WTO, Climate Issues Bring China and India Closer

Aug. 26 (EIRNS)—A nearly complete agreement between India and China on climate change and WTO (World Trade Organization) issues, that have been pushed by the globalization mafia, may as well bring these two Asian giants to closer cooperation in areas of science and technology, development, and security. During Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh's ongoing visit to China, he told the local media that he was deeply impressed by Chinese successes in cleaning up some of their lakes and rivers using modern technology. "It would be a good idea for India to emulate. We do not have a major scientific institution in the area of environment, although we have major institutes in the fields of agriculture and industry," he said Aug. 25.

New Delhi is also seeking Chinese participation in the research for management of coastal zones. It wants an institution from China to join hands with the National Institute of Sustainable Coastal Zone Management, which is being set up at the Anna University in Chennai. Ramesh invited Chinese environmental scientists to attend the next conference of the Indian Science Congress in Shillong in January.

In addition, on Aug. 25, more than 40 years after bad blood between India and China closed down the Indian consulate in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, Jujian Hua, director at Tibet's Foreign Affairs Office, told a visiting Indian journalist that "India can set up a consulate in Lhasa. That depends on India," he said. "Between friends, we should communicate more so that our relationship is strengthened. The central government of China and the Tibet Autonomous Region have a very positive attitude."

Saudi-British-linked Terrorists Gain in Afghanistan, Chechnya

Aug. 25 (EIRNS)—A massive bomb blast ripped through the downtown area of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar after dark today, killing at least 40 people and wounding dozens more, officials said. The truck bomb tore through ten residential buildings, trapping casualties under the rubble, as rescue workers frantically tried to dig them out of the debris in the dark, officials said. Although it is not evident what exactly the terrorists had intended as their target, the bomb went off near a guest house frequented by foreigners, near the Kandahar provincial intelligence headquarters, a shipping company which employs Pakistanis, and less than a kilometer from the home of Ahmad Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai. Today also marks the beginning of Ramadan, and many people were at festive dinners.

The attack on Kandahar was sudden, but not surprising. There were reports that the Afghan Taliban, having lured and trapped 4,000 U.S. Marines in the adjacent province of Helmand, were swarming in and around Kandahar City, once the power base of the Taliban regime. Deploying the U.S. Marines into Helmand province, where they are now surrounded by Taliban forces, was a tactical blunder by the U.S. and NATO commander, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and is more evidence that the war in Afghanistan has been lost.

On the same day in southern Afghanistan, four U.S. soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion. This makes 2009 the bloodiest year by far for the NATO forces, with more killed so far this year, than in all of 2008.

The Saudi-British-run terrorist offensive, aimed at control of Afghanistan and Central Asia, also claimed the lives of four police officers in Chechnya today, in a suicide attack in the town of Mesker-Yurt, about 20 km (12 miles) southeast of the capital, Grozny. The attack is the latest in rising terrorist activities against police and soldiers in Russia's North Caucasus. At least 25 people died in the Aug. 17 suicide truck bombing of a police station in neighboring Ingushetia.

Webb: End Myanmar Sanctions 'Immediately'; NLD Should Join Elections

Aug. 26 (EIRNS)—In a follow-up to his highly publicized trip to Myanmar earlier this month, where he met with dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as the country's leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe, U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), in a New York Times op-ed, expressed the view of many establishment patriots, about appropriate relations with Myanmar.

The elections in 2010, he wrote, provide an opportunity for all parties to move forward; the current Myanmar government, the United States, and, crucially, Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy. The "Constitution approved last year in a plebiscite is flawed," Webb noted, because "it would allow the military to largely continue its domination of the government." But it provides a valuable opening.

"There is room for engagement. Many Asian countries—China among them—do not even allow opposition parties. The National League for Democracy might consider the advantages of participation as part of a longer-term political strategy. And the United States could invigorate the debate with an offer to help assist the electoral process."

While "the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi's political party, has not agreed to participate in next year's elections," Webb certainly makes it clear that they and Suu Kyi herself, should think hard on the question.

The Senator is strongly opposed to the continuation of sanctions; sanctions against the country's economic well-being do not work, and do not take the place of an actual policy of engagement. "With respect to reducing sanctions, we should proceed carefully but immediately."