China Economy Weekly: Economic Restructuring; Interest Rates Rise Amidst Inflation Worries

China Restructuring Economy:  China is seeking breakthroughs in economic restructuring while maintaining stable and relatively fast economic growth, the central committee of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) said on Monday.

"China will further boost people's incomes, enhance social construction and deepen reform and opening-up," said the Party's communique. This would facilitate "substantial progress in transforming the economic development pattern, and markedly promote China's comprehensive national strength, international competitiveness and better shield against risks.

China's Goal for New Strategic Industries: Beijing has announced plans to develop new strategic industries, saying their value-added output of would account for 8% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015 and 15% by 2020.

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The Latest from Iran (30 October): Happy Birthday, Mahmoud

2010 GMT: The Birthday Boy's Speech. A big finish to Saturday? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has tried to sell his subsidy cut plan in a nationally-televised interview by emphasising that cuts actually means receiving money.

Fars highlights the President's declaration that support payments of 81,000 tomans (about $80) every month will be paid to those on lower incomes.

IRNA goes another direction, emphasising Ahmadinejad's statement that the 1979 Islamic Revolution was the end of a dark era of history.

Press TV mentions the subsidy statement but prefers to lead with his comparison of Iran's progress --- "We have achieved many feats in agriculture, industry,...and science. We have made a leap. --- with the end of the West: "There is no hope in America and Europe."

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Terrorism: Taking Apart the British Warnings of a "Mumbai-Style" Attack

Earlier this week the British media was in a tizzy over a BBC story that some British police were getting military style training with automatic weapons to deal with a Mumbai-style assault on a UK urban centre.

The alleged existence of such a plot is, of course, why the US government warned its citizens not to go to Europe and why the British government warned its citizens not to go to France and why the French government warned its citizens not to go to the United Kingdom (actually, in the latter case, the warning came supposedly in retaliation for the British warning about travelling to France: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose). There’s also a suggestion that the warnings conveniently provided a justification for even more drone attacks being carried out in Pakistan by the Obama administration.

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Iran Special: How US Hikers Were Seized on Iraq Side of Border (Bahari)

The Iranian intelligence officials, none of whom would be named discussing a highly sensitive matter, confirmed a Nation magazine report asserting that Fattal, Bauer, and Sarah Shourd were kidnapped, in July 2009, by Heyva Taab, a local crime boss and ex-commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. According to ex-officials, the Guards allegedly used to pay Taab for delivering the bodies of Kurdish guerillas. Taab would kill innocent Kurds along the Iran-Iraq border, dress them as guerillas, and hand them over. He is currently in jail in Iran for killing an Iranian official and his nephew....

The former officials tell Newsweek their views on the hikers are consistent with the thinking of currently serving Iranian officials: that the Americans are either spies or naive victims of a particularly complex situation.

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Head of British Intelligence: We Don't Torture (But You Won't Find Out If We Do)

I am not sure the main story is in the first paragraph of this article by Richard Norton-Taylor of The Guardian of London: the real stunner would have been if the head of MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence service, had announced that his officers were regularly waterboarding and breaking kneecaps.

In lieu of that, I think the real take-away here --- in the first public speech by an MI6 head in the agency's century of existence --- is the levels of barricades that Joh Sawer set up to prevent any exposure of MI6 activities.

In short, the unprecedented appearance was to push back against the pressure, as in the legal case of Binyam Mohamed, the UK resident abused on three continents, for British intelligence to comply with demands for information. That includes placing MI6 above the legal process: no court can be allowed, in Sawers' view, to have access to documents or testimony.

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The Latest from Iran (29 October): Amidst the Spinning, A Political Prisoner is Released

2030 GMT: Full Service Tomorrow. I have just gotten back from Holland --- apologies for limited updates today.

We will be back from 0600 GMT with complete coverage of latest developments.

1415 GMT: The Nuclear Dance. Another step in the diplomatic tango towards talks on uranium enrichment between Iran and the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China, Germany)....

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Iran, Sanctions, and War: The Obama Administration Spins Out of Control

Many may perceive the message in Thursday's New York Times article --- again, even though there is no evidence that the "senior Administration official" is presenting an agreed point of view --- as one advocating military action.

That's pretty stupid, given that others in the Administration --- like the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen --- have been trying to talk down the idea of military intervention and have been reminding the Israelis that the US Government is opposed to an airstrike on Iran.

It's not even a sensible political manoeuvre. The Ahmadinejad Government is likely to seize upon this as proof of America's hypocrisy --- they talk negotiations, but they mean conflict --- and unrelenting hostility towards the Iranian people. Rather than fold to the mounting economic pressure that the Administration official envisages, the Government and the Supreme Leader will use this further sign of the "enemy" to try and rally support to offset the economic difficulties.

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Martin Luther King's Opposition to The Vietnam War: The 1967 Interview

A moment of intersection: while working on a story on the current US military intervention in Afghanistan, I discovered this interview with Martin Luther King, Jr., on The Mike Douglas Show in 1967.

A bit of background: The Mike Douglas Show was a pleasant but normally undemanding daytime chat show, featuring guests --- often actors and singers --- and musical performances. So the sudden shift to 20 minutes with King, introduced by Douglas as "controversial", in a challenging exchange on the Vietnam War is without comparison today.

The video is in three parts:

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How a Savage US Radio Demagogue Embraced Iran's State Media

Even in the often nasty and destructive world of American talk radio, Michael Savage is exceptional. He distingushed himself by blaming Mexican "illegal aliens" in the US for the swine flu outbreak --- "is this a terrorist attack?" --- and he was banned from speaking in Britain because of the possible incitement to hatred.

Still, it is a bit of a surprise to learn that Savage is apparently a fan of Iranian state media. Amidst the colourful spread of snippets on his website "covering" the US elections by bashing the Democrats, there is this firm declaration: "Obama Unlikely to Last First Term".

The source for this exclusive? Why, it's Tehran's Press TV....

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The Latest from Iran (28 October): Re-Playing the Election

2040 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The State Bank of India has directed its overseas branches to stop transactions with Iranian entities.

An internal circular issued last month by the bank, India’s largest, establishes that India has tacitly joined United Nations sanctions against Iran.

The directive was issued after Iranian entities attempted to break the bank’s firewall by using shell firms to purchase US dollars to finance their business.

1955 GMT: How Could We Forget? It was the 10th and last day of the Khamenei roadshow in Qom. Mehr said that the people of the city gave him a "huge and passionate" farewell. Fars echoes the story, but there are no pictures.

The Financial Times belatedly notices the trip, "Khamenei Pleads for Clerical Support in Qom".

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