Hongkong, China and India overtake Japan in billionaire stakes
- From: gay <$fckgay@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 07:45:07 +0800
Hongkong, China and India overtake Japan in billionaire stakes
HONGKONG (March 9, 2007): Hongkong and China have overtaken Japan to laim the
largest number of billionaires in Asia, according to the annual Forbes Magazine
rich list published today.
China, which had just seven US dollar billionaires in 2006, had 20 in the 2007
list while Hongkong has added five new billionaires to give it a total of 21,
the magazine found.
The total of 41 for China and Hongkong exceeds Japan?s 24 billionaires, leaving
Japan unable to claim the highest concentrationof billionaires in Asia as it has
for the past 20 years.
Japan was also overtaken by India which now has a total of 36 billionaires,
illustrating the growing economic strength of the world?s two most populous
nations.
Asia?s richest man was Hongkong tycoon Li Ka-shing who has a
23-billion-US-dollar fortune and is the ninth wealthiest person in theworld,
according to Forbes.
Yan Cheung, chairwoman of Nine Dragons Paper, was named China?s richest person
with a fortune of US$2.4 billion, putting her 390th on the list of nearly 1,000
billionaires.
The world's richest person was Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, topping the
global list for the 13th straight year with a worth of US$56 billion. - dpa
EU leaders near to striking renewable energy deal
BRUSSELS (March 9, 2007): European Union (EU) leaders are on the brink of
striking an agreement today to set a binding pan-European target for renewable
energy sources as part of an ambitious strategy to fight climate change.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the 27 leaders had committed themselves to
slash overall European greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020, and to challenge
industrialised and emerging nations to join the EU in still deeper cuts.
?That will put us in a position to show the international community that Europe
is playing a pioneering role,? Merkel, who holds the rotating EU presidency,
told a late-night news conference yesterday after the first day of the EU
summit.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said the leaders had agreed in
principle to set a mandatory target for renewable sources such as wind, solar
and hydro-electric power, and to share out the burden among member states later.
But Merkel was cautious, saying while she was hopeful of a compromise today,
further negotiations would be needed.
Several leaders said under an emerging compromise the EU would set a goal of
achieving a European average of 20% of energy consumption from renewable sources
by 2020 but take national circumstances into account in allocating the load.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski, whose coal-burning nation was initially
opposed, said: ??Poland is ready to accept binding targets as long as they are
the European average and specific conditions of various countries are taken into
account.?
French President Jacques Chirac accepted a binding target but told fellow
leaders nuclear power must also play a role in Europe?s drive to cut greenhouse
gas emissions, blamed for global warming.
At what will be his final EU summit in Brussels, the veteran French leader said:
?At the very least, the burden sharing on renewables must take account of the
place of low-carbon energy - nuclear and clean coal - in our national energy
choices.?
Merkel said nuclear power was not a renewable energy form but could help to
reduce overall carbon dioxide emissions.
EU diplomats said new central European member states Hungary, Slovakia and the
Czech Republic that were holding out against a binding renewables goal could be
?bought off? with the pledge of hosting a small nuclear energy forum.
Several EU states are fundamentally opposed to using nuclear power or in the
process of phasing it out.
As this year?s chairman of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations,
Merkel wants the EU to set the agenda on the environment.Renewables currently
account for lower than 7% of the EU energy mix.
The summit outcome will form the basis of EU?s position in international talks
to find a replacement to the U.N. Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
Environmentalists want the bloc to go further in its efforts to fight climate
change but European business is concerned it will foot the bill by losing
competitiveness to dirtier but cheaper foreign rivals.
?In terms of binding obligations on renewables, nobody has the foggiest idea
what the costs can be,? Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, the Frenchman who presides
over the Business Europe lobby group, told a pre-summit news conference with
Merkel.
EU leaders were set to endorse a plan for biofuels to make up at least 10% of
vehicle fuels by 2020 but differ over how to open electricity and gas markets to
more competition.
The European Commission proposed that big utility groups be forced to sell or
separate their generation businesses and distribution grids in a process known
as ?ownership unbundling?, but Merkel said she did not expect such an agreement.
?I know the Commission would like us to go a bit further but I don?t think we?ll
succeed,? she said.Any signals from the summit will be scrutinised for moves
that could affect energy companies, including Germany?s E.ON and RWE and Gaz de
France and EdF. - Reuters
CNN responds to Taiwan vice president?s demand for apology
TAIPEI (March 9, 2007): The US-based Cable News Network (CNN) has responded to
Taiwan vice-president Annette Lu?s demand for apology over CNN?s ?biased? story
on Lu, but the content of the response is unknown, the Central News Agency (CNA)
reported today.
?CNN headquarters in Atlanta sent us an envelop yesterday afternoon, which we
sent to the presidential office via Federal Express. It should reach Taipei
tomorrow or Sunday,? CNA quoted Chang Chung-jen, head of the Atlanta office of
Taiwan?s Government Information Office (GIO), as saying.
?The envelop bore the name of CNN managing director Chris Cramer, but we don't
know the content of the reply.?
On Tuesday (March 6), GIO passed on Lu?s protest letter to CNN headquarters in
Atlanta. Cramer made the reply yesterday upon his return from a business trip to
Mexico.
The controversy erupted Tuesday when Lu held a news conference to declare she
would run for president in the 2008 election.
The US-based Associated Press (AP) news agency filed a story on Lu?s candidacy,
saying in the lead that she was branded by China as ?insane? and ?the scum of
the nation?, and said in the third paragraph that Lu?s chances of winning were
slim.
CNN carried the AP story on its website, but used its own headline ?Taiwan?s
'scum of the nation? runs for president,? triggering an immediate protest from
Lu?s office.
Lu said the CNN story had insulted her and the Taiwan people. She demanded an
apology and a correction and did not rule out seeking damages.
CNN later changed its headline to ?Lu seeks to be first Taiwan woman president?
but did not apologise.
Lu also sent a protest letter Wednesday (March 7) to the AP, demanding an
apology and a correction within 48 hours.
AP?s headquarters in New York apologised yesterday to Lu and instructed its
Taipei bureau to conduct an interview with Lu - and let Lu ?say all she wants to
say? - to produce balanced reporting, Lu told reporters.
In an interview Wednesday with the cable TV channel TVBS, Lu said she could not
understand why AP was using words that China used to blast her in 2002, calling
the report ?unacceptable? and ?unforgivable?.
In Taiwan, the controversy has exploded into a political incident, with Taiwan
leaders and some lawmakers calling certain foreign reporters siding with China
and using China?s words to insult Taiwan leaders.
Yesterday, Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian criticszed AP and CNN for the
?biased? story on Lu.
Speaking at a dinner party for foreign envoys, Chen said two foreign news
outlets adopted China?s unobjective terminology and used ?rude and irresponsible
words? in the headline of their story.
?I believe that any professional media group would not quote Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez?s words to criticise or attack US president George W Bush,
and use Chavez?s words as the headline. But such an unfortunate thing has
happened to
vice-president Lu,? Chen said.
Lu, 62, a former dissident, human-rights activist and lawmaker, angered China by
openly declaring that Taiwan and China are two countries and condemning
Beijing?s missile threats against Taiwan as terrorism, prompting China?s Taiwan
expert Liu Jiayan to brand her the ?scum of the nation? in a 2002 article.
But at home and abroad, Lu is widely lauded as a firm advocate of Taiwan's
sovereignty and an outspoken defender of human and women'srights. - dpa
Singapore criticises Taiwan President Chen?s independence remarks
SINGAPORE (March 9, 2007): Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian?s recent remarks that
Taiwan ?must be independent? are unhelpful and could increase the risk of
instability in cross-strait relations, Singapore?s foreign ministry said.
?Chen's comments are clearly inconsistent with his inauguration pledge in 2000,?
a ministry statement said yesterday. ?Such comments are unhelpful.?
At a dinner organised by a pro-independence group Sunday inTaipei, Chen said:
?Taiwan must be independent. Taiwan wants to change its name. Taiwan wants a new
constitution.?
He said Taiwan was ?a sovereign, independent country? outside of China.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that split from the mainland in
1949.
Chen pledged in his inauguration speech he was not seekingTaiwan?s independence
nor to change the island?s name.
Singapore has a clear ?one China? policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence
and any unilateral moves to change the status quo, the ministry said. - dpa
South Pacific island murder mystery ends
NORFOLK ISLAND, Australia (March 9, 2007): The first murder trial on Norfolk
Island in 150 years ended today with a jury finding a New
Zealand chef guilty of killing a woman he had run over and then stabbed
repeatedly.
Janelle Patton, 29, suffered 64 separate injuries, including a fractured skull
and numerous stab wounds in the attack in 2002.
The brutality of Patton?s murder shocked Norfolk residents, many of them
descendants of 18th-century mutineers from the British warship Bounty.
The killing, the first on the island since the mid-19th century, had all the
hallmarks of an Agatha Christie murder mystery - a small, close-knit community
where everyone was a suspect.
At one stage, police planned to test the DNA of everyone on the tiny Australian
territory, once a harsh South Pacific penal colony, which lies about 1,600km
(1,000 miles) east of tropical Queensland state.
New Zealand chef Glenn McNeill, 29, was found guilty in the Norfolk
Island Supreme Court today of murdering Patton.About 100 people outside court
clapped and cheered as the jury forewoman said: ?We find the accused guilty of
murder.?
?It gives an indication that everybody is so pleased that it?s over. That dark
cloud that has been hanging over the island has lifted,? Tom Lloyd, who has
published the local newspaper for 40 years, told reporters.
The prosecutor said McNeill had confessed to police, but the New Zealander
dismissed the confession as rubbish, saying he had mental health problems at the
time.
Prosecutor Dan Howard told the trial that McNeill had told police he had
accidentally hit Patton with his car after smoking cannabis.
McNeill told police he panicked and put Patton in his car boot and drove home,
but when he heard her moaning, he stabbed her several times with a fish knife to
make sure she was dead. Patton fought for her life, suffering numerous defensive
injuries.
McNeill then wrapped Patton?s body in plastic, drove past the island police
station, and dumped her body in a nature reserve.
McNeill will be sentenced in a later date. - Reuters
Updated: 04:01PM Fri, 09 Mar 2007
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