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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged to curb inflation and punish abuse of power in an online forum as Chinese police blanketed Beijing and Shanghai to head off planned protests inspired by revolts in the Middle East.

The leadership is “determined” to punish corruption, which is too concentrated in government and key officials, Wen said in an online interview with Chinese citizens on the site of the official Xinhua News Agency. Wen promised to boost food supplies to hold down costs, and to tackle surging property prices that have put home ownership beyond the reach of many.

Growing inequality is a threat to social stability, Wen said in the discussion, which comes as the ruling Communist Party prepares for the annual meeting of China’s legislature. Wen’s pledges also came as online postings called for the second week for rallies in major cities to protest corruption and misrule, inspired by the “jasmine revolutions” that have led to the overthrow of leaders in Tunisia and Egypt.

Hundreds of Chinese police and more than 100 vehicles today patrolled Wangfujing Street, one of Beijing’s busiest shopping streets and the site of one planned rally. Several journalists were forcibly removed from the area by police.

In Shanghai, at least seven people were bundled into police vans outside a cinema near People’s Square, one of at least 27 planned protest sites around the country. At least 23 police vehicles were stationed around the Peace Cinema in the shopping area of People’s Square.

Sunday Rallies

An open letter posted on U.S.-based website Boxun.com and circulated on the Internet urged people to gather at both locations, as well as others in cities nationwide, at 2 p.m. today. The letter calls for rallies to take place every Sunday at that time in cities from Beijing to Wuhan to Hangzhou.

High food prices, unemployment and anger over corruption helped spark protests that toppled Tunisia’s Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and fueled rebellion against Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi.

The China rallies were first called for Feb. 20. Scores of Chinese police gathered at the protest sites, which included a Beijing McDonald’s Corp. restaurant, to quell demonstrations credit reports free. Hundreds of people were present at the rally, though only a handful actively participated, the Associated Press reported.

Containing Unrest

Zhao Qizheng, who heads the foreign affairs committee of the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference, said the idea that there would be a jasmine revolution in China was “absurd,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Feb. 24. Responding to the Feb. 20 protests, Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, emphasized China’s economic growth and success in raising living standards.

The government’s reaction reflects its decades-long effort to keep unrest in check through a combination of economic growth, social reforms and political repression, said Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong.

The open letter addressed to the Chinese People listed a series of grievances including official corruption, a widening disparity between rich and poor, rising inflation, expensive housing and a poor health-care system.

In his two-hour discussion, Wen said China will curb inflation by controlling liquidity, by boosting agricultural production and by punishing hoarding and price manipulation, according to the website of the official Xinhua News Agency. Inflation in China, home to 150 million people living on less than $1 a day, accelerated to 4.9 percent in January from 4.6 percent in December as prices excluding food rose the most in at least six years.

Curb Speculation

Wen also said the country has sufficient grain and foreign currency reserves to control food prices. China will also continue efforts to curb speculation in the property market and will use legal and economic measures against hoarding of land, Wen said.

Home prices in January rose in 68 of the 70 Chinese cities tracked by the statistics bureau, defying measures such as higher down-payment requirements and limits on property purchases issued by the government to curb increases. Wen said the measures are becoming more effective and he’s confident of controlling prices.

–Michael Forsythe, John Liu and William Bi in Beijing, Stephanie Wong in Shanghai and Debra Mao in Hong Kong. Editor: Ben Richardson

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Fresh aftershocks sent masonry tumbling among rescuers in New Zealand’s quake zone and a cat sparked false alarms of a possible survivor Saturday, as the disaster’s death toll rose to 145 with more than 200 missing.

Grim assessments emerged for the central business district in devastated Christchurch after Tuesday’s 6.3-magnitude quake, with engineers and planners saying it will be unusable for months and that a third of the buildings must be razed and rebuilt.

On the outer edge of the district, Brent Smith watched in tears as workers demolished his 1850s-era house, where he had run a bed and breakfast and where antique jugs and a $6,000 Victorian bed were reduced to shards and firewood. His three daughters hugged him, also weeping.

“You don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but I’ve been doing more of the latter,” Smith said.

Prime Minister John Key, who spent some of the afternoon speaking to families who lost loved ones in the disaster, called for two minutes of silence next Tuesday to remember victims and the ordeal of the survivors.

“This may be New Zealand’s single-most tragic event,” Key said.

Key said the government would announce an aid package Monday for an estimated 50,000 people who will be out of work for months due to the closure of downtown.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker assured relatives of the missing _ including people from several countries who have converged on this southern New Zealand city of 350,000_ that every effort was being made to locate any remaining survivors.

No one was found alive overnight as a multinational team of more than 600 rescuers continued scouring the city’s central business district, although a paramedic reported hearing voices in one destroyed building early Saturday, Police Superintendent Russel Gibson said.

“We mobilized a significant number of people and sent a dog in again _ and a cat jumped out,” Gibson said, adding that a rescue team removed “a significant amount of rubble to be 100 percent” certain that no person was trapped inside.

Police have said up to 120 bodies may be entombed in the ruins of the downtown CTV building alone, where dozens of foreign students from an international school were believed trapped.

Still, Gibson said rescuers weren’t completely ruling out good news.

“I talked to experts who say we’ve worked on buildings like this overseas and we get miracles. New Zealand deserves a few miracles,” he said.

The King’s Education language school released a list of missing people presumed in the building: nine teachers and 51 students _ 26 Japanese, 14 Chinese, six Filipinos, three Thais, one South Korean and one Czech. An additional 20 students were listed with “status unknown.”

The death toll rose Saturday to 145 after additional bodies were pulled from wrecked buildings, Police Superintendent David Cliff said. An additional list of more than 200 people remain missing, he said.

Cliff said there are “grave fears” for the missing, suggesting the eventual toll could make this New Zealand’s deadliest disaster ever. Currently, the country’s worst disaster was the 1931 Napier earthquake on North Island in which at least 256 people died.

At Christchurch’s iconic cathedral, workers had just begun work on its ruined bell tower late Friday when fresh aftershocks sent more masonry tumbling from the building.

Rescuers were immediately withdrawn while the safety of the 130-year old church was reassessed and a new plan made to reach as many as 22 people who may be entombed inside.

The city’s central business district will take several months to recover, Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said, adding that “most of the services, in fact all of the services that are offered in the CBD, will need to relocate elsewhere.”

Damaged buildings will need to be bulldozed and rebuilt “so that people can have confidence about coming back into the area to transact any business that’s here.”

One in three of the central city’s mostly brick buildings were severely damaged in the quake and must be demolished, earthquake engineer Jason Ingham said.

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DETROIT

German Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled that European Union leaders may be ready to renegotiate the terms of Greece’s bailout as part of a broader package to shore up confidence in the euro.

“There certainly is a discussion about whether to consider extending the running time of the Greek program,” Merkel said, noting that last year’s aid plan for Greece was limited to three years while Ireland’s bailout package, agreed last November, runs for seven years. “It’s one point that’s on the table.”

Merkel, speaking to reporters in Berlin today after talks with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, said that any extension would have to be a part of the comprehensive package to fight the debt crisis being negotiated for next month’s EU summit. No decision has yet been made on such action, she said.

The comments by Merkel, the leader of Europe’s biggest economy, are the first indication the EU may respond to calls to ease bailout conditions for indebted countries. Papandreou used a speech in the German capital yesterday to urge her backing for lowering interest rates on bailout loans. Ireland’s main opposition leader Enda Kenny traveled to Berlin last week to tell Merkel of the need for Ireland to have similar relief.

There is a “need to work within the European Union to strengthen some of the mechanisms of financial support for countries which experience crisis,” European Central Bank Executive Board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said in a speech in Hong Kong today payday loans.

To Be Done

Greece’s debts are likely to be more than 156 percent of gross domestic product when a 110 billion-euro ($150 billion) EU-led aid package runs out in 2013, according to EU forecasts. Greece pays about 5 percent for European aid.

Merkel praised debt-cutting and austerity measures by Papandreou’s government, saying the “path is not easy.”

“Greece has started to put its house in order,” Merkel said. Even so, “quite a bit still needs to be done.”

Papandreou compared the Greek debt-cutting program to “a sprint,” saying his government is committed to seeing it through to avoid Greece having to restructure its debt.

The task will be easier “if the Greek people can be convinced that their sacrifices are not in vain,” he said.

EU leaders are working to finish a comprehensive plan to stem the crisis by a summit in Brussels on March 24-25. Germany will present initial proposals at a special summit called for March 11, and improving European competitiveness will be a “central theme,” Merkel said.

“Europe must become more competitive and everyone has a duty to stabilize the euro,” she said.

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As cotton prices keep setting records, clothing sellers are challenged to do everything they can to avoid passing the cost on to shoppers. If they raise prices, they risk losing their customers.

But it’s not easy for retailers to ignore the fact that cotton prices have more than doubled over the past year, hitting an all-time high of $2 a pound on Thursday.

Some companies are taking creative approaches to use less cotton.

"T-shirts may get thinner," said Chris Callieri, principal with A.T. Kearney’s retail and consumer practice.

Callieri said some of his clients are playing around with the "density" of cotton fabric, to see how they can use less of it. "But you have to be careful with that approach so that it doesn’t affect the quality of the garment," he said.

Another creative tweak is using "fake" pockets.

"You can reduce the size of a garment, but add embroidery and buttons. This can reduce cotton costs as well," Callieri said.

The cotton crunch is also bringing back the go-to fabric of the 70s, polyester.

But before you break into a sweat at the idea of shiny disco shirts and skin-tight trousers hanging at your neighborhood Macy’s (M, Fortune 500) this summer, Callieri said retailers are experimenting with blended fabric, such as a poly-cotton mix, to replace pure-cotton offerings.

The cotton crunch is hitting the bedding and linen industry particularly hard since consumers generally favor 100%-cotton sheets.

"What has more cotton than the bedsheet that you slept on last night?" said Andrew Tananbaum, CEO of Capital Business Credit, which provides financing to suppliers who cater to bedding and clothing retailers in the U.S.

But companies are now warming up to using blended fabric.

Tananbaum said high thread count poly-cotton blended sheets are about 30% cheaper than comparable all-cotton sheets. The lower price could convince cotton purists to at least try the product and save some money.

"Instead of paying $100 for an 800-thread count all-cotton sheet set, you pay $70 for the same thread count." he said. "So it’s cheaper, but the quality is still the same."

Another subtle way retailers will look to keep prices steady is by repackaging cotton products differently. While it won’t seem like consumers are paying more, the repackaging will still come at some cost to them.

The most obvious example is with multipacks of cotton undershirts and socks that could shrink from five a pack to three a pack, said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst with NPD Group.

Ultimately, Cohen said the bottom line for consumers is that retailers can try to shield them from price increases through these methods but they won’t be able to do it forever.

"No one knows when this trend is going to stop. Maybe the only thing that will stop it is if consumer demand for cotton items cools." said Phil Flynn, senior market and commodities analyst with PFG Best.  

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Demonstrators thronged streets in northern Iraq Saturday to demand justice over a deadly shooting at a protest earlier this week. In Baghdad, hundreds of orphans and widows rallied to call on the government to take care of them.

The uprisings sweeping the Middle East have galvanized many in Iraq, one of the rare democracies in the region, to demand better services from their leaders. The demonstrations in the capital and the northern city of Sulaimaniyah were peaceful, but five protesters were killed earlier this week.

A few thousand demonstrators took the streets in downtown Sulaimaniyah, demanding that those responsible for a shooting two days earlier that killed two people and injured nearly 50 be held responsible.

The crowds shouted: “Down, down, with Massoud Barzani!” referring to the president of the three provinces that make up the autonomous Kurdish region.

On Thursday, hundreds of protesters had demonstrated in front of the offices of Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party in Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles (260 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad. They pelted the building with stones, and Kurdish guards on top of the building opened fire.

Officials from the KDP say their guards were forced to defend themselves from the crowd; Barzani has appealed for calm and vowed to investigate.

The demonstrators were angry with the tight grip with which the two main ruling parties in the Kurdish north dominate the region and its economy, making it almost impossible for people not affiliated with either one to find a decent job or start a business.

Saturday’s rally was largely peaceful, but at one point security forces fired shots overhead to disperse the crowd; an official at the hospital said 12 people were treated after being hit by stones, indicating some scuffling had gone on Payday Loan for Bad Credit. The official did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Earlier at the city’s university, about a 1,000 students also rallied to demand Barzani apologize.

The controversy extended to parliament in Baghdad where lawmakers loyal to Barzani got in a shouting match with a representative from Goran, an upstart political movement in the Kurdish region that is trying to challenge the grip of the two main Kurdish political parties on the levers of power.

As the Goran member was describing how the protesters were not armed and carrying out a peaceful protest, a Kurdish lawmaker shouted: “This not true!”

About 1,500 people rallied in Baghdad in a demonstration organized by non-governmental organizations looking to highlight the plight of some of Iraq’s most vulnerable citizens.

The hundreds of thousands of women who lost their husbands in wars over the decades or children who have lost parents are particularly vulnerable.

One of those in attendance was 9-year-old Ahmed Nasir, who lost his father in 2006 in a roadside bombing in western Baghdad.

“We have seven children at home,” he said. “My mother takes care of us by sewing clothes, and we have no salary.”

In a statement, the organizations behind the demonstration said they want the government to give each orphan a monthly stipend.

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House Republicans continued their drive Wednesday to slash $60 billion from the current year’s budget, with some of the deepest cuts targeted at education and environmental regulation.

First up was a controversial amendment to cut to strip $450 million slated to build a new engine for the F-35 fighter jet, which passed 233-198, with bipartisan support.

That cut, in particular, demonstrates the strong sentiment in both parties to crack down on spending that appears excessive, transcending political priority lists. GOP leaders, including Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, wanted to keep that engine funded; opponents included Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Other deep cuts aim to slash funding for early childhood development programs that help low-income children, special education programs at public schools and family planning programs.

House Republicans have vowed to cull $60 billion from the fiscal 2011 budget.

A day after House Speaker John Boehner acknowledged that cuts could cost some federal jobs, adding, "so be it. We’re broke," Democrats wasted no time accusing Republicans of killing jobs and hurting the economy.

They’re citing a report by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which gets funding from labor unions, that $60 billion in cuts would result in hundreds of thousands of jobs lost in both the public and private sectors.

"These cuts recklessly damage programs," said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer. "We are talking about cutting tomorrow’s jobs."

Although the 2011 budget up for debate only covers the next seven months, March through September, the clock is ticking to pass something soon. The current stop-gap measure that’s keeping the lights on at federal agencies expires March 4.

The pressure is on Republican lawmakers to outdo each other when it comes to cutting the budget. The GOP took control of the House after last fall’s election riding a wave of public discontent of the mounting deficit and government spending.

They’ve also pledged to allow any lawmaker to offer any suggestion for cuts. There are nearly 600 amendments on the table. However not all will be taken up, since many are duplicative and others that will get blocked, like a Democratic proposal to restore $150 million for safety on the DC Metro system, which made headlines in 2009 when a collision killed nine people.

Cuts to be discussed target many White House priorities, such as Treasury’s mortgage modification program for homeowners, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to cut greenhouse gases.

If lawmakers fail to pass a budget, or at least another stop-gap measure, by March 4, the federal government could be shut down like it was during the GOP showdown with the Clinton administration in 1995.

The House was expected to pass the budget by Thursday, but the timing is uncertain as the process has gone longer than expected. The Senate isn’t expected to take up the measure for a few more weeks. Then the chambers will likely have to negotiate the differences and come to a compromise.

The White House has vowed to veto the budget if the deep cuts that House Republican want survive, saying the president can’t support a bill that "undermines critical priorities or national security." 

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Labor unrest unleashed by Hosni Mubarak’s ouster flared again Wednesday in Egypt despite a warning by the ruling military that protests and strikes were hampering efforts to improve the economy and return life to normal.

Hundreds of Cairo airport employees protested inside the arrivals terminal at Cairo International Airport to press demands for better wages and health coverage. Their protest did not disrupt flights.

In the industrial Nile Delta city of Mahallah al-Koubra, workers from Egypt’s largest textile factory went on strike over pay and calls for an investigation into alleged corruption at the factory, according to labor rights activist Mustafa Bassiouni.

Mahallah in April 2008 witnessed the country’s largest protests in decades, when demonstrators seeking better pay and a check on rising food prices. The youth movement behind the Mahallah protest then was a key player in the 18 days of anti-Mubarak protests that broke out Jan.. 25 and eventually forced the longtime authoritarian leader to step down.

In Port Said, a coastal city at the northern tip of the Suez canal, about 1,000 people demonstrated to demand that a chemical factory be closed because it was dumping waste in a lake near the city guaranteed fast personal loans.

Authorities, meanwhile, decided to put back by another week the reopening of schools and universities across the country, an indication that the country still has some way to go before it returns to full normalcy. Schools and universities were just starting their midyear break when the protests broke out.

Banks remained closed Wednesday and would remain shut Thursday, the last day of the business week in Egypt. There was no word on whether they would reopen Sunday, the start of the business week.

The stock market has been closed for the past three weeks and, again, there was no word on when it would resume operating. The market lost nearly 17 percent of its value in two tumultuous sessions in late January before it was ordered shut to halt the slide.

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Eurozone finance ministers have decided to provide a permanent crisis mechanism that will come into action in 2013 with euro500 billion (674 billion).

Jean Claude Juncker, who chairs the regular meetings of the 17 eurozone finance ministers, says the ministers “agreed on the provisional volume of euro500 billion, which will be revised every other year.”

Juncker says additional financing will be provided by the International Monetary Fund.

The so-called European Stability Mechanism will succeed the European Financial Stability Facility, the eurozone’s current bailout fund, in 2013.

Ministers didn’t reach a decision on boosting the size of the current facility.

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The old St. Louis Globe-Democrat began the Man of the Year award in 1955. The Post-Dispatch took sponsorship in 1988. A committee of former winners renamed the award Citizen of the Year in 1997.

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