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Sunday, September 9, 2012
Liberal Pre-Election Promise to Reverse More than 10 Years of ...
[unable to retrieve full-text content]... a pre-election Liberal pledge to suddenly care about affordability for British Columbians lacks all reasonable credibility," said New Democrat finance critic Bruce Ralston. ?On one hand the premier is hinting tax relief may be ...
China, Russia sound alarm on world economy at APEC summit
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) - China and Russia sounded the alarm about the state of the global economy at a summit on Saturday and urged Asian-Pacific countries to protect themselves by forging deeper regional economic ties.
Chinese President Hu Jintao said Beijing would do all it could to strengthen the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and boost prospects of a global recovery by rebalancing its economy, Asia's biggest.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said trade barriers must be smashed down. He is hosting the event on a small island linked to the Pacific port of Vladivostok by a spectacular new bridge, a symbol of Moscow's pivotal turn to Asia away from debt-stricken Europe.
"It's important to build bridges, not walls. We must continue striving for greater integration," Putin told APEC leaders seated at a round table in a room with a view of the $1 billion cable-stayed bridge, the largest of its kind.
"The global economic recovery is faltering. We can overcome the negative trends only by increasing the volume of trade in goods and services and enhancing the flow of capital."
China's Hu told business leaders before the summit the world economy was being hampered by "destabilizing factors and uncertainties" and the crisis that hit in 2008-09 was far from over. Beijing would play its role, he said, in strengthening the recovery.
"We will work to maintain the balance between keeping steady and robust growth, adjusting the economic structure and managing inflation expectations," he said.
Hu spelled out plans for China, whose economic growth has slowed as Europe's debt crisis worsened, to pump $157 billion into infrastructure investments in agriculture, energy, railways and roads. Hu, who steps down as China's leader in the autumn after a Communist Party congress, promised continuity and stability for the economy.
Putin, who has just begun a new six-year term as president, said on Friday Russia would be a stable energy supplier and a gateway to Europe for Asian countries, and also pledged to develop his country's transportation network.
Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled gas export monopoly, signed an agreement with Japan to develop plans for a $7 billion liquefied natural gas plant on Russia's Pacific coast, underscoring Moscow's eastward shift.
RUSSIA LOOKS EAST
The relative strength of China's economy, by far the largest in Asia and second in the world to the United States, is key to Russia's decision to look to the Pacific Rim as it seeks to develop its economy and Europe battles economic problems.
APEC, which includes the United States, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Canada, groups countries which account for 40 percent of the world's population, 54 percent of its economic output and 44 percent of trade.
APEC members are broadly showing relatively strong growth, but boosting trade and growth is vital for the group as it tries to remove the trade barriers that hinder investment.
"It is absolutely clear that the most important region for economic growth this decade - and probably the next decade - will be the Pacific," said Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
The European Union has been at odds with both China and Russia over trade practices it regards as limiting free competition. Cooperation in APEC is also hindered by territorial and other disputes among some of the members.
Putin, 59, limped slightly as he greeted leaders at the summit. Aides said he had merely pulled a muscle. Underlining Putin's good health, a spokesman said he had a "very active lifestyle."
Discussions at the two-day meeting focused on food security and trade liberalization. An agreement was reached before the summit to slash import duties on technologies that can promote economic growth without endangering the environment.
Breakthroughs are not expected on other trade issues at the meeting, from which U.S. President Barack Obama is absent. He has been attending the Democratic Party convention and Washington is represented by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton said after talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the U.S. government was working with Congress to pass legislation needed to upgrade trade ties with Russia, which recently joined the World Trade Organisation.
Tensions persisted between the two former Cold War foes over Iran and Syria, however, and Clinton had only a short meeting with Putin late on day one of the summit, which culminated in a lavish firework show over Vladivostok's harbor that was reported in the Russian media to have cost nearly $10 million.
Also missing the summit was Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who went home after learning her father had died.
(Additional reporting by Gleb Bryanski, Andrew Quinn, Katya Golubkova, Douglas Busvine, Denis Pinchuk and Andrey Ostroukh, Editing by Janet Lawrence, John Stonestreet)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-sounds-alarm-global-economy-apec-summit-054738092--business.html
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Saturday, September 8, 2012
China: LNG Offshore Storage and Transport ... - LNG World News
The State Energy LNG Offshore Storage and Transport Equipment Key Laboratory was unveiled in Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd. on August 24. This was China?s only State-level key laboratory for LNG offshore storage and transport equipment field.
The laboratory will closely center on the strategic need of building an innovative country and energy mix optimal upgrade and energy technology progress need, make use of existing R&D bases and conditions, dully display advantages of all aspects, by the method of combining industry, university and research strengths, conduct LNG offshore storage and transport equipment key technology breakthrough, develop and formulate relevant technical criteria, gather and nurture industrial technical innovative talents, build LNG offshore storage and transport equipment R&D, promotion and service systems, form industrial independent innovative capability, lift shipbuilding core competitiveness, pave the way for smooth implementation of the State energy strategy and provide technical support for the State to strive to become a major player and strong player in the LNG industry.
LNG World News Staff, September 07, 2012; Image: CSSC
Source: http://www.lngworldnews.com/china-lng-offshore-storage-and-transport-equipment-key-lab-unveiled/
Terror takes back seat; Americans safer now
WASHINGTON (AP) ? As Americans debate whether they are better off now than they were four years ago, there is another question with a somewhat easier answer: Are you safer now than you were when President Barack Obama took office?
By most measures, the answer is yes.
More than a decade after terrorists slammed planes into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania countryside, Americans have stopped fretting daily about a possible attack or stockpiling duct tape and water, and the slogs through airport security have become a routine irritation, not a grim foreboding.
While the threat of a terror attack has not disappeared, the combined military, intelligence, diplomatic and financial efforts to hobble al-Qaida and its affiliates have escalated over the past four years and have paid off. Top terror leaders, including Osama bin Laden, are dead and their networks in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia disrupted.
In some cases, the Obama White House simply continued or escalated programs and policies begun by the Republican administration of George W. Bush. But Obama implemented a more aggressive drone campaign to target top terror leaders, broadening efforts to help at-risk nations beef up their own defenses, and implemented plans to end the war in Iraq and bring troops out of Afghanistan.
As a result, terrorism worries have taken a back seat to the nation's economic woes.
Unlike previous elections, national security is not a big campaign issue this year. Mitt Romney made no mention of terrorism or war during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last week. Although public opposition to the war in Afghanistan has grown, it's not a top dinner table topic for most Americans.
"I would have said four years ago that the al-Qaida movement was emerging as a bigger problem, especially with the emergence of affiliates in places like Yemen and with the spike in homegrown attacks," said Phil Mudd, a senior counterterrorism official at the CIA and FBI during the Bush and Obama administrations. "But I would say today that al-Qaidaism is on the decline. By any balance, the number of places where people want to come after us has declined in the past four years."
Mudd, now a senior research fellow at the nonpartisan New America Foundation, said that while militants in other countries may still be causing problems in their own areas, they are less likely to "be sitting there saying how do we get to Los Angeles, and that's a big change."
Still, other international dangers remain. Ongoing efforts to dissuade Iran from developing nuclear capabilities have not worked. And as Israel's worries about the nuclear threat grow, the possibility of U.S. involvement in an Israeli strike against Iran has become a front-burner issue.
Defense officials are wary of China's military growth, and the U.S. intelligence community has accused the communist giant for systematically stealing American high-tech data through computer-based attacks. U.S. officials and security experts also are increasingly warning that the United States is highly vulnerable to cyberattacks ? including one that could take down the electric grid, financial networks or energy plants.
Republicans say Obama has failed to slow Iran's nuclear program, saying that it could spark an arms race across the Middle East and that it poses the greatest threat to the U.S. and its allies.
Sen. John McCain, the leading Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told his party's national convention that Obama missed an opportunity by not supporting a revolution in Iran.
"For four years, we've drifted away from our proudest traditions of global leadership," McCain said. "We are now being tested by an array of threats that are more complex, more numerous and just as deeply and deadly as I can recall in my lifetime."
Others, however, argue that the Obama administration has calmed tensions overseas with Russian, China and other countries that eyed the American invasion of Iraq with suspicion.
"Everyone was afraid that Iraq meant that whenever we thought it was a good idea to bring democracy to a country by force we would do it," said James Lewis, a Washington-based national security expert, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Through diplomatic efforts by the Obama administration, he said that "that level of fear has been tamped down. The global perception of the U.S. is better."
Lewis agreed that Iran may be the one place where the U.S. is no better off than it was four years ago, but he said things are stagnant, not worse. But he blamed the lack of progress on the Iranians and their refusal to engage.
Still, tensions with China continue over its growing military, its cyberactivities and the territorial disputes in the South China Sea. A trip to China this week by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton highlighted ongoing friction between Washington and Beijing.
But Clinton and other U.S. officials say that despite the routine disagreements, they can now discuss the issues more freely and frankly with the Chinese, unlike in recent years, when communications were difficult and rare.
"We have strengthened our alliances around the world to protect against future threats, locked down nuclear materials and improved our homeland defenses," said Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council. "The U.S. is absolutely safer now than four years ago."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/terror-takes-back-seat-americans-safer-now-072000384--election.html
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Friday, September 7, 2012
Hundreds of Afghan soldiers fired in probe into insider attacks on foreign troops
KABUL ? Afghan authorities have detained or removed hundreds of soldiers in an investigation into rising insider attacks against international service personnel who are their supposed partners in the fight against Taliban insurgents and other militants, officials said Wednesday.
The crackdown is the result of the Afghan Defence Ministry?s effort to re-evaluate soldiers to stem the attacks, which are complicating plans to train Afghan forces so that most foreign troops can withdraw from the country by the end of 2014. President Hamid Karzai?s government hopes Afghan forces can take responsibility for security nationwide by that time.
The U.S. military is taking precautionary measures too and recently stopped training about 1,000 members of the Afghan Local Police, a controversial network of village-defence units that is growing but remains a fraction of the country?s army and police force. Karzai has expressed concern that without careful vetting, the program could end up arming local troublemakers, strongmen or criminals.
So far this year, 45 international service members, most of them Americans, have died at the hands of Afghan soldiers or policemen or insurgents wearing their uniforms. There were at least 12 such attacks in August alone, resulting in 15 deaths.
Defence Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Zahir Azimi said that hundreds of Afghan National Army soldiers were removed from the service, but he declined to provide an exact number or specify how many were detained.
Lt. Gen. James Terry, commander of the U.S.-led coalition?s joint command in Afghanistan, told Pentagon reporters Wednesday that he had heard 200 to 300 soldiers were removed in the revetting process, but that he had not yet confirmed those numbers with the Afghan government.
Azimi told reporters Wednesday that many soldiers were dismissed because they submitted incomplete or forged documents. He did not say whether any were connected to the Taliban or other insurgent groups, but noted that some were suspected of having had contacts with militants.
An Afghan defence official said many were ousted for drug addictions, while others did not pass biometric tests meant to weed out recruits with questionable backgrounds.
Terry said he also expected the Afghan government to move ahead soon with a ?counter-intelligence initiative? to identify insider threats within specific army and police units before lethal attacks are carried out.
Coalition authorities have said about 25 per cent of this year?s insider attacks had confirmed or suspected links to the Taliban. The militants have sometimes infiltrated the ranks of the Afghan army and police and in other cases are believed to have coerced or otherwise persuaded legitimate members to turn on their coalition partners.
Earlier this year, the U.S. commanders assigned some troops to be ?guardian angels? who watch over their comrades in interactions with Afghan forces and even as they sleep. The U.S. also started allowing Americans to carry weapons in several Afghan ministries and made security more of a consideration in evaluating visits to Afghan government offices. U.S. officials also recently ordered American troops to carry loaded weapons at all times in Afghanistan, even when they are on their bases.
In a phone call with Karzai on Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed deep concern about the insider attacks. NATO spokesperson Carmen Romero said Karzai had assured Fogh Rasmussen that he was doing all he could to stop them.
U.S. Gen. John R. Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, also discussed the insider attacks on Wednesday in Brussels with the NATO alliance?s top decision-making body.
?Karzai sees this as a strategic threat so his government is committed from top to bottom,? Allen said. ?Culturally, this really strikes at the heart of the Afghans and how ashamed they feel about it. ... We are taking measures to protect ourselves while at the same time recognizing that well-developed human relations can be the best protection of all.?
Karzai?s national security team decided at a meeting late last month to tighten the recruitment and vetting process and strengthen intelligence units within the defence and interior ministries. Recently, 10,000 to 15,000 individuals have been recruited each month into the Afghan security forces, which are expanding from about 100,000 in 2007 to a goal of 352,000 next month.
Presidential spokesperson Aimal Faizi said with the goal in sight, recruiting had slowed to about 4,000 to 5,000 a month.
?The speedy process was the result of the need that we had to build up our security forces to the number that was required,? Faizi said then. ?But now we are close to that number so, in a way, we are not in a hurry. ... The insider attacks is a reason to also bring down this number (of new recruits being vetted each month) ? to take more measures and be more careful in recruiting individuals.?
The Afghan government, however, is blaming most of the attacks on foreign spy agencies from neighbouring countries that have infiltrated the Afghan security forces. Faizi has declined to identify the countries, but in the past, intelligence agencies in neighbouring Iran and Pakistan have been accused of enabling Afghan insurgents to destabilize the country.
Pakistan and Iran have each denied any involvement.
Also Wednesday, a U.S. army OH-58 scout helicopter crashed in the Pul-e Alam district of Logar province in eastern Afghanistan, killing two U.S. soldiers, according to a Pentagon official.
The Taliban claimed they shot down a helicopter in the same area. The insurgents often issue claims of responsibility even when it is unclear whether they had anything to do with the downing of an aircraft.
But the Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the crash is under investigation, said it could not be ruled out that the chopper was shot down by insurgents.
The Associated Press
iPhone 5 unveiling set for Sept. 12
Waiting for the iPhone 5? A new invitation from Apple suggests the long-awaited smartphone is only a few days away.?
What will the new iPhone look like? Here, attendees sit in front of an Apple logo during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2012 in San Francisco.
Reuters
EnlargeAnd we're off.?
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After months of breathless speculation and rumormongering ? the usual run-up to an Apple product launch, in other words ? the release of the next iPhone finally draws nigh. According to an invitation obtained by the tech site The Loop, Apple reps will take the wraps off its much-ballyhooed smartphone on Sept. 12, at 10 a.m., at the?Yerba Buena Center, in downtown San Francisco.?
"It's almost here," reads the invite, which is emblazoned with the number 12, for Sept. 12 ? and under that, the shadow of the number 5. So yes, the new iPhone will almost certainly be called the iPhone 5. But what will the iPhone 5 look like? Well, the answer to that question is a little murkier. Most reports on the device have centered around a larger screen size: 4 inches, corner to corner, instead of 3.5 inches.?
This makes a whole lot of sense. Although Steve Jobs once called 3.5 inches the perfect display size for most consumers, the fact is that smartphones have been getting progressively larger in recent years. The HTC One X, for instance, packs a 4.7-inch screen ? more than an inch larger than the current iPhone ? and the Samsung Galaxy Note, a heavyweight in the smartphone class, offers 5.3-inches of display real estate.?
Apple may feel that it needs to keep up.?
Meanwhile, users should expect a new, smaller dock connector and a two-tone, (still) square-ish body.?
Looking forward to the new iPhone? Drop us a line. And for more on how technology intersects daily life, follow us on?Twitter @venturenaut.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/scitech/~3/H0BpMmYXRyg/iPhone-5-unveiling-set-for-Sept.-12
PHOTOS: Gwen Stefani Flaunts Her Muscles on Stage!
Gwen Stefani shows some skin while performing in N.Y.C.! Plus, see more of your favorite celebs on the scene
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