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Miyerkules, Nobyembre 30, 2011
Hillary Clinton begins Burma visit
First senior US official to visit in more than 50 years hopes 'flickers of progress ? will be ignited into movement for change'
Hillary Clinton's arrival in Burma made her the first leading US official to visit the isolated south Asian country in more than 50 years.
The high-risk visit by the US secretary of state, the first since since John Foster Dulles in 1955, is aimed at consolidating tentative democratic reforms in Burma, which has been ruled by a brutal military regime for decades, and rolling back Chinese influence in the resource-rich state.
During the three-day visit, Clinton will see President Thein Sein, the former leader of the military junta credited with pushing through recent reforms, and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate and opposition leader who has spent much of the last 21 years in jail or under house arrest.
President Barack Obama announced the trip at a regional summit in November as part of a broader policy of increasing US engagement in Asia. The US, as well as the EU and Canada, has imposed sanctions against Burma for decades because of widespread human rights abuses. The Burmese authorities hope to get the sanctions removed and in recent months Sein's nominally civilian government has been more tolerant of criticism, halted an unpopular dam project, loosened restrictions on the internet and reached out to Aung San Suu Kyi.
The administration was appointed after parliamentary polls, described as rigged by observers, last year. "I am obviously looking to determine ... what is the intention of the current government with respect to continuing reforms," Clinton told reporters before her arrival. "We and many other nations are quite hopeful that these flickers of progress ... will be ignited into a movement for change that will benefit the people of the country."
Clinton was forced to hurry her departure from the first stop on her tour, South Korea, to reach Burma before sundown as the remote capital's airfield has no runway lights. The small airport in Naypyidaw, a city carved out of scrub and farmland over the last nine years, was adorned with portraits of the prime minister of Belarus, who arrives today on a separate visit. Like Burma, Belarus is often criticised for its poor human rights record and is subject to American and EU sanctions.
The motorcade carrying Clinton bumped along a recently-built but uneven highway past rice fields and building sites. At each intersection, police solemnly held up their hands to stop non-existent traffic in a city with few people and fewer cars.
The country's deep economic problems and the rise of a set of younger military officers convinced of the need to end Burma's isolation are two reasons for the radical shifts seen over the last 18 months, according to observers. The army still dominates almost all institutions and much of the economy. Though 300 prisoners have been released in an amnesty, more than 1,500 remain behind bars, human rights campaigners say.
US officials insist the regime needs to release all political prisoners and make progress in ending bloody conflicts with ethnic minority groups before Washington can consider lifting sanctions.
There were reports of intense battles between fighters from the Kachin ethnic minority and government forces on Wednesday. A spokesman for the Kachin Independence Organisation, one of the largest armed ethnic opposition groups in Burma, said it welcomed Clinton's visit and hoped the "US can make Burma change towards democracy. The conflict has become serious and the need to solve it is urgent." There are fears that the visit will legitimise the government, which maintains control on almost all levers of power. Alan Saw U, a community organiser from the Karen ethnic group in Rangoon, said he wanted Clinton "to focus on democratisation. We don't want her visit to be ... abused by the ruling authorities."
Dr Tint Swe, an exiled democracy activist in Delhi, said there remained "huge mistrust of the military among the people of Burma".
Clinton will travel to the main commercial city of Rangoon on Thursday and make an offering at the imposing Swedagon Pagoda where the golden spire is a revered symbol of Burma's nationhood.
Her meetings with Aung San Suu Kyi are likely to be seen as the highlight of the visit. An informal dinner on Thursday and a more formal encounter on Friday morning are planned.
Aung San Suu Kyi recently announced that she would re-enter politics and will contest byelections in the coming months. Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), boycotted the flawed elections in November 2010 but is now officially registered. The military regime cancelled 1990 elections that the NLD won. "Aung San Suu Kyi is critical [for the government] because they need her. She is the regime's passport to legitimacy and that is a very powerful weapon for her," said Shyam Saran, a former Indian foreign secretary and ambassador to Burma in the late 1990s.
Sara Olsen is a pseudonoym for a journalist working in Burma
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/30/hillary-clinton-burma-visit-reform-hopes
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EU takes hardline stance at UN climate talks
Tough stand causes consternation among large developing countries, and discord threatens the future of the Kyoto protocol
Europe is taking the toughest negotiating stand it has ever adopted on global warming. At this week's UN climate talks in Durban, the bloc will depart from decades of "dovish" practice by insisting stiff conditions must be met by China and other developing countries if a global climate treaty is to be arranged.
The hardline stance has already caused consternation among developing countries at the talks, and the discord threatens the future of the Kyoto protocol.
But the bloc is determined not to back down, as officials are angry that the EU's goodwill on climate change has been taken for granted.
"It's very important that other major economies join the effort. It would not make sense for only the EU to take on a second commitment under the Kyoto protocol," said Joanna Mackowiak-Pandera, Poland's under-secretary of state for the environment.
Poland is in a key position at this year's talks; as holder of the revolving EU presidency, its ministers lead the bloc's delegation. They have led the sea-change in Europe's public attitude, which marks the biggest shift in stance in nearly 20 years of climate talks.
Pandera added: "We already have challenging, ambitious targets, so I think it's crucial that others also enter into the Kyoto protocol, which I know will not be easy."
At stake is the survival of the Kyoto protocol ? the only international treaty stipulating emissions cuts. The EU represents the last hope of large developed countries signing up to a continuation as the protocol's provisions expire in 2012.
Although developing countries are insisting on a "second commitment period" that would run until 2020, Japan, Russia and Canada, Europe's main partners in Kyoto, have abandoned the accord, and the US has ruled out signing up.
That leaves Europe in a head-to-head battle with emerging economies ? chiefly China, but also India, Brazil and this year's hosts, South Africa ? over what conditions the latter group must fulfil if there is to be a continuation of the treaty.
China has proposed that developed countries take on international legally binding commitments to cut emissions, but that developing countries should be allowed to submit weaker plans lacking the same legal force; these plans would be voluntary, or binding only at a national level.
That idea is backed by India, which is adamant that it will only take on emissions-cutting targets on a voluntary basis, without committing to a legal instrument.
But Europe's negotiators want much more. The Polish presidency is leading a group of member states that want to ensure conditions for a second commitment period include firm commitments to "legal parallelism", or the principle that if the EU signs up to an international legally binding treaty, developing countries do likewise.
"Different countries have different opinions, but in my view they should ratify a new agreement in a legally binding international form," said Pandera. "It should have international legally binding status, not just national plans, as national laws can be changed easily. Our view is that taking an international agreement will be much stronger and changes could be agreed only with other parties."
Europe's new stance is all the more remarkable because virtually since the start of the 20-year talks it has been seen as the leading "dove", seeking to smooth over differences between the rich and poor world, trying to draw the US back into the negotiations under the presidency of George Bush, and offering billions of euros of financial inducements to developing nations.
The bloc has the toughest carbon targets in the world, with a pledge of 20% cuts in emissions, compared with 1990 levels, by 2020, and an offer to increase that to 30% cuts if other countries join in.
On Wednesday, China's leading climate negotiator, Su Wei, told China Daily that he regarded Kyoto as a cornerstone of the climate talks.
He said: "I think EU is just shifting the goalpost from one place to another. This is actually not an efficient way to do things, because we need to accomplish the goals one by one.
"But since the EU is the group of countries who would seriously consider a second commitment period under Kyoto, developing countries are also open and ready to talk to them about how to address that issue."
The change in tone from Europe at this year's talks is partly down to the Polish presidency. Poland has been notably hardline in opposing stiffer emissions cuts, in part because of its heavily coal-dependent economy, and there is a degree of climate scepticism among prominent Polish politicians.
But the change also reflects anger among member states and EU officials over the reception given Europe's proposals, and at the waning power the EU has wielded at the long-running talks as other nations have taken its dovish stance for granted.
At the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, the EU was pointedly left out of last-minute negotiations to forge a partial agreement, and officials were visibly flummoxed when the US led China, Brazil, India and South Africa in proclaiming a deal had been done without Europe.
The EU has also been stung by criticism from developing countries that it is not moving fast enough. The hardline stance is in part a reaction to that.
As officials privately point out, the EU's member states have offered to do more than any other rich nation. By contrast, Japan is seeking to water down its existing emissions-cutting targets, and the US has been actively blocking the ability of the green climate fund to disburse money to poor nations.
"Look at the US, what are they doing? Look at the other developed countries. No one is focusing on them. It's all about criticising Europe, but we have done the most," said one official who emphasised new conditions attached to an agreement were necessary in order to achieve real reductions in global emissions.
"Our position is about environmental integrity. If Europe is alone in the second commitment period, that will not reduce CO2 [globally] by a single tonne. So from an environmental point of view, we need the other major economies to reduce their emissions as well. If not now, when?"
If developing countries were concerned by this stance, the official said, they should be more concerned by the US position, and should place more emphasis on China's actions as the world's biggest emitter.
A spokesman from the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: "The EU is being more constructive than ever at this year's talks in order to make progress towards securing a legally binding agreement covering all parties. Our preference has long been for a parallel legal agreement covering all parties and this remains the EU's strong preference. But if other parties, particularly the largest economies, are not ready for this we need a timetable. We have said we are open to sign up to an extension of the Kyoto protocol so long as all other countries set out this timetable for signing up to a global deal by 2015 at the latest. The EU is showing significant flexibility, not hardening our position."
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/30/europe-hardline-un-climate-talks
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North Korea claims nuclear plant progress
Pyongyang says it has made rapid advances in building a light-water reactor and enriching uranium
North Korea says it is making rapid progress on work to enrich uranium and build a light-water nuclear power plant, increasing worries that the country is developing another way to make atomic weapons.
Pyongyang's foreign ministry said in a statement that the construction of an experimental light-water reactor and low enriched uranium were "progressing apace".
It added that North Korea had a sovereign right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy and that "neither concession nor compromise should be allowed".
Concerns about North Korea's atomic capability took on renewed urgency in November 2010 when the country disclosed a uranium enrichment facility that could give it a second route to manufacture nuclear weapons, in addition to its existing plutonium-based programme.
North Korea has been building a light-water reactor at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex since last year. Such a reactor is ostensibly for civilian energy purposes, but it would give the North a reason to enrich uranium. At low levels, uranium can be used in power reactors, but at higher levels it can be used in nuclear bombs.
Earlier this month, North Korean state media said "the day is near at hand" when the reactor will come into operation. Washington has concerns about reported progress on the reactor construction, saying it would violate UN security council resolutions.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, speaking to reporters on Wednesday at an international aid forum in the South Korean port city of Busan, did not address the North's statement on uranium. She called the US-South Korean alliance strong and mentioned the recent first anniversary of North Korea's artillery attack on a frontline South Korean island that killed four.
"Let me reaffirm that the United States stands with our ally, and we look to North Korea to take concrete steps that promote peace and stability and denuclearisation," Clinton said.
Five countries, including the US, have been in on-again, off-again talks with North Korea to provide Pyongyang with aid in exchange for disarmament. North Korea pulled out of nuclear disarmament talks in early 2009 in protest at international condemnation of its prohibited long-range rocket test.
In recent months North Korea has repeatedly expressed its willingness to rejoin the talks, and tensions between the Koreas have eased. Diplomats from the Koreas and the UShave had separate nuclear talks, and cultural and religious visits by South Koreans to the North have resumed.
South Korean and US officials, however, have demanded that Pyongyang halt its uranium-enrichment programme, freeze nuclear and missile tests and allow international inspectors back into the country before resuming negotiations.
The North Korean statement on Wednesday accused the U S and its allies of "groundlessly" taking issue with the North's peaceful nuclear activities. They are "deliberately laying a stumbling block in the way of settling the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula through dialogue and negotiations", the statement said.
Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Dongguk University in Seoul, said the North's statement appeared aimed at applying pressure on Washington and the international community to rejoin the nuclear disarmament talks quickly. "North Korea is expected to step up its rhetoric," he said.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/30/north-korea-nuclear-plant-progress
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Biarritz rugby player's father joins brawl on pitch - video
The father of the Biarritz No8 and France international Imanol Harinordoquy invades the pitch and attempts to punch a Bayonne player in the face
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/video/2011/nov/30/biarritz-rugby-father-brawl-video
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Gold rises after China cuts banks reserves ratio
Gold turned positive after China's central bank cut the reserve requirement ratio for its banks for the first time in nearly three years.
|||Gold turned positive on Wednesday after China's central bank cut the reserve requirement ratio for its banks for the first time in nearly three years.
Spot gold cut earlier losses and rose 0.2 percent to $1,719.55 per ounce by 13:17 SA time, from $1,714.29 late in New York on Tuesday. - Reuters
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/gold-rises-after-china-cuts-banks-reserves-ratio-1.1189617
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Nottingham sign Samoan lock
London (bbc.co.uk) - The 32-year-old second-row forward, who was at Newcastle Falcons last season, has joined until the end of this term and will arrive later this month.
Levi has won five caps for the Pacific Islands and 24 caps for Samoa, whom he played for in the last two World Cups.
Director of rugby Glenn Delaney said: "He brings experience, depth and physicality and will be a great asset."
Levi grew up in New Zealand, and played for Otago and The Highlanders before moving to Japan.
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Public sector to foot bill for George Osborne's growth plan
Chancellor warns there will be six years of austerity ahead
George Osborne has told public sector workers and the low paid that they will be the ones to pick up the bill for his attempts to kickstart Britain's stagnant economy, and warned that weaker growth and higher borrowing would force the country to endure a record breaking six years of austerity.
On the eve of tomorrow's planned strike action over pensions, the chancellor imposed a fresh public-sector pay freeze and cut financial help to the lowest paid workers in order to pay for extra spending on schools, youth unemployment, house building and infrastructure spending.
Osborne travelled to Brussels for emergency talks tonight with fellow European finance ministers immediately after delivering his autumn statement and admitted that failure to resolve the crisis in the eurozone would tip an already fragile UK economy into a double-dip recession.
Forecasts from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility showed the government is on course to borrow an additional �111bn over the next five years, while unemployment will hit 2.8 million and living standards will continue falling until 2013. The OBR said job losses from the public sector would total 710,000, compared with the 400,000 it had previously expected as a result of the government's spending cuts.
Osborne is braced for the economy, which will grow by 0.9% in 2011, to expand by just 0.7% next year ? down from the 2.5% estimated in the March budget. He made it clear that he expects the Bank of England to continue supporting growth through ultra-low interest rates, which have been at 0.5% for more than two and a half years, and by pumping electronic money into the economy through quantitative easing. Osborne said the Treasury was now undertaking "extensive contingency planning" to cope with a possible break-up of the euro, and admitted: "If the rest of Europe heads into recession, it may prove hard to avoid one here in the UK."
Amid fears that Europe has entered the make-or-break phase of its crisis, Italian 10-year bond yields were closing in on the 8% level tonight.
The chancellor announced a three-year spending programme to boost the long-term growth potential of the economy, but said fresh deterioration in public finances meant the extra �5bn for infrastructure ? an additional �1.2bn for education, �400m for house-building and the �1bn cost of scrapping January's increase in fuel duty and limiting rail fare increases to 6% ? had to be found from savings elsewhere.
He caused anger among welfare campaigners by scrapping an increase in child tax credits that will result in an additional 100,000 children dropping below the government's poverty line, and was accused of provoking unions by setting a two-year 1% ceiling on public sector pay increases ? well below the current inflation rate. He also signalled the end of national pay bargaining within two years.
Osborne said the current turbulent market conditions meant Britain "had to live within its means" but tonight Fitch, one of the three credit rating agencies, warned that Britain's coveted AAA status could be at risk. "As with some other major AAA-rated sovereigns, unless off-setting measures were adopted, the capacity of UK public finances to absorb adverse economic and financial shocks that would result in yet higher public debt while retaining its 'AAA' status has largely been exhausted," it said.
Osborne said the OBR now believed the damage caused to the economy as a result of the debt-induced crash of 2008-09 went deeper and was longer lasting than previously thought. But borrowing was falling and debt would come down, he said. "It is not happening as quickly as we had wished because of the damage done to our economy by the ongoing financial crisis. B ut we are set to meet our budget rules. And we are going to see Britain through the debt storm."
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, said: "Two more years of substantial real public spending cuts: that is what the chancellor has promised in response to the OBR's dramatically worsened macroeconomic forecasts. Until now, we had been thinking of four years of cuts as unprecedented in modern times. Six years looks even more extraordinary."
Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, said: "After 18 months in office, the verdict is in: plan A has failed, and it has failed colossally. With prices rising and unemployment soaring, families, pensioners and businesses already know it's hurting. And with billions more in borrowing to pay for rising unemployment, today we find out the truth ? it's just not working."
Conservative MPs were despondent that they will now have to go into an election year committed to �15bn of additional spending cuts in the first two years of the next parliament, and recognise they may have to come to a detailed agreement with their coalition partners before the 2015 general election, setting out how the two parties would cut spending further in the two years following the election.
Figures published today show the coalition plans that 80% of the retrenchment in the final years will come from continued spending cuts and only a fifth from tax rises. Some Tory rightwingers expressed disappointment at the interventionist nature of the growth plan, likening it to the work of Gordon Brown and blaming excessive influence from the Lib Dems. Aides to Nick Clegg were satisfied they had protected Britain's poorest by ensuring out of work benefits and pensions rose in line with inflation of 5%, and benefit cuts were instead loaded on to tax credits. The emphasis on capital investment, nursery places for two-year-olds and a programme to help young unemployed people were all chalked up as Lib Dem victories.
Osborne said: "People in this country understand the problems Britain faces. They can watch the news any night of the week and see for themselves the crisis in the eurozone and the scale of the debt burden we carry. And people know that promises of quick fixes and more spending this country can't afford, at times like this, are like the promises of a quack doctor selling a miracle cure."We do not offer that today. What we offer is a Government that has a plan to deal with our nation's debts to keep rates low; A Government determined to support businesses and support jobs; A Government committed to take Britain safely through the storm."
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/nov/29/public-sector-george-osborne-growth
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Martes, Nobyembre 29, 2011
Tessa Jowell has no regrets over Olympic sports legacy promises
? Participation rise looks set to fall well short of target
? Shadow minister 'deeply sceptical' on coalition's school plan
Tessa Jowell, the shadow Olympics minister, has insisted she has no regrets over setting ambitious sports participation targets for the London Games, despite the fact that the figures are set to fall woefully short.
After London won the Games on the back of a series of legacy promises, Labour set a target of one million more people playing sport three or more times a week, and a further million engaging in more physical activity, by 2013. Sport England was charged with delivering the first of those missions and the NHS the second.
More than halfway through Sport England's four-year period covered by the Whole Sport Plan, in which �480m is being invested through sports governing bodies, the figure has gone up by just 109,000. The number of people playing no sport at all has continued to increase.
No other host city has managed to increase sports participation as a result of staging the Games. The targets attracted criticism because they were focused on getting already active people doing more sport rather than getting inactive people into exercise. In any case they have failed to have the desired impact.
"I don't think it's a millstone and I don't regret it," said Jowell, who still sits on the London 2012 board. "If you're going to set a goal as ambitious as that goal was, you have to make achievement against it visible for everyone. Had I still been secretary of state I would have been trying to build some national momentum towards it and looking at every possible way to build capacity for more adults to take part in sport.
"I am not somebody who is allergic to a small, selected and purposeful group of targets. Transparency is important and those two targets in sport and physical activity were focused on creating a sense of national mission and purpose," she told the Legacy Ready summit held by the Fitness Industry Association and the Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity.
Since coming to power the coalition government has dropped the exercise target and has hinted it will also axe the Sport England goal, although that remains officially in place. Having changed the release schedule of its Active People survey to twice a year rather than quarterly, Sport England's latest update will be made public next month.
Jowell also said she was "deeply sceptical" over the government's plans for school sport. Last year, an outcry greeted plans to axe the �162m budget that paid for a network of school sport co-ordinators through the Youth Sport Trust. The funding was partially reinstated to provide �87m over two years, with �22m allocated to pay for so-called School Games Organisers to work on three-day contracts and �65m to allow secondary schools to release a PE teacher one day a week to work with primary schools.
It has also ringfenced �20m in funding for the School Games, a series of intra- and inter-school competitions that will culminate in finals on the Olympic Park.
"Although I have said how much I support the School Games, I am deeply sceptical that will be enough to even get participation back to where it was a year ago. This was a world?class system for school sport," said Jowell. "The Australians are copying it, the Brazilians could not believe we're getting rid of it. It's just not too late to withdraw those redundancy notices. If you're going to get kids playing sport in school, you've got to organise it."
Jowell said that under Labour 90% of schoolchildren were receiving two hours of competitive sport a week and it was on track to hit five hours a week among 70% of children by 2012, but figures were now going backwards.
"If there is a significant fall [in participation] between 2010 and 2014 of course it would be a significant missed opportunity. As of now, the jury is out on that one."
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/nov/29/tessa-jowell-olympics-sports-participation
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Pakistan boycotts talks on Afghanistan and asks UK to mediate in row with US
Islamabad warns that deadly Nato border attack could derail US plans to negotiate with Taliban and to withdraw its troops in 2014
Pakistan has asked Britain to mediate in its dispute with the US over the killing of 24 of its soldiers on the Afghan border, and has warned that the fallout could derail mooted peace talks with the Taliban and Barack Obama's timetable for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan by 2014.
Islamabad also said on Tuesday that it will boycott next Monday's conference in Bonn on Afghanistan's future, confirming prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's vow not to carry on with "business as usual".
Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's high commissioner to Britain, said: "We are appealing to Britain to use its undoubted influence with the Americans to force them to review their policy towards Pakistan and change tack before it is too late.
"This is an opportunity for the UK to show that it has a very different attitude to Pakistan and it is not trying to hide behind the US. We are asking David Cameron to tell Obama to think again about how the US treats Pakistan."
In a sign of public anger at the border strike, Pakistani cable operators announced they were stopping carrying foreign television channels, complaining their reporting was unsympathetic to Pakistan. The operators, addressing a press conference, singled out the BBC for broadcasting the "Secret Pakistan" series, which details the support of Pakistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, for the Afghan Taliban. The BBC was not available on Pakistani television on Tuesday night.
Hasan said Pakistan's foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, had spoken to William Hague, the foreign secretary, on Sunday ? hours after the incident in Mohmand.
Khar asked Hague to act as a go-between and mediator to help achieve a "better understanding" between Pakistan and the US. Hague responded sympathetically to the request, Hasan added.
He said that most Pakistanis believe the Mohmand incident, the latest in a series of fierce rows between the US and Pakistan this year, was a deliberate provocation by US forces attached to Nato and Afghan army operations in Afghanistan.
American disregard for Pakistani sovereignty and democracy threatened to make it impossible for the government in Islamabad to continue co-operating with Washington on counter-terrorism and an overall Afghan settlement, he warned.
"This business could be a watershed in Pakistan relations with the US. It could wreck the timetable for an American troop withdrawal," the high commissioner said. "If they walk away in 2014 without ensuring the stability and peace in Afghanistan, the graveyard they leave behind will come back to haunt them. If they leave without a viable settlement in place, they will push all the debris of their failures into our lap and we will have to face it alone."
Hasan took his demand for British help to on Tuesday to Alistair Burt, the foreign minister responsible for South Asia. Hasan said he urged ministers to show solidarity with Pakistan and make plain that Britain disapproved of infringements of Pakistani sovereignty ? such as Saturday's attack, repeated US aerial drone attacks in the tribal territories and the raid in Abbottabad in May that killed Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaida.
Hasan claimed US actions beyond Afghanistan were contributing to the destabilisation of Pakistan by increasing public anger towards the government over its co-operation with Washington. These included one-sided support for India's civil nuclear energy programme, public airing of concerns about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, an insistence on unfair market-access trade rules and a history of supporting Pakistan's military rulers ? thereby undermining the country's democratic institutions.
"The way the Americans behave, they are not leaving any political space for Gilani and Zardari. They are up against the wall. They have no room to manoeuvre", the high commissioner said. Pakistan, he said, was "a nation in distress... if democracy collapses in Pakistan, a radical regime could take over."
In a briefing carried in Pakistani newspapers on Wednesday, Major-General Ishfaq Nadeem, director general of military operations, said Nato forces had been alerted they were attacking Pakistani posts but helicopters kept firing.
"Detailed information of the posts was already with Isaf [the Nato-led force in Afghanistan], including map references, and it was impossible that they did not know these to be our posts," the News quoted Nadeem as saying in the briefing held at army headquarters.
Nadeem said the attack was a deliberate, blatant act of aggression, according to Reuters.
US officials admit the incident has thrown into disarray the coalition's strategy for stabilising Afghanistan. Washington has been pressing Pakistan to use its influence to bring the Taliban and its allied Haqqani network to the negotiating table.
As the Obama administration scrambled diplomatically to repair the damage caused by the incident, the US state department said that Pakistan had "a crucial role to play in supporting a secure and stable and prosperous Afghanistan".
A spokesman, Mark Toner, said: "It's absolutely critical that Afghanistan's neighbors play a role in its future development, and certainly its relationship with Pakistan has been critical in that regard."
Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, meanwhile urged Gilani to attend the Bonn conference. The meeting had seemed unlikely to produce international agreement, but Pakistan's withdrawal will further hinder any chance of progress. The gathering marks a decade since the first Bonn conference on Afghanistan, which followed the US-led toppling of the Taliban regime.
"President Hamid Karzai asked ... for the foreign minister to participate in the Bonn Conference because Pakistan's participation is in the interest of both countries," Karzai's office said in a statement.
Islamabad, China and Iran oppose US plans to keep military bases in Afghanistan past a 2014 deadline for ending the coalition's combat operations in the country.
Pakistan has already blocked supplies for Nato troops crossing its border into Afghanistan and barred the US from using an airbase in retaliation for the border incident, which also saw 13 injured. Anger in Pakistan is growing over attack, which is being likened to the humiliation suffered when a US squad unilaterally entered Pakistani territory to kill Bin Laden.
Pakistani and US officials have given conflicting versions of the chain of events that culminated in the Nato air strikes.
Afghan and US officials say a combined team of Afghan soldiers and US special forces called in strikes after taking fire from a position across the border. Pakistan, however, says there was no firing from its side of the border before the bombardment from Nato helicopters.
According to accounts in the US media, some US military officials believe Taliban insurgents may have staged the attack deliberately in such a way as to draw fire on to the two outposts, located just 300 metres into Pakistani territory.
An Afghan Taliban commander, Mullah Samiullah Rahmani, denied the Taliban were involved.Late on Monday, the US military appointed a senior officer, air force brigadier Stephen Clark, to investigate the incident.
American "off-the-record" explanations of the incident as self-defence have generated further anger in Pakistan. "The US has been nowhere near as apologetic as it should be for the killings, even if they were accidental, of a supposed ally," said an editorial in the Pakistani newspaper Express Tribune.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/29/pakistan-boycotts-bonn-conference-afghanistan
Copper steadies
Copper steadied on caution ahead of a meeting of Euro zone finance ministers to shore up their bailout fund, while a successful Italian government bond auction and ongoing supply constraints calmed sentiment and contained losses.
|||Copper steadied on Tuesday on caution ahead of a meeting of Euro zone finance ministers to shore up their bailout fund, while a successful Italian government bond auction and ongoing supply constraints calmed sentiment and contained losses.
Three month copper on the LME traded at $7,495 a tonne at 13:01 SA time, in line with a last bid $7,495 a tonne on Monday. Prices are on track to post a third straight month of losses, down 7 percent so far in November.
“At this point, markets are clinging on to any bit of positive news they can. The key thing is sentiment,” analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov of VTB Capital said.
“There was some optimism (EU leaders) would come up with something ahead of the EU Summit Dec 9, even though we know these measures won't be heavy artillery - it won't include ECB becoming a lender of last resort or a Eurobond,” he added.
Euro zone finance ministers are to agree on Tuesday the details of bolstering their bailout fund to help prevent debt worries spreading in bond markets, under pressure from the United States and ratings agencies to staunch a two-year-old debt crisis.
Still, widespread scepticism over whether European policymakers will be able to prevent debt contagion was keeping traders on edge as prospects for improvement in demand ahead of year end continue to dwindle.
“The fact that more money is going to be thrown at Italy and there were some proactive comments coming out of the Germans yesterday, it seemed to be a more positive day... but today we're consolidating,” a London metals trader said.
Also underpinning sentiment as European shares turned briefly positive was a successful Italian bond auction. Italy managed to sell debt in volumes close to the upper end of its target range, albeit at record high auction yields.
More fundamentally, metals markets are looking ahead to a raft of manufacturing sector indicators due from China and Europe on Thursday.
Funding pressure continues to dog the metals complex, and could trigger a round of liquidation, said Credit Suisse Private Banking in a report.
“Indicators of funding stress particularly matter for the metals sector due to its capital intensity. In this context, recent comments by major miners like BHP Billiton... about end consumers facing tighter credit conditions hint at some caution,” it said.
BHP Billiton, the world's biggest miner, has turned more wary on the outlook for commodity markets as some players face tighter access to credit, Chief Executive Marius Kloppers told shareholders at the group's annual meeting in Australia this week.
“Any eventual deterioration in funding conditions could trigger fresh bouts of selling. Thus, from an investor's perspective, the near-term risk / reward does not look very favourable.”
COPPER SUPPLY SIDE
Copper's supply pipeline has been pressured by bad weather and industrial action this year, with a soon-to-end strike at Freeport-McMoRan's Peruvian copper mine Cerro Verde replaced by new industrial action in Chile.
Workers have decided to lift their nearly two-month-old strike at Freeport-McMoRan's Peruvian copper mine Cerro Verde and will return to their jobs on Wednesday, union leader Leoncio Amudio said on Monday.
But Chile's giant Collahuasi mine on Monday confirmed workers on two shifts have downed tools at the world's No. 3 copper mine, adding that its plants were fully operational, suggesting output was not affected.
A strike at Freeport's Indonesian mine Grasberg, the world's No. 2 copper mine has run into a third month, helping to curb exports of copper concentrate from the country, which fell by 35 pct on the year in October.
Across other metals, tin was at $20,700 from $20,850 on Monday's close while zinc, used in galvanising was at $1,952 from $1,957.
Battery material lead was at $2,033.50 from $2,025 and aluminium was at $ 2,021.50 from $ 2,026 .
Nickel was at $17,160 from $17,180. - Reuters
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/copper-steadies-1.1188743
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Nigerians condole with el-Rufa?i over daughter?s death
Nigerians from all walks of life have continued trooping to the Asokoro residence of the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Nasir el-Rufa?i over the death of his daughter, Yasmin. �
Yasmin, the first child of the former minister was found dead in her apartment in London on 26 November, 2011, her younger brother, Bello el-Rufa?i who spoke to Daily Trust yesterday said. He explained that his sister was leaving alone in the apartment when she died, adding that she was always in constant touch with the family back home.�
Bello explained that the family only got to know that something bad was in the offing ?when my mother couldn?t reach her through her phones. She was always in touch with the family, especially our mother, on phone. So, our mother became disturbed when Yasmin neither picked nor return her calls,? Bello said.
He said that it was after that that the family called friends and relatives in London to check on her. ?On getting to her apartment, there was nobody to answer the door. We therefore became more worried. It was at that time that the landlord as well as the police were involved and the door was finally broken.� Yasmin was found dead,? he said.
He said that the deceased might have died 24 hours before her body was found. There was no immediate cause of death apart from likelihood of domestic accident.
He described his sister as the pillar of the family, with high sense of morality. ?Yasmin was a very cool headed person. She maintained a very cordial relationship with her family, particularly our step mothers. We looked upon her for so many things,? Bello said.
He said that the deceased enjoyed a special relationship with their father. He described his late sister as very religious and respectful. ?She is a very private and religious person. That is why she didn?t have an account in any of the social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, among others. I had a cause to ask why she was not on social networks, she told me that it was not worth it,? he said.
Yasmin was born on June 5, 1986. She attended Essence International School, Kaduna for her nursery and primary education and Jesuit School, Offa for her secondary education. She then proceeded to Atlantic College, Wales, United Kingdom where she obtained a diploma in Social Services, Children and Women.
Thereafter, she was at the University of Barth, United Kingdom where she obtained a degree in Economics, Politics and Philosophy. She got a master?s degree from the London School of Economics (LSE). She was studying Law degree from the University of London before her death.
Among those who paid condolence visit to el-Rufa?i were Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe; former governors Danjuma Goje, Abdulkadir Kure and Adamu Mu?azu of Gombe, Niger and Bauchi states; former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, former Chairman of EFCC, Malam Nuhu Ribadu and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Na?abba.
Others are the former First Bank Chairman Alhaji Umaru Mutallab; former owner of Spectrum Books, Ibadan, Chief Joop Berkhout; former Information Minister Chukwuemeka Chikelu; former FCT Minister Aliyu Modibbo Umar; Alhaji Usman Hunkuyi, Dr. Auwalu Anwar; Mr. Fola Adeola; and Professor Abubakar Sadiq.
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Whisper it, but are Barcelona human after all?
Joseph Sexton
IT had to happen; the only surprise was that it happened here.
Earlier this month, Levante lost their unbeaten run in this season’s La Liga championship. Sevilla duly followed suit. That left only the champions, Barcelona, whose last defeat came with the title already in the bag in the spring. It might sound ridiculous - this is a team who had 38 goals in 12 going into Saturday's trip to Getafe. A team who had conceded just six. Indeed, up until conceding two at Bilbao a fortnight ago, they had set a new club record for consecutive shut outs. And, as has been the case for Pep Guardiola's tenure as a whole, their most common result has remained a 5-0 victory. But the truth remains that something has not been quite right this season. There has been something laboured about their play at times, and they have developed a worrying knack for giving up cheap goals, particularly from dead ball situations.
Then there is the small matter of their away record, which has been under whelming - at least set aside the standards we've come to expect. There is no shame in dropping points at Valencia and in Bilbao, particularly as the latter has always been a tough place for the Catalan side to visit. But single goal victories away to relegation fodder like Sporting and Granada, and another 2-2 draw at lowly Real Sociedad can give us an indication that Barça have been struggling on their travels. Winter is not yet upon, yes already they are not far off matching their total for dropped points in the whole of last season.
But, few would have been brave enough to predict they would come unstuck here. This is Getafe after all. Getafe who have endured a wretched start to their campaign under the former Levante boss, Luís García Plaza. This is the same Getafe who were eviscerated by Atlético just two weeks ago, who know they have no fans and make light of the fact; witness this season's promo encouraging their sparse fan base to go forth and multiply. When Rayo Vallecano came up this summer, they became they worst supported capital side in the primera. A tweet doing the rounds as they went down in that last home outing seemed to sum this up perfectly: Getafe losing again; “their fan won't be happy”.
Getafe were taken over last spring my the Royal Emirates Group, but these are no sugar daddy Arab owners. Aside from appointing García, the only time they've caught anyone's attention was when it was leaked that they were considering renaming the club ‘Team Dubai’. Levante may have beaten Real Madrid, but then no club other than Real & Barcelona has picked up more league points this calendar year than Levante. So how to make sense of this one then?
Even the greatest sides can have a bad day at the office. And it truth, Barcelona have been having a few of these lately. They've been getting away with it because, even when playing at 70% of their potential, they are simply far too good for most teams; especially at home, And especially with Lionel Messi in such superhuman form. But what Real fans once derided as possession for possession's sake- before the same approach brought Spain two senior international titles, and was co-opted to an extent by José Mourinho's team this term - has become somewhat problematic in itself. Or not, per sé, in itself - there is a world of difference between the blunt-edged side of the latter part of the Rijkaard era and the aggressive, hungry, pressing game that has characterised them since. Is it fair then, as some have tried of late, to question their hunger? Probably not. The manner in which they came back against both Valencia and Athletic ought to give the lie to that; more prescient, perhaps is the matter of fatigue.
The simple fact from Saturday's game is that Barcelona dominated it in any measurable way. But if we look beyond the numbers, or even look more closely at them, some things become more clear. Barcelona are now posting higher possession figures than at any time in the Guardiola epoch. But it's true too that they are getting less shots in. And that they have come to depend perhaps too heavily on Messi at a time where - by contrast- Real have been diversifying their goal threat away from a Cristiano Ronaldo whose goal feats, nonetheless, remain terrifying.
And here's the rub: all things remain relative. On their own, Barcelona's number - of points, of goals, of victories - looks impressive. But this is a league title where we know the big two are likely to drop very little point - and Real have dropped just five so far, to Barcelona's 11. Draws, never mind defeats, have become unacceptable.
Real, true to Mourinho's promise the day he took the reigns at the Bernabéu, have been playing much better football in his second season there. Much better football than any other team in Europe at this point. On the face of it, a six point gap so early in the season looks a daunting task. But Barcelona don't have to wait long to put that right; they travel to Bernabéu on December 10th. There, they will face a Real team that has yet to beat them in a game that really mattered under Mou. But the two Supercopa clashes at the start of the season, even if Barça ultimately prevailed, showed us that Real have the capability to match them- in attack, in aggression, in intelligence, in thrust. The sides’ respective form seems to indicate that this was no fluke. In most countries, calling the league title done and dusted in early December, would seem preposterous. But, España, as they say, es diferente. The next fortnight will go a long way to telling us if these trends are to be believed, but for now it is clear- and for the first since Guardiola took over- that Barcelona face a very real test to their supremacy.
MEANWHILE AROUND THE GROUNDS
VALENCIA are now within a point of the champions, but it's with the Madrid Derby that we need to begin. In any other week, this would have been the main talking point. It's a peculiar denouement; Gregorio Manzano has been under fire for some time, but the Atlético coach walks away from this 4-1 defeat with his position strengthened. Firstly, because his side took the lead and had generally looked good- secondly, because the exact result was conditioned by two red cards, and perhaps some dubious refereeing too. Certainly the latter is the verdict outside the white half of the city.
On loan Chelsea keeper Thibaud Courtois was the first to see red, when his side still led. The penalty was probably fair: certainly Courtois did not contend that it wasn't, but with Perea and Filipe both covering, the straight red was questionable. The second- against Diego Godín, was even less obviously a penalty, and three players were covering this time. “It's always something in favour of Real,” lamented Manzano after the game; the first time he and the support have been singing from the same hymn sheet this season.
Sociedad secured the points at Betis with a 90th minute Iñigo Martínez screamer - from inside his own half. Martínez has previous, having scored a peach of a volley from this area against Bilbao in September. Former Sociedad favourite, Xabi Alonso- a man with form for this sort of thing himself, was quick to offer praise. Elsewhere, Levante arrested their recent slump with a 4-0 thumping of Sporting, and remain in fourth place; or 14 points from near certain safety, as their boss Juan Martínez would rather stress.
RESULTS: Rayo Vallecano 1 Valencia 2, Real Madrid 4 Atlético Madrid 1, Getafe 1 Barcelona 0, Betis 2 Real Sociedad 3, Levante 4 Sporting Gijon 0, Espanyol 1 Osasuna 2, Mallorca 2 Racing 1, Athletic Bilbao 0 Granada 1
Zaragoza 0 Sevilla 1
Tonight: Málaga v Villarreal
**Follow Joseph on Twitter @josephsbcn
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/U03zAXXzZqE/post.aspx
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Gold pares losses
Gold steadied after posting its second-largest one-day gain of the month the previous day, boosted by a stronger euro and a recovery in risk assets such as stocks, with which gold is trading more closely than at any time in the last year.
|||Gold steadied on Tuesday after posting its second-largest one-day gain of the month the previous day, boosted by a stronger euro and a recovery in risk assets such as stocks, with which gold is trading more closely than at any time in the last year.
The euro traded at session highs against the dollar after Italy sold three- and 10-year debt ahead of a key meeting of euro zone finance ministers, which invstors hope could result in fine-tuning the details for leveraging the European Financial Stability Facility rescue fund.
European equities turned positive, which helped boost gold.
The correlation between the gold price and the European stock market is at its most positive in a year, while the correlation of gold and copper is hovering around its highest since the final quarter of 2010 as well, meaning gold is more likely to move in lockstep with these assets.
Spot gold was last quoted up 0.2 percent at $1,714.80 an ounce by 12:28 SA time, having risen from an intraday low of$1,703.25. On Monday, gold gained nearly 2 percent, marking the second-largest one-day gain in the price so far this month.
“In the short term, we fear gold could go a bit lower actually, but this would be exclusively driven by weaker equity markets and weaker commodity markets, because of the increasing risk aversion,” Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann said.
“If you have a look further out for the next six, or even 12 months, we think gold is very well supported around its current levels and even more buyers should find gold attractive at these levels,” he added.
Even though gold has all but ditched its safe-haven label in the last month and behaved like a risk-related asset, investors are snapping up the metal.
Gold holdings in exchange-traded funds hit a new record high last week, rising by more than 2.2 million ounces in just one month to 69.993 million ounces, almost equivalent to total mine supply this year, highlighting investor demand for an alternative to currencies, stocks or bonds.
So far this year, investor demand for gold has raised ETF holdings globally by nearly 5.0 million ounces.
“We remain bullish on gold, because we think the solutions are going to need more aggressive monetary policy, which will be positive for gold,” said Jeremy Friesen, a commodities strategist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong.
But gold is unlikely to set new highs as trading activity slows ahead of the year-end, with traders booking profits and moving to the sidelines before the holidays.
“I wouldn't be surprised that we don't see much strength towards the end of the year, but into 2012 we should see aggressive monetary policy being reflected in prices of gold,” Friesen added.
Euro zone leaders face increasing pressure from other countries and rating agencies to solve the two-year-old debt crisis, which threatens to split up the single-currency bloc and sink the global economy, causing distress in financial markets.
Since hitting a record $1,920.30 an ounce in September, gold has fallen by 10.7 percent, under pressure from the weakness in the euro against the dollar and the growing desire among investors to preserve their wealth with cash rather than hard assets.
So far in 2011, the gold price has risen by more than 20 percent, set for its eleventh consecutive yearly price gain.
In other precious metals, silver pared losses to trade down 0.2 percent on the day at $32.00 an ounce.
Platinum was last up 0.2 percent at $1,542.75 an ounce, while palladium was up nearly 2 percent on the day at $584.22 an ounce. - Reuters
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/gold-pares-losses-1.1188682
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