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Thailand's middle classes lead unlikely protest - against democracy
As the crowds of angry demonstrators beseiged the parliament, it looked as if a classic people's revolution was underway.
With the scent of police teargas in his nostrils and screams of protest ringing in his ears, Thailand's embattled prime minister Somchai Wongsawat fled the building, vaulted over a fence and clambered into a waiting helicopter to escape the crowds who had besieged all four exits.
Yet while it might have evoked memories of the fall of Saigon in 1975, last week's violent protest in Bangkok was not the dawn of a new order, but an attempt to restore an old one. Welcome to the Yellow Revolution - where the chosen hue represents the colours of the Thai king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, and where the clamor is for less democracy, not more.
"We cannot accept this robber government, we want to protect this nation and royalty. This government is cheating everything from this land, and they want to destroy the monarchy," said Praek, a computer technician stood among the sea of yellow-clad demonstrators outside the parliament. As the crowds of angry demonstrators beseiged the parliament, it looked as if a classic people's revolution was underway. ... more -
Tainted China water sickens 450
About 450 people have fallen ill in southern China after drinking contaminated water, the Xinhua state news agency says.
Four of the sick, in two villages in Guangxi province, have arsenic poisoning. Industrial waste from a metal company has been blamed.
Residents began to show symptoms of facial swelling, vomiting and blurred vision on 3 October.
Last month, tainted milk left more than 50,000 children sick.
Plant closed
Ge Xianmin, head of the Guangxi regional occupational disease prevention and control institute, told Xinhua: "The villagers were slightly poisoned. They can be cured in nine to 15 days with timely treatment."
Health officials said 23 children under the age of seven and 32 people aged over 60 had been kept in hospital for observation, while others were receiving outpatient treatment.
According to local government officials, torrential rain caused waste water containing arsenic from the Jinhai Metallurgy Chemical company to overflow and pollute nearby ponds and wells.
The company - a branch of the state-owned Liuzhou China Tin Company - was closed after the contamination was discovered.
Xinhua said the local government and the company had agreed to share the medical costs of the villagers.
Last month, four children died and more than 50,000 were sickened after they were fed on baby milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine.
The scandal resulted in a recall of many Chinese milk products. About 450 people have fallen ill in southern China after drinking contaminated water, the Xinhua state news agency says. ... more -
N Korea taken off US terror list
Washington is to remove North Korea from its list of countries sponsoring terrorism, US officials have confirmed.
US State Department officials made the announcement after reaching an agreement with Pyongyang over nuclear verification measures.
"Every element of verification that we sought has been included in this agreement," an official said.
The US listing has been a major factor in the deadlock over North Korea's nuclear disarmament.
The State Department spokesman also said that North Korea would resume its disablement of nuclear facilities.
The move follows days of deliberations within the US administration after a visit to Pyongyang last week by US envoy Christopher Hill.
Analysts say the deal will be unpopular with some conservative Republicans.
North Korea began disabling its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in August, but more recently it has made moves to reassemble the plant after Washington refused to remove it from the terror sponsors' list.
In other provocative steps, it expelled UN inspectors and test-fired short-range missiles, heightening tensions with the US.
Correspondents say that Pyongyang wants to come off the US list in order to receive international aid and loans, and as a step towards its diplomatic rehabilitation. Washington is to remove North Korea from its list of countries sponsoring terrorism, US officials have confirmed. ... more -
Flowers bloom on glass
On October 4, China’s state-run website, Xinhuanet.com, carried a report stating a rare white flower—said to blossom every 3000 years—was again found blooming in China.
According to the report, 47 such little flowers were seen growing on the glass of an office building window in Qingdao City.
“It’s amazing that flowers can grow on glass, isn’t it!” marveled one of the company employees, who guessed they might be udumbara flowers
A reporter confirmed that little white flowers were standing on window glass on the east side of the company’s second-floor office. There were 47 of them, 1 millimeter in diameter and white in color, with bell-shaped flowers and wire-thin stems.
The flower stems were connected to the glass with no soil found in between.
One company employee said, “When we first saw them, we didn’t know what they were. We even thought they were dirt smear, and we almost wiped them off with a piece of cloth.” A manager, excited when seeing the flowers, said, “This is probably the legendary udumbara.”
The reporter covering the story searched online, finding that similar flowers were spotted in other places too. The flowers discovered at this company looked very similar to the photos of undumbara found elsewhere.
The Legendary Undumbara
Last year, Daqing Evening, a local newspaper in northeastern China, ran a special report on the findings of the flower, and invited specialists to authenticate them.
The author of the report said that several experts and scholars interviewed were unable to identify the origin and name of the flower. Through observation under microscope, specialists concluded that they were not worm eggs, as suggested by some media in China.
While specialists failed to come up with any explanation, documentations of the rare flowers appeared more than once in Buddhist sutras. According to one such ancient document, Fahuawenju/sishang, “undumbara is a miraculous flower which blossoms once every 3000 years, when the King of Gold Wheel appears.”
“Undumbara” is Sanskrit for “lucky flower” or “levitating flower.”
Undumbara in Recent Years
Photographers over the years have taken close-up shots of such flowers, and some even caught the petals in full blossom.
In October last year, a Houston resident, Mr. Lin, noted dozens of undumbara on the leaves of his red bamboo plants at home. With the help of a biologist, an Epoch Times photographer took a series of photos of the undumbara, in which the flowers’ petals and pistils were clearly visible.
In 2005, undumbara were first found in several temples in South Korea, and in the past two years, more were spotted in other places around the world
According to incomplete statistics, as of July this year, the flower was spotted blooming in 14 places, including Hunan Province and Chongqing City of China, Malaysia, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States. They were found growing on glass, steel tubes, and stems and leaves of other plants. On October 4, China’s state-run website, Xinhuanet.com, carried a report stating a rare white flower—said to blossom every 3000 years—... more -
Asian stocks hit after Dow plunge
Asian markets have opened heavily down after US stocks fell to their lowest level for five years.
Tokyo's Nikkei-225 index has dropped 11.3%, while South Korea, Australia and Singapore crashed 7% in early trading, in the wake of the Wall Street losses.
Despite concerted government action, investors are fearful the financial crisis will prompt a global recession.
Finance minister from the G7 leading industrial countries are set to meet in Washington to discuss the crisis.
US President George W Bush is due to make an address to the American people later in the day.
Talkis will also be held at the International Monetary Fund, whose chief Dominique Strauss-Khan said on Thursday the lending procedure would allow the IMF to react quickly to support countries facing funding problems.
Mr Strauss-Kahn said the world was "on the cusp of recession", but could still recover.
After a gloomy day's trading in Europe on Thursday, the Dow Jones - the US benchmark index - ended down 7.3% - tumbled below 9,000 points for the first time since August 2003.
"We're way beyond fundamentals. This is just pure panic, that's all it is," said Chris Orndorff, head of equity strategy at Payden & Rygel, in Los Angeles.
Iceland mission
The IMF scheme, which was used during the Asian financial crisis in 1997, would help speed up approval of loans.
The body has already sent a mission to Iceland, where the government has taken control of its three biggest banks.
There is no domestic solution to a crisis like this one
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF managing director
Time to reform the IMF?
'Major global downturn' says IMF
Stocks falter as fears persist
Speaking ahead of meetings of the IMF and World Bank, Mr Strauss-Khan urged countries to act "quickly, forcefully, and cooperatively" to solve the global economic problems.
A day after seven central banks around the world cut interest rates in an effort to calm financial markets, the IMF chief said further co-ordinated action was necessary.
"All kinds of policy co-operation are to be commended," he said.
But he issued a stark warning against countries acting unilaterally to fight the crisis, referring to recent isolated moves by certain European Union member countries.
"There is no domestic solution to a crisis like this one."
Finance ministers from the G7 group of wealthy nations are to meet in Washington this weekend. Asian markets have opened heavily down after US stocks fell to their lowest level for five years. ... more -
Nikkei dives 9.4 percent, biggest 1-day fall since '87
TOKYO (Reuters) - The Nikkei average plunged 9.4 percent on Wednesday, its biggest drop since the 1987 stock market crash, as growing fears of a global recession led investors to wipe $250 billion off the value of Tokyo shares.
Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) tumbled more than 11 percent on growing expectations that the crisis would bite deeper into its profits, while the yen hit a six-month high against the dollar, adding to the pressure on exporter shares.
Panic over the fast-spreading financial crisis dragged down markets across Asia, with Japanese steelmakers such as Nippon Steel Corp (5401.T) sliding, as the Nikkei set another five-year closing low. It has lost 19 percent in the past five days.
"The deteriorating outlook for the economy and the deepening financial crisis are pushing fear to its limit," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.
"Investors want to dump shares as their willingness to take risks has shrunk, but no one wants to buy even if stocks are valued cheaply."
The yen climbed to a six-month high against the tumbling U.S. dollar, as investors stampeded away from stocks and risky positions.
The Nikkei posted its biggest one-day fall since a 14.9 percent drop on October 20, 1987, the day after Black Monday, and logged the third-largest one-day drop ever.
The Indonesia Stock Exchange halted trading on Wednesday after the benchmark composite index (.JKSE) dropped more than 10 percent, while Hong Kong's main stock market index (.HSI) dropped more than 5 percent.
The benchmark Nikkei (.N225) slid 952.58 points to 9,203.32, its lowest close since June 2003. TOKYO (Reuters) - The Nikkei average plunged 9.4 percent on Wednesday, its biggest drop since the 1987 stock market crash, as growing ... more -
Pakistan facing bankruptcy
Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves are so low that the country can only afford one month of imports and faces possible bankruptcy.
Officially, the central bank holds $8.14 billion (£4.65 billion) of foreign currency, but if forward liabilities are included, the real reserves may be only $3 billion - enough to buy about 30 days of imports like oil and food.
Nine months ago, Pakistan had $16 bn in the coffers.
The government is engulfed by crises left behind by Pervez Musharraf, the military ruler who resigned the presidency in August. High oil prices have combined with endemic corruption and mismanagement to inflict huge damage on the economy.
Given the country's standing as a frontline state in the US-led "war on terrorism", the economic crisis has profound consequences. Pakistan already faces worsening security as the army clashes with militants in the lawless Tribal Areas on the north-west frontier with Afghanistan.
The economic crisis has already placed the future of the new government in doubt after the transition to a civilian rule. President Asif Ali Zardari has faced numerous but unproven allegations of corruption dating from the two governments led by his wife, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated last December.
The Wall Street Journal said that Pakistan's economic travails were "at least in part, a crisis of confidence in him".
While Mr Musharraf's prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, frequently likened Pakistan to a "Tiger economy", the former government left an economy on the brink of ruin without any durable base.
The Pakistan rupee has lost more than 21 per cent of its value so far this year and inflation now runs at 25 per cent. The rise in world prices has driven up Pakistan's food and oil bill by a third since 2007.
Efforts to defer payment for 100,000 barrels of oil supplied every day by Saudi Arabia have not yet yielded results, while the government has also failed to raise loans on favourable terms from "friendly countries".
Mr Zardari told the Wall Street Journal that Pakistan needed a bail out worth $100 billion from the international community.
"If I can't pay my own oil bill, how am I going to increase my police?" he asked. "The oil companies are asking me to pay $135 [per barrel] of oil and at the same time they want me to keep the world peaceful and Pakistan peaceful."
The ratings agency Standard and Poor's has given Pakistan's sovereign debt a grade of CCC +, which stands only a few notches above the default level.
The agency gave warning that Pakistan may be unable to cover about $3 billion in upcoming debt payments.
Mr Zardari is expected to ask the international community for a rescue package at a meeting in Abu Dhabi next month.
This gathering will determine whether the West is willing to bail out Pakistan. Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves are so low that the country can only afford one month of imports and faces possible bankrupt... more -
Asia markets extend massive losses
Stock markets in Asia have continued to dive one day after global markets were ravaged as confidence in the financial system continued to desert investors.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei index plunged more than 500 points, or five per cent to below the 10,000-point mark shortly after trading started on Tuesday, extending Monday's losses where it fell 4.3 per cent for its lowest close since February 2004.
Share prices in Australia, New Zealand and South Korea were also sharply lower on Tuesday.
The losses tracked an overnight plunge in US stocks, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling 700 points at one stage before closing down 369.88 points, or 3.58 per cent, to 9,955.50 on Monday, the first time the Dow has closed below 10,000 since October 2004.
Broader US stock indicators also fell, with the Standard & Poor's 500 dropping 42.34 points, or 3.85 per cent, to 1,056.89, and the Nasdaq Composite Index shedding 84.43 points, or 4.34 per cent, to 1,862.96.
For the year to date, the Dow is down about 25 per cent, the S&P 500 is down 28 per cent and the Nasdaq is down 29.8 per cent.
John Haynes, a strategist at Rensburg Sheppard Investment Management, said "people have decided that markets have no ability to repair themselves ... the buyers have stepped away, and the sellers are still there".
Al Jazeera's John Terrett, reporting from New York, explained that there were fears that Washington's $700bn bailout package approved last week may not be enough to stop the financial bleeding.
Our correspondent reported that the Libor, the rate at which banks lend money to each other, went up on Monday, which was not expected to happen after the bailout plan was approved.
George Bush, the US president, said it would take time for the financial rescue plan to be put into place and confidence to return to financial markets.
But he said on Monday that he believed "this plan will work over time".
The US treasury department on Monday named a former Goldman Sachs executive to oversee spending of the $700bn to buy up bad debts from troubled institutions and pledged to work with other countries to calm global financial markets.
The US administration announced that it had chosen Neel Kashkari, an assistant treasury secretary for international affairs, to head the treasury's new Office of Financial Stability on an interim basis. Stock markets in Asia have continued to dive one day after global markets were ravaged as confidence in the financial system continued... more -
World Markets Down
Asian and European stock markets plunged Monday as government bank bailouts in the U.S. and Europe failed to alleviate fears that the global financial crisis would depress world economic growth. Asian and European stock markets plunged Monday as government bank bailouts in the U.S. and Europe failed to alleviate fears that the ... more
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China 'spying on Skype messages'
Messages sent through the internet telephone service Skype are being monitored by the Chinese government, according to a Canadian study. Messages sent through the internet telephone service Skype are being monitored by the Chinese government, according to a Canadian stud... more
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Nuclear deal with India 'very soon,' Rice says
Condolleeza Rice has said that she hopes a nuclear trade deal with India is close.
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Extreme Piercing: Vegetarians Celebrate Pain [WTF]
Welcome to the Phuket Vegetarian Festival...
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Woman’s paper skin a walking notepad
For this Chinese woman who suffers from a condition called artificial urticaria, her skin has served as a notebook for all the years of her life.
This strange medical anomaly has no ill effects, but most agree that it is very weird. For this Chinese woman who suffers from a condition called artificial urticaria, her skin has served as a notebook for all the years o... more -
South Korean star found dead
An actress has committed suicide in South Korea; her body was found by police at her apartment.
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Student visa fraud rampant
Canada places so few restrictions on foreign students and the schools that attract them that it has left the student-visa system open to widespread abuse and fraud, according to an internal government review obtained by The Vancouver Sun. Canada places so few restrictions on foreign students and the schools that attract them that it has left the student-visa system open ... more
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India and France in nuclear deal
India and France have signed a major co-operation pact which paves the way for the sale of French nuclear reactors to Delhi, officials say.
The nuclear accord was agreed in Paris between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Nicolas Sarkozy. The deal "will form the basis for enlarged bilateral co-operation in the fields of energy and research", the French presidency said in a statement. France is a leading world exporter of civilian nuclear technology.
The two leaders made no public comment after signing the deal. But a French presidential aide said that that "today we are at the intergovernmental stage, and after that the industrialists will begin their co-operation". Tuesday's signing comes after India and France agreed a Framework Agreement for Civil Nuclear Co-operation in January.
Reports say the deal includes providing India with France's latest model of the European Pressurised Reactor as well as other civilian nuclear material. Correspondents say that the deal is good news for India - which is desperately short of energy to fuel its booming economy - and places it firmly as a world nuclear power.
The deal in effect ends a ban which prevented countries from engaging in civilian nuclear trade with Delhi. The ban was imposed in 1974 when India used its civilian programme to produce and successfully test an atomic bomb. France is the world's second largest producer of nuclear energy after the United States.
(continues at link) India and France have signed a major co-operation pact which paves the way for the sale of French nuclear reactors to Delhi, officials... more -
Markets take a dive in Asia
Hong Kong, India hit hard as stocks plummet.
Shares of media and entertainment companies in Asia received a pounding Monday, with those in Hong Kong and India hardest hit, as the progress through Congress of the U.S.' $700 billion rescue plan failed to impress.
Shares in Hong Kong's largest media company, PCCW, fell 11% to a five-year low of HK$3.07 (40¢) compared with the wider Hang Seng index, which was off by 4.3% to a two-year low of 17,880.
Markets across the Asia-Pacific region fell Monday, with the exception of New Zealand, which was little changed, and Taiwan, which was closed following Sunday's powerful typhoon.
Japanese stocks saw relatively gentle trading compared with Hong Kong and India. The wide Topix index dropped by 1.7%, but Japan's movie majors Toho and Shochiku managed small gains. Sony and Toei slipped less than 1%.
PCCW's share performance reflected concern over the proposed $2 billion private equity buyout of its media interests.
Fears are that large, leveraged buyouts of this kind will be blown off track or become impossible if banks are unwilling to lend to buyers. Hong Kong, India hit hard as stocks plummet. ... more -
Singapore opposition leader dies
Veteran Singapore politician JB Jeyaretnam has died of heart failure in a Singapore hospital, aged 82. He was the first to break a government monopoly on power in Singapore when he won a seat in parliament in 1981. He had been forced into bankruptcy over defamation cases won by the government but was planning a new run for office. Dubbed the Grand Old Man of opposition politics, analysts said Mr Jeyaretnam was a thorn in the side of Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan-yew. Born in 1926 in Jaffna, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Mr Jeyaretnam trained as a lawyer in Britain before making his home in Singapore.
He served as an MP from 1981 to 1986 and from 1997 to 2001. His first victory, as standard bearer for the Workers' Party, came when he defeated the People's Action Party (PAP) of founding prime minister of independent Singapore Mr Lee. He was returned to parliament in 1984 but in 1986 was found guilty of making a false declaration of his party's accounts and fined a sum which made him liable to expulsion from the legislature. He was disqualified from sitting in parliament until 1991, and disbarred from legal practice.
The Privy Council in Britain ruled in 1988 that he had been wrongly disbarred in "a grievous injustice". Mr Lee "appeared determined to drive him from political life" wrote Professor Michael Leifer in his Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Southeast Asia. Not until 1997 did Mr Jeyaretnam try again; he re-entered parliament as a non-constituency member without voting rights. Just over a year later he was again brought to court, on the charge of having defamed then prime minister Goh Chok-tong and ten other senior members of the PAP.
Although the court found in favour of the government it awarded damages at only one-tenth of the amount possible but on appeal, damages were increased and full costs imposed on Mr Jeyaretnam. By May 2000, he was declared bankrupt for failing to keep up payments in another libel case. He left the Workers' Party in 2001, and was discharged from bankruptcy in 2007.
This year he helped form the Reform Party to challenge the 40-year rule of Singapore by the PAP, saying Singapore had been "enslaved" by its rulers. He said in April he planned to run in the next parliament election, due by 2011. His death came just days before he was to appear in the High Court to seek an order that a by-election be held for a seat that is currently vacant, his family told AFP news agency. GK Pamela, another of his relatives, said Mr Jeyaretnam hoped he would be propelled back into parliament. "That was his wish," she told AFP in tears. "Such a good man. Why did God take him?"
The opposition has long been marginalised in Singapore, where it complains of limited access to the pro-government mainstream media and restrictions on public assemblies. The People's Action Party, which has ruled Singapore since independence from Malaysia in 1965, holds 82 out of 84 elected seats in Parliament. The Straits Times website described Mr Jeyaretnam as "pugnacious", an "old warhorse" and "irrelevant". Veteran Singapore politician JB Jeyaretnam has died of heart failure in a Singapore hospital, aged 82. He was the first to break a go... more -
Japanese artists make creative barcodes
Aah, this will make shopping for groceries a pleasure.
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American warships surround a cargo ship held by Somali pirates.
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