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Posts Tagged ‘official’

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Greece to screen asylum seekers, oust law breakers: official

In Uncategorized on January 8, 2011 at 12:02 pm

Greece will screen immigrants living in the country to determine who is entitled to asylum and expel those who break the law, a junior minister said on Saturday.


“The people who meet the conditions for return will return home,” deputy labour minister Anna Dalara told Flash Radio.


“Whatever the case, if there is law-breaking behaviour they will receive their tickets and they will leave,” she said.


Greek authorities say a surge in arrivals by thousands of would-be immigrants and asylum seekers has stretched the country’s capacity to breaking point.


The Socialist government recently announced plans to erect a 12.5-kilometre (eight-mile) wire fence along a stretch of its northeastern border with Turkey that is commonly used by traffickers to deposit their human cargo.


Athens has also pledged to step up asylum examinations to clear a backlog of some 47,000 applicants, many of them awaiting approval for years.


Rights groups have repeatedly criticised Greece for failing to provide adequate shelter and support to people fleeing conflict in Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.


Would-be immigrants and asylum seekers are currently kept in squalid and congested detention centres and police cells for months.


Most are then released with an administrative order to leave the country. Some try to book illegal passage to other European countries but the majority end up on the street, destitute and at risk from criminal gangs.


 

Source: SGGP

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Malaysian ex top immigration official jailed for graft

In Uncategorized on December 21, 2010 at 9:35 am

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20, 2010 (AFP) – A former top-ranking Malaysian immigration official was sentenced Monday to 56 years in jail for corruption, his lawyer said, in a rare successful high-level prosecution.


Former immigration department deputy director Yusof Abu Bakar, 56, was found guilty last week of accepting 121,500 ringgit (38,500 dollars) in bribes to approve the extension of social visit passes for several Chinese nationals.


“The sessions court today sentenced Yusof to 56 years jail in total and fined him 620,000 ringgit over the 14 charges of corruption,” his lawyer Mohammed Azmi Mohamad Said told AFP.


“However, the judge ruled that the sentences be run concurrently so that means that Yusof will serve about six years in total.”


Mohammed Azmi said Yusof would appeal the ruling and sentence.


Prime Minister Najib Razak came to power last year with a pledge to stamp out corruption which is endemic in Malaysia, and where convictions of high-ranking figures have been rare with cases often ending in acquittals.


Yusof’s sentencing comes shortly after corruption charges were laid against influential ruling coalition politician Khir Toyo over a Balinese-style mansion he built while chief minister of the country’s richest state.


The government’s failure to root out graft was a major factor in 2008 elections which saw the opposition make unprecedented gains.


Commentators have said that the recent flurry in anti-corruption actions is linked to speculation that Najib will call snap elections early next year — an allegation the premier has denied.

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Source: SGGP

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Mexican troops kill 11 in clash with drug gang: official

In Uncategorized on November 19, 2010 at 6:56 am

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Fiditour becomes official agent of Laos Airlines

In Uncategorized on November 8, 2010 at 8:52 am

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Senior official urges protecting people affected by floods

In Uncategorized on November 2, 2010 at 1:42 pm

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OPEC set to maintain official oil output

In Uncategorized on October 14, 2010 at 2:27 pm

VIENNA (AFP) – OPEC is expected to maintain its official oil production quota at a ministerial meeting on Thursday after key members of the cartel expressed satisfaction with the current level of crude prices.


Ecuadorian Natural Resources Minister Wilson Pastor-Morris, the current president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said on Wednesday that there was “consensus between members” to leave output unchanged.


Other OPEC ministers arriving in the Austrian capital, including kingpin Saudi Arabia, suggested that the cartel would hold its official output quota at 24.84 million oil barrels a day, where it has been since the start of 2009.

Libyan Oil Minister and chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) Shukri Ghanem talks to reporters as he arrives in Vienna. AFP

However the grouping that produces 40 percent of world oil may also call upon its members to show greater compliance with official production levels.


The International Energy Agency (IEA), which represents oil consuming nations, estimated Wednesday that OPEC pumped 26.77 million barrels a day in September, as producers sought to boost revenues amid a pick-up in energy demand.


“We should simply confirm (official output on Thursday) and ask for compliance,” Libya’s OPEC official Shukri Ghanem told reporters in Vienna, where the cartel’s headquarters are based.


“I don’t think there’s much more to be done,” added Ghanem, who is head of Libya’s National Oil Company.


OPEC meets periodically to set output with a view to supporting its members revenues and oil sector investment.


Before Thursday’s meeting, and mindful that a spike in prices could harm global economic recovery, Saudi Arabia also said that it was happy for crude to stay at 70-80 dollars, where it has been for much of the past year.


However oil futures shot above 84 dollars in London on Wednesday as the US currency weakened and Chinese reported strong crude imports, traders said.


Prices have almost trebled from lows of around 30 dollars a barrel at the height of the financial crisis in late 2008, yet OPEC members Algeria, Libya and Venezuela said they would like to see crude at 90-100 dollars.
Although global demand for oil is already rising surprisingly fast after the worst economic downturn in decades, the price is set for only a 75-80 dollar range, the IEA said on Wednesday.


It also revised up its demand forecast for oil, by more than OPEC had done on Tuesday, mainly because of an economic upturn in industrialised countries.


OPEC comprises 12 members — Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.


Iraq is the only member without a production quota owing to the country’s unrest.

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Source: SGGP

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Health official asked to explain his revealing to press

In Uncategorized on October 13, 2010 at 7:49 am

The Ministry of Health ordered a health official to explain for what he told the media about inspection results of Tamiflu scandal, said deputy health minister Trinh Quang Huan at a press briefing in Hanoi on September 21.

The Ministry of Health shoud carefully consider destruction of nearly 10 millioncapsules of Tamiflu to avoid collosal waste (Photo: SGGP)

The Ministry of Health shoud carefully consider destruction of nearly 10 million capsules of Tamiflu to avoid collosal waste (Photo: SGGP)


The ministry’s Legislation Department deputy director Nguyen Huy Quang must write an explanation about his revealing a report on inspection results of Tamiflu scandal to the media when the report was not approved by the Government.


The media released last month the report of Government inspectors who accused the ministry and four local drug makers of wasting financial resources because of overestimating the need for Tamiflu in November 2005.


Mr. Huan said the report had no legal validity because of lacking government approval and ministry’s opinion.


The ministry has ordered the destruction of a controversial reserve of over 9.7 million capsules of Tamiflu while some health experts say it is a waste, suggesting to recycling the drug because Vietnam, one of bird flu-hit countries, has high bird flu cases only after Indonesia.


In addition, avian influenza virus circulation and high load of other flu strains could lead to mutation and a human influenza pandemic. Therefore, the country planned to earmark US$211 million for fighting against pandemic for the period 2011-2015.


 

Source: SGGP

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Vietnam must maintain alerts to H1N1 virus: health official

In Uncategorized on August 17, 2010 at 3:22 pm

Vietnam must still maintain its alert for H1N1 influenza virus, which caused the 2009 pandemic in the world, said a health official on August 16.

Deputy head of the Department of Preventive Health Nguyen Van Binh warned the national Health Ministry must keep an eye on the disease as outbreaks of H1N1 infection have recently re-occurred in Ho Chi Minh City.


Mr. Binh said although the World Health Organization declared an end to the H1N1 influenza pandemic and the world is no longer in phase 6 of the pandemic alert. However, WHO stressed continueous vigilance is extremely important and the localized outbreaks of different magnitude may show significant levels of H1N1 transmission.


In Vietnam, since the middle of July, some southern provinces have recorded some H1N1 cases; local governments have raised concerns over the returning of the disease in order to curb the wide spreading of the epidemic in the community.


Vietnam has reported 11,215 infected cases with 59 fatalities since May, 2009.

Source: SGGP

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Moscow daily death rate doubles amid heatwave: official

In Uncategorized on August 9, 2010 at 11:20 am

MOSCOW, Aug 9, 2010 (AFP) – The daily mortality rate in Moscow has nearly doubled amid a record heatwave, with hundreds of extra deaths each day compared to a normal period, the city’s top health official said Monday.

Ambulance staff wear masks to protect themself from forest fire smog in Moscow on August 8, 2010. AFP

“In usual times 360-380 people are dying each day. Now it is around 700,” the head of the city’s health department, Andrei Seltsovsky, said, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.


“Our mortality rate has doubled,” he added, saying that 1,300 places were currently occupied out of 1,500 spaces in city morgues.


His comments broke days of official silence over the effects of the unprecedented heatwave and smog from wildfires on mortality rates, amid growing evidence in the press of a sharp rise in deaths.

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Source: SGGP

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Party official lauds writers’ contributions

In Uncategorized on August 7, 2010 at 3:20 pm




Party official lauds writers’ contributions


QĐND – Saturday, August 07, 2010, 22:5 (GMT+7)

The Party and State always acknowledge and praise the great contributions made by revolutionary literature and the Vietnam Writers’ Association (VWA), said a senior Party official.


Truong Tan Sang, Politburo member and permanent member of the Central Party Committee’s Secretariat, delivered this statement at the 8 th congress of VWA in Hanoi on August 6, which saw the attendance of 923 members from across the country.


During the past 80 years, generations of Vietnamese writers have built a strong attachment and sacrificed their flesh and blood to the nation’s great revolution, and many writers have laid down their lives in battlefields, Sang said.


Since its inception 60 years ago, VWA has gathered a large number of members and many of them have closely followed the cause of renewal and helped to form the revolutionary literature, with a lot of valuable masterpieces, he said.


The official expressed his hope that, with a line-up of whole-hearted and responsible writers, Vietnam ’s literature would see good works of highly moral and artistic value and meet the demands of readers.


The Party and State respect the study and creation trends and always create favourable conditions for writers to penetrate the normal life, Sang stressed.


Regarding its major directions and tasks during the 2010-2015 term, VWA emphasised the need to enhance the voice of writers in the nation’s important issues and their role in building a humane society.


It will also focus on improving the quality of creation, criticism and members, strengthening the capacity of its media and publishing agencies and expanding cultural exchanges and cooperation with foreign partners.


The congress elected a 15-member executive committee, with poet Huu Thing re-elected as president.


Source: VNA


Photo: Dan Tri


Source: QDND