NEWS,31.03.2012.

US to press on with Iran sanctions

President Barack Obama vowed today to forge ahead with tough sanctions on Iran, saying there was enough oil in the world market - including emergency stockpiles - to allow countries to cut Iranian imports.In his decision, required by a sanctions law he signed in December, Obama said increased production by some countries as well as "the existence of strategic reserves" helped him come to the conclusion that sanctions can advance."I will closely monitor this situation to assure that the market can continue to accommodate a reduction in purchases of petroleum and petroleum products from Iran," he said in a statement.Obama had been expected to press on with the sanctions to pressure Iran to curb its nuclear program, which the West suspects is a cover to develop atomic weapons but which Iran says is purely civilian.The overt mention of government-controlled stockpiles may further stoke speculation that major consumer nations are preparing to tap their emergency stores this year."I do think it was interesting that it was laid out there," said David Pumphrey, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies."It was sort of like a reminder that yes, this is part of the tool kit," said Pumphrey, a former Energy Department official.Oil markets remain tight, the White House said. Surging gasoline prices have become a major issue in the presidential election campaign."A series of production disruptions in South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Nigeria, and the North Sea have removed oil from the market," the White House said in a statement.France is in talks with the United States and Britain on a possible release of strategic oil stocks to push fuel prices lower, French ministers said on Wednesday.Senior Obama administration officials told reporters that the United States views releasing emergency stocks as an option, but said no decision has been made on specific actions.Oil prices briefly rallied by about 70 cents on the announcement, but later reversed gains to end almost flat as traders turned mindful of the possible use of reserves."There's been a shift from focus on a threat (by Iran) to close the Strait of Hormuz to whether or not reserves are going to be released," said Dominick Caglioti, a broker at Frontier Trading Co. in New York.Going forward, Obama is required by law to determine every six months whether the price and supply of non-Iranian oil are sufficient to allow consumers to "significantly" cut their purchases from Iran.The law allows Obama, after June 28, to sanction foreign banks that carry out oil-related transactions with Iran's central bank and effectively cut them off from the US financial system."Today, we put on notice all nations that continue to import petroleum or petroleum products from Iran that they have three months to significantly reduce those purchases or risk the imposition of severe sanctions on their financial institutions," said Senator Robert Menendez, co-author of the sanctions law.Obama can offer exemptions to countries that show they have "significantly" cut their purchases from Iran, and recently exempted Japan and 10 EU countries from the sanctions.A senior administration official told reporters that talks continue with China, India, South Korea and other importers."Each day I think really we see a number of positive indicators from a broad range of countries," the official said, citing an announcement by Turkey today that it would cut imports of oil from Iran by 10% as an example.Obama faces a delicate balancing act on Iran, leading up to November US general election. On the one hand, he must show voters he is being tough on the Islamic state.But with oil and gasoline prices surging in response to geopolitical risks, he must also avoid steps that would unduly rattle oil markets. That could threaten the global economy and hurt voters already angered by the rising cost of fuel.Obama also faces pressure from some lawmakers in Congress who want to make sanctions on Iran even tighter. The House of Representatives has already passed additional sanctions, and a bill is pending in the Senate.Senior administration officials briefing reporters declined comment on the proposed new sanctions."We welcome the president's determination and applaud the administration's faithful implementation of the Menendez-Kirk amendment," said a spokesman for Senator Mark Kirk, a Republican who has pushed for additional measures."To build on this momentum, we hope the Senate will consider amendments to the pending Iran sanctions bill that would continue to increase the economic pressure on the Iranian regime," Kirk's spokesman said.

Spain announces deep cuts amid public protest

Spain has announced deep cuts to its central government budget as it battles to convince European partners and debt markets it can rein in its budget deficit in the face of growing complaints from the public.The government said it would make savings of 27 billion euros for the rest of 2012 from the central government budget, equivalent to around 2.5% of gross domestic product. The figure includes tax rises and spending cuts of around 15 billion euros announced in December.The cuts come despite popular resistance - a general strike on Thursday disrupted transport, halted industry and saw some minor violence - and against a grim economic backdrop; Spain is thought to have fallen back into recession in the first quarter and has the highest unemployment rate in the European Union."Everyone knows the difficult problem we face in this country, and it calls for special efforts in fiscal consolidation and structural reforms to grow and create employment," Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said after the weekly cabinet meeting.The centre-right government, which swept to power in November with the largest parliamentary majority in 30 years, has already passed labour market and banking sector reforms that it says can improve competitiveness and reduce wage costs.EU partners have agreed to let Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy aim for a total 2012 deficit at 5.3% of gross domestic product, a less demanding goal than the 4.4% originally suggested but substantially less than last year's 8.5%.Speaking in Copenhagen after an EU ministerial meeting, Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said the measures would be implemented as soon as possible, adding that any suggestions that Madrid needed emergency international funds was "absurd".Spain is trying to assure its EU partners that it is in control of slashing its deficit and to avoid needing a bailout package like that of smaller neighbour Portugal."What comforts markets are domestic policies. If we don't do what is needed, then there will be no rescue fund that is big enough," de Guindos said. Finance ministers agreed on Friday to increase a financial firewall to 700 billion euros to ward off fears the euro zone debt crisis could spill over to Spain or Italy, much larger economies than those bailed out previously.The Spanish government said it was aiming for a central government deficit equivalent of 3.5% of GDP, a deficit of 1.5% of GDP coming from Spain's regions and a balanced social security budget. Smaller local authorities expect a deficit equivalent to 0.3% of GDP.The regions announced a deficit of 2.9% of GDP in 2011, meaning they would have to cut around 15 billion euros to meet the 2012 target.Details were scarce, with the government due to set the budget before parliament on Tuesday, but some economists are concerned that deep austerity measures could hurt already weakened growth and further endanger the deficit targets.The government said it would slash spending by 16.9% across the ministries, with spending at the Foreign Ministry cut by more than half, and the Industry, Energy and Tourism Ministry taking a cut of more than 30%.Total cuts of over 42 billion euros, between the central administrations and the regional authorities, could be tough for an economy struggling to grow, economists warn."This is as austere as it gets. It's a tightening of fiscal policy until the pips squeak. There can be no doubting the government's willingness to curb Spain's excessive budget deficits," said Nicholas Spiro at Spiro Sovereign Strategy.Rajoy can ill afford to upset nervous bond market investors, who pushed the yield premium for Spanish 10-year debt on Thursday close to their highest levels since early January.The premium investors demand to hold Spanish over German debt dipped slightly after the budget announcement to around 356 basis points, suggesting a cautious welcome for the plan intended to improve Madrid's ability to service its debt.Investors fear, however, that the government may fail to deliver the budget cuts it is promising or will need to announce new measures before the end of the year which could hurt growth."I suspect that the government could be forced to implement further austerity measures later this year, with lingering economic downturn set to place additional strains on an already perilous budget deficit reduction plan," said IHS Global Insight economist Raj Badiani. "The main risk is that the government's tax revenue projections for 2012 look too optimistic."

NEWS,30.03.2012.

Obama moving ahead with Iran sanctions

Washington - President Barack Obama is moving ahead with tough new sanctions aimed at squeezing Iran's oil exports after determining there is enough crude on world markets to take the step without harming U.S. allies. Obama's move allows the U.S. to go forward with sanctions on foreign banks that continue to purchase oil from Iran. The sanctions aim to further isolate Iran's central bank, which processes nearly all of the Islamic Republic's oil purchases, from the global economy. U.S. officials hope ratcheting up economic pressure will both push Iran to abandon its disputed nuclear program and convince Israel to give sanctions time to take hold before pursuing a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. The U.S. and allies believe that Iran is pursuing a nuclear bomb; Iran denies that. Under a sweeping defense bill Obama signed at the end of December, he had until Friday to determine if there was enough oil supply on the world market to allow countries to cut their oil purchases from Iran. Obama announced his decision in a statement Friday after a source initially confirmed the news to The Associated Press. The president said he based his determination on global economic conditions, the level of spare oil capacity and increased production by some countries, among other factors. He said he would keep monitoring the global market closely to ensure it can handle a reduction of oil purchases from Iran. With oil prices already rising this year amid rising tensions over the nuclear dispute between Iran and the West, U.S. officials have sought assurances that pushing countries to stop buying from Iran would not cause a further spike in prices. That is particularly important for Obama in an election year that has seen an increasing focus on gas prices. The congressionally mandated sanctions target foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank - barring them from operating in the U.S. to buy or sell Iranian oil. The penalties are to take effect at the end of June, around the same time Europe's embargo on Iranian oil kicks in. Countries can still avoid the sanctions if they take steps to significantly reduce their imports before then. Domestic and foreign policy concerns have complicated the administration's decision to pursue the oil sanctions. Many of the countries that buy oil from Iran are U.S. allies, including several European Union nations, Japan, South Korea and India. In order to provide flexibility to countries friendly to the U.S., the sanctions bill allows the U.S. to grant waivers to nations that significantly reduce their purchases of Iranian oil. Even before Friday's decision, the State Department announced that it would grant waivers to 10 European Union countries and Japan because of steps they have already taken to cut back on Iranian oil. An E.U. oil embargo, approved in January, is set to take effect in July. Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat, who co-authored the sanctions legislation with Republican Sen. Mark Kirk, said he welcomed Obama's support in targeting Iran's Central Bank. Menendez's office says he was also notified of the decision earlier Friday “Today, we put on notice all nations that continue to import petroleum or petroleum products from Iran that they have three months to significantly reduce those purchases or risk the imposition of severe sanctions on their financial institutions,” Menendez said in a statement. He predicted most countries would cut their purchase of oil from Iran, either out of fear of sanctions or a shared fear over the Iran's pursuit of nuclear weaponry. The United States has not said what constitutes a significant reduction in Iranian oil purchases, and analysts believe the administration could use different metrics for different countries. Administration officials say a February report from the Energy Information Administration shows there is excess oil supply on the global market. But the report also showed that prices are high

Suspected Islamists rounded up ahead of French poll

French police arrested 19 people in a crackdown on suspected Islamist networks Friday as President Nicolas Sarkozy made the battle against extremism the keynote of his re-election campaign. Arrests took place in several cities, including Toulouse, where extremist gunman Mohamed Merah was shot dead by police last week after a series of cold-blooded shootings that left seven dead, including three Jewish children. Sarkozy said the arrests targeted “radical Islam” and that the trauma in France after the shootings in Toulouse and nearby Montauban was like that felt in the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Agents from the DCRI domestic intelligence agency and elite police carried out the dawn raids in Toulouse in the southwest, as well as the Paris region, Nantes in the west, Lyon in the southeast and the Provence region. Among those arrested in the Nantes region was Mohammed Achamlane, the head of a suspected extremist group called Forsane Alizza, sources said. Three Kalashnikovs, a Glock pistol and a grenade were seized from his home. Three of the 19 suspects arrested were women, police said. Judicial sources said 17 of those arrested were being held for questioning. In France, suspects in terror-related cases can be held for up to four days without charge. A senior police source told AFP authorities had up to 100 suspected radicals in their sights and Sarkozy said Friday's operation was only a start. “There will be other operations that will continue and will also allow us to expel from our national territory a certain number of people,” said Sarkozy, in the thick of campaigning for an April-May presidential election. “What must be understood is that the trauma of Montauban and Toulouse is profound for our country, a little - I don't want to compare the horrors - a little like the trauma that followed in the United States and in New York after the September 11, 2001 attacks,” he told Europe 1 radio. After trailing Socialist candidate Francois Hollande for months in the polls, Sarkozy has jumped ahead in first-round voter intentions and seen his support rise in the wake of the attacks. Generally seen as stronger on security than Hollande, Sarkozy is keen to make law and order a key issue in a campaign that has so far been dominated by the economy, jobs and spending power, where the Socialist is stronger. The latest poll by CSA released Wednesday said 30 percent of voters would pick Sarkozy and 26 percent would go for Hollande in the April 22 first round. But all polls still predict Hollande winning the May 6 second round. Some of Sarkozy's opponents branded the arrests a public relations stunt, with Steeve Briois, the general secretary of the far-right National Front, calling the raids “an electoral manoeuvre”. “The 'big haul' made overnight by the DCRI and the RAID Ä the elite police unit that shot Merah Ä doesn't fool anyone,” he said in a statement. “Waiting for the horror of the Toulouse killings to start taking action shows the cynicism and opportunism of Nicolas Sarkozy.” But Interior Minister Claude Gueant said: “These are people who on the web... claimed support for a radical extremist ideology, for an ideology of combat.” The arrests came a day after the body of Merah, who was shot dead by a RAID sniper on March 22 at the end of a 32-hour siege at his flat in Toulouse, was buried in the city under heavy police guard.

The 23-year-old had shot dead three soldiers, and three children and a teacher at a Jewish school, in a killing spree this month that shocked the country. On Thursday, France banned four Muslim preachers from entering the country for a conference of the Union of Islamic Organisations in France (UOIF), citing their “calls for hatred and violence”. The ban applies to Saudi clerics Ayed Bin Abdallah al-Qarni and Abdallah Basfar, Egyptian cleric Safwat al-Hijazi and a former mufti of Jerusalem, Akrama Sabri, who had been due in Paris next month. National Front presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Friday called for the conference to be cancelled and the UOIF to be disbanded. A French court meanwhile has sentenced a 20-year-old man, Mohamed Redha Ghezali, from the same neighbourhood as Merah to three months in prison for praising his crimes, prosecutors in Toulouse said. Ghezali was convicted Thursday of “provoking racial hatred” and “apology for terrorism” and Toulouse prosecutor Michel Valet said the state would “systematically pursue” anyone expressing support for Merah. The Depeche du Midi reported that the man, while haranguing a group of police officers, had said: “My mate Mohamed, that's a real man. It's too bad he didn't have time to finish the job.”

NEWS,29.03.2012.

Spaniards strike against 'unstoppable' job reforms

Spanish workers have staged a general strike to protest against labour reforms which the government declared "unstoppable" but many ignored the action, fearing for their jobs in a country with the EU's highest unemployment rate.Factories across the nation were silent and ports closed, while television and transport were disrupted by the strike against the austerity policies of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy - whom Spaniards elected by a landslide only four months ago.Police arrested a number of protesters in Madrid while small-scale violence flared in Barcelona, Spain's second city. Tourists were locked out of the Alhambra, a 14th-century Moorish palace in the southern city of Granada which is one of Europe's great cultural monuments.Strikers promised a wave of protests to confront Rajoy's conservative government over reforms making it cheaper for companies to fire staff and dismantling a nationwide system of collective pay bargaining."We don't have much hope, but this is just the beginning," said Trini Cuesta, a 58-year-old employee at a public hospital in Barcelona. "It's not just about labour reform, we're against policies that are provoking social and economic ruin. Social protests must rise."Spain is tipping into its second recession since the end of 2009 and some observers expect at least another million people to join already swollen unemployment lines. The jobless rate is already 23% and almost half of under 25-year-olds are out of work.Rajoy's government said it was committed to making labour reforms which it argues will help to reduce unemployment by making the labour market more efficient. "The agenda for reform is unstoppable," Labour Minister Fatima Banez said.Police presence was particularly heavy around parliament where politicians were putting in a longer work day than usual as Rajoy sought approval for five different measures, including funding for indebted local governments to pay suppliers.Spaniards have so far been tolerant of Rajoy's efforts to reform the labour market and meet strict European Union-imposed deficit goals to ensure it avoids a Greek-style debt crisis.But the general strike, the first since September 2010, showed that patience may be wearing thin. The largest union put support for the strike at 77% while the government said the work day was proceeding normally but gave no overall tally.Spain's blue chip index fell 0.87%, its eighth consecutive session of declines as concerns over the country's finances returned.There were pockets of violence in Barcelona, where protesters set garbage bins on fire and threw chairs from the famed outdoor cafes of Spain's second largest city onto the street, but no injuries were reported.Union members waving red flags gathered in major cities where they plastered stickers on shop windows reading "Closed for Strike", though many remained open for business.Police barricaded parliament and arrested 58 people in Madrid, many of whom were trying to stop people going to work.Many workers crossed the picket lines, saying they feared losing their jobs or unwilling to lose the average of around 100 euros which will be docked from the pay cheques of the strikers.While many Spaniards are fighting to preserve protection for their jobs, others are on short-term contracts of typically six months with little protection.These workers fear their employers could punish strikers by failing to renew their contracts when they expire, and give the job instead to one of the army of unemployed.Fewer than a fifth of Spanish employees are currently affiliated with the country's two biggest unions and many feel they don't represent the wider workforce."A lot of people actually blame the unions in part for the rigidity in the labour market and lack of competitiveness, so they aren't exactly in the position to rally a lot of people and the support for the strike reflects that," said David Bach, political analyst at IE business school in Madrid.

 However, union members are ready for a long fight. "This is the largest cut of (workers') rights since anyone can remember. There has to be a better way to get out of this crisis," UGT union employee Marta Lois, 40, said on Madrid's main street Gran Via, where protesters blocked traffic."Don't forget this is just the first major event of what is likely going to be a long year of demonstrations against government policies," Antonio Barroso, political analyst with Eurasia Group said.Rajoy said on Tuesday his administration would pass a "very, very, austere budget" on Friday. His goal of cutting the deficit this year to 5.3% of gross domestic product implies nominal cuts of at least 35 billion euros ($57 billion).The cuts are meant to keep borrowing costs down as well as working towards meeting the EU's 3% deficit limit next year, but some economists say they will deepen the looming recession.The strike halted overnight production at factories from Barcelona in the north to Cadiz in the south, with unions reporting full stoppages at General Motors Espana, Renault, ArcelorMittal and Acerinox.Transport employees provided a basic level of service, meaning one in four buses and about a third of metro and local trains were expected to run. Most domestic and European flights were grounded although long-haul services continued."We're offering the government a chance to start a different path (of reform) in search of wider consensus," Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, head of Spain's largest union Comisiones Obreras said. "If not there will be rising social conflict."Despite the promises to push on with reforms aimed at winning approval from Brussels, Rajoy's People's Party suffered a surprise setback in a regional election on Sunday, meaning he must measure his steps to avoid provoking wider discontent.A high turnout is expected at an evening march in Madrid that will end at the central Puerta del Sol square, cradle of last year's anti-austerity "Indignant" movement.National grid operator REE estimated electricity demand - a key indicator of economic activity - for Thursday as a whole would drop by 14.8% from Wednesday to 571 gigawatt-hours, a level comparable to a public holiday or a weekend.During the last general strike in September 2010, demand fell by 12.6% from the day before.

NEWS,28.03.2012.

Italy seize $1.6 bln of Gaddafi family assets

Italian tax police have seized $1.6 billion of assets belonging to members of the Gaddafi family, including stakes in top Italian companies, bank deposits and a Harley Davidson, at the request of the International Criminal Court.In a statement today, police said the assets included stakes in Italy's largest bank UniCredit, oil and gas giant Eni, defence group Finmeccanica, carmaker Fiat, truck-maker Fiat Industrial and Turin-based soccer club Juventus.Bank deposits, a chunk of forest on the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria and two motorbikes including the Harley Davidson were also seized.Lieutenant Colonel Gavino Putzu said all the assets seized were held by Libya's sovereign fund, the Libyan Investment Authority, on behalf of the Gaddafi family.He said the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague had ordered the seizure of assets worldwide in view of possible compensation claims by victims of Muammar Gaddafi's rule in Libya following his overthrow last year."The assets will be administered by a special commissioner to be appointed by a Rome court," Putzu said. "All the companies involved have been notified."Italy, Libya's former colonial ruler, was once Gaddafi's closest European ally but the government of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi abruptly switched sides last April after the start of the NATO bombing campaign.Rome has maintained strong business ties with Tripoli's new rulers, and Eni remains the biggest foreign oil producer in Libya.Putzu said the company stakes seized included 1.25% of UniCredit, 0.58% of Eni, around 2% of Finmeccanica, and 0.33% in both Fiat and Fiat Industrial.The ICC has indicted Saif al-Islam, son and one-time heir apparent of Libya's fallen leader, in June 2011 for crimes against humanity during a crackdown on the Libyan revolt.Libya has insisted he will be tried at home and be given a fair hearing, but the ICC may insist that he be sent to the Hague.The court has also indicted Gaddafi's intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, arrested in Mauritania earlier this month, for crimes against humanity.

 

History buffs uncover Titanic Jane Doe's identity

The only Australian-born survivor of the Titanic lay in an unmarked grave for 62 years before being recognised with a gravestone.Evelyn Marsden, a former stewardess and nurse on the doomed ship, finally has a gravestone at Sydney's Waverley cemetery acknowledging the circumstances of her death in October 2000, after a push by a "bunch of Titanic buffs".Kieran Hosty, curator at the National Maritime Museum in Sydney, said the campaign to give Marsden recognition as a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic typified the depth of feeling surrounding the event."It doesn't matter how many times you tell the story of the Titanic, it's one that people are so fascinated in; they really love it," Hosty told AAP.Marsden, a former daughter of a rail worker from South Australia, was one of five Australian-born passengers on board the luxury liner when it sank nearly a century ago on April 15, 1912.Of the more than 2200 people who set sail, more than 1500 died.In commemoration of the anniversary, the museum on Wednesday launched the Remembering Titanic - 100 Years On exhibition.On display are nine costumes from James Cameron's Oscar-winning 1997 film Titanic, including the pale purple "sinking" dress worn by Kate Winslet as the ship went down.A memorial wall listing those killed is also featured, as well as newspaper clippings, photographs and personal stories.It was like society and society on board the ship fell apart," Hosty said.Among the heroic tales of the Titanic are those of John Jacob Astor, who after bundling his pregnant wife Madeline into a lifeboat, was reportedly last seen smoking a cigar and sipping whiskey on deck.Then there were those like Cosmo Duff - a wealthy British Lord - who allegedly bribed crew members to spirit him and his wife away on a lifeboat, Hosty said."It makes you ask, `how would I behave ... would I be like Cosmo Duff or would I be like Astor?."The museum's resident Titanic expert Inger Sheil said the exhibition followed years of requests from the public."The three subjects that people always ask for is pirates, vikings and the Titanic," Shiel said."There is always something else to discover and a new story to find."

NEWS,27.03.2012.

Japan goes off script at nuclear summit

 

Japan steered off the agenda at a nuclear security summit to hit out at North Korea's plans for a rocket launch next month, as US President Barack Obama cautioned against complacency in dealing with the threat of nuclear terrorism.The summit was briefly interrupted on Tuesday by a dispute between Argentina and Britain, which went to war in 1982 over the Falkland Islands, over suggestions Britain had sent a submarine capable of carrying nuclear weapons to the South Atlantic.A communique issued at the end of the two-day meeting of more than 50 world leaders in Seoul was light on specifics on how to reduce the risk of atomic materials falling into bad hands, loosely calling for all vulnerable material to be secured in four years.The world's biggest nuclear concerns, those surrounding the weapons programmes of North Korea and Iran, were not on the agenda at the summit, and neither country was invited.The secretive North has been widely criticised on the sidelines of the meeting, including by main ally China, but host South Korea has explicitly stated the North's weapons of mass destruction programmes were off the table during the summit itself.The forum is meant to deal only with safeguarding nuclear material and facilities and preventing trafficking.Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ignored protocol and urged the international community to strongly demand North Korea exercise self-restraint over next month's planned rocket launch."The planned missile launch North Korea recently announced would go against the international community's nuclear non-proliferation effort and violate UN Security Council resolutions," Noda said in an opening speech.No other major leaders mentioned North Korea's nuclear ambitions or the ballistic missile launch which Pyongyang says will carry a weather satellite into orbit. The West says the launch is a disguised test of a long-range missile designed to reach the American mainland.North Korea said last week it would consider it a "provocation" if its "nuclear issue is placed on the agenda at the Seoul summit" and if any statement was issued against the North for pursuing such a programme.On Tuesday, it said there was no reason to fire a missile after February's agreement to suspend nuclear and missile tests in return for food aid with the United States.Obama has said the destitute North could be hit with tighter sanctions if it goes ahead with the rocket launch, but experts doubt China will back another UN Security Council resolution against it.A row erupted during the main session of the summit when British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg hit back at accusations levelled by Argentinian Foreign Minister Hector Timermanan that an "extra-regional power" had sent a submarine capable of carrying nuclear weapons to the South Atlantic.In front of the world's leaders, Clegg fired back his own missive, calling the remarks "unfounded, baseless insinuations".Tension between Britain and Argentina is rising as the 30th anniversary approaches of Argentina's invasion of the Falklands that was repulsed by a British task force after a 10-week conflict that killed 650 Argentine and 255 British troops.Obama told leaders the world was safer because of the steps taken to improve nuclear security, but warned that the threat of the wrong people getting hold of the materials to make a crude atomic bomb was real."Nuclear terrorism is one of the most urgent and serious threats to global security," he said.The communique issued at the end of the summit reaffirmed states' commitment to minimising stockpiles of highly enriched uranium and plutonium, safeguarding nuclear facilities, and preventing illicit trafficking of nuclear and radioactive material.The long and vaguely worded document, however, offered nothing in the shape of measurable targets and did not single out any state for criticism.Critics say the summit is no more than a talking-shop, and warn that even though its mandate was extended to include safety after the Fukushima crisis in Japan last year, the next summit in the Netherlands could be the last.Miles Pomper of the Washington-based Center for Nonproliferation Studies said the Seoul agenda was "underwhelming to say the least"."You got a lot of juice out of the process the first time because it was a new thing and Obama had just come off the Prague speech," he said, referring to a 2009 address when he declared it was time to seek "a world without nuclear weapons"."There were a lot of things already in the pipeline, but now we're losing momentum ... we (need to) start being more ambitious."But heralding the progress made in two years since the first such gathering of world leaders, which he hosted in Washington, Obama said the "security of the world" depended on success."It would not take much - just a handful or so of these materials - to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people. And that's not an exaggeration. That's the reality that we face."Former Cold War adversaries have cooperated to lock down weapons-grade uranium and plutonium, some countries have agreed to remove all such material from their soil and poorer nations have received financial help to secure nuclear facilities."We've come a long way in a very short time, and that should encourage us (but) that should not lead us to complacency," said Obama in an appeal for further collaboration.Noda, representing a country mired in the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, also said that Tokyo has learned from the Fukushima disaster and was reinforcing power supply devices and increasing security measures at its plants. An earthquake and tsunami last March knocked out external and on-site power supplies at the nuclear power plant, 240 km northeast of Tokyo, causing the failure of cooling systems and triggering fuel meltdowns, radiation leaks and mass evacuations.

NEWS,26.03.2012.

Israel sees new advantage in Iron Dome anti-missile system

Israel's newest weapon sits squarely along the border of this southern Israeli town. The Iron Dome, a rocket interception system built by Israel, guards many of the cities that lie within the range of rockets fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. The system, considered among the most advanced in the world, fires a missile to intercept incoming rockets after it gauges whether a rocket will fall in an area where it can cause damage. It is, according to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a "game changer."When violence flared along the Israel-Gaza border earlier this month, the effectiveness of the Iron Dome was tested, and Israeli officials couldn't have been more pleased.Of the approximately 250 rockets and mortars fired at Israel from Gaza, 166 entered Israel's airspace, officials said. Of those, 74 would have struck civilian areas or buildings. The Iron Dome system intercepted 56 before they could land, a success rate of 75 percent. Israeli officials argue, however, that the Iron Dome also identified rockets that were headed for open areas, such as fields, and let them land harmlessly. Factoring those in, Israeli military officials argue that only 18 of the 166 landed anywhere on target, giving the system a success rate of nearly 90 percent.Israeli military officers and politicians said the success of the system gave Israel "diplomatic maneuverability" that it didn't have previously. Israel Defense Forces chief Benny Gantz described the Iron Dome's impact as a "serious and historical military change."Gantz said the ability to protect Israeli population centers from rocket attacks removed one of the key factors that the military had always seen as a limitation on its operations: what the likelihood was of reprisals.Now, Gantz added, the Israeli military can operate relatively undeterred without concern about rocket attacks. The barrage of rockets earlier this month was triggered by the targeted killing in a drone strike of Zuhair al Qaissi, a senior member of the Popular Resistance Committee, an umbrella group that includes militants from various Palestinian factions.Iron Dome is just the beginning, Gantz said. While it focuses on smaller rockets with a relatively short range, such as those from the Gaza Strip, Israel is installing other systems that are intended to stop larger missiles, fired from farther away.David's Sling, a system built in conjunction with the U.S. military, is designed to intercept medium- to long-range rockets and cruise missiles, such as those possessed by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Another system, the Arrow, also developed with the United States, would intercept ballistic missiles fired from hundreds of miles away.Israeli military officials said they hoped the systems would deter militants from firing rockets."If they know we have the ability to stop their rockets from hitting their targets, they might abandon this method," said one Israel Defense Forces officer, who spoke to reporters recently on the condition of anonymity. "In the long run we can hope for this."Already though, the impact on Israeli residents of the south has been felt. Writing in The Jerusalem Post, military analyst Yaakov Katz said that, "Israel's political leadership is under less pressure from the public that is under the rocket fire. As a result, neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Defense Minister Ehud Barak feel a need to escalate the operation."Meira Cohanim, a 56-year-old resident of Ashkelon, said she felt comforted that the military was trying to intercept missiles from Gaza, even if the system wasn't 100 percent effective."Before, you had this feeling that the rockets were just pounding away," she said. "And they would land wherever they did and your home was hit or it wasn't. Now there is a feeling that something might be changing; we might be protected."Iron Dome, she said, might give the Israel Defense Forces more leeway to operate in Gaza, but she hoped that it wouldn't mean another war."The people in Gaza don't have Iron Dome or even bomb shelters. I know some people here think it's good for us to attack them, but there are innocents and children there, too," she said. "I hope Iron Dome brings peace, not one-sided war."

NEWS,25.03.2012.

US puts forward World Bank nominee

Jim Yong Kim, the US nominee to lead the World Bank, will win broad international support despite an unprecedented challenge by candidates from emerging economies, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview.Washington's hold on the World Bank presidency is being contested for the first time by candidates from emerging economies.Two respected economists and diplomats, Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and former Colombian finance minister Jose Antonio Ocampo, have been nominated.Kim, a Korean-American health expert, is well known among development experts for his work in fighting HIV/AIDS and bringing healthcare to the poor.President Barack Obama nominated him for World Bank president over the weekend.."The president was looking for a candidate who could command broad support across the world," said Geithner."That's very important, because we don't make this decision alone.""Dr. Kim's mix of skills will be particularly compelling to the bank at this time and I think the world will be very impressed with him," he said.Emerging economies such as China, India, South Africa, Brazil and Russia have sought to use their growing economic clout to pry open the selection process for the heads of the World Bank and its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund.The World Bank has always been headed by an American and the IMF by a European since their inception after World War Two.Geithner said it was not a surprise that candidates from other countries had been nominated after a 2009 agreement by leaders of the Group of 20 nations for an open and transparent process to select leaders of the two institutions."We expected that to happen and think it is healthy for the institution as a whole," Geithner said. "But I can tell you from my conversations with developing and developed countries, I am confident he (Kim) will win broad support."US officials have acknowledged that giving up the World Bank presidency would make it difficult for the White House to obtain funding from Congress for the global lender, especially with lawmakers worried about mounting budget deficits.The United States has also argued that it does not head any other global organization.After a broad search that looked at US bankers, economists and politicians, Obama settled on Kim because the Dartmouth College president has a deep commitment to development issues, Geithner said.In particular, he cited Kim's experience in programs to fight HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in impoverished nations, which he said demonstrated that the nominee could get things done in tough environments.In coming weeks, Kim will visit nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America to try to convince them he is the best candidate to lead the poverty-fighting institution, US officials said.Kim was recommended to Obama by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, officials said. Kim and his long-time collaborator Paul Farmer worked with former President Clinton on reconstruction efforts in Haiti following a devastating earthquake in 2010.The White House has acknowledged it considered candidates tied more closely to Washington political circles, including US Senator John Kerry, US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and former White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers."The president wanted somebody who had defined their life through a commitment to the cause of development but had also demonstrated an ability to solve complex problems in a creative way," said Geithner, a Dartmouth alumnus who played a lead role in the search for a successor for outgoing World Bank President Robert Zoellick.Kim's development successes involving HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and the provision of inexpensive medicine to the poor have received wide praise. However, some development experts say he lacks the economic credentials and diplomatic skills of rival nominees Okonjo-Iweala and Ocampo.While the World Bank's mission remains focused on eradicating poverty, the rise of some once poorer clients such as China and India have forced it to also focus on impediments to development in emerging economies, including power supply and governance issues.Okonjo-Iweala and Ocampo would bring more expertise in these areas, some development economists say.A senior Obama administration official said the bank has ample expertise and what is needed at the top is someone who can get things done.The World Bank is involved in the design of health systems in developing countries, but its funding and influence in the area has been eclipsed by groups such as the Geneva-based Global Fund and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.Geithner said Kim has "an incredible feel for what matters most in development and recognizes that for economies to grow they have to invest in expanding opportunities for their people, in healthcare and in education.""Those are lessons that the most successful emerging and developing countries have learned and been forced to learn, and in that sense he has the ideal feel," Geithner added. "His experience comes from what he has done in the field, not just from his academic research."People who had worked with Kim were impressed by his ability to handle complicated situations in tough environments such as Haiti, Geithner said. In Haiti, Kim was credited with persuading the government to take steps to avoid an outbreak of tuberculosis.

NEWS,24.03.2012.

French intelligence under fire over al Qaeda shooter

The French government has been forced to reject accusations that intelligence lapses allowed a young Muslim with a violent criminal record, spotted twice in Afghanistan, to become the first al Qaeda-inspired killer to strike on its soil.Hardened by battling Islamic militants from its former North African colony of Algeria, France's security services have long been regarded as among the most effective in Europe, having prevented militant attacks on French soil for the last 15 years.Opposition politicians, including far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, suggested that negligence or errors had permitted Mohamed Merah, 23, to carry out three deadly shootings within 10 days before he was identified, located and killed.But Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the police and intelligence agencies had done an exemplary job, and Interior Minister Claude Gueant said there had been no grounds for arresting the gunman or restricting his movements prior to this month's attacks, despite him being on a US "no-fly" list."Resolving a criminal case of this importance in 10 days, I believe that's practically unprecedented in the history of our country," Fillon told RTL radio.In an interview with the daily Le Figaro to be published on Saturday, Gueant said people could not be interrogated for having criminal thoughts."Neither he, nor those that he frequented, had ever shown the least sign of being dangerous," he said, adding that many people were on US no-fly lists simply for having visited countries like Pakistan. "I remind you that this man was French and therefore it was impossible to forbid him to move around in France."Foreign Minister Alain Juppe had appeared to acknowledged on Thursday that there were grounds to question possible security flaws, saying: "We need to bring some clarity to this."Merah shot dead three Jewish children and four adults in three attacks despite having been under surveillance by the DCRI domestic intelligence agency, which questioned him as recently as November."Since the DCRI was following Mohamed Merah for a year, how come they took so long to locate him?" Socialist party security spokesman Francois Rebsamen asked on the JDD.fr website.Merah's elder brother Abdelkader, 29, who is being questioned by police, was also on a security watch list after being linked with the smuggling of Jihadist militants into Iraq in 2007, government officials said.The left-leaning daily Liberation asked in an editorial whether the intelligence services had not "failed miserably"."How could they have so underestimated the potential danger of an individual they already knew?"Merah, a French citizen of Algerian extraction, amassed a cache of at least eight guns under the noses of French intelligence, including several Colt .45 pistols of the kind he used in the shootings, but also at least one Uzi submachine gun, a Sten gun and a pump action shotgun.In Washington, two US officials said Merah was on a US government "no fly" list, barring him from boarding any US-bound aircraft. His name had been on the list for some time.Rebsamen said that after the shooting of two paratroopers in Montauban, near Toulouse, on March 15, Merah's name was on top of a DCRI list of 20 people to be particularly closely watched in the southwestern Midi-Pyrenees region. Yet the agency appeared to have lost trace of him.Investigators only tracked down Merah on Tuesday, a day after he had shot dead three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school. Gueant has said Merah was positively identified when a police helicopter overflew his home and he came to the window.Merah was shot dead by a sniper after a gun battle with police on Thursday that ended a more than 30-hour siege at his Toulouse apartment. An autopsy showed the shootout left his body riddled with bullets, including two deadly shots to the head and abdomen, a legal source said on Friday.The founder of the GIGN elite police force, which was not involved in the raid, criticised the RAID special commandos for failing to capture Merah alive, and said they should have used tear gas to overpower him."How can it be that the top police unit fails to capture a man who is alone?" Christian Prouteau, who headed the GIGN in the 1980s, told regional daily Ouest France. "They should have pumped him with tear gas. He wouldn't have lasted five minutes."Police came up with his name when a list of 576 people who viewed an Internet advertisement placed by the shooter's first victim was compared with the DCRI's watchlist on Monday and led them to the IP address of Merah's mother.He had, however, been known to the Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence (DCRI) - the powerful super agency created by President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008 - since 2010. Merah first visited Afghanistan that year, was stopped at a checkpoint by Afghan police in Kandahar province and sent back to France by American forces.His second visit ended after three months last October when he contracted hepatitis and returned home, according to the public prosecutor in charge of the case.He was interviewed by DCRI agents in Toulouse in November but told them he had been on holiday - and even showed them photographs, prosecutor Francois Molins said.Merah told police negotiators at his besieged home on Wednesday that he trained at an al Qaeda camp in the lawless Pakistani border region of Waziristan during the same trip.Gueant already rejected accusations of intelligence slip-ups on Thursday, saying: " The DCRI follows lots of people involved in radical Islam. Expressing ideas, espousing Salafist beliefs, is not a sufficient reason to arrest someone."Although Merah could not have been arrested without proof of criminal intent, critics say authorities could have taken intermediate steps. French anti-terrorist law allows for the telephones of suspects to be tapped without judicial approval on the authority of the prime minister and an advisory panel.Le Pen suggested the DCRI may have missed the gunman partly because it had been diverted by Sarkozy's government to snoop on journalists and political opponents.The agency's head, Bernard Squarcini, is under investigation himself for ordering the illegal surveillance of Le Monde reporters' telephones.Squarcini said in an interview with Le Monde that security officials had naturally asked themselves whether they had missed clues or could have acted differently or faster."But it was impossible to say on Sunday evening (after the first shooting on March 11) 'It's Merah, let's get him'."He also said Merah's attack on the Jewish school had been a spur-of-the-moment decision after the gunman failed to find a soldier he planned to kill, according to his conversation with police negotiators during the siege of his home.He said there were no signs Merah belonged to any radical Islamist network and he appeared to have turned fanatic alone.While allies Britain and Spain have suffered major militant attacks in the last decade, following the US-led NATO invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban, France had not seen a major attack on its soil since the mid-1990s.The Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) carried out a wave of attacks, including the bombing of a crowded commuter train in July 1995 which killed eight and injured 150 people.The rise of al Qaeda, based in Afghanistan, posed a new challenge to French security services more used to watching Algerian-related militants, often with connections in what some French officials called "Londonistan".French-born Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States as one of the conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington and French-born Muslims were also active among Jihadi militants in Iraq.The terror alert in France was raised after al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden singled it out as one of the worst offenders against Islam in October 2010.But despite a spate of kidnappings of French citizens abroad, there were no attacks in mainland France. Officials say the intelligence services foiled several plots.

NEWS,23.03.2012.

          Dmitry Rogozin Appointed Special Presidential Representative for Transnistria

On March 21, outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev appointed Dmitry Rogozin as Special Representative of the Russian President for Transnistria (“po Pridnestrovyu”). Undoubtedly, Medvedev acted at the behest of the incoming president, Vladimir Putin. On that same date, Putin – in the final days of his prime-ministerial tenure – appointed Rogozin as chairman of the Russian side of the Russia-Moldova inter-governmental cooperation commission. In the event that Medvedev and Putin swap places, Rogozin will be working for Medvedev on this commission and in the Russian government (Interfax, March 21, 22).Rogozin will continue serving as Russia’s deputy prime minister responsible for the armaments industry. In February 2011, then-president Medvedev appointed Rogozin as presidential special representative for missile-defense negotiations with the US and NATO (a position now about to devolve to president-elect Putin’s portfolio). Rogozin served as Russia’s envoy to NATO from January 2008 to December 2011 (under Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov, at least theoretically).Concurrent assignments, dual or even multiple, are not uncommon in the Russian government. Rogozin’s assignment to handle Transnistria, however, is highly unconventional (as is his character) and not immediately explicable. At one time in his variegated career, Rogozin had served as presidential special representative on matters of Kaliningrad Oblast (2002-2004). That oblast, like Transnistria, is a Russian-garrisoned exclave, a non-contiguous territory. (Transnistria is sometimes referenced as a de facto Kaliningrad on the Nistru River, despite the different legal status of the two territories). Rogozin’s Kaliningrad experience may have been a factor, but not a major one in the decision to appoint him as Putin’s representative on Transnistria.Rogozin’s “Transnistria” assignment will almost certainly cover both local issues and the international negotiating process. Announcing Rogozin’s appointment, the Kremlin’s press office cited Rogozin’s experience as an international negotiator in his previous postings. Rogozin’s “Moldova” assignment, on the other hand, seems confined to economic and social issues between Russia and right-bank Moldova, apparently excluding Transnistria (left-bank Moldova) from the purview of the Russia-Moldova inter-governmental commission. In line with Russia’s constitutional system, Rogozin will apparently be reporting to President Putin on Transnistria issues, and to Russia’s prime minister (possibly Medvedev who appointed him formally) on rump-Moldova issues. If so, Rogozin’s bifurcated appointment is designed to treat the two parts of Moldova separately from each other and institutionalize the country’s division. Inserting Rogozin into the negotiating process on Transnistria (or any issue) would be a recipe for its disruption. His track record at NATO is one of systematic confrontation, verbal aggression, and (while playing a relatively weak hand for Russia) seeking psychological ascendancy over Western counterparts through insulting behavior. While Putin himself resorts to such tactics from time to time, Rogozin did so methodically during his tenure at NATO. Moldova has reacted to Rogozin’s appointment with palpable confusion. Moldova’s Foreign Affairs Ministry “takes cognizance of [Russia’s] decision with surprise. On the one hand, it might confirm the importance that Russia assigns to the conflict-resolution process. On the other hand, this move was not discussed in advance with Moldova’s authorities. [Moldova] will seek appropriate clarifications” (Moldpres, March 22). For its part, Tiraspol has issued a self-assured statement welcoming Rogozin’s appointment and expressing confidence in his effectiveness (Olvia-press, March 22)The 5+2 negotiating format (Russia, Ukraine, OSCE, US, EU, Chisinau, Tiraspol) is the only format accepted by all sides as legitimate, but it has remained inactive from 2006 to 2011, and is not fully reactivated yet. Thus far, Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has handled the negotiations through mid-level diplomats, under supervision from State Secretary Grigory Karasin and Russia’s Security Council. Inserting Rogozin would change the level of institutional and personal authority over the negotiations on the Russian side.Outside the 5+2 format, Germany seeks a special role for itself in a would-be Russo-German bilateral format. Envisaged by Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Medvedev in their 2009 Meseberg Memorandum, this channel has not materialized in any shape other than informal contacts thus far. Apparently seeking to carve out a German role in these negotiations, German diplomats seek to nudge Chisinau into unilateral concessions in the 5+2 process, although Germany is not a member of that process. Inducing Moldovan concessions in 5+2 from outside 5+2 would distort that process; but might, at that price, qualify Berlin in Moscow’s eyes for starting together the Meseberg process. With Medvedev’s departure from office, and Medvedev’s sudden appointment of Rogozin as Putin’s special representative for Transnistria, the Meseberg process seems to be headed nowhere.During his posting as envoy to NATO, Rogozin occasionally boasted that he had personally fought in Transnistria against Moldovans in the 1992 armed conflict. This sounds exaggerated, but it is a fact that Rogozin visited Transnistria in 1992 (quite possibly also thereafter) in his capacity as a left-nationalist Russian politician. From the early 1990s until 2008, Rogozin was the leader of a whole series of ultra-nationalist organizations and parties, focusing on Russia’s “near abroad” and an empire-rebuilding agenda. These organizations included the Congress of Russian Communities (in two iterations), Rodina, and a few obscure and ephemeral ones. As a politician, Rogozin operated at times through “projects” of the authorities, at times on his own. His projects were serial failures until 2008, when Putin rescued him from the political gutter and appointed him as Russia’s envoy to NATO. That appointment was in itself a calculated insult to the Alliance.While Chisinau seems confused about the significance of Rogozin’s latest presidential appointment, Berlin must be wondering what may become of its Meseberg process if its fate comes to depend on Rogozin.

NEWS,22.03.2012.

Gunman dies in hail of bullets as French siege ends

A 23-year-old gunman who said al Qaeda inspired him to kill seven people in France died in a hail of bullets as he scrambled out of a ground-floor window during a gun battle with elite police commandos. Mohamed Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, died from gunshot wounds at the end of a 30-hour standoff with police yesterday at his apartment in southern France and after confessing to killing three soldiers, three Jewish children and a rabbi.He was firing at police as he jumped out of the window, Interior Minister Claude Gueant told reporters near the five-storey building, in a suburb of the southern city of Toulouse. Two police commandos were injured in the operation - a dramatic climax to a siege which riveted the world after the killings shook France a month before a presidential election.” At the moment when a video probe was sent into the bathroom, the killer came out of the bathroom, firing with extreme violence," Gueant said. "In the end, Mohamed Merah jumped from the window with his gun in his hand, continuing to fire. He was found dead on the ground.”

 Elite RAID commandos had been locked in a tense standoff since the early hours of Thursday with Merah, periodically firing shots or deploying small explosives until mid-morning on Thursday to try and tire out the gunman so he could be captured. Surrounded by some 300 police, Merah had been silent and motionless for 12 hours when the commandos opted to go inside. Initially, he had fired through his front door at police when they swooped on his ground-floor flat on Thursday morning, but later he negotiated with police, promising to give himself up and saying he did not want to die. He told negotiators he was trained by al Qaeda in Pakistan and killed three soldiers last week and four people at a Jewish school on Tuesday to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children and because of French army involvement in Afghanistan. President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is running for re-election next month called Merah's killings terrorist attacks and announced a crackdown on people following extremist websites.” From now on, any person who habitually consults websites that advocate terrorism or that call for hate and violence will be punished," he said in a statement. "France will not tolerate ideological indoctrination on its soil.” His handling of the crisis could well impact an election race where for months he has lagged behind Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in opinion polls. Early on Thursday, the first opinion poll since the school shooting showed Sarkozy two points ahead of Hollande in the first-round vote on April 22, although Hollande still led by eight points for a May 6 runoff. Three years of economic gloom, and a personal style many see as brash and impulsive, have made Sarkozy highly unpopular in France, but his proven strong hand in a crisis gives him an edge over a rival who has no ministerial experience.Sarkozy vowed on Wednesday that justice would be done and urged people not to seek revenge.Merah had been under intelligence surveillance and the MEMRI Middle East think tank said he appeared to belong to a French al Qaeda branch called Fursan Al-Izza, ideologically aligned with a movement to Islamise Western states by implementing sharia law. He boasted to police negotiators that he had brought France to its knees, and that his only regret was not having been able to carry out more killings. French commandos had detonated three explosions just before midnight on Wednesday, flattening the main door of the building and blowing a hole in the wall, after it became clear Merah did not mean to keep a promise to turn himself in. They continued to fire shots roughly every hour, and stepped up the pace from dawn with flash grenades.” These were moves to intimidate the gunman who seems to have changed his mind and does not want to surrender," said interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet.He was tracked down after a no-holds-barred manhunt in France, during which presidential candidates suspended their campaigning. Immigration and Islam have been major campaign themes after Sarkozy tried to win over supporters of Le Pen, who accused the government of underestimating the threat from fundamentalism. Leaders of the Jewish and Muslim communities have called for calm, pointing out the gunman was a lone extremist. On Thursday, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen accused Sarkozy's government of surrendering swathes of often impoverished suburban districts to Islamic fanatics, demanding that the last month of pre-election debate put the focus back on failing security.