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Topline: Billionaire Li Ka-shing says he regretted that his comments on the Hong Kong protests had been misrepresented after facing harsh criticism from a Chinese government agency on social media and in China’s state-owned media. Hong Kong’s richest man had reportedly appealed to the city’s government to offer an “olive branch” to the pro-democracy movement in a bid to end the five-month long political crisis. Li Ka-shing issued a statement on Friday via his foundation after China’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission reportedly accused him of “harboring criminals” in a Weibo post. The criticism was echoed in the People’s...

Here’s a guy you want to bet on– Li Ka-Shing. Li is reportedly the richest person in Asia with a net worth well in excess of $30 billion, much of which he made being a shrewd property investor. Li Ka-Shing was investing in mainland China back in the early 90s, way back before it became the trendy thing to do. Now, Li wants out of China. All of it. Since August of last year, he’s dumped billions of dollars worth of his Chinese holdings. The latest is the $928 million sale of the Pacific Place shopping center in Beijing– this...

Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing's yuan-denominated IPO, the world's first outside mainland China, made a limp trading debut Friday but officials said the market remained full of promise. Li Ka-shing Shares in Hui Xian Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) controlled by Asia's richest man, tumbled to 4.88 yuan (75 US cents), well below their 5.24 yuan initial public offering price, on opening and ended the morning at 4.84 yuan. The tepid debut comes despite high hopes that it will help bolster Beijing's bid to turn the yuan into a global currency that could rival the US dollar's dominance, and gauge...

<p>Fox news ran stories last night based on some of the things we were tracking right here in this post. Here is their on line story.</p> <p>As unfinished as my research is, I feel compelled to release what I've found so far as the story cannot wait any longer.  I am not looking for a scoop on anyone or anything, but at the same time I don't want anyone thinking I made this stuff up after the fact either.</p>

NASHUA – A top Clinton adviser faces charges of aggravated driving while intoxicated after city police caught him speeding through Greeley Park a day before the state primary. Sidney Blumenthal, longtime friend and senior adviser to presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. was allegedly driving a rented car north on Concord Street at a speed of 70 mph when Nashua Police Sgt. Mike Masella decided to stop it at about 12:30 a.m. Monday. -snip- Blumenthal was arrested after completing the test and taken to the police department where he refused to take a breath test and was booked on...

PCCW Limited      39th Fl., PCCW Tower, TaiKoo Place, 979 King's Rd., Quarry Bay 070, Hong Kong     Phone: +852-2888-2888 Fax: +852-2877-8877 http://www.pccw.com Emerging player PCCW expanded dramatically in 2000 by buying Hong Kong's incumbent phone company, Cable & Wireless HKT. PCCW is now the city's dominant carrier operating 3.5 million phone lines. Formerly Pacific Century CyberWorks, it owns a Hong Kong fiber-optic network and provides Internet services. PCCW's 40%-owned mobile phone joint venture with Australia's Telstra serves 1 million customers in Hong Kong and elsewhere in the region. Telstra and PCCW are cooperating on a global Internet Protocol...

PASSAGE OF LAST FALL'S INITIATIVE IS ALREADY BRINGING MONEY AND TALENT TO CALIFORNIA Anyone who has been involved in a Silicon Valley start-up can appreciate the challenge facing the California stem-cell institute in its first year of operation. Funding issues. A search for new facilities. Court challenges. A squabble with the Legislature over the degree of public oversight. Despite those considerable obstacles, here's what California voters should know about their investment in making the state a world leader in stem-cell research: It's working. Witness the evidence: • The University of California-Los Angeles earlier this year announced that it was launching...

NEW YORK — Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has agreed to pay $2.4 billion to resolve investors' claims it helped hide losses at Enron Corp., marking the biggest individual settlement since the energy trader collapsed in a massive accounting fraud. The settlement announced Tuesday with the Toronto-based bank — Canada's fifth-largest financial institution and the operator of the securities firm CIBC World Markets — could help compensate investors who lost tens of billions of dollars when Enron failed in 2001. Combined with similar agreements with Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. and others, the settlements have now reached more...

<p>A swanky office in Beverly Hills, brash investment bankers scoring hundred-million-dollar paydays, a spectacular collapse ending in federal investigations. The belly flop of Global Crossing Ltd. seems remarkably similar to the saga of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., the investment bank that imploded a dozen years ago. In fact, it may be more than coincidence. At least five key players in the startup of Global Crossing were prominent executives at Drexel.</p>

<p>NEW YORK (AP) A Hong Kong-based conglomerate is likely to abandon its $250 million deal to buy fiber-optic carrier Global Crossing out of bankruptcy because U.S. officials still have deep concerns about the sale's national security implications, a source familiar with the situation said Tuesday.</p>

Reprinted from NewsMax.com Billionaire Fails in Bid for Global CrossingCharles R. SmithThursday, March 6, 2003This is the second article about Li Ka Shing's bid to purchase Global Crossing. Read Part I: Global Double Crossing. Li Ka Shing has lost the first round in his effort to take over Global Crossing. Li's bid for the defunct telecommunications giant failed before a U.S. national security committee charged with oversight. The credit for causing Li's failure must be distributed evenly to both NewsMax and our readers for passing so many valuable tips about the reclusive billionaire to the FBI. In the end, Li...

With Americans focused on problems in the Middle East, particularly those relating to terrorism, and with Republicans relishing recent election victories, we should not forget that a disastrous situation now faces America in our own backyard. Recently, I returned from a visit to Panama, one of the most strategically important nations in the Western Hemisphere. My friend Wilson C. Lucom lives in Panama City – and has been warning Americans of the threat now posed by the increasing communist influence in Central America. We don't hear about it on the nightly news, but revolution and radicalism have been sweeping Latin...

As America grapples with a two-front challenge -- the global war on terror and the need to reinvigorate the U.S. economy -- its leaders are hoping that expanded international trade can help solve both problems. Unfortunately, if the machinations of the Chinese conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa are any indicator, an indiscriminate approach to trading with potential enemies could cost the United States dearly on both fronts. Recent debates over granting President Bush Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), according Communist China permanent "Normal Trade Relations" status and permitting taxpayer subsidized trade with Cuba have all implicitly, if not explicitly, shared a dubious...

Press ReleaseSOURCE: Global CrossingHutchison Telecommunications and Singapore Technologies Telemedia Sign Agreement to Acquire a Majority Interest in Global Crossing - Global Crossing's creditor groups support investment agreement - Agreement approved by bankruptcy court on August 9 - Investment will fund successful emergence of Global Crossing from Chapter 11, expected to occur in early 2003 subject to obtaining regulatory approvals MADISON, N.J., Aug. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Crossing today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement under which Hutchison Telecommunications Limited (Hutchison), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Limited, and Singapore Technologies Telemedia Pte. Ltd. (ST Telemedia) will invest...

Hutchison Whampoa Teams With U.S. Defense Firm for Port Security Li Ka-Shing Seeks U.S. Contract Hutchison Whampoa Teams With U.S. Defense Firm for Port Security Hutchison Whampoa, the firm that currently runs both ends of the Panama Canal, is teaming up with an American technology company in a bid to win tens of millions of dollars in U.S. port security funding. Three companies - Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., PSA Corp. Ltd. of Singapore, and London-based P&O Ports - will test an advanced electronic system manufactured by California-based Savi Technology to ensure the security of cargo entering U.S. ports. Hutchison Whampoa's effort...

MADISON, N.J. (Reuters) - Bankrupt telecommunications company Global Crossing Ltd. on Wednesday said it extended its deadline again for an asset auction to allow more time to review bids. Global Crossing, which filed for bankruptcy in January and faces two federal probes into its accounting, last week moved the date of the auction from July 24 to July 31. On Wednesday, it said it had now moved the date from July 31 to August 2. The auction will take place at the offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP in New York. The auction hearing is currently scheduled for...

Vancouver and Halifax Ports Go Unguarded Amid renewed concern over new terror attacks against America, Canada has left its ports unguarded. Canada has removed its police on the ground inside the port facilities of Vancouver and Halifax, reportedly in response to budget shortfalls. According to U.S. and Canadian intelligence officials, the ports are currently "wide open" for terrorist infiltration. The lack of police to patrol and inspect these ports of entry has raised concerns inside the U.S. that al-Qaeda terrorists may use the unguarded entry points as landing areas for attacks on America. Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston are...