SEOUL Benardrick McKinney Black Jersey , South Korea — U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert was attacked by a man wielding a razor and screaming that the rival Koreas should be unified, South Korean police and media said Thursday. TV images showed Lippert bleeding from his head and wrist, but his injuries weren't immediately clear. He was taken to a hospital for treatment.
YTN TV reported that the man screamed "South and North Korea should be reunified" during the attack. The rival Koreas have been divided for decades along the world's most heavily armed border. The U.S. stations 28,500 troops in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea, and some South Koreans see the U.S. presence as a barrier toward a unified Korea.
Mark Lippert attacked Mark Lippert attacked Mark Lippert attacked Mark Lippert attacked
YTN TV said Lippert's injuries weren't seen as life threatening. Police confirmed that Lippert was attacked and a suspect was detained and being questioned but didn't have other details, including the type of weapon and the extent of Lippert's injuries. YTN said a man only identified by his surname, Kim, was detained after the attack.
Lippert, 42, became ambassador last year and has been mostly popular during his time in Seoul. His wife gave birth here and the couple gave their son a Korean middle name. Lippert was formerly the U.S. Assistant Secretary Defense for Asian affairs.
CANBERRA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Australia's largest logistics company, Toll Holdings, has agreed to be acquired by Japanese state-owned courier Japan Post on Wednesday in a takeover worth around 5.1 billion U.S. dollars.
In one of its initial ventures into the overseas market, Japan Post will hope to use Toll's reputation throughout Asia as a platform to expand across the continent and transform itself into a global logistics and freight leader.
The takeover is also set to benefit existing Toll shareholders, whose stake in the company will be bought at 7.07 U.S. dollars per share, representing a 49 percent premium on Tuesday evening's closing price.
As part of the deal, Japan Post will also assume Toll's 1.1 billion U.S. dollars worth of debt, taking the overall cost of the deal to around 6.2 billion U.S. dollars.
The agreement still needs to be approved by 75 percent of the company's shareholders, as well as by Australian regulators. However, Toll's board is unanimously endorsing the deal.
"Japan Post is one of the world's leading postal and logistics companies and Toll is the largest independent logistics group in the Asia-Pacific," Toll chairman Ray Horsburgh said, adding " Together, this will be a very powerful combination and one of the world's top five logistics companies."
"Critically, it will enhance our service to existing and new customers," Horsburgh said.
As part of the deal, Toll will retain its name and will be run as a separate overseas division of Japan Post, whose CEO Toru Takahashi revealed ambitions of becoming the world's leading logistics company.
"We believe the combination of Japan Post and Toll will be a transformational transaction for both our companies and we are very pleased we have been able to reach an agreement," Takahashi said.
"In partnership with Toll, we are starting a new chapter of looking outward and becoming a leading global player," he added.
BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- A year ago, economic forecasters at home and abroad bet on the sharp depreciation of the renminbi, or the yuan, in 2017 due to a flagging economy and U.S. rate hikes. But the Chinese currency roaring back in past months has proven them wrong.
The yuan's midpoint saw a substantial increase to 6.6770 against the greenback Thursday, the strongest in more than 10 months, following a steady strengthening streak since the beginning of 2017. Onshore and offshore rates were also much firmer.
While curbed capital flight and the weaker U.S. dollar were considered the immediate cause, the country's economic resilience played a fundamental role in propping up the currency.
China posted a forecast-beating GDP increase of 6.9 percent in the second quarter of the year despite expectations of a loss in momentum, flat with that of the January-March period. From buoyant factory activity to robust imports, latest indicators have disappointed doomsayers.
"Once again, the Chinese economy has defied the hand wringing of the nattering nabobs of negativism," Stephen Roach, faculty member at Yale University, wrote in an article on Project Syndicate.
CONSUMPTION POWER
Roach said deeper issues, namely reforms, were overlooked by pessimistic analysts. "The Chinese economy is in the midst of an extraordinary structural transformation - with a manufacturing-led producer model giving way to an increasingly powerful services-led consumer model."
The transition is being briskly pushed forward by China's middle class, a growing group generous in spending and fastidious in quality that will likely dominate the demographic structure in next decades.
Homi Kharas, now with the Brookings Institution, predicted in an OECD working paper that China will add 850 million to its middle class by 2030, which means the group will account for 73 percent of the population. In contrast, Europe will add only 16 million and North America will see a decline of 16 million.
The trend forecast by Kharas will reshape the landscape of both China and the world. "China will have a 9.7-trillion-dollar consumer market by 2030, the largest in the world," according to a lengthy report by Morgan Stanley, which predicted the world's second largest economy will become a high income country at that time.
The predicted picture is yet to come true, but preliminary effects have already been felt. Consumption contributed 63.4 percent of economic expansion in the first half (H1) of .
