thursday, september 17, 2015
guyanatimesgy.com
15
Around the world
Migrants tear-gassed by Hungary Police
Kenya’s wildlife flees al-Shabab conflict into Somalia
The firing of tear gas and water cannon created a panicked stampeded of migrants away from the border
Almost all of the game animals that survived poachers after the start of Somalia’s civil war migrated to neighbouring Kenya [AP]
H
ungarian riot Police have fired tear gas and water cannon to force migrants back from the Serbia-Hungary border. Hundreds of people have massed at a closed crossing point near the Serbian town of Horgos, and are involved in a tense stand-off with Police on the other side of the border. Some migrants threw missiles, including stones
and water bottles. Many of the migrants want to reach Germany via Hungary. Tens of thousands of migrants have crossed the border in this area to enter the Europe Union’s Schengen zone, which normally allows people to travel between member countries without restrictions. Hungary closed its entire border with Serbia on Tuesday after enacting laws
that make it illegal to enter the country or damage a new razor-wire border fence. The country’s courts have started fast-track trials of arrested migrants. Serbia’s Foreign Ministry – which has protested over the firing of tear gas and water cannon into its territory – says Hungary has now closed the main border crossing between the two countries to all traffic for 30 days. There were chaotic scenes near Horgos, with fires burning and police vehicles and ambulances arriving on the Serbian side of the border, across from the massed ranks of Hungarian riot police on the other side. The firing of tear gas and water cannon created a panicked stampeded of migrants away from the border. Several people received medical treatment from the Serbian ambulance service on the other side of the border, some suffering the effects of tear gas. (Excerpt from BBC News)
W
ild elephants, lions, leopards, giraffe, buffalo and ostriches have been spotted in Somalia’s Lower Jubba area in the first sightings of the animals in the east African country in decades. The animals are believed to have been displaced from Kenya’s Boni forest by ongoing security operations against the armed group al-
Shabab that operates in the area. Boni forest, which is a national reserve for conservation, borders Somalia. “The animals are coming back in large numbers. Inside the town we have ostriches walking around. Leopards and elephants are just outside the town,” Farah Haybe, Badaade district commissioner, told Al
Jazeera. The densely forested area used to be home to herds of wild animals and birds until the start of the Somali war in 1991 which led to unabated poaching. The animals which escaped the poachers migrated across the border in to Kenya. But with sense of normalcy now returning to Somalia the animals’ fortunes seems to be changing. “The animals are returning from Kenya because they find peace here. They are not disturbed here. They are free and they find plenty of food here,” Haybe said. With this latest development local authorities have been busy advising the population to not harm the wild animals. “We have told all the butchers in the area it is illegal to kill or sell the meat of wild animals. But everyone is happy to see the animals back.” Haybe said.
(Excerpt from Al Jazeera)
Syria’s Assad blames West for China eases limits on overseas debt refugee crisis
S
yrian President Bashar al-Assad has blamed Europe’s refugee crisis on Western support for “terrorists”, as people fleeing his country’s civil war stream towards the European Union. In his first public comments on the mass migration, broadcast on Wednesday, Assad said Europe could expect more refugees. Countries including the United States, Turkey and
Saudi Arabia want to see Assad gone from power and have supported the opposition to his rule during the four-year-old war, including some of the armed groups fighting him. Assad said Turkish support had been crucial to the growth of two of the biggest insurgent groups in Syria, Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, and aerial bombing by a USled coalition had failed to stop Islamic State. Turkey
denies the accusation. The Syrian President dismissed Western suggestions that his Government’s actions in the war had fuelled the spread of such groups. “As long as they follow this propaganda, they will have more refugees,” Assad said in an interview with Russian media. “If you are worried about them, stop supporting terrorists.” The Syrian Government describes all the armed groups fighting it as terror-
ists. The insurgents in Syria range from the hardline Islamist Islamic State to nationalists viewed as moderate by the West. Assad has been buoyed in recent weeks by signs of increased military support from his ally Russia. In his comments he made no mention of reports of Russian military activity in Syria. Moscow says the Syrian Government should be part of a broad coalition to fight Islamic State. (Excerpt from Reuters)
Obama invites arrested US Muslim boy to White House
U
S President Barack Obama has issued a White House invitation to a Muslim schoolboy who was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school. Ninth-grade high school student Ahmed Mohamed from Irving in Texas was arrested on Monday after his teachers reported him to the Police for making a clock , which they said resembled a bomb. “Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like to you like science. It’s what makes America great,” Obama tweeted. The arrest prompted outrage on social media with thousands expressing their anger at authorities for arresting a 14-year-old boy over his school project. Social media users rallied behind the teen using the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed
, which has picked up more than 224,000 mentions on Twitter so far, according to analytics site Topsy, and continues to rise rapidly. The story also ranked highest on the user-generated curation website, Reddit.
Many of the comments cited Mohamed’s religious and ethnic background as the probable cause of his arrest, a viewpoint shared by the largest Muslim civil advocacy group in the US. Ibrahim Hooper, the
spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Al Jazeera that it was “obvious” the schoolboy’s religion had played a role in his arrest. (Excerpt from Al
Jazeera)
B
eijing has eased restrictions on Chinese companies seeking to raise funds overseas, after a record monthly decline in China’s foreign exchange reserves in August. The decision to loosen capital controls on inbound funds stands to boost capital inflows at a time when big domestic stock market losses and the slowing Chinese economy are heightening concerns about capital outflows. China’s top planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, has made it easier for Chinese companies to obtain foreign currency bank loans or issue renminbi bonds with a term of more than one year, according to a statement on its website dated Tuesday. “The new policy will simplify the process for Chinese entities to issue
offshore bonds. It will give Chinese companies flexibility in terms of timing and the amount of bonds issued as long as it is within the approved foreign debt quota,” said Ivan Chung, head of greater China credit research at Moody’s in Hong Kong. Previously, companies needed approval on a dealby-deal basis, but now they are only required to register with the regulator. “Like Shanghai-HK Stock Connect, it is another step forward in integrating the Chinese financial market with the world,” Mr Chung said. China’s foreign exchange reserves fell 2.6 per cent to US$3.557tn in August, a monthly US$94 billion drop that was the sharpest on record, as the People’s Bank of China sold down some of its stockpile to support the renminbi. (Excerpt from Financial Times)
Startup India: Time to change the ‘nuisance’ capital gains tax
I T
ndia, as a country, need to rethink capital gains taxes on venture capital and private equity. hese ‘nuisance taxes’ are inhibiting investment and development of Indian startups, reducing foreign and domestic technology, capital inflows, job creation and hurting overall economic and government revenue growth, Rajan Govil, co-founder of Marketnomix Research, has said . “At the same time,
India’s capital gains taxes do not add to the exchequer, but rather are a deterrent to additional investments. Amongst others, we estimate at least US$12 billion of smart, high quality, tacit knowledge based foreign direct investment here to stay and add value for the longterm that could flow in over the next five years in a zero capital gains tax regime.” According to independent technology think tank iSPIRT, nearly US$10 billion in venture capital and
private equity funds has been invested into India’s technology product industry from 2010 to March 2015. Most of this investment has been routed through Mauritius and Singapore because of their favourable capital gains tax exemptions for investors. While this means negligible capital gains tax revenues from venture capital investments, luckily the tax revenues collected from employees of startups funded would far surpass the po-
tential capital gains tax collected. Angel investments totalled US$24.1 billion in the United States in 2014, according to the Centre for Venture Research. A significant number of these angel investors (individuals) are of Indian origin. Many have made their money in Silicon Valley and would like to invest in India, but individually find it expensive and complicated to invest via Mauritius or Singapore. (Excerpt from Times
of India)
Rajan Govil is co-founder of Marketnomix Research, an independent economics and markets research firm