Iran says hopes China won't bow to sanctions pressure

Iran said on Tuesday it hoped China would not give in to pressure to agree to new sanctions that the United States and its allies hope to win U.N. approval for over its nuclear program.

"China is a great country which enjoys enough power to pursue its own decisions independently without being pressured by America," foreign minister spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at a news conference in Tehran.
"Of course our expectations from such a big country is the same ... to pursue its foreign policies independently and just observe its own national interests," he said, citing Iran's close relations with China.
China's Foreign Minister said on Sunday new sanctions on Iran would not solve the stand-off over its nuclear program, which Western powers fear will allow Tehran to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran says it is only interested in electricity.
Washington and other Western powers want China to approve a proposed U.N. resolution imposing new sanctions on Iran, a big source of oil for China.
Beijing has previously resisted calls for harsh sanctions and Yang emphasized his government's reluctance, while stopping short of opposing outright any new U.N. resolution.
A draft Western document proposes restricting more Iranian banks abroad, but does not call for sanctions against Iran's oil and gas industries.
China is one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, each holding the power to veto resolutions.

Apple Teams With China Unicom On New iPhone

Apple Inc., the company behind the popular iPod music player, is reportedly trying to re-enter the Chinese smartphone market with its iPhone device, by working together with China Unicom.The Cupertino-based company wants to offer a re-designed version of its popular iPhone, along with Chinese standard WiFi capabilities.
Back in October, Apple tried to enter the Chinese smartphone market, but failed to take the country by storm as the phone offered a lot less than the what was being offered by the localized fake versions of the device.
The Chinese government asked Apple and Unicom to stop supporting WiFi and adapt to the Chinese standard WAPI.
However, now, Wall Street Journal has reported that Apple and Unicom are working together to offer the Chinese customers a re-designed iPhone which will comply with all state laws including support for WAPI wireless internet and WiFi.
Talking to reporters at a session of the National People's Congress, Unicom's Chief Executive Chang Xiaobing stated that the company will look to sell the iPhone at a competitive price in order to cope with competition from the cheaper fake versions of the device available in grey markets across China.

China denounces Dalai Lama as Tibet riot's anniversary looms

China on Tuesday accused the Dalai Lama of trying to "create chaos" in Tibet, on the eve of the sensitive anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule that drove the Buddhist monk into exile.

China on Tuesday accused the Dalai Lama (pictured in February) of trying to "create chaos" in Tibet, on the eve of the sensitive anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule that drove the Buddhist monk into exile.

Two years ago, protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa to mark the anniversary of the March 10, 1959 uprising descended into deadly violence, prompting a massive security clampdown in the Himalayan region that is ongoing.
"If there were no anti-China forces or no Dalai to destroy and create chaos, Tibet would be better off than it is today," the region's Communist Party secretary Zhang Qingli said in an interview posted on a government website.
"Although anti-China forces and the Dalai clique are trying to... destroy our harmony and stability, they can never shake our heartfelt belief that China cannot live without Tibet and Tibet cannot live without China," he said.
China would continue to pour investment into Tibet in an effort to develop the economy of the remote, impoverished region and raise the living standards of its people, Zhang said.
Zhang's remarks came during the nation's ongoing annual parliamentary session, at which top leaders and lawmakers have heaped praise on Beijing's efforts to develop Tibet -- and hit out at the Dalai Lama.
"Tibet has witnessed the fastest-ever development in its history (under China's rule)," Qiangba Puncog, head of Tibet's legislature, told journalists on Sunday.
Over the last eight years, Tibet has witnessed over 12 percent economic growth annually as 180 billion yuan (26 billion dollars) was poured into infrastructure in the region, mostly by the central government, he said.
Zhang said such investment would continue in the coming years and would remain the bedrock of Beijing's efforts to ensure "socialism with Chinese characteristics" in Tibet.
"Our main task is to improve the lives of the people and give them a foot to stand on," Zhang said.
"Here the central government has given us a lot of support. We will take this money and invest more of it on the basic level."
China routinely blames unrest in Tibet on the Dalai Lama, viewed by Beijing as a separatist bent on independence. The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner has denied such accusations, saying he is seeking "real autonomy" for the region.
Zhang further insisted that Tibetans enjoyed full freedom of religion, but that police crackdowns in the region were largely due to "anti-China and separatist forces inciting monks into doing bad things."
Tourist officials and hotel operators said the streets of Lhasa remained quiet ahead of the anniversaries of the uprising and the violence, but that foreign tourists still needed special permission to visit Tibet.
"The armed police are still patrolling the streets, just like they have been doing since the riots," an official at the China Youth Tourism Service told AFP, asking not to be named.

India Suspends Lawmakers Opposing Bill on Women Legislators

India’s Parliament today suspended seven legislators to ease the passage of a 14-year-old plan to reserve a third of lawmaker’s seats for women after the elected representatives disrupted business for two days.

The Women’s Reservation Bill, which will apply to the federal parliament in New Delhi and regional assemblies, could not be put to vote yesterday in the upper house of parliament as politicians opposed the draft, shouted slogans, tore up official papers and forced repeated adjournment of proceedings.

“We will oppose the bill tooth and nail in its present form,” said Akhilesh Yadav, a lawmaker of the Samajwadi Party. “We want reservations,” for women from under privileged sections of society, he said. The government has ruled out such sub-quotas that would mirror state-mandated caste and religion- based reservations in education and government jobs.

Men in the world’s second-most populous nation have a literacy rate 20 percentage points higher than women and dominate in the workplace. While the president, the speaker of parliament are female and four of India’s main political parties are led by women, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, just 11 percent of members of the lower house of parliament and 9 percent of the upper house, are female.

Discrimination against the girl child has driven the country’s sex ratio down to 933 women for every 1,000 men.

Seven Suspended

The bill, which has the backing of the ruling Congress party and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, caused both houses of parliament to be adjourned twice today following protests by lawmakers opposing it. The chairman of the upper house Hamid Ansari suspended seven members today for their unruly behavior.

“Let me once again reaffirm our government’s commitment to all round social, economic and political empowerment of our women, whatever effort and resources the task might take,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said March 6.

In a report released yesterday to mark International Women’s Day, the United Nations Development Program said quotas for “women-held seats in political bodies can be effective,” citing India’s efforts to boost representation at the village level.

Still, “quotas must be combined with constitutional provisions, leadership training and political party reforms to bring women into the political mainstream in their own right,” the report said. The Asia-Pacific region contains the second- lowest percentage of women legislators in the world, above only the Arab world, it said.

Political Dynasties

Women elected to the highest office in South Asia have always been linked to political dynasties such as the Gandhi- Nehru family that produced India’s lone female Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, Sonia’s mother-in-law.

Sri Lanka, India’s neighbor, was the first country to elect a woman prime minister, when the late Sirimavo Bandaranaike assumed office after the assassination of her husband. In Bangladesh, the government has largely alternated between Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the sole surviving daughter of the nation’s founder Mujibur Rehman, and Khaleda Zia, the widow of assassinated President Zia-ur-Rehman, since 1991.

Opponents of the bill, mainly parties that draw their support from poor rural regions, argue it will deepen the country’s class divide and fail to boost representation among the least empowered.

“We are not against reservation for women but society’s needy women should be represented,” said Lalu Prasad, leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal said today.

Village councils have raised female representation to nearly 40 percent, and the ruling Congress-led coalition wants to increase it further so women make up half of members.

The bill to extend those gains to national and regional legislatures needs the approval of two-thirds of lawmakers of each house of parliament. It has the backing of at least 165 members in the upper house of parliament, 10 more than the required number for its passage.

Sonia Gandhi last week told party lawmakers the legislation will be a “gift to the women of India.”

India refutes Pak statement on Saeed

NEW DELHI: India on Sunday set the record straight and asserted that Hafiz Saeed continues to be on the ‘most wanted list’ of terrorists as it denied Pakistan’s claim that arrest of the Jamat-ud-Dawa’s chief was never sought.

The External Affairs Ministry refuted the claim made by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Quareshi that Saeed’s arrest was never discussed during the recent meeting of top diplomats of the two countries in New Delhi.

“Saeed’s activities, including his recent vitriolic and venomous statements aimed at fomenting further acts of terrorism against India and unhindered public space and freedom he enjoys in Pakistan, was raised strongly by India during the Foreign- Secretary level talks,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said.

New Delhi said it was surprised over Qureshi’s remark made in Multan on Friday.

The Pakistan Foreign Minister’s comment was in sharp contrast to the Indian position on Hafiz Saeed and the Mumbai’s 26/11 attack.

India has kept Saeed at the centre of the 26/11 conspiracy.

It has identified Jamat-ud-Dawa as a front f o r Lashkar- e - To i b a .

Qureshi’s comment is being seen in New Delhi as misleading.

Pakistan May Produce Record Cotton Output in 2010 as Rates Rise

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Farmers in Pakistan, the world’s fourth-largest producer of cotton, may increase planting this year after domestic prices rose to a record and a global economic revival lifts demand from textile makers.

Output may increase to a record 16 million bales, Abdul Rasheed Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association, said in a telephone interview from Multan today.

Pakistan produced 12.7 million bales this season, in line with the government’s revised target, compared with an output of 12.1 million bales last year, Khan said. The government had initially set a target of 13.5 million bales.

Domestic prices rose to a record 5,750 rupees ($68) for 37.32 kilograms (82.3 pounds) yesterday, according to the Karachi Cotton Association. Cotton futures for May delivery fell 0.39 cent, or 0.5 percent, to 82.04 cents a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. The most-active contract reached a two-year high of 84.6 cents on March 1 as adverse weather reduced output in the U.S., the world’s largest exporter, and demand revived.

“Despite meeting the production target, local prices increased 50 percent this season, at a faster pace than the international market,” said Sohail Naseem, chairman of the Karachi Cotton Association. “The reason was demand was high as 16 million bales and the lack of hedging.”

Cotton is planted in Pakistan between April and June, and harvested between October and December. Pakistan produced a record 14.4 million bales in 2005.

Pakistan may need to import as much as two million bales this year to meet rising demand from textile makers, Khan said. Mills have so far bought 800,000 bales from overseas, mostly from India, he said.

Pakistan’s textile exports which accounts for two-thirds of the nation’s overseas sales, rose 2.4 percent to $5.95 billion in the seven months ended Jan. 31, according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics. The government plans to increase textile exports to $25 billion by 2014.

Pak has turned into a US colony: Imran Khan

Lahore, Mar 9: Lashing out at  the Pakistani rulers for bowing down to United States, politician and former cricketer Imran Khan said that Pakistan has now turned into a 'colony of the US'.

 

"President Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in a bid to prolong their rule at the centre and in the province of Punjab, respectively, are following American policies and have turned Pakistan into a US colony," he said.

Refusing to join hands with US, Khan said that if his party, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf comes to power then it would changed  Pakistan into a 'true Islamic welfare state'.

"My party is struggling to change the system and it will never join hands with opportunist political forces of the country," Khan said.

Khan said that the government should move on from torturing 'small time thieves' and instead concentrate on bringing to book the beneficiaries of now-defunct National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), a graft amnesty of which Zardari and several of his close associates are benficiaries.

"The office of president is still in the clutches of a dictator, who is facing a friendly opposition in the form of the PML-N, and the political dispensation is similar to that of General Pervez Musharraf's regime," he said.

Khan, whose party is considered to be close to the radical Jamaat-e- Islami, was recently asked to mediate between the local Taliban and the government.

Both Khan's party and Jamaat-e- Islami boycotted the 2008 general election.

British boy kidnapped in Pakistan safe - police

JHELUM, Pakistan (Reuters) - A five-year-old British boy kidnapped in Pakistan nearly a week ago is alive and police are making progress in the investigation, a police official said on Tuesday.
Sahil Saeed, who is of Pakistani origin, was abducted last Thursday after gunmen barged into his grandmother's house, held the family at gun-point for hours and then left with some valuables and the boy.
"The child is safe. We made some progress and hopefully, we'll sort out this case soon," Khalid Mehmood, police superintendent for investigations in the city of Jhelum, told Reuters.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Sunday that police were closing in on the kidnappers and that the abductors appeared to be close to the boy's family.
Kidnapping is a major problem in Pakistan and many of the crimes go unreported. Police have said Taliban militants use ransoms from kidnappings to fund their insurgency against the U.S.-backed government.
No sign has emerged that the abduction of the boy, who is from the English town of Oldham, was linked to militants.
Police have said the gunmen took away 150,000 rupees (1,169 pounds) and some gold and later demanded a 10 million rupee 978,836 pounds) ransom.
Police said the kidnappers had been tipped off that the boy and his father were planning to fly home to Britain last Thursday after visiting relatives in Pakistan.