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Brazil’s gross domestic product (GDP) would grow 4-6 percent in 2010, while inflation would be reined in at about 4 percent, a Brazilian economist said.

The worst of the financial crisis was now over for Brazil, but its GDP in 2009 is expected to shrink by 0.8-0.3 percent because of poor economic performance in the first quarter, said Luiz Guilherme Schymura, director of the Brazilian Institute of Economy of the Getulio Vargas Foundation, in an interview with Xinhua on Thursday.

He estimated that the GDP in the last three quarters of this year would grow by about 1.5 percent, 1.9 percent and 1.9 percent respectively.

“I estimate the GDP will grow 4 percent next year, but I would not be surprised if it grows 5 or 6 percent,” said Schymura.

The National Consumer Price Index (IPCA), the inflation index used in Brazil, will continue to fall in 2010, he said.

The IPCA, which was at 5.9 percent in 2008, went down to 4.5 percent in July. Schymura predicted the IPCA would be further down to some 4 percent in 2010.

Brazil’s Central Bank set an inflation target of 4.5 percent for both 2009 and 2010, with a tolerance margin of two percentage points.

Schymura said inflation in terms of both durable and non-durable goods is falling and is expected to continue to fall.

“I believe the year of 2010 will be very positive for Brazilians. The economy will grow, the inflation will be low, and the local currency Real will likely appreciate against the U.S. dollar. The appreciation is good news for Brazilian consumers, as it means they can buy cheaper imported products,” he said.

“With this favorable economic scenario, the government will have a lot to say in next year’s presidential race. The government’s candidate will benefit from the positive economy, as well as from the salary rise of public employees,” Schymura said, referring to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s chief of staff Dilma Rousseff, who will run for the October 2010 presidential election.

But Schymura said the appreciation of the Real is bad news for the local manufacturing sector, which will face growing competition from cheaper imports.

The Real depreciated against the U.S. dollar in the fourth quarter of last year amid a critical economic situation. But this year the Real has appreciated about 20 percent against the dollar.

He estimated the Real’s appreciation trend would continue in the second half of this year.

As Brazil is increasing exports of oil and oil products, more dollars would flood into the economy.

Brazil, which is currently self-sufficient in oil, has discovered what is expected to be a huge offshore, deep-water, pre-salt layer of oil reserves. Production of light oil and gas from these reserves has started and is expected to continue in the coming years.

“It would be a wise policy to invest the oil exporting revenues in education, as it would raise the country’s long-term economic growth prospects,” Schymura added.

It has been several days since the holy month of Ramadan started on Aug. 22, but for many Iraqis, Ramadan never really began. The rituals of Ramadan have fallen by the wayside like other years after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Ramadan is an Islamic religious observance of the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. It begins with the sight of the new moon and continues for 30 days.

“We are disappointed, there was a relative lull in violence during the recent months and we expected that we would revive our old traditions of Ramadan this year, but the latest wave of violence, particularly, last Wednesday’s bombings have taken Ramadan from us,” Abu Ali, 60, a taxi driver said.

On Aug. 19, three days before Ramadan, a series of bombings, including two truck bombs against Iraqi foreign and finance ministries, struck Baghdad, killing at least 97 people and wounding 585 others besides causing severe damage to the ministries’ building and surrounding neighborhoods in central the capital.

The attacks shaped a setback to Iraq’s efforts to restore normalcy in the capital after some 50 days of U.S. troops pullout of Iraqi cities and towns.

The Iraqi government was forced to bring back concrete blast walls that it was just lifted few days before the attacks, including one in front of the foreign ministry.

For Muslims, Ramadan is considered the holiest month of the Islamic year. They all respect Ramadan; they look at it as the month of mercy and generosity. The month is characterized by fasting, additional prayers and charity for the less fortunate.

Fasting takes place through the entire month from sunrise until sunset. In addition to refraining from eating and drinking, Muslims are also taught to refrain from sinful thoughts, words and deeds. The fast is meant to teach patience, modesty, perceiving the pains of the poor people.

The daily fast is ending by a mosque call and the firing of the artillery shot, which is a tradition aged back to the Othman era. The mosque call continued after the U.S. invasion but the artillery shot stopped because it sounds like a bomb attack.

Before the call to sunset prayers, housewives normally prepare Iftar, a rich evening meal for breaking the dawn-to-sunset fast, with a variety of dishes.

Traditionally, Iftar used to be more like celebrations, when all family members and sometimes friends would gather to break the fast, but the violence following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 made Ramadan a bleak time for most of the families in Baghdad.

“Iftar is not like the old days, the people are angry by the increase of violence recently and nowadays it is rare to receive guests because people are rather stay at their homes fearing that they might become just another statistic figure in Baghdad’s daily death toll,” said Abu Jameel, 55, a teacher, who was waiting to receive his son before sunset for breaking their fast together.

At the beginning of Ramadan, families used to go for a walk to the crowded thoroughfare in their neighborhoods and groups of youngsters used to gather at ice cream shops or at coffee houses to play games that only played in Ramadan.

But this Ramadan like the other holy months after the invasion, children are not allowed to go out because their families are too scared to let their children go out of their sights to play ancient games.

Mahir Hameed, 12, who likes to play with his friends in Baghdad’s west Khadhraa district, said “the worst thing in Ramadan is that we can’t play Majinah,” which is a game when children knock on doors of houses searching for sweets while singing.

If they are lucky, the children will get some candies or small changes; if they are not, they will get sometimes splashed with water. The game is similar to the “trick or treat” which played by the children at Halloweens.

“They are ruining my Ramadan (by blasts). My parents said it is not safe but we will see if we can find a safe way to do Majinah,” Hameed said.

“I don’t think there would be Majinah this year also, because the children are too scared of bombings and fierce reactions of the policemen and soldiers at the neighborhood,” said Tahsein Shakir, 45, a teacher at Khadhraa district.

“Last night I saw a group of children playing football ran away as fast as they can to hide just because they saw a police vehicle coming closer,” Shakir said.

Shakir does not blame the security members for their fierce actions because it is only a few days since a bicycle bomb parked near one of their patrols killed three of them and wounded others at Khadhraa’s popular market.

Most games or matches were cancelled because it is unsafe to go to other neighborhoods at night, especially for groups of youngsters.

The Mehiebes, or the hidden ring, is an Iraqi communal game which gives the holy month its unique flavor. Sweets are handed out to all the players and the audience during or after the game. The atmosphere is one of gaiety, even for the losing team.

Now, some groups of youngsters can only play the game with their neighbors early at night.

“Everything has been taken from us, and now even Ramadan has been stolen since the invasion,” said Adel Rasheed, 39, a journalist.

Before last Wednesday’s attacks, Iraqis apparently were preparing to spend a peaceful Ramadan, during which many were going to try to bring back the old traditions.

“I was hoping to live the old traditions of Ramadan like before the invasion, but now I believe it is not wise to do so as security is not good these days,” Rasheed said.

However, he said that “the security in Ramadan is better this year and the Iraqi security forces are everywhere doing their job, despite the disappointment of the latest bombings.”

Microsoft Corp. is giving people with regular cell phones access to the same kinds of programs that smart phone owners have embraced.

Microsoft’s OneApp software, announced Monday, is aimed at developing countries where so-called “feature phones” and prepaid systems are prevalent.

Microsoft’s first partner is Blue Label Telecoms Group of South Africa, which sells prepaid cell phone minutes. In a few weeks, Blue Label customers will be able to download OneApp just as they would getting a new ringtone. OneApp will come with a preselected set of about a dozen programs — or “apps,” in current slang — including Facebook, Twitter and the software maker’s own Windows Live Messenger.

Because many phones have limited storage, OneApp stores some information on central servers rather than the device and sends it out only when necessary.

Future wireless partners will be able to pick different programs to distribute with OneApp, Microsoft said. In that sense, OneApp isn’t quite an “app store,” a central shop for mobile users to pick and choose which apps they download. Such stores have become popular since one for Apple Inc.’s iPhone became a big reason to buy the pricey gizmos.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft did not disclose the financial arrangements with Blue Label and Amit Mital, a Microsoft corporate vice president, would not say how OneApp plans to make money.

Mital said OneApp would give people a way to obtain new software, and makers of such programs might subsidize cellular network access needed to make them run.

Most feature phones already can run games and other programs, and many wireless carriers have marketplaces to sell them. Microsoft said OneApp will reduce the workload for software programmers who currently have to tweak and test applications on hundreds of feature phone models. The software maker said carriers, too, are interested in OneApp because it could boost data usage in emerging markets.

A 6,042-meter six-lane traffic tunnel under the Yangtze River in Nanjing now spans both sides of the river as of Saturday.

It is the third traffic tunnel built under the Yangtze River, China’s longest river.

The 3.3-billion-yuan (483-million-U.S.-dollars) traffic tunnel, which connects the city on both sides of the river, is expected to open for traffic in June next year.

Cars will be able to travel at a speed of 80 km per hour in the tunnel, and traffic flow will actually double that across the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge to help ease traffic across the Nanjing section of the river, which lies inside the booming Yangtze River Delta.

A four-lane tunnel has been open for traffic in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province since December last year.

Another tunnel in Shanghai was built last September and is expected to be ready for traffic at the end of the year and before the city hosts the 2010 World Expo.

The 6,300-km long Yangtze River, which originates in northwest China’s Qinghai Province and flows through 10 provinces and municipalities before emptying into the East China Sea, is a major transport link between west and east China. More than 100 bridges across the river are currently in use.

The Islamist group of Al-Shabaabin Somalia on Monday banned the operation of three UN agencies from operating in the war-torn Horn of African nation, accusing them of being “enemies of Islam and Muslims”, a statement from the group said.

“As of (20/7/2009), a number of NGOs and foreign agencies currently operating in Somalia will be completely closed down and considered enemies of Islam and Muslims. The current list is as follows: 1. UNDP, 2. UNDSS, 3. UNPOS,” Al-Shabaab said in a statement released both in English and Somali.

The Islamist group, considered by the Somali government as a terrorist organization, controls much of the south and central Somalia and has been fighting the Somali government for the past two years.

The group said in the statement its decision was taken after “thorough research and due to an ongoing investigation into the actions and motives of many of the NGOs and foreign agencies currently in operation”.

Al-shabaab said the UN agencies have been found to be working against the interests of the Somali Muslim population and against the establishment of an Islamic State in Somalia.

The Islmsit movement accused the UN agencies of “training and support for the apostate government and the training of its troops”, adding that some of the findings include evidence of such activities.

The Al-Shabaab statement also allege material support were given to what it termed as the “apostate militias” in Somalia’s border regions “in hopes of destabilizing the regions and disrupting the safety and security that the Islamic administrations of those regions have accomplished by the permission of Allah”.

The statement claim that the UN agencies helped raise nearly 250 million U.S. dollars for the Somali government in a gathering of the International Contact Group for Somalia held in Brussels last April.

The movement earlier this year closed down the offices of two American aid agencies, Care International and the International Medical Corps, accusing them of “participation in activities against Islam”.

Al-Shabaab also announced the opening of a new office known as the Office for Supervising the Affairs of Foreign agencies and called all NGOs and foreign agencies operating in Somalia to immediately contact it.

“This office has been set up to coordinate all dealings with NGOs and foreign agencies and to fully monitor them,” the statement said.

China is to start a two-year inspection campaign of construction businesses in a bid to curb “serious” corruption and malpractice, a senior anti-graft official said Friday.

He Yong, deputy secretary of Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said all regions should reduce the high incidence of corruption in the construction sector.

Through cracking down on monopolization, the CCDI would implement the open and fair competition principle, he said.

During the campaign, all regions would improve management and supervision in the industry and try to close loopholes that led to power-for-money deals and abuses of power, he said.

A nearly- completed 13-story building in Shanghai collapsed on June 27, killing a worker. The incident has aroused great controversy and also doubt about the quality of construction work nationwide.

Operation of a smelting plant blamed for the lead poisoning of more than 300 children has been suspended in Northwest China.

He Hongnian, deputy head of Fengxiang county in Shaanxi province, said the environmental protection bureau in Baoji ordered the closure of the plant on Aug 6, about two weeks after the first lead poisoning case was reported.

Environmental protection officials in Shaanxi province have collected samples of groundwater, soil, air and sewage at 28 monitoring points near the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Co.

“The factory has not been closed down. It has been suspended and is under investigation by environmental experts. We are waiting for the results of the investigation to decide what measures will be taken,” said a spokesman of the Fengxiang county investigation team.

Doctors at the county hospital first diagnosed gastritis resulting from lead ingestion after 6-year-old Miao Fan from Changqing, where the plant is located, was admitted in July.

Her case sparked widespread fear among residents, who rushed their children to hospital for blood tests.

Almost 1,000 children from all three villages in Changqing town received checkups to assess the lead content in their blood, with about 300 having excessive lead.

The county government promised Friday that free treatment would be offered to the children and began health examinations of all children in the town.

“All the blood samples will be taken to Xi’an and the test results will be known in three to five days,” said Guo Baoke, an industrial illness specialist from Xi’an Central Hospital in the provincial capital.

Lu Yong, a doctor at the same hospital where the children were examined, said the poisoning is curable as the levels of lead can be lowered.

Excessive amounts of lead in the body can harm the nervous and reproductive systems and cause high blood pressure and anemia. In severe cases, it can lead to convulsions, coma and even death.

Guo said children were more vulnerable to lead poisoning than adults and medical intervention is necessary when blood-lead levels exceed 250 mg per liter.

Tests on the children showed their levels ranged from 100 to 400 mg per liter.

The smelting plant belongs to Dongling Group, one of the biggest private companies in Shaanxi province. It began operating in 2006, producing 100,000 tons of lead and zinc and 700,000 tons of coke annually.

The plant directly accounted for 17 percent of the county’s GDP last year.

Its general manager, Sun Hong, said the county government had pledged, in a deal reached before the plant was opened, to relocate all residents living within a radius of 500 meters within three years.

“But the relocation is way behind schedule,” said Pu Yiming, chief of Changqing town. “Of all the 581 families that should have been relocated by now, only 156 have moved to new homes.”

At a press conference Tuesday, the county government promised intervention to speed up relocation.

“We will ensure that all the remaining 425 families are relocated within two years,” said deputy head He.

“The government has started building houses for the remainder of the families within a diameter of 1 km from the factory,” Wang Mingming, director of the publicity department of Fengxiang county, told China Daily.

About 30 sickbeds at Fengixiang Hospital are ready to receive confirmed cases of lead poisoning, he said.

Senior Chinese leaders on Sunday attended a concert of a renowned Chinese singer to commemorate the 70th anniversary of her participation into the country’s revolutionary artistic cause.

Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun and He Guoqiang, all members of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, attended the concert performed by Wang Kun and her students.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sent a congratulatory letter to the show, which was jointly organized by the Ministry of Culture and the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

Wang Kun, born in 1925, was the protagonist in the opera of the White-Haired Girl, a household legend describing the sufferings by local farmers under the exploitation of landlords before 1949.

Senior Chinese leaders on Sunday attended a concert of a renowned Chinese singer to commemorate the 70th anniversary of her participation into the country’s revolutionary artistic cause.

Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun and He Guoqiang, all members of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, attended the concert performed by Wang Kun and her students.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sent a congratulatory letter to the show, which was jointly organized by the Ministry of Culture and the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

Wang Kun, born in 1925, was the protagonist in the opera of the White-Haired Girl, a household legend describing the sufferings by local farmers under the exploitation of landlords before 1949.

A pump-boat carrying six Chinese passengers capsized on rough sea in central Philippines on Thursday but they were safely picked up by a passing boat, the coast guard authority said.

Lieutenant Commander Armand Balilo, spokesman of the Philippine Coast Guard, told Xinhua that the motor out-trigger, codenamed M/BRenzo One, overturned at around 1:00 p.m. local time (0500 GMT), two hours after it left the popular tourist destination Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro province.

It was heading towards the Batangas port, south of the capital Metro Manila.

Balilo said the Chinese passengers all wore lifejackets and “are in good condition.”

He said the capsized out-trigger “is being towed back” to Puerto Galera with all its crew on board. Balilo said the boat left port “in spite of bad weather” but did not disclose whether the coast guard gave the sailing permit.

Southwest monsoon, enhanced by tropical storm Morakot, brought rains and winds to northern and central Philippines on Thursday. The storm is now located at 450 kilometers Northeast of Basco, Batanes province in the northern tip of the Philippines. Twelve people were killed in flooding and landslides brought by the storm over the past week, the authorities said.