26
Asian Voice - Saturday 24th April 2010
Man who threatens to kill Obama jailed for 10 years Washington: An Arkansas man was on Friday sentenced to 10 years in jail for threatening to kill dozens of AfricanAmericans including the then Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama. Paul Schlesselman was sentenced after being convicted on federal charges for conspiring to murder dozens of African-Americans, including then Senator
Roundup Death for two top Chinese officials for graft Beijing: In a major crackdown on corruption, two top Chinese officials have been sentenced to death by courts for bribery, rape and gangland connections. A top cop in Chongqing province and a vice president of a bank were handed out death sentences. A Beijing court handed out a suspended death sentence to 54-year-old banker Wang Yi for taking bribes totalling $ 1.8 million. Wang's conviction comes within 24 hours of a death sentence handed out to a top cop. The rogue cop Wen Qiang, 55, was found guilty of taking bribes running into $2.4 million, protecting five organised gangs, rape and property scams. His wife who was his accomplice was sentenced to eight years.
Bin Laden’s son denied visa for Europe book tour Paris: Osama bin Laden's son Omar has been denied a visa to promote his new book in France and elsewhere in Europe, his French publisher said last week. The Qaida chief's fourth son had planned to travel to Paris for the release of "Osama bin laden: A Family Portrait", which denounces his father's murderous ways. The book was co-written with his mother Najwa, a 51-year-old Syrian woman and the first of Osama's five wives, and American journalist Jean Sasson, said a spokesman for the publishers Denoel. In his book, the 29-year-old Omar chronicles life in the family of the world's most wanted man, as one of 20 children. Najwa and bin Laden were married in Saudi Arabia in 1974 and the family then moved to Sudan and later Afghanistan where Al-Qaida was headquartered before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Mecca to get 2nd tallest tower Dubai: World’s second tallest building, 11 metres shorter than Burj Khalifa, featuring a clock claimed to be the largest in the globe will be opened to the public from June this year in the holy city of Mecca. The Mecca Royal Clock Tower, an under-construction hotel complex in Saudi Arabia has a clock six times bigger than the famous Big Ben in London, general manager Mohammed al-Arkubi said. The tower is made up of 662 metres of concrete structure and a 155-metre crescent-topped metal spire, he said. Combined, two parts of the tower will be only roughly 11 metres shorter than Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower at 828 metres. Even the concrete section of the Mecca Royal Clock Tower would be taller than the current second tallest building in the world, the 508-meter Taipei 101 in Taiwan. “The first part of the hotel will open at the end of June, while the clock will begin operating at the end of July,” ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, Arkubi said. The German-made clock, billed as “the largest in the world,” will have 45-metre wide and 43-metre tall faces on all four sides of the tower, he said.
Bhutan, Bangladesh mull road link via India Thimpu: Bhutan and Bangladesh signed a fresh bilateral trade agreement to further enhance relations and discussed possibility of a road link between the two countries through India. "Success in all these areas and the trade agreement is an initiative that will surely result in the harmonious growth of our countries. This will significantly increase the economic activities in Bangladesh and Bhutan," said Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after the renewed bilateral trade agreement was inked. The deal was signed by Bhutan Economic Affairs Minister Khandu Wangchuk and Bangladeshi Commerce Minister Mohammed Faruk Khan in presence of Hasina and her Bhutanese counterpart Jigmi Y Thinley, state-run daily Kuensel reported. Hasina, on a four-day visit to Bhutan and Thinley also discussed the possibility of a road between the two countries via India. Hasina said the new agreement would "significantly increase economic activities between Bhutan and Bangladesh". "With the signing of the renewed trade agreement, a new trade route has been opened for eastern Bhutan," she said.
Barack Obama, because of their race, the justice department said. "Our nation has made great progress in advancing civil rights, but this unthinkable conspiracy is a reminder that hatefueled violence continues to be a very real problem in so many communities," said Thomas E Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division.
BRIC nations want India, Brazil in UN Security Council Brasilia: Calling for reform of the UN and the global financial architecture, BRIC countries have underlined the centrality of G20 as the premier economic forum and pitched for including India and Brazil in an expanded UN Security Council. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held wide-ranging talks as they pledged to work together for a multi-polar world, an assertion that is set to worry the US as it views groupings like BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) with suspicion. "We welcome the fact that the G-20 was confirmed as the premier
Russia's President Dmitri Medvedev, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, China's President Hu Jintao and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the II BRIC Summit at Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia on April 15
forum for international economic coordination and cooperation of all its member states," said a joint declaration at the end of the second BRIC summit.
"Compared to previous arrangements, the G-20 is broader, more inclusive, diverse, representative and effective," the BRIC leaders said. "We advocate the need
for the G-20 to be proactive and formulate a coherent strategy for the postcrisis period," the BRIC leaders added, while seeking reform of the Bretton Woods institutions, the IMF and the World Bank. Putting the collective weight of the three trillion dollar economies behind the BRIC initiative, the leaders made a vigorous pitch for the long-overdue reform of the UN and backed a "greater role" for India and Brazil for seat in the UN Security Council. "In this respect, we reaffirm the need for a comprehensive reform of the UN, with a view to making it more effective, efficient and representative, so that it can deal with today's global challenges more effectively," said the joint declaration.
Manmohan Singh, Hu Jintao review ties
They agree to encourage their companies to invest in each other's countries Brasilia: Meeting on the sidelines of the BRIC summit here last week, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and President Hu Jintao of China agreed to widen and deepen the scope of cooperation between their two countries, including in the areas of education, defence and trade. Briefing reporters on the meeting, the spokesman of the Indian ministry of external affairs said the two leaders also
agreed to encourage their companies to invest in each other's countries and facilitate greater market access for each other's products. They also spoke of the need to maintain even closer cooperation on international issues like climate change, the Doha round and terrorism. Dr. Singh expressed his condolences for the victims of the Qinghai earthquake, the spokesman said.
Asked whether contentious questions like China's policy of issuing ‘stapled visas' to Kashmirdomiciled Indian citizens and the recent incidents of computer hacking were discussed, the spokesman said the two Foreign Ministers had already reviewed the full range of issues in their meeting earlier this month and that “some of the matters of concern” were flagged then. The spokesman said
India to brief G-20 on its successful rural scheme Washington: India’s union labour minister Mallikarjun Kharge would present a briefing on India’s highly successful National Rural Employment Generation Scheme at the first ever meet of G-20 labour ministers here. Top officials from the US Department of Labour, organisers of the event, said the innovative 100-day rural employment guarantee scheme has been successful beyond the expectations of almost every one. "India has learnt and has refined the strategy. So there is a great deal of anticipation to hear from Minister Kharge about these policies, how they have worked, and are there lessons that are transferable to other countries at low and mid-
Mallikarjun Kharge
dle income levels," Deputy Under Secretary for International Affairs Sandra Polaski told foreign journalists. "The employment minister from India, who is attending the conference, has been asked to speak about that as one of the key innovations that India has made, a
policy which has been challenging to implement but at the end of the day very successful. I think successful beyond the expectations of almost everyone," Polaski said. Labour and employment ministers from top 20 economies of the world are scheduled to attend the conference being convened at the instance of President Barack Obama. Recommendations of the conference would be submitted to the next G-20 Summit meeting in Toronto later this year. "This meeting comes at a time of tremendous challenge for workers in the G-20 countries. The prompt actions of many of our governments last year prevented a true global depression.
Dr. Singh introduced India's newly designated Special Representative for border talks National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon - to President Hu and State Councillor Dai Binguuo. He said both sides expressed their satisfaction with the manner in which the SR mechanism was operating and felt the next round of talks on the border should be held at an early date.
China gets ready to honour Tagore Beijing: China will honour Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagaore with busts, books and films, the country which he visited twice in the 1920s. While a statue of the poet is being put up in Shanghai, a major project of translating his complete works in 28 volumes has been undertaken by a government-run publishing house. Besides, Tagore's birth anniversary will be celebrated in the presence of an international audience at the Indian pavilion during the World Expo in Shanghai on May 10. In 2006, China's Communist Party signalled its favourable view of the Indian poet when the party organ, the People's Daily, elected him as one of the 50 foreign personalities who have influenced modern Chinese thinking.