UN satellite analysis tracks Ukraine cultural damage

 Yahoo – AFP, October 26, 2022 

The United Nations is using before-and-after satellite imagery to monitor the cultural destruction inflicted by Russia's war in Ukraine, announcing Wednesday it will launch its tracking platform publicly within days. 

The UN's culture agency UNESCO said it had verified damage to 207 cultural sites in Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24. 

They include 88 religious sites, 15 museums, 76 buildings of historical and or artistic interest, 18 monuments and 10 libraries. 

"Our conclusion is it's bad, and it may continue to get even worse," UNESCO's cultural and emergencies director Krista Pikkat told reporters at a briefing in Geneva. 

So far in the war, none of the seven world heritage sites have been damaged. 

UNESCO -- the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization -- has joined forces with the UN Satellite Centre UNOSAT. 

Based on reports on the ground, UNESCO sends a list of potentially damaged sites to UNOSAT. It then asks for satellite images from commercial suppliers and a small team of experts studies the difference in before-and-after pictures. 

The team matches up the images and is then able to give a time window in which the damage took place. 

It does not attribute blame for the damage. 

"This is a kind of pilot experiment to see how we can usefully compile this information, and possibly in the long term, the ambition would be to widen the scope beyond Ukraine and take the tool to a global level so we can really have a kind of real-time, interactive tool for our experts," said Pikkat. 

UNESCO is also working with museums and collections in Ukraine to try to combat against the threat of looting -- a common problem in war. 

UNESCO has been discussing with Kyiv about possibly removing cultural heritage items from the country for the duration of the war, but Pikkat acknowledged that it was a "difficult call", with the first move being to evacuate collections to safer parts of Ukraine.

Uber barred from sacking 10 staff who refused to take redundancy

DutchNews, November 23, 2020 

Online taxi agency Uber has been refused permission to sack workers at its international headquarters in Amsterdam, the NRC has reported. 

State jobs agency UWV, which has to assess all formal applications for redundancy, has ruled that there were no valid grounds for dismissal because the company could not demonstrate that the downturn in the workload was structural. 

The UWV also referred to comments made by Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who told a staff meeting on September 1 that the job cuts, first announced in May, were more severe than strictly necessary. 

The decision is being seen as a vindication for some 10 Uber workers who refused to leave when the company pressured almost 200 staff in Amsterdam into leaving before the redundancies had been approved by the UVW. 

Uber announced in May that it would sack 25% of its 27,000 global workforce as the coronavirus pandemic has led to an 80% drop in its revenue. Some 1,000 people work for Uber in Amsterdam, mainly in app development, design, marketing and sales. 

The company applied to the UWV for approval for the redundancies, as required by Dutch redundancy law, but before the agency could rule, nearly all the workers who were being let go had already signed the relevant paperwork and been paid off, the NRC said earlier this month. 

Systems 

‘The workers who were affected were shut out of all the company’s systems the day after they were told they had to leave,’ the paper said. ‘They were also given a daily reminder about signing the agreement and told that their job would cease to exist.’ 

Many were expats from outside the EU with little knowledge of Dutch labour law, the paper said. 

Uber has not yet commented on the UWV’s findings. However, the FNV union’s spokesman on taxi platforms, Amrit Sewgobind, told the NRC he was very pleased with the UWV’s decision.

‘This shows a powerful company like Uber has to comply with Dutch redundancy law if it wants to sack staff,’ he said.

Coronavirus could put export of Dutch cycle expertise into gear

DutchNews, May 14, 2020 

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The coronavirus crisis could boost the export of Dutch cycling infrastructure expertise and products as countries are turning to the bicycle for a safer means of transport, RTL Nieuws reports. 

‘Coronavirus is accelerating the cycling infrastructure projects of many cities,’ says Lucas Harms, who heads the Dutch Cycling Embassy, a network of Dutch companies specialising in products like bike parks and other bike-related infrastructure. 

As coronavirus is turning people away from using public transport, the local authorities in Brussels have been turning car lanes into bike lanes over the last few days, as has Paris, RTL said. And in Milan, plans have been presented to limit space for cars in favour of bikes. 

‘We don’t yet know if this is a temporary thing. People may be just panicking and improvising but the good thing is that a seed is planted,’ said Harms, whose Cycling Embassy has advised hundreds of local authorities around the world on emulating Dutch cycling infrastructure. 

To build an infrastructure for cycling involves expertise in many areas, Harms said. ‘You need traffic experts, marketing people to create awareness,  and policy advisors. We have a lot of companies with specialised knowledge, just think of the multi-storey bike parks, like the one at Amsterdam’s main railway station. We are used to them but in other countries they are far from usual.’ 

It is not known how much the export of cycle expertise and products is currently worth but, Harms said, the 60 partners of his network are all involved in projects abroad.

UN grants sanctions exemption for Korea railway survey

Yahoo – AFP, 24 November 2018

The two Koreas have agreed to start surveys on reconnecting railways across
the border between North and South

The UN Security Council has granted a sanctions exemption for the two Koreas to jointly conduct a survey on reconnecting railways across their border, a spokesman for the South Korean presidency said Saturday.

The two Koreas last month agreed to start the survey no later than late October and to hold the groundbreaking ceremony sometime between late November and early December, as the countries pursue a reconciliation drive.

But the possibility of the project running up against UN sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear programmes has caused delays.

"It is significant that this project has received support from the United States and international community", said Kim Eui-Gyeom, spokesman for the presidential Blue House in Seoul.

Railway experts from both sides will criss-cross the country on survey trains together, Kim said in a statement, adding that the process will "bring inter-Korean cooperation to a new level".

Yonhap news agency said the South was expected to bring fuel for train locomotives, and other unspecified materials for the survey in the North.

Delivering fuel to North Korea could potentially have been in breach of a UN cap limiting imports to 500,000 barrels a year.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday any inter-Korean rapprochement had to move forward "in tandem" with efforts to denuclearise the peninsula, and could not come sooner.

US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a historic summit in Singapore earlier this year, signing a vaguely worded deal on denuclearisation.

But since then, talks on denuclearisation have stalled, with meetings either deemed unproductive, pushed back or cancelled altogether.

The US and South Korea have launched a working group to make sure that they don't "talk past each other", Pompeo said, as Seoul and Pyongyang appear to be moving ahead with their rapprochement more quickly than Washington and the North are making headway on nuclear disarmament.

A second leaders' summit is expected to take place in early 2019, according to Washington.

In the meantime, North and South Korea have made several concrete decisions on reconciliation and exchanges.

But the implementation of cross-border projects such as the reconnection of railways have been hamstrung by the lack of progress in denuclearisation talks.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in (L) advocates talking to the North's leader
Kim Jong Un to push him to denuclearise (AFP Photo)

Related Article:

Seoul earmarks more than $260 mn for rail, roads in North

Seoul earmarks more than $260 mn for rail, roads in North

Yahoo – AFP, November 8, 2018

South Korean President Moon Jae-in (L) advocates talking to the North's leader
Kim Jong Un to push him to denuclearise (AFP Photo)

Seoul (AFP) - South Korea has earmarked more than $260 million to build new railways and roads in the North, an official said Thursday, as Seoul pushes ahead with cross-border projects despite international sanctions on Pyongyang.

The figure comes as Seoul and Washington follow increasingly divergent approaches to Pyongyang, with the South pursuing engagement while the US insists pressure on it should be maintained until it denuclearises.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in offered to help upgrade the North's outdated rail and road infrastructure and connect it with the South's in meetings this year with the North's leader Kim Jong Un.

Seoul plans to spend about 295.1 billion won ($264 million) on the schemes next year, an official at Seoul's unification ministry told reporters, with most of it -- 186.4 billion won -- given freely and 108.7 billion won in loans.

"It is an estimate for now... we will continue efforts, including policy coordination with the US, to carry out the projects agreed between the two Koreas without a hitch," said the official who declined to be named.

Security allies Seoul and Washington agreed last week to set up a new working group to co-ordinate policy amid growing concerns in the US over Moon's approach.

The official's comments came as a Southern lawmaker accused Seoul of ignoring UN sanctions on the North.

"The US maintains the position that it would maintain maximum pressure until the North produces visible progress on denuclearisation and so does the international community including the EU," Chung Byoung-gug told the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper.

"The budget allocation by our government may make it look like our government is undermining international coordination on sanctions on the North," he was quoted as saying.

The isolated, impoverished North is under multiple sets of sanctions imposed over past nuclear and missile tests staged in violation of UN resolutions.

Lifting the measures -- which bans much of its trade including coal exports -- is a key demand of Pyongyang's in its ongoing denuclearisation talks with the US.

Kim and Donald Trump held a historic summit in June in Singapore and signed a vaguely worded deal on denuclearisation, but little progress has been made since then, with the two countries sparring over the exact meaning of the agreement.

Planned talks between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and one of Kim's right-hand men, Kim Yong Chol, were also delayed this week.

Moon -- a dove who advocates dialogue with the North to push it towards denuclearisation -- has met Kim three times so far this year and another summit is being planned in Seoul.

Despite shortage of space and staff, no stop to distribution centre growth

DutchNews, March 26, 2018

Photo: Depositphotos.com

New distribution centres covering a record of nearly two million m2 – the equivalent of 400 football fields – were built in the Netherlands in 2017 and still more are planned along the country’s motorways, according to research by broadcaster NOS. 

Many large international companies are queuing up to distribute their products through the Netherlands despite the shortage of land and people to staff them, NOS said.There are currently 53,000 unfilled distribution centre jobs available. 

NOS contacted commercial brokers association NVM Business as well as a number of leading commercial property firms for its report. ‘We are seeing for the first time that  developers are building distribution centres on spec before they have any tenant or buyer in mind,’ said Liesbeth Kramer of NVM Business. ‘Demand is enormous.’ 

Total space covered by distribution centres in the Netherlands has increased by 40% to more than 30 million m2 in the past 10 years. The most are located in Noord-Brabant province, followed by Limburg. 

‘All major high streets from London to Paris  and Germany’s Ruhr region are stocked by warehouses in the southern part of the Netherlands,’ said Joost Uwents, CEO of Belgo-Dutch developer WDP, which is the largest in the Netherlands. 

Uwents, who is a Belgian national, is full of praise for the Dutch government which has supported the logistics sector in a big way. He cites major improvements to the road infrastructure around Rotterdam and Eindhoven as will as upgrades in the rail and inland waterway structures. 

Tax 

The Dutch tax regime – unlike that in in other countries  – also benefits distribution activities as VAT is added only on final delivery of goods, said Richard Elich of property developer David Hart Group. 

And even though the southern part of the country is generally preferred for distribution centres, the parent of Spanish fashion group Zara opted for Lelystad for its new distribution centre.  ‘Quite simply, they settled there because the could get both space and staff,’ Uwents said.

Automaker Mitsubishi admits manipulating fuel-efficiency tests

Yahoo – AFP, Natsuko Fukue, 20 April 2016

Japanese automaker Mitsubishi on Wednesday admitted it manipulated fuel-efficiency tests in more than 600,000 vehicles, after reports of misconduct sent its Tokyo-listed shares crashing earlier in the day.

The embarrassing revelation comes in the wake of a massive pollution-cheating scandal at Volkswagen (LSE: 0P6N.L - news) that erupted in September and which the German giant is still struggling to overcome.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) also marks the latest blow for Japan Inc after auto parts giant Takata (Frankfurt: 7TK.F - news) was hammered by an exploding air bag defect blamed for at least 11 deaths, and as Toshiba (Swiss: TOSH.SW - news) tries to recover from a huge accounting scandal.

Mitsubishi said it would halt production and sales of the affected vehicle models -- mini-cars sold in Japan -- and warned that the number of affected vehicles would likely rise.

The maker of the Outlander sport utility vehicle also said it would launch a probe into cars it sold overseas.

"We found that with respect to the fuel consumption testing data... (the company) conducted testing improperly to present better fuel consumption rates than the actual rates," Mitsubishi president Tetsuro Aikawa told a Tokyo news briefing.

He added that the testing method was "different" from one required by Japanese law, and warned that the automaker's bottom line would take a hit.

"This is not a simple problem and we need time (to assess the impact)," Mitsubishi's top executive said.

"But I'm sure there will be an impact. The damage will be big."

The problem affected about 625,000 vehicles, including mini-cars "eK Wagon" and "eK Space", and the "Dayz" and "Dayz Roox", which Mitsubishi produces for rival Nissan.

The rigged figures were discovered after Nissan found inconsistencies in fuel-economy data and reported it.

"In response to Nissan's request, Mitsubishi admitted that data had been intentionally manipulated in its fuel economy testing process for certification," Nissan said.

Independent investigation

Japan's number-two carmaker ordered a halt to sales of the vehicles that Mitsubishi produced and tested.

A company spokesman declined to comment on the future of Nissan's business relationship with its smaller rival.

"Our focus is on our customers," he said.

Mini-cars, or kei-cars, are small vehicles with 660cc gasoline engines that are hugely popular in the Japanese market, but have found little success abroad.

Mitsubishi sold more than a million vehicles at home and overseas in its latest fiscal year.

"Taking into account the seriousness of these issues, we will also conduct an investigation into products manufactured for overseas markets," the carmaker said in a statement.

"In order to conduct an investigation into these issues objectively and thoroughly, we plan to set up a committee consisting of only external experts. We will publish the results of our investigation as soon as it is complete."

Earlier Wednesday, Mitsubishi shares plunged 15.16 percent to 733 yen ($6.73) after local media reported the faulty emissions tests.

"This may be different from Volkswagen's issue, but the market has become very sensitive to such kind of news," Seiji Sugiura, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Center, told Bloomberg News.

"It may have a similar impact in terms of sales and the company's reputation."

The fall in Mitsubishi's stock was its biggest one-day plunge since 2004.

At that time, Mitsubishi was struggling to launch a turnaround as it teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, hit by a lack of cash and a series of huge recalls linked to serious defects.

"It's not the first time for Mitsubishi to have this kind of issue, and this definitely won?t help them rebuild their reputation," Sugiura said.

Volkswagen has been hammered by a global scandal that erupted when it emerged that it had installed emissions-cheating software in 11 million diesel engines worldwide.

The costs of the scandal are still incalculable but are expected to run into several billions of dollars as a result of fines and lawsuits.

South Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia in 2014 agreed to pay $100 million to settle a US government investigation into exaggerated fuel efficiency on 2012 and 2013 car models sold in the United States.

Related Article:

Mitsubishi Motors to pay owners of fuel-cheating cars: report

More animals killed on the roads is ‘good news’ for wildlife

DutchNews, February 12, 2016

The fact that more animals are being killed on the Dutch roads is often cause for celebration, Maurice La Haye – a researcher at the Dutch mammal society Zoogdiervereniging – told the Algemeen Dagblad. 

An increase in accidents is a sign that conservation efforts are working and the wildlife population in the Netherlands is increasing, La Haye told the paper on Friday. 

An estimated ten million animals are killed on Dutch roads every year, but millions more survive, mate, and multiply. This is at least partly thanks to the Netherlands’ network of 1,725 green passages, viaducts, and walking ledges that allow animals to safely cross roads in certain places. 

Green passageways

Since the mid-1980s, the Netherlands has been building these structures in an effort to preserve dwindling wildlife stocks, including the endangered European badger, and several species of wild boar and deer. 

One of these ‘ecoducts’ – the Natuurbrug Zanderij Crailoo – is the longest such structure in the world. Some 50m wide and 800m long, the ecoduct takes animals safely over a railway line, roadway, business park, sports complex and a river. 

The ecoducts allow animals to expand their habitats past the barriers of roads, rivers and railways. And it’s been successful. In 1950, the total deer population of the Netherlands was around 5,000. Now it sits nearer 110,000, Gijs Van Ardenne, chairman of the Wildlife Collision Foundation Netherlands told the AD. 

Healthy and thriving

As well as an increase in sheer numbers, Dutch wildlife now appears to be in better health than before.

‘Ditches and canals are no longer the open sewers of last century, but fish-rich waterways,’ Hugh Jansen, of research institute Alterra told the AD. ‘Dead animals we find and analyse are in very good condition. They are top athletes who encountered a car.’

Germany gives green light to bicycle highways

Yahoo – AFP, Pauline Houede,  December 29, 2015

Fans hail the smooth new velo routes as the answer to urban traffic jams and air
pollution, and a way to safely get nine-to-fivers outdoors (AFP Photo/Patrik Stollarz)

Berlin (AFP) - It's every cyclist's dream: no red lights, no trucks, just a clear, smooth lane to zoom down with the wind in your face. Welcome to Germany's first bicycle Autobahn.

Fans hail the smooth new velo routes as the answer to urban traffic jams and air pollution, and a way to safely get nine-to-fivers outdoors.

As a glimpse of a greener urban transport future, Germany has just opened the first five-kilometre (three-mile) stretch of a bicycle highway that is set to span over 100 kilometres.

It will connect 10 western cities including Duisburg, Bochum and Hamm and four universities, running largely along disused railroad tracks in the crumbling Ruhr industrial region.

Almost two million people live within two kilometres of the route and will be able to use sections for their daily commutes, said Martin Toennes of regional development group RVR.

A cyclist enjoys the first five-kilometre (three-mile) stretch of a bicycle highway 

in Mulheim an der Ruhr, which will connect 10 western cities including Duisburg,

Bochum and Hamm and four universities (AFP Photo/Patrik Stollarz)

Aided by booming demand for electric bikes, which take the sting out of uphill sections, the new track should take 50,000 cars off the roads every day, an RVR study predicts.

The idea, pioneered in the Netherlands and Denmark, is gaining traction elsewhere in Germany too.

The banking centre of Frankfurt is planning a 30-kilometre path south to Darmstadt, the Bavarian capital of Munich is plotting a 15-kilometre route into its northern suburbs, and Nuremberg has launched a feasibility study into a track linking it with four cities.

In the capital Berlin, the city administration in early December gave the green light to a feasibility study on connecting the city centre with the leafy southwestern suburb of Zehlendorf.

Rapid track

The new velo routes are a luxury upgrade from the ageing single-lane bike paths common in many German cities, where tree roots below can create irregular speed bumps and a mellow cycling lane can suddenly end or, more alarmingly, merge into a bus lane.

The new velo routes are a luxury upgrade from the ageing single-lane bike

paths common in many German cities (AFP Photo/Patrik Stollarz)

The new type of bike routes are around four metres (13 feet) wide, have overtaking lanes and usually cross roads via overpasses and underpasses. The paths are lit and cleared of snow in winter.

Like most infrastructure projects, the bicycle Autobahn is facing headwinds, however, especially when it comes to financing.

In Germany, the situation is complicated because while the federal government generally builds and maintains motor-, rail- and waterways, cycling infrastructure is the responsibility of local authorities.

For the Ruhr region's initial five-kilometre rapid track, the cost was shared, with the European Union funding half, North Rhine-Westphalia state coughing up 30 percent, and the RVR investing 20 percent.

Toennes said talks are ongoing to rustle up 180 million euros ($196 million) for the entire 100-kilometre route, with the state government, run by centre-left Social Democrats and the Greens party, planning legislation to take the burden off municipalities.

The German Bicycle Club ADFC argues that, since about 10 percent of trips in 

the country are now done by bicycle, cycling infrastructure should get at least

10 percent of federal transport funding (AFP Photo/Patrik Stollarz)

"Without (state) support, the project would have no chance," said Toennes, pointing to the financial difficulties many local governments would have in paying for maintenance, lighting and snow clearance.

In Berlin, a heavily indebted city-state, the conservative CDU party has proposed a private financing model based in part on advertising along the route.

"The bike highways are new in Germany," said Birgit Kastrup, in charge of the Munich project. "We must find a new concept for funding them."

The German Bicycle Club ADFC argues that, since about 10 percent of trips in the country are now done by bicycle, cycling infrastructure should get at least 10 percent of federal transport funding.

"Building highways in cities is a life-threatening recipe from the 1960s," said its manager Burkhard Stork. "No one wants more cars in cities."

Germany already feeling the love from China's Belt and Road

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-07-19

The Sino-Europe rail linking Chongqing and Duisburg, March 2013. (Photo/Xinhua)

The eight international rail freight routes linking China and Europe together conducted 308 trips last year, up 285% from a year earlier, as the "New Silk Road" runs its course, reports the Shanghai-based China Business News.

China's promotion of the international rail freight routes is chiefly aimed at developing its central and northwest economy. The only way to effectively boost these regions is by integrating Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, said Zhou Yun, research fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA).

Hans-Jorg Schimdt-Trenz, CEO of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, welcomed China's construction of bridges, roads and rails linking its neighbors, saying it will contribute to the economic development of neighboring countries, benefiting both China and the world.

The Sino-Europe rail began from the route linking with China's Chongqing and Duisburg of Germany in 2011, and now four freight trains make the trip every week.

The Chongqing-Europe rail is helping Chinese enterprises export their products to the European market. In fact, North Rhine-Westphalia, where Duisburg is based, is the most concentrated area for Chinese investors, having received investments from more than 800 Chinese enterprises.

The international rail freight is faster than by sea and costs lower than air transport, a double bonus for inland countries and areas. When the Sino-Europe rails began operations, transport volume was low and less frequent. Now most trains are usually full when they start out from China, and empty when they return.

Schimdt-Trenz attributed the imbalanced freight to China's 'world factory' status, which makes it a largely export-oriented country. China should further expand imports and adjust its economic structure to achieve a balance, said the report.

Although rail freight is becoming more popular now, it still cannot replace cargo by sea, said experts.

Since China advocated the "Belt and Road" initiative, Germany has been supporting calls to establish the Silk Road. In general, the German public has a positive evaluation of the project, said the report.

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China accelerates westward opening for Silk Road Economic Belt

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-04-01

A train enters China through the Alataw Pass, June 26, 2014. (File photo/Xinhua)

The Alataw Pass, a remotely-located port in the Gobi desert of Xinjiang, is becoming an increasingly important trade gateway connecting China's inland cities to Central Asia and Europe.

Dozens of international trains are running to and from the port everyday with a total freight volume of 74,000 tonnes and foreign trade volume of nearly US$50 million. The Alataw Pass has become a key entrance for energy resources of strategic importance such as crude oil, metal ores and steel.

The prosperity of the port is a reflection of China's effort in opening up westward, as part of a strategy to develop the Silk Road Economic Belt that spans the Eurasian continent.

President Xi Jinping proposed the idea of the economic belt during his visit to Central Asia in September 2013, eyeing a cultural revival of the Silk Road, which historically linked China with Central Asia and Europe, as a way of developing political and economic ties.

After the Silk Road Economic Belt agreement was signed in November 2013 by 24 cities in eight countries along the Silk Road, a series of Chinese inland cities including Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou and Xi'an have successively opened international shuttle trains to the Eurasian continent.

Northwest China's Shaanxi province, the starting point of the ancient silk road, has been carrying out economic and technological cooperation with countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt.

Fang Weifeng, director of the Shaanxi Development and Reform Commission, said, the Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group has set up an oil refining program in Kyrgyzstan with an annual capacity of 800,000 tonnes.

Other western provinces and regions have also been extending their reach to the west. Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region vowed to enhance agricultural and energy cooperation with Central Asia. Ningxia Hui autonomous region, heavily populated by the Muslim Hui ethnic minority, has been developing Muslim food and products manufacturing bases with the purpose to promote trade with Muslim countries.

Yang Shu, a professor at Lanzhou University in Gansu province, said speeding up westward expansion is of great strategic importance to China. With international trade shrinking after the global financial crisis, China's economic slowdown is urging the country to further tap the development potential of its west through westward opening.

The campaign can also help bridge the development gap between China's western areas and more prosperous east, he said.

The global financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis has hit the economic development of Russia, Central Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. The economic belt can bring opportunities to those countries, he said.

However, China has to be cautious when deepening cooperation with countries to its west.

Xing Guangcheng, an expert with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China should seek to develop more stakeholders by building joint ventures when initiating programs in the Central Asian countries in order to reduce risks.

Beijing pitches US$5.2bn toward Russia's first high-speed railway

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-01

Two high-speed locomotives in a hangar in Guiyang, Guizhou province.
(File photo/CNS)

Beijing plans to invest 300 billion Russian rubles (US$5.2 billion) to build Russia's first high-speed rail line between Moscow and Kazan, reports the Xinhua publication Reference News.

China reportedly proposed the investment to Alexander Misharin, first vice president of Russian Railways, in a meeting during the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan. Chinese officials suggested the two countries form a joint venture for the rail line, each taking a 50% stake.

Around 50 billion rubles (US$860 million) of the investment will be equity payment made by the Chinese company responsible for the project. Chinese banks will lend the remaining 250 billion rubles (US$4.3 billion) to Russia for 20 years.

The 770km-long rail line linking five regions in Russia — Moscow, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Cheboksary and Kazan — would reduce the travel time from 11 and half hours to around three and a half. Many European and Chinese companies have shown interest in the project.

Flood Warnings and Clean-Up as Australia Recovers From Twin Cyclones

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Feb 21, 2015

This image obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
 (NOAA) shows VIIRS infrared imagery from Tropical Storm Marcia as it approaches
the eastern coast of Australia on Feb. 19, 2015. (AFP Photo/NOAA/NASA/RAMMB/CIRA)

Australia was Saturday assessing the damage from two severe cyclones that left a trail of destruction, wrecking hundreds of homes and cutting electricity to thousands as authorities warned of more flooding and gusty winds.

Tropical Cyclone Marcia barrelled through the northeastern state of Queensland Friday at the highest-rated category five, ripping apart houses, uprooting trees and bringing down power lines.

The severe system hit hours after category four Tropical Cyclone Lam slammed into the Northern Territory, causing extensive damage to remote Aboriginal communities near Elcho Island, some 500 kilometers east of the capital Darwin.

Despite the destruction, authorities have so far not received reports of serious injuries, missing people, or deaths.

“Everyone is breathing a deep sigh of relief that there has been, to this date, no loss of life,” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters Saturday.

Both cyclones have since eased to tropical lows, but the Bureau of Meteorology warned of flooding, heavy rains, damaging wind gusts and dangerous surf.

Parts of southeast Queensland, which has already been saturated by a separate weather system bringing hundreds of millimetres of rain to the region since Thursday, could be hit by flooding as Marcia tracks south before moving out to sea later Saturday.

Residents in the small towns of Jambin and Goovigen south of Rockhampton in central Queensland were evacuated from their homes as the Callide river flooded.

Flood warnings have also been issued for northeast New South Wales state just below Queensland.

Palaszczuk said preliminary reports showed “a couple of hundred homes” in Yeppoon and Rockhampton had structural damage.

“The biggest issue that we are currently facing is power outages,” she said.

“We have around 60,000 homes without power.”

The Australian military is assisting with the damage assessment and clean-up, with two aircraft set to be deployed to central Queensland Saturday, weather permitting.

In the Northern Territory, a state of emergency has been declared for areas hardest hit by Lam.

The territory’s Police and Emergency Services Minister Peter Chandler said the measure would help communities that have suffered from power, telecommunications and water outages.

Queensland has been smashed by several major storms and cyclones over the past few years with Cyclone Oswald, also a category five, flooding parts of the state in 2013, racking up insurance claims of some Aus$977 million (US$765 million).

Agence France-Presse

Chinese-built railway in Angola opens

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-02-15

A train at Lobito station in Benguela, Angola, Feb. 11. (Photo/Xinhua)

A 1,344-kilometer railway built by China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) for Angola was completed and open to traffic on Saturday, the company told Xinhua.

The railway linking the coastal city of Lobito in the west and Luau bordering DR Congo is the second longest railway built by a Chinese company for Africa, after the Tanzania-Zambia railway.

The Tanzania-Zambia railway was built in the 1970s.

The railway, built since 2004, will be linked with the Angola-Zambian railway and the Tanzania-Zambia railway in the future, according to the company.

Indonesia Doubling Transport Budget With $10 Billion Fuel Saving

Jakarta Globe, Sharon Chen,  Jan 05, 2015

Motorists ride their motorbikes between cars during rush hour on a main road
in Jakarta on Nov. 28, 2014. (EPA Photo/Mast Irham)

Jakarta. Indonesia will save about $10 billion from the biggest overhaul of its decades-old fuel subsidy system, allowing the government to double spending on transportation, agriculture and public works, the energy minister said.

The finance ministry estimates that at least 120 trillion rupiah ($10 billion) in savings will be made this year, and the number will increase in coming years, said Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Angie Lau on Monday.

“What happened is shifting the subsidy from consumption into more productive spending,” the minister said.

“Because of the policy this year 2015, the public works, the transportation sector and the agriculture will double the capital expenditure budget.”

President Joko Widodo scrapped the subsidy for gasoline on Jan. 1 and capped the amount of aid for diesel, joining India and Malaysia in taking advantage of plunging oil prices to wean their nations off government subsidized fuel. Indonesia had been subsidizing fuel since the first oil price shock in the 1970s and kept prices at less than $0.20 per liter until 2005, according to a World Bank report published in March.

The government plans to double spending on transportation from last year, according to Said. The budget for public works such as roads, housing and irrigation will be more than twice the original allocation and more money will be set aside for farmers and the agriculture sector, he said. Building infrastructure for the oil and gas industry and electricity will be part of the government’s focus this year, he said.

Dismantling the subsidy program is a political hot potato — protests accompanied past price increases and riots spurred by soaring living costs helped oust dictator Suharto in 1998.

“The challenge would be of course the response from the public, but I have confidence that if we communicate well, then they will understand” and in the longer term it is going to be a much better budget structure, the minister said.

Bloomberg