Haiti: UN-backed road construction aids impoverished residents

A cracked, flood-prone and sewage-infested stretch of road in a quarter of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, has been transformed into a resurfaced, smooth and clean highway for cars and pedestrians, improving both the health and image of the area, thanks to a United Nations-backed works programme.

Cuba News Update: President Raul Castro Speaks to the Closing Sessionof the National People’s Assembly

I congratulate our heroic and revolutionary people and wish them renewed success in the 52nd year of the Revolution

Susana Lee and Juan Diego Nusa

WITH this message, President Raúl Castro ended his closing speech at the final session of the National Assembly of People’s Power.

Under the direction of Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, president of the highest body of state power, the 4th ordinary session of the 7th Legislature began its work with a moving tribute to Commander of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque.

During the meeting on Sunday, December 20, the Assembly jointly approved economic and social policy lines and the 2010 state budget. The latter was presented by parliamentary deputy Marino Murillo Jorge, vice president of the Council of Ministers and minister of economy and planning, who reported that despite the country’s complex economic situation, economic growth for 2009 is estimated at 1.4%, and for 2010, the proposed figure is 1.9%.

Deputy Osvaldo Martinez, president of the Economic Affairs Commission, spoke on both documents, and later began the discussions in which several parliamentarians participated.

Also during the session meetings, the seven vacancies on the Council of State were filled: as vice presidents, Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdés Menéndez and Gladys Bejerano Portela, the first woman to hold such a high responsibility; and as members, Liudmila Alamo Dueñas, Isis Angelina Diez Duardo, Kirenia Díaz Burke, Marino Murillo Jorge and Sergio Rodríguez Morales.

The Assembly recognized Julio Martínez for having resigning from the Council State so that his seat could be filled by Liudmila Alamo, currently first secretary of the UJC (Union of Young Communists).

Likewise, Jorge Luis Sierra, vice president of the Council of Ministers and minister of transport, presented the proposed Traffic and Transit Code. He emphasized that, in compliance with Decree-law No. 231 of 2002, for the last seven years, a group of experts from the Ministries of the Interior, Transport, Labor and Social Security, Public Health, and Education and Construction have worked on a thorough revision of Law No. 60, the highway administration and transit code.

In presenting the report on the proposed law, Deputy José Luis Toledo Santander, president of the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Commission, said that the recommendation was to continue the nationwide study and analysis of the proposed law, and to postpone the vote on it until the next ordinary session of the Legislature, given the complexity of the issues addressed and the need for a broad knowledge of the law’s contents.

The National Assembly passed proposals to back the position of Cuba and the other member countries of the ALBA bloc (Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America) at the recently-concluded summit on climate change in Copenhagen, and to intensify the work underway to demand the liberation of the five Cuban national heroes.

It was also agreed that the year 2010 will be called “Year 52 of the Revolution,” in line with the decision taken at the 8th ordinary session of the previous Legislature.

At the beginning of the meeting, Alarcón announced the presence of Evariste Boshab, president of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and also announced that María Esther Reus González, minister of justice, had occupied her post as parliamentary deputy for the municipality of Sancti Spíritus.

Translated by Granma International

Havana December 22, 2009

Cuban foreign minister: Copenhagen was a failure and a step backwards

Juan Diego Nusa Peñalver

THE recently-concluded 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark, was a failure, and it signified a step backwards in the international community’s actions to prevent or mitigate the effects of global warming, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla said at a Monday press conference at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After rejecting the accusations of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Environmental Minister Ed Miliband that a handful of countries (referring to Third World nations) took the conference hostage, Rodríguez Parrilla explained that the conference, which generated so many expectations, made no decisions whatsoever on any binding or nonbinding commitments, either political or related to international law.

Unfortunately, there was no agreement in Copenhagen, he emphasized.

Rodríguez Parrilla affirmed that there was only ambiguous, deceitful wheeling-and-dealing behind the back of the Conference imposed by President Barack Obama on a group of countries, and subsequent attempts to impose these on states party to the convention.

In that context, he said that the cause of the failure lies in the lack of political will on the part of the industrialized countries, which drafted a final document and tried to utilize it to distribute responsibilities and financial commitments to developing nations, even the poorest on the planet, including islands that may disappear as a result of the climate change phenomenon.

The West refused to accept binding commitments to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 40% by the year 2020, or to transfer technology and the accompanying financial aid to poor countries to help them reduce their harmful toxic emissions, the Cuban foreign minister stated.

In exposing the role of the U.S. president at the conference, he said, “at this Summit, there has been only one imperial, arrogant Obama, who does not listen, who imposes positions on and even threatens developing countries.”

Translated by Granma International

Israel: A Light unto the Nations

http://www.factsandlogic.org/ad_119.html?hq_e=el&hq_m=2177700&hq_l=15&hq_v=47018c5abe
Those who demonize Israel are either misinformed or malevolent

If that proverbial man from Mars came to visit and read the world’s newspapers, especially those in the Arab and Muslim world, he would be convinced that Israel was the most evil nation in the world and the source of all of the world’s strife.

What are the facts?

A nation to be emulated. The reality, of course, is that Israel is a nation, a society, that should be admired and emulated by many countries in the world. The very fact of how the State of Israel came into being is one of the most inspiring in history. Born out of the ashes of the Holocaust, it has emerged as one of the most advanced, productive and prosperous countries in the world.

The demonization of Israel, assiduously cultivated by the Muslim world, has reached a crescendo following Israel’s recent defensive action in Gaza. Instead of being grateful to the hated Jews for having totally withdrawn, the Palestinian Gazans showed their gratitude by almost daily pounding Israeli towns with close to 10,000 rockets and bombs. After countless warnings, Israel ultimately decided to put an end to this travesty.

When Israel finally did invade Gaza it took the most elaborate precautions not to hurt civilians. As a first in the history of warfare, Israel dropped tens of thousands of leaflets, warning the population and urging it to abandon areas in which military action would take place. The Israeli military made thousands of phone calls urging people to leave areas that would come under attack. But fighting in a densely populated environment is difficult and loss of civilian life is hard to avoid. Hamas fighters wear no uniforms. It is impossible to tell them from civilians. Is a person who allows a rocket launcher in his backyard a civilian or a fighter? And how about using schools, hospitals and mosques as munitions depots and staff centers? The hue and cry of Israel’s demonizers in accusing it of “disproportionate force” is totally absurd. The ultimate insult, comparing Israel to the Nazis, is freely bandied about by Israel’s detractors.

Israel is not an “apartheid state.” Another familiar tack of Israel’s vilifiers is to call it an “apartheid state,” on the model of former South Africa. But that is so ridiculous, so preposterous, it is hard to believe that serious people can countenance it. The exact opposite is the case. Israel is the only country in its benighted neighborhood in which people of all colors and religions prosper and have equal rights. Israel, expending substantial effort, rescued tens of thousands of black Jews from Ethiopia. And it has given assistance and absorbed countless Christian expatriates from Sudan, who escaped from being slaughtered by their Muslim countrymen. Israel’s over one million Arab citizens enjoy the same rights and privileges as their Jewish fellows. They are represented in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and are members of its bureaucracy, of its judiciary, and of its diplomatic service.

All over the world, Leftists, including in the United States and, sad to say, even in Israel itself, tirelessly condemn and vilify Israel. Why would they do that? First, of course, there is good old-fashioned anti-Semitism. Second, many of those who hate the United States vent their poison on Israel, which they consider being America's puppet in that area of the world. But Israel should certainly get top grades in all areas important to the Left. In contrast to all its enemies, Israel has the same democratic institutions as the United States. All religions thrive freely in Israel. Also, in contrast to all of its enemies, women have the same rights as men. The Chief Justice of Israel’s Supreme Court is a woman. One-sixth of the Knesset are women. Compare that to Saudi Arabia, a medieval theocracy, where women are not allowed to drive cars, where they cannot leave the country without permission of a male relative, and where they can be and often are condemned to up to 60 lashes if the “modesty police” deems them not to be properly dressed in public. Gays and lesbians are totally unmolested in Israel; in the surrounding Muslim countries they would be subjected to the death penalty.

In spite of demonization and vilification by so much of the world, Israel is indeed a Light unto the Nations. The State of Israel is the foremost creation of the Jewish enterprise and Jewish intellect that has benefited every country in which Jews dwell, certainly our own country, the United States. Second only to the United States itself, Israel is the world’s most important factor in science and technology, way out of proportion to the small size of its population. Israeli Jews are at the forefront of the arts, the sciences, law and medicine. They have brought all these sterling qualities to bear in building their own country: Israel. By necessity, they have also become outstanding in agriculture and, most surprisingly, in the military. What a shame that the Arabs opted not to participate in this progress and this prosperity and chose instead the path of revenge, of Jihad and of martyrdom. As the prophet Isaiah presaged: Israel is indeed a Light unto the Nations.

This ad has been published and paid for by

Facts and Logic About the Middle East
P.O. Box 590359
San Francisco, CA 94159

Gerardo Joffe, President

U.S. Air Strike in Yemen - kudos to President Obama

Anyone who reads Middle East Perspectives is aware of my critical view of President Obama’s policies on the nuclear issue in Iran, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think he is making some serious errors in his prosecution of the wars and his constant willingness to ignore the fact that Iran is not interested in serious negotiations that will end its quest to develop a nuclear weapon.

That said, he has made some excellent decisions about attacking al-Qa’idah wherever we find them. I wrote an earlier piece in support of the President’s decision not only to continue but escalate the Bush-era drone-launched missile attacks against al-Qa’idah targets in Pakistan (A sound Obama policy - missile strikes in Pakistan). On December 18, the President ordered air-launched cruise missile strikes against two al-Qa’idah targets in Yemen.

The strike was conducted in cooperation with the Yemeni government. This in itself is interesting. Up until just recently, the Yemeni government has had little interest in confronting al-Qa’idah, almost to the point of complicity. (See my 2008 article, Yemen - state sponsor of terrorism?). However, once it became clear that the new influx of al-Qa’idah militants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were a threat to one of the most corrupt governments on the planet, President ‘Ali ‘Abdallah Salih decided that action was necessary.

The change of heart is a repeat of what happened in Saudi Arabia. Prior to 2004, the Saudi government turned a blind eye to the al-Qa’idah presence in the Kingdom - remember that 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. After a few lethal jihadist attacks on foreign workers and more importantly, the Kingdom’s oil infrastructure, Saudi security forces more than decimated al-Qa’idah, forcing the surviving members to flee to Yemen. Now it’s Yemen’s turn to take on the jihadists. Whereas Saudi security forces are very capable, Yemeni security forces are not - thus the request for American assistance.

The two targets hit by American missiles were described as a suspected al-Qa’idah training camp north of Sana’ and a “location where an imminent attack against a U.S. asset was being planned.” Unfortunately, one of the intended victims, al-Qa’idah in Yemen commander Qasm al-Raymi (above), escaped. One has to wonder whether the targets were identified by Yemeni intelligence, or by U.S. intelligence. Yemeni intelligence has not been reliable, especially when it comes to al-Qa’idah. These targets are located in areas that are virtually under al-Qa’idah control and the Yemeni military is loath to operate.

The choice of weapon is also interesting. Air launched cruise missiles - like the one pictured above - are much larger and lethal than the smaller Hellfire missiles carried on CIA and USAF unmanned aerial vehicles. The smaller Hellfires were used at least once in Yemen in a CIA operation to kill al-Qa’idah leaders in late 2002. The use of the cruise missiles, normally carried by Air Force bombers, represents a welcome escalation in the war against al-Qa’idah.

These strikes are exactly what we should be doing to attack and eliminate al-Qa’idah, wherever they are. They are not in Afghanistan, nor are they likely to return there. There are remnants in Pakistan, who are being dealt with cooperatively by Pakistani forces and targeted CIA missile attacks. The remnants that were in Saudi Arabia have either fled or are being hunted down by Saudi security forces. Survivors have fewer places to run - it used to be Yemen and Somalia. If we continue to work with the Yemenis, we can deny them safe haven there, almost forcing them to relocate to Somalia.

Somalia may well be the next front on the war against al-Qa’idah. In any case, it’s not Afghanistan.

Egypt Bans Gaza Border Protest

Egypt bans Gaza border protest

Egypt has rejected a request to allow activists to march across the
border into the Gaza Strip to mark the anniversary of last year’s
conflict.

The Egyptian foreign ministry said the march could not be allowed
because of the “sensitive situation” in Gaza.

Over 1,000 activists from 42 countries had signed-up to join “the Gaza freedom march” planned for next week.

Egypt warned that anyone attempting the crossing from Egypt would be “dealt with by the law”.

Palestinians and human rights groups say more than 1,400 Gazans were killed in the violence between 27 December and 16 January, though Israel puts the figure at 1,166. Three Israeli civilians and 10
Israeli soldiers were also killed.

The UN’s Goldstone report has said both the Israeli army and
Palestinian militants committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during fighting.

Egypt has begun constructing a huge metal wall along its border with
the Gaza Strip as it attempts to cut smuggling tunnels.

When it is finished the wall will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long and will
extend 18 metres below the surface.

Gaza is under a tight Israeli and Egyptian blockade, tightened since
Hamas took over the strip in 2007.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8425232.stm
Published: 2009/12/21 16:47:48 GMT

Today on New Scientist: 22 December 2009

Today’s stories on newscientist.com, at a glance, including: what a best friend should tell you, our trivia quiz and sinister powers of crowdsourcing

Refusal to Release Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah’s Autopsy RaisesSuspicions in Detroit

December 22, 2009
http://detnews.com/article/20091222/METRO01/912220352

Refusal to release imam’s autopsy raises suspicions

County medical examiner cites investigation as the reason for holding on to information

PAUL EGAN
The Detroit News

Dearborn — The Wayne County medical examiner’s refusal to release its autopsy report on Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah is fueling concerns in the Muslim community about a possible cover-up of facts surrounding his death, a community leader said Monday.

Abdullah, 53, was killed Oct. 28 in a gunfight with the FBI at a
Dearborn warehouse. The FBI said Abdullah, an alleged leader of a
radical Muslim separatist group involved in fencing stolen goods,
fired a weapon that killed an FBI dog.

The county Medical Examiner’s Office denied a Nov. 2 request The
Detroit News filed for Abdullah’s medical examiner report, saying it
was not complete.

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations of Michigan, said the county office has not responded to a
request from his organization requesting a copy of the report once it
is completed. The office also quoted exorbitant fees for copies of
autopsy photos, he said.

Dennis Niemiec, a spokesman for the county, confirmed Monday that the report is completed but is being withheld at the request of Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad, who does not want the report released until his department completes its investigation. The county will seek more information from Haddad about how the release of the report would hamper his investigation, Niemiec said.

Haddad could not be reached for comment.

Walid said medical examiner reports are frequently released during
active police investigations.

“The unfortunate and perhaps unintended consequence is that the
failure to release the autopsy report and the very exorbitant amount
for the pictures is raising in the minds of some people in the
community that there’s a potential cover-up,” Walid said.

How many times he was shot, whether he suffered dog bites, and whether Abdullah was handcuffed after he was shot are among the questions on people’s minds, Walid said.

Special Agent Sandra Berchtold, a spokeswoman for the FBI, said it was not the federal agency’s call to withhold the report. However,
“evidence is often not released during an ongoing investigation,” she
said.

U-M Researchers Say Politics Guided Bank Bailout Allocations

Posted: Dec. 22, 2009

U-M researchers say politics guided bank bailout allocations

BY KATHERINE YUNG
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Researchers from the University of Michigan have confirmed what many have long suspected: Politics played a key role in deciding which banks received billions in government bailout money and how much each one got.

According to a new study released Monday by Ran Duchin and Denis
Sosyura at the university’s Ross School of Business, banks with strong political connections were more likely to benefit from the
government’s $250-billion Capital Purchase Program, part of its
Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP.

The study found that banks fared better if they had executives holding
board seats at any of the 12 Federal Reserve banks or if their
headquarters was located in the district of a U.S. House of
Representatives member serving on key finance committees. And the amount of government investment was “strongly related to banks’
political contributions and lobbying expenditures.”

The findings are likely to intensify criticism of the bank bailout
program, which has already come under attack for aiding the biggest
banks while leaving many small and struggling ones without any help.

“Our results show that political connections play an important role in
a firm’s access to capital,” Sosyura, an assistant professor of
finance, said in a statement.

Contact KATHERINE YUNG: 313-222-8763 or kyung@freepress.com

Excess of carbon allowances casts further cloud over Europe

Carl Mortished

A surplus of permits to emit 100 million tonnes of greenhouse gases is hanging over Europe’s carbon market, which slid yesterday as energy traders reacted to the failure of the Copenhagen climate change conference.
The price of European Union allowances (EUAs) — rights to emit a tonne of carbon dioxide — fell by as much as 9 per cent on Europe’s emissions trading system (ETS). The slide came after a week in which carbon prices had been pummelled as short-term investors began to unload their positions with news emerging of the deadlock in the climate change talks.
“People are shorting the market to trigger further sales,” Emmanuel Fages, a carbon analyst at Société Générale, the investment bank, said. The price of EUAs for December 2010 delivery ended at €12.45 per tonne, as much as €2 lower than the price two weeks ago, reflecting growing doubts over the commitment of governments to tightening carbon regulation.
The UN talks in Copenhagen ended over the weekend without a binding agreement to reduce emissions. Had an accord been reached with the United States and key developing nations, it had been expected that the European Commission would have raised its target of emission reductions from 20 per cent to 30 per cent.

Under Europe’s ETS, higher targets would be expected to reduce the number of permits that could be issued under future phases of the carbon-trading scheme, so raising the price of EUAs. In turn, more expensive EUAs would create an incentive for industry to reduce emissions.
The Copenhagen failure is reviving fears of a growing mountain of surplus carbon permits. European industrial companies may be holding as much as 100 million tonnes of allowances, according to Société Générale.
The recession has left energyintensive companies with more EUAs than they need to meet their 2009 emission targets. Because unused allowances can be rolled over for use in future phases of the ETS, companies may have been hoarding, anticipating that Copenhagen might lead to tighter carbon regulation. The lack of a deal could change their strategies.
“They might dispose of their holdings. If this happens, the pressure will come on the price during the first quarter of 2010,” Mr Fages said.
The Climate Change Bill being debated in the US Congress could lead eventually to two markets trading in carbon permits. An American cap-and-trade system for reducing carbon would be larger, with volumes of between five billion and six billion tonnes, compared with two billion tonnes in Europe.

Carbon-Permit Slide Reflects Copenhagen Disappointment

By KEITH JOHNSON
The failure of the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen to produce a strong, binding agreement to cut carbon-dioxide emissions sowed gloom in European carbon markets Monday, with prices for carbon-emissions permits falling more than 8%.
There were also political echoes to the Copenhagen summit’s acrimonious conclusion. Some senior officials, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and British climate-change secretary Ed Miliband, criticized the current U.N. framework for addressing climate change, which requires consensus among more than 190 countries.

“Never again should we face the deadlock that threatened to pull down those talks,” Mr. Brown said Monday. “Never again should we let a global deal to move towards a greener future be held to ransom by only a handful of countries.”
The slumping price for carbon reflected disappointment among traders and businesses that the nonbinding Copenhagen Accord didn’t stipulate how much big countries such as the U.S. or China have to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. The deal also left unresolved most of the big issues of how to curb emissions linked to climate change. On Tuesday, China’s Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, taking issue with British complaints about the summit and China’s role.
Ms. Jiang said China urged developed countries to “fulfill their obligations to developing countries in an earnest way, and stay away from activities that hinder the international community’s cooperation in coping with climate change.”
Because the U.S., China and other major economies didn’t agree to binding emissions cuts, European countries didn’t increase their own pledges to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. European officials, who had considered curbing emissions by 30% from 1990 levels, instead maintained their target of a 20% reduction from 1990 levels by 2020.
That helped push prices for carbon permits to €12.41 ($17.73) per metric ton Monday, down from €13.58 Friday. Carbon-permit prices have fallen 14% since the beginning of the Copenhagen conference, a reflection of how expectations steadily fell as countries bickered over how much they would cut emissions and who would pay for it.
The European Union’s emissions-trading plan caps the amount of greenhouse gases that power companies and the like can emit. They can purchase carbon permits on the market in order to comply with emissions limits.
Investors in low-carbon or no-carbon energy technology, such as solar panels, wind turbines and nuclear power, say the prices for carbon permits must be much higher than current levels — in some cases, as much as €60 a ton — to make their systems cost-competitive with coal, oil or natural gas.
The two-week Copenhagen conference appeared set to end with no agreement at all, until last-minute bargaining among leaders from the U.S., China, Brazil, India and South Africa produced a final statement. A handful of countries, including Sudan, Venezuela and Bolivia, declined to endorse the 11th-hour deal.
Many analysts said the problems evidenced in Copenhagen could spell the decline of the U.N. approach to tackling climate change, which has been in operation since 1992 and has prioritized global accord. Instead, they expect the rise of international climate negotiations among smaller groups of countries.
“The end game in Copenhagen was symbolic of the conference’s broader procedural failings,” says Michael Levi, director of energy security and climate change at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Write to Keith Johnson at keith.johnson@wsj.com