Kasit is twisting the UNSC recommendations and turn it into "BILATERAL" talks

Thai FM: 'Ball in Cambodian court' on bilateral talks, permanent ceasefire

BANGKOK, Feb 15 (MCOT online news, agencies) - Thailand is ready to hold bilateral talks to settle the Thai-Cambodian border dispute and to sign a ceasefire agreement but it depends on the Cambodian decision on its commitment to the United Nations, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said.

Interviewed by telephone on state-run television NBT after a meeting of the 15-member United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Thai-Cambodia border clash near Preah Vihear temple that all UNSC members wanted to see Thailand and Cambodia hold bilateral talks while the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in which Thailand and Cambodia are members to be a mentor.

He said the ASEAN foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Jakarta, Indonesia on Feb 22.

Thailand would inform the meeting that Thailand and Cambodia have bilateral talks framework including the 2000 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and the Joint Boundary Commission (JBC).

Thailand proposed hosting the JBC on Feb 27 and it is up to Cambodia's decision whether to attend the meeting or not, he said.

"Thailand has proposed to Cambodia for the next joint border committee to be held at the end of this month. I hope that the invitation would be accepted to demonstrate to the world our commitment to the international community that the bilateral negotiation must go on to bring about [resolution], I think, not only of the border issue, but overall peace and security," Mr Kasit told reporters after the Security Council meeting.

As for the permanent ceasefire recommended by the Security Council, Mr Kasit said on state television that it could be possible with talks between Thai and Cambodian defence ministers. Thailand has clearly stated that it wants peace and expressed a sincere desire to hold talks but it depended on Cambodia's decision.

Thailand also proposed to delay the management plan for Preah Vihear temple as it was considered a flash point that could ignite military clashes until the border demarcation is completed.

The council on Monday expressed "grave concern" at recent border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia between Feb 4-7 and called on the two sides to establish a permanent ceasefire and settle the dispute peacefully.

The council gave strong backing to the efforts of the 10-member ASEAN to help resolve the conflict in the disputed border region surrounding Preah Vihear temple, a protected UN World Heritage site.

Council president Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti of Brazil made the call after a closed-door session with Thai Foreign Minister Kasit, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa in his capacity as the current chair of ASEAN.

"The members of the Security Council called on the two sides to display maximum restraint and avoid any action that may aggravate the situation. The members of the Security Council further urged the parties to establish a permanent ceasefire and to implement it fully and resolve the situation peacefully and through effective dialogue," she said at the press briefing after the meeting.

Thailand and Cambodia blame each other for recent clashes near the ancient Preah Vihear temple that killed at least three Thais and eight Cambodians.

Cambodia had asked the council for an emergency meeting on the issue. Council members initially resisted allowing the dispute to come to New York but eventually agreed to Monday's meeting.

The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the 11th century Preah Vihear temple belongs to Phnom Penh. UNESCO named it a World Heritage site in 2008 after Cambodia had applied for the status. The country submitted a management plan for the temple to UNESCO’s World Heritage Commission in 2010, which deferred a decision until this year.

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China's Prices Rise 4.9%

15-Feb-2011 

Wall Street Journal

BEIJING--China's consumer prices rose 4.9% in January from a year earlier, prompting worries that the world's second-largest economy is falling behind in the fight against inflation, as are other countries in Asia.

While the increase in the consumer price index, which was faster than December's 4.6%, doesn't sound especially high by U.S. standards—let alone the sky-high levels of Latin America in the 1980s—Chinese leaders are extraordinarily sensitive to inflation, which has long been associated with political unrest. The headline numbers also underplay the impact on many ordinary Chinese. The foods component, for instance, jumped 10.3%, and has averaged more than 10% for the past four months. Hundreds of millions of Chinese still live at or just above poverty levels, and so are especially sensitive to food increases.

The numbers also don't capture adequately the rise in assets, such as housing prices. Lu Feng, director of Peking University's Macroeconomic Research Center, said that China's extraordinary gains in manufacturing productivity hold down the cost of manufactured goods, which is reflected in the consumer price index.

Inflation is caused by too much money in the system chasing too few goods, he said, and that "excessive money largely goes to asset markets, so it boosts asset prices and can even result in asset bubbles," including possible bubbles in such items as housing, antiques and ancient paintings. 

China's National Bureau of Statistics reworked the way it calculates the CPI, in part by decreasing slightly the weighting of food and increasing the weighting of housing items. The National Bureau of Statistics said that using the old measure the inflation rate in January would have been slightly lower. But a Wall Street Journal calculation using an estimate of the old weighting shows it may have produced an inflation reading of 5.1%—higher than the government reported.

China has raised interest rates three times since October, most recently last week, but benchmark lending rates, at around 6%, are still barely above the rate of inflation.

Earlier this month, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao tried to reassure the public that the government would tame inflation by attacking China's rising food costs. 

"We are confident that we have the ability to promote the stable development of agricultural products, to ensure the effective supply of agricultural products, especially grain, and to maintain the overall basic stability of goods prices," he told China's State Council, the government's highest administrative body, in remarks reported on television.

Most major economies would boost interest rates to fight inflation, but China tends to keep rates low and depend instead on industrial policy measures, including, in this case, incentives to boost farm production. It's unclear whether such measures can work rapidly enough to tamp down inflationary pressure.

Rising inflation has become a problem across fast-growing Asia, which has seen a huge increase in investment from overseas and which relied on big stimulus measures to fight the effects of the global financial crisis between 2008 and 2010.

Anoop Singh, the International Monetary Fund's Asia chief, said there are signs inflation is becoming a structural issue, reflecting underlying demand, not just a temporary rise in food or commodity prices. He urged Asian nations to boost the value of their exchange rates, which would reduce the value of imports, as a way to fight price increases. 

China is wary, though, of letting its currency appreciate more rapidly because it fears that would harm its thriving export industry. The value of the yuan has risen just 3.5% since June 2010 when China said it would let the currency float somewhat. Finance ministers and central bankers of the Group-of-20 nations meeting in Paris on Friday and Saturday are bound to press China on its currency policy. 

In China, food prices typically rise prior to the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended on Feb. 8, but January's price increase was intensified by adverse weather, including drought conditions. Non-food price rises also accelerated to 2.6% from 2.1% last year, indicating that inflation pressures are spreading through the economy. All the Chinese price statistics are calculated compared to year-ago levels.

Drought conditions are adding to rising food costs. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization issued a warning recently that at least five of China's major wheat growing provinces, which account for two-thirds of China's wheat production, are facing a severe drought.

In another sign of burgeoning economic activity, China's imports rose 51% in January, nearly twice as fast as it did a month earlier. Exports also rose sharply, by 38%. That narrowed China's trade surplus to $6.45 billion in January, down from $13.1 billion in December, according to customs data. 

Economists cautioned that China's trade figures are typically very volatile at the start of the year, due to distortions caused by the variable timing of the Lunar New Year holiday, which this year fell in the first week of February.

—Tom Orlik contributed to this article.

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Haiti Children Return to School

The playful chanting of whole sentences, occasionally erupting into laughter, belies the difficult teaching enviroment at Milome Brierre elementary where dozens of first graders are learning to read in a makeshift classroom.

Haiti's massive earthquake disrupted classes across Port-au-Prince after toppling schools and leaving many families without the means to support their kids' education in tuition-based Haitian schools. Thousands of children have since resumed their basic education by returning safely to class, thanks to the World Bank-supported Education for All program, which currently provides tuition waivers to 180,000 children in its continuing pursuit of universal access to free education across the Caribbean nation. The Bank's education initiative also includes providing free meals to 80,000 school children and supporting training programs to address teacher shortage in Haiti.

80,000 school children receive free meals and 180,000 tuition subsidies Would-be teachers such as Geslene Paul, 22, benefit from this training initiative that hopes to increase the number of educators in Haiti’s school system to about 1,800 per year. Paul is convinced that this is the way forward for Haiti as it undertakes its long-haul reconstruction. “I’m studying to become a teacher because a society cannot develop without education,  which is the base of any society,” Paul said while taking a break from teaching an elementary class as part of her training program. Nearly three years before the earthquake, the Haitian government acknowledged the shortcomings of its education system, where more than 80 percent of schools are private and governance in the sector is poor, and unveiled its Education For All national strategy (EFA).  EFA received $97 million this year through co-financing by the Canadian International Development Agency, the Caribbean Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank. Those funds have provided tuition subsidies and school supplies in 1,200 primary schools in 8 of Haiti's 10 departments. Additionally, $11.7 million have been disbursed from the EFA multi-donor trust fund to allow over 3,000 private schools to begin functioning following the earthquake. Despite some understandable delays, Haiti should also see soon the first cohort of student-teachers trained with EFA’s funds under an accelerated program meant to improve quantity and quality of education. “The training is free, but after each session there are tests, and there are those who can continue and those who cannot because we are looking for competence in our teacher trainees,” according to Pierre Cadeau Morose, director of the Freres Institute of Teacher Training. Meantime, students finish another school day by singing a tune that encapsulates the Haitian's spirit of resilience and hope for a better future: "The road to the school is sometimes difficult/the road to the school seems to be impossible/but it is at school that life starts/ it also gives you your last chance/at school it is the complete happiness."

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Cambodia charges Briton with sexual abuse of teens

British man in Cambodia has been charged with sexually abusing four teenage boys.

Sok Keo Bandit, a prosecutor in Siem Reap province, says Robert Layland was charged Tuesday with paying to procure a child for prostitution and indecent acts with a minor.

He alleges the 54-year-old Layland, who runs a souvenir shop in the province, had sex with four boys, ranging from 14 to 18 years old. He says the boys worked in Layland's shop.

The anti-child sex group Action Pour Les Enfants says Layland was arrested Monday. Layland is in custody and was not available for comment.

Cambodia has long been a magnet for foreign pedophiles, but in recent years has cracked down on offenders.

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WikiLeaks will continue leaking documents...

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeak website reported to the reporters outside London court on Tuesday that his group plans to accelerate its publication of secret U.S. diplomatic cables and other documents. He said that the WikiLeak's work will continue "unabated."

Since the WikiLeak website launched in 2006 until present, the WikiLeaks website has released hundreds of classified documents. The latest batch includes nearly 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables.

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Developing Countries Are Increasingly Major Users of Discriminatory Trade Barriers

Developing countries imposed temporary trade barriers -- such as anti-dumping, safeguard, and countervailing duty policies on 40 percent more products during the global economic crisis of 2008-2009 than in 2007, according to a new working paper by Chad Bown. By contrast, the increase in all product lines by major users of such policies was 25 percent. The trend, however, didn’t start from the financial crisis: it was already visible in 1990-2007. Furthermore, the paper, for the first time, identified a trend that a much larger share of China’s exports to other developing countries was subject to foreign-imposed anti-dumping than its exports to developed economies. That was also the case with a number of other major developing economy exporters, deepening concern that these discriminatory trade barriers are increasingly a “South-South” phenomenon.

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DPRK says has limited restraint over Seoul's military provocation

Tensions are continuing to escalate on the Korean Peninsula. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is vowing retaliation against the DPRK if his country is provoked again. 
 
The DPRK responded by saying that it has limited restraint over Seoul's military provocation and it will punish the south if it doesn't stop. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak addressed the nation on Monday, calling for solidarity against military provocation by the DPRK.

He called for security readiness that would allow South Korean forces to respond when they come under attack. Lee stressed he is not afraid of war with Pyongyang.

Lee Myung-bak, South Korean President, said, "The DPRK has misread our intentions and aspirations for peace. They have committed provocations against us without the slightest hesitation. We have now woken up to the realization that war can be prevented and peace assured, only when such provocations are met with a strong response."

Lee has sharpened his language after the DPRK shelled of Yeonpyeong island last month, killing four South Koreans. Pyongyang has said the shelling was in retaliation for military exercises by Seoul.
In response to South Korea's harsh words and frequent drills, the DPRK's official daily, Rodong Sinmun, said on Monday that the country has "limited" restraint over South Korea's military provocation. It added the DPRK will harshly punish Seoul for any further aggressive moves.

The newspaper says peace on the Korean Peninsula is under serious threat as the US and South Korea have been staging repeated anti-DPRK drills.

Since the DPRK's shelling of Yeonpyeong, South Korea has staged several military exercises. It is holding its latest maritime firing drill from Monday through Friday in waters off the country's west, south, and east coasts. But no drills are scheduled near the disputed western sea border with the DPRK.

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180 flights canceled in Chicago

More than outbound 180 flights have been canceled at Chicago's two major airports on Sunday due to a blizzard that engulfed the U.S. East Coast, Chicago Department of Aviation said.

There were about 150 cancellations at O'Hare International Airport as of Sunday afternoon, and some flights were running about 30 minutes behind schedule.

At Midway Airport, some flights were delayed up to an hour and about 35 flights were canceled.8 Local aviation authorities advised travelers to contact airlines for information on specific flights and to arrive at the airport at least two hours before takeoff.

More than a feet (30.48 cm) of snow was expected to fall on New York and Boston, while 20 inches (50.08 cm) were expected in Philadelphia.
At least 1,400 flights had been canceled at New York's airports alone.

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