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N Korea’s hidden labour camps exposed
Even with new leader Kim Jong-un at the helm, North Korea remains the most reclusive and closed country in the world: It is a police state inside a totalitarian system ruled by a family dynasty that encourages a cultish ideology and following. The regime controls everything. There is no free speech, free trade, fair court, no Fox News or MSNBC equivalent. Outsiders are not allowed to freely ...
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Greek PM invites China to ‘join Greece’s success story’
Officials in Brussels and Washington may view China’s global shopping spree with alarm, as the Asian power house continues to buy up companies, sovereign debt, ports, and bridges around the world. But the Greeks are already dusting off the red carpet. On a five-day visit to Beijing that ended Monday, Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras eagerly invited the Chinese to ';join ...
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Yet Another China Growth Downgrade
Another week, another downgrade as pessimism spreads about China’s economic prospects. This time it’s UBS Securities (UBS), which cut its 2013 forecast for gross domestic product expansion from 8 percent to 7.7 percent. ';Increasingly evidence suggests that growth will be weaker than we previously envisaged,'; writes Tao Wang, UBS’s chief China economist, in a May 21 ...
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China’s Li offers to help end Pakistan’s energy crisis
China and Pakistan should make cooperation on power generation a priority, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said, as Islamabad seeks to end an energy crisis that triggers power cuts of up to 20 hours a day, bringing the economy to a near standstill. Li arrived in the Pakistan capital on Wednesday on the second leg of his first official trip since taking office in March after a visit to ...
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Chinese PM on Pakistan visit
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrives in Pakistan Wednesday for a two-day visit where he will meet prime minister-elect Nawaz Sharif as the long-time allies look to boost trade ties. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party swept to victory in the May 11 general election on a promise to revitalise Pakistan’s struggling economy and help from its giant neighbour to the north will ...
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In film market China allures but also deters
In just a few years, China has become the world’s most enticing movie market, but the pitfalls there for foreign filmmakers are many, experts say. Censorship, bureaucracy and piracy head the roster of concerns, according to specialists interviewed in China, Hong Kong and at the Cannes Film Festival. ';China is extremely complicated when it comes to the cinema,'; said Jerome ...
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PM Li Keqiang faces litmus test in Pakistan China’s ‘iron brother’
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang faces the challenge of meeting conflicting demands for his attention and Beijing’s purse when he lands in Pakistan on Wednesday at the end of his India visit, his first foreign tour after assuming office. Li needs to pay equal attention to the aspirations of newly elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the armed forces led by Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, sources ...
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China Space Programme Ramping Up Capabilities Pentagon Says
China’s growing space prowess shows no signs of slowing, the US Department of Defense said in its annual report to Congress on military and security developments involving the People’s Republic of China. The Pentagon has been carefully monitoring China’s space activities, and pointed out that last year, the country conducted a total of 18 space launches and expanded its ...
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China arrests 13 over protest ‘rumours’
Chinese authorities have arrested 13 people for Internet posts that sparked a rare protest in Beijing, highlighting tensions between officials and migrant workers, police said. The 13 held include the boyfriend of Yuan Liya, a 22-year-old woman who fell to her death from a shopping mall, igniting the hours-long protest by hundreds of people earlier this month, Beijing police said late ...
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Japan to Follow Own Path on Abductee Issue With N Korea
A senior Japanese official said on Tuesday that Tokyo will stick with its policy of making its own overtures to North Korea on what it believes are abductions of its citizens, dismissing US and South Korean concerns that the North may try to drive a wedge between the three nations. A surprise trip to Pyongyang last week by a top aide to prime minister Shinzo Abe irked Japan’s allies, who ...
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Fed’s Bullard Says ECB Needs ‘Aggressive’ QE to Avoid Japan Fate
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said Europe risks an extended period of low growth and deflation like Japan’s unless the European Central Bank acts with an aggressive quantitative easing programme. ';You should worry about it, and then take policy action to avoid it,'; Bullard said in Frankfurt today in response to an audience question after a speech. ...
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Japan April exports rise 3.8 pct yearyear – MOF
Japanese exports rose 3.8 percent in April from a year earlier, marking a second straight month of gains, Ministry of Finance data showed on Wednesday, in a sign that a weaker yen and a pickup in global demand are helping the export-reliant economy. The MOF data also showed that Japan logged a trade deficit in April for a 10th straight month, with higher import costs offsetting export gains ...
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S’pore Japan prime ministers express wish for enhanced bilateral ties
The prime ministers of Singapore and Japan have expressed the desire to enhance bilateral ties. Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsien Loong met his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, in Tokyo, Japan on Wednesday. In his opening remarks, Abe said both countries share the same values of freedom and democracy. He added Singapore and Japan can work together for peace and stability in the ...
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Japan Confronts Pyongyang Abductions
A senior Japanese official said Tokyo will make its own overtures to North Korea on what it claims are abductions of Japanese citizens, dismissing US and South Korean concern that the North may try to drive a wedge between the three allies. A surprise trip to Pyongyang last week by Isao Iijima, a senior aide to prime minister Shinzo Abe, irked Japan’s allies, who fear such moves could ...
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Japan Keeps Monetary Policy Steady Amid Deflation Fight
The Bank of Japan stood pat on monetary policy Wednesday amid market jitters over volatility in bond markets, which has threatened to undermine the country’s battle to end deflation and stimulate growth in the giant economy. In a unanimous vote, the bank’s board stuck to its strategy of expanding the monetary base at an annual pace of 60 trillion yen to 70 trillion yen, or $585 ...
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Lis QA with Pakistani media
/enpproperty--> Editor's note: The following is an English translation of a written interview given to the Pakistani media by Premier Li Keqiang. Q1. We have learned that you made your first visit to Pakistan 27 years ago. Could you tell us what impression you got on that visit? This is your first visit to Pakistan since you took office as Chinese Premier. What expectations do ...
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Li raises proposal for boosting ties with Pakistan
/enpproperty--> ISLAMABAD - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang presented here Wednesday a five-point proposal for further deepening friendship and cooperation with Pakistan. He made the suggestions during talks with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Interim Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, during which the two sides reached important consensuses on boosting the bilateral strategic ...
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China Pakistan to be good partners brothers forever
China and Pakistan will always be good partners and brothers that are reliable and sincere to each other, visiting Premier Li Keqiang said ...
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British firms face ethical dilemmas in Bangladesh
For the first time, Tesco, one of the largest retailers in the world, opened the doors to its factory in Bangladesh. ITV News visited a production center said to be ethically run. It manufactures many of the 40 million garments made in Bangladesh every year for the supermarket giant Tesco. ITV's Laura Kuennsberg ...
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Despite reforms Myanmars ethnic violence continues
-- When the European Union recently lifted economic sanctions on Myanmar, it closed a decades-long chapter designed to encourage democratic reform in the country. Although an arms embargo remains in place, the action will send an unequivocal message of "mission accomplished." But while the EU is celebrating the "new Myanmar," Rohingya Muslims in the western part of the ...
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US Officially Acknowledges Drone Strike Killings
The U.S. Justice Department has formally acknowledged that the United States has killed four American citizens in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan since ...
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Italian Judge Orders Criminal Trial for Costa Concordia Captain
An Italian judge has ordered the captain of the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia to stand trial for the deaths of 32 passengers. Captain Francesco Schettino has been charged with manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, and abandoning ship before all the passengers were safe. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. The Costa Concordia struck rocks and capsized off the coast of ...
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Singapore Data On Tap For Thursday
Singapore is on Thursday scheduled to release April figures for inflation and industrial production, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.Inflation is expected to add 0.1 percent on month and 3.4 percent on year after dipping 0.5 percent on month and rising 3.5 percent on year in March. Industrial production is expected to fall 0.3 percent on month and gain 0.7 percent on ...
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Fresh Water “More Precious Than Gold” in Bangladesh
- Fahima Begum rises each morning at dawn and walks two kilometres to a small pond, the nearest source of fresh water.On her way she passes the rusty old hand-pumped tube well that used to supply water to her village in Bangladesh's arid Barind region until the water table here dropped out of ...
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Myanmar reforms ‘bear fruit’ growth to accelerate—IMF
A man ties a boat to a huge bamboo raft in Sittwe, northwestern Rakhine State, Myanmar, Monday, May 20, 2013. Myanmar’s economy expanded 6.5 percent last year, the IMF estimated Wednesday, as sweeping reforms herald hopes of a renaissance for the impoverished nation. AP PHOTO/GEMUNU AMARASINGHE YANGON--Myanmar’s economy expanded 6.5 percent last year and is set for further modest ...
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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