Ai Weiwei: Associates of Chinese artist 'also free'

BBC News, 25 June 2011

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Four people detained with Ai Weiwei - the artist and activist held by Chinese authorities for nearly three months - are also now free, Mr Ai's associates have told reporters.

Ai Weiwei was freed last Wednesday, but the fate
of colleagues detained with him was unclear

Mr Ai was released last Wednesday but the whereabouts of his associates had been unclear.

Two of Mr Ai's friends now say his driver, accountant and a designer were also released at the end of last week.

Mr Ai himself told AFP news agency that his assistant Wen Tao was also free.

"All of the people connected to the case have been released," Liu Yanping, a volunteer worker with Mr Ai on human rights issues, told Reuters news agency by telephone.

"That's a big relief. But I do think the Ai Weiwei studio's work will remain suspended for now," she said - referring to Ai's political activism and not his artistic work.

The release of Mr Ai's driver Zhang Jinsong, accountant Hu Mingfen, and associate designer Liu Zhenggang was also confirmed by Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer and friend of Mr Ai.

The detention of Mr Ai on what supporters called trumped-up charges prompted a global campaign for his release.

Mr Ai has been freed, but he is barred from discussing his case publicly, barred from leaving Beijing without permission and reportedly barred from using micro-blogging service Twitter - which he previously used prolifically.

Chinese authorities say he has confessed to tax evasion offences, but lawyers point out that no formal charges have been brought.

On Sunday, prominent environmentalist and Aids activist Hu Jia is scheduled to be released from prison.

He was jailed in April 2008 for "inciting subversion".

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Europe aims to set the credit rating rules

Deutsche Welle, 24 June 2011

Europe wants to ensure ratings
agencies operate by EU rules

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) warns US credit ratings agencies that they will need to play by EU rules if they want a license to continue operating within the bloc.

The head of the European Securities and Markets Authority, Steven Maijoor, said Europe wants to break the monopoly currently held by major US ratings companies, and enforce its own operating regulations.

"We shouldn't blindly adopt the regulatory system of a third country," Maijoor told the Financial Times Deutschland, referring to the guidelines governing the behavior of ratings companies in the United States.

He said any agency seeking a license to operate within Europe would be expected to supply extensive paperwork with their application. ESMA said this has not yet been forthcoming.

The biggest agencies, Fitch, Moody's and Standard and Poor's, the latter two of which are American, have been widely criticized since the global financial meltdown.

"Everyone knows that after the crisis there was a big problem with ratings agencies, and that was a conflict of interest," Philip Whyte, senior research fellow with the Centre for European Reform in London told Deutsche Welle. "The people's whose papers were being rated were the people who paid the agencies."

Mixed messages

Greece's ratings have been slashed by Standard and Poor

Yet he added that it is sometimes hard to disentangle what politicians say about the behavior of the agencies in the run up to the financial crisis and what they are saying now in the face of sovereign debt woes.

"Either politicians want them to be independent and to do a good job of rating paper, or they want them to be political puppets who respond to European political pressure," Whyte said. "But they can't have it both ways."

For the past year, Europe has been promising to curb the power of the major three agencies, which the Financial Times Deutschland reported as having a collective market share of 95 percent. Although as of July 1, ESMA will hold the sole responsibility for the supervision of credit rating agencies in Europe, Fitch, Moody's and Standard and Poor's will remain the major players.

In a recent EU report on the reform of the ratings industry, Wolf Klinz, a German member of the European Parliament, called on central banks, investors and private banks to practice risk assessment themselves, thereby reducing dependency on the main agencies.

He also said ratings companies should be held accountable for the economic consequences of their actions.

"When the agencies say they are only expressing opinions, it is inaccurate," Klinz said in his report. "What we need is greater responsibility and accountability."

A European ratings entity

Fitch is owned by a European financial group

The MEP is one of many EU politicians, including Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the group of eurozone finance ministers, to back the proposal of the creation of a European ratings agency.

But as Nicolas Veron, a senior fellow with the European think tank Bruegel, was quick to point out, the idea is a very old one, and would be hard to pull off.

"I am not exactly sure what is desired here," he told Deutsche Welle. "If it is a state controlled ratings agency, it would be hard to establish credibility, and it if is about creating a state monopoly, I think it would be a non-starter."

The future of Frankfurt

On Friday, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants announced that it is in talks with the German state of Hesse, the association Frankfurt Main Finance and the Frankfurt Stock exchange "in order to promote, establish and develop a European rating agency in Frankfurt am Main."

Could Frankfurt become home to
an European ratings agency?

The company's global head of risk management, Markus Krall, said in a statement that it was crucial to "reduce conflicts of interest and restore credibility of and confidence in ratings." He added that Roland Berger was inviting companies and institutions across Europe to participate in setting up the initiative.

Whyte, however, said he is skeptical of both the wish and the need for such an entity. He said he believes the EU is angry with rating agencies for downgrading sovereign debt and is looking for ways to make them stop.

"They always think Anglo-Saxons have an inherent bias and that an EU agency would be more balanced," he said. "But one person's balance is another person's susceptibility to political pressure."

Reporter: Tamsin Walker

Editor: Sean Sinico

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Malaysia Borneo leader denies secret Swiss account

Associated Press, Jun 22, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- The longtime leader of Malaysia's largest state denied accusations Wednesday that he holds any secret Swiss bank account containing massive riches amassed through corrupt timber deals.

Abdul Taib Mahmud, chief minister of Malaysia's eastern Sarawak state on Borneo island, has faced mounting pressure to respond to claims that he plundered billions from the jungle-blanketed state for three decades.

Abdul Taib, Sarawak's leader for 30 years, made a much-anticipated statement at the state legislature to denounce what he called "malicious falsehoods" that he has Swiss bank accounts, assets or investments.

The claim was made last month by the Bruno Manser Fund, a Swiss-based group that campaigns for the rights of Sarawak's indigenous tribal communities. The group said it had sent a report to Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey asking her to freeze Abdul Taib's assets in Switzerland over alleged money-laundering.

Critics claim Abdul Taib has long awarded lucrative timber and land deals to companies owned by his family and associates while neglecting impoverished indigenous communities who live in remote areas with little access to electricity, education, health care and other facilities.

Abdul Taib pledged to "swiftly bring the truth to light" by fully cooperating with any probe by Swiss authorities.

Malaysia's government anti-graft agency also said recently it is investigating allegations of corruption against Abdul Taib, but some activists have voiced doubts that he would face prosecution because of his huge political clout.

Abdul Taib, 74, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing but recently promised to retire in a few years. The accusations against him helped Malaysia's opposition make significant political inroads in Sarawak in state legislative elections earlier this year.

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Royal Brunei pays the price of decades-long wrong strategy

eTurbo News, by Luc Citrinot, ETN | JUN 23, 2011

BANGKOK (eTN)- Arrogance? Probably. Lack of vision? Certainly. Royal Brunei Airlines remains a mystery among Southeast Asian carriers. The carrier serves Southeast Asia’s second wealthiest country after Singapore with a GDP per capita of over US$ 20,000. But at the same time, the Sultanate of Brunei is the less populated countries among ASEAN members with a population of 360,000 inhabitants. Although Brunei population is small, the airline’s catchment area is rather attractive. Brunei is the only independent Kingdom located on Borneo Island with its population of 20 million inhabitants. Southern Borneo (Kalimantan) belongs to Indonesia, while a large part of Northern Borneo opted half a century ago to rally the Malaysian Federation. An independent and neutral Brunei could then position itself as the ideal international gateway to connect Borneo with the rest of the world…

"I had a dream". RBA Airbus A320 in front of
Bandar Sri Begawan air terminal./
Photo: L. Citrinot.

Except that RBA has preferred to concentrate until today on prestigious routes such as long haul flights. Its fleet is composed of Airbus A320 and Boeing 777-200 ER, leased from Singapore Airlines. And instead of offering flights to Sandakan (Malaysia), Balikpapan, Pontianak and Makassar (Indonesia), or Davao (Philippines) –they all desperately look for more international connections!-, the airline’s management found more rewarding to propose flights to Auckland, Brisbane, Dubai, London or Melbourne. Of course, in the tiny Kingdom, RBA has been long considered as a toy, an object of pride to be exhibited worldwide.

Unfortunately, this strategy cannot survive anymore in current world air transport. RBA is losing money, a lot of money on long haul flights due to the absence of O&D° passengers. Flights in transit to Australia from Southeast Asia or London were also wrongly timed, making Bandar Sri Begawan an unattractive alternative. Finally, low cost carriers in the region –especially AirAsia in neighbouring cities of Kota Kinabalu and Miri but also in Kuala Lumpur- slowly made Brunei national carrier’s own regional network moribund and its proposed fares rather expensive.

The airline’s pays now the price of its overrated ambitions. By appointing ex-Aer Lingus executive Dermot Mannion, the airline’s shareholders (in reality the Sultanate of Brunei) show finally that they understand the urgency of the situation. RBA is probably close to financial asphyxia, even its management will never admit it. But the decisions now taken by Dermot Mannion show that the situation at the airline has been seriously addressed. From August, RBA will terminate flights to Kuching in Sarawak and from October, it will end most of its intercontinental flights, abandoning Auckland, Brisbane, Perth as well as Ho Chi Minh City. From an intercontinental network which still had Frankfurt and Sydney a decade ago, RBA will be only left with three overseas destinations: London via Dubai and Melbourne. And nobody is now certain that those destinations will not be eliminated in a second phase of restructuring.

Meanwhile, Bandar Sri Begawan could be turned into the missing international gateway to Borneo Island and even to neighbouring Celebes and Mindanao Islands… Opening new routes in a circle of up to three or four hours around Brunei, offering a more competitive fare structure matching low cost airlines could dramatically change RBA destiny. A good example to take inspiration from is Singapore-based Silk Air, Singapore Airlines’ regional subsidiary. The carrier managed to grow its traffic volume despite low cost competition by offering a simplified service without compromising on high quality for but passengers. RBA Management’s announcement this week certainly marks the end of a dream… but probably also of an increasingly frightening nightmare.

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Female Circumcision Decree Must Be Revoked: NGOs

Jakarta Globe, Dessy Sagita | June 23, 2011

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Hundreds of activists demanded on Thursday that Indonesia's Health Ministry revoke a 2010 ministerial decree regulating the proper procedure for female circumcision.

“The decree is extremely discriminatory, we want it to be revoked immediately,” Ratna Batara Munti from the Federation of the Women’s Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Apik) said.

More than 170 NGOs, including Amnesty International, and activists signed a joint statement asking the ministry to revoke the decree, which they said contradicted a 2006 circular from the director general of community health prohibiting health workers from performing female circumcisions.

“Female circumcision will damage women’s sexual pleasure. We need to stop it,” Ratna said.

Further, Masruchah, the deputy chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), said female circumcision was not medically recommended because it could damage reproductive health.

“Female circumcision is an abuse that has to be stopped. The discussion about this issue has been going on for 32 years. It has to stop now,” she said.

Siti Musdah Mulia, a progressive Islamic scholar from the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace, said she had conducted a survey to track female genital mutilation in Indonesia. “What I found was horrible. There are some female circumcision procedures that cut the whole clitoris. [Practioners] thought the more they cut, the more religious [the girls] become,” she said.

The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) has issued a fatwa that female circumcision was allowed but not obligatory. However, it also stated that prohibiting the procedure was not allowed.

But the ministry’s director of mothers’ health, Ina Hernawati, said the protest was unjustified because the ministry had never supported female circumcision. “Read the decree carefully, there’s nothing there saying we are supporting female genitalia mutilation or any kind of abuse,” she said.

Ina said the decree was issued because no health worker in Indonesia has received any formal training about how to perform female circumcision and the decree provided guidance on how to conduct it safely if necessary.

“We do not condone the practice. If parents come to midwives, we ask the midwives to explain that medically female circumcision is useless,” she said.

However, she said, many times parents insisted on getting their daughter circumcised for religious or traditional reasons.

“In such case, we prefer the circumcision were done by a trained health worker rather than some random shaman or traditional healer, which may not be safe,” she said.

Ina denied the decree legitimized abuse against women. She said people often associated female circumcision with genitalia mutilation. “They’re totally different. Circumcising is merely scratching a piece of skin.”

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Indonesian allegedly murdered in Saudi Arabia

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 06/23/2011

Nani Suryani, a 20-year-old Indonesian maid from Karawang, West Java, may have been murdered by her employer in January while working in Saudi Arabia, a lawmaker revealed in Jakarta on Thursday.

“Nani Suryani died in January 2011, but her family was only notified [by the Foreign Ministry] on June 20, 2011. And that is only after her sponsor delivered the information three days earlier,” Rieke Diah Pitaloka, member of the House of Representatives' Commission IX overseeing manpower and transmigration, said during a hearing at the House.

“The Foreign Ministry has confirmed Nani Suryani's death and said there were indications she was murdered by her employer. The ministry said her female employer had been arrested, which indicated a criminal act,” she added.

Rieke urged the government to investigate the cause of Nani's death and pursue justice, if the migrant worker had indeed been murdered.

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Google Update: Investing another $102 million in the Alta Wind Energy Center

Google Blog, 6/22/11

Today, we’re increasing our investment in the Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC) in Tehachapi, Calif. by providing another $102 million to finance the 168 MW Alta V Project. This adds to the $55 million we invested last month for the 102 MW Alta IV project. Citibank is joining us again to invest in Alta V.

We are particularly excited about AWEC because it will be one of the largest wind energy centers in the world, with over 1 GW of production scheduled to be on line by the end of the year and 1,550 MW when fully completed. It’ll deliver that energy using the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project (TRTP), one of the first and largest transmission projects developed specifically for clean energy.

My colleague Arielle Bertman on a turbine at AWEC

As we noted before, the energy produced at AWEC will be sold to Southern California Edison under a power purchase agreement signed with the developer, Terra-Gen Power, in 2006. So we won’t be purchasing any of the energy produced at Alta V. Rather, we’re investors and will be using the same innovative leveraged lease financial structure we used for Alta IV, meaning Google and Citibank will own Alta V and lease it back to Terra-Gen, who will manage and operate both projects under long-term agreements. It’s a financial structure that we hope will encourage new types of investors to consider investing in wind.

With these two projects, we’ve now invested $157 million in 270 MW of clean, wind energy generation at AWEC. That brings our total invested to more than $780 million, with approximately $700 million invested this year alone -- all in projects that not only provide us attractive financial returns but also help to accelerate the deployment of over 1.7 GWs of clean renewable energy.

Posted by Rick Needham, Director of Green Business Operations

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China artist Ai Weiwei released on bail

BBC News, 22 June 2011

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Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has returned home having been freed after more than two months' detention.

Ai Weiwei said he was back home and in good health

He was bailed late on Wednesday after pleading guilty to charges of tax evasion, Xinhua news agency said.

An outspoken critic of China's human rights record, his arrest in April prompted a global campaign for his release.

The 54-year-old said he was back home and in good health in a phone interview with the BBC.

"I am already home, released on bail, I can't talk to media but I am well, thanks for all the media attention," he said.

Mr Ai was detained as he boarded a Beijing flight bound for Hong Kong.

Perhaps most famous for helping design the Bird's Nest stadium that became the centre-piece for Beijing's 2008 Olympics, he was held at a secret location without access to a lawyer.

Beijing alleged the artist had evaded taxes and destroyed evidence; his supporters say the charges are motivated by his activism.

'Economic crimes'

Xinhua reported that Mr Ai - who, it said, was suffering from a "chronic illness" - had offered to repay the taxes and would be released because of "his good attitude in confessing his crimes".

Police said the Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd, the company that handles the business aspects of Mr Ai's career, had evaded "a huge amount of taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents", said Xinhua.

China's foreign ministry previously said that Mr Ai was under investigation for "economic crimes".

It insisted that his arrest - which came amid one of China's biggest clampdowns on activists in years and was condemned by Western governments - had "nothing to do with human rights or freedom of expression".

A message from the twitter account of Mr Ai's lawyer, Liu Xiaoyuan, said he had received a text message from his client's phone which simply read: "I'm out!"

Beijing has clearly been under enormous pressure to free the artist, says the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing.

The case had generated criticism from the international community that China was breaking its own laws by holding Mr Ai in secret without access to a lawyer, adds our correspondent.

The circumstances of one of Mr Ai's relatives, his accountant and driver, who were detained at the same time as the artist, remain unknown.

Ai Weiwei gained international recognition in the early 1980s for his monolithic brick sculptures.

Last October, he unveiled a carpet of 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds at London's Tate Modern, which he said questioned the role of an individual in society.

Saudi Govt Apologizes for Execution

Jakarta Globe, June 22, 2011

Een Nuraeni, left, the daughter of Indonesian migrant worker Ruyati,
crying during a protest against the execution of her mother outside the
Saudi Arabian Embassy in Jakarta on Tuesday. (AFP Photo)

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The Saudi Arabian government has apologized for the execution of Indonesian migrant worker Ruyati bintu Sapubi, who was beheaded in Mecca on Saturday.

State news agency Antara reported that Saudi Ambassador to Indonesia Mohammad Amin Al Khayyat apologized on behalf of his country during a meeting with the Indonesian Foreign Ministry on Monday.

Al Khayyat was scheduled to hold another meeting with the ministry on Wednesday, where the ministry will give him an official letter addressed to Saudi's foreign ministry.

In the letter, the Indonesian government protests the execution and asks for greater protection of Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia as stated in a memorandum of understanding and the “Mandatory Consular Notification Agreement. The ministry also asks the Saudi government to return Ruyati's body to Indonesia for burial.

Foreign Ministry officials was set to depart to Saudi on Wednesday night to settle the payment for Darsem, an Indonesian migrant workers facing the death penalty for murder.

The victim's family has forgiven Darsem and according to Saudi law, she has to pay Rp 4.7 billion ($545,000) to the victim's family.

Antara

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G20 agriculture ministers to confront food crisis

Deutsche Welle, 21 June 2011

More food than ever will be needed to
feed the world

Demand for food is outpacing supply, driving up prices and eating into reserves. Agriculture ministers from the Group of 20 nations will meet in Paris this week to discuss how to combat food shortage and soaring prices.

While the G20 nations agree the world needs more affordable food, they are divided on how to achieve this goal: whether to tame prices through regulation or increase agriculture production - or both.

Agriculture ministers meeting in Paris hope to iron out their differences amid surging demand for food and biofuels that is putting upwards pressure on farm prices expected to remain high for years to come.

Their meeting is seen as a preparation for the November summit at which G20 leaders hope to agree to concrete steps to reduce food price volatility in agricultural commodities.

Calls for tighter regulation

Agreement is expected on the launch of an agricultural market information system to share key data on global stocks and production. The initiative comes as the world economy battles a food price shock due to production shortfalls, strong demand and speculators pushing prices higher.

Many speculators are laughing all the
way to the bank

But France wants far more to come out of the meeting than just an agreement on a food stock database. The country has made tighter regulation of commodity markets a top priority of its G20 leadership, which ends with the November summit. French President Nicolas Sarkozy blames speculators for the food price inflation, which, among other things, has caused unrest in parts of Africa and the Middle East.

The French proposal envisions putting a lid on how much of a market an investor can buy into or imposing a minimum cash deposit for commodity derivative transactions. It also calls for greater transparency of who is making the transactions.

Even some commodities experts, like Frank Neidig at Bankhaus-Lampe in Düsseldorf, admit to a problem with speculators. Neidig notes that while crop growers prefer to lock into fixed prices and play it safe, other stakeholders like to gamble and haul in the profits. Markets, he said, are becoming increasing crowded with speculators "who are the least bit interested in real grain deliveries."

French idea

The French idea, however, has yet to win the support of the United States, the United Kingdom and several other countries that believe speculation isn't the cause for the high food prices. Many of them argue against regulation in favour of measures to increase agricultural output through investments and the use of new technologies.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy
wants to clamp down on
speculators

Ralf Südhoff, director of the Berlin office of the United Nations World Food Program, argues that " a little bit of everything" is needed to avoid a food crisis. "We need to establish greater transparency and larger reserves," he told Deutsche Welle. "And we need to dramatically increase production in developing countries in a sustainable way and get speculators under control to calm markets and avoid price swings."

Südhoff said G20 agricultural ministers will discuss the establishment of regional reserve centers to respond to food needs in emergency cases and ways to increase food production in developing countries. But whether France, he added, can garner support for its proposal to curb speculation remains to be seen.

The clock is ticking. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization projects that the world will need to produce 70 percent more food by 2050 to feed its population and that food prices already this decade will be 30 percent higher than in the previous decade.

The need for more affordable food is real. That's a fact G20 leaders will need to swallow fast.

Author: John Blau

Editor: Thomas Kohlmann

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Hillary Clinton praises 'brave' Saudi women drivers

BBC News, 21 June 2011

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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has praised "brave" Saudi women who are campaigning for the right to drive.

Many Saudi women defied the ban on driving
by getting behind the wheel

Mrs Clinton said they were "right" to press their demands in the ultra-conservative kingdom, in her first public comments on the issue.

Many Saudi women openly took to the roads last Friday in defiance of an official ban on female drivers.

Last month a woman was arrested after uploading a video of herself driving a car.

"What these women are doing is brave, and what they are seeking is right," Mrs Clinton told reporters when asked to comment on the campaign.

"I'm moved by it and I support them."

'Quiet diplomacy'

However, she underlined that she was not interfering in the internal affairs of Saudi Arabia, a key US ally in the Middle East.

"I want to underscore the fact that this is not coming from outside of their country. This is the women themselves seeking to be recognised," she said.

Mrs Clinton's comments came a day after a US State Department spokeswoman said Mrs Clinton was engaged in "quiet diplomacy" over the issue.

Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that Mrs Clinton had raised the driving ban issue in a recent telephone call with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.

The ban is not enforced by law, but is a religious fatwa imposed by conservative Muslim clerics.

It is one of a number of severe restrictions on women in Saudi Arabia.

Supporters say it relieves women of the obligation to drive and also prevents them from leaving home unescorted or travelling with an unrelated male.

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North Korea 'buys anti-riot gear from China'

BBC News, by Lucy Williamson, Seoul, 21 June 2011

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North Korea has bought large amounts of anti-riot equipment from China in recent months, South Korea's main news agency says.

This was apparently to prepare for possible unrest in the country, it said.

The Yonhap news agency said Pyongyang had created a special police force; it had also considered buying flak jackets and other anti-riot equipment.

The United Nations says North Korea is facing severe food shortages.

An unnamed source told the Yonhap news agency that North Korea had bought tear gas, helmets and shields from traders in China's north-eastern city of Shenyang.

The report said the country was also believed to have created a nationwide task-force of riot police to quell any unrest.

North Korea is thought to have suppressed information about recent uprisings in the Middle East, apparently not wanting the news to reach its own people.

It is also preparing celebrations of North Korean strength and prosperity next year - to mark 100 years since the birth of the country's founder, Kim Il-sung.

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