500 local Chinese lawmakers resign in fraud scandal

By AFP

HONG KONG: More than 500 municipal lawmakers in one Chinese province have stood down following an electoral fraud scandal, as Beijing ramps up its sweeping anti-corruption crackdown, state media reported on Saturday.

The 512 municipal officials in China’s central Hunan province resigned, were disqualified or dismissed after being caught taking bribes from 56 representatives of the provincial People’s Congress to elect them to their posts, Xinhua news agency said.

Municipal officials have the power to appoint representatives of their provincial assembly, the local rubber-stamp parliament, although the process does not constitute a fully free or open election.

Local authorities dismissed 56 representatives of the 763-strong Hunan People’s Congress for being “elected by bribery”, state television channel CCTV said on its Twitter account.

An initial investigation revealed that 110 million yuan ($18 million) was offered in bribes to lawmakers and staff in the province’s second city of Hengyang, state media reported, citing a Hunan government statement.

“The fraud, involving such a huge number of lawmakers and a large amount of money, is serious in nature and has a vile impact,” Xinhua quoted the statement as saying.

“This is a challenge to China’s system of people’s congresses, socialist democracy, law and Party discipline,” it said.

It named Tong Mingqian, the former Party chief of Hengyang, as being “directly responsible” for the election scandal.

President Xi Jinping has led a high-profile clampdown on China’s notoriously corrupt officialdom since taking power last year, promising to stamp out both high-level “tigers” and low-ranking “flies”, amid widespread anger over official corruption.

Read more » The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/500-local-Chinese-lawmakers-resign-in-fraud-scandal/articleshow/28058716.cms

American city Detroit files bankruptcy

Detroit files for bankruptcy protection

City losing residents as tax base shrinks

By The Associated Press

Once the very symbol of American industrial might, Detroit became the biggest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy Thursday, its finances ravaged and its neighbourhoods hollowed out by a long, slow decline in population and auto manufacturing.

The filing, which had been feared for months, put the city on an uncertain course that could mean laying off municipal employees, selling off assets, raising fees and scaling back basic services such as trash collection and snow plowing, which have already been slashed.

“Only one feasible path offers a way out,” Gov. Rick Snyder said in a letter approving the move.

Read more » CBC
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2013/07/18/detroit-bankruptcy.html

Karachi – Sindh at the End of the British Raj between 1942 and 1947

Sindh: Karachi as seen by a British soldier sometime between 1942 and 1947: lively street scenes, animals, buildings, life in the Karachi Cantonment, followed by the journey back towards Britain on a troop ship through the Suez Canal. A Movie recorded by British solider Stephen in 1942. The author of the film obviously developed a liking of Karachi – Sindh and its people. A few of the shots at the end of the film may be of Bombay/ Mumbai.

via – Globeistan –You Tube

Ban on women vendors in Lahore

Municipal officers differ on why a ban is desirable

LAHORE: Town municipal officers (TMOs) across Lahore continue to grapple with the idea of banning women as vendors in Sunday Bazaars as was announced by Ahad Cheema, the DCO, two weeks ago.

The actual implementation of the order, for which Cheema had not given a reason for, still seems distant. In the Sunday Bazaars set up at Ravi Town and Iqbal Town, among others, female vendors were seen selling as usual without any opposition by the local market committee representatives. ….

Read more : The Express Tribune