Dealers said continued capital inflow by foreign funds and weakness in dollar at overseas markets mainly provided support to the rupee.
The rupee today strengthened by 12 paise to trade at 46.51 a dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange on continued capital inflows by foreign funds. Dealers said continued capital inflow by foreign funds and weakness in dollar at overseas markets mainly provided support to the rupee. The rupee had ended 21 paise higher at 46.63/64 against the US currency yesterday after the dollar hit a 15-year low against the Japanese yen. The Bombay Stock Exchange index Sensex opened 100.39 points, or 0.54 per cent, higher to 18,767.10 points.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi said on Thursday that land acquisition should not result in loss of fertile land. "We must protect environment to ensure sustainable development. In whatever we do, we should not forget forest and environment," Gandhi said, adding, "Farmers should be provided adequate compensation." Sonia Gandhi's remarks come a day after The Supreme court dismissed an appeal by a farmer body and upheld the Uttar Pradesh government's land acquisition policy for development of projects alongside the Yamuna Expressway connecting the national capital with Agra. The court did not agree with the contention of the farmers that the land was acquired for a private purpose and not for a public purpose. It dismissed an appeal filed by some farmers challenging the Allahabad High Court decision which had upheld the policy of the Mayawati government.
Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/sonia-gandhi-land-acquisition-should-not-result-in-loss-of-fertile-land-50758?cp
Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/sonia-gandhi-land-acquisition-should-not-result-in-loss-of-fertile-land-50758?cp
South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun announces the country's sanctions against Iran at Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea.
South Korea said it will ban many financial dealings with Iran and impose other penalties as part of a U.S.-led campaign to enforce sanctions against the country over its disputed nuclear enrichment program. The measures announced Wednesday by Seoul add to new, unilateral sanctions imposed by the U.S., Europe and others to pressure Iran to return to negotiations on its nuclear program, which Tehran insists is peaceful but critics say is a quest to develop atomic weapons that could spark a Middle East arms race. Seoul targeted 102 entities with the sanctions, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines plus 24 individuals , Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun said Wednesday. The measures prohibit Foreign Exchangetransactions with the targets of the measures except with special authorization, and they also halt existing banking relations and prohibit the opening of new branches or representative offices in South Korea, Kim said. The targeted individuals are also banned from entering South Korea, Kim said.
South Korea will also heavily penalize the Seoul branch of Bank Mellat, one of the 15 targeted Iranian banks, for violating laws on foreign exchange transactions, a government statement said, without elaborating. The Seoul branch of Bank Mellat has "facilitated hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions for Iranian nuclear, missile and defense entities," the statement said. Kim said the sanctions further reinforce United Nations resolution 1929 against Iran, the latest in a series of measures taken by the International Community in an effort to halt Iran's nuclear program. "South Korea expects Iran to join international efforts for nuclear nonproliferation and take steps to faithfully implement its obligations under the relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions," he said. The United States welcomed South Korea's decision.
"These actions strengthen the growing international resolve to prevent proliferation and Iran's development of nuclear weapons and to press Iran to return to serious negotiations on its nuclear program and meet its international obligations," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a joint statement. The U.N. approved a fourth round of sanctions against Iran in early June over accusations that it is seeking to develop atomic weapons. Iran denies its nuclear program is militaristic in nature and says it has a right to conduct uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes. The U.S. also independently imposed new sanctions against Iran and has urged other countries to follow suit. So far, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Japan have joined the international campaign against Iran.
Seoul has been cautious in taking action against Iran, trying to balance its diplomatic interests with the U.S., a key ally, and its economic interests with Iran. Iran is South Korea's third-largest trading partner in the Middle East, with two-way trade totaling nearly $10 billion last year, according to the Korea International Trade Association. It is also South Korea's fourth-biggest supplier of crude oil, accounting for 9.8 percent of its oil imports, according to the Korea National Oil Corp. Seoul said it will prohibit new Investments and contracts that could enrich Iran's petroleum and gas industry, and called on South Korean companies to exercise "restraint and caution" in carrying out existing contracts.
Niko Mushi hated rats, as did most people in his village near Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro -- until he learned the critters had a nose for land mines. Mushi, 32, has been working with giant African pouched rats for almost seven years. He now enjoys their company -- "They're just like my friend," he says -- but he concedes he was skeptical when the man who conceived the idea for HeroRats first told him they could sniff out live ordnance. "I thought maybe he was making some jokes," Mushi said. "I was amazed that rats could do such a thing." Before he started working with rats, Mushi had a comfortable job teaching the Kiswahili language at a Lutheran seminary. He was terrified when he first took one of his long-tailed protégés into a Mozambican minefield. He'd heard stories of accidents involving the mines, mostly leftovers from Mozambique's civil war, which ended in 1992. He was not emboldened by the skeletons of soldiers and others who'd taken unfortunate steps before him.
But his rat found 16 land mines that day. "We are not a good friend to these creatures," Mushi said of his countrymen, "but after people see this work that we are doing, they change this position." Bart Weetjens is the brain and Buddhist monk behind APOPO (a Dutch acronym meaning Anti-Personnel Land Mines Detection Product Development), which trains HeroRats. He said Mushi's initial repulsion is common. Prejudice against rats is "deep in our psyche" and has roots in the Middle Ages when the rodents were blamed for the plague, Weetjens said. He quickly cited Black Death's rightful culprit: fleas. The Belgian-born Weetjens, 43, is an apt candidate to change rats' unsavory image. A self-professed rodent lover, he was given his first hamster, Goldy, for his ninth birthday. "Fascinated as I was by it, I wanted to have a female hamster. Soon, I had a nest of hamsters," he said. "Mother didn't like that too much, so I took them to the pet shop and they gave me money for those hamsters."
Niko Mushi hated rats, as did most people in his village near Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro
He soon found out pet shops paid even more for rats, and more still for gerbils and squirrels. It wasn't long before Weetjens had a "kind of breeding arrangement in my room" and was selling various rodents for walking-around money. At 14, he gave up his enterprise when he was sent to boarding school, but he maintained his love for rodents. Several of Weetjens' family members had worked in Africa, and Weetjens harbored a commitment to the continent. In the spring of 1995, he was analyzing the world's land mine epidemic -- a cause made vogue at the time by Britain's Princess Diana -- when he came across research that spoke to his childhood proclivity. Scientists were studying the use of gerbils in land mine detection, but they were using a system involving brain electrodes that Weetjens found unsustainable. He wanted a locally based solution that might empower communities. "Yes, rats can do that," he thought. "I knew I was right, even if it was very hard to defend."
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