EGYPT: UNHCR Helps Pregnant Qatari Sisters Return To India
Cairo-January 10, 2002 Two pregnant Qatari sisters forced by family members to travel to Egypt for abortions departed for India yesterday under protection of the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
The two women's brothers had accompanied them to Cairo to obtain abortions after their family objected to the sisters' marriages to Indian men they had met over the Internet. Alerted by the women's husbands, UNHCR officials were at the airport to meet the sisters and their brothers when they arrived, but Egyptian officials initially denied access to them, the Associated Press reports. After the brothers admitted to attempting to force the two women to undergo abortions, however, Egypt initiated deportation procedures against the men. Abortion is illegal under Egyptian law, but can be obtained there.
The sisters, meanwhile, were granted temporary asylum and subsequently flown back to India, via Italy, to be reunited with their husbands. They refused to comment to reporters on the matter
FM ANNOUNCES MEASURES TO FACILITATE NRI ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
New Delhi - January 10, 2002 The Union Minister of Finance and Company Affairs, Jaswant Singh has announced a series of measures to facilitate greater participation by Non Resident Indians in the economic growth of the country. Speaking on the occasion of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations in New Delhi, today, the Minister announced the following relaxations on capital account transactions for a period of six months beginning from January 10, 2003.
* Removal of the existing limit of US $ 20,000 for remittance under the Employees Stock Options Programme (ESOP) Scheme.
* Discontinuation of limits on trade-related loans and advances by Export Earners Foreign Currency (EEFC) account holders, though the transactions will continue to be reportable to RBI.
* General permission to retain ADR/GDR proceeds abroad for future forex requirements.
* Permission to corporates, who have set up their branches and offices abroad, to acquire immovable property overseas for their business/staff residential purposes.
* Permission to listed Indian companies to invest abroad in companies listed in recognized overseas stock exchanges, and having at least 10 percent shareholding in a company listed on a recognized stock exchange in India, on January 1, of the year of investment. Such investments should not exceed 25 percent of the Indian company’s net worth as on the date of the last audited balance sheet.
* Mutual funds are being permitted to invest abroad in companies which are listed on overseas stock exchanges, and which have at least 10 percent shareholding in a company listed on a recognized stock exchange in India on January 1 of the year of investment. The overall cap for investment abroad by mutual funds is raised to US $ 1 billion.
* Apart from companies, individuals are also being permitted to invest abroad in companies which are listed on overseas stock exchanges, and which have at least 10 percent shareholding in a company listed on a recognized stock exchange in India on January 1 of the year of investment. However, no investment limits are being fixed for individuals.
* With regard to transfer of assets in India, remittance of proceeds up to US $ 1 million is being permitted.
The Minister expressed the hope that with the active support and cooperation of NRIs, India would be able to raise the levels of prosperity and progress and usher in sustained high growth with macro economic stability.
Outlining the path for achieving higher and faster growth rates, the Minster said that we have to consider ways and means for putting in more funds in core sectors such as roads, ports, railways, communication etc. He also underlined the need to unlock the potential of agriculture particularly in terms of diversification and agri exports. He said that efforts must be intensified to sharpen the cutting edge of these ‘sunrise’ industries through greater innovations in the areas of processing, packaging, marketing and development of brand equity in line with international best practices.
The Minister said that it was proposed to set up a high level committee for strengthening regulatory and penal provisions for the corporate sector to promote best corporate governance practices by liberalizing corporate laws for greater business freedom and reducing compliance cost. The Minister also pointed out that certain measures had already been taken to facilitate business growth such as the Amendment of the Companies Act (1956) to promote mobilization of funds by issue of Indian Depository Receipts, which will also help non-residents to raise funds in India against securities of foreign companies. He said that foreign companies today can start functioning in India through a fast-track registration system without having to go through the whole process of incorporating a company. The Minister further said that the Companies (Second Amendment) Bill, 2002, which is currently in Parliament, incorporates international best practices and intends to set up a ! national company law tribunal.
Pyongyang Withdraws From Nonproliferation Treaty
North Korea said today it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), a move that would prevent any future inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. It added, however, that it was not currently seeking to build nuclear weapons. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei is slated to meet today with U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell, with North Korea high on the agenda.
IRAQ: U.N. Inspections Inconclusive; Iraq Says Scientists Will Remain Mum
Weapons inspections in Iraq have yielded no hard evidence that the country is producing weapons of mass destruction, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei told the Security Council yesterday, but gaps in Iraq's weapons declaration have made it impossible to clear the nation of any wrongdoing."We have now been there for some two months and been covering the country in ever wider sweeps, and we haven't found any smoking guns," Blix told the 15-member body in a closed briefing. The U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and the IAEA have been conducting inspections in Iraq since Nov. 7.
But inspectors remain unwilling to declare Iraq innocent of manufacturing weapons prohibited under a 1991 disarmament agreement. Blix described Baghdad's 12,000-page weapons declaration, criticized by U.N. officials as insufficient, as "rich in volume but poor in new information about weapons issues and practically devoid of new evidence." He and ElBaradei will demand that Baghdad provide full and updated responses to questions about its weapons programs when they travel there Jan. 19.
"If evidence is not presented which gives a high degree of assurance," said Blix, "there is no way the inspectors can close a file by simply invoking a precept that Iraq cannot prove the negative."
Though Blix said he will step up the pace of inspections between now and Jan. 27, the scheduled date for the first comprehensive briefing on Iraq's weapons programs to the Security Council, he and ElBaradei indicated that it could take months to complete a satisfactory inspections regimen. British Prime Minister Tony Blair echoed that sentiment, saying, "We are just in the middle of the process."
The Bush administration swiftly responded to the inspectors' briefing yesterday with a statement that Baghdad's lack of openness constitutes a "material breach" of the disarmament agreement. "Iraq's cooperation with inspections to date has been legalistic and superficial," said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte, "but it is far short of the genuine cooperation the council had demanded" (Colum Lynch, Washington Post, Jan. 9).
Other members of the Security Council disagreed. Russian ambassador Sergey Lavrov said, "We want the inspectors to continue. It is not for us, it is not for anybody to pass any judgment" (Edith Lederer, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Jan. 10).
Gunter Pleuger, Germany's U.N. ambassador, said the inspectors needed more time and there were still "no grounds for military action."
One critical point of Thursday's briefing concerned Blix's announced plan to seek interviews with Iraqi scientists. The United States has pushed Blix to take scientists out of the country for questioning, believing that is the only way they will speak candidly. But Blix said he would not "force anybody to go abroad or force them to defect" (Lynch, Washington Post).
Though Baghdad has agreed in principle to let scientists be interviewed abroad, it has also issued statements that could be construed as discouraging to scientists contemplating such action. According to General Hussam Mohammed Amin, who heads Iraq's weapons monitoring directorate, "Nobody is ready to go outside to make an interview with UNMOVIC or the IAEA." He added, however, that it was up to the scientists themselves. In the past, scientists who flaunted the government's wishes in this regard have been harshly punished.
One diplomat in Baghdad suggested that simply offering to take scientists and their immediate family members out of the country for questioning, as the Bush administration has urged, is not enough, because reprisals could affect extended family members. "It's fine to take one's wife and children," the diplomat said. "But what about the wife's brother? Or the husband's sister and her children? In Iraq, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins -- they're all considered close family members" (Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post, Jan. 9).
Attempts to question scientists inside Iraq have been thwarted because the scientists themselves have requested the presence of Iraqi "minders," who monitor the interviews (Ensor/Roth, CNN.com, Jan. 9).
One U.S. official said that the United States and the United Nations are in the "final stages" of an arrangement to conduct interviews of Iraqi scientists in Cyprus (Lynch, Washington Post). The Cyprus Mail reports today that according to Cypriot government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou, no deal had been struck as of yesterday for the questioning of Iraqi scientists in Cyprus by U.N. inspectors ( Jan. 10).
About 1000 demonstrate against 'US policy' towards Liberia
MONROVIA, 10 January (IRIN) - A Liberian government-backed demonstration against what it called 'United States government's policy towards Liberia' took place on Friday in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, by nearly 1000 loyalists from the war-ravaged Bomi county some
35 km west of the capital.The march, marked by a low turned-out, comprised mainly women and the
elderly supporters of the ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP) and some
internally displaced persons from the various IDP centers around Monrovia.They gathered at the Antoinette Tubman stadium in down town Monrovia, displayed banners which read "America, We are Your Children. Stop the Terrorist War Against US" as they marched along with freedom songs played by the Armed Forces of Liberia's marching band.
In a statement read by Bomi County superintendent Alfred Boima Anderson Jr. and was expected to be presented to both the Liberian and US governments, the Bomi citizens called for the intervention of the US in
the ongoing conflict between LURD and Government in the northwestern part of the country."America must help us now as the British did in neigbouring Sierra Leone
and what the French are presently doing now in La Cote d'Ivoire" the
statement read in part.Organizers of the march in a statement broadcast on the state-owned
Liberia Broadcasting System on Thursday, said there would be more of such demonstrations if the US government does not changed its policy towards Liberia. The US embassy in Monrovia in a release issued on 2 January denied that it supported violence against the government and suspended all visa services at the embassy as "a precautionary security measure" in the wake of the planned demonstration.The demonstration had been called by Liberian leader Charles Taylor in
late December during a meeting of his ruling NPP members at the
presidential palace in Monrovia. He ordered his party supporters to stage a nation-wide demonstration against what he termed "the US government support for the rebels Liberians United for Reconciliation and
Democracy (LURD)".--keralamonitor.comLIBERIA: Religious leaders charged with treason
MONROVIA, 10 January (IRIN) - Two members of the Inter-Religious Council of Liberia detained by the state since 28 December were charged with treason on Wednesday. David Kiazolu and Christopher Toe had been arrested by government security personnel on suspicion of being collaborators of therebel Liberians United For Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD).
Their lawyers had filed for their release at the Criminal Court of Liberia
on the grounds that they were being held without charge beyond the maximum 48 hours allowed by the constitution. The court ordered their release but minutes later they were charged with treason.The two men are being detained at the Monrovia Central Prison, but their
defence counsels said they would file a motion to the court to have them
released on bail. Under the Liberian constitution treason is a capital offence for which bail is normally not granted.keralamonitor.com
IRAQ: U.N. Inspections Inconclusive; Iraq Says Scientists Will Remain Mum
Weapons inspections in Iraq have yielded no hard evidence that
the country is producing weapons of mass destruction, chief U.N.
weapons inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency
Director General Mohamed ElBaradei told the Security Council
yesterday, but gaps in Iraq's weapons declaration have made it
impossible to clear the nation of any wrongdoing.
Jan. 10, 2003
WORLD ECONOMY: U.N. Says War, Other Risks Could Threaten Recovery
The world economy will continue its gradual recovery, showing some improvement in the second half of this year, but several major risks -- including war with Iraq -- could derail this, the United Nations predicted yesterday in its World Economic Situation and Prospects 2003 report.
U.N. analysts project world economic growth at 2.75 percent for the year, compared to an estimated 1.7 percent for 2002. They add, however, that overvalued stocks in rich countries, a likely U.S. budget deficit and a possible war in Iraq could stifle or reverse the recovery (U.N. release, Jan. 9). "These tensions are already having a negative impact on global economic growth through the higher price of oil, rising economic uncertainty and the decrease in business and consumer confidence that they have generated," the report said about the prospect of war in Iraq (Cindy Roberts, Associated Press/Yahoo! News, Jan. 10).
"The United States will continue to lead the global recovery, but without significant momentum," the report says, adding that Japan and Western Europe will continue to rely on exports and therefore "will remain fragile." While most nations in the developing world will continue to suffer in the generally weak world economic climate, the report names China as a major exception, with its domestic demand supporting both its own economy and those of several other countries.
World trade, meanwhile, is predicted to rise to a "modest" 6 percent, up from 2 percent last year and a contraction in 2001, the United Nations says.
The report urges the major economies to coordinate their policies, suggesting that countries with budget deficits use monetary policy tools while countries with monetary constraints use stimulative spending (U.N. release).
: