Tag: minivan news

British royal spending under scrutiny

British prime minister David Cameron has refused an increase in official annual income for the Queen and her family.

“It was revealed this week that in the last financial year the Queen spent $69 million – not including the costs of Royal security which are kept secret,” reports the Australian ABC’s Emma Alberici. “Money is spent on official functions, salaries for the Queen’s 1,200 staff, palace maintenance and travel.”

Robert Verkaik the legal affairs editor at the Independent newspaper has taken his quest for information about Palace expenses all the way to the High Court, she writes.

“There’s someone who lives rent free with two bedrooms, one reception room and their sole job is to look after the royal library,” Robert Verkaik said. What he discovered was that the Royal Family were either paying salaries or providing rent free accommodation to minor royals. They perform little to no public functions and are virtually unknown, even in their own country. Also, in one case, Mr Verkaik says the housekeeper was given a five-bedroom, five-living room apartment rent free within the grounds of Windsor Castle.

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President reinstates cabinet, awaits parliament’s consent

President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed has reinstated his cabinet ministers in a signing ceremony before Chief Judge of the Civil Court, Ali Sameer, following their mass resignation on June 29, in protest against what they claimed were the “scorched-earth politics” of the opposition-majority parliament.

The only cabinet reshuffle concerned Mahmoud Razee, former Minister for Transport, Civil Aviation and Communications, who was moved to the post of Minister of Economic Development. His former portfolio remains open.

“Cabinet decided to stick together on the issue and resign, to show they are not hell bent on the salaries and niceties of their positions and to prove they want to do good work for the country,” Nasheed claimed.

Following the reinstatement of his ministers, President Nasheed denied the week-long resignation was a publicity stunt for political gain.

“We had to make everyone aware of the gravity of the situation,” he said. “Cabinet members have been complaining about corruption in parliament for some while, [particularly] vote buying.”

“We were last week able to investigate the matter, and I expect police to pass the findings of the investigation to the Prosecutor General’s Office within the next 10 days,” he added.

The ‘new’ cabinet now requires parliamentary consent before resuming office. The President’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair confirmed the government had been delaying the reinstatement until it received signs of cooperation from the main opposition party.

Zuhair acknowledged the strategy was “risky”, an observation confirmed by DRP Deputy Leader Umar Naseer, who claimed “there are definitely ministers that the DRP will not approve, and will have to leave the cabinet.”

Zuhair however noted that the wording of the procceedure according to the Constitution was different to the appointment of the heads of independent commissions.

“Parliament is only required to ‘consent or not to consent’ to the [whole] cabinet,” he explained. “Even if the opposition is factionalised, if we get 7-8 MPs on our side the motion will be carried.”

President Nasheed has met opposition party leaders alone in a meeting on Monday evening mediated by US Ambassador Patricia Butenis, including leader of the majority opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party, Ahmed Thasmeen Ali.

President Nasheed today said that while Thasmeen had not explicitly agreed to cooperate in the meeting, “individual DRP MPs have called me, and said they do not wish the government and parliament to remain deadlocked.”

He said the MPs had claimed they did not wish the entire institution of parliament “to be affected by the actions of individual MPs.”

Foreign embassies and international agencies have been nervously eyeing the seemingly erratic behaviour of the country’s administration, fearing a step backward following its democratic transition.

Yesterday Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa also arrived in the country, in a surprise visit on the invitation of President Nasheed to help resolve the political deadlock. He has already met with Thasmeen and former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, at his residence Maafannu Aliwaage.

Thasmeen did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.

Photo: Umair Badeeu

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US$20 million grant for renewable energy in Maldives

The Strategic Climate Fund, one of two funds under the Climate Investment Funds scheme, will grant US$20 million (Rf255 million) to develop renewable energy resources in Maldives, reports Haveeru.

Delivery of the grant is expected next month and will be invested in the carbon neutral plan announced by President Mohamed Nasheed, according to deputy environment minister Dr Mohamed Shareef. “We cannot do everything with this money. We can only carry out [projects] in some islands, which we have yet to determine,” he said.

“The Program for Scaling-Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries, approved in May 2009, is aimed at demonstrating the social, economic, and environmental viability of low carbon development pathways in the energy sector,” says the Strategic Climate Fund website. “It seeks to create new economic opportunities and increase energy access through the production and use of renewable energy.”

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Speaker cancels parliament six minutes into session, meets with leaders

Parliament’s Speaker Abdulla Shahid canceled Wednesday’s Majlis session after six minutes, according to a report in Haveeru.

Shahid cancelled the sitting because he said it would be unable to produce any positive results, given the current political deadlock between the parties.

Instead, Shahid said he wished to speak privately with party leaders. He said discussions were also held with Independent MPs.

The next sitting would be held Monday, he said.

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New cabinet to be announced today, surprise visit from Rajapaksa

The President’s Office has announced a swearing-in ceremony for the new cabinet at 2:45pm this afternoon.

Yesterday, Political Advisor Hassan Afeef said the new cabinet would only be proposed when the government had “reached an understanding with the opposition parties in the Majlis.”

The new cabinet must be endorsed by the opposition-majority parliament, according to the Constitution. The executive has been deadlocked with the legislature following the arrest of two MPs and allegations of corruption.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived in the Maldives this morning on a state visit.

President Rajapaksa will meet with President Nasheed, former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Parliament Speaker Abdulla Shahid, and Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed.

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The End of Men: Hanna Rosin

The attitudes and social behaviour of men will have to change if they are to compete successfully against women in the modern global economy, claims Hanna Rosin in the latest edition of The Atlantic.

“With few exceptions, the greater the power of women, the greater the country’s economic success,” Rosin writes. “Aid agencies have started to recognize this relationship and have pushed to institute political quotas in about 100 countries, essentially forcing women into power in an effort to improve those countries’ fortunes…

“Last year, Iceland elected Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, the world’s first openly lesbian head of state, who campaigned explicitly against the male elite she claimed had destroyed the nation’s banking system, and who vowed to end the “age of testosterone”…

“Researchers have started looking into the relationship between testosterone and excessive risk, and wondering if groups of men, in some basic hormonal way, spur each other to make reckless decisions. The picture emerging is a mirror image of the traditional gender map: men and markets on the side of the irrational and overemotional, and women on the side of the cool and levelheaded.”

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New cabinet ‘when government reaches understanding with opposition’: Afeef

A new cabinet will be proposed when the government reaches an agreement or understanding with the opposition parties in the Majlis, said the President’s political advisor Hassan Afeef at the daily President’s office news conference, reports Miadhu.

Afeef described the departing cabinet as ‘dynamic, brilliant and hard-working’, and said the government wants any new cabinet members to be endorsed by the opposition dominated Majlis.

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International conspiracy against climate change action: Frontline

Despite scientific evidence and dire warnings, developed countries are destroying the current controls on global warming, reports Indian magazine Frontline.

‘The “pledge and review” scheme was the handiwork of the U.S., which was against accepting any legally binding commitment on emission reductions,’ writes Frontline’s R. Ramachandran. ‘Acting behind the scenes since mid-2009 and with active help from other developed countries which did not want to commit to a second commitment period such as Australia, Canada, Japan and Russia, the U.S. succeeded in having the scheme formalised as a “political agreement” at Copenhagen.’

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Sea level to rise one metre in 21st century: Prof. Tim Naish

Professor Tim Naish, the lead author of the next international climate change assessment due for release in 2014, is predicting a one metre rise in sea levels over the next 90 years. This will be a doubling of the present rate of sea-level rise, but a slower rate rise than predicted by other researchers.

Prof. Naish has been appointed lead author by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. His forecast is based on rock cores drilled from the Antarctic coastline that provide evidence of the earth’s geological condition 4 million years ago when the climate was similar to the ‘climate we are heading towards in the next century with global warming,’ he says.

During that ancient period, the West Antarctic ice sheet melted and raised seas by a total of five metres, and the Greenland ice sheet melted adding another seven metres, says Prof. Naish, who is director of New Zealand’s Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University in Wellington.

Prof. Naish’s latest findings will be presented at the Australian Earth Sciences Convention in Canberra 4-8 July 2010.

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