China to provide $180 mln aid to Pakistan: Malik

ISLAMABAD: China will grant US$180 million aid to Pakistan for enhancing the capacity of its law enforcement agency.

Interior Minister Rehman A. Malik Friday held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Meng Chiang in Chinese capital, said a message from Beijing.

The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere in which matters of mutual interest came under discussion.

In addition, Beijing also offered training facilities for Pakistani LEAs personnel and RMB (Chinese currency) 2 million for police equipments…..

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The demise of the dollar

By Robert Fisk

In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading

Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars.

 In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar…..

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China: Beijing Strengthens its Claims in the South China Sea

Summary

In response to evolving economic conditions, growing international involvement and anticipated legal battles over control of several contested island groups and reefs in the South China Sea, Beijing has established a Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, enhanced the capabilities and number of patrols by the Fisheries Administration Bureau and planned shifts in the disposition of its naval forces. China’s more aggressive attempts to assert its sovereignty in the South China Sea will lead to increased friction with its neighbors and the United States — something that could easily escalate if there are miscalculations or accidents at sea. Read more

Nepal: A Political Crisis and Indo-Chinese Tensions

Summary

Nepalese Prime Minister Prachanda resigned on May 4 in protest of the president’s decision to block the Maoist leadership from sacking Nepal’s army chief. While the political disarray in Nepal threatens to break the government apart, it also has stirred a long-standing rivalry between India and China over the Himalayan country.

Analysis

Nepal’s Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda resigned May 4 in protest of the Nepalese president’s decision to block the elected Maoist government from firing the country’s army chief. The Nepalese government is now in danger of collapsing as India scrambles to form a coherent policy toward Kathmandu to counter China’s growing influence in the Himalayan country. The Maoist leadership, meanwhile, will draw on Indo-Chinese competition over Kathmandu in an attempt secure its political demands. Read more

China is a threat to global good

As the world watches without being able to bring about a ceasefire, a humanitarian crisis is underway in Sri Lanka with nearly 170,000 civilians displaced and 50,000 trapped in the war zone. It has become common for rampaging armed forces and also those in cahoots with terrorists the world is battling with, despots and dictators to cock a snook at the UN. Much of the cockiness lies in the covert moral and logistic support lent by China, hungry for resources for widening its reach to get a major slice of business in the troubled regions and make its presence felt.

The Sri Lankan offensive against the LTTE is not faulted as the terrorist organization has used all possible means of violence over the years to foment terror in this beautiful island resembling a tear drop in the Indian Ocean. Lots of blood sweat and tears have flowed for the fight for a separate Tamil homeland in protest for the marginalization of the Sri Lankan Tamils. But the process of terror was always condemnable and has encouraged later day terror groups like the al Qaeda to emulate their suicide attack techniques. Read more

Hui Muslims riot after traffic incident, rights group says

Hundreds of ethnic Hui Muslim people in Luohe, Henan province, attacked the government headquarters and paralysed traffic in a protest against the local authorities’ alleged mishandling of an accident in which a Hui villager was injured, a Hong Kong-based rights organisation said yesterday.
The Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy quoted officials with the Luohe city government, including local traffic police, as saying that up to 1,000 Hui had laid siege to the building and blocked three of the town’s four main bridges since Tuesday.

 

The report said a Hui man, a pedestrian, was killed last month when he was hit by a bus driven by a Han Chinese.

The suspect was reportedly released after several days’ detention. The Luohe Public Bus Company, for which the driver worked, offered relatives of the victim 200,000 yuan (HK$227,000) in compensation. The relatives were demanding 1 million yuan.

But a local source gave the South China Morning Post (SEHK: 0583, announcements, news) a different version of the accident, saying the victim, a 20-year-old Hui man, did not die. He said the victim’s face was injured when a taxi, not a bus, in which the victim was a passenger and which was driven by a Han Chinese, collided with another vehicle.
An official with the Luohe government confirmed the incident yesterday, saying that the case had been settled and not one protester had showed up yesterday. Calls to the city’s publicity department went unanswered.

At least two of 10 people contacted by phone yesterday said some of the protesters were peasants from Jiuzhaixue village, on the outskirts of Luohe, who were disappointed with recent incidents involving land requisition.

Another source said dozens of riot police in full gear had been deployed on Wednesday before officials struck an agreement with the protesters  by promising to look into their demands.

“The case, it seems, has been settled and traffic is back to normal today,” the source said.

One resident said that as many as 200 peasants from the same village had surrounded the headquarters of a local newspaper, saying one of its reports had wrongly depicted “the king of pig-raising” as being a fellow villager.

“They might have been incensed by the newspaper’s ignorance of their religious and cultural traditions,” he said. “One should bear in mind that we Muslims would never raise pigs.”

Conflicts involving the Han and minorities, including the Hui, Uygurs and Tibetans, are highly sensitive on the mainland.

This was at least the second riot involving Hui on the mainland this year. In February, several hundred Hui Muslims clashed with Han Chinese in the Mengcun Hui Muslim Autonomous County, in Hebei province, leaving about 100 people injured, before 2,000 armed police restored order.
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