Iraqi girls sit among rubbish in what is known as the Garbage City in al-Taji area north of Baghdad. (AFP File Photo)

BERLIN, Nov. 6--Iraq, racked by violence since the 2003 US-led invasion, and impoverished Haiti, Myanmar and Guinea are ranked as the most corrupt countries in the world in a new survey.
Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) ranks 163 countries based on perceived levels of corruption among public officials and politicians in its 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, was ranked last, just below Iraq, Myanmar and Guinea, reflecting what TI said was a high correlation between violence, poverty and corruption.
“This survey suggests that corruption in Iraq is very bad,“ TI Chief Executive David Nussbaum told Reuters.
“When you have high levels of violence, not only does security break down, but so do checks and balances, law enforcement and the functioning of institutions like the judiciary and legislature. If all that is under strain the very system that works to prevent corruption is undermined.“
Iraq has suffered rising sectarian violence and bloodshed since the invasion, heaping pressure on US President George W. Bush ahead of congressional elections on Tuesday.
Nussbaum pointed to US engineering giant Bechtel Corp’s decision last week to pull out of Iraq as a sign of how bad the security situation had become. Fifty-two Bechtel employees have been killed in Iraq since 2003.
Haiti is plagued by armed gangs despite the presence of UN forces brought in after the 2004 ousting of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Just ahead of Haiti and Iraq at the bottom of the rankings, stood Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and Bangladesh.
Scoring the best marks were Finland, Iceland and New Zealand, with Denmark, Singapore and Sweden just behind.
TI said several countries had a significant worsening of their ratings, including Brazil, Cuba, Israel, Jordan, Laos, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and the United States.
Countries which saw a major improvement included Algeria, the Czech Republic, India, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Mauritius, Paraguay, Slovenia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uruguay.
Nussbaum, noting the recent Enron trial, said US court cases had highlighted the scale of corruption there and may have contributed to the deterioration in the US score. The United States was ranked 20th, next to Belgium and Chile.

Mazuza Raja tosses a tray of freshly picked olives into the air, a traditional way of sorting a harvest so good this year that Palestinians dare dream of better fortune.
“The olive provides a main source of income for my family,“ said the 55-year-old woman, who lives in a village near the West Bank city of Jenin. “It is like green petrol for us, because we have no other source of income.“
With an expected bumper crop in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials hope to triple olive oil sales this year, boosting an otherwise failing economy, Reuters reported.
Increasing numbers of Palestinians--100,000 families in the West Bank alone--rely on olive sales to feed their families and the crop this year “is expected to be exceptional,“ a recent World Bank brief said.
As she sifts through olives and plops the choicest into a pail, Raja calculates that the total yield from her 200 trees could be pressed to make 30 barrels of oil for which she could earn about $2,200. That would be enough to feed her family this year.
Fares Jabi, a government farming consultant, said Palestinians expected to earn up to $110 million from olive oil sales this year in all the West Bank and Gaza, more than three times the $30 million made in 2005.
Khaled Jneidi, chairman of the Palestinian Oil Council, said olive oil’s low cholesterol levels were helping boost world demand.
“But the problem facing us here is marketing,“ Jneidi said, citing international sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority since the militant group Hamas came to power in March and his concerns that Israeli border restrictions could disrupt oil shipments abroad.
A foreign aid boycott--a bid to press Hamas to recognize Israel and renounce violence--has plunged the Palestinian economy into a crisis in which tens of thousands of civil servants have gone for months without full pay.
Some Palestinians also accuse their government of failing to divert enough funds to exhaust the olive crop’s potential, particularly in the West Bank, although the amount of land there planted with olive trees has nearly doubled since 1972.
Olive farmers also face assaults or threats from neighboring Jewish settlers. The Israeli military, citing security concerns, often imposes travel restrictions that can make it hard for Palestinians to reach their orchards.
Raed Majar, the council head of the West Bank village of Burin, said Israel had confiscated close to a third of the community’s orchards to build two settlements nearby.
Since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in 2000 when peace talks failed, settlers have stepped up efforts to impede the olive harvest on land they view as part of biblical Israel and which Palestinians seek for a state.
Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups say settlers have killed three harvesters since 2002.
Yesh Din, a mainstream Israeli rights group, says it has monitored 18 instances of olive theft and violent disruptions of the harvest by settlers this year.
Settler leaders condemn acts of violence against farmers but complain that Palestinian militants have used olive groves as cover to stage shooting attacks.
This year, Defense Minister Amir Peretz of the left-leaning Labor Party has ordered the army to step up patrols and make a concerted effort to avoid settler violence against farmers.
Adam Avidan, spokesman for the Israeli military’s administration in the West Bank, said the army has made providing security for olive harvesters a priority.
A series of joint patrols have been launched with Palestinians to map out trouble spots and ensure farmers access to their groves, Avidan said.
“This year, there has been a serious turnaround. The picking has gone ahead smoothly,“ he said, noting fewer settler disruptions than in the past.
But Palestinians said the protection is limited and doesn’t always guarantee access to their groves.
Mohammed Afeef, 41, avoids going to his largest orchard because it is located right next to a settlement’s fence, where he said settlers beat a female relative a few years ago.
Though four Israeli military jeeps are perched on a hilltop nearby, Afeef nervously works with his children in a smaller grove, near a road frequently used by settlers.
“We are racing against the clock because at any moment some settlers could come and throw stones,“ Afeef says.

NAIROBI, Kenya,
Nov. 6--Facing rising temperatures and flagging efforts to control greenhouse gases, thousands of delegates from around the world opened a UN conference Monday on next steps to ward off the worst impacts of climate change, AP reported.
Many at the two-week session will look for signs the United States might ease its stand against mandatory reductions in emissions that scientists blame for global warming. Few expect to see such a change, however, while the Bush administration is in power.
“We are all gathered this morning on behalf of mankind because we acknowledge that climate change is rapidly emerging as one of the most serious threats humanity will ever face,“ Kenyan Vice President Moody Awori told delegates in an opening speech.
Over the next two weeks, the delegates will get a closed-door preview of the latest scientific findings on a warming world, to be published next year in a comprehensive UN assessment by the world’s leading climate scientists. Among more recent results:
World temperatures have risen to levels not seen in at least 12,000 years, propelled by rapid warming the past 30 years, US climate scientists reported in September.
NASA reported last month “dramatic“ melting of Greenland’s ice mass, at a rate of 41 cubic miles (170 cubic kilometers) per year, far surpassing the gain of 14 cubic miles (58 cubic kilometers) per year from snowfall.
Britain’s Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and Research forecast last month that extreme drought could eventually affect one-third of the planet if climate change is not reined in.
Scientists blame the past century’s 0.6-degree-Celsius (1-degree-Fahrenheit) rise in average global temperatures at least in part on the accumulation of carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere--byproducts of power plants, automobiles and other fossil fuel-burning sources.
Here in Nairobi, the Kyoto countries will continue talks on what kind of emissions targets and timetables should follow 2012. But many are waiting to see whether the biggest emitter, the United States, accounting for 21 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, will submit to a mandatory regime of cutbacks.
Much of the Nairobi conference will be devoted to technical matters, such as organizing the Adaptation Fund, intended to help poorer countries grapple with climate change--by financing the building of walls against rising seas, for example, or switching to drought-resistant crops.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo (l) looks on his South Korean counterpart Roh Moo-Hyun during a meeting at the Presidental Blue House in Seoul, South Korea on Monday. (AFP Photo)

SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 6--South Korea sought a bigger share in Nigeria’s oil and gas development projects when President Roh Moo-hyun and his visiting counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo held summit talks Monday, Roh’s office said.
“Roh asked Obasanjo to pay more attention to South Korean firms participating in Nigeria’s petroleum and gasfield development projects,“ said presidential spokesman Yoon Tae-Young.
“The Nigerian leader asked for South Korea’s participation in Nigerian projects to build hydroelectric dams, railroads and other infrastructure.“
The two leaders also discussed closer cooperation in resources, plant construction and information technology, as well as in culture, tourism, sport and the private sector.
South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan and Nigerian Finance Minister Nenadi E. Usman signed a double taxation avoidance agreement to encourage two-way investment and trade, AFP said.
The two presidents expressed satisfaction at growing Korean investment in the West African country after their first summit in Nigeria in March, the spokesman said.
Obasanjo and four other African leaders--President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo, President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania, President John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana and President Boni Yayi of Benin--are to attend the first Korea-Africa Forum opening in Seoul Tuesday.
The four African leaders will separately hold summit talks with Roh on Wednesday.
The forum will discuss closer cooperation in politics, the economy, trade and culture. The five heads of state will join 27 cabinet-level officials from a total of 25 African nations at the gathering.
Energy is a major concern for South Korea in relations with Africa.
In 2004 it started exploring oil reserves in Benin believed to hold about 400 million barrels. In March it bought large stakes in offshore oilfields in Nigeria.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 6--Oil giant Saudi Aramco said it planned to open offices in Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai but denied a report that it was moving its Asian headquarters from Singapore to Malaysia, said AFP.
The planned opening of the offices in Malaysia and China “reflects the growing importance of the Asia Pacific region to Saudi Aramco, not only as a market for its crude oil and products, but also as a provider of essential goods, materials and services,“ the state-owned conglomerate said.
The New Straits Times newspaper of Malaysia, citing senior Aramco officials it did not identify, said Friday that the Saudi company planned to relocate from Singapore in order to reduce costs and also because of Malaysia’s infrastructure as an oil-producing nation.
“The decision to move from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur is believed to be due to cost reasons, as Kuala Lumpur is a cheaper base compared with Singapore,“ said the report.
“Another factor which swayed (Aramco’s) decision was that Malaysia itself is an oil-producing nation and in MISC Corp Berhad, the country has the world’s largest sea fleet owner of liquefied natural gas transporters.“
Malaysia International Shipping Corporation is a Malaysian shipping company.
But Saudi Aramco said in the statement that it was present in Singapore through a subsidiary, Saudi Petroleum Limited, which provides “sales and marketing support to Saudi Aramco customers in the region.“
The functions and location of Saudi Petroleum Limited’s office in Singapore will not change, said the statement received by AFP.
Aramco Overseas Company, another subsidiary, is meanwhile “opening a new office in Kuala Lumpur. The primary function of this office will be to coordinate contracting, purchasing and materials inspection activities with regional suppliers,“ the statement said.
“Aramco Overseas Company is opening a similar office in Shanghai, China.“

TOKYO, Nov. 6--Microsoft Corp. said Monday it will launch a major new program in Japan to promote the use of its products among small and medium businesses.
Speaking at a conference in Tokyo, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said the company’s additional investment would be in the “tens of millions of dollars.“
According to AP, Microsoft said the new program would include the opening of four new Microsoft stores nationwide bringing the total to 11 by the end of 2007.
The Redmond, Washington-based company, whose business in Japan goes back 20 years, also said it would conduct a nationwide bus tour to promote its products and services.
Microsoft software dominates the Japanese market as it does with much of the rest of the world. The company also boasts key business partnerships in Japan, including those with electronics makers as well as game-software makers.
Separately, Ballmer also said there would never be another five-year gap between operating system releases again, referring to the long delay in releasing the newest version of its Windows software.
Microsoft says it is now on track to deliver Vista--the first major upgrade to the company’s flagship operating system since Windows XP was released in 2001--to large businesses this month and to consumers and small businesses in January.