DPRK says it will probe truth of “Cheonan” warship case

Posted on July 31, 2010 by admin

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Friday that its people and army would probe the truth about the “Cheonan” warship case “to the end.”

The DPRK’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that this was announced by the DPRK’s representative to the third round of the DPRK-U.S. colonel-level military working contact.

According to the KCNA, the DPRK believes that the U.S. proposal for creating a “joint assessment group” and inspecting DPRK’s military base at the last round of the contact was “a politically motivated provocation” as it infringes upon the sovereignty and dignity of the DPRK.

The proposal made by the U.S. side was “nothing but a sinister intention to link the “Cheonan” case with the DPRK,” it noted.

The U.S. was in collusion with South Korea on the “Cheonan” case and their investigation results were “unilateral and unscientific”, KCNA said.

The DPRK warned that its army and people would take stronger counteraction unless the U.S. stops military provocations against it and stops “wrecking peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula.”

The KCNA reported that both sides agreed to hold the fourth round of the DPRK-U.S. senior colonel-level military working contact to probe the truth about the “Cheonan” case in Panmunjom around Aug. 9.

The DPRK and the U.S. have held two rounds of DPRK-U.S. colonel-level military working contacts on July 15 and 23rd.

The KCNA said that an agreement was reached in the contact, including the time, venue, members and topics of the DPRK-U.S. general-level talks.

On March 26, South Korea’s 1,200-ton frigate Cheonan, with 104 crew members aboard, sank near the maritime border with the DPRK after an unexplained explosion. Only 58 sailors were rescued alive shortly after the sinking.

South Korean investigators released their results of the investigation on May 20, claiming that the “Cheonan” was sunk by a DPRK torpedo.

Meanwhile, a spokesman from the DPRK National Defense Commission issued a statement May 20 rejecting the claim of South Korea and requesting to send an DPRK inspection group to South Korean to verify material evidence.

South Korea, however, rejected that request, the KCNA added.

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LifeLock Promotion Code

Posted on July 31, 2010 by admin

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Rugs on Arearugsnow.com

Posted on July 29, 2010 by admin

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Cheap Area Rugs

Posted on July 29, 2010 by admin

Do you have a new house? Are you looking for an area rug for your lovely new house? Unless you have already completely redecorated an entire room, you will want to choose Cheap Rugs that will compliment existing wall colors, furniture, and window coverings. For me, buying things online would be a perfect choice including rugs buying. After a long time searching, I found superiorrugs, and I got my desired.

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Eurozone consumer confidence improves in July

Posted on July 23, 2010 by admin

Consumer confidence in the 16- nation Eurozone improved significantly in July while that of the European Union (EU) also increased, the European Commission said on Thursday.

According to the flash estimate of the Commission, consumer confidence indicator in the Eurozone increased from minus 17.3 in June to minus 14.1 in July.

For the 27-member EU, consumer confidence indicator also improved slightly, up to minus 13.8 from minus 14.9 in June.

Analysts said that the improvement can be attributed to signs of easing of the European debt crisis.

Meanwhile, the Commission said that the economic sentiment indicator for the Eurozone in June also increased by 0.3 points, reaching 98.7, while that of the EU remained broadly unchanged at 100.1, down by 0.1 points.

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Explosions rock Russian power plant, two killed by gunmen

Posted on July 21, 2010 by admin

At least two people were killed and another two wounded by a group of unidentified gunmen before explosions rocked a hydro-electric station in Russia’s North Caucasus region on Wednesday, news agencies reported.

The gunmen, believed to be militant fighters, entered the station at 04:20 a.m. Moscow time (0020 GMT) to place explosives and shot two guards dead, local police were quoted as saying.

One hour later, three explosions occurred with an interval of five to six minutes near the small town of Baksan in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, damaging part of the facilities and triggering a fire at the first and second floors of the power plant.

A fourth explosion was reported later, but causing minor impact.

Local authorities played down the risks of any floods as the water gate has been timely closed. Neither would the local electricity supplies be affected as electric power has been dispatched from other stations to the area.

Meanwhile they did not rule out the existence of other explosive devices at the power plant, which has already been cordoned off. Orders have been given to beef up security of all the power plants in southern Russia.

Local police has called the incident a terrorist attack. A law enforce source was cited by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying that the same group of assailants may be responsible for an earlier attack on police.

“At 3:15 a.m. (2315 GMT Tuesday) a police building was attacked with a grenade launcher in the city of Baksan. There were no casualties,” said the source.

Baksan hydropower plant was built between 1930-1936.

On June 11, a total of six TV and radio broadcasting stations were attacked overnight at various districts of the republic, causing neither casualties nor disruption of normal operation of the stations.

Violence is common in Russia’s mainly Muslim North Caucasus republics, especially Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, with militants frequently targeting police and officials as representing the Russian authorities.

Moscow claimed to tackle the problem of unemployment, clan rivalry and corruption as these are viewed as the reasons for violence in the region.

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Former U.S. government worker gets life

Posted on July 17, 2010 by admin

A former U.S. State Department worker accused of spying for Cuba was sentenced to life in prison without parole, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.

“Walter Kendall Myers, a former State Department official, and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and 81 months in prison, respectively,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

The Justice Department said the two got their sentence for their roles in a nearly 30-year conspiracy to provide highly- classified U.S. defense information to Cuba.

The couple were arrested on June 4, 2009 by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and have remained in custody ever since.

In November 2009, Kendall Myers, the 73-year-old husband, pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit espionage, while his wife, Gwendolyn Myers, pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to gather and transmit national defense information.

The couple were recruited by Cuban intelligence officers in 1979, according to information disclosed by the Justice Department.

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Pakistan, India agree to continue dialogue process

Posted on July 16, 2010 by admin

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna Thursday agreed to continue the bilateral dialogue process to restore trust and confidence.

The two foreign ministers expressed satisfaction over the outcome of the three-hour talks, which covered hosts of key issues including terrorism, investigation of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and Kashmir.

Speaking at a joint press conference they vowed to continue dialogue process and to take confidence building measures.

The Indian External Affairs Minister invited his Pakistani counterpart for another meeting in New Delhi and the Pakistani Foreign Minister accepted the invitation and will visit India later this year.

“We had very useful exchange of views on several issues,” Krishna told the news conference. He said that he has also secured assurance from Pakistan to check infiltration of militants into the Indian-controlled Kashmir from Pakistani side of Kashmir.

The Indian Foreign Minister complained that infiltration into the Indian-administered Kashmir had been increased over the past two years and that India had been closely monitoring the infiltration.

Pakistani foreign minister said that the issue of increased infiltration was discussed and he categorically reiterated that infiltration is not policy of the government of Pakistan.

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U.S. Fed Concerned about Weaker Pace of Recovery

Posted on July 15, 2010 by admin

A new document released by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday showed that the central bank was still concerned with the pace of economic recovery and considered taking further monetary stimulus if necessary.

Top officials of the Fed said that they continued to anticipate a “moderate” recovery in economic activity through 2011, supported by accommodative monetary policy.

With risks now growing, Fed officials at their June 22-23 meeting saw the need to explore new options for bolstering the economy. That is a turnaround from earlier this year when they were moving to wind down crisis-era supports.

According to the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the central bank’s policy making group which meet eight times a year to set interest rates, the Fed is considering whether to implement further policy stimulus if the outlook is to worsen appreciably.

Fed officials projected economic growth in 2010 would reach 3 to 3.5 percent, lower than in April when the Fed presented a relatively stronger forecast, saying the economy could grow between 3.2 percent and 3.7 percent this year.

The new document showed that Fed officials saw the “economic outlook had softened somewhat.”

Looking forward, the Fed expects the economy will grow 3.5 to 4.2 percent in 2011 and 3.5 to 4.5 percent in 2012.

The central bank also projected that the average unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2010 was 9.2 to 9.5 percent, slightly higher than its previous forecast of 9.1 to 9.5 percent.

Unemployment, currently at 9.5 percent in June, is a key concern of the Obama administration.

The Fed said that “household spending is increasing but remains constrained by high unemployment, modest income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit.”

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke noted that the difficulty to get credit for small businesses remained a key challenge at present. He called on banks to lend more to sound small businesses in order to help create more jobs.

On inflation issue, the Fed said that “prices of energy and other commodities have declined somewhat in recent months, and underlying inflation has treaded lower.”

With substantial resource slack continuing to restrain cost pressures and longer-term inflation expectations stable, “inflation is likely to be subdued for some time.”

In fact, the minutes of the meeting said that a few Fed officials were worried about the risk of deflation, citing a widespread and destabilizing fall in prices of goods, prices of homes and stocks, and a drop in wages. The country’s last serious bout with deflation was in the 1930s. Keeping interest rates at record lows would help combat any deflationary pressures.

Paul Krugman, a Nobel laureate and renowned economist, said the Fed was feckless on Monday. He urged the Fed to take more aggressive actions to boost the recovery so as to prevent the economy from sliding to another verge of falling.

To tackle the financial crisis and foster the recovery, the Fed has left a key bank lending rate at between zero and 0.25 percent since December 2008. That has kept rates on certain credit cards, home equity loans, some adjustable-rate mortgages and other consumer loans at their lowest point in decades.

As the economic outlook is getting worse than expected, economists predict the Fed will keep the key rate at record low well into next year and possibly into 2012.

At their latest meeting, the Fed officials also discussed considerations surrounding the possible reestablishment of dollar liquidity swap lines. Participants agreed that such arrangements could be helpful in limiting the strains in dollar funding markets and the adverse implications of recent developments for the U.S. economy.

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Asian Market Roundup July 15

Posted on July 15, 2010 by admin

China

China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index on the Shanghai Stock Exchange closed at 2,424.30 points Thursday, down 46.14 points, or 1.87 percent from the previous close.

The Shenzhen Component Index on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange closed at 9,718.73 points Thursday, down 84.99 points, or 0.87 percent, from the previous close.

Japan

Tokyo stocks fell Thursday, as jitters over the resiliency of the U.S. economy and a stronger yen encouraged profit-taking in Tokyo Electron, Nissan Motor and several other shares that benefited during the prior session’s sharp rise.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 109.71 points, or 1.1%, to 9685.53 following Wednesday’s 258.01-point (2.7%) rise. The Topix index of all the Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section issues also fell 14.13 points, or 1.6%, to 856.60, as 32 of 33 subindexes ended in negative territory.

Australia

THE share market closed lower led by losses in the resources and financial sectors.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 19.8 points, or 0.44 per cent, at 4442.6 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index had dropped 20.6 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 4456.7 points.

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