Kofi Annan

Annan urges end to trade
barriers for poor nations

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 30: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged rich nations today to end all their trade barriers on goods and services exported .....more

George W Bush

Bush will not try to
reverse Clinton pardons

WASHINGTON, Jan 30: President George W Bush does not plan to seek to reverse any of the pardons former President Bill Clinton granted in his....more

Indian-American groups
seek quake relief funds

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 30: Anxious to help friends and family back home, Gujaratis and other Indian-Americans have rallied to gather.....more

Australian doctors give
new cancer treatment hope

MELBOURNE, Jan 30: Australia’s Prince of Wales Hospital would in weeks begin treating brain tumours in children under the age of four in a world-first....more

Pak reopens border
for departing Afghans

ISLAMABAD, Jan 30: Pakistan on Tuesday reopened its Torkham border crossing point for Afghan nationals leaving the country but continued to deny.....more

2 Americans confirmed
dead in Gujarat quake

WASHINGTON, Jan 30: An American woman and her daughter are among the thousands who died in the Gujarat earthquake, US State Department.....more

Ring travels 16,000 km,
stuck in man’s boot

LONDON, Jan 30: A ring given up for lost by its owner travelled 16,000 km (10,000 miles) round Egypt, the United States and Costa Rica stuck to the.....more

Spaniards discover
that money does not
bring happiness

MADRID, Jan 30: What is it that makes people happy? youth, health, a brilliant career, good looks, a flashy car? none of these things, .....more

Annan urges end to trade barriers for poor nations

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 30: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged rich nations today to end all their trade barriers on goods and services exported by poor nations as one of dozens of novel ways to pay for global development.

Annan, in a 64-page report recommending 87 different measures to better meet the developing world’s financing needs, also said poor countries should have the power to regulate short-term capital flows in times of crisis, a recommendation certain to stir controversy among champions of free markets.

Activists at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and elsewhere have seized on a global tax on short-term investment flows and similar mechanisms as ways to discourage financial crises such as those suffered recently in Argentina, Turkey, Russia and Asia.

While Annan backed controls on short-term capital flight in times of crisis, he added that restraints "cannot be used as a substitute for sound and appropriate macroeconomic policies."

The report was part of a drive by the UN official to push Governments, corporations and international organizations to do more to help the world’s poorest nations and their citizens share in the benefits of globalization.

The campaign will culminate in a UN conference on financing for development in early 2002.

To date, the wealthiest nations have benefited far more than their poorer cousins from an era of faster growth, more jobs and rising living standards driven by a thriving global financial marketplace.

Annan reported that in one promising step, the European Commission has proposed fully opening the markets of the European Union’s 15 member nations to all goods except arms exported by the world’s poorest countries.

That plan would provide the 48 least developed countries with a duty-free, quota-free marketplace in much of europe, a model for the rest of the world, he said.

The developing nations must increasingly look to private investment and trade growth to finance their needs because foreign aid is shrinking.

Countries offering foreign aid on average dedicated just 0.24 percent of their Gross National Product (GNP) to such aid in 1999 compared to 0.33 percent in 1992, the report said.

While donor countries have widely agreed that foreign aid should equal 0.7 percent of their GNP, only a handful of countries — including Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden — have consistently met that target in recent years.

"The trends in official development assistance during the 1990s were particularly troublesome" as aid levels fell off even though the economy was booming in the industrialized world and many developing countries adopted major economic reforms.

As foreign aid declined, private and domestic investment have become increasingly important, the report said, setting out a raft of ideas on how to promote investment.

Among the recommendations for poor nations were tax simplification, a crackdown on tax evasion, better economic planning, strong corporate governance requirements, the development of national pension funds, banking reforms and more open financial markets.

Developing nations should also take steps to assure the availability of credit to smaller businesses and farmers as well as the biggest firms.

The industrialized countries, for their part, should grant debt relief to the poor nations and favor economic policies that foster strong international growth and stability.

The goal of these policies should be stable interest rates, stable foreign exchange markets and stable supplies of capital in international financial markets, the report said. (REUTERS)

Bush will not try to reverse Clinton pardons

WASHINGTON, Jan 30: President George W Bush does not plan to seek to reverse any of the pardons former President Bill Clinton granted in his last hours of office, which include one for fugitive billionaire Marc Rich, the White House has said

"President Bush will not explore whether or not he has the authority to take any action in the case of his predecessor’s pardons," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.

"The President under the constitution has unfettered authority to grant pardons, and that is President Bush’s judgment," he said.

However, he added, "the President may not have agreed with all of the pardons his predecessor granted."

Clinton has drawn criticism from prosecutors and several Republicans over his last-minute pardon of fugitive billionaire commodities Trader Rich, and there was speculation Bush could draw on 19th century legal decisions to try to contest the rich pardon.

"Our lawyers were looking into the question of whether one President has any options in succeeding another President," Fleischer said. "And the President has not taken action and so nothing will proceed."

"There’s a bigger issue involved here, and that is the President’s constitutional prerogatives are unfettered when it comes to pardons," he said.

Rich, one of the world’s wealthiest men who has lived in exile for 17 years in Switzerland, is free from prosecution as a result of the pardon on more than 50 counts of wire fraud, racketeering, income tax evasion and trading oil with Iran during a US trade embargo.

Critics blasted the pardon decision by Clinton, questioning the influence of Rich’s ex-wife denise, who contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the democratic party and pushed for his pardon.

Former White House counsel, and Attorney for Rich, Jack Quinn defended Clinton’s decision to pardon the fugitive billionaire.

Quinn denied on Sunday he had made an end run around the US Justice Department to plead Rich’s case to Clinton. He said he had advised then-deputy, now-acting Attorney General Eric Holder on Nov. 21, 2000.

On the NBC "Meet the Press" program, Quinn said he expected rich to return from Switzerland. Rich carries a US passport despite having renounced his citizenship and a clemency petition that lists him as a citizen of Israel and Spain, Quinn said. (REUTERS)

Indian-American groups seek quake relief funds

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 30: Anxious to help friends and family back home, Gujaratis and other Indian-Americans have rallied to gather relief funds following the earthquake in Gujarat that killed an estimated 20,000 people and left thousands homeless.

One community leader yesterday said he was disappointed by the response.

Groups in the San Francisco bay area — home to many Silicon Valley high tech workers — said they were bonding together in hopes of setting a precedent for a swift collective response to Indian disasters.

"It’s the survival element we want to focus on," said Mohan Trika of Indus Entrepreneurs, a nonprofit group based in Santa Clara, California, which is helping the effort to finance Indian purchases of blankets, medicine and bandages.

More than two dozen Indian-American groups in the San Francisco area have formed an emergency quake relief committee dubbed "united community appeal."

Northern California is home to about 150,000 Indian-Americans, many of whom trace their families back to Gujarat.

An organizer of an aid drive by the federation of Gujarati Associations in the Washington, DC., area said the quake’s location had tugged heartstrings.

"We try to do the fund-raising for all states of India, but this time it (the earthquake) has hit the home state, so there is more impact," Kirit Udeshi said. "This time the calamity of the disaster is so big that really we were convinced we had to do something."

But Usman Baki, President of the Gujarati Muslim Association of America, said in Chicago he was disappointed by the level of support among Indian expatriates.

"Most of the people who would like to give more are those who have come as immigrants. Those born here don’t have that kind of emotional attachment. It does not speak very well of us," Baki said of his efforts to raise money among his countrymen so far.

He expected the total from the 350,000-strong Indian community in the Chicago area to reach "the six figures," or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"I am disappointed, but we’re trying to do everything that we can," Baki said, adding that he had urged churches, mosques and friends to get involved in fund-raising.

In Atlanta, Horizon Bank, which caters to the 40,000 to 50,000 members of the Indian-American community, has raised more than 5,000 dollars for its India earthquake relief fund.

"We felt obligated as soon as we heard about this tragedy to try to help in some way," said its President, Reggie Cox. "A lot of anxiety has taken place as people have been trying to get in contact (with relatives in India)," he said.

In Toronto, Canada, a group of Hindu temples raised more than 33,000 dollars over the weekend and is trying to raise 666,000 dollars.

"We are keeping our doors open for those who want to send their prayers or donate their money," said Ramesh Chotai, of the Hindu Mandir Cultural Centre. (REUTERS)

Spaniards discover that money does not bring happiness

MADRID, Jan 30: What is it that makes people happy? youth, health, a brilliant career, good looks, a flashy car? none of these things, Spanish experts say.

The concept of happiness is coming under increasing scrutiny in the country which was still described as a "patch of Africa" a few decades ago.

Spain has since risen to the club of the world’s wealthiest countries, but people are increasingly discovering that material things do not bring happiness.

"Insecure people use money as a criterion of human value," said Jesus Ynfante, author of a book on Spain’s 300 biggest fortunes. "Expensive products are regarded as the best, and the rich are admired simply for being rich."

Yet happiness cannot be bought, and psychologists are now advising people to look for it in human relations and in the small pleasures of everyday life.

Just what happiness is, of course, remains an open question. "happiness is an unattainable myth," said Humorist Jose Luis Coll, while writer Antonio Gala described it as a "temporary mental disturbance".

Many people regard happiness as a moment of ecstatic pleasure -something that, by definition, cannot last - while others speak of it as an internal peace and as a way of accepting oneself.

The human brain cannot maintain an "orgiastic" state of happiness, said psychiatrist Luis Rojas Marcos, author of a new book on happiness. But if happiness is taken to mean a basic pleasure in living, he added, then the good news is that it does indeed exist. Polls in different countries indicate that between 65 and 85 per cent of the world’s population regard themselves as being reasonably happy, Rojas Marcos told the daily El Mundo. Around 12 per cent of women and 8 per cent of men are estimated to suffer from depression, the main enemy of happiness.

Around 40 per cent of a person’s capacity for happiness is thought to be determined by his or her genetic disposition, while the rest depends on childhood circumstances and on the adult’s capacity to evolve towards happiness in the present, according to western studies quoted by Rojas Marcos.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about happiness is that it has little to do with age, health, wealth, or other values dominant in western society.

A striking example is US actor Christopher Reeve, star of the film "Superman". He has been confined to a wheelchair since a riding accident but has found a considerable happiness in helping people with other disabilities.

"Rich people are usually not happier than people who only have a sufficient income," Rojas Marcos says.

Rich people are more prone to addictions such as alcohol or drugs, because people who make it from rags to riches tend to suddenly give free rein to their repressed impulses, psychiatrist Miguel Segovia Lopez explained.

Spaniards who have become millionaires after winning in lotteries have often developed high levels of anxiety, press reports said. They worry about investing their money and feel exploited by family and friends.

For most Spaniards, happiness seems to be linked with feeling close to other people. The longevity of Spanish women, who live 81 years on the average, has to do with the fact that "they are always chatting", Rojas Marcos said.

Studies also show that religious people are frequently happier than others. The notion of a loving god boosts our self-esteem and helps us accept the tragedies of life, Rojas Marcos explains.

Happy people accept their limitations and set themselves reachable goals, experts say. Many people also need a cause larger than themselves, which can be anything from campaigning for the equality of the sexes to helping people in poorer countries.

Do not put all your eggs in one basket, Rojas Marcos advises. "My sources of happiness, for instance, include my writing, my work, my family, and spending time with my daughter. Each compartment of happiness compensates losses in the other compartments and helps me be more reasonable."

There are ways of life which favour happiness, such as taking exercise, eating carbohydrates which stabilize levels of serotonin in the brain, and exposing oneself to sunlight. But the main secret of happiness - something that can also be learned - is the capacity to take pleasure in small things.

"If you are given a choice between eternal happiness and a cheese sandwich, take the sandwich," musician Julian Hernandez advised. (DPA)