介绍:
China audit finds slow progress on major construction projects
China's top auditing authority has found close to one-quarter of all the construction projects it audited through August were behind schedule.
The National Audit Office says the 193 projects are worth close to 290-billion yuan, or around 45-billion U.S. dollars.
The report covers 29 provinces, 29 central departments and 7 central SOEs.
Slow construction has been found mostly in railway, highway, power and telecommunications projects.
The same report has found that less than 6-percent of the 12 billion yuan allocated by the central budget for agricultural water-saving projects has been put into use as of July.
The findings come as the government prepares to ramp up fiscal spending on major infrastructure projects to ease the overall economic slowdown.
Meituan and Dianping Strike Strategic Merger
Chinese group-buying site Meituan and restaurant-review website Dianping have announced their merger.
The new company, to be co-chaired by Meituan CEO Wang Xing and Dianping CEO Zhang Tao, could be worth more than 15-billion U.S. dollars.
Investment bank China Renaissance has been tapped to oversee the merger.
Meituan and Dianping will continue to run their businesses in parallel, retain their brands, and remain independent.
It is not clear what the equity ratio of the new company will be.
Meituan is a group-buying site backed by Alibaba.
Dianping is funded by Tencent.
Didi Kuaidi Obtains China's First Ride-hailing License
Transport authorities in Shanghai have issued an operating license to running a ride-hailing platform Didi Kuaidi.
Some are calling this a milestone in urban transport and China's mobile Internet development.
This comes on the same day US-based Uber establishes its operations in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone.
Uber Enters Shanghai Free Trade Zone
US-based car service Uber has set up an operation in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone.
Uber has set up a subsidiary in the area.
At the same time, Uber has also announced plans to invest 6.3 billion yuan, or close to a billion US dollars, in the Chinese market.
The company also hopes to provide services in around one-hundred cities in China in a year's time.
Uber is currently operational in 21 different cities in China at this point.
KMT to hold extempore congress to consider replacing Taiwan election candidate
Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang is moving to change its candidate for next year's leadership election.
The KMT's executive have approved a call for an emergency party meeting sometime in the next two weeks to replace Hung Hsiu-chu as the party's candidate.
Its widely expected current KMT chair Eric Chu will be tapped to be the party's candidate in the next election.
Hung Hsiu-chu has issued a statement, saying while she respects the committee's right to hold a new nomination session, she says replacing her will negatively affect the party.
Hung Hsiu-chu won the original nomination in July.
However, the latest polling is suggesting Hung would be easily defeated by opposition DPP candidate Tsai Ing-wen.
Hostage taker of Manila passenger bus shot dead
A man who had been holding people hostage on a passenger bus in the Philippine capital, Manila, has been shot dead by police.
The unidentified gunman took the bus hostage with a knife this afternoon around 2pm local time.
Police shot the hostage-taker shortly after arriving on the scene after he began threatening a female passenger.
He later died in hospital.
None of the hostages were hurt.
Coalition airstrike kills 26 at Yemen wedding
Twenty-six people, including 7 children, have been killed in an airstrike in Yemen.
The bombing is being blamed on the the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi rebels in the country.
More than 40 others have been wounded when the airstrike hit the house of a tribal leader who allegedly supports the Houthis.
It is the second airstrike on a wedding party in Yemen in just over a week.
Coaltion warplanes bombed two wedding tents in southern Yemen in late September, killing 131 people.
Abe's conciliatory letter delivered to S. Korean president
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo has sent a letter off to South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
The head of Abe's coaltion partner in the Japanese parliament, New Komeito, has delivered the note of conciliation to the South Korean president personally.
The move by Abe is meant to try to get formally-engaged with the South Korean President.
Park Geun-hye has refused to hold a bilateral summit with Abe since she took office, citing his previous stances on certian historical issues.
Japan controlled the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
Japan's occupation is still a strong area of contention between the two countries.
Multinational military force completes improvements of Cook Islands infrastructure
A New Zealand-led multinational force, including Chinese, British and US troops, has completed work moving a refueling facility on the Cook Islands.
The fuel depot has been relocated and upgraded.
At the same time, military engineers have also helped repair several schools and hospitals as part of the 6-week joint effort.
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