China's president welcomes Putin's victory
Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday congratulated Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on his election to the country's presidency. In his congratulatory message, President Hu said the Russians have made tremendous progress in promoting national stability and development in the new century, adding that he believed they would make even more promising achievements in the great cause of building a strong and prosperous Russia. China and Russia are friendly neighbors and enjoy a comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation, Hu said.He also said consolidating the China-Russia friendship, expanding cooperation for mutual benefit, and deepening strategic coordination are vital to promote their common development and revival, and preserve regional and world peace and stability.China would like to join Russia in implementing the 10-year blueprint for the development of bilateral ties, as well as other cooperation agreements so as to further promote their strategic partnership to even higher levels, he said.
Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday congratulated Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on his election to the country's presidency. In his congratulatory message, President Hu said the Russians have made tremendous progress in promoting national stability and development in the new century, adding that he believed they would make even more promising achievements in the great cause of building a strong and prosperous Russia. China and Russia are friendly neighbors and enjoy a comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation, Hu said.He also said consolidating the China-Russia friendship, expanding cooperation for mutual benefit, and deepening strategic coordination are vital to promote their common development and revival, and preserve regional and world peace and stability.China would like to join Russia in implementing the 10-year blueprint for the development of bilateral ties, as well as other cooperation agreements so as to further promote their strategic partnership to even higher levels, he said.
China lowers its growth expectations
China has lowered its growth target for 2012 to 7.5 percent, down from the 8 percent target set for the previous eight years, according to a government work report. The move is seen both as a shift in focus onto quality over speed of economic expansion, and a reaction to falling exports in the face of economic troubles in the EU and the United States. Premier Wen Jiabaomade the announcement upon opening the National People's Congress, or China’s parliament, on Monday.
While having experienced double-digit growth since the 1980s, China is now becoming constrained by the lessening availability of natural resources and cheap labor and resultant environmental degradation. In announcing China’s 12th Five Year Plan last year, Wen set a target of 7 percent annual growth for the period 2011-2015. The plan detailed actions for shifting the Chinese economy towards domestic consumption and away from export-led growth. Premier Wen also announced China’s aim to rein this year's consumer price growth to around 4 percent for 2012. China’s monetary policy in 2011 was dominated by the need to contain rising prices, with inflation at 5.4 percent for the year. Controlling inflation is a priority for Beijing, as unchecked rising prices – especially for food – can put a strain on poorer families and may instigate social unrest.
Earthequake shakes Indian capital
An earthquake measuring 4.9 magnitude on the Richter scale jolted the Indian capital and its surrounding areas Monday afternoon, but no casualties have been reported. The epicenter of the quake, which was felt throughout the capital region and some northern Indian states, was near Bahadurgarh town at the Haryana-Delhi border region, just 35 km from New Delhi, said Indian Meteorological Department. A school boundary wall in the Mayna village of Rohtak district of Punjab collapsed during the 15-second tremor, according to Indo- Asian News Service. Residents and office staff were seen running out of houses during the quake. On Sept. 8, 2011, a quake measuring 4.2 magnitude shook the Indian capital at 11:28 p.m. with its epicenter located at Sonipat in Haryana state.
Seoul mismisses North Korean criticism
South Korea's Defense Ministry on Monday dismissed the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s criticism of South Korea over the weekend, saying it's "not worth" a response. The DPRK state media on Sunday broadcast footage of a rally that brought together 150,000 DPRK people, including key government and military officials in protest at a poster at South Korean military barracks that insulted the late DPRK leader Kim Jong Il and his son. The DPRK condemned the poster, saying it amounts to "defamation of the supreme dignity" of its leadership. "We believe it's not worth responding to," Seoul's Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said at a briefing in response to the denunciation from the DPRK, calling it "inappropriate". Seoul's Unification Ministry, tasked with overseeing cross-border relations, said the DPRK should end its repeated slanders of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak first. "It's meaningless and inappropriate for North Korea (the DPRK) to find faults with internal matters of our military," spokesman Kim Hyung-Suk told a briefing. The latest tension between the estranged neighbors comes after the DPRK struck a deal with the United States in which it will suspend its nuclear tests and uranium enrichment in return for food aid.
Another bomb attack kills 1 leaves 12 injured in Afghanistan
At least one person was killed and 12 others were injured Monday afternoon when a suicide bombing rocked Jalalabad city, the provincial capital of eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, a local official said. "The report we have so far received from hospitals in Jalalabad city is that one person was killed and 12 others were injured in the suicide attack," a spokesman for the provincial government Ahmad Zia Abdulzai told Xinhua. He said the bomber targeted a unit of Afghan Nationl Police but failed to give more details whether any civilian were killed or injured in the attack, only saying "some civilians were among the injured but details will be released later." According to a report by private TV channel Tolo News, a suicide bomber targeted a police vehicle parking before the building of provincial national television and radio department at around 03:30 p.m. local time. The bomber who was killed right on the spot, blew his explosive materials up near a police vehicle, in the area where the provincial governor office is also located, according to local media. The insurgency-hit Afghanistan has been experiencing roadside bombings and suicide attacks over the past couple of years.
Myanmar and Thailand implements new measures to fight drug production
Myanmar and Thailand will jointly implement a poppy-substitute development project in Tachileik and Monghsat of Myanmar's Shan state, official media reported Monday. A Myanmar delegation and a Thai drug control team as well as Thailand's Mae Fah Luong Foundation group held a central level meeting in Tachileik in the weekend on the move. Before the meeting, Secretary of Myanmar's Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control and Police Chief Major-General Kyaw Kyaw Tun had crossed over to Chiang Rai district, Thailand from Tachileik to study the Doi Tung poppy-substitute development project which covers macadamia plantations, coffee factory, pulp industry, weaving industry and ceramic industry. Thailand remains one of the neighboring countries with which Myanmar is cooperating in fight against drug. According to the anti-drug authorities, Myanmar destroyed a total of 22,432 hectares of illicit poppy plantations across the country during the poppy cultivation season between September 2011 and February 2012. The spoiled poppy plantations included those in some nine townships in Shan state. Myanmar has been implementing a 15-year plan (1999-2014) to totally eradicate poppy in three phases, each running for five years. Now, the country has entered the third year of its final five-year phase.
Another Indian fighter plane crashes
Another Indian Air Force's Mirage 2000 fighter jet Monday crashed in the western state of Rajasthan, the second in 11 days, said military sources. "The fighter jet crashed near Baman Baas village in the state's Sawai Madhopur district, soon after it took off from Gwalior in the central state of Madhya Pradesh on a routine sortie at 12:45 p. m.. The pilot is safe," the sources said. A Mirage-2000 aircraft had crashed on Feb. 24 near Bhind in Madhya Pradesh. India has been spending millions of U.S. dollars to renovate its aging Mirage squadron with French aviation group Dassault.
Indonesia and Cambodia boost bilateral ties
Cambodia and Indonesia vowed on Monday to boost bilateral ties in the fields of trade, investment and tourism. The commitment was made during a meeting between Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and visiting Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa. "We agreed to step up and deepen the state of our bilateral relations,"Marty told a joint press briefing after the meeting. He pledged to encourage Indonesian companies to invest in Cambodia in such sectors as agro-industry, high-tech rice mills and telecommunication. The two sides also talked about the plan to start direct flights between Indonesia and Cambodia, especially direct flights between Indonesia's Central Java province and Cambodia's Siem Reap-Angkor province to boost tourism, Hor Namhong said. According to figures of the Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia, bilateral trade between Cambodia and Indonesia stood at 180 million U.S. dollars in 2010, however, Cambodia's export turnover to Indonesia was only 4 million U.S. dollars.
Bangladesh campaigns for fair water-sharing with India
Former Bangladeshi President Hussein Muhammad Ershad's Jatiya Party, a key ally of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League-led grand alliance government, Monday campaigned on demand for just share of common Feni river water from India by leading a road march. Former military strongman Ershad, who ruled the South Asian nation for nearly nine years from 1982 to 1990, led the road march. "There has been a plot to turn southeastern part of Bangladesh into a desert," Ershad, also a member of Bangladesh parliament, told a street rally in Dhaka just before the march started at about 9:30 a.m. local time. He accused India of illegally taking control of water of the common river Feni. The river was recognized as a common river in 2005 at a meeting of the Indo-Bangladesh Joint River Commission in Dhaka. But it is often alleged from the part of the South Asian country that its neighbor India is lifting water from the river violating rules and taking advantage of no agreement to equally share the water of the trans-boundary river. At a street rally outside capital Dhaka on way to Feni, Ershad reportedly slammed advisers (with ministerial rank) to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for speaking "in favour of India". "Are these advisers citizens of Bangladesh or of India? They do not speak for Bangladesh, they speak for India. Where do they come from? We do not need these advisers," Ershad was quoted as saying in online edition of the leading English newspaper The Daily Star. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Bangladesh and his official talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in September last year were overshadowed by New Delhi's last-moment dramatic decision against signing the Teesta water- sharing treaty, the paper had earlier said in another report. Sharing a common border with India in the west, north and east and with Myanmar in the southeast, Bangladesh has disputes on sharing of waters of several rivers. The country has 57 common rivers, which discharge through Bangladesh into the Bay of Bengal in the south. Demanding equitable share of another common Teesta river water from India, Jatiya Party had earlier marched towards a barrage on Teesta river in an area bordering Lalmonirhat district, some 343 km northwest of Dhaka. Last December, the party also marched towards northeastern Sylhet region protesting against Delhi's proposed Tipaimukh project on another common river Barak in Manipur state of northeastern India. The proposed Tipaimukh Hydroelectric Project triggered huge debates among local and foreign water experts and environmentalists, who feared that the project would dry up the Surma and Kushiara rivers in eastern Bangladesh and cast adverse impact on ecology.
Opposition takes the win in local elections in Kyrgyzstan
An opposition party has won the city council election in Osh, the "southern capital" of Kyrgyzstan, preliminary election results indicated Monday. The opposition "Uluttar Birimdigi" (Unity of Nations), led by Mayor Melisbek Myrzakmatov, earned 45,475 ballots, or 47.35 percent of the vote, Saadat Mamatalieva, chairman of the local election commission, told Xinhua. The victory of Myrzakmatov's party was widely expected given his high popularity among local residents.
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