Latin Am’ migrants’ money exceeds aid

Remittances could reach $100bn in four years’ time
The amount of money sent home by Latin American migrant workers to their families has reached more than $62bn.

This figure now exceeds the combined total of all direct foreign investment and foreign aid to Latin America.

According to the Inter-American Investment Bank, the figure could reach $100bn in four years’ time.

The biggest share of money, $23bn, was sent back to Mexico, mostly from workers living in the United States remitting small sums each month.

Foreign remittances now rank along with oil and tourism as Mexico’s biggest foreign currency earner.

The Inter-American Development Bank, which supports the region with aid and other help, says the remittances will increase by about 15% a year during the next four years.

The bank describes the money as a very effective poverty reduction programme because it keeps between 8m and 10m families above the poverty line.

But it says it also means the economies of the region are not generating enough jobs to keep workers from leaving in the first place.

Another problem is that much of the money is sent back in small amounts and so it is difficult to track.

The average is between $100 and $150 a month.

That in turn makes it an unpredictable source of revenue for governments to tap into.

The bank says it wants people to get away from what it calls cash to cash flows and into account to account transfers but the bank says the recent crackdown on illegal immigrants by the US authorities could hinder efforts to get migrants to use banks.
By Duncan Kennedy

Ever the more reason why “Bush” Dances on Immigration Policies in this Country
Comment by Malvo.

Latin Am’ migrants’ money exceeds aid

Remittances could reach $100bn in four years’ time
The amount of money sent home by Latin American migrant workers to their families has reached more than $62bn.

This figure now exceeds the combined total of all direct foreign investment and foreign aid to Latin America.

According to the Inter-American Investment Bank, the figure could reach $100bn in four years’ time.

The biggest share of money, $23bn, was sent back to Mexico, mostly from workers living in the United States remitting small sums each month.

Foreign remittances now rank along with oil and tourism as Mexico’s biggest foreign currency earner.

The Inter-American Development Bank, which supports the region with aid and other help, says the remittances will increase by about 15% a year during the next four years.

The bank describes the money as a very effective poverty reduction programme because it keeps between 8m and 10m families above the poverty line.

But it says it also means the economies of the region are not generating enough jobs to keep workers from leaving in the first place.

Another problem is that much of the money is sent back in small amounts and so it is difficult to track.

The average is between $100 and $150 a month.

That in turn makes it an unpredictable source of revenue for governments to tap into.

The bank says it wants people to get away from what it calls cash to cash flows and into account to account transfers but the bank says the recent crackdown on illegal immigrants by the US authorities could hinder efforts to get migrants to use banks.
By Duncan Kennedy

Ever the more reason why “Bush” Dances on Immigration Policies in this Country
Comment by Malvo.

US ‘ready’ for non-Hamas contacts

The United States has decided that it will have contact with some of the new ministers in the Palestinian government which was sworn in on Saturday.

A US consular official in Jerusalem said the US would maintain contact with ministers it feels it can work with.

US officials deny this amounts to a shift in policy, saying they will still not deal with Hamas.

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has urged the international community to have nothing to do with the new government.

‘Ending isolation’

It seems the US has decided to subtly change its stance towards the Palestinian government.

That government now contains ministers from a number of parties and not just from the Islamist Hamas movement.

But by stating the US will deal with some ministers, Washington is bringing to an end the political isolation it helped to impose on the Palestinian government.

Other countries, most notably in Europe, have also signalled a similar change in stance.

Israel had hoped to be able to persuade the international community to maintain its boycott of the Palestinian government which Israel deems unacceptable.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said the new government limits Israel’s ability to conduct talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

By Matthew Price
BBC News, Jerusalem

They “US” and the International community will only be happy if they hand pick the government for the palestinians.
comment by malvo.

US ‘ready’ for non-Hamas contacts

The United States has decided that it will have contact with some of the new ministers in the Palestinian government which was sworn in on Saturday.

A US consular official in Jerusalem said the US would maintain contact with ministers it feels it can work with.

US officials deny this amounts to a shift in policy, saying they will still not deal with Hamas.

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has urged the international community to have nothing to do with the new government.

‘Ending isolation’

It seems the US has decided to subtly change its stance towards the Palestinian government.

That government now contains ministers from a number of parties and not just from the Islamist Hamas movement.

But by stating the US will deal with some ministers, Washington is bringing to an end the political isolation it helped to impose on the Palestinian government.

Other countries, most notably in Europe, have also signalled a similar change in stance.

Israel had hoped to be able to persuade the international community to maintain its boycott of the Palestinian government which Israel deems unacceptable.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said the new government limits Israel’s ability to conduct talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

By Matthew Price
BBC News, Jerusalem

They “US” and the International community will only be happy if they hand pick the government for the palestinians.
comment by malvo.

Afghan treasures return to Kabul

Hundreds of ancient artefacts taken out of Afghanistan for safe-keeping – or looted – have been returned to Kabul’s National Museum.

The artefacts were moved to Switzerland almost a decade ago to protect them during the civil war in Afghanistan.

The oldest artefact dates back 3,500 years and the collection includes carpet slippers and Buddha statues.

The most famous piece is a glass phallus believed to have been touched by Alexander the Great.

Foundation stone

It is thought to be the only object in the world which is known to have been in his hands.

More than 2,000 years old, it was part of the foundation stone of the ancient Greek city of Ai-Khanum, in northern Afghanistan.

The objects were sent in a shipping container from Switzerland which was unlocked in a ceremony outside the National Museum.

Afghan Culture Minister Abdul Karim Khurram said the return of the artefacts showed that it was no longer possible to loot and steal in Afghanistan.

By Shirley Gordon
BBC News.

I feel that artefact shouldn’t have been taken,tampered with in the first place and should be protected.
Comment by Malvo

Attack on Thai school kills three

The school was burnt to the ground
At least three teenage students have been killed in an attack on an Islamic school in southern Thailand, police have said.
They said explosives had been thrown into the school in Songkhla province before the assailants opened fire on the sleeping quarters.

Seven other students were wounded in the attack late on Saturday, which the police blamed on Muslim separatists.

But villagers disputed the police account and later staged a protest.

On Sunday morning, three people were shot dead in separate incidents – although details remain sketchy.

Brutal attacks

Local police chief Thammasak Wasaksiri said he believed Muslim rebels were responsible for Saturday’s shooting.

Local Muslims accused government forces of attacking the school

“Insurgents always use this trick of attacking Muslim people to instigate villagers and get them to believe that police or soldiers were responsible for the attack,” he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

Hundreds of angry villagers blocked the road to the school soon after the attack, blaming Thailand’s armed forces for the deaths of the students.

It is rare for Islamic schools to be targeted, and the motives behind the attack are not clear, says the BBC’s Jonathan Head in Bangkok.

He says the villagers’ suspicion is understandable, as there are now many semi-official paramilitary units operating in the south with the blessing of the military.

Muslims believe they are behind a number of disappearances and behind some of the violence that has been blamed on the insurgents, our correspondent says.

He adds that attacks in southern Thailand have become increasingly brutal over the past two years.

On Wednesday, nine people were killed in an attack on a minibus travelling from the neighbouring province of Yala to Songkhla. All the victims were Buddhist, police said.

About 2,000 people have died in Thailand’s restive south since violence flared up again in January 2004.

In contrast with the rest of Thailand, the south is predominantly Islamic, and most of the people living there have more in common with Malays, who live over the border, than with Buddhist Thais.

Ugandan ex-troops win $2bn payout

The former soldiers are still part of the army, judges say
Uganda must pay about $2bn (£1bn) in compensation to troops who served under ex-presidents Idi Amin and Milton Obote, judges have ruled.
The country’s appeals court said about 45,000 former soldiers had not been properly dismissed in 1979 and should receive back-pay.

The Ugandan army vowed to appeal against the ruling.

A spokesman said the ex-soldiers did not deserve to be paid and the military had no obligation towards them.

Correspondents say it is unclear how the Ugandan government could afford to pay the former troops even if it were prepared to do so.

However, the defence team expressed confidence that its clients would receive more than 20 years of back-pay.

One man who served under Idi Amin said he was thrilled with the victory and would use the money to give up work and relax.

Most of the former soldiers were disarmed and detained after President Yoweri Museveni seized power in Uganda in 1986. They were later released.

Reported by BBCNews

Ita good to see a little bit of justice.
comment by Malvo

Stalin’s Killing Field

One of the earliest–and certainly the most infamous–mass shootings of prisoners of war during World War II did not occur in the heat of battle but was a cold-blooded act of political murder. The victims were Polish officers, soldiers, and civilians captured by the Red Army after it invaded eastern Poland in September 1939. Strictly speaking, even the Polish servicemen were not POWs. The USSR had not declared war, and the Polish commander in chief had ordered his troops not to engage Soviet forces. But there was little the Poles could do. On 28 September, the USSR and Nazi Germany, allied since August, partitioned and then dissolved the Polish state. They then began implementing parallel policies of suppressing all resistance and destroying the Polish elite in their respective areas. The NKVD and the Gestapo coordinated their actions on many issues, including prisoner exchanges. At Brest Litovsk, Soviet and German commanders held a joint victory parade before German forces withdrew westward behind a new demarcation line.

Official records, opened in 1990 when glasnost was still in vogue, show that Stalin had every intention of treating the Poles as political prisoners. Just two days after the invasion began on 17 September, the NKVD created a Directorate of Prisoners of War. It took custody of Polish prisoners from the Army and began organizing a network of reception centers and transfer camps and arranging rail transport to the western USSR. Once there, the Poles were placed in “special” (concentration) camps, where, from October to February, they were subjected to lengthy interrogations and constant political agitation. The camps were at Kozelsk, Starobelsk, and Ostashkov, all three located on the grounds of former Orthodox monasteries converted into prisons. The NKVD dispatched one of its rising stars, Maj. Vassili Zarubin, to Kozelsk, where most of the officers were kept, to conduct interviews. Zarubin presented himself to the Poles as a charming, sympathetic, and cultured Soviet official, which led many prisoners into sharing confidences that would cost them their lives.

The considerable logistic effort required to handle the prisoners coincided with the USSR’s disastrous 105-day war against Finland. The Finns inflicted 200,000 casualties on the Red Army and destroyed tons of materiel–and much of Russia’s military reputation. That war, like the assault on Poland, was a direct result of Stalin’s nonaggression pact with Hitler.

The Soviet dictator offered Helsinki “remarkably moderate terms,” in the words of British military historian Liddell Hart, taking only territory needed to defend the land, sea, and air approaches to Leningrad. The difference between Stalin’s treatment of Finland and Poland underscored his imperial ambitions toward the latter. Moscow and Helsinki even exchanged prisoners once hostilities had ceased. (Stalin, however, dealt harshly with his own soldiers who had been in Finnish captivity. At least 5,000 repatriated troops simply disappeared from an NKVD prison and were presumably executed.

Stalin was anxious to settle with Finland so he could turn his attention to Poland and the Baltic countries, which the Red Army would soon occupy and the NKVD would “pacify” using terror, deportations, and executions. Militarily, the war was over by late February, though a peace agreement was not signed until March. NKVD interrogations were completed about the same time. The Poles were encouraged to believe they would be released, but the interviews were in effect a selection process to determine who would live and who would die. On 5 March 1940, Stalin signed their death warrant–an NKVD order condemning 21,857 prisoners to “the supreme penalty: shooting.” They had been condemned as “hardened and uncompromising enemies of Soviet authority.” by.Benjamin B. Fischer

Did you know the majority killed by Stalin were Polish-Jews ?
Comment by Malvo.

Stalin’s Killing Field

One of the earliest–and certainly the most infamous–mass shootings of prisoners of war during World War II did not occur in the heat of battle but was a cold-blooded act of political murder. The victims were Polish officers, soldiers, and civilians captured by the Red Army after it invaded eastern Poland in September 1939. Strictly speaking, even the Polish servicemen were not POWs. The USSR had not declared war, and the Polish commander in chief had ordered his troops not to engage Soviet forces. But there was little the Poles could do. On 28 September, the USSR and Nazi Germany, allied since August, partitioned and then dissolved the Polish state. They then began implementing parallel policies of suppressing all resistance and destroying the Polish elite in their respective areas. The NKVD and the Gestapo coordinated their actions on many issues, including prisoner exchanges. At Brest Litovsk, Soviet and German commanders held a joint victory parade before German forces withdrew westward behind a new demarcation line.

Official records, opened in 1990 when glasnost was still in vogue, show that Stalin had every intention of treating the Poles as political prisoners. Just two days after the invasion began on 17 September, the NKVD created a Directorate of Prisoners of War. It took custody of Polish prisoners from the Army and began organizing a network of reception centers and transfer camps and arranging rail transport to the western USSR. Once there, the Poles were placed in “special” (concentration) camps, where, from October to February, they were subjected to lengthy interrogations and constant political agitation. The camps were at Kozelsk, Starobelsk, and Ostashkov, all three located on the grounds of former Orthodox monasteries converted into prisons. The NKVD dispatched one of its rising stars, Maj. Vassili Zarubin, to Kozelsk, where most of the officers were kept, to conduct interviews. Zarubin presented himself to the Poles as a charming, sympathetic, and cultured Soviet official, which led many prisoners into sharing confidences that would cost them their lives.

The considerable logistic effort required to handle the prisoners coincided with the USSR’s disastrous 105-day war against Finland. The Finns inflicted 200,000 casualties on the Red Army and destroyed tons of materiel–and much of Russia’s military reputation. That war, like the assault on Poland, was a direct result of Stalin’s nonaggression pact with Hitler.

The Soviet dictator offered Helsinki “remarkably moderate terms,” in the words of British military historian Liddell Hart, taking only territory needed to defend the land, sea, and air approaches to Leningrad. The difference between Stalin’s treatment of Finland and Poland underscored his imperial ambitions toward the latter. Moscow and Helsinki even exchanged prisoners once hostilities had ceased. (Stalin, however, dealt harshly with his own soldiers who had been in Finnish captivity. At least 5,000 repatriated troops simply disappeared from an NKVD prison and were presumably executed.

Stalin was anxious to settle with Finland so he could turn his attention to Poland and the Baltic countries, which the Red Army would soon occupy and the NKVD would “pacify” using terror, deportations, and executions. Militarily, the war was over by late February, though a peace agreement was not signed until March. NKVD interrogations were completed about the same time. The Poles were encouraged to believe they would be released, but the interviews were in effect a selection process to determine who would live and who would die. On 5 March 1940, Stalin signed their death warrant–an NKVD order condemning 21,857 prisoners to “the supreme penalty: shooting.” They had been condemned as “hardened and uncompromising enemies of Soviet authority.” by.Benjamin B. Fischer

Did you know the majority killed by Stalin were Polish-Jews ?
Comment by Malvo.

Roadside blast kills 4 GIs in Baghdad

BAGHDAD
By LAUREN FRAYER
A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers patrolling western Baghdad, the military reported on Sunday, while another soldier died in a non-combat related incident.

The four soldiers died Saturday, the military said in a statement. Small arms fire followed the blast, wounding another soldier. The attack occurred as the soldiers were conducting patrols as part of a month-old security operation to end sectarian violence in the capital, the statement said.

So far this month, the soldiers’ battalion had found eight weapons caches and two roadside bombs, as well as helping to rescue a kidnap victim, the military said.

Another soldier also died Saturday in a non-combat related incident, the military said in a second statement. The circumstances were under investigation, it said.

The victims’ names were withheld pending family notification.

Separately, two policemen and two civilians were killed in other incidents Sunday in Baghdad, police said.

A roadside bomb hit an Iraqi police convoy in eastern Baghdad, killing two policemen and wounding five others, authorities said. Two vehicles were damaged.

Later, police said a mortar round landed near a house in central Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding another.

In Shorja market, Baghdad’s most popular central shopping district, a man tossed a grenade into a group of workers, police said. One worker was killed and another was wounded. The suspect escaped through a nearby alley, they said.

The Shorja market has been bombed several times, including a large truck bomb last month. But the area was turned into a pedestrian zone after a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown began in Baghdad on Feb. 14.

Also Sunday, an abandoned hotel exploded in an industrial area of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad. Police said insurgents had planted bombs in the three-story building and then detonated it at dawn. Half of the building was destroyed.

Iraqi troops had taken over part of the building’s roof as a base, police said. There were no reports of casualties.

In Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, fierce fighting erupted between U.S. troops and elements of the Shiite Mahdi Army, police said. There were no reports of casualties, and the U.S. military had no immediate comment.

Police also found an unidentified man’s body with signs of torture, dumped in central Diwaniyah.

The U.S. military said U.S. troops captured 12 suspected militants Sunday in raids across Iraq.

The operations targeted members of al-Qaida in Iraq and others suspected of building and planting roadside bombs, the military said in a statement.

Five suspects were detained in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, the statement said. All were accused of involvement in car bomb and rocket attacks on U.S. troops, it said.

Ramadi is the provincial capital of Iraq’s volatile western Anbar province.

Also in Anbar, troops captured three suspects accused of ties with al-Qaida in Iraq in Habbaniyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, the military said.

In the capital, two men were detained for allegedly procuring bomb-making materials, the statement said.

And in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, two others were detained. They were accused of helping foreign fighters come to Iraq, as well as of involvement in roadside bomb operations, it said.