NEWS,27.07.2013

Obama marks Korean war truce

US President Barack Obama is marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.

Obama is delivering remarks on Saturday at a commemorative ceremony at the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall.

The 1950 - 1953 Korean war pitted North Korean and Chinese troops against US-led UN and South Korean forces. It ended on 27 July 1953 - 60 years ago on Saturday - with the signing of an armistice.

But a formal peace treaty was never signed, leaving the Korean Peninsula in a technical state of war and divided at the 38th parallel between its communist north and democratic south.

At least 2.5 million people were killed in the fighting.

In a proclamation declaring on Saturday as National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, Obama said the anniversary marks the end of the war and the beginning of a long and prosperous peace.

In the six decades since the end of hostilities, Obama said, South Korea has become a close US ally and one of the world's largest economies.

He said the partnership remains "a bedrock of stability" throughout the Pacific region, and gave credit to the US service members who fought all those years ago and to the men and women currently stationed there.

Japan military plan worries China

China's Defence Ministry on Saturday urged international vigilance of Japan's military plans after it unveiled an interim report calling for strengthened armed forces, including the possible acquisition of the ability to hit enemy bases.

Japan's proposal  its latest step away from the constraints of its pacifist constitution  is part of a review of defence policy by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government, which released an interim report on the issue on Friday. Final review conclusions are due by the end of the year.

Japan's Defence Ministry also said it would consider buying unmanned surveillance drones, create a force of Marines to protect remote islands, such as those disputed with China, and consider beefing up the ability to transport troops to far-flung isles.

"The sections about China in this report by Japan are playing on the same old themes, exaggerating the military threat from China, and have ulterior motives," China's Defence Ministry said in a statement on its website.

"This year, Japan has come up with all kinds of excuses to continue to expand its armaments... creating tensions in the region. These moves deserve the highest vigilance from neighbouring countries in Asia and from the international community," it said.

Security environment

The hawkish Abe took office in December for a rare second term, pledging to bolster the military to cope with what Japan sees as an increasingly threatening security environment including an assertive China and an unpredictable North Korea.

Abe called on Friday for a leaders' summit or a foreign ministers' meeting between his country and China as soon as possible.

But Abe's appeal drew a cool reaction from China which accused Japan of lacking sincerity.

Over the past year, China's stand-off with Japan over a string of uninhabited rocky islands in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China has become more acrimonious.

China also believes that Japan has never properly atoned for its brutal invasion and occupation of parts of the country before and during World War Two.

Europe's Incomplete One-Year Anniversary

Exactly a year ago when Mario Draghi, the well-respected president of the European Central Bank (ECB), made his now-famous "whatever it takes" remarks.
Twelve months later, this stands out as the boldest and most successful initiative in the history of modern central banking. Yet the durability of the benefits is undermined by Europe's frustratingly slow progress in getting to grips with its growth and employment deficits.
Europe's economic context was a daunting one that sunny day in London.
The Eurozone's financial system was fragmenting and deposits were fleeing struggling banks. Credit intermediation was coming to a complete stop, starving companies of working capital and putting investment plans on hold. Financial markets were in turmoil, with surging borrowing costs threatening sovereign creditworthiness and eroding liquidity.
In essence, Europe stood on the verge of a great depression, facing an immediate future of serial bankruptcies and massive unemployment.
In a conference organized by the British government, Mr. Draghi took the stage for a panel of central bankers' panel. In addition to those in the room attending the "Global Investment Conference," the event was well covered by the media and simultaneously streamed to nervous world markets.
Mr. Draghi totally upstaged his colleagues on the panel. He directly and frankly addressed the what, how and why of Europe's enormous financial strains. Comparing the Eurozone to a bumble bee that is able to fly despite seemingly-irregular aerodynamic properties, he confidently and calmly re-assured all that were listening that "the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough."
It was an extremely bold step.
Mr. Draghi courageously placed the ECB front and center in what were (and still are) complicated and stressful political interactions among the 17 member governments of the Eurozone. He seemingly did so without fully consulting with his colleagues on the central bank's governing council. And he put forward ambitious claims without concrete measures to back them as yet. (These came later, culminating in a dramatic ECB announcement in September.)
It also turned out to be an extremely successful step.
Without spending a single Euro, Mr. Draghi calmed markets, reversed the bank deposit flight and allowed the financial system to partially heal. In the process, he managed to unify a governing council that could have easily disintegrated into one big national political mess - thus bringing an important element of coherence to often-erratic cross-border and regional interactions.
Yet I suspect that the one-year celebration will not be an entirely satisfactory one for Mr. Draghi and his ECB colleagues.
While they brilliantly delivered and did so by literally making it up as they went along national and regional politicians have lagged. As such, the financial improvement has not been accompanied by a meaningful change in what matters most: namely, the ability to generate economic growth, create jobs and arrest excessive income and wealth inequalities.
Europe's incomplete anniversary speaks to a broader phenomenon that serially frustrates the global economy from recovering fully from the shock of the 2008 global financial crisis: Politicians have failed to exploit the window offered by experimental central bank policies, and continue to do so.
In Europe, national governments still differ on the causes of the region's malaise; and if you cannot agree on history or at least put it aside it is hard to press forward with a unified and credible vision that gets sufficient buy-in from naturally-skeptical citizens.
In the United States, a polarized Congress has undermined virtually every policy step proposed by the Obama Administration to bring the economy closer to escape velocity for economic growth and job creation; and Capitol Hill has done so regardless of merit and need. As such, the Federal Reserve has felt compelled to venture deeper and deeper into experimental policies, raising concerns about collateral costs and unintended consequences.
In celebrating the one-year anniversary, the West would be well advised to look beyond the great success of a courageous (and extremely cost effective) policy measure.
We should also think in terms of foregone opportunities. And we should constantly remember the millions of unemployed, the alarmingly high joblessness among the young, the struggles that too many face in securing their families wellbeing, and the growing number of retirees that are legitimately worried about their pensions.
They all serve as a vivid reminder of an incomplete success. Hopefully, they will also add to the calls for more comprehensive and durable actions.

Israel's Cabinet To Vote On Freeing Palestinian Prisoners Ahead Of Peace Talks

In April 1993, Omar Masoud and three accomplices broke into a European aid office in Gaza City, grabbed a young Israeli lawyer working there and stabbed him to death.
Israel arrested Masoud a month later and sentenced him to life, meaning he was doomed to die in prison one day for killing the lawyer in the name of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small PLO faction.
Now Masoud, along with dozens of other long-term Palestinian prisoners, is up for release as part of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's attempt to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks after five years of diplomatic paralysis.
Israel's Cabinet is being asked to approve a prisoner release in principle on Sunday, as part of a Kerry-brokered deal to get the two sides back to the table.
The Cabinet vote would pave the way for a preliminary meeting of Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Washington on Tuesday, followed by up to nine months of talks in the region on setting up a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Such a deal has eluded Israelis and Palestinians for two decades and they have low expectations.
The fate of those held in Israeli jails is an emotionally wrought issue for Palestinians, who view the prisoners as heroes who made personal sacrifices in the struggle for statehood.
A prisoner release particularly of lifers with "blood their hands" would go a long way toward giving Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a popular mandate to give talks another shot, even if many Palestinians believe Israel's hardline prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not serious about a deal.
Israelis tend to view the prisoners as cold-blooded terrorists, and early releases of security prisoners in previous swaps elicited vociferous objections from the public, including Supreme Court appeals.
For Israel's government, approving the release of prisoners it refused to free in the past even if in stages and linked to progress in talks poses the most difficult test so far of its professed willingness to reach a peace deal.
In a statement late Saturday, Netanyahu said that a decision to release prisoners is "painful to the bereaved families, painful to the people of Israel and very painful for me."
Yet, he said, prime ministers "are required from time to time to take decisions that are against public opinion if it is important to the state," signaling he is pushing for Cabinet approval of the release.
Abbas, meanwhile, briefed reporters on the terms of the upcoming negotiations, based on what he said were Kerry's assurances to him. He said the American invitation would state that the talks will be about establishing a Palestinian state next to Israel, based on the 1967 borders and with mutually agreed upon land swaps.
The Palestinians want to set up a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem lands Israel captured in 1967. In previous negotiations, Abbas offered to trade 1.9 percent of West Bank land for the same amount of Israeli territory, a swap that would enable Israel to keep some of the dozens of Jewish settlements it has built since 1967.
Israeli officials have declined comment on the negotiations. Netanyahu refused in the past to accept the 1967 lines as a starting point, and it's not clear whether his position has changed.
Abbas said the situation would become clearer after Sunday's Cabinet meeting.
A senior Palestinian official said the Palestinians would go to talks without Israel having agreed to a freeze of settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Nearly 600,000 Jews already live there, and thousands of homes are under construction.
In guidelines for the talks requested by the Palestinians, Kerry stipulated earlier this month that both sides have to refrain from unilateral steps, according to the Palestinian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a gag order the U.S. secretary of state slapped on the negotiators.
The Palestinians understand this to mean that Israel will slow down settlement construction and refrain from provocative steps, such as announcing new projects, the official said. The Palestinians, in turn, will suspend plans to seek further recognition at the U.N. General Assembly, which last year recognized a state of Palestine in the 1967 borders. Israel fears further international isolation as a result of Palestinian activity at the U.N.
Abbas has argued he would need either a settlement freeze or Israeli recognition of the 1967 lines as a baseline to be able to resume negotiations.
In Sunday's Cabinet meeting, ministers will be asked to vote on a number of fateful issues, an official in Netanyahu's office said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with briefing regulations.
The ministers will be asked to authorize the resumption of talks with the Palestinians and appoint a team reportedly the premier and three ministers to oversee the negotiations.
They will be asked to approve an amended bill that would require a national referendum on any partition deal with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu's decision to fast-track the referendum bill has prompted contradictory speculation. Some say this shows the lifelong hawk is serious about a deal this time and wants to silence opposition by ultra-nationalists in his Likud party and his coalition from the outset. Others suspect he is trying to create new obstacles to any agreement.
The Cabinet ministers would also have to approve, in principle, a release of Palestinian prisoners who were arrested before the start of the so-called Oslo talks on interim peace deals in the early 1990s.
Abbas gave Kerry a list of 104 names, including that of Omar Masoud who is No. 77, ranked by seniority. The two longest-held at the top of the list are cousins Karim and Maher Younis, imprisoned since 1983 for kidnapping and killing an Israeli soldier, Palestinian officials said.
When Israeli media reported last week that Israel would only release 82 and that Palestinians from Israel and east Jerusalem would not be freed, Abbas asked Kerry for clarifications.
The U.S. diplomat gave Abbas to understand that all 104 would be freed, said a Palestinian official, also speaking anonymously to avoid violating Kerry's call for discretion. The prisoners are to be released in four stages over six months, beginning a month after the resumption of talks, the official said.
As of late June, nearly 5,000 Palestinians were being held by Israel.
Masoud's mother, 70-year-old Tamam, said she is optimistic.
"I hope everything will work out between Jews and Arabs," she said, speaking in her shack in the Shati refugee camp. Abbas "took a good step by talking about releasing prisoners," she said.
Omar Masoud's family was evasive when asked about the killing, portraying it as the rash act of an immature youth. A recent prison photo of him showed a balding middle-aged man who his mother says often cooks for other prisoners because of his work experience as a teenager in an Israeli restaurant.
Despite considerable opposition in Israel to prisoner releases, polls indicate a majority support a resumption of peace talks. Yuval Diskin, former head of Israel's domestic security agency Shin Bet, expressed that ambivalence.
He noted that he opposed a 2011 swap in which Israel agreed to free some 1,000 Palestinians for an Israeli soldier held by Gaza militants, but that the upcoming round of talks may be the last chance for a deal.
"We need to understand that the negotiations cart is stuck in very, very deep mud," he told Israel TV's Channel 10 on Friday. "And there are some very painful things that will need to happen in order to get that cart out of the mud."

NEWS,26.07.2013

Tax dodgers disclose Swiss accounts

Almost 30 000 Britons and Austrians have come forward to pay tax on previously undisclosed Swiss bank accounts under bilateral agreements aimed at rooting out untaxed money in Switzerland.
Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration (FTA) said on Thursday it had transferred a first tranche of £258.3m ($396.7m) to Britain based on 14 789 declarations, and €416.7 ($551.6m) to Austria based on 13 592 clients.
Swiss secrecy laws have helped to make the country the world's biggest offshore financial centre, but have also drawn the ire of countries seeking to fight tax evasion.
Under the deals with Britain and Austria, clients with undisclosed Swiss bank accounts have the option either to provide information to the relevant tax authorities and pay any monies due, or make a punitive one-off payment in exchange for retaining their anonymity.
Thereafter taxes will be levied on the capital gains and income generated by the accounts, to be passed on to the relevant governments.
However, after Germany rejected a similar arrangement in December, Swiss banks have become less enthusiastic about a model they see as cumbersome, and which puts the onus of tax collection onto them.
With Swiss attitudes on automatic exchanges of information softening, more clients than expected are also choosing to pass account details direct to their tax authorities, rather than making the punitive payment to remain anonymous.
"Only a comparatively small group of individuals opted for the regularisation of assets by means of the one-off payment," said the Swiss Bankers Association, confirming its analysis from earlier in July.
Under a deal signed on January 1, Swiss banks paid 500m francs to Britain, which they will only receive back in full if their UK-resident clients pay at least 1.3bn francs through the anonymity scheme, rather than direct to Britain.
Britain's Office for Budget Responsibility has said it could rake in £3.2bn this year from individual payments and the anonymity scheme combined, but has raised doubts about the timing of payments after the latter scheme took in less than expected in the first part of the year.
According to an estimate by Imke Gerdes from global law firm Baker & McKenzie, Austria is expected to raise €1bn in tax revenue in 2013 from its agreement with Switzerland.
Switzerland's State Secretariat for International Financial Matters said implementation of the agreements had not thrown up any major obstacles, adding that negotiations on similar deals are currently underway with Greece and Italy.

Manning is whistleblower, not traitor

The US soldier accused of the biggest leak of classified information in the nation's history "is a whistleblower" and not a traitor as the government claims, Bradley Manning's defence lawyer said at his court-martial on Friday.
Army Private First Class Manning spilled secrets to the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website because he wanted to provoke a broader debate on U.S. military and diplomatic policy out of concern for fellow Americans, the defense argued.
"That is a whistleblower, period. That is somebody who wants to inform the American public," defence lawyer David Coombs told Army Colonel Denise Lind, who is presiding over the trial.
Prosecutors, in five hours of closing arguments on Thursday, called the 25-year-old intelligence analyst a traitor, not a whistleblower, for releasing more than 700 000 documents through WikiLeaks. They said the short, bespectacled Manning had betrayed the trust his nation put in him when he released documents on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The defence said he had been mischaracterised and recalled one of Manning's online chats in which he said, "I feel a great responsibility and duty to people, it's strange, I know. I place value on people first."
"It's an inconvenient truth for the government" that Manning cared about people, Coombs told the judge.
Manning is accused of 21 criminal counts, the most serious of which, aiding the enemy, carries a life sentence.
The case has pitted civil liberties groups, which seek increased transparency into the actions of the US military and security apparatus, against the government, which has argued that the low-level analyst, who was stationed in Baghdad at the time, endangered lives.
The WikiLeaks website, which in Manning's case published classified files, combat videos and diplomatic cables, has become controversial both for exposing secret data and for its founder, Julian Assange, who has been staying in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for more than a year to avoid extradition to Sweden for alleged sex crimes.
Manning was arrested in May 2010 while serving in Iraq.
He chose a trial by a military judge, rather than a panel of military jurors.
In February, Manning pleaded guilty to lesser charges, including misusing classified information, such as military databases in Iraq and Afghanistan and files pertaining to Guantanamo Bay detainees.
The court-martial has recently been overshadowed to some extent by the case of fugitive US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed to Britain's Guardian newspaper early last month the details of alleged secret US surveillance programs tracking Americans' telephone and internet use.

Remaining Snowden docs 'unlikely to stop US'

It's the stuff of spy novels: The hunted-down protagonist wins in the end because he's got damaging documents squirreled away, a bargaining chip against the bureaucrats who want to silence him.

If National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden thinks he's living in such a thriller, legal experts say he's got another thing coming. Nothing he has is likely to scare off American prosecutors.

Snowden, stuck at a Russian airport while he seeks asylum from several countries, has not overtly threatened the US that he would release more damaging documents. But the journalist through whom he has been working, Glenn Greenwald, has said that blueprints that detail how the NSA operates will be made public if something should happen to Snowden.

"This is his insurance policy," said Greenwald, a columnist with Britain's Guardian newspaper who received Snowden's initial leaks and who communicates with the former NSA systems analyst. In a 13 July article in the Argentine newspaper La Nacion, Greenwald said, "The US government should be on its knees praying every day that nothing happens to Snowden, because if something does happen, all the information would be revealed and this would be its worst nightmare."

Snowden leaked details of two top secret US surveillance programmes. He has been charged with three offenses, including espionage, and could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that if Snowden releases any more of the materials, Russia will not grant him temporary asylum.

"If the Obama administration responds with an even harsher hand against me, they can be assured that they'll soon find themselves facing an equally harsh public response," Snowden said in a 17 June online question-and-answer forum.

No word on prosecution strategy

"Snowden has information enough to cause more damage to the US government in a single minute than any other person has ever had in the history of the United States," Greenwald said in the article in La Nacion.

The US Justice Department is not discussing its prosecution strategy. But while the US isn't eager for any more classified information to be disclosed, there's little chance Snowden will be able to use what he has as a bargaining chip to negotiate his prosecution or extradition. That's because giving into threats would risk opening the door for others to take similar action in the future.

The government must take the position: "We don't negotiate with extortionists," said Michael Chertoff, the former head of the Justice Department's criminal division and former secretary of homeland security. Chertoff said he can't recall a case in which the US government has caved under this type of threat.

"I'm betting that there is virtually nothing that Snowden could do or threaten to persuade the [US government] not to prosecute," said Peter Zeidenberg, a former federal prosecutor who was on the team that prosecuted I Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the Bush administration official who revealed the name of a CIA officer. Zeidenberg said doing so would send a damaging message from the US: "If you are going to steal secrets, get the crown jewels; that way, the government will never dare to prosecute."

Mark Zaid, an attorney who has represented people charged with espionage, said these threats from Snowden and Greenwald are a form of graymail, a tactic in which defendants charged with spying try to force the government to drop the charges by threatening to expose US secrets on the witness stand.

Zaid said every time Snowden releases more documents it could create additional criminal charges. Zaid is not working on Snowden's defence and hasn't been contacted by the leaker. But if he were representing Snowden, Zaid said, "I'd tell him to shut up" and accept a marriage proposal from Russian spy Anna Chapman. On 3 July, the attractive redhead who was swept up with nine other sleeper agents and deported from the US in 2010 tweeted, "Snowden, will you marry me?"

Common defence tactic

"The only thing really he's got now is either minimise the penalties going forward or work out some favourable resolution he's comfortable with somewhere in the world," Zaid said of Snowden.

And even then, it would be difficult for the US government to negotiate, he said.

"Because it's not just about Snowden anymore," Zaid said. "It's about anyone who would follow in his footsteps."

Graymail is a common defence tactic, and three decades ago a law was passed to combat it. Attorneys say the law was meant to let judges sort out the classified information behind closed doors and determine what the defence genuinely needs to make public. If the judge concludes the defendant cannot get a fair trial without spilling secrets, the government can decide whether to go forward or drop the case.

But Snowden has yet to enter into court proceedings. The government is in the process of trying to extradite him to face the charges.

US officials have said what Snowden already released will harm national security, though it's too early to tell what damage has been done. The US intelligence community has a good idea of what other documents he has.

'Extortion'

"I wouldn't describe it as graymail," Chertoff said. "I would describe it as blackmail."

As Chertoff sees it, Snowden's message to the government is this: "If you do anything that Snowden doesn't like he's going to try to hurt you by putting out information that could be damaging."

"To me, that's extortion," Chertoff said.

When Snowden arrived at Moscow's international airport on 23 June he was believed to be planning simply to transfer to a flight to Cuba and then to Venezuela to seek asylum. But the US cancelled his passport, stranding him. He hasn't been seen in public since, although he met with human rights activists and lawyers on 12 June. He's applied for temporary asylum in Russia and has said he'd like to visit the countries that offered him permanent asylum Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

Russia won't budge on Snowden extradition

A spokesperson for President Vladimir Putin says Russia has not budged from its refusal to extradite US leaker Edward Snowden, who has applied for asylum.

Snowden, who is believed to have been staying at the Moscow airport transit zone since 23 June, applied for temporary asylum in Russia last week. The United States wants him sent home to face prosecution for espionage.

Asked by a reporter whether the government's position had changed, Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies that "Russia has never extradited anyone and never will". There is no US-Russia extradition treaty.

Peskov also said that Putin is not involved in reviewing Snowden's application or discussions of the ex-NSA contractor's future with the US, though the Russian Security Service, the FSB, had been in touch with the FBI.

Snowden issue 'not on Putin's agenda'

The fate of US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden is not on President Vladimir Putin's agenda as the fugitive stranded at a Moscow airport has made no direct approach to the Russian leader, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Snowden, who the United States wants to put on trial for leaking details of a massive surveillance programme, has been marooned at Sheremetyevo airport for over a month without ever crossing the Russian border.

He has asked Russia for asylum and wants to live in the country. But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov indicated that Putin was in no mood to fast-track the issue.

"Looking at the president's schedule you can conclude that he is not cancelling anything for the sake of Snowden," Peskov said, quoted by Russian news agencies.

"As far as I know, Snowden has not made any request that would require examination by the head of state. Correspondingly, the question has not stood and does not stand on the agenda," Peskov added.

Airport stay could last months

He said that Putin was not involved in communications with the American side over the issue, which he stressed was being handled by the head of the FBI Robert Mueller and the head of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov.

There had been expectations that Snowden could emerge this week from the transit zone of the airport with a document allowing him freedom of movement in Russia while his application is considered. But he and the document never materialised.

The head of a civic panel that advises the Russian migration service warned on Friday that Snowden could still stay half a year in Sheremetyevo while his asylum application is considered.

"He could stay in Sheremetyevo for as long as his legal position is not clarified," Vladimir Volokh told the Interfax news agency.

"The three months asylum procedure could be extended by another three months. So he could be in the transit zone for a maximum of six months."

Pope urges Catholics to shake up dioceses

Pope Francis showed his rebel side on Thursday, urging young Catholics to shake up the church and make a "mess" in their dioceses by going out into the streets to spread the faith. It's a message he put into practice by visiting one of Rio's most violent slums and opening the church's World Youth Day on a rain-soaked Copacabana Beach.

Francis was elected pope on a mandate to reform the church, and in four short months he has started doing just that: He has broken long-held Vatican rules on everything from where he lays his head at night to how saints are made. He has cast off his security detail to get close to his flock, and his first international foray as pope has shown the faithful appreciate the gesture.

Dubbed the "slum pope" for his work with the poor, Francis received a rapturous welcome in the Varginha shantytown, part of a slum area of northern Rio so violent it's known as the Gaza Strip. The 76-year-old Argentine seemed entirely at home, wading into cheering crowds, kissing people young and old and telling them the Catholic Church is on their side.

"No one can remain insensitive to the inequalities that persist in the world!" Francis told a crowd of thousands who braved a cold rain and stood in a muddy soccer field to welcome him. "No amount of peace-building will be able to last, nor will harmony and happiness be attained in a society that ignores, pushes to the margins or excludes a part of itself."

It was a message aimed at reversing the decline in the numbers of Catholics in most of Latin America, with many poor worshippers leaving the church for Pentecostal and evangelical congregations. Those churches have taken up a huge presence in favelas, or shantytowns such as Varginha, attracting souls with nuts-and-bolts advice on how to improve their lives.

The Varginha visit was one of the highlights of Francis' weeklong trip to Brazil, his first as pope and one seemingly tailor-made for the first pontiff from the Americas.

Apologised in advance

The surprise, though, came during his encounter with Argentine pilgrims, scheduled at the last minute in yet another sign of how this spontaneous pope is shaking up the Vatican's staid and often stuffy protocol.

He told the thousands of youngsters, with an estimated 30 000 Argentines registered, to get out into the streets and spread their faith and make a "mess", saying a church that doesn't go out and preach simply becomes a civic or humanitarian group.

"I want to tell you something. What is it that I expect as a consequence of World Youth Day? I want a mess. We knew that in Rio there would be great disorder, but I want trouble in the dioceses!" he said, speaking off the cuff in his native Spanish. "I want to see the church get closer to the people. I want to get rid of clericalism, the mundane, this closing ourselves off within ourselves, in our parishes, schools or structures. Because these need to get out!"

Apparently realising the radicalness of his message, he apologised in advance to the bishops at home.

Later on Thursday, he travelled in his open-sided car through a huge crowd in the pouring rain to a welcoming ceremony on Copacabana beach. It was his first official event with the hundreds of thousands of young people who have flocked to Rio for World Youth Day. Vatican officials estimated the crowd at 1 million.

Cheering pilgrims from 175 nations lined the beachfront drive to catch a glimpse of the pontiff, with many jogging along with the vehicle behind police barricades. The car stopped several times for Francis to kiss babies and take a long sip of his beloved mate, the traditional Argentine tea served in a gourd with a straw, which was handed up to him by someone in the crowd.

Welcome move

After he arrived at the beach-front stage, though, the crowd along the streets melted away, driven home by the pouring rain that brought out vendors selling the plastic ponchos that have adorned cardinals and pilgrims alike during this unseasonably cold, wet week.

In an indication of the havoc wreaked by four days of steady showers, organisers made an almost unheard-of change in the festival's agenda, moving the Saturday vigil and climactic Sunday Mass to Copacabana Beach from a rural area 50km from the city centre. The terrain of the area, Guaratiba, had turned into a vast field of mud, making the overnight camping plans of pilgrims untenable.

The news was welcome to John White, a 57-year-old chaperone from the Albany, New York, diocese who attended the past five World Youth Days and complained that organisation in Rio was lacking.

"I'm super relieved. That place is a mud pit and I was concerned about the kid's health and that they might catch hypothermia," he said. "That's great news. I just wish the organisers would have told us."

Francis' visit to the Varginha slum followed in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II, who visited two such favelas during a 1980 trip to Brazil, and Mother Teresa, who visited Varginha itself in 1972. Her Missionaries of Charity order has kept a presence in the shantytown ever since.

Like Mother Teresa, Francis brought his own personal history to the visit: As archbishop of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio frequently preached in the poverty-wracked slums of his native city, putting into action his belief that the Catholic Church must go to the farthest peripheries to preach and not sit back and wait for the most marginalised to come to Sunday Mass.

Sensitivity towards injustice

Francis' open-air car was mobbed on a few occasions as he headed into Varginha's heavily policed, shack-lined streets, but he never seemed in danger. He was showered with gifts as he walked down one of the slum's main drags without an umbrella to shield him from the rain. A well-wisher gave him a paper lei to hang around his neck and he held up another offering a scarf from his favourite soccer team, Buenos Aires' San Lorenzo.

"Events like this, with the pope and all the local media, get everyone so excited," said Antonieta de Souza Costa, a 56-year-old vendor and resident of Varginha. "I think this visit is going to bring people back to the Catholic Church."

Addressing Varginha's residents, Francis acknowledged that young people in particular have a sensitivity toward injustice.

"You are often disappointed by facts that speak of corruption on the part of people who put their own interests before the common good," Francis told the crowd. "To you and all, I repeat: Never yield to discouragement, do not lose trust, do not allow your hope to be extinguished."

It was a clear reference to the violent protests that paralysed parts of the country in recent weeks as Brazilians furious over rampant corruption and inefficiency within the country's political class took to the streets.

Francis blasted what he said was a "culture of selfishness and individualism" that permeates society today, demanding that those with money and power share their wealth and resources to fight hunger and poverty.

"It is certainly necessary to give bread to the hungry this is an act of justice. But there is also a deeper hunger, the hunger for a happiness that only God can satisfy," he said.

NEWS,25.07.2013

Protesters block gas drilling site

Protesters blocked access to a drilling site in southern England on Thursday as part of a campaign against the controversial "fracking" process used in shale gas exploration, illustrating the potential battle ahead for Britain's nascent shale industry.
Estimates have said Britain may have major shale reserves which could help reverse a rising dependency on energy imports, but the industry is having to tread carefully in order to reassure a sceptical public and vocal environmental lobby.
Cuadrilla Resources is readying a site to drill a well near the village of Balcombe in West Sussex. The well is a conventional one that will not use fracking, but Cuadrilla has fracked elsewhere, and is one of a handful of companies with access to shale acreage that might be fracked in future, and so its activities have become a target for anti-fracking protests.
A spokesman for the privately-owned company said on Thursday that protesters had stopped vehicles from accessing the site.
Hydraulic fracturing or fracking retrieves gas and oil trapped in tight layered rock formations by injecting high-pressure water, sand and chemicals.
The protest has been organised by campaign group 'Frack Off'. They fear that Cuadrilla, the only company to have fracked a well exploring for shale gas in Britain at its Lancashire site, could seek to frack in Sussex at a later date.
"We have tried other methods. We now have no choice but to take matters into our own hands and protect ourselves from the threat fracking poses to our health and environment," said protester Alex Griffiths in an email from Frack Off.
Drilling and fracking wells will in the next few years be critical to establish whether shale gas can be commercially produced in Britain, where fracking is controversial. It was banned for a year in 2011 after triggering small earthquakes, and concerns remain amongst environmental groups that chemicals used could reach water supplies.
The Cuadrilla spokesman said that the company hoped to begin drilling at the site early next week and that the vehicles were carrying parts for the drilling rig.
UK utility Centrica recently bought a quarter stake in Cuadrilla's northern England shale licences. French oil company Total has also said it would like to explore for shale gas in Britain.

Eurozone credit slump deepens

Loans to the euro zone's private sector shrank by more than expected in June, starving the economy of the funds needed to sustain recovery and piling pressure on the European Central Bank to take fresh action.
Loans to the private sector shrank by 1.6% from the same month a year ago, ECB data released on Thursday showed, a bigger fall than even the lowest forecast in a poll of economists, which gave a mid-range reading of -1.1%.
The latest weak lending figures highlight one of main obstacles to recovery in the eurozone, where purchasing manager indexes (PMI) showed private industry expanded for the first time in more than a year in July.
Lacklustre demand is dragging on the appetite for credit, while banks restrain lending to repair their balance sheets.
In a step to reviving lending to the bloc's struggling small and mid-sized businesses, the ECB said last week it would let banks use more of the assets once blamed for triggering the financial crisis as collateral for cheap loans.
Howard Archer, economist at Global Insight, said the weak lending figures heaped pressure on the ECB to do more.
"The further marked fall in lending to eurozone businesses in June maintains pressure on the ECB to come up with concrete measures aimed at improving credit availability to companies, especially small and medium-sized ones," he said.
"We think it is very possible that the ECB will eventually take its key policy rate down from 0.50% to 0.25% as we anticipate that the euro zone will continue to find it very tough to develop clear growth," he added.
The ECB holds a policy meeting next Thursday. No change in interest rates is expected.
An ECB survey released on Wednesday showed that eurozone banks, facing tougher capital requirements, tightened lending standards for both companies and home loans in the second quarter even though their access to funding eased.
Seeking to reassure markets unnerved by the US Federal Reserve's exit plan from money printing, the ECB said earlier this month it would keep interest rates at record lows for an extended period and may yet cut further.
ECB policymakers have since qualified this forward guidance, with Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann said on July 11 the ECB had not "tied itself to the mast".
A poll of 70 economists published on Wednesday showed the ECB is probably done cutting interest rates but may still take other measures to stimulate an economy that may soon creep out of recession.
The survey was conducted before the PMI survey suggested the euro zone private sector grew this month for the first time since January 2012 news that will ease pressure on the ECB to further loosen monetary policy.
Banks granted non-financial firms €12bn ($16bn) less in loans in June than in the previous month, data adjusted for sales and securitisations showed, after a fall of €18bn in May.
Euro zone M3 money supply a more general measure of cash in the economy grew at an annual pace of 2.3% in June, slowing from 2.9% in May and below the consensus forecast of 3.0% in a poll of analysts.

EU lagging behind on 4G

EU member states should do more, and faster, to introduce next-generation 4G mobile phone services if Europe is to reap the benefits of the new technology.
About 75% of the European Union population of about 500 million has no access to 4G services, EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said on Thursday.
In stark contrast, in the United States more than 90% of the population had 4G access, she said.
Kroes said that of the 28 member states, three - Cyprus, Ireland and Malta - had no 4G at all while only Germany, Estonia and Sweden had advanced systems in place.
There was virtually no 4G coverage in rural areas across the EU, Kroes said, with the EU accounting for only five percent of global 4G connections.
"This is no way to run an economy. It means ... that Europeans living in rural areas and those on holiday get treated like second-class citizens," Kroes said.
"It doesn't matter where you are, you pay money for a device and mobile subscription and it should work."
4G operates five times faster than the current 3G network and allows users to download large e-mail attachments quickly, watch live television without buffering, make high-quality video calls and play live games on the go.
It is seen as the next essential step in the telecommunications revolution and Kroes has repeatedly lambasted EU countries for lagging behind.
Earlier this week, she said she had to reluctantly agree to delays in nine out of 14 member states who had committed to free up 800 megahertz bandwidth for 4G use by January this year but had failed to make the deadline.

Detroit bankruptcy hearings begin

A judge is considering what to do with challenges to Detroit's bankruptcy from retirees who claim their pensions are protected by the Michigan Constitution.

US Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes settled into his chair shortly after  14:00 GMT. The city wants him to put a stop to lawsuits in other courts, especially after an Ingham County judge said state officials ignored the constitution and acted illegally in approving the bankruptcy last week.
The state appeals court temporarily stopped three lawsuits challenging the bankruptcy process on Tuesday.
As lawyers for some of the thousands of creditors arrived Wednesday, they passed protesters holding a banner saying: "Cancel Detroit's debt. The banks owe us."
The case is expected to last at least a year.

Britain's economy picks up speed

Britain's economy sped up between April and June on the back of stronger spending by consumers and businesses and giving a boost to the government less than two years before an election.
It came at the same time as a raft of UK company earnings reports showing growth picking up.
Gross domestic product rose 0.6% in the second quarter compared with the previous three months, in line with forecasts, preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics showed.
That was double the pace of growth in the first three months of the year but the economy still remains smaller than before the 2008-09 recession, suggesting to some economists that it still needs nurturing by the Bank of England.
The numbers were a boost for finance minister George Osborne, who has fended off calls from the International Monetary Fund and the opposition Labour party to spend more to speed up growth.
"Britain is holding its nerve, we are sticking to our plan, and the British economy is on the mend - but there is still a long way to go and I know things are still tough for families," Osborne said in a statement.
"So I will not let up in my determination to make sure we put right all that went wrong in our economy."
Growing signs of a pick-up in the British economy have coincided with a narrowing of Labour's lead over the Conservatives in some opinion polls.
The recovery also comes as other countries in Europe are struggling to show any growth at all.
Compared with a year earlier, Britain's economy expanded 1.4%, faster than 0.3% in the first quarter. It was the fastest increase since early 2011 although it was boosted by an extra working day in the April-June period this year.
Sterling weakened after the data and British government bond prices pared losses as some investors had been betting on stronger growth which would have reduced further the chance of the Bank of England pumping more money into the economy.
It was the first time that all sectors of the economy  agriculture, production, construction and services - grew since the third quarter of 2010.
The Bank of England's new governor, Mark Carney, may see the data as a sign that the economy is edging closer to what he has termed "escape velocity" or sustainable growth, though he is still likely to judge it needs extra help to get there.
From next month, Carney is widely expected to start providing detailed guidance on how long interest rates will remain low, in an effort to encourage consumers to spend and businesses to borrow and invest.
Still smaller
Britain's economy remains 3.3% smaller than in the first quarter of 2008 which was its peak before the financial crisis plunged the country into recession, tempering the good news about the growth in the second quarter.
"This confirms our view that we are heading down the road to recovery, even if there are likely to still be a few bumps ahead," said Neil Bentley, deputy director-general of British employers group CBI.
"Underlying conditions are quite weak as consumers are still saddled with debt and despite the global economy picking up, the potential for getting knocked off course remains."
Thursday's data showed that output in Britain's service sector - which makes up 78% of GDP - rose by 0.6% in the second quarter after ticking up 0.5% in the first three months of the year.
Services provided the strongest contribution to overall growth, adding 0.5 percentage points, with the retail, hotels and restaurants and the business services and finance components accounting for the bulk of the increase.
Industrial output was 0.6 percent higher while construction - which now accounts for around 6% of GDP after shrinking sharply after the financial crisis - expanded by 0.9%.
Upbeat company news reinforced the sense of an economy on the mend. Telecoms operator BT, for example, posted first quarter profits comfortably ahead of forecasts driven in part by a good performance from the retail division.
Improving construction and housing markets helped two of the biggest trade suppliers, Travis Perkins and Howden Joinery post increased first-half profits.
Consumers, a key engine of Britain's economy, are perking up too. They are now more optimistic about the economy than at any point since April 2010, as measured by a new consumer confidence index by market researchers YouGov and the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
The ONS's preliminary estimates of GDP are among the first released in the European Union, and are based partly on estimated data. On average, they are revised by 0.1 percentage points up or down by the time a second revision is published two months later, but bigger moves are not uncommon.

Obama: Our economy can be stronger

US President Barack Obama sought to inject momentum into his economic and domestic policy agenda on Wednesday with a speech designed to clarify his vision for his second term and hammer Republicans in the House of Representatives for getting in his way.
Obama defended his government's record managing the economy through the recession in his first term and said new spending on infrastructure and education were needed now to grow the middle class, which he argued would boost the nation's economy.
"As Washington prepares to enter another budget debate, the stakes for our middle class could not be higher," Obama said in remarks prepared for a crowd of cheering supporters in a gymnasium at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.
Galesburg left a lasting impression on Obama, a former Illinois state senator, early in his political career when the town struggled after it lost its factories.
Obama faces a battle this fall with Republicans in Congress over the budget and raising the debt ceiling.
While the president wants to increase investment in areas he argues would spur economic growth, Republicans want to cut spending and try to force the administration to scale back its signature healthcare program.
"We'll need Republicans in Congress to set aside short-term politics and work with me to find common ground," Obama said.
"It may seem hard today, but if we are willing to take a few bold steps - if Washington will just shake off its complacency and set aside the kind of slash-and-burn partisanship we've seen these past few years  our economy will be stronger a year from now," he said.
Obama plans to expound on his ideas in speeches across the country in the weeks ahead. His address on Wednesday did not include major new policy proposals, but new ideas are expected to be sprinkled in future remarks.
Obama has said he doesn't believe his speech will change minds in Congress, but he hopes to reach their constituents to exert pressure on lawmakers from their home states.
The buildup to Obama's speech has been relentless, as the White House seeks to get past a rough start to his second term, which has been dominated by a series of thorny domestic and foreign issues.
An early push to toughen gun laws failed in Congress, and the Republican-led House of Representatives has said it will not move ahead on sweeping immigration reforms passed by the Senate.
The White House has also been thrown off-message by controversies over phone and internet surveillance, and over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservatives groups seeking tax-exempt status.
Republicans dismissed the speech as being long on rhetoric and short on ideas.
"Americans aren't asking the question 'where are the speeches?' They're asking 'where are the jobs?'" said John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Don't discount the EU

THE 6th South Africa-European Union (EU) summit was held on July 18 and this was, perhaps, well overdue. Tensions between South Africa and the EU have been high since South Africa joined the Brics bloc, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The theme of the summit was ‘Job creation through inward investment’ and aptly so, since several European countries, along with South Africa, are battling unemployment.

The situation worsened through European investors being wary of developments in South Africa after the country cut bilateral investment treaties with Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain and will do so with a total of roughly 12 EU countries.

South Africa’s joining of the Brics and the cutting of bilateral investment treaties has raised fears that these moves will be at the expense of its long-standing ties to Europe’s developed economies.

As an economic region, the EU remains South Africa's leading trade partner and, perhaps even more importantly, three-quarters of our foreign direct investment (FDI) stock originates from the EU.

Given the traditionally and current strong ties between us and the EU, any changes in the EU can consequently have a significant impact on the local economy.

For example, if the EU can turn around its 18 months of economic contraction, South African exports to the region might start to increase again and its contribution toward FDI might become even more substantial.

On the other hand, EU regulations impacting our exports to the region can just as easily hinder local manufacturers and exacerbate the trade deficit.

For example, in the week before the summit, the EU notified the World Trade Organisation (WTO) of a draft commission regulation on food.

As one of our major exports to the EU, this regulation will affect far more than just the agricultural sector. Consider the minimum wage for farmworkers, the rising petrol price and now the mandatory compliance to this regulation.

These costs, of whatever nature, all contribute to the already struggling economy through impacting the farmers and workers, the packaging, distribution and export companies.

The difference among the three costs (wages, petrol and regulation) is that we have a say in what the final EU regulation looks like. In other words, before the regulation comes into effect, we are allowed to review and comment on the draft regulation.

If the comments are of a national interest, the department of trade and industry takes a national stance on the regulation and engages the EU through the WTO. This formally initiates a dispute in the WTO.

If the consultations prove fruitless after 60 days, South Africa can request adjudication by a panel.

While it appears as though we are moving to favour the Brics nations, we cannot simply ignore developments in the EU.

Should it recover from its current slump, the EU still offers a significant market for our exports and a large source of investment for our development.