The Pentagon has accused Chinese fishing boats of "dangerous" manoeuvres near a US Navy surveillance ship in the Yellow Sea last week.
Two boats came within 30 yards (27 metres) of the USNS Victorious in an "unsafe and dangerous" fashion on Friday, a statement said.
Correspondents say the US response was muted compared to its reaction to similar incidents earlier in the year.
Beijing accuses US vessels of entering its exclusive economic zone illegally.
There was no immediate Chinese response to the US statement on Tuesday.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Victorious had been conducting "routine operations".
The Victorious sounded its alarm and shot water from its fire hoses to try to deter the vessels in an hour-long incident, one unnamed US official told the Associated Press news agency.
But the vessels did not leave until the Victorious radioed a nearby Chinese military vessel for help, Mr Whitman added.
Asked why the tone of the US statement was muted this time, he said: "We will be developing a way forward to deal with this diplomatically."
There have been four incidents in the past month in which Chinese-flagged fishing vessels manoeuvred too close to two unarmed ships staffed by civilians and used by the Pentagon for underwater surveillance and submarine-hunting missions, reported.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
UN rebukes Israel over Gaza raids
United Nations inquiry into attacks by Israeli forces on UN property during the Gaza conflict four months ago has heavily criticised Israel's army.
It found Israel to blame in six out of nine incidents when death or injury were caused to people sheltering at UN property and UN buildings were damaged.
In one case, Palestinian militants were found to have fired at a UN warehouse.
The Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, rejected the report, saying it was biased.
"We have the most moral army in the world," he said.
"IDF [Israeli Defense Force] commanders and soldiers made every effort to avoid hurting uninvolved civilians."
Ban Ki-moon calls for progress in peace negotiations
He accused Hamas of hiding its fighters among civilians and in the vicinity of UN installations.
The UN report says the Israeli military took "inadequate" precautions to protect UN premises and civilians inside and recommends further investigation into possible war crimes.
One of the incidents highlighted in the document is the firing of artillery shells near a UN-run school in Jabalia where Palestinians were sheltering on 6 January.
The panel says more than 40 people died outside the school - Israel says only 12 were killed, and seven of them were "terror operatives".
The board of inquiry also criticises Israel's use of white phosphorus shells which the UN says caused the incineration of the UN's main food warehouse in Gaza.
Reparations sought
The BBC's Laura Trevelyan at the UN says it is a hard-hitting report which includes heavy criticism of the Israeli military's actions and subsequent explanations and justifications.
UN REPORT'S MAIN FINDINGS
Israeli army responsible in six cases in which UN property was damaged and UN staff and other civilians hurt or killed
No military activity was carried out from within UN premises in any of the incidents
Israeli military's actions "involved varying degrees of negligence or recklessness"
Israeli military took "inadequate" precautions to protect UN premises and civilians inside
Case studies: Weapons use
The UN board's first recommendation seeks "formal acknowledgment" by Israel that its initial public statement that Palestinians had fired from the school grounds and from within the UN field office compound "were untrue and are regretted".
A later Israeli inquiry said militants had fired from a site about 80m away from the school.
Israel also contends that Hamas militants had positioned themselves near the UN relief agency headquarters.
Another recommendation says the UN should take appropriate action to seek reparation for all deaths and injuries involving its personnel and property.
The report says Israel's actions were in breach of the agreement that UN premises and those sheltering within them should be immune from attack, something which cannot be set aside for military action.
The board says investigating the deaths outside the UN school is outside its remit.
It recommends that this and allegations of war crimes committed in Gaza and southern Israel by Palestinian militants and Israel should be investigated by another inquiry.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has stressed this report is not a legal document.
It found Israel to blame in six out of nine incidents when death or injury were caused to people sheltering at UN property and UN buildings were damaged.
In one case, Palestinian militants were found to have fired at a UN warehouse.
The Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, rejected the report, saying it was biased.
"We have the most moral army in the world," he said.
"IDF [Israeli Defense Force] commanders and soldiers made every effort to avoid hurting uninvolved civilians."
Ban Ki-moon calls for progress in peace negotiations
He accused Hamas of hiding its fighters among civilians and in the vicinity of UN installations.
The UN report says the Israeli military took "inadequate" precautions to protect UN premises and civilians inside and recommends further investigation into possible war crimes.
One of the incidents highlighted in the document is the firing of artillery shells near a UN-run school in Jabalia where Palestinians were sheltering on 6 January.
The panel says more than 40 people died outside the school - Israel says only 12 were killed, and seven of them were "terror operatives".
The board of inquiry also criticises Israel's use of white phosphorus shells which the UN says caused the incineration of the UN's main food warehouse in Gaza.
Reparations sought
The BBC's Laura Trevelyan at the UN says it is a hard-hitting report which includes heavy criticism of the Israeli military's actions and subsequent explanations and justifications.
UN REPORT'S MAIN FINDINGS
Israeli army responsible in six cases in which UN property was damaged and UN staff and other civilians hurt or killed
No military activity was carried out from within UN premises in any of the incidents
Israeli military's actions "involved varying degrees of negligence or recklessness"
Israeli military took "inadequate" precautions to protect UN premises and civilians inside
Case studies: Weapons use
The UN board's first recommendation seeks "formal acknowledgment" by Israel that its initial public statement that Palestinians had fired from the school grounds and from within the UN field office compound "were untrue and are regretted".
A later Israeli inquiry said militants had fired from a site about 80m away from the school.
Israel also contends that Hamas militants had positioned themselves near the UN relief agency headquarters.
Another recommendation says the UN should take appropriate action to seek reparation for all deaths and injuries involving its personnel and property.
The report says Israel's actions were in breach of the agreement that UN premises and those sheltering within them should be immune from attack, something which cannot be set aside for military action.
The board says investigating the deaths outside the UN school is outside its remit.
It recommends that this and allegations of war crimes committed in Gaza and southern Israel by Palestinian militants and Israel should be investigated by another inquiry.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has stressed this report is not a legal document.
Bernanke Sees Hopeful Signs but No Quick Recovery
The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, said on Tuesday that the economy appeared to be stabilizing on many fronts but cautioned that a recovery was still months away and that “further sizable job losses” will continue even after an upturn begins.
“We continue to expect economic activity to bottom out, then to turn up later this year,” Mr. Bernanke told the congressional Joint Economic Committee, according to his prepared remarks.
“Even after a recovery gets under way, the rate of growth of real economic activity is likely to remain below its longer-run potential for a while,” he predicted. “We expect that the recovery will only gradually gain momentum and that economic slack will diminish slowly.”
Notwithstanding his caveats, the Fed chairman gave his most upbeat assessment since the United States fell into its most severe financial crisis since the Depression and its steepest recession since at least the early 1980s.
He noted that consumer spending, which sank sharply the second half of 2008, actually grew in the first quarter of this year. Sales of existing homes have been “fairly stable” since late last year, in part because plunging home prices have made houses more affordable and interest rates on some fixed-rate mortgages have fallen below 5 percent.
Mr. Bernanke said conditions in credit markets have revived slightly in recent weeks. Homeowners are refinancing mortgages at a rapid clip, and financial institutions have stepped up their sale of securities backed by of credit card loans, automobile debt and student loans.
At the same time, the Fed chairman made it clear that the recession is not yet over and that many people will experience harder times in the months ahead. The nation has already lost five million jobs since the recession began more than one year ago, and unemployment usually continues to climb for many months after economic growth begins.
Mr. Bernanke noted that business investment was still “extremely weak,” which means that businesses are still contracting and will continue to shed workers. The unemployment rate hit 8.5 percent in March, and the Labor Department is expected to report on Friday that the jobless rate jumped sharply again in April.
The Fed chairman suggested that many of the nation’s 19 biggest banks will be instructed to raise additional capital when the Fed announces the results of “stress tests” on Thursday, and he tacitly acknowledged that the federal government will become a bigger shareholder in at least some of those institutions.
The tests are designed to determine whether the banks would have enough capital if the economic downturn is worse than expected. The banks have six months to raise that capital from private investors, but will have to take government money in exchange for shares of common stock if private money is unavailable.
“Following the announcement of the results, bank holding companies will be required to develop comprehensive capital plans,” Mr. Bernanke said, without specifying an exact number. Asked if he expected banks to raise the “majority” of the required capital from private sources, Mr. Bernanke predicted only that the amount could be “significant.”
Mr. Bernanke came under sharp criticism for his decision against immediately stopping credit card companies from abruptly doubling or tripling their interest rates to consumers, often for people who have remained current on all their payments.
The Fed is preparing new protections for credit card customers, but it will not impose them until much later this year. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said he had asked Mr. Bernanke to use the Fed’s emergency powers to act immediately but that the Fed chairman refused to do so.
“You’ve acted swiftly to use your emergency powers to stabilize teetering financial institutions,” Mr. Schumer said. “What about the family that’s had a $10,000 balance and had its rate jump from 7 to 23 percent?”
Mr. Bernanke said he was “very concerned” about such practices, but said that cutting short the normal process for approving new regulations might simply provoke banks to raise their rates even more quickly or to cut many customers off entirely.
“It’s a quandary,” he told Mr. Schumer.
“I’m very frustrated,” the senator responded. “You could have figured out a better way than the one you have chosen.”
“We continue to expect economic activity to bottom out, then to turn up later this year,” Mr. Bernanke told the congressional Joint Economic Committee, according to his prepared remarks.
“Even after a recovery gets under way, the rate of growth of real economic activity is likely to remain below its longer-run potential for a while,” he predicted. “We expect that the recovery will only gradually gain momentum and that economic slack will diminish slowly.”
Notwithstanding his caveats, the Fed chairman gave his most upbeat assessment since the United States fell into its most severe financial crisis since the Depression and its steepest recession since at least the early 1980s.
He noted that consumer spending, which sank sharply the second half of 2008, actually grew in the first quarter of this year. Sales of existing homes have been “fairly stable” since late last year, in part because plunging home prices have made houses more affordable and interest rates on some fixed-rate mortgages have fallen below 5 percent.
Mr. Bernanke said conditions in credit markets have revived slightly in recent weeks. Homeowners are refinancing mortgages at a rapid clip, and financial institutions have stepped up their sale of securities backed by of credit card loans, automobile debt and student loans.
At the same time, the Fed chairman made it clear that the recession is not yet over and that many people will experience harder times in the months ahead. The nation has already lost five million jobs since the recession began more than one year ago, and unemployment usually continues to climb for many months after economic growth begins.
Mr. Bernanke noted that business investment was still “extremely weak,” which means that businesses are still contracting and will continue to shed workers. The unemployment rate hit 8.5 percent in March, and the Labor Department is expected to report on Friday that the jobless rate jumped sharply again in April.
The Fed chairman suggested that many of the nation’s 19 biggest banks will be instructed to raise additional capital when the Fed announces the results of “stress tests” on Thursday, and he tacitly acknowledged that the federal government will become a bigger shareholder in at least some of those institutions.
The tests are designed to determine whether the banks would have enough capital if the economic downturn is worse than expected. The banks have six months to raise that capital from private investors, but will have to take government money in exchange for shares of common stock if private money is unavailable.
“Following the announcement of the results, bank holding companies will be required to develop comprehensive capital plans,” Mr. Bernanke said, without specifying an exact number. Asked if he expected banks to raise the “majority” of the required capital from private sources, Mr. Bernanke predicted only that the amount could be “significant.”
Mr. Bernanke came under sharp criticism for his decision against immediately stopping credit card companies from abruptly doubling or tripling their interest rates to consumers, often for people who have remained current on all their payments.
The Fed is preparing new protections for credit card customers, but it will not impose them until much later this year. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said he had asked Mr. Bernanke to use the Fed’s emergency powers to act immediately but that the Fed chairman refused to do so.
“You’ve acted swiftly to use your emergency powers to stabilize teetering financial institutions,” Mr. Schumer said. “What about the family that’s had a $10,000 balance and had its rate jump from 7 to 23 percent?”
Mr. Bernanke said he was “very concerned” about such practices, but said that cutting short the normal process for approving new regulations might simply provoke banks to raise their rates even more quickly or to cut many customers off entirely.
“It’s a quandary,” he told Mr. Schumer.
“I’m very frustrated,” the senator responded. “You could have figured out a better way than the one you have chosen.”
look at the rhetoric surrounding Elections 2009 and wonder — has any political party promised to improve the state of the environment for you and me? Or thought about our right to fresh air or clean water — commodities that have become a rarity in an urbanising India?
Over the past few weeks I’ve studied the manifestos of all political parties and silently witnessed the city around me change. Ancient trees are being decapitated for wider roads, a park’s been taken over for a multiplex and a storm drain, a barrier against monsoon floods, has been filled with sand to make way for a parking lot. Grab and construct is the new mantra for the ‘development’ of our cities.
We spend three hours on an average on roads, stuck in traffic jams, while one in every five Indians suffers from respiratory disorders. Indian cities are headed towards an urban disaster. Take the depleting quality of the air we breathe or the water we drink (that's if we get it in our taps); while rivers turn into noxious black threads with methane bubbling on their surfaces and landfill sites expand.
Analysts predict that in the next thirty years, more than half of India will be living in urban areas. But does any leader or political party have a vision to address the impending environmental problems? Caste and religion continue to dominate the rhetoric of Election 2009, but is global India, with a growth rate of 9 per cent, doing anything about the toxic gas chambers that are our cities or the brown sludge flowing from our taps?
You could dismiss my angst for clean air and water as an elitist preoccupation that doesn’t affect a majority of the population. But take a look at the alarming figures collected by the Central Pollution Control Board and the Centre for Science and Environment. Out of the 100 Indian cities monitored, almost half have critical levels of particulate matter. Fifty-two cities hit critical levels, 36 have high levels and a mere 19 are at moderate levels. Only three cities — Dewas, Tirupati and Kozhikode — recorded low pollution levels.
Adding to the gas chambers are toxic gases like nitrogen oxide — a major contributor to acid rain and global warming — that are on the rise even in smaller cities like Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Nashik and Chandrapur. Indian cities can be cured of the curse of pollution, but various policy measures will have to be initiated. One way out could be the introduction of compressed natural gas in the public transport system, and financial incentives for people to buy more fuel-efficient cars or to switch to public transport.
If we look at the availability of water in Indian cities, the situation is no different. According to a 2007 World Bank study on 27 cities, the average duration of water supply was not more than four hours and in some, like Rajkot, it’s less than 0.3 hours. Not even one Indian city gets continuous water supply, and a majority are in the red in terms of plummeting ground water tables. Besides, in the poorer parts of our nation, people have to buy water and have to spend, on an average, one to two hours per day foraging for it.
And what about the impending threat from climate change? There is now enough scientific evidence to show that climate change will first affect the poor, with disastrous consequences for India's farmers and fishermen. But has any political party woken up to this threat? The BJP, interestingly, has a separate section on the environment in its manifesto, referring to the need to move towards a low carbon economy. Does that mean it will scrap the 54-odd thermal power projects that were cleared under the UPA government? Climate change may already be upon us in many ways. But one look at the National Climate Change Action Plan launched by the Prime Minister will tell us that most of the targets under the eight missions are non-measurable, so there’s no way to measure the outgoing government’s performance.
And how ‘green’ are our politicians themselves? While one has drained the wetlands of an endangered bird only to build an airstrip in his native village, another, with strong prime ministerial aspirations, spent more than Rs 80 crore ravaging a green belt on the edge of the Okhla bird sanctuary, while yet another in Madhya Pradesh got the course of a river diverted, to make it flow close to his private resort. Media campaigns ask voters to stop complaining and go out and vote. Yes, I too will go and vote. But I am still waiting for that one political party or candidate who promises me, a citizen of India, my right to clean air and water.
ecxcerpts from bahar dutt as publised in Hindusthan times
Over the past few weeks I’ve studied the manifestos of all political parties and silently witnessed the city around me change. Ancient trees are being decapitated for wider roads, a park’s been taken over for a multiplex and a storm drain, a barrier against monsoon floods, has been filled with sand to make way for a parking lot. Grab and construct is the new mantra for the ‘development’ of our cities.
We spend three hours on an average on roads, stuck in traffic jams, while one in every five Indians suffers from respiratory disorders. Indian cities are headed towards an urban disaster. Take the depleting quality of the air we breathe or the water we drink (that's if we get it in our taps); while rivers turn into noxious black threads with methane bubbling on their surfaces and landfill sites expand.
Analysts predict that in the next thirty years, more than half of India will be living in urban areas. But does any leader or political party have a vision to address the impending environmental problems? Caste and religion continue to dominate the rhetoric of Election 2009, but is global India, with a growth rate of 9 per cent, doing anything about the toxic gas chambers that are our cities or the brown sludge flowing from our taps?
You could dismiss my angst for clean air and water as an elitist preoccupation that doesn’t affect a majority of the population. But take a look at the alarming figures collected by the Central Pollution Control Board and the Centre for Science and Environment. Out of the 100 Indian cities monitored, almost half have critical levels of particulate matter. Fifty-two cities hit critical levels, 36 have high levels and a mere 19 are at moderate levels. Only three cities — Dewas, Tirupati and Kozhikode — recorded low pollution levels.
Adding to the gas chambers are toxic gases like nitrogen oxide — a major contributor to acid rain and global warming — that are on the rise even in smaller cities like Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Nashik and Chandrapur. Indian cities can be cured of the curse of pollution, but various policy measures will have to be initiated. One way out could be the introduction of compressed natural gas in the public transport system, and financial incentives for people to buy more fuel-efficient cars or to switch to public transport.
If we look at the availability of water in Indian cities, the situation is no different. According to a 2007 World Bank study on 27 cities, the average duration of water supply was not more than four hours and in some, like Rajkot, it’s less than 0.3 hours. Not even one Indian city gets continuous water supply, and a majority are in the red in terms of plummeting ground water tables. Besides, in the poorer parts of our nation, people have to buy water and have to spend, on an average, one to two hours per day foraging for it.
And what about the impending threat from climate change? There is now enough scientific evidence to show that climate change will first affect the poor, with disastrous consequences for India's farmers and fishermen. But has any political party woken up to this threat? The BJP, interestingly, has a separate section on the environment in its manifesto, referring to the need to move towards a low carbon economy. Does that mean it will scrap the 54-odd thermal power projects that were cleared under the UPA government? Climate change may already be upon us in many ways. But one look at the National Climate Change Action Plan launched by the Prime Minister will tell us that most of the targets under the eight missions are non-measurable, so there’s no way to measure the outgoing government’s performance.
And how ‘green’ are our politicians themselves? While one has drained the wetlands of an endangered bird only to build an airstrip in his native village, another, with strong prime ministerial aspirations, spent more than Rs 80 crore ravaging a green belt on the edge of the Okhla bird sanctuary, while yet another in Madhya Pradesh got the course of a river diverted, to make it flow close to his private resort. Media campaigns ask voters to stop complaining and go out and vote. Yes, I too will go and vote. But I am still waiting for that one political party or candidate who promises me, a citizen of India, my right to clean air and water.
ecxcerpts from bahar dutt as publised in Hindusthan times
US needs 'digital warfare force'
The head of America's National Security Agency says that America needs to build a digital warfare force for the future, according to reports.
Lt Gen Keith Alexander, who also heads the Pentagon's new Cyber Command, outlined his views in a report for the House Armed Services subcommittee.
In it, he stated that the US needed to reorganise its offensive and defensive cyber operations.
The general also said more resources and training were needed.
The report, part of which was outlined in an Associated Press news agency story, is due to be presented to the subcommittee on Tuesday.
During the past six months, the Pentagon spent more than £67m ($100m) responding to and repairing damage from cyber attacks and other network problems.
Gen Keith Alexander's new department, to be based in Fort Meade in Maryland, will be part of the US Strategic Command - currently responsible for securing the US military's networks - and will work alongside the US Department of Homeland Security.
It is thought the new department would open in October and be at full strength in 2010.
Self defence
A separate document, from the US Air Force's chief information officer Lt Gen William Shelton, said the US relies heavily on industry efforts to respond to cyber threats which, he says, "does not keep pace with the threat".
The proposed digital warfare force would be based in Maryland
Peter Wood, operations chief with First Base Technologies and an expert in cyber-warfare, said that the US were entirely within their rights to protect themselves.
"My own view is that the only way to counteract both criminal and espionage activity online is to be proactive. If the US is taking a formal approach to this, then that has to be a good thing.
"The Chinese are viewed as the source of a great many attacks on western infrastructure and, just recently, the US national grid. If that is determined to be an organised attack, I would want to go and take down the source of those attacks," he said.
"The only problem is that the internet - by its very nature - has no borders and if the US takes on the mantle of the world's police; that might not go down so well."
The submissions to the House Armed Services subcommittee comes a few days after the National Research Council - part of the United States National Academy of Sciences - said that current US policies on cyber warfare are "ill-formed, lack adequate oversight and require a broad public debate".
The report went on to say that the "undeveloped and uncertain nature" of the US governments cyber warfare policies could lead to them being misused in a possible crisis.
The US administration is due imminently to publish the results of a 60-day review on cyber-security ordered by President Obama.
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Lt Gen Keith Alexander, who also heads the Pentagon's new Cyber Command, outlined his views in a report for the House Armed Services subcommittee.
In it, he stated that the US needed to reorganise its offensive and defensive cyber operations.
The general also said more resources and training were needed.
The report, part of which was outlined in an Associated Press news agency story, is due to be presented to the subcommittee on Tuesday.
During the past six months, the Pentagon spent more than £67m ($100m) responding to and repairing damage from cyber attacks and other network problems.
Gen Keith Alexander's new department, to be based in Fort Meade in Maryland, will be part of the US Strategic Command - currently responsible for securing the US military's networks - and will work alongside the US Department of Homeland Security.
It is thought the new department would open in October and be at full strength in 2010.
Self defence
A separate document, from the US Air Force's chief information officer Lt Gen William Shelton, said the US relies heavily on industry efforts to respond to cyber threats which, he says, "does not keep pace with the threat".
The proposed digital warfare force would be based in Maryland
Peter Wood, operations chief with First Base Technologies and an expert in cyber-warfare, said that the US were entirely within their rights to protect themselves.
"My own view is that the only way to counteract both criminal and espionage activity online is to be proactive. If the US is taking a formal approach to this, then that has to be a good thing.
"The Chinese are viewed as the source of a great many attacks on western infrastructure and, just recently, the US national grid. If that is determined to be an organised attack, I would want to go and take down the source of those attacks," he said.
"The only problem is that the internet - by its very nature - has no borders and if the US takes on the mantle of the world's police; that might not go down so well."
The submissions to the House Armed Services subcommittee comes a few days after the National Research Council - part of the United States National Academy of Sciences - said that current US policies on cyber warfare are "ill-formed, lack adequate oversight and require a broad public debate".
The report went on to say that the "undeveloped and uncertain nature" of the US governments cyber warfare policies could lead to them being misused in a possible crisis.
The US administration is due imminently to publish the results of a 60-day review on cyber-security ordered by President Obama.
Bookmark with:
Swat residents 'flee their homes'
Residents of Pakistan's Swat Valley are reported to be fleeing their homes despite authorities rescinding an earlier order for them to leave.
A peace deal between the government and Taleban militants in the region appears close to collapse after the army said militants attacked police checkpoints.
There has also been heavy fighting to the west and east of Swat.
A major army operation against the Taleban appears likely within a few days, says the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan.
Our Islamabad correspondent says the army seems in an uncompromising mood, with the renewed violence apparently the death knell for the peace deal, which has held since February.
See a map of the region
In other violence, a suicide bomber killed four security personnel near Peshawar, North West Frontier Province.
Police said the attacker rammed an explosive-laden car into a military vehicle.
It is not yet known who is behind the attack, but Taleban militants are known to be active in the province.
Patrols
Pakistani Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the government was preparing six camps to cater for up to 500,000 people fleeing fighting in the region, AP news agency reported.
The town of Dargai, near the Swat border, is reported to be where at least one camp is being built.
Armed Taleban fighters have been openly patrolling, the army says
A Pakistani military spokesman, Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, told the BBC the Taleban had violated all the norms of the peace deal in Swat Valley.
He said the Taleban had sent out armed patrols and had gone into the neighbouring Dir and Buner districts.
The army says militants attacked checkpoints and bases in four different locations in Swat, and that armed militants are openly patrolling the streets of the district's main city Mingora.
A witness in Mingora told AP that black-turbaned militants were deployed on most streets and on high buildings, and that security forces were barricaded in their bases.
Khushal Khan, district co-ordination officer in Swat, told the BBC that residents of areas around Mingora had been told to evacuate because there was a fear that the Taleban could use heavy weapons to attack security forces.
But he said the order was later rescinded when the attacks no longer seemed likely.
However, reports say residents are fleeing in their hundreds anyway, taking advantage of the government's lifting of a curfew.
Taleban spokesman Muslim Khan said that the militants were in control of "90%" of the valley.
He told AP that Taleban actions were in response to the army violating the peace deal. He said the peace deal had "been dead" since the army's recent offensive in neighbouring Buner district.
"Everything will be OK once our rulers stop bowing before America," he said.
Washington talks
The deteriorating situation in Pakistan's north-west came as President Asif Ali Zardari was preparing for talks in Washington on Wednesday.
Analysts say US President Barack Obama will seek assurances from Mr Zardari that his country's nuclear arsenal is safe from Taleban insurgents and that Pakistan intended to root-out militant groups and defeat them.
Militants fought the army in the region from August 2007 until this year's deal.
Under the deal the Taleban were expected to disarm.
The Taleban say they will not lay down their arms until Islamic Sharia law is fully implemented in Swat.
They have banned the playing of music in cars and are also using mosques to invite local youth to join them.
A peace deal between the government and Taleban militants in the region appears close to collapse after the army said militants attacked police checkpoints.
There has also been heavy fighting to the west and east of Swat.
A major army operation against the Taleban appears likely within a few days, says the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan.
Our Islamabad correspondent says the army seems in an uncompromising mood, with the renewed violence apparently the death knell for the peace deal, which has held since February.
See a map of the region
In other violence, a suicide bomber killed four security personnel near Peshawar, North West Frontier Province.
Police said the attacker rammed an explosive-laden car into a military vehicle.
It is not yet known who is behind the attack, but Taleban militants are known to be active in the province.
Patrols
Pakistani Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the government was preparing six camps to cater for up to 500,000 people fleeing fighting in the region, AP news agency reported.
The town of Dargai, near the Swat border, is reported to be where at least one camp is being built.
Armed Taleban fighters have been openly patrolling, the army says
A Pakistani military spokesman, Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, told the BBC the Taleban had violated all the norms of the peace deal in Swat Valley.
He said the Taleban had sent out armed patrols and had gone into the neighbouring Dir and Buner districts.
The army says militants attacked checkpoints and bases in four different locations in Swat, and that armed militants are openly patrolling the streets of the district's main city Mingora.
A witness in Mingora told AP that black-turbaned militants were deployed on most streets and on high buildings, and that security forces were barricaded in their bases.
Khushal Khan, district co-ordination officer in Swat, told the BBC that residents of areas around Mingora had been told to evacuate because there was a fear that the Taleban could use heavy weapons to attack security forces.
But he said the order was later rescinded when the attacks no longer seemed likely.
However, reports say residents are fleeing in their hundreds anyway, taking advantage of the government's lifting of a curfew.
Taleban spokesman Muslim Khan said that the militants were in control of "90%" of the valley.
He told AP that Taleban actions were in response to the army violating the peace deal. He said the peace deal had "been dead" since the army's recent offensive in neighbouring Buner district.
"Everything will be OK once our rulers stop bowing before America," he said.
Washington talks
The deteriorating situation in Pakistan's north-west came as President Asif Ali Zardari was preparing for talks in Washington on Wednesday.
Analysts say US President Barack Obama will seek assurances from Mr Zardari that his country's nuclear arsenal is safe from Taleban insurgents and that Pakistan intended to root-out militant groups and defeat them.
Militants fought the army in the region from August 2007 until this year's deal.
Under the deal the Taleban were expected to disarm.
The Taleban say they will not lay down their arms until Islamic Sharia law is fully implemented in Swat.
They have banned the playing of music in cars and are also using mosques to invite local youth to join them.
Monday, May 4, 2009
ADB sees 'mild recovery' next year
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) called on Monday for a fundamental "rebalancing" of regional economies in response to the global crisis, while predicting a "mild recovery" next year.
Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda said the region would record only 3.4 percent growth this year but could expect a rebound to around 6.0 percent growth in 2010, as he opened the ADB's board of governors annual meeting in Bali.
"With strong national and regional efforts and a mild recovery expected in the global economy next year, developing Asia and the Pacific should bounce back to about 6.0 percent growth in 2010," he said.
"These are positive signs, therefore this should not be a time of despair."
He outlined a huge expansion in the ADB's lending plans to help stimulate developing economies across Asia, after shareholders agreed last week to triple the bank's capital base in response to the global downturn.
The bank will increase its overall lending assistance to the region's poorest countries by more than 10 billion dollars in 2009 and 2010, including three billion to meet "urgent needs stemming from the crisis," Kuroda said.
Some of that new lending would aim to help Asian economies adjust to plunging demand for their exports to markets such as Europe and the United States.
"The transfer of savings from one part of the world to another worked well when advanced economies could absorb production from developing economies, but the current state of the global economy suggests that era has passed," Kuroda said.
"By rebalancing export-driven growth with a greater reliance on domestic demand and consumption, Asia can lead the way in charting a new, globally beneficial development course."
Interest rate cuts and government spending will help spur the recovery in Asia, whose banks are not suffering problems on the same scale as their US and European peers, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Recent economic data have raised hopes that China could be the first major economy to disentangle itself from the worldwide crisis, providing new growth momentum for its trading partners across the region.
In India, expectations of a healthy harvest fuelling consumer spending has driven India's benchmark Sensex share index to a six-month high as fund managers switch their country ratings to "overweight" from "underweight."
Japan's factory output rose 1.6 percent in March from the previous month, the first increase since September, triggering a buying spree on the Japanese sharemarket last week.
Kuroda also called for changes to the global financial architecture to give voice to the aspirations of Asia, where powerhouses like China and India are emerging as rivals to US domination of the world economy.
Ten Asian countries plus China, Japan and South Korea agreed on Sunday to set up a 120-billion-dollar regional emergency fund to help Asian economies out of crises, a move Kuroda applauded.
"It is... important to create a financial architecture that gives developing countries a voice more commensurate with their share of world output and trade," he said.
His comments echoed China's calls for a greater say in international economic decision-making at institutions such as the IMF.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said "precautionary mechanisms" like the regional liquidity fund were necessary to "ensure foreign exchange stability and confidence" in crisis-hit local currencies.
He said Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy, had learnt from the economic turmoil that swept Asia in the late 1990s and had launched "sweeping reforms" that helped it avoid recession in the current downturn.
The Indonesian economy is forecast to track the regional rebound, with growth of around four percent this year recovering to six percent in 2010.
Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda said the region would record only 3.4 percent growth this year but could expect a rebound to around 6.0 percent growth in 2010, as he opened the ADB's board of governors annual meeting in Bali.
"With strong national and regional efforts and a mild recovery expected in the global economy next year, developing Asia and the Pacific should bounce back to about 6.0 percent growth in 2010," he said.
"These are positive signs, therefore this should not be a time of despair."
He outlined a huge expansion in the ADB's lending plans to help stimulate developing economies across Asia, after shareholders agreed last week to triple the bank's capital base in response to the global downturn.
The bank will increase its overall lending assistance to the region's poorest countries by more than 10 billion dollars in 2009 and 2010, including three billion to meet "urgent needs stemming from the crisis," Kuroda said.
Some of that new lending would aim to help Asian economies adjust to plunging demand for their exports to markets such as Europe and the United States.
"The transfer of savings from one part of the world to another worked well when advanced economies could absorb production from developing economies, but the current state of the global economy suggests that era has passed," Kuroda said.
"By rebalancing export-driven growth with a greater reliance on domestic demand and consumption, Asia can lead the way in charting a new, globally beneficial development course."
Interest rate cuts and government spending will help spur the recovery in Asia, whose banks are not suffering problems on the same scale as their US and European peers, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Recent economic data have raised hopes that China could be the first major economy to disentangle itself from the worldwide crisis, providing new growth momentum for its trading partners across the region.
In India, expectations of a healthy harvest fuelling consumer spending has driven India's benchmark Sensex share index to a six-month high as fund managers switch their country ratings to "overweight" from "underweight."
Japan's factory output rose 1.6 percent in March from the previous month, the first increase since September, triggering a buying spree on the Japanese sharemarket last week.
Kuroda also called for changes to the global financial architecture to give voice to the aspirations of Asia, where powerhouses like China and India are emerging as rivals to US domination of the world economy.
Ten Asian countries plus China, Japan and South Korea agreed on Sunday to set up a 120-billion-dollar regional emergency fund to help Asian economies out of crises, a move Kuroda applauded.
"It is... important to create a financial architecture that gives developing countries a voice more commensurate with their share of world output and trade," he said.
His comments echoed China's calls for a greater say in international economic decision-making at institutions such as the IMF.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said "precautionary mechanisms" like the regional liquidity fund were necessary to "ensure foreign exchange stability and confidence" in crisis-hit local currencies.
He said Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy, had learnt from the economic turmoil that swept Asia in the late 1990s and had launched "sweeping reforms" that helped it avoid recession in the current downturn.
The Indonesian economy is forecast to track the regional rebound, with growth of around four percent this year recovering to six percent in 2010.
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