Georgia's interim president warned yesterday the country stood on the brink of "economic collapse" after the ouster of Eduard Shevardnadze and said drastic steps had to be taken to reverse the situation.
Acting president Nino Burdzhanadze told top officials in a televised broadcast that the legacy of economic decline left by the discredited Shevardnadze administration was "even worse than we thought."
"The situation is very difficult. Yesterday's data shows that we are facing economic collapse," she said, adding the situation called for radical measures.
She gave no specific details beyond urging state enterprises to work at full capacity. But her warning clearly prefaced fresh appeals to the West to help her impoverished former Soviet country, where the average monthly income is about US$40.
"We have to ask our foreign colleagues to help us in this situation," she said.
Shevardnadze, a former Soviet minister who won plaudits in the West for helping end the Cold War, was hounded from office on Sunday by mass street protests triggered by alleged vote-rigging in a Nov. 2 parliamentary ballot.
His 11-year rule was marked by rising poverty, chronic corruption and separatist rebellions in the volatile Caucasus state of 4.5 million people.
Burdzhanadze, a 39-year-old lawyer, was scheduled to preside over a special session of the outgoing parliament yesterday in the hope of fixing a date for an early presidential election and getting political life back on track.
The Supreme Court formally cleared the way for a separate new parliamentary election by quashing the results of most of the disputed November ballot.
Under the constitution, an election for president has to be held by the end of the first week in January. But the situation after Sunday's resignation by Shevardnadze in a turbulent "people power" revolution was chaotic.
With some deputies using the threat of boycott to win concessions from the new leadership, there was a possibility the special session might not muster the required number of deputies to make it legitimate.
Georgia's new leaders, including Mikhail Saakashvili, a US-educated lawyer who led anti-Shevardnadze protests, face an uphill battle to turn round the fortunes of a country mired in poverty with a rickety social infrastructure and under constant threat from separatist forces.
The West is carefully monitoring the situation because of plans to build an oil pipeline across Georgia from Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean sea.
Georgia has fallen out with the International Monetary Fund, which refused to lend it money under a poverty reduction program until the Shevardnadze government dealt with mass corruption and tax evasion.
Sources close to the Paris Club of official creditors said Georgia would have to mend its fences with the IMF before it has any chance of a deal on debt relief with wealthy nations. It owes US$1.78 billion in external debt including some US$600 million to the Paris Club.
Burdhanadze secured some support from big northern neighbor Russia with promises that Moscow would maintain its vital supplies of electricity to Georgia, whose economic base is normally plagued by power outages.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique