News & Reports 2011-07-31

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In This Edition
 
US Senate kills a House's debt ceiling plan, dampening hope for a bipartisan deal before the Aug. 2 deadline.
 
The flag over Norway's parliament building is flying at half-mast one week after the country's worst peacetime massacre 1.
 
Poland's defense 2 minister resigns after a government report listed errors and neglect by the crew of the plane that crashed last year, killing 3 President Lech Kaczynski.
 
Reconstruction 4 is underway in a section of railways that was damaged by flood in eastern China.
 
 
Hot Issue Reports
 
US Senate vetoed House debt plan
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a debt ceiling plan in a vote on Friday evening, but the bill was quickly killed in the Senate, which further dampened hope for a bipartisan deal before the Aug. 2 deadline.
 
House Speaker John Boehner called on the President and the Senate to come to an agreement.
 
"I stuck my neck out a mile to try to get an agreement with the President of the United States. This House has acted and it is time for the Administration and time for our colleagues across the aisle 5, put something on the table!"
 
President Barack Obama said a deal was urgently needed, and without it the U.S. government would face the danger next week of not having the authority to borrow money to pay its bills.
 
"I urge Democrats 6 and Republicans in the Senate to find common ground on a plan they can get support -- that can get support from both parties in the House, a plan that I can sign by Tuesday. The debt ceiling does not determine how much more money we can spend, it simply authorizes 7 us to pay the bills we already have racked up. "
 
Obama said without an increase in the limit on the nation's debt ceiling, the government might not to be able to send payments to government contractors 8 or pay social security pension checks and veterans' benefits.
 
The U.S. economy slowed to an annualized growth rate of 1.3 percent during the second quarter of 2011, far short of market expectations. And the deadlock 9 might cause the United States to lose its top-notch credit rating.
 
Flags fly at half-mast in Norway
The flag over Norway's parliament building is flying at half-mast one week after the country's worst peacetime massacre, while workers in Oslo repair bomb-damaged buildings and mourners continue to place flower bouquets 10 around the city.
 
Earlier,Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg paid tribute to two young Muslims killed in the shooting rampage at a youth camp on Utoeya Island during the first funerals for the people who died there.
 
77 people died during the massive bomb blast in central Oslo and the island shootings.
 
Stoltenberg said the attacks had strengthened democracy in the country and that Norway's fundamental values remained intact.
 
"We will be one community regardless of ethnicity, gender 12 and rank. We are Norway. Our fundamental values are democracy, humanity, openness. With that as a platform, we should tolerate differences, we should tolerate debate, wish for them even when they are unpleasant."
 
Paul Bjoerby from Bergen agreed that evil had brought out the best in Norwegians, but they now had to take a deep look at themselves.
 
"I believe that for many thousands of us there are issues that are not all that distant from the sort of the ramblings of hatred 13 and estrangement 14 and fear."
 
Norway plans to set up an independent "July 22 Commission" to examine the attacks, including an investigation 15 of whether police reacted too slowly to the shootings on Utoeya Island when the perpetrator was able to kill for more than an hour.
 
11 Shiite Muslims killed in sectarian raid in Pakistan
Gunmen opened fire on a minibus carrying minority Shiite Muslims in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing 11 people, including a woman and two children.
Sardar Syed, relative of a victim, described the sectarian attack.
 
"A local Suzuki van was carrying passengers to Alamdar road, when they opened fire. The place is between frontier constabulary and police check post. Eleven people were killed."
 
Two people were also wounded in the ambush 16. Dozens of angry Shiites briefly 17 blocked a main road and torched cars and motorcycles. Police regained 18 control of the situation with help from local Shiite elders.
 
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but authorities have blamed majority Sunni militant 19 groups for such violence in the past.
 
Pakistan has a history of sectarian killings 20. Although most majority Sunnis and Shiites live peacefully together, small extremist groups on both sides often target each other's leaders and activists 21.
 
Polish Defense Minister resigns for air crash
Poland's defense minister has resigned after a government report listed errors and neglect by the crew of the military plane that crashed last year in Russia, killing Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others.
 
Prime Minister Donald Tusk 22 has accepted Bogdan Klich's resignation, but denied Klich's responsibility for the disaster.
 
"The issue of who is responsible for activities of administration, for negligence 23, with no direct connection to the catastrophe 24, is a completely different question."
 
The long-awaited 328-page report said the crew of the TU-154 Tupolev plane was poorly trained and ignored crucial safety regulations.
 
Analysts 25 say Klich's resignation is unlikely to have much impact less than three months before a parliamentary election in Poland that Tusk's centrist Civic 26 Platform is tipped to win.
 
Tusk said the report could help improve bilateral 27 relations with Russia.
 
"On the one hand, it excludes assassination 28; but on the other, it includes what Russian aviation authorities' report did not touch. It points to the fact that there was negligence at the airport and errors made by air traffic control."
 
In its own report on the disaster issued in January, Russia placed all blame on the Polish crew, irritating Polish officials.
 
Tusk has named Tomasz Siemoniak, a deputy interior minister, as the new head of the defense ministry 29.
 
Report shows pilot errors outlined in 2009 air France crash
Meanwhile, the French Aviation Investigation Agency has issued an updated report on a fatal 2009 Air France crash, which says pilot misoperation largely resulted in the jet's plunge 30 into the Atlantic Ocean.
 
The agency's findings indicate that the two co-pilots received faulty speed readings from unreliable sensors 31 and repeated alarm signals.
 
Chief investigator 32 Alain Bouillard says the air crash should have been avoidable if the plane had been correctly operated.
 
"The event which would have triggered it all was the disconnecting of the automatic pilot and then the loss of speed indicators 33 most probably after the speed sensors froze with ice crystals. At that moment the pilot should have kicked off a procedure and taken a five-degree pitch attitude as required by the procedure, but he took a superior pitch attitude to that."
 
Bouillard added that the pilots were in a situation they didn't understand.
 
Families of some victims met with investigators 34 in hopes of learning the truth behind the tragedy.
 
"It's mainly the technical elements that we are missing, and that's what we came here for, because it's completely unfair to accuse the pilots if we don't know what situation they were confronted with."
 
A final report on the air crash is expected in early 2012.
 
All 228 people aboard, including nine Chinese, were killed when the Airbus 330 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed during thunderstorms over the Atlantic on June 1st, 2009. It was the worst accident in Air France's history.
 
NATO troops withdraw from Kosovo
NATO troops in Kosovo withdrew to their barracks on Friday after ethnic 11 Serbs blocked them from reaching peacekeepers deployed 35 at border posts with Serbia to halt violence provoked by a customs dispute with Belgrade.
 
Hundreds of ethnic Serb civilians 36 blocked two main roads in northern Kosovo that lead to Serbia with trucks, trailers, logs and car tires, stalling traffic to and from the border.
 
Serbs vowed 37 to press on with road blocks and not allow KFOR to proceed until Kosovo agreed not to station its police and customs officers at the sensitive border posts.
 
After KFOR Commander Major General Erhard Buehler withdrew NATO troops from the area, he warned they would use force the next time the Serbs hindered their progress.
 
Borislav Stefanovic, the chief Serbian negotiator, said the situation must remain calm and under control.
 
"We managed to control the situation in a way that the general made the right decision to withdraw KFOR troops for now from this huge roadblock behind us. And we are continuing our discussion for the systematic 38 solution for two administrative 39 crossings."
 
The dispute flared 40 on Monday when Kosovo sent ethnic Albanian special police units to the border posts staffed mostly by ethnic Serbs to enforce a ban on imports from Serbia.
 
Pristina imposed the ban after Belgrade blocked exports from Kosovo in a dispute over customs regulations.
 
NATO sent peacekeepers to quell 41 a subsequent three days of violence in which one ethnic Albanian policeman was shot dead and hard-line Serbian nationalists set fire to one of the northern border crossings.
 
Peruvian President Gets Support on Country's 190th Anniversary
Peruvian President Ollanta Humala celebrated 42 his country's 190th anniversary at a military parade on Friday, his first day as head of government.
 
Hundreds of military members marched in the parade, as thousands of attendees watched.
 
Leftist Humala was sworn in as Peru's president on Thursday, taking over the reins 43 of one of the world's fastest-growing economies as poor voters increasingly demand a share of the country's boom.
 
The 49-year-old former army commander caused a commotion 44 in Congress by promising 45 to uphold the constitution of 1979 instead of the revised charter introduced in 1993 by jailed former President Alberto Fujimori who unilaterally shut down Congress to consolidate 47 his power.
 
Legislators from Fujimori's party shouted throughout the ceremony waving copies of the 1993 revised constitution.
 
Parade attendee Giovanna Valladares said she approved the speech Humala gave.
 
"Regarding President Ollanta, I congratulate him because it seems to me that he's starting out right. His message from yesterday was excellent."
 
Humala has sought to distinguish himself from his predecessor 48, Alan Garcia, who was criticized for leaving a third of Peruvians mired 49 in poverty.
 
The former radical 50, has promised to govern as a moderate and keep much of the country's existing free-market economic model intact.
 
Kenyans Complain about Govn't Neglect of Drought-hidden People
Kenyan pastoralists suffering from the worst drought ever are complaining that their government is neglecting their well-being 51 as thousands of Somali refugees continue to cross the border in search of aid at Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp.
 
"Definitely, we are feeling neglected. People are just passing here, leaving dust. It's all in the name of helping 52 others."
 
"We have come all the way from Wajir, and we've passed through several other villages. We've been across the border to Somalia. The conditions are just the same. Most people have fled from these towns. All we found were just animal carcasses. We are here for water and pasture, but the situation is not better."
 
The situation is severe right across the Horn in Somalia, northern Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia. Food shortages are expected to reach crisis levels in refugee areas in the coming two months as rain is not expected soon.
 
The United Nations declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia where 3.7 million people are going hungry.
 
The World Food Program says it cannot reach more than two million Somalis facing starvation in areas controlled by Islamist militants 53 who imposed a food aid ban in 2010 and regularly threaten relief groups.
 
Residents of Conakry Views Mix of Kahn's Accuser Nafissatou Diallo
Residents of the West African country Guinea are divided over how to react to the public appearance of Nafissatou Diallo, the housekeeper 54 who has accused former International Monetary 55 Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her in a New York hotel.
 
Diallo broke her silence four days ago in interviews with "Newsweek" and ABC News. She also gave an emotional public appeal at a press conference for people to believe her story and thanked those she said had supported her since the case broke.
 
The case against Strauss-Kahn has teetered for weeks after prosecutors 56 disclosed they had uncovered several discrepancies 57 in Diallo's accounts and questioned her credibility.
 
Diallo said the case would be difficult because it involved the rich and the poor, and that if she did not get support, she would have problems finding a way out.
 
Strauss-Kahn, who had been widely seen as a leading contender for the French presidency 58, has denied the sexual assault allegations.
 
Conakry resident Mamadou Diallo said:
 
"It is a political affair because when you see DSK, he wanted to run (for election) as a serious and popular candidate. It is just because of that, it is a political (plot) to say he raped 59 a Guinean woman named Nafissatou Diallo."
 
Others like Mohamed Diaby believe the only way to uncover the truth is to rely on the justice system.
 
Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have called on Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance to drop the case, while Kenneth Thompson, the attorney for Diallo, said on Thursday he planned to file a civil lawsuit 60 soon.
 
Reconstruction of China's Flood-damaged Railways Underway
Reconstruction is underway in a section of railways that was damaged by flood in eastern China.
 
The section is between Taocun and sea port city of Weihai in east China's Shandong Province.
 
The railway has been suspended for five days. Now the rescue work has entered the sprint 61 stage for an early restoration.
 
Rescue workers say that the second bridge pier 62 of the railway bridge leaned under the impact of the flood discharged along a water course. And the track on the bridge became twisted as a result.
 
Wang Zhenjun is a chief engineer from the Ministry of Railways.
 
"We are putting up two steel pylons 63 on both sides of the pier. The pylons can support the upper part of the bridge, reducing the pressure on the pier. But it is difficult to put up the steel pylons on the original basis. So we have to first set up the steel pylons away from the bridge and then moved them horizontally and laterally 46 to the bridge."
 
The engineer adds the rescue work would enable trains soon to operate with limited speed.
 
More People to Benefit from Charity Volunteers' Help
Volunteers are becoming more commonplace in Beijing, providing unpaid 64 services at railway stations, residential 65 communities and university campuses, thanks to a new volunteer association.
 
At the launching ceremony of the Beijing Charity Volunteer Association on Saturday, Chen Zhibin, the association's secretary general, said the organization already completed a series of charity activities this year that provided a total of 2,677 hours of volunteer service. He estimated that nearly 3,000 Beijing citizens benefited from these services.
 
Twenty-six-year-old Li Mingye started to work as a charity volunteer in 2006 and was one of the people involved in creating the Beijing Charity Volunteer Association.
 
Li said setting up such an organization was necessary because it provides a platform for people who are willing to help others according to their abilities.
 
"I used to work for a website company during which I found many people were willing to do something meaningful within their abilities. But without attending any charity organization, ordinary volunteers would be inclined to quit although they had an ambitious start. So a well-arranged organization was needed to help ensure these volunteers were able to realize their ideals about volunteer service."
 
A recent report on Chinese citizens' volunteer service in 2010 says nearly 40 percent of citizens 18 and older were involved in some kind of volunteer work.
Researchers estimate the value of volunteer services provided nationwide last year topped 100 billion yuan, amounting to some 0.3 percent of China's GDP.
 
China Daily: Beijing's GDP Growth Rate Slower but Better
 
Beijing's gross domestic product growth rate was slower than the GDP growth rate of rest of the country in the first half of the year.
 
In the first two quarters, the capital's GDP grew 8 percent year-on-year, the lowest rate among the 18 provinces, autonomous 66 regions and municipalities that have published their economic data for the same period.
 
The 8-percent growth also meant Beijing was the only region in China with a growth rate below the country's 9.6-percent average.
 
The figure can partly be attributed to the city's policies to restrict home purchases and car consumption.
 
But an editorial in the English language newspaper, "China Daily" says this should not be seen as a sign of an economic slowdown, but rather as a positive result following the capital city's efforts to break from the past GDP-focused economic development model and the city's determination to promote economic restructuring.
 
The editorial points out that the slower economic growth pace together with a considerable decline of energy consumption for every unit of GDP indicate that Beijing's economy is still in good shape and its growth is now on healthier, sounder and more sustainable footing.
 
The paper argues that if Beijing makes substantial progress in its goal to develop a green, innovative 67 and consumption-driven economy, the country's other regions will likely follow suit.
 
The commentary concludes that China should reduce its dependence 68 on GDP growth and shift its focus from the past pursuit of economic quantity to economic quality.