Goldman CEO's salary raised to $2 million

Reuters, New York, Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:04pm EST

Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein testifies before the Senate
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Investigations Subcommittee hearing
on ''Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: The Role of Investment Banks'' on
Capitol Hill in Washington April 27, 2010. (Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed)

(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group more than tripled Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein's salary to $2 million for this year, according to a filing made with regulators on Friday.

The bank, which has come under fire for its pay practices, also raised the salaries of Chief Financial Officer David Viniar and Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn to $1.85 million, the filing said.

All three executives previously earned a base salary of $600,000, according to filings.

(Reporting by Elinor Comlay. Editing by Robert MacMillan)

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Main Street to Wall Street: Drop Dead

Financial crisis was 'avoidable', says official US report

Bankers, regulators, government – even homeowners – all to blame for credit crunch, says Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

guardian.co.uk, Dominic Rushe in New York, Thursday 27 January 2011 15.45 GMT

The 2008 financial was 'avoidable', says the report of the US Financial Crisis Inquiry
Commission. Above, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan testifies
before the commission in April 2010. Photograph: J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

Wall Street bankers, regulators, government officials and even homeowners all share part of the blame for the 2008 financial crisis, according to a scathing US official investigation into the meltdown published today.

The 545-page Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) report reads like a financial thriller in which there are very few heroes. One chapter on the boom and bust fiasco is entitled "The Madness".

The commission concludes that the crisis was avoidable and was caused by:

• Widespread failures in financial regulation, including the Federal Reserve's failure to stem the "tide of toxic mortgages".
  
  
• Dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance, with too many firms acting recklessly and taking on too much risk.
  
  
• An explosive mix of excessive borrowing and risk by households and Wall Street.
  
  
• Policymakers who were ill-prepared for the crisis and lacked a "full understanding of the financial system they oversaw".
  
  
• Systemic breaches of accountability and ethics at all levels. Mortgage-holders took out loans they never intended to pay; lenders made loans they knew the borrowers could not afford.

"As this report goes to print, there are 26 million Americans who are out of work ... Nearly $11tn in household wealth has vanished ... The collateral damage of this crisis has been real people and real communities. The impacts of this crisis are likely to be felt for a generation," the report says.

So far, the 2008 financial crisis has led to few prosecutions. The authors interviewed more than 700 witnesses to compile the report and said they had referred potential violations to the appropriate authorities.

While the crisis was years in the making, it was the collapse of the housing bubble that triggered the 2008 collapse. Trillions of dollars in risky, sub-prime mortgages had been embedded in the system. When the housing bubble burst, the impact was magnified by complex financial derivatives based on those loans, whose risks had been woefully underestimated.

Behind the collapse was the rewiring of Wall Street. From 1987 to 2007, the amount of debt held by financial sector soared from $3tn to $36tn (£1.88tn to £22.5tn). Subprime mortgage loans went from 5% of loans in 1994 to 20% in 2006. At the same time, financial services firms constituted an increasingly disproportionate part of the US economy – 27% of all corporate profits in the US compared with 15% in 1980.

The crisis itself was avoidable – the result of "human action and inaction, not of Mother Nature or computer models gone haywire". And in large part it was led by government mismanagement.

The Federal Reserve played a central role in enabling the crisis. It failed in its duty to set more prudent limits. Financial firms "made, bought and sold mortgage securities they never examined". They invested blindly and did not care if the investments were defective. Compensation "too often rewarded the quick deal, the short-term gain" and "encouraged the big bet", the report concludes.

Aggressive expansion left banks unable to manage their own assets – and few escaped blame.

For Citigroup, singled out for heavy criticism, "too big to fail meant too big to manage". Goldman Sachs multiplied the effects of the collapse of sub-prime loans by funding and creating billions of dollars of bets based on the back of the loans. AIG's senior management was ignorant of the terms and risks of the insurer's $79bn derivatives exposure. It was a "costly surprise" to Merrill Lynch's top managers that their $55bn investment in "super-safe" mortgage securities had resulted in billions of dollars in losses.

Top officials, including Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, were also blamed. The FCIC said the drive towards deregulation over the past 30 years helped to create the conditions for disaster. "What else could one expect on a highway where there were neither speed limits nor painted lines?" asks the report.

Minority report

The FCIC panel failed to reach a majority agreement, with the major report signed off only by its Democrat members.

In a dissenting opinion, Republican members questioned many of the report's conclusions. "The commission's majority used its extensive statutory investigative authority to seek only the facts that supported its initial assumptions – that the crisis was caused by 'deregulation' or lax regulation, greed and recklessness on Wall Street, predatory lending in the mortgage market, unregulated derivatives and a financial system addicted to excessive risk-taking."

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Iran's Press TV has British bank account frozen: report

Google/AFP

LONDON — Iran's state-run news channel Press TV has had its British bank account frozen, a report said on Thursday.

The English language channel, which is headquartered in Tehran but also has an office in London, has seen its main trading account at the National Westminster Bank suspended, Britain's Times newspaper reported.

The bank will shortly close the account, the paper reported. A spokesman for the bank declined to tell the paper why it was taking the action.

Lauren Booth, the sister-in-law of former British prime minister Tony Blair who works for Press TV and recently converted to Islam, blasted the move as a "politically motivated act," in comments to the paper.

It was "intended to cripple a thriving British company whose programmes and news bulletins shed light on areas of policy which certain agencies would sooner keep in the dark," she said.

Matthew Richardson, Press TV's legal adviser, was cited as saying that NatWest had refused to explain why it had frozen the account. "They're not giving any reason why they've done it," he said.

Western governments accuse Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons, and the Islamic republic has been the subject of four sets of United Nations sanctions.

Tehran insists its controversial nuclear programme is only for civilian purposes.

World Economic Rules Have Changed, Obama Warns Untied States

Jakarta Globe, January 27, 2011

Washington. A revitalized President Barack Obama on Tuesday bluntly told America to reinvent itself and unite to survive in a fast-changing global economy powered by rising giants like India and China.

President Barack Obama said in his State of the
Union address that Americans need to view the changing
economic landscape as a challenge. (AFP Photo/Tim Sloan)

Obama’s confident State of the Union address mixed straight talk with a patriotic call to action, as he rode a tide of improbable political momentum less than three months after a Republican mid-term election rout.

Joblessness remains at 9.4 percent, but the economy is growing, and polls place Obama’s approval rating above 50 percent, higher than it has been in almost a year. One recent survey recorded a double-digit increase in recently among independent voters, who deserted the Democrats and supported Republicans last fall.

In his speech at the House of Representatives, Obama kept the focus on the economy, the issue that dragged down his party in last year’s election and will likely be pivotal in 2012. He called for both parties to unite behind his program of cuts and spending,

Obama conjured up a sepia-tinted vision of an America left behind after globalization changed the rules overnight, bemoaning the loss of a working class lifestyle bankrolled by a decent paycheck and benefits.

“The rules have changed. In a single generation, revolutions in technology have transformed the way we live, work and do business,” Obama said, noting that rising powers like India and China were now highly competitive.

But he added Americans should not give up the fight.

“Yes, the world has changed. The competition for jobs is real. But this shouldn’t discourage us. It should challenge us,” the president said, citing US pathfinders from the Wright Brothers and Thomas Edison to Google and Facebook.

Yet no new initiatives were unveiled for immediate job creation, and Obama dealt only sparingly with one of the most divisive issues, the $1.3-trillion US deficit, though he said the budget gap needed to be constrained, and partially embraced recommendations of a bipartisan fiscal commission.

Republicans rejected the president’s prescriptions.

“Unfortunately, instead of restoring the fundamentals of economic growth, he engaged in a stimulus spending spree that not only failed to deliver on its promise to create jobs, but also plunged us even deeper into debt,” said Republican House budget chief Paul Ryan in his party’s official response to the speech.

“Our nation is approaching a tipping point. We are at a moment, where if government’s growth is left unchecked and unchallenged, America’s best century will be considered our past century.”

On foreign policy, the president renewed his vow to start withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan in July but warned of “tough fighting ahead.”

He reiterated that America would defeat Al Qaeda and noted his vow to bring all troops out of Iraq would become a reality later this year.

AFP, AP

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U.S. shifts tone, bluntly urges Mubarak to reform now

Yahoo/Reuters, By Arshad Mohammed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States bluntly urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday to make political reforms in the face of protesters demanding his ouster, in a shift in tone toward an important Arab ally.

In issuing a fresh call for reforms after a day of clashes between Egyptian police and protesters, Washington appeared to be juggling several interests: its desire for stability in a regional ally, its support for democratic principles and its fear of the possible rise of an anti-U.S. Islamist government.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered the message at a news conference with the foreign minister of Jordan, another Arab country that watched the ouster of Tunisia's president in a popular revolt two weeks ago.

Police in Cairo fought with thousands of Egyptians who defied a government ban on Wednesday to protest Mubarak's 30-year-old rule, firing rubber bullets and tear gas at the crowds and dragging away demonstrators.

The revolt in Tunisia has prompted questions about the stability of other authoritarian Arab governments and has depressed stock, bond and foreign exchange prices in parts of the region, notably in Egypt.

Clinton suggested Egypt's government had to act now if it wanted to avert a similar outcome and urged it not to crack down on peaceful protests or disrupt the social networking sites that help organize and accelerate them.

"We believe strongly that the Egyptian government has an important opportunity at this moment in time to implement political, economic and social reforms to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people," Clinton said in a statement with Jordan's Nasser Judeh at her side.

The Obama administration has urged reforms in Egypt in the past, although seldom with the urgency of Clinton's remarks.

On Tuesday, Clinton had adopted a softer stance, saying the United States supported freedom of assembly and speech, urging all sides to refrain from violence and saying the Egyptian government was "looking for ways" to meet its people's needs.

GENUINE CHANGE

Robert Danin of the Council on Foreign Relations think tank said Clinton's remarks appeared for the first time since the Tunisian unrest to make clear what the United States wants to see in Egypt: genuine change originating from the government rather than a dramatic overthrow as occurred in Tunisia.

As the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, Egypt has much greater strategic importance to the United States than Tunisia. Egypt has long received major U.S. aid and supported Washington's efforts to promote a wider Arab-Israeli peace.

"This is not a walking away from the alliance with Egypt in any way but, at the same time, putting the Egyptian government on notice that changes are going to have to come pretty quickly," Danin said.

"It is trying to lay out a way there can be managed change if the regime is responsive to the people," he said. "It (the Obama administration) doesn't want to see the means adopted in Tunisia -- which would necessitate the leadership to flee."

Tunisian veteran strongman Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali was swept from power on January 14 after weeks of protests.

In an article entitled "After Tunisia: Obama's Impossible Dilemma in Egypt," Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Institution argued that Ben Ali's downfall had "called into question a basic premise of U.S. policy in the Middle East -- that repressive regimes, however distasteful, are at least stable."

Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center, said Mubarak's government was unlikely to fall quickly.

"The U.S. has a limited amount of time to, first, reassess its Middle East policy and, then, reorient it to ride with, rather than against, the tide of Arab popular rule," he wrote in a piece published on theAtlantic.com.

"It can begin distancing itself from Mubarak by stepping up public criticism of regime repression and deepening contacts with the ... opposition - liberals, leftists, and, yes, Islamists alike," he added. "It is better to have leverage with opposition groups before they come to power than afterward."

The White House made clear it was watching events closely and supported Egyptians' right to protest peacefully.

"This is an important time for the government to demonstrate its responsibilities to the people of Egypt in recognizing those universal rights," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One.

(Additional reporting by Ross Colvin and Andrew Quinn; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Davos explainer: What is the 'new reality' faced by the world?

CNN News, By Paul Armstrong, January 25, 2011

There was anger around the world over major banks in the U.S. and UK receiving
billions in taxpayer-funded bailouts after several financial institutions were caught
out in the 2008 housing market collapse

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Klaus Schwab: New reality means post-digitalization and post-globalization
• Politicians, business leaders say a new approach is required to achieve greater prosperity for all
• WEF's Global Risks report: World's economy could not withstand any further shocks

Davos, Switzerland (CNN) -- The global economic crisis exposed fault lines in our capitalist system with such ferocity that even the most optimistic of analysts struggled to predict when -- or even whether -- a full recovery was possible.

Chastened by this experience, politicians and business leaders concede that the world has changed and a new approach is required to achieve greater prosperity for all. Organizers of the 2011 World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, say this year's theme, "Shared Norms for the New Reality," reflects this thinking.

The world goes global

WEF founder Klaus Schwab explained that this new reality means understanding the impact of globalization and the Internet. "We are now living in a completely digitalized world and a completely globalized world, so we have to find some new mechanisms and values to deal with this post-digitalized and post-globalized world," he told CNN's Richard Quest.

He stressed the same problems of unemployment and inflation exist but "we deal with those problems in a completely new context.

Klaus Schwab: World leaders need to inspire recovery

"For example, you have the shift in the geopolitical and geoeconomic center from north to south, WikiLeaks, I could go on and on."

Volatility and uncertainty

New reality for UK retirees The new reality: Jobs Sweden looks for solution to debt crisis Ireland's financial future in question

Nestlé CEO and WEF co-chair Paul Bulke explained the post-crisis reality will require a complete re-think of our priorities and value systems to address the current volatility and uncertainty in the world.

Official website: World Economic Forum

"In the short term we must manage the debt crisis, we can't continue living beyond our means," he said in an interview posted on the WEF website. "We have to organize ourselves in response to new challenges and refresh our regulations, especially in the developed world.

"But over-regulation is not a good option. You cannot regulate honesty for example. I'm a true believer in a principled approach to business, rather than an excessively rule-based system which will only asphyxiate initiative and growth.

"The wiser choice is to agree to share norms for our new reality based on strong and explicit global principles -- the very ingredients needed to fuel development."

The future for the banking sector

The banking sector in particular has been a lightning rod for public criticism, after a number of major banks in the United States and Britain received billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded rescue packages at the height of the crisis. Many had been caught out after the collapse of the housing market on both sides of the Atlantic, which exposed a culture of high-risk lending without proper risk management in place.

Some analysts ventured that lucrative bonuses have encouraged bankers to take greater risks for short-term gains.

But Bulke also pointed to the progress made by the private sector in the development of emerging economies, which has in return reduced rates of absolute poverty. "The private sector run in a principled way based on strong values and with a long-term perspective is a fundamental force for positive development in society," he said.

In its 2011 Annual Global Risks Report, the WEF warned the world's economy could not withstand any further shocks to the system and identified 37 main threats to its future stability, from crippling government debt and cyber security, to unsustainable pressure on resources and food security.

Among the most serious economic risks is the ongoing fiscal crisis in the euro zone -- sparked by countries borrowing and spending beyond their means -- which has spread from Greece to Ireland and Portugal in the past year.

What Ireland's bailout means

This prompted other euro zone partners to pump in billions of dollars in bailout packages, as investors worry about governments' ability to repay their debts. Governments have reacted with severe austerity measures which have in turn brought thousands onto the streets to protest.

Food prices hit record high

Meanwhile, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation warned that world food prices hit a record high in December, prompting riots in a number of poorer countries, from Mozambique to Algeria. Analysts believe a combination of causes, from environmental factors such as major droughts and wildfires, to a surge in the world's population, have hit global crop prices.

The report also notes that while globalization has reduced impediments to trade, improved international connections and sustained growth for a generation, it has also increased divisions within countries.

Internet-enabled mass protests

But the current generation of ordinary people have been able to voice their discontent like never before, thanks largely to the proliferation of the Internet and social media. Whether it is in Greece, Iran or Tunisia, like-minded people have been able to share information and then mobilize swiftly.

"We are having to confront so many risks at the same time," said Schwab.

In order to meet these challenges decision-makers will have to "overcome the behavioral biases towards immediate, short-term solutions and switch to longer term thinking," according to Howard Kunreuther, Co-Director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center.

In short, future development in the 21st century will have to be more inclusive and collaborative in order to reduce the divisions that threaten food security and increase tensions over trade imbalances.

A framework for inclusive growth

According to the WEF, the key to navigating this new reality "will be the shared norms that not only transcend differences across generations, stakeholder groups and geographies in a multi-polar world, but also enable inclusive growth.

"These norms must be truly shared and integrated into a holistic, interdisciplinary and multidimensional framework. For governments as well as multinational corporations, shared norms provide the compass by which leaders give and receive direction, define benchmarks for acceptable and unacceptable behaviors, and ensure inclusive rather than exclusive outcomes."

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World business leaders told flying saucers are real & extraterrestrials exist

Exo Politics Institute/Exonews, Michael E. Salla, Ph.D., January 25, 2011

GCF website

At five thousand dollars a ticket, some business leaders got more than they bargained for when they attended the first day of the Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF) being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. They were told flying saucers are real, and they better start thinking about the business implications of extraterrestrial life and technologies. Convened each year by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, the GCF brings together business and political leaders to discuss ways of promoting business competitiveness. For the first time at its annual conference, the GCF held a panel discussing UFOs and extraterrestrial life. Titled “Learning from Outer Space” the panel comprised five speakers who all endorsed the view that extraterrestrial life is real, and has many implications for the world as we know it.

Graphic summary of GCF discussions by Sunni Brown reveals
prominence of ET contact and new energy systems.

The panel was held on January 23, and was a “main plenary” session meaning all GCF participants were able to attend and hear what the experts had to say about UFOs and extraterrestrial life. Up to 1000 participants included business and political elites such as former British and Canadian Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and Jean Chretien; Jim Albaugh, President and CEO of Boeing; Andy Bird, chairman of Walt Disney International; Jared Cohen, Director of Google ideas, and many others. The advice they got was that the issue of extraterrestrial life is real, and they better start paying attention to the business implications. Here’s how the GCF summarized the panel presentations on its website:

Learning from Outer Space – Panel

• The unconventional and highly relevant topic of extraterrestrial life forms was addressed by yesterday’s panel discussion “Contact: Learning from Outer Space”. Experts Zoaghloul El-Naggar, Stanton Friedman, Michio Kaku, Nick Pope and Jacques Vallee made compelling cases for the existence of living beings elsewhere in the galaxy, drawing upon empirical evidence, religious theology and logical reasoning.
  
  Mr. Friedman opened his remarks with a bold statement, “Flying saucers are real!” and this summed up the perspective of the panel members. Mr. Pope explored the potential business implications of outer space, such as the profitability of alien branding or sponsorship.
  While El-Naggar was also convinced of their existence, he raised the interesting point that it may not be ethical to spend resources trying to contact alien societies when we still face war and poverty in our own society.
  
  Mr. Vallee encouraged more academics to analyze the evidence. However, on behalf of his successful Venture Capital fund, he said, “We are not ready to invest in this type of research, but we think that somebody should.”

The 2011 GCF conference panel on Outer Space has opened the door for world business leaders to seriously consider the implications of evidence concerning UFOs and extraterrestrial life. A graphic summarizing GCF discussions by artist, Sunni Brown, reveals the prominence given to issues of extraterrestrial contact and the overwhelming changes new energies will bring to humanity. Business leaders are poised to do what political leaders have so far failed to do – proactively deal with compelling evidence that we are being visited by galactic civilizations who have advanced technologies to share with humanity.

Further Reading:

• World business leaders to discuss UFOs & extraterrestrial life
• Scientists endorse study of societal consequences of extraterrestrial life
• Mystery behind initial report of UN Liaison for Extraterrestrial First Contact
• Princeton University astrobiology certificate explores potential for extraterrestrial life
• Stephen Hawking launches exopolitics debate

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Peru recognises Palestinian state

Nation is seventh South American country to do so, bolstering Palestinian hopes of momentum towards global recognition

guardian.co.uk, Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent, Tuesday 25 January 2011 09.17 GMT

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has thanked South American
countries for recognising Palestine as a state Photograph: Khaled El Fiqi/EPA

Peru last night announced it recognises Palestine as a state, becoming the seventh South American country to do so in a rapid diplomatic domino effect which has alarmed Israel.

The declaration came on the eve of a Latin American-Arab summit to be hosted in the Peruvian capital, Lima, reflecting growing political and economic ties between the two regions.

"Palestine is recognised as a free and sovereign state," Peru's foreign minister, José Antonio García Belaúnde, told RPP radio. "There was no pressure from any side. We have acted with freedom and independence." He expressed Peru's continued support for peace talks.

The announcement followed similar decisions by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Guyana in recent weeks, bolstering Palestinian hopes of momentum towards global recognition.

It came as a chink of good news for Palestinians amid controversy and despair over leaked peace talks documents showing negotiators' apparent weakness in dealings with Israel and the US.

"Peru's decision is very good news," said Mauricio Abu-Ghosh, president of Chile's Palestine Federation. "It recognises the existence and sovereignty of the Palestinian state."

Israel warned that South America's rush to recognition was "highly damaging interference" by countries that were never part of the Middle East peace process.

The US has lobbied the region to say recognition is premature. That argument has fallen flat with conservative and left-wing governments but Washington will be pleased that Peru, like Chile, hedged its position on Palestinian claims for borders that existed before 1967, encompassing the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Waves of emigration from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine to South America over the past century has dotted the region with small but influential Arab minorities, with some boasting politically connected tycoons.

Increasing trade – which will be trumpeted at next month's Lima summit – has given an economic edge to cultural ties. Brazil, which has tripled its trade with Arab nations in the past decade, was thanked last month by President Mahmoud Abbas for allowing Palestine to open its first embassy in the Americas.

Argentina's support for the Palestinian state's pre-1967 borders is tinged with its own territorial claim over the Falkland Islands, which it calls the Malvinas. It lost a brief 1982 war against Britain for the archipelago and has complained that Britain violates UN agreements by refusing to discuss sovereignty.

Venezuela previously recognised the Palestinan state in 2005. Analysts say Uruguay and Paraguay may be next.

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Hu's fruitful visit opens new chapter of China-U.S. cooperation: foreign minister

English.news.cn 2011-01-23

Chinese President Hu Jintao shakes hands with U.S. President Barack Obama
during a bilateral meeting at the White House in Washington, the United States,
Jan. 19, 2011. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao's latest state visit to the United States bore rich fruit and opened a new chapter of cooperation between the two countries, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Saturday.

The tour, from Tuesday through Friday, came at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, on the 40th anniversary of the resumption of contact between the two countries and on the opening year of China's 12th five-year plan for national socioeconomic development, Yang noted.

Meanwhile, the international situation was witnessing deep and complicated changes, and the China-U.S. relationship was forging ahead with increasing momentum while inevitably encountering some differences and disputes, he said.

Against such a backdrop, the Chinese president held frank and in-depth talks with his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, and many other senior political figures, and reached important consensus on bilateral relations and a host of major regional and global affairs, Yang said.

During the tightly scheduled trip, which saw Hu attend nearly 20 events in Washington and Chicago within 68 hours, the Chinese leader also reached out to the U.S. public, conveying China's resolution to advance China-U.S. ties, highlighting China's commitment to peaceful development and presenting China's image of peace, development, opening-up and progress, Yang said.

The U.S. and international media, he added, attached great importance to and spoke highly of Hu's trip, hailing it as a historic visit at a crucial moment and whose significance was manifested partly in the top level reception with full pomp and ceremony given by the U.S. government.

In summary, the latest step in China-U.S. diplomacy achieved rich results and cast a far-reaching influence not only upon the two countries themselves but upon the whole world, the Chinese foreign minister said.

Read whole article ......

Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Failure of new round of nuclear talks no surprise

English.news.cn, by Du Yuanjiang, He Guanghai, 2011-01-23

TEHRAN, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Talks between six world powers and Iran ended here Saturday without making any progress in solving the Islamic Republic's long-standing controversial nuclear issue.

The reason behind the failure lies in the division over Iran's uranium enrichment activities. Iran declared it would not consider freezing uranium enrichment.

Local observers said the failure is not unexpected, if one takes into account what the Iranians have said and did in the run-up to the Istanbul talks.

Even before the talks, it was widely believed that the new round of talks in Istanbul would hardly bear any fruits. After all, it is highly unlikely that Iran would stop insisting on its "nuclear rights," including continuing uranium enrichment activities within its borders.

"There is absolutely no possibility that Iran will give up its peaceful nuclear program" including "the production of nuclear fuel for its civilian reactors," said Dr. Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a research fellow at the Institute of North American and European Studies of Tehran University.

A string of maneuvers by Iran recently confirmed what Marandi said, proving the country would hardly backtrack from its position.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that Iran will not withdraw an iota from its nuclear objectives despite pressure from the West.

On the same day, Iran test-fired a surface-to-air missile near its Khondab nuclear sites, which military commander Colonel Far Mahini said was to enhance the defense capabilities and defend the sensitive places of the country.

Earlier, the Iranian president had also said that Iran was a nuclear country, implying that Iran had achieved nuclear know-how for energy purposes.

A week earlier, foreign delegates invited by the Iranian government visited Iran's nuclear sites. This came after European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton turned down Tehran's invitation, saying it was the task of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect the Iranian nuclear facilities.

Analysts believe Iran's above-mentioned actions are meant to signify that Iran's nuclear program is transparent and only for peaceful purposes and that Iran would insist on continuing uranium enrichment activities despite of pressure.

Just as Marandi observed, Iran hopes its so-called "nuclear rights" will be respected, and the greater the pressure on Iran, the more determined Iran will be to speed up the nuclear program and push back its "antagonists."

It should therefore have come as no surprise that Iran refused to give up its uranium enrichment activities as desired by the West, a refusal that contributed to the failure of the new round of talks between Iran and the six powers.|

Two podiums became one on the final day of the talks (BBC)

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Palestinian Flag Flies Officially for First Time in Washington

PLO Ambassador to U.S. Hails Flag Raising as Step Towards Statehood

ABC News, By DEVIN DWYER, WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2011

The Palestinian flag was flown for the first time outside PLO diplomatic offices in Washington today, in a symbolic step that officials said shows momentum towards creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Palestian Flag Raised at PLO Office in D.C./ Palestinian flag
flies for the first time officially at U.S. diplomatic Offices

Ambassador Maen Areikat unfurled the red, green, white and black banner from a balcony above the office entrance to a round of applause from supporters. He hailed the moment as historic.

"It's about time that this flag that symbolizes the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination and statehood to be raised in the U.S.," Areikat said.

"We hope that this will help international efforts to provide recognition of the Palestinian state and we hope that, as President Obama said at the U.N. General Assembly last year, by the next General Assembly session this year in September, Palestine will be a full member of the U.N."

Palestinian leaders have been intensely lobbying members of the U.N. for official recognition this year despite U.S. opposition and the threat of a veto. The U.S. has said Palestinian statehood should come as part of a peace deal with Israel.

Still, Areikat praised the Obama administration for a small, if symbolic, gesture that reflects improved diplomatic relations and a U.S. commitment to help promote the goal of a Palestinian state.

"It means the administration is serious," he said of the U.S. permission to fly the flag. "What we are urging them now is to translate their support for a Palestinian state into concrete action."

The Palestinian diplomatic mission has been under a number of restrictions since the U.S. government stopped classifying the PLO as a terrorist group after the Oslo Accords of 1993. It does not have full diplomatic status as an independent state.

PLO Flag Flies in Washington

In July, the State Department granted permission to the Palestinians, at their request, to rename their U.S. mission the General Delegation of the PLO, the same title allowed for their missions in Europe, Canada and several countries in Latin America.

But U.S. officials said the move did not signify an upgrade in diplomatic status.

The PLO "operates under guidance provided by the State Department. It does not have any diplomatic privileges or immunities," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in July. "But these steps have symbolic value, they reflect improved relations between the United States and Palestinians, but they have no meaning under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations."

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in August, 36 members of Congress protested the Department's decision to grant the Palestinians' requests and insisted instead that the PLO offices be closed.

Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called Tuesday's flag raising a Palestinian "scheme" to manipulate public and international opinion.

"The Palestinian leadership's ongoing drive to win recognition from foreign governments, and its latest push to condemn Israel at the UN, is part of the same strategy aimed at extracting concessions without being required to meet international commitments," she said in a statement. "I remain deeply disappointed that the Palestinian leadership continues to reject the opportunity to negotiate directly and in good faith with the Israeli government to resolve all outstanding issues and achieve security and peace. Instead, Palestinian leaders reject negotiations, they make excuses, and they seek shortcuts to statehood."

ABC News' Eliza Larson contributed to this report.

Dmitry Medvedev and Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town
of Jericho. Photograph: Oliver Weiken/EPA

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