Children comprise some 30 percent of the EU's 492 million citizens.

Nearly one-fifth of children in the European Union are living in poverty, a new report has concluded.
Yet despite such widespread hardship in one of the most economically advanced parts of the world, the rights of children go largely unrecognized by the EU. Although the Union’s treaties, which guide all its law-making activities, contain legal clauses on the protection of animals, they lack any comparable provisions relating to children, reported Ipsnews.net.
Written for members of the European Parliament (MEPs) by Roberta Angelilli, an Italian center-right MEP, the report suggests that the legal situation should improve once the Treaty of Lisbon, signed by EU leaders last month, comes into effect as it would oblige the Union’s governments to uphold children’s rights. But it indicates that such an improvement will have to be consolidated by concerted action on the situation facing children both within the EU and internationally.
It recommends that EU governments should set themselves an objective of ensuring that there is no homelessness among children and that a database be set up on offences against children.
The report also highlights that 5 percent of all asylum-seekers entering the EU are children unaccompanied by adults. No child asylum-seeker should be detained, it says.
It urges the European Commission to introduce new rules allowing victims of child labor in developing countries to sue any European firms that use underage workers.
Angelilli told the European Parliament that children comprise some 30 percent of the EU’s 492 million citizens. Her aim, she added, was to “look at the affirmation of positive rights to family and health and education, to amusement, to a clean and protected environment.“
Franco Frattini, the European commissioner for justice and security, said he had made children’s rights one of his priorities since he took office in 2004. Yet he inferred that this view is not shared by some of the Union’s governments.
Although a European telephone ’hotline’ has been established to assist children who suffer abuse, more than half of the EU’s 27 countries have not introduced it a year after they had committed to do so, Frattini lamented. “This is an initiative that could have been implemented very quickly,“ he said.
He stated, too, that EU officials “have something on the drawing board“ to tackle child labor. There should be “stringent sanctions“ against businesses who exploit children, he said.
Some representatives of the EU’s newest--and mostly ex-communist--member states noted that child poverty is especially acute there.
“It is deplorable that almost one-fifth of children live in poverty,“ said Ona Juknevi-iene, a Lithuanian Liberal. “In Lithuania, half of all adults with one child dependant live in poverty.“
Estonian Socialist Katrin Saks said that the liberalization of economies in Eastern Europe had led to a greater “stratification“ of their societies.
Pedro Guerreiro, a Portuguese left-wing MEP, suggested that labor reforms that restrain wages and make jobs more precarious have made it harder for parents to meet their children’s needs.
His Italian colleague Giusto Catania accused Italy, Belgium and France of detaining unaccompanied child migrants in “degrading conditions“.

Indian health projects are under the microscope following revelations of fraud and corruption in five ventures backed and overseen by the World Bank.
Under scrutiny in the unfolding scandal, which broke in 2005, are bank and government staff, private companies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Evidence of financial and procurement mischief has been uncovered by a detailed implementation review, or DIR, launched by the multilateral lender in 2006 with Indian government support, according to the World Bank website.
“The probe has revealed unacceptable indicators of fraud and corruption,“ said Robert Zoellick, the bank’s president. “The government of India and the World Bank are committed to getting to the bottom of how these problems occurred.“
The bank review of five projects launched between 1997 and 2003 found evidence of bid rigging and other forms of procurement fraud as well as corruption and shoddy auditing.
Projects at issue include the 114-million-dollar Malaria Control Project, the 82.1-million-dollar Orissa Health Systems Development Project, the 193.7-million-dollar Second National HIV/AIDS Control Project, the 124.8-million-dollar Tuberculosis Control Project, and the 54-million-dollar Food and Drug Capacity Building Project. The first four projects have ended and the food and drug project remains ongoing.
The Indian government said it would pursue “exemplary punishment“ of wrongdoers
if ongoing investigations merit.
“Necessary action under the relevant laws, rules, and regulations would be taken against those suspected of wrongdoing and, if found guilty, they will be visited with exemplary punishment,“ the finance ministry said in a statement.
Firms reportedly involved in malpractices have been debarred and disciplinary proceedings have been initiated against individuals, it added.
Oversight of the bank’s entire health portfolio, currently nine projects, would be tightened, the bank said. All new health sector projects will include anti-graft measures such as comprehensive audits and performance reviews by independent agents.
“The bank will also examine its supervision methods and strengthen those to address the vulnerabilities identified in the DIR,“ the lender said in a statement.
Problems highlighted in the bank’s review were flagged in 2005 but rose to a boil in 2006, when Paul Wolfowitz, then the bank’s president, ceased lending to the health sector pending action by Indian authorities to clean up procurement and financial irregularities.
The move strained relations between the lender and New Delhi, one of its largest clients, as well as Britain, a major bilateral financier of projects in its former colony. At the time, British officials said poor people would bear the brunt of disrupted aid disbursements.
By contrast, Zoellick appears to have decided to keep the bank’s loans flowing even as it tries to fix the problems confronting its portfolio.

The Islamic finance industry is growing at a reasonably healthy 15 percent to 20 percent per annum and is believed to be worth between $150 billion and $250 billion.
However, the industry is finding it difficult to keep pace with demand, a situation that is not helped by the shortage of suitably qualified Shariah scholars.
According to Gfmag.com, in an effort to close the Shariah financing skills gap, the UK-based Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) recently became the first professional accountancy body to launch a global qualification in Islamic finance.
CIMA’s Center of Excellence launched the new ’self-study’ qualification in early December. “CIMA identified that there is considerable demand from the global business community to develop the knowledge and skills required to service this increasingly important market,“ says Robert Jelly, director of education at CIMA.
The CIMA Islamic finance qualification was created in conjunction with the International Institute of Islamic Finance and included input from its CEO, Mohammad Daud Bakar, who is a member of the Advisory Council of the Central Bank of Malaysia as well as a Shariah adviser to BNP Paribas, Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes and HSBC Amanah, the Islamic financing division of HSBC Bank.
The certificate-level course, which comprises Islamic commercial law, Islamic banking and takaful (insurance), Islamic capital markets and instruments, and accounting for Islamic financial institutions, is designed to assist employers around the world in equipping their employees to develop Shariah-compliant financial products.
CIMA says there are few suitable qualifications available in this area, with most only comprising one- to three-day events.

Roughly all economists think the US economy is skating on some very thin ice, and some believe the US has already plunged into recession.
The economic data paint a scary picture. A weak holiday season for retailers. An uptick in unemployment. A decline in manufacturing. Still more pain for the housing and financial sectors. Both business executives and average consumers are wary of spending.
As reported by Businessweek.com, investors responded predictably to the recession worries, sending major stock indexes tumbling. Half a month into the year, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has dropped almost 6 percent.
But what are the early signs of a recovery? For now, most of these indicators are getting worse, not better. But if the US economy decides to break out of its funk, these trends should give you a heads-up.

Action Now
Some say Washington will step in with some fiscal stimulus, doling out extra cash to get parts of the economy moving again.
To be a successful policy, “you need to get money into people’s pockets now,“ says John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia (WB).
“Now“ is the important part, and may be the most difficult to accomplish. Republicans would rather spur business investment by, say, cutting capital-gains taxes, but Democrats are talking about measures aimed at a broader swath of the public, like a Social Security tax rebate.

Oil & Consumer
On January 15, Citigroup said delinquencies on its loans to US consumers were increasing rapidly, and not just on residential mortgages, a problem for months, but credit cards, auto loans, and personal loans. On the same day, a report showed retail sales falling 0.4 percent in December.
They were yet more evidence the US consumer is having trouble making ends meet. Oil hit $100 recently, but it’s now trading closer to $90 per barrel. A weak economy in the US and prospects for a slower European economy raise hopes that oil could fall even lower.

Jobs
Economists differ on the importance of measures of the job market, such as the unemployment rate, which hit 5 percent in December.
On the one hand, it’s a key measure of economic pain, showing whether businesses are confident enough to hire and determining how much consumers have to spend. But it is a lagging indicator. The economy can look like it’s still adding jobs three to six months into a recession.

Housing
It’s clear that the troubled housing sector pushed hard on the economy’s brakes in 2007. The housing market’s troubles hurt economic growth and employment figures, while also punishing the financial institutions that issued mortgages in the past few years.
So will 2007’s villain become 2008’s savior? Not likely, economists say. Still, some economists are looking for good news in this dark and dreary corner of the economy.
Global Growth
For the US economy, the one bright spot is exports. Many US corporations report strong growth overseas, where many economies are booming and the weak US dollar makes American products more competitive. It’s crucial to a US recovery that this trend stay in place.
The Western European economy may slow down, but demand from Latin America and Asia should keep growing, giving the US a much-needed boost.
Changes in government policy, oil prices, the job market, housing, or the global economy each could help save the US from recession. But each factor could also get worse.