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Taipei Times - archives
Malawi wants only `serious’ investors, no Chinese traders

Wednesday, Feb 27, 2008, Page 1

Malawi, which broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan last month in favor of Beijing, won’t allow Chinese traders into the country, said James Kaphwereza Banda, general manager of the Malawi Investment Promotions Agency.

“It’s our duty to promote serious investors, not traders,” Banda said yesterday in a telephone interview from Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. “What we’re telling Malawian traders is that they shouldn’t fear more Chinese selling their wares, because we won’t allow them in.”

Malawian traders have expressed concern about the influx of cheap goods from China, Banda said. They believe Chinese traders would deprive them of their livelihood if allowed to trade freely

The Canadian Press: Canada Pension board, Ontario Teachers plan invest US$400M in Chinese fund
Canada Pension board, Ontario Teachers plan invest US$400M in Chinese fund

TORONTO - Two of Canadas largest pension funds are putting US$400 million into a private equity fund that will invest in China, one of the worlds fastest-growing economies.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and an arm of the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan said Tuesday they are each investing US$200 million in FountainVest, a new US$450-million private equity fund focusing on mid-cap private companies in China.

Including the FountainVest investment, the CPP board now has more than C$1 billion committed to private equity and real estate investments in the region. Teachers Private Capital also has C$1 billion invested and committed to the Asian region.

Big Canadian pension plans, such as the CPP, Caisse de depot, OMERS and Ontario Teachers, have been diversifying their investments into real estate, infrastructure investments and private equity to help offset the ups and downs of stocks since the dot-com meltdown of 2000-2002.

China Eastern rejects CNAC’s wide-ranging alliance proposal_English_Xinhua
China Eastern rejects CNAC’s wide-ranging alliance proposal

BEIJING, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) — China Eastern Airlines Corp. (CEA)on Tuesday rejected a wide-ranging alliance proposal from China National Aviation Corp. (Group) (CNAC).

The move could close the door for an alliance between the Shanghai-based carrier and Air China, the country’s third- and second- largest airlines, respectively, by fleet size, analysts said.

“Our board of directors has decided not to give further consideration to CNAC’s proposal after prudent and sufficient discussions and advice-seeking from the legal and finance consultants,” CEA said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange late on Tuesday.

“The company will stick to (the plan) of bringing in a strategic investor to make its main air transport business more competitive,” the statement noted.

“In the whole process of proposal-making and with the communications method, CNAC has never showed any sincerity and deep and thorough planning for our cooperation,” it said.

CEA stated the proposal does not have the legal binding power as any formal offers do and it has huge uncertainty in terms of law and future official approval process.

It added the ultimate purpose of bringing in a strategic investor was to improve corporate management, operation efficiency, profitability and the international competitiveness. “CNAC and the parties it represents will be unable to help us meet the above expectations.”

Taps shut in central China due to red, bubbly river | Environment | Reuters
Taps shut in central China due to red, bubbly river

BEIJING Reuters - A spill on the Hanjiang River, in central Chinas Hubei Province, has affected water supply for 200,000 people living along three tributaries since Sunday, the Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday, citing local media.

The water became “red with large amounts of bubbles,” Xinhua said, citing Gao Qijin, head of Xingou Township Tap Water Company in Jianli County, which is along the Dongjing River, one of the affected tributaries.

Water supply has been cut for about 60,000 residents in the town, who are relying on bottled water. Five schools also have stopped classes.

The environmental protection authorities were investigating the source of the contamination, Xinhua said.

Meanwhile, in southeastern Chinas Yunnan Province, police have detained a farmer whose homemade fertilizer contaminated the drinking water of 9,000 people and killed 20 tonnes of fish in a fishery last week, Xinhua said.

The villager, Zhou Shunfu, dumped 120 tonnes of waste residue with phosphor onto his own fields, thinking that it could be used as fertilizer, and wiped out a neighbors fish farm.

After a string of well-publicized cases of water pollution, China is moving to crack down on industrial polluters. It is debating a draft law to fine the heads of companies that foul water, and contemplating ending tax breaks for polluting exporters

Law Blog - WSJ.com : Law Blog Q&A: Obama-Campaign Lawyer Kendall Burman
Law Blog Q&A: Obama-Campaign Lawyer Kendall Burman
Posted by Ashby Jones

kburmanWhen we heard recently that the lead on-the-ground lawyer for the Obama campaign hasn’t yet celebrated her 30th birthday, we weren’t all that surprised. After all, Obama’s head speechwriter, we also recently learned, is a mere 26.

Still, we knew immediately we had to catch up with this person. And we did, yesterday. Law Blog readers, meet the 29-year-old Kendall Burman, a 2004 University of Chicago Law School grad, former Latham & Watkins associate, and the lone “staff counsel” manning the ship at Obama headquarters in Chicago.

Hi Kendall, thanks for taking the time. Tell us about this job of yours.

Well, I’m basically the in-house attorney here with the campaign. My title is “staff counsel,” and my job is to be on the ground at headquarters here and manage the legal issues that come up and try to figure out what to do.

And what issues do come up?

The job is really broken into two parts. There are a lot of basic business issues we have to deal with. The Obama campaign is really a medium-to-big sized corporation, so a lot of what I deal with is what any similar company might deal with. There are leases and contracts and tax issues and employment issues.

Huh. We gotta say, that sounds less sexy than we’d imagined.

Yeah, that part’s not that sexy. But there’s another half, which deals more with electoral-law issues. There are voter-protection issues, campaign-finance issues, everything specific to the campaign. I review a lot of campaign literature. My job is really to resolve things I can resolve and to raise red flags when I need to.

Gotcha. Now, you’re 29. I take it you don’t know all there is to know about business tax or employment law, right? So what do you do when you have questions?

Bob Bauer at Perkins Coie. He’s the lead outside counsel for the campaign, and he’s really my boss. There are a handful of lawyers at Perkins in D.C. who do a lot of work with Bob and handle bigger-ticket issues.

Now, the question everyone out there’s dying to know: How’d you get the job?

The summer after I graduated from Chicago, I volunteered for the Democratic National Committee during the Kerry campaign, and got to know Bob [Bauer]. Then I went to work at Latham in D.C. Early last year, Bob called me and told me that the position was open. I applied and got the job.

We heard you were one of Obama’s students at Chicago. Did that help you get the job?

I don’t know, but I don’t think so. Truthfully, we didn’t have that much of a relationship when I took his class. I was just sort of a student. We weren’t really out-of-class friends or anything.

Why LOGICALLY the UN Charter is the hub of international law
Why LOGICALLY the UN Charter is the hub of international law

Diary Entry by Brett Paatsch

The following excerpt from the UN Charter shows that the UN Charter (having been ratified by the member nations including the United States of America in 1945) is the hub, the supreme law and treaty, of all international laws.

The US Constitution at Article VI, makes the UN Charter as a “treaty made ” part of “the supreme law of the land”.

If more US citizens understood this more US citizens might understand the seriousness of breaching the UN Charter (the meta-contract) by allowing Presidents to launch aggressive international wars. The international trade treaties are beneath the UN Charter in the hierarchy because the UN Charter is the peace treaty enabling peaceful trade within a system of law.

When Bush launched an aggressive war in Iraq (a UN member nation) he undermined the contractual basis of civilization. He undermined the rule of law that in turn underlies global trade.

::::::::

Chapter XVI
Miscellaneous Provisions

Article 102

1. Every treaty and every international agreement entered into by any Member of the United Nations after the present Charter comes into force shall as soon as possible be registered with the Secretariat and published by it.

2. No party to any such treaty of international agreement which has not been registered in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article may invoke that treaty or agreement before any organ of the United Nations.

Article 103

In the event of a conflict between the obligations of the Members of the United Nations under the present Charter and their obligations under any other international agreement, their obligations under the present Charter shall prevail.

The Associated Press: Agriculture Futures Mostly Rise on CBOT
Agriculture Futures Mostly Rise on CBOT

CHICAGO (AP) — Agriculture futures traded mostly higher Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Wheat for May delivery jumped 19 cents to $10.645 a bushel; March corn fell 2.25 cents to $5.2225 a bushel; March oats added 0.25 cent to $3.84 a bushel; May soybeans advanced 13.5 cents to $14.3825 a bushel.

The Lobbyist, The Drudge, The Times, The Fixer — Courant.com
The Lobbyist, The Drudge, The Times, The Fixer

The older I get, the less I want to know about anybody else’s sex life. If you put a picture face down in front of me and told me it was Tiger Woods and Lindsay Lohan engaged in an act of lewd and lascivious congress, I would not turn it over.

I did look at the nude Marilyn Monroe tribute photos of Lohan in the current New York magazine, but not until her mother, Dina, had assured us that they were art. The pictures, I think she meant.

So I don’t much care whether John McCain had an affair with Vicki Iseman, a lobbyist for several telecommunications companies with business before the committee he chaired. The New York Times alleged this on Thursday, and one of the things that the article proved right away was that, although Republicans are deeply divided, the two forces that can unite them are their love of our American freedoms and their hatred of New York Times yuppie scum, they should die like pigs in hell.

Even Joe Lieberman, who is not a Republican but who often “unites” with them, and sometimes on the first date, accused the Times of “puking” up 8-year-old rumors. That may not sound senatorial to you, but it was in fact a respectful invocation of Sen. Henry Clay’s famous 1850 speech about compromise, in which Clay asked: “What if, in the march of this nation to greatness and power, we should be buried beneath the puke that propels it onward?”

Lieberman had an even more important role to play in convincing us of McCain’s innocence. He explained that he and McCain had traveled the world and met many lovely ladies and that he had never seen McCain do anything inappropriate.

Not that there haven’t been some opportunities for those two mack daddies, right? When they hit Abu Dhabi in their Miami Vice unstructured white sports jackets and Don Johnson cheek stubble, it’s like ring-a-ding-ding, hey there, you with the stars in your eyes. I’m sure that China doll down in old Hong Kong waits for their return.

If only they weren’t so darned ethical!, say all those beautiful babies whose hearts are breaking. With Joe Lieberman as his wing man, McCain could have sampled the sexual banquet tables of this world, and not just young American lobbyists who look exactly like Amy Poehler impersonating his wife.

Anyway, my current theory is that McCain, sensing his campaign was in trouble, had one of his most trusted lieutenants, John Weaver, leak this sex scandal to The New York Times, knowing that all Times-hating Republicans would flock to his standard if the story ran.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro — Judge issues, then withdraws, ruling against Aguirre
By Jennifer Vigil

February 23, 2008

SAN DIEGO – A judge issued and then abandoned a ruling against City Attorney Michael Aguirre yesterday, saying he needed more information about San Diego’s city charter before the case can proceed.

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Initially, Superior Court Judge William R. Nevitt decided that Aguirre did not receive the required City Council approval to sue the pension system in November. Aguirre is challenging a retirement board decision to take on nearly $150 million in costs to fund a pension perk he opposes.

Nevitt vacated the ruling in a late afternoon hearing, even before attorneys for Aguirre and the pension system began their arguments.

The judge asked the lawyers to submit briefs outlining their interpretations of how the city charter defines the city attorney’s role. He also asked them to clarify any misunderstandings that could arise because of archaic language in the 77-year-old document.

Nevitt will release a new tentative ruling in advance of a March 21 hearing.

Online: To see the judge’s withdrawn ruling, go to uniontrib.com/more/documents.

Arguments over Aguirre’s approach to his job have continued for three years. Aguirre contends that he can act on behalf of the public, while council members maintain that the city attorney works for the council and mayor, not residents.

Pension system attorneys challenged Aguirre’s suit on that point, alleging that he did not obtain the required permission to sue over the pension program.

They are not the only ones. Aguirre’s office is the subject of a State Bar of California investigation, in part over the question of whether Aguirre properly secured authority to pursue his ambitious case to overturn two rounds of pension-benefit increases.

That case failed six months ago when another judge found that the city could not challenge the legality of the benefits.

It was too late for Aguirre to argue that pension board members should not have voted on their own pensions, the judge said, because the statute of limitations had expired on the claims. Aguirre had relied on the conflict-of-interest argument in seeking an end to the benefits.

Aguirre, who personally argued the previous case, did not appear in court yesterday; an assistant, Don McGrath, did.

After the hearing, Aguirre said he would ask council members to relieve the taxpayer liability for the benefit in the case before Nevitt or allow his suit to continue. The council has rebuffed such requests since the fall.

Leading scholar joins Harvard Law faculty - The Boston Globe
Leading scholar joins Harvard Law faculty
CASS R. SUNSTEIN CASS R. SUNSTEIN
– By Peter Schworm

Harvard Law School has scored a major academic coup, luring renowned legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein from the University of Chicago Law School to join its star-studded faculty.
more stories like this

Sunstein, who graduated from Harvard College in 1975 and Harvard Law School in 1978, will begin teaching in the fall and direct the new Program on Risk Regulation, which will focus on how law and policy deal with such hazards as terrorism, climate change, and natural disasters.

“Cass Sunstein is the preeminent legal scholar of our time, the most wide-ranging, the most prolific, the most cited, and the most influential,” Elena Kagan, dean of the Harvard Law School, said in a statement released yesterday.

“His work in any one of the fields he pursues - administrative law and policy, constitutional law and theory, behavioral economics and law, environmental law, to name a nonexhaustive few - would put him in the very front ranks of legal scholars,” Kagan said.

Sunstein, the author of more than 15 books and hundreds of scholarly articles, said in a statement that the new program would rely on substantial student involvement.

“The nation and the world are facing many unanticipated problems, and policymakers must find ways to protect people from risks without creating unanticipated side-effects,” Sunstein said.