Global review: A new global food crisis looms

English.news.cn 2011-02-20

BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Soaring food prices, which the World Bank says have hit "dangerous levels," have thrust the issue of food security sharply into the global spotlight over the past week.

From Asia to the Middle East and to Latin America, the trends of food prices have aroused widespread public concerns globally and in the developing world in particular.

World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick warned on Tuesday: "Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world."

Rising food prices have driven an estimated 44 million people into poverty in developing countries since last June, as food costs continue to rise to near 2008 levels.

The latest edition of Food Price Watch, a research publication by the World Bank, showed that its food price index rose by 15 percent between October 2010 and January 2011. It is 29 percent above its level a year earlier and only 3 percent below its 2008 peak.

Then what are the main factors behind the food price spikes?

The answer lies in the ultra-loose monetary policy of the United States, the financialization of the global farm produce market, the development of biofuels and the extreme weather events affecting harvests in the world's main grain-producing areas.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is driving up food prices by cranking up its dollar printing presses and devaluing its own currency. As the U.S. website of Business Insider puts it: "The food crisis is a dollar crisis."

Several years ago, a study by the World Bank concluded that biofuel development in the United States and the European Union were directly responsible for the explosion in grain and food prices worldwide.

The study, once confidential, was revealed by the London-based Guardian newspaper in 2008 and caused a worldwide sensation.

And the increasing financialization of global agricultural product markets in recent years has also made food prices more volatile as investor prediction and panic could expand the range of food price fluctuations.

It must be pointed out that when prices of staple foods soar, its impact varies greatly between poor and rich countries -- from distressing to almost minimal. In some of the poorest countries in the world, people spend a significant portion of their household expenses on food and will feel the pinch as soon as food prices rise.

In efforts to stem spiralling food prices, the international community should strengthen coordination and measures should be taken to urge the developed countries to adopt responsible monetary polices and tighten supervision over staple commodities markets.

As for the developing world, the best way out of the food crisis is to increase agricultural inputs and improve productivity to boost agricultural production and grain supply.

Editor: en_wy

LIBYAN LEADER MUST END SPIRALLING KILLINGS

Amnesty International, 20 February 2011

Amnesty International today called on Libyan leader Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi to immediately rein in his security forces amid reports of machine guns and other weapons being used against protestors and a spiralling death toll in Benghazi, Misratah and other cities.

Colonel al-Gaddafi has been the de facto leader of
Libya since 1969 (AP GraphicsBank)

“Forces loyal to Colonel al-Gaddafi are using unwarranted lethal force against protestors calling for change and the result is a wholly predictable one,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa. “Large numbers of people are being killed and the situation is escalating alarmingly. More than one hundred have been killed so far”

“It looks like Libya’s leader may have ordered his forces to put down the protests virtually at any cost, and that cost is being paid in the lives of Libyans.”

Amnesty International researchers have been told by eyewitnesses, lawyers and medical staff in Benghazi that at least 34 people were shot with live ammunition last Friday, mostly with bullet wounds to the head, chest and neck. Dozens more people were injured.

On Saturday, security forces are reported to have opened fire with live ammunition on thousands of mourners who gathered outside a Revolutionary Guards building on their way back from the cemetery and chanted anti-government slogans and denounced the Guards as “killers”, demanding that they leave Benghazi. Twenty people are reported to have been killed. Many others who were injured were evacuated to al-Jala hospital and other Benghazi hospitals.

Sources at al-Jala hospital said most of the victims had been shot in the head, chest or neck, suggesting that the security forces had intended to kill them. Doctors said they were struggling to cope and running out of blood supplies and medicines to treat the wounded.

Other protestors were reportedly killed when security forces opened fire on hundreds of people holding a sit-in in front of Benghazi's North Court. Those present included lawyers, doctors and members of the Abu Salim families organising committee, set up by relatives of prisoners killed in the prison by Colonel al-Gaddafi’s forces in 1996, for which no one has ever been held to account. More than a dozen others were reportedly gunned down in Misratah on Saturday, the first day of protests there,

“The latest reports speak of Libyans in Benghazi being shot down with machine guns and other weapons by tough new troops, including possibly foreign mercenaries, who have been ferried in to suppress the protests,” said Malcolm Smart.

“Colonel al-Gaddafi must immediately put a stop to this bloodshed. He and the others directing the crackdown on protesters, and anyone else involved in abuses, must know that they will be held to account.”

LIBYA: Colonels defected to Malta rather than bomb protesters

Related Articles:

24 rights groups urge US and EU to confront Libyan massacres in UN Security Council and Human Rights Council

Libya protests: Gaddafi's son warns of civil war

Libyans vow to protest despite violence from government

Libya: Hospital official says 200 dead in Benghazi

Travellers warned as violence rages in Libya

The killing of protesters in Benghazi, Libya with open gun shot, 19.02.2011 (Video)

Doggy Prozac & Female Viagra: Big Pharma's new 'syndrome' strategy

US pharmaceutical companies get creative when it comes to disorders and drugs to treat almost anything, from canine depression to female sexual dysfunction. The American drug trade is a multi-billion-dollar business, and is only getting bigger. Meanwhile the industry has been accused of illegally pushing medicine onto the market, often endangering the lives of patients. In the US, the most common medication prescribed for dogs is to treat aggression and anxiety disorders. Pharmacists admit that Prozac works

Related Articles:

US pharm industry creates diseases to cure them

111 charged in Medicare scams worth $225 million

U.S. vetoes draft UN resolution condemning Israel's continued settlement activities

English.news.cn 2011-02-19

Representatives vote following closed-door consultations among the 15
Security Council members at the United Nations headquarters in New York,
the United States, Feb. 18, 2011. The United States, a permanent Security
Council member, on Friday vetoed a UN draft resolution that condemned
continued Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
and demanded Israel " immediately and completely cease" all such
activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The United States, a permanent Security Council member, on Friday vetoed a UN draft resolution that condemned continued Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and demanded Israel " immediately and completely cease" all such activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The 14 other Council members voted in favor of the draft resolution, co-sponsored by more than 120 UN members.

"The draft resolution was not adopted due to a negative vote from a permanent member" of the 15-nation Council, Brazilian UN Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribertro Viotti, who holds the rotating Council presidency for February, announced after the voting.

The vote, which began following closed-door consultations among the 15 Council members, came after the Palestinians refused a compromise offered by the United States in exchange for the withdrawal of the draft resolution.

After her negative vote on the draft resolution, Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council that "our opposition to the resolution before this Council today should therefore not be misunderstood to mean we support settlement activity. On the contrary, we reject in the strongest terms the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity."

"This draft resolution risks hardening the positions of both sides," Rice argued. "It could encourage the parties to stay out of negotiations and if and when they did resume to return to the Security Council whenever they reach an impasse."

"The United States has been deeply committed to pursuing a comprehensive and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians," she stressed.

"In that context, we have been focused on taking steps that advance the goal of two states living side by side in peace and security, rather than complicating it," Rice said. "That includes a commitment to work in good faith with all parties to underscore our opposition to continued settlements."

By the negative vote at the Security Council, the United States once again used its veto power to stop any initiative against Israel -- its close ally in the Middle East.

The draft resolution condemned "the continuation of settlement activities by Israel, the occupying power, in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and of all other measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the (Palestinian) territory, in violation of international humanitarian law and other relevant (UN) resolutions. "

The Security Council "reaffirms that the Israeli settlements established in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and constitute a major obstacle to the achievement of a just, lasting and comprehensive peace," said the draft resolution.

The Security Council "reiterates its demand that Israel, the occupying power, immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard," the draft added.

The draft resolution also called on both Israelis and Palestinians to "act on the basis of international law and their previous agreements and obligations, including under the Roadmap, aimed at improving the situation on the ground, building confidence and creating the conditions necessary for promoting the peace process."

Speaking at the Security Council meeting after the vote was cast, Riyad Mansor, the permanent Palestinian observer to the United Nations, said: "The proper message that should have been sent by the Security Council to Israel, the occupying power, is that its contempt of international law and the international community will no longer be tolerated."

"We fear, however, that the message sent today may be one that only encourages Israeli intransigence and impunity," the Palestinian ambassador added.

Also speaking after the Council vote, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Meron Reuben said that the only way forward between Israel and the Palestinians is through direct negotiations.

"We reiterate our call to the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table without preconditions, so that negotiations can resume without further delay," Reuben said while addressing the Security Council meeting.

According to Reuben, "Israel continues to demonstrate its willingness to renew talks," and its goal is to resolve "all outstanding issues."

"This goal is within reach," Reuben said.

In his speech Reuben noted that the vote of the United States against the draft resolution "reflects the understanding that the only way forward is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians."

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice (C) votes following
closed-door consultations among the 15 Security Council members at the United
Nations headquarters in New York, the United States, Feb. 18, 2011. The United
States, a permanent Security Council member, on Friday vetoed a UN draft resolution
that condemned continued Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem and demanded Israel " immediately and completely cease" all such activities
in the occupied Palestinian territories. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Related Articles

Palestinians plan 'day of rage' after US vetoes resolution on Israeli settlements

Palestinians to make fresh UN anti-settlement bid

Veto of UN resolution undermines U.S. credibility on Mideast peace

Barclays bank forced to admit it paid just £113m in corporation tax in 2009

Admission stuns politicians and tax campaigners on the eve of a day of protests planned against high street banks

guardian.co.uk, Jill Treanor, Friday 18 February 2011

Barclays bank has admitted it paid just £113m in corporation tax in 2009.
Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters

Barclays Bank has been forced to admit it paid just £113m in UK corporation tax in 2009 – a year when it rang up a record £11.6bn of profits.

The admission stunned politicians and tax campaigners. It was revealed on the eve of a day of protests planned against the high street banks by activists from UK Uncut, a group set up five months ago to oppose government cuts and corporate tax avoidance.

The Labour MP Chuka Umunna, who lobbied Barclays' chief executive, Bob Diamond, to reveal the tax paid by the bank, described the figure – just 1% of its 2009 profits – as "shocking".

The current rate of corporation tax in the UK is 28%, although global banks such as Barclays – which has hundreds of overseas subsidiaries, including many in tax havens – do not generate all of their profits in their domestic market.

Max Lawson, of the Robin Hood Tax Campaign, said: "This is proof that banks live in a parallel universe to the rest of us, paying billions in bonuses and unhampered by the inconvenience of paying tax.

"If banks paid their fair share we could avoid the worst of the cuts and help those hit hardest by the financial crisis they did nothing to cause."

UK Uncut, which has also campaigned against Vodafone, Boots and Top Shop, intends to take its first national day of action against the banks on Saturday with protesters expected to bring more than 30 high street branches of Barclays to a standstill.

On Tuesday – when Barclays announced 2010 profits of £6.1bn and a 23% rise in average pay in its investment banking arm, Barclays Capital – the tax campaigners turned a London branch of the bank into a library.

The disclosure of the size of Barclays' corporation tax bill was made in a letter by Diamond to Umunna, who had asked the Barclays boss about the tax paid by the bank when he appeared before the Treasury select committee of MPs last month.

Diamond told the committee that Barclays paid £2bn in taxes to HM Revenue & Customs in 2009, but it is now clear that most of this is payroll taxes for employees. Umunna argued that the sum paid directly in corporation tax to the exchequer is the best reflection of a bank's contribution to the country.

At the time, Diamond said the period of "remorse and apology" for banks was over. Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat peer who resigned as the party's spokesman in the Lords, said : "I agree with Bob – the time for remorse is past, but what British taxpayers need now is behaviour change from Barclays. Our banks must pay their full whack in corporation tax , not derisory drops in the ocean like this."

Barclays' bill for corporation tax illustrates a dramatic fall in the banking industry's contribution to the exchequer. Before the financial crisis, the industry paid more than £10bn in corporation tax, but this had halved by 2009.

Treasury minister Lord Sassoon admitted this week, in response to a question by former City minister Lord Myners, that while the banks would pay around £20bn in tax in 2010-11 most of that total would be income tax and national insurance paid by employees which the banks hand over on their behalf.

Only 20%, said Sassoon, which would come from corporation tax.

Myners said: "The combination of tax avoidance strategies with subsidiary companies together with losses brought forward means that banks will be not be making a meaningful contribution to corporate tax for some years."

Diamond also confirmed to Umunna that the bank had 30 subsidiary companies in the Isle of Man, 38 in Jersey and 181 in the Cayman Islands but stressed that the bank was making efforts to liquidate some of these of operations in the crown dependencies.

With regards to the Cayman Islands, Diamond was insistent that the majority of these are subject to tax in the UK.

Barclays said it complied with tax laws in the UK and all the countries where it operates and that in 2010 it paid over £2.8bn in taxes in the UK and £6.1bn globally. The £2.8bn UK bill again includes payroll taxes.

The bank said: "The corporate tax affairs of an organisation with the global footprint of Barclays are complex and not reducible to simplistic comparisons. Any link between Barclays Group profits and the amount of tax paid to the UK government is inappropriate - there is no direct correlation between the two."

Umunna blamed the coalition for not being tough enough on banks, but Tories said the Barclays tax bill related to a period when Labour was in government.

A government spokesman said: "As a result of negotiations by this government, banks will pay less in bonuses, more in tax and lend more than they otherwise would have done this year."

Related Article:

Barclays branches targeted in protests against tax avoidance

Bahrain royal family orders army to turn on the people

Bahrain's ruling family has defied mounting international criticism by ordering the army to turn on its people for the first time since pro-reform demonstrations erupted five days ago.

The Telegraph, by Adrian Blomfield in Manama 18 Feb 2011

Protesters run from a cloud of teargas during a clash with
Bahraini security forces near the Pearl roundabout Photo: GETTY

As protesters attempted to converge on Pearl Roundabout, a landmark in the capital Manama that has become the principal rallying point of the uprising, soldiers stationed in a nearby skyscraper opened fire.

Since they took to the streets, Bahrain's protesters have come to expect violence and even death at the hands of the kingdom's security forces. At least five people were killed before yesterday's protests.

But this was on a different scale of magnitude.

As they drew near, they were met first with tear gas and then with bursts of live ammunition.

Many fled the first salvoes, scrambling down empty streets as the shots rang out behind them.

RELATED ARTICLES

• WikiLeaks: Bahrain opposition 'received training from Hizbollah' 18 Feb 2011
• Bahrain 'a maturing democracy', MP claims 18 Feb 2011
• Egypt: prison guards killed scores in run-up to fall of Mubarak 18 Feb 2011
• Egypt: thousands gather in Tahrir Square for 'Victory March' 18 Feb 2011
• Libyan protesters assert control 18 Feb 2011
• Middle East tensions 18 Feb 2011

As they ran, terror and disbelief flashed across their faces. One man shouted: "They are killing our people! They are killing our people."

Cowering behind a wall, a woman wept, her body shaking in fear.

But many refused to run, initially at least, determined to defy the violence being visited upon them. Some held their hands in the air and shouted "Peaceful! Peaceful!".

The shooting resumed. One man crumpled to the ground, blood pouring from his leg; nearby a second was also felled. A scream went up: "live ammunition!"

As security forces then began to fire anti-air craft guns over their heads and the air filled with tear gas, the protesters' will finally broke.

But even as they fled in headlong panic, a helicopter sprayed gunfire at them and more fell.

Paramedics from ambulances that had rushed to the scene darted forward to help the wounded, but they too were shot at. Several were detained and at least one ambulance was impounded.

Doctors at the nearby Salmaniyah hospital said they had received 32 wounded people, nine of whom were in a critical condition. There were unconfirmed reports of two deaths at Pearl Roundabout, but witnesses said the bodies had been seized by the army.

Those caught up in the violence were mourners, returning from funerals of three people killed before dawn the previous day when police opened fire on protesters, many of whom were asleep, in a successful bid to regain control of Pearl Roundabout.

Thousands thronged the body of Ali Ahmad al-Moumen as it was born aloft down the streets of Sitra, a poor Shia village near Manama.

Despite the violence, many said the death of Moumen and other protesters had only increased their determination to press ahead with the protests.

"The regime has failed to stop us," Abdulwahab Hussein, a senior Shia Muslim leader, told the crowd. "Their action shows that they are strong and we are weak."

Most of the protesters are members of Bahrain's long-marginalised Shia majority.

They say they are not demanding the abdication of Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Bahrain's Sunni king, but they are calling for a constitutional monarchy that would treat the Shia fairly and make them equal subjects in his kingdom.

But they are demanding the resignation of his uncle Khalifa bin Sulman Al Khalifa, who has served as prime minister for 39 years.

During his rule, the protesters say, the Shia have been turned into second class citizens, deprived of jobs in the army, police force and government while Sunnis from abroad have been given Bahraini citizenship to alter the kingdom's demographic balance.

Government officials in Bahrain have warned that the Shia opposition is controlled by Iran, which seeks to use the kingdom to establish a foothold on the Arabian peninsula.

Protesters insist that they have no love for Iran and are only seeking justice for themselves.

Troops opened fire on demonstrators after the funerals
for protesters killed on Thursday

Related Articles:

The Crown prince of Bahrain: Time for dialogue (video)

Obama speaks to Bahrain's king, urges restraint

Protesters step in to help at Bahrain hospital

Graphic amateur video: Protesters injured in Bahrain as troops open fire

The conversation: Brutality in Bahrain

Bahrain troops 'fire on crowds' (+Video)

In pictures: Bahrain tensions grow

Defence firms are hit by Bahrain ban

Wikileaks released hundreds of new Bahranian cables

Wikileaks: Head of Bahrain intelligence agency "valued contact" of US embassy

WikiLeaks: Bahrain opposition 'received training from Hizbollah'

King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa made the claims in a meeting
with General David Petraeus in 2008 Photo: AFP/GETTY

WikiLeaks: King of Bahrain succession plans

Indonesia expects G20 meeting to press food speculators

Antara News, Wed, February 16 2011

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo has expressed hope the upcoming G-20 meeting in Paris will be able to put pressure on financial and non-financial companies that have so far been speculating on the global food market.

The Chicago Board of Trade is the nerve
center for global futures contracts. "The Cost
of Greed – Speculators in the Global Food
Crisis"

"We want the G-20 forum to give such pressure so there will no longer be financial and non-financial companies speculating on the global food market," he said here on Wednesday.

Martowardojo is scheduled to attend the meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Paris on February 18-19.

So far, many speculative activities such as futures transactions had led to a surge in global demand for food commodities and caused their prices to increase steadily, he said.

"The activities include futures trading. Normally, financial and non-financial companies can be engaged in forward buy and forward sale. They can also enter futures transactions without underlying transactions. These can cause high demand and raise prices," he said.

In addition, the meeting would hopefully agree on the formation of special funds to increase the productivity of food crops as part of efforts to prevent food instability from worsening further, he said.

"We want the G20 forum to agree on special funds to develop food productivity. On the other hand, we want to send a short-term signal to financial and non-financial companies that have so far been speculating on the food market not to worsen the current food instability caused by the climate change," he said.

Editor: Suryanto

Related Articles:

IMF calls for dollar alternative

Rising food prices push 44 million into poverty: World Bank

G20 sees 2 steps to tackling global imbalances: EU

Fed's Bernanke says backs U.S. financial reforms

Two prisoners publicly hanged in southern Iranian city

NCR Iran, Tuesday, 15 February 2011

NCRI – The Iranian regime has hanged two prisoners in public in the city of Khorramabad.

The public relations office of the regime prosecutor disclosed the names of the two prisoners as Nourbakhsh and Ali Heydar.

The state-run Kayhan daily said 9 people have been executed in recent weeks in Khorramabad.

The regime is carrying out the hangings to confront increasing protests in various parts of Iran.

In another city, Zahedan, the regime’s prosecutor in Sistan-va-Balouchestan, Ebrahim Hamidi, said he has requested the execution of four more prisoners on charges of “moharebeh” (waging war on God).

Related Articles:

Iranian Lawmakers Call for Death of Opposition Leaders

Members of parliament shouted slogans calling for the execution
of opposition leaders in Tehran on Tuesday. (Raouf Mohseni/Mehr News,
via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

Iran - Holland calling

Zahra Bahrami buried secretly

Zahra Bahrami was arrested during anti-government protests
in Iran in 2009. (Photograph: Getty Images)

.

Follow Egypt's example, Obama tells Arab world

RNW, 15 February 2011

US President Barack Obama urged autocratic Middle Eastern allies to look to Egypt's example on Tuesday and encouraged the Iranian people to pursue their quest for democracy.

"You can't maintain power through coercion," Obama said in a stark message to Arab allies of the United States as protests raged in Algeria, Bahrain and Yemen following the ouster of presidents in Egypt and Tunisia.

"At some level, in any society, there has to be consent," Obama told a White House press conference.

Obama also condemned the crackdown in Iran, where lawmakers have demanded the hanging of opposition leaders who called the protests that left two people dead.

Iranian MPs singled out Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who had called for protests in Tehran on Monday in support of the Arab uprisings that quickly turned into anti-government demonstrations and ended in clashes.

"People should be able to express their opinions and their grievances and seek a more responsive government," Obama said. "What's been different is the Iranian government's response which is to shoot people and beat people and arrest people.

"Real change in these societies is not going to happen because of terrorism. It's not going to happen because you go around killing innocents. It's going to happen because people come together and apply moral force to a situation," Obama said.

"We have sent a strong message to our allies in the region saying let's look at Egypt's example, as opposed to Iran's example."

Obama said that Egypt was moving in the right direction after the country's military pledged to work toward political reforms and elections, days after protests toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.

"Egypt's going to require help in building democratic institutions and also in strengthening the economy that's taken a hit as a consequence of what happened," he said. "But so far at least, we're seeing the right signals coming out of Egypt."

Obama also praised the military leadership for reaffirming Egypt's international treaties, including with US ally Israel.

"Obviously there's still a lot of work to be done in Egypt itself. What we've seen so far is positive."

Political unrest, meanwhile, has spread across the Middle East.

Thousands of Bahrainis demonstrated Tuesday in the capital Manama, where two protesters died. The rally called for regime change in the Gulf kingdom like that in Egypt and Tunisia.

And in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, pro-regime supporters armed with batons and stones waded into anti-government protesters trying to march on the presidential palace, sparking clashes dispersed by police.

Obama tried to answer critics who suggest his administration was caught flat-footed by the events in Egypt, arguing that he wanted to ensure that the United States did not become the story.

"I think history will end up recording that at every juncture in the situation in Egypt that we were on the right side of history," Obama said

"What we didn't do was pretend that we could dictate the outcome in Egypt because we can't," he said. "So we were very mindful that it was important for this to remain an Egyptian event, that the United States did not become the issue."

But Obama insisted that, if anything, he was actually ahead of the curve.

"If you look at my statements, I started talking about reform two weeks or two and a half weeks before Mr. Mubarak ultimately stepped down, and at each juncture, I think we calibrated it just about right.

"I would suggest that part of the test is that what we ended up seeing was a peaceful transition, relatively little violence, and relatively little, if any, anti-American sentiment or anti-Israel sentiment or anti-Western sentiment."

Related Article:

Indonesian Experience Offers Framework for Egypt

Americans should spread their goodness by setting an example – Ron Paul

RT, 14 February, 2011

America's attempts to spread its ideals around the world should not be achieved by force or money, believes US Congressman Ron Paul, who says Washington's efforts to buy influence in countries like Egypt have failed and will always fail.

“We have a lot to do with Mubarak being in power and staying in power. We subsidized him. We owned him. He is our puppet dictator. He does what we tell him,” the congressman says.

He recalled numerous subsidized friends of the Soviet Union who immediately disbanded once their economic problems occurred and the same fate might await the United States and its friends around the world. Ron Paul says the US should immediately cut off all those regimes getting money from America without necessarily waiting for a “real monetary crisis” when under certain circumstances the US will not be able to send them more money because “money won’t buy anything.”

The same applies to intervening in other countries’ affairs. “If you look at the facts you’ll find out that intervention has not helped us at all,” Ron Paul says, mentioning thousands of Americans being killed in wars as well as an unknown number killed in so-called “collateral damage” amongst the local population.

“The idea that somebody would use force to make other countries act like we do, make individuals act like we think they should, rejects the whole notion of liberty.”

Ron Paul told RT he remains undecided on whether to run for president in 2012.

“I have a couple of months to make a decision,” he said.

G20 sees 2 steps to tackling global imbalances: EU

Reuters, by Jan Strupczewski, BRUSSELS | Sun Feb 13, 2011

(Reuters) - Finance ministers from the world's 20 biggest developed and developing economies (G20) are likely to agree next week on a two-stage approach to tackling global economic imbalances, a European Union document showed.

Such imbalances, reflected in the current account balance, private and public savings, debt and capital flows, can trigger or augment crises, destabilizing the world economy. G20 leaders agreed in November to find a way to tackle them.

The first step would be to identify the imbalances using an agreed set of economic indicators and benchmark values.

The second step would be to analyze the causes of the imbalances and possibly make policy recommendations on how to deal with them.

The two-step approach has been agreed on by G20 deputy finance ministers who met in Paris for a preparatory meeting on January 14-15, the EU terms-of-reference document for EU G20 delegations to the Paris meeting on Feb 18-19 showed.

"The EU strongly supports the agreement reached by the deputies," said the document, obtained by Reuters.

"The two-step approach will add structure and focus to the work of the G20."

There is no agreement yet in the G20 on the full set of indicators to be used for the assessment of imbalances -- this is what G20 finance ministers are due to agree on in Paris.

The document said that the European Union would push for the following set:

• current account balance
• public deficit and debt
• private debt
• savings ratio
• net foreign asset position
• reserve adequacy
• real effective exchange rate

"The current account balance, rather than the trade balance should be a leading indicator as it provides a more complete and accurate picture of external sustainability," said the EU terms-of-reference document in an apparent reference to China, which a G20 source said preferred the trade balance measure.

A G20 source said that while the Paris meeting is likely to agree on which indicators to include in the assessments, their values, which would trigger a more in-depth analysis, would be decided in April at a G20 meeting in Washington.

INTERNATIONAL MONETARY SYSTEM

The G20 finance ministers will also discuss in Paris a reform of the international monetary system, including capital flows, international reserve assets and financial safety nets.

Investment flows can help poorer countries develop and grow, but they have been blamed for overheating economies and driving up inflation. They can also become a destabilizing force when investors suddenly withdraw money.

Over the past year fast-growing emerging markets such as Brazil have been the biggest recipients of these capital flows, and some nations have taken steps, such as raising taxes, to try to manage the influx.

"The EU believes in the benefits of the free movement of capital ... and sees with some concern the increasing use of temporary controls," the EU terms-of-reference document said.

"The EU sees temporary controls of capital inflows as a second best policy instrument to address volatile capital flows compared with macroeconomic macro-prudential and structural measures," the document said.

It added that the International Monetary Fund should identify what drove capital flows and what the appropriate domestic responses were as well as monitor global capital flows.

SDR ROLE

France, which took over the presidency of the G20 in November, is sounding out governments on ways to reform a monetary system dominated for decades by the U.S. dollar, with the aim of creating greater global stability.

French officials have said they hope to encourage greater use of the Chinese yuan as a reserve currency during their G20 presidency, including talks on a possible timetable for its inclusion in the basket of currencies which underpin the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights.

Other ideas include encouraging a greater role for the SDR itself as a reserve currency in an effort to move away from dollar hegemony.

The EU document indicated the 27-nation bloc was ready to consider the eventual inclusion of China's renminbi currency in the basket of currencies underpinning the SDR.

The EU was also ready to discuss SDR-denominated bonds, it said, inviting the IMF to explore ways to develop a private market for SDRs.

"The EU is also open to discuss the possible costs and benefits of SDR exchange rate pegs and SDR-denominated debt as a possible way to reduce balance sheet risks," it said.

(Editing by Greg Mahlich)

U.S. calls on Syria to release young blogger

Reuters, WASHINGTON | Sat Feb 12, 2011

(Reuters) - The United States condemned Saturday what it said was Syria's "secret trial" of a young blogger and called for her immediate release, saying allegations of U.S. espionage connections were baseless.

Tal al-Molouhi

"The United States strongly condemns Syria's secret trial of blogger Tal al-Molouhi," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a statement, saying baseless allegations of U.S. connections had resulted "in a spurious accusation of espionage."

"We call on the Syrian government to immediately release all its prisoners of conscience; and allow its citizens freedom to exercise their universal rights of expression and association without fear of retribution from their own government," he said.

Molouhi, then a high-school student, was arrested in 2009 and her computer was confiscated.

Her blogs included poems and articles supporting the Palestinian cause and criticizing the Partnership for the Mediterranean, a French diplomatic initiative bringing together Arab and European countries, as well as Israel.

Molouhi's arrest stirred a storm in the Arab blogosphere, with numerous postings lambasting what was called indiscriminate repression in Syria.

The United States returned its ambassador to Syria last month after a six-year hiatus just as tensions are growing again over neighboring Lebanon, where Damascus ally Hezbollah has gained the upper hand in a political crisis.

Relations were downgraded in 2005 due to U.S. suspicions of Syrian involvement in the assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq al-Hariri, and U.S. sanctions remain in place on Syria for supporting Hezbollah and other militant groups.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has emphasized the value of Internet freedoms, and has criticized countries for controls they impose on their citizen's online activities.

Clinton is due to deliver what the State Department is calling a "major speech" on Internet freedom Tuesday.

The Internet has become a major outlet for the expression of independent views in Syria, where political opposition has been banned and emergency law in place since the Baath party took power in 1963.

But several Syrian bloggers and writers have been arrested, with some sentenced to long terms, while Internet users said the government appeared to tighten controls amid widespread use of social media like Facebook and Twitter to fuel popular revolts in Egypt and Tunisia.

(Reporting by Andrew Quinn; editing by Philip Barbara)

Related Article:

Syria: Tal al-Molouhi, a 19-year-old female blogger in jail for almost a year