NEWS,04.03.2013

EU looks to hi-tech sector for jobs

Even with unemployment at record highs, there are hundreds of thousands of jobs available in information technology that governments and companies must work together to fill, the European Commission said Monday.Launching a 'Grand Digital Coalition', Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said there would be 900 000 vacancies in Europe's Information and Communication Technologies industry between now and 2015 but the number of fresh ICT graduates and skilled workers is simply not keeping up."The Grand Coalition we launch today is an essential part of getting Europe's economy back on track and finding jobs for some of Europe's 26 million unemployed," Barroso said. Filling these jobs will have an impact across the whole economy, he said, and prepare "Europeans to fill the jobs that will drive the next ICT revolution".Among the larger companies signing up for the programme to provide among other things jobs, training and start-up funding are Spanish telecom's giant Telefonica, Cisco of the United States and Germany's SAP.

Record number of billionaires in 2013

Forbes's 2013 list of the world's richest people includes 1 426 billionaires, a record number, with a total net worth of $5.4 trillion, up from $4.6 trillion in the previous ranking. Following are key facts from the ranking. There are 210 new billionaires from 42 countries, including 27 from the United States. The average net worth of those on full list has risen to $3.8bn from $3.7bn. Sixty people have dropped off the list and eight have died. The Asia-Pacific region saw the biggest number fall off the list with 29, followed by the United States, which lost 16. Most of the billionaires are self-made, 961, while 184 inherited their wealth and 281 inherited part of it and are increasing it. The oldest billionaires, on average, are in the Americas, with an average age of 67, with those in the United States slightly younger at 65. The United States had the most billionaires with 442, followed by Asia-Pacific with 386, Europe with 366, Middle East and Africa with 103 and the Americas, excluding the United States, with 129. The number of women billionaires rose to 138 from 104. The United States has 50 female billionaires, followed by 35 in Europe and 22 in Asia-Pacific. Saudi Arabia's 93-year-old Sulaiman Al Rajhi, the chairperson of the Al Rajhi Bank, who’s estimated net worth is $6bn, is tied for having the most children of those on the list with 23. Roman Avdeev, the owner of the Credit Bank of Moscow, also has 23 children, 19 of whom are adopted. The 45-year-old's fortune is valued at $1.4bn. 

Global 'petrol pain' indicator

The Bloomberg Gas Price Ranking sorts 60 countries by average price at the pump and by "pain at the pump", which is measured by the percentage of average daily income needed to buy a gallon of fuel.

See where different countries of the world stack up.

$9.89....Turkey........................  .#7
$9.63....Norway.....................  .#51
$9.09....Netherlands...............  #40
$8.87....Italy............................#31
$8.82....Portugal.....................#17
$8.62....Greece.......................#21
$8.50....Sweden......................#46
$8.41....Belgium..................... #41
$8.38....France....................... #37
$8.22....Denmark.................. .#48
$8.15....Hong Kong.................#36
$8.12....Finland.......................#44
$8.06....United Kingdom......... #39
$8.05....Ireland........................#43
$7.96....Germany.................... #42
$7.67....Israel.......................... #34
$7.61....Slovakia..................... #18
$7.60....Slovenia..................... #27
$7.44....Malta..........................#24
$7.21....Hungary..................... #13
$7.19....Switzerland................ #52
$7.06....Spain........................ #33
$7.03....Austria.......................#47
$6.97....Czech Republic.........  #23
$6.94....Lithuania....................#14
$6.88....Cyprus.......................#30
$6.83....Latvia.........................#16
$6.81....Luxembourg..............#55
$6.77....South Korea..............#32
$6.73....New Zealand............ #44
$6.70....Estonia......................#22
$6.70....Japan.........................#49
$6.70....Romania.....................#8
$6.67....Poland.......................#15
$6.53....Bulgaria......................#5
$6.31....Australia.....................#54
$6.29....Singapore...................#50
$6.20....Chile...........................#25
$5.40....Brazil..........................#20
$5.19....Argentina....................#19
$5.06....South Africa............... #11
$5.00....India............................#2
$4.87....Philippines..................  #3
$4.76....Canada......................  #53
$4.74....China...........................  #9
$4.72....Colombia.................... #12
$4.42....Thailand.....................  #10
$3.98....Pakistan.......................  #1
$3.68....Indonesia....................  #6
$3.47....Russia.......................  #35
$3.29....United States.............  #56
$3.22....Mexico........................  #29
$2.36....Malaysia.....................  #38
$2.34....Nigeria.........................   #4
$2.15....Iran............................. #28
$1.77....United Arab Emirates..   #57
$1.14....Egypt.......................... #26
$0.81....Kuwait........................ #59
$0.45....Saudi Arabia..............  #58
$0.06....Venezuela..................  #60

Global unrest fuels armoured car demand

In a workshop in a dusty industrial area on the outskirts of Dubai, engineers are stripping down a Toyota Land Cruiser to install armoured plating, bullet resistant glass and run-flat tyres.In the aftermath of the Arab spring revolts and with the wealth gap and social unrest rising in many parts of the world, there is no shortage of rich individuals and governments who suddenly feel they need a little extra protection.For companies such as Canada's INKAS, Britain's Jankel and Germany's Transeco, it has been a lucrative decade. Even with the Iraq and Afghan wars the conflicts on which the industry grew winding down, there are still deals to be done.Newer entrant Ares Security Vehicles  founded in 2010 but largely staffed by industry veterans says it has a strong and growing order book."This batch of vehicles is going to Iraq," says Marc Rouelle, a Belgian engineer now chief executive officer of the Dubai-based firm. " And the one behind is going to Russia. We are awaiting delivery tomorrow of 30 ... destined for Libya."With spending cuts around the world, industry consultancy IHS Jane's says the market for conventional military vehicles is contracting by more than four percent a year. But the demand for armoured sports utility vehicles and limousines - visually indistinguishable from regular civilian vehicles but protected against small arms fire and grenades is on the up.The gold standard, perhaps unsurprisingly, is set by the US president. Barack Obama's Cadillac limousine dubbed "the beast" by the US media and Secret Service is believed to weigh several tonnes and include its own defensive weaponry and air supply in the event of chemical attack.Several major carmakers, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Jaguar Land Rover, produce their own armoured versions of key brands.Most of the industry, however, is made up of companies who fit armour to regular new or second hand vehicles. Not only are they often considerably cheaper, but sales of vehicles built outside Western Europe and the United States can be less constrained by complex export regulations.The conversion trade is far from new. Britain's Jankel which also builds armoured riot control vehicles for police and militaries has been fitting armour and rebuilding limousines for heads of state and other clients since the 1980s.But the scale and breadth of demand in recent years, industry watchers say, has been entirely new. Particularly in those countries affected by the "Arab spring" analysts say demand from government, individuals and firms is sharply up."It's a murky market and it's hard to get any exact figures," says Jon Hawkes, senior analyst for military vehicles at IHS Jane's. "But companies are talking about a 30%-40% increase in sales in the last four or five years. The big auto manufacturers are increasingly realising there is money to be made but the main area of growth is probably at the other end of the spectrum."Prices vary, but an armoured Land Cruiser can sell for $150 000 or more, more than three times the cost of a non-armoured vehicle. In the entrance of its Dubai workshop, Ares proudly displays one of its most heavily tested vehicles a Land Cruiser subjected to heavy gunfire on a test range in Germany. Given enough time, the company says it can convert almost any vehicle - but the Toyota Land Cruiser has emerged as far and away the favourite. The Dubai plant now produces two such vehicles a day, CEO Rouelle says, still primarily for shipment to Iraq and Afghanistan but increasingly also to other buyers elsewhere. The Middle East emerged as a major centre of the industry because of its proximity to those two war zones and other markets. At the height of the Iraqi and Afghan wars, more than a dozen companies were operating in the United Arab Emirates alone producing what industry insiders said could be 400 vehicles a month. That demand, industry insiders say, has fallen off somewhat lately. In part, the drawdown of Western troops has meant fewer foreign personnel on the ground. At the same time, workshops have sprung up in both Iraq and Afghanistan capable of doing their own conversions to add armour. Several companies, including Ares, have set up operations elsewhere. Jordan, with its land border with Iraq, is a particular favourite. For Rouelle, however, Dubai, still offers an appealing base. As well as an easily tapped migrant workforce, it charges little tax and is well located for the other growing markets of the Middle East, Africa and Asia. "The UAE is an attractive base for our main operations," he says. "European engineering, tested and certified in Germany, made in Dubai. "Multinational companies, particularly oil firms, are big buyers, finding such vehicles a useful tool to bring down rising insurance premiums. Rich people in emerging economies hope they will offer protection from kidnapping and street violence. But the real money, those in the industry say, still lies with large government contracts. At last week's IDEX arms fair in Abu Dhabi, Ares and several other companies exhibited their wares alongside more conventional defence suppliers. The bullet-riddled Land Cruiser, they say, attracted more than a little attention. "We've had a lot of interest," says John Lashmar, director of marketing and business development at Ares. "Interior ministries, presidential protection details, companies and individuals in the Gulf and beyond. "In the Middle East and North Africa in particular, secret police and government security forces have ramped up their resources. Saudi Arabia, one source said, had bought several dozen armoured land cruiser-type vehicles recently as it worries over potential trouble along its border with Yemen and minority Shi'ite dominated areas in its oil-rich east. Qatar had bought a similar number, suspected to be for delivery to rebels in Syria. Some manufacturers are also expanding into military-style riot control vehicles, another growing market where they believe they can compete with larger, established defence companies. With many nations seeing an uptick in riots and unrest since the financial crisis, such vehicles are in mounting demand. Jankel's armoured police vehicles were credited with helping restore order in London after its 2011 riots.The strangest request he has had so far, Rouelle said, was from somebody looking to armour a Porsche sports car. He declined, preferring to concentrate on the firm's existing strengths.Other firms, however, will offer just that service. One US-firm, Lasco Group, says it will armour a Ferrari for $100 000 plus the original cost of the vehicle. Its armoured aluminium, however, would only be proof against handguns."Sometimes it can be seen as a lifestyle item," says Hawkes at IHS. "These buyers are much less concerned about exactly how bullet-proof a vehicle might be."

 

Economic gloom overshadows EU meeting

Eurozone finance ministers meet on Monday against the backdrop of a weak economy and increased political uncertainty after inconclusive polls in Italy, the group's third largest economy.If there has been some relief as the debt crisis eased in recent months, the political impasse in Italy "will colour the perception of what ministers will be discussing," an EU official told a briefing.Data Friday showed eurozone unemployment at record highs and consumer demand in the doldrums, meaning the 17 euro nations will be anxious to know what damage has been done to the efforts to cut debt and stabilise public finances.There will be "a lively debate" on the economic outlook as the budget deficit numbers come in, the official said, with most attention focused on France and whether it will get another year from the EU to put its fiscal books in order."The issue will be in the back of many peoples' mind," the official said, stressing that the meeting was unlikely to make any immediate decision on this issue or the rest of the agenda. A mooted bailout for Cyprus would be left to allow its newly-elected president and ministers see what the position is on the key sticking points - debt sustainability, privatisation and anti-money laundering measures. Athens meanwhile has officials from the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank officials the 'Troika' reviewing its bailout programme while Ireland and Portugal want adjustments to their rescue loan packages.Ministers will also look at how the restructuring of Spain's struggling banks is progressing and discuss the criteria to apply from next year when member states can call on the new eurozone back-stop, the European Stability Mechanism, to directly inject money into failing lenders.They may also want to discuss last week's controversial accord in principle on new bank capital requirements and capping banker bonuses but they will have to wait until Tuesday when their 10 non-euro colleagues join them for a full EU meeting.Tuesday's gathering of all 27 European Union finance ministers promises to be livelier than usual given the hostile reaction in London to the plan to cap bank bonuses, an additional issue to pit an increasingly eurosceptic Britain against the rest.Another EU official recognised how important the City of London financial centre is to Britain but with the other 26 member states in favour of the accord, cautioned "we do not know what the British government is ready to accept."

Obama 'not bluffing' against Iran

US Vice President Joe Biden says President Barack Obama isn't bluffing when he says he'll use military action if ultimately necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Biden told a powerful pro-Israel lobby's annual conference on Monday that protecting Israel is in the United States' interest. Biden says the US still prefers a diplomatic option on Iran but that the window for that is closing.Biden is cautioning against acting too hastily. He says every other option must be exhausted to ensure the world community will be supportive if there's a need for a military intervention.Biden says efforts to delegitimise Israel as a Jewish state are the most dangerous change he's seen as it related to Israel's security. He says Israel's legitimacy is non-negotiable for the US

NEWS,03.03.2013

Minister: ECB must do more for jobless

A French official says the European Central Bank is shirking its responsibilities toward Europe's unemployed.Industrial Recovery Minister Arnaud Montebourg's comments go against a custom that politicians not meddle in the ECB's work.Montebourg told Europe 1 radio Sunday: "It's not dealing with growth. It's not taking care of the unemployed. It's not taking care of the European people. And it has a duty to do so."He called on ECB President Mario Draghi to buy the debt of European countries. The ECB has a program to do just that - but countries must first agree to reforms.Montebourg also said the bank is keeping the euro strong, which is hurting exports. "What I am asking (Draghi) is to give us the weapons to fight unfair offshoring."

Thailand to end domestic ivory trade

Thailand will end its domestic ivory trade, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announced on Sunday, promising legislation that could help the country avoid international trade sanctions after criticism by environmental groups.The announcement of legislation to end the ivory trade came at the opening ceremony of a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) conference in Bangkok."This will help protect all forms of elephants including Thailand's wild and domestic elephants and those from Africa," Yingluck said in a statement.The CITES conference runs until March 14.Environmental groups such as World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and TRAFFIC, which monitors the wildlife trade, have been calling for CITES to sanction Thailand, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo for their part in the illegal ivory trade.Thailand is accused by conservation groups of fuelling the already rampant slaughter of African elephants and trade in their ivory through lax enforcement and regulation of its legal domestic market, which the country has never publicly committed to curbing before.The largely unregulated market is ideal for laundering illegal African ivory into its system before being sold on, environmental groups say.Groups said it was not clear how Thailand would go about ending its domestic trade, nor how long it would take."Prime Minister Shinawatra now needs to provide a timeline for this ban and ensure that it takes place as a matter of urgency, because the slaughter of elephants continues," said Carlos Drews, head of WWF's delegation to CITES.Thailand is the largest illegal ivory market in the world behind China with much of the ivory being bought by foreign tourists, the WWF says.

China targets 15% of satellite market

China is looking to increase its share of the global commercial satellite launching business, targeting a 15% share by 2020, a leading space program official said Saturday.China hopes to increase its market share by establishing strategic alliances with major launch services providers and satellite manufacturers, along with developing its own technology, the deputy head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, Liang Xiaohong, told the official Xinhua News Agency.China has just 3% of the market now, but the goal laid out by Liang points to its ambitions to become a major player in space, just one decade after becoming only the third country after the US and Russia to launch a man into space.Elsewhere in the Xinhua interview, Liang said China's first solid-fuel rocket that could be launched on short notice would be ready to make its first flight by 2016.China has a well-developed range of Long March rockets for use in commercial launches, all of which now mainly burn liquid fuel that must be pumped in just prior to launch. Solid fuel rockets can be kept in storage, then fired when needed, making them ideal for military use in launching ballistic missiles.Liquid-fueled rockets are generally considered best-suited for launching large payloads, while solid rockets are used for placing smaller satellites weighing less than 2 tons into low Earth orbit."The development of the Long March 11 will greatly improve China's capabilities to rapidly enter space and meet the emergency launching demand in case of disasters and emergencies," Liang was quoted by Xinhua as saying.On Friday, China's space program said it would send three astronauts to its orbiting space station this summer as part of preparations to establish an even larger permanent presence above Earth.The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft, which will likely include one female astronaut, will spend two weeks aboard the Tiangong 1, where the trio will spend two weeks conducting tests of the station's docking system and its systems for supporting life and carrying out scientific work.Two Chinese spacecraft, one of them manned, have docked already with Tiangong 1 since it was launched in September 2011.The station is to be replaced in around 2020 with a permanent space station that will weigh about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA's Skylab of the 1970s and about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International Space Station.

Iran buying time - Netanyahu

Renewed international efforts to negotiate curbs on Iran's disputed nuclear programme have backfired by giving it more time to work on building a bomb, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.His remarks on the inconclusive 26-27 February meeting between Iran and six world powers signalled impatience by Israel, which has threatened to launch preemptive war on its arch-foe, possibly in the coming months, if it deems diplomacy a dead end.Senior US diplomat Wendy Sherman flew in to brief Israel about the Kazakh-hosted talks, in which Tehran, which denies seeking nuclear arms, was offered modest relief from sanctions in return for halting mid-level uranium enrichment.There was no breakthrough. The sides will reconvene in Almaty on 5-6 April after holding technical talks in Istanbul."My impression from these talks is that the only thing that is gained from them is a buying of time, and through this time-buying Iran intends to continue enriching nuclear material for an atomic bomb and is indeed getting closer to this goal," Netanyahu told his cabinet in remarks aired by Israeli media.Extrapolating from UN reports on Iran's enrichment of uranium to 20% fissile purity, a short technical step from weapons-grade, Netanyahu has set a mid-2013 "red line" for denying the Islamic republic the fuel needed for a first bomb.Iranian media reported on Sunday the country was building around 3 000 new advanced enrichment centrifuges, a development that could accelerate the nuclear project.The prospect of unilateral Israeli strikes, and the likely wide-ranging reprisals by Iran and its regional allies, worries Washington, which wants to pursue diplomacy as it winds down costly military commitments abroad.In an attempt to make their proposals more palatable to Tehran, the United States and five other world powers appeared to have softened previous demands in Almaty - for example regarding their requirement that the Iranians ship out their stockpile of the higher-grade uranium.A senior Israeli official said that while the Netanyahu government had hoped for a tougher line by the so-called P5+1, it was resigned to awaiting the results of this round of talks."At the end of the day, what matters is that the Iranians end their enrichment, whether it's through shutting down their facilities or through more nuanced technical safeguards," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.The official would not comment on how or if the latest diplomacy had affected the readiness of Israel, which is widely assumed to have the region's only nuclear arsenal, to go to war.Iran may have warded off that threat by turning some of its 20% pure uranium into fuel rods for a research reactor.The international standoff and shifting timelines are expected to dominate US President Barack Obama's trip to Israel later this month. The Israelis urge a tougher posture on Iran from their ally, which has a hefty military presence in the Gulf and says it is poised to use force as a last resort.Israel's dovish president, Shimon Peres, sounded more upbeat after meeting Sherman last Thursday. Peres said he had "total faith in the Obama administration, in its commitment and its actions in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons".Obama's Israel visit has been overshadowed by local politics too, given the rightist Netanyahu's failure so far to build a new coalition government after he narrowly won a 22 January ballot.Appealing to potential party allies to rally to him in the name of national security, Netanyahu told his cabinet: "To my regret this is not happening, and in the coming days I will continue my efforts to unify and galvanise forces ahead of the major national and international challenges that we face."

Iran building 3 000 advanced centrifuges

Iran is building about 3 000 advanced uranium-enrichment centrifuges, Iranian media reported on Sunday, in a development likely to add to Western concerns about the Islamic state's disputed nuclear programme.Iran announced earlier this year that it would install the new-generation centrifuges at its Natanz uranium enrichment plant, but Sunday's reports in Iranian agencies appeared to be the first time a specific figure had been given.Iranian media on Sunday paraphrased Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, as saying Iran was producing 3 000 new-generation centrifuges."The final production line of these centrifuges has reached an end and soon the early generations of these centrifuges with low efficiency will be set aside," Abbasi-Davani said, according to the Fars news agency.The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said earlier this year that 180 so-called IR-2m centrifuges and empty centrifuge casings had been put in place at the facility near the town of Natanz in central Iran. They were not yet operating.If launched successfully, such machines could enable Iran to speed up significantly its accumulation of material that the West fears could be used in a nuclear weapon. Iran says it is refining uranium only for peaceful purposes.

Iran frees 14 journalists - report

Iran has freed 14 journalists working for reformist papers who were arrested in January and accused of co-operating with a "Western-linked network", the reformist Shargh newspaper reported on Sunday.The newspaper said the journalists were released from jail after posting bail, while four others were still behind bars.At the time of their arrest in late January the intelligence ministry said in a statement that the journalists belonged to "one of the biggest media networks" linked to the West.Their network, the statement said, was established by the BBC and operates "in co-operation with several Western governments".The ministry said their goal was to "exploit what they learned during the sedition period" after the 2009 presidential election, which Iran accuses the West and Western media, including the BBC, of inciting.The election, which returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power despite reformist opposition candidates alleging fraud, triggered protests which were met by a bloody regime crackdown.Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International criticised the arrests, urging Iran to free the journalists.But the intelligence ministry dismissed such calls.Tehran deems as hostile the Persian services of various international media, including the BBC Persian, the Voice of America and Radio Farda - a US-funded Prague-based Persian radio.According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 45 journalists were in Iranian prisons at the start of December 2012.The journalists work for various reformist outlets such as Shargh, Arman, Bahar and Etemad newspapers, the Aseman weekly, as well as the ILNA news agency.Shargh identified the freed journalists as Pouria Alami, Emily Amraei, Javad Daliri, Milad Fadaei, Narges Jodaki, Soleiman Mohammadi, Akbar Montajabi, Pejman Mousavi, Motahareh Shafiey, Hossein Yaghchi, Fatemeh Sagharchi, Reyhaneh Tabatabaee, Keyvan Mehregan and Pejman Mousavi.The report also added that Sasan Aghaei, Nasrin Takhayori, Ehsan Mazandarani, and Saba Azarpeyk are still behind bars.

Chavez 'working during chemotherapy'

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is still in charge and mulling political, social and economic policies even as he receives a new round of chemotherapy, his vice president said on Saturday.Vice President Nicolas Maduro said that the 58-year-old socialist leader, who is convalescing in seclusion at a Caracas military hospital, sent "guidance" to his Cabinet as recently as Friday."He is staying informed and in charge as the chief who was ratified by our people various times," Maduro said at an event broadcast on state-run television.The opposition says the government is lying about Chavez's condition and doubts Maduro's claim that Chavez held a five-hour meeting with his cabinet on February 22, giving orders in writing because a tracheal tube hinders his speech.But Maduro repeated that the meeting took place. He insisted that the president sent more instructions the next day with Science Minister Jorge Arreaza, his son-in-law, before giving more guidance on Friday.The leftist leader's chosen successor Maduro showed a dossier containing "political, social and economic actions" that Chavez has requested "to continue strengthening the economy to face the economic war of the parasitic bourgeoisie".The "central document" will be sent to Chavez, he said, adding that the government was "respecting his treatment, we are not acting in an invasive way in his treatment."Chavez, who was first diagnosed with cancer in the pelvic region June 2011, underwent a fourth round of surgery in Cuba in December. The government has never disclosed the exact nature, location and severity of the cancer.Maduro revealed for the first time late Friday that Chavez began a new cycle of chemotherapy in January and decided to return to Caracas last month to continue a "more intense" phase of treatment.Chavez was in "good spirits" but fighting for his life, Maduro said as he rejected growing rumours about the president's health.One of Chavez's daughters, Maria Gabriela, responded on Saturday to the publication online of a picture of her looking sad at the mass."Sadness? I can't be happy when my dad is sick! But I continue to cling to my God," she wrote on Twitter."At the next mass I will have to dance and laugh! I always thought that a mass was something serious! People are very crazy," she wrote.The once omnipresent leader has not come out in public in almost three months. Only four pictures were released, on February 15, showing him in his Havana hospital bed, smiling with his two daughters.Around 50 university students have spent every night this week chained to each other in the middle of a Caracas streets, demanding that the government "tell the truth" about Chavez.The government has accused the opposition and "fascist" foreign media of spreading rumours about Chavez to destabilise the nation sitting atop the world's largest proven oil reserves."We want to see Chavez recover and healthy, and we want him to be in peace, doing the treatment that needs to be done," said Foreign Minister Elias Jaua."Those who don't want Chavez to recover are those who use blackmail, criminal pressure, miserable pressure that we will not cede to," Jaua said.Maduro, meanwhile, accused opposition leader Henrique Capriles of "conspiring" against Venezuela during trips to the United States and Colombia, and warned him not to "violate the rule of law".He said Capriles, the Miranda state governor who lost to Chavez in the October presidential election, had met with "paramilitaries" in Colombia and was now in the United States.The vice president said Capriles travelled to Miami and New York this weekend and was planning to meet Roberta Jacobson, the US State Department's top official for Latin America.

NEWS,01.AND 02.03.2013

Senators Push Promise to Support Israeli Strikes on Iran

 

New legislation introduced by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) calls for the U.S. to provide military, economic, and diplomatic support for Israel should its government decide to launch military strikes on Iran. The measure would effectively signal that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can decide not just whether to enter Israel into war with Iran, but whether the United States enters such a war. It comes as tentative diplomatic progress was reported from negotiations involving the U.S. and Iran.The unprecedented measure is being unveiled as part of the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference this weekend in Washington, DC, that will bring thousands of the group's supporters to push the measure on Capitol Hill. The group will also support a new sanctions bill in the House that could authorize the U.S. to sanction companies, including in Europe and Asia, for any commercial dealings with Iran. That measure has raised concerns about further exacerbating medicine shortages impacting the people of Iran.The Graham resolution is framed as a non-binding measure aimed at encouraging the President to implement and escalate sanctions on Iran. But the final clause "urges that, if the Government of Israel is compelled to take military action in self-defense, the United States Government should stand with Israel and provide diplomatic, military, and economic support to the Government of Israel in its defense of its territory, people, and existence."Senator Graham has made clear that "self defense" can be defined as preventive war based on redlines that Netanayahu has established that contradict President Obama's stated policy.Graham initially announced the resolution during the 2012 Election campaign as a challenge to President Obama's comments that he "has Israel's back" and said his resolution would clarify that "in the event Israel had to take preventive action, we would have their back" in terms of military, financial, and diplomatic support.In discussing his planned resolution, he made clear that Israel has a different set of military capabilities than the U.S., but that his measure would compel the U.S. to take action based on Tel Aviv's window instead of Washington's. "There are two different clocks here, the Washington clock and the Tel Aviv clock...The Israelis are not going to let the window close on their ability to slow down this program. They're going to act... They're going to control their own destiny."The measure may raise a red flag for the Pentagon, which has been concerned that Israel could draw the U.S. into a war against the authority of the President and his military leadership. Joint Chiefs Chairman Dempsey explicitly warned last year that he does not want the U.S. to be "complicit" in an Israeli strike. The Pentagon also conducted a simulation last March that determined and Israeli strike on Iran would draw in the U.S. and leave hundreds of Americans dead in the immediate aftermath. The Pentagon leaked the report to the press, in a move widely viewed as seeking to stop Netanyahu from pushing the U.S. into war.Military leaders from both Israel and the United States have warned in dire terms that strikes on Iran would only delay the nuclear program and make it more likely that Iran would build a weapon. Former Joint Chiefs Chairman James Cartwright recently stated that such action would require "tens of years" of military occupation by the U.S. Others have noted that such action would require as many as one million troops. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said "such an attack would make a nuclear-armed Iran inevitable."The Graham-Menendez resolution also "reiterates that the policy of the United States is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon capability and to take such action as may be necessary to implement this policy." However, this is not the policy of the United States. AIPAC last year pushed measures in Congress to attempt to change that, and managed to pass them in both chambers. But the measure never was sent to the White House and did not become policy. The President pointedly stated at AIPAC's convention last year that preventing nuclear weapon acquisition, not capability, was his policy. That message has apparently been ignored.

Hugo Chavez Chemotherapy: Venezuela Says President Receiving Treatment For Cancer Again

 

President Hugo Chavez has been receiving chemotherapy since recovering from a severe respiratory infection in mid-January and "continues his battle for life," his vice president said late Friday.Vice President Nicolas Maduro suggested the chemotherapy was continuing in the government's first mention of it as among treatments that Venezuela's cancer-stricken president has received since his Dec. 11 cancer surgery in Cuba. Maduro made the disclosure after a Mass for Chavez in a new chapel outside the military hospital where authorities say the socialist leader has been since being flown back to Caracas on Feb. 18.The vice president quoted Chavez as saying he decided to return to Venezuela because he was entering "a new phase" of "more intense and tough" treatments and wanted to be in Caracas for them.Maduro's offering of the most detailed rundown to date of Chavez's post-operative struggle came hours after an accusation by opposition leader Henrique Capriles that the government has repeatedly lied about Chavez's condition."We'll see how they explain to the country in the (coming) days all the lies they've been telling about the president's situation," Capriles, whom Chavez defeated in Oct. 7 elections, said in a tweet.Chavez has not been seen nor heard from since going to Cuba for his fourth cancer surgery, except for a set of "proof of life" photos released Feb. 15 while he was still in Havana.Chavez first revealed an unspecified cancer in the pelvic region in June 2011, and reported undergoing radiation treatment and chemotherapy after earlier operations.The government has sent mixed signals on Chavez's condition, although Maduro has said several times that Chavez was battling for his life. He repeated that Friday, and also accused opponents of spreading rumors about Chavez's health to destabilize the nation.Maduro, Chavez's chosen successor, said his boss' condition was extremely delicate over New Year's as he battled a respiratory infection that required a tracheal tube."In mid-January he was improving, the infection could be controlled, but he continued with problems of respiratory insufficiency. Afterward, there was a general improvement, and the doctors along with President Chavez decided to initiate complementary treatments," Maduro said."You know what the complementary treatments are, right? They are chemotherapy that is applied to patients after operations."Cancer specialists couldn't be reached immediately for comment on Maduro's announcement. But oncologists have said that chemotherapy is sometimes given to slow a cancer's progression, ease symptoms and extend a patient's life.The opposition says Chavez should either be sworn in for the new term he won in the election or declare himself incapable and call a new election. The constitution says he should have been sworn in on Jan. 10, but Venezuela's Supreme Court said it was OK to wait.Earlier Friday, Maduro accused the Spanish newspaper ABC and Colombia's Caracol network of spreading lies about Chavez's condition.ABC said without specifying its source that Chavez's cancer had spread to a lung. It said he had been moved to an island compound in the Caribbean.Chavez's son-in-law, Science Minister Jorge Arreaza, said on state TV that Chavez continues "to fight hard and is in the military hospital, as peaceful as he could be, with his doctors, with his family."

Italy's Democratic Triumph

Italy's most recent election is further proof that democracy works.The election in which Italian citizens ignored the 'sensible' center parties, gave a large mass of votes to a political coalition recently organized by a comedian. The election which created a divided government that has virtually no chance of forming a stable coalition. The election which has been roundly panned by pundits from The Atlantic to The Economist, from the Brookings Institution to The Daily Show. The election which caused a nose-dive in international markets. Yes, that election. As bad as it sounds on the surface, it was, in fact, a great triumph of democracy.You see, there is a reason that so many Italians voted for a protest party. They are in the midst of a terrible economic recession. For years, they have been told by European Union economic planners that the way out of this recession is to implement a series of austerity measures and as the recession gets worse each year, so must the austerity measures. These austerity measures, including tax increases and cuts to social services, are extremely unpopular. And just as importantly, the Italians feel that these measures are being imposed upon them from the outside; that the EU has successfully bullied the two major political parties in Italy to continue along the austerity path, despite the unpopularity of the austerity agenda.The political equation in Italy at the time of the election was: high unemployment  widespread belief that government is ignoring the needs of the citizenry public perception that things are only getting worse. In many countries that adds up to rioting, perhaps even a constitutional crisis or revolution, maybe some crackdowns by a government that gets nervous to hold onto its power and starts to fear that its citizenry will get too far out of hand. But instead, the Italians took their frustration, they went to the ballot box, and they voted. That's a triumph of democracy if there ever was one.Many pundits are criticizing the Italians for voting for the 'wrong' people. The pundits seem to think that the Italians ought to have voted in a way that has the least impact on international markets. But that's absurd. The Italian people don't answer to Wall Street. Instead, the Italian government answers to the Italian people a people who are angry, increasingly unemployed, and feeling ignored by the powers that control their fate. In the real world, the alternative to this "chaotic" election isn't a business-friendly utopia; it's weeks of rioting shutting down Rome, or even worse, the Arab Spring. So who cares if the Italian people voted for the 'wrong' parties? Yeah, maybe this election leaves the markets a little unstable, and maybe it means that Italy might need another election in six months. Those are pretty small complaints in the grand scheme of things. Or to put it another way, as poorly as the markets reacted to the Italian election, think about how poorly the markets would have reacted to rioters looting and pillaging their way through Rome. There is basically no other way that the Italian people could have vented their anger which would have led to a better market reaction and plenty of things they could have done to cause much more harm. Not only would most ways of expressing anger stall the economy and leave investors jittery, they would also cause damage to infrastructure and create costs for the already over-stressed Italian budget (e.g. cleaning up debris, rebuilding burned buildings, etc.). How do we know that democracy works? Because when faced with a situation that leads many countries dissolve into chaos, Italy's citizens were able to let off steam in a way that let the powers that be know the displeasure of the people, but which didn't shut the country down. Compared to the alternative, voting in a protest party is a credit to both the Italian people and to their democratic institutions.

An Unhealthy Nexus: Iran and Argentina

 

This week the Congress of Argentina is debating the approval of an agreement signed by Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi, which aims to create a "Truth Commission" into the 1994 terrorist bombing attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires.By voting to approve the agreement majorities in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Congress have joined with President Kirchner in failing to act in the interest of the Argentine people and all those affected by this heinous terrorist attack; the deadliest terror attack in the Americas prior to 9/11. Argentina now seems set on a path of colluding with the those who stand accused as the perpetrators to replace the Argentine criminal justice process with a vague arrangement that will, at best, further delay justice and, at worst, result in a gross miscarriage of justice. How did we get to this point in which the Argentine government is party to a sham agreement with the Iranian regime? How did Argentina agree to allow Iran to injure the victims and their families again this time by disrespecting the memory of those citizens of Argentina who lost their lives and were injured.According to Argentinean and Iranian news reports, it seems the conversations began about two years ago. Foreign Minister Hector Timerman had been on record, several times condemning such allegations. His declarations now prove to be untrustworthy because reality proves different.It is hard to believe that Argentina will now play into the hands of the Iranians and collaborate with the world's most notorious state sponsor of terrorism. This agreement only serves the interests of the Iranian perpetrators in their nearly 20 year efforts to evade the consequences of their culpability in the attack and bypass the Argentine justice system. What troubles me more is that Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in her interest to defend this agreement goes to the point to intimidate the Jewish community through social media and challenges its leaders. Moreover, she implicitly exonerates the Iranian regime from any responsibility in case of a future terror attack. How can President Kirchner be so blind about who she is talking about?Iranian President Ahmadinejad's repeated anti-Semitic rants, outright Holocaust denial and statements calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map" are a venomous expression of the contempt that the Iranian president has for the Jewish people.The extremism of the Iranian government is well understood by its citizens, its neighbors and the international community and goes far beyond rhetoric. We need to remind Argentina's government that in the aftermath of its 2009 elections, Iran showed its true colors. A regime that so blatantly denies the voice of its people by rigging an election and violently suppressing public outrage cannot be trusted on the international scene.At a time when the international community is sanctioning Iran over its nuclear aspirations, countries like Argentina, who have been direct targets of Iranian terror, should be at the forefront of isolating rather than engaging in a sham negotiation with its rogue regime.For more than 18 years the international community supported the Argentine government's efforts to investigate the AMIA bombing. We cannot support President Kirchner's intentions to turn away from pursuing justice for the victims.In the interest of the 85 innocent Argentinians killed, the hundreds more who were injured, Jews and non-Jews alike, and their families, justice needs to be served and it won't be through this agreement as Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and President Fernandez de Kirchner want us to believe.

The Second Battle of Marathon

 

The Second World War was the most destructive and bloody conflict of all times. Large and small countries fought bitterly to the end, killing millions of humans and causing immense devastation of both nature and societies. To some degree, WWII was also a holocaust of civilization.Germany and Italy started the war against other European countries in 1939 and 1940. Germany dealt with the countries of Western Europe and Italy started with Greece, which it attacked on October 28, 1940. The Greeks soundly defeated the invading Italians in the northern Greek province of Epirus and Albania. The Greek victory became the "first victory" of the Allies in WWII. This historical fact was so important in the evolution of WWII, indeed, largely determining the course of the war between Germany and Russia, and, therefore, the outcome of WWII, that it deserved its own history. It found its student in George Blytas, a Greek from Egypt who had an engineering career in America. Blytas' father was born in a village in Epirus, Sitaria, where fierce battles took place between Greeks and Italians. Blytas visited Sitaria in 1951. Eventually, he became a self-taught historian to record the events of the fateful 1940-1941 war between a large European country, Italy, successor to Rome and partner of Nazi Germany, and small Greece, successor of ancient Greece.Blytas spent 18 years in composing his story - a detailed narrative of war between Greeks and Italians and Germans in 16 chapters, and a record of the dreadful consequences of the occupation of Greece by Germans, Italians and Bulgarians in 8 chapters. The 24 chapters of the book represent the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet.Blytas starts his account by quoting Hitler talking about WWII. Hitler acknowledged the Italian war against Greece was a bad idea. "The shameful defeats that the Italians suffered in their pointless campaign in Greece," Hitler said, "compelled us, contrary to our plans, to intervene in the Balkans primarily Greece, April 6, 1941, and that in turn led to a catastrophic delay in the launching of our attack on Russia."Blytas says Greece played a "crucial" and "defining" role in WWII. His book, "The First Victory" (Cosmos Publishing, 2009), backs him up. The Greek victory over the Italians was no small skirmish. Italy poured more than 500,000 soldiers supported by hundreds of tanks and warplanes. Then, starting on April 6, 1941, the Germans added even more troops, tanks and warplanes. All together, the Axis powers, Italy, Germany, Albania and Bulgaria, marshaled about 750,000 soldiers against Greece. The Greeks decimated the elite German paratroopers in Crete.WWII lasted for 72 months. The Allies failed in Europe where German troops captured Poland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark in less than 3 months. In the midst of this failure, Greece resisted the Axis powers for 7 months. This was, according to Blytas, an "astonishing achievement" hardly less important than the battle of Marathon. In 490 BCE, Athenians and Plataeans defeated a vastly larger invading Persian army, thus keeping Greece and Europe free from Persian occupation and slavery. The war and resistance of Greece to Italians and Germans in WWII also saved Europe from Nazi German occupation and slavery. "The battle of Greece," Says Blytas, "was the twentieth-century version of the battle of Marathon."The world watched Greek heroism against the armies of Mussolini with admiration. Blytas quotes President Roosevelt praising Greece. Speaking on October 28, 1943, the third anniversary of the Italian invasion of Greece, Roosevelt said Greece "set an example that every one of us must follow until the despoilers of freedom everywhere are brought to their just doom."The end of WWII brought partial doom to the despoilers of freedom. But the historians did not hear Roosevelt. They rushed defending the strong powers and ignored Greece. Indeed, they neglected the strategic role Greek resistance to Italy and Germany had in the delayed German attack on Russia, which led to the defeat of Germany. They also distorted the first victory of Greece, suggesting British troops made that possible. Not a single British soldier, Blytas says, was in continental Greece in the winter of 1940.For these reasons read "The First Victory." It is the first scholarly treatment of what Greece did and suffered in WWII. The story Blytas tells is gripping, thorough, thoughtful and backed by reliable evidence.The Axis powers dismembered Greece and killed 10 percent of her population and wiped out her infrastructure. When the occupiers left Greece, the country looked like a nuclear bomb had hit it. This is important because truth is important.s Euripides said, "Blessed is the man who has learned history."