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.

NEWS,21.02.2013

Hope for foreign workers in US

The leading business advocacy group and the largest labor federation say they have a deal on principles for a new visa programme to bring lesser-skilled workers to the US a key component of any immigration overhaul bill. The groups, the Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO, announced the breakthrough on Thursday after weeks of closed-doors negotiations at the request of senators involved in crafting an immigration deal in Congress.The principles include agreement to create a mechanism to let businesses more easily hire foreign workers when Americans aren't available to fill jobs. This will require a new kind of worker visa program that does not keep workers in permanent temporary status.But the joint statement from the chamber and AFL-CIO makes clear that more work needs to be done to turn their deal into a bill.

5 big US banks cut mortgage debt

Five of the biggest US banks have cut struggling homeowners' mortgage balances by $19bn, part of a total $45.8bn in relief provided under a landmark settlement over foreclosure abuses. More than 550 000 borrowers received some form of mortgage relief between March 1 and December 31 2012, according to a report issued on Thursday by Joseph Smith, the monitor of the settlement.That translates to about $82 668 per homeowner, according to the report, which is based on the banks' own accounts of their progress.The report says $19.5bn of the $45.8bn in relief was in the form of short sales, in which lenders agree to accept less than what the seller owes on the mortgage.

Horsemeat scandal spreads to Asia

The fallout from Europe's horsemeat scandal has spread far outside the continent, with an imported lasagne brand pulled from shelves in Hong Kong and a new row over the treatment of horses farmed in the Americas.A host of top players have been caught up in the spiralling scandal including Nestle, the world's biggest food company, top beef producer JBS of Brazil and British supermarket chain Tesco.Hong Kong authorities ordered ParknShop, one of the biggest supermarket chains in the city, to remove lasagne made by frozen food giant Findus, one of the firms at the centre of the scandal.The product was imported from Britain and made by French firm Comigel.Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety said Wednesday that the item "might be adulterated with horsemeat which has not undergone tests for veterinary drugs".The chain, owned by tycoon Li Ka-shing, has about 280 stores in Hong Kong and the neighbouring gaming hub of Macau.In Europe, the Czech Republic became the latest country embroiled in the horsemeat affair, with food inspectors ordering Tesco to withdraw Nowaco brand frozen "beef" lasagne after detecting horsemeat.The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority said it had found horse DNA in two samples of the Nowaco meals manufactured by the Tavola company in Luxembourg.Croatian company Ledo, which imported beef lasagne containing horsemeat into Slovenia, on Wednesday also accused Tavola of being responsible.Supermarkets in Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Finland, France, Austria, Norway, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Slovenia have all removed meals from shelves.The Czech authority noted that horsemeat is sold for human consumption in the country, but that if not mentioned on the product label it was misleading to consumers and could lead to a fine of up to three million koruna (€118 000, $159 000).Spanghero, the French firm that sparked the food alert by allegedly passing off 750 tonnes of horsemeat as beef, was on Monday allowed to resume production of minced meat, sausages and ready-to-eat meals.But the company, whose horsemeat found its way into 4.5 million "beef" products sold across Europe, will no longer be allowed to stock frozen meat.The firm's sanitary licence was suspended last Thursday after it was accused of passing off huge quantities of mislabelled meat over a period of six months.Investigators on Wednesday conducted a second day of raids on Spanghero's headquarters in Castelnaudary in southern France, a source close to the probe said, adding they had already seized several documents and copied computer records.About 60 workers from French company Fraisnor, which produces fresh lasagne, demonstrated on Wednesday in the northern town of Feuchy for state financial aid, saying their sales had dived 70% after the scandal.The company, which manufactures about 700 tonnes of fresh lasagne a month, is on the point of laying off some of its employees.Most Swiss supermarkets on Wednesday withdrew horsemeat products from their shelves, not due to the spiralling fake labelling scandal but over allegations of cruel conditions on farms where horses are bred for meat.German discount chain Lidl said it had removed all horsemeat products from its shelves in Switzerland, while the country's second largest supermarket chain, Coop, said it had withdrawn around 20 horsemeat sausage products.The move came amid outcry over an investigative consumer show that aired on Tuesday evening on Swiss public television, featuring images taken by animal protection activists showing starving and visibly sick and suffering horses on farms in a number of countries that provide meat to Swiss stores.The Zurich-based Animal Protection Association had sent investigators to large horsemeat producing countries Canada, the United States, Mexico and Argentina to probe how the animals were kept, transported and slaughtered."Our investigators found that the horses were bred in conditions that did not meet any of the norms in place in Switzerland and the European Union," project leader Sabrina Gurtner said.Coop however said it would continue to sell fresh horsemeat, pointing out that it receives 70% of that meat from France and the remaining 30% from Poland.Switzerland's largest supermarket chain, Migros, meanwhile said it would not withdraw any horsemeat products, saying it trusted its Canadian supplier.Dried horsemeat products are widely consumed in Switzerland.Elsewhere Bolivia's President Evo Morales slammed western fast food as "a threat to humanity" as he accused multinational firms of seeking to block the development of his country's staple food quinoa.The left-wing Bolivian leader slammed capitalist "fast food" for causing cancer and other diseases, in a speech to the UN General Assembly to launch the commemorative year.Morales steered clear of the growing horsemeat scandal which European officials have been keen to stress is a labelling issue not a public health issue.

North Korea top task for new South head

Park Geun-Hye will be sworn in as South Korea's first female president next week - a historic landmark clouded by North Korea's recent nuclear test and threats emanating from Pyongyang. The daughter of the late dictator and vehement anti-communist Park Chung-Hee, Park campaigned on a policy of cautious engagement with Pyongyang in contrast to her hawkish predecessor, Lee Myung-Bak.But her plans are likely to be shelved, at least for the short term, after the 12 February nuclear test angered the public in the South and emboldened hawks in Park's ruling conservative party.The UN Security Council is still debating how to respond, but is almost certain to toughen sanctions on Pyongyang - a move that could trigger a sharp response from the North and possibly even another nuclear test.Kim Jang-Soo, a former defence minister who has been appointed Park's national security adviser, signalled on the same day as the test that the new administration's policy could "not be the same as before".Park strongly condemned the test and warned the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un that it would bring about its own collapse with its complete isolation from the international community.Park's first challenge will be hardliners in her own party who are staunchly opposed to engaging Pyongyang and some of whom have even begun calling in public for South Korea to build its own nuclear deterrent."We urgently need to solve the unbalanced nuclear capability between the two Koreas and may need nuclear arms ourselves for minimum self-defence," said Won Yoo-Chul, a senior member of Park's New Frontier Party.A survey by Gallup Korea published on Wednesday showed more than 60% of South Koreans support the idea of Seoul having its own nuclear weapons capability.At the same time, Park's efforts to mollify her party hawks are being undermined by the increasingly bellicose statements coming from the North.On Tuesday, the North Korean envoy at the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva warned that South Korea faced "final destruction" if Seoul and its allies pushed for tougher UN resolutions over the North's nuclear programme.Kim Yong-Hyun, a professor of North Korea studies at Dongguk University, said Park's hands would be tied after she took office."The UN Security Council will surely impose more sanctions that will be supported by Seoul," Kim said. "In that climate, I see little possibility for substantial cross-border talks for six months at least."Park had promised a package of substantial welfare programmes aimed at the South's rapidly growing elderly population, but the North's test has already resulted in a shift in spending priorities."We are now faced with an unexpected need to increase the defence budget," Park said on Monday.The North has traditionally sought to test the mettle of the South's new leaders as they take office, sometimes with a view to forcing Seoul -and the US - into negotiations.Despite the difficult environment, Moon Chung-In, a politics professor at Yonsei University, said Park needed to move swiftly and "proactively" to position South Korea as the chief international mediator with the North."That way Park will enjoy more diplomatic leverage with China and the US than before... so she needs to take a more open and proactive stance," Moon said.Inter-Korean contacts have been effectively frozen since Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing one of its warships in March 2010, and halted almost all trade and aid to the impoverished North.The North denied involvement, but went on to shell an island on the South Korean side of their disputed maritime border in November 2010, leaving four South Koreans dead and sparking brief fears of a full-scale conflict.Paik Hak-Soon, a North Korean analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank, said the hard-line stance of Park's predecessor, president Lee, had failed to produce any results and should be discarded."If Park takes a confrontational stance, she will end up repeating the same mistake as Lee, who not only failed to curb the North's nuclear ambitions, but also saw inter-Korea relations worsen," Paik said."She needs to act as soon as possible to restart a dialogue, though it won't be politically easy," he said.

Mexico vigilantes kill criminal - claim

Armed vigilantes in southern Mexico engaged in a shootout on Wednesday with a group of men they described as criminals, killing one in what appeared to be the first death related to the month-and-a-half-old "self-defence" movement.The confrontation near the town of Ayutla raised the stakes in a growing movement that has seen residents of several towns arm themselves with a motley assortment of old hunting rifles, shotguns and pistols while conducting patrols and manning checkpoints to fight crime spawned by drug cartels.Bruno Placido, leader of the vigilante movement in the southern state of Guerrero, said one of the civilian patrols caught sight of a group of armed men, who opened fire on the patrol"There was one killed on the side of the criminals," he said.The masked vigilantes frequently stop passing motorists to search for weapons or people whose names are on hand-written lists of "suspects" wanted for crimes like theft and extortion.The vigilantes have opened fire before on motorists who refused to stop, slightly wounding a pair of tourists from Mexico City visiting a local beach in early February. The shootout on Wednesday came one day after the vigilantes freed the last of 42 people detained on suspicion of crimes ranging from theft to extortion and murder, a move that authorities had hoped spelled the beginning of a new, more regulated phase for the "self-defence" groups.The Guerrero state government said the vigilantes turned 20 of the final detainees over to police. It said the other 22 had been suspected of lesser offenses and were released on Tuesday because the vigilantes considered they had been sufficiently punished."The state government foresees that the release of these detainees closes a chapter, and sets things on the road to institutionalising and regulating community police forces," the state government said in a statement.Placido, the vigilantes' leader, confirmed that some prisoners had been turned over.State officials hope the vigilantes can be persuaded to join already-established "community police" forces that operate in some Guerrero towns, where unmasked residents with some training and minimal uniforms, usually printed T-shirts, perform routine patrols and turn over suspects to town assemblies. Following local custom, those assemblies try the suspects and can impose some sentences.The recently formed "self-defence" groups, however, have none of those trappings. They consist of men wearing ski masks and bandanas over their faces while manning the improvised highway checkpoints and patrolling rural areas.Residents tired of rampant crime set up the roadblocks in early January and detained about 53 people. They held the detainees at improvised jails in villages around Ayutla, in some cases for more than 1 month. They released the first 11 detainees in early February.While local media have reported that self-defence groups have spread to 36 communities in eight states, that may exaggerate their numbers. For example, assistants to the mayors of two towns in the State of Mexico, next to Mexico City, where self-defence groups had reportedly formed, denied that any vigilante committees existed in their towns.But "self-defence" represents an attractive option for some rural towns in Guerrero and neighbouring states like Michoacan and Morelos. Because official forces are woefully inadequate and often corrupt, vigilante groups can press to have their members hired by local governments as backup security forcesEven in some of the rougher neighbourhoods on Mexico City's eastern outskirts, improvised block committees have formed to fight crimes like burglaries and muggings."No More Robberies! If We Catch You, We Will Lynch You!" reads one banner that a local block committee hung across the street in the town of Texcoco, east of the capital. A local resident who works at a car wash said residents organized the block committee, called "Vigilant Neighbour Committee", about two years ago in the face of frequent home robberies.Residents ring local church bells to alert each other if they see a crime in progress. The man said they had caught thieves but hadn't lynched any. "The police usually come to pick them up before anything can happen," said the car-wash employee, who did not give his name for fear of reprisals."Before, they would just come into your house to steal, and you would say, 'Sure, take whatever you want,'" said the man. "But nowadays, they beat your family, they start attacking your family."Eduardo Gallo, a prominent anti-crime activist, said the armed community groups pose the danger of becoming vengeful mobs, "but that is what the citizenry is being forced into when they don't have any public safety".Gallo said the "self-defence" groups are likely to hang on, and perhaps grow, if authorities don't guarantee public safety in the wave of drug cartel violence and common crime.Police reform has a long way to go in Mexico, with only about half of the country's police officers vetted and subjected to background checks."I think we are going to see the self-defence phenomenon grow a bit more, and even see them turn into revenge groups, until this hits bottom and the government begins to change its attitude," Gallo said.

NEWS,01.01.2013

'Fiscal cliff' plan goes to Republican House

A legislative fix to patch up America's fiscal crisis will be taken up by lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday after passing the Senate overnight.The White House and top Republicans struck a deal after dramatic 11th-hour negotiations to avert huge New Year tax hikes and postpone automatic spending cuts that had threatened to send the US economy back into recession.If the legislation passes the House as expected, it will represent a win for President Barack Obama as it raises taxes on the richest Americans albeit above an income threshold higher than he and other Democrats had wanted.But the victory will be hollow as it fails to tackle the deep spending cuts needed to resolve America's austerity crisis, setting up the prospect of another bitter Washington battle at the start of Obama's second term.After months of agonising over the crisis, weeks of debate about a possible solution, and days of intense, closed-door bartering, the US Senate voted overwhelmingly 89-8 early Tuesday to pass a controversial bill that averts the so-called "fiscal cliff".Hiked tax ratesAlthough the midnight deadline was technically missed, any serious impact on the world's biggest economy will be avoided as long as legislation passes the House of Representatives in the coming days.Obama issued a statement shortly after the 02:00 (07:00 GMT) Senate vote, urging lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House to "pass it without delay." A vote could come as early as Tuesday.If the measure is agreed by both chambers of Congress, tax rates will be hiked on households earning over $450 000 a year but remain where they are for everyone else.While not matching Obama's campaign threshold of $250 000, it would represent a major concession from Republicans who have stuck solidly to a pledge of no higher taxes since then president George HW Bush failed to win re-election in 1992 after breaking a promise not to raise rates"While neither Democrats nor Republicans got everything they wanted, this agreement is the right thing to do for our country and the House should pass it without delay," Obama said in his statement.he deal puts off $109bn in budget cuts across the government for two months, setting the stage for a new showdown between Obama's Democrats and Republicans in dysfunctional Washington at the end of February, just weeks after the president is sworn in for his second term.Winning over RepublicansHad no deal been struck, experts warned that the fragile US economy could have been sent spinning back into recession due to the $500bn combined whack of spending cuts and tax hikes.It remains for Republican House Speaker John Boehner to rally his restive conservative coalition around the pact, which will likely need some Democratic votes in the House to pass.For two decades, Republicans have fought any attempt to raise taxes. So White House officials will see vindication in a deal that enshrines one of Obama's top pledges in his re-election campaign.In a terse statement, Boehner said his chamber would pick up the legislation if it passed the Senate."Decisions about whether the House will seek to accept or promptly amend the measure will not be made until House members and the American people have been able to review the legislation," he said.‘Deal better than the alternative’Democrats suggested that the deal, like many congressional bargains, was not perfect, but that it was preferable to the alternative."It's not that this proposal is regarded as great or is loved in any way. But it's a lot better than going over the cliff," Senator Chuck Schumer told reportersWorld stock markets, expected to be thrown into turmoil by a failure to beat the deadline, are closed New Year's Day, so lawmakers have a few extra hours of breathing room to get the deal concluded.The legislation will also extend tax credits for clean energy firms and unemployment insurance for two million people that had been due to expire.And it includes an end to a temporary two percent cut to payroll taxes for Social Security retirement savings - meaning all Americans will pay a little more - and changes to inheritance and investment taxes.Relief seemed to course through the Senate during and after the vote, but both sides were already gearing up for the next legislative showdown, over the need to lift the government's statutory borrowing limit of $16.4trillion, reached on Monday.The Treasury will take extraordinary measures to keep the government afloat for an undisclosed period of time until the ceiling is raised. Republicans are already demanding spending cuts in return.That fight will now be doubled as it is likely to coincide with the new deadline for the two-month sequester postponement set up by the fiscal cliff agreement.

Activists release anti-North Korea leaflets

South Korean activists launched balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border on Tuesday as North Korea joined a global party by greeting the New Year with fireworks.About 30 activists released seven balloons carrying 28 000 leaflets in the northern border town of Gwanjeonri in Cheorwon County, shouting "Down with North Korea's dynastic dictatorship!"The launch sparked scuffles with ten local residents who voiced fear of North Korean reprisals, but there were no injuries thanks to quick intervention by police.The launch went ahead despite repeated threats from Pyongyang of military strikes against such exercises.The leaflets launched on Tuesday urged North Koreans to rise up against their new leader Kim Jong-Un and included pictures of overthrown strongmen like Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.Kim, in his late 20s, came to power after his father and long-time leader Kim Jong-Il died in December 2011.In Pyongyang, the new leader started the New Year by watching a musical performance and fireworks, according to the official Korean Central News Agency."Fireworks were displayed to beautifully decorate the nocturnal sky above Pyongyang and bells rang on the New Year," it said.

Venezuelans pray as Chavez health worsens

Backers of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez prayed and called off New Year's Eve festivities on Monday as the cancer-stricken leftist leader took a turn for the worse, fuelling doubts about his political future.Venezuelans prayed in church and a downtown square after the government announced that Chavez suffered "new complications" from a respiratory infection following his fourth cancer-related surgery on 11 December in Cuba.His vice president and political heir, Nicolas Maduro, broke the news from Havana on Sunday night, saying the condition of the 58-year-old leader was delicate and that he faced an uphill battle.Maduro decided to stay in Cuba for "the next few hours" to check on the ubiquitous "Comandante," the face of the Latin American left and fierce critic of the United States who has led the oil-rich nation for 14 years.RumoursJorge Arreaza, Venezuela's science and technology minister as well as the president's son in law, took to Twitter to try to tamp down rampant social media speculation that the end might be near, or had already come."My fellow countrymen: do not believe ill-intentioned rumours. President Chavez has spent the day calmly and stable, with his children at his side," said Arreaza who is in Cuba with other family members.Back in Caracas, crews took down the stage of a downtown concert site while Information Minister Ernesto Villegas invited Venezuelans to gather at Plaza Bolivar to "pray with joy and optimism" for Chavez."I deeply love him and would give my life for him. There should be millions like Chavez," Haydee Dominguez, a 50-year-old secretary, said at the gathering led by Villegas.Others teared up at the San Francisco church while several ministers attended a special mass for Chavez at the Miraflores presidential palace at midday.At a meeting point for Chavez followers in Plaza Bolivar, "Chavistas" choked up as they contemplated the health of their leader."We are all praying for the health of our comandante," said Miriam, one of the people gathered at the square. "There can't be any party here."Election Chavez had declared himself cancer free in July, more than a year after being diagnosed with the disease in the pelvic region. The exact nature of the cancer has never been made public.He was re-elected in October but announced a relapse earlier this month and rushed to Cuba for another operation.On Monday on Twitter, hashtags translating into expressions such as "Chavez will live and conquer" and "I love Chavez" were numerous, while others speculated about his health.One of the people discussing Chavez's health was Jose Rafael Marquina, a Venezuelan doctor who lives in the United States and has claimed in the past to have reliable sources informing him about the president."The respiratory failure continues without any improvement and the kidney function continues to deteriorate," he wrote on Twitter.The government has denied such rumours.OppositionChavez is scheduled to be sworn in on January 10 but the government has indicated that the ceremony could be postponed if the president is not fit by then.Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavez in the 7 October election, predicted on Monday that there would be "big changes" in 2013.The opposition coalition, Democratic Unity Table, called for dialogue with the government to deal with what it called an "emergency".Veppex, a Miami-based association of 25 000 Venezuelans living outside their country as refugees or political exiles, insisted the constitution must be respected verbatim and new elections held if Chavez is indisposed.Under Venezuela's constitution, a presidential election must be held within 30 days if the head of state is incapacitated or dies before his inauguration or within the first four years of his term.Swearing inThe government is trying to work out how to "resolve that obstacle", said Luis Vicente Leon, head of pollsters Datanalisis, who said it was clear now that Chavez was in a critical condition.As the constitution says he must be sworn in on 10 January, "anything else will be hard to sell without it being construed as an institutional coup", Leon said.But Maduro and parliament speaker Diosdado Cabello have left the door open for Chavez to be sworn in at a later date by the Supreme Court.Cabello has even said that new elections will not be convened on 10 Januar, nor will he himself take over temporarily, as the constitution stipulates, if Chavez is out of the picture.

NEWS,12.11.2012

Brazil Violence: At Least 140 Murdered In Sao Paulo Over Past Two Weeks

 

At least 140 people have been murdered in South America's biggest city over the past two weeks in a rising wave of violence, Sao Paulo's Public Safety Department says.Killings in Sao Paulo began sharply increasing in September, a month in which 144 people were killed, the department's website says. It says a total of 982 homicides took place in the city during the first nine months of the year.The victims included 90 police officers, most of them gunned down while off duty.A Public Safety Department official said Saturday that the killings of police have been ordered by imprisoned leaders of an organized crime group called the First Capital Command in reprisal for a crackdown on the drug trade. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.The First Capital Command is one of Brazil's most notorious organized crime groups. Based in Sao Paulo state prisons, the group allegedly was behind several waves of attacks on police, government buildings, banks and public buses in 2006. Those assaults and counterattacks by police in the slums killed more than 200 people.With the latest violence, shops and schools in some Sao Paulo districts closed early this past week as rumors of gang-imposed curfews spread. "In view of the wave of violence in the city's south zone, the school's directors decided to send staff and students home early so as to assure their safety," Eliane Valerio de Souza, administrative assistant at a professional training school, told the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.Sao Paulo state authorities last week said incarcerated leaders of the First Capital Command suspected of using smuggled cellphones to order attacks and coordinate drug sales, murders of rival gang members and the purchase of weapons, would be transferred to a maximum security federal prison outside the state.On Thursday, one of the gang's lower echelon leaders was sent go a federal penitentiary in northern Brazil. Others are expected be transferred by the end of the month.

Greece Racist Attacks Increase Amid Financial Crisis

 

The attack came seemingly out of nowhere. As the 28-year-old Bangladeshi man dug around trash bins one recent afternoon for scrap metal, two women and a man set upon him with a knife. He screamed as he fell. Rushed to the hospital, he was treated for a gash to the back of his thigh.Police are investigating the assault as yet another in a rising wave of extreme-right rage against foreigners as Greece sinks further into economic misery. The details vary, but the cold brutality of each attack is the same: Dark-skinned migrants confronted by thugs, attacked with knives and broken bottles, wooden bats and iron rods.Rights groups warn of an explosion in racist violence over the past year, with a notable surge since national elections in May and June that saw dramatic gains by the far-right Golden Dawn party. The severity of the attacks has increased too, they say. What started as simple fist beatings has now escalated to assaults with metal bars, bats and knives. Another new element: ferocious dogs used to terrorize the victims."Violence is getting wilder and wilder and we still have the same pattern of attacks ... committed by groups of people in quite an organized way," said Kostis Papaioannou, former head of the Greek National Commission for Human Rights.As Greece's financial crisis drags on for a third year, living standards for the average Greek have plummeted. A quarter of the labor force is out of work, with more than 50 percent of young people unemployed. An increasing number of Greeks can't afford basic necessities and healthcare. Robberies and burglaries are never out of the news for long.With Greece a major entry point for hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants seeking a better life in the European Union, foreigners have become a convenient scapegoat.Some victims turn up at clinics run by charities, recounting experiences of near lynching. Others are afraid to give doctors the details of what happened and even more afraid of going to the police. The more seriously hurt end up in hospitals, white bandages around their heads or plaster casts around broken limbs."Every day we see someone who complained of (some form) of racist violence," said Nikitas Kanakis, president of the Greek section of Doctors of the World, which runs a drop-in clinic and pharmacy in central Athens that treats the uninsured.Racist attacks are not officially recorded, so statistics are hard to come by. In an effort to plug that gap and sensitize a population numbed by three years of financial crisis, a group of rights groups and charities banded together to document the violence.They registered 87 cases of racist attacks between January and September, but say the true number runs into the hundreds."Most of the time the victims, they don't want to talk about this, they don't feel safe," Kanakis said. "The fear is present and this is the bigger problem."Frances William, who heads the tiny Tanzanian community of about 250 people, knows the feeling well."People are very, very much afraid," he said, adding that even going next door to buy bread, "I'm not sure I'll be safe to come back home."The community's cultural center was attacked several weeks ago, with amateur video shot from across the street showing a group of muscled men in black T-shirts smashing the entrance. Earlier that day, children standing outside during a birthday party were threatened by a man brandishing a pistol, William said.The recent elections showed a meteoric rise in popularity of the formerly marginalized Golden Dawn, which went from less than half a percent in 2009 elections to nearly 7 percent of the vote and 18 seats in the country's 300-member parliament in June.Campaigning on a promise to "clean up the stench" in Greece, the party whose slogan is "blood, honor, Golden Dawn" has made no secret of its views on migrants: All are in the country illegally and must be deported. Greece's borders must be sealed with landmines and military patrols, and any Greeks employing or renting property to migrants should face punishment.The party vehemently denies it is involved in racist attacks."The only racist attacks that exist in Greece for the last years are the attacks that illegal immigrants are doing against Greeks," said Ilias Panagiotaros, a burly Golden Dawn lawmaker who divides his working time between Parliament and his sports shop, which also sells military and police paraphernalia.His party is carrying out a "very legitimate, political fight . through parliament and through the neighborhoods of Athens and of Greece," he said.The party's tactics handing out food to poor Greeks, pledging to protect those who feel unprotected by the police are working. Recent opinion polls have shown Golden Dawn's support rising to between 9 and 12 percent.In late August, the conservative-led coalition government began addressing the issue of illegal immigration by rounding up migrants. By early November, they had detained more than 48,480 people, arresting 3,672 of them for being in the country illegally.Rights groups also warn that what started as xenophobic attacks is now spreading to include anyone who might disagree with the hard-right view. Greek society must understand that the far-right rise doesn't just concern migrants, said Kanakis."It has to do with all of us," he said. "It's a problem of everyday democracy."

U.S. To Become World's Largest Oil Producer, Exceeding Saudi Arabia, By 2020: International Energy Agency

 

The United States will become the world's largest oil producer by around 2020, temporarily overtaking Saudi Arabia, as new exploration technologies help find more resources, the International Energy Agency forecast on Monday.In its World Energy Outlook, the energy watchdog also predicted that greater oil and natural gas production thanks partly to a boom in shale gas output as well as more efficient use of energy will allow the U.S., which now imports around 20 percent of its energy needs, to become nearly self-sufficient around 2035. That is "a dramatic reversal of the trend seen in most other energy-importing countries," the Paris-based IEA said in its report. "Energy developments in the United States are profound and their effect will be felt well beyond North America and the energy sector."Rebounding U.S. oil and gas production is "steadily changing the role of North America in global energy trade," the IEA said.For example, oil exports out of the Mideast will increasingly go to Asia as the U.S. becomes more self-sufficient. That will increase the global focus on the security of strategic routes that bring Middle East oil to Asian markets. Tensions between Iran and Western powers have raised concerns that oil exports from the Persian Gulf could be blocked in a potential conflict over Tehran's alleged plan to develop nuclear weapons.The IEA added that global trends in the energy markets will be influenced by some countries' retreat from nuclear power, the fast spread of wind and solar technologies and a rise in unconventional gas production.The agency concluded that despite the rising use of low carbon energy sources, huge subsidies will keep fossil fuels "dominant in the global energy mix.""Taking all new developments and policies into account, the world is still failing to put the global energy system onto a more sustainable path," the IEA said.Global energy needs are forecast to increase by a third by 2035, with 60 percent of the additional demand coming from China, India and the Middle East.

NEWS,11.08.2012

Globalization and the Lessons of History

 

As the U.S. economy struggles to recover from the worst recession in 70 years, we face a new, much more challenging world. Economic globalization means that more countries are exporting their goods, generating first-rate research, and attracting investments: besides China, we compete with Brazil, India, South Korea, and Turkey. Although terrorism, elections, and natural disasters dominate headlines, globalization has been the most powerful trend over the last thirty years. Despite the recession, it shows no sign of abating. Dealing with globalization may tempt us to see other countries as simply our competitors or worse, as our enemies. If we are to deal with globalization more wisely, the lessons of history are crucial to understand.Globalization is not completely new. A century ago, the world economy went through a similar dramatic expansion. "For economic purposes all mankind is fast becoming one people," wrote James Bryce in 1903. For the first time, a world wide web of telegraph lines, centered on London, sent news and prices around the globe. The United States became an industrialized country because of millions of immigrants and a mountain of European investment. Tragically, the first era of globalization ended badly in two world wars, Communism, fascism, the Great Depression, and the Cold War. Why? Those who suffered from rapid economic change were often recruits for violent solutions; war could undo decades of economic progress. In short, those who gained from economic globalization became complacent about the need to maintain it and cavalier about the costs it generated. Old industries declining, migration, social problems in rapidly expanding cities all of these occur almost inevitably with economic growth. If social policies do not cushion the costs and help people adjust to the changes set off by economic growth, the entire system supporting economic growth can be undermined. At the same time, international peace and cooperation have been crucial to economic globalization. Prosperity in the long run depends on peace. The first era of globalization occurred in the late nineteenth century because Europe experienced the longest period of peace in its history. Only one, brief war the Crimean War occurred among more than two of the Great Powers. World War One broke out in part because leaders in Germany thought they could use violence to strengthen their country's position in the world economy. Instead, they nearly destroyed the entire world economy, and brought on more war. By the time Europe stabilized again, after a second, more awful war, the world economy was no bigger than it had been 35 years earlier, with a much larger population to feed.History also teaches us that we can do better. Nothing illustrates that nations can learn from the past as much as the difference between what the United States did in 1919, at the end of the First World War, and what we did in 1945-48, after the Second. In 1919, we turned our back on Europe and its problems. The world economy limped along and eventually collapsed into the Depression, while the unsolved problems of the War led to dictatorships and more war. After 1945, we did better. The United States created a range of international institutions in the late 1940s the UN, IMF, World Bank, NATO, the alliance with Japan, and the GATT, the forerunner of today's World Trade Organization. We also helped Europe set up what eventually became the European Union. With all their imperfections, these institutions and the cooperative agreements they support still provide a framework for worldwide economic growth. Because of them, we can travel, send money, buy and sell goods, and communicate among the nations of the world in a way that would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago.In tough times, it may be tempting to turn our backs on the rest of the world or to think that economic growth, once begun, runs on its own. But we depend on our global economic ties for future growth. By investing in our greatest resource  people  and improving our transportation and communications infrastructure, we can compete much more effectively than by tariffs or trade disputes. The history of the last century teaches us that dealing with the inevitable costs of globalization and working to maintain a peaceful world order are essential to all of us. Our generation has an opportunity to make great gains from a return to worldwide economic growth  but we must distribute the gains more fairly and work to build a cooperative international order. Our competitors are also our customers and our potential partners in a better world.

Federal Investigators Punt On Goldman Sachs Prosecutions

 

By 2006, Goldman Sachs traders knew that the investments packed with subprime home mortgages they had been selling at big profits for the last few years were more dangerous than they were letting on.Internally, they characterized these offerings as "junk,""dogs,""big old lemons" and "monstrosities." Nevertheless, the bank congratulated itself for successfully offloading the mortgage bonds onto others. The head of the bank's mortgage department extolled its success in reducing its subprime inventory, writing that his team had "‘worked their tails off to make some lemonade from some big old lemons.” These findings, included in the report released by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission nearly two years ago, helped inform at least one major regulatory enforcement action against the bank: a $550 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading investors about the risks of a product known as Abacus. For a while, it seemed that a string of similar enforcement actions involving other mortgage investment products, whose eventual collapse in value brought down the housing market and very nearly the American economy, were imminent. On Thursday, Goldman Sachs announced in a regulatory filing that the SEC had dropped its investigation into a $1.3 billion mortgage bond known as Fremont Home Loan Trust 2006-E, even though it indicated earlier this year that charges were likely. Later in the day, the Department of Justice said it was ending its own Goldman investigation, launched after a congressional investigation chaired by senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) issued a report that found Goldman Sachs sold investments "in ways that created conflicts of interest with the firm’s clients and at times led to the bank's profiting from the same products that caused substantial losses for its clients.”"The department and investigative agencies ultimately concluded that the burden of proof to bring a criminal case could not be met based on the law and facts as they exist at this time," the Justice Department said in a statement late on Thursday. Reuters reported that David Wells, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs, said in an email, "We are pleased that this matter is behind us."The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. For industry critics, the decisions to drop the investigations are the latest indication that the federal government's law enforcement response to the greatest financial catastrophe since the Great Depression will end with a whimper. "I'm shocked but not surprised," said Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, and a Huffington Post contributor. "It reflects a pattern of failing to hold these large institutions accountable. To not even try sends a double signal, that there are different standards for us and for Wall Street."Johnson said he still holds out some hope for a grand settlement that would provide some financial compensation for the homeowners most damaged by the inflated pricing that came as a result of the bubble built by Wall Street.Neil Barofsky, the former special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and a frequent critic of the Obama administration's handling of the financial crisis, said in an email that the announcements are "a stark reminder that no individual or institution has been held meaningfully accountable for their role in the financial crisis." "Without such accountability, the unending parade of megabank scandals will inevitably continue," Barofsky said. Of the two federal agencies, the record of the Department of Justice in pursuing financial crisis cases is the thinnest. So far, the Justice Department has brought just one case, which ended when a federal jury in 2009 acquitted two Bear Stearns hedge fund managers accused of lying to investors about the soundness of the securities they were selling. After that, the Justice Department decided not to pursue cases against two men whose actions most Wall Street observers agree brought on the crisis: Angelo Mozilo, the former head of the defunct mortgage giant Countrywide and Joseph Cassano, who ran the financial products division at AIG.The SEC's track record has been a bit better, at least in terms of dollar recoveries. The regulator won about $2 billion in penalties since 2008 in financial crisis-related cases, including a record $67.5 million from Mozillo. The agency has been dogged, though, by complaints including from federal judge Jed Rakoff that its penalties are too small, doesn't target individuals and doesn't require defendants to admit guilt as part of settlement agreements. In May, the SEC dropped its probe of Lehman Brothers, even though an independent examiner appointed by the bankruptcy court of the defunct bank concluded that there were "actionable claims" against senior Lehman officers for using an accounting tool known as Repo 105 to book billions of dollars in phony sales to disguise the true extent of the bank's financial woes. Financial cases of any stripe, especially those that involve complex transactions involving structured finance products, are difficult to prove, said Arthur Wilmarth, a banking law professor at George Washington University. Even so, he said, he believes the SEC could have brought additional cases against Goldman Sachs that involved conduct similar to the Abacus deal. The agency could prevail in civil penalty actions by showing that Goldman "intentionally or recklessly misled investors," he said. That, in essence, is the argument made by another regulator the Federal Housing Finance Agency which filed a lawsuit against Goldman over the Fremont investment and other offerings last year. Goldman bankers knew that Fremont, a subprime lender, was selling it mortgages certain to fail, the suit alleges.Goldman knew of the originators’ abandonment of applicable underwriting guidelines and of the true nature of the mortgage loans it was securitizing," the lawsuit claims. The decision to drop the Goldman Sachs investigation also comes on the heels of a disappointing loss for the SEC in one of the very few trials involving a Wall Street executive accused of misleading investors about a mortgage product. A few weeks ago, a federal jury acquitted Brian Stoker, a mid-level Citigroup executive, of wrongdoing over his role in selling a $1 billion mortgage bond. In an unusual move, however, the jury included a note with its verdict urging the agency not to give up. “This verdict should not deter the SEC from continuing to investigate the financial industry, review current regulations and modify existing regulations as necessary,” said the statement, which was read aloud by Judge Jed Rakoff.