Technical training key to Yemen’s development

Abdul Hafez Noman  Abdul Hafez Noman, minister of Technical Education and Vocational Training.

Technical training key to Yemen’s development: Yemeni Minister

Faisal Darem, Al-Shorfa, Sanaa, 2013-05-01

Technical education and vocational training are the key to Yemen’s industrial development, said Abdul Hafez Noman, minister of technical education and vocational training.

For this reason, the ministry has initiated a number of projects to support this type of education, he said.

Al-Shorfa spoke with Noman at his Sanaa office, where he described current programmes and the ministry’s role in safeguarding youth from the influence of groups that seek to exploit them.

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Rafael Poch: entre Pekín y Berlín

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Portada del libro de Rafael Poch: La actualidad de China. Un mundo en crisis, una sociedad en gestación, Ed. Crítica, Barcelona 2009

Rafael Poch: “China, aunque suene fuerte, es de los países mejor gobernados del mundo”

Publicado por  / Jot Down, 24 de abril, 2013

La información internacional sufre dos grandes males. El más de lo mismo y el a ver quién la dice más gorda. Durante muchos años, Rafael Poch-de-Feliu (Barcelona, 1956), corresponsal internacional de La Vanguardia, ha destacado por trabajar en una línea opuesta a estos dos vicios. En sus crónicas, al menos, siempre hemos encontrado otro punto de vista. No el contrario a la propaganda, sencillamente una visión singular, distinta. Poch considera que el periodista no debe leer solo periódicos, sino que tiene que seguir publicaciones más académicas y libros. Se queja de que cada vez conoce más periodistas jóvenes que no leen. Él apuesta por complementar la información con fuentes alternativas de calidad, como profesores de universidad o sociólogos, dada la tendencia a la mentira y el engaño de las fuentes institucionales. El resultado de esta forma de trabajar está en las hemerotecas, pero también en sus libros sobre la URSS (Tres días de agostoTres preguntas sobre Rusia y La gran transición, que ha sido traducido al ruso y al chino), China (La actualidad de China, un mundo en crisis, una sociedad en gestación) y Alemania (La quinta Alemania, que aparecerá en mayo editado por Icaria). Obras didácticas, llenas de matices. Versiones de los hechos históricos, de la sociedad de estos países, nutridas con fuentes diversas que pueden ir del político al campesino, del periodista al activista. Ha sido corresponsal en Europa del Este, Moscú, Pekín y Berlín. En todos estos destinos fue y es testigo de las grandes transformaciones del mundo contemporáneo. Repasamos con él su trayectoria para que ofrezca una explicación de todo lo que ha investigado y narrado para sus lectores.

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Asia: Stronger Growth Ahead in 2013

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Asia: Stronger Growth Ahead in 2013

By Anthony Fensom, Pacific Money / The Diplomat, April 30, 2013

Asia is gearing up for stronger growth in 2013, with the latest forecasts from international financial institutions and even noodle sales adding to the upbeat trend.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the region will lead the global “three-speed recovery” by expanding at a solid pace of 5.7 percent in 2013, with “emerging Asia” registering faster at 7.2 percent.

The growth is seen as driven by robust domestic demand, helped by favorable labor market and financial conditions, with Chinese demand and Japan’s stimulus measures providing a much needed boost.

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China in Greenland

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Procedence: “Northern rare earth potential”, North of 56

China in Greenland: Way Beyond the Truth?

Beijing’s increasing interest in the Arctic has led to intense speculation – and now a warning from the central government

By Martin Breum, CaixinOnline, April 12, 2013

It was a startling remark. It was made during an otherwise ordinary press conference in Beijing by the spokeswoman from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , Hua Chunying, in the middle of March.

“I think that current discussions about China’s investment in Greenland have gone way beyond the truth,” she said.

Her remark was soon forgotten and only briefly reported in Denmark, the country that should be most concerned, but it carried an astonishing message: Many months of unprecedented international attention to China’s designs in Greenland may have been based on less-than-solid evidence.

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What’s behind the conflict on the Korean Peninsula?

panmunjom.si South Korean soldiers stand guard in fog at the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Korea (AFP Photo / Jung Yeon-Je)

What’s behind the conflict on the Korean Peninsula?

Alexei Fenenko, Valdai, April 19, 2013

This spring has been marked by an unprecedented escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula. The crisis began when North Korea launched the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite on December 12. The UN Security Council accused North Korea of conducting a covert ballistic missile test and imposed fresh sanctions on the country. North Korea responded by testing its third nuclear device: a roughly 5 kiloton bomb was detonated on February 12. On March 11, Pyongyang announced its withdrawal from the 1953 armistice agreement. On March 30, North Korean leaders declared that the country was entering a “state of war” with the South. While there is no imminent threat of armed conflict between the two Koreas, it is now much more likely than it was one and a half or two years ago.

The present situation differs from the “nuclear alarms” of 1994 and 2003. In those cases, it was the United States who threatened North Korea with air strikes on its nuclear facilities, whereas now the United States, as well as their allies in the region, Japan and South Korea, are reacting to Pyongyang. Our understanding of when a nuclear weapon could be used, formed in the second half of the 20th century, is less and less relevant in today’s political reality.

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