• China Attepts Reforming Migrant Detention
    AP (June 23, 2003)
    BEIJING (AP) - China has banned torture, extortion and other abuses in holding centers for unregistered migrants in its strongest attempt in 20 years to reform its detention system.
     
  • 'Peter Rabbit' Caught in Legal Dispute
    AP (June 23, 2003)
    BEIJING (AP) - Peter Rabbit has hopped into a Chinese legal dispute.
     
  • Facemasks Ripped Off as HK Dropped from SARS List
    Reuters (June 23, 2003 )
    HONG KONG (Reuters) - The World Health Organization declared Hong Kong effectively free of SARS on Monday after nearly four agonizing months in which the disease killed nearly 300 people in the city and ravaged its economy.
     
  • Indian PM Makes Historic Visit to China
    AP (June 23, 2003)
    BEIJING (AP) - India's prime minister, making the first visit to China by a leader of his nation in a decade, told his Chinese counterpart Monday that he hoped for friendship and trust between the nuclear-armed former rivals.
     
  • More than 50 Still Missing in China Ferry Disaster
    Reuters (June 20, 2003 )
    SHANGHAI (Reuters) - At least 53 people were still missing on Friday following Thursday's collision in heavy fog between a Chinese passenger ferry and a freighter on the Yangtze River, the official Xinhua news agency said.
     
  • China Shuts Down Tabloid Paper in Media Crackdown
    Reuters (June 20, 2003 )
    BEIJING (Reuters) - China's propaganda chiefs have shut down a tabloid newspaper as part of efforts to rein in the increasingly outspoken media, Chinese sources said on Friday.
     
  • Text: U.S. Agency Hosts European, Eurasian Energy Sector Officials
    Reuters (June 20, 2003 )

     
  • Indicted Taiwan Business Leader Resigns
    AP (June 20, 2003)
    TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - One of Taiwan's most influential businessmen resigned as the head of a major financial group Friday, two weeks after he was charged in a massive corruption case.
     
  • Text: U.S. Wins WTO Ruling on India Challenge to Textile Rules
    Reuters (June 20, 2003 )

     
  • Mitsubishi Wins Power Plant Contract
    AP (June 18, 2003)
    TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. won a $1.55 billion contract in a bid to supply generators to a Taiwanese power plant, the state-owned Taiwan Power Co. said Wednesday.
     
  • Vietnam Shuns U.S. Sanctions on Catfish
    AP (June 18, 2003)
    HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Vietnamese catfish farmers said Wednesday the United States will destroy thousands of jobs by imposing sanctions on frozen fillets shipped to America and will hamper future trade relations between the two former enemies.
     
  • North Korea Warns U.S., Japan Against Blockade
    Reuters (June 17, 2003 )
    SEOUL/PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - North Korea vowed on Tuesday to retaliate against any U.S.-led blockade of the Stalinist state, which Secretary of State Colin Powell said was in dire straits and living on Chinese handouts.
     
  • ASEAN Rebukes Myanmar on Suu Kyi but No Action
    Reuters (June 17, 2003 )
    PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Southeast Asia's main political group piled pressure on member Myanmar on Tuesday to release Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, but its unprecedented rebuke amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist.
     
  • Tokyo Replaces Hong Kong as World's Costliest City
    Reuters (June 17, 2003 )
    SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Tokyo has replaced Hong Kong as the world's most expensive city, according to a lifestyle survey that also showed the gap between the world's costliest and cheapest cities narrowing for a sixth straight year.
     
  • Boeing Confirms Deal with Korean Air
    Reuters (June 17, 2003 )
    LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) - Boeing Co confirmed on Tuesday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Korean Air to sell nine new planes including 747 jumbo jets worth about $1.5 billion.
     
  • SARS Unlikely to Resurge with China Floods-WHO
    Reuters (June 16, 2003 )
    BEIJING (Reuters) - Fears that China's summer floods might trigger a resurgence of the deadly flu-like SARS may have been overblown, a WHO spokesman said Monday.
     
  • Japan Parliament to Be Extended, PM Eyes Reelection
    Reuters (June 16, 2003 )
    TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese political leaders were set to meet Monday to extend parliament for passing a bill to send troops to Iraq, a development which could help Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi prolong his grip on power.
     
  • Hong Kong Could Get Off SARS List Next Week
    Reuters (June 16, 2003 )
    HONG KONG (Reuters) - The top U.N. expert on infectious diseases said on Monday Hong Kong will be taken off the WHO list of SARS-affected areas on June 23 if there were no new cases from now until then.
     
  • Hong Kong, China to Sign Free Trade Deal
    AP (June 16, 2003)
    HONG KONG (AP) - Hong Kong and China will sign a free trade pact on June 30 that could help Hong Kong's economic recovery, top leader Tung Chee-hwa said Monday.
     
  • EU Stiffens Sanctions on Myanmar
    Reuters (June 16, 2003 )
    LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union decided Monday to stiffen sanctions against Myanmar following the detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
     
  • China to Chop Half Million Military Jobs - Analysts
    Reuters (June 16, 2003 )
    BEIJING (Reuters) - China aims to cut up to half a million people from the armed forces over the next two years as it reinvigorates a decade-old plan to make its bloated military more efficient, analysts said Monday.
     
  • Japan Fights Whale Conservation Measure
    AP (June 16, 2003)
    BERLIN (AP) - The International Whaling Commission opened its annual meeting Monday under the threat of a Japanese walkout if the group adopts a hotly contested measure designed to improve whale protection.
     
  • Work to Start on Australia Gas Project
    AP (June 16, 2003)
    SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Houston-based energy giant ConocoPhillips announced Sunday that it will begin work on a $1.5 billion gas development project in the north Australian city of Darwin, having received final approval from the Timor Sea Designated Authority.
     
  • China Opens Three Gorges Boat Lock
    AP (June 16, 2003)
    BEIJING (AP) - The Three Gorges Dam on central China's Yangtze River opened to shipping Monday and a ferry carrying dancers waving red flags made the ceremonial first trip through the boat lock of the vast hydroelectric project.
     
  • Generic Move Seen Aiding India Drugmakers
    Reuters (June 15, 2003 )
    BOMBAY (Reuters) - A U.S. move to bring low cost, generic drugs to the market faster and expand their use under a state-funded health insurance program for pensioners will make it easier for Indian firms to launch copy-cat drugs, analysts say.
     
  • Japan Lags on Sex Equality, Says Government Report
    Reuters (June 13, 2003 )
    TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese women are a long way from achieving equal status with men because of entrenched stereotypes about their role in society, the government said in a report released on Friday.
     
  • United Restores Some Flights to China
    AP (June 13, 2003)
    CHICAGO (AP) - United Airlines is restoring some flights to China it had dropped from its schedule because of a SARS-related drop in demand.
     
  • Bribery Trial Ends for Chinese Tycoon
    AP (June 13, 2003)
    BEIJING (AP) - The fraud and bribery trial of a Chinese-born businessman ranked by Forbes magazine as China's second-richest ended Friday in a northeastern Chinese court and judges were to announce a verdict later, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
     
  • WHO Lifts SARS Travel Alert for Parts of China
    Reuters (June 13, 2003 )
    GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said Friday it was lifting its warning against travel to parts of China over SARS, but not for Beijing.
     
  • Japan Corporate Bankruptcies Down in May
    AP (June 13, 2003)
    TOKYO (AP) - Corporate bankruptcies in Japan fell 12.6 percent in May from a year ago but the nation's struggling economy is likely to result in a high level of bankruptcy filings, private credit research agency Teikoku Databank said Friday.
     
  • EU Official: China Behind on WTO Pledges
    AP (June 13, 2003)
    BEIJING (AP) - China is falling behind in some of its commitments to the World Trade Organization and needs to clarify laws and practices that violate those agreements, the European Union's top trade official said Friday.
     
  • Nauru Finally Has a Government, Ends Offshore Banks
    Reuters (June 13, 2003 )
    SYDNEY (Reuters) - The new government of the tiny South Pacific state of Nauru, the only nation or territory in the world facing full-blown financial sanctions for money laundering, announced on Friday it had ended its offshore banking operations.
     
  • Taiwan Probes Underreporting of SARS
    AP (June 13, 2003)
    TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Taiwanese officials began investigating Friday whether the island has been underreporting SARS deaths, while Canada was accused of failing to tell a U.S. traveler he was exposed to the virus before returning home.
     
  • SK Chief Gets Three-Year Prison Term
    AP (June 13, 2003)
    SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The head of South Korea's third-largest conglomerate was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday for financial wrongdoing in a case that shed light on murky accounting practices at some South Korean companies.
     
  • Powell Says It's Time for More Pressure on Myanmar
    Reuters (June 12, 2003 )
    SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell turned up pressure on Myanmar's military rulers over the detention of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, saying he would seek action from their Asian neighbors at a meeting next week.
     
  • Asia Capital Exporters Calm on Freddie Mac
    Reuters (June 12, 2003 )
    HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asia is a big buyer of Freddie Mac bonds, but the woes of the U.S. mortgage finance firm do not seem to be jamming the conveyor belt that ships Asian savings to plug America's huge current account gap.
     
  • Volvo Sees Asia Sales Up 12.5 Percent
    Reuters (June 12, 2003 )
    KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Volvo Car expects a 12.5 percent rise in sales in Asia this year following the launch of a new model, and may start an assembly line in China to tap a rapidly growing market, its regional chief said on Thursday.
     
  • U.S. Says Thailand Strong Free-Trade Deal Prospect
    Reuters (June 11, 2003 )
    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush sees Thailand as an excellent prospect for a free-trade agreement with the United States, Washington's Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said on Tuesday.
     
  • Text: U.S. Considering Thai Designation as Major Non NATO Ally
    Reuters (June 11, 2003 )

     
  • China Orchid King Stands Trial for Fraud, Bribery
    Reuters (June 11, 2003 )
    BEIJING (Reuters) - Fallen flower baron Yang Bin, once ranked China's second richest man, went on trial on commercial crime charges Wednesday in a case highlighting the pitfalls threatening China's entrepreneurial elite.
     
  • Text: Senator Patrick Leahy Backs McConnell Bill to Sanction Burma
    Reuters (June 11, 2003 )

     
  • WHO Official Seeks Answers on SARS in China
    Reuters (June 11, 2003 )
    BEIJING (Reuters) - The top U.N. expert on infectious diseases arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to investigate China's SARS outbreak and find some answers to questions that could stall the lifting of a WHO travel warning.
     
  • WHO Angers Taiwan by Keeping SARS Warning
    AP (June 11, 2003)
    TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Taiwan was angry Wednesday about a World Health Organization decision not to lift a SARS travel advisory for the island as it has done for Canada, where - despite the WHO vote of confidence - a recent U.S. visitor caught the virus before returning home.
     
  • Japan's Central Bank to Buy Securities
    AP (June 11, 2003)
    TOKYO (AP) - Japan's central bank decided Wednesday to take the unusual step of buying up to $8.5 billion in securities in an effort to help revive the nation's struggling economy.