Major US-Israel Military Exercises Delayed - New York Times

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The move appears intended to avoid further escalating tensions with Iran, which is under intense international diplomatic and economic pressure to curb its nuclear program out of fears it is seeking to make a nuclear bomb. Iran itself recently held 10 days of naval exercises near the Strait of Hormuz, and Israel has kept open the possibility of a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

At the same time, the United States is leading an effort to increase sanctions on Iran, and an Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated in Tehran, the fourth such attack reported in two years. Iran blames the United States and Israel for the killings.

Speaking Monday on Israel Radio, Mr. Lieberman cited “diplomatic and regional reasons, the tensions and instability” as factors in delaying the exercise. The Israeli military said in a statement that the joint exercise, Austere Challenge 12, would take place during the second half of 2012.

The exercises, involving thousands of American and Israeli soldiers, were designed to test various Israeli and American air defense systems against missiles and rockets from a range that would include Iran, The Associated Press reported.

The American defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta, said last month that the drill exemplified unprecedented levels of defense cooperation between the two countries, and was meant to back up Washington’s “unshakable” commitment to Israel’s security, The A.P. said.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Israel and the United States took the decision to delay the exercise jointly “because it was not the right time.” He did not elaborate.

Israeli officials have saluted the effectiveness of existing sanctions against Iran, while also urging more, specifically on Iran’s Central Bank and its petro-chemical sector.

In an interview published Saturday in The Weekend Australian, Mr. Netanyahu said he was seeing Iran “wobble” for the first time. “If these sanctions are coupled with a clear statement by the international community, led by the U.S., to act militarily to stop Iran if sanctions fail,” he said, “Iran may consider not going through the pain.”

On Sunday, Moshe Yaalon, a vice prime minister and minister of strategic affairs, described the Obama administration’s failure to add more sanctions as “a disappointment so far.”

“The administration is hesitating because of fears of rising oil prices this year, apparently out of election year considerations,” he told Israel Radio.

On Monday, Mr. Netanyahu told a closed meeting of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that sanctions on Iran had to be beefed up and implemented expeditiously and aggressively, according to a participant in the meeting.

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Romania protests: PM Emil Boc calls for dialogue - BBC News

Main clashes took place near Bucharest's University Square Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc has called for dialogue and an end to violence after four days of protests against austerity cuts.

Dozens of people were hurt on Sunday, as demonstrators and riot police clashed for a second day running in the capital Bucharest.

The rallies began in support of an official who quit in protest against health care reforms.

But they have grown into a broader hostility towards government policies.

The alliance of opposition parties has called for early elections.

Unlikely catalyst

More than 1,000 demonstrators rallied in University Square in the centre of Bucharest on Sunday, the scene of violence the night before.

Demonstrators threw stones at riot police, who again responded by firing tear gas.

A number of people were arrested, with officials saying that most of the trouble makers were young football fans.

Peaceful protests were reported in a number of towns and cities across the country on Sunday, including Cluj, Timisoara, Brasov and Arad, as demonstrators called for the resignation of the government and of President Traian Basescu.

Dozens of demonstrators were also said to have gathered in the centre of the capital on Monday.



Raed Arafat resigned as deputy health minister last Tuesday

The government called an emergency meeting after Sunday night's clashes.

Speaking on Monday, Prime Minister Emil Boc expressed sympathy with those struggling under austerity measures.

"The crisis has been harsher than we imagined," he said, but added that the violence "cannot be tolerated".

The protests follow cuts to salaries, benefits and higher taxes but the unlikely catalyst was the resignation of popular health official Raed Arafat.

The Palestinian-born doctor came to Romania in the 1980s, and is a well-known and much-liked figure, due to the practical changes he made to improve the emergency services, the BBC's Nick Thorpe reports.

Dr Arafat stepped down as Health Ministry undersecretary last Tuesday, after a series of public attacks on him by President Traian Basescu, our correspondent adds.

Dr Arafat opposed government measures to partially privatise Romania's shaky health care system.

President Basescu later announced that he was scrapping the unpopular reform, but that has failed to soothe the demonstrators' anger, our correspondent says.

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At least 25 people died when a five-storey building collapsed in the Lebanese ... - BBC News

Tenants of the "run-down" building had reportedly been urged to move out, before the collapse happened At least 25 people died when a five-storey building collapsed in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

Rescuers are continuing their search of the site in the Ashrafiyeh district for a further 16 people believed to be buried beneath the rubble.

At least 12 people were injured when the building - said to house around 50 people - came down unexpectedly on Sunday evening.

Most of the dead were foreign workers living in Lebanon, officials said.

The victims included eight Sudanese, two Filipinos, two Egyptians and two Jordanians, AP quoted unnamed security officials as saying.

It is not yet known what caused the sudden collapse.

Local reports are speculating that cracks in the building made worse by heavy rain may have been the cause, or that the building could have been damaged by the impact of construction at several nearby sites.

'Extremely run-down'

Rescuers were using cranes, bulldozers and their bare hands to continue their search of the rubble on Monday.



Hopes are fading that any more survivors will be found in the collapsed building

But hopes of finding anyone else alive were fading.

Among the bodies were those of Tanios Farhat, 73, and his three sons, who appeared to have become trapped under the rubble as they tried to save their father, AP reports.

Red Cross official Georges Kettaneh confirmed 12 people had been injured, although none of them seriously.

Mr Khattar said the building had housed some 50 people.

At least eight people had escaped as the building came down, he added.

One witness told a local television channel that "it was like an earthquake" when the block collapsed.

A resident who escaped with her mother said the building was extremely run-down and the owner had recently warned tenants to move out, AFP reported.

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman visited the site on Sunday evening, as did Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.

Mr Charbel told reporters the building's owner was being questioned by the authorities.

He added it was essential to carry out a survey of similar buildings across the country, many of which were built illegally or had several floors added without proper permits.

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Pakistan PM Gilani wins key backing in Parliament - Christian Science Monitor

Pakistan’s Parliament passed a key resolution Monday night calling for the country’s other state institutions – the Army and Supreme Court – to remain within their constitutional limits.

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The resolution is a welcome boost for beleaguered Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani who earlier in the day was charged by the Supreme Court with contempt for failing to reopen old corruption cases against his ally President Asif Ali Zardari. If found guilty, Mr. Gilani faces dismissal and the possibility of jail time.

Gilani described Monday’s vote as “a welcome day for democracy,” adding that it endorses Parliament’s supremacy.

Pakistan's military traditionally enjoys wide latitude in shaping the country's national security policies and has stepped in numerous times – often with the Supreme Court's blessing – to overthrow civilian governments that challenged its authority. The Gilani government has been trying to circumscribe the military's role particularly after the embarrassing discovery of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in a military garrison town last year. Last week, Pakistan’s Army issued a statement criticizing the Prime Minister and promising “grievous consequences,” raising fears of another military coup.

Today's backing in Parliament suggests Pakistan's political leadership prefers Gilani and his government to stay in office until elections expected later this year. This support from Parliament, as well as recent warm statements by Gilani toward the military, have tamped down the concerns about a coup – for now.

Zaffar Abbas, editor of leading-English daily Dawn, says the resolution will strengthen Gilani's hand, despite a last-ditch walk-out by some opposition parties.

“The majority want the system to continue. If a consensus had been reached they would have liked it, but still the house has passed it,” he says.

However, the future of the government still remains uncertain as it faces down two major cases in court. 

The first concerns a political amnesty known as the National Reconciliation Ordinance which was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2009. When the Court overturned the amnesty, it expected Gilani to help reopen old corruption cases against President Zardari.

Zardari argued, however, that as head of state he enjoys immunity from prosecution, and Gilani did not pursue it. That may change as court pressure on Gilani mounts. 

According to Supreme Court advocate Feisal Naqvi, the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) may end up sending a letter to Swiss authorities to help reopen the old cases against President Zardari before the next date of hearing on Thursday, in order to avoid Gilani’s dismissal. 

Mr. Abbas, on the other hand, says the judiciary is more likely to get the prime minister’s legal team to respond to the contempt charges rather than dismissing the prime minister.

The second case relates to a secret memorandum sent by unknown persons to the United States, seeking American help in curtailing Pakistan’s Army. Zardari denies any role in the scandal, which cost former Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani his job. Mansoor Ijaz, a US businessmen who says he co-authored the memo and brought it to light, is due to give evidence to the court on Jan. 25. 

A further interesting aspect to Monday’s vote was a failure by Pakistan’s main opposition party, the PML-N, to side with the government despite a recent record of standing up to the Army. The resolution still passed with a majority of parliament including some members of other opposition parties.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali, leader of the opposition in parliament, attempted to table amendments to the resolution requiring the government to endorse all orders of the Supreme Court and refrain from making hostile statements toward the Army in public. When those amendments failed, he led a walk-out, saying: “There is no threat to democracy. This incompetent government is trying to support itself through this hollow resolution.”

According to senior Pakistani journalist Amir Mateen, the statements represent a mellowing of the party’s anti-Army stance which it has held since elections in 2008 and may be the result of an attempt to make political hay in what politicians and pundits alike expect to be an election year.

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Kazakh ruling party wins snap parliamentary polls - The Hindu

Nursultan Nazarbayev's Nur Otan gets 80.74% of the vote

Kazakhstan's ruling party has swept snap parliamentary elections, but two other parties won seats for the first time.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev's party, Nur Otan, won 80.74 per cent of the vote, according to preliminary results announced on Monday. Two other nominally Opposition parties scraped past the 7 per cent threshold — the pro-business Ak Zhol, headed by a former functionary of the ruling party, and the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan, a splinter from the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, which was suspended for six months in October for violating the law on public organisations.

After winning re-election with over 95 per cent of the votes last year, Mr. Nazarbayev ordered early elections to Parliament in order to improve his democratic credentials with the West. Mr. Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan since 1990, has been criticised for having a one-party Parliament (in the 2007 elections Nur Otan won 88 per cent and no other party won seats). Under a 2009 law if only one party wins parliamentary seats, the next runner-up will get at least two seats.

Out of seven parties contesting the poll, four, including the fiercely Opposition All-National Social Democratic Party (OSDP), failed to win seats. Many Opposition candidates had been disqualified from the election and several parties had been denied registration.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitored the vote, praised competent administration of the election but said the vote counting was not transparent.

As a result, in many instances, it was not possible for observers to determine whether voters' choices were honestly reflected, the OSCE said noting that its observers detected at least a dozen cases of ballot-box stuffing.

However, monitors from the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) said the vote was transparent, competitive and free.

It was important for Mr. Nazarbayev that the election was peaceful and orderly in the town of Zhanaozen, where armed clashes occurred between striking oil workers and security forces in December in which 16 people were killed.

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24 killed as apartment block collapses in Beirut - ABC Online

By Middle East correspondent Anne Barker and staff

Updated January 17, 2012 07:21:23

The death toll from the collapse of a six-storey Beirut apartment block rose to at least 24 people, as rescuers combed the rubble for more bodies.

One witness in the Ashrafiyeh district of the Lebanese capital told local TV that the sound of the building collapsing was "like an earthquake".

The apartment block was home to about 50 people - many of them Sudanese and Egyptian labourers.

Red Cross official Georges Kettaneh said 12 people had been injured and at least eight escaped when the apartment block suddenly collapsed.

Among the dead was a 15-year-old girl.

One witness said debris began falling from the building in the early evening before the entire block came crashing down.

A resident who escaped with her mother said the building was extremely run-down and the owner had warned tenants not to remain there shortly before it disintegrated.

She told local television that she and her mother managed to escape as the building came tumbling down but her father and three brothers remained trapped.

The owner has since been detained for questioning.

Anxious relatives stayed at the site overnight weeping and praying as rescue workers with bulldozers sifted through the rubble.

President Michel Sleiman rushed to the site on Sunday evening (local time) as did interior minister Marwan Charbel and other officials.

Mr Charbel told reporters it was essential to carry out a survey of similar buildings throughout the country, many of which were built illegally or had several storeys added without proper permits.

Anxious relatives stayed at the site overnight weeping and praying as rescue workers with bulldozers sift through the rubble.

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Costa Concordia cruise liner's company blames captain for disaster - The Guardian

The Costa Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, made an 'unauthorised manoeuvre', according to the liner's parent company. Photograph: Screengrab

The company operating the Costa Concordia cruise liner, which ran aground off Tuscany has blamed the captain for the disaster as Italy's environment minister declared a state of emergency and insurance analysts warned the wreck could be the biggest insured loss in maritime history.

Pier Luigi Foschi, chairman and chief executive of Costa Cruises, said Captain Francesco Schettino had made an "unapproved, unauthorised manoeuvre" before the disaster, deviating from his route to make a "salute" to the island of Giglio.

But Foschi defended the way the crew had handled the evacuation, and cast doubt on claims that Schettino had abandoned his ship before it was complete.

Rescue workers have found a sixth body, a male passenger. According to a tally that has changed repeatedly over the past three days, another 16 people remain missing. Amid deteriorating weather off the island, the search for survivors was suspended for several hours after the 114,500-tonne liner shifted a few centimetres, raising fears it might break up.

The environment minister, Corrado Clini, said that the ship had run aground in what was a maritime nature reserve, and was leaking liquid although it was not clear if this was fuel oil. Clini said he would declare a state of emergency which would release state funds to help prevent an environmental disaster.

At an emotional press conference in Genoa, Foschi fought back tears as he apologised for the accident. "We need to acknowledge the facts, and we cannot deny human error," he said. Speaking in English, Foschi said the captain "wanted to show the ship and to nearby [sic] this island of Giglio, and so he decided to change the course of the ship to go closer to the island and pass through in front of the little city that sits in that island".

The rocks on which the vessel is thought to have torn open its hull are less than a kilometre from the port of Giglio, the island's main town. Foschi's version of events followed a report in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that Schettino altered his route for two reasons. One, it said, was to pay tribute to a retired Costa Cruises' skipper who lived on the island. The other, said the paper, was to give a unique view of Giglio to the vessel's chief steward, a native of the island.

Schettino is under investigation for suspected manslaughter. He has said the liner hit rocks that were not marked on charts and were not picked up by his vessel's navigation systems. He also said that he was 300 metres offshore when the accident took place, but his boss told the press conference he understood the true figure was 150m. Schettino has been accused by the prosecutors conducting the inquiry of abandoning his ship before the last of the passengers had been removed. Coastguard officials have said he refused to go back on board after disembarking.

But Foschi said: "We are unable to ascertain whether he left the ship before the conclusion of the evacuation. Some internal testimony indicates that he really tried to stay on board."

Numerous passengers have complained about the crew's performance during the evacuation, and there have been accounts of some being unable to free lifeboats, and of bar staff who proved more able than sailors.

But Foschi said: "The crew [from] what we have seen and understood from our initial internal investigation behaved rightly ... obviously in consideration [of] the very serious incident [that] happened and the ship's condition at the time the evacuation started. More than 4,200 people have been evacuated, and we are very grateful to our crew in terms of skill, behaviour and way they conducted themselves." He added: "We know that our crew reacted adequately."

Costa Cruises' boss said that none of the vessel's fuel tanks had so far ruptured. But, he admitted, "we are very, very concerned about what may happen in the future".

Shares in Carnival, the owner of the ship, were down by more than 20% at one point on the London Stock Exchange. Carnival, which also owns the P&O and Cunard brands, has said it stands to lose $90m in 2012 from not being able to operate the Costa Concordia.

One analyst said injury and other claims could push the total cost to insurers as high as $1bn, the biggest marine loss ever absorbed by the industry.

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