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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

North Korea reflagging ships to evade sanctions - UN

A North Korea shipping company has been renaming and reflagging its vessels so it can evade an arms embargo, a UN report has said.

North Korea is subject to strict sanctions because of its nuclear weapons programme.

The sanctions were extended to Ocean Maritime Management (OMM) last year after one of its ships was found to be importing weapons from Cuba.

The UN Security Council is to discuss the report on Thursday.

The report, from a panel of experts monitoring the sanctions, said OMM had renamed 13 of its 14 ships, and transferred their ownership to shell companies, which meant they were effectively erased from the blacklist database.

"These changes are likely a strategy to evade assets freezes by member states," said the report, quoted by AFP news agency. The company has operations in at least 10 countries.

The report also said that despite the sanctions, North Korea was continuing to "attempt to procure or transfer items relating to its nuclear and missile programmes".

Under United Nations sanctions, North Korea is banned from weapons exports and the import of all but small arms.

But in July 2013, the North Korea vessel Chong Chon Gang was stopped in Panama on suspicion of carrying drugs.

Police found undeclared Cuban military cargo hidden on board, hidden under bags of sugar in its hold.

The authorities in Havana admitted being behind the stash, saying they were Soviet-era arms from Cuba headed for repair in North Korea.

The UN's North Korea sanctions committee said at the time that OMM had "played a key role in arranging the shipment of the concealed cargo of arms".

Source,http://www.bbc.com/

India unveils new railway budget

world news news media 11:24 PM

The Indian government is unveiling a new railway budget, which is likely to give a cash boost to modernise one of the world's largest railway networks.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said the budget would set the "direction of [a] long and difficult road of reform".

India's state-run railway runs more than 12,000 trains, carrying some 23 million passengers daily.

But decades of neglect, low investment and subsidised fares have left the network in a shambles.

Reports say the network is expected to receive at least a 25% rise in investment taking it to over $9bn (£5.79bn), helped mainly by falling fuel costs.

"The fall in diesel prices and a pick-up in freight earnings have given us a golden chance to raise investments," a government official was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

India's railway is also one of the world's largest employers, with 1.3 million workers. This makes any radical reform politically sensitive.

Successive governments have backed away from modernising the network and instead used the system to provide cheap transport and jobs. The lack of investment has meant slower services and more accidents.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that revamping the railways is a priority for his government and that he wants the "railway stations to have better facilities than airports".

Source,http://www.bbc.com/

China's Xi Jinping unveils new 'four comprehensives' slogans

world news news media 11:21 PM

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has unveiled his new political theory, distilled into four slogans known as the "four comprehensives".

Among other things they call for a more prosperous China and deeper reforms.

State media celebrated the launch with a front-page editorial in the People's Daily that said it had "great weight".

Similar slogans have been put forward by his predecessors, including Hu Jintao's Three Supremes and Jiang Zemin's Three Represents.

Mr Xi denounced political jargon as "empty words" during a speech five years ago.

However, he launched his leadership in 2013 with the idea of the "Chinese dream", a concept many say is still ill-defined.

Critics say the Communist elite's obsession with jargon alienates them from plain-speaking Chinese citizens.

Anti-corruption campaign
The People's Daily summed up the Four Comprehensives as:

Comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society
Comprehensively deepen reform
Comprehensively govern the nation according to law
Comprehensively strictly govern the Party.
The first three "comprehensives" are familiar territory for Chinese leaders, but the fourth seems a specific reference to the current anti-corruption campaign being prosecuted by Mr Xi.

Some of the party's most senior leaders have been snared in anti-corruption investigations.

Analysts say it is often difficult to establish whether the campaign is more concerned with corruption or simply with the elimination of Mr Xi's political rivals.

Numbered slogans have been a mainstay of the Communists since the 1950s.

The Cultural Revolution begun by Mao Zedong included phrases such as "smash the four olds".

Other leaders have opted for less number-orientated slogans, such as Deng Xiaoping's "reform and opening up".

Source,http://www.bbc.com/