| FACTBOX-Reaction after Britain's Blair says to step down
"I will miss Tony Blair. He is a political figure who is capable of thinking over the horizon. He's a long-term thinker. I have found him to be a man who's kept his word which is sometimes rare in the political circles I run in. "When Tony Blair tells you something, as we say in Texas, you can take it to the bank. We've got a relationship such that we can have really good discussions - so I'll miss him, he's a remarkable person and I consider him a good friend." Former president Bill Clinton "Tony Blair revitalised his party, modernised his country's economy and its approach to social problems, took the lead on global issues from climate change to debt relief to doubling aid to Africa to the quest for peace in Northern Ireland and Kosovo, and started the global Third Way political movement.
Tanzania wins legal battle against British water company
City Water Services, a subsidiary of British-based water company Biwater, has lost an international legal case for breaching its contract to deliver water and sanitation services in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania between 2003 and 2005. The contract with City Water was issued following a controversial water privatisation, supported by the UK government. The outcome vindicates the Tanzanian government’s decision to terminate the contract due to its dissatisfaction with the standard of service delivered by the water company. Tanzania has been awarded over £3 million in damages and over £500,000 in legal costs. Vicky Cann, policy officer at the World Development Movement, said: "The evidence clearly shows that water privatisation has been a disastrous policy for poor people around the world, but the World Bank insisted on imposing water privatisation in Tanzania in return for much needed debt relief.
NGOs Remain Critical of World Bank/IMF After Prague Meetings
Oxfam spokesman, Seth Amgott, cautioned this week against reading too much into recent talks between the World Bank and NGOs. �Talking to the IMF is not a goal in itself� he said. �Co-operation between the IMF, World Bank and NGOs must be analysed in terms of actual results.� Oxfam acknowledged that the World Bank/IMF leaders had shown signs of commitment to poverty alleviation, according to AP reports but other activists viewed the meetings as a failure because of the inability of the institutions to make meaningful progress on debt relief. Lucy Mathews of the pro-debt relief NGO Jubilee 2000 is reported by IPS as saying �We are very disappointed with the outcomes of the meetings because, yet again, the creditors made absolutely no progress in debt relief at all despite overwhelming evidence that HIPC (current initiative on debt relief) is failing.� For his part World Bank President James Wolfensohn said that co-operation between the bank, the IMF, the private sector, religious organisations and trade unions would be necessary in the future.
IMF and Liberia reach deal on reducing debt
Member states have made pledges totaling more than 842 million dollars, the IMF said in a statement.
""Today's milestone is a critical step in moving Liberia onto a path toward comprehensive debt relief,"" IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the statement.
It was the first concrete achievement for the new IMF director, who took over his post on November 1.
Ravaged by a decade of civil war, Liberia has a multilateral debt of 1.5 billion dollars for a total debt of 3.7 billion.
By clearing Liberia's books of arrears accrued over years, the deal will allow the struggling country to gain access to loans and other assistance from the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
Liberia is recovering from 14 years of a brutal civil war that killed 270,000 people and ended in 2003 after former warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor stepped down.
Bono: The Beliefnet Interview
So when Beliefnet approached me about interviewing Bono on his work for debt relief and its relation to his spiritual life, I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask him. After all, religion is hardly an abstract issue for anyone raised in Ireland. Now 40, Bono was born in Dublin, the product of a mixed Catholic-Protestant background. While his lyrics and U2's music have always been suffused with an undeniable spiritual consciousness, Bono and the other band members have stringently resisted being claimed by either religious or political side in Ireland's ongoing "troubles." While informing every aspect of what he does--"God bless" is even his standard telephone sign-off--faith has never been a subject Bono has approached with much ease. U2 is busy rehearsing for its upcoming world tour, but Bono decided to take a short break--and a genuine leap of faith.
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