Asia
China
China
asserts sea border claims - 13 May
A UN commission hoping to agree new maritime boundaries looks set to
pit China against some of its neighbours. China claims that a series
of island chains in the South China Sea are part of its sovereign
territory - but so do several other countries. Most coastal states
have to submit declarations on where they see their boundaries by 13
May. A total of 48 nations have made full claims, and dozens more
have made preliminary submissions. -
BBC News website
Hong Kong
Nina
Wang battle of wills begins - 10 May
The fortune of
Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum - the Hong Kong billionaire who was Asia's
richest woman - was the subject of an intensive legal dispute
between herself and her father-in-law for almost 10 years. After her
death in 2007, that fortune is contested anew. Her alleged secret
lover, feng shui expert Tony Chan, and the Chinachem Charitable
Foundation run by members of her family, are now contesting her
will. At stake is an estimated US$4.2bn (£2.8bn).
After her husband, Teddy Wang Teh-huei,
disappeared in a kidnap drama in 1990, her father-in-law
claimed his son's fortune as his own, alleging that Teddy had been
upset at an alleged affair of Nina's. His
father pressed for
Teddy to be declared legally dead nine years after he
disappeared, prompting Nina to produce the hand-written will showing
the fortune was hers. A court ruled it was a forgery in 2002 but a
higher court reversed that ruling in 2005, and Nina Wang inherited
the estate. Just two years after she secured the fortune, in a legal
battle that clocked up more than HK$560m in costs, Nina died. -
BBC News website
India
Remaking a government-owned giant :
an interview with the chairman of the
State Bank of India - April 2009
The country's largest bank was losing
market share to upstart private institutions and foreign players
offering customers new products through new technologies. Innovation
was the right medicine, but the bank had to get 200
000 workers across 10 000 branches
to take it. -
The
McKinsey Quarterly website
Tapping new markets, deal with EU part of
AEPC plan - 25 May
The global meltdown and subsequent reduction in orders have led
garment exporters to look for alternate markets. Though exports to
South Africa, Japan and Latin American countries constitute only
4% of the country’s textile export, AEPC wants to develop these
markets for the future. Following a successful marketing campaign
in South Africa, where the country put in a sustained efforts for
six years, exports reached $380 million in 2008-09, up from $130
million in 2002-03. -
Indiatimes website
Laos
Pregnant
Laos inmate to get visit - 5 May
A pregnant Briton facing a possible death sentence in Laos if
convicted of drug smuggling is expected to meet a human rights
lawyer later. Legal charity Reprieve said its lawyer had been
given permission to visit Samantha Orabator, 20, of south London.
Miss Orabator is due to go on trial in the south-east Asian
country this week without a defence team. In Laos, anyone caught
with more than 1lb (500g) of heroin faces a mandatory death
sentence. -
BBC News website
Keyphrase :
Drug smuggling
Myanmar
SA
calls for release of Aung San Suu Kyi - 22 May
BuaNews Online website
North Korea
N
Korea to try reporters in June - 14 May
Two US journalists arrested by North Korea near its border with
China will face trial on 4 June, North Korea's state-run KCNA news
agency reports. Euna Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling, a
Chinese-American, who work for a California-based internet
broadcaster, were detained on 17 March. The pair are charged with
illegal entry after allegedly crossing over the border from China,
and "hostile acts". Some reports have suggested that they were
arrested while on Chinese soil. -
BBC News website
Keyphrase :
Freedom of the Press
Pakistan
Pakistani
women protest Taliban but support Islamic law - 14 May
Middle and upper-class women of Pakistan's bustling cities, long
accustomed to their secularized freedoms, have much to fear. But
is it Sharia? Ashfaq Yusufzai an Inter Press Service
correspondent, reports that Muslim Khan, the Taliban's
spokesperson in Swat, said, 'Female education is against Islam.
They (women and girls) are required to sit at home and not venture
out'. Yusufzai notes that, 'a total 188 girls' schools and 97
boys' schools were destroyed by Taliban since late 2007'. - The
Huffington Post website
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