Birmingham stops camera surveillance in Muslim areas Project halted after Guardian exposed use of 200-plus cameras in predominantly Muslim areas for counterterrorism Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 June 2010 11.51 BST Article history An automatic numberplate recognition camera to the right of a conventional CCTV camera in the mainly Asian area of Sparkbrook in Birmingham. Photograph: Andrew FoxA project to spy on two Muslim areas in Birmingham using more than 200 CCTV cameras has been dramatically halted after an investigation by the Guardian revealed it was a counterterrorism initiative. Bags are being placed over the cameras, recently installed in the … Continue reading Birmingham Council and Cops stops spying on Muslims?

Shanghai builds to the skies By Daniel Allen SHANGHAI – Anyone wanting the clearest vision of Shanghai in 2020 should take the lift to the third floor of the city’s dramatic Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. A vast megalopolis in miniature decorates the floor, showing how 25 million-plus inhabitants could be living in harmony and prosperity. A Utopian dream or effective blueprint for orderly development, the next decade will judge the city’s real-life experiment in urban growth. The 2010 Shanghai Expo opened last month under the banner of “Better City, Better Life“, but China’s largest city had one eye on the … Continue reading Shanghai rises

Armed contractors in firing line By Pratap Chatterjee WASHINGTON – A US Congress commission is to consider whether private contractors such as Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater, should be allowed to continue to provide armed security for convoys, diplomatic and other personnel, and military bases and other facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bi-partisan commission will over two days cross-examine 14 witnesses from academia, government and the companies themselves. “Some security tasks are so closely tied to government responsibilities, so mission-critical, or so risky that they shouldn’t be contracted out at all,” says Christopher Shays, a former Republican member … Continue reading Blackwater in firing line?

China opening trade doors to Pakistan By Syed Fazl-e-Haider KARACHI – China has pledged to provide trade concessions to Islamabad that it is not getting from the United States and European Union, according to a Pakistan government official after a visit to the country last week by Chinese Vice Prime Minister Zhang Dejiang. At meetings with Pakistani officials in Islamabad, Zhang called for strengthening economic and trade linkages through improved transportation, communication and energy corridors. China has given assurances it will provide trade concessions that will have a positive impact on Pakistan’s economy, Business Recorder reported, citing Federal Commerce Secretary … Continue reading China open door policy for Pakistan

Agent Orange bill set at $300m By Jim Lobe WASHINGTON – Thirty-five years after the end of the Vietnam War, a joint United States-Vietnamese panel endorsed a 10-year, US$300 million “plan of action” to deal with the deadly health and environmental legacy of the US military’s widespread use of Agent Orange during the conflict. The US government, according to the panel, which included policymakers, citizens and scientists, should provide most of the assistance, which would be designed both to clean up more than two dozen sites in southern Vietnam where contamination was particularly severe and to expand health and related … Continue reading Agent Orange $300m bill?

A North Korean leadership car crash By Aidan Foster-Carter Succession is the Achilles’ heel of dictatorships, for obvious reasons. In extreme cases, such as North Korea, even contemplating the mortality of the leader is seen as lese-majeste, as if this somehow threatens the quasi-monarch’s vaunted omnipotence and implicit immortality. Yet such an ostrich attitude only makes matters worse. There aren’t many certainties about North Korea, but the fact that Kim Jong-il will die is one of them. The only issues are when and how he dies, and what will come after him. The latter needs planning for, right now. But … Continue reading North Korean crash?

China bridges last Mekong gaps By Brian McCartan BANGKOK – The last remaining physical gaps on the north-south roadway set to connect China to Thailand and further afield through Southeast Asia will soon be bridged, opening a new land route that promises to expand intra-regional trade. China has recently agreed to finance the construction of two bridges across the Mekong River inside Laos, which until now have represented the regional project’s missing links. Both bridges are key components of a grand infrastructure plan known as the Greater Mekong Subregion’s (GMS) North-South Corridor, which aims to create more efficient and rapid … Continue reading Mekong and China

Turkey and Israel: The broken alliance By Sami Moubayed DAMASCUS – Depending on who one listens to in the Middle East, Turkish-Israeli relations are either very much repairable or have reached a point of no return after the killing of nine Turkish citizens on board the Free Gaza flotilla off the shores of Gaza last month. A best-case scenario would be for Israel to try and fix the mess resulting from the affair through a basket of political gestures, while a worst-case scenario would be war between the two countries. War, though, is not on anybody’s mind except for a … Continue reading Turkey and Israel

Pakistan seethes at bad-boy image By Zahid U Kramet LAHORE – While Pakistan – and even the Taliban – have reacted angrily to a report that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has “strong” ties to the Taliban in Afghanistan, the sensitive issue highlights Islamabad’s growing concerns over losing what has for many years been its key role in Afghanistan as a United States ally. The London School of Economics (LSE) this weekend released a report that said its research “strongly suggested” that support for the Taliban was the ISI’s official policy, adding that the intelligence agency “orchestrates, sustains and strongly influences … Continue reading Pakistan – bad-boy?

COMMENT: Discrediting Pakistan —Shehrbano Taseer Pakistan’s valiant efforts against the terrorists cannot afford to be condemned and doubted. Those men hold in their mortal hands the power to abolish life altogether An Amnesty International (AI) report published on June 10, 2010, is the latest in a series of damaging articles/reports concerning the current state, and future, of Pakistan. AI has claimed that Pakistanis living in the northwest tribal areas live in a “human rights-free zone” under the Taliban, and that the Pakistani government has failed to provide them with protection, “ignoring their plight” and “treating the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan … Continue reading Discrediting Pakistan