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An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Mr. Alejandro Santos visited Santo Domingo during May 18-28 to conduct discussions under the second review of the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA), which was approved by the IMF Executive Board in November 2009. The mission met with Central Bank Governor Héctor Valdez, Minister of Finance Vicente Bengoa, Minister of Economy Temístocles Montás, Vice-President of the Public Electricity Corporation Celso Marranzini, as well as members of the Economic and Social Cabinet, senior government officials, representatives of the private sector, and the international community.

New York: The United Nations refugee agency is seeking $18 million to meet an anticipated shortfall in funding for its operation in Iran, which is hosting more than one million Afghans who fled their homeland.

Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed with the thrust of the staff appraisal. They commended the authorities for their prudent macroeconomic management, underpinned by strong institutions and good governance, which has contributed to rapid growth, large fiscal and external surpluses, and a significant build up of international reserves. Directors observed that the current global economic crisis has contributed to a significant deterioration in the economic outlook for Botswana with near-term downside risks.

WASHINGTON - The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors have approved the “Oum Er Rbia Basin” Irrigated Agriculture Modernization project. The project intends to help participating farmers, in the “Oum Er Rbia” basin in Morocco, increase productivity and reach a sustainable use of irrigation water to overcome current and future water deficits.

New Delhi: With a view to take stock of the various arrangements related to the augmentation of hotel accommodation coming up for the Commonwealth Games, Delhi, 2010 in the National Capital Region of Delhi, a high level meeting of the Task Force was held under the chairmanship of Secretary,Tourism, Shri Sujit Banerjee in New Delhi recently. All the land owning agencies viz. DDA, the Govt. of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and other stakeholders viz. MCD, NDMC, Ministry of Urban Development, DJB, BSES, ITDC etc. attended the meeting.

New Delhi: India will host the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) at Hyderabad from August 19 - 27, 2010. This is the first time in more than hundred years of history of the ICMs that the Congress will be held in India and only the third time in an Asian country (the 1990 Congress was held in Kyoto and the 2002 Congress in Beijing).

New Delhi: Dr.V.Jayachandran Nair is an outstanding grass taxonomist of India. He worked in the Botanical Survey of India in various capacities from 1961 to 1998 and retired as Deputy Director & Head of Office in its Southern Regional Centre at Coimbatore. He was deputed to work as Indian Botanical Liaison Officer at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK for two years (September 1992 - September 1994) where in addition to liaison and scientific works assigned, he was part of the High Commissioner's programme in developing Indi- British Friendship Woodlands. After his retirement he worked as Emeritus Scientist of BSI and now continuing as coordinator of research on “Bamboos and Grasses” under All India Coordinated Project on Capacity Building in Taxonomy in India (AICOPTAX), a grant-in-aid Scheme of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

New Delhi: Dr.Ramakrishna has done outstanding work on taxonomy and conservation of land and fresh water Indian molluscs. His significant contribution include 146 research papers, a handbook each on Freshwater Molluscs and Indian Land Snails, a checklist of Indian Land Molluscs and books on Freshwater and Land Molluscs of Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. There are very few specialists in Malacology in India and he is easily the best.

As the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference concludes in New York, there is no expectation that the world will rapidly eliminate these mass-destruction weapons. But the focus has sharply turned on West Asia because the Western powers, led by the United States, are keen that Iran freezes its nuclear activities. Yet inevitably, attention has also got riveted on Israel, the region's sole nuclear weapons power. In the limelight too is the issue of nuclear material falling into the hands of extremist groups like al-Qaeda.

The similarities between the Maoists and the Taliban are obvious. Both have adopted violence as a creed. Both are remorseless about the deaths of innocents. Both aim to overthrow the existing social order. Neither believes in democracy. Instead, they hope to establish a totalitarian regime - a one-party communist dictatorship by the Maoists and an Islamic theocracy by the Taliban. There will be no room for dissent in either of the two systems - one motivated by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought and the other by the Shariat.