China and Arab countries must strengthen dialogue and cooperation, Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo told visiting Arab officials attending a cooperation forum on Tuesday.

Dai said it was a good timing to expand relations between China and Arab countries, as they took the same strategic choice of promoting a new type of partnership of peace and sustainable development.

He said the forum, established in 2004, had helped deepen friendship and boost cooperation, and promote mutual understanding.

China supported the Arab countries’ cause for justice, and would work together to push forward friendly cooperation, said Dai.

Abdel Moneim Mabrouk, Sudanese ambassador to the League of Arab States(LAS) and co-chairman of the forum, said Arab countries valued relations with China, and the forum had become a platform for cooperation.

He said Arab countries supported China’s territorial integrity and reunification.

The two-day cooperation forum between China and the Arab countries convened Tuesday morning in Beijing, focusing on cooperation during the economic crisis.

A Communist Party of China (CPC) senior leader has aired satisfaction over China-Jordan trade ties and called for stronger cooperation.

In a meeting late Monday with Jordan’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Suheir Al-Ali, He Guoqiang, China’s anti-graft chief, said Jordan was China’s important cooperation partner in the Middle East.

“China attaches great importance to ties with Jordan and is satisfied with the continued growth of bilateral trade cooperation,” said He, who is member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Jordan’s trade with China hit about 360 million U.S. dollars in the first quarter this year, only next to Saudi Arabia and the United States, according to Jordan’s official statistics.

The senior CPC leader said China would like to make joint efforts with Jordan to upgrade and widen bilateral cooperation in a substantive manner.

Suheir Al-Ali said China’s economic boom was a paradigm of nations’ economic growths in the world. She said Jordan could learn a lot from the fact that China’s economy kept a stable growth despite the global slump. She also appreciated China’s long-term support to Jordan.

In another meeting with Chairman of the Jordan Investment Board(JIB) Maen Nsour, He praised that JIB had done a good job in improving Jordan’s investment environment and attracting foreign capital.

He mentioned Chinese businesses’ “going abroad initiative,” saying it not only boosted their own growths, but also promoted the employment and economic development of destination countries.

Nsour said Jordan admired China’s great achievements and valued bilateral friendship and cooperation. He said his country would continue to improve its investment environment, enhance communication with Chinese companies in an effort to strengthen bilateral trade, investment and cooperation in other fields.

He arrived in Amman Sunday night, following his visits to Egypt and Spain. His fortnight foreign trip will also take him to Mongolia.

Russia sent a Malaysian commercial telecom satellite into orbit from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan early Monday, local media reported.

The Zenit 3SLB rocket, with the Malaysian telecom satellite Measat 1R atop, successfully blasted off from Baikonur at around 1:50 a.m. Moscow time (2150 GMT Sunday), said Russian federal space agency Roscosmos.

Hours later the satellite will completely separate from the DM SLB booster of the rocket, and enter the geostationary orbit slot at 91.5 degrees EL.

The Measat 1R satellite was manufactured by a U.S. company with a designed service life of 15 years.

It will provide high-quality communications in Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Zenit 3SLB was a 58-meter-long, three-stage launch vehicle developed by Russia’s Yuzhnoye Design Office. It can put payloads of up to 14 tons into low orbits. ?

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping has called for efforts to strengthen and improve grassroots organizations of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to ensure prosperity, development, harmony and stability in ethnic minority areas.

Xi, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, made the call during his research trip to northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from June 17 to 21.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (C) talks with a local resident who comes for consultation at a community service hall in Korla City of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 17, 2009. Xi Jinping made a research trip to Xinjiang from June 17 to 21.

During his stay in the autonomous region, Xi toured Kashi, Bayingholin, Kalamayi, Shihezi and Urumqi cities, where he visited villages, communities, companies, schools and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

In Kashi, an area frequently shaken by earthquakes in recent years, Xi looked into the progress in building anti-earthquake houses. In Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, he attended a class of a high school and talked with students.

While visiting some big oil and chemical projects, the senior official called for developing a recycled economy and protecting resources and the environment.

Before his departure, Xi addressed a workshop for local Party and government officials.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (back L3) talks with students of the 15th Middle School of Urumqi in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 20, 2009. Xi Jinping made a research trip to Xinjiang from June 17 to 21.

File photo of Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs at Apple’s “Let’s Rock” media event in San Francisco.

Steve Jobs, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Apple Inc. who has been on medical leave since January to treat an undisclosed medical condition, received a liver transplant in U.S. sate of Tennessee about two months ago, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Jobs has been recovering well and is expected to return to work on schedule later this month, the newspaper said.

When he does return, Jobs may be encouraged by his physicians to initially work part-time for a month or two and that may lead Apple’s chief operating officer Tim Cook to take “a more encompassing role,” an unnamed person familiar with the situation was quoted as saying.

Jobs, 54 years old, disclosed in August 2004 that he had been treated for a rare form of pancreatic cancer, saying the tumor was diagnosed in time and he had undergone surgery to remove it.

In the following years, the thin, almost gaunt appearance of Jobs constantly inspired speculations about his health.

In early January this year, Jobs said his apparent weight loss is caused by a treatable hormone imbalance. But about a week later, he announced that the issue was more complex than he had thought and he would be taking a medical leave until the end of June.

“The type of slow-growing pancreatic tumor Mr. Jobs had will commonly metastasize in another organ during a patient’s lifetime, and that the organ is usually the liver,” The Wall Street Journal reported, citing William Hawkins, a doctor specializing in pancreatic and gastrointestinal surgery at Washington University in St. Louis.

According to the newspaper, at least some Apple board members were aware of the liver transplant. They have been briefed weekly on the CEO’s condition by his physician as part of an agreement with Jobs in place before he went on leave.

During his leave, Jobs has remained involved in key aspects of Apple and reviewed products and product plans from home, the report said.

Chinese stocks rose to a weekly high on Friday after the securities regulator lifted a nine-month ban on initial public offerings (IPOs), indicating investors’ strengthened confidence in the market based on ample liquidity and clearer signs of economic recovery.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks the bigger of China’s bourses, rose 26.59, or 0.9 percent, to 2,880.49 at close, its highest close since July 28, 2008.

The CSI 300 Index, measuring exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen, gained 0.7 percent to 3,080.

“We expected the new IPOs to be the biggest bad news for the capital market this year,” said James Yuan, chief investment officer of Everbright Pramerica Fund Management Co Ltd. “But now it is not as daunting, thanks to the improved economy, more liquidity and new listing rules.”

Guilin Sanjin Pharmaceutical Co, a medium-sized drug firm, on Thursday night received regulatory approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to seek a stock exchange listing, marking the resumption of IPOs since September last year.

The company said it plans to float 46 million A shares on the Shenzhen bourse on June 29 and will start a road show for the same on June 22.

“The restarting of IPOs of smaller firms rather than the big caps indicates that the government aims to stabilize the market,” said Dong Chen, senior analyst, CITIC China Securities. “If the market does not panic after the new round of IPOs, the regulator will grant more approvals next week, but probably for small caps.”

Earlier reports said China State Construction Engineering Corp (CSCEC), the country’s biggest home-builder, would probably be among the first batch of companies to issue 12 billion shares to the public and raise about 40 billion yuan.

Based on the number of new shares to be issued and the average price-earning ratio on the secondary market, analysts said the 32 companies now waiting could raise as much as 70 billion yuan through their IPOs.

“The loose monetary policy, coupled with the huge advance of the Shanghai Composite Index, has bolstered confidence that the stock market can withstand the added supply of stock,” said Dong.

“Meanwhile, the anticipation of gains on their investments may propel more investors to test the market waters, when the bullish trend becomes clear,” he said.

China’s major market barometer has surged nearly 58 percent this year, thanks to the government’s timely launch of the 4-trillion-yuan economic stimulus package and loose monetary policy.

The resumption of IPOs is also expected to give a strong boost to brokerages whose earnings are expected to improve on the investment banking revenues.

CITIC Securities gained 2.8 percent to 29.54 yuan, the highest in a year, while Sinolink jumped 10 percent to 21.46 yuan.

Shares of medical companies also outperformed on news of drugmaker Guilin Sanjin’s listing and the spread of the H1N1 flu virus.

Beijing Tiantan Biological Products, a biological bacterin producer, jumped to its 10 percent daily limit for the second day in a row to 26.26 yuan after it said on Thursday that it had started to research bacterin for fighting the H1N1 flu virus.

Palm have “politely” warned the Pre homebrewers behind the Pre Dev Wiki not to talk about hacking the handset for internet tethering on their site … because Sprint might complain.

The caution from Palm suggests that ‘they’ don’t have a problem with someone figuring out a tethering solution for the easily hackable handset, but that Sprint – who don’t allow tethering, even on their $99 everything plan – might.

Palm warned that if Sprint complained, they would be forced to react against the people running the site with legal action. As a result the guys at Pre Dev Wiki have pulled any tethering chat and posted an explanation as to why it has gone.

We have been politely cautioned by Palm that any discussion of tethering during the Sprint exclusivity period (and perhaps beyond-we don’t know yet) will probably cause Sprint to complain to Palm, and if that happened then Palm would be forced to react against the people running the IRC channel and this wiki.

They have however, added a note stating that Sprint does not have a Pre plan which allows tethering under the Terms Of Service. It seems like everyone involved is sticking a finger up at Sprint, though not necessarily to their face. [Pre Dev Wiki via PreThinking]

www.chinazrh.com?via from Gizmodo.com

Wen stressed importance of promoting domestic consumption during?an inspection tour in Hunan. ?Companies should increase investment in research and development, Premier Wen said. ?During his trip in Hunan, Wen visited companies, Hunan University, job markets and farmlands.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (C), also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, talks with employees of Aiming Digital Electrical Co.,Ltd in central China’s Hunan Province, on June 13, 2009. Premier Wen made an inspection tour in Hunan Province from June 12 to June 14.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao stressed the importance of promoting domestic consumption and independent research and development during a three-day inspection tour of the central Hunan Province, which ended Sunday.

Wen said the key to a sound economic future lay in continuing to “unswervingly” implement the government’s policies to deal with the international economic downturn.

Companies should increase investment in research and development and better utilize science and technologies to “foster new economic growth points,” he said.

Local governments, meanwhile, should develop energy-efficient and environment-friendly industries and put priority on a recycling and green economy, he said.

During his trip in Hunan, Wen visited companies, Hunan University, job markets and farmlands.

He said the enhanced economic power of central and western regions, whose economies profited from central government support policies, added vigor to the country’s economic development and should continue to be supported.

The central region, a link between the east and the west, should speed up industrial restructuring with a focus on local characteristics and advantages while tapping emerging industries, such as IT and bioengineering, said Wen.

He also called for more attention to education and talent in China’s future reform and opening, and the building of a social welfare system that values the improvement of living standards.

Visiting farms, Wen said wheat production this summer was sure to grow over last year and that the country should focus on a more balanced economic development between urban and rural areas.

“Stable agricultural output makes a stable economy and stable lives for the people,” Wen said.

?

China reports slower decline in May CPI, indicating continuing recovery

BEIJING, June 10 (Xinhua) — China’s consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, in May fell 1.4 percent year on year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Wednesday.

This marks the fourth consecutive monthly decline since the index dropped 1.6 percent in February, the first fall since October 2002. However, the decline was 0.1 percentage points lower than the April level.
Think tank: Chinese economy bottoming out, but to stage U-turn recovery

?BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) — Chinese economy has bottomed out and is stabilizing against the global economic downturn, but it would go through a U-turn recovery as a quick recovery could hardly be sustained, a researcher with the country’s top think tank said here Sunday.

“Although the economy has bottomed out, it was touching a flat bottom, instead of a V-shaped bottom,” said Zhang Wenkui, deputy director of the enterprise research institute under the Development Research Center of the State Council, a government think tank, at a forum.??

China sees initial results in boosting domestic consumption

?BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhua) — China’s domestic demand, as the government had long wished, has started to become more of a driving force for the country’s economic growth than in the past.

?Signs of a domestic consumption boost are apparent as people are spending more on domestic commodities, export falls, and the government plans for more consumption stimulus.

China allows consumer financing companies to boost consumption

?BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) — China will allow non-deposit-taking institutions both home and overseas to offer consumer loans to its citizens, a new measure to stimulate domestic consumption.

?China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) issued, on its portal Web site Tuesday, management measures on the experiment of consumer financing companies to seek public opinions.

China economy toward a sustainable, healthy development

?BEIJING, May 15 — A wide range of macroeconomic data and a rebound in the purchasing managers index in the last consecutive five months indicate the Chinese economy has bottomed out and is on its way to recovery.

A pilot checks the helicopter before it takes off for drug control patrol at Yanqing county of Beijing, capital of China, June 13, 2009. A helicopter was used for the first time on Saturday to help local police in poppy plantation hunting in suburb Beijing. The first hunt, which lasted about half an hour, found no poppy plantation in the region.

A helicopter was used for the first time on Saturday to help local police in poppy plantation hunting in suburb Beijing.

The copter, with experts onboard, hovered around the mountainous areas in Yanqing District and sent video images of the ground back to the headquarters.

“If there is any poppy plantation in these areas, they will be easily discerned by police in the headquarters,” said Zhao Wenzhong, a senior officer with the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

The first hunt, which lasted about half an hour, found no poppy plantation in the region.

He said the helicopter helped expand the search area and eliminate any “dead corner” thanks to the copter’s height.

“Some poppy growers, who plant poppies to make drugs, always choose the remote and sparsely populated areas at the border of Beijing and the neighboring Hebei Province,” Zhao said.

According to China’s law, growing more than 500 poppies is a crime. But several villages in suburb Beijing has a tradition of growing poppies mostly because villagers love the plant’s colorful blossoms or they use poppies as medicine ingredients.

A helicopter patrols in the mountain area in Yanqing county of Beijing, capital of China, June 13, 2009. A helicopter was used for the first time on Saturday to help local police in poppy plantation hunting in suburb Beijing. The first hunt, which lasted about half an hour, found no poppy plantation in the region.

?The environment ministers of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) agreed in Beijing Sunday to step up public awareness campaigns on environmental protection.

At the 11th Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting of China, Japan and South Korea (TEMM), Zhou Shengxian, China’s environment minister, discussed progress on environment policies with counterparts Tetsuo Saito, of Japan, and Lee Maanee, of the ROK.

They also talked about environmental challenges facing Northeast Asia and the world.

The three ministers agreed to focus cooperation on raising public awareness and participation in environmental protection. They also vowed to promote green cities and low-carbon products and to fight air and water pollution.

They also signed a joint statement, which is expected to be discussed and passed at the next China-Japan-ROK summit to be held in China later this year, Zhou told reporters.

Started in 1999, the TEMM is one of the highest-level environment meetings in Northeast Asia. The three countries take turns hosting the annual meeting to find out ways to promote regional environmental cooperation.