IMF boosts lending scheme to 600 billion dollars

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that a lending scheme to aid countries hit hard by the financial crisis had grown to 600 billion dollars.

The Washington-based Fund said that an additional 13 potential countries had agreed to join 26 nations in committing money to the so-called New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB), which was originally targeted at 500 billion dollars.

They also vowed to bring more flexibility to the NAB, a standing set of credit arrangements under which participants commit supplementary resources for IMF lending when needed.

The IMF executive board is expected to make a formal decision on the expanded NAB in the coming weeks.

To ensure that the IMF continues to have sufficient resources to meet demand, the Group of 20 emerging and developed economies committed in September to triple its available resources, up from a pre-crisis level of about 250 billion dollars.

G20 leaders agreed in April that immediate financing of 250 billion dollars from members would subsequently be folded into an expanded and more flexible NAB, increased by up to 500 billion dollars.

Among the countries that contributed to the scheme are developed nations such as the United States, Britain, France, Japan and Italy and developing states like China, Brazil and India.

Women worry about their looks 252 times/ week

LONDON: A survey has shown that women are constantly concerned by their appearance and worry about ageing.

One hundred women were asked to carry a clicker in an experiment to measure how many times they felt anxiety about their bodies ageing.

Over a seven day period, the women aged 35 to 69 had to use the clicker every time they worried about their face, body, or appearance in general.

On average, the women surveyed had negative thoughts 36 times a day.

One of the participants, Loose Women presenter Sherrie Hewson, 59, said: "It brought to the fore how many women have issues.

"Listening to others, they are saying what I'm saying when you think it's only you.

"There are so many of us there's got to be a common denominator, so we've got to get together and change it, change us."

Sherrie, who had a facelift ten years ago, clicked 1,400 times over seven days but admitted she thought it would be more.

In her waking hours, she experienced a negative thought about herself approximately every three minutes.

She told the Daily Mail: "When I look in the mirror, my overriding thought is: "I don't know this person." I wake up to this face, and I feel as though it's someone else's. All I see in the mirror is age creeping up on me.

"The worst time for me in terms of clicking was the morning.

"Just getting up, I'd look in the mirror at my face and hair and think: "Oh dear, now that's a worry." I'd click as I put my make-up on, but the more make-up I applied the less I clicked, and by the time my "face" was complete I'd have stopped clicking.

"I'd also click whenever I saw images of myself as a young actress, which happens from time to time. Just seeing how I used to look would remind me I was getting older."

The study was devised by keep-fit instructor Irene Estry and psychologist Emma Kenny to see if a looks-obsessed society creates ageism and pressure to stay youthful.

Millions of Muslims flock to Mecca for Hajj

SAUDI ARABIA:  An estimated 2.5 million Muslims have converged on Mecca for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, as workers toil round the clock to complete construction projects designed to avoid deadly stampedes.

All of this year's pilgrims were due in the holy city by the end of Tuesday to begin the Hajj rites on Wednesday, day one of the six-day pilgrimage.

The rites begin with the "tawaf," the circling seven times of the cubic Kaaba building in the center of the Grand Mosque, in whose direction all Muslims around the world pray.

Pilgrims then proceed to Mina to spend the night before climbing Mount Arafat on Thursday.

No place for gypsies in ultra-conservative Iraq

Iraq's gypsies seen as outcasts in new community

Al-Zuhoor,IRAQ: Squeezed between a rubbish dump and a dry riverbed, al-Zuhoor has no clean water or electricity and the gypsies who live here are at the margins of the new, ultra-conservative Iraq.

In smelly alleys bordered by brick hovels, without glass windows or doors, men wander without work, a young girl plays on a squeaky swing and women return from a day's begging in Diwaniyah, 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of Baghdad.

In the distance, smoke from burning rubbish blackens the sky and, when the wind turns, the nauseous odor is overwhelming.

Before 2003, under the Baathist regime of toppled president Saddam Hussein, the situation was much better. The dictator's iron fist did not weigh on the gypsies or Roma.

The men were professional singers or musicians and the women were invited to dance at feasts, weddings and parties in Iraq, having migrated to the Middle East from India centuries ago.

US, Israel lack courage to attack: Ahmadinejad

BRASILIA: Visiting Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said that US and Israeli military threats against Iran were a thing of the past, and that, in any case, "they don't have the courage" to attack Iran.

"The age of military attacks is over, now we've reached the time for dialogue and understanding. Weapons and threats are a thing of the past," the Iranian told a joint press conference with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, closing his one-day visit.

Fielding a question on whether he feared an attack from Israel or the United States, Ahmadinejad said armed confrontation was no longer a possibility.

That's clear "even for mentally challenged people," he said with a smile.

Besides, he added, "those you mention (Israel and United States) don't have the courage to attack Iran. They're not even thinking about it."

Ahmadinejad met for three hours with Lula to discuss Iran's controversial nuclear program, over which Lula urged Teheran to find a "just solution" with Western powers.