NEWS,29.06.2013

US asks Ecuador to deny Snowden asylum

US Vice President Joe Biden asked Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa not to grant asylum to wanted whistle-blower Edward Snowden, Correa said on Saturday.

Biden said in the telephone conversation that Snowden was a fugitive from justice and did not have a valid passport.
Snowden has sought asylum in Ecuador, but has remained in a Moscow airport for days after fleeing the United States via Hong Kong.
He is accused of leaking information about a vast US spying programme that examined telephone and internet records.
Correa said he told Biden that Snowden's request could only be processed once he was on Ecuadorian soil.
Correa also noted that the US had not turned over to Ecuador brothers William and Roberto Isaias, who are wanted for banking crimes and also did not possess passports from their country.
Rafael Correa said he had a "friendly and very cordial" conversation with Biden, and told the vice president that Ecuador hadn't sought to be put in the situation of deciding whether to harbor an American fugitive. Correa said Ecuador can't consider the asylum request until Snowden is on Ecuadorean soil.
"The moment that he arrives, if he arrives, the first thing is we'll ask the opinion of the United States, as we did in the Assange case with England," Correa said. "But the decision is ours to make."
Julian Assange, founder of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks has been given asylum in Ecuador's embassy in London.
White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan confirmed that the two leaders spoke by phone Friday and discussed Snowden, but wouldn't disclose any details about the conversation. It's the highest-level conversation between the U.S. and Ecuador that has been publicly disclosed since Snowden began seeking asylum from Ecuador.
Correa, in a weekly television address, praised Biden for being more courteous than U.S. senators who have threatened economic penalties if Ecuador doesn't cooperate.
At the same time, Correa rebuked the Obama administration for hypocrisy, invoking the case of two bankers, brothers Roberto and William Isaias, whom Ecuador is seeking to extradite from the U.S.
"Let's be consistent," Correa said. "Have rules for everyone, because that is a clear double-standard here."
The U.S. believes Snowden is holed up in a Moscow airport's transit zone. He may be waiting to see whether Ecuador or another country may grant him asylum. Snowden is charged with violating American espionage laws.
The White House confirmed that Biden spoke with Correa, but did not provide a readout, except to say the men discussed Snowden's case.
The situation has strained relations between the US and Ecuador, with Ecuador claiming on Thursday it no longer wanted trade privileges granted by Washington.

Obama pushes for immigration reform

President Barack Obama on Saturday urged the US House of Representatives to follow the lead of the Senate, and pass a bill by August to reform the US immigration system.

Speaking during a press conference in South Africa, Obama said there was more than enough time for lawmakers to finish work on the issue before their summer recess.
Immigration reform is one of the president's top domestic issues.
The Senate recently passed a bill that would strengthen US border security and provide a way for undocumented immigrants in the United States to obtain citizenship.
Obama welcomed the passage of that bill.
Despite strong bipartisan support for the Senate bill, the leader of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, John Boehner, said the measure was dead on arrival in his chamber. Boehner said House Republicans would write their own bill.
Many House Republicans oppose citizenship for immigrants who are in the United States illegally, arguing law-breakers should not be rewarded.
Any House Republican bill is expected to focus heavily on border security and on finding immigrants who have outstayed their visas.
But watering down the measure further may not be acceptable to Obama, who repeated on Saturday that he sees the Senate bill as far from perfect.
Even though congressional Republicans have been reluctant to co-operate with Obama, many see immigration reform as a political necessity to improve their standing with Hispanic voters, who overwhelming supported Obama in November's election.

Violence hits China's west ahead of anniversary

Violent attacks have spread this week in a tense minority region of western China, state media reported Saturday, just days before the anniversary of a bloody clash between minority Uighurs and the ethnic Han majority that left almost 200 dead and resulted in a major security clampdown.

China's communist authorities have labeled some of the incidents including one which left 35 people dead as terrorist attacks, and President Xi Jinping has ordered that they be promptly dealt with to safeguard overall social stability, state media reported.
The latest violent incidents were reported in southern Xinjiang's Hotan area. In one, more than 100 knife-wielding people mounted motorbikes in an attempt to storm the police station for Karakax county, the state-run Global Times reported.
Another was an attack mob in the township of Hanairike on Friday afternoon, according to the news portal of the Xinjiang regional government. It said the mob was armed, but did not say with what sort of weapons.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported a "violent attack" Friday afternoon on a pedestrian street in downtown Hotan city. No casualties were reported for any of the incidents, which state media say were quickly brought under control. The government's news portal, Tianshan Net, said there was no civilian casualty in Hanairike.
It has not been possible to independently verify the reports because of tight controls over information in the region.
The incidents on Friday in Xinjiang came after what the government described as attacks on police and other government buildings on Wednesday in eastern Xinjiang's Turpan prefecture's Lukqun township killed 35 people.
That was one of the bloodiest incidents since the July 5, 2009, unrest in the region's capital city, Urumqi, killed nearly 200.
Xinjiang (shihn-jeeahng) is home to a large population of minority Muslim Uighurs (WEE'-gurs) in a region that borders Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and has been the scene of numerous violent acts in recent years.
Critics often attribute the violence in Xinjiang to what they say is Beijing's oppressive and discriminatory ethnicity policies. Many Uighurs complain that authorities impose tight restrictions on their religious and cultural life.
The Chinese government says that it has invested billions of dollars in modernizing the oil- and gas-rich region and that it treats all ethnic groups equally.
Calls to local government agencies were either unanswered or returned with the answer that they were unauthorized to speak.
State-run media reported that the incident Wednesday started when knife-wielding assailants targeted police stations, a government building and a construction site - all symbols of Han authority in the region.
Photos released in state media show scorched police cars and government buildings and victims lying on the ground, presumably dead.
An exiled Uighur activist has disputed that account, saying the violence started when police raided homes. It was impossible to independently confirm the conflicting accounts.
Xinhua said 11 assailants were shot dead, and that two police officers were among the 24 people they killed.
"This is a terrorist attack, there's no question about that," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Friday at a regular news briefing. "As to who masterminded it, local people are still investigating."
State news reports did not identify the ethnicity of the attackers, nor say what may have caused the conflict in the Turkic-speaking region. The reports said police captured four injured assailants.
The Global Times newspaper said on Saturday that police had stepped up security measures, deploying more forces to public areas, governmental institutes and compounds for police and military police. It said a suspect was captured on Friday afternoon in Urumqi.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, questioned Beijing's account of the event, saying local residents had told him police had forcefully raided homes at night, triggering the deadly conflicts.

Dilma Rousseff's Popularity Rating Suffers Drastic Decline In Wake Of Protests In Brazil

Public approval of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's government has suffered a steep drop in the weeks since massive protests broke out across this country, according to Brazil's first nationwide poll released since the unrest began.
Published Saturday by Folha de S. Paulo, the country's biggest newspaper, the Datafolha survey found 30 percent of respondents rated Rousseff's government as "great/good," a sharp fall from the 57 percent who gave it that rating three weeks ago before the demonstrations began.
The government's popularity was down throughout the country, including in the northeast where the ruling Workers Party is strong. Her rating dropped there from 64 to 40 percent.
Datafolha interviewed 4,717 people on June 27 and 28, and the poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
The government's approval rating had hit 65 percent in March, according to Datafolha, but in June suffered its biggest drop since Rousseff took office 2 1/2 years ago. Many Brazilians have been upset about rising inflation and shrinking purchasing power.
The firm said the government's approval had suffered the biggest drop for any president since a 1990 fall for then-leader Fernando Collor de Mello who tried to control spiraling inflation by freezing all savings accounts. He was forced from office because of a corruption scandal two years later.
Beginning mid-June, the recent protests had first targeted transportation fare hikes but quickly expanded to a variety of causes including government corruption, high taxes, poor public services and the billions of dollars spent for next year's World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The Datafolha poll showed that 81 percent of respondents supported the protests.
Political watchers said Rousseff's popularity drop was to be expected in the face of the biggest protests this 197 million-person nation has seen in two decades. But it still wasn't clear whether opposition politicians could take advantage of Rousseff's problems, as she gears up for re-election next year.
"The protest movement that began two weeks ago isn't necessarily a movement against the (ruling) Workers Party nor Dilma personally, it's a protest against the entire ruling class," said Pedro Arruda, a political science professor at the Catholic University of Sao Paulo. "If polled, the unpopularity would be of all politicians. The people are protesting all the parties."
For Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes the demonstrations have underscored the "institutional crises" affecting the country's political parties.
"Which party has a good image?" he asked in an interview in Saturday's edition of Folha de S.Paulo. "Only the one not yet been born. We cannot sit back and think there is nothing more to be done because we have become a democracy, pulled 40 million people out of poverty and enjoy high employment rates.
Throughout the protests, the country has been hosting the Confederations Cup soccer tournament, which are seen as a warm-up to next year's World Cup. But the unrest has grown to such a level that Rousseff and other political leaders have reportedly decided not to attend Sunday's final match, which would be seen as a major embarrassment after they had showcased the country's hosting of such mega-events as proof that Brazil had finally arrived on the global stage. Demonstrators are expected to turn out around the iconic Maracana stadium where the Brazilian and Spanish teams will meet.
Meanwhile, social networks were abuzz with rumors of a general strike Monday, with posts saying it would hit every state. However, representatives for Brazil's two biggest unions, the Central Workers Union and Union Force, said they knew nothing about such a strike but were planning a national work slowdown for July 11, when workers will only perform strictly what's required of them on the job.
Rousseff is expected to deliver a formal proposal to Congress early next week on a political reform plebiscite she wants held in the coming months. She hasn't yet released any details on what political reforms she will suggest nor how or exactly when a plebiscite would occur.
Earlier this week, the president announced $23 billion in transportation investments. On top of that, she said her government would prioritize improvements in fiscal responsibility, controlling inflation, political reform, health care, public transport and education.

John Kerry Shuttles Between Abbas And Netanyahu In Hopes Of Restarting Mideast Peace Talks

A U.S. State Department official says Secretary of State John Kerry is ready to meet with the Palestinian president for a third time if that would help advance the Mideast peace process.
Kerry is in his third day of shuttle diplomacy and has held discussions with Mahmoud Abbas on Friday and Saturday in Amman, Jordan.
Kerry is having dinner Saturday night with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. It's their third meeting in three days.
It's unclear if or when Kerry might meet Abbas again.
The U.S. official spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
Kerry is currently scheduled to leave Sunday for Brunei for a Southeast Asia security conference.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry kept up his frenetic Mideast diplomacy Saturday, shuttling again between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in hopes of restarting peace talks.
Kerry met for two hours with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Jordan in what was their second set of discussions in two days.
He planned more talks in the evening with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem after the two held two meetings over the past two days.
U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials have declined to disclose details of the talks.
"Working hard," is all Kerry would say when a reporter asked him before the latest Abbas meeting whether he was making progress.
Kerry, who is on a two-week swing through the Mideast and Asia, has conducted the meetings at a breakneck pace. He even cancelled a stop in Abu Dhabi because of extended discussions on the Mideast peace process.
He had a four-hour dinner meeting with Netanyahu Thursday night in Jerusalem followed by a more than two-hour lunch with Abbas on Friday in Amman at the home of the Palestinian ambassador to Jordan. Then it was back to Jerusalem for another meeting with Netanyahu and dinner with Israeli President Shimon Peres.
On Saturday morning, he boarded a helicopter to fly back to Amman to meet again with Abbas, this time at the Palestinian president's residence there.
Later Saturday, he was to return to Jerusalem to meet with Netanyahu, Tzipi Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, and Isaac Molho, a Netanyahu envoy.
Kerry is scheduled to leave Jerusalem on Sunday to head to Brunei for a Southeast Asia security conference.
There is deep skepticism that Kerry can get the two sides to agree on a two-state solution, something that has eluded presidents and diplomats for years. But the flurry of meetings has heightened expectations that the two sides can be convinced to at least restart talks, which broke down in 2008.
So far, there have been no public signs that the two sides are narrowing their differences.
In the past, Abbas has said he won't negotiate unless Israel stops building settlements on war-won lands or accepts its 1967 lines before the capture of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in a Mideast war that year as a starting point for border talks. The Palestinians claim all three areas for their future state.
Netanyahu has rejected the Palestinian demands, saying there should be no pre-conditions for talks.
Abbas made significant progress with Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, in talks in 2007 and 2008, but believes there is little point in negotiating with the current Israeli leader.
Netanyahu has adopted much tougher starting positions than Olmert, refusing to recognize Israel's pre-1967 frontier as a baseline for border talks and saying east Jerusalem, the Palestinians' hoped-for capital, is off the table. Abbas and his aides suspect Netanyahu wants to resume talks for the sake of negotiating and creating a diplomatic shield for Israel, not in order to reach an agreement.
Abbas has much to lose domestically if he drops his demands that Netanyahu either freeze settlement building or recognize the 1967 frontier as a starting point before talks can resume. Netanyahu has rejected both demands. A majority of Palestinians, disappointed after 20 years of fruitless negotiations with Israel, opposes a return to talks on Netanyahu's terms.

NEWS,22.12.2012

A US-Europe Free Trade Deal Allows US to Rethink Immigration Policy

Momentum seems to be gaining this week on the idea of a Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA). As the Washington Post reports, a joint White House-European Union committee exploring the topic is due to report back in a few weeks' time. If the committee's report is to be of any value, it needs to examine a key corollary to free trade labor mobility. A TAFTA agreement done right will help us move towards a much more rational immigration policy.Unfortunately, in most countries today, immigration policy has become tied to citizenship and many of the benefits that come with it, including government welfare services. Those benefits are so costly to taxpayers in modern welfare states that many democracies have tried to restrict immigration, to the detriment of both free trade and labor mobility. Yet not all who work in a state want to become a citizen of it. It is long past time immigration policies reflected that.Throughout history, economic growth has been fueled by what the classical Greeks called metics, and what have been known in English as sojourners. As James Bennett puts it: A sojourner is one who moves from one country to another to reside and engage in economic activity, but does not give up his previous identity, returns to previous countries of residence frequently, and remains in constant communication with his home network. This sojourner is an essential element of transnational cooperation, making possible entrepreneurial activity on a wide scale with an extremely low cost of entry.The European Union, to its credit, recognized the importance of such status, allowing free movement of labour at its founding in 1957. In that same spirit, the joint committee absolutely needs to address the issue of labor mobility in its report. By recognizing some form of sojourner status distinct from citizenship, the agreement could provide the framework for a rational rethink of America's immigration laws.What would sojourner status look like? Given the political difficulty of introducing genuine labor mobility, it should initially provide a right not to seek employment but to engage in business, such as entrepreneurship, consulting, or contracting. No rights to social insurance would accrue to a sojourner, nor would political rights such as voting or contributing financially to political campaigns. Efforts by sojourners to claim those citizens' rights outside legal channels would be grounds for repatriation. Sojourner status would only be granted to nationals of countries willing to grant reciprocity in the arrangements. As such, a sojourner would not be appropriate status for those wishing to gain citizenship, but it would be appropriate for those who wish to offer their skills in return for opportunity. Sojourners in the United States would generally return home, taking with them new skills and an appreciation for America that would probably extend beyond the economic. Meanwhile, it would give native-born Americans a new appreciation for immigrants, as the perception of their costing taxpayers through their use of welfare services would dissipate. In fact, return migration is a natural market phenomenon that was common through much of American history until it was disrupted by arbitrary restrictions on entry first implemented in the 1920s. The overwhelming majority of early 20th century Italian immigrants to the United States returned home after a few years.  Reentry restrictions, by contrast, provide incentives to overstay making it more difficult to come in also makes it more difficult to go back.A TAFTA that included steps towards increased labor mobility could provide the basis for a more rational immigration policy. The use of sojourner status, if successful, could be expanded to other countries (always on the basis of reciprocity), breaking the link between immigration and citizenship benefits, thus providing more economic bang per immigration buck.It is sadly unlikely the White House-EU committee will grasp this particular nettle. If it did, however, the benefits to transatlantic trade could be immense.

 

John Kerry Brings Passion to the State Department

 

America's policy toward Israel and the Middle East was front and center in the political debate this election year, from Iran's nuclear program to Israeli-Arab peacemaking to America's response to the Arab Spring. And American Jews decided resoundingly by a 70 percent - 30 percent margin that Barack Obama was the right man for the job of commander-in-chief.Now the president needs to pick a new secretary of state, one who will have big shoes or, as my wife would say, pumps to fill. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been a superb secretary of state, not only leading but also managing to be a great teammate. Her approval ratings are as sky-high as her effectiveness.John Kerry, the senior Democratic senator from Massachusetts, who was officially nominated Friday, would be a great pick to succeed her.I interned for Kerry back in the 1990s as an undergraduate student at Brandeis University, perhaps the most pro-Israel college in the country. To me, Kerry seemed larger than life, a passionate man who could command a room without effort, and who had an extraordinary grasp of the issues, domestic and foreign. I saw Kerry's passion again, more than a decade later, when I worked at the Middle East desk at the State Department and later in the Senate as a foreign policy aide. I witnessed how Kerry made the tough calls and led by example, just as he had done when he spoke out against the Vietnam War as a young man and combat veteran.Kerry understands how to use these formidable skills to strengthen our country's relations with close allies like Israel. He is a longtime advocate for an ironclad defense partnership between Israel and the United States, and a vigorous American diplomatic role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.He understands the challenge from Iran and is a ruling voice for active American global leadership to resolve the crisis over its nuclear program. Kerry has directed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he leads to take on each of these issues, ensuring that Israel gets the defense aid it needs and the diplomatic support it depends on, and that Iran gets the penalizing sanctions it deserves.And Kerry understands that the Middle East is changing in ways that we can't predict, with ramifications for both the United States and Israel. He has led the Senate's efforts to engage this new Middle East, including being the Senate's leading voice for new relations with Egypt and post-Qaddafi Libya. Both Israel and America will benefit from his ability to build new alliances in this turbulent region.Yet being a strong secretary of state is about much more than just foreign policy smarts. Outside of the president, the secretary of state is the most prominent American face to the world. Doing the job well requires vision, gravitas and the full backing of the president. John Kerry possesses these qualities in spades. Kerry has the vision, having been a Senate leader on efforts to combat climate change, to end the Iraq and Afghanistan wars responsibly, and to prevent nuclear weapons from ever being used again. He knows how to implement that vision, having guided through the Senate in 2010 a strategic nuclear arms control treaty with Russia that passed with bipartisan support during partisan times. He likewise has the gravitas, having nearly been elected president in 2004, garnering more than 59 million votes, and having served prominently in the Senate for nearly three decades. For this he is frequently called upon to travel to global hotspots like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Egypt to smooth out relations during crisis moments. Kerry has proved that he commands the respect of America's adversaries and allies alike before even entering the room.Perhaps most important, he has the trust of the president. In 2004, Kerry gave then-Illinois's state senator Barack Obama his first national platform as a keynote speaker at the Democratic convention. Obama returned the favor this year, inviting Kerry to deliver the main foreign policy address at the 2012 Democratic convention. If selected for secretary of state, there will be no doubt around the world that Kerry has a direct line to, and the full confidence of, the president.American Jews overwhelmingly voted for President Obama, and now they want this president to lead. John Kerry as secretary of state would help Obama do just that as a powerful voice for America on the world stage, a visionary leader who understands how to deal with complex challenges and a staunch friend of close allies like Israel.

Why Europe Is Wrong About Jerusalem

On Wednesday at the UN, the representatives of Britain, France, Germany and Portugal expressed their strong opposition to further announcements by the Israeli government of plans for new construction in East Jerusalem. They reiterated particular concerns, expressed in a statement by EU foreign ministers last week, about plans to build in E1, a sensitive area of 12 square kilometres extending into the West Bank just east of Jerusalem. European governments are right when they say that neither side should take unilateral acts which could undermine the viability of a two-state agreement. The Palestinians should refrain from trying to impose their version of a solution through UN resolutions, and Israel should refrain from trying to impose theirs by building in new areas of the territory under dispute. European foreign ministers said as much in last week's statement, emphasising that a solution to the conflict, including on borders, must be agreed by the parties. But they also said something else which undermines their own logic. Not only has Europe expressed dismay at building in E1, but it has also been rehearsing the Palestinian argument that building in E1 would be 'jeopardizing the possibility of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state and of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states.' The Palestinians have good reason for wanting E1 as part of their future state, with valid concerns that Israeli construction there might inhibit their access to East Jerusalem and contiguity between Ramallah and Bethlehem. But successive Israeli governments have also had a position on E1. Israel wants to control the area because without it the large settlement of Maale Adumim, which sits on strategic high ground to the east of Jerusalem, will be vulnerable to being cut off from the rest of Jerusalem. Israeli negotiators in 2008 offered the Palestinians solutions that would link the areas dissected by E1 with a road that would serve as a corridor, providing contiguity between Palestinian East Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem. UN Security Council resolution 242 affirms the rights of all states in the region to secure and defensible borders, including Israel, and many Israelis see E1 as integral to Israel's defensible borders. When both sides have a claim to this small but strategically significant piece of land, the way to resolve the issue should be through negotiations between the parties, just as the EU is calling for. Why then has the EU prejudged the outcome of those negotiations by taking the Palestinian side of the argument? If Israel is wrong to prejudge the fate of E1 by planing to build on it, how can it be right for the EU to prejudge its fate by adopting the Palestinian position?Appearing to automatically take the Palestinian line undermines the EU's aspiration to play a more significant political role in the peace process. Israeli governments will be less likely to pay attention to the Europeans if they see them as champions of the Palestinians, rather than champions of a deal which will address the needs of both sides. What's more, by adopting the Palestinian position so wholeheartedly, the EU could harm the prospect of a future deal by binding the Palestinian's hands in negotiations. Reaching a deal in the long run will require difficult concessions and maximum flexibility and creativity from both sides. The international community prejudging the details in favour of one side or the other will, if anything, reduce the scope for compromise.