Learn Chinese: 2008-03

Mar 27, 2008

Learn Chinese - Jazz stifle Yao, tie series with Rockets

Sports / Basketball

Jazz stifle Yao, tie series with Rockets

(AP)
Updated: 2007-04-29 13:49

Mehmet Okur broke out of his scoring slump with 16 points, stifled Yao
Ming defensively, and the Utah Jazz evened their first-round series with
a 98-85 victory over the Houston Rockets on Saturday night in Game 4.

Deron Williams added 25 points, including 11 in the third quarter. Utah
outscored Houston 33-17 in the period and again flustered the Rockets
into a listless second half while tying the series at two games apiece.

Yao scored 20, his lowest total of the series, and had to fight through
Okur and Jarron Collins all night. Tracy McGrady added 18 points before
Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy pulled his starters.

Houston Rockets head coach Jeff Van Gundy watches the action with his
team in Game 4 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals during the 2007
NBA Playoffs at EnergySolutions Arena on April 28, 2007 in Salt Lake
City, Utah.[AP]

Game 5 is Monday in Houston, where the Rockets won the first two games of
the series.

Carlos Boozer finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Matt Harpring
added 17 points as the Jazz ensured there will be at least one more home
game this season.

Okur hadn't scored more than seven in the first three games of the series
and ended up tying his career playoff high. His defense, however, was
much more important, as he made Yao miserable again, keeping him from
getting inside much and swiping the ball away with quicker hands several
times.

Yao had finally had enough by the fourth quarter and landed an elbow to
Okur's chin while trying to get him out of the way for a shot in the
lane. Yao was called for an offensive foul on the play.

In the third quarter, Okur frustrated Yao by knocking the ball from his
hands and starting a break, which Williams ended with a three-point play
as Yao was protesting the no-call at the other end.

Andrei Kirilenko had four blocks and four assists for Utah, which went
26-for-33 from the line in the first game the Jazz had more free throw
attempts than the Rockets in the series.

Houston finished with 16 turnovers, leading to 18 points for Utah.

Rafer Alston scored 12 and Shane Battier had 10 points for Houston. The
10 Rockets who scored were six more than in a humbling loss Thursday, but
nobody scored nearly enough.

Williams drove around Yao for a layup just before the end of the second
quarter, then the Jazz pulled away with the first eight points of the
third period and the demoralized Rockets didn't make much of a threat
from there.

Okur hit a 17-foot jumper at the beginning of the third, Boozer tipped in
a rebound and Williams added a jumper and two free throws as Utah's
five-point lead grew to 58-45.

The Rockets didn't score in the third until Yao's turnaround jumper
nearly 3 minutes into the period.

Utah was 11-for-18 from the floor during the third and added a 10-1 run
late in the quarter after Houston had gotten within 80-62 on a 3-pointer
by Luther Head.

The Rockets had a 2-on-1 going right after that, but Fisher broke it up
with a steal that started a break for Utah. Gordan Giricek finished it by
setting up for a 3-pointer just before the buzzer and Utah led 83-62.

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� Nadal to play Canas for Barcelona Open final

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Learn Mandarin online - Srichaphan in match point to marrige with Miss Universe

Sports / Celebrity

Srichaphan in match point to marrige with Miss Universe

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-04-24 15:18

Thai tennis star Paradorn Srichaphan (R) dresses Miss Universe 2005
Natalie Glebova of Canada with earrings during a news conference in
Bangkok to announce their engagement April 24, 2007. [Reuters]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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� Yang Jiechi named new FM, replacing Li Zhaoxing

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Learn Chinese online - Candlelight vigil for Virginia Tech shooting victims

WORLD / Photo

Candlelight vigil for Virginia Tech shooting victims

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-04-18 16:11

Virginia Tech students hold up candles during a vigil at the campus of
Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia April 17, 2007. A gunman killed 32
people at a Virginia university on Monday, calmly gunning down students
attending class and then killing himself in the deadliest shooting
rampage in US history. [Reuters]

1 2 3 4 5

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� Yang Jiechi named new FM, replacing Li Zhaoxing

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Learn Mandarin online - A list of deadly U.S. campus shootings

WORLD / Past School Violences

A list of deadly U.S. campus shootings

(AP)
Updated: 2007-04-17 13:56

Fatal shootings at U.S. colleges or universities in recent years:

*April 16, 2007: A gunman fatally shoots 32 people in a dorm and a
classroom at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, The gunman kills
himself.

*August 1, 1966: Charles Whitman points a rifle from the observation deck
of the University of Texas at Austin's Tower and begins shooting in a
homicidal rampage that goes on for 96 minutes. Sixteen people are killed,
31 wounded.

*July 12, 1976: Edward Charles Allaway, a custodian in the library of
California State University, Fullerton, fatally shoots seven fellow
employees and wounds two others. Mentally ill, Allaway believed his
colleagues were pornographers and were forcing his estranged wife to
appear in their movies. He was found guilty of six counts of first-degree
murder and one count of second-degree murder and committed to the state
mental health system.

*November 1, 1991: Gang Lu, 28, a graduate student in physics from China,
reportedly upset because he was passed over for an academic honor, opens
fire in two buildings on the University of Iowa campus. Five University
of Iowa employees are killed, including four members of the physics
department, two people are wounded. The student fatally shoots himself.

*May 4, 1970: Four students are killed and nine wounded by National Guard
troops called in to quell anti-war protests on the campus of Kent State
University in Ohio.

*October 28, 2002: Failing University of Arizona Nursing College student
and Gulf War veteran Robert Flores, 40, walks into an instructor's office
and fatally shoots her. A few minutes later, armed with five guns, he
enters one of his nursing classrooms and kills two more of his
instructors before fatally shooting himself.

*September 2, 2006: Douglas W. Pennington, 49, kills himself and his two
sons, Logan P. Pennington, 26, and Benjamin M. Pennington, 24, during a
visit to the campus of Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West
Virginia.

*January 16, 2002: Graduate student Peter Odighizuwa, 42, recently
dismissed from Virginia's Appalachian School of Law, returns to campus
and kills the dean, a professor and a student before being tackled by
students. The attack also wounds three female students.

*August 15, 1996: Frederick Martin Davidson, 36, a graduate engineering
student at San Diego State, is defending his thesis before a faculty
committee when he pulls out a handgun and kills three professors.

*August 28, 2000: James Easton Kelly, 36, a University of Arkansas
graduate student recently dropped from a doctoral program after a decade
of study and John Locke, 67, the English professor overseeing his
coursework, are shot to death in an apparent murder-suicide.

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Mar 26, 2008

Chinese Mandarin - Iran to release 15 British sailors

WORLD / Middle East

Iran to release 15 British sailors

(AP)
Updated: 2007-04-05 08:59

Video grab shows Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking to Britons
who had been detained in Iran at a ceremony to mark their release, April
4, 2007. The 15 British naval personnel will leave the country from
Tehran airport on Thursday, an official Iranian source said. [Reuters]

The British crew was seized March 23 as it searched for smugglers. Iran
broadcast footage of Turney and some other crew members "confessing" they
had entered Iranian waters. An infuriated Britain froze most bilateral
contacts, prompting Tehran to roll back on a pledge to free Turney.

Special coverage:
British Sailors Detained
Related readings:

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in Iraq released
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Protest in Iran targets British Embassy
Britain studying Iran standoff options
Bush to Iran: 'Give back the hostages'

Iran airs second British's apology UN urges resolution of Iran seizure
UK turns up heat on Iran over sailors
Iran TV shows footage of UK sailors
Brit presses Iran; woman may be freed
Blair warns Iran standoff could escalate
Iran: Sailors being treated humanely

Wednesday's announcement led some analysts to conclude that Iran's
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, decided the crisis had gone on
long enough at a time when Tehran faces mounting pressure over its
nuclear program. A day after the British were seized, the U.N. Security
Council imposed new sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt uranium
enrichment.

During Ahmadinejad's news conference, the hardline president said Britain
had sent a letter to the Iranian Foreign Ministry pledging that entering
Iranian waters "will not happen again." Tehran had demanded an apology
for the alleged entry into its waters.

Britain's Foreign Office would not give details about the letter but said
its position was clear that the detained crew had been in Iraqi waters.

Regardless of the territorial issue, the standoff showed that Tehran has
ways to push back after the U.S. and Britain beefed up their military
presence in the Persian Gulf this year.

The U.S. has accused Iran of sending weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq.
That led to speculation that the Iranians seized the Britons in
retaliation for the detention of five Iranians by U.S. forces in the
northern Iraqi city of Irbil in January. Iran denied any connection.

Shortly before the announcement, Iranian state media reported that an
Iranian envoy would be allowed to meet the five Iranians. A U.S. military
spokesman in Baghdad said American authorities were considering the
request, although an international Red Cross team, including one Iranian,
had visited the prisoners.

Another Iranian diplomat, separately seized two months ago by uniformed
gunmen in Iraq, was released and returned Tuesday to Tehran. Iran accused
the Americans of abducting him, a charge the U.S. denied.

Before announcing the Britons would be freed, Ahmadinejad told reporters
that Iran will never accept trespassing in its territory.

"On behalf of the great Iranian people," he said, "I want to thank the
Iranian coast guard who courageously defended and captured those who
violated their territorial waters."

1 2

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� Putin firm in final union address

� US House OKs Iraq troop pullout bill

� Japanese PM to meet Bush in summit

Today's Top News

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� Yang a popular choice as FM

� Hu, Lien stress cross-Straits peace

� US captures senior Al-Qaida operative

� Yang Jiechi named new FM, replacing Li Zhaoxing

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Learn Chinese - 'Ding looks destined to be world No 1'

Sports / China

'Ding looks destined to be world No 1'

By Li Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-03-30 09:15

Teenage star Ding Junhui is on track to becoming the best snooker player
in the world.

Just ask Steve Davis.

"He obviously has the talent to be world No 1 and I am sure he can do it
in the very near future," said Davis, who has won 28 titles in roughly as
many years.

Despite Ding's loss to Barry Hawkins on Wednesday, Davis believes he has
the potential to beat Stephen Hendry's record as the youngest World
Championships winner at 21.

China's Ding Junhui reacts during the 2007 World Snooker China Open in
the first round game against Barry Hawkins March 28 in Beijing. [Xinhua]

"He's no doubt on course to become a world champion and he's got a
realistic chance of being the youngest ever," he said.

"I think he's the first young player since Ronnie O'Sullivan to really
look like he could take the game by storm."

Ding moved up to No 24 in the world rankings after capturing the 2005
China Open, the Northern Ireland Trophy and the UK Championships, the
sport's second-biggest tournament.

Only O'Sullivan and Ding have bagged three such weighty titles before
their 20th birthdays.

The 19-year-old Chinese player beat O'Sullivan 9-6 to clinch the Northern
Ireland Trophy and stamp his dominance on the sport.

Not one to be swatted aside so easily, O'Sullivan got his revenge with a
10-3 win at the Snooker British Masters early this year.

Davis said it was only a matter of time before Ding joins the snooker
elite. "I'm very certain he will be a top-five player fairly soon," said
Davis. "There are a number of people who can pot balls perfectly but his
level of maturity marks him out as something special.

"It will be very interesting to see how he gets on next season."

O'Sullivan joined in the praise.

"I have ranked Ding Junhui as my No 1 rival", said the 31-year-old from
England.

Reacting to the sudden glorification of Ding, Davis cautioned against
blowing him up as the saviour of a British sport that looks set to expand
overseas.

"It's quite a tough environment for him, everybody wants him to win," he
said. "So he needs a stronger heart. To focus on the table in such an
environment is not easy."

British officials are targeting Ding as the man who can sell the sport to
China's 1.3 billion people.

"We've been trying to expand the sport and we have seen great progress
but it doesn't happen overnight," Davis said. "We will need some more
time to get more Chinese players involved."

"I'm sure we need some more time before seeing great players from China
who will come over to play in the UK."

The reverse, of course, is already happening.

In yesterday's China Open action, O'Sullivan remained on course by
rallying to beat Ali Carter.

He won the last three frames against his practice partner to clinch it
5-4 and set up a quarter-final tie with Hong Kong's Marco Fu, who beat
World Championships winner Matthew Stevens 5-3.

Carter was disappointed not to advance to the last eight after failing to
convert several match-winning chances.

"I was lucky," admitted world No 3 O'Sullivan. "I expected Ali to win
with the chances he had. He should have put me away.

"The last frame is always the hardest to win and the more chances he
missed, the more tense he became and the more confident I got. I wasn't
playing well. I haven't slept for 24 hours and I felt tired."

It started brightly for the 31-year-old when he sealed the first frame
with a break of 53. Carter rode through a scrappy second, edged in front
with 100 and added the next to go 3-1.

Carter then rolled in a 92 to make it 4-2. He could have closed it out in
the next frame but missed the final green to hand O'Sullivan just the
break he needed. A 53 clearance saw O'Sullivan claw back from 42-13. When
Carter failed to send a red into the center pocket, it was game over.

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Learn mandarin - History of Billiardsports

Sports / Snooker Rules

History of Billiardsports

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-03-26 16:35

Billiards knows a rich history. Kings, commoners, presidents, insanes,
ladies, gentlemen and maybe criminals, have been playing the game. The
Game has its origin in Northern Europe, probably France, where it was
played as an outdoor game in the 15th century. Due to weather conditions
the game moved indoors on a wooden table, which was dressed with a green
carpet, to ressemble grass, and a slat around the sides. The balls where
pushed instead of punched with a wooden stick. The name Billiards
probably comes from two French words "bille" from ball and "art" from
arts. The English also claim to have invented the game, but except for
England nobody believes that.

The game was originally played with two balls and six pockets with a gate
and a small piece of wood (the king), this was the goal. In the 18th
century the gate and king smoothly disappeared from the game, and only
the balls and pockets remained. The most information about the early days
of billiards are from game reports of nobility players. But it is clear
that commoners played the game as well. Around 1600, billiards was known
enough to be mentioned in Shakespeare's, " I, Anthony and Cleopatra". 75
years later the rules of the game were written down in a book. It was
mentioned that everywhere in England the billiard-table was accessible to
commoners.

The cue was developed in the 17th century. When a ball was (too) close to
the edge, it became too difficult to use the front of the stick (as a
spoon). Then they turned the stick around and used the backside (the cue,
which means tail). This was only allowed for male players, because they
where afraid, that female players would damage the table.

In the beginning the edges of the table where plump, only to protect to
balls going over the edge. The players found out, that they could use the
edges to rebound a ball.

After 1800 the material in England was evolved , mainly due to industrial
revolution. Chalk was introduced to increase the friction between the cue
and the ball. Even before the first cue, the stick had a rubber end to
give the ball a side effect. In 1829 the first two "parts" cues where on
the market. Around 1835 cloth became popular as an underground. In 1839
it became possible to vulcanize the rubber and that knowledge was used to
produce the side of the table, as we know them now.

From �� 1770 until 1920 they played English Billiards in England. It was
played with 3 balls and 6 pockets on a long rectangular table. The 2:1
proportion between length and width became common in the 18th century.
Before that there was no specified proportion for the table.(NOTE:
Englisch Billiards is still played with the three balls on the large six
pocket table in England, but it's not very popular now compared to
snooker.)

Source: Biljart Totaal dec. '97

Fran?ois Mingaud (1771-1847), born in Le Cailar, South of France, in the
surroundings of Nimes. Was the inventor of the pomerans, the rubber on
the end of the cue.

A picture of Fran ? ois Mingaud, was placed on the cover of The Billiard
Player (English magazine) in May 1953. This is the only known picture of
the inventor of the pomerans.

Through this invention it became possible to give the ball an effect. A
new era was born in the billiard world. Before that they needed to hit
the ball in the middle. Mingaud lived his last 25 years in the Hoogstraat
in Rotterdam, where he remarried at the age of 64. This house was
destroyed during WWII. He died December 23, 1847. Five days later he was
buried at a graveyard in Crooswijk.

In 1827 Fran?ois Mingaud wrote a book "Noble jeu de Billard" It was
translated into English three years later. It's a very priceless book to
have in your book collection about billiard.

The name Mingaud is hard to spell. He has been named Mangaud, Mengand,
Mengaud, Migaud, Mignaut, Mingo, Mingot, Minguad, Wingaud and of course
the correct spelling: Mingaud.

Capitan Mingaud (he was in Napoleons army) has been in the Bastille as a
political prisoner. It must have been a big cell, because he had a
billiard-table in there. He really loved to play Billiards. When he was
released he requested to stay longer to improve his game.

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Chinese Online Class - Gulf governments plan oil pipelines

WORLD / Middle East

Gulf governments plan oil pipelines

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-03-21 15:55

Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Gulf governments are planning oil pipelines
that would bypass the world's most vulnerable energy choke point, the
Strait of Hormuz, aiming to avoid possible Iranian threats to global oil
shipments.

If built, two pipelines could ferry as much as 6.5 million barrels of oil
a day around the strait, an amount equal to nearly 40 percent of the
daily exports currently shipped through the narrow channel at the
entrance of the Gulf.

Construction of the first, smaller line is forecast to begin this year,
the Dubai branch of Britain's Standard Chartered Bank reported this week.

A second, more ambitious line carrying some 5 million barrels a day is
still under discussion and could take a decade to build.

Around two-fifths of the world's traded oil is shipped by tanker through
the Hormuz Strait. But the 34-mile-wide passage is highly vulnerable to
threats from neighboring Iran.

With tensions rising between Iran and the West over its nuclear program,
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned in June that his
country could disrupt the world's oil supply if it comes under attack.

Bypassing the Strait of Hormuz also could lead to a drop in the price of
crude.

Traders already have marked up prices by a so-called "security premium"
of a few dollars per barrel because of fears of disruption in the turmoil
since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. The new pipelines could reassure
traders over the stability of exports and knock down the premium.

The idea of the new pipelines among traders is so popular, "they think
it's a dream," said Mustafa Alani, a security analyst for the Dubai-based
Gulf Research Center.

"Crisis after crisis is threatening stability. We need a permanent
solution. Any threat, real or imaginary, will increase the price a dollar
or two. This project will give a new boost to the stability of oil," he
said.

Currently, oil from the region is loaded onto tankers in the Gulf and
shipped through the strait. The pipeline plans aim to take the oil by
land from Arab countries to just outside Hormuz for loading.

The first, 224-mile pipeline would carry only oil from the United Arab
Emirates, extending from the country's Habshan oil field, across a
mountain range, to the emirate of Fujairah, located outside the strait on
the Gulf of Oman.

Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co. is planning to build
the line, which would carry 1.5 million barrels per day of crude oil,
about 55 percent of the Emirates' production. A third of the crude would
be used for a refinery planned in Fujairah.

The second line, dubbed the Trans-Gulf Strategic Pipeline, would bring as
much as 5 million barrels a day from various Persian Gulf terminals to a
newly built export terminal outside the straits, perhaps in Oman.

A forthcoming Gulf Research Center study suggests six possible routes for
the trans-Gulf pipeline, which could bring oil from as far north as Iraq,
passing through Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to the
Omani capital of Muscat on the Arabian Sea, Alani said. Other possible
routes could see the pipeline terminating in Yemen or Fujairah.

The pipeline would shorten tanker routes by hundreds of miles, lower
transport costs and reduce shipping traffic in the crowded Gulf.

The trans-Gulf pipeline could be as long as 1,500 miles and traverse at
least one mountain range. If that isn't enough of a headache for planners
and engineers, they'll have to bury it too.

Keeping it above the ground may be cheaper and quicker, but would leave
it vulnerable to terrorist attack, Alani said.

Terrorists have set their sights on Gulf oil facilities. Al-Qaida claimed
responsibility for last year's attacks on oil installations in Saudi
Arabia and Yemen after Osama bin Laden called on militants to stop the
flow of oil to the West.

The group also was behind the 2002 attack on a French oil tanker that
killed one person in the Gulf of Aden, off Yemen.

Alani declined to put a figure on the cost of the operation, but said oil
exporters could afford it, particularly with the flood of cash from high
oil prices in recent years.

Ministers from the six Gulf Arab countries are scheduled to discuss the
pipeline during one of two summits planned this year.

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Mar 25, 2008

Free Chinese Lesson - 9/11 mastermind confesses in Guantanamo

WORLD / America

9/11 mastermind confesses in Guantanamo

(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-15 08:32

WASHINGTON - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the
Sept. 11 attacks, confessed to that attack and a string of others during
a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a transcript
released Wednesday by the Pentagon.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is shown in this photograph during his arrest on
March 1, 2003. Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11
attacks on the United States, has claimed responsibility for those and
other major al Qaeda attacks, according to the transcript of a hearing at
Guantanamo Bay released on Wednesday. [Reuters]

Mohammed claimed responsibility for planning, financing, and training
others for bombings ranging from the 1993 attack at the World Trade
Center to the attempt by would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid to blow up a
trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoes.

In all, Mohammed said he was responsible for planning 29 individual
attacks, including many that were never executed. The comments were
included in a 26-page transcript released by the Pentagon, which also
blacked out some of his remarks.

The Pentagon also released transcripts of the hearings of Abu Faraj
al-Libi and Ramzi Binalshibh.

Binalshibh is suspected of helping Mohammed with the Sept. 11, 2001,
attack plan and is also linked to a foiled plot to crash aircraft into
London's Heathrow Airport. Al-Libi is a Libyan who reportedly
masterminded two bombings 11 days apart in Pakistan in December 2003 that
targeted President Pervez Musharraf for his support of the US-led war on
terror.

The hearings, which began last Friday, are being conducted in secret by
the military as it tries to determine whether 14 alleged terrorist
leaders should be declared "enemy combatants" who can be held
indefinitely and prosecuted by military tribunals.

Hearings for six of the 14 have already been held. The military is not
allowing reporters to attend the sessions and is limiting the information
it provides about them, arguing that it wants to prevent sensitive
information from being disclosed.

The 14 were moved in September from a secret CIA prison network to the
prison at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, where about 385 men are
being held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

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Learn mandarin - Yao Ming the Newshound Torturer

Sports / Quotes to Note

Yao Ming the Newshound Torturer

By Jeff Pan (Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-03-01 16:39

"I can see well enough on the 28-meter basketball court."

-- Yao Ming said when a journalist asked whether his addiction to video
games has affected his vision.

"Embarrassed journalists ask me embarrassing questions, and they get
embarrassing answers, and then hand out embarrassing stories to the
embarrassing editors, who put them to the front pages of newspapers. When
is this going to end?"

-- Yao Ming said of the domestic journalists.

"Be a journalist. I can't get away from you guys, then I just mingle with
you guys."

-- Yao Ming said when a journalist asked what he wanted to do after
retirement.

"Don't compare me with Michael Jordan. His achievement is unimaginable.'

-- Yao Ming said of the excessive media coverage.

"Hope you guys don't force to go to the toilet."

-- Yao Ming said to the beleaguering newshounds.

"The question you asked is the weirdest."

-- Yao Ming said when he was asked what the weirdest problem was since he
went to the USA.

"The journalists are poking me all the time. It's impossible for me to
stop even I want to."

-- Yao Ming mocked about his motivation to keep going.

"Then should buy a gun, and hire some bodyguards?"

-- Yao Ming said when he was asked how it felt after he first became a
millionaire.

"Is America in a famine?"

-- Yao Ming was amazed by the speed American journalists had their food
on May 13, 2002.

"Because the air I breathe everyday is fresher than yours."

-- Yao Ming answered when he was asked why he could grow so tall during
the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

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Chinese Mandarin - US dismisses Putin remarks as blunt spy talk

WORLD / America

US dismisses Putin remarks as blunt spy talk

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-02-12 08:56

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Russian president Vladimir Putin
take their seats at the Bayerischer Hof hotel prior the 43rd Conference
on Security Policy in Munich, February 10, 2007. [Reuters]

Munich - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday dismissed an attack
on US foreign policy by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the blunt
talk of an old spy and said it was vital to keep working with Moscow.

Related readings:
served only to unite world
Gates to Putin: 'One Cold War is enough'
Putin warns US policy creating new arms race

In a speech which one US senator said smacked of Cold War rhetoric, Putin
told a security conference in Munich on Saturday the United States was
making the world a more dangerous place by pursuing policies aimed at
making it the "one single master."

A White House spokesman said it was "surprised and disappointed" by the
comments and some Europeans said it was a wake-up call from a tougher
Russia, newly empowered by a sharp rise in the prices of its oil, gas and
metals exports.

But despite their concerns, the White House and Gates underlined the need
for cooperation with Moscow.

"Many of you have backgrounds in diplomacy or politics," Gates, a former
CIA director, told the same Munich conference.

"I have, like your second speaker yesterday (Putin), a starkly different
background -- a career in the spy business. And, I guess, old spies have
a habit of blunt speaking.

Gates raised concerns about Russian arms transfers and its "temptation to
use energy resources for political coercion" which he said could threaten
international stability.

But he said: "We all face many common problems and challenges that must
be addressed in partnership with other countries, including Russia."

"One Cold War was quite enough," he added.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, addressing the conference, also
underlined the potential for cooperation between the old foes to fight
the new threat of terrorism.

"We need to use all the efforts of the world community in countering
terrorists and to concentrate our efforts at the most vulnerable spots,"
he said. He proposed cutting off militants' financial channels and
preventing them recruiting.

US-Russian Disagreements

The Kremlin has for several weeks been dropping hints that Putin, who
steps down next year after two terms in power, was preparing a major
foreign policy speech that would point the way for his successor.

His remarks coincide with disagreement between Russia and the United
States over the Iraq war and the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North
Korea.

Russia is also concerned by US plans to deploy an anti-missile system in
the Czech Republic and Poland. Washington says it is needed for defense
against rockets launched by Iran and North Korea but Moscow rejects this
argument.

Putin attacked the concept of a "unipolar" world in which the United
States was the sole superpower, saying this meant "one single center of
power, one single center of force and one single master."

"People are always teaching us democracy but the people who teach us
democracy don't want to learn it themselves," he said.

US Senator Joseph Lieberman said the speech was provocative and marked by
"rhetoric that sounded more like the Cold War."

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said: "We have to have a dialogue
with Russia but we must be hard-nosed and realistic. We must stand up for
our values."

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg made clear his country's
concerns, saying Putin's remarks showed the importance of expanding the
NATO transatlantic military alliance.

"We have to thank President Putin, who not only took good care (to
create) great publicity for this conference, greater than we expected,
but who clearly and convincingly argued why NATO should be enlarged," he
told the Munich conference.

Policy Signal To Successor

Putin denies seeking to confront the West. He says US domination in the
post-Cold War world has not made the world a safer place and the global
order should be reviewed to take account of new centers of power such as
China, India and Russia.

Political analysts said Putin wanted his successor, due to be elected in
March 2008, to follow his course and was trying to set out long-term
foreign policy guidelines.

Russia's grudges against the post-Cold War world have been piling up for
years and his strong language will strike a chord among Russians who feel
either ignored or unfairly targeted.

"This indicates that Russia is mature enough to say 'yes' and 'no' in the
world," Gleb Pavlovsky, a political analyst closely connected to the
Kremlin, told Interfax news agency.

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Today's Top News

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� Life expectancy to hit 85 by 2050

� Harvard names first woman president

� Putin warns US policy creating new arms race

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Learn Mandarin online - G-7 may cast a wary eye on the yuan, yen

WORLD / Wall Street Journal Exclusive

G-7 may cast a wary eye on the yuan, yen

By JOELLEN PERRY (WSJ)
Updated: 2007-02-05 11:22

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117045353215696637-tC_ShbMDKjhkOS6pB
dybC_jLZ14_20070210.html?mod=regionallinks

When finance ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrial nations
meet in Germany next weekend, look out for a tussle over two Asian
currencies.

U.S. officials will continue to focus on China's weak yuan at the talks,
which take place in the former industrial powerhouse of Essen. But
European policy makers have said they will push for a discussion about
Japan's currency to be included in the talks, as well. They say the yen's
low value gives Japanese exporters an unfair edge against competitors
that have to pay for their costs in euros. After losing 10% against the
euro in the past year, the yen hit record lows in January against the
European Union's common currency, which is used by 13 nations, including
Germany and France.

Japan is expected to fight back, and this time will find the U.S. on its
side. Though Japan has often been criticized in the past for manipulating
the yen's value, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said last week that the
yen's value now accurately reflects Japan's economic situation. Though
the yen recently hit four-year lows against the dollar, and U.S. car
makers have also complained about the currency's weakness, U.S. Treasury
officials are reluctant to champion any artificial adjustment in the yen
at a time when they are pushing for a market-valued yuan.

Japan's timid recovery is part of the reason its currency is low.
Rock-bottom interest rates, at 0.25%, have also made the currency a prime
player in the global "carry trade," in which investors borrow in
low-yielding currencies like the yen to invest in more lucrative
currencies elsewhere. Carry trades further weaken the yen as traders sell
off the currency. With domestic consumption and consumer-price data still
muted, significant interest-rate rises from the Bank of Japan seem
unlikely in the short term, so the yen will likely stay low.

That is a particular problem for countries that use the euro. Exports
helped last year to power the euro bloc to its fastest economic growth
since 2000. Policy makers worry a feeble yen, on top of the euro's recent
rise against the dollar, will undercut that expansion. Manufacturing
survey data for January show a stronger euro has already begun dampening
export growth across the region.

A flagging yen also underscores the euro zone's widening disparities.
Productivity increases and meager wage growth have helped Germany gain
against reform laggards like France and Italy to become the world's
largest exporter in terms of value. "We are more sensitive to the
exchange rate because we are less good than Germany in terms of
structural competitiveness," says Christian de Boissieu, chairman of the
French Prime Minster's Council of Economic Analysis.

More fundamentally, as the euro strengthens simultaneously against the
dollar and the yen, European policy makers worry the currency is unfairly
bearing the burden of global imbalances. When the dollar slid last year,
in part on fears of the U.S.'s huge trade deficit, Asian economies with
trade surpluses and currencies pegged to the dollar helped stem the slide
by buying dollars. At the same time, jittery investors world-wide
switched dollar-denominated assets for euro ones, pushing up the European
currency's value.

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Today's Top News

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Mar 24, 2008

Free Chinese Lesson - Alpine Skiing

Sports / Winter Sports

Alpine Skiing

(CAWGOC)
Updated: 2007-01-26 10:13

1. Dates and Place
��The competition for Alpine Skiing will be held in Jilin Beida Lake
Skating Site from 31 January to 3 Feburary, 2007.

2. Events
��Women: Giant Slalom, Slalom
��Men: Giant Slalom, Slalom

3. Schedule

��

Date

Time

Events

Jan.31 Wednesday

10: 00

Women: Giant Slalom

Feb. 1 Thursday

10: 00

Men: Giant Slalom

Feb. 2 Friday

10:00

Women: Slalom

Feb. 3 Saturday

10:00

Men: Slalom

��Note: The competition schedule may be adjusted according to the
entries.

4. Qualifications
��- All NOCs affiliated to the OCA, and whose Skiing Federations are
FIS members can participate in the Games.
��- Only those athletes who meet the qualification requirements
regulated by the OCA Constitution and Rules can participate in the Games.
��- Maximum Entry Number for Teams of Alpine Skiing.

��

Events

Number of Athletes

Number of Participants

Maximum Entry Number

Total

Women

Giant Slalom

Slalom

Men

Giant Slalom

Slalom

��- As to the number of the officials of each delegation, please abide
by regulations on the number of athletes and officials in "Chef De
Mission Manual for the 6th Asian Winter Games".

5. Entries and Registration
��The deadlines of entries are as follows:
��First Entry: Entry by Number and Events
��Deadline: Jun. 28, 2006.
��Second Entry: Entry by Name and Events
��Deadline: Dec. 28, 2006.

6. Competition Rules

The Alpine Skiing competitions will be held in accordance with the latest
FIS International Competition Rules. Any unforeseen incidents not covered
by the rules will be resolved in accordance with the Constitution & Rules
of the OCA and Stipulations of FIS.

7. Technical Delegates and Referees
��The ASF/FIS will appoint the technical delegates and chief referees
and competition officials will be designated by CAWGOC.

8. Timing
��Electronic timing system will be used at the competitions.

9. Draw
��All the draws related to competitions will be conducted in conformity
with the FIS regulations and under strict supervision.

10. Protests
��All the protests and appeals concerning the technical aspects of the
competitions should be conducted according to the FIS regulations.

11. Awards
��The top six places in each event will be awarded as follows:
��First place: gold-gilded silver medal and certificate
��Second place: silver medal and certificate
��Third place: bronze medal and certificate
��Fourth to Sixth place: certificate
��Certificate of Participation will be issued to those athletes who do
not obtain any rankings.

12. Competition Organizing
��The Alpine Skiing Competition Committee will be responsible for
organizing and managing the Alpine Skiing competition under the technical
guidance of FIS and ASF, and the supervision of the OCA.

13. Training Arrangements
��Jilin Beida Lake Skating Site will be open on January 13, 2007. The
Organizing Committee will provide training place according to the entries
and requirements of each delegation with charge of different venues. Free
training for each delegation will be provided from January 25.

14. Doping Control
��In accordance with "OCA Anti-doping Rules" "World Anti-doping Code"
and "International Standards on Doping Control", CAWGOC will conduct
doping control for athletes under the direction of the OCA Medical
Committee. Samples test shall be sent to the China Doping Control Center
(Beijing) accredited by WADA, to be analyzed. After the arrival of the
samples at the lab, negative report shall be given in 24 hours, and
positive report in 48 hours while positive result of EPO as an exception
will be released in 72 hours. The Jilin Beida Lake Skating Site will be
the site of sample collection for Alpine Skiing competitions. The numbers
of athletes to be tested and the principles of selection will be
determined by the OCA Medical Committee. Test results will be submitted
to the OCA Medical Committee. The president of OCA Medical Committee will
report the results to the OCA Executive Board for appropriate penalties.

15. Venues Layout

��16. Communication Map

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Chinese Online Class - US push to strip Iran of aid resisted

WORLD / Middle East

US push to strip Iran of aid resisted

(AP)
Updated: 2007-01-17 09:11

VIENNA, Austria - A US push to greatly reduce UN nuclear aid to Iran as
part of Security Council sanctions is facing opposition from traditional
US allies in the European Union as well as from developing nations,
diplomats said Tuesday.

Resistance was expected from developing nations on the board of the
International Atomic Energy Agency, which provides technical assistance
to Iran to bolster the use of nuclear energy. Most of those countries
usually support Tehran's assertion that it has the right to develop
uranium enrichment technology, a process that can create fuel for energy
but also the fissile material for nuclear warheads.

But any European opposition could erode attempts to present a unified
Western front on dealing with Iran's nuclear defiance. The sanctions
imposed on Iran last month for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment
came after months of wrangling between Russia and China - which favored
lighter penalties - and the US and European countries, which wanted
tougher ones.

The sanctions, which fell short of the harsher measures the Americans had
sought, included a review of more than 15 IAEA technical aid programs to
Iran. Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the Vienna-based UN nuclear monitor, is
preparing a report on what - if any - of the programs to cut.

Several diplomats said disagreements have arisen between the US and other
IAEA members seeking broad reductions and those with a more moderate
views.

"The Americans said at least 50 percent of the technical cooperation
programs now in place with Iran will not go through" the IAEA review,
said a diplomatic representative to the IAEA, one of seven who spoke to
The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for discussing
confidential information.

Such a stance is opposed by Germany and many other EU nations, the
diplomats said, adding that unless Washington moderates its stance
confrontation is inevitable at the next IAEA board meeting in March.

A US diplomat disputed that there were major differences between the
Europeans and the US, saying both wanted "an unambiguous implementation"
of the Security Council resolution.

In November, the 35-nation IAEA board suspended a project to help Iran
install safety measures for a heavy water reactor that will produce
plutonium, another potential pathway to nuclear arms.

But the other programs up for review have less obvious potential weapons
applications, making the decision on whether to suspend them less
straightforward. They include cancer therapy programs and requests for
help in international nuclear licensing procedures.

They also include waste management projects that the US - backed by
France, Australia and other countries - want cut because nuclear waste
from reactors can be reprocessed into weapons-grade material, the
diplomats said.

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Today's Top News

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Chinese language - The days when Saddam Hussein was in power

WORLD / Photo

The days when Saddam Hussein was in power

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-12-30 17:22

Saddam Hussein's family (clockwise from top L), son-in-law Saddam Kamel
and daughter Rana, son Qusay and daughter-in-law Sahar, daughter Ragda
and son-in-law Hussein Kamal, son Uday, daughter Hala, Saddam Hussein and
his first wife Sajda Kher Ala, pose in this undated photo from the
private archive of an official photographer for the regime. U.S.-backed
Iraqi television station Al Hurra said Saddam Hussein had been executed
by hanging shortly before 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on December 30, 2006.
[Reuters]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Top World News

� US, Japan eyeing missile-defense gaps

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� North Korea's Foreign Minister Paek dies

� Iraq orders probe of Saddam hang

� Officials deny Indonesian jetliner found

Today's Top News

� Taiwan plan draws grave concern

� Disasters take highest toll since 1998

� 70% target for unions in foreign firms

� Women, Africans in WHO chief's sights

� ICBC says will buy Indonesian Bank

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Learn Mandarin online - Top envoys meet in Beijing for Six-Party talks

WORLD / Photo

Top envoys meet in Beijing for Six-Party talks

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-12-18 09:08

Top envoys from six countries pose for a picture before dinner on the eve
of the resumption of Six-Party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's
nuclear program, in Beijing December 17, 2006. (from L-R) South Korea's
Chung Yung-Woo, Japan's Kenichiro Sasae, the United States' Christopher
Hill, China's Wu Dawei, North Korea's Kim Kye-Gwan and Russia's Sergey
Razov. [Reuters]

1 2 3 4

Top World News

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Today's Top News

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� Bookings for hotels to begin in spring

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Mar 23, 2008

Chinese language - Shi: I won't let Liu win so easily

Sports / Athletes

Shi: I won't let Liu win so easily

(Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-12-11 15:31

China's 110m hurdles sensation and world record holder Liu Xiang finished
13.74 seconds and compatriot Shi Dongpeng sprinted 13.71 in the men's
110m hurdles first round heats at the 15th Asian Games December 11, 2006,
both cruising to the final race next day.

A television crew films world record holder Liu Xiang of China after he
competed in the men's 110m hurdles first round heats at the 15th Asian
Games in Doha December 11, 2006. [Reuters]

The 23-year-old hurdler won his first Asian title at 2002 Busan Games,
where he clocked 13.27 seconds in a new meet record. He said he came to
Doha to shatter the 13.27.

However, the wet weather in Doha and uncomfortable track denied a better
result from the heats, as Liu told CCTV sports journalists, who were
stationed near the track to cover track and field events in Doha. He said
a possible new record relies heavily on good weather.

Another contributor to Liu's possible good result is the pressure from
his teammate Shi Dongpeng, Liu's runner-up in China and World No. 30.
"Wet weather and hard track is the same to everyone, and I won't let Liu
win that easily," Shi told CCTV after the heats round.

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Learn Mandarin online - China dominates Doha, grabbing 16 golds

Sports / China

China dominates Doha, grabbing 16 golds

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-12-03 08:31

Olympic Champion Zhu Qinan reacts during the match. [Xinhua]

DOHA -- Everyone knew China would dominate the Doha Asian Games, but few
knew they could do in such an extreme way.

They swept 16 out of 20 gold medals on offer on the first day's official
competition on Saturday, getting off to flying start towards its seventh
consecutive feat of topping the medal tally since 1982.

Japan took three golds, including two from their traditional territory of
judo and one from the swimming pool. Judokas Sae Nakazawa won the women's
78kg class while Muneta clinched men's over 100kg title.

Their other gold medal was from swimmer Sano Hidemasa in the men's 400m
individual medley.

South Korea, fighting for the second place against Japan at the Games,
managed only one from Jang Sung Ho, who claimed the men's 100kg judo
title.

China claimed its first gold medal in the men's 10m air rifle team event
early Saturday morning. Olympic champion Zhu Qinan, Li Jie and Liu
Tianyou beat South Korea with 1,786 points to win the Games' first gold.

"It's a great start for the Chinese delegation," said Duan Shijie, deputy
chef de mission of the Chinese delegation. "This gold is a perfect
morale-boost for our fellow Chinese athletes to compete in this Games."

Little-known Liu Tianyou emerged as the hero of the defending Asian Games
champions as the 24-year-old scored the highest 598 points.

Three Chinese shooters became double winners as China went on to
clean-sweep all the day's six shooting gold medals.

Liu won his second in the men's 10m air rifle by collecting 700.8 points.

China's trap team, including Chen Li, Wang Yujin and Zhu Mei, beat DPR
Korea to clinch the trap team event. Chen then added the women's trap
gold to her team title.

Olympic champion Du Li grabbed the women's 10m air rifle individual gold
before leading the Chinese trio, also consisting of Zhao Yinghui and Wu
Liuxi, to win the women's rifle team title.

China's sweetest title came from the men's gymnastics team event. They
overcame a 1.500-point deficit before the last rotation to beat Olympic
champions Japan with 377.100 points, extending their men's team dominance
for the ninth successive time at the Asian Games history.

Japan scored 4.050 points to finish second and South Korea totalled
371.500 to settle for the third. South Korean Yang Tae Young suffered a
foot injury over landing of high bar, but he struggled to take the pommel
horse and earned his team a bronze.

China took away all three weightlifting gold medals in the women's 48kg,
53rd classes and men's 56kg category. They also ruled the swimming pool,
seizing five out of six gold medals to leave the remaining one to Japan.

World bronze medalist Wu Peng struck a brilliant victory to retain the
men's 200m butterfly title under the pressure of two strong Japanese
rivals.

Zhou Yafei and Pang Jiaying each had two gold medals to their names when
defending champion Zhou won the women's 100m butterfly in 58.39 after
Pang beat defending champion and teammate Yang Yu for the women's 200m
freestyle gold in 1:59.26.

In the last event later Saturday night, the two rallied with Luo Nan
(breaststroke) and Zhao Jing (backstroke) to bring in another gold for
China in the 4x100m medley relay.

Asian champion Ji Liping of China took the first ever 50m breaststroke
gold and set the Games record in 31.52. The 50m breaststroke was added to
the Asian Games program for the first time.

In judo action, Tong Wen was the only Chinese winner, beating Tserenkhand
Dorjgotov of Mongolia with ippon to take the women's over 78kg title.

A total of 28 gold medals will be decided on the second day's competition
on Sunday.

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� China pockets 7th table tennis men's team title

�
Zhang Guozheng wins in Olympic champion battle

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Learn Chinese online - Insurgents gun down 21 in Iraqi village

WORLD / Middle East

Insurgents gun down 21 in Iraqi village

(AP)
Updated: 2006-11-25 19:49

Gunmen raided two Shiite homes in Diyala province, a hotbed of Iraq's
Sunni-Arab insurgency, and shot and killed 21 men in front of their
relatives, police said Saturday.

The attack by suspected insurgents on Friday night targeted members of
the al-Sawed Shiite tribe in the village of Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast
of Baghdad, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity to
protect his own security, as officials often do in the increasingly
volatile province.

Mourners grieve over the death of their relatives killed in Sadr city
attacks, in Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq,
Friday, Nov. 24, 2006. Funeral processions were underway on Friday for
the more than 200 people who were killed by car bombs and mortars in
Baghdad's largest Shiite district, the deadliest attack since the war
began. [AP]

He said police could not reach the remote village to collect the bodies
and take them to a morgue until Saturday morning. The province, almost
equally divided between Sunnis and Shiites, is the site of many sectarian
attacks.

Also Saturday, U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 22 insurgents and an Iraqi
civilian, and destroyed a factory being used to make roadside bombs,
during several raids north of Baghdad. No coalition casualties were
reported.

Baghdad remained under a 24-hour curfew Saturday as coalition forces
tried to prevent a surge of revenge attacks for the five bombings and two
mortar rounds that killed 215 people in the Shiite slum of Sadr City on
Thursday.

Such violence was particularly gruesome on Friday, when suspected Shiite
militiamen seized six Sunnis as they left prayer services at mosques and
burned them alive with kerosene in an attack in the mostly Shia
neighborhood of Hurriyah.

Iraqi soldiers at a nearby army post failed to intervene in the assault
by suspected members of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia or subsequent
attacks that killed at least 19 other Sunnis, including women and
children, in the same neighborhood, said police Capt. Jamil Hussein.

In recent months, most of the thousands of dead bodies that have been
found dumped across Baghdad and other cities in central Iraq have been of
victims who were tortured and then shot to death, according to police.

The suspected militia killers often have used electric drills on their
captives' bodies before killing them. The bodies are frequently
decapitated. But burning victims alive introduced a new method of
brutality that was likely to be reciprocated by the other sect as the
Shiites and Sunnis continue killing one another in unprecedented numbers.

Friday's gruesome attack capped a day during which at least 87 people
were killed or found dead in sectarian violence across Iraq. In Hurriyah,
the rampaging militiamen also burned and blew up four mosques and torched
several homes in the district, Hussein said.

The chaos cast a shadow over the Amman, Jordan, summit next week between
Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. President George W. Bush.

Politicians loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
have threatened to boycott parliament and the Cabinet if al-Maliki goes
ahead with the meeting. The political bloc, known as Sadrists, is a
mainstay of support for al-Maliki. The Mahdi Army is the organization's
armed wing.

For a second day Saturday, funeral processions were held in Sadr City for
the victims of Thursday's deadly attack by Sunni insurgents there. An
official from al-Sadr's main office in Sadr City visited hospitals
treating some of the 257 people who were wounded in the attack, and he
gave them small donations of cash in envelopes.

Visiting tents that have been set up in Sadr City for families conducting
funerals, the official, Ibrahim al-Jabiri, sharply criticized Iraq's
government and its forces for failing to stop such attacks.

During three of the coalition raids that took place north of Baghdad on
Saturday morning, soldiers killed 10 insurgents near the city of Taji,
which is 12 miles north of Baghdad and home to a major U.S. air base. An
Iraqi teenage boy also was killed and a pregnant Iraqi woman was wounded
in the crossfire, the military said.

U.S. aircraft were called in to destroy a factory being used to make
roadside bombs, and soldiers searching the area also found hidden caches
of rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, anti-aircraft weapons and
pipe bombs.

Many U.S. soldiers are killed and wounded in Iraq by powerful roadside
bombs used by insurgents.

"Coalition forces strive to mitigate risks to civilians while in pursuit
of terrorists. It is always a shame when terrorists hide among civilian
women and children, putting them in harm's way," the U.S. military said.

In another area north of Baghdad, coalition forces attacked three
vehicles carrying 12 insurgents, including one they were searching for
because he allegedly was involved in the manufacture of car bombs, the
coalition said. The soldiers opened fire on the cars when they ignored
warning shots, and all the militants were killed, the military said.

No soldiers or civilians were wounded during that operation. The
coalition declined to give its exact location.

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Learn Chinese online - International lawyers file suit against Rumsfeld

WORLD / America

International lawyers file suit against Rumsfeld

(AFP)
Updated: 2006-11-15 09:20

BERLIN - An international grouping of lawyers filed a lawsuit calling on
German prosecutors to investigate outgoing US Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld for allegedly sanctioning torture.

An international grouping of lawyers filed a lawsuit calling on German
prosecutors to investigate outgoing US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
pictured August 2006, for allegedly sanctioning torture.[AFP]

The 220-page suit is being brought on behalf of 11 former Iraqi detainees
of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad and one Saudi currently
held at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The suit was filed to Germany's federal prosecutor Monika Harms at her
offices in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe.

German law allows the pursuit of warcrimes cases regardless of where they
originate in the world.

A Pentagon spokesman dismissed the lawsuit as "frivolous."

A similar attempt to prosecute Rumsfeld in Germany in 2004 was rejected,
but the German lawyer representing the detainees, Wolfgang Kaleck, said
he was confident the complaint would be taken up now.

"We failed two years ago because there was an ongoing investigation in
the United States, but it is now clear that there is no chance of
prosecuting high-ranking officials in the US," Kaleck told a press
conference in Berlin called to present the complaint.

"We are not expecting that Rumsfeld will appear in a court, but we are
hoping investigators will begin looking into the case," he said.

1 2

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Chinese Mandarin - EU to challenge high India tariffs

WORLD / Wall Street Journal Exclusive

EU to challenge high India tariffs

By PETER WONACOTT,JOHN W. MILLER
Updated: 2006-11-10 16:17

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116310727079418953-x1L7NI4MDN4FBLitn
rkAxUKmeqY_20061116.html

The European Union is set to launch a formal complaint against India at
the World Trade Organization over high import tariffs on wine and
spirits, a move that would mark the first time the EU has taken on
India's tariff barriers at the WTO.

The EU move follows the collapse this summer of global trade talks and
shows how the EU and the US appear ready to challenge India's high import
tariffs on their own -- even at the risk of pushing the countries into a
more confrontational era of trade. The US already is pressing India on a
number of trade issues, including barriers to retail investment and
quirky health and environmental standards that effectively block certain
imports, such as big-engine Harley Davidson motorcycles.

The complaint would be the EU's first case of any kind filed against
India at the Geneva trading arbiter since 2003. Yesterday, EU and WTO
officials described a filing date as "very close," perhaps within days,
but wouldn't offer further specifics. If India is found to have violated
trade rules, the WTO can order it to cut its tariffs.

With global trade talks suspended, the EU's biggest trade goal now is
prying open rapidly growing emerging markets like India, China and
Brazil. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson is in China this week
lobbying for the Asian giant to open up more markets for EU companies,
especially in high-value sectors such as banking and cars. The EU also is
negotiating a trade deal with a group of Latin American countries that
includes Brazil.

Decades of socialism have shouldered India with a difficult business
environment, leaving it a laggard in world trade. India's relatively
closed markets have, for years, deterred foreign investors, while
bureaucracy and pervasive corruption have stymied those companies that do
come. India drew just $6 billion in foreign direct investment last year,
or about one-tenth what China attracted. In September, the World Bank
ranked India 134th out of 175 locales in difficulty of setting up or
operating a business.

The EU's trade with India amounted to ��0 billion ($51 billion) of goods
and services last year, with exports to India accounting for less than 2%
of the EU total. By comparison, trade between the 25-nation bloc and
China totaled ��09.7 billion last year. India and the EU agreed at a
summit in Helsinki last month to try for a bilateral trade treaty by
early 2009. Mr. Mandelson is traveling to India next week.

He will again bring up wine. India ranks second in world population, at
one billion, but 89th in buying bottled wine from the EU, at ��.4 million
last year, a mere drop in the EU's overall ��1.5 billion in total
bottled-wine exports, according to Global Trade Information Services.

India bought ��8.6 million of Scotch whiskey in 2005, says David
Williamson of the Scotch Whiskey Association, based in Edinburgh,
Scotland. "That's less than 1% of a 100 million-case spirit market [in
India], so you can see a huge potential," Mr. Williamson said.
Scotch-whisky exports to China totaled ��8.3 million in 2005.

"We've been lobbying for years, but India has remained essentially
closed," says Lisa McCooey of the European Spirits Organization. The
organization asked the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to
investigate the Indian market in July 2005.

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Learn Mandarin online - Abe's remedy to spur Japan: Open up more

WORLD / Wall Street Journal Exclusive

Abe's remedy to spur Japan: Open up more

By SEBASTIAN MOFFETT (WSJ)
Updated: 2006-11-02 11:48

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116236736959010024-Avts_90ggQT7B4K0X
_xRvH42EfU_20061108.html?mod=regionallinks

TOKYO -- Japan's new prime minister has an ambitious plan for spurring
the economy and helping the country forge a place for itself in the
hothouse of East Asia. He wants Japan to throw off its reputation as an
island nation that shies away from international affairs and shuns
foreigners and their businesses, and instead open up to the world.

Shinzo Abe, who in September became leader of the world's second-largest
economy, took over a country that has recovered from a decade-plus slump
but still faces long-term problems. With the population declining, there
are progressively fewer Japanese to produce and consume, making it
increasingly harder for the economy to expand. That trend might
eventually lead to lower standards of living and a decline in
international influence.

Meanwhile, relations with Japan's neighbors have been tetchy, raising
questions about the security of a nation that has thrived for 60 years by
spending relatively little on its military. Japan disputes some maritime
gas fields with China, which has increased military spending and whose
economy could be bigger than Japan's in a decade or two. Staunchly
anti-Japanese North Korea recently tested missiles and then a nuclear
device.

Mr. Abe has been giving a series of interviews with foreign media this
week. Talking to The Wall Street Journal, he outlined his broad solution
for Japan's myriad problems: greater openness and a more active role in
international affairs. That would be a major change for Japan, which
thrived after World War II by shying away from international affairs and
promoting exports while restricting imports.

"It's been over 60 years since the war, and 60 years marks one
generation," said Mr. Abe, who at 52 is Japan's youngest leader since the
war and the first to have been born after the war. "I'd like to start
working on creating a new nation, looking at the next 60 to 100 years."

Mr. Abe scored high marks in his first month in office, swiftly visiting
Beijing and Seoul to mend chilly political relations. It isn't clear yet
whether Mr. Abe will succeed in his economic mission. His plans are still
vague and in their early stages. What is more, Mr. Abe is taking over at
a time when there are few short-term economic problems, which may make
the longer-term issues appear less pressing.

One reason for the need to open up is Japan's national debt, which is
equivalent to 175% of gross domestic product -- compared with 64% for the
U.S. The cost of servicing this debt is pushing the total even higher. An
expanding economy could generate higher tax revenue, but with fewer
people working and paying taxes as the population shrinks, the only
solution is to make each person more productive.

"There can be no rebuilding of national finances without growth," Mr. Abe
said. "That's why we need more innovation and openness to raise
productivity, and increase tax revenues."

Among Mr. Abe's plans is to bring more foreign companies to Japan to help
boost growth. Japan's foreign direct investment was equivalent to just 1%
of GDP in 2003, compared with 25% for the U.S. and 43% for France. Mr.
Abe said he plans to look at regulations that might make it difficult for
foreign businesses to set up in Japan, and at the current system of
regulating mergers and acquisitions.

On China, Mr. Abe said he hopes the countries can embark on energy
projects together. The two countries dispute some islands in the East
China Sea, which Japan calls the Senkaku and China the Diaoyu. These are
close to gas fields that both countries want to develop. "Japan and China
are both energy importers," Mr. Abe said. "So it would be best if,
instead of trying to take energy off each other, they cooperated."

He also said a free-trade agreement with China was "within my field of
vision" -- though a condition would be for China to better protect
intellectual-property rights.

Mr. Abe already has set up some original cabinet portfolios that he hopes
will help flesh out his vision. He appointed a minister in charge of
"innovation" and put the economy minister in charge of "second chance"
programs: Mr. Abe thinks Japanese entrepreneurs should be encouraged to
pick themselves up and learn from their mistakes as they can in the U.S.
In Japan, failure tends to be seen as shameful and marks a businessman as
someone not to be trusted again with venture capital. Mr. Abe also wants
more Japanese to be able to take a midcareer break to go to graduate
school.

"I want to give people chances at different ages," he said. "That will
revitalize Japan."

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Learn Mandarin online - All quiet on China's northeastern front

CHINA / China

All quiet on China's northeastern front

By Wu Yong (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-19 07:08

DANDONG, Liaoning Province: Any change?

No, except the Yalu River is getting cooler by the day.

A group of DPRK residents fix tiles on the roof of a house yesterday
across the Yalu River. [China Daily]
The response by 61-year-old retiree Chen Yicheng, who swims regularly
along with his friends in the river, seemed to sum up the mood in this
northeastern town on the border of the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea (DPRK).

Despite intense media coverage since the DPRK conducted a nuclear test
last week, the contingent of foreign and domestic journalists in town,
reports of sanctions and rumours of a chill in bilateral relations, life
seems to be going on as normal although the test site is less than 150
kilometres away.

Yesterday, tourists were strolling along the riverside avenue and riding
on boats, swimmers were frolicking in the river before it gets too cold,
and cargo trucks were rumbling across the Friendship Bridge that spans
the Yalu River which marks the border between China and the DPRK.

Outside the city, in places where the river narrows and the distance
between the two countries is literally a stone's throw, a fence is being
erected.

Locals say the fence cement pillars about 2 metres high strung together
with barbed wire has been recently completed but there was no visible
security presence and few signs of tension.

A PLA officer said the fence was erected to prevent people and livestock
from crossing the border by mistake; and Lu Chao, with the Liaoning
Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said work on building the fence
began in the early 1990s.

Dandong faces the DPRK city of Sinuiju across the river, and handles more
then 80 per cent of China's trade with the DPRK. About 50,000 people, or
more than a fifth of its population, are engaged in trade and related
sectors.

At the checkpoint, officials checked drivers' papers closely and opened
trucks to look inside. "Inspections by Customs have been stricter since
last week," said Lu.

Wang Xin, an iron ore trader from Dalian, told China Daily that
inspections are taking longer than usual "but we keep doing our business
as before."

She was waiting in a long line for clearance from Customs, which
reportedly handles around 250 trucks a day.

But a businessman surnamed Jin from Shenyang said he had put on hold a
plan to open a toy factory in the DPRK. He emphasized that he would
maintain an office there and wait for the situation to change. "I will go
back if things return to normal."

Across the river, life seemed unchanged, too. A group of villagers were
seen fixing tiles on one of their homes.

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