NEW DELHI, Feb 28 (NNN-PTI) — CPI today demanded that the government rollback the imposition of duties on petroleum products immediately, saying it will have adverse impact on the people who are already suffering from rising food prices.
Party National Secretary D Raja also alleged that the Budget 2010-11 has “neglected” the agriculture sector despite tall claims by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee that the UPA government?s top priority was agriculture.
“The Finance Minister should roll back the duties imposed on petroleum products. He should do it immediately…… the government should have maintained some sort of transparency on the issue,” he said.
“On Thursday, a day before the Budget, the Parliament was debating price rise and the government assured that it was taking steps to contain it.
“The next day it imposes duties on petroleum products.
The government should have been honest,” he said. — NNN-PTI
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BEIJING, Feb 28 (NNN-PTI) — China will step up crackdown on online gambling amid surge in crimes linked to gambling in the country, a media report said today.
China’s Ministry of Public Security has vowed to step up crackdown on online gambling.
More than 2,000 foreign and domestic gambling websites target Chinese gamblers, said Gu Jian, vice director of the Ministry’s cyber security bureau.
According to estimates, tens of billions of yuan flow out of China via online gambling annually.
Online gambling exists in all Chinese provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions to “varying degrees”, Gu was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.
He said it has been found after probe that most domestic online gambling operations are controlled from abroad.
Nearly all major international gambling groups have Chinese-language websites to target Chinese gamblers, and some even send operatives into China to recruit agents.
– NNN-PTI
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MENTEVIDEO, Feb 28 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — The first delegations that will attend the presidential inauguration ceremony in Uruguay on March 1 began to arrive on Saturday in this capital, although most of them will do it on Sunday and others on Monday.
President Tabare Vazquez will hand over the post in the ceremony to his successor Jose Mujica, who will lead the second consecutive left-wing Broad Front coalition’s administration until 2015.
Mujica, a former Tupamaro guerrilla fighter, will enter the history of this South American nation as the constitutional president number 34.
Sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have confirmed the attendance of Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo, countries that along with Uruguay make up the Southern Common Market.
Venezuela’s Head of State Hugo Chavez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, Chile’s Michelle Bachelet and Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe have also promised to attend the inauguration.
Prince of Asturias Felipe de Borbon and US State Secretary Hillary Clinton will also be present, being the latter’s attendance included in a Latin American tour that will also take her to four other nations.
About 800 police agents will be mobilized as of Saturday in an operation that also includes the Interior Ministry, the Presidency of the Republic, the city council of Montevideo, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Security Department, and the Secretariat of the new head of State. — NNN-PRENSA LATINA
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BEIJING, Feb 28 (NNN-PTI) — Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiaboa today underlined the need for an equitable distribution of wealth as the government was facing serious challenges to generate greater employments for the youths.
“We shall create favourable conditions for people’s freedom and full development in order to nurture their intelligence and talent,” he was quoted as saying by the official media.
Interacting with the people in an online chat, the Prime Minister accepted that the country was facing serious employment challenges.
Wen said China’s massive stimulus plan has proved to be effective and the economy has bottomed out and witnessed a sound recovery beating the world wide recession.
But the country is still facing serious challenges in employment, though labour shortage has been found in booming cities in China’s coastal areas recently, he said. –NNN-PTI
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BULAWAYO (ZIMBABWE), FEB 28 (NNN-ZIMONLINE) — Zimbabwe will impose a punitive levy on foreign firms to compel them to cede controlling stake to locals, Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said on Friday.
The controversial indigenisation laws come into force on Monday and foreign-controlled firms have up to March 2015 to sell at least 51 percent stake to local Zimbabweans with those that fail to do so to pay the levy, according to Kasukuwere.
?We are setting up a national levy system so as (for companies) to comply. The less you want to be indigenised the more you pay the levies,? Kasukuwere told business leaders attending a conference to discuss the indigenisation laws in the south-western city of Bulawayo.
?Under the regulations those companies that are in mergers or de-mergers should immediately comply with the 51 percent requirement,? he said, adding; ?You have instances when you have some companies importing tissues from as far as South Africa, the time has come to give locals an opportunity.?
The regulations were gazetted on Feb 5 in line with an Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill passed in Parliament by President Robert Mugabe?s then sole ruling Zanu (PF) party in 2007. Mugabe signed the regulations into law by in March 2008.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who formed a power-sharing government with Mugabe last February, has opposed the regulations, saying they were invalid because they were never discussed and adopted by Cabinet.
And business leaders have been lobbying government to shelve implementation of the law they say will only help reinforce perceptions of Zimbabwe as a high political risk investment destination.
But Kasukuwere, who has insisted that the controversial rules will be implemented as gazetted while consultations among stakeholders continue, said the law was an affirmative action meant to address past imbalances in wealth ownership.
?We want to ensure that this process is as broad-based as possible,? Kasukuwere, who is from Mugabe?s Zanu (PF) party, said. ?All we seek to achieve is a determined fight against poverty. It is an affirmative action meant to address past imbalances. It would be an anomaly to have our country driven by a few individuals but we are not against any minority.?
The empowerment regulations require every foreign-controlled company operating in Zimbabwe, including banks, mines and factories to sell a majority stake to locals. But the regulations are silent on where impoverished locals will get money to pay for stake in firms that is expected to run into billions of United States dollars.
Many had hoped the law and other controversial laws including repressive press and security laws to be repealed following formation of the power-sharing government.
Revival of the empowerment laws has sparked fears among business leaders of a repeat in industry of the chaos that befell agriculture after a similar government programme to empower blacks saw white-owned commercial farms seized without compensation. — NNN-ZimOnline
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NEW DELHI, Feb 28 (NNN-PTI) — The government has assured India Inc that it would come out with a revised direct taxes code (DTC) draft and seek their comments before finalising it.
“We will prepare a revised draft (of DTC) and that will be placed in the public domain for getting comments … but that will be for a shorter period,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said while addressing the concerns of India Inc at a joint post-Budget meeting organised by industry chambers Ficci, CII and Assocham here yesterday.
The government, he further said, will consider suggestion of the industry to raise savings limit for personal income tax payers next year.Currently, individuals can seek tax exemption on savings up to Rs 1 lakh in a year, in addition to Rs 20,000 in infrastructure bonds.(One Lakh:100,000)
– NNN-PTI
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NEW DELHI, Feb 28 (NNN-PTI) — The country is likely to see a much favourable demographic trend in the next three decades than neighbouring China, or for that matter, any of the other BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China)nations, boosting its economic growth prospects in the coming years.
A growing young population and the resultant changes in the savings and investment patterns would be advantageous for the country’s economy going forward, according to a study by DB Research, a part of the German financial powerhouse Deutsche Bank.
“Brazil and India are demographically in a substantially more favourable position than China and Russia…India, by contrast, will enjoy a very favourable demographic momentum for another three decades (over the other three).
“This will impact not only her economic growth prospects, but also savings and investment behaviour and potentially ? if somewhat difficult to quantify ? financial market growth prospects,” DB Research has said.–NNN-PTI
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HAVANA, Feb 28 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — Prime Minister of Grenada, Tillman Thomas, will meet with Cuban President Raul Castro, on the occasion of his official visit to this country as of Sunday, media outlets reported.
In addition to being Prime Minister, Thomas, 62 and lawyer by profession, is also in charge of the ministries of Legal Affairs, National Security, Civil Service, Culture, Information Technology and Communication, Granma newspaper reported.
The visitor’s agenda will also include laying a wreath at the monument to Cuban national Hero Jose Marti (1853-1895).
In December 2004, Tillman Thomas was elected as a member of the House of Representatives of Grenada’s Parliament for the New National Party, from which he split up in 1987.
He was one of the founders of the National Democratic Congress, and he is now the Prime Minister, thanks to the victory of that political force in the 2008 parliamentary elections. — NNN-PRENSA LATINA
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CARTHAGE, Feb 28 (NNN-TAP) — Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali took interest, when receiving Saturday morning Arab League Deputy Secretary-General and Chairman of the Tunis-based Arab League Centre, Chedli Neffati, in the Centre?s activity and work programs.
Mr. Neffati informed the Head of State about two conferences to be organised by the Centre in Tunis.
The first, to be held as part of the International Youth Year, is to turn on the Euro-Mediterranean youth?s contribution to reinforcing relations in the region.
The second gathering will focus on Arab-Asian relations and the Arab Maghreb?s role and position with respect to these relations within the framework of the Arab-Japanese Forum to be held next October in Tunis.
Pres Ben Ali was also briefed about the design of the new premises to host the Tunis-based Arab League Centre. — NNN-TAP
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CARACAS, Feb 28 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — Venezuelans are recalling on Saturday the victims of the Caracazo incidents, with songs and paintings at the country”s squares and avenues, exactly at those sites where the most bloody repression took place 21 years ago.
Caracas’ artists and people draw inspiration from those who died during the rebellion, while thousands of voices will join a great cantata to pay them tribute.
A political-cultural ceremony will close the homage to the victims of the protest from February 27-28, 1989, suppressed by police forces and the army, under the government of then President Carlos Andres Perez.
Known as “El Caracazo,” this great riot was performed to repudiate the statesman’s neoliberal measures.
The Venezuelan Public Ministry is still investigating over 300 cases of deceased, wounded, tortured and missing people, although it still ignores the exact number of victims.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Luisa Ortega said Venezuela will request on March 1 the extradition of ex president Carlos Andres Perez because of events of 1989 known as El Caracazo.
On the radio program En Sintonia with the Ministry of Justice, Ortega explained that the request was made taking into account that Venezuela has an agreement in this regard with the country where the ex president is now.
According to press reports, Perez is living in the Dominican Republic or the United States, but without providing further detail, Ortega said that the institution has the information about the country where he is.
She warned that if the request is answered, the former Venezuelan president will appear in a presentation hearing.
Regarding the violent repression of El Caracazo, during which hundreds of people were killed, Ortega said that Perez is “the only person who can provide valuable evidence for the investigation.” — NNN-PRENSA LATINA
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