Grenade hurled at cathedral in southern Philippines

Asian Defense News: ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) - – A grenade went off on Sunday outside a Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island which has seen bloody Muslim extremist attacks in recent years, the military said.
Unidentified men hurled the grenade before dawn in Jolo island's capital town of Jolos, said Brigadier General Rustico Guerrero, head of an anti-terrorism task force.
The blast shattered some cathedral windows but no one was injured.
Previous grenade explosions in the area have been blamed on the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group linked by intelligence agencies to the Al-Qaeda network.
However, Guerrero said there were no immediate suspects in the latest blast.
Jolo, a Muslim-dominated island with a Christian minority, has long been a haunt of the Abu Sayyaf who are blamed for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history.
In September, two US soldiers who were training local forces against the Abu Sayyaf were killed by a roadside bomb planted by extremists on Jolo island.

US lawmaker upbeat on Japan war views

Asian Defense News: WASHINGTON (AFP) - Wednesday, January 13– A US lawmaker who has spearheaded calls for Japan to do more to repent for World War II behavior said after talks in Tokyo that he was upbeat about Japan's new government.
Representative Mike Honda met with Japanese officials as part of a three-member congressional delegation that visited Japan, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Honda said he detected a change in attitude since now Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's left-leaning coalition defeated the long-ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party in August elections.
"In terms of the issues that we're concerned about, I've been given a hint that they're going to be dealt with," Honda told AFP.
"I think there's more of an openness in doing that," he said.
However, Honda doubted that Japan would act immediately to atone further for its past, saying the government first had other priorities such as redress for Japanese who were taken prisoner after defeat in World War II.
Honda, a Japanese-American who as a child was interned by US authorities in a relocation camp, in 2007 spearheaded a House of Representatives resolution urging Japan to make an "unambiguous apology" for the use of sex slaves.
Japan's former conservative prime minister, Shinzo Abe, had triggered controversy for his views on World War II. His government said Japan had already adequately apologized and compensated the former "comfort women."
Honda said that Japan's new government had made a historic transition.
"My perception of the new government of Japan is one of great hope," Honda said. "It was a powerful change."
His optimism comes despite concern in some quarters in Washington about the new government's calls to revamp the half-century US-Japan alliance.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday pressed Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada in a meeting in Hawaii to move ahead on a plan to relocate a controversial base on the southern island of Okinawa. Related article: US-Japan military base talks

India boosts ties with Africa

Asian Defense News: LILONGWE until 2012 from the current $2.15 billion, and will also boost technical and economic support to the continent, it said on Friday.
A delegation led by Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari also signed deals with Malawi to assist the southern African country develop its agriculture, mineral resources and small to medium enterprise sectors.
"The India-Africa forum summit which took place in 2008 has given a new thrust to India's engagement with Africa, as reflected by increases in exiting credit lines to Africa from $2.15 billion to $5.4 billion up until 2012," the delegation said in a statement.
"India has also earmarked a grant of $500 million to Africa in the next 5-6 years as well as an increase in the technical and economic cooperation training slots ... to African countries."
Ansari is on a tour of three Africa countries that took him to Zambia earlier in the week, where India approved a total of $125 million in credit, part of it to finance a key power project. He is due to visit Botswana at the weekend.
On Friday Ansari said India had substantially increased its technical and economic cooperation slots for Malawi to a value of $40 million in 2009 from $5 million.
So far, he said, the southern African state had utilised an Indian line of credit of $30 million for projects in irrigation, grain storage and tobacco threshing.
Official data shows that Malawi's bilateral trade with India has nearly doubled to an estimated $79.7 million in 2007/08 from $43.2 million in 2003/04.

Iran speaker accuses Obama of state terrorism

Asian Defense News: TEHRAN (AFP) - Thursday, January 14 – Parliament speaker Ali Larijani, Iran's former chief nuclear negotiator, on Wednesday accused US President Barack Obama of state terrorism over the killing in Tehran of a leading atomic scientist.
In an angry address to Iran's conservative-dominated parliament, Larijani reiterated Iranian charges that the US Central Intelligence Agency and Israel's Mossad were behind the scientist's death in a bombing on Tuesday. Tehran. Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki attends a joint news conference with his Omani counterpart Youssef bin Alawi bin Abdullah in Tehran January 13, 2010.
"Such filthy actions are easy to carry out but such adventurism will do you no good," the ISNA news agency quoted Larijani as saying in reference to Obama.
"You have practically promoted acts of terrorism," he said.
Massoud Ali Mohammadi, a particle physics professor at prestigious Tehran University, was killed by a bomb strapped to a motorcycle in the capital's well-to-do northern suburbs on Tuesday.
"The action taken yesterday by the enemies of logic, justice, humanity and the Iranian people is being investigated by relevant authorities," Mottaki told reporters when asked about accusations of US and Israeli involvement.
Larijani, however, was explicit in pointing the finger of blame at the CIA and Israel's Mossad.
Similar allegations by other Iranian officials of US involvement in the attack have been dismissed out of hand by Washington.
Former Iranian presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami on Wednesday condemned the killing.
But the two politicians, who backed defeated opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in the disputed June presidential election which saw hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-elected, did not blame the CIA and Israel.
Islamist students and the volunteer Basij militia also condemned the killing of Ali Mohammadi, whom they described as "a Basiji professor." Murdered Iran atomic scientist mired in mystery
In an open letter members of the victim's his family called Ali Mohammadi a man who followed the path of the supreme leader.
"We, as children and wife of the martyr Ali Mohammadi, give condolences to the caring officials of the regime, the noble people of iran, and especially the nation's academia over the martyrdom of a dedicated husband, a kind father and a Valai (supporter of the supreme leader)," the letter said.
But Ali Mohammadi's name was also reported as appearing on a list of pro-Mousavi academics.
However, according to Ali Moghara, who heads the physics faculty at Tehran University, Ali Mohammadi was just a "world famous" physicist who engaged in "no political activity."
Tuesday's rare assassination came as the government of the Islamic republic faced the most sustained period of protest since the revolution of 1979, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets of Tehran after the election.
The opposition charges that the vote was massively rigged in Ahmadinejad's favour.
For the past seven months, the opposition has mounted anti-government protests at every opportunity, many of which have been broken up by police who have arrested hundreds of demonstrators.
The killing in broad daylight also came amid an increasingly bitter standoff between Iran and world powers over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, which the West suspects is cover for an atomic weapons drive.
Tehran officials have repeatedly accused the United States and Israel, neither of which has ruled out a military strike to thwart Iran's nuclear programme, of seeking to foment unrest inside the country.
Larijani insisted on Wednesday that the scientist's murder would have no impact on Iran's programme.
"Now they seek to eliminate nuclear scientists. You will see that these terrorist actions will achieve nothing and the Iranian nation will safeguard its nuclear success," he said.
Last month, Iran accused the United States of seizing an Iranian scientist while he was on pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, a claim Washington refused to comment on and that Riyadh denied.
Iran has ignored repeated UN Security Council ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment, the sensitive process which makes nuclear fuel but in highly extended form can also produce the fissile core of an atomic bomb.
It is already under three sets of UN sanctions, and major powers are to meet in New York on Saturday to discuss proposals for a fourth.
US envoy advises sanctions boost against Iran

Malaysian Catholics' lawyers offices targeted

Asian Defense News: KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - – Malaysia's Catholic Church said Thursday the offices of its lawyers have been burgled and ransacked, in the latest of a spate of attacks triggered by a row over the use of the word "Allah."
In the past week nine churches have been fire-bombed or vandalised, escalating tensions in the multicultural nation where the Muslim Malay majority lives alongside ethnic Chinese and Indian communities.
The conflict broke out after the High Court decided on December 31 to lift a government ban on non-Muslims using "Allah" as a translation for "God."
"Our lawyer's offices were broken into and burgled sometime between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning and the office was ransacked," said Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Catholic "Herald" newspaper.
"We believe the break-in is linked to the ongoing situation over the use of the word 'Allah' and we are very concerned," he told AFP.
"The law firm does not have any money or many valuables so we believe this is purely aimed at intimidation."
The church's lawyer Derek Fernandez said a laptop was stolen in the attack on his firm's offices in Kuala Lumpur's southwest, and he was investigating whether any documents had been taken.
"This was a very professional job as there were very strong grilles protecting the office that were cut and the locks carefully replaced after the break-in," he told AFP.
District police chief Arjunaidi Mohamed confirmed the break-in and said his officers were probing the incident.
The High Court ruling in favour of the Herald, which argued for the right to use "Allah" in its Malay-language section, was suspended last week pending an appeal, after the government argued the decision could cause racial conflict.
Since then, churches have been hit with Molotov cocktails, splashed with black paint and had windows smashed with stones, triggering tighter security at places of worship nationwide.
About nine percent of Malaysia's 28 million people are Christians, including 850,000 Catholics. More than half of Malaysia's Catholics are from indigenous groups, mostly from Borneo, and who mostly speak the national language Malay.

China moves to rein in lending, cool economy

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer - Thursday, January 14

Asian Defense News: SHANGHAI (AP) – China's lavish bank lending spurred a recovery but also pumped up markets as speculators scooped up stocks and property and even dabbled in garlic, dried chilli peppers and luxury Pu'er tea.
Now, China is reining in its spendthrift banks, shifting toward an exit strategy that aims to avoid a bust.
After a brief slowdown a year ago, China's economy has bounced back rapidly, with growth forecast at 8.3 percent for this year. Yet the stimulus spending that led that revival _ supported by more than 9 trillion yuan ($1.3 trillion) in new bank loans last year _ has spurred speculation, raising alarm over a potential housing bubble.
The stimulus has also propelled huge investments in industries already larded with overcapacity. On an average day in 2009 some 1,000 new industrial projects were launched, Standard Chartered bank economist Stephen Green estimates.
The challenge now is to stave off inflation and ensure that the stimulus goes into productive investments rather than to speculators.
To help curb those risks, Beijing late Tuesday increased the reserves that banks must hold by 0.5 percentage point, to 15 percent of their deposits. U.S. banks must hold 10 percent in reserve, though that requirement is based on only a fraction of their balance sheets.
The surprise move followed reports that Chinese banks lent 600 billion yuan, or about $88 billion, in the first week of January _ nearly double the total for all of December.
"We need to guide rational investment to avoid speculation," Qi Ji, Vice Minister of Construction, told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.
Qi's bland comment belies concerns voiced by many prominent Chinese economists. In the state-run China Securities Journal on Monday, He Fan and Yao Zhizhong of the government-affiliated Chinese Academy of Social Sciences warned that without tighter controls the economy could grow an unsustainable 16 percent this year.
If stimulus policies remain unchanged, "the economy is destined for serious overheating," they said.
The resulting bust could derail growth and leave banks with massive holdings of bad loans.
The government earlier reimposed taxes on some property transactions and clamped down on lending for second homes, ordering tighter scrutiny of loans and inflows of foreign funds to prevent illegal investments.
But such requirements might not deter deep-pocketed investors looking for fast gains. Among those notorious for running up property prices in Shanghai are private businessmen from the capitalist manufacturing bastion of Wenzhou.
Having helped drive up prices for property and stocks _ the Shanghai benchmark surged 80 percent last year _ the Wenzhou speculators, among others, moved into agricultural commodities.
Last autumn, cash flooded into the market for garlic, and then into the wholesale market for dried chilli peppers, which tripled in price in late 2009 to about 30 yuan ($4.40) per kilogram. Market vendors complained of scarce supplies, and consumers and restaurants griped about the cost. In an earlier speculative frenzy, investors focused on Pu'er tea.
"Farmers were hoarding the chilli peppers, expecting the price to rise, and the market speculators were buying as much as possible to control the supply," said Gao Wang, an analyst with Beijing Orient Agri-business Consultant Ltd, a leading agriculture and food business consulting company.
Underscoring their appetite for risk, some of the Wenzhou speculators will be heading to Dubai for property bargain hunting over the Chinese New Year holiday in February even after some were burned by the Middle Eastern city state's meltdown in late 2009.
"Most of us have realized that traditional manufacturing industries no longer bring us more profits, so many who used to run factories are switching to stock markets or real estate," said Zhou Dewen, the head of a Wenzhou business association, who is heading the tour. "We think it's time to go and see how is Dubai's economy going as opportunity always follows after the crisis," Zhou said.
For now, economists say, China's planners are likely to confine tightening to technical tinkering to discourage excess lending. They are likely to wait some time before raising benchmark interest rates or cutting back on the government stimulus spending credited with helping revive domestic demand _ and creating jobs.
The government has successfully navigated numerous crises using such a piecemeal, gradual approach _ including sweeping state industry reforms that slowly but surely put tens of millions of workers out of their jobs during the 1990s.
While a few have thrived amid the torrent of bank lending, property speculation has frustrated the ambitions of many would be home buyers. With some 10 million households living in shantytowns across China, the most urgent need to is supply low cost housing, said Qi, the Ministry of Construction Official, not the luxury housing and commercial projects favored by most developers.
The report by He and Yao of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimated that about two-thirds of bank lending last year found its way into real estate and stock investments _ keeping housing purchases out of reach for many average Chinese.
Housing prices in Beijing and Shanghai have soared since late 2008 to an average of more than 12,000 yuan ($1,700) per square meter, double the level three years ago, according to a December report by U.S. bond manager Pimco. Food prices rose 0.6 percent in November after nine months of declines.
"The economic recovery has done nothing for me at all," said Li Naikang, a strategist for an advertising company in Shanghai.
"Frankly, I am not able to buy an apartment and I don't even want to think about it. I can't afford to marry, but at least my girlfriend is nice and understands how hard I work and how helpless the reality is," said Li, who earns about 7,000 yuan ($1,000) a month.
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Associated Press writers Chi-chi Zhang and Joe McDonald in Beijing, and researcher Ji Chen in Shanghai, contributed to this report.

White House backs 'free Internet' in Google-China row

Asian Defense News: WASHINGTON (AFP) - – The White House said that it backs the "right to a free Internet" and confirmed it has held talks with Google which is threatening to pull out of China over censorship.
Google said Wednesday it was still filtering Internet search results in China in compliance with law there and would not specify when it plans to defy Chinese censors.
As of late Wednesday, no changes had been made to the California search giant's self-imposed online search filters in China, according to Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker.
Stricker answered "Yes" when asked by AFP on Wednesday whether Google is still filtering search results at google.cn.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he would not go into details about the administration's discussions with Google, which announced on Tuesday it would no longer filter search results from China on its Web search engine.
"We have had conversations and discussions with them about what they have talked about yesterday," Gibbs told reporters here. "I don't want to get much further afield than that."
"The president and this administration have beliefs about the freedom of the Internet," Gibbs added, noting that President Barack Obama had expressed them in China last year.
"The right of a free Internet is what many of you heard the president talk about in China," Gibbs said.
During a visit to China in November, Obama pushed for an unshackled Internet saying he was a "strong supporter of open Internet use" and a "big supporter of non-censorship."
Gibbs also recalled that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had asked for an explanation from China for what Google said was a wave of "highly sophisticated" cyberattacks aimed at Chinese human rights activists. Related article: Cyberattack part of spying campaign
"As the secretary of state said, we look forward to the response from the Chinese," the White House spokesman said.
China said Wednesday it was seeking more information on Google's move.
The state-run Xinhua news agency quoted an anonymous official at the press office of the State Council, the nation's cabinet, as saying that Internet authorities were looking for clarification of Google's statement.
"It is still hard to say whether Google will quit China or not. Nobody knows," the official was quoted as saying.
Google said China-based cyber spies struck the Internet giant and at least 20 other unidentified firms in an apparent bid to hack into the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists around the world. Related article: China rights activists elated by Google
The Mountain View, California-based company, whose motto is "Don't be evil," said the cyberattacks originating from China and Web censorship demands were forcing it to review its business operations in China. Related article: Google case lays bare China challenge, say analysts.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised Google on Wednesday for threatening to quit China and urged other high-tech companies to resist Beijing.
"The announcement that Google will fully review its business operations in China and will no longer tolerate censorship of its search engine should serve as an example to businesses and governments," Pelosi said in a statement.
"The Chinese government operates one of the most sophisticated operations in the world to control the Internet," Pelosi said. "It is essential that technology companies not assist in efforts that violate human rights or prohibit the free exchange of ideas."
A Republican member of Congress, Chris Smith of New Jersey, urged Pelosi on Wednesday to bring the Global Online Freedom Act, a bill that would prevent US IT companies from working with repressive governments, to a vote.
Smith praised Google's move and said "legislation is desperately needed to stop US companies from working hand-in-glove with dictatorships attempting to crack down on democratic activists who use the Internet."
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders hailed Googles move meanwhile saying "a foreign IT company has finally accepted its responsibilities towards Chinese users and is standing up to the Chinese authorities.
"We call on other IT companies to form a common front and we urge the Chinese authorities to reconsider their position," RSF said.