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Chinese Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi, is in Germany for the Munich conference, where more than 300 diplomats and defense officials are discussing major security issues.

On the sidelines of the conference, Yang Jiechi has urged the United States to stop selling arms to Taiwan and to not allow the Dalai Lama to visit the US.

Yang noted that Taiwan is the most sensitive and core issue between China and the US. He called on the US to abide by the Three Joint Communiques.

He hopes the US will prioritize these issues and avoid further undermining bilateral ties. On the Tibet issue, Yang said China opposes any contact between the Dalai Lama and US leaders.

He said the Dalai Lama is not a religious figure, but a political exile who has conducted separatist activities for a long time.

Editor: Zhang Pengfei | Source: CCTV.com

-The Associated Press , Tokyo-

Japanese officials issued a tsunami warning Sunday for several small islands after a strong earthquake shook an area off the country's southern coast.

The Meteorological Agency said the earthquake hit at 3:10 p.m. (0610 GMT) and registered magnitude 6.6. The U.S. Geological Survey measured it at 6.4.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The Japanese agency said the tsunami was expected to be about 1.6 feet (50 centimeters) high.

Jakarta - Advance Team from U.S. was just 10 minutes at SDN 01 Menteng. That Team with 30 people just go around and take a photo environment of the school former U.S. President Barack Obama.


The security is tight enough when the team is arrived at this Elementary School that located on Jl Besuki, Menteng, Central Jakarta, Thursday (4/2/2010). The gate immediately closed so that the parents who usually are inside, now forced out.


Some people from the team of White House protocol and U.S. embassy staff in Jakarta immediately spread to all of the schools. Some of them were seen taking pictures, and some others go around. However, teaching and learning activities in that schools are not disturbed.


Soon after that, the team then left the school used Blue Bird buses. And the school gate was re-opened.
According to Chairman Besuki Elementary School Alumni Association, Hiramsyah S Thaib, the team's arrival is only the beginning of the review. Not closed the possibility of the team will be back here.


"They were just photographed and look-see. Maybe they are satisfied with our initial preparation. This start might just want to see what kind of atmosphere," said Hiramsyah who accompanied the team.
(Mok / NRL)


source: detiknews.com

KUALA LUMPUR : There have been mixed reactions from the Malaysian public to the shocking testimony by Mohd Saiful Bukhari, who has accused opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim of sodomising him.

On Wednesday, the 25-year-old former aide to Anwar told a packed courtroom how his former boss made sexual advances towards him.

He shocked the nation with his blow by blow account of what transpired in the condominium, where he was allegedly sodomised by Anwar.



The former university drop-out said he rejected Anwar's advances at first, but then decided to go along after he was reprimanded.

Malaysians find his story hard to believe, especially since Anwar's first sodomy conviction was quashed by the country's highest court six years ago.

"All these are politics, I don't believe anything," said one Malaysian.

"I hope the courts give him a fair trial," said another.

Others do not care anymore, as they are hearing the same story repeat itself 10 years on.

Most of the proceedings on Thursday morning was held behind closed doors. The highlight was a visit to the scene where the alleged act of sodomy was committed.

It was led by high court judge, Mohd Zabidin Mohd Diah. The entire prosecution and defence teams went along, including Anwar and Saiful. The entire entourage spent almost an hour in the apartment that is said to belong to one of Anwar's close friend.

Saiful apparently demonstrated in front of the judge and all the lawyers how he was allegedly sodomised in one of the bedrooms on the fifth floor of the upmarket apartment.

The afternoon session resumed in open court with Saiful taking the stand again, detailing when and how he was medically examined before filing his police report.

The trial will resume on Friday and all eyes will once again be on Saiful next week, when he is cross-examined by Anwar's panel of 13 senior lawyers. - CNA /ls

by : Melissa Goh
source : channelnewsasia.com

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono claimed on Wednesday his administration had managed to achieve over 90 percent of the targets he set for his first 100 days in office.

The President elaborated his successes as he closed a two-day working meeting with Cabinet ministers and the country’s 33 governors in the Cipanas State Palace, West Java.

“Our assessment and monitoring show that over 90 percent of the targets of priority programs and action plans for the first 100 day have been achieved,” Yudhoyono said.

He explained that the achievements included what he called “quick wins” -- newly launched and old programs completed in the first 100 days of his second term.

Yudhoyono also claimed he had overcome barriers hampering development programs and created policies and regulations serving as guidelines for national development for the 2010-2014 period.
“Quick wins”, include the “revitalization” of a micro credit scheme for small and medium enterprises.

Government will begin disbursing Rp 20 trillion in SME loans annually.

“Then there are land certification programs, the provision of clean water facilities for 1,440 villages and the disbursement of operational funds for [over 1,000] community health centers across the country,” Yudhoyono said.

Others successes included internet connections for over 1,000 schools, a newly-launched 24-hour tax service at four main seaports (Belawan, Tanjung Priok, Tanjung Perak and Makassar) and shortened bureaucratic procedures for business licenses and issuing passports, he said.

He also claimed the government had managed to end rotational blackouts in some areas last year due to power shortages, as well as controlling annual flooding by means of the East Flood Canal in Jakarta, and government had complete road projects connecting towns in Java.

“Then, we’ve issued a number of government regulations and presidential decrees,” Yudhoyono said.

Among the regulations issued, the President explained, were those on construction services, forests management, unproductive lands, spatial planning, governors’ authority and functions, management of education, water transportation, and marine and forestry protection.

“It’s not true that we’ve failed to accomplish anything as critics say; we’ve managed to produce concrete results, which will serve as a strong starting point for our work in the next five years,” the President said.

In the two-day working meeting, senior government officials made plans on a wide range of different issues, including spatial planning and land management, food security, energy, infrastructure, bureaucratic reform, democracy, security and law enforcement.

“The results of this meeting and the evaluation of the government’s first 100-day programs will be soon put into a presidential instruction, which has to be followed-up by government officials at the central and regional levels,” Yudhoyono said.

“Three months from now we will again meet to evaluate the implementation of the presidential instruction... I hope governors will convey the results of this meeting to regents and mayors so as to ensure that the developments in their areas will be in line with those in yours and at the central level.”

by : Erwida Maulia
source : thejakartapost.com

BEIJING : Two Chinese pop stars have become the first victims of a ban on the use of lip-syncing in concerts introduced last year following controversy over the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.

Starlets Yin Youcan and Fang Ziyuan resorted to miming during a concert they gave in September in the southwest province of Sichuan, the Beijing News reported Saturday.

It was the first case brought against lip-syncing performers since the authorities introduced the ban, the Beijing Youth Daily said.

The ministry for culture in August issued a regulation allowing for fines for singers who lip-synced, saying the practice "misled the public."

The two young singers will have to pay a total fine of 80,000 yuan (about 12,000 dollars), according to authorities quoted by the newspaper.

In 2008, the organisers of the Beijing Olympics caused controversy when it was revealed the young Chinese girl who sang at the opening ceremony had been miming.

They defended the move and triggered further uproar by saying the real singer was not pretty enough for a spectacle shown around the world.

- AFP /ls

source : channelnewsasia.com

With Haiti still in a state of emergency after last week's terrible earthquake, many residents of Port-au-Prince are leaving the city, trying to get out any way they can.

The exodus from Port-au-Prince has begun. With food and water scarce, thousands of people are leaving for the provinces in search of better resources. Earthquake victim Alexi told us he couldn't stand the smell of rotting bodies anymore.

"The house collapsed, everybody in the house is dead, and I am terrified to stay," Alexi said.

For more than a decade, this city of some three million people has been growing, with people from the provinces moving to the big city, looking for work and a better life. Now some officials contend that a permanent exodus from the city would help the country as a whole. They say the city never had the resources to sustain millions of people. The government is offering free bus rides to the provinces. Health Minister Alex Larsen told us those who can find accommodations outside the city should leave.

"If the people have some family members in a city outside Port-au Prince, it is better to go there to their families and help relieve the weight on Port-au-Prince," said Larsen.

But not everyone wants to leave. We stopped by the national soccer stadium where hundreds of people have been camping out since last week. Adeline Cassimir told us that Port-au-Prince is the only home he knows.

"I have houses here, I have kids here, I was born here. There is no way I will leave the capital," he said.

President René Préval says the death toll from the quake now stands at 75,000, but officials estimate the death toll will rise to some 200,000 people.

source : www.voanews.com

As word spread that a gunman had opened fire at Fort Hood leaving a trail of carnage, a chilling realization swept across the US Muslim community: He has an Islamic name.

From a professor who just testified in Congress, to a White House adviser appearing before a Jewish group and a former Marine driving home from work, Muslims across the country were shocked, angry and afraid that the attack would erode efforts to erase anti-Islamic stereotypes.

Many Islamic leaders said the Fort Hood tragedy that left 13 dead and 30 wounded including the alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, could likely pose the sternest test for US Muslims since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"A lot of us work very hard for this country, to make America a better place," said Muqtedar Khan, a progressive Muslim scholar who has just given Congressional testimony on US foreign policy in Afghanistan before Thursday's attack. "And this one nut like Maj. Hasan comes along and in one crazy episode of a few seconds he undermines these years and years of hard work we are doing to make American Muslims part of the mainstream in the community."

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is a Muslim who attended his former mosque daily and had an "Allah is Love" bumper sticker on his car. Soldiers reported Friday that the shooter shouted "Allahu Akbar!" - Arabic for "God is great!" - during the rampage.

Other troubling details also emerged, including reports that authorities suspect Hasan posted online messages about suicide bombers and violence, was struggling with a pending deployment to Afghanistan and was being harassed in the Army for being a Muslim.

While a motive remains unclear, the confirmation of Hasan's faith alone prompted major Muslim groups and mosques to issue statements condemning the killings as contrary to Islam and praising the service of the many Muslim Americans in the US military.

Of immediate concern was security at mosques Friday, Islam's main day of communal prayer.

In Washington, Chicago and elsewhere, mosques asked police for extra patrols. In Garden Grove, Calif., officers stood watch outside a mosque as a precaution.

Muslim leaders warned people to be vigilant and avoid exposing themselves unnecessarily - including walking alone, said Hussam Ayloush, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Southern California.

"This is one of those moments where we have to sit and pray that most Americans will come out stronger, more united, and more tolerant," said Ayloush, adding that Muslim organizations have received dozens of death threats and hate e-mail.

At the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Md., which Hasan attended before moving to Fort Hood, Imam Mohamed Abdullahi urged worshippers Friday to tell their non-Muslim neighbors that Islam was not responsible for the deaths. He also advised them to keep their tempers in check.

"Whenever we hear the name turns out to be Arabic or Muslim we feel a double shock" about such incidents. "And then we worry about backlash," said Imam Mostafa Al-Qazwini of the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County in Costa Mesa, Calif.

US Rep. Andre Carson, an Indiana Democrat who is one of two Muslims serving in Congress, cautioned against focusing on the alleged shooter's religion and instead said the discussion should be about mental health issues.

"This is no way a reflection of Islam any more than Timothy McVeigh's actions are a reflection of Christianity," said Carson, who supervised an anti-terrorism unit in Indiana's Department of Homeland Security and comes from a family of Marines.

Eboo Patel, the executive director of Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core, had just spoken at a Union of Reform Judaism conference in Toronto on Thursday night when a rabbi told him: "The guy had a Muslim name."

"I had just spoken from the tradition of Islam ... on the importance of interfaith cooperation and building Muslim-Jewish bridges," said Patel, who sits on a White House faith-based advisory board. "I wish that was viewed as reflective of Islam instead of a deranged lunatic who was acting only in the tradition of deranged lunacy, not in the tradition of any faith."

But other Muslims were weary of what has become a routine: a Muslim does something unspeakable, and Islamic organizations issue statements condemning it.

"Truth be told, we're getting a little exhausted because we've done this to death," said Robert Salaam of Maryland, a former Marine who converted to Islam shortly after the 9-11 attacks and now blogs and hosts a radio show on Muslim affairs. "We're apologizing for people we don't know."

Still, driving home from work listening to the news Thursday, Salaam thought: "God, I hope it's not a Muslim."

source: chinadaily.com.cn