vips

LETTER N° 33

From 12 to 18 August

12
Iran

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami name five new ministers to his cabinet and shifted one minister to a new post in a reshuffle that signaled little change in direction in his second term in office.

In that order they are : Tahmasb Mazaheri, Masoud Pezeshkian, Ahmad Khorram, Safdar Hosseini and Ali Soufi.

Mazaheri, a 48-year-old civil engineer, was formerly Khatami's economics adviser, Soufi and Hosseini were provincial governors, Khorram was a deputy minister of interior and Pezeshkian a deputy health minister. The former Minister of Cooperatives, Morteza Haji, was transferred to the ministry of education.

13
Chad

Idriss Ahmed Idriss becomes finance minister

15
Japan

Prime Minister plans visit to WWII shrine

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plans to honor Japan's war dead at the Yasukuni Shrine on the anniversary of the end of World War II. As the shrine is regarded by Japan's neighbors as the symbol of Japanese militarism, the plan has provoked protests throughout the region. News of the Prime Minister's intention arrived on top of a simmering row with South Korea about the new release of a Japanese history textbook that glorifies Japan's role in the Sino-Japanese, Russo-Japanese and Pacific wars. It contains a wartime edict designed to instill children with nationalistic pride. Seoul is demanding revisions that are resisted by Japanese nationalists.

16
Amnesty International

Amnesty International Names First Woman Chief

Amnesty International has named a new chief - not only the first woman but also the first Asian to head the human rights organization in its 40-year history. Irene Khan, the group's seventh secretary general, takes over from Pierre Sane who is joining the United Nations ' cultural agency Unesco, Amnesty said on its Web site. Khan, a Bangladeshi, joins the group from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) where she worked for more than two decades.

17
Chile

The 15 Annual Rio Group Summit

Latin American leaders on urged international financial bodies not to wash their hands of Argentina, which is struggling to find fresh cash to combat a deep economic crisis.

17
Cuba

Gen. Raúl Menéndez Tomassevich, who fought with Fidel Castro's rebels in the late 1950s and went on to become a top military leader, died.

Profil : He participated in the clandestine struggle, within the 26 of July Movement. In March 1958, he was incorporated to the Rebel Army at the Second Eastern Front, "Frank Pais" where he was designated chief of the "A" company of the Column no. 17 "Abel Santamaría" After the triumph of the Revolution, he occupied different charges at FAR (Armed Forces) among which we have Chief of the General State of the Central Army and Chief of Fight against Bandits of that same command; later he was assigned in different stages, Chief of Armies; Eastern, Oriental and Central ones and Vice-Minister of the Armed Forces (FAR). He accomplished five international missions in Latin America and Africa, two of them as Chief of the Cuban Military Mission at Angola. He is a founder of the Cuban Communist Party.He participated in the mercenary defeat that landed at Giron (Bay of Pigs) number 117.

17
Yugoslavia

The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) said in a hard-hitting statement it was quitting the cabinet in the dominant of the two republics forming the rump Yugoslav federation because of its ``very unsatisfactory'' results in fighting organized crime.

VIPS FEDS

ITALY - 5 Autonomous regions, 2 Autonomous Provinces and 14 Regions

RUSSIA FEDERATION - 20 Republics

PORTUGAL - 2 Autonomous Regions

THIS WEEK'S STORY

17-19 August 2001

Riga, la capitale lettone, célèbre son 800e anniversaire.

The site had long been occupied by Baltic tribes when the monk Meinhard built a monastery c.1190 among a settlement of Livs. German merchants established a community at Riga in 1158. Bishop Albert of Livonia transferred his seat there in 1201 and founded the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, or Livonian Knights, a German military religious order whose mission was to spread Christianity in the Baltic region. The knights also established a trading station at Riga.

The city, which became an archiepiscopal see in 1254 and a member of the Hanseatic League in 1282, developed into a major commercial and handicraft center. Its favorable strategic location made it an intermediary in Russian trade with Western Europe. Although it belonged to the domain of the Livonian Knights, Riga maintained a semi-independent existence under its archbishops and German merchants, and it controlled a large part of Livonia. Riga's acceptance of the Reformation in 1522 definitively ended the power of the archbishops there. After the dissolution of the Livonian Order in 1561, Riga was briefly independent and then passed (1581) to Poland, despite attempts by Ivan IV of Russia to seize it. Polish efforts to reintroduce Catholicism made the capture of Riga in 1621 by King Gustavus II of Sweden a welcome event for the Protestant citizens. The Swedes granted self-government to the city. Captured (1710) by Czar Peter I during the Northern War, Riga and the rest of Swedish Livonia were ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Nystadt in 1721. Having declined during the 17th cent., Riga's commercial importance revived in the 18th and particularly with the coming of the railroad in the 19th. The city became second only to St. Petersburg as Russia's leading port and was the center of Europe's timber trade. A leading Russian industrial center from the second half of the 19th cent., Riga had the third largest number of industrial workers (after Moscow and St. Petersburg) by the 1890s. The city was a stronghold of the Russian Social Democratic party and played an important role in the Revolution of 1905. German troops occupied Riga in 1917. After World War I, the independence of Latvia was proclaimed at Riga, which became the new country's capital. When Latvia was incorporated into the USSR in 1940, Riga was made the capital of the Latvian SSR. During World War II the city was again occupied (1941) by the Germans, from whom it was retaken (1944) by the Soviet army. The Soviet Union encouraged non-Latvian migration to the city. By 1975 less than 40% of its inhabitants were ethnically Latvian. Riga again became the capital of independent Latvia in Sept., 1991.

ALSO SEE

Chiefs of State and Heads of Government Foreign Affairs World Parliaments Federated States and Provinces World Governments International Organizations

12 Iran		Iranian President Mohammad Khatami name five new ministers to his cabinet and shifted one minister to a new post in a reshuffle that signaled little change in direction in his second term in office. In that order they are : Tahmasb Mazaheri, Masoud Pezeshkian, Ahmad Khorram, Safdar Hosseini and Ali Soufi. Mazaheri, a 48-year-old civil engineer, was formerly Khatami's economics adviser, Soufi and Hosseini were provincial governors, Khorram was a deputy minister of interior and Pezeshkian a deputy health minister. The former Minister of Cooperatives, Morteza Haji, was transferred to the ministry of education.
13 Chad		Idriss Ahmed Idriss becomes finance minister
15 Japan		Prime Minister plans visit to WWII shrine Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plans to honor Japan's war dead at the Yasukuni Shrine on the anniversary of the end of World War II. As the shrine is regarded by Japan's neighbors as the symbol of Japanese militarism, the plan has provoked protests throughout the region. News of the Prime Minister's intention arrived on top of a simmering row with South Korea about the new release of a Japanese history textbook that glorifies Japan's role in the Sino-Japanese, Russo-Japanese and Pacific wars. It contains a wartime edict designed to instill children with nationalistic pride. Seoul is demanding revisions that are resisted by Japanese nationalists.
16 Amnesty International		Amnesty International Names First Woman Chief Amnesty International has named a new chief - not only the first woman but also the first Asian to head the human rights organization in its 40-year history. Irene Khan, the group's seventh secretary general, takes over from Pierre Sane who is joining the United Nations ' cultural agency Unesco, Amnesty said on its Web site. Khan, a Bangladeshi, joins the group from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) where she worked for more than two decades.
17 Chile		The 15 Annual Rio Group Summit Latin American leaders on urged international financial bodies not to wash their hands of Argentina, which is struggling to find fresh cash to combat a deep economic crisis.
17 Cuba		Gen. Raúl Menéndez Tomassevich, who fought with Fidel Castro's rebels in the late 1950s and went on to become a top military leader, died. Profil : He participated in the clandestine struggle, within the 26 of July Movement. In March 1958, he was incorporated to the Rebel Army at the Second Eastern Front, "Frank Pais" where he was designated chief of the "A" company of the Column no. 17 "Abel Santamaría" After the triumph of the Revolution, he occupied different charges at FAR (Armed Forces) among which we have Chief of the General State of the Central Army and Chief of Fight against Bandits of that same command; later he was assigned in different stages, Chief of Armies; Eastern, Oriental and Central ones and Vice-Minister of the Armed Forces (FAR). He accomplished five international missions in Latin America and Africa, two of them as Chief of the Cuban Military Mission at Angola. He is a founder of the Cuban Communist Party.He participated in the mercenary defeat that landed at Giron (Bay of Pigs) number 117.
17 Yugoslavia		The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) said in a hard-hitting statement it was quitting the cabinet in the dominant of the two republics forming the rump Yugoslav federation because of its ``very unsatisfactory'' results in fighting organized crime.