NEWS,05.06.2013

Netanyahu ready to consider peace plan

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled readiness on Wednesday to consider a 2002 Arab peace plan whose terms were recently softened to include possible land swaps between Israel and the Palestinians.
"We are listening to every initiative the Arab initiative has been mentioned and we are prepared to discuss initiatives that are proposals and not edicts," he said in a speech in parliament.
Netanyahu spoke during a debate on the plan, proposed at an Arab League summit 11 years ago. Israel had rejected the initiative that offered normalised ties for it with much of the Arab world, citing its call for complete withdrawal from land captured in the 1967 Middle East war as a main stumbling block.
Israel occupied the West Bank, Arab East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, areas Palestinians seeks for a future state, in that conflict.
Echoing previous Israeli leaders, Netanyahu has ruled out a return to pre-1967 war frontiers, calling them indefensible.
But a month ago, Arab states appeared to soften the 2002 plan when Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, said Israel and the Palestinians could trade land rather than conform exactly to the 1967 lines.
Netanyahu, who heads the right-wing Likud party, has never endorsed the idea of territorial exchange publicly. A 2009 US diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks in 2010 said he expressed support for the concept in a meeting with US legislators.
In his address to the legislature, Netanyahu repeated a call to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return unconditionally to peace talks that collapsed in 2010 over continued Israeli settlement building on occupied land.
Abbas has said Israel must first stop settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem before the U.S.-hosted negotiations can resume.
"Since he (Abbas) doesn't speak Hebrew, and my Arabic is not great, I am calling on him in a language we both know and saying to him, 'Give peace a chance', Netanyahu said, switching to English to utter the phrase.
"Don't miss the opportunity," he added, saying he was prepared to make "difficult decisions to move negotiations ahead" but cautioning he would take no moves that would jeopardise Israeli security.
Abbas said on Tuesday "the ball is in the Israeli court" and Israel needed to accept the Palestinians' demand for a settlement freeze so that talks could begin.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has been trying to restart the negotiations. He has made four trips to the region since taking office four months ago and a State Department spokeswoman said on Tuesday he could return to Israel and the Palestinian territories as early as next week.

Rice to be Obama's security advisor

President Barack Obama will name UN ambassador Susan Rice as his new national security advisor Wednesday, months after her hopes of becoming the top US diplomat were scuppered by the Benghazi affair.
Rice will take over from Obama's current national security advisor Tom Donilon in July, in a shake-up of his foreign policy team that will see former aide and genocide expert Samantha Power take the top United Nations job.
The move marks a swift turnaround in fortunes for Rice, 48, who pulled out of consideration to be Obama's second term secretary of state, a victim of the controversy over the attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya.
"The President will announce that after more than four years at the National Security Council, Tom Donilon will be departing as National Security Advisor in early July and will be succeeded by Ambassador Susan Rice," a US official said.
The official said that Obama would also use the ceremony to name Power, a former foreign policy aide, genocide expert and Pulitzer prize-winning author, to replace Rice as US ambassador to the United Nations, the official said.
Donilon has been at Obama's side since he entered the White House in 2009, and took over from the president's first national security advisor, retired general James Jones, in 2010.
He was at the center of the decision to pull US troops out of Iraq, to withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year and the killing of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
Donilon has also been a key figure in China policy, masterminding Obama's diplomatic 'pivot' to Asia, and recently traveled to Beijing to prepare for the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to California for talks with Obama later in the week.
His retirement has long been expected this year.
Donilon has kept a low public profile as national security advisor but has been a dominant force in the Obama administration. He is known for scrupulous preparation, driving staff hard and as an expert bureaucratic player.
He is also liked and respected by many colleagues, despite a recent profile on the Foreign Policy website which aired criticism of his personal style.
Rice, who served as an assistant secretary of state for Africa in the Clinton administration, has long been one of Obama's closest foreign policy aides, dating back to his 2008 campaign.
She was widely expected to be named secretary of state to follow the departing Hillary Clinton.
But she was accused by Republicans of deliberately misleading Americans over the origins of the attack on the Benghazi mission on September 11 last year, which killed four Americans including the ambassador.
However, recently released email traffic between top administration officials shows she had no role in crafting the talking points on the attack which she used on Sunday television talk shows to argue that the assault was part of a spontaneous anti-US protest rather than a planned terrorist attack.
At the time, Obama angrily rejected "outrageous" Republican attacks on Rice, saying she had done "exemplary work" at the UN, showing "skill and professionalism and toughness and grace."
Rice's removal from the race to be secretary of state opened the door for former senator John Kerry to take over a post he has long coveted.
She won plaudits in the White House for her work at the United Nations, lining up tough sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
She is known for a robust personal style and reputedly has sharp elbows, but she will derive considerable power from her status as one of Obama's original inner circle of foreign policy advisors.
Rice does not need to obtain Senate confirmation to serve as national security advisor, the president's closest foreign policy aide, so any residual opposition from Republicans will not be a problem for her.
Power, 42, formerly served Obama as a special assistant focusing on multilateral affairs and human rights. Before entering government, she won a Pulitzer Prize for a book focusing on American foreign policy and genocide.
The job of US ambassador to the United Nations will remain a cabinet position, a US official said.

New Pakistan PM vows to improve economy

As he stepped into the prime minister's job for the third time Wednesday, Nawaz Sharif vowed to improve Pakistan's limping economy and end American drone strikes. It was a nod to the voters who elected a man viewed as a pro-business conservative to tackle problems including a fiscal meltdown, power outages, and spillover from the war in neighboring Afghanistan.
His success in an office he was forced out of by a military coup in 1999 will hinge on how quickly he can address Pakistanis' most basic needs such as electricity and jobs, but many analysts believe his strong mandate at least gives him a fighting chance at success.
Sharif was elected by parliament Wednesday after his party won the 11 May nationwide elections. He was sworn in hours later by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
The country of 180 million people that Sharif must now lead is weighed down with a host of problems: unemployment, electricity blackouts, inflation, corruption and militancy. In a speech long on rhetoric but short on specifics, Sharif vowed to address the country's myriad of problems.
"I will do my best to change the fate of the people and Pakistan," he said.
Sharif is the first Pakistani leader to serve three terms. He was elected prime minister in 1990 and then again in 1997, thrown out of office in 1999 by a military coup, spent nearly eight years in exile, and then five years in opposition before returning to power.
During the campaign, he sometimes lashed out at the US and its policy of using unmanned aerial vehicles to kill militants in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Speaking to parliament after being elected, he once again called for an end to the drone policy.
"This daily routine of drone attacks, this chapter shall now be closed," Sharif said to widespread applause. "We do respect others' sovereignty. It is mandatory on others that they respect our sovereignty."
But he gave few details on how he might end the strikes. Many in Pakistan say the strikes kill large numbers of innocent civilians, something the US denies, and end up breeding more extremism by those seeking retribution with the US
The US considers the drone program vital to battling militants such as al-Qaeda, who use the tribal areas of Pakistan as a safe haven.
Many analysts say such anti-American sentiment may mellow or take a backseat to more pressing economic concerns in Sharif's administration. Pakistan will require American support for the likely economic bailout it will need from the International Monetary Fund, and the two sides both have an interest in finding a peaceful solution to the war in neighboring Afghanistan.
Sharif has also said that he would like good relations with the US and in his speech noted the need to pay attention to the concerns of "other countries."
But for most Pakistanis the drones are secondary to the issues that will define Sharif's tenure in office: the economy and electricity.
Over the last five years of the previous administration, power outages, some as long as 20 hours, have plagued the country. People suffer through sweltering summers, and in recent years gas shortages in the winter have left people unable to heat their houses.
Companies struggle to find a way to run businesses without a reliable source of electricity.
Sharif and his team of advisors have been meeting continuously with officials from the country's power-related industries and interim government officials from affected ministries to map out a strategy.
The new prime minister listed a litany of problems facing Pakistan during his speech, including unpaid loans, unemployment, a disillusioned youth, extremism and lawlessness, and widespread corruption.
Pakistani voters will be watching closely to see what he does to solve those problems.
Outside the parliament, Mohammed Aslam, who came from Sharif's hometown of Lahore to the capital for the ceremony, said he voted for Sharif because he promised to solve the electricity crisis. But he warned that Pakistanis will not tolerate bad governance for another five years.
"If he fails, he will go home next year," he said.
One thing going in Sharif's favor is his strong mandate. The previous Pakistan People's Party government kept their fragile coalition together for five years but had to constantly make concessions to smaller partners.
Sharif's party has a 176-seat majority in the 342-member house and a strong platform from which to address the country's economic problems. Sharif, who comes from a Pakistani business family that made its wealth in the steel industry, has widespread business support.
"I do actually see a lot of resolve. They have a very strong mandate," said Werner Liepach, Pakistan country head for the Asian Development Bank.
Sharif made little mention of the militant attacks and the fighting in Pakistan's tribal areas that have killed thousands of civilians and security forces. He has been accused of failing to go after extremist groups accused of sectarian violence that have a fairly open presence in Punjab province, despite the fact that Sharif's PML-N has controlled the province and its police for the last five years.
Sharif noted the historic nature of Wednesday's ceremony. His assumption of office marks the first time a democratically elected government has handed over power to another in the country's 65-year history.
"Now it should be decided forever that Pakistan's survival, protection, sovereignty, progress, prosperity and respect in the international community depends upon strengthening democracy in Pakistan," he said.

NEWS,18.11.2012

Netanyahu: Israel Ready To Widen Offensive

 

Israel bombed Palestinian militant targets in the Gaza Strip from air and sea for a fifth straight day on Sunday, preparing for a possible ground invasion while also spelling out its conditions for a truce.Palestinian fire into Israel subsided during the night but resumed in the morning, with rockets targeting the country's commercial capital Tel Aviv for a fourth day. The two missiles were shot down by Israel's Iron Dome air shield.Speaking shortly after the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to widen its offensive."We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the terrorist organisations and the Israel Defence Forces are prepared for a significant expansion of the operation," he said at a cabinet meeting, giving no further details.Some 51 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 14 children, have been killed since the Israeli offensive began, Palestinian officials said, with hundreds wounded. More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel, killing three civilians and wounding dozens.Israel unleashed intensive air strikes on Wednesday, killing the military commander of the Islamist Hamas movement that governs Gaza and spurns peace with the Jewish state.Israel's declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and press Hamas into stopping cross-border rocket fire that has bedevilled Israeli border towns for years and is now displaying greater range, putting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the crosshairs.Air raids continued past midnight into Sunday, with warships shelling from the sea. Two Gaza City media buildings were hit, witnesses said, wounding six journalists and damaging facilities belonging to Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV as well as Britain's Sky News.An employee of Beirut-based al Quds television station lost his leg in the attack, medics said.An Israeli military spokeswoman said the strike had targeted a rooftop "transmission antenna used by Hamas to carry out terror activity". International media organisations demanded further clarification.Three other attacks killed three children and wounded 14 other people, medical officials said, with heavy thuds regularly jolting the small, densely populated coastal enclave.Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said in Cairo, as his security deputies sought to broker a truce with Hamas leaders, that "there are some indications that there is a possibility of a ceasefire soon, but we do not yet have firm guarantees".Egypt has mediated previous ceasefire deals between Israel and Hamas, the latest of which unravelled with recent violence.A Palestinian official told Reuters the truce discussions would continue in Cairo on Sunday, saying "there is hope", but that it was too early to say whether the efforts would succeed.At a Gaza news conference, Hamas military spokesman Abu Ubaida voiced defiance, saying: "This round of confrontation will not be the last against the Zionist enemy and it is only the beginning."Israel's military also saw action along the northern frontier, firing into Syria on Saturday in what it said was a response to shooting aimed at its troops in the occupied Golan Heights. Israel's chief military spokesman, citing Arab media, said it appeared Syrian soldiers were killed in the incident.There were no reported casualties on the Israeli side from the shootings, the third case this month of violence that has been seen as a spillover of battles between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels trying to overthrow him.With tanks and artillery poised along the Gaza frontier for a possible ground operation, Israel's cabinet decided on Friday to double the current reserve troop quota set for the offensive to 75,000. Some 30,000 soldiers have already been called up."If there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack," Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon wrote on Twitter.Israel's operation so far has drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called its right to self-defence, but there was also a growing number of appeals from them to seek an end to the hostilities.Netanyahu, in his comments at Sunday's cabinet session, said he had emphasised in telephone conversations with world leaders "the effort Israel is making to avoid harming civilians, while Hamas and the terrorist organisations are making every effort to hit civilian targets in Israel".Israel withdrew settlers from Gaza in 2005 and two years later Hamas took control of the slender, impoverished territory, which the Israelis have kept under blockade.British Prime Minister David Cameron "expressed concern over the risk of the conflict escalating further and the danger of further civilian casualties on both sides", in a conversation with Netanyahu, a spokesperson for Cameron said.Britain was "putting pressure on both sides to de-escalate," the spokesman said, adding that Cameron had urged Netanyahu "to do everything possible to bring the conflict to an end."Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama, said the United States would like to see the conflict resolved through "de-escalation" and diplomacy, but also believed Israel had the right to self-defence.Diplomats at the United Nations said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was expected to visit Israel and Egypt in the coming week to push for an end to the fighting.A possible move into the Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Netanyahu, favoured to win a January election.The last Gaza war, a three-week Israeli blitz and invasion over the New Year of 2008-09, killed 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died in the conflict.The current flare-up around Gaza has fanned the fires of a Middle East ignited by a series of Arab uprisings and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders.One significant change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, which may narrow Israel's manoeuvring room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979.In attacks on Saturday, Israel destroyed the house of a Hamas commander near the Egyptian border.Casualties there were averted however, because Israel had fired non-exploding missiles at the building beforehand from a drone, which the militant's family understood as a warning to flee, witnesses said. Israeli aircraft also bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza on Saturday, including the offices of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and a police headquarters.Israel's "Iron Dome" missile interceptor system has destroyed more than 200 incoming rockets from Gaza in mid-air since Wednesday, saving Israeli towns and cities from potentially significant damage.However, one rocket salvo unleashed on Sunday evaded Iron Dome and wounded two people when it hit a house in the coastal city of Ashkelon, police said.

 

EU in trouble as summit faces collapse

The European Union looks set for fresh trouble this week as an extraordinary summit called to agree a long-term trillion-euro budget heads for an ugly showdown, possibly even failure.Already weakened by three years of economic crisis, the 27-nation bloc of half a billion people faces new trauma at the two-day summit starting Thursday after weeks of talks that have exposed stark divisions between pro- and anti-austerity nations, as well as between the haves and have-nots."It's a lose-lose summit," said a senior EU diplomat. "Absolutely no one will leave this summit content if by chance we reach a solution.""We don't exclude a breakdown," another diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.Europe's leaders begin the talks on the EU's next seven-year budget at 19:00 Thursday, with Britain's premier David Cameron in the role of leading spoiler though most governments are putting national interest well above shared concerns."Cameron will come with a big knife to get spending cuts and to defend the British rebate," said an EU diplomat.In the face of Britain's austerity-minded determination to secure a cut of up to €200bn in the 2014-2020 budget, EU president Herman Van Rompuy, who will broker the talks, last week suggested a €75bn cut to the proposed €1.047 trillion budget. But that made no one happy.Spain said it would lose €20bn of EU aid, Italy complained of losing €10bn.And a group of Nobel laureates flew to Brussels waving a petition signed by dozens of Nobel winners urging Van Rompuy and other EU officials not to strip funds for research and innovation."Fortunately, we only have these summits every seven years," Van Rompuy said Friday after coming under fire from all sides.His plan left Britain having to pay in part for its cherished yearly rebate of €3.6bn, while diminishing Sweden's rebate, and failing to address Denmark's demand to have a discount too.The three are among the 11 net contributors to the EU budget who in times of economic strain and domestic cutbacks are tired of bearing the brunt of the financial burden.Eight of the net contributors Austria, Britain, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Netherlands and Sweden have banded together to demand spending cuts, though they are far from being on the same page on what should go or by how much.France for instance, along with Italy, is refusing any decrease whatsoever in the budget's biggest item, the subsidies paid to farmers, big and small."There can be no question of withdrawing even one euro from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)," said French Premier Jean-Marc Ayrault, whose government is pushing for the EU to raise new revenues through new taxes, such as one on financial transactions.In the other corner are 15 nations from Europe's east and southern fringe who are net recipients, most often of the so-called "cohesion funds" used to help poor regions catch up economically and socially with the rest. This is the second biggest budget item after the CAP.Chaired by Poland and Portugal, the group includes Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and most recently, once mighty Spain.Cameron, who is under intense euro-sceptic pressure to wrest an agreement in Brussels, has been shuttling back and forth to raise support, travelling to the Netherlands, Italy and Germany in search of allies.Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, which is the biggest contributor to the EU budget, has promised to do her utmost to ensure the summit would not end in collapse."Even if we are net contributors and people could perhaps think that we can live with a non-agreement, that is not our goal," Merkel said. "We want an agreement and we will talk exactly in this spirit with all countries."Meanwhile, there is a growing exasperation with France, whose recently elected Socialist President Francois Hollande has urged Brussels to push for growth, rather than austerity, but whose obsession with maintaining the CAP will lead to cuts in programmes to help growth."He wanted to re-orient Europe towards employment and growth. It's a political choice. He must be consistent," said an EU official who asked not to be named.

Spain rejects proposed budget cut

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Saturday rejected as "unacceptable" a proposal from EU President Herman Van Rompuy to cut the bloc's 2014-2020 budget by €75bn."The government does not like this budget and we have made that known to the (European) institutions and we hope that there will be another proposal that will be more reasonable," Rajoy said.Rajoy said Spain objected to Van Rompuy's proposed spending cuts to agriculture funding, money for Spain's regions and the EU's development budget, known as the Cohesion Fund.Spain stands to lose almost €20bn in funds from Brussels in the next budget, with a 30% cut in funding for its regional governments and a 17% cut in its agriculture funding, according to an EU source.Van Rompuy on Wednesday proposed hefty budget cuts including €29.5bn from Cohesion Fund payments and €25.5bn from agriculture spending proposals already rejected by several countries, including France, Poland and Romania.

Owner, union talks go down to wire

The troubled Scandinvian airline says that negotiations between owners and unions have so far failed to yield an agreement that could save the troubled carrier from bankruptcy.Owners and creditors of the tri-nation SAS have drafted a program to slash costs and jobs, but the plan needs the approval from pilot and cabin crew unions.The airline said Sunday talks over the past week were "intense" and would continue in the hope of reaching an agreement before a key board of director meeting scheduled later Sunday.SAS managers are hoping to renegotiate employment terms and pensions for its staff and slash about 800 jobs as part of a $440m annual saving plan. Thousands of other jobs would be outsourced.

Chinese house prices on the rise

More Chinese cities reported rises in house prices in October than in September, data showed Sunday, the first gain in three months as the government works to keep the property market in check.Prices in 35 out of 70 cities tracked by the government rose month-on-month, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement, up from 31 cities in September, and the first increase since July.Prices of new homes dropped in October in 17 cities and remained unchanged in the remaining 18 cities, it said.China has implemented measures to control property prices for more than two years, including prohibitions on buying second homes, requiring higher minimum down-payments and levying property taxes in some cities.Officials have said that property control measures are aimed at bringing down home prices to a "reasonable" level.China's slowing economy has recently exhibited signs of a turnaround, with exports, retail sales and industrial production data all showing renewed vigour.Expansion in the world's second-largest economy has slowed for seven straight quarters through the end of September, but economists are expecting growth to accelerate during the current three-month period through December.Beijing expects gross domestic product to grow 7.5% in 2012, a marked slowdown from the 9.3% recorded in 2011 and 10.4% in 2010.The government is aiming to rebalance China's economy away from reliance on exports and more towards domestic demand in coming years in hopes it can steer growth onto a stable and sustainable track.

NEWS,16.11.2012

Road closures in Israel indicate military build-up

The Israeli army said today it was closing three roads that lead to, or border the Gaza Strip, in an indication of a probable military build-up in the area.Shortly before, political sources said Defence Minister Ehud Barak was seeking government approval to mobilise up to 75,000 reserve troops for Israel's Gaza campaign, in a sign of preparations for a possible ground offensive.Western governments are watching Egypt's response to the attacks for signs of a more assertive stance towards Israel since an Islamist came to power in the Arab world's most populous nation.President Mohamed Mursi is mindful of anti-Israeli sentiment among Egyptians emboldened by last year's Arab Spring uprising but needs to show Western allies his new government is no threat to Middle East peace.His prime minister, Hisham Kandil, visited Gaza today in a demonstration of solidarity after two days of strikes by Israeli warplanes targeting Gaza militants."We see what is happening in Gaza as blatant aggression against humanity," Mursi said in comments carried by Egypt's state news agency. "I warn and repeat my warning to the aggressors that they will never rule over the people of Gaza."I tell them in the name of all the Egyptian people that Egypt today is not the Egypt of yesterday, and Arabs today are not the Arabs of yesterday."The Egyptian foreign minister also spoke to his counterparts in the US, Jordan, Brazil and Italy on Friday to discuss the situation in Gaza, a statement from the foreign ministry said.Mohamed Kamel Amr spoke to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the necessity of cooperation between the US and Egypt to end the military confrontations. Amr stressed the necessity of Israel ending attacks on Gaza and a truce being rebuilt between the two sides, the statement said.Mursi's toppled predecessor Hosni Mubarak was a staunch US ally who upheld a cold but stable peace with Israel.The new president has vowed to respect a three-decade peace treaty with the Jewish state. But ties have been strained by protests that forced the evacuation of Israel's ambassador to Cairo last year and cross-border attacks by Islamist militants.More than 1000 people gathered near Cairo's al-Azhar mosque after prayers, many waving Egyptian and Palestinian flags."Gaza Gaza, symbol of pride", they chanted, and "generation after generation, we declare our enmity towards you, Israel"."I cannot as an Egyptian, an Arab and a Muslim just sit back and watch the massacres in Gaza," said protester Abdel Aziz Nagy, 25, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.Protesters were marching from other areas of Cairo towards Tahrir Square, the main rallying point for last year's uprising.

Iran ready to double nuclear work in bunker -IAEA

Iran is set to sharply expand its uranium enrichment in an underground plant after installing all the centrifuges it was built for, a United Nations report said, a move likely to increase Western alarm about Tehran's nuclear course.It also showed Iran's stockpile of its most sensitive nuclear material grown and was getting closer to an amount that could be sufficient for a nuclear weapon.The latest quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran came 10 days after the re-election of US President Barack Obama, which raised hopes for a revival of nuclear diplomacy with Iran following speculation that Israel might attack the nuclear facilities of its arch-enemy soon.But the UN watchdog's findings underlined the tough task facing world powers seeking to pressure Iran to curb atomic activity they fear is aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability, a charge Tehran denies."The report paints the picture of Iran's continued lack of cooperation with the IAEA, and details its continued enrichment and installation of centrifuges in violation of UN Security Council resolutions," a senior Western diplomat said.The Islamic state has put in place the nearly 2800 centrifuges that the Fordow enrichment site was designed for and is poised to double the number of them operating to roughly 1400 from 700 now, according to the confidential IAEA report."They can be started any day. They are ready," a senior diplomat familiar with the IAEA's investigation said.If Iran chose to dedicate the new machines to produce higher-grade uranium, it could significantly shorten the time required for any bid to build an atomic bomb. Iran says it needs to refine uranium to make reactor fuel.In another potentially worrying development for the West, Iran appears to have virtually stopped converting this uranium into making civilian reactor fuel since the previous report.As a result, the stockpile of uranium gas refined to a fissile concentration of 20 percent increased by nearly 50 percent to 135 kg, the latest report said, still below the level of 200-250 kg experts say would be sufficient for an atomic bomb if refined further."This puts added pressure on the West's diplomacy with Iran, which has to operate on a tighter schedule," said research fellow Shashank Joshi at the Royal United Services Institute.Israel has recently signalled that an attack on Iran was not imminent - after months of talk that it might be on the cards soon by pointing to Iran's decision earlier this year to use part of its 20 percent uranium for civilian purposes."As Iran's 20% stockpile approaches around 240 kg, the Israeli sabre-rattling will resume,"

French PM tries to reassure Berlin

France's German-speaking prime minister has offered a worried Berlin reassurances his government would reduce the deficit and prevent France from becoming the next victim of the euro crisis by applying a new economic model.Jean-Marc Ayrault, making his first visit to Berlin since Francois Hollande became president, told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that France would find its own way to reduce spending and boost economic growth and jobs, rather than copying Germany."My challenge, the government's challenge, is to reform what isn't working, to correct what is too weak, but to keep the profound values that make France what it is," he told a joint news conference after talks with the conservative chancellor."The job that is under way is constructing the new French model," said Ayrault, a Socialist.A  report that Merkel's finance minister had asked the German government's economic advisers to consider preparing policy recommendations for France has stirred outrage in Paris.But Merkel said she would never dare to evaluate the decisions of the French government and added diplomatically: "We want a strong France just as France wants a strong Germany, so that together we can become a strong Europe."Ayrault also held a 20-minute meeting with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who emerged saying Germany and France did not "grade" each others' economic policies.But it was clear French pride had been stung. Ayrault told a conference in Berlin organised by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that his host country Germany also had its problems."The German population is ageing quicker than the French, which poses problems for pensions and social security," said the French premier."This sort of understanding for other countries' problems I expect it for my own country too."Paris is under intense pressure to improve French economic competitiveness relative to Germany and southern European countries that have implemented painful reforms to bring down their own debt in the face of a crippling three-year crisis.German officials are worried that without bolder reforms, France could get sucked into the crisis which has forced bailouts of Greece, Portugal and Ireland in what would be a crushing setback for the bloc's efforts to stem the turmoil.In response to calls by industrialist Louis Gallois for cuts in labour charges to reverse decades of industrial decline, the French government has now announced plans to grant companies 20 billion euros in annual tax credits to lower labour costs.Ayrault cited this as one example of the "courage" France's Socialist government was showing on economic reforms.His knowledge of Germany and its language may have been one of the reasons for his appointment. Relations between Merkel and the new president are often contrasted with the close partnership - especially on the euro crisis that she enjoyed with Hollande's conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.Hollande criticised Merkel's focus on austerity for the euro zone during his election campaign and the new Franco-German leadership couple have not got off to the best start."The main thing is to build a personal relationship," Ayrault said, adding that although the two governments belonged to opposing political factions, their relationship had to be "ueberparteilich" the German word for non-partisan.Ayrault and Merkel both rejected suggestions that the French premier's plans to meet Germany's centre-left opposition Social Democrats on Friday - less than a year before federal elections when Merkel will seek a third term undermined this ideal."The important thing is for us to work together well," said Merkel.

NEWS,15.11.2012

Gaza rocket lands near Tel Aviv as death toll rises

Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip have landed close to Tel Aviv raising the stakes in a military showdown between Israel and the Palestinians that is moving towards all-out war.
It was the first attack on Israel's biggest city in 20 years.
Earlier, a Hamas rocket killed three Israelis north of the Gaza Strip, drawing the first blood from Israel as the Palestinian death toll rose to 16.
On the second day of an assault that Israel said might last many days and culminate in a ground attack, its warplanes bombed targets in and around Gaza City.
Plumes of smoke and dust furled into a sky laced with the vapour trails of outgoing rockets over the crowded city, where four young children killed yesterday were buried.
The sudden conflict, launched by Israel with the killing of Hamas's military chief, pours oil on the fire of a Middle East already ablaze with two years of revolution and an out-of-control civil war in Syria.
In brief:

• Israel has launched a major offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip
• It says the attack is in response to Palestinian rocket strikes
• One air strike killed Hamas's military chief Ahmed Al-Jaabari
• Two rockets have landed near Israel's biggest city - Tel Aviv
• Some 270 rockets have been fired at Israel since its operation started
• At least 16 people (including five children) have been killed in the Gaza Strip
• Three Israelis have also been killed in the town of Kiryat Malachi

Egypt's new Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, viewed by Hamas as a protector, led a chorus of denunciation of the Israeli strikes by Palestinian allies.
Mursi's prime minister, Hisham Kandil, will visit Gaza on Friday local time with other Egyptian officials in a show of support for the enclave, an Egyptian cabinet official said.
Israel promised that the delegation would come to no harm.
Israel says its attack is in response to escalating missile strikes from Gaza.

Tel Aviv
Israel's bombing has not yet reached the saturation level seen before it last invaded Gaza in 2008, but Israeli officials have said a ground assault is still an option.
Israeli police said three Israelis died when a rocket hit a four-story building in the town of Kiryat Malachi, some 25km north of Gaza, the first Israeli fatalities of the latest conflict to hit the coastal region.
Air raid sirens sent residents running for shelter in Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial centre. A security source said the rocket - claimed by Islamic Jihad - landed in the sea.
The second was said to have landed in an uninhabited area of the Tel Avivi suburbs.
Tel Aviv residents said an explosion could be heard.The Tel Aviv metropolitan area holds more than three million people - more than 40% of Israel's population.
In remarks broadcast after rockets were fired at Tel Aviv, Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak said: "This escalation will exact a price that the other side will have to pay."
He also announced he had ordered the military to enlist more reservists "so that we can prepare for any development".
'Double war crime'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas was committing a double war crime, by firing at Israeli civilians and hiding behind Palestinians civilians.
"I hope that Hamas and the other terrorist organisations in Gaza got the message," he said. "If not, Israel is prepared to take whatever action is necessary to defend our people."
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Israel would pay a heavy price "for this open war which they initiated".
After watching powerlessly from the sidelines of the Arab Spring, Israel has been thrust to the centre of a volatile new world in which Islamist Hamas hopes that Mursi and his newly dominant Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt will be its protectors.
Hamas's prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, urged Egypt to do more to help the Palestinians.
"We call upon the brothers in Egypt to take the measures that will deter this enemy," he said.
Instability
The new conflict will be the biggest test yet of Mursi's commitment to Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel, which the West views as the bedrock of Middle East peace.
"The Israelis must realise that this aggression is unacceptable and would only lead to instability in the region and would negatively and greatly impact the security of the region," Mursi said.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which brought Mursi to power in an election after the downfall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, has called for a "Day of Rage" in Arab capitals on Friday.
The Brotherhood is seen as the spiritual mentors of Hamas.
Al-Jabaari
The Israeli offensive "Pillar of Defence" began on Wednesday when a precision Israeli airstrike killed Hamas military mastermind Ahmed Al-Jaabari. Israel then began shelling the enclave from land, air and sea.
The 15 killed in Gaza included Jaabari and six Hamas fighters plus eight civilians, among them a pregnant woman with twins, an 11-month old boy and three infants, according to the enclave's health ministry. Medics reported at least 130 wounded.
The Israeli army said 156 targets were hit in Gaza, 126 of them rocket launchers.
It said 200 rockets had struck Israel since the start of the operation, 135 of them since midnight local time.
Israel's Iron Dome interceptor system has so far shot down more than 80 rockets headed for residential areas, the military said.
Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets in Gaza telling residents to stay away from Hamas and other militants.

Euro zone falls into recession

The euro zone fell into a recession in July-September, the second since the global financial crisis in 2009, as French resilience could not make up for a slump across Europe and the three-year debt crisis slowed Germany to a crawl.Economic output in the 17-country euro zone fell 0.1% in the third quarter, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said on Thursday, following a 0.2% drop in the second quarter.Those two quarters of contraction put the euro zone's 9.4 trillion euro ($14.7 trillion) economy officially in recession, although Italy and Spain have been contracting for a year already and Greece is suffering an outright depression.Germany and France, the euro zone's biggest economies, could not save the bloc from a double-dip recession even though both countries managed 0.2% growth in the quarter.Large countries like Italy, Spain and the Netherlands all contracted and Belgium, a big exporter, stagnated.Protests against cuts Millions of people across Europe protested against government spending cuts that EU policymakers say are crucial to ending the debt crisis but which others blame for the economic contraction."We are now getting into a double dip recession which is entirely self-made," said Paul De Grauwe, an economist with the London School of Economics."It is a result of excessive austerity in southern countries and unwillingness in the north to do anything else," he said.Not everyone shares that view and the European Commission says labour costs are falling and exports are rising for Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland, arguing that austerity is a necessary evil to bring down unsustainable budget deficits.The European Commission sees a 0.4 % contraction for the euro zone in all of 2012.Demand for goods drying up Hopes for a recovery next year are also fading, with the European Commission saying the economy will grow just 0.1% in 2013.A rebound in the euro zone could be vital for the rest of the world as the United States and China struggle with the impact of the crisis on their companies' ability to grow and prosper.In one positive sign, Eurostat said separately that the euro zone's annual inflation fell to 2.5% in October from 2.6% in September, suggesting an end to a run of stubborn inflation that has contributed to the difficult environment.But after months of resilience, Germany, Europe's largest economy, is seeing its companies unnerved by the crisis and demand for its goods in the euro zone and abroad is drying up.While German gross domestic product expanded by 0.5% in the first quarter, it slowed to 0.3% in the second and weakened again in the third quarter.Economists expect a worse performance in the fourth quarter.

Wall Street down

Wall Street dropped today, after Wal-Mart's profit outlook disappointed.Shares of Wal-Mart fell, last down 3.7%, after the retail giant predicted that its fourth-quarter profit will drop."Current macroeconomic conditions continue to pressure our customers," Charles Holley, Wal-Mart's executive vice president and chief financial officer, said in a statement.There was plenty of evidence of that pressure, exacerbated by the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Applications for unemployment benefits jumped more than expected, rising 78,000 to 439,000 in the week ended November 10, according to Labor Department data. A worrying sign indeed. "We will likely see a step back in job growth," Ryan Sweet, senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania, told Reuters.Separately, data from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank and the New York Federal Reserve Bank showed that indexes of manufacturing shrank in those regions this month. The latest data only add to the need for President Barack Obama and lawmakers to find a way to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, a mix of tax increases and spending cuts that will kick in automatically on January 1 and risk hampering the already-fragile economy.In afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.38%, while the Standard & Poor's 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index each shed 0.48%. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended the day with a 1% slide from the previous close. The FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX each dropped 0.8%. France's CAC 40 shed 0.5%. There was more bad news for the euro zone economy. The latest data showed that the region's gross domestic product dropped 0.1% in the quarter, after a 0.2% decline in the second quarter.A  poll of more than 70 economists predicted the bloc's new recession will extend until the end of the year and 2013 promises little better than stagnation. Conducted before today's data were released, the consensus was for a 2012 contraction of 0.5% and only 0.1% growth next year."The euro zone as a whole has slipped back into recession," Nicholas Spiro, managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy in London, wrote in an e-mail to Bloomberg News. "Europe's economic downturn has not only deepened, it has also broadened with the core of the euro zone now much more affected. The bleak economic data out of Europe will further undermine sentiment," according to Spiro.In other news, BP said it reached a settlement with the US government to pay US$4.5 billion in penalties, settling all criminal charges and resolving securities claims relating to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.