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parmalet 1
1
PARIS, Oct. 20-- France must learn to work harder and rein in its "excessive" public sector if it is not to sink into irreversible eco- nomic decline, a com- mittee of experts led by former IMF chief Michel Camdessus warned the government Tuesday, AFP reported. Commissioned by Finance Minister and presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy, the report painted a depressing picture of a country hampered by unemployment of near- ly 10 percent, declining productivity and invest- ment and permanently low growth rates. Proposing radical reforms, the report said these obstacles could be overcome by an eco- nomic "leap forward" and recommended a series of measures to restore labor incentives, encourage technological innovation, reduce the debt overhang and safe- guard the country's sys- tem of social benefits. It warned that public debt, which has tripled as a proportion of gross domestic product in the past 20 years, as well as heavy public spending, were jeopardizing the state's capacity to cope with future problems. France repeatedly has been under fire for breaching a European Union budget rule that caps the public deficit at three percent of out- put. The report's recom- mendations were imme- diately welcomed by Sarkozy, who plans to resign his post next month to become a can- didate to lead the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party. He has already indicated the proposals will form the basis of the party's economic manifesto ahead of his probable presidential bid in 2007. "I identify with this report because it says three essential things: that it is urgent to carry out reforms in our coun- try, that reforms are not to be seen as a punish- ment, and that the num- ber of public workers can be reduced in exchange for productiv- ity gains," Sarkozy said. But trade unions, as expected, began to reg- ister their protest against the report's lib- eral economic tone and its strong rejection of the theory of reduced working hours--which has underpinned recent unsuccessful attempts to fight unemployment. Camdessus, describing France as in the grip of a "surreptitious stalling process", said the sever- ity of the country's problems was masked by a number of factors including historically low interest rates and the equally poor perfor- mance of many euro- zone partners. Iran Daily October 21, 2004 11 Budget Cuts BELGRADE--The Serbian parliament narrowly approved the government's revised budget on Tuesday, giving a reluctant go- ahead for spending cuts and fiscal reform designed to squeeze the deficit. Americans Worried WASHINGTON-- Americans are becom- ing increasingly con- cerned about the state of the US economy and blaming President George W. Bush, according to Gallup poll figures released Tuesday. Oil Discovery HANOI--A joint ven- ture between A m e r i c a n Technologies, Malaysia's Petronas, PetroVietnam and Singapore Petroleum said Wednesday it has found new oil reserves off Vietnam's north- east coast. New Strike AMSTERDAM-- Thousands of Dutch metal workers plan a one-day strike next week as part of an ongoing campaign against government- proposed pension and welfare reforms, the country's biggest labor union said on Tuesday. Published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) Add.: Iran Cultural & Press Institute, #212 Khorramshahr Avenue Tehran/Iran Iran Daily has no responsibility whatsoever for the advertis- ements and promotional material printed in the newspaper. Managing Director: Executive Editor: Editorial Dept. Tel: Fax: Subscription Dept. Tel: Fax: Advertising Dept. Phone: Internet Add.: E-mail Add.: Mohammad T. Roghaniha Amin Sabooni 8755761-2 8761869 8415866 8417715 8753119, 8757702, 8733764 http://www.iran-daily.com [email protected] MILAN, Italy, Oct. 20-- Investors stung by the col- lapse of Parmalat have filed a class action lawsuit in a US court as they seek more than $8 billion in damages from the Italian food group's former man- agement, banks and audi- tors, Reuters reported. The suit was deposited on Monday in New York and is the latest in a string of demands for damages after the dairy multination- al slumped into insolvency under 14 billion euros ($17.5 billion) of debt last December. The suit--whose lead plaintiffs include British fund management firm Hermes--targets Parmalat's former directors and officers, said Umberto Mosetti, a partner with consulting firm Deminor. Also on the list of defen- dants are Bank of America, Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston and auditors Deloitte & Touche and Grant Thornton, Mosetti said. Three other banks, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Deutsche Bank, were list- ed on the suit as non- defendant third parties. Bank of America, Citigroup and the auditing firms were recently hit with separate $10 billion damage suits filed in US courts by Parmalat's administrators. Parmalat has also taken legal action to recover more than 550 million euros in fees and other money paid by Parmalat to Deutsche Bank, CSFB and UBS in the run-up to its crisis. Parmalat's administrators say the banks and auditors either played a part in or failed to prevent what the US Securities and Exchange Commission has called "one of the largest and most brazen corporate financial frauds in history". The banks and the auditors have denied wrongdoing. Mosetti said the class action was based on simi- lar arguments as in the Parmalat claims but sought to raise money directly for investors, including for- mer shareholders in the bankrupt company. Parmalat's legal offen- sive aims to generate cash for a restructured version of the company, which will be owned by its credi- tors under a planned debt- for-equity swap. Parmalat Files Suit for US Damages GENEVA, Oct. 20--Worldwide sales of industrial robots surged to record levels in the first half of 2004 after equipment prices fell while labor costs grew, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe said Wednesday, AFP reported. In its annual survey of world robotics, the UNECE said the number of robots in operation in industry exceeded the 800,000 mark for the first time at the end of 2003 (800,772). The growth continued this year with an 18 percent increase in orders worldwide in the first six months of 2004 compared to the same period last year. "Falling or stable robot prices, increasing labor costs and contin- uously improved technology are major driving forces which speak for massive robot investment in industry," said survey author Jan Karlsson. The motor industry now uses one robot for every ten production workers, according to the UNECE. In 2003 the world market for robots grew by 19 percent to 81,800 units fuelled by broad- based demand, the survey showed. Sales in Japan, still the world leader in robotics use, rose by 25 percent to 31,600 units in 2003 while Asian industry's demand increased by an estimated 57 per- cent in the first six months of this year. European industrial demand for robots rose by an average of just four percent last year and has fall- en so far in 2004, following a dou- ble-digit boom in previous years. South Korea was the second major user with 138 robots in operation per 10,000 people employed, compared to 322 in Japan, but the UNECE noted that EU countries were catching up. German (148) and Italian indus- try (116) remained the second and fourth largest users of robots in the world and their demand grew by more than the European aver- age. "As robots are made for both increasing capacity and rational- izing production, robot invest- ments are made also during peri- ods of economic recession," Karlsson said. "When the econo- my recovers, production can then to a large extent be increased without necessarily hiring new labor," he added. The survey highlighted sharp falls in the cost of robots relative to labor costs in Germany and in North America. Robots Boom as Labor Costs Grow Falling robot prices, increasing labor costs and continuously improved technology are major reasons behind massive robot investment in industry PRETORIA, South Africa, Oct. 20--South Africa must spend some 13 billion rand ($2.05 billion) to resolve out- standing land claims by blacks in an effort to reform land ownership in the formerly white-ruled country, the government said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza also acknowledged to reporters that the cost of completing the return of land legally claimed as part of a "restitution" process since apartheid ended would make it hard to meet a 2005 deadline. "We will need around 13 billion rand to resolve just the restitution," Thoko Didiza said after a meeting of the country's Commercial Agriculture Working Group, which includes the country's main farming organiza- tions. That would comprise a big chunk of planned spending for the 2005/06 budget, estimated in the last official budget at 404.6 billion rand ($64 billion). A decade after the end of apartheid, most com- mercial farmland in the continent's biggest econ- omy remains in the hands of minority white farm- ers. Land reform is seen as vital if the forcible seizure and redistribution of lands undertaken by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe are to be avoided. South Africa has long asserted its land reform process will be conduct- ed in an orderly, legal and transparent manner. The main aim of the reform is to ensure that 50 percent of farmland is in black hands by 2014-- with 30 percent directly owned and another 20 percent leased. Another goal involves resolving by the end of 2005 legal claims by communities who were forcibly removed under white rule, but Didiza said the amount of land involved in that restitu- tion was "insignificant" compared with the wider goal. "We all agree that resolving land restitution by 2005 is a common objective. We are all committed to see the process finished," Didiza told reporters. $2b Needed for Black Land Claims BERLIN, Oct. 20--Germany needs 25,000 highly qualified immigrants next year to fill labor shortages even though the country has four million unemployed, a government-appointed commis- sion said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Legislation passed earlier this year to allow a limited number of immigrants into Germany should be expanded because of acute shortages of skilled workers in areas such as engineering, health care and financial services, the expert commission said. Interior Minister Otto Schily said he would consider the appeal from the commission headed by former parliament president Rita Suessmuth, a senior member of the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU). "It could make a significant impact on the economic success of the country," Suessmuth said. "In order to be able to react to bottle- necks in the labor market the num- ber of workers allowed in each year needs to be adjusted." But other leaders of the conserv- ative CDU party criticized the appeal as an attempt to undermine the immigration law agreed in June after years of tough negotia- tions. The law allowed a smaller inflow of immigrants than the Social Democrat-led government had originally planned. It was restrict- ed to highly qualified profession- als such as computer specialists and academics. The government and the opposi- tion struck the deal against a back- drop of growing worries over the demographic implications of Germany's low birth rate and age- ing population. Germany, a coun- try of around 80 million, has 7.3 million foreigners. Business leaders say Germany needs more skilled workers to remain competitive. But high unemployment of more than 10 percent makes immigration a politically sensitive issue. Germany in Need of Foreign Workforce SAN JOSE, USA, Oct. 20--A wave of scandal has buffeted presidencies from Guatemala to Nicaragua, and even Costa Rica, previously an oasis from corruption in Central America, AFP reported. On Tuesday, an association of Honduran prosecutors criticized a suspension of an investigation against former president Rafael Callejas on the misappropriation of some $20 million, along with other mem- bers of his government. "We are ashamed," said the statement signed by 399 prosecutors. Late Monday, Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos admitted to having received $326,000 from Nicaraguan busi- nessmen living in the United States. The tide of corruption is rising so fast that Central American leaders banded together on Saturday to demand the Organization of American States (OAS) stop Nicaragua's legislature from impeaching Bolanos. Guatemalan President Oscar Berger, Salvadoran President Antonio Saca and Honduran President Ricardo Maduro attended the special meeting at Managua's international airport. The affair threatens to throw the OAS into a crisis. Interim Secretary General Luigi Einaudi and Permanent Council President Aristides Royo of Panama directed a mission to Nicaragua. Former OAS secretary general Miguel Angel Rodriguez quit his post recently to defend himself on corruption charges dat- ing back to his presidency of Costa Rica, 1998-2002. Costa Ricans mobbed downtown San Juan last week to protest increasing cor- ruption, which has been less a part of political life here than in most of Latin America. The Central American country comes in third in Latin American trans- parency ratings, according to Transparency International. Costa Rica's current president, Abel Pacheco, is also suspected of taking some $490,000 from the government of Taiwan. Guatemala's former president, Alfonso Portillo, recently applied for a visa to work in Mexico, where he lives, beyond the reach of prosecutors who want to question him about an alleged misappropriation of $3.7 million. And Panama's recently installed govern- ment, under President Martin Torrijos, sought to overturn a decision by outgoing president Mireya Moscoso to exempt Hutchinson Wampoa, a Chinese company that manages the country's two main ports, of 22.2 million dollars in taxes. Over the 50-year life of the management contract, Panama loses $1.5 billion, the largest scandal in Panama's history, according to Enrique Montenegro of the anti-corruption front, and perhaps the largest in Central America. Meanwhile, a poll released by Consulting firm KPMG in Argentina on Tuesday said that Argentina's current gov- ernment is viewed as the least corrupt among all the governments since the nation's return to democracy 20 years ago. C. America Corruption Rising Report Demands Radical Reforms in France VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Oct. 20--Over 15,000 teachers and kinder- garten employees went on rallies and strikes all over Russia's Far Eastern region of Primorye Wednesday as part of nationwide demand for higher pay, AFP report- ed. One of the largest demon- strations, staged in the Pacific port of Vladivostok, rallied some 3,000 people under slogans calling for "A worthy salary for teachers and doctors" and "For a dig- nified life". "The salary of a teacher who has been working for 30 years is no more than 6,000 rubles ($200) now. A young teacher can hope for up to 2,000 rubles, and the salary rise in 2003 helped us not at all because of inflation," Primorye's teacher trade union chair- woman Raisa Shabanova said. "I have been working as a physics teacher for 30 years and get only 5,700 rubles a month, while it takes up to 15,000 rubles to live nor- mally in Primorye," mourned another protester, Tatyana Puzyrevskaya. However, local authorities did not send any official to meet with the protesters. Around one million Russian state school teach- ers were expected to strike Wednesday to press their demand for an increase to their salaries, which aver- age 100 dollars a month, union officials said earlier. Around 800,000 teachers were expected to take part in the strike with others organizing demonstrations. The current Russian state budget contained a provi- sion to raise the pay of teachers in schools financed by federal funds-as opposed to regional or municipal treasuries--but trade unions said that raise had still not been implemented. Around one-third of Russia's state schools are financed through the feder- al budget, but trade union officials said the strike action would press the demand for the salaries of all public teachers to be increased. 15,000 Russian Teachers Strike Thousands of people carry banners calling for "a worthy salary for teachers and doctors" and "a dignified life," during a rally in the Pacific port of Vladivostok on Wednesday. (AFP Photo) Parmalat's main factory in Collecchio, Italy. (AFP File Photo)
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PARIS, Oct. 20--France must learn towork harder and rein inits "excessive" publicsector if it is not to sinkinto irreversible eco-nomic decline, a com-mittee of experts led byformer IMF chiefMichel Camdessuswarned the governmentTuesday, AFP reported.
Commissioned byFinance Minister andpresidential hopefulNicolas Sarkozy, thereport painted adepressing picture of acountry hampered byunemployment of near-ly 10 percent, decliningproductivity and invest-ment and permanentlylow growth rates.
Proposing radicalreforms, the report said
these obstacles could beovercome by an eco-nomic "leap forward"and recommended aseries of measures torestore labor incentives,encourage technologicalinnovation, reduce thedebt overhang and safe-guard the country's sys-tem of social benefits.
It warned that publicdebt, which has tripledas a proportion of grossdomestic product in thepast 20 years, as well asheavy public spending,were jeopardizing thestate's capacity to copewith future problems.
France repeatedly hasbeen under fire forbreaching a EuropeanUnion budget rule thatcaps the public deficitat three percent of out-
put.The report's recom-
mendations were imme-diately welcomed bySarkozy, who plans toresign his post nextmonth to become a can-didate to lead the rulingUnion for a PopularMovement (UMP)party. He has alreadyindicated the proposalswill form the basis ofthe party's economicmanifesto ahead of hisprobable presidentialbid in 2007.
"I identify with thisreport because it saysthree essential things:that it is urgent to carryout reforms in our coun-try, that reforms are notto be seen as a punish-ment, and that the num-ber of public workers
can be reduced inexchange for productiv-ity gains," Sarkozy said.
But trade unions, asexpected, began to reg-ister their protestagainst the report's lib-eral economic tone andits strong rejection ofthe theory of reducedworking hours--whichhas underpinned recentunsuccessful attemptsto fight unemployment.
Camdessus, describingFrance as in the grip ofa "surreptitious stallingprocess", said the sever-ity of the country'sproblems was maskedby a number of factorsincluding historicallylow interest rates andthe equally poor perfor-mance of many euro-zone partners.
Iran Daily October 21, 2004 11
Budget CutsB E L G R A D E - - T h eSerbian parliamentnarrowly approved thegovernment's revisedbudget on Tuesday,giving a reluctant go-ahead for spendingcuts and fiscal reformdesigned to squeezethe deficit.
AmericansWorried W A S H I N G T O N - -Americans are becom-ing increasingly con-cerned about the stateof the US economyand blaming PresidentGeorge W. Bush,according to Galluppoll figures releasedTuesday.
Oil DiscoveryHANOI--A joint ven-ture betweenA m e r i c a nT e c h n o l o g i e s ,Malaysia's Petronas,PetroVietnam andSingapore Petroleumsaid Wednesday it hasfound new oil reservesoff Vietnam's north-east coast.
New Strike A M S T E R D A M - -Thousands of Dutchmetal workers plan aone-day strike nextweek as part of anongoing campaignagainst government-proposed pension andwelfare reforms, thecountry's biggestlabor union said onTuesday.
Published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) Add.: Iran Cultural & Press Institute, #212 Khorramshahr Avenue
Tehran/Iran
Iran Daily has no responsibility whatsoever for the advertis-ements and promotional material printed in the newspaper.
Managing Director: Executive Editor:
Editorial Dept. Tel:Fax:
Subscription Dept. Tel:Fax:
Advertising Dept. Phone:Internet Add.:
E-mail Add.:
Mohammad T. RoghanihaAmin Sabooni8755761-28761869841586684177158753119, 8757702, 8733764http://[email protected]
MILAN, Italy, Oct. 20--Investors stung by the col-lapse of Parmalat havefiled a class action lawsuitin a US court as they seekmore than $8 billion indamages from the Italianfood group's former man-agement, banks and audi-tors, Reuters reported.
The suit was depositedon Monday in New Yorkand is the latest in a stringof demands for damages
after the dairy multination-al slumped into insolvencyunder 14 billion euros($17.5 billion) of debt lastDecember.
The suit--whose leadplaintiffs include Britishfund management firmH e r m e s - - t a r g e t sParmalat's former directorsand officers, said UmbertoMosetti, a partner withconsulting firm Deminor.
Also on the list of defen-
dants are Bank ofAmerica, Citigroup, CreditSuisse First Boston andauditors Deloitte &Touche and GrantThornton, Mosetti said.
Three other banks,Morgan Stanley, UBS andDeutsche Bank, were list-ed on the suit as non-defendant third parties.
Bank of America,Citigroup and the auditingfirms were recently hit
with separate $10 billiondamage suits filed in UScourts by Parmalat'sadministrators.
Parmalat has also takenlegal action to recovermore than 550 millioneuros in fees and othermoney paid by Parmalat toDeutsche Bank, CSFB andUBS in the run-up to itscrisis.
Parmalat's administratorssay the banks and auditors
either played a part in orfailed to prevent what theUS Securities andExchange Commissionhas called "one of thelargest and most brazencorporate financial fraudsin history". The banks andthe auditors have deniedwrongdoing.
Mosetti said the classaction was based on simi-lar arguments as in theParmalat claims but sought
to raise money directly forinvestors, including for-mer shareholders in thebankrupt company.
Parmalat's legal offen-sive aims to generate cashfor a restructured versionof the company, whichwill be owned by its credi-tors under a planned debt-for-equity swap.
Parmalat Files Suit for US Damages
GENEVA, Oct. 20--Worldwidesales of industrial robots surged torecord levels in the first half of2004 after equipment prices fellwhile labor costs grew, the UnitedNations Economic Commissionfor Europe said Wednesday, AFPreported.
In its annual survey of worldrobotics, the UNECE said thenumber of robots in operation inindustry exceeded the 800,000mark for the first time at the endof 2003 (800,772).
The growth continued this yearwith an 18 percent increase inorders worldwide in the first sixmonths of 2004 compared to thesame period last year.
"Falling or stable robot prices,increasing labor costs and contin-uously improved technology aremajor driving forces which speakfor massive robot investment inindustry," said survey author JanKarlsson.
The motor industry now usesone robot for every ten productionworkers, according to theUNECE.
In 2003 the world market forrobots grew by 19 percent to
81,800 units fuelled by broad-based demand, the surveyshowed.
Sales in Japan, still the worldleader in robotics use, rose by 25percent to 31,600 units in 2003while Asian industry's demandincreased by an estimated 57 per-cent in the first six months of thisyear.
European industrial demand forrobots rose by an average of justfour percent last year and has fall-en so far in 2004, following a dou-ble-digit boom in previous years.
South Korea was the secondmajor user with 138 robots inoperation per 10,000 peopleemployed, compared to 322 inJapan, but the UNECE noted thatEU countries were catching up.
German (148) and Italian indus-try (116) remained the second andfourth largest users of robots inthe world and their demand grewby more than the European aver-age.
"As robots are made for bothincreasing capacity and rational-izing production, robot invest-ments are made also during peri-ods of economic recession,"
Karlsson said. "When the econo-my recovers, production can thento a large extent be increased
without necessarily hiring newlabor," he added.
The survey highlighted sharpfalls in the cost of robots relativeto labor costs in Germany and inNorth America.
Robots Boom as Labor Costs Grow
Falling robot prices, increasing labor costsand continuously improved technology aremajor reasons behind massive robotinvestment in industry
PRETORIA, SouthAfrica, Oct. 20--SouthAfrica must spend some13 billion rand ($2.05billion) to resolve out-standing land claims byblacks in an effort toreform land ownership inthe formerly white-ruledcountry, the governmentsaid on Tuesday, Reutersreported.
Agriculture MinisterThoko Didiza alsoacknowledged toreporters that the cost ofcompleting the return ofland legally claimed aspart of a "restitution"process since apartheidended would make it
hard to meet a 2005deadline.
"We will need around13 billion rand to resolvejust the restitution,"Thoko Didiza said after ameeting of the country'sCommercial AgricultureWorking Group, whichincludes the country'smain farming organiza-tions.
That would comprise abig chunk of plannedspending for the 2005/06budget, estimated in thelast official budget at404.6 billion rand ($64billion).
A decade after the endof apartheid, most com-
mercial farmland in thecontinent's biggest econ-omy remains in the handsof minority white farm-ers.
Land reform is seen asvital if the forcibleseizure and redistributionof lands undertaken byZimbabwean PresidentRobert Mugabe are to beavoided.
South Africa has longasserted its land reformprocess will be conduct-ed in an orderly, legaland transparent manner.
The main aim of thereform is to ensure that50 percent of farmland isin black hands by 2014--
with 30 percent directlyowned and another 20percent leased.
Another goal involvesresolving by the end of2005 legal claims bycommunities who wereforcibly removed underwhite rule, but Didizasaid the amount of landinvolved in that restitu-tion was "insignificant"compared with the widergoal.
"We all agree thatresolving land restitutionby 2005 is a commonobjective. We are allcommitted to see theprocess finished," Didizatold reporters.
$2b Needed for Black Land Claims
BERLIN, Oct. 20--Germanyneeds 25,000 highly qualifiedimmigrants next year to fill laborshortages even though the countryhas four million unemployed, a
government-appointed commis-sion said on Tuesday, Reutersreported.
Legislation passed earlier thisyear to allow a limited number ofimmigrants into Germany shouldbe expanded because of acuteshortages of skilled workers inareas such as engineering, healthcare and financial services, theexpert commission said.
Interior Minister Otto Schily saidhe would consider the appeal fromthe commission headed by former
parliament president RitaSuessmuth, a senior member ofthe opposition ChristianDemocrats (CDU).
"It could make a significantimpact on the economic success ofthe country," Suessmuth said. "Inorder to be able to react to bottle-necks in the labor market the num-ber of workers allowed in eachyear needs to be adjusted."
But other leaders of the conserv-ative CDU party criticized theappeal as an attempt to underminethe immigration law agreed inJune after years of tough negotia-tions.
The law allowed a smaller inflowof immigrants than the Social
Democrat-led government hadoriginally planned. It was restrict-ed to highly qualified profession-als such as computer specialistsand academics.
The government and the opposi-tion struck the deal against a back-drop of growing worries over thedemographic implications ofGermany's low birth rate and age-ing population. Germany, a coun-try of around 80 million, has 7.3million foreigners.
Business leaders say Germanyneeds more skilled workers toremain competitive. But highunemployment of more than 10percent makes immigration apolitically sensitive issue.
Germany in Need of Foreign Workforce
SAN JOSE, USA, Oct. 20--A wave ofscandal has buffeted presidencies fromGuatemala to Nicaragua, and even CostaRica, previously an oasis from corruptionin Central America, AFP reported.
On Tuesday, an association of Honduranprosecutors criticized a suspension of aninvestigation against former presidentRafael Callejas on the misappropriation ofsome $20 million, along with other mem-bers of his government. "We areashamed," said the statement signed by399 prosecutors.
Late Monday, Nicaraguan PresidentEnrique Bolanos admitted to havingreceived $326,000 from Nicaraguan busi-nessmen living in the United States.
The tide of corruption is rising so fastthat Central American leaders bandedtogether on Saturday to demand theOrganization of American States (OAS)stop Nicaragua's legislature fromimpeaching Bolanos.
Guatemalan President Oscar Berger,Salvadoran President Antonio Saca andHonduran President Ricardo Maduroattended the special meeting at Managua'sinternational airport.
The affair threatens to throw the OASinto a crisis. Interim Secretary GeneralLuigi Einaudi and Permanent CouncilPresident Aristides Royo of Panamadirected a mission to Nicaragua.
Former OAS secretary general MiguelAngel Rodriguez quit his post recently todefend himself on corruption charges dat-ing back to his presidency of Costa Rica,
1998-2002. Costa Ricans mobbed downtown San
Juan last week to protest increasing cor-ruption, which has been less a part ofpolitical life here than in most of LatinAmerica. The Central American countrycomes in third in Latin American trans-parency ratings, according toTransparency International.
Costa Rica's current president, AbelPacheco, is also suspected of taking some$490,000 from the government of Taiwan.
Guatemala's former president, AlfonsoPortillo, recently applied for a visa to workin Mexico, where he lives, beyond thereach of prosecutors who want to questionhim about an alleged misappropriation of$3.7 million.
And Panama's recently installed govern-ment, under President Martin Torrijos,sought to overturn a decision by outgoingpresident Mireya Moscoso to exemptHutchinson Wampoa, a Chinese companythat manages the country's two main ports,of 22.2 million dollars in taxes.
Over the 50-year life of the managementcontract, Panama loses $1.5 billion, thelargest scandal in Panama's history,according to Enrique Montenegro of theanti-corruption front, and perhaps thelargest in Central America.
Meanwhile, a poll released byConsulting firm KPMG in Argentina onTuesday said that Argentina's current gov-ernment is viewed as the least corruptamong all the governments since thenation's return to democracy 20 years ago.
C. America Corruption Rising
Report Demands Radical Reforms in France
V L A D I V O S T O K ,Russia, Oct. 20--Over15,000 teachers and kinder-garten employees went onrallies and strikes all overRussia's Far Eastern regionof Primorye Wednesday aspart of nationwide demandfor higher pay, AFP report-ed.
One of the largest demon-strations, staged in thePacific port of Vladivostok,rallied some 3,000 peopleunder slogans calling for "Aworthy salary for teachersand doctors" and "For a dig-nified life".
"The salary of a teacher
who has been working for30 years is no more than6,000 rubles ($200) now. Ayoung teacher can hope forup to 2,000 rubles, and thesalary rise in 2003 helpedus not at all because ofinflation," Primorye'steacher trade union chair-woman Raisa Shabanovasaid.
"I have been working as aphysics teacher for 30 yearsand get only 5,700 rubles amonth, while it takes up to15,000 rubles to live nor-mally in Primorye,"mourned another protester,Tatyana Puzyrevskaya.
However, local authoritiesdid not send any official tomeet with the protesters.
Around one millionRussian state school teach-ers were expected to strikeWednesday to press theirdemand for an increase totheir salaries, which aver-age 100 dollars a month,union officials said earlier.
Around 800,000 teacherswere expected to take partin the strike with othersorganizing demonstrations.
The current Russian statebudget contained a provi-sion to raise the pay ofteachers in schools financed
by federal funds-as opposedto regional or municipaltreasuries--but trade unionssaid that raise had still notbeen implemented.
Around one-third ofRussia's state schools are
financed through the feder-al budget, but trade unionofficials said the strikeaction would press thedemand for the salaries ofall public teachers to beincreased.
15,000 Russian Teachers Strike
Thousands of people carry banners calling for "a worthy salary forteachers and doctors" and "a dignified life," during a rally in thePacific port of Vladivostok on Wednesday. (AFP Photo)
Parmalat's main factory inCollecchio, Italy. (AFP File Photo)
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