Construction of modern cold storages  - MOU signed between India and  Canada 

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed here today between Central Ware Housing Corporation (CWC) under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and CMC Engineering and Management Ltd. Canada for construction of modern cold storages for various agricultural and poultry products. This MOU was signed by Shri N.K. Choubey, Managing Director of CWC on behalf of India and by Mr. Lucio Sacchetti of CMC Enginering and Management Ltd. for Canada. Mr. Peter Sutherland, Canadian High Commissioner in India also attended the function.

Speaking on the occasion Shri Sharad Yadav, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said that this venture would achieve our long cherished objectives of elimination of spoilage and wastage through agri-industry modernisation. India is poised for constucting modern cold chain through out the country equipped with latest international technologies and with special refrigerated vehicles creating a cold corridor from Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh extending upto Mumbai. These projects are going to benefit our farmers whose agricultural and horticultural products would be available all over the country and create possibilities of their exports to developed countries. Further, this project would reduce wastage of agricultural products altogether and help our farmers to get remunerative prices; the Minister added.

CWC has been contemplating to enter into the area of cold chain to minimise post-harvest losses and spoilage in storage handing an transportation between production centres to consumption areas and to diversify from " just warehousing" to value addition through product preservation, logistics and transportation management throughout the country for perishable agriproducts. The MOU between the Corporation and CMC Engineering and Management Ltd. Canada would facilitate studies as well as design adaptation of modern technology for making the cold chain concept a reality in the country.

 

Islamic Militants Killed in Gunbattle

JEDDAH, 24 September 2003 — At least one Saudi policeman and three militants, including a wanted terror suspect, were killed in a shootout at a hospital compound in Jizan in the south of the Kingdom yesterday. An Interior Ministry statement read out on Saudi television said five militants were involved in the incident, in which four other policemen were slightly wounded. Full Report from the Arab News.

New Job Plan for Young Saudis

JEDDAH, 24 September 2003 — Saudi Arabia yesterday announced plans to employ secondary school graduates in the National Guard, the Defense Ministry and the Interior Ministry.

Taxi Companies Warned about implementing Saudiaization

RIYADH, 24 September 2003 — The Interior Ministry has directed all licensed limousine companies to implement the Royal Decree to Saudize their drivers. A committee made up of representatives from the ministries of interior, transport and labor has been set up to implement the law. Full Report

Girls' Education In Arab States The Focus of BBC-UNICEF Series

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

The British Broadcasting Corporation yesterday began airing a television series, produced in cooperation with UNICEF, highlighting the obstacles girls in Arabic countries face in getting an education, Arabic News.com reports.The 20-part series highlights issues affecting educational opportunities for girls in seven Arab states, with an emphasis on the educational divide between girls living in the city and those living in rural areas. The series focuses on the plight of girls in the upper Nile region of Egypt, the Syrian desert, remote areas of Sudan and the mountains of Yemen. The series takes on the issue of early marriage and the traditional roles ascribed to girls at a young age — with marriage the pre-eminent goal and the attainment of education discouraged (Arabic News.com, Sept. 22).

Sharjah Prize For Arab Culture Awarded At UNESCO

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura today presents the 2003 Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture to a Moroccan writer and a Bosnian professor at the organization's Paris headquarters. Novelist, poet and essayist Bin Salem Himmich has penned 26 books in Arabic and French, including The Book of Fevers and Wisdoms (1992), The Caliph of Terror (1999) and Understanding the Other (2001). He has also published studies on the effect of North African literature on French dramas.

Esad Durakovic of Bosnia-Herzegovina is a university professor and translator of literary works in Arabic from ancient to contemporary times. He has translated works by Taha Hussein, Khalil Gibran and Naguib Mahfouz, and in 1999 translated The Thousand And One Nights.

The Sharjah Prize awards each recipient $25,000 for artistic, intellectual or other contributions to the dissemination of Arab culture throughout the world (UNESCO release, Sept. 22).

PILGER FILM REVEALS COLIN POWELL SAID IRAQ WAS NO THREAT

EXACTLY one year ago, Tony Blair told Parliament: "Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction programme is active, detailed and growing. "The policy of containment is not working. The weapons of mass destruction programme is not shut down. It is up and running now."

Not only was every word of this false, it was part of a big lie invented in Washington within hours of the attacks of September 11 2001 and used to hoodwink the American public and distract the media from the real reason for attacking Iraq. "It was 95 per cent charade," said a former senior CIA analyst told me. Full Report

Caught in the Credit Card Vise

New York Times report how the American middle class is trapped in the iron grasp of credit card debt. Except for the fact that no one is threatening to damage their kneecaps, they're in the same dismal position as the classic victim of loan-sharking. credit card companies are engaged in one of the many big-time legalized rackets that are flourishing in this age of deregulation. Between 1989 and 2001," the report said, "credit card debt in America almost tripled, from $238 billion to $692 billion. The savings rate steadily declined, and the number of people filing for bankruptcy jumped 125 percent Full Report

US-backed council bars Arab media

US says TV stations are inciting violence against their soldiers

Freedom of speech campaigners have condemned US-appointed authorities in Iraq for banning television stations Aljazeera and al- Arabiya.Iraq's Governing Council said on Tuesday the stations were prohibited from covering official activities in Iraq for two weeks. Full Report