NEWS,28.07.2013

Pope asks youth to change world

Rio's famed Copacabana beach, usually the venue for scantily-clad sun-seekers and revelry, became a massive Catholic campground on Sunday as Pope Francis concluded a youth festival by urging young people to go forth and build a new world.
A festive crowd estimated by organisers and the Vatican to be more than 3 million strong, including many who slept in the area and local residents who poured out of homes and buses, turned out to see the Argentine pope on the final day of his week-long trip.
Aerial television footage showed the sand and pavements blanketed with people for several kilometres along the crescent-shaped shoreline.
"I was totally tranquil, waking up among the people on the beach. This view made it a very special and unique experience," said Aline Vonsovicz, a 23-year-old Brazilian of Polish origin.
The throng of people, many in the green and yellow Brazilian colours, gave Francis the kind of ecstatic welcome that he has received all through his trip to his home continent.
Work for social change
They shouted and sang as he was driven through the crowd in an open-sided popemobile, stopping often to kiss babies offered to him by their mothers on the shoreline most famous for its bars and nightclubs and hedonist spirit.
His message to the young people in Rio for week-long World Youth Day festivities, sometimes called "the Church's Woodstock", was serious: they should not make their time in Rio a one-off experience.
In his sermon during the Mass from a huge white stage at the beach's northern tip, he said they should return to their home countries energised and ready to work for social change.
"Bringing the Gospel is bringing God's power to pluck up and break down evil and violence, to destroy and overthrow the barriers of selfishness, intolerance and hatred, so as to build a new world," he said.
Latin American presidents at mass
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, Bolivian President Evo Morales and several Latin American vice presidents were among those who attended.
The Copacabana events were to have taken place on a pasture on the outskirts of Rio, but days of unseasonable rain turned the area into a field of mud.
"It was cold in the morning and there was a problem with a long wait for the toilets. Some people went in the sea. It was a bit chaotic. But it was lovely," said Marcel Stelsberg, 27, who came from Copenhagen with a group of 65 people from Scandinavia.
"People were playing guitars and drums and singing and dancing to religious songs in different languages. Now we don't feel so alone, especially coming from Scandinavia where there are so few of us Catholics," he said.
Francis, who was due to leave for Rome on Sunday night after addressing Latin American bishops, has dedicated much attention in his speeches to the problems, the prospects and the power of youth.
He announced that the next World Youth Day will be in Krakow, Poland, in 2016.
On Saturday night, he encouraged Brazil's young people, who have protested against corruption in their country, to continue their efforts to change society by fighting apathy and offering "a Christian response".
Brazil, Latin America's largest nation and still the world's most Catholic country despite declining numbers of faithful, was rocked by protests against corruption, the misuse of public money and the high cost of living.
On Friday night he urged them to change a world where food is discarded while millions go hungry, where racism and violence still affront human dignity, and where politics is more associated with corruption than service.
The day before, during a visit to a Rio slum, he urged them to not lose trust and to not allow their hopes to be extinguished. Many young people in Brazil saw this as his support for peaceful demonstrations to bring about change.

80 Percent Of U.S. Adults Face Near-Poverty, Unemployment: Survey

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.
Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.
The findings come as President Barack Obama tries to renew his administration's emphasis on the economy, saying in recent speeches that his highest priority is to "rebuild ladders of opportunity" and reverse income inequality.
As nonwhites approach a numerical majority in the U.S., one question is how public programs to lift the disadvantaged should be best focused on the affirmative action that historically has tried to eliminate the racial barriers seen as the major impediment to economic equality, or simply on improving socioeconomic status for all, regardless of race.
Hardship is particularly growing among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy "poor."
"I think it's going to get worse," said Irene Salyers, 52, of Buchanan County, Va., a declining coal region in Appalachia. Married and divorced three times, Salyers now helps run a fruit and vegetable stand with her boyfriend but it doesn't generate much income. They live mostly off government disability checks.
"If you do try to go apply for a job, they're not hiring people, and they're not paying that much to even go to work," she said. Children, she said, have "nothing better to do than to get on drugs."
While racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to live in poverty, race disparities in the poverty rate have narrowed substantially since the 1970s, census data show. Economic insecurity among whites also is more pervasive than is shown in the government's poverty data, engulfing more than 76 percent of white adults by the time they turn 60, according to a new economic gauge being published next year by the Oxford University Press.
The gauge defines "economic insecurity" as experiencing unemployment during the year, or a year or more of reliance on government aid such as food stamps or income below 150 percent of the poverty line. Measured across all races, the risk of economic insecurity rises to 79 percent.
Marriage rates are in decline across all races, and the number of white mother-headed households living in poverty has risen to the level of black ones.
"It's time that America comes to understand that many of the nation's biggest disparities, from education and life expectancy to poverty, are increasingly due to economic class position," said William Julius Wilson, a Harvard professor who specializes in race and poverty. He noted that despite continuing economic difficulties, minorities have more optimism about the future after Obama's election, while struggling whites do not.
"There is the real possibility that white alienation will increase if steps are not taken to highlight and address inequality on a broad front," Wilson said.
Nationwide, the count of America's poor remains stuck at a record number: 46.2 million, or 15 percent of the population, due in part to lingering high unemployment following the recession. While poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are nearly three times higher, by absolute numbers the predominant face of the poor is white.
More than 19 million whites fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four, accounting for more than 41 percent of the nation's destitute, nearly double the number of poor blacks.
Sometimes termed "the invisible poor" by demographers, lower-income whites generally are dispersed in suburbs as well as small rural towns, where more than 60 percent of the poor are white. Concentrated in Appalachia in the East, they are numerous in the industrial Midwest and spread across America's heartland, from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma up through the Great Plains.
Buchanan County, in southwest Virginia, is among the nation's most destitute based on median income, with poverty hovering at 24 percent. The county is mostly white, as are 99 percent of its poor.
More than 90 percent of Buchanan County's inhabitants are working-class whites who lack a college degree. Higher education long has been seen there as nonessential to land a job because well-paying mining and related jobs were once in plentiful supply. These days many residents get by on odd jobs and government checks.
Salyers' daughter, Renee Adams, 28, who grew up in the region, has two children. A jobless single mother, she relies on her live-in boyfriend's disability checks to get by. Salyers says it was tough raising her own children as it is for her daughter now, and doesn't even try to speculate what awaits her grandchildren, ages 4 and 5.
Smoking a cigarette in front of the produce stand, Adams later expresses a wish that employers will look past her conviction a few years ago for distributing prescription painkillers, so she can get a job and have money to "buy the kids everything they need."
"It's pretty hard," she said. "Once the bills are paid, we might have $10 to our name."
Census figures provide an official measure of poverty, but they're only a temporary snapshot that doesn't capture the makeup of those who cycle in and out of poverty at different points in their lives. They may be suburbanites, for example, or the working poor or the laid off.
In 2011 that snapshot showed 12.6 percent of adults in their prime working-age years of 25-60 lived in poverty. But measured in terms of a person's lifetime risk, a much higher number  4 in 10 adults  falls into poverty for at least a year of their lives.
The risks of poverty also have been increasing in recent decades, particularly among people ages 35-55, coinciding with widening income inequality. For instance, people ages 35-45 had a 17 percent risk of encountering poverty during the 1969-1989 time period; that risk increased to 23 percent during the 1989-2009 period. For those ages 45-55, the risk of poverty jumped from 11.8 percent to 17.7 percent.
Higher recent rates of unemployment mean the lifetime risk of experiencing economic insecurity now runs even higher: 79 percent, or 4 in 5 adults, by the time they turn 60.
By race, nonwhites still have a higher risk of being economically insecure, at 90 percent. But compared with the official poverty rate, some of the biggest jumps under the newer measure are among whites, with more than 76 percent enduring periods of joblessness, life on welfare or near-poverty.
By 2030, based on the current trend of widening income inequality, close to 85 percent of all working-age adults in the U.S. will experience bouts of economic insecurity.
"Poverty is no longer an issue of `them', it's an issue of `us'," says Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who calculated the numbers. "Only when poverty is thought of as a mainstream event, rather than a fringe experience that just affects blacks and Hispanics, can we really begin to build broader support for programs that lift people in need."
The numbers come from Rank's analysis being published by the Oxford University Press. They are supplemented with interviews and figures provided to the AP by Tom Hirschl, a professor at Cornell University; John Iceland, a sociology professor at Penn State University; the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute; the Census Bureau; and the Population Reference Bureau.
Among the findings:
For the first time since 1975, the number of white single-mother households living in poverty with children surpassed or equaled black ones in the past decade, spurred by job losses and faster rates of out-of-wedlock births among whites. White single-mother families in poverty stood at nearly 1.5 million in 2011, comparable to the number for blacks. Hispanic single-mother families in poverty trailed at 1.2 million.
Since 2000, the poverty rate among working-class whites has grown faster than among working-class nonwhites, rising 3 percentage points to 11 percent as the recession took a bigger toll among lower-wage workers. Still, poverty among working-class nonwhites remains higher, at 23 percent.
The share of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods those with poverty rates of 30 percent or more has increased to 1 in 10, putting them at higher risk of teenage pregnancy or dropping out of school. Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 17 percent of the child population in such neighborhoods, compared with 13 percent in 2000, even though the overall proportion of white children in the U.S. has been declining.
The share of black children in high-poverty neighborhoods dropped from 43 percent to 37 percent, while the share of Latino children went from 38 percent to 39 percent.
Race disparities in health and education have narrowed generally since the 1960s. While residential segregation remains high, a typical black person now lives in a nonmajority black neighborhood for the first time. Previous studies have shown that wealth is a greater predictor of standardized test scores than race; the test-score gap between rich and low-income students is now nearly double the gap between blacks and whites.
Going back to the 1980s, never have whites been so pessimistic about their futures, according to the General Social Survey, a biannual survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. Just 45 percent say their family will have a good chance of improving their economic position based on the way things are in America.
The divide is especially evident among those whites who self-identify as working class. Forty-nine percent say they think their children will do better than them, compared with 67 percent of nonwhites who consider themselves working class, even though the economic plight of minorities tends to be worse.
Although they are a shrinking group, working-class whites defined as those lacking a college degree remain the biggest demographic bloc of the working-age population. In 2012, Election Day exit polls conducted for the AP and the television networks showed working-class whites made up 36 percent of the electorate, even with a notable drop in white voter turnout.
Last November, Obama won the votes of just 36 percent of those noncollege whites, the worst performance of any Democratic nominee among that group since Republican Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide victory over Walter Mondale.
Some Democratic analysts have urged renewed efforts to bring working-class whites into the political fold, calling them a potential "decisive swing voter group" if minority and youth turnout level off in future elections. "In 2016 GOP messaging will be far more focused on expressing concern for `the middle class' and `average Americans,'" Andrew Levison and Ruy Teixeira wrote recently in The New Republic.
"They don't trust big government, but it doesn't mean they want no government," says Republican pollster Ed Goeas, who agrees that working-class whites will remain an important electoral group. His research found that many of them would support anti-poverty programs if focused broadly on job training and infrastructure investment. This past week, Obama pledged anew to help manufacturers bring jobs back to America and to create jobs in the energy sectors of wind, solar and natural gas.

·         15.1 Percent

The share of the population in poverty in 2010.

·         22 Percent

The percent of children under 18 in poverty.

·         46.2 Million

The number of people in poverty in 2010.

·         $22,113

The poverty threshold for a family of four.

·         3.2 Million

The number of people kept out of poverty by unemployment insurance.

·         20.3 Million

The number of people kept out of poverty by Social Security.

·         11.3 Percent,6.6 Percent, 4.5 Percent

The change in family income between 2007 and 2010 for the bottom 20 percent, middle 20 percent, and the top 20 percent, respectively.

·         $6,298

The decline in median working-age household income from 2000 to 2010.

·         $5,494

The decline in median African-American household income from 2000 to 2010.

·         $4,235

The decline in median Hispanic household income from 2000 to 2010.

·         49.1 Million

The number of people under 65 without any health insurance.

·         13.6 Million

The decline in the number of people under 65 with employer-sponsored health insurance from 2000-2010.

·         10.5 Percentage Points

The decline in the share of the under 65 population with employer-sponsored health insurance from 2000-2010.

NEWS,16. AND 17.05.2013

Pope rails against economic dictatorship

Pope Francis issued a strong call for world financial reform on Thursday, condemning a heartless "dictatorship of the economy" and saying the economic crisis had made life worse for millions in rich and poor countries.
"Money has to serve, not to rule," he told ambassadors in the first major speech about finance since his election in March in which he also urged states to take greater control of their economies and protect the weakest.
The economic crisis had created fear and desperation, diminished joy of life and increased violence and poverty as more people struggled to get by in "undignified" ways, the pope said.
There was a "need for financial reform along ethical lines that would produce in its turn an economic reform to benefit everyone," he added.
"We have created new idols. The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal," he said.
The reference was to the Book of Exodus in the bible, when the Israelites worshipped a golden calf while Moses was at the top of Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments.
While Francis' predecessor Benedict also called for changes in economic systems, he did so in often dense intellectual language.
Francis seemed to be expressing very personal views forged from his experience with the poor in Latin America.
Francis, who has said he wants the 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church to defend the poor and be more austere itself, urged more state control over economies.
"While the income of a minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority is crumbling," he said.
"This imbalance results from ideologies which uphold the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation, and thus deny the right of control to states, which are themselves charged with providing for the common good," he added.
Market tyranny
Speaking of financial markets he said: "A new, invisible and at times virtual, tyranny is established, one which unilaterally and irremediably imposes its own laws and rules."
In many cases, the value of people was judged by their ability to consume, he added.
The pope's comments add to growing expressions of concern about a global economic malaise that has left millions out of work or hanging on to insecure, short-term jobs.
Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, said his pontificate would side with the poor on social and economic issues.
"The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but the Pope has the duty, in Christ's name, to remind the rich to help the poor, to respect them, to promote them," he said.
Francis, who will visit a slum during his trip to Brazil in July, urged "those in power to be truly at the service of the common good of their peoples" financial leaders "to take account of ethics and solidarity".

Pressure too much for some top CEOs

On approaching his 60th birthday this year, long-serving Tullow Oil boss Aidan Heavey told staff he felt "like two 30 year-olds".
A handful of recent shock departures by 50-something chief executives at European blue chip companies - none of them under any obvious pressure to quit - suggest some of his peers either lack that vigour, or want to channel it elsewhere.
Peter Voser is giving up one of the world's most challenging CEO roles at Royal Dutch/Shell next year, before his 55th birthday, in pursuit of a "lifestyle change".
Swiss engineering group ABB's 55-year old boss Joe Hogan is also going, for "private reasons". Pierre-Olivier Beckers, 53, is walking out on Belgian retailer Delhaize , and Paul Walsh, 57, is waving goodbye to drinks multinational Diageo.
All four are about average European CEO age.
While the rising financial rewards of running a modern multinational have been well publicised, executive recruiters say the pressures of the job have also been ratcheted up in recent years, and not just because of the tough economic times.
"The reality is it's gruelling. It's really tough, and there comes a point where you don't want to do it any more," said Ian Butcher, who headhunts board-level and senior executives for MWM Consulting.
"The quarterly reporting, the governance, the regulatory aspects, it just becomes very wearing - the level of scrutiny, the pace at which things are moving, the short-term nature of how people look at any given situation. Even over the past five years these things have made CEO a tougher position to hold, and the travel that people have to undertake in these jobs - it's just something they run out of steam on."
Some recent early retirees, while still well short of traditional retirement age, also got to the top spot early.
"They're still in their early fifties, with energy and a desire to do something, but they want to do something different, something quite significantly different sometimes," says Butcher.
Voser fits that bill. He has no plans to collect well-paid chairmanships and non-executive directorships, as many ex-CEOs have done in the past. Former Tesco chief Terry Leahy has also resisted that gravy train since he left two years ago.
As for the early starters, executive search industry professionals point at people like Andrew Witty, the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, who took on the job aged 44 in 2008 and would have to stay in harness for another decade to reach 60 in the role.
Blue-chip bosses as young as Witty are still rare, but over a quarter of Europe's current crop have less than two years in the job, and more than half have less than four, according to data from executive search specialists BoardEx.
Median CEO age is 55 years
The BoardEx data, collected for Reuters from 238 companies in the main stock indexes of Germany, Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark, puts the median CEO age at 55, and the median tenure at four years. Only 16 percent of the group have held on for 10 years and more.
The longest serving of them is Martin Gilbert of the British fund Aberdeen Asset Management. Though younger, at 57, Gilbert pips the 28.3-year tenure of Tullow's double thirty year-old Heavey, with 29.8 years at the helm.
There are 17 top European CEOs who have been in the job for less than six months, and the youngest of the 225 in the group for whom ages were available is Vitaly Nesis, 37, who runs Polymetal International, the London-listed Russian precious metals miner.
While the recent spate of quitters are looking for something else to do, there are still some who appear to want nothing but.
In the BoardEx group there are four over 70, and the oldest by eight years is Albert Frere, CEO of Group Bruxelles Lambert .
Perhaps some linger on for fear that the pension pot is still a little light. Frere will have put such qualms behind him long ago. At 87, he is Belgium's richest man.

China steps up inspection of meat trade

China has begun a crackdown on the sales of fake, diseased and tainted meat products after a series of scandals that have further dented public confidence in the food industry, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

It said the State Council, China's cabinet, recently ordered local government departments to step up checks on meat and processed meat products, and carry out detailed inspections of rural factories, workshops and warehouses as well as private slaughterhouses. 

"The current water-injected meat, fake beef and mutton, dead livestock and other types of toxic and hazardous meat has aroused widespread concern," said the report.

"Local governments at all levels should strengthen their organisation and leadership, to severely crack down on fake beef and mutton and other illegal and criminal activities."

Pork and poultry prices have suffered this year as a result of a series of food safety scandals, a bird flu outbreak and crackdown on expensive government banquets. 

China has long been plagued by poor food safety standards, but many of the recent scares have involved its meat trade.

Earlier this month, the police said it had uncovered a crime ring that passed off more than $1m rat and small mammal meat as mutton. 

It came after pictures of thousands of dead pigs dumped in rivers supplying Shanghai caused widespread outrage. 

A media report last year uncovered excessive levels of hormones and antiviral drugs in chicken meat supplied to KFC, whose parent company is Yum Brands, and McDonald's. 

Beijing has repeatedly called for greater inspection of food processing facilities to tackle food safety problems, but such actions appear to have done little to improve standards.

The latest clampdown will encourages local governments to offer rewards to people who inform on illegal activities.

The government also called for implementation of measures for the proper disposal of livestock that had died from disease.

Tycoon: Mining firms treated as ATMs

Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart on Friday accused the government of using the mining industry as an ATM, warning of an unhealthy reliance on the sector and unsustainable debt levels.

In a speech to be delivered at the Australian Mines and Metals Association conference, the outspoken tycoon, chairman of Hancock Prospecting, cautioned that without reform Australia risked the debt problems faced by countries like Greece.

"Let's not be too proud to admit that we're really just a large island with a small population with record debt," she said, according to extracts of the pre-recorded speech.

"Plenty of Australians know this in a casual way.

"What few seem to properly understand even people in government  is that miners and other resources industries aren't just ATMs (cash machines) for everyone else to draw from without that money first having to be earned and, before that, giant investments are made."

Australia's economy has been driven by the mining industry but the boom is approaching an investment peak and a bumpy transformation lies ahead as alternative sources of growth are sought.

Mining projects have faced headwinds from depressed conditions in Europe and the United States, softening growth in China and increased competition from other producers as well as falling commodity prices.

Earlier this week, the government revealed a significant plunge in revenues due to sluggish corporate tax earnings and announced an $18bn budget deficit for 2013/14, having previously forecast a surplus.

Rinehart said the government had been complacent in managing the commodities boom and its debt levels which are forecast to peak in 2014/2015 at 11.4 percent of GDP were unsustainable.

"It is incredible that after the last six years of record commodity boom times, we now find the once lucky country in record debt, with the budget tipped to deliver yet another deficit, to further increase our record debt," she said.

"Without mining and its related companies this country has no hope of repaying our record debt without facing the problems Greece and other countries faced with overspending and consequent debt traumas."

Rinehart has been a fierce critic of the government's mining and carbon taxes, saying that along with red tape and high wages it had made Australia "cost uncompetitive".

According to the Australian Financial Review, she was also to use her speech to urge Australia to borrow from the economic policies of Singapore, using low taxes to encourage investment and development.

NEWS,31.03.2013

Pope appeals for peace

Pope Francis used his first Easter Sunday address to call for peace in the world and appealed for a diplomatic solution to the crisis on the Korean peninsula.In his first "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message, Francis also called for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, an end to the civil war in Syria, and political solutions to conflicts in several African countries.The former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, who has made defence of nature an early hallmark of his pontificate, also condemned the "iniquitous exploitation of natural resources" and urged everyone to be "guardians" of creation.Francis delivered his message from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica - the same spot from where he first appeared to the world as pope after his election on 13 March - to a crowd estimated by the Vatican at at least 250 000 people."Peace in Asia, above all on the Korean peninsula: may disagreements be overcome and a renewed spirit of reconciliation grow," he said, speaking in Italian.State of warNorth Korea said on Saturday it was entering a "state of war" with South Korea. Tensions have been high since the North's new young leader Kim Jong-un ordered a third nuclear weapons test in February, breaching UN sanctions and ignoring warnings from North Korea's sole major ally, China, not to do so.Francis, who has brought a more simple and personal style to the papacy, said the message of Easter is that faith can help people transform their lives by letting "those desert places in our hearts bloom"."How many deserts, even today, do human beings need to cross! Above all, the desert within, when we have no love for God or neighbour, when we fail to realise that we are guardians of all that the creator has given us and continues to give us," he said.Earlier, at a Mass in a square bedecked by more than 40 000 plants and flowers, the pope wore relatively simple white vestments, as opposed to his predecessor Benedict, who preferred more elaborate robes.The huge crowd spilled out of St Peter's Square and into surrounding streets and included many who had come to see a pope they hope could give a new start to a Church that has been marred by scandals involving sexual abuse of children and allegations of corruption."It's a new pope and new beginning," said Tina Hughes, 67, who came to Rome with her family from Nottingham, England to see the pope. "I think he brings something special. He connects with people. I feel good about him."Message of peaceFrancis, who took his name in honour of St Francis of Assisi, who is revered as a symbol of austerity and the importance of the natural world, said:"Peace in the whole world, still divided by greed looking for easy gain, wounded by the selfishness which threatens human life and the family, selfishness that continues in human trafficking, the most extensive form of slavery in this 21st century."Peace to the whole world, torn apart by violence linked to drug trafficking and by the iniquitous exploitation of natural resources! Peace to this our Earth! May the risen Jesus bring comfort to the victims of natural disasters and make us responsible guardians of creation."Easter Sunday, the day Christians believe Jesus was resurrected from the dead three days after his crucifixion, was the culmination of four hectic days of activity for the pope, during which he instituted several novelties.On Holy Thursday, two women were included among the 12 people whose feet he washed and kissed during a traditional ceremony that had previously been open only to men.Francis is still living in the same Vatican guesthouse where he stayed during the conclave that elected him the first non-European pope in 1 300 years, instead of moving into the regal papal apartments in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.He has also been inviting ordinary people to his morning Mass at the guesthouse, including Vatican street sweepers and gardeners.

North Korea Calls Nuclear Weapons 'The Nation's Life,' Won't Trade Them For 'Billions Of Dollars'

A top North Korean decision-making body issued a pointed warning Sunday, saying that nuclear weapons are "the nation's life" and will not be traded even for "billions of dollars."The comments came in a statement released after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over the plenary meeting of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party. The meeting, which set a "new strategic line" calling for building both a stronger economy and nuclear arsenal, comes amid a series of near-daily threats from Pyongyang in recent weeks, including a vow to launch nuclear strikes on the United States and a warning Saturday that the Korean Peninsula was in a "state of war."Pyongyang is angry over annual U.S.-South Korean military drills and a new round of U.N. sanctions that followed its Feb. 12 nuclear test, the country's third. Analysts see a full-scale North Korean attack as unlikely and say the threats are more likely efforts to provoke softer policies toward Pyongyang from a new government in Seoul, to win diplomatic talks with Washington that could get the North more aid, and to solidify the young North Korean leader's image and military credentials at home.North Korea made reference to those outside views in the statement it released through the official Korean Central News Agency following the plenary meeting.North Korea's nuclear weapons are a "treasure" not to be traded for "billions of dollars," the statement said. They "are neither a political bargaining chip nor a thing for economic dealings to be presented to the place of dialogue or be put on the table of negotiations aimed at forcing (Pyongyang) to disarm itself," it said.North Korea's "nuclear armed forces represent the nation's life, which can never be abandoned as long as the imperialists and nuclear threats exist on earth," the statement said.North Korea has called the U.S. nuclear arsenal a threat to its existence since the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula still technically at war. Pyongyang justifies its own nuclear pursuit in large part on that perceived U.S. threat.While analysts call North Korea's threats largely brinkmanship, there is some fear that a localized skirmish might escalate. Seoul has vowed to respond harshly should North Korea provoke its military. Naval skirmishes in disputed Yellow Sea waters off the Korean coast have led to bloody battles several times over the years. Attacks blamed on Pyongyang in 2010 killed 50 South Koreans.The plenary statement also called for strengthening the moribund economy, which Kim has put an emphasis on in his public statements since taking power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in late 2011. The United Nations says two-thirds of the country's 24 million people face regular food shortages.The statement called for diversified foreign trade and investment, and a focus on agriculture, light industry and a "self-reliant nuclear power industry," including a light water reactor. There was also a call for "the development of space science and technology," including more satellite launches. North Korea put a satellite into orbit on a long-range rocket in December. The United Nations called the launch a cover for a banned test of ballistic missile technology and increased sanctions on the North.The central committee is a top decision-making body of the North's ruling Workers' Party. The committee is tasked with organizing and guiding the party's major projects, and its plenary meeting is usually convened once a year, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry. South Korean media said the last plenary session was held in 2010 and that this was the first time Kim Jong Un had presided over the meeting.The White House says the United States is taking North Korea's threats seriously, but has also noted Pyongyang's history of "bellicose rhetoric."On Thursday, U.S. military officials revealed that two B-2 stealth bombers dropped dummy munitions on an uninhabited South Korean island as part of annual defense drills that Pyongyang sees as rehearsals for invasion. Hours later, Kim ordered his generals to put rockets on standby and threatened to strike American targets if provoked.

Markets Sending Unusual Signals

The U.S. equity market had a great finish to a wonderful first three months of 2013. In logging its best first-quarter performance since 1987 (11 percent), the Dow set yet another all-time high. For its part, the S&P surged 10 percent, ending above its previous (2007) record close.The rally reflects slowly-improving economic conditions, relatively robust corporate profitability and anticipation of stronger domestic and foreign inflows into the equity market. Yet this is far from the whole story.Investors need only look at where some other benchmarks ended the quarter to get a feel for the unprecedented and artificial nature of today's capital markets. Few would have predicted that the impressive equity performance would be accompanied by a 10-year U.S. Treasury rate as low as 1.85 percent, a 10-year German government bond (bund) rate as low as 1.29 percent and gold as high as $1,596 an ounce. Think of this as the markets' way to signal to investors some key issues for the quarters ahead. The persistence of this unusual combination of bond, equity and gold prices speaks to how central banks around the world and the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank in particular have fueled risk taking in the face of rather sluggish economic growth, recurrent concerns about European disruptions and lingering worries about geopolitical risk.In the weeks ahead, we will get a sense of central banks' willingness to continue to support asset prices pending a stronger and more comprehensive recovery in economic growth.I suspect that, notwithstanding some internal opposition, they will signal continued resolve as a way to enhance via the wealth effect and animal spirits prospects for growth and jobs. Indeed, the willingness call is a relatively easy one. The much more difficult call relates to the sustained ability of central banks to maintain control over the range of competing and conflicting forces.Investors are unable to refer to historical precedents or reliable models to predict confidently what lies ahead as:

1. The scope and scale of central bank policy experimentation are already unprecedented.

2. The imposition of capital control by a euro zone country (as occurred this week in Cyprus) was deemed so remote as to be essentially unthinkable.

3. And particularly with what is happening in Afghanistan, North Korea, Pakistan and Syria even the most experienced analysts struggle with some of the world's most volatile areas.

Looking ahead, the validation of prices in risk markets needs the fuller engagement of healthy balance sheets and more robust economic activity, including what my PIMCO colleague Saumil Parikh refers to as the transition from "assisted growth" to "genuine growth."While there is reason to expect that this will continue to occur gradually in the U.S. absent political/policy disruption), it will unfortunately not happen in Europe for quite a while. Effective central bank intervention remains critical to the well being of the equity market in the quarters ahead. Actions need to be strong enough to offset Congressional dysfunction and headwinds from abroad. But if too strong, they would damage for a long time the functioning and integrity of markets.Central banks did a good job in striking this balance in the first quarter. The hope, going forward, is that they remain not just willing to do so but also able.

Enlist the Enlightened Super-Rich!

You often hear progressives bemoaning the massive war chests of the right-wing funders, particularly after their successful backing of the boisterous Tea Party movement. But a common mistake made by the left is not adequately focusing on cultivating their own likeminded super-rich to provide the necessary resources to advance their own noble causes. It would only take a few enlightened mega-billionaires to provide the major funding needed to shift power from the few to the many and to get the ball rolling on long overdue, fundamental solutions to our country's biggest problems.History shows a precedent. The greatest civil rights struggles in American history were bankrolled by wealthy, enlightened benefactors. Gerrit Smith, Joshua Bowen Smith, Arthur and Lewis Tappan and James G. Birney were some of those who funded the abolitionist movement using their resources to create organizations like the Anti-Slavery Society and the Liberty Party, an independent, antislavery third party. Louisine Havemeyer, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alva Belmont and Julia Ward Howe contributed their finances to the women's suffrage movement. Catt, the wife of a wealthy engineer, contributed a million dollars (about $25 million today) to send out information to newspapers and magazines and to mobilize activists during the final push to gain the women's right to vote in 1917-1918.In 2013, we need to tap into that fervor which led to such great progressive victories. With adequate resources, it is possible to build powerful new constituencies to make government open and honest and reflective of the prevailing public sentiment.The difference between charity and justice must be made clear. Soup kitchens are a vital and humane charity. Justice, on the other hand, looks to the root of the problem, and asks why the wealthiest places on Earth, such as the United States, have any starving or hungry people at all. It's true that many wealthy people donate substantially to charity presently, most philanthropy does go to charity. But by directing billions of dollars to preventing deprivation in the first place, the impact could be much greater.A society with more justice needs less charity. This practical approach has been proven again and again in the areas of public health and safety. Think of seat belts, clean air and safe vaccines. Furthermore, more resources are needed in the much neglected area of corporate accountability. Wall Street and other commercial interests have met too little resistance to their wrongdoings for too long. The public sentiment is there, what is needed is the fuel.A vast frontier of opportunity exists for our political economy to serve the needs of the many, especially our children, and not just the overpaid executives of massive corporations. Justice needs financial resources to spread its embrace. Enlightened, senior super-rich have the power to give our citizens much needed organization in communities around the country. As an example, back in 2003, hundreds of retired military, diplomatic and national security officials publically and separately challenged George W. Bush's drumbeats to invade Iraq. The commercial media and Congress even the Democratic leadership refused to hear these numerous experienced and credible antiwar voices.What difference could a wealthy backer have made to the antiwar movement? Look to George Soros, the wealthy philanthropist and progressive-cause supporter. During the lead up to the second Iraq War, his voice was one amongst the opposition. He accurately predicted the quagmire the United States would find itself in as a result of its march to war. His criticism received some media coverage, but like the others, it wasn't sustained enough to counter the months-long propaganda campaign of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. What Soros failed to do was devote some of his considerable resources to creating an equal-footed coalition to oppose the warmongers. Soros could have used that nucleus of three hundred or so retired officials and expanded upon it with a backup secretariat that coordinated a mass media campaign and placed full-time organizers in congressional districts to directly challenge senators and representatives to assert their constitutional duties. To Soros, the $200 million cost of such a campaign would have been a small part of his annual income. The potential payoff could have saved billions of dollars, millions of lives and injuries and avoided the sociocide of Iraq.My book, "Only the Super-rich Can Save Us!" laid out a blueprint for such a movement by the enlightened super-rich that could actually happen. Using 17 real-life wealthy Americans in fictional roles, led by Warren Buffett, a massive, well-funded campaign is launched to galvanize millions of Americans to organize themselves and restore their problem-solving sovereignty over their government and the massive corporations that have co-opted too much power and influence in Washington, D.C. for too long.One thing is clear -- we can't enact great change without making a serious commitment to civic engagement. Such a commitment can be jumpstarted right now by a few of our wealthiest citizens -- only they have the immediate resources necessary to turn the tide against the corporate oligarchy. Who among them will step forward?

NEWS,29 AND 30.03.2013

Russia warns on North Korea situation

Russia warned on Friday that a flare-up in tensions between North Korea and the United States could spin out of control, urging all sides involved in the standoff to refrain from muscle-flexing."Unilateral actions are being taken around North Korea which manifest themselves in an escalation of military activity," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said."We can simply see the situation getting out of control, it would spiral down into a vicious circle," he told reporters at a news conference alongside his Ukrainian counterpart."We believe it is necessary for all not to build up military muscle and not to use the current situation as an excuse to solve certain geopolitical tasks in the region through military means," he said, calling on all sides to create conditions for the resumption of talks.North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un earlier Friday ordered missile units to prepare to strike the US mainland and military bases in the Pacific after US stealth bombers flew over South Korea.The flights were part of annual drills between the United States and South Korea, which North Korea each year denounces as rehearsals for war. Pyongyang has been particularly irate this time, angered by UN sanctions imposed after its long-range rocket launch in December and the third nuclear test last month.

North Korea in a 'state of war'

North Korea declared it was in a "state of war" with South Korea and warned Seoul and Washington that any provocation would swiftly escalate into an all-out nuclear conflict. The US said it took the announcement "seriously", but noted it followed a familiar pattern, while South Korea largely dismissed it as an old threat dressed in new clothing.It was the latest in a string of dire-sounding pronouncements from Pyongyang that have been matched by tough warnings from Seoul and Washington, fuelling international concern that the situation might spiral out of control."As of now, inter-Korea relations enter a state of war and all matters between the two Koreas will be handled according to wartime protocol," the North said in a government statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency."The long-standing situation of the Korean peninsula being neither at peace nor at war is finally over," the statement said, adding that any US or South Korean provocation would trigger "a nuclear war".The two Koreas have technically remained at war for the past six decades because the 1950- 1953 Korean War concluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.The North had announced earlier this month that it was ripping up the armistice and other bilateral peace pacts signed with Seoul in protest against South Korea-US joint military exercises.The White House labelled the latest statement from Pyongyang as "unconstructive" and, while taking it "seriously", sought to place the immediate threat level in context."North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric and threats and today's announcement follows that familiar pattern," said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.In Seoul, the Unification Ministry insisted the war threat was "not really new". The Defence Ministry vowed to "retaliate thoroughly" to any provocation, but added that no notable troop movement had been observed along the border.As with past crises, Pyongyang did not allow the tensions to impact the Kaesong industrial complex, a joint South-North venture that provides the regime with crucial hard currency."The border crossing to Kaesong is functioning normally," said unification ministry spokesperson Park Soo-Jin.A verbal battleMost observers still believe this will remain a verbal rather than a physical battle."The North Koreans in recent weeks have turned rhetoric into performance art," said Gordon Flake, a Korea specialist and executive director of the Mansfield Foundation in Washington."When they have already declared the armistice null and void, I do not think a declaration of war breaks new ground," Flake said.But he added that the situation had now become so volatile that any slight miscalculation carried the potential for rapid escalation."The danger is, when the North Koreans have threatened a nuclear attack on Washington, they may not know a limit on how much they can get away with," said Flake.Both China and Russia called for calm Friday, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov voicing particular concern."We can simply see the situation getting out of control, it would spiral down into a vicious circle," Lavrov told reporters.His warning came after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ordered missile units to prepare to strike US mainland and military bases, after US stealth bombers flew over South Korea.The high-stakes standoff has its roots in North Korea's successful long-range rocket launch in December and the third nuclear test it carried out in February.Both events drew UN sanctions that incensed Pyongyang, which then switched the focus of its anger to the annual joint South Korea-US military drills.As tensions escalated, Washington has maintained a notably assertive stance, publicising its use of nuclear-capable B-52s and B-2 stealth bombers in the war games.The long-distance deployment of both sets of aircraft out of bases in Guam and the US mainland were intended as a clear signal of US commitment to defending South Korea against any act of aggression.

Russia responds to North Korea

Russia on Saturday called for "maxim responsibility and restraint," after North Korea declared it was in a "state of war" with South Korea and warned Seoul and Washington against any provocation. "We expect all sides to show maximum responsibility and restraint and that no-one will cross the line after which there will be no return," Grigory Logvinov, a Russian foreign ministry pointman on North Korea, told the Interfax news agency."Naturally, we cannot remain indifferent when an escalation of tensions is taking place at our eastern frontiers," the Russian diplomat was quoted as saying. "We cannot but worry."Logvinov said Russia was in "constant touch" with its partners involved in six-party nuclear negotiations, which include the two Koreas, China, the US, and Japan.Separately, the Interfax news agency quoted a diplomatic source as praising South Korea and the United States' positions in the stand-off with North Korea."The situation is, of course, very tense and dangerous but still there are some encouraging moments: The reaction from the United States and South Korea is measured and calm to a certain degree," the source was quoted as saying."It is not the time to breathe fire," the source added. "The time has come for active, non-public diplomacy aimed at searching for a political settlement within the framework of international law including the decisions of the UN Security Council which are binding in nature."North Korea on Saturday declared it was in a "state of war" with South Korea and warned Seoul and Washington that any provocation would swiftly escalate into an all-out nuclear conflict.

The United States said it took the announcement "seriously", but noted it followed a familiar pattern, while South Korea largely dismissed it as an old threat dressed in new clothing.

North Korea threatens to close factory

North Korea on Saturday threatened to shut down a joint industrial complex with South Korea, state media said, in the latest warning from Pyongyang at a time of escalated tensions between the two sides. The threat from the state body in charge of the complex just north of the Korean border followed an announcement by the North on Wednesday that it was cutting its last military hotline with the South."We will relentlessly close the industrial complex if South Korea tries to damage our dignity even a little," the body said in a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency."We warn that stern measures will be taken if [South Korea] continues to make reckless remarks defaming our dignity," it said, adding the fate of the complex depends "entirely" on the attitude of Seoul.The industrial complex which lies 10km inside North Korea was established in 2004 as a symbol of cross-border cooperation.North Korea has always been wary of allowing crises in inter-Korean relations to affect the zone a crucial hard-currency earner for the communist state.But there had been concerns that operations at the complex would be affected by Pyongyang's move to sever the military hotline used to monitor movement in and out of the zone.The line was used daily to provide the North with the names of those seeking entry to Kaesong, guaranteeing their safety as they crossed one of the world's most heavily militarised borders.Earlier on Saturday North Korea declared it was in a "state of war" with South Korea and warned Seoul and Washington that any provocation would swiftly escalate into an all-out nuclear conflict.It was one of several dire-sounding pronouncements from Pyongyang, recently, that have been matched by tough warnings from Seoul and Washington, fuelling international concern that the situation might spiral out of control.

Venezuela election: Battle between equals

As Venezuela prepares for its first election without Hugo Chavez in years, the opposition hopes to find a level playing field at last. And the government can't help but cling to his legacy. Neither of the candidates in the 14 April election can truly compare to the populist, crowd-wooing people's tribune that was Chavez, who was first elected in 1998 and died of cancer 5 March.With his booming voice and nearly constant tweets, speeches and diatribes against what he saw as US imperialism, he dominated and some would say polarised Venezuela like few others could.Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, head of the opposition coordination group, said his candidate Henrique Capriles, whom Chavez beat in a presidential election last October, "will no longer have as his adversary a living political legend".Instead he faces acting president Nicolas Maduro, the ruling Socialist Party candidate and Chavez's handpicked heir, a former bus driver who worked his way up in politics. He was vice president when Chavez died at age 58."It is a battle between equals. In that sense it is a more conventional situation, like in any democracy," Aveledo, who coordinates the MUD group of opposition parties, said in an interview with AFP.When Chavez was president, he got involved in every election campaign, no matter how small, even down to the municipal level.Now he is gone, but his memory is vividly fresh.And it will overshadow the election so thoroughly that both the government and the opposition reckon that to one extent or another, voters will be casting ballots for or against a man who is dead.Aveledo accused Maduro of deliberately trying to make this another election about Chavez rather than about the issues that Venezuelans face in their day to day life, which he said Maduro is shunning."But Chavez cannot be the focus of this campaign because we are not talking about a government that was, but rather the one that will be," he said.Capriles, a state governor, is focusing not on Chavez but on Maduro and therefore says things like: "Don't hide, don't put on a disguise, Nicolas. This is not about Chavez, but rather you."Indeed, as the country goes to the polls for the second time in just five months, these are uncharted waters for both sides.Since December, when Chavez left for cancer surgery in Cuba and named Maduro as his heir in case he never came back or became incapacitated, the opposition says it has been closely studying the heir apparent."Can Nicolas Maduro get as many people out to vote as Chavez did? No one knows. Will we be able to get as many people to turn out without the incentive of defeating Chavez? No one knows that either," Aveledo said.Polls give Maduro an advantage of more than 10 points.Maduro is not ChavezBut Aveledo urges caution about the numbers because this is a new game for Venezuela and events are unfolding fast from the time of Chavez's death until election a mere 40 days will have gone by."Right now there is no way to take a clear and accurate snap shot of voter intentions," he said.The big question, he said, is this: "How long will it take Chavez supporters to realise something which they know intuitively and which the government already knows, which is that Maduro is not Chavez?"Aveledo said the government has an unfair big advantage in the campaign, which officially begins 2 April. He said the National Election Council has banned some opposition activities and the tone of the race is nasty.Maduro is trying project authority and assert himself because he was personally annointed by Chavez, and feels he needs to take an aggressive attitude to be seen as a strong leader, Aveledo said.In the October elections, Capriles gave Chavez a decent run for his money, winning 44% of the votes, compared to 55% for Chavez.Still, that loss hurt the opposition badly. In state elections held shortly afterwards pro-Chavez people won in 20 of the 23 states where voting was held.MUD is a hodgepodge of political parties united by one thing opposition to Chavez and otherwise riven by internal differences.After the state election fiasco it did a lot of soul searching and managed to unite to nominate Capriles as candidate again, despite his earlier loss."MUD is like an earthquake-proof building. They sway but don't fall," Aveledo aurged. He said the coalition's goals are a large turnout among its people and a high level of abstention among those who backed Chavez."That is what we want and that is what we are striving for," he said.

Obama offers Easter, Passover greetings

US President Barack Obama on Saturday offered Easter and Passover greetings to millions of Americans, urging them to use this time to reflect on the nation's common values. "As Christians, my family and I remember the incredible sacrifice Jesus made for each and every one of us how he took on the sins of the world and extended the gift of salvation," Obama said in his weekly radio and internet address. "And we recommit ourselves to following his example here on Earth.”The president noted that this week, Jewish families are also gathered around the Seder table, commemorating Passover the exodus of Jews from Egypt and the triumph of their faith over oppression. Obama said that common humanity bound all Americans regardless of their faiths. "As Americans, we're united by something else, too: faith in the ideals that lie at the heart of our founding, and the belief that, as part of something bigger than ourselves, we have a shared responsibility to look out for our fellow citizens," he said. The president said these religious celebrations also offered Americans a chance to pause and reflect, to embrace their loved ones, to give thanks for their blessings and "to rededicate ourselves to interests larger than our own”.

Pope to celebrate first Easter vigil

Pope Francis is to celebrate his first Easter vigil on Saturday after praying for peace in a Middle East "torn apart by injustice and conflicts" during Good Friday's ceremonies.The newly elected Argentine pope will preside over a mass at St Peter's Basilica on Saturday evening, baptising four adult converts to the Catholic Church during the service an Albanian, an Italian, a Russian and a US national of Vietnamese origin, according to the Vatican.The ceremony will mark the end of three days of intensive Easter preparations set to culminate on Sunday when the Vatican's first non-European pope in nearly 1 300 years celebrates Easter mass in front of tens of thousands of pilgrims in St Peter's Square. Francis marked Good Friday with a traditional torch-lit ceremony around the Colosseum in Rome, presiding over the re-enactment of Jesus Christ's last hours and praying for Christians in the Middle East and for "our Muslim brothers". "Christians must respond to evil with good, taking the cross upon themselves as Jesus did," said Francis, who followed the ceremony from under a canopy overlooking the 2 000-year-old Roman amphitheatre. The pope also referred to a visit to Lebanon last year by his predecessor Benedict XVI, who stunned the world by resigning last month at the age of 85."We saw the beauty and the strong bond of communion joining Christians together in that land and the friendship of our Muslim brothers and so many others," the 76-year-old pope said. Brazilian, Chinese, Italian, Lebanese and Nigerian faithful took turns carrying a wooden cross around the Colosseum, where it is commonly believed that Christians were martyred. Prayers read out at the ceremony were written by a group of Lebanese young people. The Vatican has voiced concern over the fate of Christian minorities in many parts of the Middle East and the rise of radical Islam, as well as calling for an end to conflict in the region. Vatican spokesperson Reverend Federico Lombardi said the pope had shortened some of the lengthy Easter ceremonies as part of his "desire for simplicity". Helping the poor The pope, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, was known in Argentina for his humble lifestyle, his outreach in poor neighbourhoods and his strong social advocacy during his homeland's devastating economic crisis.He began the most sacred season in the Christian calendar on Holy Thursday by washing the feet of 12 young prisoners in an unprecedented new take on an ancient pre-Easter ritual. Popes performing the ceremony which commemorates the gesture of humility believed to have been carried out by Jesus for his 12 disciples at their last meal have usually washed the feet of priests. Francis's trip to the Casal del Marmo youth prison was the first time a pontiff had performed the act in a jail, and the first time women and Muslims were included. Latin America's first pontiff has set a markedly different tone from his predecessor, with a more open and informal style that is unusual in the Vatican halls of power.Francis has already broken with several traditions, although he is yet to begin tackling the many problems assailing the Roman Catholic Church, including reform of the scandal-ridden Vatican bureaucracy and bank.