Tuesday, January 11, 2011

“Jagan’s hunger strike in Delhi to aim Congress” plus 7 more

“Jagan’s hunger strike in Delhi to aim Congress” plus 7 more

Jagan’s hunger strike in Delhi to aim Congress

Posted: 11 Jan 2011 03:38 AM PST


Ex congress member Jaganmohan Reddy sat on a hunger strike in the capital and was supported by 24 Congress leaders from Andhra Pradesh including two members of legislative council, twp MPs and 20 MLAs. Jagan Protested against the injustice done to the farmers referring to the verdict on the waters of River Krishna.

Jagan while on the protest said, "I’m doing the Congress a favour by not asking my people to resign. If I wanted to, I could’ve done that a long time back. The government would’ve fallen. But my people are very clear that in 2014, they will contest not on a Congress ticket but on my party’s ticket." Jagan left Congress after being disappointed that he wasn't chosen to be in his father's place.

Later Jagan announced that, he would form a party of his own and will name the party on his father's name, late YSR Reddy. A Secundarabad Congress MLA, Jai Sudha said that, she has always been a follower of YSR and respect Congress and Sonia Gandhi, but still her support will always remain for Jagan and will be prepared for any disciplinary action.

Gurupurab observed nation wide by Sikhs

Posted: 11 Jan 2011 02:46 AM PST


The festival of Gurupurab is a day observed as a birthday of one of the Gurus (masters) of the Sikh community. The word Gurupurab actually means "Guru's remembrance Day".

The birthday of Guru Nanak, or the Guru Nanak Jayanti, is usually celebrated in a lengthy ceremony. Guru Nanak is said to be the founder of the Sikh religion. The birthday of the Guru usually comes in the month of December but the date varies according to the lunar Indian calendar.

The ceremony for the birthday celebration starts two days before the birthday. Prayers or 'Akhand Path' are performed in the Gurdwaras.

A procession is organized just a day before the birthday with a Palki of Guru Granth Sahib (holy book of the Sikhs) which is led by the Panj Piare. During the procession many followers sing hyms on the streets. And on the day of the anniversary the prayers start from 4 am and continue till 2pm.

JK results soon to be announced by the board

Posted: 11 Jan 2011 01:02 AM PST


The results of the 10th results, will soon be declared by the Jammu and Kashmir State Board Of School Education (JK BOSE). The results will be available online at www.jkresults.in and www.jkresults.org.

Students who are looking for the results are advised the follow the updates at www.jkbose.co.in. Till now the results of the Higher Secondary Part II Bi-Annual 2010 Kashmir division Examination(Private) have been declared by the Jammu and Kashmir State Board School of Education.

Candidates looking for their respective results can login to www.jkresults.in and www.jkresults.org. The Srinagar based board has more than 10,600 schools throughout the state.

The board has employed some 22,300 teachers in its schools and is administered by the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The board aims to develop the potential skills of the youth and to discover the talent in its student and to make sure that, their respective talents are well nurtured. The board also aims to provide equal opportunities and facilities to its students.

American and Chinese Defense leaders desire stronger military ties

Posted: 10 Jan 2011 07:10 PM PST


Defense counterparts Gates and Liang wrap up press conference in Beijing. Getty Images/Larry Dowing

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates met with his Chinese counterpart, Defense Minister General Liang Guanglie today in Beijing.

This was Gates’ first trip to China since 2007.    The Chinese broke off military ties last year as a way of protesting the United States sale of weapons system to Taiwain.  Taiwan is an independently governed democracy which China considers to be a renegade province.

At the beginning of this three-day visit to China, Gates said that China accepted an invitation for Gen. Chen Bingde to visit Washing this year and to consider joint talks about cyber-warfare, nuclear and missile defense.  However, China was somewhat coy in committing to an exact date.

Washington is showing concern for the rapid acceleration of military build up in China, especially a missile system that could put its aircraft carrier fleet at bay and a stealth aircraft technology.   Last week, photos of the J-20 stealth fighter appeared in the Chinese media apparently timed to coincide with Gates’ visit.

General Liang attempted to down play China’s military threat.

Defense Minister Gen. Liang downplayed the threat of the J-20. The US is the only nation with an operational stealth 5th generation fighter the F-22 Raptor.

“The gap between us and that of advanced countries is at least two to three decades,” Liang said. “There are some people who want to label China’s military development as a threat to the world. I wish other countries would come up with a more reasonable conclusion.”

Liang also continued to remind Gates that Beijing is not pleased with arm sales to Taiwan.

But with the differences, both sides did agree that military discussions between the two nations was necessary to avoid misunderstanding and miscalculations.

China’s foreign trade on the rise, trade surplus on the decline

Posted: 10 Jan 2011 03:56 PM PST


China’s foreign trade on the rise in 2010 leaping  34.7 percent over 2009 to $2.97 trillion.  Its trade surplus was on the decline, dropping 6.4% to $183.1 billion.   These figures came from the Chinese General Administration of Customs today.

Although world-wide, China’s trade balance numbers are down, the numbers with the US are still up by 26.4%  This will undoubtedly come up during China President Hu Jingtao’s visit to the US January 18-21.

The US has been critical of China, claiming that it has been artificially keeping the value of its currency low.  China will point out that the lower overall trade surplus numbers are proof that they are not employing mercantilistic  policies.

Not all economists are convinced that China’s trade is balancing out as much as it says.   “Fundamentally, China still has a very large structural trade surplus. That hasn’t changed,” said UBS economist Wang Tao in the Wall Street Journal.

Wang believes that much of the decline in the trade balance was attributed to raising prices for raw materials which will not continue into 2011.

China’s largest trading partner is the European Union, followed by the United States, Japan, and Asean nations.

US to Chinese drywall manufacturers: fix our homes

Posted: 10 Jan 2011 03:35 PM PST


Drywall product on sale at a Home Depot. Reuters

Today Inez Tenenbaum, chairwoman of the US Consumer Protection Safety Commission, said that her agency’s efforts to get Chinese drywall manufacturers to reimburse American consumers for damage caused by their products has failed.

The inability to convince thirteen Chinese manufactures of tainted drywall to  compensate damage to American homes as been a sore spot in trade relations between the US and China.

The drywall has been shown to emit dangerous amounts of hydrogen sulfide which can corrode electrical wiring and cause headaches and other ailments.

Drywall is the material used to make walls and ceilings.

The CPSC has been able to get American and European distributors to voluntarily recall the defect drywall products, but compensation requests to Chinese companies have fallen on deaf ears.

“Germany’s Knauf Plasterboard (Tianjin) has agreed to remove the drywall and rewire 300 homes in a pilot program and Lennar Corp., the third-biggest U.S. homebuilder, had to set aside millions of dollars to cover claims against it for the use of faulty Chinese drywall”, reports International Business Times.

The problem with drywall manufactures is in part one reason why the CPSC is opening an office in Beijing to prevent such problems from happening again.

Have you been impacted by the use of Chinese drywall products in your home?  What has your experience been in getting the matter resolved?

Scotland’s Edinburgh Zoo to receive two pandas, called “panda politics”

Posted: 10 Jan 2011 01:15 PM PST


Tiantian, will be off to Scotland soon! BBC

Scotland’s Edinburgh Zoo will be receiving two pandas from China.  The pandas will be the first to live in the United Kingdom in 17 years and were part of an economic deal inked between the UK and China that has been dubbed “panda politics”.

The two pandas Liu Xiaoming 甜甜 (“Sweetie”) and Yangguang 阳光 (“Sunshine”)  will be on loan to the Edinburgh Zoo for 10 years.  The pair were bred in China’s Wulong Panda Research Institute in 2003.   The Edinburgh Zoo will part of a world-wide captive breeding program to help keep the number of pandas from getting to low.

The announcement of the panda loan came as the UK and China inked a $4 billion economic deal signed by Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and China’s Vice Premier Li Keqiang.  However, it seems that the news of the panda couple is overshadowing the economic agreement.

The Chinese Ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming said,   “Pandas are a Chinese national treasure.  This historical agreement is a gift to the people of the UK from China. It will represent an important symbol of our friendship and will bring our two people closer together.”

Yang Guang will be Tian Tian's mate at the Edinburgh.

Have you seen a panda either in captivity or at a wildlife refuge?   Please share your experience with us.

US opens first consumer safety office in China

Posted: 10 Jan 2011 06:07 AM PST


CPSC will open its first overseas office in the US Embassy in Beijing.

In a first move of its kind, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is planning to open an office outside the United States in the People’s Republic of China as a way to stem the importation of dangerous products into the American marketplace.

Since China is the biggest importer of goods into the United States – 45 percent of consumer goods, and 90 percent of toys are imported from Hong Kong and China – the CPSC thinks this a a smart move.

China wants  to improve the confidence of foreign consumers in its exports because there were prior food and product safety scandals, such the use of lead-based paints on toys and other goods and tainted food products.   The goal here is to nip the safety concerns in the bud before consumers are harmed.

Inez Tenenbaum,head of the CPSC said, “Rather than rely on recalls to help us enforce our standards in the United States, (we will) move toward being more proactive and prevent problems from occurring in the first place. By having a proactive preventative posture, we can reduce the number of recalls and keep our consumers safe and also prevent the loss of revenue and damage to a manufacturer’s brand.”

The office will start off with two employees at the US Embassy in Beijing and will work with Chinese counterparts  to help Chinese manufacturers come up to speed on American safety standards.

Posted by Suresh at 4:06 AM

0 comments:

Post a Comment