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Middle East peace plan

admin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:21:04 +0000

The report, which cites U.S., European, Israeli and Palestinian officials, said that Obama will be ready to announce the resumption of long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of September. In exchange for Israel agreeing to a partial and temporary settlement freeze, the U.S., Britain and France would push the United Nations Security Council to expand sanctions on Iran to include its oil and gas industry, the report said. Relations between Israel and the US have shifted since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama took office earlier this year, Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev said Tuesday. Netanyahu has resisted calls for a total freeze on construction, arguing that the Bush administration had acquiesced to continued Israeli settlement activity in large blocs that are likely to be annexed by Israel in any future agreement with the Palestinians. The Obama administration has demanded that Israel halt all construction in settlements in the West Bank, which the Palestinians claim for a future state.

Security in Baghdad

admin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:32:02 +0000

Within hours of Wednesday’s attacks, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said in a statement that the government would reassess the security situation. But Iraqi politicians also assured citizens that the American forces that withdrew from cities June 30 as part of the status of forces agreement between the two nations would not be coming back, despite the attacks.Two truck bombs struck the heart of Iraq’s government — the Foreign Ministry and Finance Ministry buildings — and shattered a sense of relative calm that had prevailed in Baghdad since Iraqi forces formally took control of security from the U.S. military on June 30.The attacks underscore the fragility of Iraq’s security since U.S. combat troops withdrew from urban areas on June 30 and as the country prepares for elections in January. The withdrawal from cities is part of a U.S.-Iraqi agreement signed in January that outlines the complete pullout of American forces by the end of 2011.

Bombing near NATO headquarter

admin — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:04:26 +0000

Ahuge explosion rocked the diplomatic district of the capital on Saturday morning, killing seven people and wounding 91, most of them on their way to work. The brunt of the explosion was borne by civilian workers at the transportation ministry and Afghan Army guards at the entrance to the headquarters where Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force and all coalition forces in Afghanistan, has his offices. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the blast. “The target was the U.S. embassy, but we could not reach it. The suicide car bomber exploded the bomb near the I.S.A.F. headquarters and killed several foreign troops,” the spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. The blast occurred in one of the city’s most heavily guarded streets, which runs between the United States Embassy and the presidential palace. The embassy is about 100 yards from the site of the explosion, but heavy barriers and blast walls protect it from the street. The palace is about 200 yards away in the opposite direction. The north end of the street is closed around the embassy, but the south end is open to allow access for Afghans working in several government buildings.

Three hundred killed in Taiwan village

admin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:53:18 +0000

The county magistrate gave the premier a report that in his judgment about 300 were dead,” a Government Information Office section chief said, referring to the village of Hsiao Li.About 300 people are estimated to have been killed by a massive landslide that wiped out much of a village in southern Taiwan, a government official said on Friday.

Crude futures drop

admin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:27:43 +0000

Crude fluctuated in a narrow $71.48-$71.96 a barrel range in Asia. The drop was in response to a stronger dollar and a forecast by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that it now expects a near-to-below-normal hurricane season, as the effect of the El Niño weather pattern continues to develop. Benchmark crude for September delivery was down 46 cents to $71.48 a barrel by midday in Singapore in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, the contract lost 3 cents to settle at $71.94.A much tougher test of the oil market’s resiliency as an asset class will be the release of the monthly employment data,” said Jim Ritterbusch of Ritterbusch and Associates in Gelana, Illinois.

China accused of genocide

admin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:42:02 +0000

Large groups of police armed with semi-automatic weapons and batons were deployed close to the scene of Monday’s violence, where Chinese authorities said police shot and killed two Uighur “lawbreakers” and wounded another.An Algerian-based Al-Qaeda affiliate was meanwhile calling for reprisals against Chinese workers in northern Africa, according to an intelligence report by London-based risk analysis firm Stirling Assynt.Heavily armed security forces were out in force in China’s volatile Urumqi on Tuesday close to where police shot dead two Muslim Uighurs who state media said were calling for jihad.The latest shooting was the first time the government said security forces had killed anyone since the unrest broke out, despite claims by exiled Uighurs that many people had died in the clampdown.Thousands of Han Chinese retaliated in the following days, arming themselves with makeshift weapons and marching through parts of Urumqi vowing vengeance against the Uighurs.An online petition signed by a number of Chinese writers and democracy activists is calling for the release of a Uighur activist in Beijing who disappeared during last week’s clashes in Urumqi, as both the Chinese government and Uighur supporters battle to make their case in the public realm.

Unemployment rate in US

admin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:47:27 +0000

U.S. employment fell by a seasonally adjusted 467,000 jobs in June, after declining by 322,000 the month before, the Labor Department said Thursday. The report is at odds with such signs of recent economic improvement as growing home sales and increased business investment.The key question is how long will the U.S. keep shedding jobs. Unemployment, as well as the fear of losing work, has slowed consumer spending and hobbled overall economic growth.Manufacturing employment continued to sink, dropping another 136,000 positions, as the battered auto industry and related transportation industry contracted. The construction industry cut 79,000 jobs last month and is now down 1 million jobs from a year ago, masking job gains from some 2,000 projects in the Obama Recovery Act that already have been launched.

Withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi cities

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:50:36 +0000

Iraq celebrated the withdrawal of American troops from its cities with parades, fireworks and a national holiday on Tuesday as the prime minister trumpeted the country’s sovereignty from American occupation to a wary public.Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki seized on the occasion to position himself as a proud leader of a country independent at last, looking ahead to the next milestone of parliamentary elections in January.

In Washington, President Obama called the long-planned move an “important step” toward a complete U.S. pullout from the war that began six years ago, but he also predicted more violence.

Nuclear samction againest North Korea

admin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:11:49 +0000

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been running high since Pyongyang carried out its second nuclear test last month.China has given its word to the United States that it is “deeply committed” to implementing tough new nuclear sanctions against North Korea, a senior US official said Friday.The foreign ministers urged Pyongyang to abide by U.N. resolutions and “abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs as well as ballistic missile programs.Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said during a news conference that the tests conducted in April and May are “a challenge to the peace and the stability of the international community, and this is something that we cannot abide by.Philip S. Goldberg, who has served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia and other countries, will lead a delegation representing other key U.S. departments, including Treasury, Defense and State. He also will be the administration’s full-time North Korea sanctions coordinator, according to two senior administration officials who discussed the plan on condition of anonymity because it has not been publicly announced.

Punishment for protesters in Iran

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:02:03 +0000

Rioters and those who mastermind the unrest must know the Iranian nation will not give in to pressure and accept the nullification of the election results,” said Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami during Friday prayers in Tehran, according to Iran’s state-run Press TV.Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi issued a defiant statement Thursday, again insisting the controversial June 12 presidential election was a “fraud,” Iran’s government-funded Press TV reported. American and Middle East diplomats said Iran’s internal instability could also aid U.S. efforts to push ahead with a broader Arab-Israeli peace initiative. A key stumbling block to the process has been the political split between the Palestinian territories’ two main political factions, Fatah and Hamas.