(December 19, 2005) Austria has announced it has cancelled the equivalent of $2.1 billion of Iraqi debt, amounting to 80% of Austria’s claims towards Iraq.
Political survival over people’s welfare
(December 18, 2005) In theory, the national budget can be a powerful mechanism for ensuring that public resources are used for the welfare of the majority. Unfortunately, narrow interests have perpetually hijacked the direction of Philippine economic policy and this is fully reflected in the national government budgets annually drawn up and implemented.
Deadline diggers: Archeologists race against the clock
The 100 teams toiling to save relics in the Three Gorges area ‘are fighting a losing battle, racing against a deadline they simply can’t hope to meet,’ China Daily reports.
China sentences four in radioactive
(December 17, 2005) China has sent four people to jail for stealing dangerous radioactive waste from a power plant in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
China’s longest river closes as flood toll rises
(December 16, 2005) The Yangtze River has been closed to all traffic at the site of the Three Gorges dam as flood water is now so high it is dangerous for ships to pass.
Iraqi elections: ‘To be free and fair’
(December 14, 2005) Only after occupation can the U.S. begin to make good on outstanding U.S. obligations to the people of Iraq – including compensation for the years of sanctions, reparations for the devastation of war, and cancellation of odious debt.
Africa needs freer markets – and fewer tyrants
(December 14, 2005) Famine in Niger is no surprise – desert wastes, locusts and decades of Marxist rule keep it second-to-last on the world poverty list. Famine in the fertile climes of southern and eastern Africa, however, seems more shocking. But there’s a common thread: centralized state rule – incompetent at best – marked by corruption and sustained by aid.
Floods test Zhu’s green policy
(December 13, 2005) The flood crests surging down the Yangtze present a political test for Premier Zhu Rongji and his supporters, who have been trying to take the greener path to ease the toll of perennial summer floods.
China’s latest flood disaster brings a rising tide of hype
This year’s rescue efforts may have been exaggerated, Richard McGregor and James Kynge report
China flood fears rise
Authorities in China are stepping up a massive anti-flood effort, mobilizing tens of thousands of people to shore up the nation’s second biggest freshwater lake which threatens to burst its banks and create a disaster worse than the deadly floods of 1998.
Compassionate debt relief or Paris Club 419?
(December 12, 2005) Some Nigerians refuse to celebrate the recent debt relief granted by the Paris Club cartel of creditors, and its accompanying conditions.
The West, quietly, is pillaging Iraq
(December 10, 2005) When Saddam Hussein grabbed power in 1979, Iraq had no long-term foreign debt. Cash reserves were $36 billion. Iraq had high literacy and public universities; it had extensive socialized health care. It was becoming a "first world" nation. Soon, however, this violent, cunning despot began squandering that wealth.
Volcker issue continues to rock Parliament
(December 8, 2005) The Opposition staged a noisy walkout in the Lok Sabha pressing their demand for the resignation of Sonia Gandhi as chairperson of National Advisory Council, alleging that Rs 528 crore from Iraqi oil deals had been stashed away in foreign banks.
Despotism and corruption in Africa: editorial
(December 8, 2005) Pakistan has not descended to the level where the face of our leaders, past or present, appear on our currency notes, yet many of our problems, political, social and economic, may be attributed to the persistence of a clan mentality: Razi Azmi
Yangtze Power Company switches to coal
(December 8, 2005) ‘Nobody ever said damming the Yangtze River would be profitable,’ writes Probe International’s Grainne Ryder, as the listed arm of the Three Gorges Project Development Corp. diversifies to coal to reduce its exposure to hydro risk.
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