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HAVANA: Cubans on Sunday cast show-of-support votes for a new
National Assembly which will choose the country’s president amid
doubts about whether ailing Fidel Castro will retake the reins of
the only communist government in the Americas. Castro, who has
been sidelined from power for nearly 18 months following major
intestinal surgery, is among 614 uncontested candidates for the
legislature, which will name 31 lawmakers to the Council of State
led by the president.
-- AFP
SHANGHAI: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on
Sunday headed from China to India, hoping for movement from New
Delhi on tackling climate change while also building on trade and
investment links. The prime minister’s first visit to New
Delhi since taking office in June is expected to follow similar
themes to those seen in Beijing and Shanghai, where he said
Sino-British relations had risen to new levels across the board.
Relations between India and its former colonial power are “at
their healthiest for a very long time,” Britain’s Foreign Office
said on its website.
-- AFP
BEIJING: Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday
paid visits to renowned space scientist Qian Xuesen and
mathematician Wu Wenjun, extending festival greetings and showing
gratitude for their contributions to the country’s scientific
cause. Hu, also general secretary of the Communist Party of
China (CPC) Central Committee, shook hands with 97-year-old Qian and
presented him a floral basket at the home of the scientist. Hu
said the Chinese people and the CPC would never forget the
remarkable contribution Qian had made to China’s economic and
technological development and the national defense industry.
-- Xinhua
SEOUL: South Korea plans to buy new US weaponry
capable of intercepting North Korean ballistic missiles for its
Aegis-equipped destroyers, Yonhap news agency reported Sunday.
The United States has agreed to supply South Korea with SM-6
ship-to-air missiles with a range of up to 400 kilometers, Yonhap
said quoting an unnamed military source. The SM-6 system is an
advanced type of the shorter-range SM-2 now used for Seoul’s only
Aegis destroyer in place since last year. The US-developed
Aegis combat system has cutting-edge radar and can launch missiles
at more than 10 targets at one time.
-- AFP
TAIPEI: Taiwan is mulling transporting its
nuclear waste to France for reprocessing as two of the island’s
radioactive waste storage sites will reach capacity by 2011, a
report said Sunday. State-run Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) last
year applied to expand the storage facilities but has so far not
received approval from the Atomic Energy Council over environmental
impact considerations, the China Times said. An official at
the council voiced fears the plan may draw strong protests from
international conservationists if approved, it said.
-- AFP
BEIJING: China has signed a new free trade area
(FTA) agreement, sources with the Ministry of Commerce disclosed
here at a national commerce working conference on Saturday.
Commerce Minister Chen Deming said that China has so far signed and
implemented agreements on establishment of six FTAs. Sources
with the ministry told Xinhua that China did sign a new FTA
agreement but decline to elaborate. Previously, China has
established five FTAs with Chinese Hong Kong, Chinese Macao, Chile,
Pakistan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
-- Xinhua
TOKYO: The United States has rejected a request
by Japan that it verify Tokyo’s contribution to the US-led “war
on terror” in Afghanistan is not used for military operations in
Iraq, a report said Sunday. Japan on Thursday ordered two
naval ships back to the Indian Ocean after parliament forced through
the resumption of the mission to provide fuel and other support to
coalition forces operating in Afghanistan. Ahead of the
resumption, scheduled for mid-February, Japan and the United States
are making arrangements to exchange documents on details of support
later this month.
-- AFP
KOLKATA, India: Avian flu has been reported in
two more districts in eastern India where authorities said on Sunday
poultry farmers have delayed a massive bird cull aimed at halting
the spread of the virus. A total of five districts in eastern
West Bengal state have reported an outbreak of avian flu among
poultry, the government said Sunday. The outbreak is the third
in India since 2006, and the worst so far, according to the World
Health Organization, partly because it is more widespread.
-- AFP
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