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The Philippines, which battles averagely 20 typhoons and storms a year, is upgrading its outdated meteorological radars with a multi-million dollar grant from Japan, the government said Friday.

The grant, valued 3.35 billion Japanese yen (24.6 million U.S. dollars), was formally handed to the Philippine government on Friday and will be used to replace three outdated radars with Doppler (S-band) radar systems in the country’s northern and eastern coasts, said a statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The Philippines is reeling from the devastation of two back-to-back storms that dumped epic rainfalls to the northern and central Luzon region since Sept. 26. Nearly 1,000 people were killed in the widespread flooding and landslides while nine million people were affected. Hundred of thousands homeless residents remain in government-run temporary shelters.

Mirinae, a category two typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 150 kph near the center, is bearing down on the floods-ravaged archipelago and is expected to make landfall on the country’s east coast late Friday night.

Also on Friday, Australia Embassy in Manila said it is supporting a tropical cyclone early warning system, to be used by the government’s weather forecast bureau, through a 17 million pesos (356,394 U.S. dollars) grant from the Australian Government Aid Program.

Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Rod Smith said the enhanced system will help forecasters better analyze the weather data to produce a more accurate forecast, as well as enhancing the mapping of storm signals. It will also help improve and enable warnings to be sent via email, fax and mobile phone texts.

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration Administrator Prisco D. Nilo said with this new technology, the cash-strapped agency’s typhoon forecasting capability will be significantly enhanced on a real-time basis.

“Cheap” Hong Kong stocks will be targeted as the mainland expands a program for local investors to buy equities and bonds overseas, according to Lewis Wan, chief investment officer of Pride Investment Group Ltd.

E Fund Management Co said on Oct 26 it received a $1-billion quota to invest overseas under the qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) program, the first approval by the authorities in 17 months.

QDII funds are the only route for mainland investors to buy overseas stocks and bonds. Hong Kong-traded shares of mainland companies typically trade at a discount to mainland listings.

“We’ve seen a lot of mainland money trying to invest overseas, especially in Hong Kong shares because of the cheap valuations and as a lot of the shares can’t be bought on the A-share market,” said Wan, whose Pride China Fund has gained 59 percent this year.

“At the beginning, mostly they will invest in the big shares, for example China Mobile or CNOOC.”

Stocks on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index trade at 24.09 times reported earnings, less than the Shanghai Composite Index’s multiple of 34.18, according to Bloomberg data. The regulator may issue more than $4 billion of new quotas, Z-Ben Advisors estimates.

China Mobile Ltd, the world’s first phone company with more than half a billion subscribers, has declined 2.6 percent this year, compared with a 54-percent rally by Hong Kong’s benchmark gauge.

CNOOC Ltd, the nation’s biggest offshore oil producer, has climbed 72 percent in 2009. Neither stock is listed in the mainland markets.

The “Zhenghe” training vessel of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy left Dalian, northeast China’s Liaoning Province, Monday for visits to the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan.

At the invitation of the ROK’s navy and Japan’s maritime self-defense force, the vessel is scheduled to visit the ROK’s port of Chinhae and Japan’s port of Kure from Oct. 29 to Nov. 2, and Nov. 5 to 9 respectively, according to the schedule.

Two cadets from an institute under Japan’s maritime self-defence force were on board the vessel to receive training with their Chinese counterparts, said Rear-Admiral Liu Yi, the PLA Navy’s deputy chief of staff, who will lead the vessel.

This was the first time for foreign cadets to take part in the whole course of navigation training on a Chinese navy vessel, according to Liu.

Of nearly 370 people on board the vessel, 230, including 16 female, are cadets from four academies under the PLA Navy. They will have a variety of professional exchanges with their ROK and Japanese counterparts respectively, according to Liu.

During the visits, four Chinese navy students will get the opportunity to receive training in academies of the ROK’s navy and Japan’s maritime self-defense force for two or three days, he said.

The visiting ship “Zhenghe” was named after a Chinese maritime explorer who sailed overseas about 600 years ago. Dubbed “a mobile college on the sea”, the vessel was put into service 22 years ago and had sailed for a total of more than 280,000 nautical miles.

ASEAN leaders and their counterparts of China, Japan, and South Korea attended the 12th ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) plus Three Summit here on Saturday, where they discussed a series of topics concerning regional cooperation.

The leaders shared their views on the need to continue implementing the domestic stimulus measures and appropriate fiscal and monetary policies while standing firm against protectionism, said Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya at a press briefing after the summit.

The 12th ASEAN Plus Three Summit and a series of related summits were held here on Saturday.

The topic of mobilizing funds to support infrastructure development projects was brought up during the meeting, and the leaders tasked their finance ministers to develop an idea for an ASEAN infrastructure development fund, building upon the funds that China and Japan have pledged to present at the next ASEAN Summit, according to Kasit.

In terms of the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM), leaders agreed that the CMIM is the model for regional cooperation for reserve pooling, which can help countries with problems of their financial liquidity.

During the meeting, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called upon the participating national leaders to strive to complete the signing of CMIM by the end of this year, in a bid to establish the regional foreign currency reserve pool.

Details of the CMIM, a sizeable foreign currency reserve pool among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan and South Korea (ASEAN Plus Three), were finalized in May this year, two years after the initiative was first introduced to combat emergent financial problems.

The total size of the CMIM is 120 billion U.S. dollars with the contribution portion between ASEAN and the Plus Three countries at20 percent versus 80 percent.

Other key topics discussed by the leaders also include the establishment of the regional economic surveillance mechanism, the implementation of the Asian Bond Markets Initiative, and the possibility of establishing an East Asian FTA (Free Trade Area).

“Yan Deli” was the target of vitriol last week after a blog post, in her name, published 279 mobile phone numbers of “clients” of the “AIDS-infected prostitute”.

“Yan” said she was spreading the HIV virus to new clients each day and wanted to seek fame even by the questionable means of attracting public attention on the Internet. The post also featured hundreds of pictures of her nude.

As the case rapidly spread across the web portals, the 30-year-old became an instant target of public criticism because the public originally regarded the “confession” as revenge against the society.

But days later, the case was found to be a hoax.

Yan, from a village in the northern province of Hebei, went to Beijing more than 100 km northeast of her hometown at 17 and has been working there as a migrant worker.

“All the content in the post is faked. I’ve never opened a blog,” she said.

Three test results also showed she wasn’t infected with HIV, and the initial police probe indicated that her ex-boyfriend might be behind the libel case.

“Yang Yongmeng (her ex-boyfriend) once threatened to publish my pictures on the web if I broke up with him,” Yan told Xinhua.

Yan said she broke up with Yang in March after living with him for two years in Beijing because she learned he already had a family.

The libel had brought disgrace upon her family, although it was no fault of Yan, said her mother.

Condemnation has since turned to sympathy and support.

“The post, whose truthfulness is yet to be confirmed, pushed Yan stark-naked to the public, which has definitely hurt her hard,” said a posting from the southern coastal city of Shenzhen.

“Who will protect Yan Deli from the revenge of the ‘black hands’ on the web? Who will protect us who might be victims of similar revenge? This is a question to ponder,” said “Aibinhaosi”.

“If you gloat over the case, you might some day be the next YanDeli.”

Peng Yuanwen, an editor of Phoenix TV’s website, wrote in his commentary titled “Yan Deli, (we’re) sorry”: “I think, to Yan Deli herself, the best outcome is that the case has never happened. Now even I’m speaking for her and it is still hurting. We have the responsibility to clear her name since we’ve hurt her.”

Huang Aixue, of the School of Law at Renmin University of China, said Yan could pursue civil and criminal responsibility and ask for compensation for mental distress.

The expert even believed some media and websites should also bear some responsibility for the damage to Yan’s reputation.

Huang said the media and websites disseminated unconfirmed information and this has led to more serious hurt and rights violations.

Chinese Internet users, who total more than 338 million, have started expressing their opinions and this exerts an increasing influence on the process and direction of some incidents unveiled on the Internet.

As to laws concerning the protection of people’s rights to reputation and privacy on the Internet, this was a “no-man’s-land”, said Shi Ying, a professor in the School of Law at Liaoning University.

“Authorities should learn from the online criminal cases such as the ‘AIDS-infected woman’ and close legal loopholes to protect people from Internet vilification and punish those who dare to the legal lines,” Shi said.

Suspected Al-Qaida affiliated militants bombed another telecommunication tower in southern Philippines, Philippine military officials said Tuesday.

Chief Supt. Paisal Umpa, regional police commander, said that suspected members of Abu Sayyaf detonated Monday night a homemade bomb they planted on Globe Telecom Inc’s cell site in the township of Parang in Sulu.

No one was reported hurt or killed in the incident.

Last week, suspected Abu Sayaff militants bombed the cell site of Smart Communications Inc., cutting off mobile communications and Internet service in Sulu.

The Abu Sayyaf is blacklisted by Washington as a foreign terrorist organization. The group has been engaged in kidnappings, bombings and even beheadings in Mindanao over the past decade and is considered a major security threat to the Philippines and the Southeast Asian region.

After four years of research, Robin Niu (Niu’er), one of the more popular cosmetic experts and also a television celebrity in China, released his new product exclusively through Taobao, China’s largest online commerce site.

Since Sept 1, more than 1,000 bottles of his Cream of Jing Cheng have been sold through its flagship store at Taobao Mall, Taobao’s business-to-consumer (B2C) platform, which was launched last April.

“The market price should be around 660 yuan ($87.89) per bottle, but it only costs 320 yuan at Taobao,” Niu said.

“I will donate all profits to the Chinese Red Cross Foundation and, at the same time, provide quality and cost-effective products to my fans who have given me constant support for years,” he said.

Daniel Zhang, chief financial officer at Taobao.com, China’s main competitor to US online auction giant eBay, said Taobao has more than 100 million users.

“Through the daily operation of Taobao, we are able to get information on consumers’ preferences and shopping habits,” added Zhang, who also is in charge of Taobao Mall.

“Niu’er is among the most popular key words at Taobao’s search engine, which reflects its popularity and also market potential, ” Zhang said.

Business people like Niu also are able to get direct feedback through Taobao’s platform to make any adjustments to their products, sales or other aspects of their operations, Zhang said.

Zhang said the global financial crisis has hurt businesses and consumers.

“To counter the so-called business chilly winter, increasing numbers of enterprises have chosen Taobao for better profits, while consumers are looking for products with lower prices,” he said.

The company said Taobao Mall can save enterprises as much as 20 percent of the cost of establishing sales channels and also 20 percent of operational sales costs.

Since last year, many well-known brands such as HP, Lenovo, Li Ning, Disney and P&G have launched flagship stores at Taobao Mall. There are currently more than 1,000 enterprises at Taobao Mall.

Uniqlo, the Japanese retailer known for its cheap and cheery cashmere jumpers, gained 300,000 yuan in sales on its first day at Taobao Mall in April 2008. Sales reportedly reached 150 million yuan during its first year at the online commerce site.

In April, sales at flagship PC stores operated by China’s Lenovo and US-based Dell reached 2 million yuan each.

Zhang said Taobao.com has won a 20 percent-plus share of the Chinese B2C market since it launched its B2C platform at mall.taobao.com.

“There are more than 100 million users at Taobao, which means an incomparable market for all enterprises. You don’t need to spend much money on sales channel exploration and advertisements. Just let consumers know you are here at Taobao, and then they will come,” Zhang said.

“The cooperation between Taobao and Niu’er should be a good example for Taiwanese, Hong Kong or overseas enterprises that are considering entering Chinese markets but lack a sales channel,” Zhang said.

Taobao reported a transaction volume equivalent to 80.9 billion yuan in the first half of this year, a nearly twofold increase from one year earlier.

On average, there are 438 commodities, 473 clothing items, 261 cosmetics items, 215 jewelry pieces, 81 small household electrical appliances, 69 mobile phones and 32 laptops sold at Taobao every minute, according to the company.

The most popular items bought at the site include laptops, mobile phones, cosmetics and clothes.

Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it has recovered most of the data feared lost by users of its Sidekick mobile phone, following a Microsoft server computer failure.

Data such as contacts, photos and calendar entries saved on the phones and remotely at Microsoft’s servers was originally thought to be destroyed, according to T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, the U.S. carrier for the handset.

“We are pleased to report that we have recovered most, if not all, customer data for those Sidekick customers whose data was affected by the recent outage,” Microsoft executive Roz Ho said in a statement.

Microsoft plans to begin restoring users’ personal data “as soon as possible,” the company said, adding it now thinks that only a minority of Sidekick users were hit by the data loss.

The problem was caused by a server failure that hurt Microsoft’s main and backup databases supporting Sidekick.

The glitch hit as technology companies are increasingly looking to convince customers to use remote storage services to back up their data, and at a time when Microsoft is fighting to gain ground in the market for smartphones.

AOL Inc, the Internet unit of Time Warner Inc, said on Tuesday it has appointed former Yahoo Inc executive Brad Garlinghouse as president of its Web and mobile communications group.

Garlinghouse, who was most recently an advisor at venture capital firm Silver Lake Partners, will also take on a role heading up AOL’s Silicon Valley operations from its Mountain View, California campus. He will serve as the West coast lead for AOL Ventures, the company’s venture capital arm headed by Jon Brod.

Before joining Silver Lake, Garlinghouse spent nearly six years at Yahoo where he oversaw the Internet company’s communications and community products.

Garlinghouse’s new group includes AOL’s e-mail, instant messaging and mobile communications. He will report directly to AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong.

The former Yahoo executive is the latest senior addition by Armstrong as he builds a management team ahead of AOL’s spin-off as an independent company later this year.

Last month AOL named former Time Warner Cable executive Arthur Minson as its chief financial officer.

Voting for Sri Lanka’s Southern Provincial Council election ended peacefully Saturday afternoon with few minor violations and with a fairly good turnout of voters, government officials and election watchdogs said.

The lull in voting has gradually increased by noon and according to the Elections Department over 65 percent of people in the province representing three districts cast their votes.

According to the Center for Monitoring Election Violence minor clashes erupted between rival candidates but no major incidents reported.

Apart from mobilizing over 7,000 police officers, the Army, Navy and the elite special task force of the police were deployed to strengthen the security in the province to minimize rigging of polls.

With over 1,091 candidates contesting from 15 political parties and three independent groups to select 55 councilors, the election will be a chance to test the nerves of the people in the Southern Province, which is the hometown of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Rajapaksa cast his vote in his hometown Madamulana and government sources claim that the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) expects a landslide victory similar to the previous provincial elections.

The government taking advantage of military victory over Tamil Tiger rebels has captured the power of other six Provincial Councils and the elections for the recently liberated Northern Province are pending.

Though the opposition calls for an early parliamentary election, the government said that it will be held in April next year and the presidential election in November 2011.

“The government is confident we will get over 80 percent votes at this election” Cabinet Spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said.

Meanwhile, the main opposition United National Party (UNP) claim that polls were not free and not fair and the dream of the Rajapakse government to get over 90 percent votes would not come to reality.

UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said the government fully used media and state properties in their propaganda campaign.

“Some of the state propaganda programs were held even on yesterday (Friday) and they tried to influence the voters in some of the polling booths,” he said.