Cyprus Leaders Head To Brussels For Talks

Cyprus Bailout: Threat To Savings

Updated: 7:36am UK, Saturday 23 March 2013

By Ashish Joshi, Sky News Correspondent

Finally late into Friday night - an agreement on Plan B, meaning Cyprus has moved one giant step towards securing a Brussels bailout.

It includes a solidarity fund pooling together state assets and the granting of power to the Government to control bank capital.

The latter move is to prevent a run on the banks when their doors finally open on Tuesday.

There will also be a restructuring of the country's banks and a savings tax on Cypriot savers.

The details of the tax have still to be finalised, but the framework is in place.

It could mean savings over 100,000 euros held in Bank of Cyprus accounts being taxed up to 20%, according to one source close to the negotiations.

The same source said if that proposal is rejected there will be a plan to impose a tax of around 10% on all Cypriot bank accounts over 100,000 euros.

The threat of savers being hit hangs over the heads of people like Loizos Michael.

The 60-year-old tailor worked hard for 35 years, building up a good business.

He was looking forward to a wealthy retirement. Not anymore. Times are hard.

Speaking from his small tailor's shop in central Nicosia, Mr Michael said: "With the banks being closed, it is hard because I don't have a credit card and so cash flow is a problem.

"Even filling your car with petrol needs thinking about.

"Cypriots have always been workers by nature and nobody could have imagined that unemployment would be so high.

"This has hit us hard in the pockets."

Cyprus is weathering a storm - the likes of which this Mediterranean island has never faced in her young history.

Mr Michael said he knew things were getting bad, but expected solutions to be found to avoid ordinary people having to suffer.

"I expected something better. But now, it looks like the problem has been brewing for some time," he said.

"There used to be some people talking about the crisis, but now everyone's talking about it.

"I think things are harder now than just after the war. After the war of '74 people could still find work. Now, there is just no work so people have no money. What can we do?"

In the 1990s, Cyprus boasted a dynamic, booming economy, but it grew and unchecked.

An overbloated banking sector exposed to Greek debt has crippled the country's economy.

Now people like Loizos Michael must pay the price. He and the rest of Cyprus will soon find out exactly how much that is going to be.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pope Francis To Meet Benedict For Talks

Pope Francis will visit his predecessor Benedict XVI today in a historic meeting between the two men.

The Argentine pope is expected to take a helicopter from the Vatican to the papal residence of Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, where Benedict, the 'pope emeritus', has been living since his resignation last month.

The meeting between a pope and a former pope is believed to be a first for the Catholic Church as Francis embarks on a papacy fraught with challenges.

Benedict has been staying at the lakeside estate since he became the first Pontiff to step down in more than 700 years.

The Vatican said the meeting over lunch with Francis is private and the content of the talks between the 76-year-old Argentine and the 85-year-old German will not be revealed.

The two are both expected to wear their white papal vestments.

Francis has paid homage to Benedict, and analysts say he is likely to rely heavily on the towering theological legacy left behind by him.

Benedict, before he stepped down, pledged allegiance to whoever his successor might be.

It is thought the weighty issues on the agenda could include rising secularism in Western countries, the reform of Vatican bureaucracy and the scandal of clerical child abuse.

Italian media reported ahead of the meet that Benedict, who stunned the world on February 11 by announcing that he was too frail in body and mind to carry on, has prepared a 300-page handwritten memorandum for his successor.

The two could also discuss "Vatileaks" - a scandal that broke last year over the leaks of hundreds of confidential papal documents that revealed allegations of intrigue and corruption inside the Vatican.

Three cardinals conducted an investigation into the leaks which they have included in a report on the inner workings of the Vatican that Benedict said should only be for the eyes of his successor.

Benedict has said he intends to live "hidden from the world" as a "simple pilgrim" and will spend the rest of his life in a former nunnery on Vatican grounds in quiet contemplation and academic research.

Benedict has been living in Castel Gandolfo with his secretary Georg Gaenswein and with the four housekeepers who looked after him when he was still the leader of the world's 1.2bn Catholics.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Obama Ends Mid East Tour With Petra Visit

Obama Beams On Mid East Trip

Updated: 11:15am UK, Saturday 23 March 2013

By Sam Kiley, Middle East Correspondent, Jerusalem

He beamed and Bibi-ed at every opportunity literally back slapping his way out of a sour relationship with Israel's Prime Minister.

Then Barack Obama shooed Benjamin Netanyahu into a cabin at Ben Gurion airport which was being swept with a khamsin sandstorm from the Sahara.

Inside the little room he stood over "Bibi" like the parent of a petulant child ordered to phone to apologise to an angry neighbour.

The call to Recep Erdogan, Turkey's Prime Minister, was to say sorry for the deaths of nine of his countrymen who were killed in a botched commando raid on the Mavi Marmaris in May 2010.

The raid was intended to stop the Marmaris from breaching the sea blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel.

It shattered relations with Turkey, until then an Israeli ally.

Obama told Netanyahu to fix it - and he dutifully got some diplomatic glue out and got to work.

After four days of his first tour of Israel and Palestine since he became US president, the Israel-Turkey break through was Mr Obama's only visible achievement.

The Palestinians expected nothing and got it from an administration which has, in their eyes, woefully neglected the region while illegal Jewish settlements continued to eat into Palestinian lands on the West Bank.

The Israeli public was charmed by a speech he gave to 600 university students in Jerusalem in which he quoted the Torah, dropped the occasional Hebrew phrase and celebrated the princes of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl and David Ben-Gurion.

That speech was an effort to reach past Netanyahu and appeal directly to the Israeli people. He told them to campaign for change and peace directly and demand their politicians take risks to achieve a two state solution.

Many in Israel believe that the "status quo" is acceptable. He told them that no wall was high enough no anti-missile batteries to impregnable, that Israel could survive indefinitely without making peace with he Palestinians.

But he didn't demand a freeze on settlements, which he has in the past and which has been a pre-condition for the Palestinians to return to talks.

Obama was his usual captivating self when delivering a set piece speech.

Off the cuff at press conferences he was as poor as a performer as Ronald Reagan. Not with gaffes but by appearing uncomfortable, halting and insecure when asked to provide solutions to the problems that he had eloquently identified.

18.46 | 2 komentar | Read More

China: President Xi In Russia On First Trip

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent

The new Chinese president is in Russia for his inaugural foreign trip.

Xi Jinping will hold meetings with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin as part of a two day visit to Moscow.

President Xi, who was made Communist Party leader in November and installed as the country's president last week, will also hold meetings with the Russian Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev.

He will attend the opening celebrations to mark 'Chinese Tourism Year' in Russia and will deliver a speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

A meeting has also been scheduled with officials from the Russian Defence Ministry.

Since November there has been plenty of speculation over which country would be chosen for the first foreign trip.

Russia and China are historically allied together in a union which has countered western global interests.

Vladimir Putin will meet the Chinese leader in Moscow

The two countries continue to share views on key global issues including Syria and Iran.

Moscow and Beijing both vetoed key UN resolutions on the Syrian crisis.

The two countries stand together, against the US-led stance on both Syria and Iran's disputed nuclear programme.

However, economics is the critical motivation for this trip.

Last year, just before his re-election to the presidency, Mr Putin said that he wanted to "catch the Chinese wind in our economic sail".

Russia is the world's largest energy producer. China is the world's largest user of energy and needs more of it.

Given the downturn in Europe, Russia needs a new customer. China wants to sign an agreement on a new natural gas pipeline with the Russians.

President Xi's wife Peng Liyuan is a well-known Chinese singer

"We will have some outcomes related to energy, investment and major projects of strategic importance. We expect some breakthrough on these pragmatic cooperation fields," Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping told a press conference in Beijing.

Geo-politically, America's so-called pivot to Asia may also have prompted the Russia trip.

According to the Chinese Xinhua state-run news agency, President Xi has said that China and Russia should "strengthen coordination in international and regional affairs to safeguard world peace, safety and stability".

Xinhua said the pivot, which will see America re-focus its attention and its military to the Asia-Pacific region, represented a "strategic mistrust" of China.

Chinese-US relations are tense with Washington accusing Beijing of industrial-level state-sponsored computer hacking.

Despite that though, the new Chinese premier Li Keqiang insisted at a press conference last weekend that both countries were committed to closer ties.

"China and the United States have their own distinctive cultures but we must learn from each other to maintain strong ties," Premier Li said.

One other issue is the source of significant anticipation. In a marked departure from the style of his predecessor Hu Jintao, President Xi's wife is expected to play an active role in the trip.

Peng Liyuan is a well-known and glamorous Chinese singer.

In a move which will position her as a Chinese "first lady", Peng is expected be photographed with her husband and attend engagements in the Russian capital.

On Sunday, President Xi will travel from Moscow to Tanzania, South Africa and Congo; a sign of the vital connection China has with the African continent.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cyprus Delays Bailout Vote Amid Russian Rebuff

An emergency session of the Cyprus parliament to race through a raft of bills aimed at raising billions of euros to secure an international bailout has been delayed, according to local media.

The session, which was to have started at 8.00am GMT, was held off as the parliamentary finance committee re-examined the crucial bills.

The delay comes as Russia rejected an approach from the Greek Cypriot government to help finance a restructure of the island's troubled banking sector.

Cyprus' finance minister left Moscow empty-handed on Friday morning after Russia turned down appeals for aid, leaving the island to strike a bailout deal with the EU before Tuesday or face the collapse of its financial system.

The chief of ailing Cyprus Popular Bank, the island's second largest, slammed the government's proposed "Plan B" to win the EU bailout, saying an earlier plan to tax deposits would have been preferable.

Protesters clash with police over the bank closures

"Although we knew the gravity of the situation, and the initial proposal of the eurogroup was painful, it ensured the future of the banking sector," Takis Phidias told state radio.

The original terms of a rescue plan for Cyprus proposed by the troika of international lenders would have slapped a levy of up to 9.9% on bank deposits to raise 8.5bn euros (£7.23bn).

The Russian rebuff has left Cyprus looking increasingly isolated, with the deadline looming to find billions of euros demanded by the EU in return for a 10bn euro (£8.5bn) bailout.

It was overwhelmingly rejected by the southern Cyprus parliament, leaving the government scrambling to put together a Plan B.

Banks in Cyprus closed their doors last Friday and will stay shut until next Tuesday, but as rumours spread that the Popular Bank would never re-open, customers rushed to cash machines to withdraw what they could - prompting it to limit daily withdrawals at 260 euros (£220).

Germany's Angela Merkel has hardened her approach to Cyprus

Meanwhile, key European officials have strengthened their tone over the Cypriot manoeuvrings

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told politicians she wanted Cyprus to remain in the eurozone but the island had yet to realise that its business model was dead, according to parliamentary sources.

Germany's finance minister said in an interview that the EU was ready to help but the burden must be shared by Cyprus' financial sector otherwise the island's economy will collapse under debt.

"The perception that this (Cyprus) problem can be solved only by taxpayers in the eurozone without the participation of major creditors of Cypriot banks cannot be accepted by Europe's citizens," Wolfgang Schaeuble said.

:: European Central Bank governing council member Marko Kranjec has said he was sure that Slovenia's troubled bank sector would not follow in the footsteps of Cyprus.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Burma: Ethnic Clashes Leave 25 People Dead

Buildings are on fire in the Burmese city of Meikhtila after fierce clashes between Buddhists and Muslims left several people dead and reduced communities to ashes.

Up to 25 people have been killed in three days of fighting that erupted after an argument between a Buddhist couple and the Muslim owners of a gold shop escalated into a riot involving hundreds of people.

Burma's president has declared a state of emergency in areas of the country affected by the violence.

Firemen battle to extinguish a burning building in Meikhtila

Meikhtila residents have been arming themselves with knives and sticks after rumours that violent agitators were heading for the city set its Muslim community on edge.

Hundreds of Muslims have reportedly now fled their homes to shelter in the city's sports stadium after complaints of too few police and reports of groups of Buddhists roaming the streets.

At least one mosque, an Islamic school, shops and a government office were set alight, according to a fire service official. Both Buddhist and Muslim homes were set on fire.

"I am really sad over what happened here because this is not just happening to one person. It's affecting all of us," said Maung Maung, a Buddhist ward leader in Meikhtila.

"Everyone is in shock here. We never expected this to happen," said a Muslim teacher in Mandalay.

A journalist saw the incinerated remains of two victims on a roadside, just one of several reports of bodies in the town, as flames raged from torched mosques and houses while other buildings smouldered unattended.

"The situation is getting worse," a local resident said. "People are destroying buildings. Many people have been killed. We are scared and trying to stay safe at home."

A group of reporters were stopped at knife-point by a gang of young men and monks and forced to hand over their camera memory cards, according to one of the journalists.

Muslims fearing for their safety flee to the city's sports stadium

The United Nations has warned the violence could endanger a fragile reform programme launched after Burma's quasi-civilian reformist government replaced 49 years of military dictatorship in 2011.

Political activists have since been released from prison and free elections have been held in the country's historic transition to democracy.

But the new government has faced criticism over its failure to contain simmering ethnic tensions which were suppressed and under-reported by years of military rule.

In 2012 pitched battles between Buddhists and Muslims escalated into orchestrated attacks on Muslim communities by organised gangs of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.

Burma is a predominantly Buddhist country, but about 5% of its 60 million people are Muslims and there are large Muslim communities in Yangon and Mandalay, its two largest cities.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Australia: Julia Gillard Challenge Called Off

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has retained the leadership of the Labor party just hours after she was urged to hold a ballot.

Ms Gillard ensured she will lead the party into elections in September after her main rival Kevin Rudd admitted he did not have enough support to defeat her.

The prime minister called the vote after a senior MP said the issue was "killing" the party and needed to be resolved.

The vote was scheduled for 16:30 (05:30 GMT), but minutes before it was due to take place Mr Rudd pulled out, meaning Ms Gillard was elected unopposed, with no actual vote called.

She said: "Today the leadership of our political party, the Labor Party, has been settled and settled in the most conclusive fashion possible.

"The whole business is completely at an end. It has ended now."

Mr Rudd said he was honouring a pledge not to challenge for the top job made after a previous failed bid in 2012.

He said: "I believe in honouring my word... others take such commitments lightly, I do not.

"I have also said that the only circumstances under which I would consider a return to leadership would be if there was an overwhelming majority of the parliamentary party requesting such a return, drafting me to return and the position was vacant.

"I am here to inform you that those circumstances do not exist."

Polls suggest Mr Rudd has more public support than Ms Gillard, who is on course to lose the election to Liberal Party candidate Tony Abbott.

The latest crisis is the third time the prime minister has defeated Mr Rudd for the leadership, but she now faces a tough job to unify a deeply-divided party and turn around public support over the next six months.

"I think they're terminal. There is no way out of this," political analyst Nick Economou told Reuters.

Ms Gillard's leadership has been threatened for most of the past two years as her minority government lumbered from one crisis to another, despite an economy that avoided recession after the 2008 global crisis and has seen 21 years of continuous growth.

She first replaced Mr Rudd in a party coup in June 2010 but the move to oust an elected prime minister angered many voters, who have found it difficult to forgive her for the way she became leader.

Ms Gillard defeated Mr Rudd in a second leadership vote in February 2012, prompting her rival to promise that he would only take on the leadership again with the overwhelming support of his party.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Two Helicopters Crash In Police Exercise

Two helicopters have crashed near Berlin's Olympic Stadium during a police exercise to thwart hooliganism, according to German media reports.

It is believed one person has died in the accident.

Onlookers described how one aircraft ended up on its side and how the rotors of both helicopters were destroyed.

One helicopter appeared to be a blue police aircraft while the other appeared to be a military model.

Police were taking part in an exercise against football violence

N-tv television and Bild newspaper said the helicopters crashed in snowy weather on Thursday morning.

According to AP, some 400 federal police officers were conducting a training exercise on dealing with football violence.

Federal Police spokesman Frank Brochert confirmed there "was an incident during an exercise" and that emergency crews were on the scene.

The crash occurred near Berlin's famous Olympic Stadium

He had no details about the accident or whether there were any injuries or fatalities.

It is believed the collision occurred as the two aircraft approached a pre-arranged landing zone.

More follows...

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Israel: Obama Meets Abbas After Rocket Blast

President Barack Obama has arrived in the West Bank hours after Palestinian militants fired two rockets into southern Israel.

The rockets, a reminder of heightened tensions in the region, caused damage to land around a house but there were no injuries.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said: "One exploded in the back yard of a house in Sderot, causing damage, and the second landed in a field."

Military officials cited by army radio said they believed the attack was timed deliberately to coincide with Mr Obama's visit.

Israel pointed the finger for the attacks at Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, although there was no direct claim of responsibility.

President Obama - who visited the town where the rockets landed as a presidential candidate in 2008 - was miles away in Jerusalem at the time, preparing to visit the Israel Museum.

There have been angry protests ahead of Mr Obama's Ramallah visit

He is expected to receive a frosty reception in Ramallah where he will hold talks with Palestinian leaders, who have accused him of riding roughshod over their hopes of statehood.

Sky News Middle East Correspondent Sam Kiley said settlements and the controversial "right of return" for Palestinians to their former lands in Israel would be on the agenda.

He added: "The crucial thing is for President Obama to get back into the peace process."

Israeli officials urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to use his meeting with the President to condemn the latest attack.

"We will be closely watching Palestinian President Abbas today to see if he condemns these attacks from Gaza against Israeli civilians," a senior Israeli government official in Jerusalem said after the attack.

A police expert clears the remains of a rocket from outside a Sderot house

Code Red sirens wailed in Sderot shortly after the rockets hit at 7am, forcing commuters and schoolchildren to run to bomb shelters.

Yossi Haziza, a Sderot resident in whose courtyard the first rocket exploded, was looking at the walls of his home sprayed with shrapnel and shattered windows.

He said: "I wish this was merely damage to property but my eight-year-old daughter and my wife are terrified. We just want to live in peace. We don't want to keep having to run to bomb shelters."

Mr Obama, on the first foreign trip of his second term, says he has come to the Holy Land simply "to listen" to the parties about how to resume peace talks frozen for two-and-a-half years.

He said he decided against coming with a comprehensive peace plan that might not be fit for current political conditions.

Mr Obama reaffirmed US support for Israel during talks in Jerusalem

"Ultimately, this is a really hard problem," Mr Obama said during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.

"It's been lingering for over six decades. And the parties involved have, you know, some profound interests that you can't spin, you can't smooth over. And it is a hard slog to work through all of these issues."

The US President's new approach was in stark contrast to early in his first term, when he declared Israeli settlement building to be illegitimate and promised to dedicate himself to peace.

Meanwhile, Palestinian activists set up a protest camp on West Bank land east of Jerusalem where Israel has announced controversial plans to build, demanding an end to Obama's "bias and support for Israel".

Israel's plan to build thousands of new settler homes in an area called E1 has sparked a major international backlash, with experts saying it could wipe out hopes for a viable Palestinian state.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mali: French Hostage 'Beheaded By Al Qaeda'

Al Qaeda says it has beheaded a French hostage in reprisal for France's military intervention in Mali, according to reports.

Its North African arm claimed responsibility, Mauritania's ANI news agency reported, citing a commander for the group.

A French foreign office spokesman said they were trying to verify the report of the killing of Philippe Verdon, adding that "we don't know at the moment" whether it is reliable.

In a telephone call to the news agency, the group spokesman said Mr Verdon had been beheaded on March 10 "in response to the French military intervention in the north of Mali", ANI reported.

The AQIM commander described Mr Verdon as a French spy and said France's President Francois Hollande "bore the responsibility for the remaining hostages".

Mr Verdon and another Frenchman, Serge Lazarevic, were kidnapped from their hotel room on November 24, 2011, in the northern Mali town of Hombori.

Their families denied that the two men were mercenaries or secret service agents.

It is not known whether Mokhtar Belmokhtar is dead or alive

The killing, if proved true, would be a worrying development for Mr Hollande.

Another 14 French hostages are detained in Western Africa, including seven believed to be held in the Sahel region by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its affiliates.

In August last year a video showing Mr Verdon describing the "difficult living conditions" was released on a Mauritanian website.

The hostages' families have in recent weeks expressed growing fears for their loved ones in the light of France's military actions in Mali.

Earlier Tuesday, Mr Verdon's father Jean-Pierre, complained that the families were hearing nothing from the French authorities.

"We are in a total fog and it is impossible to live this way," he told RTL radio. "We have no information."

French soldiers on the ground in Timbuktu

Asked about France's refusal to pay ransoms to kidnappers, he replied that the families had no say in such "decisions of state".

Terror chief Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an AQIM leader and one of the world's most wanted men, had pledged revenge and vowed to attack western targets in Africa after France launched a campaign to help the country's embattled government drive Islamist militants out of northern Mali.

France now has more than 4,000 troops on the ground in Mali.

It launched a nine-week assault in January to dislodge the group and other Islamist militants who had hijacked a Tuareg rebellion in Sahel and seized the northern half of the country.

They were driven out from the main cities of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal, after which some 1,600 French and Chadian troops began searching for Islamist rebels in their pocket hideouts in the mountainous region of northern Mali.

When asked by the ANI news agency whether Belmokhtar had been killed, the AQIM commander neither denied nor confirmed it.

There have been conflicting reports on whether he was killed in the French military campaign against the rebels.

Soldiers from Chad fighting Islamists in Mali had claimed to have killed Belmokhtar, who is said to have been the mastermind behind the recent Algerian hostage crisis at a remote gas facility in the Algerian desert.

The one-eyed gangster, nicknamed Mr Marlboro because of his involvement in cigarette smuggling, had also been dubbed "The Uncatchable" by French intelligence after being linked to a series of kidnappings of foreigners in north Africa over the past decade.

France has been carrying out DNA tests to determine whether militant leaders Belmokhtar and Abdelhamid Abou Zaid are among those killed in recent fighting in Mali.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

South Korea: North Suspected Of Cyber Attack

An investigation is underway into the simultaneous shutdown of computer networks at several major broadcasters and banks in South Korea, with suspicion falling on North Korea.

The shutdown came days after North Korea blamed the South and the US for cyber attacks that temporarily closed websites in Pyongyang.

While the cause was not immediately clear, there has been speculation of a possible North Korean cyber attack.

Officials at the two South Korean public broadcasters KBS and MBC said that all computers at their companies blacked out - but did not cause any damage to their daily TV broadcasts.

The servers of YTN were brought down

YTN cable news channel reported that the company's internal computer network was completely paralysed.

Local TV showed workers staring at blank computer screens, and at one coffee shop employees asked for cash, saying their credit card machine was not working.

The state-run Korea Information Security Agency confirmed that computers at at least five South Korean companies were down. The agency was investigating what caused the outage.

Shinhan Bank, a lender of South Korea's fourth-largest banking group, said the bank's system, including online banking and cash machines, had stopped working.

The company was unable to conduct any transactions with customers at bank windows, including retail banking and corporate banking.

Tensions between the neighbouring countries are high following North Korea's recent nuclear test and the UN sanctions that followed.

Accusations of cyber attacks on the Korean Peninsula are not new. Seoul believes Pyongyang was behind at least two cyber attacks on its companies in 2011 and 2012.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Obama Arrives In Israel On Three-Day Tour

American President Barack Obama has arrived in the Middle East on Air Force One for a three-day tour of Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

Making his first overseas tour since the start of his second term in office, Obama is due to continue on to neighbouring Jordan on Friday.

He was met at Tel Aviv airport by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Shimon Peres after Air Force One stopped next to a huge red carpet laid out down the tarmac.

Mr Obama will hold lengthy talks with Mr Netanyahu later in the day, with the two set to hold a news conference at 8.10pm local time (18.10 GMT).

He will travel to the occupied West Bank on Thursday to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

US officials say Mr Obama will try to coax the Palestinians and Israelis back to peace talks.

He will also seek to reassure Mr Netanyahu he is committed to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear bomb and discuss ways of containing Syria's civil war.

However, the White House has deliberately minimised hopes of any major breakthroughs, a reversal from Obama's first four years in office when aides said he would visit the Jewish state only if he had something concrete to accomplish.

Analysts say some of the lack of earlier diplomatic results, has been down to their relationship between the Democrat president and right wing prime minister.

"To tell the truth, they can't stand one another," a commentator for Israel's Channel 10 television said in a live broadcast from the airport as Air Force One came to a halt.

Mr Obama president will inspect an Iron Dome anti-missile battery at Tel Aviv airport before flying up to Jerusalem by helicopter for the start of his official meetings.

Seeking to connect directly with an often sceptical Israeli public, the president will make a speech to a group of carefully screened students on Thursday afternoon where he is expected to touch on major topics of concern, including Iran.

US officials say Obama, the fifth sitting U.S. president to travel to Israel, will urge further patience, with Washington worried that a threatened Israeli unilateral strike might drag the United States into another Middle East war.

Mr Obama will then fly to the West Bank city of Ramallah to meet Mr Abbas and is expected to encourage the restart of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians which broke down in 2010.

In Ramallah on Tuesday, Palestinian police scuffled with scores of demonstrators protesting against Obama's visit.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Brit Injured 'Escaping Sex Assault' In India

By Alex Rossi, Sky News Asia Correspondent

A British woman is recovering from injuries to her legs after jumping out of her hotel window to escape an alleged sex attack in Agra in India - the home of the iconic Taj Mahal.

According to police, the incident happened in the Cantonment area of the city in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Deputy Superintendent Simranjit Kaur told Sky News that the 31-year-old woman escaped out of the second floor window of her room after the owner of the hotel attempted to enter "demanding" a massage at about four o'clock in the morning.

"The woman became scared and leapt from the balcony - we have arrested the owner and may cancel the licence of the hotel depending on our investigations," she said.

The victim was taken to hospital by a rickshaw driver and was treated for muscle damage to her legs.

She has also given a statement to officers and is now "safely" in another hotel under police protection.

The police said she will be flying home to the UK shortly, even though she was planning to visit China after touring India.

The Foreign Office said it was "urgently" investigating the reports.

A spokesman said: "We are aware of the reports and we are urgently looking into it.

"We are in contact with our colleagues in India."

The FCO has changed its advice to female travellers visiting India in the last forty eight hours following the gang rape of a Swiss cycle tourist in Madhya Pradesh on Friday night.

The woman was camping in a forested area with her husband when they were attacked by men brandishing sticks.

The woman was repeatedly raped according to local police.

British female tourists are now being advised to be "extra vigilant" when travelling in India.

That attack came just a few days after the man accused of leading the fatal gang rape of a student on a New Delhi bus was found hanged in his prison cell.

India has seen anger and public protests against rapes and sexual attacks on women since the gang-rape in New Delhi in December.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Syria Accuses Opposition Of Chemical Attack

Syria's state media has accused opposition fighters of firing a chemical weapon in the north of the country, killing at least 16 people.

The opposition quickly denied the report and claimed regime forces had fired the weapon.

Neither of the accusations could immediately be verified.

The report by the official SANA news agency marks the first time the government has accused forces seeking to topple President Bashar al Assad of using chemical weapons.

It said "terrorists" fired a rocket "containing chemical materials" into the Khan al Assal area in the northern province of Aleppo on Tuesday. The regime regularly uses the term terrorists to refer to rebels fighting Mr Assad's forces.

SANA said around 16 people, most of them civilians, were killed and up to 86 more were wounded.

A Free Syrian Army member jumps off a destroyed military tank

It quoted the government's information minister Omran al Zoabi as saying the attack was a "dangerous escalation".

Mr Zoabi said Turkey and Qatar, which have supported rebels fighting to overthrow President Assad, bore "legal, moral and political responsibility" for the attack, state television reported.

An activist in the area said the opposition had recently seized much of Khan al Assal, including a facility that housed a military academy.

The Aleppo Media Centre, affiliated with the opposition, said there were cases of "suffocation and poison" among civilians in Khan al Assal after a surface-to-surface missile was fired at the area.

It said in a statement the cases were "most likely" caused by regime forces' use of "poisonous gases".

An activist in Aleppo province who identified himself as Yassin Abu Raed, not his real name, confirmed the attack and said there were at least 40 cases of suffocation in the area and several deaths.

But he said no details were available as casualties were being taken to a government-controlled area in Aleppo.

President Assad, fighting a two-year uprising against his rule, is widely believed to have a chemical arsenal.

Syrian officials have neither confirmed nor denied having a chemical weapons capability but have said that if it existed it would be used to defend against foreign aggression, not against Syrians.

Western nations have warned Damascus against any use of chemical weapons and have also expressed concern about stockpiles falling into the hands of militant groups.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pope Francis Officially Starts His Papacy

Pope Francis has vowed to embrace the world's "weakest and poorest" and called on world leaders to shun "destruction" at his inaugural mass in St Peter's Square.

Francis was interrupted by applause several times during his homily, including when he spoke of the need to serve one another with love and tenderness and not allow " hatred, envy and pride to defile our lives".

The Pope must "open his arms to protect all of God's people and embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important," Francis, the first Jesuit pope, said.

"He must be inspired by lowly, concrete and faithful service," said Francis, who as a Jesuit has taken a vow of poverty.

Francis is the world's first Jesuit pope

"I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life ... Let us not allow omens of destruction and death to accompany the advance of this world.

"It means respecting each of God's creatures and respecting the environment in which we live.

"It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who are often the last we think about."

The Fisherman's Ring

The new pontiff officially began his ministry as the 266th pope and leader of the world's 1.2bn Roman Catholics when he earlier received the ring and pallium symbolising his new papal powers at the Vatican.

The pallium is a strip of lambswool that represents the Pope's role as a shepherd and the Fisherman's Ring is named in honour of the first pope St Peter, a fisherman by trade.

The grand ceremony started at 8.30am GMT in a sun-drenched St Peter's Square before about 200,000 people, including royalty, political and religious leaders.

The biggest delegation came from Argentina, led by President Cristina Kirchner, who held a private meeting with Pope Francis on Monday.

Britain was represented by the Duke of Gloucester, Kenneth Clarke MP and Baroness Warsi. The Queen and Prime Minister David Cameron did not attend.

Controversial Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe also made the journey to Rome in defiance of an EU travel ban, which does allow him to attend events within the Vatican state boundary. 

The Pope kissed several babies as he toured the square

Before the proceedings began, Francis toured a crammed St Peter's Square, kissing babies and blessing a disabled man.

In another sign of the informality that is already a mark of his papacy, Francis abandoned the bullet-proof popemobile frequently used by his more formal predecessor Benedict, to tour the square.

Francis wore a plain white papal cassock and black shoes in contrast to the luxurious red loafers that attracted attention under Benedict.

"Go Francis! We Will Be With You Wherever You Go!" read a sign held up by a group of Brazilian nuns in St Peter's Square.

Sister Rosa, an elderly Italian nun, said she expected the pope would be "another St Francis on Earth for love, goodness, poverty and humility".

Crowds had been pouring into the square and surrounding streets since before dawn.

The crowds had begun gathering from the early morning

The former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was the surprise choice at a conclave of cardinals to find a successor to 85-year-old Benedict, who last month brought a sudden end to a papacy, saying he was too old to carry on.

After the Mass, Pope Francis met many of the world leaders, including Mr Mugabe, before having lunch.

Leaders of the Eastern Catholic Rite were also at the ceremony, including Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

Bartholomew I became the first patriarch from the Istanbul-based church to attend a papal investiture since the two branches of Christianity split nearly 1,000 years ago.

Also attending for the first time was the chief rabbi of Rome.

Francis abandoned the bullet-proof popemobile

Their presence underscores the hopes for ecumenical and interfaith dialogue in this new papacy given Francis' own work for improved relations and his namesake St Francis of Assisi.

In a gesture to Christians in the East, the pope prayed with Eastern rite Catholic patriarchs and archbishops before the tomb of St Peter and the Gospel was chanted in Greek rather than the traditional Latin.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Francis will hold meetings at the Vatican before he holds a face-to-face meeting with Benedict at Castel Gandolfo, just outside Rome, on Saturday.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Five Arrested Over Tourist Gang Rape In India

Five villagers in India have confessed to the gang rape of a Swiss tourist, according to police.

The woman was on a cycling holiday with her husband in the impoverished state of Madhya Pradesh state when they were attacked.

The five men were all arrested after they admitted to the crime.

Senior police officer D K Arya said detectives were searching for two more men involved in the attack.

The couple told police that the woman had been raped by seven or eight men, but that it was dark and they could not be sure of the exact number, Mr Arya said.

The alleged rapists live in a village near the forested area where the couple had stopped to camp for the night.

They were en route to the popular tourist destination of Agra in northern India.

"They were passing by, noticed the couple putting up their tent and saw an opportunity to attack and rape the woman,"  local police official M S Dhodee said.

It is believed the man was beaten and tied to a tree while his wife was sexually assaulted.

The woman, who is thought to be around 39, was treated in hospital but released on Saturday.

Police at the scene of the attack

The Swiss embassy said it was in touch with local authorities in Madhya Pradesh and has urged a "swift investigation and for justice to be done".

The attack comes just a few days after the man accused of leading the fatal gang rape of a student on a New Delhi bus was found hanged in his prison cell.

Police say Ram Singh took his own life in the high-security Tihar jail, where he had been on suicide watch in an isolated cell.

The case made headlines around the world and raised the issue of sexual violence against women in India.

The student's internal injuries were so horrific she died two weeks later in a hospital in Singapore despite surgery to try to save her.

Four other men and a juvenile are on trial for that attack.

One woman is raped every 20 minutes in India, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

But police estimate only four out of 10 rapes are reported, largely due to victims' fear of being shamed by their families and communities.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Daniel Pearl Terror Suspect Held In Pakistan

A former senior militant who was allegedly involved in the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl has been arrested in Pakistan.

A spokesman for the Pakistani Rangers paramilitary force said Qari Abdul Hayee, who is better known as Asadullah, had been detained in a raid in Karachi.

Asadullah used to be the chief of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) group in the southern province of Sindh and is said to have been involved in several terror acts.

He was also "in the picture" about the murder of Mr Pearl in February 2002, the Rangers spokesman said, without elaborating.

Mr Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted in Karachi on January 23, 2002, while researching a story about Islamist militants.

Members of the Pakistani Rangers, like those seen here, arrested Asadullah

A graphic video showing him being beheaded was delivered to the US consulate in the city nearly a month later.

Angelina Jolie starred as Mr Pearl's wife Mariane in A Mighty Heart, which dramatised her search for her missing husband.

Pakistani police blamed Mr Pearl's kidnap and murder on a group of Islamic militants headed by Ahmed Saeed Sheikh, who is also known as Sheikh Omar.

The British-born extremist was arrested with three others and convicted in June 2002 of Mr Pearl's murder.

Seven co-accused were sentenced in absentia, and two of them were later killed in encounters with the police.

Court documents said the men masterminded Mr Pearl's kidnapping in an attempt to win freedom for al Qaeda members who were imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.

Omar and three others who were jailed for life lodged appeals that remain pending in Pakistan.

LeJ also planned a suicide attack on a hotel near Karachi airport where US soldiers were staying in December 2002, but the bomb exploded while it was being prepared and killed one of Asadullah's associates instead.

In 2003, the group sent parcel bombs to police officers, injuring many people.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cyprus Bailout: Terms Shift Amid Russian Offer

Cyprus Bailout Will Leave A Lasting Scar

Updated: 10:57am UK, Monday 18 March 2013

By Ed Conway, Economics Editor

Banking is a confidence trick.

The modern financial system – fractional reserve banking as it's technically called – relies on the public putting faith in their banks.

After all, the nature of the system is that at any one time there's never enough cash in bank vaults to give everyone their deposits back - which is why bank runs are so fatal.

That's why in financial crises the cardinal rule is always to attempt to reassure savers that their deposits will be safe. It's why we have things like deposit insurance; it's why all Northern Rock, RBS, etc savers were made good during the crisis in the UK.

Yes, everyone ended up having to pay the eventual price anyway through austerity and higher taxes but people are accustomed to having money confiscated through income and consumption taxes: their savings, on the other hand, are considered inviolable.*

And that is, when push comes to shove, the problem with the way the Cyprus bailout and bank deposit tax has been handled.

If you have money in a bank account - any bank account - in the country, you are being hit with an instant and unavoidable tax. This instantly undermines public faith in banks - not just the rotten ones but every single branch in the country, including branches of perfectly healthy foreign banks.

This is worth reiterating because there are some analysts who, in economic terms at least, can't see that much of a problem with the bank deposit tax.

After all, the country is in need of a bail-out; the money has to come from somewhere; the banking system is full of dirty Russian money, so why not start there?

And in economic terms, this is quite right: plus you avoid all the messy legal complications of defaulting on bondholders. Moreover, technically speaking depositors are just another lender to banks, alongside creditors.

But looking at this through an economic prism misses the point, which comes back to that fragile confidence trick.

There are of course certain circumstances under which a bank's depositor should lose out: basically when that bank collapses. Indeed, that's precisely the kind of system we need in future to prevent bail-outs and too-big-to-fail.

However, in those circumstances 1) other senior creditors should lose out, 2) depositors whose savings are below the deposit insurance scheme limit should be protected and 3) the deposits affected should, logically, be in the bank that's going under.

None of these three criteria were observed in the Cyprus case, where even deposits in Barclays in Nicosia are subject to the tax, in the plan's initial form.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that such a capricious attitude to principles savers might have reasonably considered inviolable will catastrophically undermine Cypriots' faith in banks - not just Cypriot ones but any within their country.

There is a chance I'm wrong about this - after all, as I've said above, in blunt economic terms it doesn't really matter where Cyprus gets its bailout cash - whether from taxpayers, depositors, fiscal cuts or the Germans - it still needs money to pay the bills.

But the experience of the 1930s showed that when a government intervenes to confiscate deposits, it critically undermines that faith in the banking system.

And, for better or worse, that faith is a key bedrock of the modern capitalist economy.

Would that it weren't the case: but it is. And what's happening in Cyprus begs profound questions about whether there really is a safe place to put one's cash, questions which can now legitimately be asked about all banking systems, not just in Spain, Italy and so on, but also in the UK and the US.

That is why the initial plan being passed around Brussels spared deposits below 100,000 euros. The eventual scheme, involving a tax on all savers, came as a complete surprise to anyone who wasn't in the room when it was being hammered out.

What, after all, is sacred? We used to assume insured deposits were. Now we can no longer be sure.

* I'm talking, of course, about the savings themselves rather than the interest on the savings – there's less of a cultural resistance to taxing that.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Colorado Approves Historic New Gun Laws

By Greg Milam, US Correspondent

The US state of Colorado - the scene of two of the worst shooting massacres in the country's history - has passed historic new laws which could prove a model for gun control measures across the country.

Politicians were prompted into action by the shooting spree at a cinema in Aurora near Denver last summer which claimed 12 lives. The killings at Newtown in Connecticut in December added renewed impetus.

So while the national effort at new restrictions appears to be stalling, Colorado's legislature has passed a ban on high capacity ammunition magazines and tightened requirements for background checks on people buying a gun.

It is seen as a remarkable success for the gun control movement in a 'frontier' state famous for its love of hunting and liberty.

Even though there is no ban on military-style assault weapons, the new restrictions are enough to anger gun enthusiasts in the state.

George Horne, owner of The Gun Room in Denver

George Horne, who owns Denver's oldest gun shop The Gun Room, told Sky News that gun owners were being unfairly targeted.

He said: "There's plenty of ways to create violence and inflict harm on other people other than firearms, so I think the emotion of firearms is being used. They're not addressing the problem which is the person, but the firearm which is just the tool.

"I always tell people it is not the arrow, it is the Indian."

One of his customers put it more bluntly. Mike Rosenthal said: "I think they are violating our constitution and I think they're all traitors."

He said that if authorities try to remove guns from owners the result "won't be pretty".

Daniel Mauser, a victim of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999

He said the Second Amendment to the US constitution, guaranteeing the right to bear arms, should allow people to own a bomb "if they could afford it".

Colorado has followed New York in being the first to put in place new restrictions as politicians and lobbyists in Washington continue to lock horns on a national framework.

Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was killed in the shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999, has long campaigned for tighter controls.

He says he is proud of what the state has done and hopes others will follow.

Tom Mauser wears his son Daniel's trainers to gun control events

"Two weeks before he died my son said to me 'Dad, do you know there are loopholes in the Brady law', the law that requires background checks, and then he was killed with a gun that was purchased through one of those loopholes.

"That is what has driven me. I have wanted to close those loopholes for him and for the sake of others."

Mr Mauser wears his son's trainers when attending gun control events. "I literally walk in his shoes," he said.

The scale of the task facing him is perhaps illustrated by the popularity of a website called gunsforeveryone.com

Its founder Edgar Antillon said it started out as a joke but had now taken on an activist role.

He said: "We don't think any new restrictions are the answer. Law abiding gun owners don't carry out massacres. If they put new laws in place, we will simply not follow them."

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Five 'Confess' To Tourist Gang-Rape In India

Five villagers in India have confessed to the gang-rape of a Swiss tourist, according to police.

The woman was on a cycling holiday with her husband in Madhya Pradesh state when they were attacked.

Investigators said as many as eight men were involved in the assault on Friday night.

"We have detained five men and they have confessed to gang-raping the woman and attacking her husband," local police official M S Dhodee told the AFP news agency.

A sixth man allegedly involved in the crime is also being hunted by police, Mr Dhodee added.

The alleged rapists live in a village near the forested area where the couple had stopped to camp for the night.

They were en route to the popular tourist destination of Agra in northern India.

"They were passing by, noticed the couple putting up their tent and saw an opportunity to attack and rape the woman," Mr Dhodee said.

He added that the five detainees would be arrested shortly, pending formalities.

The woman, who is thought to be around 39, was treated in hospital but released on Saturday and the couple are now in Delhi.

The Swiss embassy said it was in touch with local authorities in Madhya Pradesh and has urged a "swift investigation and for justice to be done".

The attack comes just a few days after the man accused of leading the fatal gang rape of a student on a New Delhi bus was found hanged in his prison cell.

Police say Ram Singh took his own life in the high-security Tihar jail, where he had been on suicide watch in an isolated cell.

The case made headlines around the world and raised the issue of sexual violence against women in India.

The student's internal injuries were so horrific she died two weeks later in a hospital in Singapore despite surgery to try to save her.

Four other men and a juvenile are on trial for that attack.

One woman is raped every 20 minutes in India, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

But police estimate only four out of 10 rapes are reported, largely due to victims' fear of being shamed by their families and communities.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cyprus Postpones Vote On Savings Raid Bailout

Cyprus has delayed a vote on whether savers will have to pay a levy on their bank desposits as part of an EU bailout.

The island's parliament had been due to decide whether to back the radical move later on Sunday but has pushed back the vote until Monday.

The delay came as Britain promised any UK government and military personnel would be compensated if their personal accounts were hit.

Chancellor George Osborne told the BBC's Andrew Marr show: "People who are doing their duty for our country in Cyprus will be protected from this Cypriot bank tax."

Around 3,500 British military personnel are based in Cyprus.

George Osborne promises British troops will be protected

But there are tens of thousands more British residents in the country who do not fall into that category and will end up out of pocket.

Under the terms of the 10bn euro (£8.6bn) bailout by the eurozone, savers in Cyprus have to hand over up to 10% of their deposits.

The one-off levy has sparked anger in the eastern Mediterranean island, with queues at cash machines battling to withdraw their money.

Electronic transfers were blocked and the country's cooperative banks had to shut their doors after seeing a rush of savers keen to protect their money.

Christos Demetriades, 58, who was outside a shut Nicosia co-operative bank branch, said: "Politicians and senior bank bosses have covered each other's backs for years, now it's ordinary people who are paying the price and are being punished."

One disgruntled customer at a branch in the southern coastal town of Limassol briefly parked his tractor in front of its shut doors in a show of frustration.

The move marks the first time the 17 eurozone countries and the IMF have dipped into people's savings to finance a bailout.

An informal meeting earlier this morning for parties in the 56-member chamber to discuss the bank levy was also postponed by newly-elected Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades.

He has said refusing the bailout would lead to the collapse of the island's two largest banks, badly burnt by their exposure to bailed out neighbour Greece.

Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades with Angela Merkel in Brussels

The tax on deposits in Cyprus, which accounts for only 0.2% of the eurozone's economy, is expected to raise up to 6bn euros (£5bn).

Those affected will include rich Russians with deposits in Cyprus and Europeans who have retired to the island as well as Cypriots themselves.

The size of foreign deposits in Cyprus - estimated at 37% of the total - was one reason the eurozone agreed to the tax on savings, to take effect when banks reopen on Tuesday.

It will apply to all deposits held in banks within Cyprus, including an estimated 2bn euros (£1.75bn) of British money, according to the European Central Bank.

It will not affect deposits held in the UK branches of Cypriot banks, such as Bank of Cyprus, whose UK subsidiary is regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

However, Laiki Bank UK said on its website: "Your eligible deposits with Laiki Bank UK are protected up to a total of 100,000 euro (£87.000) by the Cyprus Deposit Protection Scheme and are not protected by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

"Any deposits you hold above the 100,000 euro limit are not covered."

Cyprus was badly hit by the Greek financial crisis because of its close links to the country.

Its two largest banks saw combined losses of 4.5bn euros (£3.8bn) - equal to a quarter of the island's gross domestic product.

The rescue package was agreed after 10 hours of talks in Brussels and was significantly less than the 17bn euros (£14.7bn) asked for.

As part of the deal, the government will also have to hike corporate tax to 12.5% from 10% and sell off state assets to help balance the public finances.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More