Supporting Women And Girls In Burma

Burmese women pack tobacco inside a local cigar factory at the outskirts of Yangon.

The Abbott Fund has announced a $1 million partnership with the Secretary’s Fund to support grassroots organizations in Burma.

A generation of young women in Burma is energized and optimistic about recent political transitions. This was the report from U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer upon her return from the country recently.

“Many of the young women have started or are participating in NGOs advocating civic activism and social entrepreneurship,” she said. “They were impressive in their independent thinking and can-do spirit. They’ve become increasingly empowered to embrace their rights, whether in the home, the workplace, in community and political activities or at the university.”

Women in Burma can look forward to some help in their efforts thanks to a new public-private partnership through U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s International Fund for Women and Girls. The Abbott Fund, a global, non-profit philanthropic foundation, has announced a $1 million partnership with the Secretary’s Fund to support grassroots organizations that are working to advance health, education and economic opportunity for women in Burma.

All partnership funding will be provided to Burmese organizations staffed by the people of Burma. Funding will provide medical care for women and girls. It will also fund programs to improve health awareness and provide preventive treatment. Other focuses will include education and training as well as expanding economic opportunities for women.

"Through decades of challenges, the people of Burma have developed a resilient and resourceful civil society," said Ambassador Verveer. "By supporting existing grassroots organizations, this public-private partnership with the Abbott Fund will help build the capacity of local organizations and communities to drive progress and development for women."

The Secretary's International Fund for Women and Girls furthers the Obama administration’s initiatives to build partnerships with philanthropic organizations, global businesses and civil society to address global needs. The fund is a State Department-led privately-funded initiative committed to providing flexible, rapid, targeted, and high-impact grants to nongovernmental organizations working to meet the critical needs of women and girls around the world.

“Burma’s democratic future is a work in progress,” said Ambassador Verveer. “Today we have an historic opportunity to help the people of Burma to realize a better future.”

Burmese censors suspend two weekly journals

Burma’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Division has suspended two weekly journals, The Voice Weekly for an indefinite period for publishing speculation about cabinet reshuffles and other matters.

The Voice and Envoy journals

On Tuesday, the board informed the journals they were suspended starting next week for alleged violations of news regulations.

The board did not give specific reasons for the suspensions, editor Kyaw Min Swe told MizzimaOn his Facebook account, Kyaw Min Swe said, “I think the main reason for the action might be the latest two front page stories. One of them was about the cabinet reshuffle and the other was news about a cartoon exhibition with photos of censored cartoons and censor board members inspecting the exhibition.”

In a front-page article in The Voice on Monday, the headline was “News circulating of apparent reshuffle of five cabinet ministers.”

Kyaw Min Swe said the board’s recent actions goes against the democratic reforms in other sectors and statements officials have made ranging from President Thein Sein to members of the censorship board itself.

Recently, a representative of the government filed a lawsuit against Snap Shot for publishing a photograph of a woman who was raped and murdered in Rakhine State on May 28. Previously, the photograph had been circulated widely on the Internet.

“Not only us, but they banned other publications too, which is contrary to democratic principles and norms. Our news is not causing protests and riot, not a violation of Official Secrets Act, and not infringing on the rights of anyone. We work only for the interest of our country, good governance and clean government, “he said.

He said The Voice has been suspended six times. An Envoy editor said the board also suspended its publication on Tuesday. He said Deputy Director General Tint Swe of the Information and Public Relation Department, and Director Myo Myint Maung from the censorship board attended the meeting along with other board officials.

He said it seemed like the resurrection of the notorious Japanese censors during World War II.

The suspension comes at the same time that a new media law is being written which officials claim will remove prior censorship regulations and will bring Burma’s media laws up to the standards of the region.

Yangon Times journals in July that they could have their publication licenses revoked after they reported information about the hospitalization of retired Vice Senior General Maung Aye.

India restores power after huge blackouts

NEW DELHI - India restored its power supplies on Wednesday after two days of massive outages that blacked out half the country, but fears remained that the grid could again collapse under the strain of over-demand.

India's electricity network was back at full capacity after three regional grids failed on Tuesday in the country's worst power crisis that left more than 600 million people without supplies.

"It is a very difficult and challenging situation, and solutions will have to be found," new Power Minister Veerappa Moily said after confirming that the northern, eastern and north-eastern networks were back on line.

"I'm not going to start with a blame game. The centre and the states will have to work together on this," he added, as wary consumers who are used to regular load-shedding braced for the possibility of more serious disruption.

Hundreds of miners were trapped underground for hours in the eastern states of West Bengal and Jharkhand on Tuesday, metro services were stopped temporarily in the capital New Delhi and hundreds of trains were held up nationwide.

Traffic snarled in cities as traffic lights failed and hospitals and airports had to switch to back-up power.

"On Monday the government said that this will never happen again but on Tuesday they proved themselves wrong. How can you trust them anymore?" said Revathi Nair, a 32-year-old manager with a five-star hotel in central Delhi.

Former power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who was promoted to home minister on Tuesday in a reshuffle announced in the midst of the crisis, said India should be more grateful for the efforts of its engineers and bureaucrats.

"Where in America the grid doesn't get repaired for four days, here we repair the grid in several hours," he told reporters, repeating a boast that India had been more reactive than the US, which suffered a huge power failure in 2003.

"You should appreciate us, the way work is done in the power ministry," he added.

Wednesday's newspapers were predictably critical of the government, saying it lacked the political will to implement long called-for reforms in the power sector to boost production and sort out near-bankrupt state distributors.

"Powerless and Clueless", ran the front-page headline in the Times of India, while the Economic Times splashed with "Superpower India, RIP" in a reference to New Delhi's bid to be recognised as a global economic and diplomatic force.

On the streets of Delhi, small business owners seethed over the failures which caused computers to crash and expensive diesel generators to be called into action.

"I spent over 2,000 rupees (about 40 dollars) yesterday just to buy diesel for my generator," said Ram Prasad Kejriwal who runs a shop selling shawls on a commercial street in the capital. "The entire day's sale was only 5,000 rupees."

Business lobby group the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) estimated the losses to small and large business in billions of rupees (tens of millions of dollars) and said India's investment image abroad had taken a major hit.

The repeated outages "carry a very negative image of India, when already sentiments about the country are low on account of the current economic situation", CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee said in a statement.

According to senior ministry officials, the two successive days of grid failure were triggered by energy-hungry states drawing power beyond their allocated limits.

"We're facing power problems of Himalayan proportions," said Ajay Bodke, strategist at leading Indian investment house Prabhudas Lilladher. "Reforms can't wait any longer -- this is a wake-up call for immediate measures."

Analysts say the power ministry needs to get state electricity boards to abide by their power quotas and manage distribution efficiently to avoid demand crunches.

The finances of the distribution companies also need fixing by raising prices and cracking down on theft, which would allow them to invest more in their strained networks, they say.

Finally, coal shortages are at the root of many of the problems because of the inefficiency of state-run giant Coal India Ltd (CIL), which is struggling to increase its production to meet the demand from power stations.

India added 20,000 megawatts of power capacity in the past year -- enough to supply today's requirements, according to Alok Brara, publisher of the industry magazine Powerline.

"But because of fuel issues they haven't been able to use the extra capacity," he told AFP.

India formally allows foreign investment from Pakistan

Both India and Pakistan have implemented measures to improve trade and business ties, as they slowly rebuild relations that were shattered by the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday overturned its ban on foreign investment from neighbouring Pakistan, the commerce ministry said, in a move designed to build goodwill amid a renewed push for a peace settlement.

“The government of India has reviewed the policy… and decided to permit a citizen of Pakistan or an entity incorporated in Pakistan to make investments in India,” said a statement from the ministry.

Pakistani citizens and companies will be allowed to invest in all sectors apart from defence, space and atomic energy, a government statement said. All propositions must be notified to the Indian government, it added.

The decision to accept foreign direct investment from Pakistan was taken in April this year when the trade ministers from the two South Asian neighbours met in New Delhi.

They also discussed ways to ease visa curbs on business travel and the possibility of allowing banks from both countries to open cross-border branches.

India and Pakistan are channeling their efforts into “trade diplomacy” in a bid to build enough trust to tackle the more troublesome issues that divide them, such as Kashmir.

The improved relations between the rivals stem from Pakistan’s decision to grant India “Most Favoured Nation (MFN)” status by year end, meaning Indian exports will be treated the same as those from other nations.<

In further progress, the neighbours opened a second trading gate in April along their heavily militarised border, boosting the number of trucks able to cross daily to 600 from 150.

Pakistan Steel to defend loss of billions before PAC

ISLAMABAD: Maj General (retd) Muhammad Javed, CEO of Pakistan Steel Mills, will defend before the Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday Rs9.672 billion losses, which the mills incurred during his and Moeen Aftab’s tenure as chairmen PSM for selling its products to the cronies of an important personality below market price.

PAC will review action on its earlier directives in which it had ordered the PSM to fix the responsibility on those responsible for this huge loss. Interestingly, these losses were incurred during the tenures of Maj General (retd) Muhammad Javed and Moeen Aftab as chairmen PSM. One of them is languishing in jail while the other was recently appointed as CEO PSM.

Maj General (retd) Muhammad Javed when contacted said that the Federal Investigation Agency was investigating the case. When told that Moeen Aftab was in jail over the same allegation, the CEO PSM admitted that one of the many charges against Mooen Aftab was selling products below market price. When reminded that it happened during his tenure General (retd) Muhammad Javed replied that it was not a law that the prices should be fixed as per international price.

“There are many other factors as well and we have submitted a detailed reply and have also told the FIA and the FIA was investigating the case”. According to a letter of PAC dated April 29, 2010 “Para 106: Loss of revenue due to fixation of sale below market price; Rs9.672 billion; The chairman directed that chairman Pakistan Steel may fix responsibility for lower fixation of sale price of steel products and take disciplinary action against the concerned persons.

Report to be submitted in one month’s time. The ministry of industries and production may hold a meeting with the relevant departments of the Pakistan Steel mills and the Audit authorities to settle the para.

The committee may be informed about the constitution of the price review committee and suggest ways to make this committee independent and transparent. The committee directed that the price review committee should be revamped. Report may be submitted within fifteen days.

“Para 107: Loss due to non-recovery of extra freight Rs221.214 million: The PAC directed that the chairman may fix responsibility on the officer responsible for not invoking penal clause of the contract signed with Pakistan National Shipping Corporation and making over payments. Report in this matter may be submitted to PAC in 15 days. It was also directed that procedural flaws in future contracts might be removed.”

Well-placed sources told The News that no action so far has been taken over this directive of the PAC. According to FIA report submitted in the Supreme Court on 1-2-2010, it was revealed that the auditors coupled the period of two different chairmen - Maj Gen (Retd) Muhammad Javed (from January to May 2008 and accused Mueen Aftab (FIR No. 39/2009) from June to September 2008. Sources say that the chairman who remained in office for four months is in jail while the other, who worked as PSM chairman for five months, has again been appointed as CEO PSM.

It merits mentioning here that presently the PSM losses from July 2008 to June 2012 are more than Rs74 billion and payable liabilities are more than Rs75 billion, totalling Rs149 billion in four years.

Pakistan, US sign Nato convoys deal ISI chief begins US visit today

Rawalpindi—Pakistan on Tuesday signed a deal with the United States governing arrangements for Nato convoys travelling to Afghanistan seeking to a line under a seven-month border blockade.

Islamabad agreed to reopen land routes for Nato goods on July 3 after ordering the longest border closure of the 10-year war in neighbouring is part of efforts by the “war on terror” allies to patch up their fractious relationship, which plunged into crisis last year over the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden hiding in Pakistan and the air strikes.

It comes just one day before the head of Pakistani intelligence, Lieutenant General Zaheer ul-Islam, begins a three-day visit to Washington for talks with the head of the CIA, which has been interpreted as another sign of a gradual rapprochement.

Under the agreement inked in Rawalpindi, the home of Pakistan’s powerful military, the United States will release $1.1 billion under the Coalition Support Fund to reimburse the troubled nation for fighting militants within its borders.

Officials at the ceremony gave no details of the Memorandum of Understanding or MoU, nor did they release a copy at a news conference.

Guidelines laid out by the Pakistani parliament earlier this year insisted that in future no weapons and ammunition be transported through the country, though Western officials say this never happened in the first place.

A Pakistani security official said the agreement gave Islamabad the right to refuse or reject any shipment and special radio chips would be fitted to containers for monitoring.

Richard Hoagland, the deputy US ambassador to Islamabad who signed the agreement on behalf of Washington, hailed it as a “demonstration of increased transparency and openness” between the two governments. The Pakistan government relented in its blockade after US Secretary of StateHillary Clinton said sorry for the air raid deaths, but few supply trucks have made it across the border in the weeks since then.

Olympic golden girl lifts US massacre town

CENTENNIAL - A bloody movie theater massacre cast a shadow over this corner of Colorado, but the golden Olympic performance of local teenager Missy Franklin has proved a light in the darkness.

The 17-year-old high school senior with her open smile was a minor local star before she set off for her first Olympic Games in London, but she has since set the swimming world alight and cheered the mood in her US hometown.

Franklin attends high school in Aurora, the town where earlier this month a crazed gunman opened fire at a midnight showing of a new Batman film and killed 12 moviegoers, and lives in nearby Centennial, where he is on trial.

She heard about the shootings in London, where she was preparing for the event of her young life, and spoke from the heart.

"Every single race I'm going to have that Colorado incident back on my mind. It's such a terrible thing and I'm so shaken by it. They're in my thoughts this entire process," she said.

Shaken, perhaps, but not defeated.
Franklin chalked up a bronze medal in the four by 200-meter freestyle relay and won gold in the 100-meter backstroke, despite racing only 15 minutes after qualifying for the finals in the 200-meter freestyle.

And she has more races to come. 
  "With everything that's been going on here lately, the wildfires and the shootings in Aurora, it's really special," said Tom Suko, 27, a cashier at a sporting goods store near Franklin's home in the Denver suburbs.

"These people can use someone to rally around," he said. "She's a great story and someone a community can be proud of."

This summer, thousands of Colorado residents were displaced by raging wildfires that blackened acres and destroyed suburban homes. Then came the shootings, which stunned the community and left 58 injured.

Many tried to offer comfort, but the local swim star has lifted hearts.
 "With Missy, there's no pretense," said John Koslosky, athletic director at Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora, where Franklin will return to register for classes the day after she returns from Britain.

"The fact is that our school is in Aurora, and she has so many friends tied to Aurora and she grew up this area," Koslosky said, "It's not contrived. No one has to say to her: 'That'd be cool.' It comes from her heart."

Franklin's success, and her message, are the talk of the area.
 "I'm so proud of her," said real estate agent Kari Kline outside a cafe. "Just to step out of the Olympics and make comments about it -- to take the time to do that, because she has a lot on her mind."

Elise Peterson, a 20-year-old student at the University of Colorado, once competed against "Missile Missy" at swim meets between Franklin's Regis High School and her own Littleton High School.

"I'm only 5'2". She was on the block next to me. It was daunting because she's so tall. At the same time, she was so sweet. I wasn't scared to swim against her," she said.

"It's so fun to watch her and know I've been in the same pool with her.
" Peterson said it's great to see Franklin attracting fans who never knew about her, and are now planning their days around watching her swim.

The most impressive part of Missy is her smile, Kline said. "It's infectious and it's real."

Koslosky said Franklin frequently hangs out in his office. Earlier this year, he asked her for a picture to put up on the school's permanent Wall of Fame. Franklin demurred until the braces were off her teeth.

"She's a teenage kid. I totally understand. Now, that her braces are off, I think there'll be plenty of pictures to put up," Koslosky said.

Mike Freitag, director of coaching for Colorado Youth Soccer, said it's good to see someone from Colorado who represents her sport at a world class level in such an assured and dignified way.

"She stayed here in Colorado. She didn't go to California or elsewhere to train," Freitag said.

Franklin has turned down money so she can still swim for her high school team. She also hopes to become a collegiate swimmer.

"I think that's pretty cool. We don't know her, but the way she presents herself on TV and in the pool is class," Freitag added.

"She's adorable and so positive. She's a great role model for young girls," said church secretary Cindy Maris.

One of those girls is 13-year-old Katie Vanberthuysen, whose brother went to school with Franklin.

She's impressed by her grueling training regime: up at 4:30am, two hours in the pool before school and then five hours of training after classes.

"It's inspired me to try to go to the Olympics when I'm older," said Vanberthuysen, who plays volleyball. "I think she's the next Michael Phelps."

Burma: World Bank preparing $85m aid to boost reforms

The World Bank has said it is considering restarting aid to Burma for the first time in 25 years.



Lifting people out of poverty has been cited as key to Burma's economic growth The bank said it was preparing up to $85m (£54m) in grants for community driven development programmes.

It said the funds can be used to develop infrastructure, schools or other projects.

Burma has introduced political and financial reforms recently, prompting various countries to lift their sanctions against it.

The World Bank said the grants were "intended to build confidence in the reform process".

"We are committed to eradicating poverty," Jim Yong Kim, World Bank group president, said in a statement.

"They have been cut off from the global economy for too long and it's very important that they receive real benefits from the government's reforms."<

The bank said that it would also help to restructure the payment of Burma's current arrears of $397m.

Once that amount has been cleared, Burma will also be given access to interest-free loans from the International Development Association, the World Bank's fund for the poorest countries.

The bank, which has opened up an office in Burma, said that it would also provide assistance to Burmese authorities, so that the country could further reform its financial system and improve the business environment.

"Actions in these areas will help the government attract responsible foreign investment, expand trade, manage its resources better and create more jobs and opportunities for people," said Pamela Cox, vice-president for East Asia and the Pacific.

Meanwhile, the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank that focuses on private sector development, said it had started conducting an assessment to see which areas of the economy needed further support.

India protests over cross-border tunnel

The 400-metre long tunnel was discovered on Sunday. PHOTO: FILE

India lodged a “strong protest” with Pakistan on Tuesday over the discovery of a cross-border tunnel along the international border in the Samba sector of Jammu and Kashmir, the Press Trust of India reported.

“A strong protest was lodged late this afternoon by the Border Security Force (BSF) with its counterpart, Pakistan Rangers, over the detection of a tunnel in the Indian territory from Pakistan along the International Border (IB) in Samba sector,” a senior BSF official told PTI.

Evidence was also handed over to Pakistani authorities at a flag meeting at Octroi Border Out Post (BoP) along IB in the R S Pura sector of Jammu district, the official said.

BSF authorities have provided pictorial evidence of the tunnel which is in straight alignment from Pakistan to the Chachwal border village via Chilyari post from Lumbriyal post in the Shakergarh sector of Pakistan. On July 28, authorities detected a 400 metre-long tunnel into India from Pakistan along the Indo-Pak Border in Samba district.

The tunnel was detected after an area caved-in in a straight line due to rains at some places close to the Chilyari BoP of BSF. The tunnel had been dug between two sides along IB on India’s Chilyari BoP and Pakistan’s Lumbriyal BoP.

With a population of over 2,000 villagers, Chachwal village is located barely one kilometre from the International Border and 65 kilometres from Jammu city.

Interestingly, it was a student, identified as Sukhdev, who first noticed that his farmland had caved in some places and subsequently informed BSF, PTI reported.

Authorities then dug out the tunnel at a depth of 25 feet below the ground level along the Indo-Pak border in Samba district.