NEWS,05.08.2013

U.S. Embassy Closings: State Department Says Posts In 19 Countries To Remain Closed

U.S. diplomatic posts in 19 cities in the Mideast and Africa will remain closed for the rest of the week amid intercepted "chatter" about terror threats, which lawmakers briefed on the information likened to intelligence picked up before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
One lawmaker said the chatter was specific as to certain dates and the scope of the operation; others said it suggested that a major terrorist attack, akin to 9/11, was being planned by the al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen.
Diplomatic facilities will remain closed in Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, among other countries, through Saturday, Aug. 10. The State Department announcement Sunday added closures of four African sites, in Madagascar, Burundi, Rwanda and Mauritius. The U.S. reopened some posts on Monday, including those in Kabul, Afghanistan and Baghdad.
Last week the State Department announced a global travel alert, warning that al-Qaida or its allies might target either U.S. government or private American interests. It said Americans should take extra precautions overseas and cited potential dangers involved with public transportation systems and other prime sites for tourists.
Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the decision to keep certain embassies and consulates shuttered throughout the week was done out of an "abundance of caution" and to "protect our employees, including local employees, and visitors to our facilities."
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday the briefings he has received "certainly emphasize these threats are specific and credible, equal if not more serious to the kind of chatter, as the intelligence called it, that was heard prior to 9/11."
But he added: "The average American should continue to be alert and vigilant and cautious but certainly not unduly alarmed or panicky." He spoke on MSNBC.
The intercepted intelligence foreshadowing an attack on U.S. or Western interests is evidence of one of the gravest threats to the United States in years, said several lawmakers said Sunday.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the conversation was "very reminiscent of what we saw pre-9/11." Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said it was that chatter that prompted the Obama administration to order the closures and issue the travel warning.
Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC's "This Week" that the threat intercepted from "high-level people in al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula" was about a "major attack."
Yemen is home to al-Qaida's most dangerous affiliate, blamed for several notable terrorist plots on the United States. They include the foiled Christmas Day 2009 effort to bomb an airliner over Detroit and the explosives-laden parcels intercepted the following year aboard cargo flights.
Rep. Peter King, the New York Republican who leads the House Homeland Security subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence, told ABC that the threat "was specific as to how enormous it was going to be and also that certain dates were given."
The Obama administration's decision to close the embassies and the lawmakers' general discussion about the threats and the related intelligence discoveries come at a sensitive time as the government tries to defend recently disclosed surveillance programs that have stirred deep privacy concerns and raised the potential of the first serious retrenchment in terrorism-fighting efforts since Sept. 11.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has scoffed at the assertion by the head of the National Security Agency that government methods used to collect telephone and email data have helped foil 54 terror plots.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a House Intelligence Committee member, said while he takes the threat seriously he hasn't seen any evidence linking the latest warnings to that agency's collection of "vast amounts of domestic data."
Other lawmakers defended the administration's response and promoted the work of the NSA in unearthing the intelligence that led to the security warnings.
King, a frequent critic of President Barack Obama, said: "Whether or not there was any controversy over the NSA at all, all these actions would have been taken."
The State Department noted that previous terrorist attacks have centered on subway and rail networks as well as airplanes and boats. It suggested travelers sign up for State Department alerts and register with U.S. consulates in the countries they visit. The alert expires Aug. 31.
The intelligence intercepts also prompted Britain and Germany to close their embassies in Yemen on Sunday and Monday. British authorities said some embassy staff in Yemen had been withdrawn "due to security concerns." France said Monday it would keep its embassy in the Yemeni capital closed through Wednesday.
Interpol, the French-based international policy agency, has also issued a global security alert in connection with suspected al-Qaida involvement in recent prison escapes including those in Iraq, Libya and Pakistan.

Turkey's Ergenekon Trial: Alleged 2002 Coup Plotters Convicted, Including Former Military Chief Ilker Basbug

In a landmark trial, scores of people including Turkey's former military chief, politicians and journalists were convicted on Monday of plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government soon after it came to power in 2002.
Retired Gen. Ilker Basbug was the most prominent defendant among some 250 people facing verdicts after a five-year trial that has become a central drama in tensions between the country's secular elite and Erdogan's Islamic-oriented Justice and Development Party.
The trial has sparked protests, and on Monday police blocked hundreds of demonstrators from reaching the High Criminal Court in Silivri, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Istanbul, in a show of solidarity with the defendants.
But Monday's verdicts were not expected to set off the kind of violent anti-government demonstrations that were recently sparked by a government plan to build a replica Ottoman-era barracks at a park near Istanbul's central Taksim Square.
In addition to Basbug, at least 18 other defendants were sentenced to life in prison, including 10 retired military officers and Dogu Perincek, leader of the left-wing and nationalist Workers Party. At least 64 other defendants received sentences ranging from a year to 47 years, according to state-run TRT television news.
At least 21 people were acquitted. The fully tally of verdicts and sentences was not immediately available.
The defendants were accused of plotting high-profile attacks that prosecutors said were aimed at sowing chaos in Turkey to prepare the way for a military coup. The prosecutions already have helped Erdogan's government reshape Turkey's military and assert civilian control in a country that had seen three military coups since 1960.
The trial, which began in 2008, grew out of an investigation into the seizure of 27 hand grenades at the home of a noncommissioned officer in Istanbul in 2007.
The defendants were accused of being part of an alleged ultranationalist and pro-secular gang called Ergenekon, which takes its name from a legendary valley in Central Asia believed to be the ancestral homeland of Turks.
In thousands of pages of indictments, prosecutors maintained that the gang was behind a series of violent acts, including one in 2006 on a courthouse that killed a judge. Prosecutors say that the incidents were made to look as though they were carried out by Islamic militants, in a bid to create turmoil and provoke a military intervention.
Prosecutors say the gang also plotted to kill Erdogan, Nobel laureate author Orhan Pamuk and other high-profile figures.
The defendants have rejected the accusations, and they are expected to appeal Monday's verdicts and sentences to the Court of Appeals in Ankara.
Representatives of Turkey's main pro-secular opposition party lashed out against the verdicts, accusing the government of influencing the justice system.
"A verdict that was decided five years ago was made public today," said Akif Hamzacebi, a legislator from the opposition Republican People's Party. "All principles of rights, justice, human rights, fair trial were trampled on here."
Peter Stano, spokesman for the EU's Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele, said he would not comment on the specific rulings, but noted that the European Union has expressed concern before about defendants' rights in Turkey and indictments that are too general.
Prosecutors demanded life prison terms for 64 of the defendants, mostly on terrorism charges. Others were charged with possession of firearms or merely membership in Ergenekon.
Mehmet Haberal, a surgeon and founder of a university in Ankara, and Mustafa Balbay, the Ankara representative of pro-secular Cumhuriyet newspaper, both faced life prison terms but received sentences of 12 years and 34 years, respectively. The two men were elected to Parliament in 2011, while in prison, but were not able to take their seats. The court ordered Haberal released on time served because of health considerations.
Tuncay Ozkan, a prominent journalist who helped organize a series of anti-government protests in 2007, was given a life sentence.
The case has polarized the country between those who see it as an opportunity to unravel a shadowy network of ultranationalists known as the "Deep State" that allegedly acted behind the scenes with impunity, and those who believe it is a government attempt to muzzle Erdogan's secular-minded foes and undermine Turkey's secular legacy.
In a separate case, more than 300 military officers, including Turkey's former air force and navy chiefs, were convicted last year of other plots to bring down the government in 2003 and some were sentenced to 20 years in prison. Those verdicts are being appealed.

 

Gibraltar Entrance Fee: Chief Minister Compares Spain To North Korea Over Exit Charge

The chief minister of Gibraltar on Monday accused Spain of acting like North Korea after suggesting it could impose steep new entry and exit fees for the British territory.
Spain has long laid claim to Gibraltar, and the British territory on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula is the source of occasional diplomatic friction between Madrid and London.
The latest spat involves an artificial reef being built in Gibraltar that Spain says is hurting its fishermen. It has floated the idea of charging people entering and leaving Gibraltar 50 euros ($66) as compensation.
Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told BBC radio that such fees would violate European Union freedom of movement rules, and said "hell would freeze over" before the reef would be removed.
"What we have seen this weekend is saber-rattling of the sort that we haven't seen for some time," Picardo said, describing threats of border fees as "more reminiscent of the type of statement you'd hear from North Korea than from an EU partner."
Under Spain's former Socialist government, relations between Madrid, London and Gibraltar eased greatly.
But in an interview published Sunday in Spanish newspaper ABC, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said the "playtime" of that era was over.
Britain's Foreign Secretary said late Monday that he had spoken to Picardo to express solidarity with territory's residents.
"The U.K. stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Gibraltar at this time of increasing Spanish pressure and rhetoric," William Hague said in a statement, repeating that the U.K. had pledged "not to compromise on British sovereignty over Gibraltar."
But he also nodded to the fact  so far the talk of sanctions had not amounted to real clampdown on the territory.
"We agreed that it was important to respond to actions, not rhetoric," he said.

North Korea Floods: Army Drills Cut Short To Provide Relief

North Korea has cut short summer military drills to mobilise troops for flood relief efforts after torrential rains left dozens killed and ravaged farmlands nationwide, according to a South Korean report.
The North's military ordered troops based in the country's west and southeast regions to hold "minimum" summer exercises and to instead focus on post-floods reconstruction, Yonhap news agency said.
It cited an unnamed Seoul government source.
"Many military units stopped the exercises and have mobilised troops for floods relief works," said the source quoted by Yonhap.
The communist state has staged summer military drills that partially coincided with the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise conducted by its rival South Korea and the United States, that usually takes place in August.
"But this year's summer drill in the North will be scaled back considerably because it needs to focus on repairing floods damages," the source was quoted as saying.
Floods caused by heavy rains that pummelled the North since early July have destroyed some 6,000 houses, displaced more than 23,000 people and washed away a large swathes of farmlands, the North's state media said late last month.
The death toll has reached 33 across the nation and some 13,300 hectares of farmlands have been damaged, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said last week, warning of "longer-term impact" on the country's food security.
Decades of deforestation and decrepit infrastructure have left the impoverished North vulnerable to floods, which led to some 170 deaths last summer.

Berlusconi: 'I Am Innocent'

Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi pledged his support for Italy's fragile coalition government to a gathering of thousands of supporters on Sunday, but he remained defiant in the face of a supreme court ruling confirming his tax fraud conviction and four-year prison sentence, declaring: "I am innocent."
The three-time ex-premier and media mogul, who also faces a ban from public office, said he would not resist criticizing the verdict against him, nor the judges who passed it, calling Italian magistrates "irresponsible."
Berlusconi looked energized and appeared to speaking off the cuff throughout the 15-minute rally in front of his Rome residence, in contrast to his nine-minute video address after last week's ruling in which he appeared shaken and on the verge of tears as he read a prepared statement.
The crowd, many of whom arrived on buses during the day, waved flags and posters urging Berlusconi, 76, not to give up and declaring support from cities and regions throughout Italy. Supporters repeatedly chanted: "Silvio."
"I don't believe that anyone can come and say to us that this is a subversive demonstration, as many have said," Berlusconi said. "And no one can come and say, as they have, that we are irresponsible. Because we have said loud and clear that the government needs to continue to approve economic measures that we have requested."
The confirmation of Berlusconi's conviction on final appeal has put more stress on Premier Enrico Letta's uneasy cross-party coalition government, which requires the support of both Berlusconi's conservative forces and the center-left to pass urgent economic measures.
Berlusconi said the last few days were "the most anguished and painful of my life," and he thanked supporters for demonstrating their affection.
"I am here. I am staying here. I won't give up," Berlusconi said.
Italy's highest court on Thursday upheld Berlusconi's four-year prison sentence, the first time that the media mogul was definitively convicted and sentenced in two decades of trials and other criminal probes.
A law to reduce prison overcrowding slashes his sentence to one year and since he is over 70, he can choose home confinement or perform social services instead of going to prison.
He also faces a public office ban, which would deprive him of his Senate seat and prevent him from running in elections for the duration of the ban. Another appeals court in Milan has been ordered to decide its length.

NEWS,17.06.2013

Poll shows confidence in Obama slipping

Confidence in President Barack Obama has dropped below 50% to its lowest level in 19 months as Americans worry over broad government surveillance and other controversies, a poll showed Monday.
The tumbling approval numbers come as the White House faces criticism about a domestic program that gathers data on millions of Americans, the US tax agency's targeting of conservative groups which applied for tax-exempt status, and secret collection of journalists' phone records.
Obama's approval rating has now dropped to 45%, an eight-point slide since mid-May, according to CNN which conducted the survey.
Some 54% of the public say they disapprove of how the president is handling his job, marking the first time since November 2011 that a CNN poll showed a majority of Americans with a negative view of Obama.
It shows that for the first time in Obama's presidency, half of Americans do not believe he is honest and trustworthy.
"The drop in Obama's support is fueled by a dramatic 17-point decline over the past month among people under 30, who, along with black Americans, had been the most loyal part of the Obama coalition," CNN polling director Keating Holland said.
Fifty-one percent of respondents say that the existing National Security Agency program that scoops up a billion phone records per day - a programme leaked by a former defense contractor - is appropriate as part of counter-terrorism efforts.
But 43% say Obama has crossed the line in restricting civil liberties in order to fight terrorism, according to the telephone poll of 1 014 people 11-13 June.
"It is clear that revelations about NSA surveillance programs have damaged Obama's standing with the public, although older controversies like the IRS matter may have begun to take their toll as well," Holland said.
Obama opponents have seized on an inspector's damning May report which concluded that Internal Revenue Service agents inappropriately targeted tea party groups, to highlight abuse of power by the administration.
They also pointed to the White House's handling of a deadly attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya last 11 September, and revelations that the Justice Department ordered the seizure of reporters' phone records as part of a leak probe.
Number two House Republican Eric Cantor told CNN that the poll sends a "troubling" message to Obama in that the public is witnessing "a government that has abused its power, and, frankly, has lost focus on the issue that most Americans care about, which is getting people back to work".
But he held fire on the surveillance programmes themselves, saying he believed they strike a balance between civil liberties and national security.

Obama: Make peace permanent in N Ireland

US President Barack Obama on Monday urged young people in Northern Ireland to finish making "permanent peace" and set an example to other parts of the world stricken by religious conflict, violence and war.

Obama, accompanied by his wife Michelle, stopped in Belfast before leaving for the G8 summit, which is being held at a secluded lakeside hotel not far from the site of one of the worst killings in the province's conflict.

A 1998 peace agreement largely ended more than three decades of violence in the British-controlled province between mainly Catholic Irish nationalists seeking union with Ireland and predominantly Protestant unionists who want to remain part of the United Kingdom.

But militant nationalists, who include former operatives who split from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) after it declared a ceasefire, still stage sporadic gun and bomb attacks.

‘A courageous path toward permanent peace’

US leaders have a long history of promoting peace in Northern Ireland and Obama was eager to put his stamp on the issue.

"If you continue your courageous path toward a permanent peace...that won't just be good for you. It will be good for this entire island, for the United Kingdom, for Europe, and it will be good for the world," he told an amphitheatre packed with students.

Obama said people experiencing ethnic, religious, and tribal conflict elsewhere in the world were watching what was happening in Northern Ireland.

"You are their blueprint to follow," he said. "You are their proof of what's possible. Hope is contagious. They're watching to see what you do next."

He did not specifically mention the war in Syria, which is expected to dominate part of the discussions among leaders at the G8.

The summit site is 8km from Enniskillen, where an IRA bomb tore through a mainly Protestant crowd at a memorial service for Britain's war dead in 1987, killing 11 and wounding 63.

The deaths rocked support among Irish Catholics for the IRA and pushed its leaders towards dialogue with Unionists, which lead to a ceasefire and the peace deal.

‘Your choice’

The summit host, British Prime Minister David Cameron, is gambling that the remnants of the IRA are too weak to trouble the visiting leaders.

Obama said there was a time when no one could imagine that such a summit could be held in Northern Ireland.

He encouraged the students to move forward with the progress made by their political leaders and parents who helped achieve peace.

"Ultimately, whether your communities deal with the past and face the future united, together, isn't something you have to wait for somebody else to do that's a choice you have to make right now," he said.

Snowden dismisses claim he is Chinese spy

The young intelligence technician who leaked details of the vast US programme to monitor private internet traffic on Monday dismissed claims that he was working as a Chinese agent.
"This is a predictable smear that I anticipated before going public," Edward Snowden said in an online interview hosted by the Guardian newspaper in which he was asked why he had gone to Hong Kong before making his revelations.
Earlier, AP reported that Snowden defended his disclosure of top-secret US spying programs in an online chat and attacked US officials for calling him a traitor.

He adds the government will not silence him by jailing or, in his words, murdering him.

The Guardian said that its website hosted an online chat with Snowden, in hiding in Hong Kong, with reporter Glenn Greenwald receiving and posting his questions.

Snowden says he did not reveal any US operations against what he called legitimate military targets, but instead showed the NSA is hacking civilian infrastructure like universities and private businesses.

US officials say the data-gathering programmess were legal and operated under court supervision.

An e-mail to the NSA for comment was not immediately returned.

Merkel: US helped foil terror plot

Germany's chancellor says US intelligence was key to foiling a large-scale terror plot, acknowledging her country is "dependent" on co-operating with American spy services.

But Angela Merkel also told broadcaster RTL on Monday that she was "surprised" to learn of the scope of recently leaked US spying programmes.
Merkel said the US must clarify what information on people's communications is monitored and how, reiterating that she will raise the issue in talks with President Barack Obama in Berlin on Wednesday.
However, Merkel said security services could have not foiled a 2007 terror plot without "tips from American sources".
Four Islamic extremists were then arrested while preparing an explosive device with power equivalent to more than 400kg of TNT that authorities said was meant to attack American soldiers and citizens in Germany.

NEWS,20.05.2013

Bird flu costs China industry $65bn

China's human H7N9 bird flu outbreak has cost the country's poultry industry more than 400 billion yuan ($65bn) as consumers shun chicken, government officials said according to state media Monday.
The sector has been losing an average of one billion yuan a day since the end of March, the Beijing Times said, citing Li Xirong, head of the National Animal Husbandry Service.
H7N9 avian influenza has infected 130 people in China, killing 35, since it was found in humans for the first time, according to latest official data.
Poultry sales have tumbled and prices plunged, Li said, causing major financial problems and job losses as a result.
Another agriculture ministry official, Wang Zongli, said government agencies should set a good example for the public by treating "poultry products in a correct way", the report added.
In a stunt to boost confidence, officials and poultry business leaders in the eastern province of Shandong held a widely reported all-chicken lunch last week, according to Chinese media.
China has seen several food safety scares in recent years, including one in which the industrial chemical melamine was added to dairy products in 2008, killing at least six babies and making 300 000 ill.

US to keep close eye on anti-Semitism

The state department has appointed a special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism as a new report documents a global increase in incidents of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

Ira Forman, former CEO of the National Jewish Democratic Council, was chosen as special envoy as the state department released its annual report on religious freedom around the world.
The report said expressions of anti-Semitism by government officials, religious leaders and the media were of great concern, particularly in Venezuela, Egypt and Iran.
At times, the report said, such statements led to desecration and violence.
Secretary of State John Kerry called the report a "clear-eyed, objective look at the state of religious freedom around the world" and said that in some cases, the report criticises US allies and would-be allies.

Russia foils terror attack on Moscow

Russian security services said on Monday they had foiled a terror attack on Moscow, killing two of the plotters and arresting another.
"Our forceful actions prevented an attempted act of terror in the capital," the National Anti-Terror Committee said in a statement.
The statement said the men, all three of them ethnic Russians, were detected on the outskirts of Moscow. A gunfight erupted during their attempted arrest which left a Russian federal security official lightly injured.
The committee added that all three men are suspected of having received their training in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been personally informed about the foiled plot.

Republicans eye White House amid scandal

Scandals dogging President Barack Obama are a political gift to Republicans, who could use some good luck after recent election losses.

It's not clear, however, how Republicans can best capitalise on Democrats' woes.
The White House's scandal problems offer a big, enticing target.
Congressional Republicans have ripped into the ousted head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), who apologised last week for the tax agency's heightened scrutiny of tea party affiliates and other conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.
Republicans have been equally indignant in ongoing inquiries into the administration's role in last September's terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four US officials, including an ambassador.
Another controversy now dogging the White House - the justice department's secret seizure of AP’s phone records in a security leak investigation - has thus far stirred less emotion and partisanship in Washington.
An ‘inept’ administration
Taken together, Republicans say, these three controversies portray a rapaciously political and inept administration.
That could be a powerful message in next year's congressional elections, and perhaps in the 2016 presidential race.
"I think people are beginning to think, 'Is anybody running the government up there?'" said Congressman Tom Cole, a close ally of House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner. "Incompetence, detachment, lack of oversight. I think the damage is going to be real and lasting for the president."
Last November's election dynamics that led to Obama's re-election and Democratic gains in Congress complicate the picture, however, and some Republican leaders are urging a bit of restraint in exploiting the White House's new weaknesses.
Party leaders wince when their more zealous colleagues talk of trying to impeach Obama and remove him from office.
Immigration reform
Some Republicans would like to deny Obama a legacy-enhancing prize like passing an overhaul of US immigration laws, one of Obama's biggest second-term goals.
But party strategists say Republicans may need immigration reform more than Democrats do.
Some conservatives, like rising star Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, are urging their party to embrace an overhaul, including a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States.
Hispanics are America's largest minority group and one that is steadily making up a bigger share of the electorate.
They overwhelmingly backed Obama in both his elections, and the trend might worsen for Republicans if they don't show greater interest in Latinos' concerns. For many, that includes major changes to immigration laws.
In the end, the scandals - titillating as they are inside Washington - may have surprisingly little impact on immigration legislation and other bills in Congress.
Boehner, asked on Thursday how the Republicans' apparent momentum might influence legislation, said: "I don't expect that it will."
Tea party
The controversies have managed to reignite the limited-government tea party movement, whose influence in 2012 had waned compared to its muscular role in 2010.
Tea party groups have found new political fuel, especially in the IRS scandal that largely centres on such conservative groups, and are flooding mail boxes with fiery fundraising letters and renewed calls to arms.
Democrats hope conservatives overplay their hands. Even if tea party activists boost Republican turnout in next year's nonpresidential elections, they could complicate the Republican Party's need to woo a wider audience to win presidential elections in 2016 and beyond. Republicans have lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections.
A Quinnipiac University poll this spring found that 24% of Americans view the tea party movement favourably, and 43% view it unfavourably.
Scandals
Democrats love to remind Republicans of their partisan excess in 1998, when the House's impeachment of President Bill Clinton for trying to cover up an affair with an intern struck millions of Americans as political overkill.
Republicans lost House seats that year, costing Speaker Newt Gingrich his leadership post. The Senate acquitted the president.
Boehner and other party leaders are keenly aware that Republicans can overdo their attacks, and even build sympathy for Obama, if their criticisms appear nakedly political or not supported by facts, said Cole, the Republican congressman.
Congressman Jack Kingston of Georgia said he hopes the scandals will increase public attention on Congress, enabling Republicans to highlight an agenda he thinks voters will embrace.
"The scandals, they're not your ticket to the dance," said Kingston, who is running for the Senate in a crowded Republican field.
"They are a reason to have people look at your party. And then, if you have good private-sector job ideas, and balancing the budget, then I think people will vote for you."

Israel MP speaks of removing settlers

Finance Minister Yair Lapid, whose new centrist party is the second largest in Israel's government, said on Monday thousands of Jewish settlers would have to be removed from occupied land under any peace deal with the Palestinians.

But, echoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's position, Lapid said Israel intended to hold onto major settlement blocs in the West Bank when final borders are set in the six-decade-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"It's heartbreaking. We will have to remove tens of thousands, not just from their homes, but from their dreams," he said, speaking at a business conference in Tel Aviv. But, he added: "The settlement blocs will remain in Israel."

Lapid did not say which settlements he felt would need to be evacuated. About 80% of 340 000 settlers in the West Bank live in large clusters near Jerusalem and central Israel.

Lapid's Yesh Atid party soared to a surprising second place finish in the January general election and joined the right-wing Netanyahu's coalition.

The former TV news anchor's pre-election promise to partner with Netanyahu only if Israel entered into negotiations with the Palestinians raised hopes among Western powers that Lapid could push the premier into peacemaking concessions.

'Meaningful compromise'

US-brokered peace talks broke down in 2010 in a dispute over continuing Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank. Palestinians have demanded a settlement freeze as a condition for returning to the negotiations.

Netanyahu, speaking in general terms, has said that Israel is prepared for a "meaningful compromise" with the Palestinians, noting that it has withdrawn from occupied territory in the past, such as the Gaza Strip in 2005 and south Lebanon in 2000.

But he has rejected any Israeli return to the lines that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, calling those boundaries indefensible.

Palestinians seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital. About 500 000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. About 2.7 million Palestinians live in those areas.

Lapid, speaking just days before US Secretary of State John Kerry returns to the region to try to restart negotiations, questioned Palestinian leaders' commitment to pursuing peace.

"Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] is one of the founders of the Palestinian victimhood doctrine and at this stage I do not see him taking one step in our direction," Lapid said.

He was referring to the view of some Israelis that Palestinian leaders focus more on highlighting Palestinian suffering at Israel's hands than on making compromises that might hasten the establishment of an independent state.

Kerry is to meet separately with Netanyahu and Abbas in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday and Friday.

Israel cancels Unesco mission to Jerusalem

Israel announced on Monday it was calling off a United Nations investigative mission to the Old City in annexed east Jerusalem because of Palestinian efforts to politicise the visit.

"Israel has cancelled the delegation," which was due to have arrived the same day, a foreign ministry official said.

"The Palestinians were not respecting the understandings. The visit was supposed to be professional, [but] they were taking measures that showed they were politicising the event and not letting the delegation focus on professional sides of it," the official said.

Israel in April agreed that the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) could assess the state of the Old City of Jerusalem, the first such monitoring mission since 2004, following pressure from Jordan and the Palestinians, who became members of the organisation in 2011.

But ahead of the start of the delegation's work, the Palestinians were trying to "politicise" it, Israel said, contrary to understandings reached by the sides, and to change the action plan Unesco decided upon in 2010.

"Palestinian foreign minister Riad Malki recently said they considered the mission a 'commission of inquiry'," the official said, "and said they would discuss political issues with the mission."

"The Palestinians are also pushing for the delegation to visit the Temple Mount," which is revered as Judaism's most sacred place, said the official, using the Israeli term for the complex known to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif that houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Cultural and religious heritage is a highly politicised issue for Israel and the Palestinians.

In March, the Palestinian Authority confirmed a verbal agreement dating back to 1924 giving Jordan custodianship over Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem, whose eastern sector Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war.

NEWS,12.05.2013

G7 to press on with bank reforms

Group of Seven finance officials agreed on Saturday to redouble efforts to deal with failing banks and gave a green light to Japan's drive to galvanise its economy.
British finance minister George Osborne said the finance ministers and central bankers meeting 40 miles outside London focused on unfinished bank reforms, with signs that plans for a eurozone banking union are fraying.
"It is important to complete swiftly our work to ensure that no banks are too big to fail," Osborne told reporters after hosting a two-day meeting in a stately home set in rolling countryside.
"We must put regimes in place ... to deal with failing banks and to protect taxpayers and to do so in a globally consistent manner," he said.
The emergency rescue of Cyprus after a near meltdown in March served as a reminder of the need to finish an overhaul of the banking sector, five years after the world financial crisis began.
Germany has come under pressure to give more support to a banking union in the euro zone. The plan could help strengthen the single currency area, but Berlin worries it may pay too much for future bank bailouts if it signs up to a scheme to wind up stricken lenders.
While the first step to create a single bank supervisor under the European Central Bank - looks set to be in place by mid-2014, a second pillar, a 'resolution' fund to close failed banks, is in doubt. And there is little prospect that a single deposit guarantee scheme will ever see the light of day.
A senior US Treasury official said the talks at the 17th-century Hartwell House zeroed in on the need not just for better bank supervision but also to clean up balance sheets so lending can pick up.
"There was a sense of urgency among the euro area participants," the official said.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble countered that the eurozone was no longer the main risk to the world economy.
As at previous international meetings, Japan escaped any censure for printing money on a scale that has pushed the yen sharply lower.
Osborne said the G7 - the United States, Germany, Japan, Britain, Italy, France and Canada - reaffirmed that fiscal and monetary policy should be aimed at domestic concerns, not currency manipulation.
"We will not target exchange rates," Osborne said. "I would say that the statement by the G7 of earlier this year was a successful statement and one that has been held to."
The yen hit a four-year low against the dollar on Friday , driven in part by Japanese investors shifting into foreign bonds, a move that had been expected since the Bank of Japan unveiled a massive stimulus plan.
But having urged Tokyo for years to do something to revive its economy, other world powers are not in a strong position to complain now that it is doing so. Then there is the fact that central banks such as the Federal Reserve and Bank of England have printed money in the way the Bank of Japan is.
Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said the G7 had levelled no criticism at Japan's monetary policy but Schaeuble said there had been "intense discussions" and that the situation would be monitored carefully.
Growth debate
Debate has also heated up about the need for governments to ease up on austerity, something Germany, Britain and Canada view with caution but Washington, Paris and Rome favour.
Osborne said there was less disagreement about whether governments should focus on debt-cutting or growth-boosting measures than is commonly assumed.
"Everyone is clear that there needs to be credible medium-term fiscal consolidation ... We also agreed that there needs to be flexibility," he said. "Growth prospects remain uneven and we can't take the global recovery for granted."
But his suggestion before the meeting that it should consider what more monetary policy could do to support economic recovery appeared to fall on deaf ears.
"There wasn't any call to do more," European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi told reporters after the meeting.
"It is quite clear that all central banks have done a lot, each one within its own mandate. So (the meeting) was just taking note of this ... All of us have really been active."
Several officials from visiting delegations questioned why Britain had called the gathering just three weeks after they and others met at International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, but Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said the informal nature of the discussions had paid dividends.
"Freed from burden to agree a communique, the principals engaged more with each than I can recall before and as a result genuinely made real progress in taking forward some of the questions and issues that are facing the G7," he said.

Experts cautious over equities rally

Optimism is blowing through stock markets around the world, lifting many of them to record high levels but this contrasts with widespread economic gloom and leads some analysts to wonder if some of it is just hot air.
Records have been created with increasing speed since the beginning of May.
The main DAX index in Frankfurt has reached a new record high level, and the markets in London and Tokyo have returned to the levels reached in October 2007 just before the financial crisis began.
Wall Street in New York is leading the way and sets a fresh record almost every day.
But the stock market in Paris lags behind. The main CAC 40 index has just risen to the level last reached in the middle of 2011 and is far below the record high level of almost 7,000 points set in October 2000, and still trails the 4,332 points registered just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank in the United States in September 2008.
Analysts at Swiss Life private investment managers commented recently that the markets "are swimming in the midst of paradox", questioning the strong rises at a time when the global economic situation is a long way from being stabilised and is even deepening in some places, including in Europe.
In financial circles, experts give various explanations for the rise of stock markets in mature economies.
Some hold that it is an artificial bull market driven by huge amounts of money pushed into economies by central banks. Others say that the rises are justified because investors are anticipating a recovery of the world economy and a recovery of those stocks which have fallen heavily.
"The dichotomy between the real economy and the financial sphere is widening and this is worrying," commented Guillaume Garabedian, a portfolio manager at French brokers Meeschaert Gestion Privee.
He held that that stock markets were rising mainly because central banks had been applying highly accommodating monetary policies, reducing their key interest rates, and pushing huge amounts of liquidity into the financial sector.
All classes of assets have been boosted by this, even the riskiest assets such as debt bonds issued by crisis-hit countries in southern Europe which are able to place their bonds despite still being in difficulty.
The rise of asset prices could even lead to a new financial bubble, some analysts are beginning to warn.
At Capital Spreads, Jonathan Sudeira said that "despite the efforts of the central banks, the volume of trading is falling and the high levels reached by some shares is beginning to look unjustified for traders who are being asked at the same time not to take account of the economic situation."
The "bulls", meaning those who think that share prices will continue to rise on a healthy and justified basis, also have their arguments. At the moment, they seem to have the upper hand.
"Extremely favourable" context
Portfolio managers in dealing rooms say that investors are encouraged by signs that the US economy is recovering, by underlying strength of activity in Germany, encouraging statements by the leaders of big companies about the outlook for the end of the year, and by the removal of the risk that the eurozone might collapse.
At French Natixis bank, economist Philippe Waechter said that apart from the policies of the central banks, the situation in the United States, still the guiding light for stock markets around the world, was satisfactory and explained why optimism had lifted the indices.
"There is growth, certainly it is moderate, but it is there and so there is positive anticipation," he said.
He noted that portfolio managers were looking for good rates of return from the shares they hold and consequently were inclined to go for riskier shares which offered higher returns.
In addition, companies which were cautious about trying to expand their businesses, were buying their own shares which pushed up the value of those stocks.
"Overall, we are in a context which is extremely favourable for stock markets," he said.
Garabedian said that the question boiled down to analysing the fundamental causes of the rise.
"Because if the markets are rising for reasons which are not sufficiently viable, the correction will be severe," he warned.

Clinton did not make Benghazi call

A seasoned diplomat who penned a highly critical report on security at the US consulate in Libya that was attacked last year defended his scathing assessment on Sunday but absolved then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Thomas Pickering, whose career spans four decades, stood by his conclusion in the report that decisions about the consulate were made well below the secretary's level.
His comments during several television show appearances were unlikely to quiet renewed Republican demands for accountability for the attacks in Benghazi that left four Americans dead, including US Ambassador Chris Stevens. Democrats say Republicans are trying to exploit the Benghazi deaths to undercut Clinton, an early favourite for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.
"We knew where the responsibility rested," said Pickering, who headed the Accountability and Review Board that investigated the attack, along with retired Admiral Mike Mullen, the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"They've tried to point a finger at people more senior than where we found the decisions were made," Pickering said of Clinton's critics.
Pickering and Mullen's report released in December found that "systematic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels" of the State Department meant that security was "inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place."
The Obama administration has tried to move past the controversy, but a steady drip of new information is fuelling Republican claims that the government initially misled the public about the nature of the assault.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week heard a riveting minute-by-minute account from a former top diplomat in Libya about the two night time attacks on 11 September, 2012. Gregory Hicks, a former deputy chief of mission to Libya, detailed his phone conversations from Tripoli with Stevens.
Hicks and two other State Department witnesses criticized the Pickering and Mullen's review. Their complaints centred on a report they consider incomplete, with individuals who weren't interviewed and a focus on the assistant secretary level and lower.
Cover-up
The hearing produced no major revelation but renewed interest in the attacks that happened during the lead-up to the November 2012 presidential election.
The top Republican on the oversight committee, Republican Darrell Issa, said he wants sworn depositions with Pickering and Mullen. Issa said his panel has not been provided sufficient details on the State Department review, such as a list of everyone the investigators interviewed or a full transcript of those conversations.
"We want the facts. We're entitled to the facts. The American people were effectively lied to for a period of about a month," Issa said.
Republicans are insisting on exploring what happened at the consulate, what might be done to prevent future such attacks and what political calculations went into rewriting talking points the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, used on news shows the Sunday after the attack.
A series of e-mails that circulated between the State Department and the CIA led to weakened - and, in some cases, wrong - language that Rice used to describe the assault during a series of five television interviews the Sunday after the attacks.
"I'd call it a cover-up," said Senator John McCain, a Republican. "I would call it a cover-up in the extent that there was wilful removal of information, which was obvious."
2016 campaign
"I was surprised today that they did not probe Secretary Clinton in detail," Senator Kelly Ayotte said, of the review board.
One Republican eyeing a White House run, Senator Rand Paul, said at a public appearance that he thinks the Benghazi attack "precludes Hillary Clinton from ever holding office".
Clinton's allies said Republicans were looking to weaken her ahead of a potential 2016 campaign.
"This has been caught up in the 2016 presidential campaign, this effort to go after Hillary Clinton," said Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat. "They want to bring her in because they think it's a good political show and I think that's unfortunate."