China Confidential
Friday, December 12, 2008
Gold Heads for Biggest Weekly Gain in Three Months
Bloomberg's Glenys Sim reports from Singapore:Gold traded little changed above $800 in Asia, headed for the biggest weekly gain in nearly three months, as the dollar declined, boosting the appeal of the precious metal as an alternative investment.
Bullion has gained 8.6 percent this week, the most since Sept. 19, as the dollar has fallen 3.9 percent against a weighted basket of six major currencies on speculation U.S. lawmakers will delay voting on legislation to lend the country’s automakers enough money to survive into the new year. The metal often moves in the opposite direction to the greenback.
“Gold has been tracking dollar movements very closely in the past few weeks and this relationship will continue through the end of the year,” Lu Wei, an analyst at Jiangsu Holly Futures Brokerage Co., said today.
Continue here.
US General: Iran Cooperating on Iraq
More evidence of a tacit understanding--or covert bargain--between the United States and Iran over Iraq.
The Los Angeles Times' Julian E. Barnes reports from Washington:A marked decline in the number of explosive devices coming into Iraq from neighboring Iran has helped reduce the frequency of deadly attacks against U.S. service members, a top U.S. general said Thursday.
The military's view reflects a growing belief that Iran has reduced its level of interference in Iraq and is no longer, as the U.S. alleges, providing weapons that are used to kill U.S. troops, potentially making it easier for the next administration to reach out to the government in Tehran.
President-elect Barack Obama said during this year's political campaign that he was willing to meet with Iranian leaders, a stance criticized by conservatives who cited Tehran's support of violent anti-U.S. Shiite militias.
Now, however, there has been a steep reduction in the use of armor-piercing bombs, also known as explosively formed penetrators, particularly lethal weapons that U.S. officials say often are designed or built in Iran.
There once were as many as 80 such attacks per month, but the number now is as few as 12, Army Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz said at a meeting with reporters.
Metz is director of a military organization whose aim is to reduce the effects of roadside bombs on U.S. troops.
Click here to continue.Thursday, December 11, 2008
Turkey Escalates War on Kurdish Terrorists
Foreign Confidential....
Turkey is continuing to escalate the campaign against the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) based in the north of Iraq.
PKK guerrillas have hideouts in the high, rugged mountains dividing Turkey from northern Iraq. On Oct. 3, 17 Turkish soldiers were killed when the PKK attacked the Aktutun Gendarmerie Border Unit in Semdinli, a town in the province of Hakkari.
The tension is mounting after the deadliest attack in the year and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the military have pledged to intensify a campaign to crush the PKK, which was blacklisted by Ankara and the United States as a terrorist group.
The Turkish Air Force has conducted a number of airstrikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq since a week-long cross-border incursion into northern Iraq was launched the last incident.
The PKK, established in 1970, is a nationalist Kurdish guerrilla group that since the mid-1980s has been using violence to push for an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey. Some half of Turkey's Kurdish population, 15 percent of Turkey's total of 73 million, is concentrated in the region.
The party is proscribed as a terrorist group in the United Kingdom, the U.S. and some other countries. In the past 10 years its demands have moderated to autonomy within Turkey. The party uffered a major reverse in 1999 when its leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured, but in 2004 the group felt sufficiently strong to resume its campaign of violence.
Since the armed struggle began, some 40,000 people have been dead.
- XinhuaChina Considering Methods to Aid Steel Industry
China is considering buying some steel products for its reserves and helping steel exporters by raising export tax rebates, Li Yizhong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said on Friday.
He said the government could allow companies to store extra products, or the government could purchase a certain amount so that production capacity does not stand idle.
Li added that China's top planning body, the National Reform and Development Commission, was working with other government authorities on the specific amounts and the method.
'We suggest the export rebates on several high-end steel products could be raised by several percentage points, while we restrict exports of some low end energy-intensive products,' Li told a news conference in Beijing.Belgian Police Nab 14 Al Qaeda Suspects
Foreign Confidential....
Belgian authorities detained 14 suspected Al Qaeda members Thursday, including one Belgian national who may have been given instructions to carry out a suicide attack against an unknown target.
Three of the suspects received training in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the person believed to be preparing an attack returned to Belgium on Dec. 4, the federal prosecutor’s office in Brussels said in an statement.
No weapons or explosives were found during 17 house searches in the capital of Brussels and the eastern Belgian city of Liege earlier in the day.
- BloombergAsian Stocks Fall on Bad News All Around
Asian stocks fell Friday, paring the benchmark index’s best weekly gain in a decade, after China and South Korea said their economic growth will slow and U.S. jobless claims soared.
China Mobile Ltd., the nation’s largest phone company, fell 2.2 percent in Hong Kong. KB Financial Group Inc. lost 9.3 percent after South Korea’s central bank forecast the economy will expand at the slowest pace in 11 years in 2009. James Hardie Industries NV, the biggest seller of home siding in the U.S., slumped 8.1 percent. Honda Motor Co. dropped more than 2 percent, paring losses after Senate negotiators reached a tentative compromise on a $14 billion automaker bailout plan.
“Right now, nobody can say what the global economy is going to be like next year,” said Choi Min Jai, who helps manage at least $2.5 billion at KTB Asset Management Co. in Seoul. “There are no clear signs of a recovery yet. Consumption will further contract if GM or any of the automakers goes bankrupt.”
- BloombergIraq Calls for US Talks with Iran
Foreign Confidential....
Iraq's American-installed, Shiite-dominated, pro-Iranian government is again reaching out to U.S. President-elect Obama--by endorsing his controversial position on diplomatically engaging Tehran.
Obama and his future administration must open dialogue with Iran and Syria to "solve" long-standing issues plaguing the Middle East, the Iraqi government said Thursday.
"I call on the new administration to open a dialogue with Iran to resolve the exceptional problems which are affecting stability in the region," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement released at the outset of an international conference in Washington.
"We do encourage the administration to have a dialogue with Syria," Dabbagh added later Thursday in comments to reporters at the Pentagon.
Saturday, 13 December 2008
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