Financial Japan stimulus to inject $60bn into flagging economy

Japan stimulus to inject $60bn into flagging economy
The Japanese cabinet has approved a plan to pump more than $60bn (£38bn) into the country's struggling economy.

The Japanese prime minister faces seemingly unsolvable economic problems
The aim of the plan - which still needs approval from parliament - is to boost growth, jobs and spending.

The Japanese economy is suffering from deflation and a strong currency; prices keep falling, but consumers hold off spending in hope of lower prices.

Analysts said the key problem is that the yen is at a 15-year high, making exports more expensive.

Earlier this week, the Bank of Japan set interest rates at just above zero.

Japan's Nikkei newspaper said the plan could boost GDP growth by up to 0.6% and help to save jobs.

Yen dollar doldrums
An extra budget is needed from parliament to fund the stimulus plan. This is expected to be submitted to parliament for debate later this month.

A previous stimulus package, announced last month, was intended to create about 200,000 jobs and shift GDP into positive territory, but was criticised as not going far enough.

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At the heart of Japan's woes is the strong yen, which has gained almost 50% in value against the dollar since mid-2007.

Japan has been stuck for the last 20 years in what economists call a "liquidity trap" - falling prices, interest rates stuck at zero, but savings rates remaining stubbornly high.

Much of the recent yen strength is actually to do with dollar weakness - the US has also cut rates virtually to zero and faces the risk of sinking into a liquidity trap just like Japan.

Despite the additional spending measures in the supplementary budget, Mr Kan has made clear that Japan must cut its budget deficit in the medium term.

Japanese government debt has risen to about twice the size of its economy during the last two decades of poor growth.
Coppied by http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11498607

Watch this Muslims 'being turned into terrorists in jail'

Muslims 'being turned into terrorists in jail'

Influential and behind bars: Abu Hamza, Ahmed Abdullah, Abdullah el-Faisal and Muktar Said Ibrahim
Britain faces a "new wave" of home-grown terrorist attacks led by up to 800 Muslim ex-prisoners who have been radicalised by jihadists while serving their sentences, a think-tank has warned.

Large-scale and co-ordinated attacks such as the 7 July bombings are likely to be replaced with terrorist assaults by highly motivated but poorly trained lone individuals whose lack of connection with any major terrorist organisation will make them more difficult for police or MI5 to detect.

A study published in the journal of the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) warns that one of the key threats from this next generation of terrorists comes from within the ranks of the 8,000 Muslims currently serving prison terms who are at risk of being converted to extremism by hardcore inmates jailed for terrorist offences.

The report cites estimates by prison probation officers that up to one in 10 Muslim inmates are being successfully targeted while inside jail, leading to the creation of a new generation of potential attackers who are due for release in the next decade and whose previous convictions do not relate to terrorism.

All major sporting events such as this year's Commonwealth Games in India and 2012 Olympics in London should be considered as possible targets for this new generation of "lone killers" who have been radicalised by preachers in the hope that eventually at least one of their number will be successful.

Michael Clarke, director of Rusi and co-author of the study, said: "Perhaps some 800 potentially violent radicals, not previously guilty of terrorism charges, will be back in society over the coming five to ten years... The natural reaction to improved counter-terrorist operations is for jihadist attacks to evolve towards more individual efforts."

The report suggests that radicalisation is taking place in British prisons at a rapid rate, especially in the eight high-security establishments where most terrorism offenders are detained.

Abu Hamza, the former night-club bouncer who became a figurehead for radical Islam in Britain before being jailed for seven years for soliciting murder, is held in a special unit at Belmarsh Prison in south-east London partly to minimise the risk that he will indoctrinate other inmates.

The Rusi study said the evolution of the threat posed by Islamist groups away from highly organised attacks with a recognisable leader to unsupported individuals was already apparent in America, where the recent attempt by the Pakistani America Faisal Shahzad to carry out a car bombing in Times Square in New York showed a new reliance on untrained but radicalised attackers.

The Ministry of Justice said it did not agree that radicalisation was widespread within the prison system. A spokesman said: "We run a dedicated expert unit to tackle the risk posed by those offenders with violent extremist views and those who may attempt to improperly influence others."

Influential and behind bars

Abu Hamza

The former preacher at London's Finsbury Park mosque was jailed for terrorism offences in 2006 and remains on remand in the high-security unit of Belmarsh prison, where he is isolated from other prisoners.

Abdullah el-Faisal

The Jamaican-born preacher, born Trevor Forest, was jailed in 2003 for stirring up racial hatred. A number of convicted terrorists, including the shoe bomber Richard Reid and the 9/11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, attended his sermons. He was deported from Britain in 2007.

Ahmed Abdullah Ali

The leader of the 2006 plot to blow up airliners with liquid bombs is serving a 40-year sentence after being convicted of helping to recruit and train fellow jihadists, persuading them to record suicide videos and prepare for martyrdom.

Muktar Said Ibrahim

The "emir" of the failed attacks on the London transport network on 21 July 2005 attended the Finsbury Park mosque and was found with recordings of preaching by El-Faisal. Ibrahim helped to recruit his co-conspirators for the botched attack. He is serving a 40-year sentence.
Coppied by http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/muslims-being-turned-into-terrorists-in-jail-2063313.html

Watches this Asia flooding plunges millions into misery

Watched being enjoy this Asia flooding plunges millions into misery
BEIJING – Floods and landslides across Asia plunged millions into misery Sunday as rubble-strewn waters killed at least 127 in northwestern China and 4 million Pakistanis faced food shortages amid their country's worst-ever flooding.
In Indian-controlled Kashmir, rescuers raced to find 500 people still missing in flash floods that have already killed 132, while North Korea's state media said high waters had destroyed thousands of homes and damaged crops.
Terrified residents fled to high ground or upper stories of apartment buildings in China's Gansu province after a debris-blocked river overflowed during the night, smashing buildings and overturning cars. An estimated 2,000 more people were missing in the latest deluge in a summer that has seen China's worst seasonal flooding in a decade.
Worst hit was the county seat of Zhouqu in the province's Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where houses buckled and streets were smeared with a yard (meter) of mud and water.
The landslides struck after heavy rains lashed China late Saturday, causing the Bailong River to burst its banks, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted the head of Zhouqu county, Diemujiangteng, as saying.
The devastation was worsened by flotsam that blocked the river upstream, creating a 2-mile (3-kilometer) -long lake that overflowed and sent waves of mud, rocks and water crashing down on the town, ripping houses from their foundations and tearing six-story apartment buildings in half.
Explosives experts were flying to the scene by helicopter to demolish the blockage and safely release potential flood waters ahead of more rain forecast through Wednesday.
China Central Television said 45,000 people had been evacuated, but the region's remote, mountainous location was hampering the emergency response. Narrow roads prevented the movement of heavy equipment, forcing rescuers to rely on shovels, picks and buckets.
Around China, the country's worst flooding in a decade has killed more than 1,100 people this year, with more than 600 still missing. The floods have caused tens of billions of dollars in damage across 28 provinces and regions.
In Pakistan, 1,500 people have been killed and millions more left begging for help following the worst floods in the country's history. Prices of fruit and vegetable skyrocketed Sunday, with more than 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) of crops destroyed and at least 4 million people in need of food assistance in the coming months.
Pakistan has worked with international partners to rescue more than 100,000 people and provide food and shelter to thousands more. But the government has struggled to cope with the scale of a disaster that it estimates has affected 13 million people and could get worse as heavy rains lashed Pakistan again on Sunday.
At least 1.4 million acres (570,000 hectares) of crops were destroyed in the central province of Punjab, the breadbasket for the rest of Pakistan, the United Nations reported. Many more crops were devastated in the northwest, where destruction from the floods has been most severe and many residents are still trying to recover from intense battles between the Taliban and the army last year.

Coppied by http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100808/ap_on_re_as/as_asia_floods;_ylt=AgxqOF1A8347h6eWRNGk1yWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJmNGU1Z2drBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwODA4L2FzX2FzaWFfZmxvb2RzBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDNQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNhc2lhZmxvb2Rpbmc-