Burmese fighter pilot killed in crash

Asian Defense News: (heraldsun.com.au January 24, 2010) A BURMESE fighter pilot was killed during training this morning when his plane crashed in an airfield in the military-ruled country, an official said.
The 27-year-old died when he overshot the runway landing a Chinese-made F7 plane at Mingaladon air field in the north of Rangoon city, the official told AFP.
"It happened because of a technical problem,'' he said, asking not to be named. He could not give further details.
Burma, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, mainly buys fighter planes from China and Russia, although official statistics are difficult to obtain.
Burma and Russia signed a contract worth nearly $US570 million ($632 million) last month to deliver 20 MiG-29 fighter planes.

World stocks tumble as Obama targets banks

Asian Defense News: LONDON -- World markets fell Friday, led by bank stocks after U.S. President Barack Obama proposed a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street to avert future financial crises.
Obama said he would seek to limit the size and complexity of large financial institutions so that their collapse wouldn't imperil the broader financial system and world economy or cost taxpayer money in bailouts.
The announcement spooked investors, causing a sell-off in Europe after sharper falls in the U.S. and Asia.
Britain's FTSE 100 stock index was down 1.2 percent at 5,270.81 and Germany's DAX shed 1.1 percent to 5,684.88. France's CAC-40 lost 1.1 percent to 3,818.79.
U.S. futures suggested another drop on Wall Street later. Standard & Poor's 500 futures were down 2.2 points at 1,108.90 and Dow industrials futures were 30 points lower at 10,308.00.
Obama's announcement and Wall Street's reaction unnerved markets already on edge over China's recent moves to prevent its economy from overheating amid worries of inflation and asset bubbles.
Bank stocks were hit hardest, with Barclays Plc down 6.7 percent, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc 5.0 percent and Deutsche Bank 4.8 percent lower.
Adding to the uncertainty are questions about whether this year's economic prospects justify more gains after the run-up in stock prices that began in early 2009, said Mark Matthews, strategist at Macquarie Capital Securities in Hong Kong.
Last year “was such an amazing ride and people are starting to wonder if the recovery that we're seeing in 2010 was already priced in,” Matthews said.
Upbeat earnings from McDonald's, General Electric and Kimberly-Clark failed to reassure investors, who moved to cash in on their gains on a 10-month rally in equities.
In Europe, attention remained focused on the debt problems of Greece, with officials stressing the country will not need a bailout but will manage its funding on the market. The possibility that other countries, such as Portugal or Ireland, could also have trouble handling their debt has kept markets on edge, pushing the euro to 5-month lows against the dollar.
The euro recovered somewhat on Friday, to $1.4129 from $1.4082 late Thursday. The dollar weakened to 90.12 yen from 90.49 yen.
In the U.K., officials statistics confirmed that British consumers splurged on food and drink during the holidays, with retail sales rising 3.6 percent in December. The rise, however, was not a strong as some analysts expected, suggesting recovery from recession will be gradual.
In Asia earlier, Japan led the drop, with the Nikkei 225 stock average diving 2.6 percent to 10,590.55. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.7 percent to 20,726.18 and Korea's main market index lost 2.2 percent to 1,684.35.
Elsewhere, China's Shanghai benchmark fell 1 percent, India's Sensex shed 1 percent and Australian stocks retreated 1.6 percent.
While banks in the U.S. fell steeply, shares in Asian financial institutions performed better, with many closing the session higher. Japanese lender Mitsubishi UFJ edged up 0.2 percent and China's ICBC gained 2.3 percent in Hong Kong. Other industries like commodities suffered big drops as concerns about future global demand prompted investors to scale back their riskier bets.
In the U.S. Thursday, Wall Street was yanked lower by heavy selling in bank stocks.
The Dow fell 213.27, or 2 percent, to 10,389.88, its biggest point and percentage drop since Oct. 30.
The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 1.9 percent to 1,116.48 while the Nasdaq composite index fell 1.1 percent to 2,265.70.
Oil prices edged lower, with benchmark crude for March delivery down 24 cents at $75.84 a barrel. The contract dropped $1.66 to settle at $76.08 overnight.

Weaker dollar fuels demand for gold

Asian Defense News: LONDON -- Gold, little changed in London Friday, may climb as a weaker dollar and the metal's drop to a three-week low prompt investors to buy. Platinum and palladium declined.
The dollar slid as much as 0.6 percent against the euro on concern a U.S. proposal to curb banks' bets with their own capital will deter investors from buying assets in the world's largest economy. Bullion, which Thursday fell to the lowest price since Dec. 30, usually moves inversely to the greenback.
“Yesterday we had a lot of pressure on gold, and overnight we've seen some physical demand,” said Afshin Nabavi, a senior vice president at bullion refiner MKS Finance SA in Geneva.
Gold for immediate delivery added US$1.55, or 0.1 percent, to US$1,095.50 an ounce at 11:04 a.m. local time. The metal is down 3.1 percent this week, headed for its biggest slide in six weeks. Bullion for February delivery was 0.7 percent lower at US$1,095.30 on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division.
The metal declined to US$1,096.50 an ounce in the morning “fixing” in London, used by some mining companies to sell production, from US$1,108.25 at Thursday's afternoon fixing. Spot prices are 11 percent below a record US$1,226.56 set on Dec. 3.
Among other precious metals for immediate delivery in London, silver added 0.2 percent to US$17.43 an ounce. Platinum fell as much as 3 percent to US$1,547.65 an ounce, the lowest price since Jan. 8, and was last at US$1,553.90. Palladium dropped as much as 4.5 percent to a one-week low of US$431 an ounce and was last at US$435.25.

China claims U.S. Internet accusations are 'baseless'

Asian Defense News: BEIJING -- China hit back at U.S. criticism of Internet censorship and hacking on Friday, warning that relations between the two global heavyweights were being hurt by a feud centered on web giant Google.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday challenged Beijing and other authoritarian governments to end Internet censorship, an issue that has jumped to the heart of U.S.-China ties after Google threatened to quit China due to hacking and web restrictions.
China's Foreign Ministry said the U.S. criticisms could hurt relations between the world's biggest and third biggest economies, already strained by disagreements over trade imbalances, currency values and U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan.
“The U.S. has criticised China's policies to administer the Internet and insinuated that China restricts Internet freedom,” said spokesman Ma Zhaoxu. “This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-U.S. relations.
“We urge the United States to respect the facts and cease using so-called Internet freedom to make groundless accusations against China,” Ma said in a statement carried on the Foreign Ministry website www.mfa.gov.cn.
But the spokesman also indicated that his government did not want to see the dispute overwhelm cooperation with the Obama administration, which has sought Beijing's backing on economic policy and diplomatic standoffs, such as Iran and North Korea.
Ma said each side should “appropriately handle rifts and sensitive issues, protecting the healthy and stable development of China-U.S. relations.”
On Thursday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei played down the dispute with Google and indicated that his government was more worried about broader economic and political disputes that could flare up in coming months.
Clinton's speech criticised the cyber policies of China and Iran, among others, and demanded Beijing investigate the hacking complaints from Google.
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are blocked in China, which uses a filtering “firewall” to prevent Internet users from seeing overseas web sites with content anathema to the Communist Party.
“Sino-U.S. ties have been impacted,” Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University in Beijing, said of Washington's push on Internet controls.
“China has admitted there are areas where it can improve, and then Clinton made her comments in a public venue, comparing us to Egypt and Saudi Arabia,” he added. “So I think over the past year Clinton's speech is the most undiplomatic thing she's said.”
Murky Media Response
Some sections of the Chinese media were quick to criticise Clinton's remarks. But many of the Chinese reports were themselves cut from websites within hours of appearing.
It was unclear why they were removed, but Chinese websites often adjust or cut content based on propaganda authority instructions, especially for volatile issues.
Many cyber-experts suspect that the hacker attacks from China on Google and other targets were so sophisticated that official involvement was likely.
Ties between China and the United States have been put to the test in recent months over trade, currency, climate change and arms sales to Taiwan.
With the two giant nations joined at the hip economically, Sino-U.S. tensions are unlikely to escalate into outright confrontation, but could make cooperating on global economic and security issues all the more difficult.
Earlier this month, China denounced the U.S. sale of Patriot air defence missiles, capable of intercepting Chinese missiles, to Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own.
China announced its own anti-missile test soon after.
Beijing has warned that more U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan could badly bruise relations with Washington, and has urged President Barack Obama not to meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled Buddhist leader of Tibet who Beijing denounces as a separatist.

Kyocera employees to use JAL to aid revival

Asian Defense News: TOKYO -- Kyocera Corp., an electronics maker whose founder will lead Japan Airlines Corp.'s reorganization, asked the company's domestic employees to fly on the bankrupt carrier for both business and pleasure.

Chairman Makoto Kawamura in a memo Thursday, encouraged Kyocera's 12,000 Japanese workers in a memo to choose Japan Airlines to help revive the carrier, spokeswoman Chikako Morioka said Friday by telephone, confirming a Nikkei newspaper report.
Japan Airlines, Asia's biggest carrier, filed for protection from creditors this week with 2.32 trillion yen (US$26 billion) of debt. JAL, which traded at about 200 yen a year ago, was unchanged at 2 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

China Airlines, Eva Air play down tax reports

Asian Defense News: China Airlines and EVA Air yesterday played down reports that they have been asked to pay taxes to China for earnings made on the other side of the strait.
Airlines from both sides of the strait can enjoy mutual tax preferential treatments, a consensus reached at the second and third meetings of P. K. Chiang, chairman of the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation, and Chen Yunlin, chairman of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.
Based on that consensus, China has given Taiwan airlines tax preferential treatment, under which a three percent business tax and a 1.25 percent income tax are waived, as of December 2008.
However, Taiwan hasn't been able to reciprocate China's gesture, as a draft amendment to the Cross-Strait Relations Act, which gives legal ground to the preferential treatment, has not passed the Legislative Yuan. As such, Chinese air and sea operators are subject to a tax for earnings they make in Taiwan.
Dissatisfied, China has asked Taiwanese airlines, including China Airlines and EVA Air, to pay back taxes that accumulated starting in December 2008, the United Daily News reported, yesterday.
China Airlines has already applied for a deferment of the tax with Chinese authorities, it said, adding the company's financial operations have not been affected at this stage.
The company has also filed grievances with supervisory agencies on both sides of the strait to resolve the issue.
EVA Air, meanwhile, said it has not been asked to pay taxes to China. However, the airline said it has not received official documents on a waiving of the tax. Without those documents, EVA Air cannot wire earnings it has made in China back to Taiwan, it said, adding this will create inconveniences at its China operations.

Taiwan dollar declines on China curbs

Asian Defense News: Taiwan's dollar fell, posting its biggest weekly loss in six months, on speculation China will increase borrowing costs to slow lending, threatening a recovery in regional trade. Bonds were little changed.
Speculation Taiwan's central bank will intervene to cap gains after the currency reached its highest level since September 2008 last week also sent the island's dollar lower. The monetary authority said Thursday a strengthening currency is a “double-edged sword” because it will hurt exporters and benefit importers.
“China might raise interest rates,” said Janet Lin, a currency trader in Taipei at Taiwan Business Bank. “The global market is worried about that. The central bank has also been very aggressive in making sure the Taiwan dollar doesn't strengthen too much.”
The local dollar dropped 0.2 percent to NT$31.980 against its United States (U.S.) counterpart as of the 4 p.m. close local time, according to Taipei Forex Inc. It reached NT$32.04 Thursday, the lowest level since Jan. 4 and was down 0.5 percent for the week, the biggest loss since July 10.
Taiwan's central bank highlighted the benefits of capital controls in a statement sent to media Jan. 12, sparking speculation it will seek to limit stock investments from overseas that helped drive up the Taiex index 78 percent in 2009, the biggest annual gain since 1993. The gauge dropped 2.5 percent yesterday, extending its decline to 5.1 percent this week.
Central banks intervene in foreign-exchange markets by arranging purchases or sales of currencies.
Taiwan's exports started to recover in November following a 14-month slump, with concern measures by China to tighten policy will crimp a pickup in trade.
The island's export orders, an indication of shipments in the next one to three months, climbed 52.6 percent in December from a year earlier, after a 37.1 percent increase in November, the Ministry of Economic Affairs reported on Jan. 20.
China reported Thursday that gross domestic product rose 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the fastest pace since 2007. It has also guided bill yields higher this year and increased the amount of reserves banks are required to set aside to drain funds from the financial system.
Five-year government bonds were little changed this week. The yield on the 0.875 percent note due January 2015 was 0.90 percent compared with 0.905 percent at the end of last week, according to Gretai Securities Market, Taiwan's biggest exchange for bonds. The price rose 0.0313 or NT$31.3 per NT$100,000 face amount, to 99.8863. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

Taiwan civic groups protest sale of shark-fin soup

Asian Defense News: Taipei - Taiwan environmentalist groups on Saturday protested against chain stores selling shark-fin soup because killing sharks for their fins can lead to their extinction. The protest was made by 23 civic groups against four chains which are accepting orders for pre-cooked and ready-to-cook meals for the Chinese New Year holidays, which begins on February 14.
The targeted firms are 7-11, Family Mart, OK Mart and Hi-Life, which together operate nearly 10,000 24-hour convenience stores on the island.
"Lured by high profits, fishermen kill sharks only for their fins. They cut off shark's fins and dump the sharks into the sea and let them bleed to death," said Wang Yu-min, director of the Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan.
"Each year, some 4,000 to 7,000 sharks are killed for their fins. The International Union for Conservation of Nature warned that 111 species of shark are being threatened, of which 20 species are seriously threatened and 25 species face extinction," she said.
"Sharks are the biggest predators in the sea and are at the top of the marine food chain. Killing sharks will disrupt the food chain and ecosystem of the sea," she said.
The statement demanded the franchises remove shark-fin soup from their Chinese New Year menu, and urged restaurants, hotels and families to refrain from selling and consuming it as well. Shark-fin soup is one of the traditional Chinese New Year dishes and an important dish at wedding banquets. Many Chinese believe the soup is nutritious and being able to afford it reflects one's wealth and social status

10 year ADB bonds issued in Chinese renminbi

Asian Defense News: Saturday 23rd January, 2010 The Asian Development Bank ADB has issued its second renminbi-denominated bonds (Panda) in the domestic capital market of the China.
The issue has a principal amount of RMB 1 billion and a bullet maturity of 10 years.
"ADB is extremely pleased to have come back to the PRC bond market after the successful issuance of our landmark Panda Bonds in 2005. We are honoured to have been one of the first multilateral institutions to have issued RMB bonds in China and contribute to the further development of the PRC bond market,” ADB Vice-President Bindu Lohani said Friday.
Priced at par, the Panda bonds carry an annual coupon of 4.2% per annum and have a maturity date of 8 December 2019. Prior to pricing, ADB and the sole lead manager, China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC), conducted roadshows in Beijing and Shanghai to present the deal to institutional investors.
Offered through a book-building process, the issue achieved a broad distribution with up to 50% of the bonds placed with domestic banks, 15% with foreign banks, and 35% with insurance companies. The bonds will be traded in the interbank market with clearing and settlement through The China Government Securities Depository Trust & Clearing Co., Ltd.
ADB will use the proceeds of the Panda bonds to fund private sector clean energy and energy efficiency projects in China. The objective is to help reduce currency mismatches for borrowers that have no foreign exchange earnings. Since 2004, ADB has completed five other market-opening transactions in the region’s local currency bond markets. In addition to local currency bond issuances, ADB also undertakes cross-currency swaps to meet local currency funding requirements of its development projects.
ADB aims to pursue its local currency bond issuances in other Asian markets particularly in those developing member countries where bond proceeds can either be swapped into one of ADB’s operating currencies or be retained to finance ADB projects that require local currency financing.