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Asian shares rise yen edges up from lows
dollar fell to as low as 102.00 yen earlier on Monday, pulling away from Friday's high of 103.32 yen, the greenback's highest level versus the yen since October 2008. The dollar later pared some of its losses, and last stood at 102.69 yen, down 0.5 percent on the day. Comments by Japanese Economics Minister Akira Amari over the weekend spurred buy backs of the yen, market players said. ...
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At least 50 fleeing storm feared drowned after boats capsize off western Burma
At least 50 Rohingya Muslims are feared drowned after their boats capsized off western Burma, officials say. The boats, said to be carrying about 100 passengers, were evacuating people ahead of powerful Cyclone Mahasen. The vessels sank off Pauktaw township in Rakhine state late on Monday. More than 40 survivors have been found and eight bodies recovered. Thousands of Rohingya Muslims ...
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Indonesian shuttlers gear up to face India in first match
Paper Edition | Page: 20 Prior to facing India in the group A qualification round of the 2013 Sudirman Cup badminton mixed team championship, Indonesian shuttlers attended their rivals' first match to get a glimpse of their upcoming opponents.In Sunday's match at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, India had to bow down to defending champion China 5-0.According to ...
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RI car buyers demand more from auto websites
Paper Edition | Page: 14 A majority of car buyers, who were increasingly turning to the Internet for information, found the websites of automobile manufacturers and dealers unsatisfactory in terms of providing the services they needed prior to and after making purchases, a study recently has revealed.The global study, published by Accenture, involved 13,000 respondents from 11 developed and ...
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Development underway for first transgenic sugarcane plantation
Workers harvest sugarcane at a plantation in Tulungagung, East Java. The government recently approved the first transgenic sugarcane and other 13 biotech food crops for commercial production. Antara/Sahlan ...
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Multimillion-dollar future in RI e-commerce
Paper Edition | Page: 13 Avid online shopper, Caroline, fills her virtual cart with more than just fashion items. The young mother of two stocks up on children's toys and medicines not available in bricks-and-mortar stores."I also buy beauty products and toiletries, like toothpaste, soap and creams, for the kids," she said, adding that she keeps the bill below US$500.Caroline is ...
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E-commerce banks synergize in driving online business
Paper Edition | Page: 13 Online shopping, which is getting more popular here, has laid the ground for fresh business opportunities for long-standing businesses including banks that have begun offering payment services for the growing number of online merchants and shoppers.Suwignyo Budiman, a director of PT Bank Central Indonesia (BCA), said that approximately 56 online stores were now ...
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Executive column Nokia introduces smartphones for emerging markets
Finnish cellphone maker Nokia has recently launched its latest Asha smartphone, the Nokia Asha 501, which is aimed at costumers looking to upgrade from feature phones. The sub-US$100 smartphone is claimed to be the best option among lower-priced devices as it is already equipped with popular applicationns including Facebook, CNN, Foursquare, Line, LinkedIn, Nimbuzz and Twitter, giving users the ...
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No Indonesian citizen among victims of train accident in Connecticut Ministry
The Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed on Monday that there were no Indonesian citizens among the victims of a train accident in Connecticut, the US, on Friday.The ministry's director of information and media PLE Priatna said the Indonesian consul general for New York, Ghafur Dharmaputra, had been communicating with local officials and monitoring the developments of the train incident.Two ...
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Indonesia Vietnam ties getting ever stronger Envoy
Vietnamese Ambassador to Indonesia Nguyen Xuan Thuy (center) poses with Laos Ambassador Kouily Souphakhet (second left), Brunei Darussalam Ambassador Dato Paduka Mahmud Haji Saidin (second right) and two Vietnamese dancers during the opening of the Vietnam Festival at Hotel Indonesia Kempinski in Jakarta on Friday. With the theme of "Revealing Delicacies of the Exquisite Vietnamese ...
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Jakarta sets eye on Asian marathon hub
Paper Edition | Page: 9 After successfully conducting the annual cycling event Tour De Singkarak, the government is set to make another breakthrough in the sports tourism sector by holding the Jakarta Marathon in October this year. Jakarta Marathon 2013 is going to be the biggest marathon event in Indonesia and it is expected to draw more international tourists, particularly those who have a ...
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History food at the cemetery
Jakartans may have limited public space, but they can still find places to relax even in a cemetery.Indri Seska and her son, Indra Tamabudi Wijaksono, came all the way from their home in Cibubur, West Java, to join a historic tour and martabak (pancake) cooking at a graveyard in Petamburan, Central Jakarta."This is the first time I've come here. I love history and museums, while my son ...
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Thai Q1 GDP Shrinks 2.2 Up 5.3 YY
Thailand's economy contracted more than expected in January-March from the previous three months, which economists said raises the chances that this month will bring a rate cut the government wants. Also on Monday, the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) on Monday trimmed its forecast for full-year economic expansion to 4.2-5.2 percent from 4.5-5.5 percent range. For ...
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Singapore prime minister Workplace safety improving but more needs to be done
rate has halved from four in 100,000 employees in 2005 to 2.1 last year. This is higher than that of Britain (0.6), Germany (0.7) and Australia (1.9), noted Lee. He urged employers and workers to reach the target of 1.8 sooner than the 2018 deadline, and set a more ambitious goal to match standards of developed countries. He noted that many incidents are preventable and involved foreign ...
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Pakistani health officials blamed for measles outbreak
Hundreds of Pakistani children have died of measles in the past year because Pakistani health officials have incompetently handled vaccination programs, according to a new government ...
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Imrans party wins revote in Karachi
Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf party won a revote in an upmarket constituency of Karachi on Sunday, unofficial results showed, a day after gunmen killed a party leader, setting the stage for protests and counter-protests. Khan blamed the killing ...
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More protests against Philippines fatal shooting
(11 mins ago) Around 50 people from several groups have staged a protest outside the Philippines' Consulate-General in Admiralty over the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman in disputed waters last week. They demanded an apology and compensation from Manila over what they described as a "cold-blooded murder" of the fisherman, RTHK reports. One of the protesters Chau Pik-fai, said ...
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Political Jockeying Ahead of Malaysia Election
The police said 45,000 people. Some politicians claimed it was 60,000. Other independent estimates were as high 150,000 individuals. Such squabbling over crowd numbers at political events isn't unique to Malaysia, but nonetheless likely sets the adversarial tone for the coming weeks or months until the next parliamentary election, due to be called by the end of April. "We want a free ...
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Philippines coast guard defensive over killing
An investigation into the killing by the Philippines coast guard of a Taiwanese fisherman is focusing on whether rules of engagement were broken. A report by The Philippine Star newspaper cited an unnamed official close to the Philippine government's investigation as saying coast guard personnel appeared to be on the defensive and they may have violated rules. That is what the ...
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STOCKS NEWS THAILAND-Italian Thai at 2-month high on mine sale hopes
Mon May 20, 2013 12:46am EDT Shares in Italian Thai Development Pcl gained as much as 2.9 percent to a two-month high of 9 baht on expectations the builder would book a strong gain from a stake sale in its domestic potash mine seen later this month. Bualuang Securities pegged resistance for the stock at 9.25 baht as it expects the potash mine would be sold at a price higher than market ...
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Indonesia budget plan sees 2014 GDP growth rising to 6.4-6.9 pct
JAKARTA | Mon May 20, 2013 12:36am EDT JAKARTA May 20 (Reuters) - Indonesia's proposed 2014 budget puts GDP growth next year at 6.4-6.9 pct, above the latest Finance Ministry forecast for this year of 6.2 percent. In the proposed budget presented to parliament on Monday, the government said the budget deficit would be 1.7-2.3 percent of gross domestic product. Last month, the ...
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No illegal races as police check on the street
Paper Edition | Page: 9 A joint force of the National Police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) patrolled in areas notorious for hosting illegal street races late on Saturday, but the streets had been deserted.Six hundred and forty three personnel took part in the patrol, which was held following reports of increasing numbers of traffic violations involving motorcycle gangs that created a ...
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Four more bodies taken from Freeport mine
Paper Edition | Page: 5 Rescue workers pulled four more bodies from the collapsed PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI)'s Big Gossan training facility in Mimika, Papua, as of Sunday.The dead workers were identified as Joni Tulak, who was found on Saturday evening at about 10 p.m. local time (8 p.m. Jakarta time), while Aris Tikupasang, Viktor Sanger and Hengki Hendambo were discovered on Sunday at ...
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Rising costs greatest threat to Thai govt
The increasing cost of living was cited as the major factor threatening to weaken public support for the Yingluck government in a poll by Assumption University. Higher cost of living was cited as the most likely cause of a drop in support for the government by 85.2 per cent of the 2,115 respondents in 17 provinces. Charter amendment (81.9 per cent) was the second most cited threat to the ...
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18 million citizens submit opinions on amended constitution of Vietnam
Vietnam's Ministry of Justice reported yesterday that opinions and feedback on draft amendments to the 1992 Constitution had been collected from 18 million people across 63 provinces and cities.The comments from the public and government workers included feedback on amendments and supplementary regulations relating to the way government operates - from local administrations to the National ...
Bangladesh in Focus
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Myanmar refugees in Bangladesh, the politics of their situation is more important than the human impact
Bangladesh and Myanmar have been disputing their sea border for years, and in recent months tensions on the land border have mounted as claims of interference and counter-claims of provocation are made by both countries, now the politics of territorial dispute have come to have a direct bearing on the respect for human life and development.
In October of 2009, the government of Bangladesh received a report from its military officials detailing a credible threat of attack from Myanmar, they feared that St Martin’s island in the Bay of Bengal, a region increasingly important economically for hydrocarbons, would be attacked and captured by Myanmar, and called for the government to strengthen the defensive capability of the island which has a circumference of just 3 miles. Read more
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