On a call Tuesday, President Joe Biden discussed with Chinese President Xi Jinping a range of high-level issues and reiterated his request that China not use web-based disinformation tools to interfere with the U.S. presidential election. The two leaders also discussed Taiwan – the island China claims – as it prepares to inaugurate a new leader next month. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington. Voice of America
Thanks to improving underlying demand and efforts to boost new orders, the pace of new business expansion was the fastest since December. That also pushed up business confidence as the subindex of future activity increased for the first time in three months amid hopes that new product lines, expansion plans and rises in client budgets will help boost sales. However, better sales and business confidence failed to translate into higher recruitment. Employment levels shrank for a second successive month in March, though the rate of job shedding eased from February.…
Shakkar Bai and her extended family of 16 have a house, free monthly bags of rice and wheat, and cooking gas, all thanks to handouts from Narendra Modi’s government. “Modi-ji is doing good for us,” declares the 65-year-old family matriarch, using an honorific for India’s prime minister as she sits in a home built in central Madhya Pradesh state with aid from his government. “He is a good man.” India, the world’s most populous country, has some of the most generous welfare schemes too, including a food grain handout that…
new york — A U.S. judge on Tuesday rejected exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui’s bid to dismiss an indictment accusing him of defrauding thousands of investors out of more than $1 billion. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan said prosecutors sufficiently alleged that Guo engaged in a pattern of racketeering through four fraud schemes, and that proving it was a matter for trial. Lawyers for Guo did not immediately respond to requests for comment after business hours. Guo has pleaded not guilty to 12 criminal charges including securities fraud,…
At least two buildings were partially collapsed when a 7.3-magnitude quake struck the eastern coast of Taiwan at 7.58am on Wednesday. The quake’s epicentre, is in waters about 18km south of the eastern county of Hualien and 138km from Taipei, according to the Central Weather Bureau. The shock was felt across the island, including Taipei. Tsunami warnings have been issued on the island as well as in mainland China, the Philippines and Japan. A magnitude 7.2 earthquake rocked Hualien City. Photo: Facebook/基督教台東興起教會 The number of casualties was not immediately known.…
A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Taiwan on Wednesday morning, shaking buildings off their foundations and prompting Japan to issue a tsunami alert for its southern island of Okinawa. The epicenter of the quake, which struck at 7:58 a.m., was off the eastern coast of Taiwan, about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) south-southeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 15.5 kilometers, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration, or CWA. TV broadcasters showed images of collapsed buildings in Hualien, reporting that people were trapped inside. [embedded content] The earthquake’s impact was…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. and like-minded countries must find new ways to monitor the enforcement of sanctions on North Korea after the mandate of a U.N. expert group expires this month, say former U.S. officials with deep experience in North Korea sanctions. The U.N. Panel of Experts has been tasked with investigating whether member states are enforcing sanctions on North Korea for the past 15 years. But at a Security Council meeting on March 28, Russia vetoed a resolution calling for the panel’s annual extension, and the panel will be…
China set up the group in Shanghai along with Russia and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as a way of building trust and easing border tensions in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the time its priorities were stated as fighting the “three devils” of terrorism, separatism and extremism. Since then its role has expanded to include areas such as economics and trade and the organisation now bills itself as the world’s largest regional grouping – covering more than 40 per cent of the global population…
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Wednesday it tested another new hypersonic intermediate-range missile powered with solid propellants as it continues to expand its nuclear and missile program in the face of deepening tensions with neighbors and the United States. The report by North Korean state media came a day after the South Korean and Japanese militaries detected the North launching the missile from an inland area around its capital toward its eastern sea. North Korean state media said the test was supervised by leader Kim Jong Un, who…
taipei, taiwan — Tsunami warnings were issued across parts of the Pacific Ocean after a powerful earthquake struck Taiwan early Wednesday morning, killing at least four people. Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring agency says a magnitude 7.2 quake struck the eastern county of Hualien, while the U.S. Geological Survey measured it as a 7.4 at a depth of nearly 35 kilometers. The quake was felt across much of the island, including the capital, Taipei, where several buildings collapsed. Authorities say several people are trapped in the rubble, with Reuters reporting that at…