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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Thursday that the results of the Group of 20 (G20) London summit will shorten the current recession.

“There are no quick fixes but with our six pledges today we can shorten the recession and we can save jobs,” Brown said at a press conference after G20 leaders concluded their one-day summit.

“This is the day that the world came together to fight back against the global recession not with words but with a plan for global recovery,” Brown told reporters.

“Today we have reached a new consensus, to deal with the problems we face, [and] do what is necessary to restore growth and jobs,” Brown said after the four hour summit.

He laid out the agreements that had been made by the G20leaders and he made clear that the proposals set forward were an attempt to rewrite the rules of capitalism.

In a move that would have pleased French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, he announced measures to deal with what he called the shadow banking system.

“We have agreed there will be an end to tax havens that do not transfer information on request,” Brown said, and insisted that “The banking secrecy of the past must come to an end.”

He said there had also been agreement to impose tough standards and sanctions for those who did not comply. This was all part of a plan to encourage corporate responsibility throughout the globe. In his much repeated phrase, he said that the global problems required global solutions, but said that the G20 leaders were committed to solving the crisis.

He said that international accounting standards would have to be set and that there would need to be tighter regulation with regards hedge funds and tax havens.

“We will implement new rules on pay and bonuses at a global level that reflect actual performance with no more rewards for failure,” Brown added.

“We will clean up the banks so that they increase lending to families and businesses. And to enable this we have agreed for the first time, a common global approach to how we deal with impaired or toxic assets,” he said.

There were also proposals to spend huge amounts of money. “We are in the middle of an unprecedented fiscal expansion which will by the end of next year amount to an injection of five trillion dollars into our economies,” Brown said. It was necessary, he insisted and said it would save and create millions of jobs.

Brown went on to announce further injections of cash. “We have also agreed today additional resources of one trillion dollars that are available to the world economy through the International Monetary Fund and other institutions,” he said.

“This is available to all IMF members and at the same time we will treble resources of the International Monetary Fund itself with up to an additional 500 billion dollars,” he said.

“Together, these actions give us confidence that the global economy can return to trend growth even faster than the International Monetary Fund is predicting,” he said.

“We will ask the international institutions to strengthen their independent surveillance of the world economy, and to promote growth

and the reduction of poverty,” he said.

“We have agreed that the mandates of these institutions that were created in 1945 must now be reformed to make them more accountable, more representative and more effective, ” he said.

“And this includes giving emerging markets and developing countries a greater voice and greater representation. And we will also enable that the heads and senior staff of these institutions are appointed on merit,” he added.

Chinese equities ended 0.35 percent higher Wednesday, continuing the upward trend for the fifth consecutive trading day, and hitting a new high since early August last year.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index finished the day at 2,536.06 points, up 8.88 points or 0.35 percent, from the previous close.

The Shenzhen Component Index went up 0.48 percent, or 46.4 points, to close at 9,724.58.

Gains outnumbered losses by 524 to 320 in Shanghai and 468 to 260 in Shenzhen.

Combined turnover expanded to 268.93 billion yuan (39.35 billion U.S. dollars) Wednesday from 252.32 billion yuan on the previous trading day.

The Shanghai Composite Index opened 0.5 percent lower at 2514.59 points, echoing the overnight Wall Street losses. Dealers said investors were confident as some economic recovery signs had emerged.

The Shanghai Composite Index has gained more than 37 percent from the beginning of this year.

Coal shares rose across the board on expectation of coal price rise. Datong Coal Industry Co., Ltd. surged 6.19 percent to 26.94 yuan, while Yanzhou Coal Mining Co., Ltd. jumped 4.8 percent to 16.59 yuan.

China Southern Airlines, the country’s leading carrier, lost 1.75 percent to 6.17 yuan as it announced Wednesday that it lost 4.83 billion yuan in 2008 on high fuel costs, sluggish traffic business and several natural disasters. The figure was worse than market expectation, dealers said.

China Life lost 1.93 percent to 24.9 yuan after the country’s leading insurer reported Tuesday night that its first-quarter premium income reached 104 billion yuan, only 1.8 billion higher from a year ago.

The author of Harry Potter, JK Rowling, has donated 1 million pounds (about 2 million U.S. dollars) to the British Labour Party, BBC reported on Saturday.

BBC quoted Prime Minister Gordon Brown as saying that he was delighted to have the backing of “one of the world’s greatest ever authors.”

Rowling said she was motivated by Labour’s record on child poverty and opposed a Conservative plan to give tax breaks to married couples.

In a statement, Rowling said “I believe that poor and vulnerable families will fare much better under the Labour Party than they would under a Cameron-led Conservative Party.”

“The Labour government has reversed the long-term trend in child poverty, and is one of the leading EU countries in combating child poverty,” she said.

Her donation will boost Gordon Brown as he tries to calm unrest among party members at Labour’s annual conference in Manchester this weekend.

Rowling, whose fortune was estimated at 560 million pounds in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, is known to be a personal friend of Brown and his wife Sarah.

Rowling wrote the first of her best-selling books about boy wizard Harry Potter while an impoverished single mother. She split from her first husband shortly after their daughter was born in 1993.

She wrote much of her first Harry Potter book in an Edinburgh cafe, where she found it easier to work than at her “grotty and depressing” council home.

Recognizing she was a poor single parent, the cafe owner would let Rowling nurse an espresso and water all day as she worked with her daughter sleeping beside her in a pram.

Bangladesh’s new national Parliament began its journey on Sunday.

The Parliament, ninth in the series since the country’s independence in 1971, was elected through Dec. 29 general elections.

The last parliament was dissolved in October 2006 and the election was slated for Jan. 22, 2007. But serious political clashes between two major parties — Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led to the postponement of the election and promulgation of the state of emergency.

Awami League President Sheikh Hasina was elected Leader of the Parliament and became prime minister as her party won landslide victory in the election on Dec. 29 securing 230 seats out of 300 in Parliament.

Her rival BNP led by chairperson Khaleda Zia, who was immediate past prime minister, suffered a miserable defeat bagging only 30 seats. Khaleda is now the Leader of the Opposition in present Parliament.

The Parliament Sunday elected Abdul Hamid as new Speaker and Shawkat Ali as Deputy Speaker.

The present session of parliament will also elect 45 women MPs from reserved seats and elect a new president since incumbent President Professor Iajuddin Ahmed already completed his 5-year term.

A top UN official on Wednesday called on governments to take proper steps to ensure that economic progress contributes to social progress and inclusion.

Addressing the 47th session of the UN Commission for Social Development, Sha Zukang, UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs, said that markets on their own can not deliver economic prosperity, social inclusiveness and justice for all.

Governments have a very important role to play in creating an enabling environment for markets and the private sector, he said.

Governments must also ensure that economic progress contribute to social progress and inclusion, he said.

Social exclusion persisted because of entrenched prejudice, including gender-based discrimination, racism and discrimination in terms of access to employment and education, he said.

The international community must bring the gap between legal provisions and enforcements, he said. “There is an urgent need to implement effective anti-discrimination policies in order to ensure protection for all vulnerable social groups.”

Social integration creates the enabling political and social environment that enables societies to achieve national development and meet the internationally agreed international development goals, he said.

However, social integration still does not receive the attention it deserves on the development agenda, he said.

The challenges ahead are all the more urgent due to the negative impact of the current global crises on social development and social integration, he said, adding that many people, especially in the poorest and most vulnerable communities, are struggling to survive.

Many lost their jobs and were unable to pay for food, shelter, health care and school for their children, he noted, adding that such harsh circumstances have created fertile ground for conflict and instability, as seen in the recent food crisis which has brought violence and food riots to many developing countries.

“Tough economic times have reduced the ability of people to help others, as well as their support for inclusive social policies,” he said. “Such trends can have an adverse impact on social integration.”

The UN Commission for Social Development on Wednesday open a 10-day meeting to discuss the social impact of the global crises, including the economic meltdown and the food crisis.

The meeting, known as the 47th session of the commission, is also expected to consider new ways to further advance social integration, the goal of building an equitable and dynamic society, where all individuals can fully exercise their rights and responsibilities, UN officials said here.

Beijinger Wang Liping says it was more than the taste of her first organic meal that amazed her three years ago.

“I felt really good after eating it, because it’s perfectly natural,” the 53-year-old says as she tucks several packages of organic grain under her arm at a Green Dotdot health food kiosk on Beijing’s Wangfujing Street.

“Since then, if I can buy organic, I do.”

Wang has joined the ranks of a new dietary trend spreading across China’s tabletops. Mix rising concerns about food safety, health and the environment, throw in a dash of increasing income, and you get the recipe for China’s growing hunger for organic fare.

Domestic organic market sales increased from zilch in 1995 to 73.3 million yuan in 2006, says Zhou Zejiang, senior advisor of the Organic Food Development Center of China (OFDC), under the State Environmental Protection Administration.

“China is probably the only one among exporting countries that also has a strong domestic market,” he says, adding the export sector increased from $300,000 to $450 million in the same period.

Today, China cultivates 2.3 million hectares of land - the second most in the world - for certified organic food, while about 30.4 million hectares are uncertified but are still organic, Zhou says.

As patrons scour Green Dotdot’s shelves, manager Guo Jingyun explains most customers are educated women aged 30 to 50. Younger people have been slower to go for organic, partly because they cook less overall, she says.

Chen Jingxi, 26, says she hasn’t tried organic food but came to Green Dotdot to investigate the rows of tins and packets.

“I’ve heard from family and friends that it’s healthier, so I’m going to have a try today,” the Jiangxi province native says as she places a can of dried cranberries on the checkout counter.

Guo explains most of the information about organic food currently streams to the mainland from Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The firm has more than 30 stores and about 800 shelf displays in Hong Kong, where it was founded eight years ago, but only a handful of stores in Beijing and Shenzhen, where it opened its first mainland shops three years ago.

“In the last two years, awareness of organic food on the mainland has increased dramatically,” Guo says.

One of the biggest changes in the sector, she explains, has been the growing number of local consumers versus expatriates.

“Now, 70 to 80 percent of our customers are Chinese. When we started, it was the opposite.”

Zhou says about 50 percent of Chinese urbanites know the difference between organic and conventional food, while about 25 percent can distinguish between organic and green food.

“However, most of them only know that organic means no chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizers. A few of them also know organic should have no genetically modified organisms.”

A unique consequence of the scant, albeit mounting Chinese awareness of organic food, is that few retailers advertise.

Lohao also hosts activities at local schools and invites student field trips to its farm to raise awareness.

Guo says: “We advertise in Hong Kong, but not in Beijing yet. We’re still establishing a presence, and instead use pamphlets, exhibitions, window displays and word of mouth.”

Zhou explains that 70 to 75 percent of organic consumers, including expats in China, are high-income, while 20 percent are middle-class people “willing to pay more for food safety than for housing, clothing or entertainment”. The other 5 to 10 percent are consumers by default, who unintentionally eat organic, for example when the food is gifted.

“Some of our customers, especially Chinese, aren’t rich but insist on organic,” Lohao City Organic Health Food Store corporate development manager Cindy Yin says.

Fresh organic produce can cost 50 to 100 percent more than ordinary produce, while imported goods can be as much as 200 percent more, Yin says.

“There’s a gap in processed foods - that sector is not as developed yet in China,” Yin says, adding that Lohao imports about 50 percent of its processed goods.

Guo says most of Green Dotdot’s 400 products are imported and then packaged in China.

“Some are easy to find in China, such as beans, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, rice, fruit and vegetables,” she says. “But other things are hard to find, like wild red rice, which we get from Canada and Thailand. If we can find them locally, we’ll buy them locally.”

Beijing-based Green Cow Organic Farm owner Lejen Chen says that currently, it’s less profitable for her to grow organically.

“We need about five times more labor,” Chen says. “That’s what makes it more expensive.”

Her 10 permanent staffers, plus additional help hired at harvest time, remove weeds and insects by hand at the 7.3-hectare organic farm in Beijing’s Shunyi district.

The vegetables supply Green Cattle Farm Vegetable Club, which provides a weekly box of vegetables for 15 member families and the company’s Mrs. Shanen’s restaurant.

“We also want to contribute to the health of the earth. It’s something we want to promote and is worth doing,” Chen says.

“It’s more than growing organic vegetables. It also involves thinking about saving energy, not polluting and not hurting the animals.”

Thailand’s government has prepared to negotiate with the Chinese government to allow a new-born panda and its parents to stay longer in Thailand, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti said here Tuesday.

On May 27, Lin Hui, the female panda in the Chiang Mai Zoo in the Thailand’s northern province of Chiang Mai, delivered her first baby, which has become the first panda born in Thailand and the world for 2009.

The baby panda has rapid physical development as it is increasingly getting black hair around its ears, front and back legs.

Now, the black patches are forming around its eyes. With an 18-centimeter-physical length, it weights 290 grams.

A delegate from Thailand’s Zoological Park Organization will travel to China for negotiation on the extension of staying in Thailand of the panda family, said Suwit.

Thailand’s Zoological Park Organization has been assigned to conduct a feasibility study to establish a permanent reproduction research center of pandas in Thailand as the Sino-Thai cooperation project, he said.

The first round of the negotiation will be done by the delegate from the Zoological Park Organization, while the government-level negotiation will be made in late June, he said.

The Thai government believes that China will be confident in Thailand’s capability and experience after having raised Lin Hui and male panda Chuang Chuang for six years, he said.

The minister also presented a birth certificate for the new panda cub.

Currently, the zoo’s visitors will see the newly-born panda and its mother Lin Hui through closed circuit television.

Lin Hui and Chuang Chuang, the father of the newly-born baby panda, have been on loan from China to the Chiang Mai Zoo since 2003, as part of a panda research program.

The loan agreement will see the two pandas returned to China after 10 years, while any cub will be returned to China after two years of its birth.

On Feb. 18, 2009, Lin Hui was impregnated with artificial insemination after all efforts to arouse male Chuang Chuang’s interest in mating had failed.

Wall Street climbed back on an upward track Wednesday, rising in late trading as a surge in gold and other commodities prices gave investors a reason to snap up energy and materials stocks.

But the market’s closing levels masked the fact that it was a confusing day on the Street. Investors had sent stocks higher until mid-afternoon on expectations of a bailout for the Detroit automakers, but the market forfeited that advance on signs that the plan was running into opposition from Republican lawmakers. Investors then set aside their uncertainty, and plowed back into stocks as they saw the rebound in commodities.

Gold picked up $34.70 an ounce to close at $807.10 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, lifted by a weaker dollar, but also because investors seemed to be more willing to take on some risk — a trend that has also been apparent in the recent rally on Wall Street. Oil prices also rose on the Nymex, settling up $1.45 at $43.52 a barrel.

In turn, companies that make their money from commodities rallied, boosting the rest of the stock market. Exxon Mobil Corp. rose 2.4 percent and mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. added 16 percent.

Richard E. Cripps, chief market strategist for Stifel Nicolaus, said the rise in commodities suggests that some investors are betting on an economic rebound. “At this point in time, commodities going up are a welcome sign,” he said.

Still, investors are extremely wary about the many trouble spots in the global economy. And so shifting sentiment over a possible bailout deal for Detroit’s Big Three automakers tugged at stocks throughout the session — including financial stocks. Financial houses that hold investments in the car companies could see further strain on their balance sheets if big players like General Motors Corp. file bankruptcy.

Democrats in Congress and the White House finalized an agreement on $14 billion in loans for Detroit’s struggling car companies. However, the plan negotiated by the White House is being opposed by a group of conservatives.

The proposal would provide relief for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC. Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Alan Mulally and Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. told The Associated Press Tuesday they don’t need to take the bailout.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 70.09, or 0.81 percent, to 8,761.42. On Tuesday, the Dow shed 243 points after disappointing corporate news reminded investors of the magnitude of the economy’s troubles. But the Dow and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index have now advanced in 10 of the last 13 sessions.

The S&P 500 index rose 10.57, or 1.19 percent, to 899.24, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 18.14, or 1.17 percent, to 1,565.48. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 10.69, or 2.30 percent, to 476.40.

Since reaching multiyear trading lows on Nov. 20, the Dow has risen 16 percent and the broader S&P 500 has risen 19.5 percent, while the Nasdaq is up 19 percent.

“I think what you have now is people are looking among the carnage and saying ‘Wait a minute, maybe the baby was thrown out with the bath water’” during the devastating selling of October and November, said John Merrill, chief investment officer at Tanglewood Wealth Management.

The number of stocks advancing on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday outpaced those declining by 2 to 1. Consolidated volume came to a light 5.1 billion shares compared with 5.57 billion shares traded Tuesday.

In the Treasury market, the four-week bill auctioned with a zero percent yield on Tuesday saw that rate increase. The yield rose to 0.04 percent after having been auctioned on Tuesday with a yield of zero. The auction was a dramatic sign of how cautious investors are — willing to park their money for the short term in investments that will pay nothing at all but that will preserve their principal.

The yield on the three-month T-bill fell to 0.02 percent from 0.03 percent late Tuesday, also indicating a high degree of investor unease. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 2.69 percent from 2.65 percent late Tuesday.

The dollar was lower against most other major currencies, which helped feed the rally in commodities.

The market was also watching American International Group Inc., which said Wednesday it is trying to work out plans to square away $10 billion lost in bad trades without turning to tax payers for more money. Last month, the government said it would provide $150 billion to help the insurer remain afloat after tight credit markets made it difficult to access cash.

“I think the fear is that there is going to be a continued need to raise capital,” Ryan Larson, head of equities trading at Voyageur Asset Management, said of the financial sector.

That fed worries that other financial houses might be facing their own troubles after placing wrong bets in the unforgiving markets in recent months. The concerns rippled through financial services stocks, causing banks including Citigroup Inc. to give up early gains.

AIG fell 18 cents, 9.3 percent, to $1.75, while Citigroup fell 24 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $8.30 and JPMorgan Chase & Co. fell 44 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $33.52. American Express Co. fell $1.73, or 7.4 percent, to $21.56.

GM declined 10 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $4.60, while Ford rose 2 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $3.25. Chrysler isn’t publicly traded.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 3.15 percent. Britain’s FTSE-100 fell 0.32 percent, Germany’s DAX added 0.54 percent, and France’s CAC-40 rose 0.68 percent.

Chinese shares finished the morning session slightly lower Thursday, after unfavorable economic data announced this week weighed upon investor confidence.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday that the country’s consumer price index (CPI) rose at a slower annual rate of 2.4 percent in November.

The inflation figure was the latest among a slew of figures announced this week as fresh indicators of slowdown in the country’s economy and slumping external demand.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.31 percent, or 6.42 points, to 2,072.69 at noon. The smaller Shenzhen index, however, rose 28.38 points, or 0.38 percent, to close at 7,518.66.

But the aviation sector bucked the trend on announcement of capital injection plans.

China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines, both major state-owned carriers in the country, rose by the daily limit of nearly 10 percent in the morning, after the two firms unveiled plans late Wednesday to receive three billion yuan of capital injection each from government.

China Southern rose 9.91 percent to 3.66 yuan, and China Eastern was up 9.92 percent to finish at 4.32 yuan.

The Chinese government said on Wednesday that exports dropped 2.2 percent year-on-year in November, the first monthly decline since June 2001, while foreign direct investment plunged 36.52 percent year-on-year.

China’s producer price index, a measure of inflation at the factory level, decelerated sharply to an annual rise of 2 percent in November. The latest CPI and PPI figures had prompted worries over deflation risks.

However, the three-day Central Economic Conference that ended Wednesday had pledged to maintain stable, healthy growth next yearth rough domestic demand expansion and economic restructuring.

The conference that gathered the country’s top leaders also vowed to maintain the “stable and healthy” development of the market.

China, for the first time in history, revealed in detail of its longstanding policy of “no first use of nuclear weapons” Tuesday, promising that its nuclear missile weapons are “not aimed at any country” in peacetime.

In a white paper on national defense released by the Information Office of the State Council Tuesday, China reaffirms its will to implement “a self-defensive nuclear strategy”.

“In peacetime, the nuclear missile weapons of the Second Artillery Force are not aimed at any country,” the white paper says.

“But if China comes under a nuclear threat, the nuclear missile force of the Second Artillery Force will go into a state of alert, and get ready for a nuclear counterattack to deter the enemy from using nuclear weapons against China,” the white paper says.

The Second Artillery Force is China’s core force of strategic deterrence. Under the direct command of the Central Military Commission, the nuclear armed force is aimed to deter nuclear strike from other countries and to conduct nuclear counterattacks and precision strikes with conventional missiles.

It was the first time that China’s national defense white paper dedicates a whole chapter to the Second Artillery Force.

Since its establishment several decades ago, the Second Artillery Force has developed a weaponry and equipment system consisting of both nuclear and conventional missiles. The missile arsenal includes both solid-fueled and liquid-fueled missiles of different ranges, capable of carrying various types of warheads.

According to the white paper, the nuclear missile force of the Second Artillery Force will use nuclear missiles to “launch a resolute counterattack against the enemy” in case of a nuclear attack. It can perform nuclear attack either independently or together with the nuclear forces of other services, the white paper says.

The conventional missile force of the Second Artillery Force is commissioned to conduct medium- and long-range precision strikes against key strategic and operational targets, according to the white paper.

The white paper also outlines the goals of building up China’s strategic deterrence force. It says the Second Artillery Force will follow the principles of building “a lean and effective force” and adapting to trend in the evolution of military science and technology.

“The Second Artillery Force strives to raise the informatization level of its weaponry and equipment, ensures their safety and reliability and enhance its capabilities in protection, rapid reaction, penetration, damage and precision strike,” the white paper says.