China allays 'China threat', seeks good-neighbourliness

BEIJING, Dec 29: China, whose unprecedented rise has caused global concerns, today said it would pursue a road of peaceful development and good-neighbourliness while zealously safeguarding its sovereignty and national security, especially foiling Taiwan's bid for independence.

China persists in continuing its peaceful development road, a White Paper on 'China's National Defence in 2006' issued by the Chinese cabinet said here.

China's security still faces challenges that must not be neglected, said the White Paper, the fifth of its kind issued by the Chinese government since 1998.

It says the growing interconnections between domestic and international factors and interconnected traditional and non-traditional factors have made maintaining national security a more challenging task.

The struggle to oppose and contain the separatist forces for "Taiwan independence" and their activities remains a hard one.

By pursuing a radical policy for "Taiwan independence", the Taiwan authorities aim at creating "de jure Taiwan independence" through "constitutional reform", thus still posing a grave threat to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as to peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits and in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, the White Paper says.

It says the United States has reiterated many times that it will adhere to the one-China policy and honour the three joint communiques between China and the United States.

But, the United States continues to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan, and has strengthened its military ties with Taiwan, the White Paper noted. (PTI)

UN police officers deployed in all Timor-Leste districts

NEW YORK, Dec 29: United Nations police officers have been deployed in all 12 Timor-Leste's districts to help end the low-level gang violence in the country and provide security for the electoral experts who are helping prepare for next year's polls.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Timor-Leste Atul Khare of India said the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) will work closely with the people and authorities to ensure free and credible polls.

"UNMIT has also deployed electoral experts in all the districts," he said.

Stating that the security situation has greatly improved since the deadly violence earlier this year, he conceded that much still remains to be done.

"I agree that we have to undertake many more actions to ensure that not only are there no weapons in civilian hands but that people feel, people believe, that no such weapons remain in civilian hands," he said.

The Security Council created UNMIT in August to help restore order after fighting, attributed to differences between eastern and western regions, in April and May which resulted in the deaths of at least 37 people and forced about 155,000 people out of homes.

As part of UNMIT, there are currently over 900 international police officers from 25 different countries implementing screening and mentoring programmes for the National Police force of Timor-Leste under the Police Supplemental Agreement, a deal signed at the start of this month under which the UN has full responsibility for policing. (PTI)

St George sticks to outsourcing 76 jobs to India

MELBOURNE, Dec 29: Amid raging controversy over outsourcing of jobs, Australia's leading bank, St George's Bank has said it is sticking to its decision to send 76 computer services jobs to India due to competition.

"We are competing in an environment of very strong major bank players. If we don't remain competitive, St George won't exist," bank's chief executive Gail Kelly told its shareholders at its recent annual general meeting in Sydney, a report in "Sydney Morning Herald" said today.

Earlier the Australian Finance Sector Union (FSU) had urged St. George's Bank shareholders to reject sending jobs to India. The bank had earlier this year moved over 70 jobs from Sydney to Adelaide to Bangalore.

Deloitte published a survey last year showing that 57 per cent of respondents in the financial sector are either involved, or planning to become involved, with offshoring jobs. That number was set to grow this year, the report qouted Warren Green, Deloitte's co-leader for financial services, as saying.

For those companies which send some of their operations to low-wage nations, such as India, China or the Philippines, savings can run to between 20 per cent and 40 per cent of comparable Australian costs, Green said.

In the month of November, chairman of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, John Schubert had said that the bank had evaluated sending service jobs overseas. However, its did not proceed.

Rival Westpac had said that it would send about 500 back-office jobs to India also. (PTI)

Four Indian Origin persons to be honoured

NEW YORK, Dec 29: Four persons of Indian origin will be honoured with the Pravasi Community Awards for their services to the diaspora and Indian causes at a convention in New Delhi next week.

The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) will give away the awards on January six, which coincides with Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. The four persons to be honoured are Charan Gill from Canada, George Abraham from Singapore, Nevin P Megchiani from Bahrain and Wahid Saleh from the Netherlands.

The awards will be presented by Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi. GOPIO will also induct Meghalaya Governor M.M. Jacob, Dr Karan Singh, MP and former Indian Prime Minister Inder K Gujral in his honour roll for their services to the causes of Indian communities abroad.

Gill had founded British Columbia Organization to Fight Racism and co-founded Canadian Farm Workers Union. He is President of Progressive Indo-Canadian Community Services Society.

Besides, he was the brain behind senior's housing project for senior citizens.

Abraham has served in various capacities with the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Singapore Federation of Chambers of Commerce and the ASEAN Chambers of Commerce and Industry. He is Chairman of The GA Group which organizing country-focused seminars, conferences and publications; and the Global Indian Business Network Ltd, which assists cross-border trade and investment within Singapore, India and the region.

Megchiani has been supporting various educational facilities for the benefit of the NRI community in the Gulf. He has served as Vice Chairman of the Indian School Bahrain, the first and the largest community school today with more than 6000 students. He also worked towards helping the NRI community children get admissions to top class universities.

Born in Assam, Wahid studied engineering in Kerala, Germany, and The Netherlands. He has served as a Board Member of the Netherlands-India Association, and guided the creation of the Dutch Indian Youth Association (DIYA). He has also served in numerous civic, community and cultural organizations in various executive positions.

In April 2002 Wahid was awarded the coveted Dutch honour, Ridder in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau (the Knighthood of the Order of Orange-Nassau). Saleh also authored the book, Indiawijzer-India in Nederland, a reference guide on Indian culture. (PTI)

More consultation needed to crafts new US plan in Iraq: Bush

CRAWFORD, US, Dec 29: US President George W Bush worked at his Texas ranch to design a new US policy in Iraq, then emerged after three hours of meetings to say that he and his advisers need more time to craft the plan he will announce in the new year.

Burdened by low approval ratings on his handling of the war, the US president is under mounting pressure to come up with a new blueprint for US involvement in Iraq where the execution of Saddam Hussein, perhaps as early as this weekend could incite further violence.

"We've got more consultation to do until I talk to the country about the plan," Bush said yesterday, appearing outside an office building at his ranch.

"Obviously, we'll continue to work with the Iraqi government. The key to success in Iraq is to have a government that's willing to deal with the elements there that are trying to prevent this young democracy from succeeding."

Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Gen Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stood by Bush as he made his three-minute statement on a dirt road lined with cactus, then turned away, ignoring a reporter's question about the pending execution.

He thanked US troops for their service, yet offered no hint that he was poised to send more of them to war.

"As I think about this plan, I always have our troops in mind," Bush said.

The president is considering the so-called surge option: increasing the number of troops in Iraq and embedding more US advisers in Iraqi units in hopes of quelling violence to provide a window of opportunity for political reconciliation and rebuilding. (AGENCIES)

Chinese restaurant fined for offering fake promotion.....

BEIJING, Dec 29: A restaurant in northeast China was fined USD 6,394 (50,000 yuan) for offering a fake promotion about a controversial Japanese dining tradition, Nyotaimori, the state media reported today.

The restaurant in Anshan in Liaoning Province was also ordered to suspend operations after the local public health administration found it had sanitation problems.

Waiters from the middle-scale restaurant in the city's Tiexi District sent flyers to local residents, saying they would launch the luxurious Japanese banquet, Nyotaimori, beginning next year, Xinhua news agency reported.

A picture of a naked woman lying down with food being served from her belly was on the flyer which said the banquet was priced at 4,600 yuan for a maximum of six diners, with free beer and wine.

However, the owner of the restaurant denied the banquet would take place, explaining the waiters had just wanted to attract more customers by promoting it. "We are not planning to offer such a banquet," the owner said.

Japanese men believe food, mostly sushi, sashimi and seafood, served from a naked maiden's body will be extremely fresh and pure and boost their appetite. The banquet is not seen a lot in Japan nowadays, except in a few top tourist resorts in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, the report said.

Nyotaimori was banned in China years ago when it was first introduced in a southern city in the country because it was contravention of Chinese tradition and moral standards and involved a risk to health, Xinhua said. (PTI)

China allays 'China threat', seeks good-neighbourliness..

BEIJING, Dec 29: China, whose unprecedented rise has caused global concerns, today said it would pursue a road of peaceful development and good-neighbourliness while zealously safeguarding its sovereignty and national security, especially foiling Taiwan's bid for independence.

China persists in continuing its peaceful development road, a White Paper on 'China's National Defence in 2006' issued by the Chinese cabinet said here.

China's security still faces challenges that must not be neglected, said the White Paper, the fifth of its kind issued by the Chinese government since 1998.

It says the growing interconnections between domestic and international factors and interconnected traditional and non-traditional factors have made maintaining national security a more challenging task.

The struggle to oppose and contain the separatist forces for "Taiwan independence" and their activities remains a hard one.

By pursuing a radical policy for "Taiwan independence", the Taiwan authorities aim at creating "de jure Taiwan independence" through "constitutional reform", thus still posing a grave threat to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as to peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits and in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, the White Paper says.

It says the United States has reiterated many times that it will adhere to the one-China policy and honour the three joint communiques between China and the United States.

But, the United States continues to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan, and has strengthened its military ties with Taiwan, the White Paper noted. (PTI)

Ford: Personal friendship with Nixon played role in pardon...

WASHINGTON, Dec 29: Former President Gerald R Ford acknowledged in an interview last year that his long personal friendship with Richard Nixon did indeed play a role in his decision to pardon the disgraced former president, The Washington Post reported.

"I looked upon him as my personal friend. And I always treasured our relationship. And I had no hesitancy about granting the pardon, because I felt that we had this relationship and that I didn't want to see my real friend have the stigma," Ford told Post reporter Bob Woodward, according to a story in the paper last night.

Ford's remarks, which he asked not be released until his death, add to the rationale for pardoning Nixon a month after he resigned as president in 1974. Ford had claimed that he issued the pardon to allow the nation to move past Watergate and begin a time of healing, not for personal reasons.

Nixon and Ford had been acquainted since the late 1940s, but the depth of their friendship was not widely known. Nixon confided in Ford and sought his help during the Watergate crisis when Ford was House minority leader, the Post reported.

"I think that Nixon felt I was about the only person he could really trust on the Hill," Ford told Woodward. He also called himself Nixon's "only real friend." (AGENCIES)

Egypt delivers arms to moderate Palestinians.

NEW YORK, Dec 29: After a green signal from Israel, Egypt has sent a shipment of weapons and ammunition into the Gaza Strip to forces loyal to the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, Israeli officials said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert approved the shipment Saturday in a meeting with Abbas and that four trucks with about 2,000 automatic rifles, 20,000 ammunition clips and two million bullets passed from Egypt through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, Israeli officials said.

The shipment was handed to Abbas's Presidential Guard at the Karni crossing, the International Herald Tribune reported.

Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, an Israeli cabinet minister and a former defense minister, "appeared" to confirm the transfer to Israeli Army Radio, saying that the weapons were intended to give Abbas "the capability to hold his own against those organizations that are trying to spoil everything".

That was an allusion to Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and rejects previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements that call for a permanent two-state solution

However, senior Palestinian officials denied the report, including the spokesman for Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, who called it as "Israeli propaganda aimed at aggravating the situation between Fatah and Hamas."

But the paper quoted a senior U.S. Official as saying the point of the arms shipment was not to promote civil war between Fatah and the governing Hamas movement, but to help Abbas and Fatah and "to provide deterrence and balance" in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is especially strong. (PTI)

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