Asia Africa Intelligence Wire articles from August 2004

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire archives from August 2004

"We want to be the most recognised and the best".
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Priyanka Sangani When founded in 1913 by John Knowles Fitch, Fitch Ratings was actually a publishing company that sold data to Wall Street. But by 1924, Fitch had introduced the now popular "AAA to...

Imaginatively Overstretched.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Aresh Shirali SHOVELING SMOKE By William Mazzarella Oxford University Press PP: 365 Price: Rs 595 Nobel prizes for advertising, if ever awarded, should go to ad...

Treadmill, Pancreas Plus.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Muscles Mani, Sushma Subramanian TREADMILL Targeting the TA At least half the people who write in to me for tips, advice, and suggestions are worried about their mid-section. Not...

Olympic Factory.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: E. Kumar Sharma What do Maria Sharapova, Anna Kournikova, Andre Agasse, Monica Seles, Jim Courier and Pete Sampras have in common, apart from the game of tennis? All of them graduated from the Nick...

School Corporatisation, Spotlight, Help, Tarun!, The Secretary Pageant, Renewed Incursion.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Amanpreet Singh, Aditya Wali, Tarun Sheth, Sushma Subramanian, Ananya Roy SCHOOL CORPORATISATION Heads And Masters Residential school headmasters are being head-hunted like top execs....

School Coupons.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Government funding of education is always controversial. Almost nobody argues that it should not be done at all; since the time of the Greeks, public education for everybody's long-term benefit has been...

In The Binary City.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) The Taj Presidency may not be the proper place to discuss what's civilised or not about Bangalore, located as the hotel is in that very city. But Suhel Seth, CEO Equus Red Cell and BT Crossfire moderator for...

How To Win Friends And Influence People...
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Ashish Gupta The budget he presented on February 28, 1997, will always haunt Palaniappan Chidambaram, the young-looking 59-year-old lawyer (he also has an MBA from that Mecca of...

The Rule Of Five.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Narendra Nathan, Shilpa Nayak 5 STOCKS THAT YOU SHOULD BUY BECAUSE OF THE BUDGET ITC Closing Price on July 9: Rs 1,057 Price-Earnings Multiple: 15.19 Cigarettes have been spared...

Budget Impact.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) A bird's eye view rendition of what happens to what. AGRICULTURE Outlay of Rs 8,000 crore for rural infrastructure Rural credit to be doubled over next three years GROWTH The rural...

"The economy will get stronger, irrespective of who the finance minister is".
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Ashish Gupta and R. Sukumar It's the 24th of 30 media interactions the Finance Minister has got scheduled on July 8 and July 9, but P. Chidambaram shows no sign of Q&A-fatigue. Looking relaxed and...

A Hung Budget...
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Budget 2004 failed to enthuse the six economists who make up the Board of India Today Economists (BITE). At its fifth meeting, held just two days after Finance Minister P. Chidambaram placed his Budget, BITE...

It's Genetic.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Nitya Varadarajan Tis story begins with a man who was king, knight, and merchant prince rolled into one. Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar (1881-1948) was a banker, industrialist, educationist (he...

The Five-Minute Budget.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) For those readers who have neither the time nor the inclination, a quick tour of the Budget. THE HIGHLIGHTS Food For Work Programme to be launched in 150 of the poorest districts in the country ...

The Budget And Us.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: E. Kumar Sharma, Priya Srinivasan, Sahad P.V., Venkatesha Babu PANKERLA ANJIAH/39 Marginal Farmer Television has reached Pratap Singhram village on the outskirts of Hyderabad-it did that...

FMs And Film.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Amanpreet Singh ... And most of it has to do with a play on the titles of popular motion pics. It was, arguably, Yashwant Sinha (Finance Minister between 1998 and 2002) who started the trend. In...

A Mirror To The CMP.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Ashish Gupta See the worthies in the picture above (that, in turn, has seen some use)? They are members of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) that runs the government, or representatives of...

Virtual Luck.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Abir Pal additional reporting by Payal Sethi and Alokesh Bhattacharyya Glancing at his watch, Raaja Kanwar says, "in 15 minutes I'll have to leave for the disaster recovery site." Sharply dressed,...

Coalition Budgets.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) BUDGET 2004: P. Chidambaram unveils a clutch of sops for agriculture, increases ceiling on foreign direct investment in telecommunications, civil aviation, and insurance, focuses on the investment thingamajig...

The Roadhouse Rocks.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Brian Carvalho additional reporting by Nitya Varadarajan, Sahad P.V. and E. Kumar Sharma Some time in 2007: Kartar Singh left Delhi for Kolkata four hours ago with a soaps consignment. He's covered...

The 15 Paisa Trickle.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Delivering relief to the suicidal is an important part of the 'human face' promised by the UPA's agenda. Public investment, thus, is going up in primary education, agriculture and other constituents of the...

Spinning An Indian Web.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Venkatesha Babu, Supriya Shrinate It's the last frontier, and true to form, the comic book character with the second most complex psyche after Batman, powerful-yet-vulnerable,...

To Catch A Star.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Swati Prasad This floor will house our cafeteria," says Peter Mukerjea with a quick sweep of his hand. We are on the top floor of Star TV Network's seven-storey corporate digs in Mumbai's...

Your Armchair Strategy.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Narendra Nathan Take a deep breath. Fasten your seatbelts. Hold tight. Steel your gut. Try not to yell too hard. By the sound of investment pros, venturing alone onto the stock market is not very...

Back In Currency.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Venkatesha Babu, Shailesh Dobhal and Roshni Jayakar Back In Currency More than a year after he was unceremoniously ousted from his hi-profile job at Britannia Industries, Sunil Alagh is slowly...

Moving Money.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Shilpa Nayak Mutual funds have been all the rage for retail investors. They put top-notch investment professionals on your job, no matter how small your kitty, and give you returns you couldn't...

Take Responsibility.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: R.V. Shastri A leader is only as good as his team. A good leader recognises the worth of all his team members and makes them realise that their contributions are invaluable to the organisation's...

Monthly Returns.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Shilpa Nayak The point of the monthly Income Plan (MIP), a specific kind of mutual fund, is clear: to deliver a salary-like flow of funds to the investor. It is a 15-year-old idea pioneered by the...

Hi-tech Nation.
August 1, 2004... (From Business Today (India)) Byline: Priya Srinivasan Early on the morning of may 17, Rangnath 'Rangu' Salgame, the head of Cisco's Indian and SAARC operations, then in California on business switched on a business channel to catch up...

US warship fined for dumping waste.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Ansbert Joaquin, PDI Central Luzon Desk SUBIC BAY FREEPORT-Three months after a United States vessel was fined for spilling oil in Subic Bay, another American vessel would be fined $10,000...

Aid poor nations, RP urges APEC.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) THE PHILIPPINES, in the recently held 4th APEC Transportation Ministerial Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, appealed to the developed countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation to assist the developing...

Staying alive: Angelo tells his story in his own words.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) FREED BY his Iraqi captors on July 20, truck driver Angelo de la Cruz shared with the Inquirer his memories of his 17-day ordeal and his thoughts on the kind of life he is trying to live in his newfound...

Buhain lauds POC, Philsoc for support.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) PHILIPPINE Sports Commission chair Eric Buhain yesterday lauded the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee for helping keep the country's SEA Games plans...

Casas wraps up Super Golf Tour, bags P500,000.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Musong R. Castillo CAGAYAN DE ORO-Three months ago, Necias Casas called son Cassius from Davao, telling him, among others, to continue to strive. On Friday, the old man spent P400 for a...

Cathedral roof work divides Laoag folk.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Cristina Arzadon, PDI Northern Luzon Bureau LAOAG CITY-For the group opposing the restoration of the Laoag Cathedral (St. William's Cathedral), it means robbing the community of its cultural...

Customs exceeds revenue target.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Martin P. Marfil CUSTOMS collections continue to exceed targets. According to Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo, figures culled for the first seven months of the year showed that the...

Conscience.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) THE TWO-CHILD policy proposed by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman is fraught with danger. In particular, it opens up the possibilities of institutionalizing discrimination in the name of economic progress. However,...

Edsa Shrine artist cries sacrilege over mural restoration.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Fe Zamora THE ARTIST who executed the imposing mural of the first People Power Revolution at the Edsa Shrine is crying violation of intellectual property. Nemi Miranda, the Angono-based...

Gracia's story stirs row.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Alcuin Papa and Philip C. Tubeza WHEN Gracia Burnham flew back to the United States on Friday night, she left behind a country she said she had come to love. She also left a controversy...

Ex-bar workers protest plan to demolish their Clark stalls.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) ANGELES CITY-Angry at President Macapagal-Arroyo and the state-owned Clark Development Corp., former bar worker Regina Cadag hit the tip of her umbrella on the floor while she guarded her stall against...

Filipino soldiers running out of English, not ammo.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Julie S. Alipala, PDI Mindanao Bureau ZAMBOANGA CITY-Their supply of guns and bullets may be bottomless, for a change. But there's one thing Filipino soldiers participating in the...

Feeling 'Gulliver' on Mt. Hamiguitan.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Leonard Paul Palo, San Isidro, Davao Oriental FRIEDRICH Nietzsche once said, "Whenever I climb, I am followed by a dog called Ego." This could be every mountaineer's motivational credo as every...

English in the Philippines.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Isagani A. Cruz WHEN English was the medium of instruction in our schools, practically every Filipino, including those in the barrios, understood and spoke the language. Some of them used what...

Korea deals RP-Cebuana 5th loss.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) CHINESE-TAIPEI-RP-Cebuana Lhuillier yielded to sweet-shooting South Korea, 83-65, Friday as its woes continued in the Jones Cup basketball tournament here. It was the Filipinos' fifth loss against a...

Laguna town mayor wins top league position.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) STA. ROSA, Laguna-What ought to be a hotly-contested election of the Laguna mayor's league held here yesterday went on without a hitch after members of both the administration and opposition agreed to set...

Oil firms to hike prices Monday.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Abigail L. Ho FIRST the bad news: the prices of gasoline and diesel fuel will again be raised by 50 centavos a liter starting Monday. There seems to be no good news. Oil firms cannot...

Leading his barangay was a dream twice stolen for ex-cop.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Luige del Puerto A HAIL of bullets stopped retired SPO4 Bienvenido Ople from living his noble dream. Ople, 57, was on his way to get the court order that would have placed him at the post...

'Plastics King' sued.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) BUSINESSMAN William Gatchalian and five others have been charged for their alleged failure to remit the contribution of their employees to the Social Security System (SSS). Gatchalian, president of the...

Magat River cleanup set.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) RAMON, Isabela-Agriculture and irrigation officials and fish cage operators here have joined hands in a massive cleanup along the tributaries of Magat River and waterways leading to the Magat Dam to prevent...

Children's choir bags gold in German tilt.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Jocelyn R. Uy EVERY choir may have its own success story, but for this group, victory definitely didn't come with age and popularity. Last July 12, the Hail Mary the Queen Children's Choir,...

2 Mindanao solons seek poll postponement.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) COTABATO CITY-At least two Muslim congressmen from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) are pushing for the postponement of the September regional elections. Maguindanao 2nd district Rep....

Nene: RP vets may feel brunt of US ire over Iraq pullout.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: TJ Burgonio UNLESS it is appeased by the Philippine government, the United States might "freeze" pending legislation that seeks to grant pension benefits to Filipino war veterans in retaliation...

Mayors told not to drag poor in feud.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Bernadette A. Parco, PDI Visayas Bureau CEBU CITY-Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal asked local officials not to drag fish vendors into their dispute over ownership of part of the P3.4...

NBA meet for school children opens.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) THE NATIONAL Basketball Association (NBA) and Pediatrica, Inc., makers of Growee Vitamins, have organized the first-ever Jr. NBA and Jr. WNBA 3-on-3 basketball tournament called "The Great Student...

Country to import P1.3B worth of rice to avert shortage.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Philip C. Tubeza THE GOVERNMENT through the National Food Authority will import P1.3 billion worth of rice to avert a shortage of the staple similar to what the country experienced in 1995. ...

Holding hands.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Fr. Jerry M. Orbos, SVD IN ONE of my pilgrimages, we had an elderly couple who were holding each other's hands. It was such an inspiring sight to see them holding on to each other. I pointed...

NIA threatens to rescind contract.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) ROXAS CITY-The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has threatened to rescind the contract of a Pampanga-based contractor over extended delays in the construction of the P21 million-irrigation project...

PDI scholarship paves way for changes, electricity for 13-yr-old boy, family.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Carla P. Gomez, PDI Visayas Bureau BACOLOD CITY-Reymond Tabora, 13, did not know what it was like to live in a home that had electricity. When the rains came, the nipa roof of his house leaked....

Place of silence where Presidents find solace.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Leo Magno, Infotech Section Editor THEY are seldom seen and seldom heard but even the most powerful people in the country seek guidance and prayer assistance from the Holy Spirit Adoration...

Why Australia is hot on De la Cruz case.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Raul J. Palabrica THERE'S more than meets the eye in the strong criticism by Australia of the decision of the Philippine government to pull out its humanitarian contingent from Iraq in exchange...

Debating population.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Randy David OF the many problems the President ignored in her last State of the Nation Address, the most glaring, perhaps, is the population growth. President Macapagal-Arroyo's silence on this...

GMA asks religious leaders to take part in 'values formation'.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Juliet Labog-Javellana PRESIDENT Macapagal-Arroyo has asked the country's most influential religious leaders to join an 11-member presidential commission that would "institutionalize" moral...

Reyes opposes cutting LGUs' share.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) DAVAO CITY-Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes is for keeping the entire Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of local government units intact. Reducing it, as is being proposed by some groups, would be...

Pimentel wants Congress to control Pagcor funds.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: TJ Burgonio OPPOSITION Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. yesterday branded as "useless" President Macapagal-Arroyo's decision to transfer cash-rich government agencies to line departments unless the...

Aglipay in my crystal ball.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Ramon J. Farolan OUR congratulations to the Bureau of Internal Revenue on its centennial tomorrow. Willy Parayno is staying on board while Tony Bernardo is leaving Customs. The scramble is on...

The toll of machismo.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Rina Jimenez-David FR. Robert Reyes, "running priest," president of Gomburza, the organization of Filipino diocesan clergy, and feminist-in-training, called to ask if I could find space in this...

Soldiers hurt in truck crash.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) COTABATO CITY-Twenty-one Filipino soldiers providing security for American troops in the ongoing RP-US Balance Piston joint antiterror exercise in Carmen, North Cotabato, were injured in a road accident in...

Rotary golfest attracts 30 teams.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) THIRTY teams have already assured organizers of their participation in the RGFFP (Rotary Golfing Fellowship Foundation of the Philippines) tournament to be played at the Cebu Country Club and Alta Vista Golf...

Burnham Park revival.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) BAGUIO CITY-With mounting complaints of Baguio's loss of beauty, tourism officials are bent on reviving Burnham Park and other tourist attractions here when they hold a tourism summit in August. Nicolas...

Pink Sisters go hi-tech; prayer requests online.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Leo Magno, Editor, Infotech THEY are seldom seen and seldom heard but even the most powerful people in the country seek guidance and prayer assistance from the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters. ...

800 bags of sugar seized.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) LEGAZPI CITY-Four container vans aboard M/V Cebu Sulpicio Lines, allegedly containing 800 bags of raw sugar from Cebu City, were seized by the Philippine Coast Guard in the Masbate City port on Friday last...

Drug-buster buried.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) CALAPAN CITY-Supt. Rodrigo Foja, 43, assistant provincial director and head of the 40th Provincial Police Mobile Group, was buried on July 24 in Barangay Tawiran here. Hundreds sympathized with the Foja...

Refund gun permit fees-Chavez.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Philip C. Tubeza FORMER Solicitor General Francisco Chavez has asked the Supreme Court to reverse its decision last month upholding the nationwide gun ban that President Macapagal-Arroyo imposed...

Salvage victim actor's 'nephew'.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) THE BODY of the alleged summary execution victim found in Calamba City has been identified as Gilbert Garcia, allegedly a nephew of actor-director Eddie Garcia, police said yesterday. Supt. Edmund...

Sanchez, Bancod hurdle rivals, bolster chances.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) FILIPINO International Master Joseph Sanchez and IM Ronald Bancod defeated their respective rivals to share 6th to 17th places after the seventh round of the XVI Open Cannes International Chess Championships...

Eagles claw Falcons; Tams tame Bulldogs.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Jasmine W. Payo ATENEO captain Larry Fonacier may be out for the rest of the season, but he became an inspiration for point guard LA Tenorio, whose three-pointer with 4.3 seconds remaining...

Can day care centers bridge education gap?
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) GOVERNMENT leaders around the world recognize the importance of early education in developing their economies. In her State of the Nation Address on July 26, President Macapagal-Arroyo asked Congress "to...

Strengthening formative education is better than one more year in high school.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Maricel L. Dacuycuy, Head, Early Childhood Education Division, Muntinlupa City I have always been a firm believer in day care. That's why it came as a welcome surprise when President...

Think twice before buying cheap goods, cops warn.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Edson C. Tandoc Jr. BUYING cheap goods may not always prove to be a wise choice. For all you know, the products you are buying could be stolen goods. Police arrested a Chinese trader and his...

Time Gentleman, Being There picked in Imports Stakes race.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) Byline: Edwin Villanueva, Contributor MAYBE this time. That was how star jockey Jonathan Hernandez assessed Time Gentleman's chances in today's fourth leg of the Philracom Imported Stakes Series...

Moratorium defended.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) CALAPAN CITY-The provincial board, through Vice Gov. Arnan Panaligan, said it would defend the 25-year mining moratorium in Oriental Mindoro, which it passed in January 2002, even in an international court....

24 tons of white coral sand seized in Lucena.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) LUCENA CITY-An estimated 24 tons of white coral sand in jute sacks were confiscated by a provincial multi-sectoral task force while the cargo being unloaded at the Dalahican port here Friday morning. ...

Traces of oil, gas found off Tawi-Tawi.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi-A consortium of transnational corporations confirmed the existence of oil and gas reserves in this province following three weeks of exploration. Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao...

Walkout mars NCFP election.
August 1, 2004... (From Philippine Daily Inquirer) THE NATIONAL Chess Federation of the Philippines pushed through with its annual election yesterday despite a walkout by NCFP officials and players led by Grandmasters Joey Antonio, Nelson Mariano II and...