BEIJING (AFP) - A police chief sacked after major riots in southwest China has accused former colleagues of being linked to triad mobsters and a history of crushing dissent, state-run media reported Wednesday.

Local policemen know people in the triads, especially the gangs’ heads,” former Weng’an county public security director Shen Guirong said, according to the China News Weekly which conducted an extensive interview with him.

“Some people inside the public security forces were definitely connected with the triads, even though we were not sure exactly who was corrupt.”

Shen was stripped of his post last week after 30,000 people rampaged through Weng’an, a remote county in Guizhou province, in anger over the alleged cover-up by police of the murder and rape of a local schoolgirl.

The late June riots came at a particularly sensitive time for China’s communist rulers, who have been trying to portray the nation as harmonious and stable ahead of next month’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

China experiences tens of thousands of riots — officially termed “mass incidents” — each year, many of which result in tough crackdowns by the police and detention or intimidation of the protest leaders.

Many of these protests emanate from grievances over injustices committed by the police, government officials, businessmen and others in positions of power.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has repeatedly warned that corruption within the ruling Communist Party is the greatest threat to its legitimacy.

In the interview, Shen, who had been the police chief in Weng’an for six years, reportedly showed the district to be a microcosm of those problems.

“The police were mobilised whenever a mass incident occurred… we offended everyone,” he said, according to the China News Weekly.

Shen complained that police had been used inappropriately to quell at least five major incidents of unrest in recent years, sparking angry responses from the community.

“Our authority was lost long ago. Our offices were attacked very often,” he said, citing as an example the arrests of several farmers who had been in a dispute with a mine developer.

“We arrested them for disturbing social order. As a result, other farmers in the township organised and attacked the county’s criminal police office.”

Such accounts of police problems and corruption are rarely carried in China’s government-controlled press. But the China News Weekly article also appeared on the website of the official Xinhua news agency.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran test-fired nine missiles on Wednesday and warned the United States and Israel it was ready to retaliate if they attacked the Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear projects.

Washington, which says Iran seeks atomic bombs, told Tehran to halt further tests if it wanted the world to trust it.

Rising tensions have rattled financial markets. Oil prices, which have recently slipped from record highs, rebounded almost $2 a barrel after Wednesday’s tests.

Speculation that Israel could strike Iran has mounted since its air force staged an exercise last month that U.S. officials said involved 100 aircraft. The United States has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear row.

“We warn the enemies who intend to threaten us with military exercises and empty psychological operations that our hand will always be on the trigger and our missiles will always be ready to launch,” Revolutionary Guards air force commander Hossein Salami said, according to ISNA news agency.

State TV showed missiles soaring into the sky from a desert launchpad and leaving long vapour trails.

Iran should “refrain from further missile tests if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

“The Iranians should stop the development of ballistic missiles, which could be used as a delivery vehicle for a potential nuclear weapon, immediately,” he added.

Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, insists its nuclear ambitions are purely directed at generating electricity.

State Press TV said the “highly advanced” missiles tested by the Guards included a “new” Shahab 3 missile, which officials have said could reach targets 2,000 km (1,250 miles) away. Iran has previously said Israel and U.S. bases are in its range.

‘WAR OF WORDS’

Some U.S. facilities across the Gulf are little more than 200 km from Iran’s coast, putting them in range of Iranian weaponry even if analysts question their accuracy.

The United States also has troops based in nearby Arab states, including Qatar and Bahrain, along with ships patrolling the Gulf waterway.

Iran has previously said U.S. forces were vulnerable because of their presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. State TV said the missile has a one-tonne, conventional warhead.

Israel, believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed power, has vowed to prevent Iran from acquiring an atomic bomb.

“Israel does not threaten Iran, but the Iranian nuclear programme, combined with their aggressive ballistic missile programme, is a matter of grave concern,” Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said after the tests.

Leaders of the Group of Eight rich countries voiced serious concern on Tuesday at the proliferation risks posed by Iran’s nuclear work. World powers have offered Iran incentives if it will suspend uranium enrichment. Tehran has rejected the demand.

Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz if attacked. About 40 percent of globally traded oil moves through the Gulf waterway. The United States, which has ships and troops in the area, has vowed not to let Iran shut any shipping lanes.

The war of words heightens risks that a misunderstanding or a minor clash in the Gulf, for instance, could get out of hand.

Tehran and Washington have not had diplomatic ties for almost 30 years and have few avenues for direct communications.

An aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader was quoted as saying on Tuesday that his country would hit Tel Aviv, U.S. shipping in the Gulf and U.S. interests in reply to any military strike.

CAUSING HAVOC

Analysts say Iran’s military technology often involves improving weaponry originating in places like China and North Korea. While no match for U.S. firepower, they say Iran could still cause havoc in the region, if it was pushed.

“They are some way away yet from threatening Israel or U.S. bases,” said London-based independent military analyst Paul Beaver, adding guidance systems over longer ranges needed work. But he said the missile programme was still “pretty advanced.”

Other ground-to-ground missiles tested by naval and air units of the Guards were the Zelzal and Fateh, with respective ranges of 400 km and 170 km, state TV said.

After G8 leaders met in Japan, they urged Tehran to suspend all uranium enrichment activities, the work that most worries the West because it can have military as well as civilian uses.

By Nicholas Kralev
The Washington Times

PRAGUE | The coming change of administrations in Washington could unravel President Bush’s plans for a missile defense shield in Europe, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Tuesday in urging both presidential candidates not to abandon the project.

Miss Rice, who signed an agreement with the Czech Republic to base a tracking radar, conceded that the system is yet to be fully developed.

But she insisted that construction should begin soon nevertheless, because the missile threat from Iran is not “imaginary.”

“It´s hard for me to believe that an American president is not going to want to have the capability to defend our territory, the territory of our allies, whether they are in Europe or in the Middle East, against that kind of missile threat,” she said.
 
The Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel Schwarzenberg toast a glass of champagne, July 8, 2008, after they signed a treaty allowing the U.S. to build a missile defence radar in the Czech Republic.(Petr Josek/Reuters)

Miss Rice´s remarks were directed at the two expected presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain. Barring unforeseen circumstances, one will be president when construction of the missile defense begins.

A deal similar to the Czech accord with Poland has proved elusive. The Czechs are to host the radar and Poland would host the planned launch site for interceptor missiles.

In Washington on Tuesday, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Mr. McCain, Arizona Republican, would carry out the Bush administration’s missile defense plans in Poland if elected.

But Mr. Sikorski said he received no such assurances from Mr. Obama, Illinois Democrat. Although the two spoke by phone Monday, Mr. Sikorski said he avoided discussing missile defense, the most urgent issue in Polish-American relations.

“I did not think it was my business in my first conversation with him to raise a controversial issue,” Mr. Sikorski told the Associated Press. The Obama campaign also said the issue did not come up.

Neither of the two presumptive presidential candidates has spoken at length about the European-based plan.

But Mr. McCain supports missile defenses against weapons potentially launched by rogue states or possible future superpowers such as a resurgent Russia or China.

Mr. Obama leans in the opposite direction. “I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space,” he said last year.

Critics of the system say there is no proof it works, and the Iran threat is too distant. The Pentagon´s Missile Defense Agency estimates Iran could develop a long-range missile capable of striking the United States by 2015.

“We face with the Iranians, and so do our allies and friends, a growing missile threat that is getting ever longer and ever deeper, and where the Iranian appetite for nuclear technology is still unchecked,” Miss Rice said Tuesday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, said Tuesday that he sees no possibility of a war between his country and the United States or Israel.

“I assure you that there won´t be any war in the future,” Mr. Ahmadinejad told reporters during a visit to Malaysia for a summit of developing Muslim nations, according to wire reports.

On Monday, Iran´s Revolutionary Guard posted on its Web site a statement quoting guard official Ali Shirazi as saying Iran would retaliate against any military strike by targeting Tel Aviv and U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf.

“The Zionist regime is pushing the White House to prepare for a military strike on Iran,” Mr. Shirazi was quoted as saying. “If such a stupidity is done by them, Tel Aviv and the U.S. naval fleet in the Persian Gulf will be the first targets which will be set on fire in Iran´s crushing response.”

The U.S. Navy´s 5th Fleet, headquartered in Bahrain, is responsible for patrolling the Gulf, the Suez Canal and parts of the Indian Ocean.

GMA News

MANILA, Philippines - An average of 20 typhoons annually and an increasing population are two of the main reasons why the Philippines is far from achieving self-sufficiency in rice production, a grain expert said.
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An official of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said that the domestic rice yields are high compared to other countries in the region which have also adopted modern varieties and technologies.

However, the landscape in the country is not “friendly to rice” production compared to Vietnam and Thailand which have large river deltas, and fertile and flat ricelands, IRRI Director-General Robert Stewart Zeigler said.

In a press conference at the sidelines of the 5th Informal Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers of Science and Technology, Zeigler added that IRRI is currently discussing food security issues with Asian leaders. The subject will be included at the leaders’ annual meeting in October.

He also downplayed scenarios that the soaring prices of rice will create civil unrest in the region.

Making available “affordable rice prices should avert any civil unrest,” he said, adding that ASEAN leaders are “conscious of the great need that the poor should at least have access to adequate food levels.”

Zeigler added that to attain self-sufficiency in rice production, Filipino farmers should not only have access to modern technology, including new rice varieties and fertilizers. The farmers should also know how to effectively use these technologies.

Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan on Tuesday allayed fears of a regional rice crisis, saying there is no need to panic as there is enough grain supply for East Asia.

At a press conference held here, Surin, who is in town for the ASEAN Science and Technology ministerial meeting, said soaring rice prices was merely caused by speculation and fear among traders and was not due to rice shortage.

“East Asia has a rice stock led by Japan and there is enough rice stock to take care of the region and to also share with the world in times of need,” Xinhua news agency quoted Surin as saying here.

“The panic here is over. The price of rice has gone down. It may not be as low before and will never go back to the same price as before,” he added.

Surin said ASEAN foreign, trade and finance ministers have already deliberated on food security for the region and discussed ways on how to address the increasing prices of commodities and oil.

“I think in the case of Thailand and the Philippines, there was an agreement that rice will be made available and in the case of Vietnam they have decided to lift the export ban because of the pressure heightened by fear and speculation,” Surin said.

The Philippines is the world’s biggest importer of rice for the year. The government has imported more than 2.2 million tonnes of rice at the height of global grain prices surge.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is facing a major dilemma as ally Pakistan grapples with surging militant violence fueled by groups who may also have a hand in Afghanistan’s worsening security crisis, experts say.

After Monday’s deadly suicide bombing in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad and alleged Pakistani involvement in another such attack in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, one intelligence report said Pakistan lacked “willingness and ability” to take on the rapidly rising threat posed by Islamist extremism and militancy.

“The fact is that the civilian government and the country’s military establishment appear to be losing control of the situation,” warned private US intelligence firm Stratfor in a report to clients after the twin attacks.
 
Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani speaks during a joint press conference of the D-8 Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Tuesday, July 8, 2008.(AP Photo/Lai Seng Sin)

In Pakistan, it said, there was a “national lack of acknowledgement that the country is being torn apart by religious extremism.”

Stratfor predicted “it is only a matter of time before Washington escalates its unilateral military operations deeper into Pakistani territory” — a move experts warned could worsen “collateral” damage and fuel anti-Americanism.

US airstrikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan, where Washington believes Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants are hiding, is now regarded as almost a daily affair.

As the new government of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani struggles to adopt appropriate policies to a series of political, economic and security crises, US President George W. Bush is concerned the next major terrorist strike on the United States may be planned in Pakistan.

“Washington finds itself in a difficult position,” said Robert Hathaway of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

The latest US strategy of launching unilateral air strikes on suspected militant hideouts inside Pakistan is causing casualties on innocent civilians and fueling anti-American feelings, he said.

It also does not promote the objective of convincing the Pakistanis that the fight against militancy and radicalism is their fight, he said.

Most people believe a long term campaign to provide education, jobs and establishing a functioning set of governmental institutions in the tribal lands could help improve people’s lives and eventually ease the security crisis.

“That’s a long term strategy but the problem is here and now, and it’s not yet apparent that anyone either in Washington or in Islamabad really knows how to connect the two — the long term solution with immediate problems,” Hathaway said.

He blamed the Bush administration for failing to adopt a coherent policy towards Pakistan since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.

“Seven years after 9/11, the United States is worse off in Pakistan than it was, American interests in the region were worse off than they were, and Pakistan is worse off than it was,” he said.

The United States is only now considering a new aid strategy for Pakistan that could triple unconditional non-security aid to 1.5 billion dollars annually for a 10-year period and tie security funding to counter-terrorism performance.

Read the rest:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080709/wl_sthasia_afp/
uspakistanattacks_080709022644

The minors in questions have all been convicted of murder.

HRW says Iran executed a Kurdish-Iranian 16-year-old boy last month for a crime he committed two years earlier — despite claims by Iran’s judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi’s that execution of minors has “practically stopped.”

Iran had executed at least 17 juvenile offenders, eight times more than any other country, since the beginning of 2004, including two so far this year, according to an HRW count.

HRW issued its call on Tuesday together with 23 other international and regional rights organizations.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam has set a target of producing 48-50 million tonnes of coal by 2010, according to the Strategy for Development of the Vietnam Coal Sector by 2015, vision 2025 which was approved by the Prime Minister on July 7.

Accordingly, the domestic coal sector will become a developed industry of high competitiveness and advanced technology in the region, meeting the domestic demand and ensuring energy security.

By 2010, work on exploration and appraisal of the natural resources 300 metres down under the Dong Bac (North-eastern) coal basin will be completed and by 2015, exploration and appraisal of the natural resources of the Red river delta coal basin will be finished.

The sector attaches importance to investment in modern technology with high level of automation in order to avoid the maximum mining accidents. Transport of coal by automobile vehicles is also targeted to be reduced to the maximum to reduce negative impact to the environment.

A competitive coal market will soon be established. The State will manage coal prices via tax policies and other management tools.

NEW YORK - Oil tumbled more than $5 a barrel Tuesday in its second big drop this week, hurling crude back to levels not seen since June 26 as traders wary about the health of the global economy cashed in gains from oil’s recent rally.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell $5.33 to settle at $136.04, after earlier slumping as low as $135.14. The decline followed a $3.92 slide on Monday, bringing oil’s two-day drop to more than $9.

The market’s bearish turn this week erases, at least for the time being, the effect of a rally that pushed prices past $145 in a string of record-setting sessions before the Fourth of July.

Analysts attributed much of the recent sell-off to profit-taking, saying traders were cashing in on the previous week’s gains. A stronger dollar also helped keep prices lower by discouraging investors from pumping more money into commodities.

At the same time, concerns about global oil supply disruptions subsided and fears that the economic slowdown is spreading moved to the forefront.

“Sagging global equities, which are tipping a lack of confidence in economic growth in both developed and emerging economies, helped trigger the retreat in the energy markets,” Addison Armstrong, director of market research at Tradition Energy, said in a research note.

Still, analysts warned the pullback could be fleeting.

“For the time being it’s what we call corrective. … It’s a profit-taking pullback that could still be followed by fresh highs down the road,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates.

Ritterbusch said Tuesday’s decline may have gained added momentum when computer models used by large investment funds automatically sold oil contracts once prices fell to a pre-set threshold.

“A significant part of it’s technical,” he said of the day’s trading. “A lot of these funds don’t watch supply and demand fundamentals.”

Read the rest:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080709/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices;_
ylt=Ao4yJ2CSTO7ngiWb13csuFWs0NUE

Premier Oil plc has reported that its Chim Ung-1 well in Vietnam has been drilled to a total depth of 3,735m, penetrating the target Dua reservoirs.

The well was sidetracked to drill the adjacent Chim Boi fault block and encountered oil shows.  The well is being plugged and abandoned and the rig will now move to drill the Chim Cong (Peacock) prospect.