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China takes up task of history revision
China mudslide toll climbs to 702
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Musharraf a proclaimed offender
Japan apologises to S Korea for colonisation
Asian channel fined for ‘spiritual healer’ ad
Citing India & China, Obama pushes for education Indian-American CEO gets 20-month imprisonment
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China takes up task of history revision
Beijing, August 10 The first revision took 20 years, but was “interrupted and distorted by the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), which brought great calamity to the country and people, causing the most serious setbacks and most damaging losses”, Xu Jun, who leads the revision the history project, approved by Chinese government was quoted by official media as saying. When revising the books, even punctuation was altered to satisfy the politics of the time, Xu said apparently referring to the violent ideological pursuits of the Cultural Revolution, aimed at cleansing the party and the government of “liberal bourgeoisie” to prevent China’s return to capitalism. During that period, violent purges were carried out in the military, workers, and the party leadership itself and virtually lasted till Mao’s death in 1976. After that the forces within the Communist Party that opposed the Cultural Revolution led by Deng Xiaoping, gained prominence which reverted to reformist agenda in the name of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The present Chinese leaders were regarded as Deng’s followers and want the history to be rewritten. Describing the limitations of writing history under Mao’s era, Xu said: “All sentences used to praise feudal kings, generals and ministers should not end with exclamation marks, while the texts describing peasant uprisings should be reduced to a single paragraph.” In 2005, Zhonghua Book Company, one of oldest publishers in China, wrote a proposal to correct the errors. Premier Wen Jiabao, a product of Deng’s era approved the proposal and the project has been granted special funds. The revision project is expected to be finished in 2015. The primary draft is expected to be ready by 2012. The project would cover Twenty-Four Histories, which is a collection of Chinese historical books focusing on a period of proto-history and history from 3,000 BC to the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century. The entire set contains about 40 million words. The Draft History of Qing covers the Qing Dynasty from 1616 to 1911. The new project was launched after CPC, Central Committee, which held its first-ever, high-level national conference on the work concerning Party history on July 21. It was attended among others by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who is also head of the CPC, school. Xi called for more research and education about the history of the CPC, especially among young people. The history of the 89-year-old party is a “lively and vivid textbook,” which should be well-studied, and research results should be used to “educate Party members, officials and the masses, especially the youth,” he said adding that the Party history should be included in schools’ curriculums and publicised through the Internet. He said that the CPC strongly opposes any tendency that “distorts or smears the Party’s history and the researchers should study it “in a practical and realistic manner,” Xi said, adding that the Party’s glory, experiences, traditions and fine work style should be publicised. — PTI
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China mudslide toll climbs to 702
Beijing, August 10 Citing officials, the state-run Xinhua news agency said the toll from the massive rain-triggered mudslides in Zhouqu county in Gansu province since Sunday had climbed to 702 this afternoon. Xinhua had earlier last night said that 337 people had died so far. As relief operations picked up speed to clear the debris, a 52-year-old Tibetan man was pulled alive from the rubble of a toppled apartment building, more than 50 hours after the landslides levelled the county. The man named Liu Ma Shindan was rescued from the ruins of a residential building and doctors said his heart rate and breathing were normal, but he was too weak to speak. A 74-year-old lady was rescued yesterday in similar circumstances. Rescuers hoped that survivors might still be buried in the debris and kept searching for them over the past 24 hours. However, they retrieved four bodies from the same site. More than 7,000 troops were battling through sludge and rubble in a round-the-clock operation to find survivors as a total of 1,042 people were still missing. At least 30 per cent of the local population is Tibetan. Meanwhile, Minister of Land and Resources Xu Shaoshi said the mudslides could have been caused by the county’s loose, weathered terrain aided by the massive earthquake in neighbouring Sichuan province in 2008 that shook the mountains around Zhouqu. — PTI
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Musharraf a proclaimed offender
Karachi, August 10 A division bench of the Sindh High Court here headed by Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani issued the order against Musharraf for not appearing before it in connection with a petition filed by Maulvi Iqbal Haider of the Awami Himayat Tehreek seeking action against him for "disfiguring" the constitution and committing "high treason". The development came a day before Musharraf, who is living in self-imposed exile, turns 67. Haider, also an advocate, sought action against Musharraf and his aides, including advocate Sharifuddin Pirzada and former Attorney General Malik Abdul Qayyum, for "disfiguring the Constitution and committing high treason". He has appealed the court to file conspiracy petition against Musharraf. The court issued various notices to the former president, but he failed to appear. "I requested the court in my second petition to assist me in publishing advertisement in British newspapers but this petition was not upheld," Haider said. "I then requested the bench to declare Musharraf a proclaimed offender since I could not afford the cost of getting advertisements published in British newspapers," he said. Several cases are pending against Musharraf in courts across Pakistan, and the UN inquiry commission's report also held his regime responsible for the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. — PTI
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Japan apologises to S Korea for colonisation
Tokyo, August 10 While the apology is not the first from Japan, it came ahead of the 100th anniversary of Japanese aggression against Korea on August 29. Kan expressed deep regret over the suffering inflicted during Japan’s colonial rule from 1910 to 1945. “The people of South Korea at the time were deprived of their nation and culture, and their ethnic pride was deeply harmed by colonial rule that was against their will,” Kan said in a statement, endorsed by his Cabinet. During Japan’s occupation of the Korean peninsula, many Koreans were forced to work in slave-labour conditions, or serve as “comfort women” in brothels run by the military. In the past, there have been protests and lawsuits in South Korea over the sufferings of thousands of comfort women. Kan said he wants to look squarely at the facts of history and be upfront about regretting past mistakes. Kan telephoned South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, explaining his reason for releasing the statement, which was timed also to precede South Korea’s celebration of its liberation from colonial rule on August 15. — PTI
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Asian channel fined for ‘spiritual healer’ ad
London, August 10 Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, levied the fine on DM Digital channel after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the advertisement broadcast by it breached rules following a complaint from a viewer. The Asian community has been particularly vulnerable to the influence of charlatans, psychics, ‘babas’ and ‘tantriks’, who promise to cure all ills, remove spells and bring luck to those who believe in spells and occult practices. The ‘spiritual healer’ was identified in the advertisement as ‘Professor Mohammed Zain’, who was approached by a viewer in Manchester after the advertisement was broadcast. — PTI
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Citing India & China, Obama pushes for education Washington, August 10 "From Beijing to Bangalore from Seoul to Sao Paulo new industries and innovations are flourishing; our competition is growing fiercer," Obama told a crowd at the University of Texas at Austin Monday. "We need an economy that puts Americans back to work, an economy that's built around three simple words -- Made in America," he said amid applause. "Because we are not playing for second place. We are the United States of America... we play for first." "I want us to produce eight million more college graduates by 2020, because America has to have the highest share of graduates compared to every other nation," he said arguing that education was an economic issue. Noting that America had fallen from first place in college graduates to 12th place in a single generation, Obama called the status quo "unacceptable" but "not irreversible". Earlier, at a Democratic party fundraiser too, Obama spoke of the growing competition from India, China and Germany to sell his economic agenda. "After nearly a decade of economic policies that has given us little more than sluggish job growth, sluggish economic growth, falling incomes, falling wages, a record deficit," Obama said he had put in place a new economic plan focused on the middle class. The plan, he said, was aimed at "making them more secure, and making sure that our country was competitive over the long run so the jobs and industries of the future weren't going to China or India or Germany, but were going to the United States of America, right here". Obama's continued "portrayal of India as trying to take American jobs," however came in for sharp criticism from a noted US scholar who argued that it was "the wrong way to deal with India". "Do as I say, don't do as I do. This is the message the Obama Administration and the Congress are sending to fellow democracy India," said Derek Scissors, research fellow in Asia Economic Policy at The Heritage Foundation. "While correctly pressing India to liberalise trade and investment, President Obama continues to hector India on outsourcing, and the Congress has now turned the talk into ugly action," he said referring to Senate legislation to raise visa fees for high-skilled foreign workers. "This was intended to target certain Indian companies by constraining American access to them," Scissors said arguing "there are strong reasons, in addition to the commercial ones, to engage more fully and equally with India, not punish it." "India is a rapidly growing economy driven by its consumers. It is an American friend," he said. "Picking on India, especially, tells the world the US commitment to open trade and investment is weakening, a message that will end up hurting both US foreign policy and our economy," Scissors warned. —IANS
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Indian-American CEO gets 20-month imprisonment Boston, August 10 Sushil Bansal, 43, president and CEO of Advanced Integrated Technology Corporation, will also serve a three-year period of supervised release, following release from his two concurrent 20-month imprisonment terms. Bansal and his company have also been ordered to pay $844,765 in restitution to the District of Columbia government, US Attorney Ronald Machen said in a statement. Virginia-resident Bansal and his company AITC had pled guilty on April 27, 2010 to bribing public officials. During his guilty plea, Bansal admitted that between September 2005 and March 2009 he and his company paid more than $700,000 in bribes to Yusuf Acar and Farrukh Awan, then employees of the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Technology Officer. —PTI
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region in China’s northwest more than doubled to 702 today while 1,042 people were still missing, as rescuers scrambled hard to sift through thick layers of mud and rocks in a round-the-clock operation to find possible survivors.
Former President Pervez Musharraf was today declared a proclaimed offender by Pakistan's Sindh High Court for non-appearance, in what could be a setback to his plans to stage a political comeback.
A division bench of the Sindh High Court here headed by Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani issued the order against Musharraf for not appearing before it in connection with a petition filed by Maulvi Iqbal Haider of the Awami Himayat Tehreek seeking action against him for "disfiguring" the constitution and committing "high treason".
