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world poverty Rock stars, UN unite for virtual concert GENEVA, Oct 10: Showbusiness elite joined UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in Geneva last night in a vast effort to harness music and the ...more China wants friendly BEIJING, Oct 10: China today said it wants to have friendly relations with India and hoped the two sides could work jointly to strengthen bilateral ties. ...more Kuwait considering steps DUBAI, Oct 10: Alarmed over the increasing number of expatriates in the country, Kuwait is considering steps to cut down on recruitment of unskilled ..more Lankan Army celebrates COLOMBO, Oct 10: Amid unprecedented security, the embattled Sri Lankan Army today celebrated its golden jubilee with an impressive parade ..more TAIPEI, Oct 10: Taiwan has 433 centenarians, more than two-thirds of them women, the Interior Ministry has said. Of those over 100 years of age, 309 are women and 124 are men.....more |
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Gorbachev to return MOSCOW, Oct 10: For the first time since his debacle in the presidential....more
Russia PM wants end MOSCOW, Oct 10: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.....more
Govt to take painful steps NEW YORK, Oct 10: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha.....more |
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To
fight world poverty GENEVA, Oct 10: Showbusiness elite joined UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in Geneva last night in a vast effort to harness music and the internet to fight world poverty. Netaid — organised by the United Nations Development Programme and CISCO Systems CSCO.O — hoped to lure millions to the virtual site, starting with the 11-hour transatlantic concert. Geneva is one of the three venues hosting the overlapping performances, which started at Wembley stadium in London, and moves from Switzerland to giants stadium in New York. Musicians included the re-united English rock duo the eurythmics, who opened the show in London, George Michael and Pete Townsend, Wyclef Jean of the Fugees, Bono of the Irish rock Group U2, Sting, Sheryl Crow, Singer Bryan Ferry, rap singer Puff Daddy and South African band ladysmith Black Mambazo. Mr Annan, speaking from the Palais Des Nations, invited virtual viewers to click on "give" in order to make an on-line donation. "In three days time, there will be six billion human beings. Nearly half of them will have to survive on two dollars a day or less," said Mr Annan. "And now every one of us can help change it, with a click of the mouse on the internet website. There are no more excuses. Let’s bring on a new day," he said. Hopes of millions of donors in Cyberspace. He spoke to a live, invitation-only audience here, and what was hoped to be several million more donors in Cyberspace. (REUTERS) |
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China wants friendly ties with India BEIJING, Oct 10: China today said it wants to have friendly relations with India and hoped the two sides could work jointly to strengthen bilateral ties. Congratulating the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on its election triumph, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said: We hope and believe that the new Indian Government to be formed will continue to work hard for the improvement and development of Sino-Indian relations. She told PTI that the Chinese Government always attached importance to the development of friendly and good-neighbourly relations with India. A healthy and friendly Sino-Indian relation also benefits the people of both sides, she said. We hope that the two sides will work hard together to continue to push the bilateral relations on the basis of the important understandings which we have already reached, Zhang said with regard to the decisions made between China and India during the visit to Beijing by External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh in mid-June. India and China have agreed to hold a security dialogue to discuss regional and global security concerns. The new Indian Government is expected to work out with Beijing a convenient date for holding the first-ever security dialogue with China, official sources said. (PTI) |
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Kuwait considering steps to cut
down recruitment DUBAI, Oct 10: Alarmed over the increasing number of expatriates in the country, Kuwait is considering steps to cut down on recruitment of unskilled labour in the Gulf state. According to Kuwait Minister for Cabinet Affairs Mohammad Sharar, the move was aimed at achieving a "demographic balance" between Kuwaiti nationals and expatriates. He said the issue was discussed earlier this week at a meeting of the Cabinet which also considered the recommendations of a Government committee in this regard. "A number of measures were discussed,including one to cut down the recruitment of unskilled foreign labour and the need that the Kuwaiti society should be a productive society", Mr Sharar was quoted as saying by Arab Times. Expatriates form the bulk of manpower in Kuwait. Most of the expatriates in the country come from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The minister said the Government had a clear vision about the way demographic balance was to be restored."We have to do this in a gradual manner so as not to affect any sector". Kuwait Planning Minister Mohammed Al-Duwaihees, who heads the Demographic Structure Committee, said the recommendations called to "control the recruitment of domestic manpower, particularly domestic helpers,whose numbers have reached 2,56,000". He said the Committee called for revising legislation governing recruitment of domestic labour "so that sponsors bear part of the actual cost of these people at the state. The number of domestics had been increasing rapidly, he noted. Meanwhile, reports have also come in from Muscat saying that Oman was drawing a new list of professionals from which expatriates would be banned. Omani Minister for Social Affairs, Labour and Vocational Training Shaikh Shuwain Al Hosni said the list would be announced shortly after his ministry had completed necessary studies and colected data, adding that an earlier decision prohibiting non-Omanis from working as personnel managers or executives in private sector companies would come into force by the end of December. Shaikh Amer categorically stated that the new rule "omanising" the jobs of real estate agents, which became a law on October one, would not be reversed. He said the ministry was aware of the manipulations by some people to circumvent the regulation. Some exptraiates, he said, had changed their position as "partners" and continued to work in administrative jobs in a number of real estate firms. The ministry, he warned, was determined to put an end to all such practices through legal means. Oman also announced that it would soon introduce "residency cards" for expatriates while issuing new identity cards to Omani nationals. These reports from Kuwait and Oman came close on the heels of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently deciding to impose certain restrictions on unskilled workers from India and Pakistan. However, UAE officials have already clarified that the move was aimed at providing jobs to the unskilled labour already available in the job market and the restrictions would not apply to qualified people. (UNI) |
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Lankan Army celebrates golden jubilee amid high security COLOMBO, Oct 10: Amid unprecedented security, the embattled Sri Lankan Army today celebrated its golden jubilee with an impressive parade at the galle face green, on the shores of the Indian ocean here. Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga and a host of foreign dignitaries including Army Chiefs of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vice Chief of Staff of Indian Army, Lt Gen. Chandrasekhar, witnessed the the 50 year old Army parading the modest hardwares like battle tanks, artillery and other armaments acquired to counter the growing conventional capability of LTTE. Fast moving gun boats, specially acquired from Israel to blunt the LTTE’s sea tigers capabilities kept up steady patrols on the sea waters opposite the parade ground to prevent rocket attacks by the rebels. Helicopter gunships made sorties over the area to prevent any land attacks on the Army’s last bash for the millennium. Police also sealed off all the roads leading to the parade grounds to prevent any suicide bomb attacks. Set up in October 10, 1949 by an act of Parliament with a small contingent of around 200 personnel, the Sri Lankan Army has come of age today with over 1.20 lakh personnel on its rolls to fight the Tamil militants, which is widely acclaimed as the most well organised guerrilla group in the world. Comprising 70,000 regulars and 50,000 volunteers, the Army was evolved into a major fighting machine handling two bloody majority Sinhalese youth insurrections by the sectarian left wing Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna, (JVP) and 16 year old ethnic war mounted by the LTTE. Ironically, though the Army completes 50 years, its growth as a major armed force was only during the last 16 years coinciding with rise of the LTTE as a powerful guerrilla force. Wrought with large scale dissentions from its ranks and modestly successful in containing the LTTE, the crowning glory of the Army was its capture of Northern Jaffna Peninsula from the rebels in 1995. After this the ltte withdrew into the adjacent Northern Vanni jungles from where its was carrying on its war against the armed forces. (PTI) |
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TAIPEI, Oct 10: Taiwan has 433 centenarians, more than two-thirds of them women, the Interior Ministry has said. Of those over 100 years of age, 309 are women and 124 are men. The oldest is a 115-year-old woman. The Ministry yesterday did not reveal the secret of these people’s longevity, but some centenarians have said manual labour, either in the fields or at home, and fresh air helped them to stay fit. (DPA) |
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Gorbachev to return active politics MOSCOW, Oct 10: For the first time since his debacle in the presidential polls in 1996, the last president of erstwhile Soveit Union Mikhail Gorbachev has announced that he will return to active domestic politics. I never change my idea, I have been throughout a social-democrat, Gorbachev declared yesterday and vowed to work for launching a united-democratic party in Russia, NTV reported. Speaking at the Congress of Russian social-democrats, his first public appearance since the death of his wife Raisa last month, the former president however, said that he was yet to decide the mode and means of his participation in the country’s politics due to numerous engagements abroad. Adored in the West for ending the cold war and shedding the iron curtain, Gorbachev, however, is disliked by the common man for destroying the Soviet Union. He polled less than one per cent votes in the Russian presidential polls in 1996 when he made his previous attempt to return to active politics. However, the death of his wife Raisa, who as the first lady played a major role in her husband’s policy of ‘perestroika’ has kindled the process of reassessment of the Gorbachev era and his personality. (PTI) |
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Russia PM wants end to terrorism ‘infection’ MOSCOW, Oct 10: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said plans to set up a buffer security zone in rebel Chechnya were proceeding well and called for redoubled efforts to eliminate the "infection" of terrorism. Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov admitted the two-week air and land campaign had inflicted civilian casualties in a conflict that has raised fears of a repeat of the 1994-96 Chechen war. Top officers had previously dismissed reports of civilians in Chechen villages being killed by Russian forces, saying their operations were directed solely against Islamic militants. Mr Putin yesterday said the operation, under which Russian troops hold a third of Chechnya, sought in the initial stage "to provide a reliable shelter for our citizens". The goal was to wipe out Islamic militants Moscow says tried to invade a nearby region and planted bombs in Russian cities that killed almost 300 people. "It (the buffer zone) is being created successfully. All we had planned is being done," Mr Putin told ort public television. "I think that whoever is in power in Russia...Has no choice but to free Russia from this infection of terrorism. "If we do not solve this problem, we will not solve the main task before us, which is creating order and maintaining Russia’s territorial integrity." Russian Foreign Minister regrets civilian casualties Mr Ivanov, speaking after talks in Ukraine, said he regretted there were casualties among both troops and civilians. (REUTERS) |
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Govt to take painful steps to scale back subsidies NEW YORK, Oct 10: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has indicated that the new Government will take politically painful steps to scale back subsidies and move forward with a second generation of economic reforms. Stressing the need for greater public spending on irrigation, electricity and agricultural research to strengthen rural economy, Sinha said politically painful steps would be taken to scale back subsidies to free up money for these new public investment. Sinha, in an interview with the ‘New York Times’ said the new NDA Government would quickly push the legislation to open the insurance industry to domestic and foreign investors. The hope is that the money consumers spend to buy policies will become a large pool of long-term capital that insurance companies will invest in power plants, ports and other big project, the paper said. Stating that people supported reforms, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu said, people thought if you talked about economic reforms, you would not get elected. But if you do well, people will believe you and vote for you. I have proved that in Andhra Pradesh, the daily quoted him as saying. Naidu said, you can’t just reduce subsidies and raise tax revenues. And you can’t spend all your time convincing the bill gateses of the world to set up shops in your state and the World Bank to invest its billions in your projects. You have to spend money on welfare programmes that people need to survive today. You have to invest in development programmes that will help them make a better living from their land. And you have to figure out ways to make sure that the money the Government already spends on the basics— schools, clinics, roads — goes further, he told the times. Comparing the performance of Naidu, state-level economic reformer, and former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, Aachitect of first round of economic reforms in the country, the paper says Singh did not have the natural politician’s knack for salesmanship. (PTI) |
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