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An Israeli ad campaign aimed at expatriates that was withdrawn last year after criticism by the American Jewish community has reappeared online and in an Israeli magazine.

A print ad, calling on Israelis living in the United States to return to Israel, appeared in Atmosphera, the magazine of El Al Airlines. The ad was in Hebrew, the Washington Jewish Week reported.

In addition, a video advertisement promoting the same message continues to appear on the website of the Israeli Ministry of Absorption.

Israeli Embassy spokesman Lior Wein-traub told the Washington Jewish Week that this particular ad is addressed exclusively to an Israeli audience and its in Hebrew. It should not be offensive to American Jewry.

The ad is similar to those posted late last year on billboards in at least five American cities, including Palo Alto, and broadcast on satellite TV channels with Israeli content.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the ads removed from the Internet and television in December after American Jews argued that they demeaned American Jewish life. jta

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Israeli ad geared to expats resurfaces

Kate Moore is a working mother, struggling to make ends meet, to raise children, to keep a spark in her marriage...and to maintain an increasingly unbearable life-defining secret. So when her husband is offered a lucrative job in Luxembourg, she jumps at the chance to leave behind her double-life, to start anew.

She begins to reinvent herself as an expat, finding her way in a language she doesnt speak, doing the housewifely things shes never before done --- playdates and coffee mornings, daily cooking and never-ending laundry. Meanwhile, her husband works incessantly, at a job Kate has never understood, for a banking client shes not allowed to know. Hes becoming distant and evasive; shes getting lonely and bored.

Then another American couple arrives. Kate soon becomes suspicious that these people are not who they say they are, and shes terrified that her own past is catching up to her. So Kate begins to dig, to peel back the layers of deception that surround her. She discovers fake offices and shell corporations and a hidden gun, a mysterious farmhouse and numbered accounts with bewildering sums of money, and finally unravels the mind-boggling long-play con that threatens her family, her marriage, and her life.

Stylish and sophisticated, fiercely intelligent and expertly crafted, THE EXPATS proves Chris Pavone to be a writer of tremendous talent.

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The Expats

By Mizan Rahman Dhaka Bangladesh is taking steps so that Bangladeshi migrant workers can send up to $500 to the country without any fee, Expatriate Welfare Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain said yesterday. Migration of workers and the flow of remittance are important for the countrys economy. Remittances contribute around 13% to the gross domestic product (GDP), he said at a meeting of officials of Bangladesh Labour Wings abroad. He asked the officials to work sincerely to increase the inflow of remittances and resolve the problems of migrant workers. Mentioning that around 8mn Bangladeshis are now working in different foreign countries, he also asked the officials to be more proactive to explore labour market abroad for more manpower export. The minister said the cost of migration from Bangladesh is much higher than that of other countries. The migration cost shouldnt be the higher than two-three months salary of a worker, he pointed out. Hossain directed the officials to carefully examine the migration costs and the salary of workers before giving approval to their visas. He also asked them to ensure the security of women migrant workers and take steps so that they can communicate with their family members over phone any time without any hassle. Youll have to ensure that the recruiting agencies register their (women workers) names for insurance. Terming the recent killing of Saudi Embassy official Khalaf Al Ali tragic, the minister said it will not affect Bangladeshs labour market abroad. The government is investigating the case and stern action will be taken after the investigation, he added.

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Govt incentive for Bangladeshi expats

The Government has issued its latest figures on the number of people affected by the frozen pensions policy

The statistics were revealed by Lord Freud, the minister for welfare reform, after the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Jones of Cheltenham applied for a written answer identifying how many people living outside the United Kingdom received non-uprated United Kingdom state pensions in the most recent period for which data is available, broken down by country and territory".

They show that there are now well over half a million (555,650) British retirees abroad whose pensions are not inflation-proofed, as well as identifying which locations are home to the most people affected.

Nearly half (45 per cent) are living in the popular expat destination of Australia, with Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and India making up the rest of the top five.

Reacting to the figures, Tony Bockman, chairman of the International Consortium of British Pensioners, said they underlined the shocking scale of the frozen pensions scandal".

"Over half a million people who have worked hard and contributed to the life and health of Britain are being discriminated against because of where they have chosen to retire," he said.

The injustice of frozen pensions grows every year as more people are affected and their pensions lose more value. Its time for the government to take real steps towards unfreezing pensions.

Under current Government rules, pensions are generally only subject to cost-of-living increases in countries which belong to the European Economic Area (EEA) or which have agreements with Britain which allow for such increases.

The policy means that in practice, the spending power of many British pensioners decreases every year, with some who moved abroad many decades ago struggling to survive.

A government e-petition calling for an end to the freezing has reached nearly 17,600 signatures, putting it among the most popular petitions in the country.

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Over half a million expats denied full pension

New rules in France mean that expats with trusts may have to take measures to avoid penalties

For those moving to live in France, the list of things to think about before emigrating is substantial. As well as the practical things to deal with, there are likely to be a few legal and financial items too. Unfortunately, that list has just become a bit longer, if we add on trusts and the impact of some new tax rules from 2011, which really start to bite come June 15 this year.

Expats resident in France may have to take action before then, to avoid trust penalties. The outline below will give you an idea of what to look out for, to see if you might be affected.

Why did things change?

The background to all of this was a desire in France to target situations where families have their wealth held in trusts. While trusts are not really part of French law, France has now created a special way to tax them and find out more about the wealth held in them. Disclosure plays an important role in these new rules.

What is a trust?

Trusts are bread and butter in the UK as a way of holding assets for the benefit of more than one generation. They are a useful way of protecting property held outside the estates of family members, yet the trustees can still give access to those assets. People can set them up when alive, or write them into their will. Life insurance (Other OTC: LINS.PK - news) policies can be held in trust, for example, as well as share portfolios and other assets.

To understand the impact of the new French rules, you need to know about the three key parties to a trust:

Settlor: this is the person(s) who set up the trust and gifted the assets to it.

Trustees: these are the people who administer the trust, and the trust property is generally held in their names.

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Take action to avoid French penalties on trusts