Sarkozy, King Mohammed VI launch work on Moroccan high-speed rail

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) speaks with Morocco's King Mohammed VI during a ceremony to launch the construction of the Tangiers-Rabat-Casablanca high-speed railway line in Tangiers September 29, 2011. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

 

Marocco, September 30, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / AFP) —- French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Moroccan host launched work Thursday on Africa’s fastest rail line, highlighting France’s role in a region being reshaped by the Arab Spring, AFP reported.

Sarkozy was met at Tangiers airport by King Mohammed VI and then went directly to the station for the joint launch of the 350-kilometer (219-mile) project linking the northern port city with Casablanca to the south via the capital Rabat.

Sarkozy, who was accompanied by a clutch of ministers and other officials, later held talks with the king against the backdrop of major political change brought about by the Arab Spring uprisings which have overthrown long-time leaders in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

Morocco “is modernising under the leadership of the king,” Sarkozy said of recent political reforms.

“France had the opportunity to say several times how much it values the vision (for the future) expressed by the king, the (country’s) recent reforms and its continued progress towards democracy,” he added.

 

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech following a lunch with Moroccan King Mohammed VI (not pictured) at Marshan Palace in Tangiers September 29, 2011. Sarkozy is in Morocco to attend a ceremony to launch the construction of the Tangiers-Rabat-Casablanca high-speed railway line. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

 

The Tangiers-Casablanca railway is based on France’s world-renowned high-speed TGV trains. It will begin service in 2015 and cut the journey time from nearly six hours to just over two hours. The plan is to eventually extend it to Marrakesh and Agadir, Moroccan officials have said.

Rabat says it expects the first leg of the line to cost three billion euros ($4.1 billion), for which France has extended a 920-million-euro loan.

The balance is being funded largely by Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

In December, the French group Alstom inked a 400-million-euro deal to provide Morocco with 14 high speed trains, a contract seen as a boost for the company after it was snubbed by Eurostar, which had elected to buy trains from Germany’s Siemens.

France is its former colony Morocco’s top trading partner, absorbing 25 percent of exports.

Africa boasts one other high-speed link — South Africa’s $3.8-billion Gautrain which has run at much more modest speeds of 160 kilometres (100 miles) an hour between Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria since early August.  (*)

 

 

SOURCE :  AFP

Don’t forget Haiti, top U.N. aid official urges donors

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos answers questions during a news conference in Port-au-Prince September 29, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Swoan Parker

 

HAITI, September 30, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / Reuters) – International aid donors should not forget the plight of 600,000 earthquake survivors still living in a critical situation in camps in Haiti, the top U.N. humanitarian official said on Thursday, Reuters reported.

On a visit to the poor Caribbean state that is still struggling to rebuild from a destructive January 2010 earthquake, Valerie Amos said she was concerned that Haiti’s remaining humanitarian needs might be neglected by rich countries grappling with problems in their own economies.

Other disasters such as the drought and famine affecting millions in the Horn of Africa also demanded attention.

“Part of my job is to make sure we do not forget about Haiti … The situation of the people in the camps is still very critical,” Amos told Reuters in the wrecked capital Port-au-Prince.

She said a U.N. humanitarian appeal this year for Haiti was only half funded. According to figures from the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA, of the total $382 million required from donors this year, only $199 million had been funded.

“It’s a case we need to make,” Amos added.

While the total of quake survivors living in fragile tent and tarpaulin camps in Port-au-Prince had fallen since last year by more than half to around 600,000, Amos said these people still required humanitarian help.

“We have to support 600,000 people. We have to improve the water sanitation. Because of a lack of funding some of our NGO partners have pulled out. So the facilities are not as good as they were previously,” she said.

“It’s absolutely critical because if we do not in particular sort out the water sanitation we will have a resurgence of cholera,” the U.N. official said, recalling the threat of a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 6,300 people since it broke out in October, months after the quake.

Despite billions of dollars pledged by donors, the huge international humanitarian operation that followed the 2010 earthquake has been criticized as slow to deliver results, especially in rubble removal and survivor resettlement.

Haiti’s government said more than 300,000 people were killed in the disaster and many more left homeless.

Amos spoke out against evictions of some of the camp dwellers ordered by landowners, saying Haitian President Michel Martelly opposed such actions.

Camp security also needed to be improved, to prevent rapes and sexual attacks against vulnerable women and girls.

As Europe struggles to solve its sovereign debt crisis and U.S. growth falters, humanitarian officials are increasingly worried that the governments of the world’s richest nations will be under pressure to cut aid budgets.  (*)

 

 

SOURCE : REUTERS

Afghanistan should be neutral after troop withdrawal – Russian official

Afghanistan

 

UNITED NATIONS, September 30, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / RIA NOVOSTI) —- Afghanistan should become a neutral state after the withdrawal of foreign troops, Russian deputy ambassador to the UN Alexander Pankin said on Thursday, RIA NOVOSTI reported.

“If Kabul sets a goal of restoring neutrality as early as now, this can ease the reconciliation dialogue with the opposition,” Pankin said during a UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan.

U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered the U.S. military to withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and another 23,000 by the summer of 2012.

Russia believes that military means are not enough to normalize the situation in Afghanistan and supports dialogue between the Afghan government and insurgents if they meet three demands: obey the country’s constitution, break their links to Al Qaeda and other terrorist and extremist organizations, and lay down their arms, Pankin said.

Pankin also urged strict controls over Afghan security forces as they take over responsibility for security in the country from international troops.

Russia is “especially concerned over terrorist activity spreading from Afghanistan to the territory of Central Asian states,” he added.

“This is a consequence of NATO’s ineffective anti-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan, which lead to militants not being eliminated, but forced out of mainly southern regions to northern regions, as well as to the territory of bordering states,” the diplomat added.  (*)

 

 

SOURCE : RIA NOVOSTI

Aung San Suu Kyi to Meet Burmese Labor Minister

Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi ( AFP PHOTO / Soe Than WIN )

 

BURMA, September 29, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / VOA) — A spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi says the Burmese democracy leader will meet Friday with Labor Minister Aung Kyi, VOA reported.

It will be the third meeting between the two since Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest late last year. She has also met with President Thein Sein as the new government cautiously begins to engage its critics.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, was unable to say what will be discussed in the meeting at a government guest house in Rangoon.

But the exile Irrawaddy newspaper said there is speculation that the talks will touch on prospects for the release of political prisoners and the NLD’s bid to be re-registered as a political party.

The NLD was stripped of its party certification when it refused to contest elections in November, which were widely denounced as unfairly designed to ensure victory by supporters of the former military junta. The party refused to run because Aung San Suu Kyi, still under house arrest at the time, was not allowed to be a candidate.

The new government, which took office at the end of March, is dominated by past and former military officers and their close supporters.  (*)

 

 

SOURCE : VOA

Haiti’s plans to rebuild army meets opposition

Haitian President Michel Martelly

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, September 29, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / AP) — A plan by Haitian President Michel Martelly to revive the country’s disbanded military is running into opposition, AP reported.

Sen. Moise Jean-Charles of Haiti’s dominant political party told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Haiti does not need to create a new army.

He noted Haiti cannot afford to do that on its own, so the financing would have to come from international partners.

“Why would the international community fund an army?” he said. “We don’t have anyone we’re going to war with.”

Jean-Charles is a member of the Unity party, which has a majority in the 30-member Senate and controls 36 seats in the 99-member Chamber of Deputies. The $95 million plan would need approval from Parliament.

Jean-Charles said Haiti should instead focus on improving its police department.

“We need to strengthen the national police and build departments inside it to secure the country,” he said.

He commented a day after The Associated Press obtained a draft of the Haitian government’s proposal for rebuilding a military dismantled in 1995 after a long history of abuse and coups.

Political observers said Wednesday that the government’s resources could be better spent on job programs for youths.

A Martelly adviser did not return requests for comment, and the National Palace has referred all questions to security consultant Reginald Delva, who could not be reached for comment.

The proposal seeks to fulfill Martelly’s controversial campaign pledge to revive the army. It calls for recruiting and training 3,500 soldiers in the first three years so the force can eventually replace a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

The document says the force, to be known as the National Council of Defense and Security, would patrol Haiti’s porous borders with the Dominican Republic and neighboring islands, bring order in a time of crisis and train young Haitians.

Creating a new armed force is certain to draw criticism from human rights groups that documented abuses committed by the previous Haitian military.

But some Haitians harbor ill feelings toward the U.N. peacekeeping mission that has been in Haiti since 2004, when a violent rebellion of former soldiers toppled then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The U.N. force has been blamed for introducing a cholera outbreak, and several Uruguayan sailors from one of its battalions face accusations of sexually abusing an 18-year-old Haitian man.  (*)

 

 

SOURCE : The Associated Press

Russia set for launch of Proton-M carrier rocket with Mexican satellite

This will be a second launch of Proton-M carrier rockets equipped with Briz-M boosters, following a recent string of launch failures in the Russian aerospace industry.

 

RUSSIA, September 29, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / ROA NOVOSTI) — Russia’s Proton-M carrier rocket with a Mexican telecommunications satellite, QuetzSat-1, will be launched on Thursday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, a spokesman for the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) said, RIA NOVOSTI reported.

“The launch of the Proton-M carrier rocket with QuetzSat-1 satellite has been scheduled for Thursday at 22:32 Moscow time [18:32 GMT]. The separation of the satellite from the carrier rocket has been slated for Friday at 7:45 Moscow time [3:45 GMT],” the spokesman said.

This will be a second launch of Proton-M carrier rockets equipped with Briz-M boosters, following a recent string of launch failures in the Russian aerospace industry.

On August 18, a Russian Proton-M rocket lost an Express-AM4 satellite that was designed to provide digital television and secure government communications for Siberia and the Far East.

One week after the Express-AM4 went off course, a Soyuz-U booster malfunctioned, preventing a Progress M-12M cargo spacecraft from reaching orbit and a link-up with the International Space Station (ISS).  (*)

 

 

SOURCE : RIA NOVOSTI

South Korean President names veteran TV journalist as new senior press secretary

President Lee Myung-bak

 

SEOUL, September 28, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM /  Yonhap) — President Lee Myung-bak named a veteran television journalist as his new senior press secretary, the presidential office announced Wednesday, as the outgoing aide was arrested on bribery charges, YONHAP NEWS AGENCY reported on Wednesday.

Choe Guem-nak of the SBS television network was tapped to succeed Kim Du-woo as senior presidential secretary for public affairs. Kim, a former newspaper journalist, was arrested Tuesday night on charges of taking bribes from a lobbyist for a troubled savings bank.  (*)

SOURCE : YONHAP NEWS AGENCY

Pentagon to work with Pakistani military on differences

Pentagon

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 (KATAKAMI.COM / Xinhua) — Despite the troubled U.S.- Pakistani relationship, the Pentagon said Tuesday that it will continue to work with its Pakistani counterpart to resolve the differences, XINHUA reported on Wednesday.

“We want to maintain a relationship with Pakistan that’s grounded in common interests, to include going after terrorists that threaten both countries,” Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters.

“There are differences from time to time in the relationship with Pakistan, as there are in any partnership,” he said. “Those differences have been made public, and we continue to discuss ( them) in private.”

The remarks came as ties between the U.S. and Pakistan was strained after top U.S. defense officials accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of supporting the Haqqani network blamed for recent attacks on the U.S. embassy and a military base in Afghanistan.

The harsh criticism was met with outright denial and outrageous reaction from Pakistan which warned that Washington may lose an ally of the war on terror.

Despite the bickering, Little said the Pentagon looks forward to working with the Pakistanis to try to resolve such differences.

“It’s important that both sides continue the dialogue,” he added, “and that’s happening.”  (*)

 

 

SOURCE : XINHUA

Queen Rania visits Anjara school, charity society

Her Majesty Queen Rania meets with students at Aysha Al Baounieh Elementary School for Girls and beneficiaries of Al Amani Charitable Society from the local community in Anjara, Ajloun, on Tuesday (Petra photo)

 

AMMAN, September 28, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM /JORDAN TIMES) - Her Majesty Queen Rania on Tuesday paid a visit to a local school and a charity society in the town of Anjara in Ajloun Governorate, Jordan Times reported on Wednesday.

During a visit to Aysha Al Baounieh Elementary School for Girls, Her Majesty met with teachers who spoke about the school’s needs, accomplishments and achievements.

The Queen toured the school, which previously participated in the King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness.

Her Majesty also spoke with students and listened to their feedback on the changes they would like to see in their school.

During her visit to Anjara, located 80 kilometres to the north of Amman, the Queen also met with the board of directors of Al Amani Charitable Society.

The board members briefed Her Majesty on the society’s mandate, the services it provides to the local community and its future plans.

Her Majesty toured the society’s facilities, including the computer lab, ironing and sewing rooms as well as the productive kitchen, which prepares several kinds of natural herbs that grow in the area.

In addition, the Queen met with a group of beneficiaries of Al Amani society from the local community, who talked about their accomplishments through working with the society.

Following the tour, Her Majesty posted a message on Twitter about the visit, saying: “I can still smell the thyme & basil from Anjara in Ajloun! The local women are so impressive, just brimming with strength & will power.”

Established in 2006, the society seeks to utilise the governorate’s natural resources by producing healthy home-made food made by local women, promote Ajloun as a tourist area and support local university students in need.  (*)

 

 

SOURCE : JORDAN TIMES

Merkel vows support for Greece, urges actions from Athens

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou depart after speaking to the media prior to talks at the Chancellery on September 27, 2011 in Berlin, Germany. The two leaders are meeting to discuss the current Greek debt crisis that is threatening the stability of the Euro two days before the Bundestag is scheduled to vote on an increase in funding for the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

 

BERLIN, Sept. 27 (KATAKAMI.COM / Xinhua) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that Germany wants a strong Greece staying within the eurozone and will offer all necessary supports, while urging indebted Athens to fulfill their own responsibilities, XINHUA reported on Wednesday.

In a joint press conference with visiting Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in Berlin, Merkel said “Germany is ready to offer every assistance necessary” for a strong Greece and will help the debt-crippled country stay in the 17-nation eurozone.

The chancellor also stressed that Greece also has a responsibility to meet requirements of budget cuts and financial reforms.

“We are intimately linked through the euro,” said Merkel, “The weaknesses of one partner are the weaknesses of all” and this would also apply for the strength of the eurozone members.

Merkel added that Germany’s rescue move would follow the advice and evaluation of the troika — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

A group of international auditors from the troika would soon return to Greece to assess the country’s reform process, she said.

These auditors have a big say on whether Athens would be granted a new rescue fund in coming months to avoid a national default.

Papandreou said that for Greece, it is extremely important to receive messages of support from European partners, and his country’s cooperation with Germany is great.

He said that Greece is determined to “implement all its obligations without any doubt.” Although it could take years to overcome the crisis for his country, Greece will honor all its commitments.

Greece has “enormous potential and opportunities” and Athens would try to fully exploit them, “so we can stand independently on our own feet,” Papandreou said. “This is not only a national, but also a European responsibility.”

Earlier on the day, Papandreou told German business leaders in a meeting that Greece has been taking “superhuman efforts” to cut its debts and called for an end to sharp criticisms on the Greeks, who are “making painful sacrifices and difficult changes.”

The two leaders’ meeting came two days ahead for a crucial vote in German parliament on expanding the EFSF mechanism, which was agreed in principle by European leaders at a July summit and includes a second bailout package for Greece and enlarging the flexibility of 440-billion-euro (595 billion U.S. dollars) rescue fund.

As some lawmakers within Merkel’s coalition openly objected the July deal, it is expected that Merkel has to rely on the opposition Social Democrats and Greens to pass the bill, which would be a new blow to Merkel’s widely criticized leadership.

On Tuesday, Merkel told reporters that she was “confident” that her coalition would secure the key vote without the aid from opposition.  (*)

 

 

SOURCE : XINHUA

U.S. to continue cooperating with Russia and its next elected president

U.S. President Barack Obama

 

WASHINGTON DC, September 27, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / RIA NOVOSTI) — The United States will continue cooperating with the Russian Federation, no matter who would win the next presidential election, U.S. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, RIA NOVOSTI reported.

Last Saturday Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to run for president in next year’s election, ending months of speculation over which man would run for the post.

“The fact is that the President has pursued a reset in our relations with Russia with not a particular leader but the government of Russia. And the progress that we’ve made, which has been well recognized, has come with the entire Russian leadership. That includes President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin,” Carney told journalists on late Monday.

“So we will continue to pursue our relations with Russia in a way that advance American interests and we believe improve our ties and are beneficial in ways – beneficial for the American people and the Russian people,” he added.

Carney’s words echoed the position earlier voiced by Mark Toner, a U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson, who said that “regardless of who wins the next election [in Russia], our [U.S.] priorities remain the same.”  (*)

 

 

SOURCE : RIA NOVOSTI

Merkel to host Greek PM for talks on debt crisis

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will welcome Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to Berlin on Tuesday for talks on the debt crisis undermining the Greek economy and the reforms needed by Athens

GERMANY, September 27, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / AFP ) - Europe’s failure to tackle crippling Greek debt is “scaring the world,” US President Barack Obama warned as Germany rejected plans to boost funding for the EU’s debt rescue facility, AFP reported.

Asian stocks rallied sharply Tuesday, following a see-sawing recovery on US and European markets as investors absorbed mixed messages over how the eurozone intends to chart its way out of the debt crisis.

Speculation over a more ambitious bailout fund and an orderly Greek default sent Tokyo stocks up 2.82 percent by the close, while Seoul soared 5.02 percent and Hong Kong added more than three percent by mid-session.

Asian markets were also looking ahead to a meeting later Tuesday between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou when they will discuss the Greek economy and the reforms by Athens.

However, the euro came under renewed pressure against the dollar in Asian trade on Tuesday, resuming its fall after a brief respite overnight.

Europe “never fully dealt with all the challenges that their banking system faced,” Obama said Monday.

“It’s now being compounded with what’s happening in Greece,” he said. “So they’re going through a financial crisis that is scaring the world.”

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also urged Europe to step up its response to the crisis, after a round of meetings involving the World Bank IMF and G20 since last Thursday.

“They recognized the need to escalate. They’re going to have to put a much more powerful financial framework behind this,” Geithner told ABC News.

“I really believe that you’re going to see them do that, but we wanted to make sure they do it as quickly as they can and as definitively as they can.”

Germany on Monday hosed down a push to expand a stability fund designed to quarantine the eurozone in the event of an escalating crisis, and fend off the threat of a global double-dip recession.

Economic Affairs commissioner Olli Rehn had said earlier that the 440-billion-euro ($590 billion) European Financial Stability Facility, the cornerstone of a second Greek bailout, should be given “greater strength.”

His spokesman Amadeu Altafaj added that discussions following intense debt diplomacy in Washington were now centred on an “increase of the means at the EFSF’s disposal.”

However, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble insisted there was no plan to boost the fund’s warchest.

“We are giving it the tools so it can work if necessary,” Schaeuble said, referring to the new powers allowing the fund to lend to countries such as Italy even before they hit cashflow crises.

“Then we will use it effectively — but we do not have the intention of boosting its volume,” he said.

Schaeuble’s blunt reaction comes ahead of a parliamentary vote in Germany Thursday to ratify earlier changes to the fund’s operating scope, agreed in principle in July.

Germany is continental Europe’s de facto paymaster, expected to provide the lion’s share of any increased loans, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing increasing discontent inside her own party.

Schaeuble’s intervention slowed the momentum built up during intense debt diplomacy in Washington over the weekend.

There, the International Monetary Fund, the United States and other G20 economies pushed Europe to ring-fence the really big risks such as Italy — in a concerted effort to prevent the world slipping into a fresh downturn.

“We are thinking about the possibility of giving the EFSF greater leverage, to give it greater strength,” Rehn had said.

But just eight of the 17 eurozone states have so far ratified the new EFSF powers agreed at a July summit, which also opted for a 159-billion-euro successor to last year’s failed 110-billion-euro Greek rescue.

The fund has already been tapped by Ireland and Portugal, so investors want to be convinced that Italy will not need help further down the line.

Germany opposes any increase in the size of the government “guarantees” that give the EFSF its borrowing clout.

The hope for non-European leaders is that Berlin might back an alternative measure enabling the fund to raise more “capital,” in the interests of wider financial stability.

Speculation suggests the fund’s reach, even on the same guarantees, could ultimately stretch as high as three trillion euros.

Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter said however that taxpayers should be spared any further pain, and politicians in Slovakia are blocking the measure.

Greece meanwhile is still waiting for a date for the return of EU and IMF auditors, which means eight billion euros in blocked loans may now have to be considered by EU leaders at an October 17-18 summit in Brussels.

Greece has yet to convince its creditors it can fix the hole in its finances, or successfully implement the state sell-offs its bailout partners are insisting on, before a cashflow crunch in mid-October.  (*)

 

 

SOURCE : AFP

British Foreign Secretary : Palestinian nationhood, the two sides must sit down and negotiate

British Foreign Secretary William Hague

 

By : William Hague

LONDON, September 26, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / THE TELEGRAPH) —- Time is running out for a two-state solution. That is one thing everyone agreed on in all the discussions I had at the United Nations last week on the Middle East Peace Process. The events of the Arab Spring have only added to the sense of urgency. Public opinion across the region is increasingly intolerant of the failure to address legitimate Palestinian aspirations in a way that meets Israeli needs. There is growing disenchantment with the failed international efforts since Oslo. At the same time, tensions between Israel and its neighbours are increasing, notably with Turkey and Egypt, and moderate leaders on both sides are under pressure from extremists. Rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel have continued.

All sides bear responsibility for the impasse. The United Kingdom deplores any attempt to delegitimise Israel, but friends of Israel should be concerned about its growing isolation in the international community. Settlement expansion, which is unilateral and illegal under international law, is a big factor in this. It corrodes trust and undermines the basic principle of land for peace. We voted in favour of a resolution at the Security Council in February condemning such settlement activity. For their part, the Palestinians have missed opportunities for peace, imposing further conditions for a return to talks.

President Mahmoud Abbas came to New York stressing that he was not looking for a confrontation. He highlighted the extraordinary progress that Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and the Palestinian Authority have made in building the institutions of statehood. He lodged an application with the UN Security Council for full Palestinian membership of the UN, which is now being considered by a UN membership committee. He did not force a vote in the Security Council, or in the UN General Assembly.

We advised against this application, because while we support the principle of Palestinian statehood, we know that only a negotiated settlement can create a viable state. No resolution at the UN can substitute for the political will necessary if both sides are to come to the negotiating table. Facts on the ground should not be changed other than through negotiations. The people of the region must make their own choices and decide their own future. We cannot impose a solution. This applies as much to the Israelis and Palestinians as it does the revolutions of North Africa. Israelis and Palestinians must sit face to face and agree a lasting peace.

This will require bold, decisive leadership from both sides, as well as painful compromises. The British and EU goal is well established: the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state living in peace and security alongside its neighbour. Israel’s security and the realisation of the Palestinians’ right to statehood are not opposing goals. On the contrary, Israel will be safer when a viable Palestinian state has been achieved.

We have therefore called for both sides to negotiate an agreement on borders, based on June 4, 1967 lines, with equivalent land swaps. This must include security arrangements that respect Palestinian sovereignty but protect Israeli security and prevent the resurgence of terrorism. There must be a just and fair solution for refugees; and agreement on Jerusalem as the future capital of both states. On May 19, President Barack Obama made an important speech saying that for the US, too, the final borders would be based on 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, something that we strongly encouraged.

The British objective is for an urgent return to meaningful negotiations on this basis. We will judge all proposals on how far they advance this. The Quartet statement agreed on Friday by the EU, Russia, the US and UN provides a clear timetable for a conclusion to negotiations. This is a welcome step forward which we hope provides a basis for the two sides to come back to the table. Palestinians should focus on this timetable for talks, rather than setting too many preconditions. For the Israelis, time is slipping away for them to act in their own strategic interest. They need to approach negotiations decisively and with realism, taking bolder steps than Israeli leaders have in recent years.

No vote is imminent in the Security Council while the membership committee considers its recommendation. So far we have not been presented with a detailed proposal on which to take a position. Whether the committee returns the issue to the Security Council, or whether President Abbas decides to turn to the General Assembly, the UK will use its vote in a way that increases the likelihood of a return to meaningful negotiations and supports moderates on both sides.

The historic changes that we have witnessed since January have been marked by calls for more freedom for ordinary people across the region. For Israelis and Palestinians, the changes have brought growing uncertainty and pressure. Palestinians have a greater expectation of statehood; Israel is concerned about what this may mean for its security. For both parties, the best way to deal with this uncertainty is to reach for the certainty of peace.  (*)

 

SOURCE :  THE TELEGRAPH, UK Embassy in Israel

US Citizen Killed in Kabul Attack

Map : Kabul

AFGHANISTAN, September 26, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / VOA) — A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan says an American citizen has been killed in an attack on a compound used by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency , VOA reported on Monday.

The spokesman ((Gavin Sundwall) said Monday an Afghan employee of the U.S. government carried out the shooting attack late Sunday, and that the attacker was killed. Officials did not give a motive for the shooting.

Earlier, Afghan officials said gunfire was heard late Sunday near the Ariana Hotel, the CIA’s station in the Afghan capital.

The incident comes less than two weeks after militants launched a coordinated assault on several high-profile targets in the capital, including the U.S. embassy and NATO headquarters. Nine people were killed in a nearly day-long siege.

In another incident Sunday, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a local police headquarter in eastern Paktika province, killing two policemen and wounding two civilians.  (*)

 

 

SOURCE : VOICE OF AMERICA ( VOA )

UN begins weighing Palestinian statehood bid

Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, holds a copy of the letter requesting Palestinian statehood as he speaks during the United Nations General Assembly September 23, 2011 at UN headquarters in New York. AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDA

 

UNITED NATIONS, September 26, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / AFP ) - The UN Security Council begins consultations Monday on Palestine’s application for full membership of the world body, although a vote on the historic bid isn’t expected for weeks, AFP reported on Monday.

The United States has already threatened to veto the move, insisting that only direct Palestinian-Israeli talks can set up a Palestinian state.

US President Barack Obama says the UN bid is an unrealistic shortcut that will not produce real and lasting peace on the ground between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The mediating foursome of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia has been urgently trying to get both sides back to the negotiating table.

On Friday, the Quartet offered a counterpoint to the unilateral Palestinian bid at the UN, calling for new peace talks to begin within a month with both sides committing to seeking a final deal this year.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, riding a wave of popular support unseen in the West Bank since the late Yasser Arafat, is ruling out new talks without a “complete halt” to Israeli settlement building.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program on Sunday that his advice for Abbas was: “If you want to get to peace, put all your preconditions to the side.”

The Palestinians, who pulled out of the last direct talks in September 2010 after a settlement moratorium was lifted, argue that Israel has already annexed Jerusalem and has been stealing land for the past 20 years.

“We’ve been negotiating ad nauseum with a process that had no relationship to reality. That’s the problem,” senior Palestinian negotiator Hanan Ashrawi told ABC’s “This Week” program.

“So if you negotiate and you buy Israel time to create unilateral facts, to build more settlements, to steal more land, it is in danger of destroying the whole — not just peace process — but the prospects of peace.”

Since it occupied the West Bank in 1967, Israel has built more than 130 settlements across the territory which are home to more than 300,000 residents. Another 200,000 Israelis live in settlement neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem.

Interior ministry figures show the majority of West Bank settlers live in eight large settlements which Israel wants to annex in any final peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Israel considers both sectors of Jerusalem to be its “eternal, indivisible” capital and does not view construction in the east to be settlement activity.

The Palestinians, however, believe east Jerusalem should be the capital of their future state and are fiercely opposed to the extension of Israeli control over the sector.

Abbas made history in his people’s long quest for statehood as he formally asked the United Nations on Friday to admit Palestine as a full member state, handing over a formal application to UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

He returned Sunday to Ramallah, directly to his Muqataa presidential compound, receiving a hero’s welcome from jubilant crowds applauding wildly, waving the Palestinian flag and the yellow banner of his Fatah party.

Abbas told them he had conveyed their dreams of statehood to the international community with his address to the UN General Assembly and formal submission of the membership bid.

“We went to the United Nations carrying your hopes, your dreams, your ambitions, your suffering, your vision and your need for an independent Palestinian state,” he said.

“I have no doubt that the whole free world from one end to the other received what we told them about you and your dreams with all due respect.”

The United States, a staunch Israeli ally, is one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, and the White House has repeatedly said Obama will use that power.

The US president has worked hard to stay on the right side of the Arab Spring and will be hoping he doesn’t have to.

To pass, the Palestinians need the support of nine out of the 15 members of the Security Council. Six have already thrown their weight behind the bid, seven have not revealed their decision, while Colombia says it will abstain.

Security Council consultations were set to begin at the UN headquarters in New York at 3:00 pm (1900 GMT), but diplomats say it could be weeks, even months, before it comes to a vote.  (*)

 

 

SOURCE : AFP

UN Security Council to Discuss Palestinian Bid

Palestinians wave national flags and flasht he V-sign of victory in support of their leader Mahmud Abbas who made a statehood bid in a speech broadcast live on big screens in central Ramallah in the West Bank on September 23, 2011 at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. AFP PHOTO / ABBAS MOMANI

 

UNITED NATIONS, September 26, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / VOA) — The U.N. Security Council is set to discuss the Palestinian bid for statehood Monday, as Israeli leaders continue to call for a return to peace talks.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas submitted an application for full recognition of a Palestinian state Friday, and received a hero’s welcome Sunday as he returned to the West Bank.

He told thousands of supporters in Ramallah they are part of a “Palestinian Spring,” and that he would resume peace talks only if Israel stopped building settlements in occupied territory.

U.S.-mediated peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians stalled a year ago after an Israeli moratorium on West Bank settlement construction expired. Palestinians oppose construction on land they want as part of a future state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday the U.N. bid is wrong and should not succeed because Palestinians want a state without first committing to security guarantees for Israel. He repeated his call for the Palestinians to resume immediate peace talks without preconditions.

A top Palestinian aide said Israel has placed unacceptable preconditions on peace negotiations. Hanan Ashrawi said Israel “wants to annex Jerusalem” and “remove [Palestinian] refugees from the agenda.” She said Israel “wants everything, and then says, ‘Let’s talk.’”

The Middle East Quartet – the U.S., U.N., Europen Union and Russia – has called on Israelis and Palestinians to resume pace talks within a month and reach an agreement by next year.

Israel’s foreign minister said Sunday he favors the Quartet plan and called on Palestinians not to look for excuses to stay away from the negotiating table.

Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki has said the new initiative calling for the resumption of peace talks is not sufficient because it does not call for an Israeli settlement construction freeze. Malki said the Quartet’s plan also fails to require an Israeli withdrawal to the borders in place before Israel took control of the Palestinian territories in 1967.

U.S. President Barack Obama said recently that Washington would use its veto power in the U.N. Security Council to block any resolution recognizing the Palestinians. In his U.N. address, Mr. Obama said the only solution is direct talks between the two sides.  (*)

 

SOURCE : VOA

Pope Concludes First State Visit to Germany

Pope Benedict XVI touches a baby as he drives through the crowd prior to a service in Freiburg, Germany, Sunday, Sept.25, 2011, the last day of a four-day-visit to his homeland Germany.(AP Photo/Michael Probst)

 

GERMANY, September 25, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM) — Pope Benedict has wrapped up his first state visit to his native Germany with a final mass in the country’s southwest, VOA reported on Sunday.

Some 100 thousand people attended Sunday’s mass in an airfield beside Freiburg’s airport, where the pontiff made a strong appeal for unity among Catholics and the Vatican.

While in Freiburg, the pope also met with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, a key figure behind the reunification of East and West Germany in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Benedict’s four-day trip has also taken him to Berlin and Erfurt. His arrival Thursday drew thousands of protestors at the Berlin airport, with protestors carrying banners about sexism, homophobia and anti-Semitism.

During his visit to Berlin the pope met with a small group of Catholics who say they were sexually abused by members of the Catholic clergy. The Vatican said afterward that the pontiff expressed his “deep compassion and regret” to those victims. But critics said the meeting did nothing to solve the problem.

The pope also met with Muslim leaders in Berlin, where he called for Christianity and Islam to grow together in “dialogue and mutual esteem.”  (*)

SOURCE : VOA

Mahmoud Abbas receives hero’s welcome after UN trip

Mahmoud Abbas receives hero's welcome after UN trip

 

WEST BANK, September 25, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / BBC) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has received a hero’s welcome upon his return to the West Bank from New York where he applied for full state membership of the UN, BBC reported on Sunday.

He reiterated before a cheering crowd his refusal to talk to Israel without a freeze of Jewish settlements.

In New York, Mr Abbas urged the Security Council to back a state with pre-1967 borders.

Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians stalled in September 2010.

The Palestinians walked out in protest at the building of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

“We stressed to everyone that we want to achieve our rights through peaceful ways, through negotiations but not just any negotiations,” he told thousands of people gathered at his Ramallah headquarters.

“We will only agree with international law as a basis for negotiations, and a complete halt to settlement activity.”

Last week, the Quartet of mediators – the US, the UN, the European Union and Russia – called on Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks within one month and aim for a deal by the end of 2012.

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the General Assembly that the core of the conflict was not settlements, but the refusal of the Palestinians to recognise Israel as a Jewish state.

The United States has said it will veto the bid for Palestinian membership if it comes to a Security Council vote.  (*)

SOURCE : BBC

Medvedev backs Putin for Russian president

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, center, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, second left, react after Medvedev's speech during a United Russia party congress in Moscow on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed Vladimir Putin as presidential candidate for 2012, almost certainly guaranteeing Putin's return to office. Medvedev made the proposal Saturday in an address to a congress of United Russia, the pro-Kremlin party that dominates Russian politics. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Yekaterina Shtukina, Presidential Press Service)

 

RUSSIA, September 24, 2011  (KATAKAMI.COM) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to run for Russian president in next year’s election, ending months of speculation over which man would run for the post, RIA NOVOSTI reported.

Speaking at the annual congress of the ruling United Russia party on Saturday, Medvedev said he was ready to make way for Putin and do “practical work in the government.” That means Putin could still be running Russia in 2024.

Earlier, Putin told the congress that Medvedev should top the party’s list of candidates in parliamentary elections on December 4. The party is led by Putin and dominates Russian politics.

“Given the offer to head the party list and engage in party work, and given a successful run at the elections… I believe that it would be appropriate if the congress approved Vladimir Putin’s candidacy for the post of the president of Russia,” Medvedev said to a prolonged standing ovation at Moscow’s gigantic Luzhniki sports complex.

“This applause spares me the need to explain what experience and authority Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin possesses,” he told thousands of flag-waving delegates.

Putin was constitutionally barred from standing for a third consecutive term in 2008 and anointed Medvedev as his successor.

“I have often been asked: when are you going to make up your mind?… Vladimir Vladimirovich and I have sometimes been asked: have you fallen out with each other?”

“What we propose to the congress is a deeply thought-out decision,” Medvedev said. “We were actually discussing this course of action as early as when our union was being formed.”

There had been intense speculation that Putin may seek a return to the Kremlin when elections are held in March next year. Both Putin, 58, and Medvedev, 46, have said they could stand for president, but ruled out running against each other.

Medvedev said he would be ready to take over from Putin as prime minister if United Russia were to win in the December polls.

Putin took the floor after the announcement to address concerns over population decline and unemployment.

“I want to thank you for the positive reaction to the proposal for me to run for Russian president,” Putin said. “For me this is a great honor.”

The premier said he had “no doubts” Medvedev would form a “new, effective, young and energetic” cabinet when he headed Russia’s government and “continue his work on modernizing all aspects of our lives.”

‘Unoriginal’

Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of the liberal opposition party Yabloko, said Medvedev’s decision to step aside was “unoriginal.”

“Commentators had predicted this outcome, and now the solution lies with the Russian people – whether they really want the same to continue for another 12 years,” he said.

The head of the Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, said the reshuffle was to be expected but “doesn’t change anything.”

“This is no news to us,” he said.

Others say, however, that the move came as a surprise

“The situation has radically changed because quite a substantial proportion of people believed Medvedev would be playing his own game,” said Boris Nadezhdin, a senior figure in the liberal pro-business Rights Cause party.  (*)

 

 

SOURCE : RIA NOVOSTI

Quartet sets timetable for new Mideast talks

Members of the Mideast Quartet and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, center, pose for a picture before a meeting about the Palestinian application for statehood during the 66th session of the General Assembly at United Nations headquarters Friday, Sept. 23, 2011. From left to right are: Mideast Quartet Representative Tony Blair, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Catherine Ashton, European Union's foreign and security affairs chief. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

 

UNITED NATIONS, September 24, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / Reuters / UN ) – The “Quartet” of Middle East mediators proposed on Friday that Israel and the Palestinians should meet within one month to agree an agenda for new peace talks with a goal of a deal by the end of 2012, REUTERS reported on Friday.

In a statement, the Quartet — the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia – said it wanted to see comprehensive proposals within three months on territory and security, and substantial progress within six months.

The statement followed a day of high-stakes diplomacy over the Middle East which saw Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas submit a formal application to the U.N. Security Council for recognition of a Palestinian state.

The United States and Israel say a Palestinian state can only be achieved through resuming direct peace negotiations, and the United States has said it would veto any Palestinian bid that is put to a vote at the Security Council.

The Quartet, which has been working for months to try to find a formula to restart talks, said its new timetable aimed to reach a peace agreement before the end of 2012.

The statement, issued after a meeting between U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, also called on parties to refrain from “provocative actions.”

The brief statement represents a much more limited attempt to restart peace talks than Quartet envoys had once envisioned, and made no proposals to bridge core issues dividing the two sides such as borders, the status of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the future of Jewish settlements.

The EU’s Ashton, speaking to reporters as the statement was issued, said both the Israelis and the Palestinians were aware of “elements” in the new proposal, but indicated it was not certain that they would sign up for new talks.

“We believe that this would provide a good framework,” she said. “We hope the parties will respond positively.”

Abbas, in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, underscored that continued Jewish settlement building on occupied land the Palestinians want for their future state was a major obstacle to resuming negotiations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his speech, said the Palestinians must acknowledge that “Israel is the Jewish state” — something they have declined to do.

The statement said the Quartet would convene an international conference in Moscow “at the appropriate time” to assess progress. It also called for a donors conference to discuss international support for Abbas’ cash-strapped government-in-waiting, the Palestinian Authority.  (*)

 

Quartet on the Middle East members, former British Prime Minsiter Tony Blair (L), US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2ndL), Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (2ndR), and EU Commissioner Catherine Ashton (R) meet with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, at the United Nations during the General debate of the 66th General Assembly on September 23, 2011. AFP PHOTO/HENNY RAY ABRAMS

 

Quartet Statement

 

The Quartet — U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union Catherine Ashton— met in New York on 23rd September 2011. They were joined by Quartet Representative Tony Blair.

The Quartet takes note of the application submitted by President Abbas on 23rd September 2011 which is now before the Security Council.

The Quartet reaffirmed its statement of 20th May 2011, including its strong support for the vision of Israeli-Palestinian peace outlined by United States President Barack Obama.

The Quartet recalled its previous statements, and affirmed its determination to actively and vigorously seek a comprehensive resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, on the basis of UN Security Council Resolutions 242, 338, 1397, 1515, 1850, the Madrid principles including land for peace, the Roadmap, and the agreements previously reached between the parties.

The Quartet reiterated its commitment to a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East and to seek a comprehensive resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and reaffirms the importance of the Arab Peace Initiative.

The Quartet reiterated its urgent appeal to the parties to overcome the current obstacles and resume direct bilateral Israeli -Palestinian negotiations without delay or preconditions. But it accepts that meeting, in itself, will not re-establish the trust necessary for such a negotiation to succeed. It therefore proposes the following steps:

Within a month there will be a preparatory meeting between the parties to agree an agenda and method of proceeding in the negotiation.

At that meeting there will be a commitment by both sides that the objective of any negotiation is to reach an agreement within a timeframe agreed to by the parties but not longer than the end of 2012. The Quartet expects the parties to come forward with comprehensive proposals within three months on territory and security, and to have made substantial progress within six months. To that end, the Quartet will convene an international conference in Moscow, in consultation with the parties, at the appropriate time.

There will be a Donors Conference at which the international community will give full and sustained support to the Palestinian Authority state-building actions developed by Prime Minister Fayyad under the leadership of President Abbas.

The Quartet recognizes the achievements of the Palestinian Authority in preparing institutions for statehood as evidenced in reports to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, and stresses the need to preserve and build on them. In this regard, the members of the Quartet will consult to identify additional steps they can actively support towards Palestinian statehood individually and together, to secure in accordance with existing procedures significantly greater independence and sovereignty for the Palestinian Authority over its affairs.

The Quartet calls upon the parties to refrain from provocative actions if negotiations are to be effective. The Quartet reiterated the obligations of both parties under the Roadmap.

The Quartet committed to remain actively involved and to encourage and review progress. The Quartet agreed to meet regularly and to task the envoys and the Quartet Representative to intensify their cooperation, including by meeting prior to the parties’ preparatory meeting, and to formulate recommendations for Quartet action.  (*)