President Barack Obama Wednesday warned the United States could not afford the 700-billion-dollar bill to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the rich, picking a populist fight with Republicans.
Obama staked out a political position which will reverberate through the campaign ahead of mid-term elections in November in which his Democrats fear heavy losses.
"We are ready for this week, to give tax cuts to every American making 250,000 dollars or less," Obama said in a major economic speech in Cleveland, Ohio.
"For any income over this amount, the tax rates would go up to what they were under President (Bill) Clinton.
"This is not to punish folks who are better off -- it's because we can't afford the 700-billion-dollar price tag."
Republicans want all the tax cuts passed by ex-president George W. Bush to be renewed before the expire at the end of his year.
They argue that Obama will slow growth by hiking taxes on the rich, and deter some small business owners from creating jobs.
"Americans want jobs, not more government, more debt and more taxes," said Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell.
"Let’s start today with a declarative statement against tax hikes on the small businesses that are critical to expand and create jobs."
miércoles, 8 de septiembre de 2010
Gypsy leader compares Sarkozy to Romania's pro-Nazi wartime leader
A Romanian Gypsy leader on Wednesday compared French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Romania’s pro-Nazi wartime leader, following the expulsion of hundreds of Gypsies from France.
Speaking during an annual Gypsy feast held on a hill at the foots of the Carpathian Mountains, Iulian Radulescu told the Associated Press that Gypsies - also known as Roma - are being unfairly expelled from France.
France has sent back about 1,000 Gypsies to Romania and Bulgaria in recent weeks as part of its crime fighting measures. Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, calling the camps in which some of them live, sources of trafficking, exploitation of children and prostitution.
There are between 10 million and 12 million Gypsies in the EU, most living in dire circumstances, victims of poverty, discrimination, violence, unemployment, poverty and bad housing. An estimated 1.5 million of them live in Romania, a country of 22 million, which has the largest population of Gypsies in Europe.
Both France and Romania are members of European Union, and under the rules governing the 27-member bloc its citizens can travel freely within the union, but the governments are also legally permitted to send citizens of other EU countries home if they can’t find work or support themselves.
The expulsions have been criticized from several quarters including the Roman Catholic Church and the United Nations, and even some members of Sarkozy’s government.
Dressed in a gray suit and sitting inside a white marquee tent, Radulescu said that hundreds of Gypsies are paying the price “for the crimes of the few.”
“It is not right to be expelled if you are a law-abiding citizen,” the 71-year-old Radulescu said.
Radulescu compared the expulsions to the ones carried out by Romania’s pro-Nazi dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu, who ruled the country during the World War II.
Antonescu deported 25,000 Gypsies from Romania to the Soviet region of Trans-Dniester in 1942. Some 11,000 Gypsies died from exposure, typhus, starvation and thirst after they were deported from Romania. A lack of wartime records makes it difficult to determine the overall number of Gypsies killed during the Holocaust, but according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, it is between 220,000 and 500,000.
“Sarkozy is doing what Antonescu did,” Radulescu said. He also urged Gypsy leaders to try and stop crime within their communities.
A French foreign ministry spokesman, Bernard Valero, dismissed the comments, saying he declined to enter into “fruitless debates.”
“We consider that it is an European problem that should be solved with an European solution,” Valero said.
The issue of expulsion will top the agenda of planned talks between French Immigration Minister Eric Besson and the Minister for European Affairs, Pierre Lelouche, who will visit Romania on Thursday, Valero said.
Romania’s President Traian Basescu sent his adviser Peter Eckstein to tell the revelers that he supports their freedom of movement within the European Union, but also urged them to send their children to school.
At the festival, Gypsies roasted pigs and chicken on open spits, while children played on merry go rounds and listened to Gypsy pop and French rap music.
Another Gypsy leader Florin Cioaba told hundreds gathered that they are being discriminated in Europe.
“There is one set of laws for European citizens and different laws for the Roma,” Cioaba said.
FRANCE 24
Speaking during an annual Gypsy feast held on a hill at the foots of the Carpathian Mountains, Iulian Radulescu told the Associated Press that Gypsies - also known as Roma - are being unfairly expelled from France.
France has sent back about 1,000 Gypsies to Romania and Bulgaria in recent weeks as part of its crime fighting measures. Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, calling the camps in which some of them live, sources of trafficking, exploitation of children and prostitution.
There are between 10 million and 12 million Gypsies in the EU, most living in dire circumstances, victims of poverty, discrimination, violence, unemployment, poverty and bad housing. An estimated 1.5 million of them live in Romania, a country of 22 million, which has the largest population of Gypsies in Europe.
Both France and Romania are members of European Union, and under the rules governing the 27-member bloc its citizens can travel freely within the union, but the governments are also legally permitted to send citizens of other EU countries home if they can’t find work or support themselves.
The expulsions have been criticized from several quarters including the Roman Catholic Church and the United Nations, and even some members of Sarkozy’s government.
Dressed in a gray suit and sitting inside a white marquee tent, Radulescu said that hundreds of Gypsies are paying the price “for the crimes of the few.”
“It is not right to be expelled if you are a law-abiding citizen,” the 71-year-old Radulescu said.
Radulescu compared the expulsions to the ones carried out by Romania’s pro-Nazi dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu, who ruled the country during the World War II.
Antonescu deported 25,000 Gypsies from Romania to the Soviet region of Trans-Dniester in 1942. Some 11,000 Gypsies died from exposure, typhus, starvation and thirst after they were deported from Romania. A lack of wartime records makes it difficult to determine the overall number of Gypsies killed during the Holocaust, but according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, it is between 220,000 and 500,000.
“Sarkozy is doing what Antonescu did,” Radulescu said. He also urged Gypsy leaders to try and stop crime within their communities.
A French foreign ministry spokesman, Bernard Valero, dismissed the comments, saying he declined to enter into “fruitless debates.”
“We consider that it is an European problem that should be solved with an European solution,” Valero said.
The issue of expulsion will top the agenda of planned talks between French Immigration Minister Eric Besson and the Minister for European Affairs, Pierre Lelouche, who will visit Romania on Thursday, Valero said.
Romania’s President Traian Basescu sent his adviser Peter Eckstein to tell the revelers that he supports their freedom of movement within the European Union, but also urged them to send their children to school.
At the festival, Gypsies roasted pigs and chicken on open spits, while children played on merry go rounds and listened to Gypsy pop and French rap music.
Another Gypsy leader Florin Cioaba told hundreds gathered that they are being discriminated in Europe.
“There is one set of laws for European citizens and different laws for the Roma,” Cioaba said.
FRANCE 24
Three Times Square bomb suspects held by Islamabad police
AFP - Pakistan's police have arrested three suspects linked to a Pakistani-American accused in New York of the attempted car bombing of Times Square, a senior police official said Wednesday.
The three were detained in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, two weeks ago and had been interrogated for several days, police said.
"It has been proved that they had links with Faisal Shehzad (the car-bombing suspect arrested in New York) and had transferred money to him," Bani Amin, operations police chief in Islamabad, told AFP.
"Today we have lodged a formal case against them," said Amin, who named the three suspects as Shoaib Mughal, Mohammad Shahid and Hanbal Akhtar.
He said the three suspects also had close links with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leaders Hakimullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain, whose organisation has claimed responsibility for Shehzad's May 1 plot to bomb Times Square.
Mehsud is the chief of the TTP and Hussain is a militant commander of a TTP faction known as "Ustad-e-Fidaeen," which trains suicide bombers.
The TTP is based in Pakistan's tribal badlands on the Afghan border and has been blamed for some of the deadliest suicide attacks in the nuclear-armed country.
Pakistan acknowledged on July 26 that Shehzad had met the country's Taliban commander and several other people.
In June Shehzad pleaded guilty in a New York court to the Times Square car bombing attempt and warned that the United States faced similar attacks until it left Muslim lands.
Sky News broadcast a video in July, showing Shehzad and Mehsud shaking hands, smiling and hugging some time before the failed May 1 attack.
At the request of the United States Pakistan has opened an investigation into possible links between Shehzad and militant groups.
Pakistani-born Shehzad was pulled off a flight to Dubai two days after parking a car containing a bomb in Times Square.
He told a judge that he had undergone bomb-making training during a 40-day stay with the TTP in Pakistan, between December 9 and January 25.
On returning to the United States, Shehzad said, he had planned the bombing and had acted alone, telling the judge: "Nobody helped me."
By News Wires
The three were detained in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, two weeks ago and had been interrogated for several days, police said.
"It has been proved that they had links with Faisal Shehzad (the car-bombing suspect arrested in New York) and had transferred money to him," Bani Amin, operations police chief in Islamabad, told AFP.
"Today we have lodged a formal case against them," said Amin, who named the three suspects as Shoaib Mughal, Mohammad Shahid and Hanbal Akhtar.
He said the three suspects also had close links with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leaders Hakimullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain, whose organisation has claimed responsibility for Shehzad's May 1 plot to bomb Times Square.
Mehsud is the chief of the TTP and Hussain is a militant commander of a TTP faction known as "Ustad-e-Fidaeen," which trains suicide bombers.
The TTP is based in Pakistan's tribal badlands on the Afghan border and has been blamed for some of the deadliest suicide attacks in the nuclear-armed country.
Pakistan acknowledged on July 26 that Shehzad had met the country's Taliban commander and several other people.
In June Shehzad pleaded guilty in a New York court to the Times Square car bombing attempt and warned that the United States faced similar attacks until it left Muslim lands.
Sky News broadcast a video in July, showing Shehzad and Mehsud shaking hands, smiling and hugging some time before the failed May 1 attack.
At the request of the United States Pakistan has opened an investigation into possible links between Shehzad and militant groups.
Pakistani-born Shehzad was pulled off a flight to Dubai two days after parking a car containing a bomb in Times Square.
He told a judge that he had undergone bomb-making training during a 40-day stay with the TTP in Pakistan, between December 9 and January 25.
On returning to the United States, Shehzad said, he had planned the bombing and had acted alone, telling the judge: "Nobody helped me."
By News Wires
Gainesville united in opposition to Koran-burning pastor
This dispute has bought the city and its religious communities together,” says Rev. Larry Reimer of Gainesville’s United Church. “We are coming to realise that we have much more in common with each other than we thought.”
Rev. Reimer insists the overwhelming majority of the Florida city’s population stands against the Islamophobic antics of the fringe pastor who wants to burn the Koran on Saturday’s anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Terry Jones – whose “Dove World Outreach Center” congregation musters barely 50 members – has caused international uproar after announcing plans to burn the Muslim holy text as a “stand” against the spread of radical Islam.
But despite the international attention, Rev. Reimer insists that Jones, an evangelical pastor who is also a second-hand furniture salesman, remains what he has always been – a fringe figure who does not represent the feelings of the local community.
‘We tried to ignore him’
Rev. Reimer said that until the story exploded the town’s various religious groups had hoped it was enough simply to ignore the bellicose Pastor Jones, who campaigned unsuccessfully against the election of an openly gay mayor last year.
“It’s a quirk of the modern media that his message has gone around the world,” he told FRANCE 24. “We tried to ignore him but he has just got so much attention.”
Rev. Reimer said some 25 clergy from the city’s Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities have come together for a series of inter-faith services and events ahead of Saturday’s 9/11 anniversary. These have included visits to the mosque, where his group will be attending Friday prays.
On Saturday, hundreds of people are expected to attend a candlelit vigil organised by the group in downtown Gainesville.
The national voice
The people of Gainesville are not the only ones to have expressed their dismay at the pastor's plans. Rev. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the US National Council of Churches, rejected the idea that the majority of Americans were fearful of the presence of the Islamic faith in the country.
“It’s wrong to assume there is a wave of Islamophobia sweeping across the United States,” he told FRANCE 24. “And we feel it is important that the government speaks out and expresses the moral disgust felt by the majority of the population [at Pastor Jones’s planned burning of the Koran].
“We believe religious tolerance can be strengthened through this tragedy in Florida.”
Rev. Reimer insists the overwhelming majority of the Florida city’s population stands against the Islamophobic antics of the fringe pastor who wants to burn the Koran on Saturday’s anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Terry Jones – whose “Dove World Outreach Center” congregation musters barely 50 members – has caused international uproar after announcing plans to burn the Muslim holy text as a “stand” against the spread of radical Islam.
But despite the international attention, Rev. Reimer insists that Jones, an evangelical pastor who is also a second-hand furniture salesman, remains what he has always been – a fringe figure who does not represent the feelings of the local community.
‘We tried to ignore him’
Rev. Reimer said that until the story exploded the town’s various religious groups had hoped it was enough simply to ignore the bellicose Pastor Jones, who campaigned unsuccessfully against the election of an openly gay mayor last year.
“It’s a quirk of the modern media that his message has gone around the world,” he told FRANCE 24. “We tried to ignore him but he has just got so much attention.”
Rev. Reimer said some 25 clergy from the city’s Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities have come together for a series of inter-faith services and events ahead of Saturday’s 9/11 anniversary. These have included visits to the mosque, where his group will be attending Friday prays.
On Saturday, hundreds of people are expected to attend a candlelit vigil organised by the group in downtown Gainesville.
The national voice
The people of Gainesville are not the only ones to have expressed their dismay at the pastor's plans. Rev. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the US National Council of Churches, rejected the idea that the majority of Americans were fearful of the presence of the Islamic faith in the country.
“It’s wrong to assume there is a wave of Islamophobia sweeping across the United States,” he told FRANCE 24. “And we feel it is important that the government speaks out and expresses the moral disgust felt by the majority of the population [at Pastor Jones’s planned burning of the Koran].
“We believe religious tolerance can be strengthened through this tragedy in Florida.”
martes, 24 de agosto de 2010
UN Security Council condemns Somali suicide attack
United Nations (CNN) -- The United Nations Security Council strongly condemned the Somalia suicide bombing that took the lives of at least 33 people on Tuesday. Six members of the Somali Parliament died in the attack and three members were injured, a government spokesperson said.
The Security Council called for the attackers "to be brought swiftly to justice." The council condemnation was in the form of a statement to the press. It requires the consensus of all members but is not as forceful as a presidential statement or legally binding as a resolution.
The president of the Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, spoke of "dramatic, tragic developments in Mogadishu" and passed on the Security Council's condolences to the families of the victims and the Somali government.
Two men stormed the Muna hotel in Somalia's capital Mogadishu and detonated explosives, officials reported. The Islamist rebel group Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the bloodshed.
It is not the group's first attack against the transitional government of Somalia and the African Union troops that try to protect the government. Al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Dhere said his group would not stop fighting until the AU peacekeeping troops leave Somalia.
The Security Council said it stands strongly behind the transitional government of Somalia and supports the AU peacekeeping mission, known as AMISOM. Churkin emphasized the Security Council's "continued appreciation" for the work of the African Union troops sent from Uganda and Burundi.
In light of ongoing fighting in Mogadishu, the Security Council highlighted "the need to continue strengthening Somali security institutions." Churkin also pointed to "the importance of an inclusive dialogue in the peace process".
Journalists said the attackers committed suicide after government security forces surrounded the Muna Hotel, located near the presidential palace.
"Just before 11 a.m. two attackers, a gunman and a suicide bomber, gained access to a hotel in Mogadishu," according to Maj. Barigye Ba Hoku, spokesman for the African Union Mission in Somalia.
The assault on the hotel came as the death toll rose from some of the fiercest fighting in Somalia's capital in months.
An ambulance group reported having difficulty reaching the wounded, the director of that service has said.
Pitched battles between government forces and Al Shabaab militiamen have escalated in Mogadishu this week, leaving injured residents literally caught in the crossfire.
"There are 11 students trapped in a school right now," Ali Muse, head of Life Line Africa, a local Somali charity running the country's only private ambulance service, said Tuesday. "It is too dangerous for our ambulances to collect them."
Muse said the gunbattles were centered in Bakara Market, where many women live and hawk their goods to locals. The area is controlled by Al Shabaab.
"Many women have been killed," Muse said, adding that it is a "very crowded area."
"We are launching a final war to terminate the invading infidels in Mogadishu and all forces from the Islamic provinces are going to take part and we will wipe out the enemies out of Mogadishu," Sheikh Ali said on Monday.
The fighting has been a persistent and overwhelming problem for civilians.
"The situation in Mogadishu -- and Somalia, if it is not checked -- it is likely to escalate and get more complicated and will be difficult to resolve," Wafula Wamunyinyi, the deputy special representative of the chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia, said at a press conference in Nairobi on Monday.
"We have taken measures to ensure that we control the issue of civilian casualties," he continued. "We are working on the training for all of our peacekeepers and we are giving priority for protection of civilians."
Wamunyinyi said the international community needs to take a close look at Somalia's problems, especially in light of the July terrorist attack in Kampala, Uganda, that left 76 dead. Al Shabaab, which controls much of southern Somalia, claimed responsibility for the act.
"Somalia needs to be taken more seriously now, rather than later," he said. "The issue of Somalia has not received the seriousness that it has deserved, so we want to appeal to encourage that we need to support the peace process."
Separately, Madina Hospital in south Mogadishu said it had received more than 100 wounded people in Monday's fighting alone.
Somalia was ranked in 2010 as the worst failed state in the world, according to Foreign Policy magazine's annual index of such nations. Chad and Sudan, respectively, round out the top three failed states.
The Security Council called for the attackers "to be brought swiftly to justice." The council condemnation was in the form of a statement to the press. It requires the consensus of all members but is not as forceful as a presidential statement or legally binding as a resolution.
The president of the Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, spoke of "dramatic, tragic developments in Mogadishu" and passed on the Security Council's condolences to the families of the victims and the Somali government.
Two men stormed the Muna hotel in Somalia's capital Mogadishu and detonated explosives, officials reported. The Islamist rebel group Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the bloodshed.
It is not the group's first attack against the transitional government of Somalia and the African Union troops that try to protect the government. Al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Dhere said his group would not stop fighting until the AU peacekeeping troops leave Somalia.
The Security Council said it stands strongly behind the transitional government of Somalia and supports the AU peacekeeping mission, known as AMISOM. Churkin emphasized the Security Council's "continued appreciation" for the work of the African Union troops sent from Uganda and Burundi.
In light of ongoing fighting in Mogadishu, the Security Council highlighted "the need to continue strengthening Somali security institutions." Churkin also pointed to "the importance of an inclusive dialogue in the peace process".
Journalists said the attackers committed suicide after government security forces surrounded the Muna Hotel, located near the presidential palace.
"Just before 11 a.m. two attackers, a gunman and a suicide bomber, gained access to a hotel in Mogadishu," according to Maj. Barigye Ba Hoku, spokesman for the African Union Mission in Somalia.
The assault on the hotel came as the death toll rose from some of the fiercest fighting in Somalia's capital in months.
An ambulance group reported having difficulty reaching the wounded, the director of that service has said.
Pitched battles between government forces and Al Shabaab militiamen have escalated in Mogadishu this week, leaving injured residents literally caught in the crossfire.
"There are 11 students trapped in a school right now," Ali Muse, head of Life Line Africa, a local Somali charity running the country's only private ambulance service, said Tuesday. "It is too dangerous for our ambulances to collect them."
Muse said the gunbattles were centered in Bakara Market, where many women live and hawk their goods to locals. The area is controlled by Al Shabaab.
"Many women have been killed," Muse said, adding that it is a "very crowded area."
"We are launching a final war to terminate the invading infidels in Mogadishu and all forces from the Islamic provinces are going to take part and we will wipe out the enemies out of Mogadishu," Sheikh Ali said on Monday.
The fighting has been a persistent and overwhelming problem for civilians.
"The situation in Mogadishu -- and Somalia, if it is not checked -- it is likely to escalate and get more complicated and will be difficult to resolve," Wafula Wamunyinyi, the deputy special representative of the chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia, said at a press conference in Nairobi on Monday.
"We have taken measures to ensure that we control the issue of civilian casualties," he continued. "We are working on the training for all of our peacekeepers and we are giving priority for protection of civilians."
Wamunyinyi said the international community needs to take a close look at Somalia's problems, especially in light of the July terrorist attack in Kampala, Uganda, that left 76 dead. Al Shabaab, which controls much of southern Somalia, claimed responsibility for the act.
"Somalia needs to be taken more seriously now, rather than later," he said. "The issue of Somalia has not received the seriousness that it has deserved, so we want to appeal to encourage that we need to support the peace process."
Separately, Madina Hospital in south Mogadishu said it had received more than 100 wounded people in Monday's fighting alone.
Somalia was ranked in 2010 as the worst failed state in the world, according to Foreign Policy magazine's annual index of such nations. Chad and Sudan, respectively, round out the top three failed states.
miércoles, 18 de agosto de 2010
Businesses resist 'conflict minerals' law
Businesses resist 'conflict minerals' law
Children wash copper on July 9 at an open-air mine in Kamatanda in the rich mining province of Katanga, southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
US manufacturers are mounting a lobbying campaign over a provision slipped into the financial reform legislation requiring companies to declare products containing minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Dodd-Frank act includes a clause which effectively classifies resources from Congo as "conflict minerals", mimicking previous campaigns which targeted so-called "blood diamonds" from countries with poor human rights records.
The mandatory disclosure follows public pressure to extend the curbs on diamonds to the trade in minerals that has helped to fuel conflict in the Congo. "This will affect almost every US manufacturing sector. It covers coltan and ultimately tin, which are used right across industry," said Rick Goss, a vice president at the Information Technology Industry Council.
Widespread use of minerals from the region in electronics products has triggered headlines attacking companies such as Apple and Microsoft for selling "genocide phones".
Under the new law, any US-listed company whose products require the affected minerals for their manufacture or "functionality" will have to report annually on whether the metals can be traced back to the Congo region. Manufacturers who cannot declare their products "conflict free" will have to produce an independently audited report on the steps taken to ascertain the source of the minerals.
Children wash copper on July 9 at an open-air mine in Kamatanda in the rich mining province of Katanga, southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
US manufacturers are mounting a lobbying campaign over a provision slipped into the financial reform legislation requiring companies to declare products containing minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Dodd-Frank act includes a clause which effectively classifies resources from Congo as "conflict minerals", mimicking previous campaigns which targeted so-called "blood diamonds" from countries with poor human rights records.
The mandatory disclosure follows public pressure to extend the curbs on diamonds to the trade in minerals that has helped to fuel conflict in the Congo. "This will affect almost every US manufacturing sector. It covers coltan and ultimately tin, which are used right across industry," said Rick Goss, a vice president at the Information Technology Industry Council.
Widespread use of minerals from the region in electronics products has triggered headlines attacking companies such as Apple and Microsoft for selling "genocide phones".
Under the new law, any US-listed company whose products require the affected minerals for their manufacture or "functionality" will have to report annually on whether the metals can be traced back to the Congo region. Manufacturers who cannot declare their products "conflict free" will have to produce an independently audited report on the steps taken to ascertain the source of the minerals.
Looking at Pakistan's desperation through a camera lens
(CNN) -- The boy stood out because of the bright blue shirt he was wearing, not for his arms stretched toward the heavens or the look in his eyes that said: I am hungry.
All the other boys were desperate, too.
Photographer Paula Bronstein looked down at them from the Pakistani military helicopter about to drop food and water. She would never know their names but she would tell their story.
Click. click. click.
The boy in the blue shirt is one of 20 million Pakistanis suffering in a land washed away by massive monsoon flooding.
All the other boys were desperate, too.
Photographer Paula Bronstein looked down at them from the Pakistani military helicopter about to drop food and water. She would never know their names but she would tell their story.
Click. click. click.
The boy in the blue shirt is one of 20 million Pakistanis suffering in a land washed away by massive monsoon flooding.
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