Stephanie Nebehay | Geneva | May 24

Reuters - The last three countries where polio is still paralyzing children -- Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria -- said on Thursday that they have enlisted Muslim women and religious leaders to allay fears of vaccination and wipe out the disease.

Polio cases are at an all-time low worldwide, following its eradication in India last year, raising hopes but also fears about a threat of resurgence especially in sub-Saharan Africa unless remaining reservoirs of polio virus are stamped out.

Ibrahim Shinwari and Jibran Ahmad | May 23

Reuters - Pakistani authorities have sentenced a doctor accused of helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden to 33 years in jail on charges of treason, officials said, a move almost certain to further strain ties between Washington and Islamabad.

Shakil Afridi was accused of running a fake vaccination campaign, in which he collected DNA samples, that is believed to have helped the American intelligence agency track down bin Laden in a Pakistani town.

The al Qaeda chieftain was killed in a unilateral U.S. special forces raid in the town of Abbottabad in May last year.

"Dr Shakil has been sentenced to 33 years imprisonment and a fine of 320,000 Pakistani rupees ($3,477)," said Mohammad Nasir, a government official in the northwestern city of Peshawar, where the jail term will be served. He gave no further details.

Haji Mujtaba/ Miranshah & Jibran Ahmad / Peshawar | May 23

Reuters - A U.S. drone strike on suspected Islamist militants in northwest Pakistan killed 10 people on Thursday, intelligence officials said, an attack likely to raise tensions in a standoff with Washington over NATO supply routes to Afghanistan.

The pilotless drone aircraft fired two missiles at a compound in a village in North Waziristan, a day after a similar attack killed four suspected militants in the same region.

From OilPrice.com:

Song Xiaojun, a former senior officer of the People's Liberation Army, warned that Australia cannot juggle its relationships with the United States and China indefinitely and Australia has to find a godfather sooner or later. Australia always has to depend on somebody else, whether it is to be the 'son' of the US or 'son' of China.

What is also notable about Song's remarks is that they coincided with Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr's first official visit to China, where Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi urged Australia to dismiss its alliance with the United States, a decades-old bipartisan and central pillar of the nation's foreign policy, as "the time for Cold War alliances has passed."

Hiroshi Matsubara | Tokyo | May 21

Asahi Shimbun - Despite growing international concerns over the state of spent fuel rods at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, two government experts said on May 21 that there are no plans to speed up their scheduled removal by 2015.

Speaking at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo, the government apparently wanted to get the message out to the world that the No. 4 reactor at the plant, which houses more than 1,500 nuclear fuel rods, could withstand a similar strike to last year's Great East Japan Earthquake.

Ewen MacAskill | Chicago | May 21

The Guardian - Obama refuses bilateral meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, who wants demands met before roads reopen

A rift between the US and Pakistan appears to be widening at the Nato summit in Chicago – a dangerous development that could undermine Barack Obama's hopes for an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The US has said repeatedly that Pakistan holds the key to the future of the region but relations between Obama and President Asif Ali Zardari have deteriorated in a standoff over supply routes to Afghanistan.

Pakistan closed the routes after a US air strike killed two dozen Pakistani troops in November.

Obama is refusing to see Zardari, possibly because he arrived in Chicago without a deal in his pocket on reopening the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to US transport. A White House spokesman said no bilateral meeting between Obama and Zardari at the Nato summit was scheduled.

Instead Pakistan is making a series of demands in return for reopening the supply routes, including a review of the US policy of drone attacks against targets inside Pakistan and a public apology for the killing of its troops.

Jason Burke | May 20

The Guardian - Mahinda Rajapaksa poised to free jailed political rival in bid to quell international criticism over country's human rights record

Jailed former army general Sarath Fonseka is to be freed on Monday after the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, signed orders releasing his high-profile political rival.

Fonseka, widely condemned for his role in atrocities during the 2009 battles against the Tamil Tigers that ended the 25-year civil war, was imprisoned on graft charges more than two years ago after challenging Rajapaksa for the presidency. A second conviction was for launching a political career before leaving the military.

The move, confirmed by government spokesmen, is an apparent attempt to quell international criticism of the government's human rights record before a series of key visits by foreign officials and trips by the president over the summer, including to the London Olympics.

A previous trip to the UK ended in controversy when Rajapaksa was forced into a hasty departure after activists sought an arrest warrant for him. The authorisation for Fonseka's release will be sent to the justice ministry a spokesman told Reuters news agency.

McClatchy has the 411:

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng, whose daring escape to the American embassy in Beijing last month sparked a diplomatic crisis, left China for the for the United States Saturday afternoon.

Chen’s departure – reportedly to Newark, N.J., on United Airlines -- brought to an end a nearly month-long saga that began on April 22 with Chen slipping away from his village in eastern China, where he’d been held in extra-judicial house detention for 19 months.

A U.S.-brokered deal earlier this month to allow Chen to leave the U.S. embassy after he hid there for six days brought considerable controversy and criticism from activists in China. There were widespread doubts about Beijing’s initial guarantees to safeguard Chen’s wellbeing and allow him to study at a Chinese university. That agreement shifted to one in which Beijing said it would accept Chen’s application for travel documents; New York University announced a fellowship awaited him.

The news on Saturday finally answered questions about whether China planned to live up to its end of the bargain. Efforts to reach Chen by phone on Saturday were unsuccessful, though he was quoted as telling the Associated Press from the airport that, “thousands of thoughts are surging to my mind.”

Auntie Beeb's Martin Patience has it right in my estimation: "[B]oth Beijing and Washington will want to put this affair behind them." But, as Patience further notes, despite a broader diplomatic crisis having largely been averted, this dispute "highlights profound differences between a superpower and a rising power on how they view the world." One assumes it will not be the last time.

Update: Apparently the US (via the Philippines) & China have profound differences on how they view the Scarborough Shoals (though beware simplistic, perpetually-revolutionary narratives from over-eager Trots -- the facts on the ground

are never quite that cut & dried, natch).

Peter Lee | May 18 | Asia Times

What's the standoff between China and the Philippines over an atoll in the South China Sea all about? Is it a matter of seafood and sovereignty ... or gas fields and gambling?

To an outside observer, the antics of China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia over conflicting territorial claims smack of farce auditioning for tragedy, and ridiculous claims abound.

May 19

AFP - China is exploiting Western commercial technology, carrying out aggressive cyber espionage and buying more anti-ship missiles as part of a steady build-up of military power, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Beijing is working to take advantage of "mostly US" defence-related technologies in the private sector as part of a long-running effort to modernise the country's armed forces and extend China's reach in the Asia-Pacific region, the Pentagon wrote in a report to Congress.

"One of the PRC's (People's Republic of China) stated national security objectives is to leverage legally and illegally acquired dual-use and military-related technologies to its advantage," it said.

And China, which has the world's second largest defence budget behind the United States, "openly espouses the need to exploit civilian technologies for use in its military modernisation" and dual-use technology transfers could have a "substantial" cumulative effect in boosting the country's army.

The Pentagon warned that "interactions with Western aviation manufacturing firms may also inadvertently benefit China's defence aviation industry."

Washington | May 17

Al Jazeera - Rewards for reforms include first US ambassador to South Asian nation in 22 years and easing of investment sanctions.

Barack Obama, the US president, has declared a "new chapter" in US relations with Myanmar as the US moved to restore full diplomatic relations with the Asian country.

"As an iron fist has unclenched in Burma, we have extended our hand, and are entering a new phase in our engagement on behalf of a more democratic and prosperous future for the Burmese people," Obama said in a statement on Wednesday.

In the statement, Obama said the US is rewarding democratic reforms in Myanmar with announcement of the country's first US ambassador in 22 years and an easing of investment sanctions.

Tokyo | May 17

AFP - A Japanese bank has halted transactions by the Iranian government after a US court ordered a $2.6 billion asset freeze over the 1983 bombing of US barracks in Beirut, a bank spokesman said on Thursday.

"It is true that we have received the order from the US court," to freeze $2.6 billion of assets, a spokesman for the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ told AFP, declining to give details on the value of Iranian holdings at the bank.

The court order reflects "the amount that the court in 2007 upheld for compensation demands by families of victims of the 1983 attacks on US forces in Beirut," he said.

The bank lodged an appeal against the US court order on Thursday, he said.

"One of the reasons for the appeal is that the US court has ordered a freeze on assets in accounts not only in the United States but also in Japan, which is problematic under Japanese law," the spokesman said.

At what point will the rest of the world tell us to go f*ck ourselves? When will our assets start be seized or frozen because of our atrocities?

Islamabad | May 17

AFP - Several Western embassies here on Wednesday received letters containing suspicious powder and threats to poison Nato soldiers in Afghanistan, Pakistan officials said.

Islamabad police chief Bani Amin said that embassies had received small packets containing black powder, which had been sent for laboratory analysis.

The letters said "poison" would be hidden in the Nato supplies should Pakistan decide to lift a nearly six-month blockade on supplies for American and Nato troops fighting the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Senior Pakistani security officials said that the French embassy, and the Australian and British High Commissions had received suspicious packages.

"Embassies have received one sachet each. The problem is that it is in a meagre quantity and difficult even to test. It seems somebody has committed some mischief. We are sending it to a laboratory," Amin said.

BBC News, By Kate McGeown, May 14

Manila - When night falls in Manila, a wave of young people scurry into the skyscrapers which criss-cross the city.

They're call centre agents, and because most of their clients are on the other side of the world, the night shift is their busiest time.

Last year, with more than 600,000 call centre workers, the Philippines officially overtook India as the world's call centre capital.

Patrick Winn | Washington | May 15

Global Post - Last month, influential Democratic Sen. Jim Webb proposed "moving forward on trade" with Myanmar, a reforming quasi-democracy currently sealed off from American investors by a thicket of sanctions.

Now we've got a longtime Myanmar observer from across the aisle, Republican Sen. John McCain, suggesting Uncle Sam should pull out the weedwhacker.

Yoko Kubota | Tokyo | May 14

Reuters - Tokyo Electric Power Co posted an annual loss of almost $10 billion as compensation claims for the Fukushima nuclear disaster brought it to the brink of bankruptcy and fuel costs soared after idling all its atomic plants.

Japan's biggest utility said on Monday that its net loss for the year to March 31 was 781.6 billion yen ($9.8 billion), above the consensus estimate of a 692.6 billion yen loss in a survey of three analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sajjad Tarakzai | Islamabad | May 14

AFP - Pakistan said Monday it was time to "move on" and repair ties with the United States and NATO, the strongest sign yet that it may reopen supply routes into Afghanistan closed for nearly six months.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar made the remarks a day before Pakistani leaders are to discuss ending the blockade, and thereby cave in to a key demand from the West in time to attend a NATO summit in Chicago on May 20-21.

Islamabad shut its Afghan border to NATO supplies after US air strikes killed 24 soldiers on November 26, provoking a major crisis in Pakistani-US relations on top of the outcry from the raid that killed Osama bin Laden the previous May.

"It was important to make a point, Pakistan has made a point and we now need to move on and go into a positive zone and try to conduct our relations," Pakistan's foreign minister told a news conference.

"We are trying to put this relationship, you know, in a positive zone and I am quite sure that we will be successful in doing so."

IBT, By Yifei Zhang, May 7

China will soon start drilling from an advanced new oil platform designed to tap into deep-sea petroleum resources in the South China Sea, according to reports in the country's official media on Monday.

The development is major technological progress for China, which claims to have developed the new platform indigenously through its state-owned corporation, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) [NYSE: CEO, Hong Kong: 0883]. It also occurs in an area where China has clashed recently with neighbors including the Philippines.

May 10

CNN - A Chinese military newspaper has warned that the country's armed forces will not allow anyone to challenge China's sovereignty of a tiny island outcrop in the South China Sea.

China and the Philippines have been involved in a tense standoff since April 10 when the Philippines Navy accused Chinese boats of fishing illegally in waters off the Scarborough Shoal, some 130 miles (200 kilometers) from the Philippines island of Luzon.
They attempted to arrest the crew but were blocked by Chinese surveillance vessels deployed in the area.

Both countries claim the shoal, which China calls Huangyan Island. Analysts believe the area is rich in mineral resources, natural gas and oil.

"We want to say that anyone's attempt to take away China's sovereignty over Huangyan Island will not be allowed by the Chinese government, people and armed forces," said a report in the PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

"Don't attempt to take away half an inch of China's territory," it warned.

** China urges the Philippines to ensure citizens' safety
** Chinese Embassy issues safety alert to citizens
** Solid evidence supports China's sovereignty claim over Huangyan Island(Xinhua)
** Aquino Open to China Oil Deal Despite Sea Spat
** DFA to pursue diplomatic consultations

May 10

Raw Story - The United States opened its banking market to China’s biggest bank ICBC, for the first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese state-controlled company.

Just days after high-level US-China economic talks in Beijing, the Federal Reserve approved an application from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to buy a majority stake in the US subsidiary of Bank of East Asia.

The transaction will make ICBC the first Chinese state-controlled bank to acquire retail bank branches in the United States.

ICBC has been the most aggressive of China’s “big four” banks in expanding abroad.

Outside China, it operates subsidiary banks in Asian countries and has branches in a number of countries including Germany, Japan and Singapore.

According to the Fed, the bank has total assets of roughly $2.5 trillion.

ICBC will buy up to 80 percent of the US unit of the Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia, which operates 13 branches in New York and California.

Hiroko Tabuchi | Tokyo | May 9

NYT - Japan is ready to nationalize Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, under a 1 trillion yen ($12.5 billion) bailout plan that was approved on Wednesday.

The Japanese government has been scrambling to keep the utility company from collapsing so it can meet the billions of dollars in compensation claims and decommission the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, all while continuing to provide the Tokyo metropolis with stable electricity.

The government is also eager to push through reforms to restore public trust in a company that has played a vital role in Japan’s energy policy but has also admitted safety lapses and cover-ups at its power plants. The $12.5 billion bailout comes at a time when the government itself is carrying a debt burden that has mushroomed to more than twice the size of the economy.

LaHore | May 7

PakTribune - Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said on Sunday that Pakistan had offered the US to jointly carry out drone strikes in the restive Tribal Areas but the Obama administration turned down the proposal.

Addressing a press conference, the minister said Pakistan was willing to maintain its relations with the US according to expectations of the nation. Therefore, he added, the government had also asked Washington to stop drone strikes in Pakistan but to no avail. Mukhtar said he could not predict anything about the future of NATO supply through Pakistan.

However, he added, it would be a violation of international laws if the supply route for Afghanistan was not restored.

And what does international law say about unauthorized drone strikes against a sovereign nation?

2. Crocodiles for sale at Walmart:

Buzzfeed

Mark Townsend | May 5

The Observer - Senior British diplomats introduced an extraordinary "licence to kill" law in an attempt to legalise retrospectively the colonial-era killing of 24 villagers by UK troops in Malaysia, the Observer can reveal.

The Batang Kali massacre took place on 12 December 1948, as British troops carried out a counter-insurgency operation against Chinese Malayan communists. The shootings took place after a 16-man patrol group of Scots Guards surrounded a rubber estate at Sunga Rimoh by the Batang Kali river. The bodies of several unarmed villagers were reportedly mutilated and the village was burned to the ground.

An informal investigation of the incident, carried out in 1949, exonerated all the soldiers involved. But claims of a cover-up by families of the victims have ensured that the killings in the village of Batang Kali remain one of the most contentious in British colonial history.

Some have described the episode as "Britain's My Lai," a reference to the murders of Vietnamese villagers by US forces in Vietnam. The campaign for a thorough investigation into the incident will reach a climax in London this week when a court will finally rule on whether to open an official inquiry into the killings. Although some of the Scots Guardsmen are still alive, the victims' families are not seeking criminal prosecutions.

Ahead of the hearing, the Observer has seen documents revealing that after the killings the British authorities hastily passed a regulation empowering troops in the country to use "lethal force" to prevent escape attempts.

When did the neoconservatives start giving a shit about Tibet?