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Netanyahu, Obama meet in night of White House diplomacy

In Uncategorized on March 24, 2010 at 3:53 pm

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama met twice during a dramatic evening in the White House, but no signs emerged of a breakthrough in a row over Jewish settlements.

Obama hosted Netanyahu in the Oval Office late Tuesday for 90 minutes, but with the two sides embroiled in their most testy disagreement in years, unusually did not appear before the cameras with his visitor.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) walks into the West Wing of the White House in Washington. AFP photo

As an evening of intense diplomacy developed, Netanyahu then asked to consult privately with his staff, a US official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

After just over an hour ensconced in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing, the Israeli leader asked to see Obama again, and the president returned from his family quarters for a second Oval Office encounter of 35 minutes.

Shortly afterwards, Netanyahu swept away from the White House in his limousine, without glancing at reporters.

White House officials declined to describe the tone or the substance of the talks or to say if any agreements had been proposed or reached.Chronology: US-Israeli relations since 1991

Earlier, Netanyahu, joined at the talks by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, took a hard line on US demands for a freeze in settlement construction, saying Washington’s stance could delay peace talks with the Palestinians for a year.

“If the Americans support the unreasonable demands made by the Palestinians regarding a freeze on settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, the peace process risks being blocked for a year,” Netanyahu said.

“Relations between Israel and the United States should not be hostage to differences between the two countries over the peace process with the Palestinians,” he was quoted as saying by Israeli media.

The talks, which likely also focused on Iran’s nuclear challenge, as Washington tries to focus the world on framing tough sanctions towards Tehran, took place amid one of the most corrosive US-Israeli rows in decades.

Netanyahu declared late Monday in a passionate speech to the powerful US-Israel lobby AIPAC that “Jerusalem is not a settlement,” spelling out an apparent message of no compromise towards Obama.

The United States has warned that building more Jewish settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem directly undermines US credibility as a mediator and efforts to get “proximity” talks started between Israel and the Palestinians.

Washington reacted angrily when Israel’s government announced the construction of 1,600 settler homes in the eastern part of the city while Vice President Joe Biden was visiting the country.

Despite Netanyahu’s apology over the timing of the announcement, the row has rumbled on for two weeks — with neither side showing signs of backing down.

Even as Tuesday’s White House meeting went ahead, it emerged in Israel that local officials had given final approval for the building of 20 apartments for Jewish settlers at the site of a former Palestinian hotel in east Jerusalem.

Netanyahu says he is simply following the policies of all Israeli governments since 1967, when Israel won a war with its Arab neighbors and seized east Jerusalem, which it later annexed in a move not recognized by any major world power.

Israel claims all Jerusalem as its eternal capital. The Palestinians want to make the predominantly Arab eastern sector of the city the future seat of their state.

Deepening the sense of crisis Tuesday, the Palestinians warned Netanyahu’s position threatened to destroy hopes for serious peace negotiations.

“What Netanyahu said does not help American efforts and will not serve the efforts of the American administration to return the two sides to indirect negotiations,” Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.

Netanyahu met Obama as his government was embroiled in another row, this time with Britain, over the use of fake British passports by an Israeli hit squad blamed for killing Hamas commander Mahmud al-Mabhuh in Dubai.

Britain ordered the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat over the affair. Israel, which has said there is no evidence its spy agency Mossad is to blame, said it was disappointed at the decision.

Despite criticizing Israel over settlements, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told AIPAC on Monday that US support for Israel’s security is “rock solid, unwavering, enduring and forever.”

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US asks China to mull ‘implications’ of Google move

In Uncategorized on March 24, 2010 at 3:51 pm

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2010 (AFP) – The United States said Tuesday that China must consider the “implications” of Google’s decision to effectively shut down its Chinese search engine because it was too hard to do business there.

China, meanwhile, angrily attacked Google for stopping censorship of its Chinese-language search engine but said there should be no broader fallout in Sino-US ties provided there was no political meddling in the United States.

The Google logo is reflected in windows of the company’s China head office in Beijing on March 23, 2010. AFP photo

On Wall Street, Google shares shed 1.52 percent on Tuesday to close at 549.00 dollars while Google rival and Chinese search market leader Baidu saw its share price gain 2.62 percent to close at 594.88 dollars.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the United States respects but was “not party” to Google’s decision to redirect Web search queries from mainland China to an uncensored site in Hong Kong.

In Beijing, officials reserved their ire for Google, which lifted censorship of its Chinese search engine, Google.cn, in response to cyberattacks last year the company said targeted Google code and the email accounts of Chinese rights activists.

“I don’t see it influencing Sino-US relations unless some people want to politicize it,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said, describing the Google situation as “mainly an individual commercial case.”

“If you link this to China-US relations or politicize it, or even link it to China’s international image, this is mere overkill,” Qin said. “China’s market is fully open.”

Google said it was “business as usual” at its China headquarters, as a fierce debate erupted online between Chinese defenders of free speech and nationalist-minded net users denouncing foreign interference.

Google spokeswoman Marsha Wang said she had no information about layoffs or a possible transfer of staff to the US giant’s Hong Kong offices, saying only that “adjustments” could be made “according to business demand.”

Despite Google’s promise of uncensored results, searches of politically sensitive key words generated the browser message “cannot display the webpage” — suggesting China’s “Great Firewall” of Internet control remained erect.

Google’s top lawyer David Drummond said the firm was “well aware that (China) could at any time block access to our services.”

Despite Monday’s decision, Drummond said Google plans to maintain its sales and research and development teams in China, which has the world’s largest online population at 384 million.

Google launched Google.cn in January 2006 after agreeing to censor websites for content banned under Chinese law. Google.cn is the second-largest search engine in China after Baidu.

A Chinese official in charge of the Internet bureau of the State Council Information Office said that by ending censorship, Google had “violated its written promise” to block controversial search results.

The world’s search leader was “totally wrong” to stop censoring its Chinese-language search engine and to blame Beijing for the alleged hacker attacks, the official said.

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Britain kicks out Israeli diplomat in passport row

In Uncategorized on March 24, 2010 at 3:50 pm

LONDON, March 24, 2010 (AFP) – Britain has kicked out an Israeli diplomat over the “intolerable” use of fake British passports in the killing of a Hamas chief, in a sharp escalation of tension over the murder.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he was “very disappointed” by the expulsion on Tuesday, but a senior official said the Jewish state would not retaliate.

A handout picture obtained on March 23, 2010 from the Embassy of Israel in London shows Israel’s ambassador to London, Ron Prossor (L) shaking hands with Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks during a housewarming reception at the Israeli Embassy’s newly refurbished premises in London. AFP photo

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said there were “compelling reasons” to suggest that Israel was behind the forgeries used by the team which killed Mahmud al-Mabhuh in Dubai in January.

“I’ve asked that a member of the embassy of Israel be withdrawn from the UK as a result of this affair and this is taking place,” he told lawmakers.

“There are compelling reasons to believe that Israel was responsible for the misuse of the British passports… The government takes this matter extremely seriously. Such misuse of British passports is intolerable.”

The foreign minister declined to specify the position of the expelled diplomat, but reports in the Times and Telegraph newspapers said the individual was a senior Mossad agent, without citing sources.

The person was believed to be the Israeli spy agency’s station chief in London, said the papers.

A spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office declined to comment on the reports.

Mossad has been widely blamed for the assassination of the Hamas chief but Israel maintains there is no proof for this claim.

Hamas hailed the expulsion and said it hoped Israeli leaders would eventually be brought to trial over the case.

Dubai police in February released photographs and names of European passport holders alleged to have been members of the hit squad.

The suspects used the identities of 12 people from Britain, as well as people from Australia, France, Germany and Ireland. Interpol has issued arrest notices for 27 suspects wanted by Dubai in connection with the killing.

Also Tuesday, a French prosecutor announced an investigation into the use of four fake French passports in the Hamas hit.

And in Berlin, a spokesman from the federal prosecutor’s office said a probe had been launched more than a month ago into a fake German passport used in the murder.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s spokesman said the Israeli diplomat had technically been “asked to withdraw” from Britain, adding that he had been given two weeks to leave.

The announcement came after Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor was called in again to the Foreign Office on Monday, and briefed on the results of an investigation by Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

Miliband said SOCA had established that 12 British passport holders identified by Dubai police were “wholly innocent victims of identity theft”.

The passports were copied “when handed over for inspection to individuals linked to Israel, either in Israel or in other countries”, he said.

“Given that this was a very sophisticated operation in which high-quality forgeries were made, the government judges it is highly likely that the forgeries were made by a state intelligence service,” he said.

Miliband met Lieberman in Brussels on Monday and asked for a formal pledge that in future “the state of Israel would never be party to the misuse of British passports in such a way”, he said.

Lieberman said in a statement that while he wanted to maintain cordial relations with London, “no proof of Israeli involvement in this affair has been provided to us.”

Meanwhile a senior Israeli official told AFP that the priority was to “calm things down”.

“We have no intention of expelling a British diplomat in response to London’s decision,” the official said, asking not to be identified.

The Foreign Office has amended its official travel advice for Israel, warning British visitors about the risk to their passports and identities.

Relations between Britain and Israel were strained even before the passport row, notably after a London court issued an arrest warrant for former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni.

Livni reportedly cancelled a trip to Britain in December for fear of being arrested under the warrant, issued over her role in Israel’s 22-day war against the Hamas-rule Gaza Strip launched at the end of 2008.

Israel is also embroiled in a separate row with another ally, the US, after the Jewish state announced plans for the construction of settler homes in east Jerusalem while American Vice President Joe Biden was visiting the country.

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Thai police charge Philippines woman over cocaine haul

In Uncategorized on March 24, 2010 at 3:49 pm

BANGKOK, March 24, 2010 (AFP) – Thai police said Wednesday they had arrested a Filipina at Bangkok’s main airport for trafficking cocaine worth 247,000 dollars.

Rivera Maria Elenita, 40, was detained at Suvarnabhumi Airport late Monday after she arrived from Lima, Peru on an Emirates airline flight, according to a statement from the Narcotics Suppression Police.

Officers acting on a tip-off found 3.2 kilograms (7.0 pounds) of cocaine in two plastic bags, hidden in special compartments of her luggage.

Elenita told police she had been hired by a Western African drug gang in Bangkok to smuggle the cocaine for Thai clients, they said.

“She said she was paid some 1,000 dollars and would get more money when she delivered the drugs to a gang member,” the police added.

The street value of the confiscated cocaine was estimated at 8.0 million baht (247,000 dollars).

Drugs trafficking officially carries the death penalty in Thailand although executions are rare.

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Daimler in deal with US over foreign bribery charges: source

In Uncategorized on March 24, 2010 at 3:48 pm

CHICAGO, March 23, 2010 (AFP) – Daimler will pay some 180 million dollars in fines to settle US allegations that the German automaker habitually bribed foreign officials, a source close to the case told AFP Tuesday.

Daimler is accused of paying out millions in cash and gifts of golf clubs, vacations, and luxury Mercedes armored cars to officials in 22 countries to win government contracts.

The deal would end investigations by both criminal prosecutors and securities regulators, said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“There is no (official legal) settlement yet,” the source said. “That’s what the judge is going to decide on April 1” at a hearing.

Spokesmen for Daimler and the US Justice Department declined to comment on the case.

Daimler has previously acknowledged that “improper payments” were made in a number of countries and said it voluntarily shared information from internal investigations with US and German prosecutors.

“Daimler has taken various actions designed to address and resolve the issues identified in the course of its investigation and to safeguard against the recurrence of improper conduct,” the automaker said in its 2009 annual report.

The charges filed in US court show there is “no margin for error” when it comes to complying with bribery rules, said high profile corporate lawyer Jacob Frenkel.

“US criminal prosecutors have been on an international rampage enforcing US bribery laws wherever and whenever possible,” said Frenkel, a former US Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement lawyer and federal prosecutor.

“The message from US prosecutors is if there is a US connection, then they will seize on it to bring charges.”

A criminal complaint filed in Washington accuses Daimler, maker of Mercedes-Benz cars and the world leader in heavy trucks, of engaging in a “longstanding practice of paying bribes” to foreign officials.

It alleges that Daimler made “hundreds of improper payments worth tens of millions of dollars to foreign officials” in order to secure contracts with government customers.

The bribes allegedly included:

-More than 3.0 million euros (4.0 million dollars) in bribes to Russian government officials in order to secure 64.6 million euros in sales.

-4.1 million euros in “commissions,” “gifts” and lavish vacation to Chinese government officials.

-A “birthday gift” of a 300,000-dollar armored Mercedes Benz S-class car to an official in Turkmenistan.

-Kickbacks to Iraqi officials and an agreement not to seek compensation for damages incurred during the first Gulf War in order to secure sales of trucks used for humanitarian purposes through the UN’s Oil for Food program.

-Golf clubs, wedding gifts and other perks totaling about 41,000 dollars to win contracts in Indonesia.

Many of these payments were made through “third party accounts” which were supervised by the most senior management of Daimler’s sales operations, the complaint alleges. It also allegedly maintained a “cash desk” at a factory in Stuttgart.

That cash desk and most of those accounts were eventually shut down after the German government imposed new rules to curtail foreign bribery in 1998.

But the complaint alleges that Daimler did not seriously crack down on foreign bribes until after the US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission launched investigations.

Some of those payments were made through US-based shell corporations and “corrupt transactions with a territorial connection to the United States resulted in over 50 million dollars in pre-tax profits,” the complaint alleges.

The complaint alleges that the bribes went to officials in: China, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Latvia, Nigeria, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and other countries.

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Oil lower on signs of weaker demand

In Uncategorized on March 24, 2010 at 3:48 pm

SINGAPORE, March 24, 2010 (AFP) – Oil prices fell in Asian trade Wednesday after nearing 82 dollars as a private report showing weaker US energy demand dampened sentiment, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for May delivery, dropped 71 cents to 81.20 dollars a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for May was down 60 cents to 80.10 dollars.

The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said late Tuesday crude stocks in the country, the world’s largest energy consumer, rose by 7.5 million barrels for the week ended March 19.

Analysts polled by Platts had forecast an increase of 1.67 million barrels.

“The increase was much larger than expected so it was slightly bearish. I think the market is readying itself for similar numbers (later),” said Serene Lim, a Singapore-based oil analyst with ANZ bank.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) will release its weekly inventory report later Wednesday. Most analysts expect the data to show an increase in crude oil stocks of 1.4 million barrels.

An increase in stockpiles indicates weaker demand.

A firmer US dollar in recent days has also kept oil prices down as uncertainty over a European plan to ease Greece’s debt crisis weighed on the euro, Lim said.

“The correlation between oil and the dollar has strengthened over the past few weeks and I think that’s also putting some pressure on oil prices,” she added.

As oil is traded in dollars, a stronger US currency makes the commodity more expensive to holders of weaker units and tends to dampen demand, leading to lower prices.

Oil prices had advanced to near 82 dollars a barrel Tuesday, lifted by gains in the US stock markets after a report from the National Association of Realtors showed existing-home sales fell lesser than expected in February.

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China state media blasts Google for ‘huge’ mistake

In Uncategorized on March 24, 2010 at 3:47 pm

BEIJING, March 24, 2010 (AFP) – China’s state media on Wednesday belittled Google’s decision to effectively shut down its Chinese search engine, saying the Internet firm had made a huge mistake in the world’s largest online market.

The Google logo is pictured outside the company’s China head office in Beijing on March 23, 2010. AFP photo

The newspapers said the company would earn little sympathy from loyal users in China, as it had turned its dispute with Beijing over government web censorship and cyberattacks into a political issue.

Google on Monday stopped filtering search results in China and re-routed traffic from google.cn to an uncensored site in Hong Kong, but said it would maintain its sales and research and development teams on the mainland.

“With its action to shift its search service from the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong yesterday, the world’s top search engine has made a huge strategic misstep in the promising Chinese market,” the Global Times said.

The paper touted the improvement in China’s business climate and warned foreign firms that they could face “unprecedented” competition from homegrown companies, urging them to adapt to the “transitional Chinese society”.

“A win-win situation is in the interests of both China and foreign businesses. Google’s ‘new approach’ does not work,” it said in a commentary.

Beijing has repeatedly said foreign businesses are welcome as long as they abide by Chinese law. Google says its shift of search traffic to google.com.hk is “entirely legal”, as Hong Kong is not subject to mainland censorship laws.

The China Daily relished the “moment of peace” created by Google’s decision, two months after the eruption of the dispute, which has added to strains in relations between China and the United States.

“Google’s efforts to make this issue into a political spat have naturally met with strong opposition and criticism from the Chinese government and society,” the English-language newspaper wrote in a commentary.

“With the company’s credibility among Chinese netizens now plummeting, Google will be greeted with less sympathy and fewer parting sentiments from Chinese Internet users,” it said.

The paper slammed Google for offering China’s 384 million web users access to “pornography and subversive content”, saying the Chinese web would “continue to grow in a cleaner and more peaceful environment” without google.cn.

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Australian scientists in TB drug breakthrough

In Uncategorized on March 24, 2010 at 3:45 pm

A Tuberculosis patient Sushma Bhat is pictured at a hospital in Ahmedabad. AFP file

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australian scientists said Wednesday they had discovered a drug which could cure tuberculosis at its non-infectious stage and could be the first major breakthrough on the disease in 50 years.

Bacteriologist Nick West said researchers at Sydney’s Centenary Institute had developed a drug which could essentially combat the disease before it takes hold, potentially saving millions of lives around the world.

“We have investigated a protein that is essential for TB to survive and we have had some success in developing a drug that will inhibit this protein,” said West.

“Our goal over the coming months is to find out the full extent of this drug’s potential.”

West said it would be the first time in history that dormant or asymptomatic, non-infectious TB would be able to be treated, potentially stemming a deadly tide of infection which claimed two million lives every year.

“Unfortunately, the antibiotics we use to fight TB aren’t effective against latent TB and can only be used when the disease becomes active,” he explained.

“This is a major problem as one out of 10 people who have latent TB will develop the active disease, becoming sick and contagious.”

“If we can figure out a way to treat TB when it’s in a latent stage, then we could save millions of lives throughout the world,” West added.

If successful the drug would be the the first new treatment for TB since 1962, according to the institute which is affiliated with the University of Sydney.

One third of the world’s population, or two billion people, are estimated to be infected with TB, with the disease growing fastest in South East Asia.

Lethal multidrug-resistant strains of the disease were becoming a serious threat to global health, infecting almost half a million people in 2008, of whom one-third died, the World Health Organisation warned last week.

Almost half the drug resistant cases were estimated to have occurred in India and China, the WHO said, with an extensively drug-resistant form, found in 58 countries, “virtually untreatable”.

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After century-long fight, US enacts health reforms

In Uncategorized on March 24, 2010 at 3:43 pm

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2010 (AFP) – President Barack Obama signed into law historic, sweeping reforms Tuesday that lay out health care coverage for almost every American and realize the dreams of generations of past US leaders.

“Today, after almost a century of trying, today after over a year of debate, today, after all the votes have been tallied, health insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America,” Obama said.

US President Barack Obama signs the health insurance reform bill in the East Room of the White House in Washington. AFP photo

“The bill I’m signing will set in motion reforms that generations of Americans have fought for and marched for and hungered to see,” he told a jubilant, packed audience at a White House signing ceremony.

Delighted lawmakers and guests cheered as Obama made good on his campaign vow to overhaul America’s embattled health care system, enacting a huge shift in US policy and the biggest social legislation in over four decades.

Meanwhile, the Senate began debate on a package of fixes sent by the House, with dozens of amendments to be proposed. Among the changes are canceling special agreements benefiting states like Nebraska and plans to fill the “donut hole” of Medicare health coverage for the elderly.

The House of Representatives narrowly approved the legislation that is now US law by 219-212 late Sunday, using the Democratic majority to muscle the measure through a united Republican opposition.

The 940-billion-dollar overhaul will extend coverage to some 32 million Americans who currently have none, ensuring 95 percent of under-65 US citizens and legal residents will have health insurance.

The historic signing came a century after president Theodore Roosevelt first called for a national approach to US health care, and after past leaders such as Bill Clinton tried and failed to reform the creaky, costly system.

For the first time ever, almost all Americans will be required to buy insurance or face fines. Among other key reforms, the new law bans insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, from dropping clients who get sick or from setting lifetime caps.

“You’ve made history,” Vice President Joe Biden told a beaming Obama. “Mr President, you’ve done what generations of not just ordinary, but great men and women have attempted to do.

“You have turned, Mr President, the right of every American to have access to decent health care into reality for the first time in American history.”

In the ceremonial East Room, where president Lyndon Johnson signed the civil rights bill into law in 1964, a party atmosphere prevailed as euphoric Democrats gathered to witness the act, sharing hugs and slapping palms.

Among them were Vicki and Caroline Kennedy, the widow and niece of the late senator Ted Kennedy, who struggled for almost five decades to enact health care reform, the cause of his life.

Obama used some 20 different pens to sign the 2,000-plus page bill, intending to give most of them to guests and key lawmakers and administration officials as souvenirs of the momentous occasion.

The Senate is taking up changes needed to their initial legislation. It is expected to approve them separately under rules that prevent Republicans from using a filibuster to indefinitely delay and kill the measure.

But Obama still has a hard sell defending the reforms ahead of the key congressional mid-term November elections, with Republicans throwing up their arms at a legislation they say is too costly.

“We’ve heard a lot today about how historic this bill is, and it’s true,” said Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele in a statement. “It is an historic betrayal of the clear will of the American people. It is an historic loss of liberty.”

House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner lamented “a somber day for the American people.”

And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN that “repeal and replace will be the slogan” for Republicans going forward.

Yet a USA Today/Gallup poll taken just after the bill’s signing found that nearly half of Americans support the landmark health care overhaul, with 49 percent of respondents saying the bill was a “good thing,” while 40 percent considered it a “bad thing.”

On Thursday, Obama takes to the road, visiting Iowa for the first in a series of campaign-style events on the bill’s behalf.

Overturning the plan is a mathematical impossibility in this election cycle as Republicans cannot win the two-thirds majority in the House and Senate needed to override Obama’s veto.

But 14 states filed lawsuits against the legislation just moments after Obama signed the bill. Idaho and Virginia have already passed laws preventing their residents from being forced to buy insurance.

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