April 3, 2012 (Vietnamica) — Wholesale market prices to buy gold dropped to $1672 an ounce Tuesday lunchtime in London – a 0.7% fall from the previous day’s high – while stocks and commodities traded lower and US Treasury bond prices rose ahead of the release of the latest Federal Reserve policy meeting minutes.
April 2, 2012 (Vietnamica) — Spot market gold prices jumped to $1669 per ounce ahead of Monday’s US trading, broadly in line with where they ended last week, though they remained below the Asian session peak touched briefly following the release of positive Chinese manufacturing data.
April 1, 2012 (Vietnamica) — In a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Le Keqiang at the Boao Forum for Asian on Mar 31, Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai again asked China to release “immediately and unconditionally” 21 Vietnamese fishermen detained by Chinese authority. Vietnam had requested the crews’ release last month, according to a government statement on March 21. Neither statement provides details on when the incident occurred (Bloomberg, Apr 1).
March 30, 2012 (by Nguyen Pham Muoi of Dow Jones Newswires) — Trung Nguyen Coffee Group Corp., Vietnam’s biggest coffee processing firm, is seeking foreign strategic partners to boost global sales of its coffee products, Chairman Dang Le Nguyen Vu said Thursday.
March 28, 2012 (Vietnamica) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accepted a six-point peace plan to end his regime’s year-long crackdown (NYT) on anti-government protesters and opposition forces, said Kofi Annan, the joint UN-Arab League envoy to Syria. The announcement came as Assad made a rare visit to Homs, an opposition stronghold that has sustained continued military attacks over the past months. But Assad’s critics, including the United States, remained skeptical of his intentions. At the same time, Syrian soldiers targeted rebels taking cover along the border with Lebanon. Syrian activists claimed fifty-seven people were killed in clashes with government...
March 27, 2012 (Vietnamica) — After U.S. President Barack Obama visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone on March 25 during his trip to South Korea for a nuclear security summit, he made the obligatory presidential remarks warning North Korea against continued provocations. He also praised the strength of U.S.-South Korean relations and commended the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there. Obama’s visit itself is of little importance, but it is an opportunity to ask just what Washington’s strategy is in Korea and how the countries around North Korea (China, Russia, South Korea and Japan) view the region. As always, any understanding...
