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news without borders
Wen: China can
weather global
economic crisis
BEIJING: Premier Wen Jiabao confidently declared
yesterday that China would be able to ride out
the unprecedented challenges of a worsening
global crisis and achieve 8% economic growth this
year. In his annual “state of the nation” address
to open parliament, Wen gave the most detailed
blueprint yet of a four trillion yuan (RM2.2 trillion)
stimulus plan aimed at steering China through
the downturn.
However he did not unveil any new stimulus
package in addition to the one outlined in Novem-
ber. Stock markets around the world soared on
Wednesday on expectations of another massive
round of spending to boost China’s economy.
“We are fully confident that we will overcome
difficulties and challenges, and we have the con-
ditions and ability to do so,” Wen told the 3,000
delegates gathered for the Communist Party’s
showpiece political event of the year.
The premier made it clear China’s economy,
the third biggest in the world, was hurting from
the crisis and that the environment was not
expected to get better soon.
“We face unprecedented difficulties and chal-
lenges. The global financial crisis continues to
spread and get worse,” he said.
“Demand continues to shrink on international
markets. The trend for global deflation is obvious
and trade protectionism is resurgent.”
Wen acknowledged fundamental problems
in China exacerbated by the crisis, such as an
inadequate social safety net and incomplete
health care, as well as a wealth gap.
Nevertheless, he sought to reassure China’s
1.3 billion people that major reforms were being
planned and that there was no need for panic.
“Our confidence and strength comes from
many sources,” he said.
China’s economic growth had slumped to
6.8% in the final quarter of last year, worrying
figures for a government long used to double-digit
expansions and marking a dramatic slowdown
from 13% growth in 2007. But he said China’s
gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by 8%
in 2009. – AFP
Wen...
China’s
Pakistan identifies those who
GDP will
grow by
8% in
2009.
attacked cricketers
LAHORE: Pakistani authorities have iden-
tified the people responsible for this week’s
attack on Sri Lanka’s cricket team, a senior
government official said yesterday.
The ambush on the team and its police
escorts as they drove to the main stadium
in Lahore shocked cricket-mad Pakistan
and raised new fears about the nuclear-
armed US ally’s ability to overcome the
threat of rising militancy.
Seven Pakistanis – six policemen and
the driver of a bus carrying match officials
– were killed in Tuesday’s attack.
Police issued sketches early yesterday of
Pakistani
people pray four of the gunmen who attacked the team
and their escorts with AK-47 rifles, hand
for victims
at the site of grenades and a rocket-propelled grenades,
as they drove to Lahore’s main stadium.
the attack in
Lahore. Later, provincial governor Salman
briefs
Gandhi glasses auction
to go ahead: Auctioneers
NEW YORK: The controversial auction of Ma-
hatma Gandhi’s iconic round glasses, and other
personal effects, is due to go ahead, despite fierce
Indian opposition, the auctioneers said.
The auction is “still on,” said Michelle Halpern
at New York-based Antiquorum Auctioneers on
Wednesday. Indian officials were making last-
ditch attempts to secure the Gandhi memorabilia
before the auction.
The owner, James Otis, said he was holding
meetings at the New York consulate of India on
Wednesday. Neither he nor Indian officials could
be immediately reached for comment. Otis said he
was willing to negotiate over the spectacles, sandals,
pocket watch and bowl and plate. However he said
he had rejected an initial offer as far too low. – AFP
Egypt sentences 10 men
to death for gang-rape
CAIRO: An Egyptian court on Wednesday
sentenced 10 men to death by hanging for
gang-raping a woman, a judicial official said.
The men kidnapped the 18-year-old newly-wed
two years ago and raped her, the official said.
The court in the northern province of Kafr
el-Sheikh also sentenced a 15-year-old boy
who took part in the assault to 15 years in
jail. According to the rights group Amnesty
Taseer said authorities knew the identity
of those responsible.
“We have identified the people who
did the operation. We have made arrests,
we are chasing them, we have rounded
up people. I am going to give you details
in the next few days,” he told a news
conference.
There has been much angry finger-
pointing over the failure of the police to
protect the team, despite a warning about
just such an attack. Taseer said a report
on the team’s security would be sent to
the government today.
City police inspector Asif Rashid said
sketches of four of the gunmen, who ap-
peared to be aged 25 to 30, were made
from descriptions provided by a motorist
and rickshaw driver.
REUTERSPIX
International, the African continent is largely
free of executions, with Egypt among only
seven African Union member states known to
have carried out executions in 2007. – AFP
Brazilian girl raped by
stepfather aborts twins
RIO DE JANEIRO: A nine-year-old Brazilian girl,
who was raped by her stepfather and conceived
twins, had an abortion on Wednesday, doctors
said. Sergio Cabral of the University of Pernam-
buco’s Amaury de Medeiros Integrated Health
Centre said the procedure was successful and
the girl was recovering quickly.
Abortion is illegal in Brazil, but the law admits
exceptions, allowing it in cases of rape and preg-
nancies that put the mother’s life at risk. Cabral
said the abortion was carried out with the consent
of the girl and her mother. According to the doc-
tors, the pregnancy, in its 15th week, would have
put the girl’s life at risk. She was only 1.33m tall
and weighed 36kg. – dpa
Egyptian boy
contracts bird flu
CAIRO: Egypt’s health ministry said on
Wednesday that an eight-year-old boy has
contracted bird flu after he was exposed to
dead fowl, the state-run news agency Mena
reported. The boy, who is in hospital in the
province of Alexandria, is the 57th case re-
ported since the first outbreak of the disease
in the country in 2006.
Twenty-three people have died of bird flu
in Egypt. Most of the victims have been young
theSun | FRIDAY MARCH 6 2009
Six Sri Lankan players were wounded
along with two team officials, including a
British assistant coach. They flew back to
Colombo along with the rest of their party
later on Tuesday.
Two Australian umpires and an
English referee caught up in the attack
slammed the security arrangements and
said they were abandoned by Pakistani
security forces once the shooting began.
“We were caught in a war zone,”
umpire Simon Taufel told reporters on
his return to Australia.
ICC match referee Chris Broad told a
news conference in Manchester he and
other match officials had been left like
“sitting ducks” when the attack began.
The Pakistan Cricket Board said it
would lodge a protest with the Inter-
national Cricket Council over Broad’s
remarks.
There is a long list of possible sus-
pects.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha
Bogollagama said in Islamabad on
Wednesday it was the first attack on Sri
Lankans outside the country and he did not
rule out the possibility the rebel Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam were involved.
Speculation has otherwise focused
largely on two Pakistani militant groups
– Lashkar-e-Taiba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
– as well as the Pakistani Taliban.
Whoever was responsible, the con-
sequences for Pakistani cricket would
appear dire.
Even before the attack many countries
refused to come to Pakistan and yesterday
Bangladesh postponed a visit there by the
Pakistani team this month over security
concerns.
Pakistan were due to arrive in Bang-
ladesh on Saturday to play two Twenty20
and five one-day internationals against
the hosts.
Former president Pervez Musharraf
said Pakistani cricket was almost fin-
ished.
Musharraf, who has been keeping a
low profile since stepping down as presi-
dent in August, also told reporters the
special police guarding the Sri Lankan
team should have responded and killed
the attackers in less than three seconds.
“That should be the level of training
that I expect from an elite force ... we need
to improve that standard,” the former
army chief said. – Reuters
girls or women, who are charged with looking
after poultry in the countryside. – AFP
Terror suspect admits to
Singapore airport plot
JAKARTA: A Singaporean terrorist suspect told
an Indonesian court yesterday he had plotted to
bomb the city state’s Changi airport in 2002 but
the plan had been cancelled.
Mohammad Hasan Saynudin told the South
Jakarta district court that he and Mas Selamat
Kastari, the alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiah
regional terror network in Singapore, had planned
the operation in Bangkok.
“I left Singapore in 2002 with Mas Selamat and
went to Bangkok, and in Bangkok we planned to
bomb Changi airport but the plan was cancelled.”
He said nothing more about the plot in court. – AFP
Sudan expels aid agencies,
defies Hague court
KHARTOUM: Sudan’s president told thou-
sands of cheering supporters yesterday an
international call for his arrest on war crimes
charges was a ploy by Western nations set on
grabbing the country’s oil.
Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the first sitting presi-
dent to be charged by the International Criminal
Court, responded to his indictment over the
conflict in the western Darfur region by order-
ing 10 foreign aid agencies to leave Sudan.
Authorities accused the aid groups of pass-
ing information to the ICC on alleged atroci-
ties in Darfur, centre of the world’s largest
humanitarian operation. – Reuters