U.S.
President Barack Obama says his $787 billion economic Recovery Act is
helping to turn the nation's economy around. The president commented on
new figures that show the recession may be starting to fade.
He says the stimulus legislation he enacted in February is a big reason behind the encouraging news.
"This
and other difficult but important steps that we have taken over the
last six months have helped us put the brakes on the recession," he
said.
The Commerce Department says the U.S. economy shrank by
one percent from April to June. That is less than economists had
expected, and far better than the 6.4 percent contraction from January
to March.
Poised and thoughtful, Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi came to VOA this past week for her first and only Farsi-language interview since returning to the United States after being detained in Iran.
In the interview with VOA’s Persian News Network (PNN), Saberi says she was accused of spying and admits she confessed. But she says it was a forced confession while she was under what she calls “extreme psychological pressure.” She says because she was a journalist and was working on a book, Iranian authorities were suspicious of her:
EU-Georgia bilateral relations are regulated by the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement
(PCA) which entered into force on 1 July 1999. The agreement is based
on common values such as the respect of democratic principles, of the
rule of law and human rights, as well as on adopting a market oriented
economy. The PCA provides the legal framework for wide-ranging
cooperation in the areas of political dialogue, trade, investment,
economic, legislative, and cultural cooperation. The joint
institutional mechanisms set up under the PCA (Cooperation Council,
Cooperation Committee, and Subcommittee on Trade, Economic and Related
Legal Affairs, as well as the Parliamentary Cooperation committee) meet
on a regular basis in order to monitor the implementation of the PCA.
US House of Representatives has adopted a resolution on Georgia. The document is titled the Democracy in Georgia.
`Sense of Congress- It is the sense of Congress that
the development and consolidation of effective democratic governance in
Georgia, including free and fair electoral processes, respect for human
rights and the rule of law, an independent media, an independent
judiciary, a vibrant civil society, as well as transparency and
accountability of the executive branch and legislative process, is
critically important to Georgia`s integration into Euro-Atlantic
institutions, stability in the Caucasus region, and United States
national security.
Society
must agree on why the Georgian Government needs an army, as an
attribute or to provide defence. If we need an army to defend
ourselves, we must know who we are defending ourselves against, what
will ensure our security and what we spend on building such an army. We
are talking about both material and human resources, declares former
Minister of Defence David Tevzadze in an interview with GT.
Minister of Economic Development of Georgia Lasha
Zhvania met with Turkey foreign economic council members in the
frameworks of visit to Turkey. Ministry of economic development
informs that necessity of deepening business activities between the
sides was discussed on the meeting.
After
spending almost four years in prison, Sulkhan Molashvili, the former
head of the Georgian Audit Chamber, is saying he has again become the
target of political persecution. His son Bakur, 14, was severely beaten
on May 7. Molashvili believes this is a Government attempt to
intimidate him.
As their supporters continue to rally in different parts in Tbilisi
the opposition show no sign of being willing to sit at the negotiating
table. Therefore it is interesting to discover what the opposition’s
expectations are and how they assess the current state of affairs.
I) Partnership and Cooperation Agreement
