1 IMF head sees weaker global growth (San Francisco
Chronicle) Global economic growth is likely to be weaker than earlier expected
and will remain at moderate levels, the head of the International Monetary Fund
has said. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Asia is still expected
to lead global growth, but the pace is slowing and could sag further because of
recent financial market volatility.
The rupiah, Indonesia's currency, has fallen beyond
14,000 per US dollar for the first time since July 1998, when Indonesia was
still plagued by the effects of the Asian financial crisis, which led to the
downfall of dictator Suharto in massive street protests. The rupiah has
weakened against the dollar since 2013, with the recent devaluation of China's
yuan contributing more pressure.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/IMF-head-Global-growth-likely-to-be-weaker-than-6478044.php
2 Canada economy in recession (BBC) The Canadian
economy has entered recession, official figures have shown. Gross domestic
product (GDP) fell by an annualised rate of 0.5% between April and June. That
follows a contraction of 0.8% in the first quarter, meaning the economy has
seen two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the usual definition of
recession.
The data will be a blow for prime minister Stephen
Harper, who faces elections on 19 October. The last time the country was in
recession was during the financial crisis of 2008-09. As an oil exporting
country, Canada has been hit by a fall in the price of the commodity.
US crude oil prices are currently trading at about
$47 a barrel, less than half last year's level of $107 a barrel, pushed lower
by a fall in global demand, particularly from China. However, the Canadian
figures also showed that trade in June was much brisker, leading analysts to
suggest the worst may be over.
3 Temple of Bel and the tragedy engulfing Syria (Tom
Holland in The Guardian) Satellite photos have confirmed that the temple of
Bel, a monument that for almost 2,000 years had stood resplendent amid the
ruins of Palmyra, is no more. Scholars had been dreading the worst since the
fighters of Islamic State annexed the ancient city back in May.
The worst, though, was yet to come. The temple of
Bel was a monument fit to be ranked alongside the Parthenon or the Pantheon as
one of the supreme architectural treasures to have survived from classical
antiquity. Built soon after the absorption of Palmyra into Rome’s sphere of
influence, it was dedicated in 32AD, at a time when Tiberius ruled the empire,
and Jesus still walked the Earth.
The very process of constructing the great complex,
by giving to the various tribes who inhabited the oasis a common purpose, seems
to have played a key role in fostering a shared sense of identity among them.
As the focal structure of the city, and a cult centre open to all, Bel’s temple
served as a fitting symbol of what the Palmyrenes were gradually becoming: a
single people.
No wonder, then, that Isis should have detested it.
What could have been more offensive to it than such a monument to religious
syncretism? Even the very fabric of the temple proclaimed the position of
Palmyra as a crossroads and a melting pot. Whatever it was that led Isis
fighters to load it with explosives, though, of one thing we can be certain:
they perfectly understood the symbolism of its iconoclasm.
Which is why, even amid all the agonies of the
Syrian people, the murders inflicted on them, and the bombings and the multiple
horrors of a seemingly endless civil war, it is fitting to mourn the temple of
Bel. That it has been pulverised after standing intact for 1,983 years serves
as an apt and terrible symbol of the destruction that is continuing to tear all
of Syria apart.
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