Sep
7
Early fixing of wheat support price sought: Rs1,000 per 40 kg bag
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The federal food ministry has sought prime minister’s intervention for timely fixing of wheat support price for 2008-09 crop and for checking unbridled smuggling of wheat and urea to neighbouring countries.
Faced with a threat of steep decline in wheat sowing area this year, the ministry has requested the prime minister to fix a minimum of Rs1,000 per 40 kg support price for the coming wheat crop later this month or in the first week of October, a top official of the food ministry told Dawn on Saturday.
The prime minister heads the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet which fixes the support and issue price of wheat.
Wheat sowing would start from October in arid areas of the country and the food ministry believes that only a justified wheat support price, that should not be less than the market price, could attract farmers to wheat sowing and enable Pakistan to achieve, or at least reach close to, the 24 million tons wheat production target for the next crop.
The ministry has also made it clear that last year’s support price of Rs625 per 40 kg may not be acceptable to farmers, and they may not be tempted or forced to sell their crop to the government at half of the market rate by imposing Section 144 or resorting to other legal and administrative measures.
The food ministry also informed the prime minister about reasons behind smuggling of wheat to Afghanistan, Iran, India and some central Asian states and how smuggling of food items from Pakistan has turned out to be a most lucrative business over the last one year.
The food ministry has also informed the prime minister about the growing trend of smuggling of Pakistan’s urea to neighbouring countries and even beyond that over the last few months.
The official said that paramilitary forces have miserably failed to prevent smuggling of wheat to Afghanistan and some other neighbouring countries due to around 43 per cent difference in the price of the commodity.
Urea price in Pakistan hovers around $180, while in the neighbouring countries the rate of the fertiliser has touched the figure of $800 per ton.
Pakistan produces 4.8 million tons of urea, while the country’s requirement is around 5.6 million, leaving a gap of 0.8 million tons in supply and demand which is met through imports.
The landed cost of imported wheat is between Rs1200 to Rs1400 per 40 kg, and if local farmers are not given support price according to market rates, they may switch over to rice and sun-flower sowing.
The ministry has also recommended that prices of agriculture inputs, including fertiliser and pesticides, should not be increased from the existing level.
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Sep
7
Saudi oil move seen crucial to price outlook
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The next Saudi Arabia’s move on its crude output strategy is eagerly awaited. With prices under pressure and calls from within Opec to have a close look at its current output practices, the Saudi stance on the issue remains crucial. The guessing game is hence on.
Riyadh meanwhile has kept its cards close to chest tactically avoiding any public position on the issue. The global energy fraternity thus remains on tenterhooks.
There is a growing feeling now that at Opec’s September 9 meeting in Vienna, Saudi Arabia may increasingly come under some pressure from within the Opec ranks to curtail its output so as to prevent any steep fall in crude prices.
Saudi Arabia has been underlining at the highest level its commitment, will and the ability to meet the growing needs of the market. At the Jeddah energy summit on June 22, the kingdom announced increasing output to 9.7 million barrels per day. The Saudi output was indeed considerably higher than its Opec quota.
As per Platts, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ 13 members boosted their collective crude oil production by 300,000 barrels per day (b/d) in July to average 32.77 million b/d over the month.
And as was anticipated, in the meantime, the global crude markets started to respond to the rising output, softening the markets considerably. Tropical Storm Gustav notwithstanding, and despite blips here and there, the markets have been comparatively softer.
The extra Saudi and the Opec oil and the visible demand contraction in some of the major global economies in the West have helped prices go down. As per recent reports, the demand in the US, the world’s largest consumer, fell 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) on the year in the first half of 2008, the steepest fall in 26 years.
Similarly, in the world’s third largest consuming country Japan, the domestic oil product demand fell to its lowest in 19 years for the month of July. Oil product sales fell 3.5 per cent from a year earlier to 16.17 million kilolitres (kl), or about 3.28 million barrels per day (bpd), the second month of year-on-year decline, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said late last week.
The drop has prompted Opec price hawks Iran and Venezuela to suggest a cut in supplies. However, not every one seems to be toeing the line. Although there are some within the cartel, who may be eager to maximise their return from black gold, there are others too within the cartel looking at things in a broader perspective.
However, there is an interesting twist to this argument. Even if no formal output cut is announced, there is some possibility that some of the leading Opec members, currently producing beyond their quotas, could stifle some of the increased output. That in itself would have some sobering impact on the current market trends, one cannot deny.
Opec’s current production remains much higher than its target, industry estimates say, leaving plenty of surpluses that could be quietly removed should prices or demand fall sharply.
In August, Opec was pumping almost 1 million bpd more than its target of 29.67 million bpd, according to Petrologistics, a consultant which tracks Opec supply.
However, this very debate about the optimal Opec output is closely tied to the issue of the price level that Opec would like to defend. Opec has officially never indicated what price level it would like to defend. There are some indications though that oil has yet to approach a level that would worry Opec.
There are indications that the cartel may not react to lower prices until they fell below $80. In an interview in July, the Saudi King Abdullah was quoted as saying he wanted to see lower prices, though at that stage he did not specify the desired level.
Yet he emphasised that the kingdom was “already unhappy” with the rising price when it was around $100.
And for sure, the price right now is still above $100. Hence there should be no warning bells in Opec capitals at the current levels. And if the above line of argument is to be believed, then the Opec may well refrain from making any formal cut in output. Let’s keep guessing. Opec too enjoys the scenario!
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Sep
7
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accused the west of acting provocatively in and around the black sea, where the United States is using warships to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia.
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Addressing state council meeting in Moscow, he said he has summoned meeting to discuss changes in Russia’s foreign and security policy after the conflict in Georgia. Russia has also accused the u.s. Of ferrying weapons to the Georgian military under the guise of the humanitarian mission and has threatened to inspect all supplies coming ashore.
Sep
7
World leaders have congratulated Asif Ali Zardari on his election as President of Pakistan
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They include U.S President Bush, British foreign Secretary David Miliband, European commission Chief Jose Manuel Barroso, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, and afghan President Hamid Karzai.
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Sep
7
Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairman Senator Asif Ali Zardari has been elected as President of Pakistan, winning an overwhelming majority of votes from the Electoral College in the presidential election.
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Senator Zardari secured 479 electoral votes, followed by PML-N candidate retired Justice Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui getting 153 votes. Mushahid Hussain Syed of Pakistan Muslim League got 43 electoral votes. President Elect Asif Ali Zardari thanked the parliamentarians of PPP and allied parties for supporting him in the Presidential election.
PML-N candidate Justice Saeed Uz Zaman Siddiqui conceded defeat and congratulated Asif Zardari on his victory. PML-Q candidate senator Mushahid Hussain Syed also congratulated Asif Ali Zardari on his election and hoped that being a symbol of federation, he would work for the unity of federation.
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Sep
7
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rehman has said PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s election as the president is the victory of not just PPP but the entire Pakistani nation.
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Talking to media outside the parliament house, she said a new era of democratic stability would dawn today. She said that balance of power between two pillars of the state - parliament and presidency was very necessary.
Sep
7
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said the election of Senator Asif Ali Zardari as President is a victory of democracy.
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Talking exclusively with PTV he said that the parliament has become sovereign after the completion of democratic transition with the presidential election. To a question he said there can be no democracy without opposition and we will take along all the opposition parties and continue the process of reconciliation initated by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed.
Sep
7
Election Commission has officially notified Asif Ali Zardari as winning candidate in Presidential election by securing 481 votes of Electoral College.
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According to official results announced by the commission, PML-N candidate Saeed Uz Zaman Siddique secured 153 votes and Mushahid Hussain Syed of PML-Q secured 44 votes. Source
Sep
7
President elect Asif Ali Zardari has vowed that the parliament will be the sovereign and the President will be subservient to it.
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He was speaking at an Iftar dinner hosted by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in Islamabad. In his remarks, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said the victory of Mr. Zardari would prove to be a source of strength to the federation. He said as symbol of federation, the PPP would continue to work for strengthening of the country.
Sep
3
A new artificial intelligence system allows a robotic helicopter to teach itself how to fly and even do challenging stunts, just by watching other helicopters perform the same maneuvers.
The result is an autonomous helicopter than can perform a complete airshow of complex tricks on its own, its inventors say.
The stunts are “by far the most difficult aerobatic maneuvers flown by any computer-controlled helicopter,” said Andrew Ng, a Stanford University professor directing the research of graduate students Pieter Abbeel, Adam Coates, Timothy Hunter and Morgan Quigley.
A new video demonstrates the robot’s capabilities.
Rather than using software to control flight, the robot learns by observing an expert in what the Stanford team calls “apprenticeship learning.” Radio-control pilot Garett Oku operates the 4-foot model helicopter that serves as the expert.
“Garett can pick up any helicopter, even ones he’s never seen, and go fly amazing aerobatics. So the question for us is always, why can’t computers do things like this?” Coates said.
Well, they can.
The artificial-intelligence helicopter, an off-the-shelf model other than its new brains, can do traveling flips, rolls, loops, stall-turns with pirouettes and more. It can even do the “tic toc,” in which the helicopter, while pointed straight up, hovers with a side-to-side motion as if it were the pendulum of an upside down clock.
“I think the range of maneuvers they can do is by far the largest” in the autonomous helicopter field, said Eric Feron, a Georgia Tech aeronautics and astronautics professor who worked on autonomous helicopters while at MIT. “But what’s more impressive is the technology that underlies this work. In a way, the machine teaches itself how to do this by watching an expert pilot fly. This is amazing.”
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