Saturday, 05 March 2016 14:36
Posted by Parvez Jabri
BEIJING: China plans to invest about $17 billion in 100 projects in the violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang, the official Xinhua news agency reported.Hundreds have died in recent years in unrest in Xinjiang, blamed by Beijing on Islamist militants who want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan. But the government has recognised the economic roots of some of the problems and has poured money in to develop the region.The funds will cover projects spanning employment, housing, agriculture, poverty-relief among other things, according to the Standing Committee of the regional Party Committee.The committee said about 10,000 Xinjiang villages will receive 500,000 yuan each to "improve livelihood," with 600 million yuan being used for poverty relief in 1,200 villages, while 24 billion yuan will go to build housing for 300,000 rural herdsmen.About 600 billion yuan has been invested in the last six years, said Xinhua.In February, China's ruling Communist ...
BEIJING: China plans to invest about $17 billion in 100 projects in the violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang, the official Xinhua news agency reported.Hundreds have died in recent years in unrest in Xinjiang, blamed by Beijing on Islamist militants who want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan. But the government has recognised the economic roots of some of the problems and has poured money in to develop the region.The funds will cover projects spanning employment, housing, agriculture, poverty-relief among other things, according to the Standing Committee of the regional Party Committee.The committee said about 10,000 Xinjiang villages will receive 500,000 yuan each to "improve livelihood," with 600 million yuan being used for poverty relief in 1,200 villages, while 24 billion yuan will go to build housing for 300,000 rural herdsmen.About 600 billion yuan has been invested in the last six years, said Xinhua.In February, China's ruling Communist ...
BEIJING: China on Saturday set less ambitious climate change goals for this year than it achieved in 2015, as the world's biggest polluter struggles to wean itself off harmful fossil fuels.Beijing has said its emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change will carry on rising until "around 2030".It frequently prefers to point instead to its achievements in energy intensity -- the amount of power used per unit of GDP -- which it has ...
BEIJING: Beijing stepped up its rhetoric against Taiwanese independence on Saturday, with Premier Li Keqiang warning against "separatist activities" on the island and pledging to safeguard China's "territorial integrity".Li's comments at the opening of the mainland's National People's Congress (NPC) parliament came weeks after Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of the Beijing-sceptic Democratic People's Party, was elected Taiwan's next president.Beijing will "oppose separatist activities for the independence of Taiwan" and "safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity", Li ...
APIA: Samoa's ruling Human Rights Protection Party won a crushing victory in the Pacific island nation's general election, preliminary results released on Saturday showed. The HRPP, which has dominated Samoan politics since the early 1980s, won 47 of the 49 seats, results released by the electoral commissioner's office showed.This is a substantial improvement on the previous election in 2011 when the party won 36 of 49 seats. The main opposition Tautua Samoa Party was all ...
BANGKOK: Sixty people were hospitalised Saturday, mostly for burns, after the engine on a Bangkok commuter boat exploded and sent passengers leaping to a nearby pier or into the water, officials and reports said.The crowded boat was ferrying passengers on a major canal in the eastern outskirts of the Thai capital, which boasts an extensive network of waterways that teem with motorised commuter boats during rush hour. Most of the injured were later released from ...
TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Friday he has agreed to suspend construction of a controversial US military base on Okinawa, a rare conciliatory step aimed at easing tension with the southern island.Still, Abe reiterated there is no change to his policy that a new US Marine air base must be built in a remote part of Okinawa to replace an existing one in a heavily populated area widely seen as a danger to ...
SEOUL: South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Friday promised a harsh response to any military provocation by North Korea, after its leader Kim Jong-Un ordered the country's nuclear arsenal on standby."If North Korea launches a provocation, we must respond with stern punishment to clearly show the price North Korea has to pay and our determination to protect our nation," Park said in a televised speech at a ceremony for newly commissioned military officers.Following the adoption ...
