EDGE Spring Presentation

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EDGE Spring Presentation

• Peace or war in Middle East
• The World Bank
• Russia making friends in Mid East
• Nigeria Update
• International Efforts to relieve Poverty
• Latin America
• International Cartels, Sae-Wong
• India Economic Emergence, Olsen
• MAGREB Rural Economic Investment, Bekka

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Cheney's choices Egypt PerspectiveOminously back
in the region, the US vice-president, running out
of time in Washington, may well roll the dice for
another military misadventure, writes Hassan
Nafaa The writer is a professor of political
science at Cairo University

• .. May 23, 2007
• Today, in order to show how serious he is about
  getting the negotiations ball rolling again, he
  will give some play to the Arab peace initiative.
  But play is about as far as it will go firstly,
  because Cheney is mostly interested in playing
  for time and, secondly, because an acceptable
  settlement has never been more out of reach than
  it is at present. So probably the most we will
  see will be some preliminary talks while
  preparations are put into place for a strike
  against Iran, which could take place much sooner
  than many imagine and probably no later than
  October or November. It was not just for show
  that Cheney climbed aboard an American aircraft
  carrier in the Gulf and shouted threats at Iran.

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KUWAIT TIMESWolfowitz departure challenges US
leadershipPublished Date May 20, 2007By Carol
Giacomo Lesley Wroughton

• The ouster of Paul Wolfowitz as World Bank
  president in the face of bitter European
  opposition poses an unprecedented challenge to
  the United States' global financial leadership.
  Weakened by chaos in Iraq, low popularity and his
  lame-duck status, President George W Bush was
  unable to prevent Wolfowitz's departure - the
  first ever of a World Bank president - after
  weeks of resistance and public acrimony over his
  promotion of a companion.
• Some US officials and experts expressed alarm
  that the controversy could force the United
  States to give up its World Bank pre-eminence and
  long tradition of appointing the president,
  perhaps creating an opening for rising power
  China. Others argued that a radical overhaul of
  the system of selecting the president and bank
  lending policies is the only way for the
  institution to regain credibility. "There is
  growing discomfort with this idea that the United
  States should hand pick the World Bank president
  with no consultation," said Kenneth Rogoff,
  former chief economist at the International
  Monetary Fund.

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Russian Orthodox Church Reunites

• Russian Orthodox Church Mends Global
  SchismOverseas church that refused Soviet
  control formally reunites with homeland hierarchy
  in Moscow.By David Holley, Times Staff Writer
  Los Angeles Times, May 18, 2007
• MOSCOW The Russian Orthodox Church on Thursday
  formally ended an 80-year global schism triggered
  when overseas exiles refused to accept the
  church's subservience to the Soviet state.
• In a ceremony at Christ the Savior Cathedral,
  which was rebuilt in the 1990s after it had been
  torn down decades earlier by Soviet dictator
  Josef Stalin, leaders of the domestic and
  overseas Russian Orthodox hierarchies signed an
  act of "canonical communion."
• The document provides for the full restoration of
  religious unity under the Moscow patriarchate
  while maintaining autonomy for the church abroad
  in organizational and economic matters.
• "A historic event has taken place, which has been
  awaited for many, many years," Patriarch Alexei
  II said during the religious service marking
  reunification.
• "Confrontations in society inherited at the time
  of the revolution and civil war are being
  overcome. The church is being strengthened. Our
  fatherland is being revived," he said.

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Spotlight on Russian ties Gulf Daily News
Vol XXX  NO. 61 Sunday 20th May 2007

• MANAMA The Bahrain-Russia Business Council will
  hold a two-day meeting to discuss investment
  opportunities in finacial, commercial and
  industrial sectors, including the Arab-Russian
  Bank project.
• The meeting, which starts tomorrow, is being
  organised by the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and
  Industry (BCCI) in collaboration with the
  Arab-Russian Business Council and Arab Commerce
  and Industry Chambers Federation.

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Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa
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(No Transcript)
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More today in BUSINESS

• Islamic real estate fund to target US market
• New director at Ritz-Carlton
• Batelco signs insurance deal
• Saudi insurers launch IPOs to raise 95m
• UAE to bolster Korea trade ties
• Hermes to open office in Bahrain
• Alhokair's profits fall by 29.4pc
• US gets free hand on World Bank job
• Sky slams Virgin
• 267m Mobily deal to expand 3G network
• Kuwait Finance House to raise capital by 25pc
• Pantone in accord with Mideast firm
• Kuwait to review exchange rate policy
• 2.5bn trade deals
• Dubai firm buys 25m bank stake
• Developing states seek G8 help to fight poverty
• 400m loan to fund Apicorp expansion
• G8 sees another year of growth
• Documentary Credits worth 1.25 trillion of
  global trade

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Developing states seek G8 help to fight poverty

• SHUNEH, Jordan A summit of G11 developing
  countries yesterday agreed to push for
  co-operation with G8 industrialised nations and
  boost multilateral ties in a bid to lift millions
  of people out of poverty.
• "Our two organisations have a vital shared goal,
  to strengthen prosperity and peace in the 21st
  century, Jordan's King Abdullah II told G11
  heads of state and officials on the sidelines of
  a Middle East World Economic Forum.
• The G11, launched last September by King
  Abdullah, groups Croatia, Ecuador, El Salvador,
  Georgia, Honduras, Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco,
  Pakistan, Paraguay and Sri Lanka.
• Progress by the 11 in forging ahead with reforms,
  building their economies and alleviating poverty
  rests on "having the budgetary space to continue
  to invest in development and economic growth,"
  the king said.
• "It is vital that the international community
  support our continued progress," hampered by high
  debt, rising oil prices and other challenges, he
  told delegates.
• The presidents of Croatia, El Salvador, Georgia
  and Sri Lanka attended the nearly two-hour summit
  alongside senior officials from the other G11
  countries. Representatives from G8 members
  Germany and Japan were also present.

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Annan calls for investment to heal wounds of
slaveryPress Association Tuesday May 8, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

• Former United Nations secretary-general Kofi
  Annan called today for a "bold investment" in
  poverty relief in Africa to heal the past wounds
  of slavery. In a rare address to both houses of
  parliament to mark the bicentenary of the
  abolition of the slave trade, Mr Annan said
  slavery was a "stain on human history" from which
  hardly any part of the world was exempt.
• "The trade whose abolition we commemorate today
  was an abominable practice taken to its most
  abominable extreme," he said. In a rare address
  to both houses of parliament to mark the
  bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade,
  Mr Annan said slavery was a "stain on human
  history" from which hardly any part of the world
  was exempt.
• "The trade whose abolition we commemorate today
  was an abominable practice taken to its most
  abominable extreme," he said.
• "And today we should ask ourselves not only why
  Britain abolished it 200 years ago, but why it
  was tolerated for so long."

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• Mr Annan said many Africans believed that history
  had still not repaired the past wounds for
  slavery, driving a demand for reparations.
• But he said that, at a time when Africa might be
  the only region of the world which would not
  achieve the majority of the UN's millennium
  development goals by 2015, the issue was best
  dealt with through investment in poverty relief.
• "In order to build on our common rights and
  values, we must be conscious of our intertwined
  fate," he said.
• "A bold investment in addressing poverty in
  Africa, as promised by the G8 in Gleneagles,
  would be the best way to heal the wounds of the
  past and turn the page."
• Mr Annan said that with thousands of women and
  children around the world being sold and
  exploited every day, slavery has still not been
  consigned to history.
• "In a perverse commercialisation of humanity,
  they are used like products and then thrown away.
  
• "Slavery cannot be relegated to the annals of
  history so long as men, women and children are
  still being coerced, drugged, tricked, and sold
  to do dangerous and degrading work against their
  will."

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• YarAdua and one week test of will
• In the past, one week, YarAdua has been exposed
  to long grueling hours of performing state
  functions. He wakes up early enough every day to
  prepare for the tough schedule of receiving and
  attending to unending batches of visitors who
  were on same mission of expressing solidarity for
  his incoming civilian government. YarAdua had
  received

solidarity supporters groups from many states of
the federation beginning from last Monday. The
list is endless. What made the visitations
striking was the demonstration of instant support
from state governors from across the federation.
In each entourage were state governors,
traditional rulers, state executive members,
legislators and indeed, governors-elect and their
deputies. For instance, against the backdrop
of heavy condemnation of the electoral victory of
the Katsina State governor in the presidential
election, the Ambassador of the United States to
Nigeria, Mr. John Campbell, led his counterparts
from other countries to pay the President elect,
a solidarity visit.In the North, a support for a
cause by the council of Ulamas is considered a
blessing and a good omen. That YarAdua now has
them in his support speaks volumes. Meanwhile,
the leader of the Ulamas had disclosed that it
was the President-elect who encouraged their
coming to Abuja. That was understandable. The
Northern branch of Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN) led by Peter Jatau also paid a
solidarity visit to YarAdua. Like the Ulamas,
they shared a session of prayers with him and
urged him not to derail from his resolve to
transform Nigeria and reduce the high poverty
level in the country.
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Ecuadors Correa, the continents leader with
most support

• Ecuadors president Rafael Correa is the
  Latin-American leader with most support in the
  continent while his counterpart in Guatemala
  Oscar Berger ranks in the opposite end, according
  to a report published by the Mexican public
  opinion consultants Mitofsky.
• Correa took office last January 15 and according
  to the latest opinion poll in Ecuador has a 76
  support, ahead of all other American leaders.
• The second most popular leader, by a slight
  margin, is Colombias Alvaro Uribe with a 75
  support last April in spite of being five years
  in office.
• Mexican president Felipe Calderón who took office
  last December follows with 65 approval, the same
  as Venezuelas Hugo Chavez who has been in office
  for eight years. President Evo Morales from
  Bolivia has 64 support.
• At the other end figure Guatemalas Berger with
  20 approval Panamas Martin Torrijos, 24
  United States George Bush, bashed by the Iraq war
  with 36 and Dominican Republic Leonel Fernandez,
  38.
• The middle ground is occupied by Nicaraguas
  Daniel Ortega, 61 Uruguays Tabare Vazquez,
  60 Argentinas Nestor Kirchner 57 Honduras
  Manuel Zelaya, 57 Antonio Saca from El
  Salvador, 56 Costa Ricas Oscar Arias, 55
  Paraguays Nicanor Duarte, 54 and Chiles
  Michelle Bachelet, 51.
• Below 50 are, Brazils Lula da Silva with 49
  Perus Alan Garcia, 49 and Canadian Prime
  Minister Stephen Harper, 45.

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Bolivia to hike mine tax to 50 20/05/2007 1746

• La Paz - Bolivia plans to hike taxes on mining
  companies to 50 of profit, from 35 now, as
  leftist President Evo Morales strives to reap
  more benefits from the country's mineral wealth,
  a mining official said. After taking office as
  the country's first president of indigenous
  descent in January 2006, Morales drastically
  raised taxes on natural gas operations and
  nationalised reserves of the fuel.
• He has repeatedly pledged to carry out similar
  reforms in the mining sector.
• "They (mining companies) are taking 65 of
  profits ... and the government only collects
  approximately 35. We want that percentage to be
  more equal, so they take 50, and we take 50,"
  the head of the mining ministry commercialisation
  and investment unit, Freddy Beltran, told
  Reuters.
• Bolivia hosts some major global mining companies,
  including US-based Apex Silver Mines and Coeur
  d'Alene Mines Corp.
• Both companies are due to start production at
  large silver mines over the next year, and are so
  heavily invested in the country that pulling out
  because of the tax is not a likely scenario,
  Beltran said.

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Chavez urges Pope to appologize Sat, 19 May 2007
210729

• Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez demanded Pope
  Benedict apologize to Indians in Latin America
  for comments on the superiority of Catholicism.
• Chavez, who had not directly criticized the Pope
  before, accused the Pontiff on Friday of ignoring
  the "holocaust" that followed Christopher
  Columbus's 1492 landing in the Americas.
• "With all due respect your Holiness, you should
  apologize because there was a real genocide here
  and if we were to deny it, we would be denying
  our very selves," Chavez said at an event on
  freedom of expression.
• In a speech to Latin American and Caribbean
  bishops at the end of a visit to Venezuela's
  neighbor Brazil, the Pope said the Church had not
  imposed itself on the indigenous people of the
  Americas.
• Indian leaders in the region were outraged by the
  comments since millions of tribal Indians are
  believed to have died as a result of European
  colonization backed by the Church, through
  slaughter, disease or enslavement.
• Chavez spoke only days after Venezuelan media
  interpreted other comments from the Pope as
  singling out Chavez as a danger to Latin America
  when he warned of autocrats in the region.
• Chavez, who regularly criticizes world figures
  such as US President, describes himself as a
  Christian who grew up expecting to become a
  priest and says his socialist policies have roots
  in the teachings of Jesus Christ, Reuter's
  reports.

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Alternative bank project advances Noticias
Aliadas.  May 16, 2007

• Finance ministers from Argentina, Bolivia,
  Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Venezuela May 3
  accepted a proposal by Venezuelan leader Hugo
  Chávez to create the Banco del Sur, or Bank of
  the South, a financial body aimed at reducing the
  regions dependence on multilateral lending
  institutions.The Bank of the South will have
  funds from member countries foreign
  reserves.One of the aims is to strengthen the
  Latin American Reserve Fund to which Bolivia,
  Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela
  contribute. The proposal is to support the
  countries members payment balances by issuing
  credits or guaranteeing loans to third parties
  and contribute to the harmonization of exchange,
  monetary and financial policies.The bank will
  finance local and regional infrastructure and
  development projects.

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Camino al Banco del Sur y al Fondo del Sur
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Mapuche Hope for Indigenous Rights

• SANTIAGO, May 17 (IPS) - In the next few days,
  President Michelle Bachelet will throw all her
  political weight behind the motion for Congress
  to finally ratify the ILO convention recognising
  the collective and individual rights of
  indigenous people. Bachelet will make the draft
  ratification law an urgent priority, obliging the
  Senate to vote on it within 10 days. This measure
  is part of the new indigenous policies announced
  by the government in the last few weeks, which,
  however, do not fully satisfy the Mapuche people,
  Chile's largest native ethnic group. "The draft
  law to ratify ILO (International Labour
  Organisation) Convention 169 will be passed if
  the government manages to get the two further
  votes it needs from the (rightwing) opposition
  alliance," Nancy Yáñez, co-director of the
  Observatory of Indigenous People's Rights, told
  IPS.

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Connvention (No. 169) concerning Indigenous and
Tribal Peoples in Independent CountriesAdopted
on 27 June 1989 by the General Conference of the
International Labour Organisation at its
seventy-sixth session

• . This Convention applies to
• (a) Tribal peoples in independent countries whose
  social, cultural and economic conditions
  distinguish them from other sections of the
  national community, and whose status is regulated
  wholly or partially by their own customs or
  traditions or by special laws or regulations
• (b) Peoples in independent countries who are
  regarded as indigenous on account of their
  descent from the populations which inhabited the
  country, or a geographical region to which the
  country belongs, at the time of conquest or
  colonisation or the establishment of present
  State boundaries and who, irrespective of their
  legal status, retain some or all of their own
  social, economic, cultural and political
  institutions.
• 2. Self-identification as indigenous or tribal
  shall be regarded as a fundamental criterion for
  determining the groups to which the provisions of
  this Convention apply.
• 3. The use of the term "peoples" in this
  Convention shall not be construed as having any
  implications as regards the rights which may
  attach to the term under international law.

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• Article 2
• 1. Governments shall have the responsibility for
  developing, with the participation of the peoples
  concerned, co-ordinated and systematic action to
  protect the rights of these peoples and to
  guarantee respect for their integrity.
• 2. Such action shall include measures for
• (a) Ensuring that members of these peoples
  benefit on an equal footing from the rights and
  opportunities which national laws and regulations
  grant to other members of the population
• (b) Promoting the full realisation of the social,
  economic and cultural rights of these peoples
  with respect for their social and cultural
  identity, their customs and traditions and their
  institutions
• (c) Assisting the members of the peoples
  concerned to eliminate socio-economic gaps that
  may exist between indigenous and other members of
  the national community, in a manner compatible
  with their aspirations and ways of life.
• Article 3
• 1. Indigenous and tribal peoples shall enjoy the
  full measure of human rights and fundamental
  freedoms without hindrance or discrimination. The
  provisions of the Convention shall be applied
  without discrimination to male and female members
  of these peoples.
• 2. No form of force or coercion shall be used in
  violation of the human rights and fundamental
  freedoms of the peoples concerned, including the
  rights contained in this Convention.
• Article 4
• 1. Special measures shall be adopted as
  appropriate for safeguarding the persons,
  institutions, property, labour, cultures and
  environment of the peoples concerned.
• 2. Such special measures shall not be contrary to
  the freely-expressed wishes of the peoples
  concerned.
• 3. Enjoyment of the general rights of
  citizenship, without discrimination, shall not be
  prejudiced in any way by such special measures.
• Article 5
• In applying the provisions of this Convention
• (a) The social, cultural, religious and spiritual
  values and practices of these peoples shall be
  recognised and protected, and due account shall
  be taken of the nature of the problems which face
  them both as groups and as individuals
• (b) The integrity of the values, practices and
  institutions of these peoples shall be respected
  
• (c) Policies aimed at mitigating the difficulties
  experienced by these peoples in facing new
  conditions of life and work shall be adopted,
  with the participation and co-operation of the
  peoples affected.

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REPORT UPDATES

• International Cartels, Sae-Wong
• India Economic Emergence, Olsen
• MAGREB Rural Economic Investment, Bekka