Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former Iranian president and the current head of the powerful Assembly of Experts, has called for the release of those jailed for protesting against the result of the recent presidential election. Inside Story asks whether Rafsanjani is playing his hand as a power broker or encouraging the country’s opposition.
On a visit to India, the worlds second most populous country, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton touted the prospects for strengthening U.S.-India relations.
On Monday, the two countries concluded a new deal that will grant American companies exclusive rights to sell India civilian nuclear power reactors — a deal that could be worth $10 billion.
But even as that deal was struck, India once again resisted American efforts to limit carbon emissions — a deal India fears would slow its own economy.
Amit Pandya of the The Stimson Center joins Martin Savidge to discuss the Secretary of States visit to India and the state of American-Indian relations.
More from France 24:
India and the United States agreed Monday a defence deal expected to boost US arms sales here, as New Delhi also approved sites for two US nuclear reactors, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
At a joint press conference with Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, Clinton said the two sides had agreed an “end-use monitoring” arrangement that would provide safeguards for the sale of sophisticated US weaponry to India.
The agreement “will pave the way for greater defence cooperation” Clinton said, while Krishna said it would help the “procurement of US defence technology to India.”
A US official said the arrangement was for a provision to be written into future defence contracts, guaranteeing sensitive equipment will be used for its intended purpose and not transferred to a third party.
It will be welcomed by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., which are both competing with Russian, French and Swedish companies for a massive 12-billion-dollar tender to provide 126 fighter jets to the Indian Air Force.
The press briefing came after a day of official meetings between Clinton and a series of senior Indian leaders including Krishna, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ruling Congress party president Sonia Gandhi.
Police in Indonesia say the deadly attacks on two Jakarta hotels on Friday had the trademarks of Jemaah Islamiyah, the same group behind the 2002 Bali bombings.
But as Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen reports, signs have emerged that confusion among Indonesian intelligence authorities clouded efforts to prevent this kind of attack.
More from Global Security:
Indonesian Police say the bombings of two hotels in Jakarta on Friday was the work of Jemaah Islamiyah, a terrorist group with al-Qaida ties. Analysts say it is likely that Noordin Top, a Malaysian fugitive who leads an affiliated group within a Southeast Asian militant network, planned and organized the attacks. The two blasts killed nine people, including the two suspected attackers, and wounded 50, many of them foreigners.
Indonesian national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna says the bombing attacks on the Marriott and Ritz Carlton Hotels in Jakarta on Friday were the work of Jemaah Islamiyah. The group with ties to Al-Qaida, has carried out dozens of bombings in Indonesia in the past decade, including a 2002 attack in Bali that left more than 200 people dead, mostly foreign tourists.
He told reporters Sunday an unexploded bomb left in a guest room of the Marriott hotel, which was attacked along with the nearby Ritz-Carlton, resembled explosives used in Bali and one discovered in a recent raid on an Islamic boarding school.
Sidney Jones, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, says Noordin Top, a Malaysian who leads the most militant faction of Jemaah Islamiyah, is the likely organizer of the attacks.
“Noordin is the only person of the various leaders of radical groups in Indonesia who is continued to be determined to attack western targets and particularly American targets,” said Jones.
Jones says Noordin has used suicide bombers in the past like the ones used in Friday’s attacks. And she says before the bombing police had some intelligence indicating Noordin may have been planning something.
“It was clear in the last two weeks that something was afoot. And the police were very actively searching this area in South Central Java called Cilacap because they believe some of Noordin’s associates were active there,” said Jones. “And we now know there is linkage between explosive materials used in these hotel bombings with some of the materials found in Cilacap by police.”
But Jones says Noordin Top may have split from the main Jemaah Islamiyah organization, or JI, which had recently turned away from violence because it was turning public opinion against them.
“The bulk of JI members are not interested in violence now because they regard this kind of bombing as counter-productive,” added Jones. “They need to rebuild their organization and they do that by recruiting new members through religious outreach. This kind of bombing does not bring you any new members, it creates outrage in the community.”
Jones says bombing the Marriott Hotel, which was also attacked in 2003, was probably meant to demonstrate that their group is still active and able penetrate the increased security.
Hoy siendo 20 de julio se abre una nueva sesión legislativa en Colombia. En su discurso ante el Congreso, el Presidente Uribe justifica el acuerdo con los Estados Unidos que permitirá el uso de bases aéreas en territorio colombiano. El Presidente defendió la esperada presencia de casi mil sietecientos militares y auxiliares estadounidenses en el país.
En su discurso, el Presidente Uribe aseguró que la cooperación es necesaria para “la lucha contra las drogas, la delincuencia organizada transnacional, el terrorismo y la proliferación de armas”.
El Presidente aclaró que, en todo caso, el uso y acceso de los militares y contratistas estadounidenses a las bases será “limitado” y que cada actividad se hará “con la autorización del Gobierno de Colombia y por mutuo consentimiento”.
Agregó que “efectiva fue la cooperación del Plan Colombia, efectiva será la cooperación del nuevo acuerdo”.
Según lo pactado hasta el momento por ambos gobiernos, en el acuerdo de cooperación próximo a firmarse, ya hay consenso en el acceso a las bases de Palanquero, Apiay y Malambo. Además, se estudia el uso de la base naval de Bahía Málaga, en el Pacífico, una de las zonas más usadas por los narcos para sacar la droga.
Uribe también anunció que también “se estudia un procedimiento para que la inmunidad no sea impunidad”, en referencia al trato que en este tipo de acuerdos reciben los extranjeros civiles o militares.
El jefe de Estado defendió la histórica cooperación militar con E.U.: “Nos han ayudado de manera respetuosa y práctica en el Plan Colombia (…) Nada ganamos con voces de solidaridad y pésame de la comunidad internacional mientras la sangre se derrama aquí. La cooperación debe ser efectiva y no simbólica”.
“Vamos ganando -remató-, pero no hemos ganado todavía, muchos son los riesgos y amenazas que todavía nos acechan para dejar atrás esta violencia que ha afectado a tantas generaciones. Los violentos practican terrorismo y sangre en Colombia e intentan hacer política en el extranjero. Asesinan y pretenden interferir las relaciones exteriores del País”.
Preocupado? Yo? Claro que si. Uribe nos cree bobos.
When Doctor Doom speaks, I listen.
“The recovery is going to be subpar,” Roubini said. “I see a one percent growth in the economy in the next few years. There will also be 11 percent unemployment next year and the recovery is going to be slow. It’s going to feel like a recession even when it ends.”
To clarify the U3 will be 11%. The U6 should reach twice that. U3 is the “official unemployment rate” as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. U6 is the broadest measure of unemployment. It includes those who are unemployed but no longer looking for work and those who are working part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time employment. The U6 is already 20% or more in at least six states including California and Michigan.
On a second stimulus, Dr. Roubini adds that he thinks “there will be another one toward the end of the year. We need to have more shovel ready labor intensive infrastructure projects.” He concludes that we’ll need it. Yup.
As the Chinese government tries to control the situation in Xinjiang following riots there, critics say Beijing’s policies are partly to blame for the outbreak of ethnic violence.
Fighting between Han and Uighur factory workers in the industrial south is said to have sparked the Xinjiang riots. Now the two groups are becoming increasingly separate, as Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan reports from Shaoguan in Guangdong province.
As hundreds of Pakistanis return to the battle-scarred Swat Valley, experts are urging the international community to take the opportunity help them as a way to undercut Taliban influence in the region. VOA’s Ravi Khanna has more on the story.
EU High Representative Javier Solana on Monday paid a visit to the Jalozai IDP camp in Pakistan. The camp holds internally displaced people from the Swat Valley who sought refuge last month as the Pakistan government launched its offensive against Taliban insurgents.
The camp, one of the 150 largest in the country, is approximately 35 kilometers southwest of Peshawar. It was initially built during the 1980s during house refugees from Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation.
The visit to the Jalozai camp is Solana’s first stop on a two-day official visit to Pakistan. As EU foreign policy chief, he’s seeking ways to help alleviate the humanitarian situation that is caused by Pakistan’s efforts to take on the Taliban in the Swat valley. Solana said the European Union is making available 150 million euro to relieve the plight of the IDP’s in Pakistan.
Close to two million people were internally displaced in Pakistan as result of the fighting between the Pakistani military and Taliban militants. Tens of thousands started returning home in recent days as the government began to implement the first phase of its repatriation plan.
About 3100 workers at Vale Inco’s nickel mining and refining operations in Sudbury, Ontario went on strike on July 13, 2009 after overwhelmingly rejecting a final offer from the company. Vale Inco (formerly CVRD Inco) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazilian mining company Vale. It is Vale’s nickel mining and metals division. Vale has operations in Mongolia, Indonesia, China, Peru, Chile, Angola and Brazil. Vale is now a private company but until 1997, it was a state-owned enterprise.
More from the New York Times:
The strike follows the first set of labor negotiations between the United Steelworkers of America and Vale since it acquired Inco in 2007 after a prolonged series of mining deals involving the company. Spokesmen for both the company and the union agreed that the two sides remained far apart.
The walkout may soon be followed by a second strike at Vale Inco’s mine in Voisey’s Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador. Ninety-nine percent of unionized workers there also rejected the company’s proposal but, by law, cannot strike until the end of July.
The current strike, which also includes a refinery in Port Colborne, Ontario, will have no immediate effect on Vale Inco’s production. Low demand for nickel, which is a critical ingredient in stainless steel, means that Sudbury is already in the midst of an eight-week shutdown. That closure followed a scheduled monthlong closing in May for maintenance.
Bob Gallagher, a spokesman for the Canadian branch of the Steelworkers, said the main issue was the future of a bonus payment tied to the market price of nickel. While that bonus currently has no value, it can increase workers’ annual pay by thousands of dollars during periods of high prices.
The company is also proposing changes in pension benefits for future employees.
Some analysts have suggested that a prolonged shutdown caused by a strike could benefit Vale Inco by raising nickel prices.
But Cory McPhee, a Toronto-based spokesman for the company, said that it did not welcome the walkout.
“We didn’t want the strike,” he said. “But the fact the union voted to reject our offer still doesn’t change our fundamental business imperative.”