R. Venkatesan Iyengar

10 May 2008, Saturday

MeriNews

The snow-clad icy heights of Mount Everest were treated to a rare spectacle on May 8, 2008. Five Chinese climbers, all dressed in red, unfurled the Chinese national flag, the Olympic flag and a flag, bearing the Beijing Olympic logo atop the world’s highest peak and shouted jubilantly, “Long live Tibet, long live Beijing!”

Literally translating the Chinese government’s dream of taking the torch onto the Himalayan heights, one of the climbers carried the Olympic torch in the last few steps to the top of Everest. Interestingly, the climber who took the Olympic torch to the summit happened to be a Tibetan woman, did not go unnoticed by the world.

David Morgan | Washington | May 9

Reuters - The FBI on Friday said an investigation into the sale of counterfeit Chinese computer components to the U.S. government has recovered about 3,500 bogus devices with a retail value of $3.5 million.

The criminal probe, code-named Operation Cisco Raider, came amid concerns that counterfeit network components could enable hackers to access secure U.S. government databases, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation.

But one U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the components discovered by the FBI are not believed to have made government computer systems more vulnerable.

May 9

BBC - Pro-Taleban militants say they are holding six soldiers in a tribal region in north-western Pakistan.

A spokesman for the militants said 24 other soldiers had been freed in Bajaur agency. The military says just one soldier was captured.

Elsewhere in the region a soldier was killed and at least two others wounded in an attack in the Swat Valley.

Violence in the region has increased in recent days after militants suspended peace talks with the government.

Washington | May 9

NYT - When the Pentagon announced in March that Maj. Gen. Jay W. Hood would become the senior American officer based in Pakistan, it reflected the military’s aim to put a crisis-tested veteran in a critical job at a pivotal time in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

But nearly two months later, the military has quietly canceled the assignment of General Hood, a 33-year Army veteran who was excoriated in the Pakistani news media for one of his previous jobs: commander of the United States prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

During General Hood’s command from 2004 to 2006, military authorities force-fed with tubes detainees who were engaging in hunger strikes at the Guantánamo prison, a step they justified as necessary to prevent the prisoners from committing suicide to protest their indefinite confinement. Also during General Hood’s tenure, reports that an American guard may have desecrated a Koran stirred wide protests in the Islamic world.

Penang, Malaysia | May 8

BBC - A religious court in Malaysia has allowed a Muslim convert to leave the Islamic faith, in what is being hailed as a landmark ruling.

Penang's Sharia court ruled that Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah was free to return to Buddhism, following the collapse of her marriage to a Muslim man.

May 7

Bloomberg - Prachanda, the former rebel leader whose party won most seats in Nepal's elections last month, told his commanders the process of integrating fighters into the national army will begin once a new government is formed.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is in ``last minute'' talks to set up a new administration and the process of army integration will begin after that, he told heads of the People's Liberation Army yesterday in the capital, Kathmandu, Nepalnews.com reported. Nepal's seven main parties are scheduled to meet May 9 to determine the composition of the government.

Prachanda, who will probably head the new government, has put ``democratizing'' Nepal's army and making the PLA ``professional'' at the top of the agenda, Nepalnews.com said.

The Maoists sent 23,500 fighters into camps, from where they are due to be integrated into the national army, as part of a 2006 peace agreement that ended Nepal's decade-long civil war. Nepal's military doesn't want to accept the fighters now because they are still politically motivated, the head of army public relations said last month.

Peter Spiegel & Greg Miller | Washington | May 7

LA Times - Amid criticism of a lack of oversight on spending, the U.S. has denied or deferred about $81 million in requests from Pakistan, the Government Accountability Office says.

The Pentagon has rejected or deferred millions of dollars in military aid requests from Pakistan amid criticism that the Islamabad government has squandered U.S. funding and allowed Al Qaeda to rebuild a haven in its western tribal regions.

In February, the Defense Department turned down or delayed more than $81 million requested by Pakistan, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

The rejection represents a small portion of the nearly $1 billion a year Pakistan has received through a program called Coalition Support Funds, launched after the Sept. 11 attacks.

But it marks a sudden change in U.S. policy toward Pakistan, which for years has spent American military aid without having to show results in the fight against Al Qaeda and other militant groups. Even some officials in the Pentagon have acknowledged shortcomings in U.S. funding strategy.

War - with Tibet.

Check.

Famine - Drought, flood, and absence of Rice in Asia.

Check.

Pestilence - Outbreak of viral hand, foot and mouth disease hits Beijing to which children are susceptible.

Check.

Death - Cyclone hits Burma which will also bring on more of the above throughout the region.

Check.

Reporting by Nick Macfie; Editing by Ian Ransom | BEIJING | May 5, 2008

Reuters - A bus "burst into fire" in Shanghai killing at least three people during the rush hour on Monday, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The cause was not immediately known, Xinhua said, but it dropped reference to an "explosion" which it reported earlier in the day.

"Sources with the Shanghai Traffic Control Centre said that the bus suddenly burst into fire," Xinhua said. "In addition to the deaths, another three passengers suffered severe burns."

Rangoon | May 4

BBC - A tropical cyclone has killed at least 243 people in Burma and damaged thousands of buildings, according to state television.

Parts of the Irrawaddy region were hit particularly badly, with three out of four buildings reportedly blown down in one district.

May 3

BBC - Envoys of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, are due to hold talks with officials in China, the Dalai Lama's office says.

Two Tibetan envoys are expected to arrive on Saturday for talks on ending the crisis in Tibetan areas of China.

This would be the first contact between the two sides since anti-China protests in Tibet in March turned violent.

Chinese state media has renewed its criticism of the Dalai Lama, who it blames for masterminding the protests.

This is a charge the Dalai Lama has always denied.

He and the Tibetan government-in-exile have been based in India since fleeing Tibet in 1959.

Darren Schuettler | Bangkok | May 2

Reuters - A proposed "OPEC-style" rice cartel in Southeast Asia will go nowhere due to the inability of governments to cooperate with each other and control output from their farmers, analysts and traders said on Friday.

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, a TV chef whose main contact with rice is cooking it, has revived the long-dormant idea of a price-setting body involving producers Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

The proposal, which threatens to add to global food supply fears amid record high rice prices, failed to gain traction seven years ago when it was first floated by Bangkok -- and most see little chance it will fare better this time around.

"I don't think it would work. All they can do is agree on a price, but they can't control the supply like oil," said Graham Catterwell, an economic analyst with 30 years of experience in Thailand and the region. "It's going nowhere."

more at the link

Paul Alexander | Manilla | May 2

AP - Asian countries sought Friday to tame the spiralling rice market, with Thailand proposing an OPEC-style cartel for exporters and the Philippines shoring up supplies while aiming to end its status as the world's largest importer.

The moves came as prices for rice and other food staples have been rising rapidly around the world, sparking violent protests in Haiti and Egypt along with concerns of unrest elsewhere amid profiteering and hoarding.

Manny Mogato | Manila | May 1

Reuters - Malaysia said on Thursday it will not abandon the peace process in the Philippines' troubled south, where Muslim rebels are fighting for autonomy, despite the withdrawal of its peacekeepers starting this month.

"We are not abandoning the peace process. We have provided the platform for the peaceful process to continue, and we are looking into maybe a new format as to hasten the peace process," General Abdul Aziz, head of the Malaysian defence forces, told reporters after talks with senior Philippine generals in Manila.

Unarmed Malaysian peacekeepers have been posted in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao since 2004 to help bring an end to nearly 40 years of conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people and displaced 2 million. see sidebar for background

Eric Schmitt | Washington | May 1

NYT - Terrorist attacks against noncombatants more than doubled in Pakistan from 2006 to 2007, reflecting the growing violence in the country’s turbulent tribal areas and new bombings against Pakistani government officials and security services, according to a report released Wednesday by the State Department.

The report also said the number of deaths from the attacks in Pakistan quadrupled in that time period, to 1,335 fatalities, casting doubt on the American-backed counterterrorism policies of President Pervez Musharraf that the new government in Islamabad is now reshaping.

April 30

BBC - Leaders of Pakistan's new government are to hold urgent talks on Wednesday on the country's sacked judges, in the coalition's first real test.

Former PM Nawaz Sharif will meet Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Asif Zardari, at whose Dubai residence talks are to take place.

The month-old government's deadline to reinstate the judges ends on Wednesday.

The sides differ over how much power to give to judges whom President Musharraf sacked under emergency rule last year.

Failure to resolve differences over the issue has put the month-old coalition under strain.

April 30

ABC.net.au - China has marked the start of the 100-day countdown to the Beijing Olympics with songs, a mass run and even prayers, hoping to put behind it the tumultuous events of the past month which have taken much of the gloss off preparations.

Unlike run-ups to recent Olympics, Beijing's preparations have kept to plan and some stadiums and infrastructure have even been completed ahead of schedule.

The city has spent $US35 - $US40 billion on improving infrastructure, including a new airport terminal and subway lines, as well as $US2.1 billion to cover the cost of running the Games.

But the city's smooth preparations have been overshadowed 100 days out by the torch relay's troubled journey around the globe, with protesters targeting China's human rights record, in particular its policies on Tibet.

Ian Cobain | Rawalpindi, Pakistan | April 29

The Guardian - British agents alleged to have questioned men at Pakistani interrogation centre after they had been brutally mistreated

Officers of the Security Service, MI5, are being accused of "outsourcing" the torture of British citizens to a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency in an attempt to obtain information about terrorist plots and to secure convictions against al-Qaida suspects.

A number of British terrorism suspects who have been arrested in Pakistan at the request of UK authorities say their interrogation by Security Service officers, shortly after brutal torture at the hands of agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), has convinced them that MI5 colluded in the mistreatment.

Berne | April 28

BBC - Key United Nations development agencies are meeting in Switzerland to try to develop solutions to ease the escalating global food crisis.

Led by secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, officials want to mitigate the impact of the steep rise in staple food prices and prevent food shortages worsening.

Linda SIeg | tokyo | April 28

Reuters - Calls to replace Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda are emerging in his Liberal Democratic Party, an influential ruling party lawmaker said on Monday, after the ruling bloc suffered a bruising defeat in a by-election.

But former chief cabinet minister Kaoru Yosano, whose name has been floated as a potential successor to Fukuda, told Reuters he thought the Japanese leader should soldier on and try to revive his support rates, which have dropped below 30 percent.

In a vote widely seen as a referendum on Fukuda's struggling administration, former opposition Democratic Party lawmaker Hideo Hiraoka defeated the LDP's Shigetaro Yamamoto in Yamaguchi, central Japan in Sunday's race for a vacant lower house seat.

Sriharikota, PTI | April 28

PTI - At the end of the 52-hour countdown, the PSLV-C9, with a lift-off mass of 230 tonne, blasted off from the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre and soared into the clear sky in a textbook launch.

Setting a world record, India's Polar rocket on Monday successfully placed ten satellites, including the country's remote sensing satellite, into orbit in a single mission.

The ten pack launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) saw the 230-tonne Polar Satellite launch Vehicle (PSLV-C9) carry the heaviest luggage--824 kgs--and put into orbit an Indian Mini Satellite and eight foreign nano satellites besides the Cartosat-2A remote sensing satellite.

April 28

BBC - Forty-three people have died and 247 were injured after two passenger trains collided in eastern China, said state media agency Xinhua.

Ten carriages of one train reportedly toppled into a ditch in the pre-dawn crash at Zibo city, Shandong province.

A train travelling from Beijing to the eastern city of Qingdao reportedly derailed and hit the other, which was going from Yantai to Xuzhou.

The head of the Ministry of Railways, Liu Zhijun, is at the scene.

The crash happened at 0443 local time on Monday (2143 BST on Sunday), and rescue workers and local government leaders are at the scene.

Katmandu | April 26

AFP - Nepal's former rebel Maoists have won 220 of 601 seats in the constituent assembly elections after final adjustments were made, an election official said. "The Maoists have won 120 seats under first past the post (system) and 100 under proportional representation," election official Raju Man Singh Malla told reporters.

The surprise win makes the Maoists the largest party by far in the assembly that is set to abolish the monarchy and write a new constitution for the impoverished Himalayan nation.The Nepali Congress (NC), their nearest rivals and election favourites before the poll, won a total of just 110 seats, the election official said.

Dharamshala, India | April 26

AFP - The Dalai Lama on Saturday welcomed China's offer of talks to help resolve unrest in his Tibetan homeland but warned that anything other than "serious discussions" would be meaningless.

In a move welcomed around the world, Chinese state media said Friday that government officials would meet soon with a representative of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

"I have not received yet any detailed information (about the talks) but basically talk is good," the Dalai Lama said on his return to his northern Indian base of Dharamshala after a visit to the United States.

The Buddhist icon told reporters at the airport in Dharamshala he wanted "serious discussions about how to reduce Tibetan resentment and a thorough discussion" of the problems in Tibet.

From tonight's Nelson Report comes some interesting comments and an element of reconsideration (or consternation):

SUMMARY: the super-classified briefing for select Members on Capitol Hill was promptly given to the TV networks, a move which didn't make Congress any happier about the seven-month delay in explaining why the US thinks Israel wiped-out a North Korean aided nuclear plant in Syria.

In fact, our experts see no reason for Israel to bomb, as no way the plant was able to produce nuclear weapons grade materials, even IF it was a nuclear plant, which some still challenge.