Terrorism and militancy are being fanned to destabilise the economy of the country which is at the threshold of a double digit growth, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said.

He said hostile forces seek to undermine the security and stability of our nation.

“Even while they (hostile forces) challenge our borders and our boundaries, they make attempts to destabilize our economy. Terrorism and militancy are being fanned to hinder the growth of our country,” Chidambaram said in his address at the CISF Raising Day Parade here.

He said since the 1980’s, India has emerged as one of the most happening economies of the world. “The past decade has seen good growth and our economy is on the threshold of a double digit growth,” Chidambaram said.

He said the country’s growth depends on infrastructure and the CISF, which guards some of the most critical installations, is securing India’s future.

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A North Korean democracy fighter here found a striking difference before and after the currency reform in the North through phone conversations with citizens carrying out the clandestine mission of reporting what’s going on there.

Seo Jae-pyong, a North Korean refugee working for bringing democracy to the secretive nation, predicted simmering public anger in the wake of the failed reform, along with the residents’ awareness of the outside world, would have an effect on change there in the future .

“Previously, they used to be upset at us when our activists at North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity (NKIS) called their leader simply Kim Jong-il without using his official position there,” he said.

Seo, secretary general of the NKIS, and others were advised to call the North Korean leader “Mr. General.”

After being elected as chairman of the North’s National Defense Commission, Kim was re-elected in 1998, 2003 and 2009.

“When we pick up the phone recently, these freelance correspondents were irritated as the pain they had to deal with has grown since the currency reform. They began conversations by pouring out harsh words against Kim,” Seo said in an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul last Wednesday.

NKIS has run a news outlet service based on mobile phone conversations with the secret correspondents since 2008 to raise awareness of the reclusive nation.

Meanwhile, The Daily NK reports that a leading North Korea watcher, Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul, has issued a stern warning on North Korea to the international community. “We are heading towards serious changes,” he believes, “and unfortunately nobody seems prepared.”

Lankov, like everyone else, is unable to decisively conclude why the North Korean government has suddenly started making “such weird and self-defeating policy decisions,” but he does assert that Kim Jong Il’s clear frailty is probably a factor, one which not only influences his own policy decisions, but also allows for a “growing rivalry between factions,” meaning that the North Korean leadership may be becoming disunited, with “rival groups pushing through their own agendas.”

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Burglary, murder and other crimes have increased in North Korea in the wake of the failed currency revaluation last November, an online news outlet run by North Korean refugees told The Korea Times on Wednesday.

The report came out after Won Sei-hun, director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), said last week that despite the internal trouble following the currency reform, the Communist country is still under control. He ruled out the possibility of a coup in the North.

The North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity (NKIS) reported that a North Korean was shot dead in a fight after he, along with several other hungry residents, attempted to loot food items by jumping on a train in North Hamgyeong Province.

The train shipping imported foods from China was passing through the region. The province shares a border with the northeastern part of China.

“A man, who was identified only as Jung, died during a physical fight with security forces,” the report said.

The NKIS Web site provides stories about what’s happening in the isolated state based on reports from secret stringers living in large North Korean cities.

The North Korean freelance reporters send their stories to the organization’s staff based in Seoul by cell phone on a regular basis, an activist of the organization told The Korea Times, asking not to be named.

She declined to give details on the secret reporters, such as the number of stringers and what cities they are based in.

The NKIS said residents in North Hamgyeong Province have been living in horror as several burglary and murder cases have been reported since last month.

Crime has risen in the North after the failed currency reform led ordinary people to face an even worsened economic reality. After the revaluation, prices soared, and it was harder for people to make ends meet.

China’s operational high-speed railways have exceeded 3,300 kilometers, leading the world in both length and technologies, the Ministry of Railways said on its official website Thursday.

Last year China finished two high-speed railways between Wuhan-Guangzhou and Zhengzhou-Xi’an, with an operating speed of 350 km/h. Before that, China had built high-speed railways between some of its major cities, including Beijing-Tianjin, Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan, Qingdao-Jinan, Hefei-Wuhan and Hefei-Nanjing.

A number of new high-speed railways are being built and will be finished in the coming few years, of which the Beijing-Shanghai line has a length of 1,318 km and a designed travel speed of 350 km/h. Construction of the line started in April 2008 and would finish in around five years. It would cut travel times between the two cities to only five hours from about 12 hours.

China’s railway links had expanded to 86,000 kilometers by the end of 2009, the world’s second longest only after the United States.

Railway passengers topped a record 1.53 billion last year. Cargo transportation hit 3.32 billion tonnes, according to the ministry.

Railway investment surged 80 percent to 600 billion yuan in 2009 boosted by the 4-trillion yuan stimulus package. The government has planned a record 823.5 billion yuan for 2010 to extend the network to 90,000 kilometers by the end of this year.

Read the full story here.

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Indian external affairs minister S.M. Krishna has reiterated that the Sri Lankan government should empower the Tamil-speaking people through a political process, reports Colombo Today.

By that, the government should open a new chapter in the country’s history, he has told the media in Chennai.

According to PTI, Mr. Krishna has said that India was for the implementation of the 13th amendment to the constitution conferring equal rights to people.

Asked if India sought to play a key role in Lankan affairs, he said New Delhi would “assist the friendly power in whatever manner possible.”

On Tuesday, the Dutch government announced that it is considering an extension of the current deployment in Afghanistan, which is scheduled to end this year. Nato has filed an official request for this extension. The government said sending instructors for the Afghan armed forces, military or police would be a possibility.

The British Nato general, Simon Levey, offered this option in an interview with the Dutch daily, De Volkskrant, published last Saturday. Instructors are desperately needed all over Afghanistan, not just in Uruzgan, where the Dutch are now based. The international coalition involved in Afghanistan is aiming to increase the number of Afghan soldiers from the current 100,000 to 134,000 by next October. The Dutch governing coalition seems in favour of transforming the current deployment into a training mission, but that does not mean an agreement has already been finalised.

In a radio debate with other political leaders, Mariëtte Hamer, the chair of the Dutch Labour party in parliament, called a training mission an “interesting option”, but she emphasised that she was opposed to a new “combat mission”.

However, for the most part, Afghan security forces are not trained in safe classrooms. This would be pointless, since nine out of ten Afghan soldiers cannot read or write. An Afghan soldier learns his trade during patrols and operations, under the watchful eye of the Dutch Operational Mentor and Liaison Team. They patrol Afghanistan’s valleys side by side with their local recruits, joining them in battle wherever necessary. This is why mainly experienced soldiers, such as marines, are deployed as military instructors. There is no line in the sand separating training duty from combat.

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Police claimed on Monday to have arrested six suspected terrorists, including a would-be suicide bomber, and seized 26 hand-grenades, a suicide jacket and five detonators.

Officials of a secret agency and a police team headed by a DSP of the Anti-Terrorism Squad of Crimes Investigation Agency captured the ringleader of the group, Abdul Baseer alias Qari Waqas, and Mohiuddin alias Saifullah, Abdul Rehman Ghani, Sakhi Shah, Tehsil Khan and Dilawar Saeed from a place near Shahdara Chowk on the GT Road. Police also recovered explosives, a car and a motorcycle.

During interrogation, the suspects revealed that they had planned to target Americans staying in a five-star hotel on The Mall.

SSP (Investigation) Zulfikar Hameed said at a press conference that the suspects belonged to the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.

He said Qari Baseer, who was a prayer leader in a mosque in Jamrud, Khyber Agency, was associated with an Afghan militant group led by Commander Nazir. He took part in the war against Nato forces in Afghanistan and was an expert in manufacturing suicide jackets and explosives, he added.

Read more here.

Hanoi Vietnam.

2 flights and 20 plus hours of traveling.

I’m a long way from New York City but it’s a warm late December morning in North Vietnam, and I’m just fine with that. I’m a little confused about the time change… Can it really be that I haven’t eaten for 2 days??!  Not sure, but I am hungry and that’s not up for debate.

This is not a travel piece, and I am not a travel writer. I am a culinary student and I’m in Vietnam. And I packed light. All I brought was my camera and my appetite.

This was my first meal in Vietnam. Cha ca fish. I was starving and would have eaten just about anything at this point, except cottage cheese – can’t stand the stuff. That said I enjoyed meal but little did I know that I would find this fish just around about any corner in Vietnam.

The ubiquitous Cha ca fish- part catfish, part bass. It’s a firm, round white-fleshed fish, that tastes just a little bit tough and fishy. The consensus at the end of the meal was that fresh herbs, greens and toasted peanuts were the winners.

I was pleasantly surprised when I found the same fresh herbs (basil, thai basil and coriander) accompanying my next meal (which was about an hour later).

Bun Cha (above) is my personal favorite.

It’s something I could eat at any meal of the day or, for that matter, every meal of the day. Bun Cha is a luke warm fish broth with cold rice noodles served with fat bits of meat (either pork or beef or other) or sometimes fried egg rolls, garnished with fresh herbs, soy beans, toasted peanuts and finished with chili sauce. If you are particularly fortunate, your Bun Cha will be served with a cold local beer called Bia Hoi and prepared by the lady seen above.

Bun Cha is an anomaly. A hearty, savory dish that is both unctuous and refreshing. Maybe this is because it is a fish soup served neither hot nor chilled, but at room temperature. One would think: Its definitely a fish soup, isn’t it? But the trick is, while it has a fish broth and fish sauce, the floating bits of protein in the broth are beef.

A better way to think about Bun Cha may be as a wet salad as opposed to a tepid soup. The raw greens, cold noodles, and cold meat are reminiscent of an Asian beef salad, something about as common as a rat in the subway, and in my opinion not much more appealing. But don’t get me wrong, Bun Cha – I’m a big fan of yours. The difference is the fish sauce. Vietnamese fish sauce come in two versions: non-fermented and fermented. Both are sweet and tangy but the latter has a smell similar to a men’s locker room.

After 48 hours in Hanoi, I hit Halong Bay. It’s beautiful. It should be one of the 7 wonders of the world. But it’s not, so there is a huge promotional campaign to have it included in the “next” 7 wonders of the world. I hope it works out.

Halong Bay has over 2000 limestone hills that seemingly just pop out of the water. It’s incredible. If you want to hear more about it, see pictures in a Lonely Planet guide or something…

Within these 2000 or so islands there are fully functioning communities, complete with their own stores, markets, even bars.

I decided to stop by one of these villages to pick-up some food for a simple lunch of fresh local fish. Who am I kidding? That was never going to happen. Things got out of hand pretty quickly and I had a full-on shellfish orgy on my hands.,

Here are a couple “before” pictures from lunch- a big-ass octopus and crayfish-looking shrimp straight from the bay.

Lunch wasn’t bad. The shrimp were steamed in vinegar and green onions and the octopus was steamed as well but in beer and red chillies. Both were served with fish sauce, but fortunately it was of the non-fermented variety. Otherwise lunch would have smelled like a wet gym-sock.

On the left is the octopus steamed in beer and chillies accompanied by the fish sauce. On the right are 2 different types of crabs that were pulled out of the bay less then an hour before they ended up on this plate and then in my belly.

On the left: the fish-monger called it a carp. But I knew better, once again the ubiquitous cha ca fish, this time fried and stuffed with tomatoes, peppers, and onions. As for the photo on the right, like I said: I enjoyed myself. Let’s leave it at that.

From Halong Bay it was time to head south and hit Saigon, the largest city in the country for a day visit.

Saigon is a big city with lots of motorbikes. About 4 million of them, so the air quality was not great, but the city more than made up for that with its gastronomic offerings. While in Saigon I ate everywhere from the gnarly (and I mean it in both the good and the bad ways) stalls in the markets (below [fish stand, roast pork, and random parts] yum) to a classic French restaurant where I was able to enjoy a traditional 5 course lunch of smoked salmon, foie gras, truffles, maigret de canard, and venison. The chef was from Nice and didn’t speak any English or Vietnamese. I may have been in Vietnam but in his house it was France, France and more France.

I enjoyed my classic French meal rich with the flavor of nostalgia, for what now feels like an ancient colonialism. The lesson I took away from this meal was that imperialism, like most other things French, tastes better in France.

During my brief stay in Vietnam I also had the chance to try some of what the hotel concierge called the “new Vietnamese haute cuisine.” It was good; I enjoyed it. But it was basically just better quality versions of the staples such as spring rolls, seafood pancakes, and the like. I really enjoyed this meal and I am going to choose not to be critical. Why? South Vietnam as we know it today is basically a completely new country. It was entirely destroyed less then 50 years ago and has only been open to trade with the United States since the mid-1990s.

I say give it time. With the quality of produce that is available in Vietnam and the ever-increasing influx of western cultural influences, there is a bright future for high-end Vietnamese cuisine.

That said the most memorable thing I ate in Saigon was Pho (below).

Pho is a large noodle soup served hot with beef or pork, and clear rice noodles, in a broth of unknown or secret origin. Like Bun Cha (and Cao La in some parts) the Pho is also topped with fresh herbs and served with fish sauce and chili sauce.

My final thoughts on Vietnam; I came in with high expectations and was a little disappointed to find that the cuisine did not vary regionally as much as I had anticipated.

But I arrived hungry and left full so the food couldn’t have been that bad.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tuesday said the hydra-headed menace of terrorism was our common enemy and no one country could battle it out alone.

He termed the Friends of Democratic Pakistan “a collective determination against an evil mindset” and urged the international community to address root causes of terrorism such as poverty and unemployment.

The foreign minister was addressing the Friends of Democratic Pakistan’s Public-Private Partnership Conference in Dubai.

He said the three-year plan of reconstruction and rehabilitation in Malakand comprised close to 500 projects and would cost about $ 300 million.

The five year development plan, based on Post-crisis Needs Assessment, would cost around $1.2 billion, and the FoDP must expedite its process to complete these projects, the minister said.

Pakistan has suffered huge economic losses of over $35 billion since September 11 in terms of infrastructure, investment and exports, Qureshi said.

Read more here.