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Archive for May, 2010

Top diplomats from the United States and Pakistan said Wednesday they want much broader ties between the two countries after years of cooperation limited mostly to the joint effort to hunt and contain terrorists.

Launching a two-day, high-level strategic dialogue here, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi vowed to improve ties by expanding the current security focus to include energy, development, education and agriculture. All must be addressed to combat extremists, they said.

A healthy U.S.-Pakistan relationship is considered essential to winning the war on terrorism, but the United States won’t promise a deal for nuclear energy assistance to match one that it has signed with Pakistan’s archrival India.

Dealings between Washington and Islamabad have been frayed by ups and downs for decades, but relations deteriorated noticeably after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as Pakistan came to believe America was bullying it on security matters, and Washington began to question Islamabad’s commitment to defeating the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was a confidant of former U.S. President George W. Bush and was considered a strong ally against terrorism. But his close ties to the United States helped sink his political career at home. The number of Pakistanis who hold negative views of the United States are among the highest in the world, and suspicion about America’s motives and its improving relationship with India run through every strata of Pakistani society.

Clinton acknowledged that “misperceptions and mistrust” have grown between the two countries, and said that overcoming the mutual suspicion requires sustained work across several areas of government.

“This is a new day,” she said.

As they opened the discussions, neither Clinton nor Qureshi outlined specific programs. But Pakistan has put energy, including civilian nuclear power, at the top of its list of priorities.

Despite their pledges to help, U.S. officials have been noncommittal about how they will respond to Pakistan’s desire to be recognized as a nuclear weapons power and forge an atomic energy deal.

U.S. officials have concerns about Pakistan’s record in transferring nuclear technology to states such as Libya and North Korea. And neither Clinton nor special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke would offer any promises ahead of the talks.

Pakistan would like to have a civil nuclear cooperation pact with the United States similar to the one its nuclear rival India has. Such a deal likely would require at least tacit acknowledgment that Pakistan, which detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1998, is a legitimate nuclear armed power, something the United States has refused to do.

It also would require approval from Congress, which only reluctantly agreed to the civil nuclear deal with India despite far fewer proliferation concerns. But that has not dampened Pakistan’s eagerness for an agreement, which it believes is critical to dealing with its energy shortages.

The Pentagon’s top leaders credit Pakistan’s ongoing military campaign against Taliban insurgents with helping to improve ties with the United States. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen praised Pakistan’s determination in a campaign that some U.S. officials had worried would sputter.

The Pentagon leaders told Congress they think Pakistan now understands that the Taliban presents an acute threat to its own government.

The praise marks a change from last year, when top U.S. officials regularly complained that Pakistan could have done more to fight militants along its Afghan border.

Opening the wider talks with Clinton, Qureshi said Pakistan remains committed to fighting extremism as “a strategic and moral imperative.” He noted that thousands of Pakistanis — civilians and soldiers — had been killed battling extremists and that Pakistan’s concerns must be respected.

“You are fighting a war whose outcome is critical first and foremost, of course, for the people of Pakistan,” Clinton told the foreign minister. “But it will also have regional and global repercussions, and so strengthening and advancing your security remains a key priority of our relationship.”

At the same time, she stressed that that cooperation must be more than military assistance and must include methods to improve the lives of the Pakistani people so they will not be attracted to extremist ideologies. Among those are projects to ease Pakistan’s crippling energy shortages, shore up its battered economy and improve development aid.

Clinton and Qureshi are heading their respective delegations, which also include top military, finance, agriculture and development officials.

Classes of a primary school in east China’s Fujian province resumed Wednesday, a day after a man stabbed and killed eight children there, as well as injuring others.

Accompanied by their parents, students began to enter the Nanping Experimental Primary School at about 7 am Wednesday while teachers and 52 psychological therapists, including university students and psychologists from renowned hospitals, were welcoming them in all the 48 classrooms.

“It’s the first time in four years that I have taken my son to school and I will keeping so,” a father of an 11-year-old boy said.

Some parents gathered at the entrance of the school, where the bloodshed occurred, to mourn the children’s deaths. They lit candles and burnt paper money, wishing the innocent young victims a happy life in heaven.

Led by teachers, students decorated a mourning wall with handmade white flowers in the campus. The mourning ceremony started at 8:12 am.

More than 2,000 students and teachers of the school stood in silent tribute to extend condolences to those killed in the bloody tragedy.

“Please don’t be scared. We’ll always protect you,” teachers told the students through loudspeakers, and then gave each student a warm hug.

“I feel so sad that many lovely young lives have gone,” said a teacher surnamed Shi.

The first two classes were focused on psychological therapies, including video education and questions and answers aimed at helping the students cope with the tragedy.

In a special notice designed for the deceased classmates, Cai Chengyi, 11, wrote “we will try to step out of the shadow of the killing spree and brace the future with an optimistic spirit.”

Chen Jixiong, one of the psychologists working at the school, assumed it would take two to three months for the children to fully recover from the mental trauma.

Zheng Minsheng, a former community doctor in Nanping city, attacked 13 children at the entrance of the school Tuesday morning when crowds of students were arriving, leaving eight dead and five injured.

Two of the injured were in stable condition Wednesday while the three others were confined to intensive care and were undergoing emergency treatment, said Liu Bin, an officer with Nanping’s health bureau.

One of them suffered a high fever, vital lung injuries and blood circulation problems, said Chen Xiaojie, vice president of the No.1 Hospital of Nanping.

The provincial health administration has sent three medical teams to Nanping, including five chest surgeons and three intensive care nurses. A senior doctor has just arrived also.

Classes ended half an hour earlier than usual on Wednesday afternoon and parents who were waiting outside for their kids almost paralyzed the traffic in the area at rush hour.

Yan Zhenhui, a man in his 60s who witnessed the killing a day ago, took his daughter-in-law to accompany his two granddaughters home Wednesday.

“The girls were so frightened that they kept crying yesterday at home. I plan to take them to and from school every day in the future,” he said.

Classes of a primary school in east China’s Fujian Province resumed Wednesday, a day after a man stabbed and killed eight children there, as well as injuring others.

Accompanied by their parents, students began to enter the Nanping Experimental Primary School at about 7 a.m. Wednesday while teachers and 52 psychological therapists, including university students and psychologists from renowned hospitals, were welcoming them in all the 48 classrooms.

“It’s the first time in four years that I have taken my son to school and I will keeping so,” a father of an 11-year-old boy said.

Some parents gathered at the entrance of the school, where the bloodshed occurred, to mourn the children’s deaths. They lit candles and burnt paper money, wishing the innocent young victims a happy life in heaven.

Led by teachers, students decorated a mourning wall with handmade white flowers in the campus. The mourning ceremony started at 8:12 a.m..

More than 2,000 students and teachers of the school stood in silent tribute to extend condolences to those killed in the bloody tragedy.

“Please don’t be scared. We’ll always protect you,” teachers told the students through loudspeakers, and then gave each student a warm hug.

“I feel so sad that many lovely young lives have gone,” said a teacher surnamed Shi.

The first two classes were focused on psychological therapies, including video education and questions and answers aimed at helping the students cope with the tragedy.

In a special notice designed for the deceased classmates, Cai Chengyi, 11, wrote “we will try to step out of the shadow of the killing spree and brace the future with an optimistic spirit.”

Chen Jixiong, one of the psychologists working at the school, assumed it would take two to three months for the children to fully recover from the mental trauma.

Zheng Minsheng, a former community doctor in Nanping City, attacked 13 children at the entrance of the school Tuesday morning when crowds of students were arriving, leaving eight dead and five injured.

Two of the injured were in stable condition Wednesday while the three others were confined to intensive care and were undergoing emergency treatment, said Liu Bin, an officer with Nanping’s health bureau.

One of them suffered a high fever, vital lung injuries and blood circulation problems, said Chen Xiaojie, vice president of the No.1 Hospital of Nanping.

The provincial health administration has sent three medical teams to Nanping, including five chest surgeons and three intensive care nurses. A senior doctor has just arrived also.

Classes ended half an hour earlier than usual on Wednesday afternoon and parents who were waiting outside for their kids almost paralyzed the traffic in the area at rush hour.

Yan Zhenhui, a man in his 60s who witnessed the killing a day ago, took his daughter-in-law to accompany his two granddaughters home Wednesday.

“The girls were so frightened that they kept crying yesterday at home. I plan to take them to and from school every day in the future,” he said.

The home furnishings chain retailer Redstar Macalline has donated 10 million yuan to the newly established special fund “Harmonious Home” to promote the development of resisting violence in the family and building a harmonious society, it was revealed at a press conference held by the China Foundation for Human Rights Development, according to china.com.cn.

“We have committed ourselves to help the Chinese to build a better domestic life and more and more people know well about how to make their house tasteful in aspect of hardware, but there is still a lot to desire about how to improve the quality of family life and we as a leading furniture chain in China hope to take more responsibility of building a harmonious society,” Said Che Jianxin, the president and CEO of Redstar Macalline.

According to Yang Zhengquan, deputy chairman of China Foundation for Human Rights Development, the establishment of the special fund has a great significance on maintaining the social stability as the family as the basic unit of the society.

The development of varies kinds of public-service activities and education are necessary as family violence is very common in modern life. “Harmonious Home” is aimed at the improvement of human rights work, construction, and education, Yang said.

The Redstar Macalline will set up a project with “Harmonious Home” funding and will host large-scale public-service activities to promote the harmonious parent-child relationship of families.

China’s top political advisor Jia Qinglin has put forward a four-point proposal aiming at fully advancing relations with Africa.

The proposal, which was made on Tuesday and was part of Jia’s key-note speech at National Assembly of Cameroon, covered political trust, economy collaboration, cultural exchanges and global issues.

“Under the new circumstances, China will work with Cameroon and other African countries to enhance the traditional friendship and grow the new type of China-Africa strategic partnership,” Jia said.

The speech, entitled “May the Flower of China-Africa Friendship Grow More Splendid,” reaffirmed China’s commitment to boosting the ties between the world’s biggest developing country and the continent with the largest number of developing countries.

“Both sides should remain committed to deepening political mutual trust,” said Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country’s top advisory body.

Jia highlighted the importance of high-level visits, intergovernmental, parliamentary and party-to-party exchanges and cooperation.

“We support the efforts of African countries to uphold peace and stability and seek development through unity,” Jia said, adding China stood ready to make contribution to African peace, security and integration.

On the economic front, Jia pledged more cooperation with African countries in trade, investment, infrastructure, agriculture, energy, finance and telecommunications.

“We will fulfill the pledge of the Chinese government to provide 10 billion U.S. dollars of preferential loans to African countries,” Jia said.

The preferential loans were part of the eight new measures introduced by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last November in Egypt, which also include debt cancellation, agriculture production, infrastructure and education.

Jia encouraged well-established Chinese companies to invest in Africa and take more favorable measures to increase the continent’ s exports to China.

“The Chinese businesses accompanying my visit to Africa will sign important agreements on importing goods from Cameroon,” Jia said.

Instead, China will do it utmost to help African countries enhance the capacity to meet the climate challenge, Jia said.

The speech, delivered during Jia’s three-day official visit to the central African nation, drew around 400 parliamentarians, diplomats, experts and professionals.

Jia will meet with President of Cameroon Paul Biya on Wednesday.

Cameroon is the first leg of Jia’s ten-day African tour which will also take him to Namibia and South Africa.

A requirement tucked into the massive U.S health care bill will make calorie counts impossible for thousands of restaurants to hide and difficult for consumers to ignore. More than 200,000 fast food and other chain restaurants will have to include calorie counts on menus, menu boards and even drive-throughs.

The new law, which applies to any restaurant with 20 or more locations, directs the Food and Drug Administration to create a new national standard for menu labeling, superseding a growing number of state and city laws. President Barack Obama signed the health care legislation Tuesday.

The idea is to make sure that customers process the calorie information as they are ordering. Many restaurants currently post nutritional information in a hallway, on a hamburger wrapper or on their Web site. The new law will make calories immediately available for most items.

“The nutrition information is right on the menu or menu board next to the name of the menu item, rather than in a pamphlet or in tiny print on a poster, so that consumers can see it when they are making ordering decisions,” says Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, who wrote the provision.

It was added to the health bill with the support of the restaurant industry, which is facing different laws from cities and states. Sue Hensley of the National Restaurant Association says it will help restaurants better respond to their customers.

“That growing patchwork of regulations and legislation in different parts of the country has been a real challenge, and this will allow operators to better be able to provide their information,” she said.

Some meals will be exempt from the calorie counts, including specials on the menu less than 60 days, and other nutritional information in addition to calories will have to be available somewhere else in the restaurant.

The law will also apply to foods sold in vending machines, specifically those that do not have visible calorie listings on the front of the package. The requirements will be enforced by the FDA, with the possibility of criminal penalties if operations do not comply.

New York City was the first in the country to put a calorie posting law in place. Since then, California, Seattle and other places have done so.

The FDA will have a year to write the new rules, which health advocates have been pushing for years. Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said it is one step in the fight against obesity.

“Coffee drinks can range from 20 calories to 800 calories, and burgers can range from 250 calories to well over 1,000 calories,” she said.

Still, it is unclear what effect the labeling will have. In a study published last year by the online journal Health Affairs, only half of customers in poor New York City neighborhoods with high rates of obesity and diabetes noticed the calorie counts.

The accuracy of the counts could also be called into question, according to a different study.

In January, the Journal of the American Dietetic Association published a survey of 10 chain restaurants, including Wendy’s and Ruby Tuesday, that said the number of calories in 29 meals or other menu items was an average of 18 percent higher than listed. The discrepancies were said to be due to variations in ingredients and portion sizes.

Eleven kindergarten kids were hospitalized on Sunday after they ate sedatives and another pill they thought were candy given to them by a fellow student at a township school in Sichuan Province.

Five kids who had severe symptoms were recovering Tuesday afternoon.

A 5-year-old kid named Longlong at Beilei Kindergarten in Tangchang township in Chengdu, took reserpine and subili from his home and shared them with 10 classmates, Tianfu Morning Post reported Tuesday.

Reserpine is a sedative used chiefly to lower blood pressure and slow heart rate while subili is an anti-psychotic drug that could harm the liver, the kidney and the brain.

The students started vomiting and suffered from bellyaches after taking the drugs. Their teachers called 120, the emergency hotline, and the kids were taken to hospital.

The hospital cleaned their stomach, provided oxygen and conducted transfusions for the 11 kids. Five boys with severe symptoms were sent to Sichuan Provincial Hospital in Chengdu, and the rest were sent to Chengdu No 3 Hospital.

Most of them are 5 years old and several were three years old.

“I only ate one, Longlong took the treat,” one of the affected kids, Xiaozhen, said.

“We won’t blame Longlong, but his parents should take responsibilities. The kid is so young, how could they place the medicine so carelessly,” said her mother.

The parent of another kid said Longlong’s parents, raising cows in town, did not show up later.

Local police and education authorities are investigating the case.

The private kindergarten, which has 48 kids, was closed; and the kids were sent back home for two days’ observation and may be transferred to another kindergarten.

Claiming a historic triumph that could define his presidency, U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed a nearly 1-trillion-U.S.-dollar health care reform bill, on track to bring the most profound changes to the nation’s social security system in more than four decades.

The core of the massive law is the extension of health care coverage to 32 million who now lack it, subsidies for people who can’t afford coverage on their own, consumer-friendly rules clamped on insurers, tax breaks, and marketplaces to shop for health plans.

However, the sweeping bill has also sparked opposition, anxieties as well controversies among different groups in the United States.

14 state attorneys general suing to overturn the bill

Fourteen U.S. states filed lawsuits in federal court seven minutes after the bill was signed, claiming the law violates the constitution.

The lawsuit underscores the divisiveness of the issue and the political rancor that has surrounded it.

The lawsuit, filed in Pensacola, asks a judge to declare the bill unconstitutional because “the Constitution nowhere authorizes the United States to mandate, either directly or under threat of penalty, that all citizens and legal residents have qualifying health care coverage.”

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley opposed the law, saying that his state will have to cut education and other programs to make up for increased Medicaid costs under the overhaul.

“This isn’t about attorneys general trying to break into the realm of telling what needs to happen with health care reform,” he said. “This is attorneys general saying you went too far with unfunded federal mandates. You exceeded your power under the Constitution.”

Mixed reactions from small business

Obama said small businesses will be big winners under health care reform, but some entrepreneurs have mixed reactions towards the bill, with anxiety rising.

In Utah, several local business owners said that they are hopeful the changes will help them, but they are taking a bit of a wait-and-see approach.

Marci Rasmussen, owner of a small business Especially for You, has spent 20 of the last 23 years uninsured.

“I took the chance that I needed to take to survive, to stay in business and keep my employees, and get my son in college,” she said.

Some of her workers, and her husband, have pre-existing conditions, so premiums for her company could have been as high as 6,500 dollars a month. In a nail-biting move, they went without, paying out of pocket instead.

Now that health care reform has passed, Marci and her family feel relieved.

The health reform also stirs anxiety. The key, double-edge provision worrying small businesses is the requirement that everyone be insured, or else pay a fine.

“Businesses like mine, we work hard for our money, and sometimes it’s hard to come by,” said Mark Woodward, owner of Lorenz Fine Cutlery. “It’s going to be tough if we’re forced into paying for insurance for our employees.”

Controversies among Americans

Public opinion over the controversial new law, which will extend health insurance benefits to more than 30 million uninsured Americans, also varies among average Americans.

Sharon Ammons, an African American who hands out newspapers in Northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C., said of the bill’s passage: “It’s about time. It’s going to help a lot of people.”

Pam Betterton, a Caucasian American, said she is in favor of the bill’s passage and unconcerned about tax increases to pay for it.

“It’s part of being a citizen,” she said of the passage of the legislation to insure more Americans.

But polls show a slim majority of Americans are still opposed to Obama’s plan. A Gallup survey taken earlier this month found that 45 percent favor and 48 oppose Obama’s healthcare plan and that more Americans believe new legislation will make things worse for the United States as a whole.

And the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone poll, taken on Friday and Saturday nights, shows that 41 percent of likely voters favor the health care plan and 54 percent oppose it, figures that are consistent with previous findings, the company said.

Some 180 students who currently pursuing their studies at the Addis Ababa Confucius Institute on Tuesday took part in an written examination which will qualify them for scholarship in China.

The examination has been given to qualify five students who will go to Tianjing University of Technology and Education in China where they will attend classes learning Chinese language and culture.

According to Zhai Fengjie, the director general of Addis Ababa Confucius Institute, the students will further have interviews in Chinese language by which the institute finally identifies those five students.

Zhai said all accommodations, transportation and living costs of the students will be covered by the Headquarters of Confucius Institute in Beijing.

She said every year the headquarters supplies some number of scholarships to different Confucius Institutes across the world, and this year it has provided five scholarships to students at Addis Ababa Confucius Institute.

Simon Hailu, an Ethiopian student, told Xinhua that he is eagerly to know is exam results as the scholarship is a special opportunity for his future life career.

The student said he wants to attend the Chinese language and culture classes to make their future bright with employment opportunities.

Zhai said the students, after finishing their classes from Tianjing University of Technology and Education, will come back and complete their special study at the Addis Ababa Confucius Institute.

Currently some 250 students are pursuing their studies at the Addis Ababa Confucius Institute.

Hundreds of Argentine workers demanding a rise in salary occupied Buenos Aires province’s Department of Culture and Education building for six hours Tuesday.

The protesters, all members of the Association of State Workers, said they would stage a strike on April 7.

The workers also demanded authorities return the amount of money deducted from their salaries for participating in a strike in February.

Mario Oporto, director-general of the province’s Educational and Cultural Affairs, said he wouldn’t meet the workers as long as they continue their protests, which he called violent.

Gustavo Corradini, assistant director for the department, said the protesters would be taken to court to determine how much they should pay for the possible damage.