PoliticStyle

Obama aide says no more troops to Afghanistan

2009-07-01T15:34:00.000+04:00

(OBAMA, SECURITY, MILITARY, TROOPS, AFGHANISTAN, JONES)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama`s top security adviser has told U.S. military commanders there are no plans to send more troops to Afghanistan for now and that the focus instead will be on economic development and reconstruction, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
National Security Adviser James Jones delivered that message last week in Afghanistan, where Marine Brigadier General Lawrence Nicholson hinted he could use more "thousands more" troops, the newspaper said.
Jones` message seemed designed to cap expectations that more troops might be coming, although the Obama administration has not ruled out additional deployments in the future, the Post said.
"This will not be won by the military alone," Jones told the Post during his trip. "We tried that for six years."
"The piece of the strategy that has to work in the next year is economic development. If that is not done right, there are not enough troops in the world to succeed."
An extra 17,000 troops Obama deployed to fight a growing Taliban-led insurgency in southern and western Afghanistan were expected to be on the ground by mid-July. Another 4,000 troops being deployed to train Afghan security forces are due to arrive by August.
The forces are part of a build-up that could expand the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan to 68,000 troops by the end of this year, more than double the 32,000 at the end of 2008.
The Post said Jones made it clear during his visit to Afghanistan that it was a new era and Obama will not automatically give military commanders whatever force levels they request, a departure from the practice of the Bush administration in the Iraq war.
(Editing by John O`Callaghan)
Original article

California misses budget deadline, readies "IOUs"

2009-07-01T14:06:00.000+04:00

(CALIFORNIA, BUDGET, STATE, BILLION, SENATE, OBLIGATION)

By Jim Christie
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California`s lawmakers failed to agree on a balanced budget by the start of its new fiscal year on Wednesday morning, clearing the way to suspend payments owed to the state`s vendors and local agencies, who instead will get "IOU" notes promising payment.
The notes will mark the first time in 17 years the most populous U.S. state`s government will have to resort to the unusual and dramatic measure.
Democrats who control the legislature could not convince Republicans late on Tuesday night to back their plans to tackle a $24.3 billion budget shortfall or a stopgap effort to ward off the IOUs. The two sides agree on the need for spending cuts but are split over whether to raise taxes.
Democrats have pushed for new revenues while Republican lawmakers and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, also a Republican, have ruled out tax increases. They instead see deep spending cuts as the solution to balancing the budget, but Democrats say that would slash the state`s safety net for the needy to the bone.
Tempers flared in the state Senate as the midnight start of the new fiscal year neared.
"There is no excuse to hold this whole state hostage," state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg told Republicans during a floor debate.
Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth countered that major cuts are urgently needed. Otherwise, "There will be entire programs that will have to be lopped off," he said.
CASH CRISIS LOOMS
California lawmakers struggle with budget deadlines practically every year, but this year`s budget fight is taking place amid the state`s worst drop in revenues from personal income taxes since the Great Depression as recession and rising unemployment pile on to the damage done to the state`s economy from its long housing slump.
Because of its steep revenue decline, California risks running out of cash later this month to pay all of its bills unless its books are balanced quickly.
To conserve cash, State Controller John Chiang plans to issue IOUs by Thursday to the state`s vendors, local agencies overseeing health programs and various recipients of state aid -- including the elderly and disabled and college students.
He plans to send $3.36 billion in IOUs this month to help maintain $10.9 billion in other payments, including money owed to investors holding California`s general obligation debt.
"The general obligation bonds will be paid," Chiang told Reuters on Tuesday. "California has never defaulted on its debt obligation and we don`t plan to do so."
California aims to reassure investors because Wall Street`s concerns about the state`s finances are growing and because state officials see the need to sell $7 billion to $9 billion in short-term debt for cash-flow purposes once there is a budget agreement.
Fitch Ratings last week downgraded its rating on California`s general obligation debt and warned it may lower the rating again. Fitch cut California`s rating by one notch to A-minus, placing it four notches above speculative, or "junk" status, and making it the lowest rating of any U.S. state. Continued...
Original article

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U.S. targets North Korea`s missile, nuclear activities

2009-07-01T01:17:00.000+04:00

(NORTH, KOREA, NUCLEAR, TREASURY, ELECTRONICS, WHICH)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it had cracked down on companies involved in North Korea`s suspected missile proliferation and in purchases of equipment that could be used in a nuclear weapons program.
The Treasury and State Departments said they had targeted Iran`s Hong Kong Electronics and North Korea`s Namchongang Trading Corporation under an executive order that would freeze their U.S. assets and bar U.S. firms from dealing with them.
The move appeared aimed at isolating the companies from the U.S. financial and commercial systems and, by extension, from other countries` banks and corporations who may resist doing business with them out of fear of falling afoul of U.S. laws.
It was immediately not clear whether either company actually has any U.S. assets that could be frozen.
The steps are part of an effort to get tough with North Korea, which conducted its second nuclear test this year and which has ceased carrying out a 2005 agreement to abandon its nuclear programs in exchange for economic and diplomatic benefits.
The U.S. Treasury said that it had targeted Hong Kong Electronics, which is located in Kish Island, Iran, because it had transferred millions of dollars of proliferation-related funds to North Korea from Iran.
"North Korea uses front companies like Hong Kong Electronics and a range of other deceptive practices to obscure the true nature of its financial dealings, making it nearly impossible for responsible banks and governments to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate North Korean transactions," Stuart Levey, undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement.
The State Department described Namchongang as a Pyongyang-based "nuclear-related company" and said it has been involved in the purchase of aluminum tubes and other equipment "specifically suitable for a uranium enrichment program since the late 1990s."
Uranium enrichment is a process that can produce fuel for nuclear power plants or for nuclear weapons.
(Editing by Philip Barbara)
Original article

Minnesota court rules Democrat Al Franken won Senate seat

2009-06-30T23:39:00.000+04:00

(COURT, DEMOCRAT, FRANKEN, REPUBLICAN, COLEMAN, DECISION)

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of a tight U.S. Senate race over Republican Norm Coleman, which should give Democrats the 60-seat majority they need to overcome procedural obstacles and push through their agenda.
Coleman has said in published reports he is unlikely to appeal the state court`s decision to the federal courts. Under state law, the court`s decision gives Franken the right to occupy the seat, which has been up for grabs since last November`s election.
Minnesota Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty has said he will certify the election winner based on what the state court decides.
If the decision holds up, Democrats will control 60 of the 100 Senate seats -- enough to overcome Republican procedural roadblocks in a clear boost to President Barack Obama`s agenda.
Democrats hold a solid majority in the U.S. House.
However, Senate Democrats may not be able to count on Arlen Specter`s vote. Specter, a former Republican from Pennsylvania, switched parties in April but has said he will vote his own way and not necessarily along party lines.
The Minnesota contest has seen several switches. Coleman, seeking a second term, held a razor-thin lead after the November 4 election over Franken, a well known satirist and a former writer and actor for the popular Saturday Night Live television show.
But the close vote triggered an automatic recount of the 2.4 million ballots cast for the two men, and Franken edged to a 225-vote lead. That result was challenged by Coleman, and a judicial panel agreed to add only a few hundred previously rejected absentee ballots. That tally expanded Franken`s lead to 312 votes.
(Reporting by Todd Melby and Andrew Stern)
Original article

Obama admin. sets wide scope for consumer agency

2009-06-30T22:14:00.000+04:00

(AGENCY, WOULD, CONSUMER, PROTECTION, FINANCIAL, CREDIT)

By David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new U.S. agency would have sweeping powers to write and enforce tough consumer protection rules for banks, mortgage lenders and other financial institutions under proposed legislation the Obama administration sent to Congress on Tuesday.
The legislative language fleshes out a key component of President Barack Obama`s plan outlined earlier this month to revamp U.S. financial regulation in response to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency aims to protect Americans from abusive practices employed during the recent housing and credit boom, such as deceptive and undocumented mortgage lending, poor loan disclosures, unfair interest rate increases and "fee traps" on credit cards.
The proposal would consolidate financial consumer protection power in a single new agency, stripping this authority from six current regulators, including the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
"Consumer protection will have an independent seat at the table in our regulatory system. By consolidating accountability in one place, we will reduce gaps in federal supervision and enforcement," U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement.
A Treasury official said the agency will be focused primarily on credit products such as mortgages, credit cards and other consumer loans, savings products and payments services, such as electronic funds transfers.
GOALS LAUDED, NEW AGENCY QUESTIONED
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, who will play a key role in pushing regulatory changes through Congress, said the proposal would address "the colossal failures that led to the economic crisis."
"Creating an independent agency whose sole focus is protecting consumers -- be it credit card holders, anyone with a bank account, or families with mortgages or student loans -- is really the key to creating the foundations for a stronger economy," Dodd said.
But many Republicans and the financial services industry are less enthusiastic about the plan, which they fear would impose a regulatory burden that will add costs, reduce the availability of credit and stifle innovation.
They also fear that stripping existing agencies of their consumer authority could reduce their effectiveness.
"We completely agree with and applaud the emphasis the administration has placed on enhancing consumer protection. Our concern is that a new agency, by its very nature, might not effectively serve that objective," said John Dearie, executive vice president at the Financial Services Forum, a lobbying group that represents the largest U.S. financial institutions.
He said the proposed agency could "monopolize" the government`s approach to consumer protection by creating one agency with one staff and one institutional view.
However, the new agency would not affect the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to adopt rules, initiate enforcement proceedings or take action against those they regulate.
Still, the powers the Obama administration wants to invest in the new agency are sweeping. Continued...
Original article

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U.S. targets North Korea missile proliferation network

2009-06-30T22:02:00.000+04:00

(TREASURY, NORTH, KOREA, ELECTRONICS, FINANCIAL, KOMID)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury said on Tuesday it has targeted an Iranian-based firm for its ties to North Korea`s missile proliferation network, a move that bans U.S. companies from dealing with it.
Hong Kong Electronics, located in Kish Island, Iran, has been named for transferring millions of dollars of proliferation-related funds to North Korea from Iran.
"North Korea uses front companies like Hong Kong Electronics and a range of other deceptive practices to obscure the true nature of its financial dealings, making it nearly impossible for responsible banks and governments to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate North Korean transactions," said Stuart Levey, undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Treasury said Hong Kong Electronics provided support to North Korea`s Tanchon Commercial Bank and Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID).
Since 2007 Hong Kong Electronics has transferred funds to North Korea on behalf of KOMID, Treasury said.
Tanchon, a bank based in Pyongyang, North Korea, is the financial arm for KOMID, North Korea`s premier arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons, Treasury said.
The actions were taken under an executive order that allows the U.S. government to freeze assets of designated proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters and isolates them from the U.S. financial and commercial systems.
(Reporting by Nancy Waitz; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Original article

Main news of June 29

2009-06-30T14:58:00.000+04:00

(WORLD, RUSSIA, MINISTRY, SPOKESMAN, MONDAY, RUSSIAN)

WORLD
* Russia condemns the coup d`etat in Honduras and calls for the restoration of law and order in the country, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said
* The European Commission said Monday that progress has been made on the issue of giving Ukraine an international loan to pay Russia for natural gas
* The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday confirmed 70,893 officially registered A/H1N1 cases and 311 deaths in 116 countries and territories worldwide
* Honduran interim president Roberto Micheletti promised on Monday that presidential polls would go ahead as scheduled on November 29, a Venezuelan paper said
* A lawyer for Michael Jackson`s personal doctor denied claims on Monday that the cardiologist had injected the pop legend with a powerful painkiller prior to his death
* Iranian authorities have begun a partial recount of the fiercely disputed June 12 presidential vote, national media said
* Scientific tests conducted on what are believed to be the remains of Apostle Paul "seem to confirm" that they belong to the saint, Pope Benedict XVI has said
RUSSIA
* With a looming July 1 deadline to shut their doors and take down all signs, many Moscow casinos have opted to close early rather than gamble on working right down to the wire
* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told state-run banks on Monday to use new government funding to increase lending by at least 150 billion rubles ($4.8 billion) in July
* Russia`s Air Force has resumed Su-24 Fencer attack aircraft flights after a 10-day suspension following two crashes in mid-June, a Defense Ministry official said
* Pilot error has been identified as the cause of a crash involving a Su-24 Fencer tactical bomber in mid-June, a flight service official said
* Large-scale military drills start on Monday in 10 southern subjects of the Russian Federation, a spokesman for the North Caucasus military district said
* A Russian-Argentine agreement scrapping bilateral visa requirements entered into force
SPORT
* World No. 1 Dinara Safina and fellow Russian Yelena Dementieva won on Monday to secure places in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, while two compatriots were knocked out
Original article

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Moscow condemns Honduran coup, calls for restoration of law

Moscow condemns Honduran coup, calls for restoration of law

2009-06-30T14:46:00.000+04:00

(HONDURAS, PRESIDENT, RUSSIA, COUNTRY, ZELAYA, MILITARY)

What Muscovites know about Honduras
Honduras Crisis : Soldiers ousted the democratically elected president
MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia condemns the coup d`etat in Honduras and calls for the restoration of law and order in the country, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday.
Parliamentary speaker Roberto Micheletti was sworn in as president of the Central American state on Sunday after President Jose Manuel Zelaya was deposed in a coup. The military`s action, apparently supported by the country`s Supreme Court, has been condemned across the world.
"All actions by political players in the country must lie within the bounds of the law and the constitution," Andrei Nesterenko said.
He said Russia welcomed the efforts by regional organizations and groups trying "to work out a solution within the framework of international law."
The embassies of the member countries of the regional Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) backed Russia`s condemnation, the Cuban ambassador said at a news conference in Moscow.
Juan Valdes Figueroa said the ALBA diplomatic missions called for "a complete reinstatement of the Manuel Zelaya government," stressing that the coup violated "the fundamental norms of international law."
Honduran military arrested Zelaya on Sunday morning, hours before polls were due to open for a non-binding referendum on ending the restriction on presidents serving one four-year term.
Honduras` Supreme Court had ruled the referendum illegal. The president was arrested at his residence and transported aboard a military plane to Costa Rica in what was Central America`s first coup since the end of the Cold War.
Micheletti promised Monday that presidential polls would go ahead as scheduled on November 29, a Venezuelan paper said.
World leaders have condemned the coup, with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging "the reinstatement of the democratically elected representatives of the country."
U.S. President Barack Obama has called on the coup leaders to "respect the rule of law."
Miguel d`Escoto Brockmann, the president of the UN General Assembly, on Monday invited Zelaya to come to New York and speak at an extraordinary session of the assembly.

Original article

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EU says making progress on gas loan to Ukraine

2009-06-30T14:34:00.000+04:00

(EUROPE, RUSSIAN, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, SUPPLIES, EUROPEAN)

Delivering gas to Europe
A map of Russian gas suppliers to Europe via Ukraine
Russia resumes gas supplies to Ukraine
Russia Ukraine sign gas deal
BRUSSELS, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - The European Commission said Monday that progress has been made on the issue of giving Ukraine an international loan to pay Russia for natural gas.
The statement was issued after high-level talks involving representatives of gas companies Gazprom and Naftogaz, the World Bank, the IMF, the EBRD and the EU.
"The participants made good progress in identifying the key issues of concern and elements for possible solutions including possible financing arrangements," the representatives said in a joint statement.
The ex-Soviet state is seeking a syndicated loan of over $4 billion from European banks to pay it debts to Russian energy giant Gazprom until November 2009.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in early June it would be difficult for the EU to help Ukraine keep up with its payments.
Russia, which supplies around one fifth of Europe`s gas, briefly shut down supplies via Ukraine`s pipeline system at the start of the year during a dispute with Kiev over unpaid debt.
The conflict was resolved in January, when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Yulia Tymoshenko, agreed deals on deliveries to and gas transit through Ukraine for 2009.
Ukraine transits around 80% of Russia`s Europe-bound gas.

Original article

Gazprom to buy 0.5 bcm of Azerbaijani gas annually from 2010

2009-06-30T14:22:00.000+04:00

(GAZPROM, AZERBAIJAN, MILLER, RUSSIAN, AZERBAIJANI, SUPPLIES)

BAKU, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom will buy 500 million cubic meters of natural gas from Azerbaijan annually from January 1, 2010, CEO Alexei Miller said on Monday.
The Russian energy giant, which has not so far bought Azerbaijani gas, signed an agreement with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) earlier in the day.
"Gazprom will buy Azerbaijani gas from January 1, 2010. Initially we will buy 500 million cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas," Miller said, without disclosing either the price or the pricing formula.
"The agreement signed today fixes a basic price that is commercially attractive to our Azerbaijani partners," the Russian businessman said.
The agreed volume of deliveries from SOCAR is less than one tenth of one percent of the 549.7 billion cubic meters of gas Gazprom itself produced last year.
Azerbaijan plans eventually to increase gas supplies to Russia, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.
"We plan in the future to increase supplies as the volume of Azerbaijani natural gas production goes up," Aliyev said on Monday after talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Baku.
According to the Gazprom CEO, Azerbaijani gas to be pumped via a pipeline running between the two countries will be used in south Russian territories. He also pledged that similar volumes of gas would be reserved for European consumers.
Miller added that Gazprom was listed as a potential buyer of gas from the Shakh Deniz field with some privileges reserved for the company.
"We are confident that Gazprom has very good negotiating positions regarding long-term cooperation in the purchase of Azerbaijani gas," he said.
Speaking in early June at an oil conference in Azerbaijan`s capital, Baku, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Matthew Bryza said that in 2012-2015 Azerbaijan would supply Europe with 12 billion cu m of gas from its Shakh Deniz field alone, raising supplies to 15 billion by 2015, and increasing them further by 2015-2020.

Original article

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Russian expert predicts return for ousted Honduran president

2009-06-30T14:10:00.000+04:00

(HONDURAS, PRESIDENT, MILITARY, THERE, CHAVEZ, LEADERS)

What Muscovites know about Honduras
Honduras Crisis : Soldiers ousted the democratically elected president
MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - International pressure means the deposed president of Honduras, sent into exile by the country`s military, is likely to return to power, a Russian expert said Monday.
"In all likelihood, he will return. There are such precedents, and when there is this kind of public opinion pressure - from the U.S., the European Union and Latin America - then there is a greater chance he will return than otherwise," said Vadim Teperman, director of the Latin America Institute`s economic research center.
Parliamentary speaker Roberto Micheletti was sworn in as president of the Central American state on Sunday after President Jose Manuel Zelaya was deposed in a coup. The military`s action, apparently supported by the country`s Supreme Court, has been condemned from Washington to Havana and Caracas.
Teperman said a major role in resolving the crisis could be played by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a close ally of Zelaya.
"Much here depends on the position of Hugo Chavez. Chavez is an impulsive man, capable of making blunders. He has made ugly statements but fortunately has never crossed the line," the analyst said. "I think this time he will not cross it either, 95%."
"But there is a 5% chance commonsense will fail him, then everything will deteriorate, because that will create a foundation: aha, Chavez seized power and ours will follow this path as well," he said.
Teperman added that the president has his supporters but faced a strong opposition, including on the part of influential parties` leaders.
Honduran military arrested Zelaya on Sunday morning, hours before polls were due to open for a non-binding referendum on ending the restriction on presidents serving one four-year term.
Honduras` Supreme Court had ruled the referendum illegal. The president was arrested at his residence and transported aboard a military plane to Costa Rica in what was Central America`s first coup since the end of the Cold War.
Micheletti promised Monday that presidential polls would go ahead as scheduled on November 29, a Venezuelan paper said.
World leaders have condemned the coup, with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging "the reinstatement of the democratically elected representatives of the country."
U.S. President Barack Obama has called on the coup leaders to "respect the rule of law."

Original article

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WHO confirms over 70,000 swine flu cases, 311 deaths worldwide

2009-06-30T13:58:00.000+04:00

(CASES, DEATHS, COUNTRIES, WORLDWIDE, PANDEMIC, MILLION)

A vaccine of despair – that’s what Onishchenko called the swine flu shot
Cruise docks with flu fears
The Spread of the Swine flu Outbreak
Flu fears behind bus attack
MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday confirmed 70,893 officially registered A/H1N1 cases and 311 deaths in 116 countries and territories worldwide.
The number of infected grew by 11,079 people over the weekend, while the death toll increased by 48 people.
The United States has seen the most fatalities with 27,717 cases and 127 deaths. Mexico has become the second most affected country, with 8,279 cases and 116 deaths. Other countries to be hit include Canada (7,775 cases, 21 deaths), Chile (5,186 cases and seven deaths), Britain (4,250 cases, one death) and Australia (4,038 cases, seven deaths).
WHO decided to raise its pandemic alert level to the maximum of 6 on June 11.
An influenza pandemic is an epidemic of an influenza virus that spreads on a worldwide scale and infects a large proportion of the human population.
There were three flu pandemics in the last century. The 1918 Spanish flu was the most serious, claiming over 50 million lives. It was followed by the Asian Flu in 1957 with up to 4 million deaths, and the Hong Kong Flu in 1968 resulting in about 1 million deaths.

Original article

Russia to deliver new security proposal in Brussels July 22

2009-06-30T13:45:00.000+04:00

(RUSSIA, SECURITY, COUNCIL, ROGOZIN, BETWEEN, AUGUST)

MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia`s proposals for a new National Security Strategy is to be presented at NATO headquarters in Brussels on July 22, Russia`s envoy to NATO said Monday.
"A high-level expert - one of the leaders of Russia`s Security Council - will arrive for that," Dmitry Rogozin said during a video link from Brussels organized by RIA Novosti.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree in May on the National Security Strategy up to 2020.
Rogozin also said that NATO had invited "the Russian envoy to take part on July 7 in a seminar devoted to NATO strategic development issues."
He also said the first meeting between a Russian representative and the newly-appointed NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who takes up the post on August 1, will be held August 11.
"I think at the August 11 meeting he is to outline prospects for his trip to Russia," Rogozin said.
Rogozin said discussions on a Russia`s proposal for a European Security Treaty could start in September during a Russia-NATO Council session.
Saturday`s informal foreign ministerial meeting of the Russia-NATO Council was the first high-level talks since last August`s five-day war between Russia and Georgia, after which contacts were frozen. Russia then recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which was attacked by Tbilisi in an attempt to bring it back under central control.
Relations between Russia and NATO have also been frayed in recent years over the military alliance`s eastern expansion. Ukraine and Georgia, both former Soviet republics, have applied to join, but their U.S.-backed bids were turned down due to pressure from Germany and France at a 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest.

Original article

UN mission to withdraw from Abkhazia by July 15

2009-06-30T13:33:00.000+04:00

(MISSION, GEORGIA, ABKHAZIA, UNITED, STATES, BRITAIN)

UN mission withdraws from Georgia and Abkhazia
Post-war life in Abkhazia
SUKHUM, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - United Nations military observers will leave Abkhazia by July 15, 2009, a spokesman for the UN mission said on Monday.
The work of the mission, officially known as the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), was formally stopped on June 16 when its mandate expired with the UN Security Council unable to agree an extension.
Ten countries, including the United States, Britain and France, voted for the draft resolution to extend the mission, four countries - China, Vietnam, Libya and Uganda - abstained, and veto-wielding Russia voted against.
The draft, co-authored by Austria, Croatia, Germany, France, Turkey, Britain and the United States, would have extended the mission until June 30, 2009.
According to UN practice, the withdrawal of a mission takes up to two months.
Edmund Mulet, Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, is currently visiting Abkhazia to discuss the details of the withdrawal with local authorities.
He held a meeting at the republic`s Foreign Ministry and was received by Abkhaz Prime Minister Alexander Ankvab earlier on Monday.
The UN mission in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone was deployed in 1993 to oversee a ceasefire following a post-Soviet conflict that resulted in Abkhazia gaining de facto independence.
Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia in August 2008 after its five-day war with Georgia over the latter, which was attacked by Tbilisi in an attempt to bring it back under central control. Most residents of both Abkhazia and South Ossetia have held Russian citizenship for several years.

Original article

Honduran interim leader promises polls in November

2009-06-30T13:21:00.000+04:00

(PRESIDENT, HONDURAN, MICHELETTI, NOVEMBER, MILITARY, COUNTRY)

Honduras Crisis : Soldiers ousted the democratically elected president
MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Honduran interim president Roberto Micheletti promised on Monday that presidential polls would go ahead as scheduled on November 29, a Venezuelan paper said.
"I promise to be faithful to the republic...There will be elections on November 29," he was quoted as saying by the paper.
Parliamentary speaker Micheletti took power in the Central American state after Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya was deposed in a coup.
Honduran military arrested Zelaya on Sunday morning, the same day polls were due to open for a referendum on the extension of his non-renewable, four-year term of office.
The country`s Supreme Court had ruled the referendum illegal. The president was arrested at his residence and transported aboard a military plane to Costa Rica in what was Central America`s first coup since the end of the Cold War.
Micheletti, speaking at his first press conference, also said that a 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew had been imposed for a minimum of two days to ensure security in the country.
World leaders have condemned the coup, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging "the reinstatement of the democratically elected representatives of the country."
U.S. President Barack Obama has called on the coup leaders to "respect the rule of law."

Original article

Michael Jackson`s doctor denies final painkiller injection

2009-06-30T13:09:00.000+04:00

(MICHAEL, JACKSON, DOCTOR, DEATH, AUTOPSY, FOUND)

Michael Jackson, the King of pop
Michael Jackson’s Moscow concert
Pop icon Michael Jackson dies at 50
LOS ANGELES, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - A lawyer for Michael Jackson`s personal doctor denied claims on Monday that the cardiologist had injected the pop legend with a powerful painkiller prior to his death.
"There was no Demerol. No OxyContin," Edward Chernoff told The Los Angeles Times.
Dr. Conrad Murray reportedly disappeared several hours after Jackson`s death at the age of 50 on Thursday, and failed to sign a death certificate.
The doctor, who had been treating the pop star for 11 weeks, was later interviewed by police who said he was "cooperative and provided information which will aid the investigation."
Chernoff said Jackson "wasn`t breathing" when the doctor "fortuitously" entered the bedroom in his Holmby Hills mansion.
"He checked for a pulse. There was a weak pulse in his femoral artery. He started administering CPR," the lawyer said.
The doctor said he "didn`t understand why Michael Jackson had died."
Meanwhile, the Jacksons have insisted on a second independent autopsy after the first examination found no conclusive cause of death.
The family believes the doctor had overmedicated Michael and will conduct their own investigation, examiner.com said.
The autopsy found four needle marks in his chest where the doctor is believed to have injected Jackson with adrenalin during resuscitation.
The autopsy results also said that there was no food apart from some pills found in the pop legend`s stomach as Jackson was reported to be fasting before his 50-day farewell tour which was to begin July 13.
The proceeds from the concerts were expected to reach $450 million. Fans who bought the tickets have been promised a full refund.
Following his death, the superstar`s albums and singles topped music charts around the world, with online music store Amazon reporting his albums taking the top 15 places in their charts.

Original article

Bones discovered in Rome tomb belong to St. Paul

2009-06-30T12:56:00.000+04:00

(BELIEVED, APOSTLE, BENEDICT, CENTURY, ROMAN, PETER)

THE VATICAN, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Scientific tests conducted on what are believed to be the remains of Apostle Paul "seem to confirm" that they belong to the saint, Pope Benedict XVI has said.
Speaking at a ceremony on Sunday to mark the end of the Year of St. Paul, Pope Benedict said, carbon dating tests conducted on bone fragments found in a sarcophagus under the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, confirmed that they date from the first or second century.
He said a tiny hole had been drilled in the sarcophagus, which for about 2,000 years is believed to be the tomb of the saint apostle, and "traces of a precious linen cloth, purple in color, laminated with pure gold, and a blue colored textile with filaments of linen" were revealed.
"This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul," Benedict said.
The discovery in the tomb came after the Vatican newspaper announced on Saturday that a fresco featuring the thin face of a bearded man with large eyes, and face on a red background surrounded with a yellow circle - the classic image of St. Paul - had been found in excavations of the Catacomb of Santa Tecla.
It is believed to be the oldest known icon of St. Paul dating from the late fourth century, L`Osservatore Romano said.
St. Paul, who called himself the Apostle to the Gentiles, was along with St. Peter the most notable of early Christian missionaries.
According to tradition, Paul was beheaded, while Peter was crucified, in the first century during the persecution of early Christians by Roman emperors.
Monday is the feast of St. Peter and Paul, a major holiday for the Roman Catholic Church.

Original article

Iran releases five British embassy local staff members

2009-06-30T12:44:00.000+04:00

(TEHRAN, EMBASSY, STAFF, ELECTION, IRANIAN, SAYING)

TEHRAN, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Iran has released five British Embassy local members of staff, a day after eight of them were detained in Tehran on suspicion of being involved in post-election riots, state media reported.
Iran`s state English-language Press TV said the release occurred after preliminary investigations were completed. The other embassy staff members are to remain in custody.
Police in Tehran arrested eight Iranian diplomats on Sunday, saying they were "inflaming post-election tensions in the country."
The IRNA official news agency quoted the Iranian intelligence minister as saying that the British Embassy had played a "crucial role" in the disturbances.
"The embassy sent its local staff to rallies," Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje`I said.
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband voiced concern on Sunday over the arrests of the embassy`s Iranian employees, calling it "unacceptable."
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad`s landslide re-election sparked mass protests amid allegations of ballot fraud.
At least 13 people have been killed during election protests, according to Iranian media, and over 450 arrested in the largest challenge to the Islamic Revolution since the 1979 overthrow of the U.S.-backed shah.

Original article

Russia to raise oil export duty to $212.6 per ton from July 1

2009-06-30T12:32:00.000+04:00

(EXPORT, CURRENT, GLOBAL, GOVERNMENT, PRODUCTS, PRICE)

MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will increase oil export duty from the current $152.8 to $212.6 per metric ton from July 1, following trends on global oil markets, the Russian government said on its website on Monday.
The decree was signed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on June 26.
As of July 1, the duty on light petroleum products will rise to $155.5 from the current $115.2 per ton and for heavy petroleum products to $83.8 from the current $62.1 per ton.
Last year, the government abandoned its previously accepted bimonthly adjustments of export duties based on the price of the Urals blend on global oil markets, and from December 1 switched to setting duties for oil and oil products on a monthly basis to respond more swiftly to changes in world oil prices.
The global financial crisis has forced Russia, which receives a large part of its revenues from oil exports, to gradually devalue the ruble amid capital flight and a fall in global oil prices, which declined from their peak of $147 per barrel in July 2008 to around $40 per barrel in early 2009, before climbing back to about $70.

Original article

Russian, U.S. MPs discuss bilateral ties ahead of July summit

2009-06-30T12:20:00.000+04:00

(MOSCOW, RUSSIA, BILATERAL, TRADE, MISSILE, AMENDMENT)

MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are in Russia on June 29-30 to discuss urgent issues of bilateral relations ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama`s visit to Moscow on July 6-8.
Opening an extended meeting of the members of foreign affairs committees to address bilateral trade, regional stability and U.S. missile defense plans in Europe, the speaker of the Russian lower house, Boris Gryzlov said: "Bilateral ties currently enjoy new possibilities and are being driven forward with increasing pace."
According to Leonid Slutsky, a deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on foreign affairs, the participants of the meeting will discuss plans for a U.S. missile shield in central Europe, and other issues related to NATO.
A discussion of the Jackson-Vanik amendment is also expected.
The Jackson-Vanik amendment was passed in 1974 and restricted trade with the Soviet Union over human rights violations. The amendment, which still applies to Russia, puts restrictions on Russian-American trade relations, but Russia`s accession to the World Trade Organization would require the amendment be lifted.
"We will also discuss topics that have emerged recently in the light of the move to `press the reset button` in bilateral relations and `re-launch` the START treaty," Slutsky said.
Russia and the U.S. have been involved in comprehensive talks over a new nuclear arms reduction deal to replace the START 1 treaty, which expires in December.
The START 1 treaty obliges Russia and the United States to reduce nuclear warheads to 6,000 and their delivery vehicles to 1,600 each. In 2002, a follow-up agreement on strategic offensive arms reduction was concluded in Moscow. The agreement, known as the Moscow Treaty, envisioned cuts to 1,700-2,200 warheads by December 2012.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Obama agreed to launch the discussions during their first meeting, in London in early April.
Russia, which proposed a new arms reduction agreement in 2005, expects Washington to agree on a deal that would restrict not only the numbers of nuclear warheads, but also place limits on all existing kinds of delivery vehicles.
Medvedev has also said that any strategic arms cuts would only be possible if the United States alleviated Russia`s concerns over Washington`s plans for a missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland.
The U.S. military has recently reiterated its commitment to missile defense, citing a growing threat from North Korea and Iran, but suggested plans for a European site may change.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has suggested that Russian facilities could be part of the missile defense system, but Moscow has rejected this idea, saying there could be no partnership "in building facilities that are essentially designed to counter Russia`s strategic deterrence forces."

Original article

Ousted Honduran leader to take part in emergency Nicaragua summit

2009-06-30T12:08:00.000+04:00

(PRESIDENT, HONDURAN, ZELAYA, LEADER, COUNTRY, CALLED)

Honduras Crisis : Soldiers ousted the democratically elected president
MEXICO CITY, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya, deposed in a coup on Sunday, has flown from Costa-Rica to Nicaragua to take part in an emergency regional summit, Mexican media reported on Monday.
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez provided his personal plane to take Zelaya to the summit, which will see the participation of over 15 regional leaders, including those of Mexico, Ecuador and Cuba. The situation in Honduras will top the agenda.
Chavez, one of Zelaya`s strongest allies, also threatened military action if Venezuela`s envoy in Honduras was attacked.
Honduran military arrested Zelaya on Sunday morning, the same day polls were due to open for a referendum on the extension of his non-renewable four-year term of office.
The country`s Supreme Court had ruled the referendum illegal. The president was arrested at his residence and transported aboard a military plane to Costa-Rica in what was Central America`s first coup since the end of the Cold War.
Interim president, Roberto Micheletti, imposed an overnight curfew in the country after taking power. However, Zaleya supporters have set up barricades near the presidential place and there have been unconfirmed reports of shots being fired.
Honduran trade union leader Angel Alvarado has called for a nationwide strike in support of Zelaya.
World leaders have condemned the coup, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging "the reinstatement of the democratically elected representatives of the country". U.S. President Barack Obama has called on the coup leaders to "respect the rule of law."
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro called the coup a "suicidal mistake" in an article published early on Monday.

Original article

British taxpayers` funding of Queen rises to $68.5 mln a year

2009-06-30T11:44:00.000+04:00

(QUEEN, MILLION, POUNDS, ROYAL, PALACE, SPENDING)

LONDON, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Queen Elisabeth II is getting increasingly expensive to British taxpayers, with state funding up by about 4% to 41.5 million pounds ($68.5 million) over the past year, the Royal Family said in a report on Monday.
Under an annual financial report, every Briton annually currently spends 69 pence ($1.14) on the maintenance of the Royal family, while the sum was 66 pence ($1.09) last year.
The Queen receives the annual payment of 7.9 million pounds ($13 million) from the government to perform her duties as head of state. The sum covers visits, the participation of the Queen and Prince Philip in official events, and wages to Palace employees.
Elisabeth II is also granted 15 million pounds ($24.7 million) annually to maintain her residences.
However, the Royal Household is seeking some 32 million pounds ($52.8 million) for the maintenance of the palaces.
Meanwhile, the Treasury and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which oversees the maintenance of the royal palaces, warned that the Queen was likely to face a cut in spending amid the current economic crisis.
Government spending on the Royal Family has to be reviewed by December 2010. The issue is expected to be discussed soon after the next parliamentary polls slated to be held by May 2010.
The parliamentary spending watchdog published a report earlier in June saying it had failed to obtain an independent expert confirmation of royal spending.
The Queen also rejected in June a recommendation from MPs to raise funds by opening Buckingham Palace to tourists year-round.

Original article

Russia ready for more NATO cargo transits to Afghanistan

2009-06-30T11:31:00.000+04:00

(AFGHANISTAN, RUSSIA, TRANSIT, MILITARY, GERMANY, FRANCE)

Facing the Taliban in Afghanistan
UN Secretary General welcomes Russia`s role in restoration of Afghanistan
CORFU (Greece), June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is ready to extend the transit of military cargoes through Russia to other key member nations of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, a deputy foreign minister has said.
Russia already has bilateral transit deals with Germany, France and Spain, and Moscow also signed an agreement with NATO in 2008 on rail transits of non-lethal supplies to Afghanistan.
"As for military transits, we have signed agreements with Germany, France and Spain. We are also considering a request from Italy," Alexander Grushko told a news conference late on Sunday after an informal meeting of the Russia-NATO Council.
Due to worsening security on the main land route from Pakistan, NATO is seeking alternative routes to supply the U.S.-dominated ISAF in Afghanistan.
There are 62,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, and U.S. President Barrack Obama has pledged to deploy another 17,000 U.S. military personnel to the war-ravaged country.
The informal foreign ministerial meeting of the Council on Saturday was the first high-level talks since last August`s five-day war between Russia and Georgia, after which contacts were frozen. Russia then recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which was attacked by Tbilisi in an attempt to bring it back under central control.
Relations between Russia and NATO have also been frayed in recent years over the military alliance`s eastern expansion. Ukraine and Georgia, both former Soviet republics, have applied to join, but their U.S.-backed bids were turned down due to pressure from Germany and France at a 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest.
NATO and Russia have recently taken measures to step up cooperation on international security, including anti-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden.

Original article

Iran starts partial recount of disputed presidential vote

2009-06-30T11:19:00.000+04:00

(RECOUNT, MEDIA, MONDAY, GUARDIAN, ELECTION, AHMADINEJAD)

Tens of thousands in Iran protest
Iran campaigning heats up
MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian authorities have begun a partial recount of the fiercely disputed June 12 presidential vote, national media said on Monday.
The Guardian Council has started a random recount of 10% of ballot papers, the Mehr News agency said.
The opposition, however, has demanded a rerun of the vote, claiming the election that returned hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power was marred by widespread irregularities. No opposition members are on the panel carrying out the recount.
The Guardian Council has repeatedly refused to annul the vote, saying there were no major violations.
Ahmadinejad`s landslide victory triggered days of protests by defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi`s supporters. Regional media reports said 20 people were killed in the post-election violence, Iran`s most serious disturbances since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The recount will be completed on Monday afternoon and the results will be announced later in the day.

Original article

Russia, Argentina introduce visa-free travel

2009-06-30T11:07:00.000+04:00

(COUNTRIES, ARGENTINA, RUSSIA, RUSSIAN, ARGENTINE, VISIT)

Among Latin American countries, Argentina takes the lead in the number of immigrants from Russia
MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian-Argentine agreement scrapping bilateral visa requirements entered into force on Monday.
The agreement will allow Russians and Argentines to visit each others` countries for up to 90 days without having to apply for visas.
However, visas will still be required for citizens wishing to remain in Russia or Argentina for more than 90 days or run a business.
The deal was reached during the visit of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner to Russia in December 2008 and was signed by the governments of the two countries in March.
Last year some 6,000 Russians visited Argentina. About 3,000 Argentines visit Russia annually.
Argentina is the fifth state in Latin America to scrap visa requirements for Russian citizens, following Venezuela, Cuba, Peru, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.
Similar agreements are also expected to be signed with Brazil and Chile.

Original article

Medvedev to discuss energy, trade during Azerbaijan visit

2009-06-30T10:55:00.000+04:00

(AZERBAIJAN, TRADE, ECONOMIC, COOPERATION, SOURCE, NATURAL)

Top plays of the World Cup 2010 qualifier Russia vs. Azerbaijan
MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will visit Azerbaijan on Monday to discuss trade and economic cooperation, including in the energy sector, a Kremlin source said.
"Talks between the leaders of the two countries will focus on the development of trade and economic ties, including effective cooperation during the global economic crisis," the source said.
According to the source, bilateral trade grew by 39.3% to $2.4 billion in 2008, but decreased by 16.9% in the first quarter of 2009 year-on-year due to the global financial crunch.
One of the key areas of cooperation to be discussed during the visit is the supply of natural gas from Azerbaijan to Russia.
Azerbaijan has proven natural gas reserves of some 1.5 trillion cubic meters. The South Caucasus country annually consumes 14 billion cubic meters of gas.
Gazprom`s CEO Alexei Miller said last Friday the Russian energy giant was planning to sign an agreement with Azerbaijan`s state oil and gas company on natural gas supplies from Shah Deniz, the country`s largest gas field. Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev has said Baku sees no obstacles to the gas deal.

Original article

Obama focuses on Senate after first climate win

2009-06-30T04:50:00.000+04:00

(OBAMA, WOULD, ENERGY, SENATE, CLIMATE, US, CHANGE)

By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, fresh from his first legislative victory on climate policy, expressed confidence on Monday that new greenhouse gas emission limits would become law with help from the U.S. Senate.
Obama also announced new measures on efficiency standards for lighting used in homes and businesses to take effect in 2012.
The House of Representatives passed a climate change bill on Friday that would require large companies, including utilities and manufacturers, to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases associated with global warming by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, from 2005 levels.
The Democratic president and many environmentalists declared the passage a historic step forward for U.S. energy policy, while Republicans and other opponents called it a massive tax that would not succeed in fighting climate change.
The bill gives Obama a stronger case to assert U.S. leadership on global warming at a meeting of the world`s major emitters next week on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Italy.
But the president`s victory may be short lived. The U.S. Senate must now shape its version of the same bill, and the chances of passage there are murky.
Obama and his top environmental aide, Carol Browner, expressed confidence that success would come in the Senate as well.
"In the months to come, the Senate will take up its version of the energy bill, and I am confident that they too will choose to move this country forward," Obama told reporters.
Browner declined to speculate on the timing of a Senate vote but referred to statements by Majority Leader Harry Reid that work would be done on the bill this autumn.
"I am confident that ... comprehensive energy legislation will pass the Senate," she said.
U.N. talks on a new global pact to fight climate change take place in December in Copenhagen, and analysts say having a U.S. law passed by then would boost chances of reaching an international agreement.
Obama has said he wants the United States to lead the world in fighting climate change.
EFFICIENCY STANDARDS
The new efficiency standards announced by the president apply to fluorescent and incandescent lamps, which represent 37 and 7 percent of lighting energy use, respectively, the White House said. They would save up to 594 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions through 2042, the White House said.
Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu also announced they were accelerating a $346 million investment of stimulus funds to be used in making new and existing homes as well as commercial buildings more energy efficient. Continued...
Original article

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House passes landmark climate change bill

Power struggle impedes New York gay marriage vote

2009-06-30T04:37:00.000+04:00

(NEW, STATE, YORK, MARRIAGE, RIGHTS, DEMOCRATS, PARADE)

By Edith Honan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York`s annual Gay Pride parade was a colorful celebration of 40 years of progress toward civil rights for gays, but once the dust settled, gay couples who wish to marry in New York state remain thwarted.
A bill to legalize gay marriage in the state that saw the dawn of the gay rights movement is mired in political stalemate in the state capital Albany, where Democrats and Republicans are battling over control of the state Senate.
"I had hoped today`s march would have been a bit of a wedding march. It`s not," Christine Quinn, the gay speaker of the New York City Council, said at Sunday`s Gay Pride parade. Held annually, this year`s event marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York`s Greenwich Village, which triggered the modern U.S. gay rights movement.
"We are disappointed. ... But I know there have been other times our community has been disappointed and you need to keep fighting," Quinn said at the start of the parade, which organizers said drew more than a million people.
Gay couples can marry in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa and will be allowed marry in Vermont starting in September and in New Hampshire from January. Other states offer same-sex unions that grant many of the same rights as marriage.
Forty-two U.S. states explicitly prohibit gay marriage, including 29 with constitutional amendments, according to Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group.
In May, the New York state Assembly, where Democrats hold a majority, voted by a wide margin to legalize gay marriage.
On June 8, state Senate Republicans engineered a coup by getting two Democrats to switch allegiance and vote in a new leadership, effectively erasing the slim 32-30 majority the Democrats won in the November 2008 election.
But Democrats have refused to recognize the leadership vote and one of the senators has since rejoined the Democrats, creating an even 31-31 split in the chamber.
New York Governor David Paterson has vowed to bring gay marriage to a state Senate vote before the end of the current legislative session -- which has already been extended due to the deadlock. But Paterson can not force a vote, and it is not clear if it would pass, or even if such a vote would be legal.
Even the state`s main gay rights organization has called on the Senate to resolve the leadership dispute first and not treat gay marriage as "a political football." With no immediate prospect of a resolution to the crisis, supporters of the bill are left wondering if it will come to a vote this year.
"There certainly have been moments of high adrenaline and great disappointment ... but I`m always optimistic," said Senator Tom Duane, the bill`s sponsor, at Sunday`s parade.
Many at Sunday`s parade said they thought gay marriage was inevitable in New York.
"I think every year we see great advances. I mean, this year New Hampshire passed gay marriage and Iowa, of all places," said Brent Hayrynen, 63. "We`ll get there."
(Reporting by Edith Honan; editing by Claudia Parsons and Todd Eastham)
Original article

U.S. lawmaker probes device over minority radio data

2009-06-30T04:25:00.000+04:00

(RADIO, ARBITRON, DEVICE, MINORITY, TOWNS, STATION, GROUPS)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key U.S. lawmaker said on Monday he has launched an investigation into Arbitron Inc`s device to track the public`s listening habits because it may under represent some ethnic and age groups.
Arbitron is a media ratings service company that makes the device called the Portable People Meter (PPM) to measure radio station listenership.
The device has been controversial due to criticisms within the radio industry and state governments that have pointed to some of its flaws. The company still plans to deploy the devices even with the lack of accreditation from the Media Rating Council.
"I remain deeply concerned that without deliberate and timely investigations into this matter the increased use of PPM will further threaten the financial viability of minority targeted radio stations," said Edolphus Towns, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, Towns said he was concerned that the device hasn`t been distributed within minority communities and Arbitron missed a group of households that use only cell phones.
Not having a proper representation of certain groups imperils the financial viability of minority audience radio stations that depend on advertising revenues.
"To date, many of these stations continue to suffer from significant downgrades in ratings, threatening the extent of their programing or even ultimate closure," Towns said in the letter to FCC Commissioner Michael Copps.
Towns said Arbitron has made an effort to correct some flaws in implementing the device as part of settlement agreements reached with New York, New Jersey and Maryland.
But he said he wants to know what the regulatory agency has found from a recent study into the device.
Arbitron said in a statement that it looks forward to sharing its expertise and insights based on its long history of gathering, distributing and supporting data and information.
"We maintain an ongoing dialogue with broadcasters, industry groups, advertising agencies, the Federal Communications Commission, and Congress as part of our commitment to continuous improvement program for the PPM service and technologies," said Arbitron President Michael Skarzynski.
In January Arbitron agreed to pay New York $260,000 and another $130,000 to New Jersey to resolve claims that it undercounted minority radio listeners. As part of a settlement reached with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the company agreed to also pay $100,000 to the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Spanish Radio Association to support minority radio.
Towns, a New York Democrat, said he wants to hear back from the FCC by July 1.
(Reporting by John Poirier; Editing by Richard Chang)
Original article

Obama voices support for Colombia trade deal

2009-06-30T04:13:00.000+04:00

(TRADE, COLOMBIA, OBAMA, US, URIBE, CONGRESS, PRESIDENT)

By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama expressed hope that Congress would eventually approve a long-delayed free trade agreement with Colombia, but said that country needed to make more progress on human rights first.
"There remains work to do. But I`m confident that ultimately we can strike a deal that is good for the people and good for the people of the United States," Obama told reporters after a meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
In remarks in the White House Oval Office, Obama said he did not have "a strict timetable" for submitting the trade deal to Congress because he already had a busy legislative agenda this year and needed to consult with lawmakers first.
But he said Colombia could improve chances for the pact by making further progress on a number of human rights concerns that have blocked approval of the pact since it was signed by officials in the administration of former President George W. Bush in November 2006.
"President Uribe has assured me that he is interested in resolving those issues, and as I said great progress has been made. I trust that we can make more progress and I think that will help shape the overall environment in which this issue is being debated in Congress," Obama said.
Uribe said approval of the pact would send an important U.S. "signal of confidence" in Colombia, adding that his government was open to any U.S. advice on how it could improve its human rights record.
It was Obama`s second meeting with Uribe, a conservative politician who enjoyed a close relationship with Bush and whose country has received more than $6 billion in U.S. military and other aid under the Plan Colombia program since 1999.
Obama opposed the free trade agreement during last year`s presidential election campaign on the grounds that Colombia had not done enough to reduce killings of trade unionists and prosecute those responsible for the crimes.
The AFL-CIO labor federation, the United States` largest labor group, remains strongly opposed to the free trade agreement, as do many Democratic members of Congress.
When Bush tried to force a vote on the agreement in April 2007, he lost a showdown with House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who instead pushed through a legislative rule change to indefinitely delay action on the pact.
"I think the burden is not simply on Colombia," Obama noted on Monday. "I think Colombia has done a lot of excellent work. It is a matter of getting both countries to a place where their legislatures feel confident that it will be ultimately to the economic benefits of these countries."
Obama, after meeting Uribe for the first time at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad in April, asked U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to work with Colombia and Congress on a plan to enact the pact.
Uribe also met on Monday with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and World Bank Robert Zoellick. Zoellick launched the U.S. free trade talks with Colombia in May 2004, when he was Bush`s trade representative.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer; editing by Todd Eastham)
Original article

Clinton calls for full democratic order in Honduras

2009-06-29T22:18:00.000+04:00

(STATE, CLINTON, HONDURAS, ZELAYA, UNITED, ORDER, EXPULSION)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday the United States was working with other nations in the hemisphere to restore full democratic and constitutional order in Honduras after the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya.
Clinton said the Honduran military`s removal of Zelaya on Sunday had "evolved into a coup."
Under U.S. law, no aid -- other than for the promotion of democracy -- may be provided to a country whose elected head of government has been toppled in a military coup. Asked if the United States was now considering cutting off aid to Honduras, Clinton shook her head no.
She later said the United States was assessing the situation in Honduras and possible final outcomes before determining the next steps.
Clinton called the military arrest and expulsion of Zelaya "unfortunate events" and said it was a test of the inter-American system`s ability to support and defend democracy and constitutional order in the hemisphere.
"The United States has been working with our partners in the OAS to fashion a strong consensus condemning the detention and expulsion of President Zelaya and calling for the full restoration of democratic order in Honduras," said Clinton, referring to the Organization of American States.
(Reporting by Deborah Charles, Editing by Sandra Maler)
Original article

U.S. trade panel favors stiffer duties on Chinese tires

2009-06-29T22:06:00.000+04:00

(US, TRADE, CHINESE, OBAMA, IMPORTS, CHINA, TIRES)

By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of the U.S. International Trade Commission recommended on Monday that President Barack Obama impose additional duties for three years on imports of low-cost Chinese tires the panel says are harming U.S. industry.
In a case seen as a test of how the Obama administration will cope with Chinese trade issues, four members of the six-member commission recommended that Obama impose additional duties of 55 percent in the first year, 45 percent in the second year, and 35 percent in the third year on imports of passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China.
"In our opinion, these tariff levels would remedy the market disruption that we have found to exist," the four said in a statement. The complaint was brought by the United Steelworkers union, which said a surge of Chinese tire imports have cost thousands of U.S. jobs.
Two other members of the commission disagreed, saying Obama should take no "trade-restricting" action because this would do more harm than good.
"This is an industry in which the trend toward gradual downsizing appears likely to continue regardless of the commission`s action today," the two dissenters said in a statement. But they joined the majority in urging that the Obama administration provide aid to displaced tire workers under the U.S. Trade Adjustment Assistance program.
The trade commission will formally submit its recommendations to Obama in a report next month. He will then have until September to decide what, if any, action to take. He can embrace, modify or ignore the commissioners` proposals.
Trade experts are watching to see whether Obama, who criticized China for what he called unfair labor practices during his campaign and won strong labor support in his bid for the White House, will be tougher on China than predecessor George W. Bush.
Bush routinely rejected petitions for restricting Chinese imports.
The case is one of several prickly trade issues between the United States and China, Washington`s second-largest trading partner behind Canada. Tensions have been exacerbated by the growth in the U.S. trade deficit.
Earlier Monday, China complained about U.S. investigations that could lead to duties on Chinese steel imports, saying they were a shocking sign of trade protectionism.
The steelworkers, who filed their complaint in April, argued that some 5,100 U.S. workers have lost jobs because of low-price Chinese tire imports that hit 46 million in 2008. They want Obama to restrict Chinese tire imports to 21 million.
The steelworkers cited closings of U.S. plants by Goodyear, Continental Tire and Bridgestone/Firestone, and said more closings are pending.
Chinese tire producers countered that U.S. companies largely abandoned the low-cost tire market before Chinese manufacturers moved in. They also noted that no U.S. tire producers had joined the steelworkers` complaint.
Vic DeIorio, executive vice president for sales of Chinese tire maker GITI in the United States, said he was disappointed that four of the six trade commissioners "felt compelled to take a decidedly protectionist path."
"If there is a barrier placed on tires produced in China, U.S. manufacturers and distributors will simply increase importation of tires from other countries, such as Venezuela. What`s more, duties will result in higher tires prices for American consumers at a time when they can ill afford it," DeIorio said in a statement.
(Editing by Philip Barbara)
Original article

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Russian gays ready to protest during Obama visit

2009-06-29T21:54:00.000+04:00

(MOSCOW, PROTEST, AUTHORITIES, US, OBAMA, RIGHTS, THEIR)

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Gay rights activists in Moscow plan to ignore a ban and rally in favor of same-sex marriages when U.S. President Barack Obama visits next week, one of their leaders said Monday.
In a statement, Nikolai Alexeyev said the Moscow authorities had banned a proposed demonstration outside the U.S. embassy next Tuesday, the second day of Obama`s July 6-8 trip.
"Moscow authorities have again violated the law by denying us the right to freedom of assembly," Alexeyev said in a statement.
"We don`t intend to abandon our plans and in the near future we will determine the format of action on July 7 during the visit of Barack Obama in Russia."
A Moscow municipal spokeswoman confirmed city authorities had turned down a request from gay activists to protest in front of the U.S. embassy on July 7. She said the area had already been booked for another event and that Muscovites were against the gay protest.
Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993 but tolerance is not widespread and Moscow`s authorities often ban protests in support of gay rights.
In May, a lesbian couple failed in their attempt to be officially married and a few days later Russian riot police broke up a gay rights protest on the day of the Eurovision Song Contest final.
(Writing by James Kilner; Reporting by Tatyana Ustinova; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Original article

Supreme Court rules against city in race-based promotions case

2009-06-29T20:29:00.000+04:00

(COURT, HAVEN, RIGHTS, SUPREME, RULING, SOTOMAYOR, BLACK)

By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that New Haven, Connecticut, discriminated against a mostly white group of firefighters who were denied promotions, overturning a decision by high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
By a 5-4 vote and splitting along conservative and liberal lines, the justices overturned a ruling for the city by a U.S. appeals court panel that included Sotomayor, who is President Barack Obama`s nominee to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court.
At issue in the case was whether a city can, as New Haven did, throw out the results of a firefighter promotion exam after it yielded too many qualified white applicants and no acceptable black candidates. The high court ruled it cannot.
The appeals court`s ruling in the New Haven case is expected to be a focus of questioning by Republicans at Sotomayor`s Senate confirmation hearing scheduled for next month.
In the New Haven case, civil rights groups said the ruling could affect promotion policies for employers nationwide, many of which operate under "affirmative action" programs designed to foster diversity and redress past discrimination.
The Supreme Court ruled for a group of 19 white firefighters and one Hispanic firefighter who filed a lawsuit in 2004 against New Haven.
Writing the court`s majority opinion and reading it from the bench on the last day of the term, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the city`s action in discarding the tests violated federal civil rights law.
The firefighters said they would have been promoted if the city had not thrown out the tests for lieutenant and captain because no blacks had scored high enough to move up in rank.
The dispute was one of two major civil rights cases that reached the Supreme Court after Obama became the nation`s first black president.
In the other case last week, the court declined to decide a constitutional challenge to the Voting Rights Act that seeks to ensure access to the polls by minorities, ruling narrowly that political subdivisions in a state can apply to be exempted from the law.
(Editing by Deborah Charles and Will Dunham)
Original article

Top court sets arguments again on campaign law

2009-06-29T20:17:00.000+04:00

(COURT, CAMPAIGN, SENATOR, JUSTICE, ARGUMENTS, WOULD, FINANCE)

WASHINGTON, June 29 Reuters - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would hear arguments again on whether a federal campaign finance law improperly limited corporate-funded messages in political elections, a case that could lead to fewer restrictions on ads that seek to sway voters.
On the last day of the court`s term, Chief Justice John Roberts announced the justices would hear arguments on September 9 over a conservative advocacy group`s challenge to the law as part of its effort to broadcast and promote a movie critical of Hillary Clinton during her presidential campaign.
The group, Citizens United, released a 90-minute documentary film "Hillary: The Movie" in January 2008 when Clinton, then a U.S. senator from New York, was running for president. She later became secretary of state in President Barack Obama`s administration.
The case was argued before the Supreme Court on March 24. The court will occasionally hear arguments a second time in a case when it wants to explore other legal issues.
The 2002 campaign finance law at issue in the case was named after Senator John McCain of Arizona, the unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate in 2008, and Senator Russell Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin.
The court said in a brief order that it would consider as part of the rearguments whether to overrule part of its 2003 ruling that upheld the campaign finance law.
The court`s conservative majority, with the addition of Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito in 2005 and 2006, has limited or struck down parts of the 2002 law that was designed to regulate the role of money in politics and federal elections.
Critics said the law amounted to censorship and violated free-speech rights.
(Reporting by James Vicini, Editing by Deborah Charles and Vicki Allen)
Original article

Congress eyes market impact of speculators: Vilsack

2009-06-29T18:39:00.000+04:00

(VILSACK, TRADING, MONDAY, PRICES, THERE, ABOUT, MARKET)

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Congress is eyeing ways to make sure speculative trading helps commodity markets rather than distorting pricing signals, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a Reuters Television interview Monday.
"There are concerns," Vilsack said, noting he has spoken about the issue with Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, about the issue.
"I suspect that there will probably be an effort to make sure when there is trading that takes place on the market, that it`s trading that actually assists the market, doesn`t hurt the market, creates a robust trading scheme so that we get a good pricing signal," Vilsack said.
Grain futures markets are bracing for more government regulation after a U.S. Senate probe blamed index funds for overinflating wheat prices last year.
Vilsack was slated to tour the Chicago Board of Trade on Monday with executives from parent company CME Group Inc, the world`s largest derivatives exchange, which has said speculators were not responsible for price volatility.
Food prices soared to record levels last year, causing riots and hoarding in some countries.
While prices have come down from the spike, they remain at historically high levels, especially in developing countries.
Vilsack was also slated to speak to about the Obama administration`s approach to global food security on Monday.
The Obama administration has said it will ask Congress to double agricultural development aid to $1 billion by 2010.
"It is part of national security, it is part of foreign policy, it`s part of our trade policy. It`s part of our economic recovery efforts," Vilsack said.
The United Nations` World Food Program has pleaded with rich nations to maintain food aid as more than a billion people are chronically hungry at a time when global food aid is at a 20-year low.
Original article

Obama opposes energy bill trade penalties: reports

2009-06-29T07:40:00.000+04:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Sunday called a House-passed climate change bill "an extraordinary first step," but spoke out against a provision that would impose trade penalties on countries that fail to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
"At a time when the economy worldwide is still deep in recession and we`ve seen a significant drop in global trade, I think we have to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals," Obama said in an Oval Office interview reported by The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.
"I think there may be other ways of doing it than with a tariff approach," Obama said.
The Democratic-controlled House on Friday passed the climate change bill that would require large U.S. companies, including utilities and manufacturers to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases associated with global warming by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, from 2005 levels.
A top priority for Obama, the measure was approved by a 219-212 vote, with only eight Republicans joining Democrats in support of the bill. Republicans said the bill would neither effectively help the environment nor improve an economy reeling from a deep recession.
Obama dismissed the Republican criticisms and castigated opponents for "lying" about cost projections and "scaring the bejeezus" out of voters, the Los Angeles Times said.
Obama also accused Republicans of being stuck in a 1990s-era debate on energy when the American people "have moved forward" with concerns about climate change and hope for renewable power, the newspaper said.
Obama predicted similar energy legislation faced a difficult path through the Senate and would require additional compromises to win enough votes for passage, The New York Times reported. The article said Obama did not set a timetable for Senate action but called on the leadership to "seize the day."
An aide said Obama plans to announce new energy-saving standards for light bulbs this week to keep the focus on energy issues, the newspaper said.
(Reporting by Joanne Allen)
Original article

Deal on U.S. healthcare overhaul still uncertain

2009-06-28T17:04:00.000+04:00

By Donna Smith
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama`s drive to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system may be back on track thanks to Senate efforts to cut the price tag to $1 trillion, but a bipartisan deal on the sweeping proposal still is far from certain.
Obama wants changes that rein in the escalating costs of healthcare in the United States and bring insurance to most of the 46 million Americans who currently lack it.
He also wants a bill that the Democrats who control Congress and the Republican minority can support to give a bipartisan stamp of approval to his top legislative priority.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus was upbeat last week after announcing that panel members had found ways to bring the price tag to about $1 trillion over 10 years, down from an earlier estimate of a staggering $1.6 trillion.
The new estimates helped move lawmakers closer to an agreement, Baucus said. But he was unable to close the deal with Republicans before senators left for a weeklong July 4 Independence Day holiday recess.
Instead, the core group of negotiators -- three Democrats and four Republicans -- issued a tepid statement on Thursday merely affirming their commitment to continue negotiations.
"As we have been for the last several weeks, we are committed to continuing our work toward a bipartisan bill that will lower costs and ensure quality, affordable care for every American," said the group, which includes Baucus and Senator Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the panel.
Soaring healthcare costs undermine the competitiveness of U.S. businesses, strain state and federal budgets and drive many Americans into bankruptcy.
The United States has the world`s most expensive healthcare system. Americans get coverage either through private insurance provided by employers or bought by individuals, or through government-run programs for the elderly, poor and others.
But millions remain uninsured and the United States lags many other industrialized nations in important health measures such as life expectancy and infant mortality.
"VERY DELICATE PROCESS"
The Finance Committee is one of five in the Senate and House of Representatives working on healthcare legislation, and may represent the best chance of obtaining a bipartisan bill.
"It is a very delicate process that Senator Baucus is trying to engineer," said Ron Pollack, executive director of the influential Families USA advocacy group.
A deal that includes Grassley would go a long way toward bringing other Republicans on board, he said.
But any compromises could end up alienating Democrats. Continued...
Original article

Scandal burdens S. Carolina governor in economic task

2009-06-27T09:01:00.000+04:00

By Matthew Bigg
ATLANTA (Reuters) - The U.S. state of South Carolina faces economic problems that would tax any governor, let alone one embroiled in a sex scandal and fighting for his political survival, economists and politicians said on Friday.
Governor Mark Sanford admitted this week to an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina, and while he stepped down quickly as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, he seems set to soldier on as South Carolina`s chief executive.
But he runs a state saddled with an unemployment rate of about 12 percent, one of the highest in the country, a declining textile industry and a struggle to reform an education system vital to producing the high-quality workers it needs.
The scandal has likely ruined any hopes Sanford might have had of running for president in 2012 on a Republican ticket. Questions over whether he misused state funds to pursue his overseas extramarital relationship could damage his credibility to try to turn around the Southern state`s economy.
"We really do need leadership. This state could flounder," said economics professor Douglas Woodward of the University of South Carolina.
Facing calls to resign from inside and outside the state, Sanford gave no hint during a Cabinet session on Friday that he would step down. Instead, he repeated the effusive apologies he made during a tearful news conference on Wednesday when he confessed his marital infidelity.
"I wanted generally to apologize to everyone of you all for letting you down," Sanford told Cabinet members at the session carried on local TV, in which issues such as hurricane preparedness, Medicare, insurance and tourism were discussed.
The state`s economic challenges reflect the worst U.S. recession in decades. But Sanford, who backs a limited government role in the economy, has a mixed record of cooperating with powerful state legislators on economic measures, exacerbating some of South Carolina`s problems, analysts said.
"My biggest criticism of the current governor ... has been the inconsistent work on economic development. Few new jobs have been created. In fact, we have lost jobs," said former Governor Jim Hodges, a Democrat whom Sanford defeated in 2002.
Battles between the governor and the state assembly, which is controlled by fellow Republicans, have marked Sanford`s six years in office and the Legislature has overturned a relatively high percentage of his vetoes, analysts said.
Sanford gained prominence this year by opposing Democratic President Barack Obama`s economic stimulus bill and rejecting $700 million of South Carolina`s portion of the funds on grounds it would undermine the state`s fiscal stability.
Democrats and some Republicans in the state criticized Sanford for rejecting the funds and the state Supreme Court this month overruled his opposition.
ENTRENCHED ECONOMIC WOES
One open question is whether a weakened governor in his final two years in office would be better than his Republican lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer, who would take over if Sanford resigned, said Woodward.
Bauer is not an ally of Sanford and criticized his six-day absence starting last Thursday when, without informing aides or his security detail, he slipped away to Argentina to visit his mistress. Sanford was forced to confess his overseas affair when his secret trip to Buenos Aires was discovered. Continued...
Original article

Obama, Merkel show united front at U.S. meeting

2009-06-27T07:36:00.000+04:00

By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel displayed a united front on Friday over Iran, climate and regulation, smoothing over -- at least in public -- differences that dogged their relationship.
Obama, who called Merkel a friend he could trust, said the two spoke with one voice in condemning the crackdown on demonstrators in Iran after its disputed election.
Merkel, who has criticized Obama`s economic stimulus plan, praised U.S. efforts to fight global warming and said a bill in the U.S. Congress would advance international talks on climate change later this year.
"The chancellor and I discussed the tragic situation in Iran," Obama said at the opening of a joint news conference.
"Today we speak with one voice. The rights of the Iranian people to assemble, to speak freely, to have their voices heard -- those are universal aspirations."
The two leaders also discussed accelerating the Middle East peace process, fighting extremism in Afghanistan, and creating a "more substantive" relationship with Russia, Obama said.
Merkel and Obama, who will attend the Group of Eight summit of wealthy nations in Italy next month, have clashed over the best way to lift the globe out of recession.
Democrat Obama presided over a $787 billion U.S. economic stimulus package shortly after taking office in January, while Merkel, a conservative, has spoken against massive spending to fix the world`s economic ills.
"I underscored our commitment to strengthening financial regulations, and I welcome Chancellor Merkel`s commitment to reform," Obama said in a nod to their respective priorities.
On climate change, Merkel was expected to press Obama to back a European Union goal of limiting increases in global average temperatures to no more than 2 degrees Celsius.
But the chancellor, whose visit coincided with a vote in the House of Representatives on a bill capping carbon emissions, went out of her way to praise the U.S. legislation, which Obama supports, and its potential to boost U.N. negotiations in Denmark in December.
"It should not be underestimated what sort of opportunity this brings to us to come to a good, a sustainable result during the Copenhagen conference," she said.
BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP
Other areas of disagreement came up. Merkel`s government has resisted U.S. requests that it accept inmates from the Guantanamo prison that Obama plans to close by early 2010.
Obama said the two sides were discussing the issue. Continued...
Original article

House passes landmark climate change bill

2009-06-27T05:46:00.000+04:00

By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama scored a major victory on Friday when the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to slash industrial pollution that is blamed for global warming.
The House passed the climate change bill, a top priority for Obama, by a vote of 219-212. As has become routine on major bills in Congress this year, the vote was a partisan one, with only eight Republicans joining Democrats for the bill.
The Senate is expected to try to write its own version of a climate change bill, but prospects for this year were uncertain.
The House-passed bill requires that large U.S. companies, including utilities, oil refiners, manufacturers and others, reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases associated with global warming by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, from 2005 levels.
They would do so by phasing in the use of cleaner alternative energy than high-polluting oil and coal.
"The scientists are telling us there`s an overwhelming consensus ... global warming is real and it`s moving very rapidly," said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, the chief sponsor of the legislation.
In urging passage, Waxman also said the legislation would create jobs and help move the United States from its reliance on foreign oil.
But Republicans said the bill was a behemoth that would neither effectively help the environment nor improve an economy reeling from a deep recession.
`BIGGEST JOB-KILLING BILL`
House Republican leader John Boehner called the measure "the biggest job-killing bill that has ever been on the floor of the House of Representatives."
Representative Joe Barton, the senior Republican on the energy panel, said the measure would set unrealistic targets for cutting carbon pollution. "You would have to reduce emissions in the United States to the level that we had in 1910," Barton said.
At the core of the bill, which is around 1,500 pages long, is a "cap and trade" program designed to achieve the emissions reductions by industry.
Under the plan, the government would issue a declining number of pollution permits to companies, which could sell those permits to each other as needed.
"The federal government will be joining California in the effort to combat global warming and the framework for doing it is one that is very similar to the one that California has adopted," said that state`s top climate official, Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols.
California is recognized as having the most aggressive plan to fight global warming in the United States.
(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell in Washington and Peter Henderson in San Francisco; Editing by Will Dunham)
Original article

Scandal burdens S. Carolina governor in economic task

2009-06-27T02:34:00.000+04:00

Obama: Violence affects U.S. hope for Iran dialogue

2009-06-27T00:59:00.000+04:00

By David Alexander
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, in some of his sharpest remarks to date, said on Friday hopes for U.S. dialogue with Iran were affected by what he called Tehran`s "outrageous" brutality following a disputed election.
"There is no doubt that any direct dialogue or diplomacy with Iran is going to be affected by the events of the last several weeks," Obama told a joint White House news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"We don`t yet know how any potential dialogue will have been affected until we see what has happened inside of Iran," he said.
Obama`s remarks came as protests continued in Iran over the country`s June 12 presidential election, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the victor by a wide margin.
Ahmadinejad`s rivals, led former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi, said the election was stolen and hundreds of thousands of people have protested in Tehran and elsewhere. Security forces responded with a violent crackdown and one hardline cleric on Friday called for leading "rioters" to be executed.
Some Republicans have criticized Obama for his cautious reaction to the crisis but his tone sharpened this week after some demonstrators were killed.
Merkel, whose country is one of Iran`s main trading partners for sophisticated engineering technology, was an early critic calling for Tehran to permit peaceful protests and to recount votes in the disputed election.
"The Iranian people need to be given the right to peaceful demonstrations, that the Iranian people have the right to have votes be counted and the election results substantiated," Merkel told the news conference.
CREDIBILITY PROBLEM
Iranian leaders have accused Obama and other foreign officials of meddling in their affairs and encouraging the opposition but State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters their problem was self-inflicted.
"It`s not a matter of something that was brought in from the outside. A significant segment of the Iranian population believes that their voices have not been heard and that the results that ... the government has announced do not reflect the will of the people," he said.
Still, Obama said he remained open to resuming nuclear talks between Tehran and major world powers. Washington asserts Iran`s nuclear program is designed to produce atomic weapons, but Iran says it is for energy.
"There are going to be discussions that continue on the international stage around Iran`s nuclear program," Obama said. "I think the direct dialogue between the United States and Iran and how that proceeds, I think we`re going to have to see how that plays itself out in the days and weeks ahead."
Crowley said the administration hoped Iran would accept an offer for talks with the United States and other major powers about its nuclear program.
"We seek engagement with Iran," he said. "But so far ... we haven`t seen a meaningful response from Iran materialize." Continued...
Original article

U.S. subsidies "poison" emerging market talks: U.S. official

2009-06-26T20:46:00.000+04:00

By Peter Griffiths
LONDON (Reuters) - The United States` subsidies for failing industries risk "killing" American attempts to discuss trade with China and other developing nations, U.S. Federal Trade Commissioner William Kovacic said on Friday.
Subsidies can damage internal competition and undermine efforts to persuade other countries to avoid protectionism during the worst economic crisis in decades, he said.
"The poison in this for the longer term is this is going to kill our efforts in talking with emerging market economies," Kovacic, who chaired the FTC until March, said in a speech to a competition conference at the Chatham House thinktank in London.
"I have trips coming up this year to visit with Chinese officials and I am dreading the question and answer period because they are particularly astute students of what happens in Brussels and Washington," he said.
"They have a keen eye for the contradictions that seem to creep into policy. So you are left there saying `don`t try this at home, we can handle it, we are adults, but it is bad for you`."
Leaders of the G20 major economies pledged at a summit last November to fight protectionism, but 18 of their economies were named in a World Trade Organization report in March on measures taken that could be seen as restricting trade.
Part of the $787 billion U.S. stimulus package requires public works projects to use iron, steel and other goods made in the United States, if that does not contravene trade commitments.
Similar provisions feature in a climate change bill working its way through the U.S. Congress. It would give aid to carmakers building plug-in electric cars in the United States.
Helping failing industry undermines successful companies and sends the wrong signals to industry, Kovacic added.
Washington has taken a stake worth $50 billion in General Motors Corp and an 8 percent stake of $12 billion in Chrysler as part of its plan to restructure them in bankruptcy.
"Subsidy schemes not only are going to affect competition internally but they are sending a larger message that `if you fail grotesquely we will help you out, if you succeed thank you for your contributions to the American economy but no special help for you`," Kovacic said.
"Buy American" may boost cartels and damage free trade, and it must end after an "appropriate period," he added.
"The message that ought to have been driven home is that our experience with cartels tells us that `Buy American` has been a great protection and stimulus for cartel coordination," he said.
(Editing by Sophie Hares)
Original article

Russia says to ink U.S. military deal at summit

2009-06-26T20:09:00.000+04:00

By Conor Sweeney
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and the United States will sign deals on military cooperation when U.S. President Barack Obama visits Moscow next month, Russia`s top general said on Friday.
"We have outlined the main issues of military cooperation for 2009 and beyond," the head of the Russian general staff, General Nikolai Makarov, said after a 90-minute meeting in Moscow with his U.S. counterpart, Admiral Michael Mullen.
"Our intention is that those documents should be signed when U.S. President Barack Obama arrives here in Moscow in July," Makarov said.
Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, made no mention of any military agreements after the talks but said he was looking forward to the outcome of Obama`s visit to Russia in early July.
The military top brass said they discussed a wide range of common concerns, ranging from North Korea`s nuclear test to Iran and Afghanistan. They gave no further details about the talks or about the military agreements.
Mullen, on his first visit to Moscow, said the meeting was frank and open. The military talks follow renewed efforts by the two countries to reset relations which have become strained by events such as last year`s Georgia war and NATO`s expansion eastwards.
"I`m very encouraged by our meetings and our mutual commitment to address these issues and strengthen our military-to-military cooperation," said Mullen.
"We have many common challenges ... whether in Afghanistan or the challenges in missile defense, or in Iran or particularly for security in Europe," he added.
Obama travels to Moscow from July 6-8 for a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev where the agenda will include further cuts to aging nuclear arsenals and U.S. plans to install an anti-missile defense system in Europe.
"I very much look forward to the outcome of the very important summit between Presidents Obama and Medvedev in two weeks," said Mullen.
"I can`t emphasize enough my belief that we need to work on these very hard challenges to improve security not just in Europe, but in the world," said Mullen.
(Reporting by Conor Sweeney; Editing by Richard Williams)
Original article

Obama, Germany`s Merkel to air differences at meeting

2009-06-26T12:44:00.000+04:00

By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will debate how to fix the global economy and fight climate change on Friday in a White House meeting that is likely to highlight a range of differences between the two leaders.
Unrest in Iran after the Islamic Republic`s disputed presidential poll, the war in Afghanistan and a U.S. request that Germany take prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are also issues likely to be on the agenda.
Merkel and Obama, who will both attend the Group of Eight summit of wealthy nations in Italy next month, have clashed about the best way to lift the globe out of recession, but analysts say relations between the two leaders are solid.
"They`re going to continue conversations as we head into the G8 about the importance of continuing to make progress and getting our world economy back on track," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, noting Obama and Merkel had recently met in Germany.
"Obviously, North Korea and Iran will be discussed, as they were in Germany. And I think -- I assume issues such as Guantanamo Bay and others will be on the docket," he said.
Obama presided over a $787 billion U.S. economic stimulus package shortly after taking office earlier this year, while Merkel has spoken against massive spending to fix the world`s economic ills.
A senior German official said the chancellor wanted to discuss an "exit strategy" for short-term economic fixes such as stimulus spending.
"It`s an issue for the future but one we feel needs to be discussed now," the official said.
Obama and Merkel disagree on international security topics as well. Berlin has shunned U.S. calls that it commit more troops to the war in Afghanistan, which is deeply unpopular in Germany.
Merkel`s government has also resisted U.S. requests that it accept inmates from the Guantanamo prison that Obama plans to close by early 2010.
DISAGREEMENTS, ELECTION
Merkel, who is running in Germany`s September federal election for a second term, enjoyed a warm relationship with former U.S. President George W. Bush, urging him, with some success, to inch toward international consensus on the need to fight climate change.
"Merkel was dealing with a weakened Bush and the Germans felt they could influence him," said John Kornblum, the U.S. ambassador to Germany under President Bill Clinton, who lives in Berlin. "They do not have the same feeling with Obama."
But another analyst said Obama and Merkel admire each other and have a respectful relationship, which the German chancellor is eager to illustrate -- even while disagreeing with U.S. policies -- during her first visit to the Obama White House.
"Obama is the most popular politician in Germany," said Jeremy Shapiro, a foreign policy fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Continued...
Original article

House Democrats push for Friday climate vote

2009-06-26T09:28:00.000+04:00

By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to vote on Friday on one of the most significant environmental bills in history -- a sprawling measure that aims to wean industry off of carbon-emitting fuels blamed for global warming.
Democratic leaders were working hard to ensure there were at least 218 votes in the 435-seat House to pass the legislation that is a high priority for President Barack Obama.
"It`s all hands on deck," one House Democratic aide said of the work lawmakers and the Obama administration were doing to try to ensure passage of the climate change bill.
With House Republicans mostly opposed and warning it would hit recession-weary consumers in their pocketbooks with higher prices for energy and other everyday goods, supporters were attempting to counter those arguments.
"It is a jobs bill," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday, referring to the hoped-for growth in "green technologies" industries.
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy agreed, saying, "Savings from reduced energy use will be reinvested locally, creating a multiplier effect that will generate economic activity and jobs."
Both Pelosi and Obama also framed the climate bill as being important to national security by reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil in favor of developing domestically produced alternative fuels such as wind and solar energy and possibly "clean coal."
At the core of the 1,200-page bill is a "cap and trade" plan designed to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, from 2005 levels.
CHANGES DESIGNED TO WIN FARM-STATE SUPPORT
Big polluters, such as coal-fired utilities, oil refiners, steel, paper, cement and glass manufacturers and other companies would receive government permits to emit lower amounts of carbon dioxide each year. Companies that end up with more permits than they need could sell them to companies that had not managed to adequately reduce their harmful emissions.
Even if Obama and his fellow Democrats manage to pull off a victory this week, the legislation faces a difficult road in the Senate, where Republicans would have an easier time using procedural hurdles to block the bill.
But passage by the House this year would let Obama attend a December international conference on climate change with a major victory in hand. That conference aims to lay out a global approach to dealing with climate change over the next few decades.
In her quest to find enough votes for the bill, Pelosi has allowed several changes since it was approved in late May by the Energy and Commerce Committee. Those have included new protections for agriculture interests, resulting in House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson announcing his support -- a move that could also win the support of about two dozen lawmakers from farm states.
Supporters of the bill received other breaks this week, including the release of a Congressional Budget Office analysis concluding the bill`s impact on average households would be around $170 a year in higher costs -- far below the $3,100 or more Republicans have been warning.
A new Washington Post/ABC poll found that three-quarters of the public think the U.S. government should regulate climate-warming greenhouse gases that are being blamed for more severe weather patterns, melting polar ice and threats to animal and plant species. Continued...
Original article

Embattled South Carolina Governor Sanford to repay trip expenses

2009-06-26T05:06:00.000+04:00

By Matthew Bigg
ATLANTA (Reuters) - South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, facing pressure to resign over an extramarital affair, said on Thursday he would repay state funds he used for an official trip to Argentina during which he met his mistress.
Sanford`s move came as questions mounted whether he had used public funds to pursue a yearlong affair with the woman.
His admission of marital infidelity during a tearful news conference on Wednesday likely ended chances he might be a Republican contender for the U.S. presidency in 2012.
The governor said he participated in a U.S. Commerce Department trade mission a year ago to Brazil and Argentina.
"While the purpose of this trip was an entirely professional and appropriate business development trip, I made a mistake while I was there in meeting with the woman who I was unfaithful to my wife with," Sanford said in a statement.
"That has raised some very legitimate concerns and questions, and as such, I am going to reimburse the state for the full cost of the Argentina leg of this trip," he said.
He was due to hold a state Cabinet meeting on Friday, his office said.
Sanford announced on Wednesday his resignation as chairman of the Republican Governors` Association, and attention has since shifted to whether he will resign as governor. His second term ends in January 2011.
The Washington Post, quoting a close adviser, reported on Thursday that Sanford was not considering resigning.
Attention has also focused on whether Sanford abdicated responsibility by disappearing from the state for six days starting last Thursday without telling aides where he was going. He told them initially he was going hiking on the Appalachian Trail in the Eastern United States.
But at his news conference on Wednesday after returning by plane from Buenos Aires, he said he "created a fiction" for aides and was actually visiting his lover in Argentina over the Father`s Day weekend.
`CLOSE TO GAME OVER`
South Carolina Republican Party official Glenn McCall said Sanford should resign because his previous statements about the importance of family values and his criticism of former President Bill Clinton`s marital infidelity amounted to hypocrisy.
South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, also a Republican, said Sanford`s prospects appeared grim.
"It is close to game over. ... If anyone can prove he did this (met his lover) with taxpayer money, the deal is off. I am concerned that is coming," said Peeler. Continued...
Original article

U.S. Senate approves communications panel chief

2009-06-26T04:54:00.000+04:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved the Obama administration`s nomination of Julius Genachowski, a telecommunications industry executive, to head the Federal Communications Commission.
Genachowski is set to chair the five-member panel that will be dominated by Democrats seeking to bring more power to consumers and extend high-speed Internet access to rural parts of the United States.
The Senate also approved renewing the FCC term for Republican Robert McDowell.
The FCC`s broad mandate includes regulation of telephone and cable companies, oversight of ownership of radio and television outlets and management of public airwaves.
On Thursday the White House said Obama plans to nominate Meredith Attwell Baker to a Republican seat on the commission.
Baker has more than 12 years of experience in telecommunications and technology policy in the private and public sector, the White House said. She is a former Commerce Department official.
If she is formally nominated, the Senate Commerce Committee is likely to pair the nominations of Baker and Mignon Clyburn, who has been nominated to fill a Democratic seat, at a hearing. Clyburn is the daughter of House of Representatives Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina.
Expanding broadband Internet access to rural parts of the United States is among the top priorities that the Obama administration wants the FCC to tackle.
The FCC will help oversee billions of dollars in economic stimulus money that Congress approved in incentives for states and private companies to expand high-speed Internet in rural and underserved areas.
The FCC is required to submit a broadband plan to Congress by February.
Other issues the commission is expected to tackle include so-called "net neutrality" to prevent Internet services providers from giving preference to certain content, and whether consumers are getting short-changed by the exclusive deals between mobile phone makers and service providers.
(Reporting by John Poirier, additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by Xavier Briand)
Original article

U.S. senators closer to $1 trillion healthcare bill

2009-06-26T04:30:00.000+04:00

By Donna Smith
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators on Thursday moved closer to agreement on a $1 trillion U.S. healthcare overhaul that would extend medical coverage to nearly everyone and without adding to huge budget deficits.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and other panel members said that reducing the cost was a significant step toward getting a final package that could gain at least some Republican support.
Baucus said panel members have narrowed talks to options that bring the price tag to about $1 trillion over 10 years, down from an earlier estimate of $1.6 trillion.
"We have options that would enable us to write a $1 trillion bill, fully paid for," Baucus told reporters after a closed-door meeting with panel members.
"We`re getting a lot closer to an agreement," Baucus said.
Later the group of Senate Finance Republican and Democratic negotiators issued a statement affirming their commitment to reach bipartisan agreement on a bill "that will lower costs and ensure quality, affordable care for every American."
But cracks have emerged in the diverse coalition pushing for an overhaul of a healthcare system that chews up 16 percent of the gross domestic product annually but trails many developed countries on measures like infant mortality and longevity.
Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, a major player in the negotiations, said it was too early to say how many Republicans would back the overhaul.
Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, also a key negotiator, has strongly opposed Democratic demands that a new government plan be created to compete with private insurance companies to cover the uninsured.
Insurers and doctors share Republican concerns that a public insurance program would drive insurance companies out of business.
"I`m certainly keeping an open mind but I am not very enthusiastic about anything that smacks of a government plan," Hatch told reporters.
`VERY SUBSTANTIAL PROGRESS`
President Barack Obama has made a healthcare plan that reins in costs and covers most of the 47 million uninsured Americans one of his top legislative priorities. He has turned up the pressure on Congress to pass healthcare reform this year and has indicated a willingness to compromise.
Democratic Senator Kent Conrad said lawmakers would pick through the menu of options to develop a package that can earn enough votes to pass the committee and the Senate.
"Very substantial progress has been made over the last 24 hours," Conrad told reporters. Continued...
Original article

Nominees emerge for U.S. panel on Wall Street meltdown

2009-06-26T04:07:00.000+04:00

By Karey Wutkowski
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan panel armed with subpoena power to investigate causes of the Wall Street meltdown is on the brink of being launched, as Congress embarks on an ambitious effort to reform policing of the financial sector.
A short list of names has emerged for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that includes former Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson; former Democratic head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission Brooksley Born; and Alex Pollock, a fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Congress last month created the 10-member commission to study how fraud, regulatory lapses, monetary policy, accounting, lending practices and executive pay contributed to the worst U.S. financial crisis since the Great Depression.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the panel is modeled after the Pecora Commission, a Depression-era U.S. Senate panel that investigated the causes of the 1929 Wall Street crash.
"I think the announcement should be coming in the near future," Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said about the naming of the appointees.
The source, speaking anonymously because discussions were still ongoing, said other possible appointees include Bill Thomas, former Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee; Jake Garn, former Republican senator; and Bob Graham, the former Democratic senator and Florida governor.
Born, Pollock and Thomas declined to comment. Thompson, Garn, and Graham did not immediately respond to messages.
The crisis commission must report its findings to Congress in December 2010. Its work will run parallel to Congressional efforts to draft the most dramatic overhaul of the financial regulatory system since the 1930s.
President Barack Obama has said he hopes reform legislation can be finalized by the end of this year. Obama`s proposal, unveiled earlier this month, calls for the Federal Reserve to police systemic risks to the economy and proposes consolidating primary bank supervision into a new regulator.
The plan also calls for creating a new consumer financial product watchdog and for giving the federal government the power to unwind troubled firms whose stability impact the broader financial system.
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission will study what led to the failure of several large Wall Street firms, which prompted Congress last year to pass a $700 billion financial bailout that has been unpopular among voters.
The U.S. economy has shed six million jobs since December 2007 in the midst of a recession that has seen the jobless rate hit 9.4 percent.
The crisis commission was given the power to hold hearings and to subpoena witnesses` testimony as well as correspondence and documents.
(Reporting by Karey Wutkowski, additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky; editing by Carol Bishopric)
Original article

Obama pledges push this year for immigration reform

2009-06-26T03:43:00.000+04:00

By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama tapped a top Cabinet official on Thursday to work with Congress to speed immigration reform as senators warned another failed effort could doom chances for a generation.
"Despite our inability to get this passed over the last several years, the American people still want to see a solution," Obama told reporters after meeting with Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
Obama said he had asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to meet regularly with lawmakers to systematically work through a number of controversial issues, such as how to handle the 12 million illegal immigrants already in the United States and how to prevent future illegal immigration.
"It`s going to require some heavy lifting. It`s going to require a victory of practicality and common sense and good policymaking over short-term politics," Obama said.
Congress failed in 2006 and 2007 to pass immigration reform despite a push by former Republican President George W. Bush.
Earlier this year, Vice President Joe Biden said the U.S. economic slump and soaring unemployment made it a bad time to take on the issue, which stirs up strong emotions on both sides of the immigration debate.
But Obama, who has been criticized for not following through on a campaign pledge to tackle the issue this year, said the White House and Democratic-controlled Congress need to start pushing now to pass legislation and "not put it off for a year, two years, three years, five years from now."
Senator John McCain, the Republican who lost to Obama in last year`s presidential election, told reporters the reforms also must include a temporary worker program for agricultural and high-tech industries that rely on non-U.S. citizen labor.
"I can`t support any proposal that doesn`t have a legal temporary worker program and I would expect the president of the United States to put his influence on the unions in order to change their position," McCain said.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer told reporters after the White House meeting that Obama had set a goal of passing legislation by the end of this year or early next year.
If Congress cannot meet that deadline, "we may not get to do it for a generation," Schumer said.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, also said he saw only "one more chance" to pass a bill because of the political heat that immigration reform stirs up.
"If we can`t get it done this time around, no politician is going to take this up in a generation. That would be a shame for this country," Graham said.
(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Original article

Obama eyes Meredith Baker for U.S. FCC position

2009-06-26T03:19:00.000+04:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to nominate Meredith Attwell Baker to a Republican seat on the Federal Communications Commission, the White House said on Thursday.
Baker has more than 12 years of experience in telecommunications and technology policy in the private and public sector, the White House said. She is a former Commerce Department official.
If formally nominated, the Senate Commerce Committee is likely to pair the nominations of Baker and Mignon Clyburn, who has been nominated to fill a Democratic seat at a hearing. Clyburn is the daughter of House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina.
The White House announcement, which was widely expected, comes one week after the nominations of Julius Genachowski, Obama`s Democratic pick to chair the FCC, and Robert McDowell, a Republican, cleared the Senate Commerce Committee.
The full Senate could vote on the nominations of Genachowski, a law school friend of Obama and a technology industry executive, and McDowell as early as this week.
The FCC has been operating under Acting Chairman Michael Copps, a Democrat who is planning to stay on the five-commission panel. Jonathan Adelstein, a Democrat, is expected to leave.
"Meredith Baker will be a strong, independent voice," Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, the top Republican on the Senate committee, said in a statement.
Expanding broadband Internet access to rural parts of the United States is among the top priorities the Obama administration wants the FCC to tackle.
The FCC will help oversee billions of dollars in economic stimulus money that Congress approved in incentives for states and private companies to expand high-speed Internet in rural and underserved areas.
The FCC is required to submit a broadband plan to Congress by February.
Industry heavyweights Verizon Communications Inc, AT&T Inc and Sprint Nextel Corp also expressed their support for Baker.
Baker was vice president at the firm of Williams Mullen Strategies, where she focused on telecommunications, intellectual property and international trade issues.
She is also a former senior counsel at Covad Communications and former director of congressional affairs at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association trade group.
She is a graduate of Washington & Lee University and has a law degree from the University of Houston. She is a member of the Texas State Bar.
(Reporting by John Poirier, additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing Bernard Orr)
Original article

Lawmaker Harman not under investigation: Justice

2009-06-26T02:31:00.000+04:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Jane Harman, whose telephone calls were intercepted by a U.S. spy agency, is not under criminal investigation, the Justice Department said in a letter released Thursday.
Harman was caught up in a controversy after The New York Times reported in April that she was overheard on calls intercepted by the National Security Agency in 2005 in which she appeared to agree to seek lenient treatment for two pro-Israel lobbyists accused of spying.
The California lawmaker responded by asking the Justice Department to release the secretly taped telephone calls to show that she did not intervene in the espionage probe.
A June 16 Justice Department letter said Harman "is neither a subject nor a target of an ongoing investigation by the Criminal Division," according to a copy that she released.
"Earlier this year, I was the subject of media reports concerning transcripts of alleged government wiretaps. To date, there has been no official confirmation that such transcripts exist or are accurate, and I have written to Attorney General (Eric) Holder asking for full disclosure," Harman said.
Her statement noted that if transcripts do exist, anyone leaking them to the press would be committing a felony.
The U.S. government in May dropped charges against Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, former American Israel Public Affairs Committee officials who were accused of conspiring with a former Pentagon analyst to provide defense information to foreign government officials, policy analysts and the media.
The Bush administration launched a secret warrantless domestic spying program after the September 11 attacks that was sharply criticized by civil rights groups after it was revealed in 2005.
(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Original article

Climate change bill gaining in U.S. House: Pelosi

2009-06-26T02:06:00.000+04:00

By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation to cut carbon dioxide pollution blamed for global warming is gaining support in the U.S. House of Representatives, where a vote is possible this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday.
"We are making progress," Pelosi told reporters when asked whether previously undecided Democrats were beginning to line up behind the climate change bill. "We intend to bring it up" this week, she added.
President Barack Obama, hoping to prod wavering House Democrats, urged passage of the bill, saying it would create millions of jobs and "open the door to a new energy economy."
Obama and Lisa Jackson, who heads the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, have pushed hard this week for quick passage of the measure.
House Democratic leaders have said they hope to schedule the vote on Friday on the "cap and trade" bill that would reduce carbon emissions from utilities, manufacturers and others by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, from 2005 levels.
The legislation, which would encourage the development of cleaner energy alternatives, also would establish a free-market trading system allowing companies to buy and sell carbon pollution permits.
Just one day before a possible House vote, Pelosi and fellow Democratic leaders were working to secure enough support for passage.
Asked whether the controversial bill would pass, Pelosi said, "You never know until you take the vote." Most House Republicans are expected to vote against the bill, arguing it will raise energy prices and encourage more job transfers to foreign soil as companies try to skirt the requirements.
Democratic leaders may have been heartened by a new Washington Post/ABC poll that said three-quarters of Americans want the U.S. government to regulate climate-warming greenhouse gases, while a slim majority -- 52 percent -- support a cap and trade system. That is slightly less support for cap and trade than a similar poll taken nearly a year ago.
The poll was conducted June 18-21 with a 3 percent margin of error.
COUNTING CLIMATE VOTES
Supporters also were heartened by negotiations this week that included new protections for farmers, a deal likely to bring some additional rural lawmakers on board.
Pelosi called on former Vice President Al Gore, a Nobel Peace Prize winner for his work on global warming, to telephone undecided lawmakers and seek their support.
House Republican leader John Boehner told reporters, "I don`t think they have the votes yet." Boehner called the legislation "a job-killing energy tax."
If Pelosi decides there are not enough votes to pass the bill, she likely will wait until next month, following a weeklong July 4th recess, to try to pass the bill. Continued...
Original article

House nears vote on $550.4 billion defense bill

2009-06-26T01:42:00.000+04:00

By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives was poised to approve on Thursday a $550.4 billion defense authorization bill for fiscal 2010 that has drawn a veto threat from President Barack Obama because it contains money for fighter jets he does not want.
The bill also authorizes $130 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the fiscal year that begins October 1.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said it supported the overall bill but the president`s senior advisers would recommend a veto unless some provisions were dropped.
One congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the White House veto threat as "a bargaining tool."
The Senate Armed Services Committee was to unveil its defense authorization bill for 2010 later on Thursday, but the legislation was unlikely to be approved by the full Senate until September. House and Senate negotiators must then hammer out a compromise version before final passage.
The OMB said it strongly objected to the House decision to include $369 million in advanced procurement funds to buy 12 more F-22 fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp despite a Pentagon decision to halt production at 187.
Some lawmakers are pushing to continue production of the F-22 until a current ban on exports can be lifted to allow Japan to buy a modified version of the premiere U.S. fighter jet. The Lockheed program employs workers in over 40 states.
The administration also objected to House lawmakers adding $603 million to the bill to continue work on an alternate F-35 fighter engine being built by General Electric Co and Rolls-Royce Group Plc.
The OMB said the changes would delay the fielding of the F-35 and have an adverse effect on the Pentagon`s overall strike fighter inventory. It said the risks of a fleet-wide grounding with a single engine, an issue raised by the Marine Corps general who runs the program, were "exaggerated."
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
Original article

U.S. calls for new approach in Doha trade talks

2009-06-25T20:52:00.000+04:00

By Jonathan Lynn
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States called on Thursday for a new approach to concluding the long-running Doha round to free up world trade. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Washington wanted to negotiate directly with key trading partners in the World Trade Organization talks as the traditional multilateral approach was not working. Major emerging countries said they would reject calls for bilateral concessions.
"We believe we have to start with an honest assessment that continuing on the same path that we have engaged in for the last three rounds will most likely yield the same result and that would be a failure to come to a successful conclusion," Kirk told a news conference.
From the current incomplete package of deals it was clear what the United States would give up but hard to see exactly what it would gain, he said, given the many exceptions to an overall agreement for various countries, making the deal opaque.
"We think getting more clarity around that may be the key to helping us find a solution to a way forward," Kirk said after a meeting of ministers at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Kirk has also called on big emerging countries to open their markets further to foreign goods to help secure a deal in the Doha talks, launched in late 2001 to help poor countries prosper through trade.
But the trade ministers from India, Brazil and South Africa, meeting on the sidelines of the OECD, rejected that call and said any renewed dialogue must be part of a "transparent and inclusive multilateral process."
"At this final stage of negotiations, in the midst of the worst economic environment since the Great Depression of the 1930s, it would be unreasonable and unrealistic to assume that further unilateral concessions from developing countries will be forthcoming, especially in the context of the current economic crisis," the three ministers said in a statement.
Developing countries fear they could be strongarmed into an unbalanced deal through a one-on-one approach.
The Doha talks have been effectively on ice since a meeting of ministers in July failed to clinch an outline deal.
A number of positive comments in recent weeks, not least from Kirk and his new Indian counterpart Anand Sharma, have kindled hopes the talks could resume shortly.
But the differences between rich and emerging countries over process and substance underline how difficult it will be to conclude the negotiations, which WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy says are 80 percent complete.
Developing countries say they are under pressure to open up while rich countries have hedged their sensitive farm sectors around with waivers and get-outs to any deal, and EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel ruled out any new concessions.
"We have tried our very best and we don`t move," Fischer Boel told reporters in Paris after meeting the newly appointed French farm minister, Bruno Le Maire, who echoed her words.
WTO chief Lamy told the OECD meeting that completing Doha "through a multilateral negotiating process coupled with bilateral discreet contacts among players" was all the more important because trade was expected to contract by 10 percent this year -- 14 percent in developed countries and 7 percent in developing countries.
The economic crisis underlying this contraction was also giving rise to protectionist pressures, he said. Continued...
Original article

South Carolina Governor Sanford admits extramarital affair

2009-06-25T16:02:00.000+04:00

By Matthew Bigg
ATLANTA (Reuters) - South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford tearfully admitted on Wednesday he had been unfaithful to his wife, likely ending any chance he might be a Republican contender for the U.S. presidency in 2012.
Sanford resigned as chairman of the Republican Governors` Association and was replaced by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, another possible 2012 candidate.
"Any aspirations for 2012, if he had any, are certainly out of the question," said Robert Oldendick, a political scientist at the University of South Carolina.
Sanford`s confession at a tumultuous news conference ended days of speculation over his whereabouts. After he disappeared last week, his staff first said he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail. It later emerged he had traveled to Argentina to be with his lover, leaving his family over Father`s Day weekend.
"I spent the last five days of my life crying in Argentina," he said.
Shedding tears, Sanford apologized to his wife Jenny, his family, friends and staff when he made the shock announcement after returning on Wednesday from Buenos Aires.
Sanford`s wife Jenny said she and her husband had been undergoing a trial separation and she regretted his actions and the damage it had done to their children.
But she added in a statement: "I remain willing to forgive Mark completely his indiscretions and to welcome him back."
Sanford explained how he had "developed a relationship" with a "dear friend" from Argentina. "It began very innocently ... in just a casual e-mail back and forth," he said.
"But here recently over this last year it developed into something much more than that. And as a consequence, I hurt her. I hurt you all. I hurt my wife. I hurt my boys. I hurt friends ... I hurt a lot of different folks."
With his tearful admission and groveling apologies, Sanford became the latest member of a fast-growing club of U.S. politicians who have confessed their sexual indiscretions before a public audience.
Sanford was one of several Republican governors seen as possible 2012 presidential candidates. Others include Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Minnesota`s Tim Pawlenty, and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
REPUBLICAN FORTUNES AT LOW EBB
As chairman of the governors` association Sanford has been one of the party`s most visible spokesmen when its fortunes are at a low ebb.
Last week, Senator John Ensign, another potential Republican presidential contender in 2012, announced he had an affair and resigned from the Senate leadership. Continued...
Original article

Ahmadinejad tells Obama not to interfere in Iran

2009-06-25T14:25:00.000+04:00

TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Barack Obama on Thursday not to interfere in Iran`s internal affairs after the U.S. president said he was "appalled and outraged" by post-election violence in the Islamic state.
Iran`s tough security crackdown after its disputed June 12 presidential election, which Ahmadinejad won by a landslide according to official results, has led Obama to ramp up his previously muted criticism of Tehran.
"Mr Obama made a mistake to say those things ... our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously (former U.S. President George W.) Bush used to say," the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
"Do you want to speak (with Iran) with this tone? If that is your stance then what is left to talk about," said Ahmadinejad.
His moderate opponents say the vote was rigged, a charge the authorities reject.
The turmoil in Iran has dimmed prospects for Obama`s engagement with Tehran over its nuclear programme, with Ahmadinejad`s government blaming Britain and the United States for fomenting violence.
Obama toughened his criticism of Iran on Tuesday for its crackdown on protesters demonstrating against the official election results, declaring scenes of death in Tehran "heartbreaking."
"In 2009, no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to the peaceful pursuit of justice," Obama said in Washington.
But the U.S. president declined to spell out any potential consequences for Tehran of the crackdown, and said there was still "a path available" to Iran in which it could operate within the international community.
Ahmadinejad said, according to Fars: "What way of talking is this to the Iranian nation ... I tell them that all those people who voted and all the Iranian nation will stand against them."
"A country which talks of change and cooperation, why did it fall into this trap. The Iranian nation sees and hears this talk and will make its decision ... "
"I hope you avoid interfering in Iran`s affairs and express your regret in a way that the Iranian nation is informed of it," Ahmadinejad said.
He was speaking in the port town of Assaluyeh, where he was inaugurating a petrochemical plant.
(Reporting by Hossein Jaseb and Zahra Hosseinian; writing by Fredrik Dahl)
Original article

U.S. winning WTO ruling on China`s film barriers

2009-06-25T09:36:00.000+04:00

By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States appears to have won a victory against Chinese barriers to imported films, books and recorded music in a preliminary World Trade Organization ruling not yet made public.
"We`ve always felt like we`ve had a pretty strong case on the matter," a U.S. official told Reuters. "We`re still feeling pretty good."
The official declined to provide further details because the decision is still confidential. A public ruling is expected in coming months.
A U.S. victory would mark a significant milestone in Washington`s longtime battle against piracy in China, which the United States says costs its film, music and book industries billions of dollars in lost sales every year.
However, WTO rulings are often complicated documents, giving both sides grounds to declare victory.
China is one of the fastest-growing movie markets in the world, but only allows 20 imported films per year.
That and other market access barriers creates huge Chinese demand for pirated DVDs, CDs and books, Washington argues.
The limit of 20 foreign films per year is double what China allowed before it joined the WTO in 2001.
But in a case that began in April 2007, the U.S. Trade Representative`s office said Beijing uses other measures to limit imports of films, books and recorded music that violate commitments China made to open its market.
China promised to let foreign companies to import books, newspapers, DVDs, sound recordings and films for theatrical release, but in fact only allows state-owned "monopolies and oligopolies" to do that, the United States said.
Beijing also has not followed through on a commitment to give foreign companies distribution rights within China and has violated a WTO rule requiring that foreign books, music and films receive the same treatment as their domestic counterparts, the United States said.
According to a U.S. government brief, one of China`s arguments in the case was that a film is not a "good" because it "consists of a sequence of pictures that is projected on a screen in rapid succession and accompanied by a soundtrack."
That "intangible" nature exempted films from the commitments China made on goods, Beijing argued.
U.S. lawyers ridiculed this argument, noting "the fact that a good is used to provide a service does not mean that the good is not a good."
"For example, stethoscopes are goods that may be imported. The fact that the stethoscope is subsequently commercially exploited by health care service providers in order to examine patients does not mean that the stethoscope is not a good," the U.S. lawyers said in a July 2008 brief.
Original article

U.S. Senate approves bill to triple aid to Pakistan

2009-06-25T06:33:00.002+04:00

By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Wednesday approved tripling U.S. aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion a year for each of the next five years, part of an American plan to fight extremism with economic development.
The $1.5 billion in annual funding includes money for Pakistani schools, the judicial system, parliament and law enforcement agencies.
"This legislation marks an important step toward sustained economic and political cooperation with Pakistan," said Senator Richard Lugar, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The bill, which includes $400 million in annual military aid for 2010-2013, passed as Pakistan's military was preparing an all-out assault on Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, an al Qaeda ally.
Mehsud has been accused of orchestrating a campaign of bombings in Pakistan, including the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The push into South Waziristan on the Afghan border looms as the army is finishing off an offensive in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, launched after Taliban gains raised fears for nuclear-armed Pakistan's future.
The Pakistan aid measure passed by a simple voice vote in the Senate and will have to be reconciled with a version approved by the House of Representatives on June 11.
The bills set up so-called Reconstruction Opportunity Zones in border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, from which textiles and other items can be exported duty-free to the United States.
The zones represent an effort by the U.S. government to combat al-Qaeda and Taliban recruitment of insurgents by creating jobs for unemployed youth in underdeveloped parts of the two countries.
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan told a House committee on Wednesday that the reconstruction zones that will benefit from the textile import scheme were in places where large numbers of Pakistanis had taken refuge from recent fighting.
Creating jobs in the Federally Administered tribal Areas of Pakistan (FATA) served U.S. security interests, he said.
"Americans have died because people out of work in the FATA, the western tribal areas, joined the Taliban and jobs could reduce that," said Holbrooke.
(Editing by Chris Wilson)

Source: Reuters

Netanyahu says hopes for U.S. settlement understanding

2009-06-25T06:33:00.001+04:00

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
PARIS (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he hoped to reach an understanding with Washington over Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but an Israeli official predicted the dispute would be hard to resolve.
Echoing U.S. President Barack Obama, France's Nicolas Sarkozy urged Netanyahu to build up trust with the Palestinians by ordering a "complete freeze on settlements," a statement from the French president's office said.
After meeting Sarkozy in Paris, Netanyahu reiterated his intention to continue to build within existing settlements in the West Bank to accommodate the "natural growth" of families.
Netanyahu, who heads a right-leaning government that could be fractured if he agrees to a settlement halt, told reporters differences could occur "among the best of friends."
Western diplomats said the abrupt cancellation of Netanyahu's planned meeting in Paris on Thursday with Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, underscored the difficulty both sides faced in narrowing the rift.
Mitchell will meet instead with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Washington next Monday. "I asked for the postponement of the meeting," Netanyahu said about the talks he had planned to hold with Mitchell in the French capital.
"Mr. Mitchell agreed immediately. We believed we had to clarify several issues and statistics. The defense minister will do this on Monday in the United States," Netanyahu said.
"We will continue the contacts, with goodwill and with the intention of reaching understanding that will advance a peace process -- a diplomatic process between us and the Palestinians, and I hope between us and the rest of the Arab world."
Senior Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Netanyahu sought understanding with the Obama administration that would allow construction already under way in settlements to go forward.
One senior official who traveled with Netanyahu to Paris said "a lot of hard work" would be necessary to reach common ground with the United States, which also advocates creation of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu says such a country must be demilitarized and recognize Israel as a Jewish state, conditions Palestinians reject.
"JOINT DECISION"
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the Mitchell-Barak meeting was a "joint decision" and talks between Netanyahu and the envoy had not yet been rescheduled.
The rare clouds in the U.S.-Israeli relationship seemed to overshadow Netanyahu's three-day visit to Europe, which also included talks in Rome, where Italian leaders prodded him to resolve the dispute.
In lieu of a full settlement freeze, Netanyahu has said he would not build additional enclaves in the territory, captured by Israel in a 1967 war and which Palestinians seek for a state. Continued...
Source: Reuters

NY governor may tell troopers to round up senators

2009-06-25T06:33:00.000+04:00

By Joan Gralla
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Governor David Paterson warned on Wednesday that if state senators go home without enacting bills, he would seek a court order to let him
tell state troopers to round them up.
"That very well might happen," the Democratic governor told Albany reporters, adding he also would order the senators' pay to be withheld from June 8 on, and block the $160 they are paid for each day they are in session.
Paterson's threats were just another twist in a dizzying series of battles over the leadership of the state Senate, which has already featured lawsuits, lockouts, shouting matches, and rival simultaneous sessions in the same chamber.
Cities, towns and counties all need the Legislature to enact routine bills that let them keep collecting taxes, for example. Also at stake is pending legislation on gay marriage, which most New Yorkers support and which already is legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa.
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli warned that "chaos in the Senate" could cost local governments $750 million in lost revenues -- a sum that does not include New York City.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent who is seeking a third term, needs the state to approve a sales-tax hike as well as his continued direct control of the city's school system, the nation's largest, with more than 1 million pupils.
Paterson did not say how he would take back the pay of senators who already have been paid since June 8, which was the day the Republicans launched a coup d'etat after winning over two Democrats. But one of the rebels later rejoined the Democrats, leaving the parties deadlocked at 32 to 32.
ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS!
If by tonight, state senators in both parties do not promise to stay in Albany for Thursday's special session, Paterson said he would seek a court order that morning requiring them to return.
Scoffing at Democratic senators for saying he must call both the Senate and Assembly back in session together, and not just one, Paterson said Article 4, Section 3 of the state constitution allowed him to recall only the upper chamber.
Wednesday's developments included a lawsuit the Republicans filed to force Senate staffers to give them bill jackets, the formal copies of bills, and stop locking them out of the chamber and shutting off lights and video cameras.
The Democrats rejected settling the brawl through arbitration, as the GOP proposed, as too time-consuming.
"By the time you get a panel of arbitrators together, by the time you go through the testimony and everything else, we are talking about a couple of weeks," said Senator Malcolm Smith, who says he remains the Democratic Majority Leader.
While the Democrats have proposed rotating the presidency of the Senate, the Republicans have rejected that plan.
(Reporting by Joan Gralla; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: Reuters

Many U.S. House Democrats want trade policy revamp

2009-06-25T04:33:00.000+04:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Political pressure grew on President Barack Obama to reconsider pending trade deals with Panama, Colombia and South Korea as over 100 lawmakers called on Wednesday for a massive revamp of U.S. trade policy.
The 106 lawmakers, most of them members of Obama's Democratic party, introduced legislation requiring a comprehensive review of the economic impact of existing major trade deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, before any new ones are considered.
The legislation introduced on Wednesday, called the Trade Act, also stipulates environmental and labor standards and provisions for food and product safety and human rights protections that lawmakers say were omitted from previous trade deals and now must be included.
Obama, during his presidential campaign, said he favored changing NAFTA to include stronger labor and environmental protections that many members of his party wanted. But after he became president, his top trade official, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, said this was not necessary.
Many Democrats on Capitol Hill, however, are unhappy about manufacturing job losses that they blame on trade pacts such as NAFTA and say they do not want to approve any more agreements without some safeguards.
"The idea of another trade bill, we can hardly bear the thought," said Rep. Louise Slaughter, a New York Democrat and chairwoman of the powerful House Rules Committee.
"We are not going to do it again," she told a news conference, adding that they had requested meetings with Obama and Kirk about trade policy.
Trade deals with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea were negotiated by the Bush administration, but must be ratified by Congress before they can go into effect.
The House legislation "sets a clear standard for where House Democrats are on trade," said Bill Holland, a spokesman for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group that supports the bill.
"Those three (pending) agreements are built on the NAFTA model, and today's introduction of the Trade Act is a clear rejection of that model and a call for change," he said.
Obama has moved slowly on trade while pushing more forcefully on domestic concerns like healthcare reform and climate change legislation. Last week, a senior Republican accused the Democratic president of stalling on the three pending deals.
Obama is expected to deliver a speech sometime soon outlining his views on trade. Asked if there would be any similarities with Trade Act, Maine Democrat Michael Michaud said he did not know.
"All I can tell you is .. this (legislation) is similar to what he campaigned on," he told reporters.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: Reuters

South Carolina Governor Sanford admits extramarital affair

2009-06-25T02:36:00.007+04:00

By Matthew Bigg
ATLANTA (Reuters) - South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford tearfully admitted on Wednesday he had been unfaithful to his wife, likely ending any chance he might be a Republican contender for the U.S. presidency in 2012.
Sanford resigned as chairman of the Republican Governors' Association and was replaced by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, another possible 2012 candidate.
"Any aspirations for 2012, if he had any, are certainly out of the question," said Robert Oldendick, a political scientist at the University of South Carolina.
Sanford's confession at a tumultuous news conference ended days of speculation over his whereabouts. After he disappeared last week, his staff first said he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail. It later emerged he had traveled to Argentina to be with his lover, leaving his family over Father's Day weekend.
Asked if he was alone during the Argentina trip, he replied: "Obviously not".
Shedding tears, Sanford apologized to his wife Jenny, his family, friends and staff when he made the shock announcement after returning on Wednesday from Buenos Aires.
Admitting his affair, Sanford said he had "developed a relationship" with a "dear friend" from Argentina.
"It began very innocently, as I suspect many of these things do, in just a casual e-mail back and forth," he said.
"But here recently over this last year it developed into something much more than that. And as a consequence, I hurt her. I hurt you all. I hurt my wife. I hurt my boys. I hurt friends ... I hurt a lot of different folks."
Sanford was one of several Republican governors seen as possible 2012 presidential candidates. Others include Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty, and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
As chairman of the Republican Governors' Association, Sanford has been one of the party's most visible spokesmen at a time when its fortunes in Washington are at a low ebb.
Last week, Senator John Ensign, another potential Republican presidential contender in 2012, announced he had an affair and resigned from the Senate leadership.
HIKING STORY
Apologizing for his "selfishness", Sanford asked for "a zone of privacy" for his wife Jenny and their four sons.
He did not identify the woman in the affair, whom he said was separated from her husband and had two boys. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Obama signs $106 billion bill for Iraq, Afghan wars

2009-06-25T02:36:00.006+04:00

By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law a $106 billion measure to fulfill his plans to wind down the war in Iraq and ramp up operations in Afghanistan where fighting against militants is intensifying.
The bill contains $79.9 billion to continue funding the two wars through September 30. It was also loaded up with extras like $7.7 billion to address the H1N1 flu pandemic, and $1.4 billion in foreign aid for Pakistan, which is fighting Taliban militants spilling over the border from Afghanistan.
The measure was nearly derailed by Obama's request for money to close the controversial U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as for $108 billion in credit lines to back the International Monetary Fund as it helps countries weather the global economic downturn.
The legislation did not include $80 million Obama wanted for closing Guantanamo and bans releasing any detainees into the United States through September 30. But it allows detainees to be brought to U.S. soil for trial.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers demanded the White House produce a detailed plan before closing the Guantanamo prison camp. Before the legislation passed, the administration rushed to release or transfer more than a dozen detainees.
Despite fierce Republican opposition, Obama ultimately prevailed to include in the legislation provisions to extend a $100 billion credit line to the IMF and expand the U.S. contribution to the multilateral lender by $8 billion.
The legislation also endorses the IMF's plan to sell 400 tons (12.97 million ounces) of its gold reserves.
House Republicans had expressed concern the IMF would use the funds to lend to U.S. foes like Iran and Venezuela and argued that the matter should have been considered separately.
With the bill becoming law, Obama can follow through on a commitment he made with other Group of 20 member nations to add $500 billion to an IMF emergency fund for countries needing financial aid to avoid bankruptcy.
The legislation also will kick off a controversial $1 billion program to boost depressed U.S. car sales. The measure offers vouchers of up to $4,500 to consumers who trade in their less fuel-efficient vehicles for ones that get better mileage.
(Editing by Chris Wilson)

Source: Reuters

U.S. and Venezuela to restore expelled ambassadors

2009-06-25T02:36:00.005+04:00

By Enrique Andres Pretel
MARACAY, Venezuela (Reuters) - The United States and Venezuela will soon reinstate ambassadors expelled in a diplomatic spat last year, a sign of warmer relations between President Hugo Chavez and what he calls the U.S. "empire."
Leftist Chavez has toned down his strident criticism of U.S. foreign policy since Barack Obama took office in January, partly because the U.S. president is popular in Latin America in contrast to his predecessor George W. Bush.
Obama, in turn, has pledged to engage with countries considered problematic by the United States.
Venezuela, one of the United States' top crude oil suppliers, said its envoy would be back in Washington this week. A source at the U.S. State Department said Ambassador Patrick Duddy will return to Caracas, but did not say when.
"We have a very clear position regarding this subject and we are prepared to move forward," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said in a statement confirming the return of the ambassadors.
Chavez and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had agreed in April they would work to reinstate the envoys.
Along with his close friend Fidel Castro of Cuba and other Latin American leaders, Chavez often says he respects Obama. The Venezuelan joked earlier this month that Obama was more left-wing than he was for effectively nationalizing General Motors -- a reference to the large stake the U.S. government now owns as part of auto giant's bankruptcy.
The announcement about the envoys came as leaders from Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua, who are all critical of the U.S. influence in Latin America, gathered in Venezuela for a summit of an alternative trade alliance started by Chavez.
Despite the warmer tone and a handshake with Obama at a summit of countries in the Americas in April, Chavez is still committed to countering Washington's global influence and recently accused U.S. spies of plotting to kill him without Obama's knowledge.
BOLIVIAN DISPUTE TRIGGERED EXPULSION
Chavez expelled the U.S. envoy to Caracas in September and Washington responded by kicking out Venezuela's ambassador in a dispute involving charges by Venezuelan ally Bolivia that Washington was meddling in its internal affairs.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said that since Clinton and Chavez spoke during the Summit of Americas "both our governments have worked toward the goal of returning ambassadors to our respective capitals," adding "We are currently taking the necessary measures to accomplish this goal."
Venezuela's ambassador, Bernardo Alvarez, is expected to return to Washington on Friday, a source at the Foreign Ministry said.
Bolivia and the United States are still without their respective envoys, but U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon visited La Paz last month as the two countries tried to patch up relations.
The United States will also send an ambassador to Syria for the first time in four years, a State Department official said on Wednesday, in a further sign of Obama's commitment to engaging with long-time foes.[nN24195241] Continued...
Source: Reuters

Obama steps up push for healthcare reform this year

2009-06-25T02:36:00.004+04:00

By David Alexander and Donna Smith
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama stepped up his push for healthcare reform in the face of resistance on Capitol Hill, telling state governors on Wednesday "we need to get it done this year".
Obama, in a television interview aired early in the day and again later after meeting a group of state governors, insisted he was convinced the government could overhaul the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system this year.
"Yes, absolutely," Obama said on ABC's "Good Morning America," "We're going to get it done."
Obama, who has invested substantial political capital in the healthcare reform issue, was to hold a televised town hall-style question-and-answer session at the White House Wednesday evening. The event was to be taped at 8 p.m. EDT and aired on ABC News later in the evening.
The United States spends some $2.5 trillion annually on healthcare, or about 16 percent of its gross domestic product, but trails many developed countries on important measures of health. Some 47 million Americans are uninsured and have little access to the healthcare system.
Obama's campaign-style push for his reform plan comes amid strains among the diverse interest groups, from doctors to insurance plans, that have so far bonded together to seek a healthcare overhaul.
Insurers and doctors have expressed concern about Obama's push for a public insurance option to compete with private insurers, while others have objected to the cost of the trillion-dollar program and a proposal to pay for it in part by raising taxes on some employer-paid insurance benefits.
"Obama says public option, he means government-run health care," Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said in a statement. "Without question, the government takeover of healthcare will diminish individual freedom and quality in our health care system."
WAIT AND SEE ON TAX HIKES
In an interview with ABC News, Obama declined to say if he would sign a bill that taxes healthcare benefits to pay for healthcare reforms.
"I'm going to wait and see what ideas they come up with. I suspect that when they start seeing what the options are, they might end up concluding that the options we're presenting are the best ones," he said.
Obama said he would prefer to reduce tax deductions for the wealthiest to pay for the overhaul.
Members of the Senate Finance Committee met behind closed doors to discuss the cost of the bill and possible compromises needed to gain some Republican support.
Committee Chairman Max Baucus said it was "long road" to reaching agreement because of the complexities of the sweeping legislation. Panel members are trying to bring 10-year cost estimates down to less than $1 trillion from a $1.6 trillion early estimate for the package.
Democratic Senator Kent Conrad, who is a member of the Finance panel and also chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said the package total now stood at about $1.2 trillion. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Consumer watchdog idea hit as Congress eyes reform

2009-06-25T02:36:00.003+04:00

Geithner's call for reform
Play Video
By Kevin Drawbaugh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans lined up with the banking industry on Wednesday in attacking a Democratic proposal for a new U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Agency at a congressional hearing focused on a key component of the Obama administration's broad plan for financial regulation reform.
As Congress intensified its scrutiny of the Obama plan, Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee questioned the idea of splitting consumer protection from government oversight of the banking business' health.
"The wisdom of bifurcating consumer protection and safety and soundness regulation as is done in the administration's proposal is questionable," said Representative Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the House committee.
But Democrats and supporters of creating a new agency replied that decades of combining those two roles -- within the Federal Reserve and elsewhere -- have failed to protect consumers from confusing and deceptive lending by banks.
"This structure has not worked," said Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor who is also chairman of the Congressional Oversight Panel of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) set up last year to bail out distressed banks.
She urged lawmakers to set up a new, independent agency to protect consumers from "tricks and traps" set by banks.
President Barack Obama last week unveiled a sweeping package of reforms to rewrite the rules for banks and capital markets in response to a severe financial crisis that has dragged down economies worldwide for more than a year.
Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the House committee, said at the hearing that he expects the panel to write legislation next month on the proposed consumer agency, while also addressing several other reform proposals.
He told reporters outside the hearing that he tentatively expects the committee to be handling "anywhere between four and six" bills on financial reforms that would then "all go on the floor of the House in one bill."
Obama wants to enact new laws by the end of the year. Democrats have consistently said that could be done, although some analysts foresee debate on the matter running into 2010.
SUBPRIME MORTGAGES
A key issue in the financial crisis that engulfed the U.S. economy last year was the enormous amount of debt shouldered by Americans during a real estate bubble fueled by subprime mortgages that many borrowers could not afford or understand.
As defaults and foreclosures rose last year, exotic financial instruments backed by shaky mortgages broke down and the capital markets froze for a time amid sudden uncertainty about the condition of banks' balance sheets.
The combined effects helped drag the United States into a recession that continues.
The $700 billion TARP and other bailout programs have helped save the banks the problems they created for themselves. Now the administration is pushing for changes in regulation designed to prevent such issues from recurring. Continued...
Source: Reuters

"Hard work" settling dispute with Obama: Israel

2009-06-25T02:36:00.002+04:00

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
PARIS (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he hoped to reach understanding with the United States but an official said "hard work" was needed to heal a rift over Jewish settlement growth in the West Bank.
A senior Israeli official who traveled with Netanyahu to Paris, where he met French President Nicolas Sarkozy but canceled a meeting with a top U.S. envoy, said "a lot of hard work" was needed to reach common ground with Washington on the settlement issue.
U.S. President Barack Obama wants Netanyahu to declare a total settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank, territory where Palestinians hope to establish a state.
Netanyahu has said he intends to build further within existing blocs to accommodate what he calls "natural growth" in settler families.
Speaking after his talks with Sarkozy, Netanyahu told reporters that differences could occur "among the best of friends" and said Israel was in the process of clarifying its settlement policy to Washington.
Western diplomats said the abrupt cancellation of Netanyahu's planned meeting in Paris on Thursday with Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, underscored the difficulty both sides faced bridging their differences.
Mitchell will meet instead with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Washington next Monday. "I asked for the postponement of the meeting," Netanyahu said about the talks he had planned to hold with Mitchell in the French capital.
"Mr. Mitchell agreed immediately. We believed we had to clarify several issues and statistics. The defense minister will do this on Monday in the United States," Netanyahu said.
"We will continue the contacts, with goodwill and with the intention of reaching understanding that will advance a peace process -- a diplomatic process between us and the Palestinians, and I hope between us and the rest of the Arab world."
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly called the decision for Mitchell to meet Barak before Netanyahu a "joint decision." He said a Netanyahu meeting with the U.S. envoy had not yet been rescheduled.
Kelly said there had been a "change of thinking" but gave no specifics.
UNDERSTANDING
Israel's differences with the U.S. over settlement policy seemed to overshadow Netanyahu's three-day visit to Europe.
French and Italian leaders also prodded him to resolve the dispute over settlements, though the Israeli leader characterized the tone of their meetings as "warm."
In Paris, Sarkozy "urged Israel to take, without delay, all possible measures to encourage trust, starting with a complete freeze on settlements," a statement from the French leader's office said. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Key senator sketches U.S. immigration reform plans

2009-06-25T02:36:00.001+04:00

By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. immigration laws can be overhauled this year despite a crowded legislative agenda, a key senator said on Wednesday as he outlined plans for putting 12 million illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship and boosting border security.
Senator Charles Schumer, who heads the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, said he wants illegal immigrants to quickly register with the government but acknowledged they were unlikely to do so until they see how they could stay in the country legally.
"The time for reform is now, our system is badly broken," Schumer told the Migration Policy Institute. "The road ahead will not be smooth and I can assure you it will not be straight."
Still, the Democrat expressed confidence that a bipartisan bill would reach the Senate floor soon.
Schumer's remarks come a day before President Barack Obama holds a closed-door meeting with lawmakers to discuss how to follow through on his campaign pledge to address illegal immigration and improve border security.
The White House has cast some doubt on the chances for immigration reform passing this year though Democrats who control Congress are plowing ahead. Obama has pressed lawmakers to first finish healthcare and climate change bills.
Schumer said he would tell Obama at the meeting that "all the fundamental building blocks are in place to pass comprehensive immigration reform this session and, even possibly, later this year."
Republicans have seized on the timing disconnect between the White House and Democrats. Senator John Cornyn, who is the ranking Republican on the immigration subcommittee, on Tuesday urged Obama to first submit his own plan.
"Until the White House decides to get serious about this issue, anything Senator Schumer or anyone else proposes would seem to be dead on arrival," said Cornyn spokeswoman Tina Gray.
Schumer's plan calls for control of the vast U.S. borders within a year and getting the 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country to register and take steps toward becoming citizens.
"Illegal aliens, however, will never register their presence unless the government provides some mechanism for these individuals to eventually obtain legal status and a path to citizenship upon acknowledging that they broke the law and agreeing to pay their debt to society," Schumer said.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)

Source: Reuters

U.S. to appoint ambassador to Syria after hiatus

2009-06-25T02:36:00.000+04:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government will send an ambassador to Syria after a four-year hiatus as President Barack Obama moves to improve ties between the two countries, the State Department said on Wednesday.
"As you know, we're prepared to move forward with Syria to advance our interests through direct and continuing dialogue," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.
"Of course, you know that we continue to have concerns about Syria's role in this region, and we think one way to address those concerns is to have an ambassador in Damascus."
The move "reflects the administration's recognition of the important role Syria plays in the region ...," Kelly told reporters, adding that Washington had informed Damascus of its decision on Tuesday.
Another State Department official said the process was in its very early stages and the administration had not yet chosen a nominee for the ambassador's post.
Obama is working to rehabilitate U.S. relations with the Islamic world and the Arab Middle East.
Washington withdrew its ambassador from Syria in 2005 to protest the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Syria denied any involvement in the killing.
A U.N. investigation into the assassination initially implicated several Syrian and Lebanese officials, but later reports have been more circumspect. A special U.N. tribunal set up to try suspects in Hariri's killing began work in The Hague in March.
Relations between Syria and the United States improved after Obama took office in January and U.S. officials said he was committed to seeking a peace deal between Syria and Israel as part of an overall Middle East peace deal.
The Syrian government, however, remains under U.S. sanctions, partly because of what the United States describes as a Syrian role in helping insurgents infiltrate Iraq.
The decision to appoint a U.S. ambassador follows a series of recent visits to Damascus by high-level U.S. military and diplomatic delegations.
(Reporting by Deborah Charles and Arshad Mohammed; editing by Chris Wilson)

Source: Reuters

Obama to meet pope for first time on July 10

2009-06-25T02:35:00.000+04:00

By Daniel Flynn
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama, whose support for abortion rights and stem cell research has angered some Catholics, is due to meet Pope Benedict for the first time on July 10 during a visit to Italy.
Vatican officials said the U.S. leader would have an afternoon audience with the pope in the Vatican after the conclusion of a July 8-10 summit of Group of Eight industrial nations, scheduled for the Italian city of L'Aquila.
"The pope is ready to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama in the afternoon of July 10," deputy Vatican spokesman Ciro Benedettini told Reuters.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters in Washington the pope and the president would "discuss a range of issues, including their shared belief in the dignity of all people."
Obama has angered some American Roman Catholics with his support for abortion rights and his decision to lift restrictions on stem cell research, which is likely to be a topic of discussion at the July meeting.
In 2001, the late Pope John Paul II urged then-U.S. President George W. Bush not to allow stem cell research.
The Vatican and Italian Church leaders condemned Obama's decision in March to lift restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research put in place by Bush.
The Catholic Church, other religious groups and abortion opponents oppose such research -- which scientists hope can lead to cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's -- because it involves the destruction of embryos.
Obama's subsequent invitation to speak at Notre Dame, a premier U.S. Catholic university, sparked criticism last month. While some heckled Obama during his speech, his appeal for a "fair-minded" discussion on abortion was received with several standing ovations.
The G8 summit is due to discuss a response to the international economic crisis and global warming. Its location was moved to L'Aquila in a sign of solidarity with victims from an April earthquake that killed nearly 300 people and devastated large parts of the city.
(Reporting by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Lin Noueihed and Peter Cooney)

Source: Reuters

China defends export policies against WTO complaint

2009-06-24T08:33:00.000+04:00

US files WTO case against China
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By Chris Buckley
BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Wednesday rejected charges from the United States and Europe that its restrictions on raw materials exports violated international trade rules, saying that its policies were in keeping with WTO regulations.
The European Union and the United States said on Tuesday they were taking a complaint to the World Trade Organization over China's export curbs on some industrial raw materials used in steel, cars, microchips, planes and other products.
In the first official Chinese response, the Ministry of Commerce rejected the complaint but said it would go along with the consultation procedures required under WTO rules.
"The main objective of China's relevant export policies is to protect the environment and natural resources. China believes the policies in question are in keeping with WTO rules," the press office of the ministry said in a faxed statement.
"Following the WTO procedures for dispute resolution, China will appropriately handle the request for consultations."
Washington and Brussels have launched the WTO case while they are also looking for China's cooperation in pulling the world economy out of a slump. The complaint may become another irritant in ties alongside recent friction over military modernization, Internet controls and the United States' own economic policies.
But China's initial response was relatively mild compared with its vehement reaction to earlier WTO complaints. And traders said the move would have little immediate impact on trade flows.
"I don't think it will impact exports as steel wire rod has already carried a 15 percent export tax, therefore no one can ship any anyway," said a senior executive at Sinosteel Corp, the country's largest state-owned steel trader. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
Brussels and Washington say Beijing continues to restrict exports of raw materials used in steel, semiconductors, aircraft and other products despite China's pledge to eliminate taxes and charges on exports when it joined the WTO in 2001.
This hurts foreign "downstream producers" of goods, such as aluminum producers and steelworkers, since the export restraints limit their access to raw materials and raise world market prices for the materials while lowering the prices that domestic Chinese producers have to pay, U.S. officials said.
Included in the materials covered by the case is a range of strategic minor metals used in applications such as alloys, ceramics, mobile phones and light bulbs.
Zhou Shijian, a former Chinese trade official, said the U.S. and EU were guilty of hypocrisy.
"Protecting natural resources is perfectly reasonable, and all countries in the world, including the United States, protect their national resources," Zhou told the Global Times, a Chinese-language paper.
"The WTO stresses one cannot restrict imports and should open markets, but it doesn't have specific rules on what should be done about exports," said Zhou.
(Additional reporting by Alfred Cang in Shanghai; Editing by Ken Wills and Dean Yates)

Source: Reuters

Obama urges passage of "historic" climate change bill

2009-06-24T06:33:00.000+04:00

By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, urged on by President Barack Obama, announced progress on Tuesday toward quick passage of legislation to fight global warming by reducing industrial emissions of carbon dioxide.
At a midday White House press conference, Obama said the "historic" climate change bill moving through the House would "transform the way we produce and use energy in America."
With incentives to encourage utilities, manufacturers and other companies to switch from higher-polluting oil and coal to cleaner energy alternatives, Obama said the legislation would spark a "transformation that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and confront the carbon pollution that threatens our planet."
Hours after Obama's remarks, House Democrats announced they had reached a deal on difficult agriculture issues in the legislation, clearing the way for a vote and probable passage in the chamber this week.
Representative Henry Waxman, a main proponent of the climate change bill in the House, told reporters that farmers won several of the demands they had been holding out for in exchange for supporting the climate bill.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was cautiously optimistic, telling reporters, it is "quite possible and maybe even probable" the bill will be debated on Friday and pass.
With House passage, the climate change debate would shift to the Senate, which has not yet crafted its own bill and where passage is more complicated than in the House because Republicans could use delaying tactics.
As Obama was leading the charge for climate change legislation cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 (from 2005 levels), his administration acted on another clean energy front.
HELP FOR AUTOMAKERS
Nearly $8 billion in Energy Department loans were announced to help automakers retool plants so they can build more fuel efficient vehicles, including electric cars and autos with improved gasoline engines.
In pushing companies to reduce their carbon emissions, the climate change bill would encourage the use of alternative energy such as solar and wind, while promoting technologies to capture and store emissions from coal-burning plants.
Supporting that effort, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the government had awarded its first leases for offshore wind development off the Atlantic Ocean coasts of New Jersey and Delaware.
While large U.S. companies such as Duke Energy, Dow and Alcoa, have embraced the broad goals of the House climate bill, other industries criticized it.
The American Petroleum Institute, representing major U.S. oil companies, called the House legislation "fundamentally flawed" and said it would "cost Americans billions of dollars in higher costs, kill jobs and will not deliver the environmental benefits promised."
This week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the House Democrats' climate bill could cost households an average $175 a year in added costs, while the poor would enjoy a $40 annual benefit from rebates and other breaks. Republicans had warned of $3,100 in price increases yearly and severe job losses. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Obama harshly condemns Iran crackdown on protesters

2009-06-24T04:35:00.002+04:00

Demo detainees aired on Iran TV
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By John Whitesides and Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama toughened his criticism of Iran on Tuesday for its crackdown on anti-government protesters, harshly condemning the violence and declaring scenes of death in Tehran "heartbreaking."
At his fourth White House news conference, Obama also said he was still optimistic about the prospects in Congress for an overhaul of the costly U.S. healthcare system and urged lawmakers to pass a comprehensive climate change bill.
The Democratic president, facing heavy criticism from Republicans that he was being too timid in backing street protests over Iran's contested election, said the United States was "appalled and outraged" by the violence.
"I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost," Obama said.
He called the video of an Iranian women killed in the streets, which has become a staple of news coverage of the protests, "heartbreaking" and said it made clear the violence against the protesters was "fundamentally unjust."
"In 2009, no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to the peaceful pursuit of justice," he said.
Asked why it took him so long to express his outrage, Obama said the U.S. approach had been consistent and he did not want to hurt the protesters by aligning them with the United States.
"Ultimately, the most important thing for the Iranian government to consider is legitimacy in the eyes of its own people," he said.
But Obama declined to spell out any potential consequences for Tehran of the crackdown, and said there was still "a path available" to Iran in which it could operate within the international community.
SETBACKS AND POLL DECLINES
Obama has faced setbacks on central legislative goals and a bout of bad news in public opinion polls in the last week, and he became testy at times when pressed by reporters. He rejected suggestions he was responding to attacks by Republicans such as former presidential rival Senator John McCain.
Obama said he still believed Congress would pass an overhaul of the healthcare system, and a government-run health insurance plan "made sense" as part of the package, he said.
Obama is battling growing concerns over the price tag -- at least $1 trillion and possibly far more -- on his reform plan and proposals for a government-run insurance plan that would compete with private insurers.
"This is legislation that will be paid for. It will not add to our deficits over the next decade. We will find the money through savings and efficiencies within the health care system," he said.
A wave of new public opinion polls show declining satisfaction with Obama's policies and concerns about growing federal debt, although the president remains personally popular. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Obama: Health reform needs public insurer option

2009-06-24T04:35:00.001+04:00

By David Alexander and Donna Smith
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday his healthcare overhaul needed a public insurance option to enforce market "discipline", but stopped short of saying he would veto legislation without one.
Obama, who has made healthcare reform a top legislative priority, said he would insist Congress pass a plan to control skyrocketing costs and cut the number of uninsured. But he added "we have not drawn lines in the sand" on other issues.
"The public plan, I think, is an important tool to discipline insurance companies," Obama told a White House news conference. "I think there is going to be some healthy debate about the shape that this takes."
The United States spends some $2.5 trillion annually on healthcare, about 16 percent of gross domestic product, but trails many developed countries on important measures of health. Some 47 million Americans are uninsured and have little access to the healthcare system.
Obama, who promised reform during his presidential campaign, has stepped up his efforts to sell the public on his proposals, holding a series of speeches and town hall meetings, including one at the White House set for Wednesday night.
He has proposed allowing those who do not have insurance through their employers and who cannot afford to buy it privately to purchase it from a marketplace where private insurers and a public insurance plan would compete.
Shortly after Obama's news conference, an organization representing private health insurance companies made public its blunt rejection of any state-run health plan, posting a June 19 letter to Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy on its website.
"A government plan option -- in any form -- is unnecessary to achieve comprehensive reform and would have devastating consequences on the health insurance coverage," said the letter from the heads of America's Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
Republicans and private insurance companies have raised concerns over a public plan, arguing it would lead to a government takeover of the entire U.S. healthcare system and drive private insurance companies out of business.
Obama rejected that notion at his news conference.
"If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care; if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical," he said, adding, "They should be able to compete."
NEGOTIATIONS AND COSTS
Democrats in Congress who are developing healthcare reform legislation hope to keep a public option, but have also suggested that non-profit medical cooperatives could be formed to compete with insurers.
Obama said a government-run plan could help drive efficiencies throughout the system.
"If it turns out that the public plan, for example, is able to reduce administrative costs significantly, then I'd like the insurance companies to take note," he said. "That's good for everybody in the system." Continued...
Source: Reuters

House Democrats reach deal on climate change bill

2009-06-24T04:35:00.000+04:00

By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the House of Representatives on Tuesday said they had reached a deal on difficult agriculture issues in a climate change bill, clearing the way for a vote and probable passage in the chamber this week.
"We have an agreement finally," said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, whose support had been widely sought by House Democratic leaders. Peterson declared he is now prepared to vote for the controversial bill.
Representative Henry Waxman, a main proponent for legislation to reduce industrial emissions of carbon dioxide associated with global warming, told reporters: "I think we will have the majority to pass the bill."
Waxman also predicted environmental groups will remain supportive, despite new provisions to help farm states that some feared would weaken the bill.
The breakthrough came just hours after President Barack Obama, at a White House press conference, embraced the Democrats' bill and urged the House to move quickly on it.
"It is legislation that will finally spark a clean energy transformation that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and confront the carbon pollution that threatens our planet," Obama said.
Earlier in the day, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he hoped the bill would be debated by the full House, and passed, on Friday.
Last month, Waxman's Energy and Commerce Committee easily passed a climate change bill to reduce industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, as well as provide new incentives for producing alternative fuels.
But since then, Waxman has been in difficult negotiations with farm state Democrats and other House Democrats to gain their needed support since few Republicans are expected to vote for the bill.
AGRICULTURE DEPT OVERSIGHT ROLE
In announcing the deal after briefing a group of moderate Democrats, Waxman said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, not the Environmental Protection Agency, would be put in charge of overseeing certain steps to be taken by farmers to reduce carbon emissions.
Known as "offsets," the program would allow farmers to claim achievements in reducing carbon pollution by planting trees or taking other environmental actions. But the agriculture community objected to EPA overseeing the program and insisted that the more sympathetic USDA do the job.
"We agreed that we would have the USDA run the program and we will seek guidance from the administration to figure out the appropriate role for EPA," Waxman said.
Waxman announced another break for agriculture as part of the deal: The climate change bill would halt an EPA proposal that farmers feared could hold U.S. ethanol makers responsible for greenhouse gases from crops overseas.
Waxman said a "five-year moratorium" on a proposed EPA rule would be included in the legislation and USDA and Congress would have additional powers to stop the plan after the five years. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Pentagon approves creation of cyber command

2009-06-24T04:34:00.004+04:00

By Andrew Gray
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon will create a Cyber Command to oversee the U.S. military's efforts to protect its computer networks and operate in cyberspace, under an order signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday.
The new headquarters, likely to be based at Fort Meade, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., will be responsible for defending U.S. military systems but not other U.S. government or private networks, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
Asked if the command would be capable of offensive operations as well as protecting the Department of Defense, Whitman declined to answer directly.
"This command is going to focus on the protection and operation of DoD's networks," he said. "This command is going to do what is necessary to be able to do that."
U.S. officials have voiced growing concern in recent years about being vulnerable to attacks on the country's civilian or military networks as technology takes on an ever-increasing role, including in military operations.
President Barack Obama said last month he would name a White House-level czar to coordinate government efforts to fight cybercrime.
The United States has said many attempts to penetrate its networks appear to come from China but it has stopped short of accusing Chinese authorities of being responsible.
Whitman said the new command will consolidate existing Pentagon efforts to protect its networks and operate in cyberspace.
Those efforts currently come under the auspices of U.S. Strategic Command in Nebraska, which will also oversee the new headquarters.
The U.S. Department of Defense runs some 15,000 electronic networks and runs some 7 million computers and other information technology devices, Whitman said.
"Our defense networks are constantly probed. There are millions of scans every day," he said.
"The power to disrupt and destroy, once the sole province of nations, now also rests with small groups and individuals, from terrorist groups to organized crime to industrial spies to hacker activists, to teenage hackers," he said.
"We also know that foreign governments are trying to develop offensive cyber capabilities," he added, saying more than 100 foreign intelligence services were trying to hack into U.S. networks.
The new command should begin initial operations by this October and be fully up and running a year later.
The head of the Cyber Command would also be the director of the U.S. National Security Agency, which conducts electronic surveillance and communications interception and is also based at Fort Meade.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: Reuters

U.S., EU act against China on raw material exports

2009-06-24T04:34:00.003+04:00

US files WTO case against China
Play Video
By Susan Cornwell and Darren Ennis
WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States and European Union took action against China on Tuesday for restricting exports of industrial raw materials, intensifying a trade struggle at a delicate time for the global economy.
In the United States the decision to bring the dispute before the World Trade Organization was seen as part of a more muscular trade policy promised by the Obama administration, but it added to tensions at a time when Washington counts on Beijing to keep buying its debt.
Europe and the United States had earlier failed to persuade resource-hungry China to reduce its export tariffs and raise quotas on materials like bauxite, coke and manganese that are used in steel, microchips, planes and other products.
Billions of dollars in trade flows are affected, and China gives its industries an unfair edge, U.S. officials said.
"After more than two years of urging China to lift these unfair restrictions, with no result, we are filing at the WTO today," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told a news conference in Washington.
"We are most troubled that this appears to be a conscious policy to create unfair preferences for Chinese industries" that use the materials, he said.
As a first step, the United States and the European Commission -- which oversees trade for the 27-nation EU bloc -- formally sought consultations with Beijing at the global trade watchdog. If these talks fail, after 60 days the next step would be to request a WTO panel to hear the complaint.
"It is very much hoped that we will not have to proceed to the next stage," Kirk said.
In Brussels, EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton said: "The Chinese restrictions on raw materials distort competition and increase global prices, making things even more difficult for our companies in this economic downturn."
"I hope that we can find an amicable solution to this issue through the consultation process," she said in a statement.
CHINA LIMITING EXPORTS
The EU and the United States say China restricts exports of raw materials despite a pledge to eliminate export taxes and charges made when it joined the WTO in 2001.
This hurts foreign "downstream producers" of goods, such as aluminum producers and steelworkers, since the export restraints limit their access to raw materials and raise world market prices for the materials while lowering the prices that domestic Chinese producers have to pay, U.S. officials said.
U.S. officials said the nine materials covered by their case were bauxite, coke, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon carbide, silicon metal, yellow phosphorus and zinc.
In Ottawa, Canadian officials indicated they had not ruled out joining the case. "For the moment, we are closely monitoring developments in this file," said Melisa Leclerc, spokeswoman for Canadian Trade Minister Stockwell Day. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Obama praises Bernanke, hedges on a second term

2009-06-24T04:34:00.002+04:00

By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had done a good job handling the financial crisis but offered no hints on whether he wanted the central bank chief to stay in his job.
Bernanke, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, a Republican, became Fed chair in February 2006. His term expires at the end of January 2010 and financial markets are eager to know whether he will stay.
"He has done a fine job under very difficult circumstances," Obama, a Democrat, said at a news conference.
"I'm not going to make news about Ben Bernanke," Obama said to laughter when asked if he wanted the Fed chair to stay in his post after January.
There has been some press speculation that top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers wants to succeed Bernanke, who has presided over the Fed during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Obama implied that he didn't consider the Fed blameless in allowing reckless behavior by the financial sector to create conditions for the financial market meltdown that began in 2007, but he said it had done better than other regulators.
"I would say all financial regulators didn't do everything that needed to be done to keep the crisis from happening," Obama told reporters shortly before the Fed began a two-day policy meeting.
"The Fed probably performed better than most other regulators prior to the crisis taking place, but I think they'd be the first to acknowledge that in dealing with systemic risk and anticipating systemic risk they didn't do everything that needed to be done," he said.
Obama added: "I think since the crisis has occurred Ben Bernanke has performed very well."
KEEPING HIS OPTIONS OPEN
Experts gave a mixed interpretation of Obama's statements on Bernanke, saying the president had left his options open.
"I take it as a positive that he's willing to comment positively on Ben," said Randall Kroszner, a former Federal Reserve Governor and now a professor at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.
Jeffrey Frankel, a professor at Harvard University and former economic adviser to President Bill Clinton, said Obama had been deliberately vague.
"It is pretty clear that President Obama's intention was to transmit no information whatsoever regarding whether Bernanke would be reappointed," Frankel said.
Even as Obama mulls whether to keep Bernanke, his administration has proposed giving the Fed authority to monitor large, interconnected financial firms and play a lead role in designating which ones pose "systemic risk" to the economy. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Israel PM meeting with Obama envoy postponed

2009-06-24T04:34:00.001+04:00

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
ROME (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama's peace envoy delayed talks planned in Europe as the allies negotiated differences on Jewish settlement building, officials said Tuesday.
Netanyahu, in Rome on the first leg of a European visit, told reporters traveling with him his government was also pushing for a deal to free a soldier held captive by Palestinian Islamist militants of Hamas who control the Gaza Strip.
The meeting between Netanyahu and Obama's envoy, George Mitchell, had been set to take place in Paris Thursday and to focus on bridging differences over Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Israeli officials said.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak will instead visit Washington next Monday to meet Mitchell, a delay that will give both sides more time to "clarify some of the issues," Netanyahu spokesman Nir Hefetz said.
A U.S. State Department spokesman confirmed the talks were postponed and the plan for Mitchell to meet with Barak. The spokesman, Ian Kelly, had no comment on why it was important for Mitchell to see Barak first.
A senior U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said: "Mitchell and the prime minister jointly decided to postpone their meeting" and that Barak and Mitchell would meet in Washington Monday to discuss "a range of issues."
An Israeli official told Reuters the U.S. and Israel were seeking to achieve "understandings" on settlement building in occupied land, an issue that has delayed the resumption of stalled Middle East peace talks.
"The goal we have is to try to reach understandings with the (Obama) administration on settlements, and move on," the Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
SETTLEMENT FREEZE?
Obama has called for a settlement freeze.
Netanyahu has said he would not build additional enclaves in the territory Israel captured in a 1967 war that Palestinians seek for a state, but wants to build in existing settlements to accommodate what he calls "natural growth."
Netanyahu told reporters "if there is a desire, then it is possible to achieve an understanding" on the issue.
Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi pressed the Israeli leader in their two-hour meeting to offer a "signal" he was ready for compromise on the settlement issue, an aide to the Italian leader said.
Reports in the Arab press said an agreement was imminent for the release of soldier Gilad Shalit who captured in a cross-border raid from Gaza in 2006 in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Netanyahu said: "To this moment, I haven't received any such information ... We are making efforts on various levels. We are now examining various possibilities." Continued...
Source: Reuters

U.S. patent office shortfall worsens: official

2009-06-24T04:34:00.000+04:00

By Diane Bartz
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is facing a growing shortfall that has forced it to ask Congress for rule changes to help it weather economic hard times, a Commerce Department official told Reuters on Tuesday.
The patent office, which supports itself by collecting fees to grant and maintain patents, has seen its collections drop from $6.9 million a day in January and February of this year to $6.2 million per day in April and May, said Jay Reich, deputy chief of staff of the Commerce Department.
Last week, collections totaled just $5.9 million a day, Reich told Reuters.
Even before the financial crisis prompted companies to pare their patent portfolios, which reduced the patent office's revenue, the department was criticized for its large and growing backlog, which Reich estimated at 770,000 applications.
The 6,285 patent examiners approve or reject about 450,000 applications each year, according to patent office figures.
The patent office had already cut $120 million from its budget this year and identified another $20 million in potential savings from reductions such as eliminating overtime pay, said Reich.
"Everything we can control, we have tried to reduce," said Reich. "The Draconian move we want to avoid is furloughs."
President Barack Obama said last week he had chosen David Kappos to run the patent office. Kappos is currently IBM's vice president and assistant general counsel for intellectual property.
The patent office is contacting the congressional committees with authorizing and appropriating power over it to solicit ideas for a fix and ask for the right to temporarily tap at least part of a $60 million projected surplus held by the trademark side of the office and to put about $10 million earmarked for special projects into the general operating fund.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark has an annual budget of about $1.9 billion.
But Reich said the agency's surveys of patent attorneys and industries found that the budget woes could worsen.
"They're not very bullish in terms of turning the situation around in the near term," he added.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; editing by Matthew Lewis)

Source: Reuters

Obama to push healthcare, energy reform

2009-06-23T16:32:00.000+04:00

By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will throw his weight behind legislative bids to reform healthcare and cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions on Tuesday in his fourth White House press conference since taking office.
Obama, who has focused his first five months as president on trying to end the recession, is likely to discuss his plans to create jobs and stem unemployment, which economists expect will hit 10 percent in coming months.
"The president will use the occasion, again, to discuss the progress that he believes the country needs to make on laying that foundation for long-term growth," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday.
"The president will talk about progress that we've made and is being made on energy independence, legislation going through Congress, and I anticipate he'll also have comments on what we're seeing in Iran."
Legislation on two of Obama's signature issues -- covering 46 million Americans who do not have health insurance and capping carbon dioxide pollution from major industries -- is currently moving through the U.S. Congress.
But both bills face obstacles. Lawmakers are worried about the $1 trillion healthcare reform is expected to cost over the next 10 years, while the climate bill's chances of passage, though more positive in the House of Representatives, are less clear in the Senate.
Obama hopes to shore up support on both issues while addressing international crises including unrest in Iran following contested presidential elections there and tension on the Korean peninsula.
He is scheduled to make an opening statement at 12:30 p.m. EDT in the White House Rose Garden and then take questions from reporters for about an hour.
Obama will be watched closely for further changes in his tone toward Iran. The president has sharpened his criticism of the Iranian government for cracking down on demonstrators while trying to avoid the appearance of meddling.
The news conference comes as Obama, who remains personally popular with a majority of the American public, has seen polls showing declining satisfaction with his policies.
A newly released Washington Post/ABC News poll showed only about half of Americans believe the president's $787 billion stimulus package will boost the economy.
(Editing by Alan Elsner)

Source: Reuters

Obama set to push healthcare and energy reform

2009-06-23T10:33:00.000+04:00

Drug company deal may give Obama a boost

2009-06-23T08:34:00.000+04:00

Deal reached to cut drug costs
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By Ross Colvin
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday hailed a deal with U.S. drug companies to cut prescription costs for the elderly, a move that could help him drive his ambitious healthcare reforms through Congress.
"This is a significant breakthrough on the road to healthcare reform, one that will make the difference in the lives of many older Americans," Obama said at the White House of the agreement struck with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America industry association.
Reviving one of his best known slogans from the campaign trail, Obama took aim at naysayers on healthcare reform: "Yes, we can. We are going to get this done."
Obama's healthcare overhaul is his top domestic priority, but it is proving a tough sell to both Democrat and Republican lawmakers in Congress worried about the $1 trillion price tag.
Obama and his fellow Democrats in Congress hope to bring down the long-term costs of healthcare that recent data show are soaring out of control.
Part of that long-term picture is improving the health of Americans and toward that end, Obama on Monday signed into law a landmark bill that gives the U.S. government broad regulatory power for the first time over cigarettes and other tobacco products.
The drug deal, which offers $80 billion in prescription discounts over 10 years to help elderly Americans afford drugs, comes ahead of a week of discussions in Congress on how to pay for Obama's reforms and ensure coverage for the 46 million Americans who do not have health insurance.
BIPARTISAN OR BUST?
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Monday pushed ahead with a fiercely partisan debate on the panel's Democratic-written bill. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus is expected to continue negotiations on what he hopes will be a bipartisan bill.
But Senator Charles Schumer, a member of the Democratic Senate leadership, said talks on a potential compromise on the government role in covering the uninsured may not produce results agreeable to Democrats who control Congress.
Talks on expanding insurance offerings beyond private insurers have focused on proposed non-profit medical cooperatives instead of a new government plan backed by many Democrats.
"When Republicans talk about the co-op model, it's clear they are not talking about anything close to a national plan with enough clout to keep insurance companies honest," Schumer said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Obama is stepping up efforts to build public support in the facing of mounting Republican criticisms. He will hold a town hall-style meeting on Wednesday to discuss healthcare and also plans a Tuesday news conference at which he likely will talk about his proposed reforms.
It underscores how the president is trying to take control of the debate and personally push the legislative process forward so that he can have a bill on his desk by October.
Republicans argue that a new publican healthcare plan would drive private health care companies out of business. They also argue that plans to provide medical coverage to millions of uninsured people will add to America's huge deficit, a growing worry for investors. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Obama signs landmark law to regulate tobacco

2009-06-23T04:38:00.000+04:00

Deal reached to cut drug costs
Play Video
By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, citing his own struggle to give up smoking, signed a law on Monday giving the U.S. government broad regulatory power for the first time over cigarettes and other tobacco products.
Obama said the law would curb the ability of tobacco companies to market their products to the young.
"Almost 90 percent of all smokers began at or before their 18th birthday," Obama said at a White House ceremony before signing the bill.
"I know -- I was one of these teenagers, and so I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it's been with you for a long time."
Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said Obama's smoking habit was "something that he continues to struggle with." He declined to answer directly whether the president still smoked.
The law followed a campaign by tobacco industry foes in Congress for more than a decade to put cigarettes under the control of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
It allows the FDA to put strict limits on the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco products but stops short of allowing it to ban cigarettes or their addictive ingredient nicotine.
Nearly 20 percent of Americans smoke, and tobacco use kills about 440,000 people a year in the United States due to cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other ailments.
Obama cited those statistics when declaring the completion of the law a victory.
"We've known about this for decades, but despite the best efforts and good progress made by so many leaders and advocates with us today, the tobacco industry and its special interest lobbying have generally won the day," he said.
"Their campaign has finally failed," he continued. "(The law) will force these companies to more clearly and publicly acknowledge the harmful and deadly effects of the products they sell."
"LIFESAVING" LAW
Health groups welcomed the new law, although some experts have said it did not go far enough to help prevent smoking.
"This lifesaving new law has the potential to break the deadly cycle of addiction and put an end to Big Tobacco's targeting of our nation's children," said John Seffrin, head of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
Altria Group Inc, the parent company of the largest U.S. cigarette maker, Philip Morris, also said it welcomed the new rules. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Supreme Court avoids major voting rights ruling

2009-06-23T04:37:00.000+04:00

By Jim Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to rule on the constitutionality of part of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act which sought to protect minorities in states with a history of racial discrimination.
The nation's top court instead ruled on a more narrow constitutional question, deciding that political subdivisions within a state can apply to be exempted from the Act.
The 8-1 ruling, spurred by a Texas municipal utility district's challenge, could result in other government bodies in 16 largely Southern states seeking to be free of the Act's requirements.
Congress adopted the Voting Rights Act at the height of the U.S. civil rights movement in a bid to make it easier for millions of blacks and other minorities to vote.
Congress overwhelmingly voted to extend it in 2006 for 25 years, with then-President George W. Bush signing it into law. The central provision required approval from the Justice Department or a federal court.
Writing the court's main opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said the Texas utility district should be eligible to seek an exemption from provisions requiring federal approval for any changes to local elections.
The court held that the Texas district could apply for exemption even though it does not register voters, like states, counties, parishes and other sub-units that were the primary targets of the Act.
Roberts said the court did not address the overall constitutional question at this time because it was an important issue that required further study.
The constitutional challenge had been one of the most closely watched cases of the Supreme Court's term.
(Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: Reuters

Clinton to skip G8, OSCE meetings in Europe

2009-06-23T04:36:00.000+04:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will not attend international meetings in Italy and Greece this week because of an injury to her arm, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.
The top U.S. diplomat had surgery on Friday to repair her right elbow, which she broke on Wednesday when she tripped and fell in the State Department's basement.
Clinton was to travel to Trieste, Italy for a Group of Eight foreign ministers meeting and to the Greek island of Corfu, where she was to take part in an Organization for Security and Cooperation gathering and meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a NATO-Russia meeting.
Clinton decided to skip the meetings on the advice of her doctor, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters, adding that she had come to the department on Monday and was "on top of her game" despite wearing a cast and sling.
"The secretary is doing better. She successfully came through her surgery. She was able to come by and visit with us in the department this morning ... but she does have a road to travel in terms of her recovery and rehabilitation," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg said at a news conference with Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze.
Undersecretary of State William Burns will represent the United States at the G8 discussions in Trieste.
U.S. special representative Richard Holbrooke will also be in Trieste to take part in talks on Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Obama administration is trying to defeat al Qaeda and Taliban insurgencies.
U.S. special envoy George Mitchell, who helped end the Northern Ireland conflict, will also be in Trieste for talks on Israeli-Palestinian peace, including a planned meeting of the Middle East peace mediators that groups the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.
Steinberg will take Clinton's place in Corfu for the OSCE gathering and for the NATO-Russia ministerial meeting, the first to be held since last year's war in Georgia.
Russia pulled out of a ministerial meeting with NATO planned for May because of the alliance's expulsion of two of Moscow's diplomats in a spy scandal. NATO has previously said such meetings are hard to arrange given Clinton and Lavrov's packed schedules.
Asked about the Corfu NATO-Russia ministerial, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said: "We continue to plan for the meeting to ... be held as scheduled."
(Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: Reuters

Republicans urge Obama to get tougher on Iran

2009-06-22T14:34:00.003+04:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama should take a firm stand to support the street protests that have engulfed Iran since its disputed June 12 presidential election result, U.S. Republican senators said on Sunday.
"He's been timid and passive more than I would like," said Senator Lindsey Graham on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" television news program.
"We could be more forceful than we have," Republican Senator Charles Grassley said on CNN's "State of the Union" show.
Their comments came as pro-reform Iranian clerics stepped up criticism of the government in Tehran on Sunday after more than a week of popular defiance against Iran's leadership, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The hard-line anti-Western Iranian leader overwhelmingly won last week's election, according to official results, but his main challenger, Mirhossein Mousavi, has accused the government of massive electoral fraud and called on Iranians to protest.
At least 10 people were killed on Saturday in street demonstrations.
Obama has walked a fine line in his comments on the election, wanting to avoid being seen as "meddling" in Iranian politics but facing pressure from Republicans to be a more forceful advocate for those protesting the election.
On Saturday, Obama urged Tehran to "stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people" his most forceful comments yet on the Iranian crackdown.
"I would like to see the president be stronger, although I appreciate the comments he made yesterday," Republican Senator John McCain, who lost the 2008 election to Obama, said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"This is not just an Iran issue, this is an American issue. This is what we are all about," McCain said in reference to the anti-government protests in Iran.
But Democratic senators said too much outward U.S. support for dissenters could undermine them.
"It is very crucial ... that we not have our fingerprints on this, that this be truly inspired by the Iranian people," Senator Dianne Feinstein said on CNN.
Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she did not know of any U.S. meddling in the Iranian election or in its aftermath.
"To the best of my knowledge there has been no interference with the election. There has been no manipulation of people following the election," she said.
"These questions have been asked as late as this past week of people in the clandestine operations who would know this, in a formal setting, and that is the answer we were given."
Obama, in the forefront of diplomatic efforts to halt an Iranian nuclear program the West fears could produce atomic weapons, recently acknowledged that the United States helped overthrow Iran's elected government in a 1953 coup that installed a pro-U.S. monarchy in power. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Obama concerned about "unjust actions" in Iran

2009-06-22T14:34:00.002+04:00

By Jeff Mason and Kevin Drawbaugh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama expressed concern about violence and "unjust actions" against Iranian demonstrators on Sunday in a meeting with advisers who updated him on fast-moving events in the Islamic Republic.
"At approximately noon today, the President met for more than 30 minutes in the Oval Office with foreign policy advisors to get an update on the current situation and developments in Iran," a White House aide said in an email.
"At the meeting, the president reiterated his concerns about violence and unjust actions being taken against the Iranian people."
Obama's comments echoed a longer statement he released on Saturday urging the Iranian government to cease violent actions against its own people. Unrest has convulsed Iran for days since a disputed June 12 election that returned hardline anti-Western President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.
Obama, a Democrat, has sharpened his tone amid the escalating violence and criticism from some Republicans, who accused him of timidity in his response.
"He's been timid and passive more than I would like," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" television news program.
"We could be more forceful than we have," Republican Senator Charles Grassley said on CNN's "State of the Union" show.
Gunfire rang out in Tehran on Sunday after demonstrations culminated in the death of at least 10 people on Saturday. Iranian authorities dismissed the protesters as "terrorists" and rioters.
FINE LINE
Senior Democratic senators defended the administration's approach, arguing that the president must walk a fine line.
Senator Robert Casey said Obama has achieved "the right balance. ... He's given a very tough, consistent line to the regime."
Casey said. "The president doesn't have the luxury of just thinking about the next couple of days. He's got to be able to think about the short-term, the long-term."
Pro-reform Iranian clerics stepped up criticism of the government in Tehran on Sunday after more than a week of defiance against Iran's leadership. Ahmadinejad won last week's election, according to official results. But his main challenger, Mirhossein Mousavi, has accused the government of electoral fraud and called on Iranians to protest.
Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd said U.S. support of the opposition could do it more harm than good.
"The question is, should the United States take ownership of this revolution?" Dodd said on ABC's "This Week." "I think we do great damage to the effort if it appears this is a U.S.-led effort. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Governor declares emergency session for NY Senate

2009-06-22T14:34:00.001+04:00

By Chris Michaud
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gov. David Paterson on Sunday ordered a special session for New York's state senate in an effort to end a two-week deadlock that has left major legislation, including the state's budget, unresolved.
"Government has been inoperable because of a political battle," Paterson told a news conference. "The Senate has been unable to deliberate, has refused any outside intervention ... has rarely met and only in acrimonious circumstances," he said, calling its conduct "laughable."
"I will call the New York State Senate ... into extraordinary session on Tuesday," said Paterson, who said he was acting with the authority of the state's constitution.
Monday is the last day of the legislative session before summer recess, and the governor also offered two former state officials, one Republican and one Democrat, to mediate, but added that if no agreement is reached, "we will go into extraordinary session" on Tuesday.
Paterson also announced that the chief judge of the Court of Appeals, Jonathan Lippman, had made himself available to preside over the Senate, if both parties approve.
And he threatened that if senators did not cooperate with the order, he would convene a special session every single day until they do, including weekends and holidays.
"There will be no tolerance for noncompliance to this order," added Paterson, who has no authority over the senate when in session, but is authorized to compel it to be in session.
A New York state judge on Tuesday dismissed a case brought by New York Senate Democrats against their Republican colleagues, challenging the legality of a Republican-led coup that began the stalemate.
Republicans had won a leadership vote by 32 votes to 30 after persuading two dissident Democrats to vote with them. The Democrats immediately challenged the validity of the vote and one defector returned to the Democratic fold, leaving the Senate evenly divided at 31 votes each.
Senator Pedro Espada, the Democrat who remained aligned with the Senate Republicans, was elected Senate president.
Democrats won control of the New York Senate in November, their first majority in the chamber in 40 years.
The legal standoff has left unresolved a series of bills on issues including New York City's budget, pension reform and gay marriage.
(Editing by Patricia Zengerle)

Source: Reuters

Obama's healthcare push on rocky road in Congress

2009-06-22T14:34:00.000+04:00

By Donna Smith
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Growing worries over budget deficits and government intervention could jeopardize President Barack Obama's proposed healthcare overhaul in Congress as lawmakers bicker over costs and strategies for covering the uninsured.
Obama and his fellow Democrats, who control Congress, have enormous political capital invested in succeeding at providing affordable medical coverage to the millions of uninsured Americans, after decades of failed efforts by others, including the previous Democratic president, Bill Clinton.
But opposition is building even as a group of senators tries this week to negotiate a proposal they hope will quiet critics and win bipartisan support.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said he was confident he could craft such a bill.
"We're working together and we're getting closer and closer to a deal every day," he said in a statement. "I'm as confident as ever we'll deliver a bipartisan health care reform bill to the President this year."
But Baucus is working with only few Republicans and there are no guarantees he will succeed.
"I'm certainly willing to try to do something and do it right, but we're a long way from that," Republican Senator Orrin Hatch told reporters.
Public drafting sessions by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee have been marked by partisan bickering over costs and the role of the government.
Democrats want a new government plan to compete with insurance companies and "keep them honest." Republicans say that would drive insurers out of business and lead to a government-run healthcare system.
Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, a member of the health committee, said in a Senate speech last week the bill was "so flawed and expensive it cannot be fixed."
HEALTHCARE REFORM VS. BUDGET DEFICITS
Americans strongly support fundamental healthcare changes and a move to create a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll published on Saturday.
The U.S. healthcare system is the world's costliest, but 46 million Americans lack insurance coverage to pay for medical care. The United States also lags other nations on important health measures, such as life expectancy and infant mortality.
But other recent polls show that eye-popping budget deficits, an estimated $1.8 trillion this year and $1.4 trillion next year, are giving Americans pause about Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan and government intervention in business following the banking and auto industry bailouts.
"I think the American people have really woke up to the fact that there is runaway spending going on," Representative Dave Camp, the top Republican on the tax writing House Ways and Means Committee, said in an interview. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Deal reached to cut drug costs

2009-06-21T04:32:00.000+04:00

By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Drug manufacturers will offer some $80 billion in prescription discounts for Medicare recipients under a deal unveiled on Saturday, which could boost President Barack Obama as he pushes to overhaul the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system.
"The agreement reached today to lower prescription drug costs for seniors will be an important part of the legislation I expect to sign into law in October," Obama said in formally announcing the pact.
The companies have agreed to provide for the next decade a 50 percent discount for those elderly and disabled Americans in the Medicare health insurance program who face a gap in coverage after their drug costs reach a certain level, known as the "doughnut hole".
"The existence of this gap in coverage has been a continuing injustice that has placed a great burden on many seniors," Obama said in a statement. Medicare coverage does not apply to payments between $2,700 and $6,154.
The deal was negotiated between the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America industry association and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus who is leading one of many congressional panels drafting healthcare legislation.
"This commitment to support legislation that will help close the coverage gap reflects our ongoing work with Congress and the Administration to make comprehensive health care reform a reality this year," the industry group said in a statement.
UNINSURED AMERICANS
Costs for healthcare have soared faster than the inflation rate and the Democratic president has pledged to work to curb those costs as well as find a way to provide coverage to the 46 million uninsured Americans.
Americans strongly support fundamental changes to the healthcare system and a move to create a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll published on Saturday.
The White House has said some $950 billion in cuts have been found to cover its reform efforts but there are reports that the costs could reach as much as $1.6 trillion and still not cover everyone, setting off a fierce debate on how to close the gap.
That has given Republicans an opening to attack, particularly since Americans are growing worried about the eye-popping record budget deficits facing the country -- more than $1.8 trillion in fiscal 2009 alone.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives proposed a draft of their healthcare bill on Friday that calls for all citizens to be able to get insurance regardless of medical history and that coverage should be mandatory for individuals and businesses.
They would create a new government plan to help cover the uninsured -- a move backed by Obama but resisted by Republicans and some centrist Democrats who fear it will overwhelm private insurers and require vast amounts of public funding.
(Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: Reuters

Obama "ready to fight" for new financial agency

2009-06-20T14:34:00.000+04:00

By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Saturday he is "ready to fight" for a tough new agency to protect consumers from risky loans and other financial products and lashed out at groups that might stand in the way.
"These interests argue against reform even as millions of people are facing the consequences of this crisis in their own lives," Obama said in a weekly radio address.
"These interests defend business-as-usual even though we know that it was business-as-usual that allowed this crisis to take place."
Obama said opponents were already "mobilizing" against his proposal earlier this week to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency as part of the most sweeping set of financial regulatory reforms since the 1930s.
The new agency, which Congress would have to approve, would have the power to write rules and design or ban financial products. It could also examine firms and impose fines and other penalties on almost any institution that offers products such as home loans or credit cards.
Critics argue that the new agency would stifle financial product innovation, boost the cost of regulatory compliance and cause prices for consumers to rise.
"It's going to create exactly the type of duplication, second-guessing and layering that we feared," David Hirschman, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Center for Capital Markets, said earlier this week.
Obama said the proposed agency was badly needed to help consumers make sense of complex financial instruments and to keep loan companies honest.
"Today, folks signing up for a mortgage, student loan, or credit card face a bewildering array of incomprehensible options. Companies compete not by offering better products, but more complicated ones -- with more fine print and hidden terms," Obama said.
"The American people sent me to Washington to stand up for their interests. And while I'm not spoiling for a fight, I'm ready for one."
Senior lawmakers have said they expect to pass financial reform regulation by the end of the year.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, at a Senate hearing on Thursday, faced the most opposition to Obama's proposal to give the Federal Reserve new powers to police broad risks in the economy.
Some lawmakers believe the central bank failed to halt practices that led to the global financial crisis.
Giving the Federal Reserve more authority "is like a parent giving his son a bigger, faster car right after he crashed the family station wagon," said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer; editing by Chris Wilson)

Source: Reuters

Sharpening tone, White House condemns Iran violence

2009-06-20T04:32:00.000+04:00

By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama toughened his rhetoric on Friday in support of Iranian demonstrators protesting a disputed presidential election and criticized the Tehran government for its violent response.
Obama's comments came after a strong warning to protest leaders by Iran's supreme leader and criticism by Republican lawmakers, led by Senator John McCain, of a tepid White House response to the protests and to charges the vote was rigged.
"I'm very concerned based on some of the tenor -- and tone of the statements that have been made -- that the government of Iran recognize that the world is watching," Obama told CBS News.
"And how they approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard will, I think, send a pretty clear signal to the international community about what Iran is and -- and is not."
Obama also said Washington must be careful not to become "a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States. That's what they do. That's what we're already seeing. We shouldn't be playing into that."
Tehran, with which Washington severed ties shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, has already accused the United States of "interventionist" U.S. statements on the election.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that last week's election was won fairly by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and not rigged, as defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi alleges. Khamenei warned protest leaders they would be responsible for any bloodshed.
Iranian state media have reported seven or eight people killed in unrest since the election outcome was published last Saturday and prompted opposition supporters to hold mass protests in Tehran.
On Friday, McCain told Reuters the Iranian election was "corrupt" and urged Obama to speak out more forcefully on behalf of the demonstrators.
"I'm not saying send arms to them, I'm not saying they should foment revolution, I'm not saying they should do anything but hear that the United States of America supports their assertion of their basic human rights," said McCain, who lost to Obama in last year's U.S. presidential election.
Obama has been less critical of the election than many European leaders to avoid being accused of meddling in the election and potentially triggering a backlash against the demonstrators just as his administration seeks to engage Tehran over its nuclear program.
'SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY'
Obama's spokesman on Friday sharpened the tone.
"The violence is being conducted by the government, right?" Robert Gibbs told reporters. "The Revolutionary Guard: the pictures that we saw on Monday that the president reacted to, that was them."
"I think you're definitely witnessing something extraordinary," he said of the demonstrations. "I'm not sure that anybody even a week ago or so would have expected to see the courageous images that we're seeing now." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Democrats push for new government health plan

2009-06-20T01:58:00.000+04:00

By Donna Smith
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat lawmakers on Friday proposed guaranteeing health coverage for nearly every American, despite mounting concerns the cost of doing so could torpedo the Obama administration's healthcare reform effort.
In the latest draft of the healthcare bill, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives suggested all citizens should be able to get insurance regardless of medical history and that coverage should be mandatory for individuals and businesses.
The proposal would create a new government plan to help cover the uninsured -- a move backed by President Barack Obama but resisted by Republicans and some centrist Democrats who fear it will overwhelm private insurers and require vast amounts of public funding.
Republicans, the minority party in Congress, have set out their own more modest healthcare changes, but they lack the votes in either the House or the Senate to push them through or derail the Democrats' health reform drive.
They are seeking instead to moderate coming reforms and are focusing on the cost of restructuring the healthcare system, which is projected at more than $1.5 trillion -- a huge expense for a nation carrying record budget deficits.
The Democrats' bill would create new health insurance exchanges where people shop around for coverage. But whether or not a government-run plan has a role in these exchanges remains the subject of serious political debate.
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, a Democrat, said the public plan, if self-sufficient and sustained through premiums rather than government handouts, would improve competition in the healthcare insurance market.
"We want to keep everyone honest, and competition is the best way to do it," Waxman said.
Waxman's panel is one of three House committees writing the legislation. They plan hearings next week on the draft proposal and hope to get a final bill to the House for consideration by the end of July.
OPEN TO CHANGES
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller said he and his fellow Democrats were open to changes and would consider just about any proposals made by Republicans or wavering Democrats.
"If there is one thing off the table, it is saying 'no' to healthcare reform," Miller told reporters.
Republicans pointed out that the latest draft proposal failed to address two major issues -- the cost of the plan and how to pay for it.
"The majority has an obligation to come forward with how they are going to pay for this," Representative Dave Camp, the top Republican on the taxwriting House Ways and Means Committee, said in a telephone interview.
Democrats say proposed cost savings in existing government health programs will help cover costs. But they also are considering tax increases to ensure the new program does not add to budget deficits that may reach $1.8 trillion this year. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Rep. Frank talks tough on U.S. bank capital rules: PBS

2009-06-20T01:57:00.001+04:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. lawmaker said on Friday he was considering proposing new capital rules for big banks that would get tougher as their assets increased.
Barney Frank, the Democrat who chairs the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, said he spoke with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner about ways to make it "very tough" for banks to become too big to fail, according to an interview on PBS television's Nightly Business Report.
One idea under consideration was to set capital rules for large banks with requirements that may "go up more than proportionally" as banks increased their assets, the television program quoted Frank as saying, although it said some of his comments were made off-camera.
The regulatory overhaul plan that President Barack Obama laid out this week called for tighter regulations on the largest financial firms, and would give the Federal Reserve responsibility for monitoring risk.
But critics argued that drawing up a list of large firms that would get closer scrutiny sent a dangerous signal that these companies were too big to fail and would get government bailouts if they ran into trouble. The concern was that this would encourage them to take excessive risks.
Frank said the answer to that problem was ensuring that there were "disincentives" to firms getting too big. He said large firms would have to hold bigger capital cushions and be "more tightly restrained."
If they failed there would be severe penalties, including wiping out shareholders' equity investments and firing the chief executive, he said.
"There have to be disincentives," he said. "Because some people will say, 'Well, there will be an advantage. We'll be seen as 'too big to fail.'' And then other people will think, 'Well, I'll put my money in there, because it will always be safe.' We have to counter that. We have to put a lot of disincentives into size."
(Reporting by Emily Kaiser; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Source: Reuters

House panel subpoenas Fed over BofA/Merrill merger

2009-06-20T01:57:00.000+04:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A congressional committee said on Friday it has served the Federal Reserve with a second subpoena for documents related to Bank of America Corp's purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co.
The demand from the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was announced six days before Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to testify about the central's bank's role in the weeks surrounding the January 1 purchase.
Edolphus Towns, the New York Democrat who chairs the panel, is seeking documents that discuss "closed-door discussions" that took place between September and January among the Fed, the Treasury Department and Bank of America.
Federal Reserve spokeswoman Michelle Smith said the Fed had received the subpoena and would respond.
Lawmakers have accused Bernanke and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson of pressuring Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America to complete the merger and not reveal Merrill's financial problems, so as to not destabilize the world's markets.
Kenneth Lewis, Bank of America's chief executive, told the committee at a June 11 hearing that the bank had in December considered backing out of the merger when it learned that Merrill's losses were much larger than it expected.
Merrill would lose $15.84 billion in the fourth quarter. Two weeks after the merger closed, Bank of America accepted $20 billion of federal bailout money, and has now taken $45 billion from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program.
It was not among the 10 large U.S. banks that the government this week allowed to repay their taxpayer-funded infusions. Bank of America has said it hopes to begin repaying TARP this year. The bank is the nation's largest by assets.
Bank of America shares were up 33 cents at $13.23 in late afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. They traded at $33.74 before the Merrill purchase was announced September 15.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Source: Reuters

Obama regulatory reform plan "very bold": Gensler

2009-06-19T23:58:00.000+04:00

By Christopher Doering
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Gary Gensler, the recently confirmed chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said the Obama administration's plan to overhaul the financial regulatory system would lower risk and increase transparency, but he called on Congress for help.
"The president laid out a very bold agenda to regulate the markets," Gensler told CNBC television in an interview.
Gensler, who has pushed for overseeing both markets and dealers, said large financial institutions that deal in derivatives should be regulated for capital and margin requirements and be subjected to greater transparency.
"The way we do that is with Congress' help hopefully," he said, echoing his requests earlier this month for Congress to give CFTC more regulatory authority.
The CFTC was given a lot of attention in the 88-page white paper released on Wednesday. The package called for CFTC to coordinate with the Securities and Exchange Commission in overseeing dealers and trading of over-the-counter derivatives.
Derivatives such as credit default swaps were blamed for amplifying last fall's economic crisis.
"We'll be working along with the Securities and Exchange Commission to make sure that we police these and have clear authorities to do so," he said.
The White House's plan said the CFTC and the SEC should iron out their opposing philosophies in favor of common rules that will make it easier to find violators and introduce new financial instruments. It did not propose merging the two agencies.
The paper said the CFTC should have the authority to set position limits on OTC derivatives that perform or affect a significant price discovery function on futures markets.
Absent from the report were proposals to curb excessive speculation. Traders, farm groups and some farm state members of Congress blame a wave of hot money from hedge funds for driving commodities ranging from oil to wheat to record highs in 2008.
Gensler said there are "legitimate reasons why hedgers want speculators on the other side of the market place but we also have to make sure there is not some undue manipulation in these markets and there is not pressure beyond what is helpful to the markets to get a fair price discovery function."
(Reporting by Christopher Doering; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Source: Reuters