5 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Trend News Agency (Azerbaijan)

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that development aid would have to increase to 18 billion dollars a year if the world was to remain on track to achieving a set of anti-poverty goals by 2015, reported dpa.

Countries have committed to eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, and Ban’s comments came ahead of a high-level meeting on stepping up global efforts to reach the MDGs in New York on September 25. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Development, Democratization and Human Rights

5 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Associated Press

KIEV, Ukraine — Vice President Dick Cheney insisted that Georgia will join NATO and backed its attempts to rebuild from its war with Russia on Thursday, using a trip to former Soviet republics as a show of U.S. support for their pro-Western leaders.

Cheney flew to Kiev from Georgia, where he denounced Russia’s “illegitimate, unilateral attempt” to redraw the U.S. ally’s borders by force. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under East-West Relations and Russia

5 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Frederick Asiamah
• Source: All Africa

Sep 05, 2008 (Public Agenda/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) — World leaders have been told to gear up or miss international commitments and targets for effective aid by 2010.

According to the findings of the “2008 Survey on Monitoring the Paris Declaration”, progress towards aid effectiveness is being made, “but not fast enough.” (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Development, Democratization and Human Rights

5 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Thalif Deen
• Source: Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS, Sep. 4, 2008 (IPS/GIN) — When the United Nations approved a set of development goals on poverty, health, gender empowerment and environmental sustainability, back in September 2000, it set a deadline of 2015 to reach these targets.

Of the eight millennium development goals endorsed by the General Assembly, seven had a clear-cut deadline of 2015 as the target date. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Multilateral Trade, Development

4 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: The Japan Times

Japan and the rest of the world have seen two Japanese prime ministers in a row suddenly throw in the towel without giving convincing reasons for doing so. Mr. Shinzo Abe announced his resignation Sept. 12, 2007, and Mr. Yasuo Fukuda on Sept. 1. The manner in which the two prime ministers decided to step down after less than a year in power was most unusual and irresponsible. It is unavoidable for people to get the impression that politicians these days make light of the duties and position of prime minister and to develop a distrust of politics in general. Despite differences in their political ideology and orientation, both Mr. Abe and Mr. Fukuda had one thing in common: Both lacked a mandate based on victories in general elections. They had merely inherited the big victory from former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in the September 2005 general elections, fought on the single issue of privatizing the nation’s postal service. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Other

4 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: William L. Watts
• Source: MarketWatch

The notion of European decoupling from a global downturn has been put to rest, replaced by fears the United Kingdom and the 15-nation euro-zone are engaged in what some economists see as a worldwide race to the bottom.

That’s part of the backdrop faced by the Bank of England’s rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee and the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, which are both expected to leave official interest rates unchanged when they conclude monthly policy meetings Thursday. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Global Financial Crises

4 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: All Africa

South Africa and Italy are to advance North-South relations on Saturday when Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma meets her Italian counterpart at Lake Como.

Minister Dlamini Zuma departed for Italy on Wednesday to hold discussions with Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Franco Frattini within the context of South Africa’s commitment to strengthening bilateral political and economic relations with Italy. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Multilateral Trade

4 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Reuters News

The world’s wealthiest countries are reneging on promises to boost development aid, threatening U.N. targets for drastically reducing poverty by 2015, according to a new U.N. report released on Thursday.

The report on progress on the so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) said there had been improvement in providing debt relief to the world’s poorest countries but not when it came to fulfilling trade and development commitments. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Democratization and Human Rights

4 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Ukrainian News

President Viktor Yuschenko has assured G7 ambassadors of constitutional and democratic settlement of the political crisis in the country, the presidential press service said.

During his meeting with the ambassadors, Yuschenko expressed his confidence that Ukraine will find constitutional way to settle current situation despite decisions taken on new coalition or new government. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Democratization and Human Rights

4 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Larry Elliott
• Source: The Guardian

Britain’s international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, will today announce a global initiative aimed at preventing the misuse of western aid to developing countries through bribery, corruption and waste.

In a plan backed by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and the European commission, Britain intends to make it easier for people in poor countries to track how aid budgets are being spent. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Development

4 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Ashley Seager
• Source: The Guardian

The British economy has swung from hero to zero remarkably quickly. In its budget last March, the government boasted that we had the best performance in the Group of Seven leading economies. Now, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts that Britain - alone among the G7 - will fall into recession this year, on the definition of two successive quarters of negative growth. The US, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and even Italy will escape this fate despite the double whammy of the credit crunch and high energy and food prices. So what has gone so wrong here? (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Global Financial Crises

3 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: The Japan Times

Eric Johnston Staff writer Hiroshima Lower house speakers from the Group of Eight nations promised Tuesday to strengthen efforts to uphold and reinforce the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which comes up for review in 2010. But despite lofty promises of unity in support of long-term nonproliferation efforts, the Hiroshima meeting was marked by political divisions over clashes between Russia and Georgia, as well as concerns over a nuclear deal between the United States and India. “There were strong statements from several speakers that we needed to uphold and reinforce the (nuclear) nonproliferation regime,'’ said Lower House Speaker Yohei Kono at a wrap-up news conference Tuesday evening. Kono admitted there were heated discussions over the growing crisis stemming from Russia’s recognition of the two breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a move that angered Washington and many in Europe. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Energy and Nuclear Safety, Regional Security

3 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Kyodo News

The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday countries managing state-backed sovereign wealth funds agreed on draft principles, which they are supposed to voluntarily respect in conducting their investment activities.

After being debated by the finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the Group of Seven industrialized nations in October, the draft accord is expected to be finalized at the IMF’s annual meeting in Washington later in the month. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Investment and Competition Policy

3 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Maeil Business Newspaper

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Tuesday lowered its forecast for economic growth in the major European economies and Japan and raised its expectations for the United States, which it predicted will grow at the fastest pace of all G-7 economies, reported the Associated Press. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Global Financial Crises

3 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Kyodo News

The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday it has reached an agreement in principle with Georgia to provide a $750 million loan package to the country to help it rebuild its economy hurt by recent clashes with Russia.

The IMF Executive Board is expected to approve the loan package, which will be provided in the form of an 18-month stand-by arrangement, at its meeting in mid-September. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Development, East-West Relations: Central and Eastern Europe

3 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Nicholas Kralev and Bill Gertz
• Source: The Washington Times

The Bush administration has ordered a review of U.S. defense cooperation programs with Russia but is not about to draw up “mindless lists” of penalties that could alienate the Russian people while leaving Moscow’s troops in Georgia, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, also called Russia’s accusation that “foreign navy ships” are delivering weapons to the former Soviet republic under the guise of humanitarian aid “complete nonsense.” (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under East-West Relations and Russia

3 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: UNI (United News of India)

Stressing that the Group of Eight (G-8) was not capable of functioning without Russia, President Medvedev has said without the presence of India and China in the ‘’outreach format'’, the decisions made by the group of industrialised nations will not be effective. ‘’Even the G-8 itself is already aware that without the presence of India and China, and use of the so called outreach format, several decisions in the G-8 format will not be fully effective,'’ Medvedev said in an interview to Euro News TV channel. He referred to the West’s possible move to expel Russia from G-8 or impose a ban on the country joining the WTO, in connection with Russia-Georgia conflict over South Ossetia. ‘’The G-8 will not survive without Russia,'’ he said emphatically. ‘’The matter of the WTO is a particular economic subject,'’ he said, adding, ‘’Indeed, we would like to join the WTO, but not at any cost.'’ (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under East-West Relations and Russia

3 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: ERIC BEAUCHESNE
• Source: Montreal Gazette

The outlook for growth for Canada’s economy this year has been cut again to less than one per cent and less than half that of the U.S. economy.

But Canadians probably will have to wait until after the federal election, expected in mid-October, for the Bank of Canada to ride to the economy’s rescue.

The Canadian dollar sank to a more than one-year low of 93.12 cents U.S. yesterday before closing at 93.58 cents U.S., down from 94.16 cents on Friday, while Bay St. stocks plunged more than 470 points in the wake of the post-Hurricane Gustav retreat in world oil prices and after a major international think tank cut its forecast for Canadian economic growth. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Global Financial Crises

3 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Kazakhstan General Newswire

The activity of the Group of Eight (G8) without Russia would not make any sense, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.

“The G8 cannot exist without Russia, and even if it tries to convene, this would not benefit the world order,” Medvedev said in an interview broadcast on EuroNews TV channel when asked to comment on proposals recently heard in the West on excluding Russia from the G8. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under 0-Unfiled

3 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Economist Intelligence Unit - ViewsWire

COUNTRY VIEW - FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT

OUTLOOK FOR 2008-09

The next general election, whether early or as scheduled in 2009, is likely to produce another victory for the Conservatives, although again without a majority. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Other

29 August 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Michael Mainville
• Source: Agence France Presse

Georgia on Friday broke diplomatic relations with Russia, heightening hostilities between the neighbours as Moscow also hit back at Western criticism.

Georgia announced the split three days after Russia formally recognised the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under East-West Relations and Russia, Regional Security

28 August 2008
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• Source: Trend News Agency (Azerbaijan)

The world’s leading industrial nations on Wednesday condemned Russia’s actions in Georgia, underlining the country’s growing estrangement from the West.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under East-West Relations and Russia, Regional Security

28 August 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News

Four protesters sentenced over riots at the G20 summit in Melbourne in November 2006, have had their sentences reduced on appeal.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under Other

28 August 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Toni Vorobyova
• Source: Reuters News

MOSCOW, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Russia wants to renegotiate a few current trade agreements, and is only ready to lower tariffs and liberalise trade after joining the World Trade Organisation, its top negotiator was quoted as saying on Thursday.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under Multilateral Trade, East-West Relations and Russia, Regional Security

28 August 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Alexander Osipovich
• Source: Agence France Presse

Russia won support Thursday from China and Central Asian states in its standoff with the West over the Georgia conflict as the European Union said it was weighing sanctions against Moscow.
(more…)

Filed by Anita Li under East-West Relations and Russia, Regional Security