& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Developing world ups pressure on G8 over debt relief

Textile import quotas protested as summit starts today
TOKYO, July 20: Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo delivered an impassioned plea to the Group of Eight (G8) powers today to support democracy and save lives by cancelling Third World debt, reports AFP.
Obasanjo was here alongside South African President Thabo Mbeki and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteftika as representatives of the developing world to press the G8 over debt relief at their weekend summit.
“I am here to pass on to the leaders of the developed world what the developing world believes should be done as partners in development, as co-tenants in the same global village,” Obasanjo told reporters.
The three African leaders were meeting G8 dignitaries including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac and US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers today afternoon in Tokyo.
Jubilee 2000, a global campaign to cancel about 100 billion dollars of the 1 I poorest nations' debt, complained that no debt has been cancelled since a promise last year by the G7-G8 minus Russia — in Cologne.
Jubilee 2000 was "a campaign which 1 believe will be won. and it’s a campaign which has to be taken to every nook and corner of the developed world." the Nigerian leader said.
Mbeki. Boutefllka and Obasanjo were due to hold a news conference at 5:30 pm (0830 GMT), after their meeting with the G8 representatives at the Tokyo State Guest House.
“We are so pleased that you are here as a voice for the voiceless." .Jubilee 2000 director Ann Pettifor told the Nigerian president.
The rich and poor worlds were "co-tenants in the same global house," said Obasanjo, who was elected president last year to end almost two decades of military rule in Nigeria.
“And then of course. If you have a house that is leaking In one part. It doesn't matter now luxurious It Is in another room, what is happening In the leaking part will eventually tilled the luxurious part," he said
The cost of debt repayments could be measured In Ilves, the president added.
Nigeria was set to pay at . least 1.5 billion dollars In debt .
servicing this year, three times its education budget and nine times what it will spend on health.
IPS reports from Geneva: A block of developing nations that export textiles and clothing lashed out against the industrial powers for failing to live up to their commitments to free up trade in the textile and apparel industry.
The 24 developing countries grouped in the International Textiles and Clothing Bureau (1TCB) called on the European Union (EU). the United States and Canada to take “concrete steps toward real and meaningful liberation of textile and apparel quotas."
The ITCB accused the three powers — which along with Japan constitute the pillars of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) multilateral system - of having long maintained quota restrictions against Imports of textiles and clothing from developing countries."
The ITCB Is comprised ol Argentina, Bangladesh. Brazil. Colombia. Costa Rica. China. Egypt. El Salvador. Guatemala. Honduras. Hong Kong-China. India. Indonesia. Macau-China.
the Maldives. Mexico, North Korea. Pakistan. Paraguay, Peru. South Korean. Sri Lanka. Thailand and Uruguay. Cuba. Mauritius. Singapore and Vietnam participate as observers.
The president of the ITCB. Stuart Harbison — the permanent representative to the WTO from Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China — complained that the three powers had eliminated a mere fraction of their quotas.
Meanwhile, an AP report says: Tens of thousands of protesters on Thursday formed a chain around a major US air base in a show of opposition to the American military presence here ahead of President Bill Clinton s visit for this weekends Group of Eight summit.
Organisers claimed to have mobilised more than 25.000 people for the chain, which stretched 17 kilometers (II miles) around Kadena Air Base, one of the largest US military installations here.
The protest, organised by local labour unions and civic groups, was peaceful, and there were no immediate reports of arrests or incidents.