BERLIN (AP) — Officials in Germany's western city of Koblenz say some 45,000 residents have to be evacuated as officials try to defuse a World War II era bomb discovered in the Rhine river.
City officials said Saturday the massive British 1.8 ton bomb will be defused early Sunday, requiring all residents within a radius of about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the bomb site to leave their homes for the day.
Officials say seven nursing homes, two hospitals and a prison are also being evacuated. Train and road traffic in the area, some 130 kilometers northwest of Frankfurt, will come to a halt.
The British bomb was found last week alongside a 275 pound bomb dropped there by U.S. forces during WWII, after Rhine's water level fell due to lack of rain.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Nigeria: FG Extradites 25 Illegal Chinese
Abuja — Federal Government has deported 25 Chinese from the country as it emerged that 300,000 foreigners living in Nigeria were registered by the Nigerian Immigration Service
Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mrs. Rose Uzoma, who said this during an oversight visit by the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs, however, lamented that Nigeria had become less attractive for foreign investors.
She told the Senator Dahiru Kuta-led committee that less foreign investment was coming into the country, compared to Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya.
She said: “You have heard so much about Chinese staying illegally in Nigeria, we do remove Chinese regularly. If we discover them, we remove them. Last week, we removed 25 Chinese, we deport those who commit crimes.
“I am not saying that you cannot find one or two foreigners who are not living here on irregular immigration status. But again, there is no country in the world where you cannot find such people,” she added.
“Seeing foreigners on the streets of Nigeria does not mean that they are of irregular status. Most of them are legal residents. Distinguished Senators, there are not many foreigners in Nigeria. We have well over just 300,000 legally resident in Nigeria, in a population of over 160 million people.
“Those of us who travel, when you are coming back to Nigeria, I am sure you can count the number of foreigners in the aircraft. Nigeria is not yet a destination of choice. You see foreigners in Senegal, there are more in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya and other places, you see a lot of tourists there.”
The comptroller-general, who also responded to the senators on the rising incidences of human trafficking in Nigeria, said the NIS was encumbered by inadequate staff and finance to tackle the menace.
She said with only about 23,000 staff, the NIS could not properly man the nation’s land borders, but added that the international airports have been properly upgraded to combat any attempt at trafficking.
“We have secured our international airports; it is very difficult for those people to go through the airport. But our land borders still remain porous. The strength of any security outfit depends on the strength men and logistics. If you secure the international airports, they will go through the land borders,” she said.
A member of the committee, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, in his closing remarks, commended the NIS but added that the committee would ensure that the service adhered strictly to federal character principles.
This, he said, will create a sense of belonging amongst all Nigerian, adding that it was not the intention of the committee that merits and standard should be traded for federal character principle.
His words: “Because of the crucial nature of your assignment, we do not want efficiency to be sacrifice for efficacy of federal character, if we are not efficient in our borders, will be in trouble.”
Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mrs. Rose Uzoma, who said this during an oversight visit by the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs, however, lamented that Nigeria had become less attractive for foreign investors.
She told the Senator Dahiru Kuta-led committee that less foreign investment was coming into the country, compared to Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya.
She said: “You have heard so much about Chinese staying illegally in Nigeria, we do remove Chinese regularly. If we discover them, we remove them. Last week, we removed 25 Chinese, we deport those who commit crimes.
“I am not saying that you cannot find one or two foreigners who are not living here on irregular immigration status. But again, there is no country in the world where you cannot find such people,” she added.
“Seeing foreigners on the streets of Nigeria does not mean that they are of irregular status. Most of them are legal residents. Distinguished Senators, there are not many foreigners in Nigeria. We have well over just 300,000 legally resident in Nigeria, in a population of over 160 million people.
“Those of us who travel, when you are coming back to Nigeria, I am sure you can count the number of foreigners in the aircraft. Nigeria is not yet a destination of choice. You see foreigners in Senegal, there are more in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya and other places, you see a lot of tourists there.”
The comptroller-general, who also responded to the senators on the rising incidences of human trafficking in Nigeria, said the NIS was encumbered by inadequate staff and finance to tackle the menace.
She said with only about 23,000 staff, the NIS could not properly man the nation’s land borders, but added that the international airports have been properly upgraded to combat any attempt at trafficking.
“We have secured our international airports; it is very difficult for those people to go through the airport. But our land borders still remain porous. The strength of any security outfit depends on the strength men and logistics. If you secure the international airports, they will go through the land borders,” she said.
A member of the committee, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, in his closing remarks, commended the NIS but added that the committee would ensure that the service adhered strictly to federal character principles.
This, he said, will create a sense of belonging amongst all Nigerian, adding that it was not the intention of the committee that merits and standard should be traded for federal character principle.
His words: “Because of the crucial nature of your assignment, we do not want efficiency to be sacrifice for efficacy of federal character, if we are not efficient in our borders, will be in trouble.”
Kentucky church bans interracial marriage
A small Kentucky church has chosen to ban marriages and even some worship services for interracial couples. The Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church, located in Pike County, made the vote in response to a longtime member who is engaged to a man whose birthplace is in Zimbabwe.
Other pastoral leaders in the area were quick to denounce the church's vote. "It's not the spirit of the community in any way, shape or form," Randy Johnson, president of the Pike County Ministerial Association, told the Lexington Herald-Leader.
The small congregation, which usually hosts about 40 members each Sunday, held the vote after longtime member Stella Harville, brought her fiancé Ticha Chikuni to church with her in June. The couple performed a song together at the church in which Chikuni sang "I Surrender All," while Harville played the piano.
Chikuni, 29, who works at Georgetown College, is black--and Harville, who was baptized at the church but is not an active member, is white. Dean Harville, Stella's father, said he was told by the church's former pastor Melvin Thompson that his daughter and her fiancé were not allowed to sing at the church again. However, Thompson recently stepped down and the church's new pastor, Stacy Stepp, said the couple was once again welcome to sing.
Stepp's decision prompted Thompson to put forth a recommendation saying that while all members are welcome at the church, it does not "condone" interracial marriage, and that any interracial couples would not be received as members or allowed to participate in worship services. The only exception? Funerals.
The Harville family has formally requested the congregation to reconsider the interracial ban, and Thompson has also said he would like to resolve the issue, the area CBS affiliate WYMT has reported.
A copy of the recommendation, obtained by WYMT, reads in part:
That the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church does not condone interracial marriage. Parties of such marriages will not be received as members, nor will they be used in worship services and other church functions, with the exception being funerals. All are welcome to our public worship services. This recommendation is not intended to judge the salvation of anyone, but is intended to promote greater unity among the church body and the community we serve.
Members of the church held a vote on Thompson's proposed language, with nine voting in favor and six voting against. The other members in attendance chose not to vote.
Gawker notes that Pike County is 98 percent white and home to the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud.
The Harville family doesn't see Gulnare's new policy promoting anything like unity or civil peace. "They're the people who are supposed to comfort me in times like these," Stella Harville said.
And Stella's father was much more forceful in his denunciation of the interracial ban. "It sure ain't Christian," Dean Harville said. "It ain't nothing but the old devil working."
Other pastoral leaders in the area were quick to denounce the church's vote. "It's not the spirit of the community in any way, shape or form," Randy Johnson, president of the Pike County Ministerial Association, told the Lexington Herald-Leader.
The small congregation, which usually hosts about 40 members each Sunday, held the vote after longtime member Stella Harville, brought her fiancé Ticha Chikuni to church with her in June. The couple performed a song together at the church in which Chikuni sang "I Surrender All," while Harville played the piano.
Chikuni, 29, who works at Georgetown College, is black--and Harville, who was baptized at the church but is not an active member, is white. Dean Harville, Stella's father, said he was told by the church's former pastor Melvin Thompson that his daughter and her fiancé were not allowed to sing at the church again. However, Thompson recently stepped down and the church's new pastor, Stacy Stepp, said the couple was once again welcome to sing.
Stepp's decision prompted Thompson to put forth a recommendation saying that while all members are welcome at the church, it does not "condone" interracial marriage, and that any interracial couples would not be received as members or allowed to participate in worship services. The only exception? Funerals.
The Harville family has formally requested the congregation to reconsider the interracial ban, and Thompson has also said he would like to resolve the issue, the area CBS affiliate WYMT has reported.
A copy of the recommendation, obtained by WYMT, reads in part:
That the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church does not condone interracial marriage. Parties of such marriages will not be received as members, nor will they be used in worship services and other church functions, with the exception being funerals. All are welcome to our public worship services. This recommendation is not intended to judge the salvation of anyone, but is intended to promote greater unity among the church body and the community we serve.
Members of the church held a vote on Thompson's proposed language, with nine voting in favor and six voting against. The other members in attendance chose not to vote.
Gawker notes that Pike County is 98 percent white and home to the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud.
The Harville family doesn't see Gulnare's new policy promoting anything like unity or civil peace. "They're the people who are supposed to comfort me in times like these," Stella Harville said.
And Stella's father was much more forceful in his denunciation of the interracial ban. "It sure ain't Christian," Dean Harville said. "It ain't nothing but the old devil working."
Russia to build Ghana’s first nuclear power plant
Russian technocrats will build Ghana’s first nuclear power plant as preparatory works are underway, officials at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) have said.
A Daily Graphic publication sighted on the Energy Ministry’s website December 1, 2011 said, the nuclear plant, undertaken by the Ghana government in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is expected to be completed by 2020 with a medium-size reactor also expected to be completed by 2018.
Speaking at a one-day seminar on IAEA Project Planning for Sustainable Development Programme in Accra, the publication cited Prof Benjamin Nyarko, Deputy Director-General of GAEC, saying a team led by the Minister of Energy, Dr Joe Oteng-Adjei, visited Russia recently and met with some experts in the field of nuclear energy to discuss details of the plant.
The project is aimed at developing a long-term comprehensive energy supply plan for Gha
A Daily Graphic publication sighted on the Energy Ministry’s website December 1, 2011 said, the nuclear plant, undertaken by the Ghana government in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is expected to be completed by 2020 with a medium-size reactor also expected to be completed by 2018.
Speaking at a one-day seminar on IAEA Project Planning for Sustainable Development Programme in Accra, the publication cited Prof Benjamin Nyarko, Deputy Director-General of GAEC, saying a team led by the Minister of Energy, Dr Joe Oteng-Adjei, visited Russia recently and met with some experts in the field of nuclear energy to discuss details of the plant.
The project is aimed at developing a long-term comprehensive energy supply plan for Gha
US Jobless Rate Dips to Lowest Level in More Than 2 Years
Somehow the American economy appears to be getting better, even as the rest of the world is looking worse.
In the midst of the European debt crisis, lingering instability in the oil-rich Middle East and concerns about a Chinese economic slowdown, the American unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped last month to 8.6 percent, its lowest level in two and a half years.
The Labor Department also said that the nation’s employers added 120,000 jobs in November and that job growth for the previous two months was better than initially reported. That looks like good news for President Obama as he heads into the 2012 presidential election — especially since just a few months ago the picture looked bleak.
“If you go back to August, all sorts of people were telling us that the economy was headed straight into recession,” said Paul Ashworth, senior United States economist at Capital Economics. “Since that point, we’ve become more and more worried about the euro zone and other areas of the global economy, but somehow, at least for the moment, the U.S. economy seems to be shrugging all that off.”
Even so, part of the reason the jobless rate fell so low was that 315,000 unemployed workers simply stopped applying for jobs. And resilient as the economy seems to have been since this summer, the fate of the fragile recovery is still tied to external — and especially European — events.
So far Europe’s problems have been relatively contained to the Continent. Many economists worry that a disorderly default of Greece or Italy, which still looks alarmingly possible, could plunge Europe into a depression.
If recent history is any guide, even a modest shock wave from across the ocean could throw the American economy off course; earlier this year, a series of shocks from higher oil prices, the Japanese earthquake and the stalemate over the United States debt ceiling managed to drain the energy from the recovery.
November’s drop in unemployment was a welcome relief, given that the jobless rate had been stuck at 9 percent for most of 2011. It is at the lowest level since March 2009; the rate has been above 8 percent for 33 months.
The share of workers who were unemployed fell in November partly because some people found jobs and partly because some discouraged workers dropped out of the labor force altogether. That left the share of Americans participating in the work force at a historically depressed 64 percent, down from 64.2 percent in October.
A separate survey of employers, which economists pay more attention to than the unemployment rate, found that companies added 120,000 jobs last month after adding 100,000 in October.
These numbers were not particularly impressive by historical standards — payroll growth was just about enough to keep up with population growth — but there were other signs of resilience.
Companies have been taking on more and more temporary workers, suggesting that more permanent hiring may be in the cards. What is more, help-wanted advertising, retail sales and auto sales have risen; jobless claims have fallen; and businesses seem to be getting loans more easily. Perhaps most encouraging was a recent survey of small businesses that found hiring intentions to be at their highest level since September 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed.
“Small businesses were cheering up at the end of last year but then got clobbered by the jump in oil prices, the Japanese earthquake and then the debt ceiling fiasco,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief United States economist at High Frequency Economics. “Small businesses employ half the work force, and we need them on board.”
Still, serious concerns remain about the economy’s ability to weather the financial and economic turmoil from abroad. The public sector continues to lay off workers at the federal, state and local level. And excluding the hundreds of thousands who have left the labor force, the country still has a backlog of more than 13 million unemployed workers, whose average period of unemployment is at a record high of 40.9 weeks. The median period, the point between the top and bottom halves, is 21.6 weeks.
“They say businesses are refusing to look at résumés from the unemployed,” said Esther Perry, 59, of Bedford, Mass., who participated in a recent report on unemployed workers put together by USAction, a liberal coalition. “What do you think my chances are? Once unemployment runs out, I don’t know what I will do.”
Even those with jobs are in weak positions. Average hourly earnings fell 0.1 percent in November, and a Labor Department report released Wednesday found that the share of national income going to labor was at a record low last quarter.
These softer spots in Friday’s numbers underscored just how much President Obama could use additional stimulus, a tidy and fast resolution to the European debt crisis or some other economic breakthrough to reinvigorate the job market before the 2012 presidential election.
“As president, my most pressing challenge is doing everything I can every single day to get this economy growing faster and create more jobs,” President Obama said Friday in Washington.
On the issue of government action to stimulate the economy, there has been some movement in Washington toward extending the payroll tax cut, which is scheduled to expire at the end of this month. Economists have said that allowing the tax cut — which lets more than 160 million mostly middle-class Americans keep two percentage points more of their paychecks — to expire could be a severe drag on both job creation and output growth.
“If it isn’t extended, it will have an impact on consumer spending in the first half of next year because it’ll put a big dent in consumer income,” said Conrad DeQuadros, senior economist at RDQ Economics. “To the extent that reduces spending, there will be second-round effects on hiring.”
According to some estimates, an extension would probably lead to 600,000 to one million more jobs. The other major stimulus program scheduled to expire by 2012 is the extension of unemployment insurance benefits, allowing some jobless workers to continue collecting for as long as 99 weeks. Already, millions of people have exhausted their benefits. Failing to renew the federal benefit extensions will cause five million additional people to lose benefits next year, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in an interview.
Unemployment benefits are believed to have one of the most stimulative effects on the economy, because recipients are likely to spend all of the money they receive quickly and pump more spending through the economy.
In the midst of the European debt crisis, lingering instability in the oil-rich Middle East and concerns about a Chinese economic slowdown, the American unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped last month to 8.6 percent, its lowest level in two and a half years.
The Labor Department also said that the nation’s employers added 120,000 jobs in November and that job growth for the previous two months was better than initially reported. That looks like good news for President Obama as he heads into the 2012 presidential election — especially since just a few months ago the picture looked bleak.
“If you go back to August, all sorts of people were telling us that the economy was headed straight into recession,” said Paul Ashworth, senior United States economist at Capital Economics. “Since that point, we’ve become more and more worried about the euro zone and other areas of the global economy, but somehow, at least for the moment, the U.S. economy seems to be shrugging all that off.”
Even so, part of the reason the jobless rate fell so low was that 315,000 unemployed workers simply stopped applying for jobs. And resilient as the economy seems to have been since this summer, the fate of the fragile recovery is still tied to external — and especially European — events.
So far Europe’s problems have been relatively contained to the Continent. Many economists worry that a disorderly default of Greece or Italy, which still looks alarmingly possible, could plunge Europe into a depression.
If recent history is any guide, even a modest shock wave from across the ocean could throw the American economy off course; earlier this year, a series of shocks from higher oil prices, the Japanese earthquake and the stalemate over the United States debt ceiling managed to drain the energy from the recovery.
November’s drop in unemployment was a welcome relief, given that the jobless rate had been stuck at 9 percent for most of 2011. It is at the lowest level since March 2009; the rate has been above 8 percent for 33 months.
The share of workers who were unemployed fell in November partly because some people found jobs and partly because some discouraged workers dropped out of the labor force altogether. That left the share of Americans participating in the work force at a historically depressed 64 percent, down from 64.2 percent in October.
A separate survey of employers, which economists pay more attention to than the unemployment rate, found that companies added 120,000 jobs last month after adding 100,000 in October.
These numbers were not particularly impressive by historical standards — payroll growth was just about enough to keep up with population growth — but there were other signs of resilience.
Companies have been taking on more and more temporary workers, suggesting that more permanent hiring may be in the cards. What is more, help-wanted advertising, retail sales and auto sales have risen; jobless claims have fallen; and businesses seem to be getting loans more easily. Perhaps most encouraging was a recent survey of small businesses that found hiring intentions to be at their highest level since September 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed.
“Small businesses were cheering up at the end of last year but then got clobbered by the jump in oil prices, the Japanese earthquake and then the debt ceiling fiasco,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief United States economist at High Frequency Economics. “Small businesses employ half the work force, and we need them on board.”
Still, serious concerns remain about the economy’s ability to weather the financial and economic turmoil from abroad. The public sector continues to lay off workers at the federal, state and local level. And excluding the hundreds of thousands who have left the labor force, the country still has a backlog of more than 13 million unemployed workers, whose average period of unemployment is at a record high of 40.9 weeks. The median period, the point between the top and bottom halves, is 21.6 weeks.
“They say businesses are refusing to look at résumés from the unemployed,” said Esther Perry, 59, of Bedford, Mass., who participated in a recent report on unemployed workers put together by USAction, a liberal coalition. “What do you think my chances are? Once unemployment runs out, I don’t know what I will do.”
Even those with jobs are in weak positions. Average hourly earnings fell 0.1 percent in November, and a Labor Department report released Wednesday found that the share of national income going to labor was at a record low last quarter.
These softer spots in Friday’s numbers underscored just how much President Obama could use additional stimulus, a tidy and fast resolution to the European debt crisis or some other economic breakthrough to reinvigorate the job market before the 2012 presidential election.
“As president, my most pressing challenge is doing everything I can every single day to get this economy growing faster and create more jobs,” President Obama said Friday in Washington.
On the issue of government action to stimulate the economy, there has been some movement in Washington toward extending the payroll tax cut, which is scheduled to expire at the end of this month. Economists have said that allowing the tax cut — which lets more than 160 million mostly middle-class Americans keep two percentage points more of their paychecks — to expire could be a severe drag on both job creation and output growth.
“If it isn’t extended, it will have an impact on consumer spending in the first half of next year because it’ll put a big dent in consumer income,” said Conrad DeQuadros, senior economist at RDQ Economics. “To the extent that reduces spending, there will be second-round effects on hiring.”
According to some estimates, an extension would probably lead to 600,000 to one million more jobs. The other major stimulus program scheduled to expire by 2012 is the extension of unemployment insurance benefits, allowing some jobless workers to continue collecting for as long as 99 weeks. Already, millions of people have exhausted their benefits. Failing to renew the federal benefit extensions will cause five million additional people to lose benefits next year, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in an interview.
Unemployment benefits are believed to have one of the most stimulative effects on the economy, because recipients are likely to spend all of the money they receive quickly and pump more spending through the economy.
Russian Court Fines Election Monitor $1,000
MOSCOW — A Moscow court on Friday ruled that the country’s sole independent election watchdog had broken Russian law by publishing citizens’ complaints of campaign abuses during the run-up to parliamentary elections this weekend.
Early Saturday morning, Golos’s director, Lidiya Shibanova, was detained for questioning after she flew into Sheremetyevo airport, said her deputy, Grigory A. Melkonyants. State-controlled television on Friday aired a documentary suggesting that Golos was being used by Western governments to spark Arab-spring-style civil unrest after the Russian elections.
Friday’s court ruling related to Golos’s “Map of Violations,” which has attracted more than 4,500 reports alleging illegal campaign tactics, including stories of employers threatening workers with pay cuts and local officials ordering business leaders to pressure subordinates. Most of the reports concern the ruling party, United Russia, which, with its popularity sagging, is struggling to preserve its control of Parliament in Sunday’s vote.
The Obama administration criticized the court decision and “what appears to be a pattern of harassment directed against this organization,” said a spokesman for the National Security Council, The Associated Press reported.
Judge Svetlana K. Kalantyr ruled that Golos had violated a law that prohibits news outlets from publishing polling data during the five days before an election, and levied a fine of 30,000 rubles, or about $1,000. The major complaint voiced in recent days, however, is that Golos, which was established in 2000 and whose name means “vote” in Russian, receives funding from the United States and other Western governments.
Pressure from authorities has mounted to the point that Golos’s 3,000 election monitors may not be able to observe voting on Sunday, Mr. Melkonyants said. Police on Friday searched a Golos field office in Siberia, and several election observers were warned not to take part, according to the group.
“They are trying to discredit our work in the eyes of the public,” Mr. Melkonyants said. “I think there will be more cases against us. This is only the first one.”
The Kremlin is scrambling to shore up United Russia, which is almost certain to lose the two-thirds majority it has enjoyed since 2007, and to dissuade those inclined to cast a protest vote. During an appearance in St. Petersburg on Friday, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin appealed to the public to support a consolidated government, lest “the entire mechanism stops operating.”
If “ you and I sitting at TV screens see lawmakers pulling each other’s hairs, beating and spitting at each other, as it happened here once and happens in some of our neighboring countries, we will not have concerted, effective work,” Mr. Putin said. “If someone wants to see a show, they should go to the circus, or the movies, or the theater.”
A documentary that aired Friday on the NTV channel, which is owned by the national energy giant Gazprom, juxtaposed footage of the group’s training sessions with images of street protests and fistfuls of hundred-dollar bills.
The legal charges were triggered by a letter from Vladimir Y. Churov, the head of the Central Election Commission, to the Russian prosecutor, which describes the organization’s work as “an attempt to appropriate the powers of state authorities.”
Mr. Churov’s letter, which was read aloud in the courtroom on Friday, argued that most of the complaints on the “Map of Violations” were against United Russia. He went on to say that “the activities of the association actually inhibit the election of registered candidates from one (particular) political party, and the party’s achievement of a certain result in the election.”
Aleksandr V. Kynev, chief of analysis at Golos, said Mr. Churov’s letter made it clear that the case had political goals.
“We can see the underlying political motivation is now flying right into the middle of this legal proceeding,” Mr. Kynev said, describing the hearing as “theater of the absurd.”
Russian law allows organizations to accept funding from foreign governments, but bans such organizations from campaigning for candidates.
The documentary broadcast on Friday said that during a search of a Golos office in the Russian Far East, the police found fliers that encouraged voters to check every box on Sunday’s ballots, rendering them invalid, a tactic being promoted as an act of protest. A local representative explained that a visitor had left the pamphlets behind, but the announcer apparently was not persuaded.
“The question arises,” he intoned, in an ominous voiceover, “what are supposedly ‘independent election observers’ doing with fliers from the radical opposition?”
Early Saturday morning, Golos’s director, Lidiya Shibanova, was detained for questioning after she flew into Sheremetyevo airport, said her deputy, Grigory A. Melkonyants. State-controlled television on Friday aired a documentary suggesting that Golos was being used by Western governments to spark Arab-spring-style civil unrest after the Russian elections.
Friday’s court ruling related to Golos’s “Map of Violations,” which has attracted more than 4,500 reports alleging illegal campaign tactics, including stories of employers threatening workers with pay cuts and local officials ordering business leaders to pressure subordinates. Most of the reports concern the ruling party, United Russia, which, with its popularity sagging, is struggling to preserve its control of Parliament in Sunday’s vote.
The Obama administration criticized the court decision and “what appears to be a pattern of harassment directed against this organization,” said a spokesman for the National Security Council, The Associated Press reported.
Judge Svetlana K. Kalantyr ruled that Golos had violated a law that prohibits news outlets from publishing polling data during the five days before an election, and levied a fine of 30,000 rubles, or about $1,000. The major complaint voiced in recent days, however, is that Golos, which was established in 2000 and whose name means “vote” in Russian, receives funding from the United States and other Western governments.
Pressure from authorities has mounted to the point that Golos’s 3,000 election monitors may not be able to observe voting on Sunday, Mr. Melkonyants said. Police on Friday searched a Golos field office in Siberia, and several election observers were warned not to take part, according to the group.
“They are trying to discredit our work in the eyes of the public,” Mr. Melkonyants said. “I think there will be more cases against us. This is only the first one.”
The Kremlin is scrambling to shore up United Russia, which is almost certain to lose the two-thirds majority it has enjoyed since 2007, and to dissuade those inclined to cast a protest vote. During an appearance in St. Petersburg on Friday, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin appealed to the public to support a consolidated government, lest “the entire mechanism stops operating.”
If “ you and I sitting at TV screens see lawmakers pulling each other’s hairs, beating and spitting at each other, as it happened here once and happens in some of our neighboring countries, we will not have concerted, effective work,” Mr. Putin said. “If someone wants to see a show, they should go to the circus, or the movies, or the theater.”
A documentary that aired Friday on the NTV channel, which is owned by the national energy giant Gazprom, juxtaposed footage of the group’s training sessions with images of street protests and fistfuls of hundred-dollar bills.
The legal charges were triggered by a letter from Vladimir Y. Churov, the head of the Central Election Commission, to the Russian prosecutor, which describes the organization’s work as “an attempt to appropriate the powers of state authorities.”
Mr. Churov’s letter, which was read aloud in the courtroom on Friday, argued that most of the complaints on the “Map of Violations” were against United Russia. He went on to say that “the activities of the association actually inhibit the election of registered candidates from one (particular) political party, and the party’s achievement of a certain result in the election.”
Aleksandr V. Kynev, chief of analysis at Golos, said Mr. Churov’s letter made it clear that the case had political goals.
“We can see the underlying political motivation is now flying right into the middle of this legal proceeding,” Mr. Kynev said, describing the hearing as “theater of the absurd.”
Russian law allows organizations to accept funding from foreign governments, but bans such organizations from campaigning for candidates.
The documentary broadcast on Friday said that during a search of a Golos office in the Russian Far East, the police found fliers that encouraged voters to check every box on Sunday’s ballots, rendering them invalid, a tactic being promoted as an act of protest. A local representative explained that a visitor had left the pamphlets behind, but the announcer apparently was not persuaded.
“The question arises,” he intoned, in an ominous voiceover, “what are supposedly ‘independent election observers’ doing with fliers from the radical opposition?”
US Defense Chief Says Israel Must Mend Arab Ties
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta spoke sternly on Friday to America’s closest ally in the Middle East, telling Israel that it is partly responsible for its increasing isolation and that it now must take “bold action” — diplomatic, not military — to mend ties with its Arab neighbors and settle previously intractable territorial disputes with the Palestinians.
“I believe security is dependent on a strong military, but it is also dependent on strong diplomacy,” Mr. Panetta said. “And unfortunately, over the past year, we have seen Israel’s isolation from its traditional security partners in the region grow, and the pursuit of a comprehensive Middle East peace has effectively been put on hold.”
He balanced his criticism by noting that “Israel is not solely responsible for this isolation,” and described what he termed “an international campaign under way to isolate Israel.”
Mr. Panetta reaffirmed that the United States would sustain an “unshakable commitment to Israel’s security,” proved by “unprecedented levels of defense cooperation,” including more than $200 million in additional assistance for Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile-defense system.
But the defense secretary made clear that Israel now must prove its commitment to restoring partnerships across the region and resolving historic disputes with the Palestinians.
“Ultimately, the dream of a secure, prosperous Jewish and democratic Israel can only be achieved through two states living side by side in peace and security,” Mr. Panetta said. “With full confidence that the United States is willing and capable of ensuring that Israel can safeguard its security as it takes the risks needed to pursue peace, now is the time for Israel to take bold action and to move towards a negotiated two-state solution.”
Asked specifically what Israel should do first, Mr. Panetta replied, “Get to the damn table” — that is, return to negotiations.
Mr. Panetta also called on Israel to “reach out and mend fences with those who share an interest in regional stability,” specifically Turkey, Egypt and Jordan. If those gestures are rejected in Ankara, Cairo and Amman, he said, “the world will see those rebukes for what they are.”
Mr. Panetta spoke to the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, a policy center here. During the evening address, he identified Iran as the most significant national security threat facing the United States, allies and partners in the region.
Notable was the phrasing of a warning to Iran: that any action to block free transit of regional oil shipments and other commerce would be a “redline,” a term describing an unacceptable action that would be countered with an American response.
“No greater threat exists to the security and prosperity of the Middle East than a nuclear-armed Iran,” Mr. Panetta said, noting that a “pillar of our approach to the region is our determination to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.”
He pledged the United States was committed to deterring Iran’s “destabilizing activities, particularly those that could threaten the free flow of commerce throughout this vital region. That is a ‘redline’ for the United States.”
American policy to shape Iranian action would use both inducements and penalties, diplomacy and economic sanctions, he said. But the Pentagon would always have military options ready for the president’s consideration, Mr. Panetta said.
“That’s a responsibility I take very seriously, because when it comes to the threat posed by Iran, the president has made it very clear that we have not taken any options off the table,” Mr. Panetta said.
Looking broadly across the region, Mr. Panetta also described how the United States was seeking to sustain a military presence and enhance military-to-military cooperation in the Persian Gulf after the withdrawal from Iraq at the end of this month.
“I believe security is dependent on a strong military, but it is also dependent on strong diplomacy,” Mr. Panetta said. “And unfortunately, over the past year, we have seen Israel’s isolation from its traditional security partners in the region grow, and the pursuit of a comprehensive Middle East peace has effectively been put on hold.”
He balanced his criticism by noting that “Israel is not solely responsible for this isolation,” and described what he termed “an international campaign under way to isolate Israel.”
Mr. Panetta reaffirmed that the United States would sustain an “unshakable commitment to Israel’s security,” proved by “unprecedented levels of defense cooperation,” including more than $200 million in additional assistance for Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile-defense system.
But the defense secretary made clear that Israel now must prove its commitment to restoring partnerships across the region and resolving historic disputes with the Palestinians.
“Ultimately, the dream of a secure, prosperous Jewish and democratic Israel can only be achieved through two states living side by side in peace and security,” Mr. Panetta said. “With full confidence that the United States is willing and capable of ensuring that Israel can safeguard its security as it takes the risks needed to pursue peace, now is the time for Israel to take bold action and to move towards a negotiated two-state solution.”
Asked specifically what Israel should do first, Mr. Panetta replied, “Get to the damn table” — that is, return to negotiations.
Mr. Panetta also called on Israel to “reach out and mend fences with those who share an interest in regional stability,” specifically Turkey, Egypt and Jordan. If those gestures are rejected in Ankara, Cairo and Amman, he said, “the world will see those rebukes for what they are.”
Mr. Panetta spoke to the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, a policy center here. During the evening address, he identified Iran as the most significant national security threat facing the United States, allies and partners in the region.
Notable was the phrasing of a warning to Iran: that any action to block free transit of regional oil shipments and other commerce would be a “redline,” a term describing an unacceptable action that would be countered with an American response.
“No greater threat exists to the security and prosperity of the Middle East than a nuclear-armed Iran,” Mr. Panetta said, noting that a “pillar of our approach to the region is our determination to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.”
He pledged the United States was committed to deterring Iran’s “destabilizing activities, particularly those that could threaten the free flow of commerce throughout this vital region. That is a ‘redline’ for the United States.”
American policy to shape Iranian action would use both inducements and penalties, diplomacy and economic sanctions, he said. But the Pentagon would always have military options ready for the president’s consideration, Mr. Panetta said.
“That’s a responsibility I take very seriously, because when it comes to the threat posed by Iran, the president has made it very clear that we have not taken any options off the table,” Mr. Panetta said.
Looking broadly across the region, Mr. Panetta also described how the United States was seeking to sustain a military presence and enhance military-to-military cooperation in the Persian Gulf after the withdrawal from Iraq at the end of this month.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)