China pressured World Bank to cut deadly pollution figures: report

BEIJING - Research showing that 750,000 people die prematurely in China year from pollution was cut from a World Bank report following pressure from Beijing, the Financial Times said Tuesday.

Beijing successfully lobbied for the removal of a third of the report, entitled the "Cost of pollution in China" arguing the contents could lead to social unrest, the London-based newspaper said.

China's State Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and health ministry asked the World Bank remove the figures from a draft of the report finished last year that stated about 750,000 people die prematurely each year from pollution.

China also successfully pushed for the removal of a detailed map showing which parts of the country suffered the most deaths, the newspaper said.

"The World Bank was told that it could not publish this information. It was too sensitive and could cause social unrest," the Financial Times quoted one adviser to the study as saying.

The draft was released at a conference on sustainable development in Beijing in March, and remains available on the Internet, without the sensitive data.

The World Bank, which put together the report in cooperation with Chinese government ministries over several years, acknowledged on Tuesday that some data had been withdrawn from the draft but did not go into details.

The World Bank said in a statement sent to AFP that the published version "did not include some of the issues that are still under discussion."

The statement said the final report was "still under review," while there was no comment on the allegations that Chinese pressure had led to the sensitive data being removed.

The published report on the Internet said "conservative" estimates put the cost of premature death caused by air pollution in China at 157.3 billion yuan (20.7 billion dollars) in 2003, but gave no estimates on the numbers affected.

Its foreword said that "certain physical impact estimations" had been left out of the draft of the report "due to... some uncertainties about calculation methods and its application."

Guo Xiaomin, a retired SEPA official who coordinated the Chinese research team, told the Financial Times the cuts were made partly because of concerns that the methodology was unreliable.

But he added the information on premature deaths "could cause misunderstanding," the newspaper said. Guo also expressed concerns over the size of the 148-page report.

"We did not announce these figures. We did not want to make this report too thick," he told the Financial Times.

Officials from China's environment agency or health ministry were not available for comment on Tuesday, while the foreign ministry refused to comment.

China's communist rulers have a history of suppressing information that they perceive as sensitive. However, in recent years they have pledged to be more transparent.

In 2003, the deadly SARS virus originated in China the government was widely condemned for initially covering up the disease, enabling the virus to spread around the world more easily.

Foreign media, informed by a retired army whistle-blower doctor Jiang Yanyong, eventually exposed the cover-up, but the disease went on to kill over 800 people worldwide, including 349 in China.

Despite the pledges of transparency, the government-controlled press continues today to ignore or play down sensitive issues such as protests and environmental accidents.

Sikh gurdwara in US embroiled in controversy

A Sikh religious flag displayed at a soon-to-be-opened gurdwara in California is at the centre of a controversy, with some residents saying the American flag should also be put up there.

Residents of Stockton have said that if the gurdwara erects a flag with the Sikh religious emblem, it must also hoist an American flag even higher.

'Maybe they should be Americans first and use their religion second,' said Dennis Regan, a 63-year-old Air Force veteran. 'As a veteran, that offends me.'

Sikhs have countered the idea by saying that no church flies an American national flag, so why should the gurudwara, recordnet.com reported.

'Nobody asks any church to have an American flag; they only ask the Sikh gurdwara,' said Amrik Singh Dhaliwal, president of the Stockton Sikh Temple. 'I don't know why.'

Regan said the local Sikh community needed to make a better effort to assimilate into American culture. Flying a religious flag prominently over the neighbourhood alienates people, he said.

After 9/11, Sikhs in the US have often been mistaken as Muslims and been targets of hate crimes.

'The real problem here is ignorance,' countered Amardeep Singh, executive director of the New York-based Sikh Coalition. 'Our articles of faith make us stand out.'

Singh said the Sikh flag represents peace, truth and justice. 'They're the values that you think anyone would want in their neighbourhood,' he said.

While all Sikh halls fly their religious flag, an American flag would be an odd addition, he said. 'It's unusual. Usually temples of worship don't maintain flags of nations.'

Said Jespal Singh Brar, a resident and temple member: 'America is all about freedom of religion, the pursuit of happiness. It's almost ridiculous, because the ideals of the Sikh religion are intertwined with American values.'

Australian arrest in terror probe

Police investigating failed car bombings at Glasgow Airport and London have arrested a man in Australia.

The arrest of the man, who was stopped by police at Brisbane airport, brings the number of people held in the investigation to eight.

Australia's attorney general said the man was a 27-year-old doctor - like two others arrested - who was trying to leave the country on a one-way ticket.

Australian police were acting on information from the UK authorities.

Attorney General Philip Ruddock said police had executed search warrants at the Gold Coast Hospital in Southport, eastern Queensland - where the man worked as a registrar - as well as at a number of locations across the state.

The man is a resident, but not a citizen, of Australia, he added.

The Metropolitan Police are in charge of the investigation into the bombings.

Meanwhile, it is understood a suspect held in Scotland will be transferred to the UK capital.

Iraqi Bilal Abdulla will be taken to Paddington Green police station where another doctor is also being quizzed.

Dr Mohammed Asha, 26, who was brought up in Jordan and worked as a junior doctor at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, was arrested on the M6 in Cheshire on Saturday night along with a 27-year-old woman thought to be his wife.

Strathclyde Police said two men aged 28 and 25 arrested on Sunday were held at residences of the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.

The other man detained at Glasgow airport with Dr Abdulla had severe burns and remains in a critical condition, and under armed police guard, at the Royal Alexandra.

The hospital is where Dr Abdullah was employed as a locum.

Police have been carrying out searches of premises and vehicles within the grounds of the hospital and controlled explosions have taken place.

But Chief Superintendent Johnny Gwynne reassured local people there has been no indication of a threat to the hospital - which remains open - and said the actions taken were "purely precautionary".

The fifth person detained, a 26-year-old man, was arrested in Liverpool on Sunday.

Warrants have been issued which allow police to further detain the three people arrested in England until Saturday.

Security raised

Dr Asha was described by family and university colleagues in Jordan as a "brilliant" physician who had not been involved with extremist organisations.

According to his father Jamil, he obtained a medical degree in Jordan in 2004 and came to the UK in the same year to gain a specialisation in neurology.

Dr Abdulla is said to have qualified in Baghdad in 2004 and first registered as a doctor in the UK in 2006.

Detectives are linking the failed bombings, and the UK's terror alert system has been raised to its highest level - critical.

Security has been stepped up with extra police patrols and vehicle searches taking place at airports and transport hubs.

In a Commons statement, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the country would not be "intimidated" by "those who wish to destroy our way of life and our freedoms".

She said 19 locations have been searched by police investigating the attacks.

These include properties in Houston, near Glasgow; Merseyside and Staffordshire.

Detectives are trying to trace the movements of the green Jeep Cherokee - registration L808 RDT - loaded with gas cylinders, which crashed into the doors of Glasgow airport's main terminal and burst into flames on Saturday afternoon.

The attempted attack came a day after two Mercedes containing petrol, gas cylinders and nails were found outside a nightclub in London's Haymarket and in a nearby street.

Bush and Putin 'united' on Iran

US President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin have said they will work together to resolve the crisis over Iran's nuclear programme.

Speaking after talks at his family retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine, Mr Bush said he and Mr Putin recognised the need to "send a common message".

The US has accused Iran of seeking nuclear arms, which Iran denies.

But the two leaders failed to resolve differences over the planned US anti-missile defence shield.

Russia has strongly opposed US plans to base parts of the proposed shield near Russia's borders, and recently warned it might target its missiles towards Europe again.

Moscow has also baulked at US-led drives at the UN to impose tougher sanctions against Iran for pursuing its uranium enrichment programme.

New ideas

Talking to reporters after what officials had billed as a casual meeting, the two leaders projected a united front towards dealing with Iran.

"We're close on recognising that we got to work together to send a common message," said Mr Bush.

Mr Putin said he and Mr Bush would "continue to be successful" in tackling the issue of Iran's nuclear programme through the UN.

On the vexed question of US plans for a missile defence system in Eastern Europe, President Putin brought a range of new proposals.

These included modernising a radar station in Azerbaijan, which he had previously suggested as an alternative site to Poland and the Czech Republic, and including in the programme a new radar facility being built in southern Russia.

"The relationship of our two countries would be raised to an entirely new level," said Mr Putin, standing alongside his host.

He also suggested widening discussions on missile defence to include other European countries and conducting them within the framework of the Russia-Nato council.

The BBC's James Coomarasamy in Kennebunkport says President Putin seems to be moving further away from opposing the US missile defence plans and further towards trying to modify and become involved in them.

President Bush described Mr Putin's proposals as innovative and strategic, but he stressed that Poland and the Czech Republic were an integral part of the missile defence system.

Asked whether he trusted President Putin, the US leader said the Russian president sometimes said things he did not like but that he believed he was honest.

China to search for oil in Sudan

China's biggest oil company CNPC has reached a deal with Sudan to search for oil and gas in the north of the country on the coast of the Red Sea.

The exploration will be carried out jointly with the Indonesian state oil and gas company PT Pertamina.

China has been under pressure from Western countries to reduce its investment in Sudan because of the humanitarian crisis there.

China is Sudan's top foreign investor and also supplies it with weapons.

It has argued against taking sanctions against Sudan, saying that what is needed is measures to address poverty, which it sees as the cause of the violence in Darfur.

The agreement calls for six years of exploration and 20 years of shared production.

The exploration rights cover about 3.8 square kilometres of shallow water on the Red Sea.

The financial details of the deal have yet to be finalised, according to officials at the Chinese embassy in Sudan.

Land Conservationists Take on the National Guard

FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa., June 27 — There are few better vantage points than Hawk Watch to see both sides of the debate between the Pennsylvania National Guard and local conservationists.

Hawk Watch, a 30-yard-wide clearing named for its grand view of soaring raptors, is on the ridge of Second Mountain, about 12 miles northeast of Harrisburg and part of the Appalachian range.

“This is Stony Creek Valley,” said Larry Herr, pointing north to 44,000 acres of state-protected wilderness that is home to a nearly unaltered green carpet of hemlock, maple and oak trees going down the hillside to the valley 1,000 feet below.

Then, walking to the other side of Hawk Watch and looking south onto a 17,000-acre base operated by the Pennsylvania National Guard, Mr. Herr said with contempt: “And this is the Gap. Notice the difference.”

Amid large swaths of a similar tree canopy are pockets where the valley and hillside have been carved up for guard training areas, the trees removed and roads, buildings and ranges put in their place.

“That’s why we don’t want them over here,” said Mr. Herr, 67, a hunter who is part of the Stony Creek Valley Coalition fighting the guard’s request to use about 900 acres as a buffer for a new target range for Abrams M-1 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. “We don’t trust them.”

In a series of public meetings, charges have flown back and forth about a lack of concern for the public and past environmental abuses by the Guard — charges the Guard denies — and accusations that sportsmen regularly trespass on Guard land.

“It’s tough,” said Col. Robert L. Hodgson, garrison commander at Fort Indiantown Gap. “You get into a debate and then there’s mudslinging, and that’s not what we’re about. We’re about training soldiers, and, unfortunately, I can’t do that in the space I’ve got and I can’t move the range anywhere else.”

Colonel Hodgson said that because there were many more residents on the southern boundary of the rectangular-shaped base, the new range had to be on the northern edge near Stony Creek Valley.

The Guard had another range that closed in 1997 when it discovered that some of the inert shells its tanks were firing were ricocheting over the ridge and landing in Stony Creek Valley. No one was injured, but the discovery raised concerns.

Adding a range will mean that many of the 145,000 troops — active, reserve and guard — who train there annually will not have to drive to Fort Drum, N.Y., or Fort Pickett, Ky., to practice firing their tanks and fighting vehicles.

In provisions that Guard officials say show their concern for opponents of the new range, the Guard has agreed not to restrict access by hunters during the major deer, bear and turkey hunting seasons, and it will not be allowed to build new roads or paths in the wilderness area.

The Stony Creek land is the largest wilderness area without a road in Eastern Pennsylvania and is home to first-rate hunting and fishing and a stretch of the Appalachian Trail.

On top of that, many members of the coalition were involved in the original effort to buy the land in the mid-1970s when an electric company wanted to build two hydroelectric dams in the valley.

“We went to all the trouble to save this, and now we’re fighting it again,” said Larry Westhafer, 62, a member of the original coalition.

The debate over the Stony Creek land has raged for three years, since the Guard first looked into the idea of taking ownership of up to 8,000 acres of the wilderness area, possibly in a land swap.

The Guard later reduced that request to 1,200 acres, and then abandoned the idea of owning the land altogether. Now it is simply hoping to get a “special use” agreement with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which manages the land.

Despite the opposition from the coalition’s 75 sportsmen and environmental groups and 13 local governments, the Guard expects to sign an agreement in the next month with the president of the State Game Commission to restrict access to the 900 acres up to 90 days a year when the new range is in use.

If the agreement is signed, a splinter group of coalition members has said it would sue the commission.

“We’d sue because some of the money to purchase Stony Creek Valley came from federal funds that require it to be used only for the purpose it was acquired for,” said Harry Zirlin, the lawyer for the splinter group, “And that doesn’t include a buffer zone.”

Similar skirmishes with the military are occurring across the country. In Piñon Canyon in southeast Colorado near Fort Carson, farmers and environmentalists are fighting an effort by the Army to add 700 acres to a maneuver site, and in Plymouth, N.C., there is opposition to Navy plans to buy 30,000 acres to build an air base.

Here in Pennsylvania, Gov. Edward G. Rendell, who oversees both the Guard and the commission, supports the special use deal.

“We have worked closely with the citizens’ groups to try to ensure their interests are considered,” said Chuck Ardo, a spokesman for Mr. Rendell, a Democrat. “But it’s important that our soldiers who are being called to serve in the wars against terror are adequately trained, and that’s the purpose of this particular tract of land.”

Bush woos Putin with home visit

Russian President Vladimir Putin has become the first foreign leader to be hosted by President George W Bush at his family's summer retreat in Maine.

The informal visit to Kennebunkport began with a ride in the family speedboat, driven by former President George Bush Snr, then a lobster dinner.

But despite the apparent bonhomie, the relations are testy and talks expectations low.

Ties have been strained by US plans for a missile defence system in Europe.

Before he left Russia, Mr Putin said he was looking forward to "friendly" talks with Mr Bush.

"I hope that the dialogue with this person with whom I've formed good, I would say friendly, relations will take place in exactly that spirit," Russian news agency Interfax quoted him as saying.

For the US side, the meeting is about restoring a sense of trust to a relationship which of late has become increasingly fractious, our correspondent says.

Mr Putin arrived on Sunday for the two-day visit to Walker's Point, the seaside cottage complex built by President George W Bush's great-grandfather, which has served as the Bush family summer retreat since.

One official described Walker's Point to the BBC as the "inner sanctum" and the atmosphere was certainly more intimate than usual as Mr Putin was greeted at the airport in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, by Mr Bush Snr and then met on the drive of the house by his son, the First Lady Laura Bush and other family members.

'Pretty casual'

Mr Putin had brought flowers for both Laura Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also joined the group.

"It's pretty casual up here, as you know, unstructured," President Bush told reporters as he waited for his guest.

It was a far cry from recent relations between Moscow and Washington, which soured amid Russian anger at the proposed US missile defence shield - particularly plans to site a radar in the Czech Republic and 10 anti-missile interceptors in Poland.

Nato and the US say the facilities would not be directed at Russia, but at "rogue" states such as North Korea and Iran.

But Mr Putin recently warned that Russia would target its missiles back at Europe if Washington went ahead with the programme.

'Megaphone' warning

Earlier this week, Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer urged Russia and the West to tone down their rhetoric, saying there was "no reason to speak with megaphones".

The UN-administered province of Kosovo is another issue on which the two sides disagree.

Western countries support a plan that would give the territory independence from Serbia, but Russia - which wields a veto in the UN Security Council - says further negotiations are needed.

The UN secretary general said he hoped the meeting between the two leaders could be used to resolve their differences over Kosovo's future.

He added that it was of key importance that Russia - traditionally a Serb ally - backed the proposal.

"I hope sincerely that this summit meeting... between President Putin and President Bush will find a good solution to this issue," Ban Ki-moon said.

President Bush is also expected to raise the issue of Iran, hoping to gain Russian support for wider economic sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran over its nuclear programme.

As Mr Putin arrived, more than 1,000 demonstrators protested nearby, criticising his policy on Chechnya and calling for Mr Bush to be impeached over the war in Iraq.