N.Korea presents nuclear report
Thu Jun 26, 2008 2:13pm EDT
By Matt Spetalnick and Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea handed over a long-delayed account of its nuclear activities on Thursday, prompting a still-wary U.S. President George W. Bush to ease some sanctions on a country he once deemed part of an "axis of evil."
Bush cautiously welcomed the action but warned North Korea, which tested a nuclear device two years ago, that it faced "consequences" if it did not fully disclose its operations and continue to dismantle its nuclear programs and facilities.
"If North Korea makes the wrong choices, the United States and our partners in the six-party talks will respond accordingly," he said in Washington shortly after the declaration was handed over to China.
Responding to an unusual opening by the secretive communist state, Bush took a step toward removing North Korea from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and issued a proclamation lifting some sanctions under the Trading with the Enemy Act.
Seeking to deflect criticism from hardline critics who accuse him of going soft, Bush made clear he would put the onus on Pyongyang to keep its denuclearization promises.
With the unpopular Iraq war and Iranian nuclear standoff unresolved in the twilight of Bush's presidency, his administration is hoping progress on North Korea can help salvage his foreign policy legacy.
But U.S. officials acknowledged that the North Korean declaration, which came six months late, falls short of answering all concerns about Pyongyang's atomic ambitions, especially on past nuclear proliferation activities.
Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, said the statement reveals the amount of plutonium North Korea has produced but does not detail its nuclear weapons stockpile.
But he said U.S. experts could "do the math" and that issue would be discussed in a further phase of the six-party talks involving Pyongyang's neighbors that yielded this deal.
Bush also welcomed an announcement by North Korea that it would blow up the cooling tower at Yongbyon, its main nuclear complex. In an unprecedented move, North Korea has invited Western media to record the event.
NOT THE END
North Korea had already begun dismantling its nuclear facilities after talks among China, Japan, Russia, North and South Korea and the United States.
"This isn't the end of the process, this is the beginning of the process," Bush said, and added Pyongyang's current actions would not in themselves end North Korea's international isolation.
He said among other steps North Korea needed to take was a resolution of its differences over abducted Japanese citizens.
Bush bracketed North Korea, Iraq and Iran in an "axis of evil" after the September 11 attacks in 2001, accusing them of sponsoring terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction.
Removal from the U.S. terrorism blacklist could ease some trade restrictions and eventually let Pyongyang work with the World Bank and other international institutions.
Bush and other officials stressed the symbolic nature of the U.S. concessions. He has come under pressure from many conservatives not to be seen as compromising on North Korea five months before a U.S. presidential election in which national security issues will play a big part.
John Bolton, former U.S. envoy to the United Nations under the Bush administration and now a harsh critic, said, "This is a big shame. This is an agreement that almost entirely benefits North Korea. They've gained enormous international political legitimacy ... while giving up essentially nothing in return."
Hadley said easing sanctions was "relatively minor" and if Pyongyang failed to fulfill its obligations the United States could seek to reimpose them or push for new ones.
U.S. financial sanctions aimed at thwarting North Korean money laundering, illicit financing activities and weapons proliferation will stay in effect, a Treasury spokesman said.
Experts said the declaration was a step forward, but deepened uncertainties about who will make further concessions, and how much other countries are willing to trust Pyongyang.
"Since this particular declaration has not included nuclear weapons or the exact number of warheads they have, that is a key concern," said Lee Chung-min, a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul.
Despite that, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said North Korea's declaration followed by "reciprocal actions" by the United States "are important steps forward."
China, the closest Pyongyang has to an ally, hosted talks that last year secured a deal offering North Korea energy, aid and diplomatic concessions in return for disabling its main nuclear facility and unveiling past nuclear activities.
The latest phase of the nuclear disarmament deal had been due for completion by the end of 2007 but was delayed by wrangling over money, aid and the contents of the declaration. A new round of six-party talks is expected soon.
(Additional reporting by David Morgan and Paul Eckert in Washington, Chris Buckley in Beijing, Susan Cornwell in Kyoto, and Jack Kim in Seoul; Writing by Matt Spetalnick and Jeremy Laurence; Editing by David Storey and Patricia Zengerle)
The Following Reports Are Reprinted From the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
Anniversary of Kim Jong Il's Start of Work at C.C., WPK Marked
Pyongyang, June 25 (KCNA) -- Organizations of Brazil and Germany released bulletins on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of General Secretary Kim Jong Il's start of work at the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.
The Brazil-Korea Friendship Association in its bulletin on June 16 noted that Kim Jong Il who started his work at the C.C., WPK 40 odd years ago fully systematized the revolutionary idea of President Kim Il Sung on the basis of deep study and analysis of the preceding theory of the working class, thus providing guidelines guaranteeing the triumphant advance of the human cause of independence.
Saying that the Songun politics enforced by the DPRK is a typical example proving Kim Jong Il's distinguished political caliber, the bulletin stressed that the DPRK has greeted the dawn of a great prosperous powerful socialist nation today by making dynamic progress in the efforts to attain the above-said new high eminence thanks to his Songun politics, overcoming difficulties.
It noted that the DPRK formed a harmonious large family thanks to his benevolent politics.
The German Group for Study of Songun Politics carried articles titled "Invincible Workers' Party of Korea and Kim Jong Il", "Kimjongilia" and "Songun politics, a model of independent politics" and other articles in bulletin No. 3 in which it highly lauded the undying feats performed by Kim Jong Il before the party and the revolution, the country and the people and the human cause of independence.
Lasting Peace on the Korean Peninsula Called for
Pyongyang, June 25 (KCNA) -- Leading papers today in editorials carried 58 years after the U.S. imperialists provoked the Korean war of aggression call for meeting the challenges of the war forces at home and abroad and ensuring lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Rodong Sinmun says that the Korean War ignited by the U.S. imperialists on June 25, 1950 was a brazen-faced and brigandish war of aggression to put Korea under their colonial rule and, furthermore, conquer Asia and the rest of the world and the most barbarous war of genocide in the history of wars.
The U.S. has ceaselessly stepped up the arms build-up and joint military exercises targeted against the DPRK in wanton violation of the Korean Armistice Agreement since the outset of the new century, far from drawing a bitter lesson from its defeat in the Korean War and making a switchover in its policy of aggression toward the DPRK. It is instigating the puppet warmaniacs to confrontation and war against fellow countrymen.
Since its seizure of power in south Korea the Lee Myung Bak group has boosted its cooperation with outside forces in the war moves, swimming against the trend of the times towards detente and peace. The bellicose moves escalated by the Lee Myung Bak regime in collusion with outside forces are throwing a stumbling block in the way of achieving peace and the reunification of the country and increasing the danger of the second Korean War.
The situation prevailing on the Korean Peninsula at present requires all Koreans in the north and the south and overseas to unite close and wage a vigorous nationwide struggle to defend peace, the daily says, calling on all Koreans to hold aloft the banner of Songun and protect the dignity and sovereignty of the country and the nation and accomplish the historic cause of national reunification.
The daily underscored the need for all Koreans to stand on the same front of the struggle for peace against war and smash every move of the U.S. for a war of aggression against the DPRK, a grave threat to the peace on the Korean Peninsula, and the every reckless move of the Lee Myung Bak group, its lackeys, to ignite a war of aggression against the north.
Minju Joson stresses that no force on earth can ever arrest the struggle of the Korean nation to defend peace and achieve independent reunification under the uplifted banner of Songun.
Preservation of Peace on Korean Peninsula Called for
Pyongyang, June 25 (KCNA) -- If a war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula again, it will certainly develop into a nuclear war to threaten the very existence of the nation. It is, therefore, the most urgent task to be fulfilled by the whole nation for protecting its existence and security and achieving the reunification of the country to defend peace from a war. Rodong Sinmun today observes this in a signed article.
It goes on:
The entire nation should frustrate the moves of the bellicose forces at home and abroad to provoke a war of aggression against the north and intensify the struggle for peace against war in order to ensure peace on the peninsula.
The struggle for peace against war means a just and patriotic struggle to defend the cradle for the nation and a sacred struggle to pave the way for national reunification and the independent development of the nation.
All Koreans should stand up against the U.S. criminal war maneuvers and arms build-up threatening the existence and future of the nation and disturbing peace and blocking the reunification of the country and its moves to escalate the military pressure upon the DPRK and resolutely frustrate them.
The south Korean people should wage a vigorous struggle for independence against the U.S. and for the withdrawal of the U.S. forces and thus force the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces, the root cause of national misfortune and pain, to quit south Korea as early as possible.
They should, at the same time, intensify the struggle to check and foil the moves stepped up by the Lee Myung Bak group to boost the cooperation with foreign forces in war maneuvers and its reckless actions for a war of aggression against the north, hell-bent on sycophancy towards the U.S. and confrontation with fellow countrymen. All Koreans in the north and the south should turn out in the nation-wide patriotic struggle to remove the danger of war and defend peace.
The idea of "By our nation itself" serves as a powerful weapon in the struggle for peace against war.
All Koreans at home and abroad should firmly unite as one in the above-said idea and thoroughly smash the criminal moves of the U.S. and the Lee group, its lackeys, to provoke a new war by the concerted efforts of the nation.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Zimbabwe Elections Bulletin: Mandela Was Pressured to Criticise Nation, Says Government; Mugabe Speaks at Campaign Rally Ahead of June 27 Poll
Former South African President Nelson Mandela during a 1997 three-day state visit to Zimbabwe, along with President Robert Mugabe.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
June 26, 2008
Zimbabwe: 'Mandela criticism does not matter'
Jenny Booth
Nelson Mandela was pressured into criticising the Zimbabwean Government at a charity dinner in London last night, the Zimbabwean information minister claimed today.
With hours to go before Zimbabwe goes to the polls after a campaign marred by intimidation, torture and killings, the veteran anti-apartheid campaigner and statesman had said that there had been a “tragic failure of leadership in our neighboring Zimbabwe”.
Mr Mandela's remark was seized upon by Western leaders who have criticised President Robert Mugabe's increasingly disastrous rule, and by Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader who pulled out of the election on Sunday blaming the political violence.
“We appreciate the solidarity from Nelson Mandela, it is something we cherish,” said Mr Tsvangirai in a phone interview with Sky News from the Dutch embassy in Harare, where he took shelter at the weekend.
However, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the Zimbabwean Information Minister, said that the statement was only caused by Western pressure. “Mandela is a statesman. He is courageous, yes he is,” Ndlovu said. “I am condemning all Westerners for putting pressure on Mandela.”
Mr Ndlovu coupled Mr Mandela's remarks with Britain’s decision to strip Mr Mugabe of his knighthood, saying both were part of a campaign by Africa's former colonial powers.
“All those things are of no consequence,” said Mr Ndlovu. He added that Zimbabwe's critics were hypocrites, and that no-one was condemning Britain for calling for more sanctions against Zimbabwe. “We would also like Mandela to condemn the sanctions against us.”
Jerome MacDonald Gumbo, the parliamentary chief whip for Zanu-PF, said that Mr Mandela's statement was "very unfortunate" and "totally unacceptable".
"I don't see the merit in that kind of statement... [It's] totally unacceptable... the judgement that he has made," Mr MacDonald Gumbo told the BBC.
More international sanctions against Zimbabwe remain a possibility. European Union leaders last week threatened Zimbabwe with further, unspecified measures, which Gordon Brown said might be targeted against members of Mr Mugabe’s regime.
Downing Street said today that sanctions were under review, but that Britain wanted to guard against hurting the population, who have suffered greatly from mass unemployment and hyperinflation caused by Zimbabwean mismanagement of the economy, as well as from the political violence.
Commenting on Mr Mandela’s intervention, a Downing Street spokesman said: “There is growing international condemnation of Robert Mugabe and his regime and what they are doing to suppress the democratic will of the Zimbabwean people.
“We have seen a number of condemnations from African leaders and African statesmen in recent days and Mr Mandela’s is the latest of those.”
The remarks were out of the ordinary as Mr Mandela, who is nearly 90 and largely retired from public life, uses his influence sparingly. It is particularly rare for him to differ publicly with Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s current president. South Africans and other Africans have been increasingly questioning Mr Mbeki’s unwillingness to publicly criticise Mr Mugabe's use of violence against his own people.
The row over Mr Mandela's remarks came as Mr Mugabe launched into his final day of campaigning for the presidential second round ballot tomorrow, for which he is the only active candidate.
Mr Tsvangirai's name remains on the ballot paper and he is officially in contention, as his withdrawal from the election came too late. Commentators were predicting that few would be brave enough to vote for him now.
Mr Tsvangirai predicted that Zanu-PF would enforce a high turnout in order to gain a veneer of legitimacy. "There will be massive frogmarching of the people to the polling stations by force," said Mr Tsvangirai.
“There could be a massive turnout, not because of the will of the people but because of the role of the military and the traditional leaders to force people to these polls,” he said.
Zimbabwean police said that they had uncovered a plot by Britain and the United States, some foreign charities and Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change to disrupt the vote with violence, including burning down voting tents.
“It is evident that the opposition MDC has plans to disrupt the election. These counter-productive criminal activities will be met head-on and with the full force of the law,” Assistant Commissioner Faustino Mazango told a news conference. He said the plot was revealed by five people arrested yesterday.
Despite pressure, Mugabe says vote must go ahead
Thu Jun 26, 2008 12:38pm EDT
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE, June 26 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Thursday rejected African calls to postpone a presidential election on Friday, saying there could be no interference in his country even from the African Union.
Mugabe, 84, who is bound to extend his 28-year-rule in the one candidate election, said he was open to discussions with the opposition MDC. Its leader Morgan Tsvangirai has withdrawn from the election after a wave of deadly attacks on his supporters.
Addressing a campaign rally in Chitungwiza, south of Harare, Mugabe said: "We have some of our brothers in Africa making that call (to postpone the vote), pushing us to violate our own law and we have refused to do so, we are sticking to our law."
Mugabe said he would attend an African Union summit in Egypt next week but no solutions could be imposed on Zimbabwe from outside. He said he was ready to answer any challenge from within the AU to the elections.
"I know some people are gearing themselves for an attack on Zimbabwe. I want to see any country which will raise its finger in the AU, our elections have been free."
A security committee of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Wednesday called for the vote to be postponed, saying Mugabe's re-election as the only candidate could lack legitimacy because of chronic political violence.
The committee includes AU chairman Tanzania.
Opposition leader Tsvangirai last Sunday pulled out of the vote because of violence that he says has killed almost 90 of his Movement of Democratic Change supporters. He has taken refuge in the Dutch embassy ever since.
Tsvangirai said earlier there could be no negotiations with Mugabe if he went ahead with Friday's election.
He said that if Mugabe declared himself president he would be shunned as an illegitimate leader who killed his own people.
MANDELA JOINS CONDEMNATION
Africa's most iconic figure, Nelson Mandela, added his voice to a storm of African and international condemnation of the violence and chaos in Zimbabwe, in a rare political statement that showed the level of concern around the continent.
Mugabe, president since independence from Britain, has presided over Zimbabwe's slide from one of the region's most prosperous nations to a basket case with inflation estimated to have hit at least 2 million percent.
A loaf of bread now costs 6 billion Zimbabwe dollars, or 150 times more than at the time of the first round of elections on March 29 when Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe but fell short of the absolute majority needed for an outright victory.
Mugabe blames the crisis on sanctions by former colonial ruler Britain and other Western countries.
Zimbabwean police said Britain and the United States were backing plans by Tsvangirai's MDC and some NGOs to disrupt Friday's vote with violence, including burning down voting tents.
Tsvangirai tried to step up the pressure by telling Mugabe that his chances of negotiating an end to Zimbabwe's catastrophic collapse would end on Friday.
"Negotiations will be over if Mr Mugabe declares himself the winner and considers himself the president. How can we negotiate?" Tsvangirai told London's Times newspaper.
Mugabe said he was open to discussions with other parties but stressed that any solution to the crisis in the country needed to come from Zimbabweans.
In a later interview with Sky News, Tsvangirai challenged South African President Thabo Mbeki, the designated regional mediator in Zimbabwe, to take urgent action to end the crisis.
Mbeki, leader of Africa's biggest economic power, has been widely criticised for being soft on Mugabe despite a crisis that has flooded his country with millions of refugees.
Tsvangirai's lieutenant Tendai Biti was released on bail on Thursday after being held for two weeks on treason charges. Bail was set at 1 trillion Zimbabwean dollars -- about $90, his lawyer said.
Biti told reporters in Harare after his release that the election was a farce. "The whole thing, as we said at the beginning...was always going to be a runover over people and the closer we got to the 27th of June the clearer it became that this was a farce."
Mugabe is facing a concerted international campaign to push him into calling off the vote by threatening he will be shunned by the world, including African allies once over-awed by his liberation hero status.
Mandela said in a speech at a dinner for his 90th birthday in London that there had been a "tragic failure of leadership in our neighbouring Zimbabwe."
South Africa's ruling African National Congress, which has been severely critical of Mugabe, in contrast to Mbeki, said it was not too late to call off the vote.
"The ANC is convinced that it is not too late for President Mugabe to cancel the election, the run-off, and lead the country in a dialogue that will be for the good of all Zimbabweans," spokeswoman Jesse Duarte told BBC television.
(Additional reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe and Nelson Banya in Harare, Susan Cornwell in Kyoto; Writing by Barry Moody and Marius Bosch; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
US Financial Crisis Bulletin: Citigroup Sinks to 10-Year Low; GM Drops to 53-Year Low; Stocks Hit Hard
Sandra Hines speaks at the Town Hall Meeting held at UAW Local 7 on June 14, 2008 in Detroit. The meeting demanded immediate passage of SB 1306 imposing a two-year moratorium on foreclosures in Michigan. (Photo: Alan Pollock).
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Thu Jun 26, 2008 10:57am EDT
By Neha Singh
BANGALORE (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc shares fell to their lowest level in nearly a decade after a Goldman Sachs & Co analyst said investors should sell the largest U.S. bank's stock short as losses mount from troubled debt.
In morning trading, the shares were down $1.03, or 5.5 percent, at $17.82 on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares were among the biggest drags on the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500, which both fell more than 1 percent.
They also touched their lowest level since October 1998, the month that Sanford "Sandy" Weill merged his Travelers Group with Citicorp to create Citigroup.
William Tanona, the Goldman analyst, added Citigroup to Goldman's "Americas conviction sell" list and cut his price target on the stock to $16 from $20.
He recommended a "paired" trade in which investors sell Citigroup shares short, betting on a decline, and buy Morgan Stanley shares.
The analyst said Citigroup might take $8.9 billion of write-downs for the April-to-June period, leading to its third straight quarterly loss. He also said the bank might need to cut its quarterly dividend for a second time this year, after lowering it 41 percent to 32 cents per share in January.
Tanona's forecast suggests deeper problems for Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, who is trying to turn the bank around after nearly $15 billion of losses in the last two quarters, and more than $46 billion of credit losses and write-downs since the middle of 2007.
"We see multiple headwinds for Citigroup including additional write-downs, higher consumer provisions as a result of rapidly deteriorating consumer credit trends, and the potential for additional capital raises, dividend cuts, or asset sales," the analyst wrote.
Pandit became chief executive in December, replacing Charles Prince, who resigned under pressure the previous month. Weill had hand-picked Prince as his replacement when he gave up the top job in 2003.
Last week, Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden said on a Deutsche Bank conference call that Citigroup could take substantial write-downs this quarter.
DIVIDEND CUT MAY BE NEEDED
Tanona said Citigroup might write off $7.1 billion related to collateralized debt obligations and associated hedges related to monoline insurers, $1.2 billion for other asset classes and $600 million for structured note liabilities.
He now expects Citigroup to lose 75 cents a share this quarter, compared with his earlier forecast of a profit of 25 cents. He also expects a full-year loss of $1.20 a share, compared with his prior view for a profit of 30 cents.
As of May, Citigroup had raised some $42 billion since last fall, including injections from sovereign wealth funds, data compiled by Reuters News show.
Tanona said the bank may now need to issue common stock or sell assets to raise capital, because regulators may forbid it from issuing more preferred or convertible securities. He also said halving the dividend could preserve $3.5 billion a year.
"Given the firm's current level of earnings power, we do not believe the dividend is safe," Tanona wrote.
A Citigroup spokeswoman declined to comment.
On June 24, Merrill Lynch analyst Guy Moszkowski projected $8 billion of write-downs for Citigroup.
Tanona also downgraded the U.S. brokerage sector to "neutral" from "attractive," saying deteriorating fundamentals will likely prolong any recovery from the credit crunch.
He projected a $4.2 billion second-quarter write-down for Merrill Lynch & Co, leading to a quarterly loss for the largest U.S. brokerage.
"We expect write-downs for Citigroup and Merrill to outpace what we saw from Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers Holdings recently, due to Citigroup's and Merrill's large exposures to ABS CDOs (asset-backed security CDOs) and associated hedges with the monolines," Tanona wrote.
Brad Hintz, a Sanford C. Bernstein & Co analyst, on Thursday projected a $3.5 billion second-quarter write-down for Merrill. Banc of America Securities analyst Michael Hecht made the same forecast earlier this month.
On June 17, Goldman analysts led by Richard Ramsden said U.S. banks may need $65 billion more capital to cope with a global credit crisis that will not peak until 2009.
(Additional reporting by Tenzin Pema in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)
GM drops to 53-year low, Goldman urges "sell"
Thu Jun 26, 2008 1:14pm EDT
By Kevin Krolicki
DETROIT (Reuters) - Shares of General Motors Corp hit their lowest level since 1955 and dragged down the auto sector on Thursday after Goldman Sachs cut the struggling U.S. industry's largest manufacturer to a "sell" rating and warned it would have to raise capital.
The panicky slide in GM (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) shares capped a period of growing concern about liquidity risks to U.S. automakers and suppliers from a domestic auto market reeling from record gas prices and the impact of a housing slump and tighter credit.
The Goldman Sachs warning, including the unusual "sell" call on the U.S. auto industry's largest player after a period of sharp stock price declines just ahead of the close of the second quarter, prompted selling across the sector.
GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said the embattled automaker had enough liquidity to carry it through the year and had financial flexibility beyond that.
"We've got a very good, solid funding base under any scenario we see, solid through the end of this year," Wagoner told reporters after an economic event hosted by U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama. "We have a lot of options to fund beyond that."
Chrysler LLC, for its part, denied rumors it was facing a cash crunch or that it had been driven to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Those rumors had driven down loan prices for the privately held automaker, according to Reuters LPC.
"The rumor is without merit," Chrysler spokesman Dave Elshoff said. "There is no basis for the rumor."
Debt and equity markets were affected by growing concern for the deepening risks for the auto sector. The cost to insure the debt of GM and Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) hit records.
GM shares were down nearly 11 percent in early afternoon trade and touched a low of $11.21.
Major GM suppliers were also hammered. Shares in American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings (AXL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which supplies axles for GM trucks, dropped 12 percent. Lear Corp (LEA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), downgraded to a "sell" rating by Goldman, tumbled 18 percent.
Shares in Ford, which had its price target cut by Goldman, dropped almost 5 percent.
With the Thursday price fall, GM's market cap fell to less than $6.5 billion. The company has the smallest market capitalization in the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI, of which it has been a component since 1925.
Next above GM in terms of market value in the Dow is Alcoa Inc (AA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), with a market cap of about $30 billion. Walt Disney Co's (DIS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) cap is 10 times GM's at about $60 billion and Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is the leader at about $460 billion.
GM shares have lost 38 percent over the last month as more evidence has piled up that U.S. auto sales weakened further in June, raising doubts about the prospect for the second-half recovery that GM and other major automakers had anticipated.
Fitch Ratings on Wednesday cut debt ratings on GM and Chrysler ratings deeper into the "junk" category," citing the fallout from weaker sales and high gas prices.
Fitch also said it would review Ford ratings over the next six weeks, which could also result in a downgrade.
CASH BURN RAISES CONCERNS
All three U.S. automakers, which have been hardest hit by the collapse in demand for pickup trucks and SUVs, have faced scrutiny in recent days over whether they have sufficient liquidity to ride out the current downturn.
Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who has invested about $1 billion in a contrarian bet on Ford, has offered to provide more capital to support the automaker's turnaround.
Kerkorian's chief auto adviser, Jerry York, told Reuters on Wednesday that he did not expect the U.S. auto market to bounce back in the second half of this year with an only limited rebound in 2009.
Earlier this week, Chrysler drew down a $2 billion credit line from Cerberus and Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the German car maker that sold off a roughly 80 percent stake in Chrysler to Cerberus last year.
Under terms of the sale, Chrysler had until August to draw on the credit line, which included $1.5 billion from Daimler. The credit line pays interest fixed at 7 percentage points above the London interbank rate, Daimler has said.
Chrysler, which lost $1.6 billion in 2007, has said it ended the year with $9 billion in cash. Its U.S. sales are down 23 percent so far this year.
Analysts have also fixed their sights on GM, which ended the first quarter with $31 billion in cash and undrawn credit. Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan both warned last week that GM would be forced to borrow heavily to shore up its liquidity position.
Goldman Sachs analyst Patrick Archambault, who also cut his ratings on Tenneco Inc (TEN.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), said he expected GM shares to continue to underperform as market fundamentals deteriorate. He cut his six-month price target on GM stock by $8 to $11.
"We think GM's automotive cash flow burn this year and next is likely to lead it to look to raise capital, which we believe could lead to significant shareholder dilution and/or a cut to the company's dividend," Archambault said.
(Reporting by Kevin Krolicki in Detroit, Eric Yep and Dilipp S. Nag in Bangalore; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Dave Zimmerman and Gunna Dickson)
US stocks hit by financial sector downgrades
By Jeremy Lemer in New York
Published: June 26 2008 14:06
A trifecta of spiking oil prices, poor corporate earnings reports, and more bad news from the banking sector sent US stocks scuttling lower on Thursday morning.
Technology stocks led the downward trend after Oracle and Research in Motion disappointed markets late Wednesday with forecasts of slower growth and a profits miss respectively.
In early trade on Thursday, the two companies fell 2.5 per cent to $21.99 and 11.5 per cent to $126.01 respectively, while the technology sector as a whole slumped 1.8 per cent.
Fourth-quarter results from Nike added to the gloom as the athletic-shoe maker reported a drop in US profits due to higher spending in order to advertise new sneakers. Nike shares fell 8.5 per cent to $60.30 in the first hour.
The broader consumer discretionary sector fell back sharply, losing 2.2 per cent in short order as oil prices jumped $3.
General Motors also suffered, falling 11 per cent to $11.43 - its lowest level since 1955 - after Goldman Sachs recommended selling shares in the automaker. Soaring gas prices and tumbling consumer confidence could hit performance, the investment bank said.
According to data from Bloomberg, profit for S&P 500 companies is expected to grow 6.6 per cent in 2008. Analysts were predicting 15 per cent growth at the start of the year.
The biggest weight on sentiment, however, was another round of downgrades for financial stocks.
Goldman said in a note that Citigroup may take as much as $9bn in writedowns in the second quarter and added the bank to its “conviction sell” list.
Goldman also cut its recommendation on brokerages from “attractive” to “neutral” arguing that fundamentals continue to deteriorate and that a recovery will take longer than originally anticipated.
Citigroup fell 5.4 per cent to $17.84 in early trading - its lowest level since 1998.
Merrill Lynch also dropped sharply, falling 3.8 per cent to $34.11, after Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said the brokerage was likely to post losses in the second quarter and 2008 after writing down the value of mortgage-related assets.
The financial sector as a whole lost 2.3 per cent while an index of investment banking stocks fell 2.6 per cent.
The benchmark S&P 500 slumped 1.3 per cent to 1,305.13 points in early trade - its lowest level in three months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up 1.1 per cent to 11,680.42 to hit its lowest level since October 2006. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.9 per cent to 2,356.31.
On Wednesday, Wall Street stocks gained the most in two weeks, as oil retreated and consumer facing stocks rallied strongly. Indices pared but held onto gains after the Federal Reserve kept rates on hold for the first time since September, noting that inflation risks had increased.
“The major benchmark interest rate was kept on hold at 2 per cent as many had expected.” said Claire Collingwood, a dealer at CMC Markets. “However the accompanying statement did leave many scratching their heads. The overall tone was rather more dovish than expected and served to allay fears of a rate hike in the near future.”
So far this year, the S&P 500 has dipped 10 per cent, hit by slowing economic growth, rising input costs and a stream of writedowns on credit-assets at banks.
The consumer staples sector also came under some pressure on Thursday, dropping 0.4 per cent.
ConAgra Foods reported fourth-quarter net income of $201.3m, well ahead of expectations. But the company reported lower sales than forecast and predicted fiscal 2009 earnings that undershot Wall Street projections.
ConAgra fell 3.7 per cent to $21.33.
Homebuilders rallied in the last session but struggled on Thursday after Lennar, the second-biggest US homebuilder, reported a fifth straight quarterly loss and one that was larger than expected.
Revenues fell, average prices slumped and new orders tumbled. Stuart Miller, chief executive, said: “The remainder of 2008 will likely see further deterioration in overall market conditions.’’
Lennar fell 5.9 per cent to $13.71, while DR Horton and Centex slipped 7 per cent to $11.64 and 6.2 per cent to $14.43 respectively.
A report by the National Association of Realtors showing existing home sales rose 2 per cent to a 4.99m annual rate in May after falling for the previous two months, had little impact.
Still, an analyst at Lehman Brothers warned that “we judge this to be a fleeting gain and look for sales to decline through the rest of the summer, bottoming in September”, as foreclosed homes add to already glutted inventory and depressed prices.
In the background, new and revised macroeconomic data did little to improve the mood. Initial jobless claims were unchanged at a seasonally adjusted 384,000 last week, but the four-week average, a smoother and preferred measure, rose to its highest level since October 2005.
Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, said: “The bottom line here is that layoffs are rising as companies begin to realise that the credit-driven go-go days are over and aren’t coming back. Funnily enough, they don’t seem much impressed by the Fed’s view that downside risks have diminished. Claims, remember, lead growth.”
Meanwhile, revised data on GDP showed the economy expanded at an annual rate of 1 per cent in the first quarter, up slightly from a preliminary estimate of 0.9 per cent issued last month.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Iraq War Bulletin: Deadly Car Bomb Attacks; Dispute Over US Airstrikes; 25 Occupation Soldiers Reported Killed in June
Kris Hamel, Sandra Hines and Abayomi Azikiwe in front of the "Spirit of Detroit" downtown during the anti-war actions on March 15, 2008. (Alan Pollock).
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
17:12 Mecca time, 14:12 GMT
News Middle East
Deadly car bombs hit Iraq
Two car bombs have killed at least 35 people in separate attacks in Iraq.
The northern city of Mosul was hit by an explosion near a government office on Thursday, killing 20 people and injuring another 62, Duraid Kashmola, the governor said.
A suspected suicide bomber killed at least 15 people in a different attack on a tribal council building in Iraq's al-Anbar province.
The leader of the council in the town of Karmah, about 30km west of the capital Baghdad, was among the dead, police said on Thursday.
At least 30 other people were reportedly wounded in the explosion, Colonel Dawood al-Marawi, police spokesman in nearby Falluja, told the Reuters news agency.
Kamal al-Ayash, spokesman for the Fallujah town council, said that the bomber blew himself up as the council leader was meeting senior members of a so-called "Awakening" group.
"At least 11 senior members of the Awakening group have been killed," he told the AFP news agency.
'Awakening groups'
The "Awakening" groups of Sunni tribes have been largely credited with subduing the violence in al-Anbar by forming local armed groups to fight those loyal to al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Police told the AP news agency that the bomber entered the building through a back door, but it was unclear how he managed to evade security.
Colonel Fawzi Fraih, civil defence director of al-Anbar province, told AP that the group was meeting some Americans when the attack occured.
However, the US military did not immediately confirm whether any Americans were inside the building at the time.
The attack came just days before Iraqi forces were due to take control of security in the province from the US military.
Al-Anbar, the largest province in Iraq, would be the tenth of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed back to Iraqi forces.
Suicide bomber kills 15 in Iraq's Anbar province
RAMADI, Iraq (AFP) - - A suicide bomber Thursday blew himself in a municipal office in western Iraq, killing the local mayor and at least 14 senior members of an anti-Qaeda front, Iraqi officials told AFP.
The attack, in which more than 20 people were wounded, took place in the town of Garma, near the former Sunni rebel bastion of Fallujah in Anbar province, Fallujah town council spokesman Kamal al-Ayash told AFP.
Ayash said the bomber detonated his explosives in the office of local mayor Kamal al-Abdali as he was huddled in a meeting with members of an anti-Qaeda "Awakening" front around noon (0900 GMT).
"Abdali was one of those killed in the attack," Ayash said.
A security official in the interior ministry said at least 15 people were killed and more than 20 wounded in the attack. The toll was confirmed by a defence ministry official.
The bombing marks the second attack on a municipal office in Iraq this week.
On Tuesday, the office of the district advisory council of Baghdad's Shiite bastion of Sadr City was bombed in an attack which killed four Americans -- two soldiers and two civilian employees.
The Garma attack comes just days before Anbar province, once a hotbed of Sunni militancy, is due to be transferred by the US military to the control of Iraqi security forces.
US military spokesman in Baghdad Lieutenant David Russell told AFP on Monday the security of the province was to be transferred to Iraqi control in 10 days.
Anbar would be the tenth of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed back to Iraqi forces by the US-led coalition amid a push to transfer security control of the entire country back to Baghdad.
The province, the country's largest, was the epicentre of a brutal Sunni Arab-led fight against the US military after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
In the early years of the insurgency, US forces fought raging battles in the province, especially in the capital Ramadi and in Fallujah.
Fallujah became a symbol of the ultra-violent insurgency before it was virtually razed to the ground in November 2004 by a US military assault launched to seize control of the city.
The US military has lost 1,295 service members in the province since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, second only to Baghdad where it lost 1,308 troops, according to the independent website http://www.icasualties.org .
The website says November 2004, when 137 troops were killed when the Fallujah assault was launched, remains the deadliest month for the military in Iraq.
The violence in the province started ebbing in late 2006 when local Sunni tribes, weary of Al-Qaeda's extremism and brutal methods, switched allegiance and formed a common front to chase them out.
The front became known as Sahwa or "Awakening". Most of its members are former Sunni Arab insurgents who fought US forces after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime.
But since they sided with the US troops in late 2006, violence has fallen dramatically in Anbar, making the province a symbol of stability in Iraq.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
20:23 Mecca time, 17:23 GMT
News Middle East
Fatal blast rocks Sadr City
The blast occurred in Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr's stronghold
At least 10 people including two US soldiers and two American government officials have been killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad.
Six Iraqis were also killed and eight people wounded in the blast that rocked Sadr City on Tuesday, an Iraqi security official said.
One of the civilians was a US defence department worker and the other a US state department employee.
The area is a stronghold of Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army and the blast took place as local elections were set to take place.
"We were to elect new members to replace some of our old colleagues from the movement of Muqtada al-Sadr who recently left the council," a district council member said.
US officials and soldiers were at the district council office when the attack occurred.
Suspect held
The US military said in a statement: "[An] individual was caught by coalition forces fleeing the scene and tested positive for explosive residue."
The attack came a day after two American soldiers were killed and three wounded as they were leaving the council office of Madain town to the south of Baghdad.
The recent decrease in violence in Baghdad and other regions of Iraq has led to an increased presence of US soldiers on the streets which has also made them easier targets for attacks, especially in areas such as Sadr City where US troops fought raging battles earlier this year.
Hundreds of people were killed when Iraqi and US forces clashed with fighters from the Mahdi Army in Sadr City in March and April before a truce was declared on May 10.
The latest deaths of US soldiers bring the overall losses of the military in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 4,106, according to an AFP tally based on independent website http://www.icasualties.org .
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Baghdad office bombing kills 10
The aftermath of the attack at a council office in a Shia area of Baghdad
Six Iraqis, two American soldiers and two US civilians have been killed in a bomb attack at a local council office in eastern Baghdad.
One of the US civilians was an official with the state department and the other worked for the defence department, US embassy officials said.
Ten people were wounded including three members of the Sadr City council.
The US military has blamed the attack on what it calls "special groups", or rogue members of Shia Muslim militias.
Iraqi police said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber, but investigations by the US military suggested a bomb had been planted in the building.
A suspect who tested positive for contact with explosives had been caught trying to flee the scene, the US said.
Eyewitnesses said the bomb exploded inside the office of the deputy leader of the council, who was among the injured.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the deaths of the American civilians were "a terrible reminder of the dangers that our colleagues face daily in advancing our critical foreign policy goals".
Emphasis on councils
Representatives had been due to elect a chairman of the council for Sadr City, a militant Shia stronghold which has been the scene of fierce battles between US troops and fighters from the Mehdi Army, the militia loyal to the anti-US Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr.
On Monday, a gunman opened fire at US troops attending a municipal council meeting in a mainly Sunni Muslim area south-east of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and and wounding another three.
Correspondents say the US military has been working hard to shore up local government in Iraq amid a sharp drop in insurgency activity, to prevent areas from falling back under the control of Sunni and Shia extremists.
"This was the fourth meeting of this district council, led by hard-working Iraqis determined to make a difference and set Sadr City off on the right path," said US spokesman Lt Col John Digiambatista.
"Special groups are afraid of progress and afraid of empowering the people," he added.
He said the "cowardly" attack would only harden the determination of the council, as well as local civilians and the military.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7471249.stm
Published: 2008/06/24 19:13:33 GMT
Suicide bombing rocks Iraqi city
Fifteen people have been killed and 39 wounded by a female suicide bomber in the northern Iraqi city of Baquba.
The bomber detonated the device in front of a group of policemen at the entrance to a local government and law courts complex.
A number of civilians are said to be among the casualties.
Previous bomb attacks in the Baquba area have been blamed on Sunni insurgents said to have links with the al-Qaeda network.
Doctor Ahmed Fuad, at Baquba's hospital, was quoted by AFP news agency as saying that among those killed in the latest bombing were eight policemen, two women and one child.
Several vehicles caught fire as a result of the explosion, while some nearby buildings were damaged by the impact.
Women recruits
Baquba is the capital of the restive Diyala province - one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq.
It has seen a series of suicide bombings by women over the past year.
Security officials say al-Qaeda has recruited women bombers because they are often subjected to lighter security checks than men.
Last Tuesday more than 60 people were killed in a car bomb attack in Baghdad. The Americans blamed what they termed renegade Shia militiamen trying to incite inter-communal violence.
It was the deadliest bombing in Iraq's capital for weeks, following a security drive by Iraqi and US forces.
Despite such attacks, overall levels of violence in Iraq are at a four-year low.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7467884.stm
Published: 2008/06/22 15:11:47 GMT
U.S., Iraqi police in dispute over deadly airstrike
Accounts differ over what sparked U.S. airstrike near Tikrit
Police say family of six die in strike; U.S. says "armed terrorist" killed
Roadside bomb kills three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter in northern Iraq
Attack comes after two U.S. soldiers die in blast at Baghdad municipal building
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Police said a U.S. airstrike killed a family of six in northern Iraq, but the U.S. military described it as an attack targeting insurgents that killed one "armed terrorist."
Police said Tuesday night's strike, just north of Tikrit, also wounded four people.
Police said a man went outside and fired warning shots after hearing people moving around his house. U.S. troops thought it was hostile fire and responded.
The U.S. military said troops were targeting al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents "when they were attacked by small-arms fire."
The troops returned fire and surrounded nearby buildings when they saw an armed man enter one of them, the military said. U.S.-led coalition forces surrounded the buildings and urged the man to come out, but he refused, according to a military statement.
"Forces perceived hostile intent," the military said, and called in air support. A subsequent airstrike destroyed the building.
The military said police identified the man as an "armed terrorist" and found no other casualties. It said four women in another building received minor injuries in the strike.
Other deaths Wednesday also brought conflicting accounts from U.S. and Iraqi officials.
An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said U.S. soldiers shot dead a male banker and two female employees when they were driving to work in western Baghdad.
But Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a U.S. military spokesman, said a military convoy had come under fire in a drive-by shooting. Soldiers returned fire and struck a vehicle that swerved off the road, struck a wall and caught fire. Stover said three "militants" were killed and that a civilian witness has emerged to corroborate the sequence of events.
Meanwhile, a roadside bombing killed three U.S. soldiers in northern Iraq, bringing the number of American troop deaths this week in the country to seven.
The latest deaths occurred late Tuesday in Nineveh province, where fighting has raged for days as U.S. and Iraqi soldiers step up their operations against al Qaeda in Iraq.
An interpreter also was killed in the roadside bombing.
Earlier Tuesday, two soldiers were killed in a blast that rocked a municipal building in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. Two employees from the Defense and State departments also were slain.
The U.S. military has blamed Special Groups, the name it uses for Iranian-backed militants, for that blast. An Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman said the attackers were targeting Baghdad City Council representatives, not coalition troops.
On Monday, an Iraqi councilman opened fire and killed two U.S. soldiers at a ceremony near Baghdad.
The spate of killings -- which comes as U.S. and Iraqi officials tout a dramatic drop in violence -- reflects the challenges that persist in achieving stability in Iraq.
So far in June, there have been 25 U.S. troop deaths, a low total in comparison to earlier months of the war. May's death toll of 19 was the lowest monthly total of the war. May 2007 saw 125 troop deaths, while there were 101 the next month.
Since the war began, 4,109 U.S. service members have died in Iraq.
Violence has flared in Nineveh province and its capital of Mosul as Iraqi and U.S. forces square off with Sunni militants from al Qaeda in Iraq.
Late Tuesday, a suicide car bomb detonated near a police station in central Mosul, killing at least two people, including a child, and wounding at least 70, Mosul police said.
It was the second suicide car bombing in Mosul this week. Another such attack took place near a police checkpoint Sunday in eastern Mosul, wounding at least 14 people.
A Mosul municipal official and his driver were gunned down Wednesday, police said.
Meanwhile, at the opposite end of Iraq, the country's armed forces seized wanted militants and weapons, while the government offered an amnesty plan to militants, according to an Iraqi military official.
Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari said Wednesday the amnesty offer in Maysan province gave militants a week to surrender to authorities through their sheikhs and pledge to quit militant activities.
Troops have so far netted 95 wanted individuals and scores of weapons and munitions along waterways and in towns, al-Askari said. Many suspects fled the province -- a predominantly Shiite region that borders Iran and is thought to be an area of transit for Iranian weapons into Iraq.
"We captured some of the fleeing wanted individuals, and we are focusing on making Maysan a weapons-free zone," al-Askari said.
Many people in Maysan and its capital, Amara, are backers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's political movement and have been affiliated with his militia, the Mehdi Army.
Other developments
• A parked car bomb killed three Iraqis and wounded seven others Wednesday when it detonated near an ice cream shop in central Baghdad's Karrada district, an Interior Ministry official said.
• Troops conducting an operation near Taji, just north of Baghdad, captured a wanted bombing cell leader. The military said a man in a building targeted by troops suffered a fatal heart attack.
Somalia News Bulletin: Guantanamo Detainee To File Habeas Petition; AU Says Nigeria to Send Troops, etc.
Somalis have resisted efforts to disarm in the midst of the US-backed occupation of the country by Ethiopian forces. On numerous occasions US planes have bombed the south of the country killing scores of civilians.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Submitted by wararka on Thu, 06/26/2008 - 11:09.
Mohammed Sulaymon Barre fled his native Somalia as civil war raged in the early 1990s, receiving U.N. refugee status and landing in Pakistan, where he settled his family and worked for a financial services company. In a nighttime raid in November 2001, Pakistani authorities arrested Barre, holding him for four months and then turning him over to U.S. forces in Afghanistan as an alleged terrorist.
Soon thereafter, Barre was flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
More than six years later and now armed with a recent Supreme Court decision, Barre plans to file a habeas corpus petition in a U.S. federal court in Washington today, the first time he will be able to challenge his detention before a civilian judge. Barre's is among the first new habeas petitions to follow the Supreme Court's ruling June 12 that Guantanamo detainees have a right to access U.S. courts. Lawyers representing other detainees have indicated they plan to file similar cases this week.
For men like Barre, the hearings offer a chance to see the U.S. government's evidence against them and the rationale for determining that the detainees are "enemy combatants." Barre has argued that he is an innocent banker who had regular contacts with the United Nations, and Barre's lawyers now argue that the U.S. government has presented no evidence that Barre has done anything wrong.
"They have never attempted to set forth any basis for Mr. Barre's detention," said J. Wells Dixon, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights who represents Barre. "This will give him an opportunity to go into court and be heard."
Barre's new petition will join about 200 detainee habeas cases that were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before such legal avenues were blocked by Congress and the cases were put on hold pending the Supreme Court's review.
The District Court's chief judge, Royce C. Lamberth, met with lawyers for the detainees and the Justice Department yesterday to discuss how to move forward. Lamberth has appointed Thomas F. Hogan, a senior district judge, to help manage the habeas cases, and the court's judges are scheduled to meet July 1 "to discuss the lawyers' suggestions," Lamberth said in a statement.
Sources familiar with the meeting said the Justice Department would like to consolidate the cases and plans to add about 50 new attorneys to manage the workload. Justice officials also proposed filing amended court papers detailing the evidence in support of detention.
"Department attorneys have had two meetings with Chief Judge Lamberth and opposing counsel to discuss these issues informally," Justice spokesman Erik Ablin said. "We made a commitment to the court not to comment on these issues in the media while we try to work out a suitable arrangement for moving forward."
U.S. officials have said roughly 65 of the 270 detainees at Guantanamo already have been cleared for release or transfer, and about 80 detainees are expected to be tried at military commissions. That leaves at least 125 detainee cases that likely will be hotly contested in U.S. court, with judges having the power to order detainees released or transferred.
Barre, 42, is one of three Guantanamo detainees with U.N. refugee status. In Pakistan, he worked for a well-known money transfer company with offices worldwide. Military officials allege he had contact with terrorism financiers.
Barre has denied those accusations and has asked for proof, which he and Dixon say the government has never provided. "Terror is what departed me from my country and I am one of the people who hates terror most," Barre told a military panel in 2005.
Shabelle Media Network
AU says Nigeria will send peacekeepers to Somalia
Submitted by wararka on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 16:39.
KAMPALA (Shabelle.net) - The Nigerian military has sent a reconnaissance team to Somalia and is expected to deploy troops there soon as part of an African peacekeeping force, a spokesman for the force said on Tuesday.
The African Union had planned to send 8,000 soldiers to the capital Mogadishu to support the U.N.-backed interim government, which faces an insurgency by Islamist rebels.
But deployment of the full force has been repeatedly delayed since last year as lack of funds and unrelenting violence in the city led several nations, including Nigeria, to re-examine offers to provide troops.
A smaller contingent of 1,600 Ugandans and 600 Burundians has been unable to stem the chaos. Major Barigye Ba-hoku, the Ugandan spokesman for the AU force, said a Nigerian military team visited Mogadishu last month.
"We are informed that Nigerian peacekeepers will join the mission anytime," he told Reuters in an interview in Kampala. "This would be good news for a Somali nation that is desperate for peace."
The AU force, known as AMISOM, is meant to replace Ethiopian troops whose presence has inflamed the insurgency since they helped Somalia's government oust an Islamist movement at the start of 2007.
But shorn of support, the peacekeepers have been restricted to securing the capital's air and sea ports, as well as the rubble-strewn city's strategic K4 junction.
They also guard President Abdullahi Yusuf, other senior government officials and visiting delegates.
Fighting in the Horn of Africa nation has killed thousands of civilians and uprooted nearly a million more since early last year, worsening a humanitarian crisis already sown by drought, high food prices and rampant inflation.
Talks hosted by the United Nations in Djibouti earlier this month produced a tentative peace deal between Yusuf's government and some members of the opposition.
But it has had little impact on the ground.
Ba-hoku said that agreement provided a "very viable option" to return calm to the country, and that AMISOM officials were encouraging other factions to join the truce.
But what was really needed was more peacekeepers, he said.
"The Somalia mission was designed to have up to 8,000 troops. We're just over 2,000," he said.
"That is a quarter of the force, so we find ourselves only
Source: Reuters
Former Somali leader blames Ethiopian troops of “Massacre”
Submitted by wararka on Wed, 06/25/2008 - 11:35.
In a news conference he held in Egyptian capital Cairo former Somali president Abdi Qasim Salad Hassan has acknowledged that the Ethiopian troops in Somalia have committed war crimes against Somali civilians.
“They made Somalis in the country those killed. Fled, and jailed “He said.
He added that they “Ethiopians” conducted supplementary killings for reprisal of 1977s Somalia-Ethiopia’s war as he put it.
He also accused the United States government of revenging Somali people from their armed resistance they ousted US troops from country 1995.
“US supports Ethiopian troops in Somalia to get revenge Somalis from SNA’s guerilla led by late General Mohamed Farah Aideed those driven American troops out from Somalia on 1995 by force” Abdi Qasim said in the news conference.
He also revealed that the Ethiopian troops killed in Somalia up to 2000 people and forced for displacement over 2m others.
“Excluding those were killed and displaced the rest are in severe undernourishment” he said.
He praised Egyptian government of coping with the influx of Somali refugees including student were offered for at no cost schooling and safe haven.
Abdi qasim was the president of the former TNG government has been given the mandate for three years during the conference in Neighboring Djibouti in which the government was supposed to restore the rule of law back to Somalia and prepare a multiparty system for the election of a government, but has failed to extend its influence throughout the country.
His government controlled parts of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, with the rest of the country being under the control of various warlords.
The mandate of his former transitional national government expired in August 2003 and Abdiqasim withdrew from the talks aimed at forming a new government shortly before the mandate expired.
The Prime Minister of his government Hassan Abshir Farah accused him of trying to make the talks fail to extend his time in office, resulting in the prime minister's dismissal by Abdiq
However, Abdiqasim pledged to step aside to make way for a constitutionally-elected leader. Abdiqasim was a candidate for the presidency of the new national unity government, but he was not among the 3 candidates who passed the 1st round of voting. He left office peacefully several days after the election.
By: Abdinasir Mohamed Guled
Email:naasir0513@hotmail.com
Shabelle Media Network
Somalia: Abducted foreigners are German citizens- German foreign ministry
Thu. June 26, 2008 02:10 am.
By Bonny Apunyu
(SomaliNet) The two people abducted by pirates off the lawless Somali coast are German citizens, the German foreign ministry confirmed on Wednesday.
"We must assume with a high degree of likelihood that this is a kidnapping," spokesperson Martin Jaeger said.
Meanwhile, early reports had claimed that four Europeans were kidnapped, including a pilot and a young child, but the ministry said there was no evidence a child had been involved. The pirates said they were holding only the couple.
The pirates Tuesday demanded a ransom for the release of the couple, believed to be in their 50s, who were abducted as they sailed through the Gulf of Aden on a trip from Egypt to Thailand.
The district commissioner of the Laas Qoray area, Yusuf Jama Dabeed, said that troops from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland found the yacht abandoned on the shore, but that by that point the kidnappers had taken their captives into the mountains.
It is believed that the kidnapping was an opportunistic action that involved both pirates and local fishermen.
A separate group of Somali pirates on Tuesday released a cargo ship they had been holding for several weeks.
"The vessel was released last night (Tuesday) around 8pm local time - the pirates took delivery of a ransom of one million dollars before they released the ship," one of the mediators, who requested not to be named, said.
Somali authorities have in the past criticised the practice of paying ransoms, saying it only encourages more piracy.
The German Navy helped the crew of the released vessel after receiving a call for help, delivering food and water.
There was some confusion, however, about whether the ship released was the Turkish MV Arean or the Dutch MV Amiya Scan.
The fate of the German MV Lehmann Timber, which was captured around the same time as the other ships, still hangs in the balance, however.
The elder said that negotiations for the release of the ship were in deadlock and that some of the crew members - who are from Russia, Ukraine, Estonia and Myanmar - were ill.
Piracy is rife off the coast of the Horn of Africa nation. Cargo ships and luxury yachts have been targeted by heavily-armed pirates, who then hold the crew ransom.
The most high-profile case in recent months involved the capture of a luxury French yacht in April. French troops rescued the hostages and captured six of the pirates, although another six are believed to have escaped.
The UN Security Council recently approved incursions into Somali waters to curb piracy, which the weak transitional government, currently engaged in countering a bloody insurgency, is powerless to prevent.
Somalia has been in a state of anarchy since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. - Sapa-dpa
Somalia: Dutch-owned ship released on $1.1 million ransom
Thu. June 26, 2008 08:38 am.
By Bonny Apunyu
(SomaliNet) The Dutch shipping company said on Wednesday its ship seized by gunmen off northern Somalia a month ago has been released.
The MV Amiya Scan, managed by the Dutch Reider Shipping BV, was hijacked by Somali pirates on May 25 en route to Romania from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.
The gunmen demanded a $1.1 million ransom to release the ship.
Reider Shipping said in a statement the vessel was heading for the Suez canal and all its crew members were well but it would not give details about how it.-Agencies
Somalia: UN food agency says needs ships to escort relief shipments
Thu. June 26, 2008 09:49 am.
By Bonny Apunyu
(SomaliNet) The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday that Somalia faces a serious food crisis if no nation steps forward with naval ships to escort relief shipments through pirate-infested waters.
A Dutch frigate now is in its last weeks shepherding two WFP-chartered vessels which shuttle between the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Somalia. Where the United Nations warns 3,5-million will need food relief by year's end.
"We need a foreign navy to take over the escort system before mid-July when we hope to send a ship from Durban, South Africa loaded with WFP food to Mogadishu," WFP spokesperson Peter Smerdon said.
WFP has still not received any confirmed offer from any foreign navy, but we have been in contact with many governments and pray that someone will step forward."
Somalia's waters are among the most pirate-infested in the world - leading the UN Security Council earlier this month to authorise foreign warships to enter Somali waters to combat piracy and armed robbery at sea.
The WFP's appeal comes as it seeks to double the amount of food it ships to Somalia with a view to feeding 2,3-million people a month, Smerdon said.
Since November 2007, French and Danish frigates have escorted WFP shipments to Somalia, which has been gripped by lawlessness since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Aid groups have scaled down operations in the face of growing insecurity, largely blamed on Islamist militants who have waged a guerrilla war since their ouster by Somali and Ethiopian forces in early 2007.
Smerdon said: "If humanitarian assistance cannot reach Somalia because of piracy, we fear that we could see scenes similar to the 1992-1993 famine in Somalia that cost hundreds of thousands of lives."-AFP
Somali government troops evict traders from their businesses sites in Mogadishu
Submitted by wararka on Wed, 06/25/2008 - 07:56.
The Somali government troops based in Dharkenley neighborhood southeast of the capital have given eviction order to the dealers have business sites in the vicinity of the government’s army base in the district Wednesday morning according to the traders.
The commander of the troops made reason for his eviction order that the armed groups attack the army base melt away in the traders and their business sites before and after attack.
"The commander told us to close our business sites down with in two days with out prearranged time” trader woman Fatima Nor Abdi told Shabelle English service.
Some of the traders told that they have suddenly started to get rid of their kiosks from the area fearing violating acts from the soldiers if they are attacked by the Islamic fighters against them.
Anti government and Ethiopian troops overrun Dharkenley police station several times.
The traders attributed the eviction order from the Government troops following a remotely-controlled land mine explosion aimed at a Somali government troop convoy passing in Dharkenley neighborhood caused the death of more than five government troops and injured four others on Sunday according to eyewitnesses.
The blast was heard in Mogadishu. Eyewitness Hassan Salah Muse told Shabelle that on the occasion the bomb went off underneath, the exploded Government vehicle has rolled over to the ground.
"I saw blood flowing under the beleaguered vehicle, as well three soldiers dead on the ground," he said.
Another eyewitness Rage Yasin said that he saw three soldiers died and four injured.
No further details on that explosion could be available as well no comments could be reached from the government official about the similar incident.
Shabelle Media Network
American Police State: Airport Laptop Searches Draws Fire; Camaras Installed in NYC Subways
Database for fingerprints proposed by Homeland Security. The so-called 'war on terrorism' has spawned a host of surveillance projects that erode personal privacy and violate civil liberties.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Laptop Searches in Airports Draw Fire at Senate Hearing
By AUSTIN BOGUES
New York Times
WASHINGTON — Advocacy groups and some legal experts told Congress on Wednesday that it was unreasonable for federal officials to search the laptops of United States citizens when they re-enter the country from traveling abroad.
Civil rights groups have said certain ethnic groups have been selectively profiled in the searches by Border Patrol agents and customs officials who have the authority to inspect all luggage and cargo brought into the country without obtaining warrants or having probable cause.
Companies whose employees travel overseas have also criticized the inspections, saying that the search of electronic devices could hurt their businesses.
The federal government says the searches are necessary for national security and for legal action against people who bring illegal material into the country.
“If you asked most Americans whether the government has the right to look through their luggage for contraband when they are returning from an overseas trip, they would tell you ‘yes, the government has that right,’ ” Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, said Wednesday at the hearing of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee.
“But,” Mr. Feingold continued, “if you asked them whether the government has a right to open their laptops, read their documents and e-mails, look at their photographs and examine the Web sites they have visited, all without any suspicion of wrongdoing, I think those same Americans would say that the government absolutely has no right to do that.”
In April, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Customs and Border Protection agency could conduct searches without reasonable suspicion.
In her testimony, Farhana Y. Khera, the president and executive director of Muslim Advocates, said Muslim Americans traveling abroad had often had electronic storage devices seized without apparent cause. She said several had also been questioned about their political views.
Susan K. Gurley, executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, said the seizing of laptops could hurt people who travel overseas for business.
“In today’s wired, networked and borderless world, one’s office no longer sits within four walls or a cubicle; rather, one’s office consists of a collection of mobile electronic devices such as a laptop, a BlackBerry, PDA, and a cellphone,” Ms. Gurley said in prepared remarks.
She said the searches meant that “you may find yourself effectively locked out of your office indefinitely.”
Ms. Gurley said a concern was the lack of published regulations explaining what happened to data when it was seized and who had access to it.
Tim Sparapani, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in an interview, “You can’t go into my home and search my computer without a warrant, but simply because I’m carrying my computer with me as I travel, you can search it.”
But Nathan A. Sales, an assistant professor at the George Mason University School of Law, said in a statement: “The reason the home has enjoyed uniquely robust privacy protections in the Anglo-American legal tradition is because it is a sanctuary into which the owner can withdraw from the government’s watchful eye. Crossing an international border is in many ways the opposite of this kind of withdrawal.”
Mr. Feingold expressed discontent that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the customs and border agency, did not send a witness to testify. He said a written statement by Jayson P. Ahern, deputy commissioner for the agency, provided “little meaningful detail on the agency’s policies.”
Mr. Ahern’s statement said that the agency’s efforts did not infringe upon privacy and that it was important to note that the agency was “responsible for enforcing over 600 laws at the border, including those that relate to narcotics, intellectual property, child pornography and other contraband, and terrorism.”
June 26, 2008
More Delays for Cameras in Subways
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
New York Times
Aging fiber-optic cable in Brooklyn and Queens has become the latest obstacle to a planned high-tech system of surveillance cameras meant to safeguard the subway and commuter railroads, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials.
The system, which is expected to cost at least $450 million, is a crucial component of a larger program to thwart terrorist attacks on the region’s transportation network, but it has met repeatedly with technical problems and delays.
On Wednesday, the authority’s board authorized the replacement of 84,000 feet of old fiber-optic cable, which was installed in the late 1980s. The replacement will cost $5 million and is being done as part of a separate project to build out the subway’s data network.
According to a board document, tests on the cable showed that it had “many broken fibers unsuitable to carry the high bandwidth required” to transmit large amounts of data, which hindered the surveillance camera project. The document did not say how long it would take to replace the cable.
The authority’s board received a lengthy closed-door briefing on the security project on Wednesday and was told that it continued to face significant problems, including delays and increased costs, according to an official who attended the meeting.
“It is clearly significant,” the official said, referring to the severity of the problem.
Plans for the surveillance system were announced in August 2005, when officials said that they expected to have it up and running in three years. The system, which is being built by the defense contractor Lockheed Martin, is to include at least 1,000 surveillance cameras and 3,000 motion sensors, mostly concentrated at major travel hubs and high-volume stations, like Grand Central Terminal, as well as in tunnels and other areas.
It is also supposed to combine several advanced technologies and packages of software that could integrate information collected across the region’s vast transportation network.
But officials now acknowledge that the original schedule was far too ambitious.
“Any I.T. person will tell you,” another authority official said, referring to information technology experts, “that a contract like this could not have been done in the time they allotted. They couldn’t do it in three years.”
The official estimated that it could take two or three more years to complete, although some aspects of the system could be in operation sooner.
The two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the nature of the security measures, said, however, that they had not been told when the authority expected to have the system finished.
Jeremy Soffin, a spokesman for the authority, said that he could not comment on security matters.
A report released in January by the New York State comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, said that the surveillance camera project was behind schedule and was scheduled, at that time, to be finished in December 2009. The officials said on Wednesday that they did not know whether the date had been pushed back further.
The comptroller’s report also said that the surveillance project had been scaled back because of problems adapting the cameras’ software to conditions in the authority’s facilities.
One of the officials who spoke on Wednesday said those problems involved the cameras’ ability to spot an unattended bag or briefcase left on a train platform or other busy area and then alert law enforcement to the possible hazard. That capability had originally been promoted as a major feature of the system, but the official said it had failed in tests.
“There are too many people, too many things moving around in the system,” the official said.
The damaged fiber-optic cable is mainly on elevated portions of the J and Z lines, running from the Broadway Junction station in East New York, Brooklyn, to the Sutphin Boulevard station in Jamaica, Queens, and then along the E line to the Union Turnpike station.
Paul Fleuranges, a spokesman for New York City Transit, the arm of the authority that runs the subway, said that the because the cable was outdoors, it had deteriorated faster than similar cable in tunnels underground.
The replacement cable is being installed as part of a $200 million project that is separate from the security program, to create an up-to-date fiber-optic network throughout the subway system.
That project was expanded last year to include a $21 million upgrade to add technology that would allow larger amounts of data to move along the network. The extra capacity was needed to accommodate the surveillance camera system. However, the board document said the damaged cable could not handle the larger volume of data.
Officials refused to say how the Brooklyn-to-Queens segment of the fiber-optic network fits into the surveillance camera system. When it is complete, the surveillance system will send images and other data to a control center beside the Sunnyside railyard in Long Island City, Queens.
The comptroller’s office has issued periodic reports highlighting delays and increasing costs in the authority’s security program, which was conceived after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The program includes the surveillance system as well as other projects to improve the security of bridges, tunnels and other facilities.
US Immigration News: 160 Arrested in Immigration Raid at Houston Plant; Judge Rejects Police Requirement to Check Status
Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, covering the annual May Day demonstrations in southwest Detroit on May 1, 2008. (Photo: Alan Pollock).
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
160 Arrested in Immigration Raid at a Houston Plant
By THAYER EVANS
New York Times
HOUSTON — Federal immigration agents arrested 160 employees on Wednesday in a raid on a used clothing and rag exporting plant.
The authorities said it was the largest workplace raid ever here. Most of those arrested were from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, officials said, and 70 percent of them were women.
It was the second major raid in Houston in just over two months. Federal agents arrested 20 workers at a Shipley Do-Nuts factory on April 16.
The roundup on Wednesday at Action Rags USA, which is just north of the Houston Ship Channel, began at 7 a.m. and was conducted by about 200 immigration agents, said Robert Rutt, special agent in charge of the Office of Investigations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston.
It was part of more than a yearlong investigation by the agency that was prompted by accusations that Action Rags had hired illegal immigrants, Mr. Rutt said.
In addition to the 160 arrested, the plant’s employees included 2 United States citizens and 13 to 19 legal residents, Mr. Rutt said. They were released.
The company’s hiring practices are being investigated for potential criminal violations, Mr. Rutt said.
“By attacking this issue in a comprehensive, strategic way, we believe we can force the culture of corporations to change,” Mr. Rutt said.
William F. Estes, who identified himself as a lawyer for Action Rags, said the company was shocked by the raid.
“We want to abide by the law, and we’re going to abide by the law,” Mr. Estes said. “If we have an illegal employee, we don’t know it. No way. Tell us what the law is, and we’ll obey it.”
After the white immigration vans had driven away, Maria Lopez huddled across the street from the plant with friends. Four of her friends worked at the plant, Ms. Lopez said.
After one of them called, crying, at 7:20 a.m., she went to the plant, where family members and friends of other employees had gathered.
Ms. Lopez said her friends at the plant had lived in Houston for more than 10 years, but none were legal residents. She said she was worried that they would be deported.
“It’s not fair,” said Ms. Lopez, 27, a legal resident. “They’re working to support their families. This shouldn’t have happened.”
June 26, 2008
Judge Rejects Bid to Let Police Check Immigration Status
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
New York Times
LOS ANGELES — A Superior Court judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to end a longstanding police policy that prohibits officers from initiating contact with people for the sole purpose of learning their immigration status.
The policy has come under scrutiny in recent months after the killing of a high school football star, Jamiel Shaw Jr., who the police say was murdered by an illegal immigrant who is a member of a gang. The victim’s parents are seeking to have the policy overturned, and a city councilman has been seeking a similar change to the directive, known as Special Order 40.
Some predominantly black gangs here are in a constant battle with members of Latino-dominated gangs, creating tensions between blacks and Latinos in South Los Angeles. In some cases, black residents with no gang affiliations have been singled out by Latino gang members and killed.
Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group based in Washington, filed a suit in 2006 on behalf of a Los Angeles resident, Harold Sturgeon, arguing that the city should not be using taxpayer money to enforce the policy, saying the order blocked cooperation between the local police and federal immigration agents.
But Judge Rolf M. Treu of Los Angeles Superior Court granted a motion from the city and the American Civil Liberties Union for a summary judgment to throw the suit out, arguing that Mr. Sturgeon was unable to show that the order violated federal law or impeded immigration officials from communicating with the police.
“Special Order 40 neither mentions not refers to such communication,” Judge Treu said in his ruling. “It is not the court’s function to consider the wisdom of the enactment of Special Order 40.”
Hector Villagra, the director of the Orange County office of the A.C.L.U., said he thought the judge’s decision would “put to rest” any further challenges to the police order, which has been vigorously defended by the police chief, William J. Bratton.
Paul J. Orfanedes, a lawyer for Judicial Watch, said Mr. Sturgeon was considering an appeal.
Zimbabwe Elections Bulletin: Run-off Still On Says ZEC; Leaders Boycott SADC Meeting; Leave Us Alone West Told
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe speaks at the United Nations. The country has heightened security amid western threats aimed at destabilization.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Herald Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission yesterday unanimously agreed to proceed with the presidential run-off election tomorrow as scheduled because Morgan Tsvangirai’s withdrawal has no legal force since it was filed out of time.
ZEC — which was appointed by Zanu-PF and MDC-T — and all other political parties that contested the March 29 harmonised elections, under the Sadc-brokered talks, said it has since advised Tsvangirai about the decision in writing.
ZEC chairman Justice George Chiweshe said the poll would go ahead as Tsvangirai, who claims his security is under threat, briefly left the Dutch embassy in Harare to address a Press conference at his Strathaven home in Harare.
Tsvangirai called for military intervention in Zimbabwe disguised as peacekeepers and the setting-up of a transitional government supervised by the African Union and Sadc.
Addressing journalists, Justice Chiweshe said the commission had deliberated on the content and effect of Tsvangirai’s letter in which he cited various reasons and concluded that the withdrawal was a nullity.
"It was unanimously agreed that the withdrawal had, inter alia, been filed well out of time and that for that reason the withdrawal was of no legal force or effect.
"Accordingly, the commission does not recognise the purported withdrawal. We are, therefore, proceeding with the presidential run-off election this Friday as planned. The ballot papers have been printed and dispatched. We are advising Mr Tsvangirai accordingly," he said.
Justice Chiweshe said the electoral law stipulates the period during which a candidate must file a withdrawal letter.
"I do not want to go into that. We will be writing to Mr Tsvangirai on the issue," he said.
When asked whether the withdrawal by Tsvangirai would have an effect on the legitimacy of the poll, Justice Chiweshe said: "The pullout has no legal force. In fact, there has been no pullout."
Justice Chiweshe said the commission was ready for the elections and that the results of the presidential run-off would be announced as soon as they were ready.
Constitutional law experts have said Tsvangirai cannot pull out of the run-off now and even though he has written to ZEC, the decision was of no legal force.
"The strict legal position is that candidature for the run-off or second election is not a voluntary exercise; you give your consent when you contest the first election," lawyer Lovemore Madhuku said.
Political analysts have described Tsvangirai’s withdrawal announcement, which was made just before the UN Security Council met to discuss Zimbabwe, as a ploy to create a bleak picture of the Zimbabwean situation.
The Dutch foreign ministry yesterday confirmed Tsvangirai returned to their embassy.
Zanu-Ndonga has joined the list of organisations that have castigated the opposition leader for his decision to withdraw from the poll.
"Boycotting without offering an alternative is not the solution. The decision to pull out does not make any political sense," said Zanu-Ndonga secretary-general Mr Reketayi Semwayo at a Press conference.
The party’s national organising secretary, Mr Gondai Vutuza, said it is Zimbabweans who have the mandate to find a solution to the challenges facing the country and not outsiders as claimed by Tsvangirai.
"Zimbabweans should decide their future and not any other person. It is us who should decide.
"The two presidential candidates should engage each other for political dialogue with a view to coming up with a solution. The search for solutions should obviously include every stakeholder," said Mr Vutuza.
Late yesterday, the Sadc election observer mission said it would remain in Zimbabwe until after the June 27 run-off, and that it was not bound by the decision of the Troika on Politics, Defence and Security, which met in Mbabane, Swaziland, yesterday.
Head of the election observer mission Angolan Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture Mr Jose Marcos Barrica told journalists that the issue of whether or not there are elections in Zimbabwe is the responsibility of the Zimbabwean Government and ZEC.
"We will stay put until after June 27 be there elections or not. We may have our ideas, but that is the responsibility of the authorities," he said.
Mr Barrica said the mission was only bound by Sadc and not the troika.
He said the mission had made inroads in trying to bring the political players in Zimbabwe to the negotiating table.
"There are positive signals that can take the process forward. There is light at the end of the tunnel that can bring the two sides together. We think we have the way prepared for the leadership to go forward," he said.
Responding to questions on the mission’s position following reports that members of the Sadc troika that met yesterday in Swaziland had recommended that tomorrow’s run-off be postponed, Mr Barrica said the troika only deliberates on issues and does not make resolutions.
Leaders boycott Sadc summit on Zimbabwe
Herald Reporters
A meeting of the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security in Swaziland to ratchet up pressure on Zimbabwe to call off tomorrow’s presidential election run-off flopped yesterday after Angola, the chair, and South Africa, the mediator, boycotted the summit.
A Government official, who is well-versed with the operations of Sadc, yesterday said Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and his South African counterpart Mr Thabo Mbeki — the Sadc-appointed mediator for Zimbabwe — did not attend the summit.
President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and King Mswati of Swaziland attended the meeting.
"It was a bilateral meeting between two countries, it can never be a troika meeting. Troika means three and the deputy chair cannot call a meeting when the chair is there.
"Their resolution has no force in respect to Sadc, let alone Zimbabwe. The two countries (Tanzania and Swaziland) are only expressing an obligation to the Western world," said the official.
Tanzania and Swaziland called for the postponement of the presidential run-off.
Political analysts said Sadc needs to stand by President Mugabe since there were concerted efforts by Britain, America and their allies to divide the regional grouping and give space to their regime change agenda.
The analysts said Britain and the United States were clandestinely holding separate talks with Sadc member states in order to entice the regional bloc to change its stance and isolate Zimbabwe.
"Recently, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa admitted that he was being pressurised by the British and Americans to isolate Zimbabwe.
"Sadc should also be cognisant of the fact that a weaker Sadc, without strongmen like President Mugabe, could easily give in to demands by the US such as the setting up of its military base, the Africom, which it is desperate to establish by September 2008. So Sadc needs to rally behind Zimbabwe now than ever before.
"It is clear that if Sadc stands firmly with Zimbabwe, the West will say it is not effective and democratic, but what is happening in Zimbabwe can happen to any other Sadc country. So the solution is for Sadc to remain focused on supporting President Mugabe,’’ said one analyst.
Last night, Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development Minister Cde Ignatius Chombo said MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai was a political weakling who never takes any "struggle" to the bitter end.
"He lacks determination, stamina and endurance to see things to the bitter end," Cde Chombo said.
"He has tried to pre-empt his imminent defeat on Friday by pulling out."
After their attempts to get the United Nations Security Council to declare Tsvangirai president of Zimbabwe failed on Tuesday, the US and British governments have now resorted to shrill threats in their attempts to stop the presidential run-off set for tomorrow.
On Monday, London and Washington unsuccessfully tried to get the Security Council to declare Tsvangirai the ‘‘legitimate president’’ of Zimbabwe basing on the March 29 elections but other members — led by China, Russia and South Africa — indicated that it would be illegal to stop the run-off.
Legal experts across the political divide have since indicated that the run-off is a legal fait accompli.
Western media yesterday quoted British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, during his weekly question time, threatening to push the European Union for more sanctions against Zimbabwe as US Ambassador to Zimbabwe James D. McGee issued a veiled threat to the Government, saying ‘‘the US would take ‘expected’ steps’’.
The EU imposed economic sanctions on Zimbabwe following the expulsion of Pierre Schori, head of its observer mission to the 2002 presidential poll, for violating his visa conditions.
This is the second time in as many months that McGee has threatened violence on the State following a letter he wrote to the media last month, saying the US was gathering
‘‘evidence of the atrocities being committed’’ so that the perpetrators can be brought to book.
McGee called on Sadc to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe, saying that would not be difficult since Zimbabwe was landlocked, though he expressed pessimism that Sadc would sell out Zimbabwe.
Brown’s threats came as the England and Wales Cricket Board backed his decision to ban Zimbabwe’s cricket team from the UK.
"We want to ensure that Zimbabwe does not tour England next year," Brown said. "And we will call on other countries to join us in banning Zimbabwe from the Twenty20 tournament," which is being held in Britain next year.
Zimbabwe was scheduled to play next June in the Twenty20 World Cup in England. The team was also due to play England in two Tests and three one-day matches.
Analysts said the desperation by Tsvangirai and his allies in London and Washington was clear proof that they knew their game was up in Zimbabwe.
Leave us alone, West told
By Chaka Chidyamatiyo, Sydney Kawadza and Takunda
BRITAIN and its allies should stop commenting on Zimbabwean issues because the country is no longer under colonial rule, President Mugabe has said.
Addressing thousands of Zanu-PF supporters at rallies in Rushinga, Centenary and Mahuwe in Mashonaland Central yesterday, Cde Mugabe said Zimbabwe was facing economic hardships because of some Zimbabweans who accepted exploitation by the British.
"We are now an independent country and no longer under British colonial rule. Zimbabwe is now for the black people. Hatidi kunzwa maBritish achitaura nezvenyika iyi, havanei nezvayo. Hatichada kunzwa maAmericans achitaura nezvayo, havanei nezvayo futi," he said.
The President said whites were angered when the Government reclaimed land and allocated it to blacks who were overcrowded in infertile rural areas.
The whites, he said, realised that they had been overpowered and decided to employ the new tactics of establishing puppet governments.
"They (British) then sought an organisation that was constantly quarrelling with Government. They found ZCTU, then led by Tsvangirai," he said, adding that the British even raised funds to support such puppet parties and governments.
"Tinonzwanana nedzimwe nyika, asi kunzwanana chete. Usahwira haureve wava mwene wenyika yedu kana wavakuyera mitupo yedu. Iwe uri kwako nemutupo wako," he said.
Cde Mugabe said such friendship was not a passport for some countries to meddle in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs.
He pledged the Government’s commitment to continue investing in education through computerising schools and developing townships and business centres in rural areas.
"We would like a situation whereby townships would have generators to complement Zesa power supply. In the health sector, we want each district to have a clinic, a hospital and, above all, a provincial hospital," he said.
Government, Cde Mugabe said, had a mammoth task to repair and construct new roads and was working hard to inject more funds into the projects.
President Mugabe said the Government had imported more than 690 000 tonnes of maize from South Africa and had contracted 1 049 trucks to help speed up the imports. He said the Government was aware of the tactics of unethical businesses who continue to increase prices causing suffering among the people.
"We are going to deal with these businesspeople. This is going to be our number one agenda after the election," he warned.
Cde Mugabe said Government had come up with the concept of People’s Shops at growth points and service centres to make basic commodities available at affordable prices.
"Mitengo tinoda kuti idzike pasi-pasi. Tinoda kubatsira vanhu nokurwisa vane mitengo yepamusoro kuti tivakaurise."
He said three People’s Shops would soon be commissioned at Mahuwe Business Centre.
He urged Zimbabweans to vote for the ruling party to show the world their resolve to defend the country’s sovereignty and independence and avoid betraying the liberation struggle through the ballot.
"Musi uyu (tomorrow) ngationei kuti penzura yatevera gwara regidi reChimurenga, tose tonovhota pamasvingo, tione kuti mavhotera VaMugabe. Tikatadza ipapo tingasekwa nepasi rose. Kwatiri kuenda kuswera mangwana kune nyaya yakakosha. Tinoda kuti tibude shudhu hapana anosara," he said.
President Mugabe, who chronicled how the liberation struggle started in Mashonaland Central especially in Centenary, urged the people not to betray the spirit of Mbuya Nehanda who hailed from the area.
"Imi muri province yeChimurenga izere nokuti kuno ndikokwakabva Ambuya Nehanda.
"Tinoziva kuti vanhu vanorwadziwa nekuti mitengo iri kukwira, mari iri kuramba ichiderera zvoremera vabereki. Tinazvo zvichemo izvozvo, tiri kuzvipodza."
Biti bail application ruling set for today
Court Reporter
THE High Court is expected to make a ruling today in the application for bail pending trial by MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti, who is facing charges of treason, communicating statements prejudicial to the State, causing disaffection among the defence forces and insulting the President.
Justice Ben Hlatshwayo, who heard the bail application, said he needed time to consider submissions made by both the defence and prosecution.
Biti’s lawyer, Mr Selby Hwacha, implored the judge to grant
Biti bail saying this would not prejudice the administration of justice.
He said his client was facing treason, a very serious offence, that attracts the death penalty, but this was not sufficient basis to refuse him bail at this stage.
"The facts on the ground indicate that the charges in the manner, form and substance have no gravity and stand no chance of being sustained at trial," said Mr Hwacha.
He said the prosecution’s case was "fanciful, porous and predicated on inadmissible evidence".
But Chief Law Officer Mr Joseph Jagada argued the treason charges could force Biti to abscond since he was likely to be slapped with the death sentence or a lengthy prison term.
Mr Jagada said investigations were still at an infant stage and there was nothing to warrant the release of Biti on bail.
He said Biti, as an influential person locally, was internationally connected and as such he could skip the country to avoid trial.
"He is not a proper candidate for bail," he said.
Biti, who was arrested two weeks ago at the Harare International Airport soon after his arrival from South Africa, is facing charges arising from a document entitled "The Transition Strategy" he allegedly authored on March 25.
It is alleged that some parts of the document were treasonous, prejudicial to the State, insulted the head of State and caused disaffection among the Zimbabwe defence forces.
In another case, MDC-T MP-elect for Buhera West Eric Matinenga was released from remand prison on Tuesday after the State failed to file its appeal to the Supreme Court against the magistrates’ court’s decision to grant him bail.
Matinenga’s lawyer, Mr Chris Mhike, confirmed the release of his client yesterday.
Mr Mhike yesterday filed contempt of court application against the authorities for allegedly defying a court order issued by Justice Alfas Chitakunye to release Matinenga after magistrates in Rusape refused to preside over the MP-elect’s case.
Judge President Rita Makarau, who heard the case in her chambers, reserved judgment.
Matinenga was arrested for allegedly inciting political violence that rocked the Murambinda area in Buhera.
He is alleged to have held a meeting attended by 60 MDC activists at Nerutanga Business Centre, where he is said to have thanked the party’s activists for unleashing a reign of terror on war veterans and Zanu-PF supporters in Buhera.
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