TuTu will travel to US; Roam & Wander raises fresh round
Taiwan-based toy startup Roam & Wander announced that it will be heading into the US retail market with app-enabled plush toy TuTu One year ago, Taiwan-based app-enabled toy startup and Echelon alumnus Roam & Wander announced receiving an undisclosed amount of investment from venture firms, WI Harper and TMI. Today, it is reported to have raised …
China denies vaccine killed babies
China’s health authorities said on Friday that they have found no link between a hepatitis B vaccine and the deaths of 17 children shortly after they were immunised. An investigation into the deaths, reported between December 13 and 31, has found no evidence that they were caused by the vaccine, the China Food and Drug Administration and the National Health and Family Planning Commission said in a joint statement. Reports of the deaths had sparked widespread public concerns after a series of food and health and safety scandals in recent years, largely due to lax and corrupt supervision and law enforcement.
Demohour, a Chinese version of Kickstarter, rakes in millions from Intel, Matrix Partners
Chinese crowdfunding site Demohour announced today it has received “millions” of US dollars in funding from Matrix Partners China and Intel Capital, according to Tech 163. Founder Zhang You didn’t give …
China seizes three tonnes of crystal meth
Chinese police have seized three tonnes of crystal methamphetamine during raids in a southern city authorities say is notorious for providing a huge share of the country’s supply of the drug. Police seized the crystal meth — also known as “ice” — in a series of raids last Sunday in Lufeng, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement from the Guangdong Province Public Security Bureau. Lufeng, a coastal city about 200 kilometres (124 miles) northeast of Hong Kong, has provided one-third of China’s crystal meth annually over the past three years, the report said. Methamphetamine is the second most popular drug in China after heroin, according to a report last year by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which estimated that sales of the two drugs in China and Southeast Asia totalled more than $30 billion in 2012.
South Sudan ceasefire talks open as battles rage
ADDIS ABABA: South Sudan’s warring parties opened negotiations on Friday to end nearly three weeks of raging conflict in which thousands are feared dead and that has taken the world’s youngest nation to the brink of all-out civil war. Government a…
Read More →South Korea dismisses Pyongyang’s peace call
South Korea has dismissed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s calls for improved ties, urging his government to take nuclear disarmament steps first. Kim Eui-do, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman, told reporters on Friday that North Korea …
Read More →China to centralise military command to improve operations
China’s increasingly sophisticated military will establish a joint operational command structure for its forces to improve coordination between different parts of the country’s defence system, the official China Daily reported on Friday. China has been moving rapidly to upgrade its military hardware, but military analysts say operational integration of complex and disparate systems across a regionalised command structure is a major challenge for Beijing. In the past, regional level military commanders have enjoyed major latitude over their forces and branches of the military have remained highly independent of each other, making it difficult to exercise the centralised control necessary to use new weapons systems effectively in concert. The English-language newspaper, citing the Defence Ministry, said that China will implement a joint command system “in due course” and that it has already launched pilot programmes to that effect.
China tells police to be loyal to party amid graft crackdown
China’s police chief wrote on Friday that his officers must uphold the leadership of the Communist Party and be loyal to it, as the government targets the domestic security apparatus in a crackdown on corruption. Sources have told Reuters that China’s former security tsar, Zhou Yongkang, one of the most powerful politicians of the decade, has been put under effective house arrest while the party investigates corruption allegations against him. Last month, the government began a graft investigation into a one-time deputy public security minister, Li Dongsheng, an ally of Zhou’s. Li held a rank equivalent to cabinet minister, and state media says he is the first member of the ruling party’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee, the influential domestic security body which Zhou used to head, to be investigated for graft. Writing in the party’s official People’s Daily, Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun said his more than two million officers had to be “absolutely loyal and absolutely clean” and stand steadfastly in line with the orders and politics of President Xi Jinping.
NSA eyes encryption-breaking ‘quantum’ machine
The US National Security Agency is making strid es toward building a “quantum computer” that could break nearly any kind of encryption, The Washington Post reported Thursday. The Post said leaked documents from fugitive ex-NSA contractor Edward Sn…
Read More →China plans joint military command system: state media
China’s armed forces plan to set up a joint operational command system to “enhance efficiency” in crisis response, state media reported Friday. At present the People’s Liberation Army, (PLA) the world’s biggest military, which incorporates China’s navy and air force, is arranged on a geographical system with land forces at its core and dividing the country into seven regions. Now the military has “launched positive pilot programmes” for a joint operational command system and will establish the system “in due course”, the state-run China Daily newspaper said, citing the defence ministry. The defence ministry said its military modernisation was not aimed at any country, the China Daily said.
