SHORTTAKES

India to build 27 Special Economic Zones

INDIA: Indian Board of Approval on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) Monday formally approved 17 SEZs, reported leading business newspaper Business Standard on its website.

One SEZ in west state Maharastra is reported to spread across 1, 271 hectares and see investments of over 1.25 billion U. S. dollars.

Another significant SEZ that was formally approved was a 1,804 hectre SEZ by JSW Bengal Steel in West Bengal. This SEZ would see an investment of 3.8 billion U. S. dollars. Other 10 SEZs also received in-principle approvals from the Board of Approval.

Mumbal, Tuesday, Xinhua

Al-Qaida in North Africa issues new threats

WASHINGTON: Al-Qaida’s subsidiary in North Africa issued new threats against Western targets, a U.S. terrorism monitoring service said Monday.

“Unite around the jihad that is the only alternative power to the apostate regimes that dominate over our lands,” Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, leader of al-Qaida in the region, said in a 28-minute new video posting on the Internet, according to the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group.

Wadud slammed governments in Mauritania, Algeria and other North African countries, claiming that Mauritania has become “a nest of foreign intelligence.”

Wadud’s group has repeatedly claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in Algeria, including a spate of bombings in July and August.

The group has also been blamed for an ambush on a Mauritanian patrol last week after which the decapitated bodies of 12 Mauritanians were found. Tuesday, Xinhua

Asian immigrants Children most likely to get university degrees in Canada

OTTAWA: Children of Asian immigrant parents have the highest rate of university completion in Canada, more than double the rate of other ethnic groups, Canadian-born or otherwise, federal agency Statistics Canada reported Monday.

University completion rates were 65 percent for youth of immigrant parents from China and India. Among children of Canadian- born parents, the rate was about 28 percent, the report found.

“In general, immigrants to Canada tend to have higher levels of education, partly because of the immigration selection process,” said Feng Hou, a Statistics Canada analyst.

Family values of immigrants tend to emphasize education and because of that, their children have high aspirations, said Hou.

Living in the cities, where most new immigrants settle, also influences how much importance is placed upon the need for a university education, he said.

The study found the education rates fell more into line with each other when certain factors were taken into account. For instance, it found kids of Canadian-born parents had as high a rate of university completion if they lived in an urban area and their own parents were highly educated.

The study, entitled “Group differences in educational attainment among the children of immigrants”, looked at adult children between the ages of 25 and 34.

Tuesday, Xinhua

Most Australians want to dump British monarch: Poll

SYDNEY: Most Australians want to dump the British monarch as head of state and become a republic, an opinion poll showed Tuesday.

Fifty-two percent support a republic, 40 percent do not and eight percent are undecided, the Herald/Nielsen poll of 1,400 voters showed.

The poll comes as the government and official opposition are both led by republicans for the first time in the history of this former British colony.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who ousted royalist John Howard in elections last November, describes himself as “a lifelong republican”.

The new leader of the opposition, former merchant banker Malcolm Turnbull who took over the Liberal Party from a royalist last week, led a push for a republic nearly 10 years ago.

A referendum on the issue was held in 1999 and republicans lost. Since then, the issue has been largely shelved while the popular Queen Elizabeth II remains on the throne.

But opinion polls have shown that if her heir-apparent, Prince Charles, is crowned, support for a republic with an Australian head of state would surge.

Turnbull said after his election as party leader that he would not push for a republic until the 82-year-old queen was no longer on the throne.

“We cannot have a successful referendum on the republic during the queen’s reign,” he said.

“In ‘99, I said if you vote no it means no for a long time, and the next chance will come after the queen’s reign has ended.

Tuesdasy, AFP

China puts literacy as one of its most basic policy objectives

NEW YORK: Chinese top legislator Chen Zhili told an international conference here Monday that China has always put literacy as one of its most basic policy objectives. Speaking as one of the six panelists at the White House Symposium on Advancing Global Literacy: Building a Foundation for Freedom, hosted by U.S. First Lady Laura Bush, Chen said that literacy is the basis for the freedom of all people and the prerequisite for them to merge into modern society.

Chen, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, the top legislative body, was the guest of Laura Bush.

In her keynote speech titled “Promoting Literacy: Sharing Freedom, Harmony and Prosperity,” Chen said: “Literacy provides long-term benefits to the uneducated and the under-educated. It is the cornerstone for social equality and freedom.” P Chen also briefed the participants on the progress that China has made in wiping out its once high illiteracy rates.

“Because of the unswerving efforts made in the past 59 years, especially the 30 years since the opening up of the country, the number of illiterate people has greatly declined,” she said.

Tuesday, Xinhua