International and Bilateral Issues

Deal brings relief to Euro-zone

Markets reacted favourably registering a rise of up to five per cent and stocks of French and German banks (which hold a major part of the Greek sovereign debt) rose spectacularly.
Leaders of the 17 Euro-zone nations agreed on a three pronged approach to solving the Euro crisis: wipe off 50 per cent of the Greek debt, recapitalise European banks and strengthen the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) to leverage up to a trillion Euros in order to prevent Italy or Spain from collapsing.
The person who emerged as the undisputed and triumphant leader from these negotiations was German Chancellor Angela Merkel
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, too, could go home happy although he failed to persuade the Germans to allow the EFSF to function as a bank and an extension of the European Central Bank in order to guarantee sovereign debt.
Athens will receive a fresh injection of 100 billion Euros by 2014 in the form of loans from Europe and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
As part of the plan to increase the clout of the bailout fund, the €440-billion ($610 billion) European Financial Stability Facility will be used to insure some of the potential losses on the debt of shaky Euro-zone countries like Italy and Spain, allowing it to leverage around €1 trillion.
China is expected to buy up European sovereign debt and the Euro-zone President Herman Van Rompuy is expected to fly to Beijing in the next two days.
It is in China's interest to have a healthy and viable European single currency and market since a large part of China's exports go to Europe.
But this is not the end of the story. The markets are euphoric because an agreement has been reached. There are still several grey areas such as how the banks will be recapitalised and the exact mechanism for increasing the leverage of the EFSF.

Shadow over Irish election

Ireland appeared to be on the cusp of what was dubbed a “political miracle” with a former Irish Revolutionary Army (IRA) commander accused of having blood on his hands likely to win the country's presidency.
The elections are being held to replace Mary McAleese, who has been Ireland's President since 1997 having won two successive seven-year terms. Under the Irish Constitution a President can be re-elected only once. It is essentially a ceremonial post with few executive powers.

Taliban hits U.S.-run base in Afghanistan

Taliban armed with guns and explosives struck a U.S.-run base in Kandahar
A group of “three to four” armed men, possibly with suicide vests, had taken up positions in an empty compound that was once used by the USAID development agency and were firing on the base
one civilian foreign national and one Afghan soldier had been wounded
They have parked two explosives-laden motorcycles and one minivan near the compound.... Police have arrived at the scene and are trying to diffuse the explosives
Five explosions were earlier heard at the base, and a sixth huge explosion later rocked the area near the base
officials from NATO's International Security Assistance Force had been taking place at the base at the time, but none of those present was hurt.

Turkey quake death toll passes 500

Snow blanketed eastern Turkey on Thursday, complicating rescue efforts and bringing more misery for the thousands left homeless by a devastating earthquake as the death toll passed 530.
But in a sign of the disillusionment with the help they had received so far, some families who had been staying in tents began returning to their homes despite warnings that they were still at risk of collapse.

“Don't let extremists hijack Arab Spring”

Piqued by the recent declaration by Libya's unelected interim rulers in favour of “Sharia laws,” 76 international human rights and secularist activists have launched a campaign for a free and secular West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region.
The list of well-known activists which includes Mina Ahadi from the International Committees against Stoning and Execution, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin and Stasw Zajovic of the Belgrade group Women in Black have jointly compiled a “Manifesto for a Free and Secular Middle East and North Africa”.
They call for complete separation of religion from the state, freedom of religion and atheism as private beliefs and prohibition of gender “apartheid' and compulsory veiling of women.

China boosts security after self-immolations in Sichuan

China has boosted security deployment and restricted communication in towns in the western Sichuan province after the tenth case of self-immolation protest by Tibetans in recent weeks.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said inciting people to such acts of violence was illegal.
Such splittist activities at the cost of human lives is violence and terrorism in disguise.
Dalai Lama regarded self-immolation as a form of violence. He said the monks were attempting to protest and bring attention to China's religious policies, which many monks consider restrictive. Monks are not allowed to worship the Dalai Lama in many monasteries in China.
The incidents, he said, could have a bearing on the ongoing talks between the Communist Party of China's United Front Work Department and the Dalai Lama's representatives.
While the Dalai Lama has called for greater autonomy in religious, cultural and educational areas for Tibetans, China has accused the Tibetan religious leader of continuing to support “splittist” activities.
“After the riots, Tibetans could not travel easily,” said one Tibetan in Beijing who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal from the authorities.
“It was difficult to find work,” he said. “We could not even rent apartments [in Beijing]. We do not want a return to that situation.”

Gala concert for reopening of the Bolshoi

The world-renowned Bolshoi Theatre is reopening after a reconstruction that took six years to complete and became the most expensive theatre renovation project ever.
underground spaces equivalent in size to a six-storey building that house sophisticated stage moving equipment and a concert hall for 320 seats.
Architects have meticulously recreated the Bolshoi (which means “Grand” in Russian) as it looked when re-opened in 1856 for the coronation of Czar Alexander II, the third and last time the 235-old theatre was rebuilt after devastating fires.

World Bank and U.N. put focus on corporate corruption

A joint report by the World Bank and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published on Monday, October 24, urges governments to devote more resources to training investigators in fighting financial crime, including large-scale corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing.
Stolen Asset Recovery (Star) initiative of the World Bank and the UNODC
It is important for governments to increase the transparency of their legal entities and arrangements, and at the same time improve the capacity of law enforcement.
criminal proceeds are being hidden via legal structures — shell companies, foundations, trusts and others.
In any complex corruption investigation involving the use of corporate vehicles, an imaginative, tenacious and expert investigator is indispensable
And while other vital sources of information are banks and trust or company service providers (TCSPs), the Bank and the UNODC said its review showed that banks and TCSPs “still do not adequately identify the beneficial owner (a legal term where specific property rights in equity belong to a person even though legal title of the property belongs to another person) when establishing a business relationship.”