China’s trade surplus reaches record high

BEIJING, Jan 11: China’s trade surplus soared to a record USD 262.2 billion last year, up 47.7 per cent jump over the previous year, the General Administration of Customs said.

The trade surplus however eased a little in the fourth quarter in 2007 with imports catching and exports slowing down, the administration said, according to Xinhua news agency.

China’s ballooning trade surplus has been a matter of concern for the US and the European Union, who fault Beijing for keeping the value of its currency, Yuan, artificially low giving an unfair advantage to its exporters.

Worried over the trend, China’s major trade partners have been exerting more and more pressure on Beijing to let Yuan appreciate quickly but China has said it would do so gradually.

The trade surplus growth was 69.4 per cent for the first three quarters of 2007 as against up to 75 per cent in 2006. In 2007, export rose 25.7 per cent to USD 1.22 trillion and import climbed 20.8 per cent to USD 955.8 billion, it said.

The export growth was 1.5 percentage points lower than in 2006, while the import growth posted a gain of 0.9 percentage points.

The December trade surplus was USD 22.69 billion, down 14.2 per cent from the previous month.

The total foreign trade hit a new high of USD 2.1 trillion last year, up 23.5 per cent from 2006, according to the administration. (PTI)

Ban Ki-Moon for extending mandate of UN mission in Nepal

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 11: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has proposed extending the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) for another six months so that it can continue to support the country’s peace process and help conduct the key Constituent Assembly polls.

In his latest report to the Security Council, Ban stated that the mission should maintain its existing staff strength in the Himalayan nation.

An agreement signed last month between the Nepal Government and the Maoists on key issues of the country’s transition to peace paved the way for holding of the twice postponed Constituent Assembly election by mid-April.

Once elected, the Assembly will draft a new constitution for Nepal, where an estimated 13,000 people were killed during the decade-long civil conflict that formally ended when the Government and Maoists signed a peace accord in 2006.

Ban advised against any downsizing of the UN’s presence in the country, stressing that it could endanger prospects for a successful election in the newly agreed time frame.

"The deployment of international personnel to the regions and districts of Nepal has consistently been regarded as a key factor in creating a free and fair atmosphere for the election," he said.

"Not only is such an atmosphere required in the last stages of the electoral process but it also needs to be established with urgency for a successful election by April 12," he adds.

Welcoming the decision by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) to rejoin the interim Government, Ban warned that "the remaining political challenges, which could negatively affect the electoral calendar, should not be underestimated."

Among these is the need to respond to the concerns of traditionally marginalised groups, he said.

In addition, he notes that it will be difficult to ensure a credible and fair election unless the state can provide security to its citizens during the election period.

"The Interim Government and the Seven-Party Alliance must give law and order a very high priority," he said.

Along with electoral assistance, UNMIN is also tasked with monitoring the arms and armies of the Maoists and the Nepal Army, who are confined to cantonments and barracks in the lead-up to the election.

In that regard, the second phase of registration and verification of Maoist army personnel was completed on December 23, Ban stated, adding that the next step will be to release and reintegrate the "unqualified" personnel. (PTI)

One in five New York adults put themselves at HIV risk

NEW YORK, Jan 11: One in five adults in New York are putting themselves at risk of HIV by having sex with multiple partners or using needles to inject drugs, a study by the US Health Department stated.

Around 92 per cent of them do not think they are at risk, the study found.

The survey also found that out of the people with multiple sex partners, almost 60 per cent put themselves at risk by not always using condoms.

Compared to the national data, sexual risk-taking appears to be more common among New York City adults, but injection drug use appears to be roughly the same.

The findings highlight common misperceptions about HIV and underscore the importance of education and routine HIV testing.

"Far too many people are in danger of contracting HIV through risky behaviour," Dr Thomas R Frieden, Health Commissioner for New York City, said.

"Reducing the number of sex partners and protecting yourself and your partners by consistently using condoms will help you stay safe. We should all know our HIV status, regardless of whether we think we're at risk and health care providers should offer this test to their patients," he said.

The study, whose lead author is Trang Nguyen, is the first in a US to use a citywide survey of blood samples to estimate HIV prevalence.

The findings suggest that approximately 1.4 per cent of New York City adults are infected with HIV, about the same proportion that past studies have obtained by pooling case reports from hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices.

The rate of those infected by HIV in New York City is nearly four times the national rate (0.37 per cent) and is a likely reflection of a larger population of ethnic minorities and men who have sex with men, the study found.

Keeping with past surveys, the new study found an especially large HIV burden among men who have sex with other men. Their infection rate was 14 per cent, approximately 38 times the citywide average.

Black and Hispanic New Yorkers have long been disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic. Indeed, this survey showed that rates of HIV are nearly six times higher among black New Yorkers than white New Yorkers (3.3 versus 0.6 per cent), a trend that has been documented through other surveillance methods since the early 1980s.

The HIV rate among Hispanic New Yorkers (1.3 per cent) was more than twice that of whites. While HIV infection due to injection drug use has declined in New York City since the 1990s, the new study suggests the disease is still common among needle users, 21 per cent of whom have tested positive for HIV.

"If you are using drugs, get help to stop," added Frieden. "But protect yourself until you stop by not sharing equipment."

To reduce risky sexual behaviour, the Health Department is planning an educational campaign targeting men who have sex with men. The agency also distributes more than three million branded NYC condoms each month.

To reduce transmission among drug users, the US Health Department sponsors needle-exchange programmes in several boroughs, helps health care providers get their patients off drugs, and contracts with service organisations to provide treatment for addiction. (PTI)

UK, France discuss nuclear fusion

LONDON, Jan 11: Top British and French nuclear companies are in "advanced talks" to build a consortium to construct a new generation of reactors in the UK.

The British government has approved a new generation of nuclear power stations in the country. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has endorsed his predecessor Tony Blair's support for kick-starting Britain's nuclear energy programme, against a backdrop of soaring oil prices, which last week hit 100 dollars a barrel.

Though no official announcement has been made on the number of new reactors to be constructed, there is speculation it could be up to 10, replacing many of Britain's existing 10 reactors which are being decommissioned over the next decade.

British Energy and EDF that is 80 per cent-owned by the French state, may be joined by Centrica, which is considering taking an equity stake in the group in what would be a new direction for the owner of British Gas.

There has been concerns that financing costs, a lack of skilled engineers, and planning problems would undermine the British government's wish to have the first new plant in operation by 2017.

Bill Coley, chief executive of British Energy that runs eight UK nuclear stations, was reported as saying by the Daily Mail newspaper that he hoped to unveil his consortium in March. Pierre Gadonneix, EDF's chief executive, disclosed that his company was in "quite advanced talks" with British Energy.

However, Tony Ward, energy expert at management consultants Ernst & Young, said companies may struggle to attract investment in nuclear power plants because other nations have already tapped such funds.

"There is great competition for resources, components and capital - the UK will need to work hard to remain an attractive option," he said. There are 30 reactors under construction around the world, and more than 90 at the planning stage. (PTI)

Cellphone obsession leads children into a 'scary world

TOKYO, Jan 11: Young Japanese people are evolving a new lifestyle for the 21st century based on the cellphones that few are now able to live without.

While about one-third of Japanese primary school students aged 7-12 years old use cellphones, by the time they get to high school that figure has shot up to 96 per cent, according to a government survey released last month.

They are using their phones to read books, listen to music, chat with friends and surf the Internet -- an average of 124 minutes a day for high school girls and 92 minutes for boys.

While the wired world they now inhabit holds enormous advantages for learning and communicating, it also brings a downside, say experts who point to a rise in cyberbullying and a growing inability among teenagers to deal with other people face to face.

"Kids say what's most important to them, next to their own lives, is their cellphone," said Masashi Yasukawa, head of the private National Web Counselling Council.

"They are moving their thumbs while eating or watching television," he said.

The passion in 20-year-old Ayumi Chiba's voice backs up this assertion.

"My life is impossible without it," she says of her cellphone. "I used to pretend I was sick and leave school early when I forgot to take it with me."

Hideki Nakagawa, a sociology professor at Nihon University in Tokyo, said cellphones have become "an obsession" for youngsters. (AGENCIES)

Japanese electronics giants take on "e-waste"

LAS VEGAS, Jan 11: Electronics titans at the world's largest consumer electronics trade show united to combat "e-waste" as the deadline nears for US residents to replace analog televisions with digital models.

Mountains of old television sets are expected to be discarded in the gargantuan US electronics market due to a government-imposed shift to digital television broadcasting in 2009.

The looming deadline and a drive to show that gadgets don't have to harm nature inspired Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba to form the Electronics Manufacturers Recycling Management Company (EMRM).

"We at Panasonic are very concerned that the US is only a year away from transition to all-digital TV," Yoshi Yamada, chairman of Panasonic of North American, said at the Consumer Electronics Show that ended yesterday.

"Forming a company to recycle is the best way to develop economies of scale and create a usable and sustainable recycling system for electronics. EMRM has tremendous potential to make a substantial difference."

Panasonic heads the joint venture, which will manage recycling programs in the United States.

"We have a responsibility of dealing with end-of-life analog electronics," said Panasonic chief operating officer Joseph Taylor.

EMRM claims agreements with more than a slew of electronics makers including Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Philips, Sanyo and Pioneer.

The joint venture will start with programs that meet "take-back" laws requiring companies that sell gear to help recycle the stuff. (AGENCIES)

Indo-Canadians celebrate World Hindi Day

OTTAWA, Jan 11: Indo-Canadians celebrated World Hindi Day and praised role played by Bollywood, the Mumbai-based film industry, in promoting, popularising and projecting the language globally.

The Indo-Canadians said that Bollywood was playing a vital role in the growth of Hindi among the people of Indian origin, particularly among the younger generation and in maintaining and strengthening Indian heritage.

In his opening speech yesterday, R L Narayan, the High Commissioner for India in Canada said that India was committed that Hindi should be made an official language of the United Nations and get its due place in the international community.

Narayan read out the message of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the World Hindi Diwas and said that these days over one and a half billion people across the world speak in Hindi.

He said the Indian government takes measures to popularise the language which is among the three most widely spoken languages of the world.

Narayan said that the government has taken a number of steps for development of Hindi as a medium of expression and its use in the areas of science and technology, communications and IT. Y

Children of the Mukul Hindi School recited poems of famous Hindi poets and poets meet (Kavi Sammelan) was also organised to mark the occasion.

A number of poets including Jag Mohan Kumar entertained the audience. On January 10, 1975 the first world Hindi conference was held in Nagpur under the auspices of Rashtra Bhasa Prachar Samiti, Wardha. (PTI)

Detained Hindraf leaders to know their fate on Monday

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11: Five ethnic Indian leaders, detained by the Malaysian authorities for spearheading a massive anti-government protests under the draconian Internal Security Act, will know their fate when they face a top advisory board on Monday.

Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leaders P Uthayakumar, V Ganabathirau, T Vasanthakumar and lawyers R Kenghadharan and M Manoharan were detained on December 13 last year on the grounds that they were posing a threat to national security.

They are currently held at a detention centre in Taiping. Under the ISA, they can be held for two years without trial.

Hindraf organised a rally of ethnic Indians on November 25 which saw more than 20,000 members of the minority community assemble to protest against alleged marginalisation, a charge denied by Malaysia.

Karpal Singh, who is the lead lawyer for four of them, said yesterday that the five men would appear before the three-member ISA advisory board, chaired by a judge.

"The board will hear their representation and defence and give its recommendations to the King," the New Straits Times said quoting Singh.

The detainees would be represented by their lawyers at the closed-door meeting.

Gobind Singh Deo is appearing for R Kenghadharan while the others will be represented by Karpal Singh, A Sivanesan and M Kulasegaran.

Singh said the board could give its recommendations to the King to release the Hindraf members. (PTI)

Weinstein Co may make a deal with striking Hollywood writers...

LOS ANGELES, Jan 11: The Weinstein Co, one of Hollywood's largest independent filmmakers, said it expects to reach a deal with striking Hollywood writers that would allow the company to resume production.

The company was anticipating that an interim agreement with the Writers Guild of America would be signed yesterday or today, Weinstein Co spokesman Matthew Frankel said.

The writers guild did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers also did not immediately respond for a request for comment.

The deal with Weinstein would be the second reached with big-screen producers. United Artists made an agreement with the guild Monday to resume production.

The union has also agreed to a deal with Worldwide Pants, the company that makes David Letterman's late-night TV show.

Terms of the Weinstein deal were not released. But a person familiar with the agreement, speaking on condition of anonymity because it had yet to be completed, said it was similar to the interim deal reached by Worldwide Pants.

A central demand has been compensation for projects distributed on the Internet. Contract talks broke off on December seven.

The studio alliance has downplayed the significance of the United Artists agreement and said "one-off deals" would not lead to a permanent solution of the labor dispute. (AGENCIES)

Romney attacks McCain at US republican debate ....

MYRTLE BEACH, SC, Jan 11: US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney attempted to slow the momentum of rival John McCain in a high-stakes debate that focused on the faltering US economy.

McCain got a boost in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination from his victory in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. The Arizona senator hopes momentum from that win will propel him to victory next Tuesday in Michigan and in South Carolina on January 19. He leads the polls among Republicans in both states.

Many political experts believe Romney needs to win in his birth state of Michigan to remain viable as a candidate. He accused McCain of giving up on people who have lost jobs in the state, which is struggling economically.

The exchanges between Romney and McCain highlighted the debate that also included former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

''I know that there are some people who think, as Sen. McCain did, he said, you know, some jobs are leaving Michigan and they're not coming back. I disagree. I'm going to fight for every single job, Michigan, South Carolina, every state in this country,'' said Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts whose father served as governor

of Michigan in the 1960s.

McCain hopes to score a knock-out punch against Romney in Michigan, the home of the major American automakers, and refused to back down at the Fox News Channel debate. But he still faces strong competition from Huckabee in South Carolina and potentially from Giuliani in other states yet to vote.

''There are some jobs that aren't coming back to Michigan,'' McCain said.

''There are some jobs that won't come back to South Carolina, but we're going to take care of them,'' he added, referring to the people who lost their jobs. ''That's our job, that's our obligation.''

OPEN RACE

The debate was the latest in a series aimed at helping Republican decide who will be their candidate to face the Democratic choice in the November election to succeed President George W Bush. The party has not seen such an open race for decades and most experts believe it is still wide open.

The Republicans also sparred over the state of the US economy, but stopped short of endorsing a fiscal stimulus package to give it a boost and avert a recession. Instead they urged the Bush administration's tax cuts be made permanent.

Iran was the subject of some red-meat rhetoric, days after a confrontation in the Straits of Hormuz between US ships and Iranian gunboats.

Huckabee warned the Iranians were in danger of seeing ''the gates of Hell'' should they threaten US ships again.

Romney vowed to bring ''change'' to the United States. His use of that word echoed a key theme of Democratic candidate Barack Obama, who won the endorsement yesterday of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 nominee.

Kerry opted for Obama, a freshman Illinois senator, over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, the New York senator who would be the first woman US president and whose win in New Hampshire helped her rebound from a loss to Obama in Iowa.

Romney suggested that McCain was part of the problem in Washington. McCain, 71, would be the oldest person elected to a first U.S. Presidential term.

''So I'm convinced that you're going to see the people say across this country that if you send the same people back to Washington to just sit in different chairs, nothing will happen. My whole life has been about bringing change to the things I've done,'' Romney said citing his work in the business world.

McCain defended his service, saying he brought change to Iraq by supporting Bush's troop build-up there, a hotly debated move a year ago that is credited with reducing violence there.

''I've been involved in one of the most important changes we could have made and that was reverse a losing strategy in Iraq,'' he said.

(AGENCIES)

US labels Kurdish PKK affiliate terrorist group ....

WASHINGTON, Jan 11: The United States said it had designated the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a group linked to PKK Kurdish militants, a terrorist group, subjecting it to US financial sanctions.

The US State Department yesterday said TAK is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) and was responsible for multiple terrorist attacks in Turkey.

''With this designation, the United States reaffirms its commitment to fight terrorism in cooperation with its NATO ally, Turkey,'' State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.

The United States and European Union, like Turkey, classify the PKK as a terrorist organization.

Turkey, which has been waging an aerial bombing campaign against PKK positions in northern Iraq, blames the rebels for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since 1984 when the PKK took up arms to fight for an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey.

''The United States will continue to work with Turkey, Iraq, and the rest of Europe against the PKK and its support networks and affiliates, such as the TAK,'' the State Department spokesman said. ''There must be no safe havens for such terrorists.''

During a White House visit by Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Tuesday, President George W Bush said the United States would continue to help Turkey fight Kurdish guerrillas along its border with Iraq but also urged Ankara to find a long-term political solution to the problem.

(AGENCIES)

Shouting Macaw scares off burglar at US pet store ...

BOSTON, Jan 11: Watch dogs are a pretty common first line of security for US homes and businesses. Watch birds not so much.

But that didn't stop Merlin, a seven-year-old blue-and-gold macaw who scared off a burglar at a Massachusetts pet store this week. Intruders smashed the front window of Pet Palace in Leominster, about 45 miles (72 km) west of Boston, and as they entered the store the bird began to shout, said store manager Lori Oltman yesterday.

''When he hears someone come into the building, or the puppies get riled up or whatever, he'll start calling for Rhonda, who is the woman who used to own him,'' Oltman said. ''He was screaming for Rhonda and they weren't aware that it was a bird and not a person. And so they took flight rather quickly.''

Macaws are a variety of parrot, a highly intelligent group of birds known for their ability to reproduce human speech.

Oltman said police figured out what happened when they arrived and heard the bird screaming in the back room. She said the burglar escaped with just 15 dollars in change.

It was not the first time the bird's voice confused a person, she said.

''He has some really colorful language, so he spends a lot of time in the back of the store,'' Oltman said. ''And you really can't tell that it's a bird. He sounds just like a person when he talks, a lot of times people are fooled by that.'' (AGENCIES)