Inside World Politics

France’ President in response to the protests of French fishermen against the rising prices of crude oil has proposed the cutting of fuel taxes in Europe. He urged the EU to put on hold part of the VAT on fuel to deal with oil prices that have risen continually in the past weeks. The fishermen have blocked ports in France to rally against rising fuel prices. The protest was planned to reach neighboring countries. The President had said that the country can adopt some measures on its own to offset the effect of higher crude oil prices but declared that any decision to lower the value-added tax must be European.

In a briefing to the Australian Defense Minister there were claims that the TV and Radio personality, Tania Zaetta, had sex with Afghanistan soldiers. The Ministry is trying to determine how the report was leaked to the press. The document prepared to brief the Minister about this alleged indiscretion contained the names of people involved but was withdrawn immediately by the Ministry because of privacy concerns. The unauthorized disclosure had shown a breakdown in the process of dealing with highly confidential matters and there is an immediate need to take steps to prevent it happening again. A review in the process of information distribution should be done.

The local war that has plagued Sri Lanka for the past 25 years has brought it to the point of economic collapse and the government is using a carrot and stick strategy to deal with it. Domestic terrorism carried out by the Tamil Tigers has somewhat been contained by trying to convince the Tamil population not to support the terrorists group’s agenda of establishing an independent state in the northern and eastern part of the country. Previously, the group had shelved its demand for a separate state and consented to a form of local sovereignty but the failure of the peace talks between the group and the government widened the discord between them.

Political analysts have said that Kuwait’s new government is not likely to bring about the long-overdue economic changes because its power balance is practically the same. There has no change as far as economic reform and privatization of industries is involved. The privatization bill allowing foreign companies to invest in and develop oil fields had been put on hold by parliament since 1992 and no new development is seen to change this scenario, as seen by the non-appointment of a permanent oil minister since June. Incoming investment is hindered by strict labor policies, too much red tapes and very limited access to land.

Saudi Arabia has made a contribution of $500M to the U.N. World Food program in answer to their call for help regarding the issue of rising prices of food commodities. This contribution is considered to be the biggest response to UN’s appeal to cover the increasing food costs that has threatened the cutting of aid to a large number of people needing them. The global food crisis has been rapidly growing, reaching an alarming proportion and putting the work of fighting against global poverty in jeopardy. The UN Secretary General had established a task force to deal with the world food crisis.

The president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf had denied speculations of his impending resignation as mounting claims from his opponents and the media were raised for his departure. The newly established civilian government wants to strip him of his key powers, and some were looking for his impeachment. He said that he had been working with the Prime Minister for the growth of the country. Many newspapers had prodded the president to resign and had been highly critical of him. They have alleged that instead of protecting interests of the country, the president had been shielding and protecting the interests of the country’s former chief. Musharraf popularity began its decline during last year’s power struggle with the judiciary.

The United States had heaped praises to Saudi Arabia’s program of counterterrorism by renewing the jihadists. The program is about welcoming returning jihadists from their culture of brutal fanaticism and to reinstate them as peaceful citizens. The Saudi prisoners, after being freed from years of incarceration are taken to an interior ministry reformation center to facilitate their coming back to society. The rehabilitation of radicals program offers all-encompassing counseling and learning sessions to the extremists, and around 700 prisoners have already been set free. And besides this, officials claimed that recidivism has become insignificant. However, Saudi society remains vague making independent evaluation hard to determine.