
tested a cruise missile that will allow its armed forces to
strike at targets more than 1,500 km away, according to defense
journal Jane’s Missiles & Rockets.
.
Swiss agri-chemicals company Syngenta has won its patent
infringement case against two Chinese companies (Yancheng Luye
Chemical and Yancheng Yongli Chemical) based in Jiangsu
Province near Shanghai.
.
Russia’s
Yukos Oil Co. is suspending oil exports to the Chinese
National Petroleum Corp. because its bank accounts were
frozen, said Interfax News Agency. It supplies more than
100k barrels of oil to China by rail.
.
The
strong showing of pro-Beijing candidates in Hong Kong’s
elections, winning 35 of the 60 council’s seats can be
attributed almost entirely to the skewed electoral system that
the public wants the government to revamp.
.
In April, China ruled out direct elections to choose all the
territory’s lawmakers and a successor to its unpopular CEO (Tung
Chee-hwa) who was appointed by Beijing. As many as half-million
people marched on July 1 to protest the decision.
.
Hong Kong politicians often play down or refrain from criticism
of Beijing’s policies on the mainland and try to distance the
territory’s democracy movement from the efforts of dissidents
and others in China the government considers subversive.
.
The
Hong Kong government is in discussion with Beijing to allow the
territory’s banks to handle renmimbi-denominated
transactions related to trade between Hong Kong and China.
.
Hutchison
Whampoa, controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing, has cut the size of
the Hong Kong and New York listing of subsidiary Hutchison
Telecommunications International by half due to cool investor
response.
.
Taiwan’s
government has pledged to deregulate its service sector over the
next four years, a move aimed at creating new growth &
employment as manufacturing faces increasing competition from
China.
.
Mitsubishi Tokyo
Financial Group
(#2 in Japan) agreed to provide 700 billion yen ($6.4 billion)
of emergency financing to UJF Holdings on a transaction intended
to bloc a rival bid.
.
An
unexpected downward revision in Q2 GDP deepened concerns that
Japan’s economic recovery has started to stutter.
.
Japan’s Securities
& Exchange Surveillance Commission recommended that US
bond trader, Cantor Fitzgerald be disciplined for allegedly
using its own accounts to illegally absorb trades ordered by its
clients.
.
Japan’s
PM (Koizumi) asked Pres. Bus to reduce local burden of hosting
American forces when the 2 leaders met for talks in NY.
.
The
Japanese Government is investigating a discovery in Libya of a
precision instrument used in nuclear research and made in Japan,
said officials in Tokyo.
.
Japan
Airlines (JAL)
is arranging sake tasting in some of its airport lounges.
The aim is to raise the profile of its national drink.
.
Japan has signed a bilateral trade treaty with Mexico that could
lead to many more such deals. Japan is Mexico’s 3rd
largest supplier of imports and of the largest export markets,
with a total trade of $8.5 billion.
.
South Korea’s
financial regulator censured the CEO (Kim Jung-tae) of Kookmin
Bank for violating accounting rules and barred hi from taking an
executive post at any South Korean bank for the next 3 years.
.
Despite
being one of Asia’s most technology-obsessed peoples, many
South Koreans remain superstitious. Fortune tellers are commonly
consulted, especially by mothers seeking the right mate for
their children.
.
Chipmaker
Samsung Electronics expects global chip sales next year
to grow at half of this year’s pace, as increased supply hits
prices.
.
A
huge explosion in North Korea was a deliberate blast to
pave the way for a hydroelectric dam, said Pyongyang.
.
Torrential
rain has destroyed huge swats of North Korea, destroying homes
and farmland ahead of the autumn harvest, said the official KCNA
news agency.
.
StarHUB,
Singapore’s 3rd largest mobile phone operator,
is to raise up to $328 million in Singapore’s biggest IPO this
year.
.
The Philippines
will grant additional flights to South Korea’s Asiana Airlines
to Clark Airport, said its Transportation Secretary (Leandro
Mendoza). The South Korean carrier will increase flights to RP
to serve the growing Korean tourist market.
.
For
the first time since late 1980s, because of falling income and
higher education fees, Filipinos are allocating less of their
household sending to education which, coupled with inadequate
government budget on education, a trend that could threaten the
country’s labor force, said a government survey.
.
Filipinos
now spend almost the same on education as they do on personal
products, e.g., bath soap, shampoo, toothpaste & deodorants.
.
Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono was the winner of Indonesia’s
presidential elections at 60-40, beating Pres. Megawati after
campaigning on promises to fight terrorism & corruption, and
stimulate economic recovery.
.
Malaysia
proposed an austere 2005 as it sought to reduce a yawning fiscal
deficit that has been the biggest blemish on its strong economic
performance.
.
The military
junta in Burma sacked the foreign minister (Win Aung) and
his deputy (Khin Mang Win), replacing the veteran diplomats with
senior military officers n a shakeup that could signal the
regime’s efforts to win greater international legitimacy.
.
It reinforced beliefs that Senior Gen. Than Shwe has no
intentions of making political concessions on freeing Ms. Suu
Kyi in the near future even if it entails continued sanctions.
.
Burma’s agriculture, commerce, transport and co-operative
ministers were also replaced.
.
India
cannot be counted among the great nations of the world as long
as its women are called upon as liabilities. The worsening child
sex ratio in the country present an alarming picture.
.
India is to
repeal an controversial anti-terrorism law introduced by former
Hindu nationalist government after the 9/11 attacks in NY, which
allowed police to detain people indefinitely, was being misused.
More than 100 Muslims have been detained under the law.
.
India
has banned child weddings, but half of the nation’s women are
still married off before the age of 15, according to a
government report. Legal age for marriage is 18 for women and 21
for men.
.
GE
could sell its India call centers & services unit which
could fetch as much as $1 billion. These services include
financing & accounting, customer call centers, insurance
claims processing, and IT, most of which is based in four cities
in India.
.
The US gave a clear signal that it trusts India as a nuclear
weapons power by removing its ban on technology imports to
India’s civilian space agency.
.
Pakistani
troops assaulted a suspected terror hideout, killing 10
militants, including 5 foreigners, hours after a military air
strike against an illegal al-Quaeda training facility killed
more than 50 fighters, the Army said.
.
The
Pakistani Parliament will offer a resolution to invite Gen.
Musharraf to remain the military chief and president despite his
promise to remove his uniform by the end of the year.
.
Norwegian mediators
failed in their latest attempt to revive peace talks between Sri
Lankan government and Tamil Tiger separatists.
.
Suspected Communist
rebels bombed the America Information Center in Nepal’s
capital, damaging parts of the building but causing no injuries,
the police said.
.
About 60 companies in
Nepal, including luxury hotels and subsidiaries of multinational
companies, have reopened for business after the trade union
linked to Maoist rebels withdrew its threat against them.
. Kazakhstan
information minister (Altynbek Sarsenbiuly) resigned in protest
at alleged government interference in parliamentary elections.
