Why Apple needs to kill it with the iPad 2 event

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- You wouldn't think that Apple, the largest and most hyped-up tech company on the planet, would have anything left to prove. But Wednesday's iPad 2 announcement will be an important test for the company.

A year ago, when Apple introduced the iPad, it was the first tablet of its kind on the market. Now there are as many iPad competitors as Dalmatians. Meanwhile, the iPad has become a critical revenue stream for the company -- so there's far less margin for error.

And one more thing: Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) will likely be without its charismatic leader at the San Francisco event, which kicks off at 1 p.m. ET. Steve Jobs remains on a medical leave of absence. Investors will be keeping a close eye on the presenters to evaluate how the company is being led in Jobs' stead.

That's not an insignificant amount of pressure.
"This event is not to be taken lightly," said Brian White, analyst at Ticonderoga Securities. "Apple must make a convincing case for why the iPad 2 is better than the plethora of competitors coming to market."
Increased competition: The good and the bad news for Apple is that the year-old iPad still rates highly among even its newest rivals.

That's good news, because Apple should again have the best-in-its-class tablet if the iPad 2 is as improved as the rumors say it will be.

But that's also bad news: How much thinner, lighter, faster, better -- and perhaps most importantly, cheaper -- can the iPad get? Did Apple shoot itself in the foot by making its first generation tablet too good?
Tim Cook, Phil Schiller or whichever Apple executive introduces the iPad 2 will need to offer some impressive specs, lest Apple fans walk away disappointed.
Rival tablets have front- and rear-facing cameras, dual-core processors, four times as much RAM as the iPad, HDMI output and Adobe Flash support. Other than Flash, Apple is expected to at least meet all of its competition's features -- and to significantly slim down iPad 2 compared to the original.
If that's all Apple does, its fans will probably be unimpressed. Apple may need to have something "magical" up its sleeve, as Jobs likes to say, to wow its potential customers.

I think this refers to the new technology apple had develop and that with this new ipad it have to give final show from its better system than the others companies.

China pollution 'threat to growth'

China's environment minister has issued an unusually stern warning that pollution threatens to imperil growth, positioning it as a central theme of the next five-year plan to be launched at the annual National People's Congress this weekend.
"Natural resources are shrinking, degenerating and drying up. Ecological and environmental decay has become a bottleneck and a serious obstacle to our economic and social development," said Zhou Shengxian. "If our homeland is destroyed and we lose our health, then what good does development do?"
His comments echoed those of Wen Jiabao in a web chat on Sunday, in which China's premier emphasised the need for slower, cleaner growth and announced a new, lower, gross domestic product growth target of 7 per cent.
"Environmental concerns will play a major role in massaging the way the economy is going to grow in the 12th five-year plan," said Zhang Jianyu, head of China's environmental defence fund.
"The next five-year plan will be challenging because China is going to move from this export and investment-oriented approach into a more stable, balanced, sustainable approach."
The timing of the remarks hints at the political battles being waged behind the scenes by the fledgling ministry of environmental protection, which was formed only three years ago, as it jockeys with older ministries for the power to enforce environmental standards.
The next five-year plan includes broader environmental goals than ever before. In addition to targets for reducing energy intensity and carbon dioxide intensity, it will focus on a wider range of pollutants, including nitrogen oxide, which is produced by cars, and ammonia nitrogen, a water pollutant.
Mr Zhou's statement included a comprehensive prescription for boosting environmental protection. He discussed the idea of a tax that would be levied on polluters, for example and a stricter standard of environmental approvals for industrial projects.
In a nod to the bureaucratic politics that have so far kept the environment ministry relatively toothless compared with its more established peers, he also called for greater co-operation from leaders of all departments.
Mr Zhou has become increasingly outspoken about the environmental costs of China's breakneck growth. China is now the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and human activities that scientists say are causing global warming. It is the world's biggest polluter and biggest consumer of resources across other measures.
In 2009, nearly 20 per cent of the length of China's monitored rivers and lakes had pollution worse than Grade 5, making the water unfit for even irrigating crops, according to government statistics.

To double the size of the economy between 2000 and 2020 and keep environmental conditions at 2000 levels, China will have to improve its efficiency in using resources by four or five times compared with 2000 levels, said Mr Zhou, citing findings of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In my opinion China is a country  that produces a lot of products, so it requires from many factories to produce them and this elevate the level of pollution at the country.

10 killed, 17 hurt in Afghanistan blasts:

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Eight civilians and two police officers were killed when two mines planted in a playground went off Sunday in Afghanistan's Kandahar province, officials said.
The blasts in Arghandab district wounded 12 other civilians and five police officers, the country's interior ministry said.
The explosions took place during a picnic hosted by the former police chief of Arghandab district in the province, said the province's district governor.
No one immediately claimed responsibility.

"The leadership of Ministry of Interior strongly condemns the insurgent's un-Islamic and inhumane action," the ministry said. "The police have launched an investigation in to the case."

I think Afghanistan is a total disaster becuase its people believes and the corrupt government, so this type of violente actions is really frequently.