Extracts.
Top Chinese Leader on Education, Selection of Cadres.
Top Chinese leader Jiang Zemin Friday stressed the importance of helping
leading cadres all over the country foster a correct notion of power, saying
priority should be given to education so as to strengthen the ranks of
cadres.
Top Chinese leader Jiang Zemin Friday stressed the importance of helping
leading cadres all over the country foster a correct notion of power, saying
priority should be given to education so as to strengthen the ranks of
cadres.
This should be taken as the Party's long-term strategic task that needs
unremitting efforts to complete, Jiang said while addressing the 7th Plenary
Session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist
Party of China (CPC), whichconcluded here Friday.
Jiang, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said theParty's
discipline inspection work should play a more positive role in carrying
forward the Party's fine tradition and style of building a clean and honest
government, improving the leadership and governance of the Party, and
strengthening the capability of anti-corruption work and risk control.
Discipline inspection cadres should constantly improve their work skills
through research and study, so as to meet the demands of the changed
situation and new tasks, the general secretary said.
Jiang stressed the importance of improving the rank of cadres, describing
this as essential for the implementation of the Party'sline and policies and
for lasting political stability and social and economic development.
Education remains the basic work for improving the rank of cadres, and
leading cadres should, through education, foster a Marxist outlooks on the
world, life and values, and develop a correct view of power, position and
interests, Jiang said.
Jiang also stressed the need to improve the process of selecting and
appointing cadres, calling for an institutionalized system to evaluate the
performance of cadres.
He said the Party organizations at all levels, especially discipline
inspection departments, should improve their supervision of cadres in line
with the changed situation, while leading cadres at all levels should
improve their sense of self-discipline and conscientiously accept the
supervision of the Partyand the general public.
The general secretary spoke highly of the progress made by the Party's
discipline inspection organizations in improving the Party's style of work,
and building a clean and honest government, and in the struggle against
corruption.
Among other senior Party leaders attending the meeting were Li Peng, Zhu
Rongji, Li Ruihuan, Hu Jintao, Wei Jianxing and Li Lanqing.
****
Thailand to Host ASEAN Trade Fair This Year
Thailand will host a landmark trade fair of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) later this year, according to a report of the Thai
News Agency (TNA) Saturday.
Thailand will host a landmark trade fair of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) later this year, according to a report of the Thai
News Agency (TNA) Saturday.
Commerce Minister Adisai Bodharamik was quoted as saying that the Thai
government would invest 100 million baht (2.27 million U.S. dollars) for the
host of the grand ASEAN trade fair, to be held at the Impact Exhibition
Center in Muang Thong Thani in Nonthaburi province between October 14 and
20.
It will be the first ASEAN trade fair in over a decade. It will be,
therefore, a significant event for all ASEAN member countries to join forces
to create a new dimension for strengthened trade and investment in the
region, which has abundant resources, and is considered an immense market
with the total consumers of over 500 million, he stated.
Other Asian countries, including India and Pakistan, would also be welcome
to join the landmark regional trade fair, he disclosed.
Adisai said that the one-week trade fair would also pave the way for the
full opening up of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in the near future.
ASEAN is a world major exporter of varied goods and products, and is a
global center of skilled labors and innovations. The trade fair will further
promote and enhance the grouping's potential and bargaining power against
powerful markets, he pointed out.
Inter-country trade in the ASEAN region currently grows over 30 percent
despite global economic slowdown. This is because the economic downturn,
instead, encourages, rather than discourage, ASEAN members to cooperate more
closely in trade and investment, which helps boost regional economic
prospect and overall bargaining power against markets outside the grouping,
the minister said.
****
Forum Marks Jiang Zemin's Speech on Reunification.
More than 200 people from all walks of life in Shanghai, eastern China
metropolis gathered at a forum Friday to commemorate the seventh anniversary
of the Eight-Point Proposals on Peaceful Reunification of the Motherland by
Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
More than 200 people from all walks of life in Shanghai, eastern China
metropolis gathered at a forum Friday to commemorate the seventh anniversary
of the Eight-Point Proposals on Peaceful Reunification of the Motherland by
Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
The participants re-studied Jiang's speech, made on January 30,1995, and
China's policies on the Taiwan issue, and recalled the progress made in the
city's exchanges with Taiwan over the past seven years.
They promised to act in accordance with Jiang's speech and promote exchanges
between Shanghai and Taiwan, to contribute to the reunification of the
motherland.
Liu Yungeng, deputy secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the
Communist Party of China, and representatives from the Shanghai branch of
the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang and of the Taiwan
Democratic Self-Government League spoke at the forum.
****
Roundup: U.S. Enron Scandal Expands With Death of Former Executive.
The collapse of Enron Corp., the biggest bankruptcy case in U.S. history,
took on another dimension of tragedy on Friday with the apparent suicide of
a former vice chairman, who had opposed the company's financial practices
that led to the collapse of the energy trading giant.
The collapse of Enron Corp., the biggest bankruptcy case in U.S. history,
took on another dimension of tragedy on Friday with the apparent suicide of
a former vice chairman, who had opposed the company's financial practices
that led to the collapse of the energy trading giant.
J. Clifford Baxter, 43, who resigned as vice chairman of Enron Corp last
May, killed himself with a gunshot inside his car in the suburb of Houston,
police said.
Baxter last spring had complained to Enron's management team, including the
then chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling, about the company's
questionable accounting measures.
Baxter joined Enron in 1991 and was chairman and CEO of Enron North America
before being named chief strategy officer. In October 2000, he was promoted
to vice chairman.
Baxter was one of the 29 senior Enron executives named in a shareholder
lawsuit seeking compensation of losses due to the collapse of the company.
He sold more than 577,000 shares, the lawsuit said, worth 35.2 million
dollars over a three-year period before the bankruptcy.
Enron said in a short statement that the company was "deeply saddened" by
Baxter's tragic loss.
A former Enron employee, who was laid off by the company in December, said
the timing of Baxter's death has something to do with the investigation
around Enron's collapse.
His death came one day after the start of congressional hearings on Enron's
collapse and the role of its auditor, accounting firm Andersen. Hearings by
the House Energy and Commerce Committee and another by the Senate on
Thursday were the first of nine scheduled over the next six weeks into
Enron.
Baxter was one of a handful of current and former Enron executives whose
testimony is central to federal and congressional investigations.
Congressional investigators were contacting Baxter 's lawyers and sought to
interview Baxter next week.
"It seemed to us that he was a pretty highly placed insider at Enron who had
understood exactly what was wrong there," said Representative James C.
Greenwood, chairman of the House committee 's Oversight and Investigations
Subcommittee. "It adds to the depth of this tragedy."
The political influence of the two firms came under renewed scrutiny on
Friday, with the reporting that of the 248 senators and Congressmen on 11
congressional committees investigating the firm, 212 received political
donations from Enron and Endersen.
The White House on Friday ordered a review of 70 million dollars in U.S.
government contracts with Enron and Andersen. The director of the White
House Office of Management and Budget, Mitchell Daniels, said that media
reports of "potential irregularities" in work done by Enron and Andersen
could "reflect poorly on ... their ability to provide quality work."
White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan disclosed that the U.S. government had
more than 100 contracts worth about 70 million dollars with the two
companies.
Enron freely gave donations to both Democratic and Republican politicians,
but the Bush administration has close ties to Enron and its chairman,
Kenneth Lay. The company reportedly made some 623,000 dollars in
contributions to Bush's campaigns since 1993 when he launched his political
career as governor of Texas.
In another development, Congress' top investigator said on Friday he will
decide next week whether to take the Bush administration to court for
withholding details about how it developed its controversial energy policy.
"If we did go to court, it would be the first time in history that we would
have ever taken a federal entity or official to court. We need to try to do
everything we can to avoid it. But we' re committed to do our job," said
David Walker, head of Congress' General Accounting Office.
Congressional Democrats John Dingell and Henry Waxman released a letter on
Friday urging Walker, whose office is Congress' investigative arm, to file
suit against the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. The two congressmen
for nine months have been demanding identities of business leaders and
lobbyists who met with Cheney's task force as it developed the energy plan.
Waxman and Dingell wrote that task force details were vital to congressional
consideration of energy policy, "particularly with recent questions
concerning the influence of officials of Enron."
The Houston-based Enron group filed the largest bankruptcy in U. S. history
on December 2, hammering investors, destroying thousands of jobs and raising
questions about its ties to Bush.
So far, the collapse of the nation's seventh largest company has qualified
as a financial scandal from the aggressive accounting practices that misled
investors to the frantic shredding of Enron financial documents by Andersen.
However, news coverage of the case has been fueled by the assumption that
scandalous disclosures could follow because the company's money was so
intertwined with Washington power.
"There are so many ties between Enron and the White House and the Congress
that it's impossible to ignore," says Larry Satato, a University of Virginia
political scientist.
****
Malaysian FM Urges U.S. to Stop Violence in Middle East
Malaysia Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar Saturday urged the United States
to directly involve itself in ending violence in the Middle East.
MalaysiaForeign Minister Syed Hamid Albar Saturday urged the United States
to directly involve itself in ending violence in the Middle East.
"I believe with full conviction that the United States would beable to stop
the violence and achieve peace. It is a major world power, they have been
able to bring down the Taliban and Al-Qaeda,all this could be done in two
months," Syed Hamid was quoted as saying.
Speaking to the media after launching a Human Rights Forum heldin Trengganu
state, Syed Hamid said the government believed the Middle East issue should
be resolved via solutions to end violencein the region, Malaysia National
News Agency reported.
The minister said if the United States could direct both parties to stop the
violence and meet at the negotiating table, the parties involved would
definitely abide by the decision.
"We are appealing to the United States to assist the Palestinians and put an
end to their suffering ... we believe theycan do it," he said.
The minister also regretted the attitude of some human rights groups from
developed countries who were biased in their handling of human rights
issues.
The West, he added, was vocal in matters concerning human rights violation
in developing countries but were silent when it happened in developed
countries.
****
Explosion Rocks Central Jerusalem, Injuring 30.
A huge explosion rocked central Jerusalem at noon time on Sunday, injuring
30 people, two to three of them seriously, Israel Channel One TV reported.
A huge explosion rocked central Jerusalem at noon time on Sunday, injuring
30 people, two to three of them seriously, Israel Channel One TV reported.
The explosion took place on the Jaffa Street, some 20 meters away from the
Sbarro restaurant on the corner on King George Streetwhich witnessed a fatal
explosion last August, killing 15 people.
Israeli police chief said that the explosion was carried out by a suicide
bomber and police found his body at the scene.
Ambulances have rushed to the site and are evacuating the wounded.
Police have closed off the area and are searching for additionalbombs in the
vicinity.
_________________________________________________
KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki
Phone +358-40-7177941
Fax +358-9-7591081
http://www.kominf.pp.fi
General class struggle news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Geopolitical news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
__________________________________________________
