US Treasury, Chinese finance officials agree to keep meeting after Beijing talks - CNA

Meetings between US Treasury and Chinese financial officials in Beijing this week concluded with both sides agreeing to continue to meet regularly, the Treasury Department said on Friday (Jan 19).

US officials also indicated that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen looked forward to a return visit to China at an "appropriate time," the department said in a statement.

The meeting of the Financial Working Group included discussions on financial stability and capital markets issues, international financial institutions, sustainable finance, cross-border payments and data and efforts to fight money laundering and financing of terrorism.

"US officials also frankly raised areas of disagreement during the conversations," the Treasury said, without identifying these points of contention.

The two sides also reviewed previous exchanges on climate stress testing and frameworks for resolving global systemically important banks in each country.

The Financial Working Group and a parallel Economic Working Group were established in September 2023 after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited Beijing to re-establish economic communications with her Chinese counterparts.

The groups last met in San Francisco in November ahead of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, where Yellen also met with her Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng and agreed to "intensify communication." He also invited her to return to China this year.

The members of the financial group, led on the US side by Assistant Secretary for international finance Brent Neiman and Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Nellie Liang, also met with He in Beijing, the Treasury said.

The China delegation was led by the People's Bank of China, with participants from other agencies.

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2024-01-19 15:32:45Z
CBMieWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vYXNpYS91cy10cmVhc3VyeS1jaGluZXNlLWZpbmFuY2Utb2ZmaWNpYWxzLWFncmVlLWtlZXAtbWVldGluZy1hZnRlci1iZWlqaW5nLXRhbGtzLTQwNjA3OTbSAQA

Russian volunteers join Ukraine's Siberian Battalion to fight against Putin's troops - CNA

FIGHTING AGAINST THEIR HOMELAND

These volunteers are part of the Siberian Battalion, a new unit formed last summer and is officially part of Ukraine's armed forces. Its members are mostly from ethnic minorities from Russia’s far east.

A former information technology worker from western Siberia, who goes by the military callsign Holod, said he left Russia when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. 

“I tried to fight it and I tried to convince myself that this is not my war. I don’t care either about Ukraine or Russia (and) I wanted to go away from Russia anyway, so I relocated. But it didn’t work out,” added the Siberian Battalion soldier. 

He said his conscience brought him to Kyiv, after he first moved to Georgia. It is a common route among these soldiers, who first travel to a third country before reaching Ukraine.

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2024-01-19 10:46:36Z
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Pakistan holds emergency security meeting after trading strikes with Iran - CNA

An Islamabad security official said the Chief of Army Staff and head of the intelligence services will attend the mid-afternoon meeting.

Pakistan's leader Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar cut short his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland following the strikes.

His caretaker government is leading Pakistan into general elections just three weeks away and has been marred by allegations of pre-poll rigging.

Tehran and Islamabad have both said they hit their own domestic militants sheltering on foreign territory.

BORDER CLOSURE FEARS

A collective death toll of 11 - mostly women and children - was reported from both sides of the border that bisects an arid region where militant movements have simmered for decades.

In the remote, arid villages near the strike site in Panjgur district where mobile signal is rarely available, farmers pieced together the events from reports passed on from visiting security officials who set up checkpoints in the area.

"Helicopters were flying overhead and going in the direction of where the Iranian strike hit, but we didn't know what had happened," Maulana Mohammad Sadiq, 42, the prayer leader of a small seminary around five kilometres from where a missile hit, told AFP on Thursday.

Villagers feared that deteriorating relations between the two sides could lead to border closures and cut off residents from Iranian trade, which the area relies on for employment and food imports.

"If Iranians close the border, the people will starve and it will cause more militancy because youth will join the separatist organisations," said 55-year-old Haji Mohammad Islam.

Balochistan separatists have been waging a decades-long low-level insurgency against Pakistan authorities from the largely ungoverned, impoverished region fighting for a better share of mineral resources.

Rights groups say the military's crackdown on the insurgency has included widespread enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

Militancy has also risen sharply along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan further north, after the Taliban's return to power there in 2021.

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2024-01-19 08:29:00Z
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Malaysia's anti-graft agency orders Mahathir's son to declare assets - CNA

PUTRAJAYA: Businessman Mirzan Mahathir, the son of former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, has been given 30 days to declare all his assets in the country and abroad.

It comes amid an investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) into entities linked to the Pandora Papers and Panama Papers - leaked documents that reveal the hidden wealth of the rich and powerful around the world.

In a statement on Thursday (Jan 18), the MACC said it served Mirzan a notice to declare his assets after he was called to the agency's headquarters on Wednesday to assist in an investigation. 

“The notice is a follow-up action from MACC's investigation into the information from the Panama Papers, as well as his business activities involving the sale and purchase of government-linked companies (GLCs),” said the anti-graft agency.

The investigation is being conducted under the MACC Act, as well as the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing, and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act.

MACC confirmed that it initiated the investigation in August 2022 as part of a probe into entities named in the Pandora Papers and Panama Papers reports.

The agency added that to date, it has called 10 witnesses to record their statements.

“The MACC is examining financial documents and asset ownership of the entities listed in those reports, and the investigation is still actively ongoing,” it said.

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2024-01-19 02:32:10Z
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What China's shrinking population means for the rest of the world - CNA

Why is this happening?

Observers attributed China's latest population decline to a wave of pandemic deaths early in 2023, after the world's second largest economy abruptly dismantled its strict zero-COVID regime.

Last year, overall deaths went up 6.6 per cent to 11.1 million, with the death rate reaching its highest level since 1974 during the Cultural Revolution.

Meanwhile, new births fell 5.7 per cent to 9.02 million in 2023. 

Births in China have been dropping for decades due to a combination of rapid urbanisation and a draconian one-child policy imposed from 1980 to 2015.

The birth rate was a record low of 6.39 per 1,000 people in 2023, down from 6.77 the previous year.

This is comparable with advanced East Asian countries like Japan - 6.3 - and South Korea at 4.9.

China is following in the footsteps of these societies, said Dr Zhao Litao, a senior research fellow with the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore.

Its population fall is similarly driven by long-term socio-demographic factors including delayed marriage, rising singlehood, changing lifestyles and values, and the high costs of childcare, education and housing.

In China, the average cost of raising a child until the age of 18 was 485,000 yuan (US$67,000) in 2019 - nearly seven times the country's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and much higher than elsewhere including the United States and Japan, according to Beijing-based think tank YuWa Population Research Institute.

Many Chinese have also chosen to shun parenthood as they continue facing job uncertainties and low wages, said observers. 

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2024-01-18 22:04:19Z
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Malaysia anti-graft agency serves Mahathir's son notice to declare assets - CNA

PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has served businessman Mirzan Mahathir a notice under Section 36(1)(b) of the MACC Act 2009, requiring him to declare all movable and immovable assets in his possession.

In a statement on Thursday (Jan 18), MACC said the assets, whether within or outside the country, must be declared within 30 days from the date of the notice.

The commission said the notice was served after the eldest son of former Malaysia prime minister Mahathir Mohamad presented himself at the MACC headquarters at about 9.30am on Wednesday to assist in its ongoing investigation.

“The notice is a follow-up action from MACC's investigation into the information from the Panama Papers, as well as his business activities involving the sale and purchase of government-linked companies (GLCs),” it said.

The investigation is being conducted under the MACC Act 2009, as well as the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing, and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLATFPUAA).

MACC initiated the investigation in August 2022 as part of its investigation into all entities mentioned in the Pandora Papers and Panama Papers reports.

To date, MACC said it has called 10 witnesses for statement recording purposes.

“The MACC is examining financial documents and asset ownership of the entities listed in those reports, and the investigation is still actively ongoing,” it said.

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2024-01-18 11:32:38Z
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MACC orders Mirzan Mahathir to declare assets - Malay Mail

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has asked businessman Mirzan Mahathir to declare his assets.

In a statement today, the MACC said Mirzan was present at its headquarters in Putrajaya yesterday and a notice was issued to him under Section 36(1) (b) of the MACC Act 2009 which compels the businessman to declare all of his assets, whether or not they are in his possession in the 30 days from the date of the notice.

Mirzan is the son of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“This order is a further action from the MACC investigation on information contained in the Panama Papers and Mirzan’s businesses which involves the sale and purchase of government-linked companies,” the MACC said.

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The MACC commenced investigations in August 2022 into all entities and related assets named in the Pandora Papers and Panama Papers leaks.

“Up to now, a total of 10 witnesses have been called to record their statements and the MACC is currently reviewing the financial documents and asset ownership of the entities listed in the reports.

“The investigation is ongoing,” MACC said.

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Last Wednesday, the MACC quizzed former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin’s wife Toh Puan Naimah Khalid and their two sons on assets belonging to the family as part of its probe.

Daim and his family have filed an application in court for a judicial review to challenge the investigation which they have claimed as unconstitutional.

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that were published in 2016. They detailed financial and attorney-client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities.

The Pandora Papers, on the other hand, are a 2021 leak of nearly 12 million documents that incriminated hundreds of global elite for alleged tax avoidance and corruption.

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2024-01-18 10:34:32Z
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