September 30, 2005

World Media Watch

by Gloria R. Lalumia

BuzzFlash Note: WMW provides BuzzFlash readers foreign views and perspectives that are not usually available from the media here in the U.S. The presentation of these articles from these international publications is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR SEPTEMBER 30, 2005

1//The Independent, UK--THE UK ECONOMY: THINGS CAN ONLY GET TOUGHER (Gordon Brown has suffered a body blow to his political reputation - just days after his confident speech to Labour conference - with the release of official figures showing the economy at its weakest level for 12 years. Economic output showed an annual growth rate of 1.5 per cent during the summer, the lowest since the first quarter of 1993 when Britain, under John Major's Tory government, was emerging from recession. … The gloom was compounded by figures showing high street sales were falling at the fastest rate for at least two decades and a global study which found the UK competitiveness had fallen. Inflation is also a worry, with the consumer price index for August rising to 2.4 per cent, the highest level for nine years. Any deterioration in the economy will seriously hamper Mr Brown's leadership ambitions in the light of Tony Blair's determination to serve as Prime Minister for three more years.)

2//The Independent, UK--BLAIR: I’M HERE TO STAY (Tony Blair rebuffed Gordon Brown's hopes of an early handover of power yesterday by spelling out the long agenda he wants to complete before he leaves Downing Street. The Prime Minister, who wants another three years in his job, told the Labour conference in Brighton that the party must continue his programme of reforms after he departs, warning that it would lose office if it ducked the hard choices required by the global economy. By highlighting challenges such as the pensions crisis, whether to build a new generation of nuclear power stations and further public service reforms, Mr Blair made clear that he wants to complete what he regards as his unfinished business before he hands over the reins. He also wants to ensure that his party fights the next general election on a radical New Labour manifesto to cement his reforms. But Mr Blair's determination to stay in No 10 until 2008 risks a head-on confrontation with Mr Brown, the front-runner to succeed him, who wants him to set out his departure timetable a year from now and to stand down no later than 2007.)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--STUFFING IRAQ’S BALLOT BOXES (If the referendum on Iraq's draft constitution next month is conducted fairly, it now appears very likely that the document will be defeated by a two-thirds majority in the three Sunni-dominated provinces of Anbar, Salahadeen and Nineveh, plunging Iraq into a new political crisis. However, one way such a defeat could be averted is by massive vote fraud in the key province of Nineveh. According to an account provided by the US liaison with the local election commission, supported by physical evidence collected by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI), Kurdish officials in Nineveh province tried to carry out just such a ballot-stuffing scheme in last January's election. … In the constitutional referendum, the Shi'ite government will share the Kurdish interest in doing whatever is necessary to avert the defeat of the constitution in Nineveh. Meanwhile, the US military remains heavily dependent on Kurds in Nineveh. The KDP may well believe that a more sophisticated Kurdish ballot-stuffing scheme will work on October 15.)

4//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--BUSH LOSES FAVOUR WITH LATIN AMERICAN ELITES (The image of the United States under President George W. Bush has suffered in Latin America, as well as the Islamic world and Europe, according to a survey released by the Zogby International polling firm in cooperation with the Miami Herald and the University of Miami School of Business Administration. The survey, which was based on interviews with 523 "opinion leaders" in the public and private sectors, as well as mass media and academia in Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina, found Bush to be particularly unpopular, as well as eroding support for close economic ties with the U.S. More than four out of five respondents (81 percent) gave Bush a negative job approval rating -- about 20 percent higher than his current ratings in the U.S. -- while a whopping 86 percent said they disagreed with how Bush has handled conflicts in various parts of the world.)

5//The Korea Times, South Korea--$209 MILLION BACK TAXES SLAPPED ON 5 FOREIGN FUNDS (The National Tax Service (NTS) has slapped a total of 214.8 billion won ($209 million) in penalties on Lone Star Funds and four other foreign funds for evading on capital gains taxes on transactions of stocks and other assets. But the tax agency did not specify how much it taxed each foreign fund. It also plans to refer several high-ranking officials at the foreign funds to the prosecution for possible violations of domestic tax law and financial transaction law, the agency said. The five foreign funds are the Carlyle Group, Lone Star, Goldman Sachs, AIG and Westbrook. … The investigation was prompted largely by public criticism that foreign funds did not pay taxes after they took billions of dollars in capital gains from the acquisition of distressed financial institutions and corporations following the 1997 currency crisis. Lone Star, the largest shareholder of the Korea Exchange Bank, was suspected of dodging taxes on its capital gains of 260 billion won after selling the landmark Star Tower building in southern Seoul to the Government of Singapore Investment last December. … The U.S-based Carlyle Group was under investigation by NTS as it did not pay taxes on capital gains of $600 million from the sale of its 37 percent stake in KorAm Bank to Citigroup in February 2004.)

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1//The Independent, UK 29 September 2005 16:37
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article315801.ece

THE UK ECONOMY: THINGS CAN ONLY GET TOUGHER
Retail sales hit 22-year low. Growth at 12-year low. Inflation at nine-year high. Unemployment rising

By Philip Thornton, Economics Correspondent

Gordon Brown has suffered a body blow to his political reputation - just days after his confident speech to Labour conference - with the release of official figures showing the economy at its weakest level for 12 years.

Economic output showed an annual growth rate of 1.5 per cent during the summer, the lowest since the first quarter of 1993 when Britain, under John Major's Tory government, was emerging from recession.

The news, a revision to the Government's own figures yesterday, follows the Chancellor's admission that he would miss his forecast of growth of between 3 and 3.5 per cent this year. He had hinted during a visit to Washington for last week's International Monetary Fund meetings, that growth this year would be above 2 per cent but below 2.5 per cent.

The gloom was compounded by figures showing high street sales were falling at the fastest rate for at least two decades and a global study which found the UK competitiveness had fallen.

Inflation is also a worry, with the consumer price index for August rising to 2.4 per cent, the highest level for nine years. Any deterioration in the economy will seriously hamper Mr Brown's leadership ambitions in the light of Tony Blair's determination to serve as Prime Minister for three more years.

The Conservatives seized on yesterday's figures, saying they were further proof the Government would have to hike taxes to make up for a shortfall in the Treasury's coffers.

George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor said: "We now know why Gordon Brown was forced into his humiliating climbdown at the IMF. This, yet again, raises the chances that taxes will have to go up to pay for Brown's excessive borrowing. What this country needs is a chancellor with his mind on the job, not on inheriting the Prime Minister's crown."

(MORE)

2//The Independent, UK Published: 28 September 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article315525.ece

BLAIR: I’M HERE TO STAY
Determined PM plans for the long haul, risking new rift with Brown

By Andrew Grice, Political Editor

Tony Blair rebuffed Gordon Brown's hopes of an early handover of power yesterday by spelling out the long agenda he wants to complete before he leaves Downing Street.

The Prime Minister, who wants another three years in his job, told the Labour conference in Brighton that the party must continue his programme of reforms after he departs, warning that it would lose office if it ducked the hard choices required by the global economy.

By highlighting challenges such as the pensions crisis, whether to build a new generation of nuclear power stations and further public service reforms, Mr Blair made clear that he wants to complete what he regards as his unfinished business before he hands over the reins. He also wants to ensure that his party fights the next general election on a radical New Labour manifesto to cement his reforms.

But Mr Blair's determination to stay in No 10 until 2008 risks a head-on confrontation with Mr Brown, the front-runner to succeed him, who wants him to set out his departure timetable a year from now and to stand down no later than 2007.

Mr Blair was irritated by Mr Brown's announcement on Monday that he would embark on a nationwide tour over the next year, which he saw as an attempt to bounce him into an early exit.

Downing Street ordered cabinet ministers yesterday to say in media interviews that Mr Blair would carry on until towards the end of the parliament. Mr Blair's wife, Cherie, dismissed the idea that he was ready to leave Downing Street, telling the BBC at a book-signing ceremony: "That is a long way in the future. It is too far ahead for me to even think about."

Allies of the Chancellor insisted Mr Brown should take over before 2008. Geoffrey Robinson, the former treasury minister, said the new leader should be in place at least two years before the next election and that "three years would be ideal". He accused Blairite ministers of "provoking" the Brown camp, saying: "I think the Prime Minister's good sense will prevail. The new, incoming leader - who will be Gordon - has to have time to establish himself, prepare for the next election."

(MORE)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Sep 30, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GI30Ak02.html

STUFFING IRAQ’S BALLOT BOXES

By Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - If the referendum on Iraq's draft constitution next month is conducted fairly, it now appears very likely that the document will be defeated by a two-thirds majority in the three Sunni-dominated provinces of Anbar, Salahadeen and Nineveh, plunging Iraq into a new political crisis.

However, one way such a defeat could be averted is by massive vote fraud in the key province of Nineveh. According to an account provided by the US liaison with the local election commission, supported by physical evidence collected by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI), Kurdish officials in Nineveh province tried to carry out just such a ballot-stuffing scheme in last January's election.

The Sunni Arab majority of about 1.7 million in Nineveh – including Sunni insurgent organizations - appears to be united behind a "no" vote on the constitution. Kurds number only about 200,000 and non-Kurdish, non-Arab minorities another 500,000 to 600,000.

The non-Arab, non-Kurdish minorities - Assyrian Christians, Shabaks, Yezidis and Turkmen - which hold the balance in the province, are overwhelmingly opposed to the constitution.

Heavy-handed control by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of non-Kurdish towns, exercised through Kurdish militia and intelligence presence in non-Kurdish areas, has alienated all four groups. They fear the draft constitution would legitimize Kurdish plans to absorb into Kurdistan the areas of Nineveh where they are the majority, eliminating the limited recognition of status and rights as minorities they now have.

In the January election, the Kurds dealt with the problem of being a relatively small minority in the province by stuffing the ballot boxes, as recounted by Major Anthony Cruz, an US Army reserve civil affairs officer assigned to work with the province's electoral commission.

Cruz, now back in Los Angeles, provided a detailed account of the election in Nineveh to IPS in interviews.

(SNIP)

Although it displayed the boxes and bags of fraudulent ballots, the national IECI downplayed the seriousness of the ballot-stuffing in Nineveh and covered up the Kurdish role in it.

In his media briefing on February 8, IECI spokesman Farid Ayar blamed the ballot fraud on unidentified "militiamen or armed men." According to Cruz, however, the only such incident in the province was in Bashiqa.

Ayar refused to divulge which party would have profited from the fraudulent ballots, telling journalists, "I can't accuse any party, because we don't know."

The KDP obviously miscalculated in thinking that electoral officials in Nineveh could be bribed to turn a blind eye to such crude ballot stuffing. But no damage was done by the failed attempt. The IECI helped by diverting media attention from the Kurds, and US news media never dug into the story behind the mountain of fraudulent ballots exhibited by the commission.

In the constitutional referendum, the Shi'ite government will share the Kurdish interest in doing whatever is necessary to avert the defeat of the constitution in Nineveh.

Meanwhile, the US military remains heavily dependent on Kurds in Nineveh. The KDP may well believe that a more sophisticated Kurdish ballot-stuffing scheme will work on October 15.

4//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy Sep 28, 2005
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30460

BUSH LOSES FAVOUR WITH LATIN AMERICAN ELITES
Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, (IPS) - The image of the United States under President George W. Bush has suffered in Latin America, as well as the Islamic world and Europe, according to a survey released by the Zogby International polling firm in cooperation with the Miami Herald and the University of Miami School of Business Administration.

The survey, which was based on interviews with 523 "opinion leaders" in the public and private sectors, as well as mass media and academia in Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina, found Bush to be particularly unpopular, as well as eroding support for close economic ties with the U.S.

More than four out of five respondents (81 percent) gave Bush a negative job approval rating -- about 20 percent higher than his current ratings in the U.S. -- while a whopping 86 percent said they disagreed with how Bush has handled conflicts in various parts of the world.

The survey also found that slightly more respondents (26 percent) said they favour integrating their national economies more with Europe than with the U.S. (23 percent).

"Clearly, Bush's presidency has done damage to U.S. prestige in Latin America," said John Zogby, Zogby International's CEO. "Their apparent lack of confidence in him is no doubt behind opinion leaders in the region wanting to look elsewhere to form economic alliances."

"The continuing maturation of the European Union provides Latin America with a viable alternative," he said.

The latest results were part of a survey conducted between mid-August and mid-September on a range of issues. The first results, which dealt more with intra-Latin American issues, were released Monday.

5//The Korea Times, South Korea 09-29-2005 18:02
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200509/kt2005092918001310230.htm

$209 MILLION BACK TAXES SLAPPED ON 5 FOREIGN FUNDS
By Lee Hyo-sik, Staff Reporter

The National Tax Service (NTS) has slapped a total of 214.8 billion won ($209 million) in penalties on Lone Star Funds and four other foreign funds for evading on capital gains taxes on transactions of stocks and other assets.

But the tax agency did not specify how much it taxed each foreign fund.

It also plans to refer several high-ranking officials at the foreign funds to the prosecution for possible violations of domestic tax law and financial transaction law, the agency said.

The five foreign funds are the Carlyle Group, Lone Star, Goldman Sachs, AIG and Westbrook.

Officials from the funds were not immediately available for comments.

The latest imposition of taxes on these foreign funds signal that the nation’s tax agency will not take any lenient attitude toward foreign funds.

(SNIP)

The NTS imposed a 147.3 billion won in taxes on foreign funds with regard to their capital gains from sales of local assets by operating through tax havens abroad and evading taxes by abusing the double taxation avoidance treaty.

Currently, Korea has signed with 62 foreign countries to avoid double taxation. The majority of foreign private equity funds have invested in local equities and real estate properties through their subsidiaries in tax havens, including Malaysia’s Labuan, even though the country is signatory to the international treaty, to avoid paying capital gains and other taxes.

It also imposed 67.5 billion won in penalties, as the funds did not properly pay stock transaction fees and illegally transferred capital gains realized here to their overseas affiliates.

The investigation was prompted largely by public criticism that foreign funds did not pay taxes after they took billions of dollars in capital gains from the acquisition of distressed financial institutions and corporations following the 1997 currency crisis.

Lone Star, the largest shareholder of the Korea Exchange Bank, was suspected of dodging taxes on its capital gains of 260 billion won after selling the landmark Star Tower building in southern Seoul to the Government of Singapore Investment last December.

The tax agency has carried out several on-the-spot investigations into Lone Star and questioned relevant personnel to secure evidence that could implicate the fund in tax evasion.

The U.S-based Carlyle Group was under investigation by NTS as it did not pay taxes on capital gains of $600 million from the sale of its 37 percent stake in KorAm Bank to Citigroup in February 2004.