Showing posts with label Monitor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monitor. Show all posts
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Nepal gets new leader, but future still jittery - Christian Science Monitor
Kathmandu, Nepal
Nepal got a functioning prime minister after seven months of leadership vacuum on Thursday, but analysts refused to call it a breakthrough and remained jittery about the future of the country’s stalled peace process.
Skip to next paragraphJhala Nath Khanal, the chief of a moderate communist party, Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), was elevated to the post after 16 rounds of voting. He got last-minute backing from the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which fought a 10-year war against state forces until 2006.
While a step forward after months of embarrassing votes, the formation of a government is just a small step toward political stability in Nepal, which confronts the serious challenges of settling the future of some 19,000 Maoist combatants and drawing up a new constitution. And analysts say that the new coalition threatens to cause a left-leaning polarization and an escalation of ambitions of the Maoists, who are now in a position to oust the new prime minister at will.
The previous government was backed by the moderate Nepali Congress party and several ethnic parties, making it less receptive to Maoist demands. Those demands include radical land reforms, subservience of the judiciary to the legislature, and a constitutional provision of banning "antinationalist’" political parties.
Mr. Kanal is considered far more sympathetic to Maoist agendas.
“The coalition might trigger a fragmentation in Nepal’s politics,” warns Yubaraj Ghimire, political commentator and former editor of the Kathmandu Post. “Depending on how the Maoists behave, a tussle between Nepal Army and democratic forces on the one side, and the ruling coalition on the other side, is possible,” he adds.
Others are even gloomier in their assessment.
“The only achievement of Thursday’s election is that the parliament replaced a caretaker prime minister with a functioning prime minister,” says Bhimarjun Acharya, a columnist and constitutional lawyer. “I don’t expect the formation of a new government to inject any momentum into the constitution writing effort."
The Nepali Congress party said on Friday that it felt betrayed by UML forming an alliance with the Maoists. The previous government was supported by the Nepali Congress, which had expected UML to support to their prime ministerial candidate.
The future of ex-combatants and a new constitution was supposed to have been resolved by last May. But a power struggle that has gripped the country since a special assembly was elected in April, 2008, hindered progress.
The assembly’s life was extended, and just four months remain before the extended deadline expires. A UN mission that was monitoring the combatants, who are corralled in 28 camps, left the country Jan. 15.
Mr. Acharya, the lawyer, terms Thursday’s surprise coalition announcement unnatural. “It was just an expression of anger and frustration of the Maoists. After being unable to gather support for getting elected himself, Maoist chairman Prachanda wanted to teach India a lesson by elevating someone not favored by India to power,” he says.
Prachanda admitted while addressing the parliament on Thursday that he had decided to withdraw his own candidacy and support Khanal to prove that Nepal can make its own decisions, a clear reference to Indian influence (often termed here as interference) in Nepal’s politics.
His support could complicate Khanal's ability to function. Khanal's UML party leadership is dominated by liberal communists who do not want to promote the Maoist agenda. Khanal will face the twin challenge of tempering the liberals in his own party and continuing to get support of the Maoist party.
Narayan Wagle, editor-in-chief of Nagarik, a leading Nepali daily, echoed similar concerns in an opinion piece published Friday. “The success of the new government will depend on whether the Maoists use Mr. Khanal as their puppet," he wrote, "or help him complete the peace process and constitution writing.”
Friday, February 4, 2011
US-sized Cyclone Yasi could cost Australia more than $2 billion - Christian Science Monitor
Melbourne, Australia 
As the disaster-ravaged state of Queensland dusts itself off from Cyclone Yasi, economists are warning that Australia’s latest tussle with nature could wipe more than $2 billion off the country’s gross domestic product. Food prices and insurance premiums are expected to rise, while a vital tourism and agricultural area has been decimated.
Skip to next paragraph
Still, considering Yasi was a category five cyclone only a little smaller than the United States, analysts are saying Australia should consider itself lucky.
“It certainly could have been a lot worse,” says Luke Mathews, a commodity analyst with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Yasi flattened properties, overturned luxury yachts, and ripped up plantations along a 125-mile-stretch of Queensland’s picturesque coast when it came ashore with winds of more than 125 mph late Wednesday night. On Thursday some 130,000 properties remained without electricity as Australia deployed 4,000 soldiers to help with the recovery effort. At least one person is known to have died in the cyclone, asphyxiated by fumes from a generator operating in a small room.
“We were extremely lucky from an economic perspective," continues Mr. Mathews. "We were lucky because of where Yasi crossed the Australian coast, which avoided major population centers, and we were lucky because it avoided key mining infrastructure and assets. But certainly the agricultural industry will be impacted.”
Agricultural losses from Yasi are already being put at $1 billion, while $300 million in coal exports have been lost because of suspended business operations and port closures. Queensland’s latest natural disaster bill comes as the state recovers from January floods that covered an area larger than Texas and California combined and caused $5.6 billion in damage.
Damage to Queensland’s sugarcane crop is expected to weigh in at $500 million, representing about 30 percent of Australia’s harvest. Australia is the world’s third-largest sugar exporter. World sugar prices rose to a 37-year-high after news of Yasi broke. They dropped significantly Thursday, but were still trading some three times above the long-term average.
Likewise, the price of bananas is expected to soar by up to 500 per cent after three quarters of the nation’s crop was wiped out. Queensland’s banana industry, worth some $400 million, was only just getting back on its feet following Cyclone Larry in 2006 which decimated 90 percent of the nation’s crop.
Page: 1 | 2Thursday, February 3, 2011
Obama Continues to Monitor Tense Egypt Situation - Voice of America
White House February 03, 2011
President Obama returned to the White House after a brief trip to Pennsylvania on Thursday, and has been holding more consultations with his advisers on the situation in Egypt. The United States pressed harder on the Egyptian government and military to stop a wave of violence.
The president moved quickly past members of the press corps without comment, and into the Oval Office where over the past few days of the Egyptian crisis he has met with advisers and spoken twice by telephone with President Hosni Mubarak.
In an interview with ABC's Christiane Amanpour, Mr. Mubarak referred to those conversations and said, according to excerpts, while he is a "very good man" Mr. Obama didn't understand the culture of Egypt.
In the same interview, Mr. Mubarak said he was "very unhappy" with violence in Egypt, which he blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood, but said he could not step down and risk the chaos he says would ensue.
President Obama's only public remark on Egypt came much earlier in the day, in a speech to the National Prayer Breakfast.
"We are also mindful of the violence we are now seeing in the Middle East and we pray that the violence in Egypt will end and that the rights and aspirations of the Egyptian people will be realized and a better day will dawn over Egypt and throughout the world," he said.
There were no indications President Obama would make any additional remarks on Egypt, as the United States stepped up pressure on the government in Cairo to prevent additional violence.
Egypt's Vice President Omar Suleiman told ABC the government would never authorize the use of force against the Egyptian people, saying they had legitimate grievances, which he and President Mubarak asserted the government had met.
Earlier, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs issued a strong condemnation of violence in Egypt, and called systematic targeting of journalists completely and totally unacceptable.
The veteran U.S. diplomat, retired Ambassador Frank Wisner, returned to Washington early on Thursday from Cairo where he conveyed key messages from the U.S. government to President Mubarak and other officials.
The State Department said Wisner had briefed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but it was unclear whether he would also brief the president.
Secretary Clinton said the U.S condemns attacks on journalists, saying the Egyptian government and army have a clear responsibility to protect those threatened and hold accountable those responsible for attacks on the media.
She also urged the beginning of serious negotiations between the Egyptian government and a broad and credible representation of Egypt's opposition, civil society and political factions. ((END OPT))
The White House provided details late Thursday of a conversation President Obama had with President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, where largely peaceful demonstrations occurred between pro and anti-government factions.
According to the statement, Mr. Obama welcomed "significant reform measures" and stressed the need for President Saleh "to follow-up his pledge with concrete actions." Mr. Obama also said Yemeni security forces should show restraint and refrain from violence against demonstrators.
President Obama also used the call to tell President Saleh it is "imperative" that Yemen take forceful action against Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and expressed concern over the release of Abd-Ilah al-Shai, who had been sentenced to five years in prison for his association with AQAP.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)