Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 1 April 2004 — Page 8

Page 8 • The Muncie Times • April 1, 2004

AFRICIAN BRIEFS

continued from page 6. The ban, which came into effect on Friday midnight, is being enforced by the government after anti-smoking groups filed a successful court case asking for smoking to be banned from public places because it poses health risks to non smokers. SOUTH AFRICAN SCIENTIST WINS $1.4 MILLION RELIGIOUS PRIZE A African cosmologist who studies the relationship between science and faith was on Wednesday named the winner of a religious research prize worth $1.4 million and said to be the world's highest value annual prize given to an individual. George Ellis was named as the winner of this year's Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities, which organizers always set at a higher monetary value than the Nobel Prizes. Ellis works for the University of Cape Town as a professor of applied mathematics. His specialties are general relativity and theoretical cosmology. He collaborated with the world's most renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking to co-author the standard reference work.

"The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time." "The way in which science and religion by and large complement each other is becoming ever clearer," he is quoted as saying, "as are the natures of various points of tension between them and some possible resolutions of those tensions." In addition to his academic pursuits, Ellis worked as an advocate for homeless blacks during apartheid. He says that he will donate part of the prize money to education and poverty relief projects in South Africa. Ellis will be receive the award from Britain’s Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabethis husband, at a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London on May 5. The Templeton Prize, as it's known was founded in 1973 by investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton. Lugar meets African ambassadors to promote trade

U.S. Senate Foreign

Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar recently with ambassadors from six African nations to promote the passage of the U.S. African Partnership Act. USAPA, which Lugar introduced in the Senate last November, is an extension of his earlier legislation, the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Lugar recommended the ambassadors for “championing these important and necessary improvements to AGOA that will benefit both Africa and the United States.” “Expanding AGOA should be a part of the development strategy for the African continent. The experience of AGOA has taught us valuable lessons about the path to enhanced investment and economic development. It has confirmed some of the key principles of market based development. “First, AGOA has demonstrated that a commitment to good governance and positive investment climates is important to economic growth. Second, the experience of AGOA has demonstrated that regional integration is as essential to development as access to the U.S. and other foreign markets,” Lugar said. We need to continue to build upon this initial success. Significantly,

USAPA extends the provisions of AGOA to 2015. It includes a 4 year extension of the key “third country” textile provision to 2008. USAPA will improve trade benefits, increase private sector investment incentives, focus on infrastructure and institutional capacitybuilding, and increase dialogue with African governments. In an effort to stimulate business partnership, the bill addresses investment incentives and encourages OPIC, the Ex-IM Bank, and the Foreign Agricultural Service to facilitate investment. It also directs the U.S. Treasury Department to seek negotiations on helpful tax treaties. “USAPA embodies the belief that expanded economic partnership between the United States and African nations is essential. We recognize that the continent’s enormous potential for economic growth and development can only be realized by embracing the vast diversity of the people, cultures, and economics. “Trade is starting to make a difference in Africa. Only by treating African countries as partners, can we fully integrate them into the world economy.” Lugar’s bill extends benefits from 2008 to 2015 and extends the third country textile provision from 2004 to 2008, to encourage

nascent commercial investment to remain and new investment (in textile, apparel and agri-business infrastructure and capacity) to continue. President George W. Bush declared 37 subSaharan countries are eligible for AGOA on Dec. 30, 2003, of which 18 are eligible for 3rd country textile provision. The proposed bill also addresses the critical issues of infrastructure and transportation. It provides for encouraged investment in transportation, energy and telecommunications as well as increased coordination by U.S. transportation entities to reduce transit times and costs. Lugar’s bill is S.1900. The companion House bill, HR 3573, has been introduced by Congressman McDermott and 11 cosponsors.

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