Archive for January, 2014

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03/01/2014

Chinese helicopter saves 52 in Antarctica – Chinadaily.com.cn

All 52 passengers stranded on the Russian research ship Akademik Shokalskiy in Antarctica for nine days were rescued by a Chinese helicopter on Thursday.

Chinese helicopter saves 52 in Antarctica

The helicopter from the Chinese icebreaker Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, transferred the passengers to an ice floe close to Aurora Australis, an Australian Antarctic supply ship.

\”I think everyone is relieved and excited to be going on to the Australian icebreaker and then home,\” Chris Turney, leader of the Russian expedition, told the Associated Press by satellite phone from the Russian vessel, which has been stuck in the ice since Christmas Eve.

He posted on Twitter that the helicopter had arrived at the Akademik Shokalskiy, saying \”huge thanks to all\”.

The helicopter Xueying 12, or Snow Eagle 12, made six trips to pick up all the passengers and their luggage.

The passengers comprised scientists, tourists and journalists who were scheduled to follow in the footsteps of Australian Douglas Mawson and his 1911-14 expedition.

via Chinese helicopter saves 52 in Antarctica – Chinadaily.com.cn.

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02/01/2014

India Scraps AgustaWestland Chopper Contract on Graft Probe (1) – Businessweek

India scrapped a $753 million deal to buy helicopters from Anglo-Italian company AgustaWestland following a 15-month corruption investigation and said it’s preparing for an arbitration fight it is seeking to avoid.

AgustaWestland EH101 Merlin

AgustaWestland EH101 Merlin (Photo credit: J.Backlund)

The 2010 deal for 12 helicopters from the unit of Italy’s defense and aerospace manufacturer Finmeccanica SpA (FNC) has been terminated “with immediate effect” because of “breach of the pre-contract integrity pact (PCIP) and the agreement,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement in New Delhi yesterday. A former Indian air force chief and about 10 other officials are under investigation over the sale.

Finmeccanica had received notification of a probe in September 2012, and in February India suspended further payments while issuing a so-called show-cause notice seeking AgustaWestland’s defense against bribery allegations. That followed the arrest the same month of a senior Finmeccanica official in Italy on accusations of corruption and tax fraud.

via India Scraps AgustaWestland Chopper Contract on Graft Probe (1) – Businessweek.

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02/01/2014

Private Schools for Poor Pressured by Right to Education Act – NYTimes.com

In Dharavi, a Mumbai slum, a  ramshackle building houses the Bombay South Indian Adi-Dravida Sangh school, where 1,000 students from poor families take their classes in English, a language increasingly perceived as the key to a white-collar job.

Dharavi Slum in Mumbai, India

Dharavi Slum in Mumbai, India (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tuition at the school is 400 rupees, or $6, a month, which represents about three days’ pay for the students’ parents, but they’d rather send their children here rather than to the free local public school because the quality of education is better. “We want our children to fare well, but we don’t have the capacity to put them in schools with very high fees,” said P. Ganesan, who stitches clothes at a garment factory nearby.

However, this school is in danger of being shut down because of the Right to Education Act, introduced by the Indian government in 2009. The landmark legislation, which mandated free and compulsory education for all children from the ages of 6 and 14, ordered all schools to have infrastructure like a playground and separate toilets for boys, among other requirements, by March 31.

The two-floor structure that houses the Bombay South Indian Adi-Dravida Sangh School is topped by a corrugated iron roof and lacks a playground, sports equipment and a ramp for disabled children, which are all required under the law. While the school has a library, the teachers complained that it is understocked. Of the seven computers in the school’s computer room, only one is in working condition

Many education experts argue that the Right to Education Act, while lofty in its goals, does not pay attention to the ground realities of low-budget private schools. In a study of 15 budget private schools in New Delhi by the Center for Civil Society, it was found that to comply with the infrastructure requirements in the Right to Education Act, the schools would have to have an approximately four-fold increase in their fees, making them unaffordable for the section of society they currently serve.

The Bombay South Indian Adi-Dravida Sangh School is undergoing some renovations, putting up concrete walls between classrooms and adding a second floor, but it doesn’t have the funds to make all the changes required by the Right to Education Act.

via Private Schools for Poor Pressured by Right to Education Act – NYTimes.com.

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02/01/2014

BBC News – How Auld Lang Syne stormed China

Another intriguing cross-cultural anomaly is the British comedy film “Dinner for One” made in the days of black and white movies. It is a New Year’s Eve must for German TV watchers and also enjoyed by Dutch and many Nordic countries. See – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_One and watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lzQxjGL9S0

The film concludes with a catchphrase all Germans know and sometimes use when appropriate: “The same procedure next year?  The same procedure every year.”

One significant difference is that whereas Auld Lang Syne is still popular in the land of its birth (Scotland and UK), Dinner for One is – sadly – largely unknown in Britain.

“Auld Lang Syne is the simple Scottish folk song that has stormed the world. To mark the New Year, the unmistakable strains of Auld Lang Syne will be heard around the globe. The song, written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns, is a firm favourite in the English-speaking world. But perhaps less well-known is its huge popularity in China. The song is known as You Yi Di Jiu Tian Chang or Friendship Forever and Ever.

Revellers celebrate the new year following a count-down event at the Summer Palace in Beijing on 1 January 2013

Most Chinese people could probably hum the tune and sing a few lines of it in Mandarin, but very few are able to sing the whole song. And even fewer have any idea about the song\’s origins.

The song is frequently played at school and university graduations, other formal gatherings, as well as parties. But as for the Chinese New Year, Auld Lang Syne, rarely gets a look in. The Chinese have their song to mark the occasion – Nan Wang Jin Xiao (Unforgettable Tonight).

But how on earth did the Scottish song catch on in the most populous nation on the planet?

A large part of the reason appears to be the Hollywood movie, Waterloo Bridge, made in 1940. It was a love story set amid war. During one beautiful scene in Waterloo Bridge, the two stars of the film dance to Auld Lang Syne.

The film was hugely popular in China at the end of the Second World War. It was then revived in the 1980s when the film was dubbed for a Chinese audience and widely played in the cinemas. For an older generation, it is considered a classic.

It\’s believed that because of the film, Auld Lang Syne is now widely taught in Chinese primary schools and high schools.

While the lyrics may be different here, the tune and the sentiment of the song remain very much the same.”

via BBC News – How Auld Lang Syne stormed China.

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02/01/2014

Cradle Baby scheme hopes to end female infanticide | Reuters

Unwanted infant girls in the sterile, sparsely furnished nursery rooms of the Life Line Trust orphanage in Tamil Nadu are considered the lucky ones.

A baby girl is seen lying in a cradle inside the Life Line Trust orphanage in Salem in Tamil Nadu June 20, 2013. Thomson Reuters Foundation-Mansi Thapliyal-Files

They are India\’s \”Cradle Babies\” – products of a government project that permits parents to give unwanted baby girls anonymously to the state, saving them from possible death in a region where daughters are seen as a burden and where their murder is a common reality.

\”Often babies are found in ditches and garbage pits. Some are alive, others are dead,\” said A. Devaki, a government child protection officer in the Salem district, one of the worst-afflicted areas.

\”Just last week, we found a newborn baby girl barely breathing in a dustbin at the local bus stand.\”

She added that a lack of education, the low status of girls and widespread poverty were the main factors why girl babies were killed or dumped with little chance of survival.

\”One girl is okay, but a second or third will likely end up being killed. That\’s why we introduced the Cradle Baby Scheme.\”

But while the project has been praised for potentially saving the lives of thousands of Indian girls, human rights activists have criticised it, accusing authorities of encouraging the abandonment of girls and promoting the low status of women in this largely patriarchal society.

via Cradle Baby scheme hopes to end female infanticide | Reuters.

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02/01/2014

Calcutta anger as double gang-rape victim set on fire and burns to death | South China Morning Post

An Indian teenager who was gang-raped in two separate attacks has died after being set on fire, sparking protests in Calcutta.

rape_parent.jpg

The girl, 16, was assaulted on October 26 and again the day after by a group of more than six men near her family\’s home in Madhyagram town, just north of the city.

The second rape occurred as she was returning home after reporting the first attack at a police station.

A rape victim\’s dead body is covered in floral tributes before a protest march in Calcutta on January 1. Photo: EPA

She was set on fire on December 23 and died in hospital late on New Year\’s Eve, police said.

\”She gave us a dying declaration in front of the health officials that she had been set on fire by two people who were close to the accused when she was alone at home on December 23,\” local policeman Nimbala Santosh Uttamrao said.

Police made their first arrests on Wednesday, two months after the initial crime, local police chief Rajiv Kumar said.

\”The accused tried to kill my daughter by setting her on fire to hush up their crimes,\” the victim\’s father, a migrant taxi driver from India\’s poorest state, Bihar, said. Neither he nor the victim can be named for legal reasons.

Several hundred activists on Wednesday protested in Calcutta over the crime, which was shocking in its brutality, even after a year when sex crimes were widely reported in India.

Rampant rape, assault and harassment of women in India were in the spotlight in the past 12 months after the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi in December 2012 sparked nationwide outrage.

The parliament has since passed tougher laws to punish rapists.

Despite the reforms, new cases of rape continue to be reported daily from across the country in the Indian press.

Activists say rape victims in India often face severe threats and intimidation from their attackers after the assault, while police often discourage them from lodging complaints.

via Calcutta anger as double gang-rape victim set on fire and burns to death | South China Morning Post.

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02/01/2014

China denounces U.S. for sending Uighur ‘terrorists’ to Slovakia | Reuters

China\’s Foreign Ministry criticized the United States on Thursday for sending the last three Uighur Chinese inmates at the Guantanamo Bay detention center to Slovakia, saying they were \”terrorists\” who posed a real security danger.

Yusef Abbas, Saidullah Khalik, and Hajiakbar Abdul Ghuper are the last of 22 Muslim minority Chinese nationals to be moved from the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, according to the Pentagon.

Slovakia\’s Interior Ministry confirmed that it would take in the three. Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim people from China\’s far western region of Xinjiang.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the three were members of the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which Beijing labels a terror group.

\”They are genuine terrorists. They not only threaten China\’s security, they will threaten the security of the country that receives them,\” he told a daily news briefing.

\”China hopes that the relevant country … does not give asylum to terrorists, and sends them back to China as soon as possible.\”

Qin added that China did not appreciate a recent U.S. State Department call for Chinese security forces to exercise restraint following the latest outbreak of violence in Xinjiang, also blamed by Beijing on \”terrorists\”.

\”These remarks neglect the facts and are feeble,\” he said. \”We urge the United States to abandon their double standards when it comes to terrorism, and immediately stop saying one thing and doing another, to avoid sending the wrong message to violent terrorist forces.\”

via China denounces U.S. for sending Uighur ‘terrorists’ to Slovakia | Reuters.

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02/01/2014

Taiwan’s Ma says ending China standoff a must for the economy | Reuters

Ending Taiwan\’s political standoff with mainland China is necessary to boost Taiwan\’s sagging economy and to help it integrate more effectively with the region, the island\’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, said.

Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou speaks during a meeting with journalists in a hotel in Asuncion August 14, 2013. REUTERS/Jorge Adorno

China considers Taiwan a renegade province and has not ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its control. Economic ties, however, have grown considerably in recent years, especially since Ma took office in 2008.

In October, Chinese President Xi Jinping said a political solution to the standoff could not be postponed forever. But Ma later said he saw no urgency for political talks and wanted to focus on trade.

\”I fully understand that if the Taiwan economy is to expand further, we need to end the cross-strait standoff,\” Ma was quoted as saying in a statement posted on the Presidential Office\’s website.

The statement did not explain what concrete steps would be taken to end an impasse that has existed since Chiang Kai-shek and his ruling Nationalist Party fled from the mainland to Taiwan at the end of China\’s civil war in 1949.

Ma opened Taiwan to trade with China when he took office in 2008 and they have since signed economic agreements that have made mainland China Taiwan\’s largest trading partner.

But booming trade has not led to progress on political reconciliation or a lessening of military readiness on both sides.

via Taiwan’s Ma says ending China standoff a must for the economy | Reuters.

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02/01/2014

China to open high speed rail link to North Korean border in 2015 | Reuters

China will open a high-speed rail line to the North Korean border next year, state media said on Thursday, in a sign that China remains committed to boosting trade and economic ties with the isolated, nuclear-armed state.

This is a map of the Yalu River drainage basin.

This is a map of the Yalu River drainage basin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The line, under construction since 2010, will run 207 km (127 miles) from Shenyang to the border city of Dandong, which faces North Korea across the Yalu River, and will shorten the train journey from 3 1/2 hours to one hour, the official Xinhua news agency said.

As much as 80 percent of trade between China and North Korea passes through Dandong, which is near one of North Korea\’s special economic zones on Hwanggumpyong island.

China has encouraged the development of three special economic zones in North Korea, hoping to tap low labor costs and encourage the North to see the benefits of economic reform, even while publicly rebuking it over its nuclear weapons program.

China has stepped up checks on shipments to and from North Korea following its third nuclear test last year, but has shown no sign of cutting the country off completely, lest the impoverished state collapse, bringing with it a destabilizing wave of refugees.

While there has been little sign of progress in the new economic zones, China continues to improve infrastructure on its side of the border, including building a bridge from Dandong into North Korea.

via China to open high speed rail link to North Korean border in 2015 | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Economics, GeoPolitics, Politics, railway | Leave a Comment »

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