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10/13/2008
Calls for Change Mount at IMF, World Bank Meet
Abid Aslam
WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (IPS) - Gone are the mobs in the street. Faced with a global recession, those demanding change from the rulers of the global economy appear to be on the inside as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank hold annual talks. Take Robert Zoellick, the bank's president. In his view, the Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers of industrial countries, long the embodiment of the world economic order, "is not working". "We need a better group for a different time," Zoellick said this week. He called for a new "steering group" made up of Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and G7 members Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
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Defiant Guyana to be Punished by EU
David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Oct 12 (IPS) - The European Union is preparing to impose swingeing taxes on goods imported from Guyana as punishment for the Caribbean island's refusal to accept a free trade accord. Unlike 13 other governments in the Caribbean, Guyana has opted out of signing an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU. A document expected to be rubber-stamped by the EU's foreign ministers Oct. 13 suggests that Guyana will therefore no longer benefit from the favourable treatment scheme for its Europe-bound exports that has been in place since 1975. As a result, it would be subject to higher tariffs on its exports of rice, rum and seafood. Some leeway is likely to be granted to sugar exports, at least on a temporary basis, according to diplomats. Guyana is the largest sugar exporter in the Caribbean. Patrick Gomes, Guyana's ambassador to Brussels, said that the EU's move could ultimately lead to his country losing 70 million euros (94 million dollars) each year. "For a small economy to absorb that loss would be devastating," he said, adding that he will be undertaking discussions with EU officials to see if a solution can be found ahead of the foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg.
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Muslim Charity to Get Its Day in Court
William Fisher
NEW YORK, Oct 12 (IPS) - In what appears to be another stunning legal rebuke to President George W. Bush's policies in the "global war on terrorism", a federal judge has blocked the government from blacklisting a Muslim-oriented charity to give the group a chance to defend itself after its assets were frozen almost three years ago. In response to a request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Ohio and several civil rights lawyers on behalf of KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development, Inc., Judge James G. Carr this week blocked the government from branding the organisation as a "specially designated global terrorist" "without first affording KindHearts with constitutionally adequate process," including notice and a meaningful opportunity to contest the basis for such a designation. The judge ruled that the government's proposed action prior to a judicial review will cause KindHearts to "suffer serious and irreparable injury in the form of loss of reputation and goodwill."
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'Class Struggle' in Thai Political Battle
Analysis by Johanna Son
BANGKOK, Oct 12 (IPS) - Beyond the sound and fury at the rallies and violence at recent protests here in Thai capital, a larger, more painful struggle over how to resolve deep divisions in electoral democracy continues -- and may well reshape politics in this South-east Asian country. For some five months now, Thais have been following the protests staged by the anti-government, conservative group called People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) to try to unseat the government led by Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat. Like his predecessor Samak Sundaravej who had to step down last month, Somchai is from the People Power Party (PPP), the successor to ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party and one that won the first democratic polls held after a 2006 military coup.
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Research and Tradition Could Save Environment
Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Oct 12 (IPS) - Africa risks losing up to 50 percent of its indigenous species over the next century due to global warming. Flooding and droughts are already causing millions of the continent's people to leave their homes, and land gets degraded as droughts force pastoralists to seek new grazing areas. The long-term ecological predictions are bleak, but scientists say this could be different if natural habitats are managed and protected. Ways of mitigating potential damage to the environment were discussed recently at a conference of the Biota Africa project, held in Stellenbosch, in South Africa's Western Cape Province. The Biodiversity Monitoring Transect Analysis in Africa (Biota) Project, sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, creates partnerships with scientists in Africa and elsewhere in order to make research results about biodiversity and sustainable development available to local land users and decision makers.
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Because Oil Is Not Green
Julio Godoy - IPS/Terraviva
BARCELONA, Oct 12 (IPS) - Several environmental organisations have asked the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to stop accepting funding from Shell, the giant international oil company. IUCN signed an agreement with Shell in October last year to support the private corporation's activity in protecting the environment. The agreement also brought the IUCN at least 1.2 million dollars, according to IUCN sources. The IUCN is the world's oldest and largest global environmental coalition, of more than 1,000 government and civil society member organisations, and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries. In a motion presented at the IUCN congress, member groups such as Friends of the Earth International, Pro Natura, the Argentine-based Latin American Centre for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA) and the Netherlands Society for Nature and Environment have called on the network "to terminate the agreement...with Shell."
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Newsbriefs
Mahathir May Return to Centre Stage in Malaysia Overdue Nobel Award Goes to the Right Man
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10/10/2008
EU Parliament Acts Against Child Trafficking
David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Oct 9 (IPS) - The European Union needs to develop a programme against child trafficking, the bloc's only directly elected institution has declared. Between two and four million people -- most of them children -- are estimated to fall victim to forced labour and other forms of trafficking each year. Since the Amsterdam Treaty came into effect in 1999, trafficking in human beings has been named as an area of responsibility for the EU as a whole. Yet even though the Union's executive, the European Commission, drew up a strategy on the rights of the child in 2006, anti-exploitation campaigners feel that it does not grapple properly with the problems associated with trafficking.
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Environmental Crises Likely to Spur Mass Migrations
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 9 (IPS) - As climate change, sea-level rise, earthquakes and floods threaten countries such as Bangladesh, Tuvalu, Vietnam and Tajikistan, the Tokyo-based U.N. University (UNU) warns that by 2050, some 200 million people will be displaced by environmental problems. This estimated figure is roughly equal to two-thirds of the current population in the United States or the combined population of Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands. "All indicators show that we are dealing with a major emerging global problem," says Janos Bogardi, director of UNU's Institute on the Environment and Human Security. The issue of migration, he points out, represents the most profound expression of the inter-linkage between the environment and human security.
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Afghan Peace Talks Widen US-UK Rift on War Policy
Analysis by Gareth Porter
WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (IPS) - The beginning of political talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban revealed by press accounts this week is likely to deepen the rift that has just erupted in public between the United States and its British ally over the U.S. commitment to an escalation of the war in Afghanistan. According to a French diplomatic cable that leaked to a French magazine last week, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government is looking for an exit strategy from Afghanistan rather than an endless war, and it sees a U.S. escalation of the war as an alternative to a political settlement rather than as supporting such an outcome.
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www.ipsnews.net
RELIGION-INDIA: Canonisation Takes More Than Miracles
POLITICS-THAILAND: 'Class Struggle' in Political Battle
RIGHTS-US: Muslim Charity to Get Its Day in Court
ECONOMY: U.S. Bows to Pressure, Will Buy Banks
ENVIRONMENT-CHILE: Pedalling Against Pollution
ECONOMY: Calls for Change Mount at IMF, World Bank Meet
U.S.: McCain Sinks on Economy, Palin Pick, Negative Attacks
SRI LANKA: Deep Plot Seen in Former Tiger Turning MP
ECONOMY-MEXICO: Bracing for the Blow
EU: Defiant Guyana to be Punished
ENVIRONMENT: Because Oil Is Not Green
ENVIRONMENT-US: Florida Hopes Energy Farm Will Be First of Many
POLITICS-SENEGAL: Ms. Mayor, Ms. Prefect
AFRICA: Research and Tradition Could Save Environment
Q&A: Central American "Exports, Production, Employment" Hit by Crisis
Headlines IPS
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