Kerry, Abbas discuss 'new' peace efforts
Palestinian president
Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday told US Secretary of State John Kerry that Israeli
settlements "endanger" peace efforts, at a meeting in the Jordanian
capital to discuss a "new" peace push, the Palestinian ambassador
said."Kerry and Abbas discussed possible steps to revive a new political
process for peace," Palestinian ambassador in Amman Attallah Kheiry
said."Abbas stressed that Israeli settlements endanger the peace process
and that Israel should free Palestinian prisoners."The two sides, Kheiry said,
"evaluated US President Barack Obama's visit to the Palestinian
territories".During his four-day visit to the region, Obama, met top
Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Jerusalem and Ramallah, but there was no
visible breakthrough in the impasse between the two sides.Kerry, who
accompanied Obama, was to hold a separate meeting with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu in the evening.The US secretary of state will be Obama's new
pointman on the Middle East, as part of the renewed US efforts to push the
sides back to negotiations.Israel and the Palestinians have not had direct
talks for over two years.
Obama ends Middle East trip
US President Barack
Obama strolled among the ancient Jordanian ruins at Petra on Saturday, before
heading home after a four-day Middle East tour dominated by his embrace of
Israel.Obama flew by helicopter to view the rose-coloured stone ruins of the
ancient Nabataean city, after winds from a sandstorm abated and allowed him to
make the 55-minute trip across the rugged plains and mountains of Jordan.On
Friday, high winds in Israel forced Obama to take his motorcade instead of his
Marine One chopper to visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and there
had been fears his jaunt to Petra would also be scrapped.But Obama was able to
spend two hours at the fabled tourist spot before returning to Amman, where Air
Force One lifted off headed to Washington in the early afternoon.The US
president, on the first foreign journey of his second term, had earlier emerged
into a sunlit square facing the iconic Treasury building at Petra, carved out
of the towering walls of sandstone in southern Jordan."This is pretty
spectacular," Obama, in a blue windbreaker, sweater, khaki pants and sunglasses
said, peering up at the rocky cliffs."It's amazing."Obama arrived at
the ruins through a famous passageway squeezed between rock formations, and was
led through the World Heritage Site by Dr Suleiman al-Farajat, a University of
Jordan tourism professor.The visit to Petra, Jordan's most visited tourist
site, wrapped up a four-day stay in the Middle East designed to assure Israel
he is serious about its defence from Iran and to keep Israeli-Palestinian peace
hopes alive.Obama also warned on Friday that he was worried that Syria could
become an enclave of "extremism" as his own policy towards the
vicious sectarian war threatening to tear the nation apart came under
scrutiny."[Extremists] are very good about exploiting situations that, you
know, are no longer functioning. They fill that gap," Obama said at a news
conference with King Abdullah II.Obama's reluctance to arm opposition groups in
Syria, fearing they are, or could become, extremist Islamist foes with links to
al-Qaeda, dogged him during questioning by journalists. On Friday, a Jordanian
reporter asked him why superpower America had no plan to end the killing in
Syria, prompting Obama to defend US diplomatic efforts to isolate Syria and to
note hundreds of millions of dollars in US aid.He also said he would ask
Congress to provide $200m in budget support for Jordan this year as it cares
for more than 450 000 Syrian refugees. "This will mean more humanitarian
assistance and basic services, including education for Syrian children so far
from home, whose lives have been upended," he said. At least 120 000
Syrian refugees are in the sprawling northern border camp of Zaatari alone, and
Jordan has repeatedly complained that the growing numbers of Syrians, expected
to reach 700 000 this year, are draining its resources. Obama also warned
during his visit that the use of chemical weapons by Syria's armed forces would
be a game changer that would invite international action.He wrapped up his
first visit to Israel as president on Friday by giving Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, with whom he had feuded in his first term, a hug.He also pulled off
an unexpected coup, engineering a deal to restore diplomatic relations between
estranged US allies Israel and Turkey, concluded in a tarmac telephone call at
Tel Aviv airport before he departed for Jordan.Netanyahu apologised to Turkey
and his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a deadly raid on a Gaza aid
flotilla and announced a full resumption of diplomatic ties as well as
compensation to end a near three-year row.The centrepiece of Obama's visit to
Israel was a powerful direct appeal to young Israelis on Thursday when he
declared the two-state peace solution was very much alive and their only hope
of true security, urging them to try to see the situation through Palestinian
eyes.He also accepted that Israel had a right to ensure its self-defence, but
urged time for his diplomatic push to work to halt Iran's controversial nuclear
programme.
White House will push gun laws - Biden
The White House will
keep pushing for tough gun ownership laws despite little support in Congress,
Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday, as fellow Democrats vowed to
introduce a bill to halt violence."I'm not going to rest and nor is the
president until we do all of these things," Biden told a press conference
in New York with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and bereaved parents from Newtown,
where 20 elementary school children were shot dead in December."For all
those who say we couldn't or shouldn't ban high-capacity magazines, I ask them
just one question: think about Newtown,"Biden said in a brief but
emotional speech in which he referred to the "beautiful little
babies" killed at Sandy Hook Elementary.Turning to face the parents of the
school teacher who was killed when she tried to confront the Newtown shooter,
Biden said: "It's time for the political establishment to show the courage
your daughter showed."Senate Democrats have conceded that their proposed
ban on assault rifles, like the gun used by a deranged intruder in the Newtown
slaughter, has no way of passing in Congress.But Senator Majority Leader Harry
Reid said he was introducing a bill with three other gun violence prevention
measures, including a requirement for background checks for all gun sales, and
would bring it to a vote in April."I hope negotiations will continue over
the upcoming break to reach a bipartisan compromise on background checks, and I
am hopeful that they will succeed," Reid said in a statement ahead of a
two-week congressional recess.The Senate's top Democrat had dropped the assault
weapons ban from the broader legislation earlier this week, saying he wanted a
bill with a chance of passage.But in what appeared to be a concession to the
ban's chief sponsor, Democrat Dianne Feinstein, Reid said he would "ensure
that a ban on assault weapons, limits to high-capacity magazines, and mental
health provisions receive votes" on the Senate floor. "In his State
of the Union address, President Obama called for all of these provisions to
receive votes, and I will ensure that they do. "Bloomberg, a billionaire
who has focused heavily on reducing crime in New York and on a broader anti-gun
campaign across the United States, joined Biden in hammering Congress. "The
only question is whether Congress will have the courage to do the right
thing," he said, highlighting the huge, barely reported death toll from
gun violence around the country."It has been 97 days since Newtown. In that time, we
estimate that more than 3 000 Americans have been murdered. "If Congress
does nothing, another 12 000 people will be murdered with guns this year alone.
"Despite the divide in political circles, polls show Americans
overwhelmingly support universal background checks on gun purchasers, among
other new regulations. "We remain optimistic Congress will take action...
because the American people could not be more clear about where they
stand," Bloomberg said.Gun control is one of the most politicized issues
in a country rich in gun lore and where the Constitution is interpreted as
guaranteeing the right of citizens to bear arms.Opponents to any new gun laws,
including the politically powerful National Rifle Association, argue that legal
restrictions are the thin end of a wedge into constitutional rights and that
criminals can in any case buy weapons illegally when needed.However, Biden said
Americans back "common sense" measures like background checks and
alerts to the authorities when someone tries to amass weaponry."Not one
(new rule) infringes on anybody's Second Amendment constitutional rights,"
he said.One of the weapons used in Newtown, the popular
military-style Bushmaster .223 rifle, is "a weapon of war," Biden
said. "That weapon of war has no place on American streets."The vice
president also asked whether the shooter would have been capable of spraying so
many bullets had he been forced to use smaller ammunition clips as the White
House wants rather than the 30-round clips that allowed him to keep firing for
longer.Neil Heslin, whose young son was killed in Newtown, had difficulty
keeping his composure as he addressed the press conference, saying: "Quite
honestly, I'm really ashamed to see that Congress doesn't have the guts to
stand up."
UN: Easier to find a phone than a toilet
The United Nations
says six billion of the world's seven billion people have mobile phones - but
only 4.5 billion have access to toilets or latrines.So the UN is launching a
global campaign to improve sanitation for the 2.5 billion people who don't have
it.UN Deputy secretary general Jan Eliasson calls their plight "a silent
disaster" that reflects the extreme poverty and huge inequalities in the
world today.Eliasson said on Thursday that toilets and open defecation, which
is a fact of life for 1.1 billion people, are rarely talked about at the UN.But
he said the problem must be addressed immediately for the world to meet the UN
goal of halving the proportion of people without access to sanitation by 2015.
Cyprus under pressure to rethink levy
Cypriot politicians
were facing increasing pressure to rethink their rejection of a levy on bank
deposits, as a deadline to secure an EU bailout loomed closer on Saturday. They
approved the first three of eight measures put forward by the government in
their bid to meet the terms of the EU bailout in a late-night session late on
Friday. But with the clock ticking down to a crunch Sunday meeting with
eurozone finance ministers, MPs still have to debate more contentious issues,
such as a tax of up to 15% on bank deposits of €100 000 and more. The
government needs to seal the package by Monday or face being denied European
Central Bank emergency funds, a blow that would devastate the island's banks
and its economy. On Tuesday, MPs flatly rejected proposals for a 9.9% tax on
bank deposits over €100 000, with a 6.75% levy on deposits of €20 000-100 000.The original proposal
had also proposed to tax savings below €20 000, but the parliament's financial
committee had dropped it before the vote. The levy would have hurt many
ordinary Cypriots as well as many Russians, including wealthy tycoons. They
hold between a third and half of all Cypriot deposits and are believed to have
more than $30bn in private and corporate cash in the island's banks. With the
EU deadline approaching, Cyprus's chamber of commerce
and employers' federation have joined its major banks in calling on deputies to
reconsider their rejection of the levy. Some of the bank employees
demonstrating outside parliament were among those calling for a rethink on the
tax, or "haircut". In Friday's late-night session, the MPs backed a
national solidarity fund to be set up through the nationalisation of public and
private sector pensions.They also approved capital controls to prevent a run on
the island's troubled banks when they finally reopen on Tuesday after more than
a week. And they passed a restructuring plan drawn up by the central bank that
will separate good debts from bad in the island's troubled banks, particularly
second largest lender Popular Bank - Laiki in Greek.This bill, easily the most
contentious of the three approved, passed by 26 votes to two, with 25
abstentions. Acting ruling Disy party leader Averof Neophytou has appealed to
MPs to back the legislation, saying it would guarantee all deposits of up to
€100 000. Those with larger balances however might have to wait years to get
all their money back.Neophytou said the plan would also secure some 8 000 jobs
in Popular Bank, although a few hundred might be lost through
restructuring.Friday's emergency session came after angry bank employees,
fearful for their jobs, demonstrated outside parliament as rows of riot police
lined up behind barriers facing them.MPs adjourned the session shortly before
midnight with no time set to resume debate on the rest of the government's
package. It is aimed at raising €5.8bn to unlock loans worth €10bn.German
Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Cyprus against "exhausting the patience of
eurozone partners" at a meeting Friday with the parliamentary group of her
junior Free Democratic Party coalition partners, participants told AFP.Some EU
sources have said the bloc is ready to eject Cyprus from the eurozone to
prevent contagion of other debt-hit members such as Greece, Spain and
Italy.While bank employees demonstrated on Friday in favour of pushing through
a levy on deposits, other protesters vehemently oppose the measure. A group of
about 30 hooded youths burned a European flag next to the parliament building
in front of police barricades. "The haircut is robbery," they
chanted. Eurozone finance ministers and IMF chief Christine Lagarde will gather
in Brussels on Sunday in a bid to finalise the Cyprus rescue before
Monday's deadline.
