UAE’s Migrants Charged 500 DHs for Health Cards | Migrant Rights:
"A new decree in the UAE obligates migrant workers to pay a 500 Dhs (136$) annual fee for renewing or issuing health cards with extra 300 to obtain lost cards. The new decision will be applied in October. Migrants who do not obtain those cards will pay double the rates when using health services.
For many migrants, the health cards are inordinately expensive and violate their right to health care. Though employers in Abu Dhabi are obliged to provide health insurance to their workers, this is not an enforced Emirate-wide policy. In fact, migrants in Dubai are required to pay 60 Dhs for a note from the Dubai Health Authority to validate their sick leaves.
With the UAE having the Middle East’s highest per capita medical spending, health services are often too expensive for migrants to afford. A study found that prices of medicine in the UAE are 23 times higher than the rates recommended by the World Health Organization. According to the UAE’s news agency, the Emirates promised to the cut prices of more than 6600 types of medicines by a 40% rate."
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Saturday 17 August 2013
Inside Putin's Plan to Dominate the World's Oil and Gas Markets
Inside Putin's Plan to Dominate the World's Oil and Gas Markets:
"
Vladmir Putin once called the collapse of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” But in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, a new economic union, aimed at collecting the scattered pieces of the Russian Empire, is growing. Should Putin’s Eurasian Union succeed by incorporating all of Central Asia and Eastern Europe minus the Baltic States and Balkans, Russia will effectively hold sway over some of the largest concentrations of natural gas, oil, and uranium in the world.
Kazakhstan, Russia, and Belarus are the inaugural signatories to this union, which has been rolling out incrementally since 2010. The union aims to hold all the perks of European Union membership by 2015, complete with a Schengen-style arrangement for visas and close military cooperation. If executed well, the union has the opportunity to bolster struggling Central Asian states by attaching them to the rising Russian economy."
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"
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| Inside Putin's Plan to Dominate the World's Oil and Gas Markets © Reuters |
Kazakhstan, Russia, and Belarus are the inaugural signatories to this union, which has been rolling out incrementally since 2010. The union aims to hold all the perks of European Union membership by 2015, complete with a Schengen-style arrangement for visas and close military cooperation. If executed well, the union has the opportunity to bolster struggling Central Asian states by attaching them to the rising Russian economy."
'via Blog this'
Bill Black: The Incredible Con the Banksters Pulled on the FBI « naked capitalism
Bill Black: The Incredible Con the Banksters Pulled on the FBI « naked capitalism:
"This is the second in my series of articles based on the FBI’s most (2010) “Mortgage Fraud Report.”
In my first column I began the explanation of how many analytical conclusions one can draw from a close reading of what is left out of the FBI report.
In particular, I emphasized the death of criminal referrals by the SEC and the banking regulatory agencies. The FBI report implicitly confirms the investigative reporting of David Heath that first quantified the death of criminal referrals by the banking regulatory agencies.
Because banks will not make criminal referrals against their own CEOs, this means that criminal referrals have virtually vanished against the “accounting control frauds” that drive our recurrent, intensifying financial crises. As George Akerlof and Paul Romer explained in their famous 1993 article (“Looting: The Economic Underworld of Bankruptcy for Profit”) the death of prosecutions of the controlling officers of banks will lead to accounting control fraud becoming a “sure thing.”"
'via Blog this'
"This is the second in my series of articles based on the FBI’s most (2010) “Mortgage Fraud Report.”
In my first column I began the explanation of how many analytical conclusions one can draw from a close reading of what is left out of the FBI report.
In particular, I emphasized the death of criminal referrals by the SEC and the banking regulatory agencies. The FBI report implicitly confirms the investigative reporting of David Heath that first quantified the death of criminal referrals by the banking regulatory agencies.
Because banks will not make criminal referrals against their own CEOs, this means that criminal referrals have virtually vanished against the “accounting control frauds” that drive our recurrent, intensifying financial crises. As George Akerlof and Paul Romer explained in their famous 1993 article (“Looting: The Economic Underworld of Bankruptcy for Profit”) the death of prosecutions of the controlling officers of banks will lead to accounting control fraud becoming a “sure thing.”"
'via Blog this'
Ukraine to wait till Monday to blow whistle to WTO about Moscow trade pressure
Ukraine to wait till Monday to blow whistle to WTO about Moscow trade pressure:
"By Monday, Aug. 19, the Ukrainian cabinet will propose a clear-cut action plan how to deal with the border trade stand-off with Russia, possibly including a complaint to the WTO, Economy and Trade Development Minister Ihor Prasolov said Aug. 16, Radio Svoboda reported.
Premier Azarov instructed him and other members of an ad hoc work group to work out a plan to diffuse the trade bottle-neck on the border of Ukraine and Russia where the Russian authorities actually stopped the import of Ukrainian goods, the official said.
Ukraine federation of employers declared Aug. 14 that Russia blacklisted all Ukrainian export goods without any explanations. Later on, the Russian cabinet said the ban on exports was imposed by Russia customs service, and denied the cabinet had any hand."
'via Blog this'
"By Monday, Aug. 19, the Ukrainian cabinet will propose a clear-cut action plan how to deal with the border trade stand-off with Russia, possibly including a complaint to the WTO, Economy and Trade Development Minister Ihor Prasolov said Aug. 16, Radio Svoboda reported.
Premier Azarov instructed him and other members of an ad hoc work group to work out a plan to diffuse the trade bottle-neck on the border of Ukraine and Russia where the Russian authorities actually stopped the import of Ukrainian goods, the official said.
Ukraine federation of employers declared Aug. 14 that Russia blacklisted all Ukrainian export goods without any explanations. Later on, the Russian cabinet said the ban on exports was imposed by Russia customs service, and denied the cabinet had any hand."
'via Blog this'
Late payment to contractors stalling KSA projects | Arab News
Late payment to contractors stalling KSA projects | Arab News — Saudi Arabia News, Middle East News, Opinion, Economy and more.:
"Late payment to contractors from different government agencies in Saudi Arabia amount to more than SR100 billion, representing about 30 percent of the total volume of government projects in the Kingdom, according to Nabil Abbas, representative of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) in Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Gulf.
Abbas said the delay in payments to contractors is one of the main reasons for the faltering of government projects in the Kingdom. These delays account for about 20 percent of the total stalled projects.
The system in Saudi Arabia requires contractors to implement projects as long as the contract has been signed, even if the payments are delayed. These delayed payments from government agencies, Abbas said, are not a justification for the contractor to stop, although international law obliges authorities to pay contractors within 30 days of maturity. However, in Saudi Arabia, delayed payments to contractors extend for periods ranging from three to six months, and up to a year in many cases."
'via Blog this'
"Late payment to contractors from different government agencies in Saudi Arabia amount to more than SR100 billion, representing about 30 percent of the total volume of government projects in the Kingdom, according to Nabil Abbas, representative of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) in Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Gulf.
Abbas said the delay in payments to contractors is one of the main reasons for the faltering of government projects in the Kingdom. These delays account for about 20 percent of the total stalled projects.
The system in Saudi Arabia requires contractors to implement projects as long as the contract has been signed, even if the payments are delayed. These delayed payments from government agencies, Abbas said, are not a justification for the contractor to stop, although international law obliges authorities to pay contractors within 30 days of maturity. However, in Saudi Arabia, delayed payments to contractors extend for periods ranging from three to six months, and up to a year in many cases."
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ENERGY - Energy becomes new love of large Turkish corporations
ENERGY - Energy becomes new love of large Turkish corporations:
"The state has been speeding away from the energy sector, in which it has been transferring its assets to the private sector through privatizations. In addition to the handover of public power plants and power distribution grids, it has been avoiding to take an active role in new investments, encouraging private sector and distributing licenses.
At the moment, some holding groups, which have particular influence on the country’s economy, have been leaping forward in the electricity business and have seized the best assets. Let’s first look at the allocation in the distribution market, which consists of 18 regional grids."
'via Blog this'
"The state has been speeding away from the energy sector, in which it has been transferring its assets to the private sector through privatizations. In addition to the handover of public power plants and power distribution grids, it has been avoiding to take an active role in new investments, encouraging private sector and distributing licenses.
At the moment, some holding groups, which have particular influence on the country’s economy, have been leaping forward in the electricity business and have seized the best assets. Let’s first look at the allocation in the distribution market, which consists of 18 regional grids."
'via Blog this'