Exclusive: Solutions sought for lengthy Chinese stock halts (Reuters)

Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.
Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. securities industry is studying ways to avoid lengthy trading halts of U.S.-listed Chinese securities that have been suspected of accounting problems, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) said.

SIFMA, U.S. securities regulators and exchanges all held talks, according to a separate source, to deal with halts of shares that have stretched for several months while exchanges wait for delayed regulatory filings or resolutions to audit probes.

"I can confirm for you that SIFMA is exploring this issue and studying possible solutions," said SIFMA spokeswoman Katrina Cavali said.

Numerous U.S.-listed Chinese companies, many of which first listed on U.S. exchanges through reverse takeovers, have been hit with charges of accounting fraud. When companies respond to allegations, shares are often halted for weeks.

But the trading halts created a skid row of sorts of Chinese companies languishing on exchanges without trading for several months. There are currently more than a dozen such companies.

Investors in companies that have been halted have been unable to close out positions because trade halts have stretched for months. One Chinese company, NIVS IntelliMedia Technology Group, has been halted since March 24.

A source familiar with the discussions said some of the possible solutions discussed include matching outstanding long and short positions in the halted securities.

Normally, an individual company can have shares halted for a few hours so a company can disseminate news or the exchange can resolve a trading-related issue.

It was unclear whether a final decision had been made.

Shares of Chinese companies have been hit hard, with some losing most of their value, as a result of the allegations. The Canadian-listed Chinese forestry company Sino-Forest, which is down more than 90 percent since allegations were raised by a short-selling research firm.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Bangladesh moves to retain Islam as state religion (AP)

Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.
Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Bangladesh will retain Islam as the state religion in amendments the government is proposing to its constitution, a government minister said Tuesday.

A former military ruler declared Islam the state religion in 1988 by amending the charter, but it barely affected Bangladesh's secular legal system mainly based on British common law.

The government says the proposed changes won't affect the legal system. Inheritance and other family laws already are based on religion.

The decision was made late Monday at a Cabinet meeting, the minister told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

A special government committee prepared proposals for the amendment, and the government will send those proposals to the parliament for passing as a law.

Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan in 1971 with help from India through a bloody nine-month war.

The original constitution was installed by independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. After Rahman's assasination in a military coup in 1975, military rulers made a series of amendments to the charter.

Some see the government's latest action as a compromise by Hasina, who during her election campaign before December 2008 polls said she would restore the 1972 constitution if voted to power.

The original charter did not recognize any faith as a state religion, promised elimination of communalism and disfavored discrimination or persecution because of a person's faith.

The new proposals want to restore those provisions of secularism but keep Islam as state religion.

Monday's Cabinet meeting chaired by Hasina also endorsed equal status and equal rights for practicing other religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity, the minister said.

The Cabinet decided to keep the provision of state religion considering the national reality, the minister told AP.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has campaigned that Hasina's Awami League party is anti-Islamic. The country's main Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami and its hardline allies also brand Hasina's party as anti-Islamic.

Bangladesh has thousands of Islamic schools that advocate installation of Sharia laws, and a violent hardline group years ago bombed government buildings and courts demanding Sharia law. The government claims the group, Jumatul Mujahedin Bangladesh, was broken after its top leaders were hanged.

The government also proposed an amendment to cancel a constitutional provision that requires the government to hand over power at the end of its term to a nonpartisan administration. A former chief justice is usually chosen to head the three-month caretaker administration that conducts new elections.

The Supreme Court has ruled the provision in the 1996 constitution is undemocratic.

The next general elections is due in 2014, and opponents of Hasina say amending the consitution to remove that provision could lead to vote-rigging.

India postpones parliament amid fight on graft bill (AFP)

Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.
Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.

NEW DELHI (AFP) – India's government announced Tuesday that it would postpone the planned start of parliament next month, giving it more time to finalise a thorny new anti-corruption bill.

Pawan Kumar Bansal, the minister for parliamentary affairs, told reporters in the capital New Delhi that the new session would commence on August 1 instead of mid-July and "is likely to go up to 8th of September."

He declined to comment on the reasons behind the delay but dismissed speculation that the government was buying time to formulate a tricky new bill.

The government has struggled to draft the new anti-graft bill, known as the Lokpal bill, in consultation with civil society activists who are pushing for tougher provisions on an issue which has stirred widespread public anger.

The two sides have clashed over several areas, including proposals by the activists to make the prime minister, senior judges, and the country's top police agency accountable under the bill.

A string of corruption scandals has badly dented the image of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is expected to announce a cabinet reshuffle before the new parliament, Indian news reports said Tuesday.

In April, famous veteran anti-graft campaigner Anna Hazare forced the government to allow him and other activists to sit on the drafting committee for the new law after he went hunger strike for 98 hours.

India has a dismal record of bringing corrupt senior public officials to justice, with current laws requiring the government's approval before any sitting bureaucrat or minister can be prosecuted.

In six decades only one senior politician, Rao Shiv Bahadur Singh, has been convicted of graft and served a jail term -- for taking a bribe of 25,000 rupees ($557) back in 1949.

Other bills up for consideration in the next parliament include one aimed at preventing the bribery of foreign public officials, as well as the country's first legislation against child sex abuse.

Recent parliamentary business has been severely disrupted by arguments between parties in the ruling coalition and the opposition, leading to repeated adjournments.

In the final session of 2010, no legislation was passed after the opposition forced parliament to adjourn for 32 business days in a row.

The most recent session in February was devoted to clearing the national budget, but after the budget was passed, lawmakers disrupted parliament regularly.

US, Japan delay Okinawa base plan (AFP)

Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.
Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States and Japan acknowledged Tuesday that they would miss a 2014 deadline for a controversial shift of a US base in Okinawa, but stood firmly behind the plan in the face of opposition.

In a joint statement after top-level talks, the Pacific allies said that the relocation "will not meet the previous targeted date of 2014" but renewed their commitment to complete the project "at the earliest possible date."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meeting with their Japanese counterparts, also reconfirmed plans to move 8,000 Marines and some 9,000 dependents from Okinawa to the US territory of Guam.

Under the 2006 plan between the two governments, the United States planned to shut the flashpoint Futenma base in Okinawa which has long been a source of grievance as it lies in a crowded urban area.

But a number of activists on Okinawa demanded that the base be removed entirely from the island, the often reluctant host to half of the 47,000 US troops based in Japan under a post-World War II treaty.

Three US senators recently moved to force the Pentagon to consider a new option, saying that the current plan is too costly and politically unrealistic as Japan grapples with the aftermath of its massive earthquake.

Tata Group overtakes Reliance as India's wealthiest (AFP)

Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.
Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.

MUMBAI (AFP) – India's leading conglomerate Tata Group has become the country's wealthiest in terms of market capitalisation, beating the combined wealth of the two Ambani brothers, stock exchange data showed Tuesday.

The salt-to-steel Tata Group, led by chairman Ratan Tata, was worth 4.32 trillion rupees ($96 billion) -- the highest for any Indian corporate group. The combined value of the two Reliance groups was 3.46 trillion rupees.

Tata and Reliance officials declined to comment on or confirm the data, which is based on an analysis of volume and prices of shares in both the groups' listed companies on Indian exchanges.

Tata Group subsidiaries have reported improved earnings in recent years, which has seen the companies value increase, analysts said.

They include Tata Motors and its British luxury car brands Jaguar Land Rover, the world's seventh largest steel maker Tata Steel and its unit Corus, which have all turned profitable after the global slowdown.

Other units that have added market wealth in the past year include India's largest outsourcer TCS. Group firms Titan Industries, which makes watches, Tata Coffee, Tata Chemicals and agri-business outfit Rallis have also grown.

In contrast, Reliance Industries -- the highest weighted stock on the benchmark Sensex index at the Bombay Stock Exchange -- has been sluggish for over a year, mainly on concerns over output at its main gas fields.

"Investors are jittery over negative news linked to Reliance stocks, which has pulled stocks down," said a dealer with a securities firm from a development bank, who asked to remain anonymous.

Mukesh and younger brother Anil Ambani, who runs the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, last year ended a bitter and public feud over the spoils of their late father's vast business empire.

The elder Ambani, who handles oil and gas and petrochemicals, is India's richest man, with a fortune estimated at $27 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

The younger Ambani, who deals with telecoms, financial services and utilities, is the eighth richest, with a wealth of $8.8 billion.

The reclusive Ratan Tata is not on the Forbes billionaire list but is listed 61st amongst the world's most powerful people.

Anil Ambani has seen fortunes of his firms dip since he and other group officials met investigators probing a multi-billion-dollar telecom licence fraud that has badly shaken India's government.

Some local brokerages have downgraded the Reliance Industries stock, fearing that gas output from the KG D6 basin off India's east coast may not rise sharply in coming months.

Two of Anil Ambani's firms, flagship Reliance Communications and subsidiary Reliance Infrastructure have slipped after news last week that these stocks would be removed from the benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Aftershock rattles quake-damaged New Zealand city (AP)

Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.
Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A moderate aftershock has shaken the quake-devastated city of Christchurch in New Zealand.

The Christchurch Press says the main jolt late Tuesday night was widely felt but no major damage was reported. It says power was out in parts of the city and four flights were diverted to Auckland while the Christchurch airport's runway was checked for damage.

The Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences says the quake registered magnitude 5.3 while the U.S. Geological Survey measured it at 5.1. It was only 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) below the surface and centered about 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) southeast of Christchurch.

Thousands of aftershocks have followed the magnitude-6.3 quake in February that killed 181 people and devastated the city's downtown.

Obama set to give Afghan speech Wednesday evening (Reuters)

Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.
Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'TranslatorService.LanguageService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will deliver a speech on Wednesday evening on his plan to pull back U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the White House said on Tuesday.

"At 8 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 22nd, the President will address the nation from the White House to lay out his plan for implementing his strategy -- first unveiled in December 2009 -- to draw down American troops from Afghanistan," the White House said in a statement.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Editing by Will Dunham)