Bank of China to sell up to $5.8 billion in bonds

~Bank of China to sell up to $5.8 billion in bonds to replenish capital

Asian Defense News: BEIJING January 24, 2010, (AP) -- Bank of China plans to sell up to 40 billion yuan ($5.8 billion) in bonds to replenish its capital and meet government standards following a record surge in lending last year amid Beijing's stimulus measures, a state-run news agency reported.
Regulators have warned some banks that they have fallen below minimum capital requirements after handing out some 9.5 trillion yuan in loans last year. Banks are expected to scale back lending to roughly 7.5 trillion yuan in 2010.
Bank of China's proposal still requires shareholder approval at a meeting in March, the Xinhua News Agency said in its report late Saturday. Approval is likely a formality because the government and state-linked institutions control a majority of the bank's shares.
China's banking industry is regarded as the healthiest of any major economy because institutions avoided the mortgage-related turmoil that battered Western lenders.
Beijing hopes cooling the pace of lending will keep its economy growing without creating inflation and overheating. Other nations are counting on that growth and a healthy demand from China for their goods for their own recoveries.
Record bank lending in 2009 to support government spending on infrastructure and other projects under Beijing's stimulus package has led to fears of asset bubbles and huge bank losses if too many loans sour.

Assets of Headley in crores spread across US, Pak and Gulf

Asian Defense News: MUMBAI: With investigators ready to file chargesheet in Headley-Rana case, security agencies have found that the American terror suspect had assets running into crores of rupees in Pakistan, the US and a Gulf nation.

There were indications that Headley was into the real estate business in a Gulf country as per documents procured by the security agencies and the National Investigating Agency (NIA), probing the role of Headley and his Pakistani-Canadian accomplice Tahawwur Rana.

According to sources privy to the investigations, the 49-year-old Headley owns palatial houses in Pakistan and the US besides flats in a Gulf country and vast estate land running into several crores of rupees.

The sources said the probe findings were an eye-opener as the investigators were trying to ascertain the financial transactions of Headley, who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Chicago on October three last year.

The investigators were trailing the credit card payments made by Headley, charged by the FBI with conspiring in the 26/11 attacks, while he was staying in Mumbai and travelling in rest of the country including Delhi, Ajmer, Goa and Pune.

While majority of transactions were carried out by Headley with cash only, he had used his credit cards including an American Express card for purchases in Mumbai and paying hotel bills at five-star hotels in the megapolis.

Source: 24 Jan 2010, 1427 hrs IST, PTI

Al Jazeera: Bin Laden claims Dec 25 US plane attempt

Asian Defense News: DUBAI: Qatar's Al Jazeera television said on Sunday it will air a new voice recording of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in which he claims
responsibility for a Dec. 25 attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound airline. Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is charged with attempting to blow up a Delta Airlines plane as it approached Detroit on a flight from Amsterdam with almost 300 people on board.

Source: 24 Jan 2010, 1459 hrs IST, REUTERS

China now world's second largest diamond market

Asian Defense News: BEIJING: China last year overtook Japan to become the world's second largest diamond market behind the United States with trade on the Shanghai diamond exchange rising 16.4 percent to more than $1.5 billion, state media said.
The official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday the year-on-year rise, when much of the rest of the world was mired in deep recession, was due to China's boisterous economic growth in 2009, which reached 8.7 percent.
"As the economy continued to develop in a stable manner, consumer demand for jewellery continued to grow, especially for diamonds for the wedding market," Xinhua said on its website (www.xinhuanet.com).
"In this year, China overtook Japan to become the world's second largest diamond market for consumers behind the United States," it added.
China's increasingly affluent middle class and vast pool of customers are seen as key factors for the rise in diamond sales in the world's most populous country.
Demand for diamonds only really started to develop in the 1990s when De Beers brought its global advertising campaign to China, tapping into the Chinese desire for conspicuous consumption and pursuit of Western lifestyle trends.
De Beers is 45 percent-owned by mining group Anglo American.

China chalks out plan for lasting stability in Tibet

Asian Defense News: China has formulated a plan for lasting stability in Tibet, it was announced at a high-level meeting held here.
The meeting, attended by Chinese President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders Jan 18-20, agreed that more efforts must be made to improve the living standards of Tibetans to ensure ethnic unity and stability in the region.
Hu said that it was a challenging task to carry out development, build a well-off society and establish a national ecological protective screen in Tibet.
The work was also vital for ethnic unity, social stability and national security, as well as a favorable international environment, Xinhua quoted Hu as saying.
During the meeting, senior leaders also outlined plans to develop Tibetan-inhabited areas in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai.

Indian Air Force offers help to Bangladesh Air Force to modernize its aircraft

Asian Defense News: The Indian Air Force is offering a Bangladesh Biman Bahini (Bangladesh Air Force) use of its facilities to modernize and make maintenance in fighter aircraft MiG-29 and Mi-17 helicopters, said a defense official for the newspaper The Telegraph.
Arriving in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, with an offer to help modernize the aircraft fleet, India move to an area in which Bangladesh has been mainly dependent on China and to some extent, Pakistan, Russia and the United States.
MiG-29 in BangladeshSpeaking Indian Air Force, you understand that the offer came from a defense of the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bangalore, to help modernize the MiG-29 and Mi-17 helicopters to Bangladesh .
The Indian Air Force flies and made the modernization of two of its own aircraft fleet. HAL is engaged in modernizing the MiG-29 India.
Despite the Bangladesh Air Force aircraft have mostly Chinese and some of North America, it also has a squadron of MiG-29 fighters from Russia.
Approximately 70% of Bangladesh's air fleet is old, with fighter aircraft near 20 years of operation, or even older. Bangladesh received A-5 fighter and A-7, Chinese-made, second-hand in helping shape of China and Pakistan.
But the Indian Air Force said that the aid for helicopters Mi-17 (IAF flies many units of the transport helicopter Mi-17), the MiG-29 fighters and transport aircraft Antonov 32 could be recovered for an Air Force limited in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh fly with three An-32 aircraft and 14 helicopters Mi-17.
Source: The Telegraph - Via: Cavok