Economic

China Acceleration May Not Rescue World from Coronavirus Slowdown

During previous economic downturns, China’s real-estate market could usually be relied upon to drive growth, with construction fuelling global demand for commodities from countries like Australia and Canada and spilling over into demand for home appliances and cars. Now, Beijing policy makers are intent on clamping down on home prices that have soared out of reach for many ordinary Chinese. Over leveraged property developers are also scrambling to rein in debt. Oct 19’s economic figures actually fell short of many economists’ expectations—many had forecast headline GDP growth of 5.3% or more—and there were signs of slowing in areas including infrastructure investment and the property sector. Bo Zhuang, a China economist for London-based economic research firm TS Lombard, says the retail picture looks a lot worse once auto sales are stripped out. While Chinese auto sales recorded their first quarter of year-over-year sales growth in two years in the third quarter, helping boost German and Japanese auto makers, he argues the pace is unsustainable, having been driven by discounting and relaxed government policies. “Pent-up demand has been largely released,” Mr. Zhuang said. Click here to read...

Global poor hit as COVID-19 causes drop in remittances

As early as spring, the World Bank was projecting that the pandemic would cause a 20% drop in remittances. In 2019, remittances worth $554 billion (€473 billion) were transferred by migrants to their families back home — $133 billion of which was sent from Europe. The Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (Knomad), which is co-financed by Germany's Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), which has looked into the effects of a 20% remittance drop, pointed out that remittances exceed all foreign direct investment and development aid combined. The financial reports of Transfer Wise, Western Union and MoneyGram — service providers which facilitate remittances — reveal a sharp drop in international payments. Western Union reported a 17% revenue drop in its second financial quarter compared to the same period last year, while MoneyGram reported a 13% decline between April and June. Currently, remittance fees range from between 3% and 7% per payment, which means that when $554 billion in remittances were paid last year, financial service providers earned between $16 and $38 billion — a considerable sum of money that could be used to improve the lives of poor families, and give a boost to developing economies. Click here to read...

China reassures US firms on trade deal

In back-to-back meetings with US-China Business Council (USCBC), Chinese officials sought to reassure American businesses of Beijing's commitment to implement the phase one trade agreement and promote win-win cooperation, in what experts said was a bid to send a clear signal of China's willingness to improve deteriorating ties before the US presidential election. On Oct 19 and Oct 20, Chinese officials, including Vice Premier Hu Chunhua, held at least three virtual meetings with leaders of the USCBC. On Oct 20, Hu told the US delegation that a sound, steady China-US economic and trade relationship is in both sides' interests, and China will continue to promote higher level opening-up and provide foreign firms with better services, according to the Xinhua News Agency. In a separate meeting on Oct 19 night, Ning Jizhe, deputy head of China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said that since the signing of the phase one trade agreement, relevant Chinese departments have made a lot of effort to expand the implementation of the deal and "positive" progress has been seen in increasing imports from the US, the NDRC said in a statement on Oct 22. Click here to read...

Apple’s Booming Services Business Could Be Hit in Google Antitrust Battle

A multibillion-dollar deal in which Google pays to be the default search engine on Apple’s iPhones and other devices is at the heart of the case the U.S. government filed last week against Google. That deal is also at the heart of Apple’s services unit, which has been the biggest contributor to its growth over the past several years. The government has pointed to the deal, whose history dates back 15 years, as an example of how Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., uses its giant profits to block out competition—a contention Google denies. For Apple, it has been a lucrative illustration of the value of access to the more than 1 billion global users of its devices. And while the outcome of the Justice Department’s suit—which could take years to play out—is far from clear, analysts and investors say losing that deal could be a sizable blow to Apple, given estimates that Google’s payments account for up to a fifth of the iPhone maker’s overall profit. Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst for Bernstein estimates that Apple’s stock could fall as much as 20% if the deal with Google were to be eliminated entirely. Click here to read...

Chevron bets on Middle East gas riches and reconciliation

After years of focussing on US shale, Chevron Corp is staking its natural gas future on the Middle East, a volatile and divided region where energy majors have long tread warily. CEO Michael Wirth's pivot away from home is underpinned by a bet that the Middle East is entering an era of reconciliation that will make it ideal for tapping natural gas, as demand for the cheaper and cleaner fuel is forecast to outstrip oil. The new strategy is seeing the company pitch new gas deals in Egypt, Israel, Qatar, while cutting spending on American shale exploration. The plan is anchored by Wirth's US$11.8 billion purchase this month of US-based Noble Energy, which holds a stake of about 40 per cent in the aptly named Leviathan gas field in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Israel. Despite risks, Chevron - which at one-point leap-frogged rival ExxonMobil this month to be the largest US oil company by market value - is ploughing ahead with efforts across the region. Click here to read...

Samsung Heir Takes Reins of Tech Giant Stuck in His Father’s Past

Under Lee Kun-hee’s leadership, Samsung Electronics Co. became a ubiquitous name world-wide with its flat-screen TVs and slick smart phones. That chapter closed for the South Korean tech giant on Sunday with the death of Mr. Lee, who for years was incapacitated in a hospital bed following a 2014 stroke. Now his son, Lee Jae-yong, who has been Samsung’s de-facto leader since 2014, formally takes the reins at a very different time for the tech industry, where Samsung is on the defensive and struggling to evolve. Little is expected to change right away at the Samsung conglomerate, which spans dozens of affiliates in which Samsung Electronics is the crown jewel, industry experts say. How Lee Kun-hee’s shares eventually transfer to his son or two daughters remains unknown. South Korean officials are expected to assess the inheritance tax—which could be as high as 60% for the Samsung shares—over the next months. Click here to read...

China's financial industry, still in adolescence, needs healthy system: Jack Ma

Jack Ma, the renowned Chinese billionaire, and founder of Alibaba Group called for a healthy financial system in China, in which more individuals and enterprises will find it easier to seek financial support. Ma's remarks were made during the second Bund Summit which kicked off in Shanghai on Oct 23 and will run until Oct 25. "Unlike Europe, where the financial system has been operating for decades, the current risk for China is not a systemic financial risk, instead it is the risk of the lack of a healthy financial system," Ma said. He compared China's financial industry to a youngster still in the adolescent phase, like other newly emerging developing countries, which lack a mature ecosystem. China's financial system is still dominated by big state banks which are like "big rivers", yet in an ecosystem, "we need ponds, creeks and small channels, without which, floods and droughts will always happen here and there," Ma said. "Money should find people and businesses, instead of the other way around as in the past," Ma noted. Click here to read...

Basel regulations are not relevant for China’s phase of development, says Alibaba founder

Alibaba founder Jack Ma has blasted international financial regulations and said China needs to chart its own path, days before Ant Group launches the world’s biggest initial public offering. “The Basel Accords are like an old people’s club . . . we can’t use yesterday’s methods to regulate the future,” Mr Ma said at a conference in Shanghai on the weekend, referring to the international banking supervision framework. Mr Ma said the challenges that the rules were designed to resolve were not relevant to China’s phase of development. “Many of the world’s problems” stemmed from “only talking about risk control, not talking about development, not thinking about young people’s or developing countries’ opportunities”, he said. The dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai of Ant, the financial services group, is expected to raise at least $30bn, in an IPO that would top the previous record of $29.4bn raised in 2019 by Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company. Click here to read...

More metals besides rare earths can be used against US suppression- Global Times

China's newly-passed law on export controls will pave the legal grounds before the government can utilize the seven metals in an export control way of fighting back, Zhou Shijian, a senior research fellow at the Center for US-China Relations at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times on Oct 23. The metals, some of which China has been supplying the US since World War II in a metal-for-loan scheme, are of great value to US defense, information technology, aeronautics and aerospace. China has an absolute advantage against the US in four of seven metals - tungsten, tin, antimony and molybdenum - in terms of supply, Zhou said. For another three metals - niobium, titanium, and cobalt - the US has no deposits while China has plenty. And they are indispensable in making airplanes, missiles and rocket engines, said Zhou, a former vice president of the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters. China put export restrictions on some of the metals to the US in 2010, causing a WTO lawsuit, which ruled against China in 2012. China then dropped its export quota system in 2015. Click here to read...

Global Trade-Chief Race Slows as U.S., EU Split on Finalists

The U.S. and Europe are heading for a clash over their preferred candidates to lead the World Trade Organization as the selection of the first woman to run the referee of global commerce enters a pivotal phase. The European Union is inclined to support Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and may sign off on that position by early next week, people familiar with the process said. Other observers say the Trump administration is leaning toward South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee. Meanwhile, China’s preference and those of other major economies like Brazil and India remain unclear. The process is still fraught with political uncertainty. The U.S. election in two weeks may usher in a new administration that alters America’s plans for the WTO, which President Donald Trump has blasted as a tool for globalists who allowed China’s economic rise to go unchecked. If Trump wins, his aides have indicated plans to continue to reshape the WTO with a narrower scope to resolve trade disputes. Click here to read...

Jokowi stumbles in bid to make Indonesia a top-5 global economy

When Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo was sworn in for a second five-year term last October, he talked of his dream of the Southeast Asian country becoming one of the world's top five economies by 2045. To put Indonesia on that path, Jokowi pledged to build a skilled workforce, develop infrastructure, conduct deregulation, execute bureaucratic reforms and reduce the nation's dependence on natural resources. On Oct 20, as he concluded his first year of term two, he finds himself having made progress on deregulation to attract foreign investment, but behind on the public works agenda. Most symbolically, the ambitious project to move the Indonesian capital from Jakarta to the island of Borneo has yet to get off the ground.Indonesia is the world's 16th largest with a gross domestic product of $1.1 trillion. His goal of $7 trillion is still far off. The parliament delivered on the deregulation plank earlier this month by passing the omnibus job bill over the opposition of labor unions and other detractors. Click here to read...

Strategic

Quad drills: Australia to join India, US and Japan at Malabar

India on Oct 19 said Australia will participate in its annual naval exercise with the U.S. and Japan next month, a move expected to give a boost to defense cooperation among the four members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or "Quad," while raising eyebrows in China." As India seeks to increase cooperation with other countries in the maritime security domain and in the light of increased defense cooperation with Australia, Malabar 2020 will see the participation of the Australian Navy," the Indian defense ministry said in a statement. New Delhi is to organize the Malabar exercise in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea this November. Malabar began in 1992 as a bilateral India-U.S. drill, with Japan joining on a permanent basis in 2015. It was conducted off the coast of Guam in the Philippine Sea in 2018 and off the coast of Japan in 2019. Australia last participated in 2007. Click here to read...

Japan and Australia to coordinate on protection of military assets

Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi and his Australian counterpart Linda Reynolds agreed Oct 19 that the two countries will begin coordination to enable Japan to protect Australian military assets even in noncombat situations. The move comes as Japan and Australia are strengthening vigilance and surveillance activities amid China's growing assertiveness in the East and South China seas. Kishi told reporters Japan, Australia and the United States are planning to hold a joint military drill near the South China Sea. The protection by Japan's Self-Defense Forces of weapons and equipment belonging to foreign military forces became possible with the passage of new security legislation in 2015. Australia would be the second country, after the United States, whose assets Japan would be allowed to protect under the law. The law stipulates that SDF personnel are permitted to protect the military assets of other countries on condition that the foreign forces are engaged in activities contributing to the defence of Japan. For the coordination of military asset protection, the Japanese and Australian defense authorities will promptly start discussions at the section chief and director levels. Click here to read...

Japan calls on industry and academia to fortify cyber defences

Japan will set up a unit in fiscal 2022 spanning industry, government and academia to study cyberattacks and develop more effective defences. More than 20 companies and other organizations are in talks to join the effort, including Hitachi, NEC, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi Electric, Yokogawa Denki, the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone group, Waseda University and Kobe University, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.Studies show Japan lags behind other countries in defending against cyberattacks and often relies on foreign companies for cybersecurity. Faced with a technological gap that poses serious risks to national security, Tokyo will seek to nurture cyber defense talent and technology by bring the public and private sectors on the same team. "Understanding attack methods and malware is a necessity for cyber defence," said Kenji Uesugi, a fellow at the Japan Cybersecurity Innovation Committee. Yet "many companies are hesitant to share information," he added. Click here to read...

Beijing deploys role in Korean war in fight against the US

History has become the latest battlefront between Beijing and Washington after a sharp rise in nationalism and anti-American sentiment around the 70th anniversary of China entering the Korean War. Unlike in the US, where the conflict is sometimes referred to as the “forgotten war”, China regularly celebrates the “war to resist American aggression and aid [North] Korea” with great fanfare. The official narrative of China’s decision to enter the war has shifted from a tale of socialist fraternalism against imperialist aggression into a great sacrifice by Chinese troops to protect the state and allow national rejuvenation, a favourite theme of President Xi Jinping. This year, official propaganda has played up the US role in the war to a greater degree, an emphasis that had fallen out of vogue in the decades immediately following China’s entry into the World Trade Organization. Click here to read...

UAE vs Turkey: the regional rivalries pitting MBZ against Erdogan

When Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the United Arab Emirates’ de facto leader, shook up the Middle East by agreeing to normalise relations with Israel, just two states in the region cried foul. Iran was predictably first up. But arguably the harshest reaction came from Turkey, despite it being the first majority Muslim country to recognise Israel seven decades ago. Over 10 months of accusation and counter accusation, it has become the Middle East’s most toxic feud, pitting two of the region’s most powerful, assertive leaders against each other; one of the US’s closest Arab partners against a NATO member. And it has reverberated from the oil-rich Gulf to the Horn of Africa and the front lines of Libya’s civil war, further fuelling tensions in the eastern Mediterranean. “It’s the struggle defining the politics of the Middle East at the moment,” says Emile Hokayem, Middle East expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “It’s a rivalry that plays out directly and by proxy in many places — and it’s one that will draw in international actors on both sides.” Click here to read...

Sudan to join White House-brokered peace deal with Israel after call with US

Sudan is joining the Abraham Accords and recognizing the state of Israel, US President Donald Trump has announced. It is the third country in three months to do so, following the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Following a phone call with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump on Oct 23, Sudanese PM Abdalla Hamdok and head of the Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced they would “end the state of belligerence” with Israel and start the process of normalizing relations. Earlier this week, Trump announced that the US would be removing Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism as soon as the North African country pays out $335 million in compensation to victims of Al-Qaeda attacks on US embassies. The designation dates back to 1993, early in the 30-year rule of President Omar al-Bashir. Click here to read...

Warring sides in Libya sign ‘historic’ permanent ceasefire deal, UN says

The opposing parties in the Libyan conflict signed a deal on Oct 23 for a permanent nationwide ceasefire, the UN said, adding that the move could become a turning point towards stability in the country. The ceasefire accord between the two delegations of the Libyan 5+5 Joint Military Commission was reached at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, and the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) showed a live video of the signing ceremony on its Facebook account on Oct 23. Military representatives of the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) and commander Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) participated in the negotiations that are likely to be followed by political consultations in Tunisia next month. The talks culminated in “a historic achievement” when the Libyan parties reached a permanent ceasefire agreement in all areas of the country, the UN said. Click here to read...

State Department gives green light for $1.8bn arms deal to Taiwan after Beijing threatens countermeasures

The US State Department has approved a sale of advanced weaponry worth over $1.8 billion to Taiwan, the Pentagon said, leaving Congress to give final authorization as Beijing slams the deal as provocative and warns of retaliation. The proposed arms transfer was certified by the State Department on Oct 21, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which notified lawmakers of the deal. The sale includes Lockheed Martin’s truck-mounted rocket launcher, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), long-range air-to-ground missiles produced by Boeing and sensor upgrades for Taiwan’s F-16 fighter jets – all to the tune of just over $1.8 billion. The deal comes amid reports that a flurry of other arms transfers to Taiwan are in various stages of approval, believed to include advanced MQ-9 Reaper drones and a coastal missile defense system, among other weapons, valued at between $5 billion and $7 billionClick here to read...

What’s ‘verifiable’? Extension of US-Russia nuclear New START treaty hinges on word

The sole remaining US-Russia nuclear arms control deal may get a last-moment extension after all, but everything now depends on what the US State Department means when it says warhead caps need to be “verifiable.” New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) is scheduled to expire in February 2021. While Russia has offered a “clean” renewal of the existing treaty, without preconditions, the Trump administration has first sought to expand it to include China, then demanded a limit on total nuclear warheads as a condition for agreeing to an extension. The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Oct 20 that Russia is ready to accept the warhead cap, but “strictly on the understanding that the freezing of the warheads will not be accompanied by any additional demands from the US side." Click here to read...

France Honours the Memory of Beheaded Teacher Samuel Paty

French President Emmanuel Macron led a national tribute on Oct 21 to the schoolteacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded after showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class as part of a lesson on free speech.Speaking in front of the illuminated 17th-century facade of the Sorbonne University in Paris, Mr. Macron cast Mr. Paty as a symbol of France’s enlightenment values and of the fight against Islamist extremists, who have killed more than 200 people in France over the past five years. Mr. Paty’s death has prompted a crackdown by French authorities on Islamic associations; schools and mosques that they say are promoting an extreme version of the Muslim faith and challenging the nation’s secular political values. The government said 51 such groups would be visited by authorities this week and some dissolved. Click here to read...

Nigeria Protests: What’s Happening and Why Are People Demonstrating Against SARS?

Two weeks of nationwide protests against police brutality in Nigeria turned deadly on Oct 20 as security forces fired live rounds on demonstrators, killing several people. The decision to use military force to quell the demonstrations shifts politics into an uncertain phase in West Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer. Formed in 1992, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad is a heavily armed police unit to fight violent crime including car jackings and armed robbery and has become synonymous across much of Nigeria with allegations of police brutality and impunity. Amnesty International and other rights groups have documented the unit’s alleged abuse of civilians including extortion, rape and extrajudicial killings. Many Nigerians complained that SARS frequently extorted young people who appeared to have disposable income. Click here to read...

Iraq Emerges as New Front for Enforcement of Iran Oil Sanctions

Persian Gulf waters off Iraq have become a new, important waypoint for Iranian oil smugglers looking to avoid U.S. sanctions, according to American officials, who expressed frustration that Baghdad and other allies aren’t acting more aggressively to enforce curbs on commerce with Tehran. Iranian tankers now regularly transfer crude to other ships just miles offshore the major Iraqi port of Al Faw, according to the officials. The oil is then mixed with cargoes from other places to disguise its origin, and it eventually ends up on sale in world markets, they say. In one example from March, according to a shipping manifest reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, 230,000 barrels of oil from the state-run National Iranian Oil Co. were transferred to a vessel moored in Iraqi waters. The cargo was blended with Iraqi oil and passed to other ships, according to people familiar with the operation. The ultimate destination of the oil wasn’t clear. Click here to read...

US on the same page with South Korea over end-of-war declaration

South Korea and the U.S. have appeared to be at odds over President Moon Jae-in's proposal for a declaration to end the 1950-53 Korean War, made during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September. However, key officials in the Donald Trump administration are now starting to assuage the rising concerns about a discrepancy in the two countries' positions, saying the declaration was not a separate issue from the denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the declaration ending the war was a part of the process of denuclearization and called on North Korea to return to negotiations. "So our position on that set of issues, that suite of issues with respect to the denuclearization of North Korea, a brighter future for the North Korean people, which would obviously include documents that would change the status between North and South Korea. There's been no change in the way the United States thinks about this," Pompeo said during a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, D.C., on Oct 21. Click here to read...

Russia knocking Turkish drones from Armenian skies

While Belladonna translates to “beautiful woman” in English, in Russian it has a second meaning: it is the name of a Russian electronic jamming system now credited with knocking out at least nine Turkish Bayraktar armed drones used by Azerbaijan to target Armenia. In Russian, Belladonna is known as “Krasukha.” The Krasukha jamming system was rushed to Armenia to counter the successful use of both armed drones such as the Bayraktar and suicide drones like the Israel-made loitering munitions known as Harop. Bayraktar is a fairly conventional armed drone that is navigated to the target area using GPS. The drone’s Wescam MX-15D multispectral camera system is made in Canada while its BRP-Rotax engine that generates about 100 horsepower is produced in Austria. Krakushka was used successfully in defending the Hmeymim Air Base in Syria that was attacked by armed, if not primitive, swarming drones. An earlier strike by such drones had caused significant damage at the base, destroying some aircraft, and alarmed Russia’s military about a significant vulnerability at Hmeymim. Click here to read...

Beijing gives cautious welcome to Vladimir Putin’s hint over Russia-China military alliance

Beijing has cautiously welcomed Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that a military alliance between Russia and China is possible – the first time a Russian leader has made such a suggestion since the pact between Stalin and Mao Zedong collapsed. On Oct 23 he was asked about the possibility of such an alliance during a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, a Russian international affairs forum, and replied: “We have always believed that our relations have reached such a level of cooperation and trust that it is not necessary, but it is certainly imaginable, in theory.” He continued that the two countries’ militaries already work closely together and “time will tell how it will progress from here. So far, we have not set that goal for ourselves. But, in principle, we are not going to rule it out, either. So, we will see”. But some Chinese observers noted that while the idea was highly unlikely, even talking about it could be seen as a sign of goodwill. Click here to read...

Iran plans to export arms with sanctions off

While foreign observes now wonder whether Iran might go on a weapons shopping spree, Iranian media outlets have been speculating about potential arms exports. Iranian security expert Hossein Dalirian, who sympathizes with Iran's Revolutionary Guard, thinks Armenia could be a potential buyer. In a recent article for the Iranian daily newspaper Jam-e Jam, he says that Armenia – currently fighting Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region — might be interested in acquiring Iranian air defense systems. According to Dalirian, "Iran is the only country in the Islamic world that builds modern missile defense systems, guided rockets and drones.” The Islamic Republic of Iran has continued to unveil new missile systems even when the international community was still considering extending the arms embargo against the country this August. At the time, Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami presented an all new surface-to-surface missile and a cruise missile with a range of more than 1,000 kilometres on Iranian television. "Many countries want to buy our weapons," Hatami asserted in a television interview just after the arms embargo was lifted: "We will definitely export more than we will import; our weapons are affordable and efficient." Click here to read...

Medical

To Find a Coronavirus Vaccine, Pharma Competitors Come Together

In the age of Covid-19, old adversaries are uniting around a common enemy: the new coronavirus. Their nascent partnership is now visible in everything from trials to research to manufacturing. Glaxo and eight other pharmaceutical firms even took the rare step of issuing a joint pledge last month to seek regulatory approvals for their vaccines only after proving their safety and effectiveness in large, final-stage clinical trials. The most common area of cooperation thus far is manufacturing. Some long time rivals are striking deals to stretch their capacity to meet anticipated demand. Roche Holding AG is helping manufacture an antiviral drug in development by rival Regeneron. Amgen Inc. will help make Eli Lilly & Co.’s antiviral drugs if the treatments are authorized by regulators. Pfizer has dedicated manufacturing capacity to turning out doses of remdesivir, an antiviral made by rival Gilead Sciences Inc. Click here to read...

South Korea urges people to get flu vaccinations despite death toll

South Korea urged citizens to get vaccinated against influenza and reduce the chances of an outbreak that coincides with the battle on the coronavirus, as it kicked off free inoculations for the last eligible group. Public anxiety over the safety of flu vaccines has surged after at least 48 people died this month following vaccinations, while, last month, about 5 million doses had to be disposed of after not being stored at recommended temperatures. Authorities have said they found no direct link between the deaths and the flu shots. "Vaccination offers far greater benefits compared to side effects, and both the WHO and domestic and overseas experts agree," Health Minister Park Neung-hoo told a briefing on Sunday (Oct 25), in a reference to the World Health Organization. As South Korea presses on with its inoculations, Southeast Asia's tiny city state of Singapore became one of the first nations this week to call a temporary halt to the use of two influenza vaccines, as a precaution. Click here to read...