JERUSALEM — An influential Israeli rabbi has said God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague, calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set to begin next week.
"Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth," Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel's government, said in a sermon late Saturday, using Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's popular name.
"God should strike them and these Palestinians -- evil haters of Israel -- with a plague," the 89-year-old rabbi said in his weekly address to the faithful, excerpts of which were broadcast on Israeli radio Sunday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the comments and said Israel wanted to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians that would ensure good neighborly relations.
"The comments do not reflect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's view or the position of the government of Israel," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
The United States said Yosef's comments were "inflammatory" and an impediment to peace efforts.
"As we move forward to relaunch peace negotiations, it is important that actions by people on all sides help to advance our effort, not hinder it," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a statement.
President Barack Obama's administration is hosting Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Washington this week to try to restart direct Mideast peace negotiations after a nearly two-year hiatus.
The Iraqi-born cleric has made similar remarks before, most notably in 2001, during a Palestinian uprising, when he called for Arabs' annihilation and said it was forbidden to be merciful to them.
He later said he was referring only to "terrorists" who attacked Israelis. In the 1990s, Yosef broke with other Orthodox Jewish leaders by voicing support for territorial compromise with the Palestinians.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Yosef's latest comments were tantamount to calling for "genocide against Palestinians." The rabbi's remarks, he said, were "an insult to all our efforts to advance the negotiations process."
Arriving at Netanyahu's office for a weekly cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai of Shas declined to comment when asked by reporters about Yosef's sermon.
Netanyahu and Abbas are due to resume direct peace talks in Washington Thursday, the first such negotiations in 20 months in a peace process that commits both sides to avoid incitement, which has included anti-Jewish sermons by Palestinian clerics.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
China’s massive traffic jam could last for weeks
Bumper-to-bumper gridlock spans 60 miles with cars moving little more than a half-mile a day at one point
BEIJING (AP) — China has just been declared the world’s second biggest economy, and now it has a monster traffic jam to match.
Triggered by road construction, the snarl-up began 10 days ago and was 100 kilometers (60 miles) long at one point. Reaching almost to the outskirts of Beijing, traffic still creeps along in fits and starts, and the crisis could last for another three weeks, authorities say.
It’s a metaphor for a nation that sometimes chokes on its own breakneck growth.
In the worst-hit stretches of the road in northern China, drivers pass the time sitting in the shade of their immobilized trucks, playing cards, sleeping on the asphalt or bargaining with price-gouging food vendors. Many of the trucks that carry fruit and vegetables are unrefrigerated, and the cargoes are assumed to be rotting.
On Sunday, the eighth day of the near-standstill, trucks moved just over a kilometer (less than a mile) on the worst section, said Zhang Minghai, a traffic director in Zhangjiakou, a city about 150 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Beijing. China Central Television reported Tuesday that some vehicles had been stuck for five days.
No portable toilets were set up along the highway, leaving only two apparent options — hike to a service area or into the fields.
But there were no reports of violent road rage, and the main complaint heard from drivers was about villagers on bicycles making a killing selling boxed lunches, bottled water to drink and heated water for noodles.
A bottle of water was selling for 10 yuan ($1.50), 10 times the normal price, Chinese media reports said.
The traffic jam built up on the Beijing-Tibet highway, on a section that links the capital to the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia. The main reason traffic has increased on this partially four-lane highway is the opening of coal mines in the northwest, vital for the booming economy that this month surpassed Japan’s in size and is now second only to America’s.
Although wages remain generally low, auto ownership and gridlock have grown so commonplace that Inner Mongolia authorities restrict cars’ movement to alternate days, based on odd or even numbers in their license plates.
The car invasion is widely felt; Guo Jifu, head of the Beijing Transportation Research Center, told a symposium Monday that vehicles on Beijing’s roads multiplied by 1,900 per day on average in the first half of this year, Xinhua, the official news agency, reported.
The immediate cause of the traffic jam that began Aug. 14 is construction on one of three southbound highways feeding into Beijing.
Authorities are trying to ease the snarl-up by letting more trucks into the capital, especially at night, said Zhang, the traffic director. They also asked trucking companies to suspend operations and advised drivers to take the few alternate routes available.
“Things are getting better and better,” he said, but he added that the construction would go on until Sept. 17.
Alan Pisarski, author of “Commuting in America,” said the worst traffic jams in U.S. history tend to be associated with natural disasters, such as people fleeing Hurricane Katrina or the collapse of the upper deck of a freeway in Oakland, Calif., in the 1989 earthquake.
“It took some people days to get home after that one,” Pisarski said.
Traffic arrangements built up over generations in the U.S. are lacking in much of China, said Bob Honea, director of the University of Kansas Transportation Research Institute, who has visited China.
“We’ll see this problem more and more often. It’s true of every developing country,” he said.
Honea said the U.S. has never experienced a traffic jam as big as the one now bedeviling northern China, but he noted that traffic in Los Angeles “is pretty bad. It’s not a highway, it’s a parking lot.”
...Read More
Venezuela, more deadly than Iraq
Some here joke that they might be safer if they lived in Baghdad. The numbers bear them out.
In Iraq, a country with about the same population as Venezuela, there were 4,644 civilian deaths from violence in 2009, according to Iraq Body Count; in Venezuela that year, the number of murders climbed above 16,000.
Even Mexico’s infamous drug war has claimed fewer lives.
Venezuelans have absorbed such grim statistics for years. Those with means have hidden their homes behind walls and hired foreign security experts to advise them on how to avoid kidnappings and killings. And rich and poor alike have resigned themselves to living with a murder rate that the opposition says remains low on the list of the government’s priorities.
Then a front-page photograph in a leading independent newspaper — and the government’s reaction — shocked the nation, and rekindled public debate over violent crime.
The photo in the paper, El Nacional, is unquestionably gory. It shows a dozen homicide victims strewn about the city’s largest morgue, just a sample of an unusually anarchic two-day stretch in this already perilous place.
While many Venezuelans saw the picture as a sober reminder of their vulnerability and a chance to effect change, the government took a different stand.
A court ordered the paper to stop publishing images of violence, as if that would quiet growing questions about why the government — despite proclaiming a revolution that heralds socialist values — has been unable to close the dangerous gap between rich and poor and make the country’s streets safer.
Venezuela is struggling with a decade-long surge in homicides, with about 118,541 since President Hugo Chávez took office in 1999, according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a group that compiles figures based on police files. (The government has stopped publicly releasing its own detailed homicide statistics, but has not disputed the group’s numbers, and news reports citing unreleased government figures suggest human rights groups may actually be under-counting murders).
...Read More
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Empire State Building Basement Infested
Is nowhere safe? Bedbugs have struck the Empire State Building, the New York Daily News reports. The pests were found in an employee changing room in the basement of the tower, building officials said, and the room as been treated and fully cleared. "There were guys there last night, spraying down the place," a source confirmed. The Empire State Building is only the latest and most iconic of several buildings to recently report an infestation—others include the Times Square AMC theater, the Time Warner Center, a Victoria’s Secret in Lenox Hill, and a Brooklyn district attorney’s office. New York is taking the bugs seriously, and last month announced a half-million-dollar program to combat the infestation.
Read it at New York Daily News
Monday, August 16, 2010
Israeli soldier posed with bound Arab
JERUSALEM – A former Israeli soldier posted photos on Facebook of herself in uniform smiling beside bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoners, drawing sharp criticism Monday from the Israeli military and Palestinian officials.
Israeli news websites and blogs showed two photographs of the woman. In one, she is sitting legs crossed beside a blindfolded Palestinian man who is slumped against a concrete barrier. His face is turned downwards, while she leans toward him with her face upturned. Another shows her smiling at the camera with three Palestinian men with bound hands and blindfolds behind her.
The incident was a reminder of the fraught relations between Israeli soldiers and the West Bank Palestinians under their control.
Israeli soldiers have run into trouble on the social media sites like Facebook and YouTube before. Most recently a group of combat soldiers were reprimanded for breaking into choreographed dance moves while on patrol in the West Bank town of Hebron. The dance featured prominently on YouTube.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib condemned the photos and said they pointed to a deeper malaise — how Israel's 43-year-old occupation of Palestinians has affected the Israelis who enforce it.
"This shows the mentality of the occupier," Khatib said, "to be proud of humiliating Palestinians. The occupation is unjust, immoral and, as these pictures show, corrupting."
The Israeli military also criticized the young woman, who Israeli news media and bloggers identified from her Facebook page as Eden Aberjil of the southern Israeli port town of Ashdod. No official confirmed her identity.
"These are disgraceful photos," said Capt. Barak Raz, an Israeli military spokesman. "Aside from matters of information security, we are talking about a serious violation of our morals and our ethical code and should this soldier be serving in active duty today, I would imagine that no doubt she would be court-martialed immediately," he told Associated Press Television News.
It was not clear whether the army could punish the woman, because she has finished her compulsory military service.
The comments by the woman and her friend in an exchange below one photograph suggested how casually the picture was treated, including jokes and sexual innuendoes.
"You're the sexiest like that," her friend wrote.
"I wonder if he's got Facebook!" the woman in the photograph responded. "I have to tag him in the picture!"
Aberjil did not respond to reporters' questions Monday.
The photographs were a reminder of snapshots taken in 2003 by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq that showed Iraqi detainees naked, humiliated and terrified. In that case, some soldiers went to prison after the photos came to light.
The photographs of the Israeli soldier and the Palestinians, by contrast, show no overt physical abuse or coercion of the prisoners, although they are ridiculed in the comments between the soldier and her friends.
Palestinians are routinely handcuffed and blindfolded when they are arrested to stop them from trying to fle
Pentagon: China's military power growing
WASHINGTON – China's drive to transform itself into a major military power is being pursued in a secretive manner that increases the potential for misunderstanding and military conflict with other nations, the Pentagon says in a new report.
The Defense Department's annual assessment, released Monday, says Beijing is upgrading its hefty arsenal of land-based missiles, modernizing its nuclear forces and expanding its fleet of attack submarines.
The effort comes as China has suspended military-to-military talks with the U.S., which could reassure the U.S. about the motives behind Beijing's military buildup.
U.S.-China relations have been particularly strained in recent months, as China rejected the results of an investigation blaming North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship. China's military buildup also is seen as a threat to the U.S. ability to defend Taiwan.
The congressionally mandated report doesn't contain any surprises. It's long been known that China — emerging as a world economic powerhouse — is pouring billions of dollars into offensive and defensive military capabilities to protect its regional interests.
But U.S. officials say the trend is disappointing because of the secrecy surrounding the moves, which make it difficult to gauge Beijing's intentions.
China has refused to meet with senior Pentagon officials this year, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was rebuffed from traveling to China during a visit to Asia in June.
"It's been ambiguous over the past several months," a senior defense official said of how the Pentagon regards its relationship with China. The official, not authorized to speak publicly, spoke on condition of anonymity.
The report states that "the limited transparency in China's military and security affairs enhances uncertainty and increases the potential for misunderstanding and miscalculation."
China has been dismissive of U.S. accusations that the growth and modernization of its military poses a threat.
U.S. officials say China could do more to promote stability in its region and join Western nations in denouncing Iran and North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
"Beijing's answer has been sometimes yes and sometimes no," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier this year.
Among the findings in the Pentagon report is that China has as many as 1,150 short-range ballistic missiles and is acquiring an unknown number of medium-range missiles.
China also is developing artillery systems with the ability to strike across the Taiwan Strait, the report states
The Defense Department's annual assessment, released Monday, says Beijing is upgrading its hefty arsenal of land-based missiles, modernizing its nuclear forces and expanding its fleet of attack submarines.
The effort comes as China has suspended military-to-military talks with the U.S., which could reassure the U.S. about the motives behind Beijing's military buildup.
U.S.-China relations have been particularly strained in recent months, as China rejected the results of an investigation blaming North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship. China's military buildup also is seen as a threat to the U.S. ability to defend Taiwan.
The congressionally mandated report doesn't contain any surprises. It's long been known that China — emerging as a world economic powerhouse — is pouring billions of dollars into offensive and defensive military capabilities to protect its regional interests.
But U.S. officials say the trend is disappointing because of the secrecy surrounding the moves, which make it difficult to gauge Beijing's intentions.
China has refused to meet with senior Pentagon officials this year, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was rebuffed from traveling to China during a visit to Asia in June.
"It's been ambiguous over the past several months," a senior defense official said of how the Pentagon regards its relationship with China. The official, not authorized to speak publicly, spoke on condition of anonymity.
The report states that "the limited transparency in China's military and security affairs enhances uncertainty and increases the potential for misunderstanding and miscalculation."
China has been dismissive of U.S. accusations that the growth and modernization of its military poses a threat.
U.S. officials say China could do more to promote stability in its region and join Western nations in denouncing Iran and North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
"Beijing's answer has been sometimes yes and sometimes no," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier this year.
Among the findings in the Pentagon report is that China has as many as 1,150 short-range ballistic missiles and is acquiring an unknown number of medium-range missiles.
China also is developing artillery systems with the ability to strike across the Taiwan Strait, the report states
Attacks against Mexicans inflame tensions in NYC
Republicans try to change Constitution
to disenfranchise many Mexicans born
in the USA
NEW YORK – When Rodolfo Olmedo was dragged down by a group of men shouting anti-Mexican epithets and bashed over the head with a wooden stick on the street outside his home, he instinctively covered his face to keep from getting disfigured. Blood filled his mouth.
"I wanted to scream, but I couldn't because of the beating they were giving me," said the 25-year-old baker. Nearly five months later, he is still taking pain medications for his head injuries.
Recorded by a store's surveillance camera, the assault was the first of 11 suspected anti-Hispanic bias attacks in a Staten Island neighborhood, re-igniting years-old tensions between blacks and Hispanics in New York City's most remote borough.
Residents of Port Richmond — where an influx of newcomers from Latin America over the past decade has transformed the community — alternately blame the attacks on the economy, unemployment and the debate over Arizona's immigration law.
And although most of the suspects were described as young black men and investigated for bias crimes, a grand jury has indicted only one of seven people arrested on a hate-crime charge.
But Isaias Lozano, a day laborer, said he knows why he was attacked and robbed in December by "morenos" — the Spanish word he uses to describe his black neighbors.
"They hate us because we're Mexicans," he said while sitting at El Centro del Inmigrante, a center for immigrant day workers. "They aren't robbing just anybody."
Across the United States, the immigration debate plays out in suspicion of outsiders and sometimes escalates into violence. Port Richmond, tucked in a corner of New York City that most visitors never see, is wrestling with the perennial question of how people from different backgrounds can live together and get along.
Some community leaders here blame the attacks on hoodlums preying on day laborers, who are perceived as easy targets because they often carry cash home from work. Others say the Arizona law is stirring up a climate of intolerance, even these thousands of miles away.
"It's a cascading effect," said the Rev. Terry Troia, a board member of El Centro del Inmigrante. "There are negative impulses being put out there both nationally and locally. People on the fringe catch a piece of that, and they are acting on it."
Some of Port Richmond's black residents assert that newcomers' presence touches a nerve. Mike Mason, 47, a teacher who works in New Jersey, said the arrival of Mexican immigrants had changed the texture of the community.
"America has got to do something as far as immigration goes," he said. "In the morning you can see the streets lined with undocumented workers ... That's always in the back of people's minds."
Staten Island is a relatively isolated, suburban-like borough of New York City. It is home to nearly 500,000 people, most of whom live in detached homes instead of apartments, need cars to get around and a ferry to get across New York Harbor to Manhattan.
Between 2000 and 2008, the number of Hispanics living on the island grew roughly 40 percent, according to Census bureau statistics analyzed by City University of New York's Latino Data Project, with much of that growth coming from the Mexican community.
Many of those began to coalesce around the Port Richmond neighborhood, which had long been predominantly black and low-income. The neighborhood's main commercial thoroughfare, once marked by empty storefronts, suddenly came alive with Mexican businesses selling pinatas, bars playing Spanish-language heavy metal, and grocers stocking chilies and tomatillos. The neighborhood developed a new nickname: "Little Mexico."
Mexicans soon began reporting that they were attacked by their black neighbors.
One organization documented 21 assaults against day laborers one summer in 2003. When a day laborer was viciously stabbed and killed two years later, neighbors quickly blamed the black community, until reputed Latin Kings gang members were charged with the man's death.
In recent months, police have deployed additional foot and mounted patrols, a command post and Mexican-born officers to distribute bilingual fliers with safety tips. The FBI joined in creating a task force to look into civil rights abuses in the neighborhood. Residents have aired grievances at numerous town hall meetings.
On a recent summer day, Nicomedes Rocha said she was afraid of being targeted by blacks while walking on the street.
"I have to watch on both sides," said the 33-year-old dishwasher at a local taqueria, who was on her way to work carrying a shoulder bag. "They think I carry money."
But some black residents said it was wrong to talk about bias as the main motive for the attacks.
David Johnson, an amateur boxer who has lived in the neighborhood for seven years, blamed the incidents on drug addicts looking to rob people for cash to feed their habits. "They would do that to anybody," he said. "To jump toward bias issues is out of whack."
Rodolfo Olmedo was beaten and robbed of his cell phone and wallet on April 5. Four suspects have been arrested and charged; police investigated it as a bias crime, but a grand jury indicted the suspects only on robbery and gang assault charges.
William Smith, a spokesman for the Staten Island district attorney's office, said the attack on Olmedo was retaliatory. The suspects, he said, believed Olmedo had been involved in an earlier altercation.
Olmedo, who was hospitalized for five days and was briefly in a coma, contends he was targeted because of his ethnicity, not because he had been involved in a related incident or because the suspects wanted to steal his belongings.
After all, Olmedo said, they didn't take an expensive watch that he was wearing.
"It was," he said in Spanish, "a hate crime."
Jetliner crashes on Colombian island; 1 killed
BOGOTA, Colombia – A Boeing 737 jetliner with 131 passengers aboard crashed on landing and broke into three pieces at a Colombian island in the Caribbean early Monday. The region's governor said it was a miracle that only one person died.
Colombian Air Force Col. David Barrero said officials were investigating reports the plane had been hit by lightning before crashing at 1:49 a.m. (3:49 a.m. EDT; 0649 GMT) while landing at San Andres Island, a resort island of 78,000 people about 120 miles (190 kilometers) east of the Nicaraguan coast.
San Andres Gov. Pedro Gallardo said 125 passengers and six crew members had been aboard, but the only person killed was Amar Fernandez de Barreto, 65. At least five people were reported injured.
"It was a miracle and we have to give thanks to God," the governor said.
Barrero, commander of the Caribbean Air Group, said by telephone from San Andres that "the skill of the pilot kept the plane from colliding with the airport."
Barrero said the 7,545-foot (2,300-meter) runway had been closed because parts of the plane were still scattered across it.
The Aires jet had left the Colombian capital of Bogota at about midnight.
Police Gen. Orlando Paez said by telephone that a group of police officers who had been waiting at the airport for the plane to take them back to the Colombian mainland aided in rescuing the victims
Colombian Air Force Col. David Barrero said officials were investigating reports the plane had been hit by lightning before crashing at 1:49 a.m. (3:49 a.m. EDT; 0649 GMT) while landing at San Andres Island, a resort island of 78,000 people about 120 miles (190 kilometers) east of the Nicaraguan coast.
San Andres Gov. Pedro Gallardo said 125 passengers and six crew members had been aboard, but the only person killed was Amar Fernandez de Barreto, 65. At least five people were reported injured.
"It was a miracle and we have to give thanks to God," the governor said.
Barrero, commander of the Caribbean Air Group, said by telephone from San Andres that "the skill of the pilot kept the plane from colliding with the airport."
Barrero said the 7,545-foot (2,300-meter) runway had been closed because parts of the plane were still scattered across it.
The Aires jet had left the Colombian capital of Bogota at about midnight.
Police Gen. Orlando Paez said by telephone that a group of police officers who had been waiting at the airport for the plane to take them back to the Colombian mainland aided in rescuing the victims
Jetliner crashes on Colombian island; 1 killed
BOGOTA, Colombia – A Boeing 737 jetliner with 131 passengers aboard crashed on landing and broke into three pieces at a Colombian island in the Caribbean early Monday. The region's governor said it was a miracle that only one person died.
Colombian Air Force Col. David Barrero said officials were investigating reports the plane had been hit by lightning before crashing at 1:49 a.m. (3:49 a.m. EDT; 0649 GMT) while landing at San Andres Island, a resort island of 78,000 people about 120 miles (190 kilometers) east of the Nicaraguan coast.
San Andres Gov. Pedro Gallardo said 125 passengers and six crew members had been aboard, but the only person killed was Amar Fernandez de Barreto, 65. At least five people were reported injured.
"It was a miracle and we have to give thanks to God," the governor said.
Barrero, commander of the Caribbean Air Group, said by telephone from San Andres that "the skill of the pilot kept the plane from colliding with the airport."
Barrero said the 7,545-foot (2,300-meter) runway had been closed because parts of the plane were still scattered across it.
The Aires jet had left the Colombian capital of Bogota at about midnight.
Police Gen. Orlando Paez said by telephone that a group of police officers who had been waiting at the airport for the plane to take them back to the Colombian mainland aided in rescuing the victims
Colombian Air Force Col. David Barrero said officials were investigating reports the plane had been hit by lightning before crashing at 1:49 a.m. (3:49 a.m. EDT; 0649 GMT) while landing at San Andres Island, a resort island of 78,000 people about 120 miles (190 kilometers) east of the Nicaraguan coast.
San Andres Gov. Pedro Gallardo said 125 passengers and six crew members had been aboard, but the only person killed was Amar Fernandez de Barreto, 65. At least five people were reported injured.
"It was a miracle and we have to give thanks to God," the governor said.
Barrero, commander of the Caribbean Air Group, said by telephone from San Andres that "the skill of the pilot kept the plane from colliding with the airport."
Barrero said the 7,545-foot (2,300-meter) runway had been closed because parts of the plane were still scattered across it.
The Aires jet had left the Colombian capital of Bogota at about midnight.
Police Gen. Orlando Paez said by telephone that a group of police officers who had been waiting at the airport for the plane to take them back to the Colombian mainland aided in rescuing the victims
Saturday, August 14, 2010
U.S.-South Korea drills anger North, worry China
SEOUL (Reuters)
– The U.S. and South Korean militaries will stage their second joint exercise in less than a month from Monday, fuelling tensions with the prickly North and angering regional power China.
The annual exercise comes a week after Seoul completed its own drills near a disputed maritime border off the west coast that prompted the North to retaliate by firing a barrage of artillery shells in the same area.
Responding with the same rhetoric as it has in the past, the reclusive North said the latest exercise was a "dangerous act to light the fuse of a new war."
Pyongyang has often turned to saber-rattling to make a point but analysts say it is unlikely to risk a full-blown war which would pit it against the combined might of the U.S. and South Korean militaries.
But U.S. officials have said further provocations by the North are possible in coming months, especially as Pyongyang tries to build political momentum for the succession to leader Kim Jong-il, expected to hand power to his youngest son.
Unlike the show-of-force drills in July which involved a U.S. aircraft carrier, this month's exercises are lower key.
Washington and South Korea say the exercises are defensive and designed to send a message to Pyongyang that its behavior is aggressive and must stop.
Last week's tit-for-tat military actions occurred near the Northern Limit Line, the site of several deadly clashes since the 1950-53 Korean war, and the location of the torpedoing of a South Korean warship earlier this year.
Seoul blames the sinking of the Cheonan corvette, which cost 46 lives, on Pyongyang. The North denies responsibility.
"Taking into consideration the exceptionally tense security situation following the Cheonan attack, the (latest) drills this year will be conducted throughout the whole country so that it is as similar as possible to actual battle," the South's defense ministry said.
The exercises have also sparked regional tensions, with the North's only major ally China calling the U.S.-led drills a threat to both its security and regional stability.
Following last month's U.S.-South Korea joint naval drill in the Sea of Japan off the Korean peninsula, China conducted its own heavily publicized military exercises
– The U.S. and South Korean militaries will stage their second joint exercise in less than a month from Monday, fuelling tensions with the prickly North and angering regional power China.
The annual exercise comes a week after Seoul completed its own drills near a disputed maritime border off the west coast that prompted the North to retaliate by firing a barrage of artillery shells in the same area.
Responding with the same rhetoric as it has in the past, the reclusive North said the latest exercise was a "dangerous act to light the fuse of a new war."
Pyongyang has often turned to saber-rattling to make a point but analysts say it is unlikely to risk a full-blown war which would pit it against the combined might of the U.S. and South Korean militaries.
But U.S. officials have said further provocations by the North are possible in coming months, especially as Pyongyang tries to build political momentum for the succession to leader Kim Jong-il, expected to hand power to his youngest son.
Unlike the show-of-force drills in July which involved a U.S. aircraft carrier, this month's exercises are lower key.
Washington and South Korea say the exercises are defensive and designed to send a message to Pyongyang that its behavior is aggressive and must stop.
Last week's tit-for-tat military actions occurred near the Northern Limit Line, the site of several deadly clashes since the 1950-53 Korean war, and the location of the torpedoing of a South Korean warship earlier this year.
Seoul blames the sinking of the Cheonan corvette, which cost 46 lives, on Pyongyang. The North denies responsibility.
"Taking into consideration the exceptionally tense security situation following the Cheonan attack, the (latest) drills this year will be conducted throughout the whole country so that it is as similar as possible to actual battle," the South's defense ministry said.
The exercises have also sparked regional tensions, with the North's only major ally China calling the U.S.-led drills a threat to both its security and regional stability.
Following last month's U.S.-South Korea joint naval drill in the Sea of Japan off the Korean peninsula, China conducted its own heavily publicized military exercises
Russia: Iran's nuclear plant to get fuel next week
MOSCOW – Russia announced Friday it will begin the startup next week of Iran's only atomic power plant, giving Tehran a boost as it struggles with international sanctions and highlighting differences between Moscow and Washington over pressuring the Islamic Republic to give up activities that could be used to make nuclear arms.
Uranium fuel shipped by Russia will be loaded into the Bushehr reactor on Aug. 21, beginning a process that will last about a month and end with the reactor sending electricity to Iranian cities, Russian and Iranian officials said.
"From that moment, the Bushehr plant will be officially considered a nuclear energy installation," said Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for the Russian nuclear agency.
If Russia carries out its plan, it will end years of foot-dragging on Bushehr. While Moscow signed a $1 billion contract to build the plant in 1995, its completion has been put off for years.
Moscow has cited technical reasons for the delays. But Bushehr has also been an ideal way to gain leverage with both Tehran and Washington.
Delaying the project has given Russia continued influence with Tehran in international attempts to have it stop uranium enrichment — a program Iran says it needs to make fuel for an envisaged reactor network but which also can be used to create fissile warhead material. The delays also have served to placate the U.S., which opposes rewarding Iran while it continues to defy the U.N. Security Council with its nuclear activities.
After Russia said in March that Bushehr would be launched this year, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that until Iran reassures the world it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon, "it would be premature to go ahead with any project at this time."
Formally, the U.S. has no problem with Bushehr.
Although at first opposed to Russian participation in the project, Washington and its allies agreed to remove any reference to it in the first set of Security Council sanctions passed in 2006 in exchange for Moscow's support for those penalties. Three subsequent sanctions resolutions also have no mention of Bushehr.
The terms of the deal commit the Iranians to allow the Russians to retrieve all used reactor fuel for reprocessing. Spent fuel contains plutonium, which can be used to make atomic weapons. Additionally, Iran has said that International Atomic Energy Agency experts will be able to verify that none of the fresh fuel or waste is diverted.
Still, the U.S. sees the Russian move as a false signal to Tehran as Washington strives to isolate Iran politically and economically to force it to compromise on enrichment.
A senior diplomat from an IAEA member nation said Friday the Americans had "raised those concerns with the Russians" in recent weeks. The diplomat, who is familiar with the issue, spoke on condition of anonymity because his information was confidential.
In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Bushehr "does not represent a proliferation risk. ... However, Bushehr underscores that Iran does not need its own indigenous enrichment capability. The fact that Russia is providing fuel is the very model the international community has offered Iran."
Russia, in turn, argues that the Bushehr project is essential for persuading Iran to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog and fulfill its obligations under international nuclear nonproliferation agreements.
Crowley added: "Our views on the Bushehr project should not be confused with the world's fundamental concerns with Iran's overall nuclear intentions, particularly its pursuit of uranium enrichment, and Iran's willful violation of its international obligations."
Russian officials did not say why they had decided to move ahead with loading fuel into the Bushehr plant now. But the move could have been triggered in part by Moscow's desire show the Iranians it can act independently from Washington after its decision to support the fourth set of U.N. sanctions in June and its continued refusal to ship surface-to-air missile systems that it agreed to provide under a 2007 contract to sell the S-300s.
The sophisticated S-300 anti-aircraft missiles would significantly boost Iran's ability to defend against airstrikes. Israel and the United States have strongly objected to the deal.
Russia has walked a fine line on Iran for years. One of six world powers leading international efforts to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon, it has strongly criticized the U.S. and the European Union for following up with separate sanctions after the latest U.N. penalties — which Moscow supported — were passed.
Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who also heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, as saying that the country had invited IAEA experts to watch the transfer of fuel, which was shipped about two years ago, into the Bushehr reactor.
"Fuel complexes are sealed (and being monitored by IAEA). Naturally, IAEA inspectors will be there to watch the unsealing," ISNA quoted Salehi as saying.
Russia has said the Bushehr project has been closely supervised by the IAEA. But the U.N. watchdog has no monitoring authority at the plant beyond ensuring that its nuclear fuel is accounted for, and U.S. and EU officials have expressed safety concerns.
They note that Iran — leery of opening up its nuclear activities to outsiders — refuses to sign on to the Convention on Nuclear Safety, making it subject to international monitoring of its atomic safety standards.
"We expect Iran to meet established international norms and practices to ensure the safe operation of the reactor under full safeguards monitoring" by the IAEA, Crowley said.
....Read More
Friday, August 13, 2010
Battle Looms Over Huge Costs of Public Pensions In USA
The haves are retirees who were once state or municipal workers. Their seemingly guaranteed and ever-escalating monthly pension benefits are breaking budgets nationwide.
The have-nots are taxpayers who don’t have generous pensions. Their 401(k)s or individual retirement accounts have taken a real beating in recent years and are not guaranteed. And soon, many of those people will be paying higher taxes or getting fewer state services as their states put more money aside to cover those pension checks.
At stake is at least $1 trillion. That’s trillion, with a “t,” as in titanic and terrifying.
The figure comes from a study by the Pew Center on the States that came out in February. Pew estimated a $1 trillion gap as of fiscal 2008 between what states had promised workers in the way of retiree pension, health care and other benefits and the money they currently had to pay for it all. And some economists say that Pew is too conservative and the problem is two or three times as large.
So a question of extraordinary financial, political, legal and moral complexity emerges, something that every one of us will be taking into town meetings and voting booths for years to come: Given how wrong past pension projections were, who should pay to fill the 13-figure financing gap?
Consider what’s going on in Colorado — and what is likely to unfold in other states and municipalities around the country.
Earlier this year, in an act of rare political courage, a bipartisan coalition of state legislators passed a pension overhaul bill. Among other things, the bill reduced the raise that people who are already retired get in their pension checks each year.
This sort of thing just isn’t done. States have asked current workers to contribute more, tweaked the formula for future hires or banned them from the pension plan altogether. But this was apparently the first time that state legislators had forced current retirees to share the pain.
Sharing the burden seems to be the obvious solution so we don’t continue to kick the problem into the future. “We have to take this on, if there is any way of bringing fiscal sanity to our children,” said former Gov. Richard Lamm of Colorado, a Democrat. “The New Deal is demographically obsolete. You can’t fund the dream of the 1960s on the economy of 2010.”
But in Colorado, some retirees and those eligible to retire still want to live that dream. So they sued the state to keep all of the annual cost-of-living increases they thought they would be getting in perpetuity.
The state’s case turns, in part, on whether it is an “actuarial necessity” for the Legislature to make a change. To Meredith Williams, executive director of the Public Employees’ Retirement Association, the state’s pension fund, the answer is pretty simple. “If something didn’t change, we would have run out of money in the foreseeable future,” he said. “So no one would have been paid anything.”
Meanwhile, Gary R. Justus, a former teacher who is one of the lead plaintiffs in the case against the state, asks taxpayers in Colorado and elsewhere to consider an ethical question: Why is the state so quick to break its promises?
After all, he and others like him served their neighbors dutifully for decades. And along the way, state employees made big decisions (and built lifelong financial plans) based on retiring with a full pension that was promised to them in a contract that they say has the force of the state and federal constitutions standing behind it. To them it is deferred compensation, and taking it away is akin to not paying a contractor for paving state highways.
And actuarial necessity or not, Mr. Justus said he didn’t believe he should be responsible for past pension underfunding and the foolish risks that pension managers made with his money long after he retired in 2003.
The changes the Legislature made don’t seem like much: there’s currently a 2 percent cap in retirees’ cost-of-living adjustment for their pension checks instead of the 3.5 percent raise that many of them received before.
But Stephen Pincus, a lawyer for the retirees who have filed suit, estimates that the change will cost pensioners with 30 years of service an average of $165,000 each over the next 20 years.
Mr. Justus, 62, who taught math for 29 years in the Denver public schools, says he thinks it could cost him half a million dollars if he lives another 30 years. He also notes that just about all state workers in Colorado do not (and cannot) pay into Social Security, so the pension is all retirees have to live on unless they have other savings.
No one disputes these figures. Instead, they apologize. “All I can say is that I am sorry,” said Brandon Shaffer, a Democrat, the president of the Colorado State Senate, who helped lead the bipartisan coalition that pushed through the changes. (He also had to break the news to his mom, a retired teacher.) “I am tremendously sympathetic. But as a steward of the public trust, this is what we had to do to preserve the retirement fund.”
Taxpayers, whose payments are also helping to restock Colorado’s pension fund, may not be as sympathetic, though. The average retiree in the fund stopped working at the sprightly age of 58 and deposits a check for $2,883 each month. Many of them also got a 3.5 percent annual raise, no matter what inflation was, until the rules changed this year.
Private sector retirees who want their own monthly $2,883 check for life, complete with inflation adjustments, would need an immediate fixed annuity if they don’t have a pension. A 58-year-old male shopping for one from an A-rated insurance company would have to hand over a minimum of $860,000, according to Craig Hemke of Buyapension.com. A woman would need at least $928,000, because of her longer life expectancy.
Who among aspiring retirees has a nest egg that size, let alone people with the same moderate earning history as many state employees? And who wants to pay to top off someone else’s pile of money via increased income taxes or a radical decline in state services?
If you find the argument of Colorado’s retirees wanting, let your local legislator know that you don’t want to be responsible for every last dollar necessary to cover pension guarantees gone horribly awry. After all, many government employee unions will be taking contrary positions and doing so rather loudly.
If you work for a state or local government, start saving money outside of the pension plan if you haven’t already, because that plan may not last for as long as you need it.
And if you’re a government retiree or getting close to the end of your career? Consider what it means to be a citizen in a community. And what it means to be civil instead of litigious, coming to the table and making a compromise before politicians shove it down your throat and you feel compelled to challenge them to a courthouse brawl.
“We have to do what unions call givebacks,” said Mr. Lamm, the former Colorado governor. “That’s the only way to sanity. Any other alternative, therein lies dragons.”
.....Read More
The have-nots are taxpayers who don’t have generous pensions. Their 401(k)s or individual retirement accounts have taken a real beating in recent years and are not guaranteed. And soon, many of those people will be paying higher taxes or getting fewer state services as their states put more money aside to cover those pension checks.
At stake is at least $1 trillion. That’s trillion, with a “t,” as in titanic and terrifying.
The figure comes from a study by the Pew Center on the States that came out in February. Pew estimated a $1 trillion gap as of fiscal 2008 between what states had promised workers in the way of retiree pension, health care and other benefits and the money they currently had to pay for it all. And some economists say that Pew is too conservative and the problem is two or three times as large.
So a question of extraordinary financial, political, legal and moral complexity emerges, something that every one of us will be taking into town meetings and voting booths for years to come: Given how wrong past pension projections were, who should pay to fill the 13-figure financing gap?
Consider what’s going on in Colorado — and what is likely to unfold in other states and municipalities around the country.
Earlier this year, in an act of rare political courage, a bipartisan coalition of state legislators passed a pension overhaul bill. Among other things, the bill reduced the raise that people who are already retired get in their pension checks each year.
This sort of thing just isn’t done. States have asked current workers to contribute more, tweaked the formula for future hires or banned them from the pension plan altogether. But this was apparently the first time that state legislators had forced current retirees to share the pain.
Sharing the burden seems to be the obvious solution so we don’t continue to kick the problem into the future. “We have to take this on, if there is any way of bringing fiscal sanity to our children,” said former Gov. Richard Lamm of Colorado, a Democrat. “The New Deal is demographically obsolete. You can’t fund the dream of the 1960s on the economy of 2010.”
But in Colorado, some retirees and those eligible to retire still want to live that dream. So they sued the state to keep all of the annual cost-of-living increases they thought they would be getting in perpetuity.
The state’s case turns, in part, on whether it is an “actuarial necessity” for the Legislature to make a change. To Meredith Williams, executive director of the Public Employees’ Retirement Association, the state’s pension fund, the answer is pretty simple. “If something didn’t change, we would have run out of money in the foreseeable future,” he said. “So no one would have been paid anything.”
Meanwhile, Gary R. Justus, a former teacher who is one of the lead plaintiffs in the case against the state, asks taxpayers in Colorado and elsewhere to consider an ethical question: Why is the state so quick to break its promises?
After all, he and others like him served their neighbors dutifully for decades. And along the way, state employees made big decisions (and built lifelong financial plans) based on retiring with a full pension that was promised to them in a contract that they say has the force of the state and federal constitutions standing behind it. To them it is deferred compensation, and taking it away is akin to not paying a contractor for paving state highways.
And actuarial necessity or not, Mr. Justus said he didn’t believe he should be responsible for past pension underfunding and the foolish risks that pension managers made with his money long after he retired in 2003.
The changes the Legislature made don’t seem like much: there’s currently a 2 percent cap in retirees’ cost-of-living adjustment for their pension checks instead of the 3.5 percent raise that many of them received before.
But Stephen Pincus, a lawyer for the retirees who have filed suit, estimates that the change will cost pensioners with 30 years of service an average of $165,000 each over the next 20 years.
Mr. Justus, 62, who taught math for 29 years in the Denver public schools, says he thinks it could cost him half a million dollars if he lives another 30 years. He also notes that just about all state workers in Colorado do not (and cannot) pay into Social Security, so the pension is all retirees have to live on unless they have other savings.
No one disputes these figures. Instead, they apologize. “All I can say is that I am sorry,” said Brandon Shaffer, a Democrat, the president of the Colorado State Senate, who helped lead the bipartisan coalition that pushed through the changes. (He also had to break the news to his mom, a retired teacher.) “I am tremendously sympathetic. But as a steward of the public trust, this is what we had to do to preserve the retirement fund.”
Taxpayers, whose payments are also helping to restock Colorado’s pension fund, may not be as sympathetic, though. The average retiree in the fund stopped working at the sprightly age of 58 and deposits a check for $2,883 each month. Many of them also got a 3.5 percent annual raise, no matter what inflation was, until the rules changed this year.
Private sector retirees who want their own monthly $2,883 check for life, complete with inflation adjustments, would need an immediate fixed annuity if they don’t have a pension. A 58-year-old male shopping for one from an A-rated insurance company would have to hand over a minimum of $860,000, according to Craig Hemke of Buyapension.com. A woman would need at least $928,000, because of her longer life expectancy.
Who among aspiring retirees has a nest egg that size, let alone people with the same moderate earning history as many state employees? And who wants to pay to top off someone else’s pile of money via increased income taxes or a radical decline in state services?
If you find the argument of Colorado’s retirees wanting, let your local legislator know that you don’t want to be responsible for every last dollar necessary to cover pension guarantees gone horribly awry. After all, many government employee unions will be taking contrary positions and doing so rather loudly.
If you work for a state or local government, start saving money outside of the pension plan if you haven’t already, because that plan may not last for as long as you need it.
And if you’re a government retiree or getting close to the end of your career? Consider what it means to be a citizen in a community. And what it means to be civil instead of litigious, coming to the table and making a compromise before politicians shove it down your throat and you feel compelled to challenge them to a courthouse brawl.
“We have to do what unions call givebacks,” said Mr. Lamm, the former Colorado governor. “That’s the only way to sanity. Any other alternative, therein lies dragons.”
.....Read More
Korean Air sinks to loss in 2Q as fuel bill rises
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Korean Air, South Korea's biggest airline, said Friday it sank to a loss in the second quarter as a weak won swelled its fuel costs.
The carrier lost 233.1 billion won ($192 million) in the three months ended June 30 compared with a profit of 78.5 billion won a year earlier. Sales surged 36.7 percent to 2.84 trillion won.
Shares in the airline, which released earnings before the stock market closed, rose 2.5 percent to 76,900 won as its operating profit -- seen as a direct indicator of business performance -- more than doubled.
Korean Air said its fuel bill increased by 30 percent from a year earlier to 865 billion won amid higher jet fuel prices and a 3.5 percent fall in the won against the dollar on average during the quarter.
But the airline expects to return to profit in the third quarter because passenger numbers are recovering from the global recession and the won has strengthened.
Operating profit -- seen as a direct indicator of business performance before taxes, dividends, asset sales and other items are figured into net profit or loss -- surged more than twofold to 352.1 billion won from 127.3 billion won last year.
Korean Air, the world's biggest international air cargo carrier, said its airfreight business improved in the second quarter as exports of liquid crystal displays, semiconductors and cell phones increased.
Cargo to Europe more than doubled and nearly doubled to North America and Japan during the three months.
....Read More
The carrier lost 233.1 billion won ($192 million) in the three months ended June 30 compared with a profit of 78.5 billion won a year earlier. Sales surged 36.7 percent to 2.84 trillion won.
Shares in the airline, which released earnings before the stock market closed, rose 2.5 percent to 76,900 won as its operating profit -- seen as a direct indicator of business performance -- more than doubled.
Korean Air said its fuel bill increased by 30 percent from a year earlier to 865 billion won amid higher jet fuel prices and a 3.5 percent fall in the won against the dollar on average during the quarter.
But the airline expects to return to profit in the third quarter because passenger numbers are recovering from the global recession and the won has strengthened.
Operating profit -- seen as a direct indicator of business performance before taxes, dividends, asset sales and other items are figured into net profit or loss -- surged more than twofold to 352.1 billion won from 127.3 billion won last year.
Korean Air, the world's biggest international air cargo carrier, said its airfreight business improved in the second quarter as exports of liquid crystal displays, semiconductors and cell phones increased.
Cargo to Europe more than doubled and nearly doubled to North America and Japan during the three months.
....Read More
German economy soars at fastest pace in 2 decades
BERLIN (AP) --
Germany's economy surged ahead in the second quarter, growing 2.2 percent -- the fastest pace since reunification two decades ago and beating market forecasts -- as a global recovery fed demand for its exports.
The first-quarter growth figure for Europe's biggest economy also was revised upward Friday to 0.5 percent -- more than double the initial reading of 0.2 percent.
"The recovery of the German economy, which lost momentum at the turn of 2009/2010, is really back on track," the Federal Statistical Office said as it released the preliminary second-quarter figures.
Economists had expected second-quarter growth of less than 2 percent. In year-on-year terms, output rose by 3.7 percent.
While foreign trade was one of the key drivers of growth, household and government consumption also contributed to the rise in gross domestic product, the statistical office said.
An improving global economy has fed demand for German exports, while industrial orders and business confidence have been rising.
The economy shrank by a painful 4.9 percent last year -- easily the worst performance since World War II.
The government still has an official forecast for this year of 1.4 percent growth, but Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said Friday that expansion of "well over 2 percent" is now possible.
"One cannot speak of an economic miracle, but we are experiencing an XL upswing at the moment," Bruederle said.
Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING in Brussels, said the economy benefited from "a catching up in the construction sector after the harsh winter and strong foreign demand for German goods."
He cautioned that "German growth will return to more ordinary growth numbers" looking forward. "Nevertheless, despite an inevitable slowdown, all ingredients are there for the German economy to take the next step toward a self-sustained recovery."
Second-quarter gross domestic product figures for the full 16-nation eurozone were due later Friday
.....Read More
Thursday, August 12, 2010
South Africa Beats Black Stars
Ghana’s senior national team, the Black Stars yesterday lost 0-I to the Bafana Bafana of South Africa in an international friendly played at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg.
The hosts grabbed the match winner in the 41st minute through top striker Katlego Mphela.
It was the first match for new Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane, and he did not disappoint.
For Ghana’s World Cup coach Milovan Rajevac, it was an opportunity to try youngsters like Cofie Bekoe and Ransford Osei.
The home team started strongly, but striker Mphela was twice denied by Richard Kingston in the first 15 minutes.
The Black Stars began to assert themselves after the initial scare, with Agyemang Badu and Anthony Annan being assertive in midfield.
The central defensive pair of Jonathan Mensah and Lee Addy was busy on the day due to the incessant pressure from the South African attack force being led by Mphela and Bernard Parker. And Mphela was rewarded for his efforts in the 41st minute when he latched onto Captain Steven Pienaar’s pass, and shot the ball past Richard Kingston for the only goal of the match.
Daniel Agyei replaced injured Kingston at the beginning of the second half.
The homesters had a big break in the 53rd minute but Parker was late in releasing the final pass to Mphela. A minute later Lee Addy, who was later substituted for Bright Addai, deflected Parker’s shot.
Three substitutions injected some urgency in Ghana’s attack force, as Yaw Antwi, Bernard Kumordji and Cofie Bekoe fought hard to justify their inclusion into the team.
Ghana’s only bright spot came in the 64th minute when Yaw Antwi, who came on for Dede Ayew, latched onto a ball and delivered an incisive cross; but Captain Asamoah Gyan’s powerful drive was neatly dealt with by the keeper.
It remained a ding dong affair until the end of the 90 minutes.
...Read More
The hosts grabbed the match winner in the 41st minute through top striker Katlego Mphela.
It was the first match for new Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane, and he did not disappoint.
For Ghana’s World Cup coach Milovan Rajevac, it was an opportunity to try youngsters like Cofie Bekoe and Ransford Osei.
The home team started strongly, but striker Mphela was twice denied by Richard Kingston in the first 15 minutes.
The Black Stars began to assert themselves after the initial scare, with Agyemang Badu and Anthony Annan being assertive in midfield.
The central defensive pair of Jonathan Mensah and Lee Addy was busy on the day due to the incessant pressure from the South African attack force being led by Mphela and Bernard Parker. And Mphela was rewarded for his efforts in the 41st minute when he latched onto Captain Steven Pienaar’s pass, and shot the ball past Richard Kingston for the only goal of the match.
Daniel Agyei replaced injured Kingston at the beginning of the second half.
The homesters had a big break in the 53rd minute but Parker was late in releasing the final pass to Mphela. A minute later Lee Addy, who was later substituted for Bright Addai, deflected Parker’s shot.
Three substitutions injected some urgency in Ghana’s attack force, as Yaw Antwi, Bernard Kumordji and Cofie Bekoe fought hard to justify their inclusion into the team.
Ghana’s only bright spot came in the 64th minute when Yaw Antwi, who came on for Dede Ayew, latched onto a ball and delivered an incisive cross; but Captain Asamoah Gyan’s powerful drive was neatly dealt with by the keeper.
It remained a ding dong affair until the end of the 90 minutes.
...Read More
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Small tsunami generated after Vanuatu earthquake
Associated Press
SYDNEY – Panicked residents of Vanuatu raced for higher ground after a powerful earthquake rattled the South Pacific island nation and generated a small tsunami on Tuesday.
The 9-inch (22 centimeter) wave was observed off the capital Port Vila, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. Police said there were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries from the wave or the 7.5 magnitude quake that preceded it, though buildings shook and power lines were down.
"It was quite a significant earthquake, and we're still having a few aftershocks," Ben McKenzie of the New Zealand High Commission told The Associated Press by phone from Port Vila.
The quake hit about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Port Vila at a depth of 22 miles (35 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Police spokesman John Frat told the AP that officials had not received any reports of injuries or major damage, but described the temblor as "a very sharp quake — it was the worst I have felt in my life."
"Many people left the center of town and went to higher places, fearing a tsunami," he said by telephone from Port Vila. "We're still experiencing sharp aftershocks and all communications were lost for a time, but things are coming back to normal now."
The four-story office building housing the New Zealand High Commission suffered some damage, said McKenzie, first secretary at the New Zealand diplomatic post. Office shelves and ceiling tiles fell down and computers were "thrown across the office" by the jolt, he said.
"We're trying to ensure everybody is safe and we're evacuating the building" to check that it's not "structurally damaged," he said.
Joel Pari, a worker at Port Vila's Trading Post newspaper, said they had not heard any reports of injury or major damage following the quake.
"But it was really strong — it really shook the buildings and everybody fled outside and to higher ground in case of a tsunami," he said.
Roland Cowles, manager of Sunset Bungalows waterfront resort at Port Vila, said his wife Jenny suffered minor cuts as she fled a supermarket.
"For a good 10 seconds, you almost couldn't walk — it was throwing you around that much and people in the supermarket had to be evacuated because of all of the damage that was being done," he told Ten Network television news in Australia by telephone.
Vanuatu is part of the Pacific "ring of fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching from Chile in South America through Alaska and down through the South Pacific.
...Read More
SYDNEY – Panicked residents of Vanuatu raced for higher ground after a powerful earthquake rattled the South Pacific island nation and generated a small tsunami on Tuesday.
The 9-inch (22 centimeter) wave was observed off the capital Port Vila, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. Police said there were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries from the wave or the 7.5 magnitude quake that preceded it, though buildings shook and power lines were down.
"It was quite a significant earthquake, and we're still having a few aftershocks," Ben McKenzie of the New Zealand High Commission told The Associated Press by phone from Port Vila.
The quake hit about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Port Vila at a depth of 22 miles (35 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Police spokesman John Frat told the AP that officials had not received any reports of injuries or major damage, but described the temblor as "a very sharp quake — it was the worst I have felt in my life."
"Many people left the center of town and went to higher places, fearing a tsunami," he said by telephone from Port Vila. "We're still experiencing sharp aftershocks and all communications were lost for a time, but things are coming back to normal now."
The four-story office building housing the New Zealand High Commission suffered some damage, said McKenzie, first secretary at the New Zealand diplomatic post. Office shelves and ceiling tiles fell down and computers were "thrown across the office" by the jolt, he said.
"We're trying to ensure everybody is safe and we're evacuating the building" to check that it's not "structurally damaged," he said.
Joel Pari, a worker at Port Vila's Trading Post newspaper, said they had not heard any reports of injury or major damage following the quake.
"But it was really strong — it really shook the buildings and everybody fled outside and to higher ground in case of a tsunami," he said.
Roland Cowles, manager of Sunset Bungalows waterfront resort at Port Vila, said his wife Jenny suffered minor cuts as she fled a supermarket.
"For a good 10 seconds, you almost couldn't walk — it was throwing you around that much and people in the supermarket had to be evacuated because of all of the damage that was being done," he told Ten Network television news in Australia by telephone.
Vanuatu is part of the Pacific "ring of fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching from Chile in South America through Alaska and down through the South Pacific.
...Read More
Friday, August 6, 2010
Naomi Campbell Testifies before World Court
Extracts from Naomi Campbell's testimony
5 August 2010
Naomi Campbell said the court appearance was an inconvenience for her. British supermodel Naomi Campbell has told a war
crimes tribunal in The Hague of the night in 1997 when it is alleged former Liberian leader Charles Taylor sent her a gift
of "blood diamonds".
Ms Campbell and Mr Taylor had both attended a celebrity dinner in South Africa hosted by then President Nelson Mandela. Here are some extracts from the hearing.
ON RECEIVING THE DIAMONDS
"When I was sleeping I had a knock on my door. I opened my door and two men were there and gave me a pouch and said, 'A gift for you'."
She said she put the pouch next to her bed and went back to sleep. In the morning she opened the bag and saw a few stones. "They were very small, dirty looking stones."
"At breakfast I told Miss Farrow [actress Mia Farrow] and Miss White [Carole White, her ex-modelling agent] what had happened and one of the two said, well that's obviously Charles Taylor, and I said, yes I guess it was."
ASKED IF SHE HAD ALSO BELIEVED CHARLES TAYLOR HAD SENT THE DIAMONDS
"I assumed it was. I don't know anything about Charles Taylor. Never heard of him before, never heard of the country Liberia before. I never heard of the term 'blood diamonds' before. So I just assumed that it was."
ASKED WHY SHE HADN'T ASKED WHO SENT THE GIFT
"I get gifts given to me all the time, at all hours of the night. Sometimes without notes. It is quite normal for me to receive gifts."
ON WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DIAMONDS
"I went downstairs to breakfast and took all my luggage with me. I wanted to find my friend [Jeremy Ratcliffe, then head of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund], someone that I trust and who does great things in South Africa for charity, to give them [the stones] to him to do something with them. I didn't want to keep them.
"In 2009, when the United Nations called my lawyer to ask about these diamonds, it was the second time I had spoken to him about them and to my surprise he still has them."
ASKED IF SHE COULD RECALL HOW MANY 'STONES' THERE WERE
"I really can't recall after 13 years, Maybe two or three?"
ASKED IF SHE HAD CONSIDERED THANKING CHARLES TAYLOR FOR THE GIFT
"I did not consider contacting him. I did not know how. I had no way of contacting him and had no intention of contacting him."
COULD THE DIAMONDS HAVE COME FROM SOMEONE ELSE?
"When we discussed it at breakfast, I think it was Mia Farrow who said there was no-one else at the table that would give such a gift. So the assumption was made."
ASKED WHY SHE HADN'T WANTED TO APPEAR IN COURT
"This is a big inconvenience for me.
"I really don't want anything to do with this, and I care about the protection of my family.
"This is someone [Charles Taylor] that I read on the internet has killed thousands of people, supposedly, and I don't want my family in any danger in any way."
Chinese missile could shift Pacific power balance
ABOARD THE USS GEORGE WASHINGTON – Nothing projects U.S. global air and sea power more vividly than supercarriers. Bristling with fighter jets that can reach deep into even landlocked trouble zones, America's virtually invincible carrier fleet has long enforced its dominance of the high seas.
China may soon put an end to that.
U.S. naval planners are scrambling to deal with what analysts say is a game-changing weapon being developed by China — an unprecedented carrier-killing missile called the Dong Feng 21D that could be launched from land with enough accuracy to penetrate the defenses of even the most advanced moving aircraft carrier at a distance of more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles).
Analysts say final testing of the missile could come as soon as the end of this year, though questions remain about how fast China will be able to perfect its accuracy to the level needed to threaten a moving carrier at sea.
The weapon, a version of which was displayed last year in a Chinese military parade, could revolutionize China's role in the Pacific balance of power, seriously weakening Washington's ability to intervene in any potential conflict over Taiwan or North Korea. It could also deny U.S. ships safe access to international waters near China's 11,200-mile (18,000-kilometer) -long coastline.
While a nuclear bomb could theoretically sink a carrier, assuming its user was willing to raise the stakes to atomic levels, the conventionally-armed Dong Feng 21D's uniqueness is in its ability to hit a powerfully defended moving target with pin-point precision.
The Chinese Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to the AP's request for a comment.
Funded by annual double-digit increases in the defense budget for almost every year of the past two decades, the Chinese navy has become Asia's largest and has expanded beyond its traditional mission of retaking Taiwan to push its sphere of influence deeper into the Pacific and protect vital maritime trade routes.
"The Navy has long had to fear carrier-killing capabilities," said Patrick Cronin, senior director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the nonpartisan, Washington-based Center for a New American Security. "The emerging Chinese antiship missile capability, and in particular the DF 21D, represents the first post-Cold War capability that is both potentially capable of stopping our naval power projection and deliberately designed for that purpose."
Setting the stage for a possible conflict, Beijing has grown increasingly vocal in its demands for the U.S. to stay away from the wide swaths of ocean — covering much of the Yellow, East and South China seas — where it claims exclusivity.
It strongly opposed plans to hold U.S.-South Korean war games in the Yellow Sea off the northeastern Chinese coast, saying the participation of the USS George Washington supercarrier, with its 1,092-foot (333-meter) flight deck and 6,250 personnel, would be a provocation because it put Beijing within striking range of U.S. F-18 warplanes.
The carrier instead took part in maneuvers held farther away in the Sea of Japan.
U.S. officials deny Chinese pressure kept it away, and say they will not be told by Beijing where they can operate.
"We reserve the right to exercise in international waters anywhere in the world," Rear Adm. Daniel Cloyd, who headed the U.S. side of the exercises, said aboard the carrier during the maneuvers, which ended last week.
But the new missile, if able to evade the defenses of a carrier and of the vessels sailing with it, could undermine that policy.
"China can reach out and hit the U.S. well before the U.S. can get close enough to the mainland to hit back," said Toshi Yoshihara, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College. He said U.S. ships have only twice been that vulnerable — against Japan in World War II and against Soviet bombers in the Cold War.
Carrier-killing missiles "could have an enduring psychological effect on U.S. policymakers," he e-mailed to The AP. "It underscores more broadly that the U.S. Navy no longer rules the waves as it has since the end of World War II. The stark reality is that sea control cannot be taken for granted anymore."
Yoshihara said the weapon is causing considerable consternation in Washington, though — with attention focused on land wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — its implications haven't been widely discussed in public.
Analysts note that while much has been made of China's efforts to ready a carrier fleet of its own, it would likely take decades to catch U.S. carrier crews' level of expertise, training and experience.
But Beijing does not need to match the U.S. carrier for carrier. The Dong Feng 21D, smarter, and vastly cheaper, could successfully attack a U.S. carrier, or at least deter it from getting too close.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned of the threat in a speech last September at the Air Force Association Convention.
"When considering the military-modernization programs of countries like China, we should be concerned less with their potential ability to challenge the U.S. symmetrically — fighter to fighter or ship to ship — and more with their ability to disrupt our freedom of movement and narrow our strategic options," he said.
Gates said China's investments in cyber and anti-satellite warfare, anti-air and anti-ship weaponry, along with ballistic missiles, "could threaten America's primary way to project power" through its forward air bases and carrier strike groups.
The Pentagon has been worried for years about China getting an anti-ship ballistic missile. The Pentagon considers such a missile an "anti-access," weapon, meaning that it could deny others access to certain areas.
The Air Force's top surveillance and intelligence officer, Lt. Gen. David Deptula, told reporters this week that China's effort to increase anti-access capability is part of a worrisome trend.
He did not single out the DF 21D, but said: "While we might not fight the Chinese, we may end up in situations where we'll certainly be opposing the equipment that they build and sell around the world."
Questions remain over when — and if — China will perfect the technology; hitting a moving carrier is no mean feat, requiring state-of-the-art guidance systems, and some experts believe it will take China a decade or so to field a reliable threat. Others, however, say final tests of the missile could come in the next year or two.
Former Navy commander James Kraska, a professor of international law and sea power at the U.S. Naval War College, recently wrote a controversial article in the magazine Orbis outlining a hypothetical scenario set just five years from now in which a Deng Feng 21D missile with a penetrator warhead sinks the USS George Washington.
That would usher in a "new epoch of international order in which Beijing emerges to displace the United States."
While China's Defense Ministry never comments on new weapons before they become operational, the DF 21D — which would travel at 10 times the speed of sound and carry conventional payloads — has been much discussed by military buffs online.
A pseudonymous article posted on Xinhuanet, website of China's official news agency, imagines the U.S. dispatching the George Washington to aid Taiwan against a Chinese attack.
The Chinese would respond with three salvos of DF 21D, the first of which would pierce the hull, start fires and shut down flight operations, the article says. The second would knock out its engines and be accompanied by air attacks. The third wave, the article says, would "send the George Washington to the bottom of the ocean."
Thursday, August 5, 2010
US POISED TO CHANGE BIRTHRIGHT
Republicans in the United States Congress are considering changing the United States Constitution which has, for a long time guaranteed automatic citizenship to babies born in the United States by parents of illegal residents.
Recent surge of animosity, tempered by energized support for passage of the strongest anti immigrant law by the state of Arizona, have given spine to politicians who otherwise may have suffered political fallout with voter resentment over high unemployment and economic slump
Leading Republicans are joining a push to reconsider the constitutional amendment that grants automatic citizenship to people born in the United States.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Tuesday he supports holding hearings on the 14th Amendment right, although he emphasized that Washington's immigration focus should remain on border security.
His comments came as other Republicans in recent days have questioned or challenged birthright citizenship, embracing a cause that had largely been confined to the far right.
The senators include Arizona's John McCain, the party's 2008 presidential nominee; Arizona's Jon Kyl, the Republicans' second-ranking senator; Alabama's Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a leading negotiator on immigration legislation.
"I'm not sure exactly what the drafters of the (14th) amendment had in mind, but I doubt it was that somebody could fly in from Brazil and have a child and fly back home with that child, and that child is forever an American citizen," Sessions said.
Legal experts say repealing the citizenship right can be done only through constitutional amendment, which would require approval by two-thirds majorities in both chambers of Congress and by three-fourths of the states. Legislation to amend the right, introduced previously in the House, has stalled.
The proposals are sure to appeal to conservative voters as immigration so far is playing a central role in November's elections. They also could carry risks by alienating Hispanic voters and alarming moderates who could view constitutional challenges as extreme. Hispanics have become the largest minority group in the United States, and many are highly driven by the illegal immigrant debate.
McConnell and McCain seemed to recognize the risk by offering guarded statements Tuesday.
McCain, who faces a challenge from the right in his re-election bid, said he supports reviewing citizenship rights. He emphasized, however, that amending the Constitution is a serious matter.
"I believe that the Constitution is a strong, complete and carefully crafted document that has successfully governed our nation for centuries and any proposal to amend the Constitution should receive extensive and thoughtful consideration," he said.
At a news conference, McConnell refused to endorse Graham's suggestion that citizenship rights be repealed for children of illegal immigrants. While refusing to take questions, he suggested instead that he would look narrowly into reports of businesses that help immigrants arrange to have babies in the United States in order to win their children U.S. citizenship.
The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War, granted citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States," including recently freed slaves.
Defenders of the amendment say altering it would weaken a fundamental American value while doing little to deter illegal immigration. They also say it would create bureaucratic hardships for parents giving birth.
Quoting a newspaper columnist, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Republicans were "either taking leave of their senses or their principles" in advocating repeal.
An estimated 10.8 million illegal immigrants were living in the U.S. as of January 2009, according to the Homeland Security Department. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that as of 2008, there were 3.8 million illegal immigrants in this country whose children are U.S. citizens.
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