Dollar rises to 1280: currency traders criticized the policy of the Central Bank

5-25-13 Alsumaria news/Baghdad

Record US dollar in the local market has risen sharply over the past few days, if the price of the dollar around 1280 was IQD last month at around 1,200.

Foreign currency dealers said in Baghdad, in interviews for “alsumaria news”, the exchange rate of the US dollar, rose markedly since early this month, but this height peaked on Wednesday, after a record per dollar 1,285 dinars.

Neighbouring countries and internal reasons behind the dollar’s rise in the market

At the time of Central Bank seeks through the currency auction for years, to keep the exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar in the currency market, the exchange rate is volatile clear since late last year.

The Economist says in an interview, Majid graphic for “alsumaria news” that “the regional situation in the region, particularly the situation surrounding Iraq’s neighbors, especially Iran and Syria, one of the main reasons behind the dollar recently in the Iraqi market”, noting that “sales of Central Bank cash have risen recently over adapters due to cash in those two States treated their trade because of the economic embargo imposed on them.”

Mock said that “the Bank’s sale of $ 100 million a day it would mean the sale of $ 500 million a week and thus there is a $ 26 billion goes to outside Iraq for import”, noting that “most of these sums are smuggled out of Iraq without benefit.”

Mock notes that “the difference in the Iraqi Central Bank to sell dollars and 1189 dinars per dollar and what is in the local market of 1280 dinars per dollar encouraged speculators, traders and citizens to go to buy dollars from the Central Bank for the purpose of taking advantage of the price difference, which has increased the demand for dollars”, pointing out that “this rise cannot be reduced without regulating trade weamelbat import to Iraq.”

Central Bank sells at auction its currency US dollar per JD, 1179 by private banks and supply companies, but does not sell directly to citizens, while selling private banks authorized to sell the currency, dollar, by citizens, 1,189.

Mafias to smuggle currency

Economist alecs Antoine “demand for the dollar than before because the mafias are collecting dollars and smuggled out of Iraq on the pretext of import operations from outside Iraq”, stating that “the quantities coming out of Iraq are not commensurate with the amount of goods entering.”

Antoine says in an interview for “alsumaria news” that “Iraq has five offices for laundering these offices, however, are still below the level in the detection of smuggling hard currency outside Iraq, stressing” all parties must cooperate among themselves whether the Central Bank or border control and customs taxes and fight corruption and increase oversight and internal stakeholders. ”

And it looks like the banking offices in Baghdad about the cause of this rise, but there is agreement that there is a demand for dollars exceeds supply in the market.

The Bank says the axe in Karrada Mohamed Ibrahim in an interview for “alsumaria news” that “Although the Central Bank sold the dollar to citizens by Government and private banks, but demand for dollars is greater than before”, stating that “every dollar buys daily from citizens and limits of $ 50,000 find buy traders either through cash or in the form of remittances.

Official: stop the World Bank from selling the dollar remittances market befuddled

The Central Bank says he seeks through the currency auction for years, to keep the exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar in the currency market, but the exchange rate is volatile clear since late last year

The Bank does not provide any explanations for the discrepancy between the price and the market price, although it is responsible for monetary policy in the country, including exchange rate policies and the daily meetings of the buying and selling of foreign currency except official holidays the Bank depends on these auctions.

The Director shows a Bank of Government of the Ministry of finance in Baghdad in an interview for “alsumaria news” that “Iraq’s Central Bank stopped selling dollars in the form of transfers for the purpose of organizing anew the befuddled local market prompted traders to buy the dollar in the domestic market resulting in a higher dollar price in this market.”

The official added “prices remained high even after the Central Bank selling by foreign remittances,” he said, adding that “what we are witnessing today is rise in these prices is speculation of currency traders on a high level.”

And the Central Bank of Iraq in February 2012 all banks participating in an auction to buy and sell foreign currency must disclose its customers as a condition for obtaining foreign currency, confirming that there is an incorrect purchases but fictitious and is otherwise legal and banking rules.

I tried “alsumaria news” get permission from officials at the Central Bank, explains the reasons for the high dollar exchange rate, but the Bank’s information Office were required to have formal letter includes an explanation of the reasons for the request for permission, written questions for consideration, and might answer them. It is known that the exchange rates change rapidly, requiring explanations accompany.

Local currency traders expected, Iraqi dinar rate to continue to fall against the dollar, in what they described as “incomprehensible policy of the Central Bank of Iraq”.

The Central Bank was given some private banks in Baghdad by selling dollars directly to citizens in order to meet the growing demand. Private bank sells $ 5,000 for every person holding an Iraqi passport at a price not to exceed the 1,189 per dollar. But observers and currency traders say that this procedure did not contribute to the stability of exchange rates, having turned to the door to corruption, because most of the funds going for direct sale to customers.

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Iraq Forces Strike Sunni Militants Near Syria

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraqi forces mounted a massive operation on Saturday to better secure the country’s western desert amid concerns it is being used by Sunnis heading to fight in neighbouring Syria.

Some 20,000 troops attacked suspected hideouts of fighters linked to Sunni militant groups, including Al-Qaeda, and looked to secure a key road leading to Syria, top officers said.

Troops were also moved to the 600-kilometre (375-mile) border with Syria.

“The operation is large and backed by the air force,” Staff General Ali Ghaidan Majeed, the head of ground forces, told AFP. “It has resulted in the arrest of several Al-Qaeda members and the destruction of some of their strongholds.”

“The target of the operation is also to clean the desert of the terrorist elements that exist there.”

Two senior commanders in Al-Qaeda’s local front group, the Islamic State of Iraq, were among those killed.

Majeed did not say how many troops had been sent to the border.

The operation is being carried out in parts of border provinces Anbar and Nineveh, where Iraqi and Western officials are concerned that Sunni militant groups opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to Iraq’s Shiite-led government have set up camp.

Among the mostly-Sunni rebels fighting Assad’s regime are groups allied to Al-Qaeda. That has fuelled fears in Baghdad of a spillover from neighbouring Syria increasing tensions and violence in Iraq.

The more than two-year uprising in Syria has reportedly left more than 94,000 people dead.

Assyrian International News Agency

Controls should be issued by the Central Bank to regulate the work of the NCB

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5-25-13 Baghdad – Iraq News Network: Deputy Chairman of the Finance Committee for the Kurdistan blocs Coalition MP Ahmad Faizullah importance version controls by the Central Bank to regulate banks to suffer from confusion and bad behavior. Faizullah said in a speech that most private banks lost trust in their audience and impact on the size of their capital by withdrawing their deposits because of the lack of control and real control by the Central Bank. He added that the Central Bank is required to issue regulations for the work of private banks for the purpose of supporting and encouraging citizens to bid farewell to their money to contribute to the process of development through the funding of development projects in the country. The banking system in Iraq consists of forty-three banks as well as the Central Bank and distributed by property (7) and banks (30) my family including Bank (7) in addition to Islamic banks (6) foreign banks.

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African Union: Continental drift?

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – The African Union headquarters complex in the capital Addis Ababa stands in stark contrast to its immediate surroundings.

The wide planetarium-like structure sitting comfortably attached to a $ 100m lightly glazed tower dominates the city’s skyline. Inside, the combined leadership of 54 nations gather in state of the art conference rooms to contemplate Africa’s future.

Outside the complex, taxi cabs jostle for parking space and pedestrians are questioned by security guards, while local residents navigate the grime and dust of urban life walking along narrow alleys.

The continental bloc might be celebrating 50 years on Saturday, but there is an unmistakable cynicism surrounding the nature and value of the union in meeting the needs of ordinary Africans. 

The AU plans to host commemorative celebrations at a reported cost of $ 1.3m, despite ongoing conflicts and insecurity in five countries across the continent, including Sudan, the eastern DRC and Mali.

Disarray still reigns in Guinea-Bissau, the Central African Republic and Madagascar. Moreover, despite recent economic growth across the continent, living conditions remain abysmal for many average people, with the UN’s signature index suggesting that 24 of the 25 countries at the bottom of the human development index are African.

These types of statistics compel critics to describe the AU as a talk shop, rudderless and crucially disconnected from African citizens like its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

Change of focus

Joram Biswaro, Tanzania’s ambassador to Ethiopia, believes criticism of the AU is unfair and out of context. Despite its limitations as a continental bloc, the fact that Madagascar, CAR and Guinea-Bissau were banned from attending the summit for ongoing political irregularities signalled the AU was headed in the right direction, he said.

“Perhaps had it not been for this organisation, Africa might not have achieved what it has achieved … If you want to assess its performance, one should look at its charter,” Biswaro told Al Jazeera.

The original organisation, the OAU, built by 32 African nations originally on May 25, 1963, focused primarily on liberating countries on the continent from the grip of colonialism.

The OAU came under sever scrutiny for its inability to intervene in member states during times of strife, coups or government repression earning the name of “dictators’ club” for upholding the interests of member country’s leadership above all else.

But since the formation of the AU in 2002, with a renewed focus on solving conflicts, engineering socio-economic development and improving governance, hard questions are being asked over the political will of the AU to reignite the lost dream of pan-Africanism.

During the Arab Spring of 2011, the AU was an anonymous spectator as a revolutionary fervour that was born in North Africa spread across the Middle East. The AU appeared to be particularly hamstrung in its response to the armed revolt against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. 

“The crisis in Libya was a very difficult time for the AU’s Peace and Security Council to reach an agreement,” reminisced Yemane Nagish, a political analyst at The Reporter Newspaper, in Addis Ababa.

It is this type of accountability, transparency and political will that needs to improve, says Ashebir Woldegeois, the chairperson of the Health, Labour and Social Affairs of the AU’s Pan-African Parliament.

Accountability issues

With 60 percent of its annual budget reportedly funded by overseas donors, it remains unclear how much political clout and independence the African Union can wield in reality.

Solomon Dersso, senior researcher at the Institute of Security Studies (ISS), says he has no issue with African countries partnering with outside groups to solve problems. Difficulties on the continent need to be viewed in proper context, he said, as some problems come from outside sources, rather than from within Africa. 

“The idea is not that only Africans should do it; the idea is that Africans should be at the centre for the search of solutions,” he told Al Jazeera.

Other observers wonder if ordinary Africans are actually at the forefront of the AU’s concerns. With so many Africans living in politically repressive regimes, like Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia and the Gambia with limitations on freedom of expression, and restrictions on opposition parties, the AU is not yet representative of the African people, critics say.

“Despite being home to several of the world’s worst performing countries in terms of respect for human rights, the region saw overall if uneven progress toward democratisation during the 1990s and the early 2000s,” Freedom House, a US think-tank, reported in regards to Sub-Saharan Africa.

While elections are being held regularly across the continent, these apparent gains towards a culture of democracy are sometimes little more than masterful con jobs.

Election issues

Votes are scheduled this year for fragile states like Zimbabwe and Madagascar, and scrutiny has fallen on the efforts of the African Union to be an honest broker for democracy. In the past, Human Rights Watch has slammed the AU as an organisation ostensibly created to support democracy and freedom but wary of grassroots social movements.

The idea is that Africans should be at the centre of the search for solutions

Solomon Dersso, senior researcher at the Institute of Security Studies 

The AU, however, has not been aloof to the challenges posed by political repression on the continent. In 2007, the organisation adopted the Charter for Democracy, Elections and Governance to address a tendency towards authoritarian rule in some African countries.

Highlighting human rights, the rule of law, democratic elections and unconstitutional changes of government, the charter aims to “reinforce commitments to democracy, development and peace in Africa”. There certainly is no faulting its intention but critics say commitment to the Charter has been poor.

Woldegeois, the parliamentary member, said the situation has improved, despite set-backs. ”We are getting there, but many opposition parties in Africa are still immature; many are not willing to work hard in the villages, build their constituencies.”

But other observers said the root problem of representation at the AU can be seen in the group’s founding constitution. 

“Compared to the United Nations charter which starts off with ‘We the people of the United Nations, the AU constitution starts off with ‘We the heads of the state and government,” said Dersso, the researcher. “Make no mistake, this [the AU] is in many ways still a club of heads of state and government and not necessarily a body that truly represents the African people.”

Young and restless 

Almost 65 per cent of Africans are below the age of 35, and many are uninterested in the traditional politics of patronage. The face of the continent has changed.

The new AU Commission Chairperson, Dr Nkhosozana Dlamini-Zuma, has vowed to frame the next five decades around the themes of African identity, integration, economic development and democratic governance, among others.

But without action, analysts warn the continual talk shops at summits can last only for so long.

“There is a great sense of empowerment on the part of the youth,” Dersso said. ”If the actions of leaders are not in sync… [then] these types of governments have no future in Africa.”

As African leaders enjoy the pomp and ceremony in Addis Ababa this weekend, many outside its headquarters still believe the continental body is adrift from the aspirations of its people.

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AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)

Afghan Suicide Bomber Blows Himself Up, Mosque Blast Kills Many

An ostensible suicide bomber has died in the Afghan capital after his explosives-laden vest went off prematurely.

Police said that the man’s suicide vest went off on May 25 after he left a house in Kabul’s suburbs.

The explosion injured no one else.

The apparent failed attack followed a Taliban assault on a guesthouse used by the International Organization of Migration on May 24.

At least eight people were killed in the attack including, civilians, guards, and Taliban militants.

In the southeastern province of Ghazni on May 24, a blast killed at least eight people at a mosque during evening prayers.

Local authorities said the explosion was caused by the accidental detonation of explosives being transported by Taliban fighters.

The militants had stopped at the mosque to offer prayers.

The dead include Taliban fighters and civilians.


Based on reporting by AP and BBC Pashto

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

U.S. new home sales rise 2.3% in April to 454,000

Investing.com – U.S. new home sales rose unexpectedly in April, easing concerns over the U.S. economic outlook, official data showed on Thursday.

In a report, the U.S. Census Bureau said new home sales rose by 2.3% to a seasonally adjusted 454,000 units in April, defying expectations for a decline to 425,000.

New home sales for March were revised up to 444,000 units from a previously reported increase of 417,000 units.

Following the release of the data, the U.S. dollar held on to losses against the euro, with EUR/USD adding 0.36% to trade at 1.2906.

Meanwhile, U.S. equity markets were lower after the open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7%, the SP 500 index dropped 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite index fell 0.7%.

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Heavy Fighting Reported In Rebel-Held Syrian Town

Reports say fighting in the strategic Syrian town of Qusair has intensified.

State media reported on May 25 that troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had launched a three-pronged attack on the rebel-held town and were making big advances.

The rebels said they were under heavy bombardment and that elite troops from the army and Lebanese Hizballah fighters were leading the offensive.

In Istanbul, Syria’s opposition resumed talks aimed at creating a united front ahead of a proposed international peace conference in Geneva.

Speaking to journalists in Istanbul on May 25, George Sabra, acting chairman of the Syrian National Council, requested immediate help.

“We are calling our brothers and sisters from the revolution and Free Syrian Army to support and give weapons to their brothers and sisters in Muhayamiya and Qusair and the area around Damascus,” he said.

Sabra described the siege of Qusair by government troops as “terrorism” and criticized the international community for failing to help.

“This is a terrorism that has never happened before in the history of the world,” he said. “And this is happening in front of the whole world and everybody is seeing this. What is going on in Syria now is allowing terrorism and extremism and it is allowing criminals to kill people and it allows barbarians to disrespect humanity.”

The Syrian military began an offensive to recapture Qusair, located between Homs and the Lebanese border, a week ago.

The offensive is seen as an attempt by Assad to secure the coastal region. The area is home to his Alawite minority sect, a branch of Shi’ite Islam.

His regime is supported by Shi’ite Iran and Hizballah against predominantly Sunni rebels backed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The United States and Russia are pushing for an international peace conference in Geneva to end more than two years of conflict inside Syria that has left some 80,000 dead.

With reporting by Reuters, dpa, and AFP

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Vice Kurdistan rule out the success of any initiative to end the political crisis

5-25-13 BAGHDAD / electronic integrity

MP ruled Kurdistan Alliance Mahma Khalil, the success of any possible subtraction initiative to end the political crisis between the two blocs.

Khalil said, “All the initiatives that have been put forward now by the Vice President or the President of the House of Representatives or the President of the Islamic Supreme Council Ammar al-Hakim would not reach the required level as a result of loss of confidence between the political parties.”

He added, “Who wants to resolve the political crisis must be for him to return to previous initiatives that emerged from the government such as the Convention of Arbil.”

He explained, “in case refer to the paper of Arbil and the implementation of all its provisions, will help to build a new confidence among the blocs and help on the parties sitting down again around the table one dialogue.”

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U.K. Police Arrest Man After Spy Claim In Soldier-Killing Case

Police in Britain have arrested a man under antiterrorism laws at BBC headquarters.

The man identified as Abu Nusaybah was detained by the counterterrorism police on May 25.

Earlier he had told the BBC’s flagship “Newsnight” program that his friend Michael Adebolajo, one of two suspects in the horrific killing of an unarmed British soldier, was approached by intelligence officers.

Nusaybah claimed that British counterterrorism officials wanted to recruit Adebolajo after he returned from a stay in Kenya six months ago.

London’s Metropolitan Police said it had arrested a 31-year-old man on “suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.”

Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are suspected of killing soldier Lee Rigby in broad daylight on May 22 in the southeast London district of Woolwich.

Police shot and injured them minutes after Rigby’s killing. Both men remain under armed guard at two London hospitals.

Based on reporting by Reuters,  AP, and the BBC

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Explainer: What Is Islamic Banking?

When Islamic banking was first developed in the 1970s in the Persian Gulf states, its customers were almost exclusively observant Muslims who wanted a banking system that complied with their religious values. These include prohibitions against lending money with interest, which is defined as usury, and investing in businesses deemed morally harmful, such as alcohol or pornography.

But today, Islamic banking is getting wider attention, including among non-Muslims. That is because Islamic banks, which are open to people of all faiths, have largely survived the global economic crisis intact. So far, none has had to receive substantial bailouts to keep them afloat, suggesting that they somehow offer a safer haven to savers than conventional banks.

Mohammed Amin, a London-based Islamic finance consultant, says that perception is partly true, and partly not.

In practice, he says, Islamic banks are often more conservative in their commercial activities than ordinary banks. Their prohibitions against interest-bearing loans, for example, meant they did not buy up the large quantities of bad consumer debt that now burdens Western banks and has threatened many with collapse.

But individual Islamic banks — like any savings institution — can still expose their customers to risk. And that is because, while they shun interest-bearing transactions, they still do many of the same things conventional banks do, only by different means.

Sharing Profits

Amin cites payments on savings accounts as one example. In conventional banks, a saver receives a guaranteed interest payment of, for instance, 5 percent in exchange for keeping money in the institution. In Islamic banks, savers can earn the same amount but instead of receiving it as interest, they do so by sharing in the profits of the bank:

“You put your money into that Islamic bank,” says Amin. “It pools that money with all the rest of the money it has. It uses it to run its business, which is providing money to other customers. And at the end of the year it will reckon up its results and the likelihood is that it will pay you [for example] 5 percent, maybe a little bit more or a little bit less, unless the bank has had a really bad year.”

He notes that in a bad year, the Islamic bank might not pay a profit share, whereas a conventional bank is contractually bound to pay customers the promised interest rate.

Like conventional banks, Islamic banks make their profits by loaning money to customers. But whereas a bank loans with interest, Islamic banks do so through buy-and-sell transactions.

“An Islamic bank will say, ‘You tell us which car you want, tell us which showroom it is in, we will go and buy that car and we will resell it to you,’” Amin says. “So, an Islamic bank will buy that particular car for, say, $ 1,000 and sell it to the customer and they will sell it to the customer for say $ 1,150 payable in 36 months’ time. So, the Islamic bank is making a gain on the sale of the car. It is not lending money; the contract is the sale of the car for $ 1,150.”

Still Plenty Of Risks

However, just as with conventional banking, there is nothing about Islamic banking that by itself guarantees that its commercial transactions are risk-free.

Banks can still face problems when the parties to whom they provide money are unable to fully pay back the sums. And, if an individual Islamic bank’s owners are high risk-takers, they can still make bad investment choices, which can end in bankruptcy for the institution.

Many Islamic banks try to guard against such pitfalls by setting formal limits on how much risk they take.

According to Sahar Ata at the London School of Business and Finance, that mindset comes from Islam’s prohibition of “gharar,” which roughly translates as “excessive risk taking.” She notes that Islamic banks usually try to limit the amount of debt they will assume in amassing their own capital to no more than 30 percent. At the same time, individual Islamic banks report to councils of Shari’a experts, who monitor the bank’s operations and advise when its activities stray from underlining principles.

Still, the fact that Islamic banks duplicate many of the operations of conventional interest-based banks causes some Islamic scholars to criticize them as disingenuous. They argue that the current model of Islamic banks will inevitably place them on the same trajectory Western banks have followed in assuming ever greater risks to make higher profits.

Tarek El Diwany of London-based Zest Advisory, an Islamic banking and investment consultancy, suggests that what the critics would prefer is to see Islamic banks eschew all forms of debt-based finance, where one person seeks to profit from another’s debt.

“An alternative to the current Islamic banking model would be a true profit-sharing model, more akin to an investment fund, where I invest in your business, you make a profit I share it, if you make a loss I share it,” he says. “Whereas what tends to happen in debt-based finance is I give you $ 100 of capital and whether you make a loss or a profit I want $ 110 back at the end of the year. That is seen as fundamentally unjust, why should I benefit if you don’t?”

However, other Islamic scholars defend the existing Islamic banking system as being reasonably compliant with Islam’s prohibitions on usury and, so far, the controversy has remained largely under the surface.

Today, Islamic banking still accounts for only a tiny fraction of the global banking industry. The amount of money held in Islamic banks totals about $ 1 trillion, or less than 1 percent of global financial assets. But in many countries Islamic banking is growing rapidly.

In the last seven or eight years, the United Kingdom has licensed five fully Islamic banks, Islamic financial institutions are operating in the United States, and there are plans to open others in Western Europe. That is in addition to the many that already exist in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Forex

Investing.com – The euro was trading close to session highs against the dollar in volatile trade on Thursday but remained vulnerable amid concerns that the Federal Reserve will begin tapering its bond-buying program.

EUR/USD hit 1.2920 during U.S. morning trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.2910, gaining 0.39%.

The pair was likely to find support at 1.2820, the session low and resistance at 1.2950.

The single currency found support earlier after data showed that the euro zone’s manufacturing and service sectors improved more-than-expected in May.

The euro zone manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to 47.8 from a final reading of 46.7 in April, better than expectations for a reading of 47.0, but still well below the 50 level that separates growth from contraction.

The euro zone services PMI rose to 47.5 from 47.0 in April, above expectations for a reading of 47.2.

Germany’s manufacturing PMI rose to a two month high 49.0 from 48.1 in April.

In the U.S., the Department of Labor said the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance last week fell by 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 340,000, compared to expectations for a decline of 18,000 to 345,000.

Jobless claims for the preceding week were revised up to 363,000 from a previously reported increase of 360,000.

A separate report showed that U.S. new home sales rose by 2.3% to a seasonally adjusted 454,000 units in April, defying expectations for a decline to 425,000.

But investors remained cautious after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday the bank could begin to scale back its USD85 billion a month bond-buying program.

In testimony to the U.S. Joint Economic Committee, Fed Chairman Bernanke said a decision to scale back the Fed’s asset purchase program could be taken in the “next few meetings” if economic data continued to improve.

Elsewhere, data showed that China’s manufacturing sector contracted for the first time in seven months in May, fuelling concerns over the outlook for global growth.

The preliminary reading of China’s HSBC manufacturing PMI fell to 49.6 from a final reading of 50.4 in April.

The euro was sharply lower against the safe haven yen, with EUR/JPY dropping 1.06% to 131.19 and was higher against the pound, with EUR/GBP rising 0.25% to 0.8564.

In the U.K., official data confirmed that the U.K. economy expanded by 0.3% in the first quarter and grew 0.6% from a year earlier, unchanged from the preliminary estimate.

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Interpol Rejects Moscow Bid To Locate British Fund Manager

The international police agency Interpol has rejected a Russian push to include British millionaire William Browder on its international search list.

The CEO of the Hermitage Capital trust fund is accused of tax evasion and illegally acquiring $ 70 million worth of stock in Russian energy giant Gazprom.

Browder has said the charges against him are politically motivated.

The French-based agency said on May 24 that “the case was of a predominantly political nature” and therefore Interpol shouldn’t be involved in helping Russia pursue Browder.

His inclusion in Interpol’s database would have obliged its member countries to inform Russia about Browder’s whereabouts.

Browder’s lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in a Russian jail in 2009 after uncovering a massive fraud scheme in which public officials were implicated.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Forex

Investing.com – The U.S. dollar slipped lower against the yen on Friday, but demand for the greenback remained supported amid growing expectations for a near-term end to the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying program.

USD/JPY hit 101.08 during early European trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 101.79, slipping 0.22%.

The pair was likely to find support at 100.73, the low of May 10 and resistance at 102.88, the high of May 21.

The dollar remained supported after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday that the bank could begin tapering its bond-buying program.

In testimony to the U.S. Joint Economic Committee on Wednesday, Fed Chairman Bernanke said a decision to scale back the Fed’s asset purchase program could be taken in the “next few meetings” if economic data continued to improve.

Meanwhile, the yen gained ground after Bank of Japan Chairman Haruhiko Kuroda said he’ll keep strengthening communication with the market and that the unprecedented stimulus announced by the central bank remains sufficient.

The yen was higher agains the euro with EUR/JPY edging down 0.14%, to hit 131.70.

Later in the day, the U.S. was to release government data on durable goods orders.

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Suicide Attack Hits Daghestan Capital

At least 11 people have been wounded in a suicide car bombing in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Daghestan.

Local authorities said those injured included police officers and civilians.

The bomber, believed to be a woman, blew herself up on May 25 near the Interior Ministry building in the regional capital, Makhachkala.

The explosion reportedly occurred when traffic police tried to check the driver’s documents.

The attack comes after twin car bombs killed four people and wounded more than 40 others in Makhachkala on May 20.

Daghestan, along with Russia’s other volatile North Caucasus republics, continues to experience violence linked to Islamic extremists and organized criminal groups.

Based on reporting by AFP, AP, Interfax, ITAR-TASS

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Japan’s Abe in Myanmar on landmark visit

Shinzo Abe, accompanied by a large business delegation, is visiting Myanmar – the first by a Japanese leader in more than three decades as the Japanese attempt to reassert its position as a top economci partner after decades of poor relations with the previous military regime.

The Japanese prime minister has visited Myanmar’s mausoleum, which commemorates the national hero, General Aung San, and is due to meet Aung San’s daughter Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s democracy icon, and the current leader, Thein Sein, in the capital Naypyitaw.

The Japanese business community views Abe’s visit as a sign of reinvigorating ties.

The last Japanese premier to visit Myanmar was Takeo Fukuda in 1977 during the Socialist regime of the late ruler, General Ne Win.

“Japan will cooperate in Myanmar’s reforms with both public- and private-sector assistance,” Abe said before departure, according to Kyodo News agency.

Japanese companies are eager to invest in Myanmar after it started to open up when Thein Sein took office in 2011.

Investment projects

With the US and European Union relaxing sanctions, Japan has moved quickly to capitalise on Myanmar’s resources and its new economic environment without sanctions.

At least 35 Japanese investment projects are under way in Myanmar, the biggest being plans to develop the 2,400 hectare Thilawa Special Economic Zone near Yangon Zone led by trading companies Mitsubishi Corp, Marubeni Corp. and Sumitomo Corp.

Abe is scheduled to sign agreements to provide Japanese grant money for human resources development and to extend the first Japanese government loan to the impoverished but resource-rich country since it cancelled $ 3.58bn in debt in January.

Japan, Myanmar’s largest aid donor, helped clear part of its unpaid debt in an effort to boost Myanmar’s democratic reforms and open ways to resume fresh loans for infrastructure building and major development assistance that will support Japanese business interests in the Southeast Asian nation.

Al Jazeera’s Veronica Pedrosa, reporting from Bangkok on Saturday, said Japan has made no secret of the fact that it want to be the champion of Myanmar development, so there have been some reports that the remaining debt that Myanmar owes to Japan is also going to be forgiven.

“They’re talking about a development aid package worth a $ 1bn, and the introduction of a basic plan for a comprehensive electricity infrastructure for the country,” she said.

She said such an aid package would be significant not only for the people but also for investors “who complain that lack of infrastructure is a huge part of the hindrance to further investment”.

“It is all part of a strategy on the part of Japan - which the US would be supportive of – to  edge out China’s influence in the region,” our correspondent said.

Chequered past

Japan had close ties with Myanmar before the junta took power in 1988, prompting the country to suspend grants for major projects.

Although it scaled back most business activity and cut government aid when the US and other Western nations imposed sanctions in 2003 after the military regime put Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, Japan did not impose sanctions on Myanmar.

But with no major development grants or Japanese loans, major Japanese corporations maintained branch offices in Myanmar with minimal business operations during the previous regime, while neighbouring China gradually became Myanmar’s major trade partner and investor after Thailand and Singapore.

Japan’s investments and involvement lag far behind those of China and India, but that is fast changing after the country forgave about half of Myanmar’s more than $ 6bn in debt.

A high-powered delegation of business leaders, including top executives from Toyota Motor Corp, Hitachi Ltd and Sumitomo Chemical, toured Myanmar, also known as Burma, in February and pledged to cooperate in encouraging more investment.

As of late February, Japan was the 11th largest investor in Myanmar, with $ 270m in overall investments, way behind the $ 14.2bn committed by China and $ 9.6bn by Thailand, the top two sources with 33 percent and 23 percent respectively of total foreign direct investment.

653

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)

Several Killed In Pakistan Attacks

Police in northwest Pakistan say two militant attacks have left nine people dead.

Police say suspected militants attacked a police convoy on may 24 in Mattani, killing six policemen and wounding seven others.

In another attack on the same day, a suicide bomber walked up to a vehicle owned by an Afghan religious leader in Peshawar and set off explosives he was carrying, killing three people.

The leader, Haji Hayatullah, was not harmed in the attack because he was in a nearby mosque attending Friday prayers.

Hayatullah’s driver and guard were killed as was a passerby, police said.

Two other civilians were wounded. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.


Based on reporting by AP and AFP

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Forex

Investing.com – The euro edged lower against the U.S. dollar on Friday, as the release of positive U.S. economic data added to expectations for a near-term end to the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying program.

EUR/USD hit 1.2905 during European afternoon trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.2921, slipping 0.08%.

The pair was likely to find support at 1.2834, the low of May 22 and resistance at 1.2994, the session high.

Official data showed that U.S. core durable goods orders rose 1.3% in April, beating expectations for a 0.5% increase, after a 1.7% decline the previous month.

Durable goods orders, including transportation items, rose 3.3% last month, more than the expected 1.5% increase, after a 5.9% fall in March.

The data came after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday that the bank could begin tapering its bond-buying program.

In testimony to the U.S. Joint Economic Committee, Fed Chairman Bernanke said a decision to scale back the Fed’s asset purchase program could be taken in the “next few meetings” if economic data continued to improve.

The euro strengthened earlier, after the Ifo Institute said its German business climate index rose to 105.7 in May, from a reading of 104.4 the previous month, beating expectations for an increase to 104.5.

A separate report showed that the Gfk German consumer climate index rose unexpectedly in May, ticking up to 6.5 from a reading of 6.2 the previous month. Analysts had expected the index to remain unchanged this month.

The euro was steady against the pound with EUR/GBP easing up 0.06%, to hit 0.8565.

Also Friday, the British Bankers’ Association said mortgage approvals rose by 32,200 in April, less than the expected 32,700 increase, after a 31,400 rise the previous month.

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Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

Gay Pride Activists Briefly March In Kyiv

KYIV — Some 50 gay activists have held a gay-pride march in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, despite a ban by local authorities.

RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service reports that the “KyivPride-2013″ on May 25 event lasted less than one hour amid a strong police presence.

Ten people who tried to disrupt the march and tear up posters were detained.

They were among some 100 activists who were protesting against the event.

On May 23, a Kyiv court upheld a request by city authorities to ban the march, saying it risked sparking violence.

Last year, gay-pride organizers canceled a similar event after skinheads gathered at its planned location in protest.

Although Ukraine decriminalized homosexuality in the early 1990s, hostility against gays and lesbians remains high there and in other nations of the former Soviet Union.

With reporting by Interfax

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Leaders in Addis Ababa for AU summit

African leaders have gathered to witness celebrations in Addis Ababa for the 50th jubilee of the continental bloc, with its many problems set aside for a day to mark the progress that has been made.

Mass dancing troupes were performing musical dramas on Friday to about 10,000 guests in a giant hall in the Ethiopian capital, home to the African Union.

Today’s 54-member AU is the successor of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), established amid the heady days as independence from colonial rule swept the continent in 1963.

African leaders were expected to be joined by Francois Hollande, the French president; Wang Yang, China’s vice-premier; and John Kerry, US secretary of state.

Mali is expected to be discussed: it is preparing to receive a UN peacekeeping force to support French soldiers fighting formerly al-Qaeda-linked rebels in the desert north since January.

The agenda will also likely include Madagascar – in political deadlock since a 2009 coup – and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where UN-backed government soldiers are struggling to defeat rebels.

Time to look back

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, AU Commission chief, said the “celebration of all Africa” was “historic”, and that it was a time to both look back at the past and consider how the continent can tackle the many challenges ahead.

“The future is in our hands, its bright ,,, the opportunities are great for the continent to be prosperous,” Dlamini-Zuma said in a statement late on Friday.

Somzi Mhlongo, the South African choreographer who organised the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 World Cup as well as this year’s Africa Cup of Nations, said the celebrations he had organised would be “an extravaganza”.

Musicians playing include Congolese music legend Papa Wemba, Mali’s Salif Keita and British-based reggae band Steel Pulse, with giant screens set up across Addis Ababa also showing the festival.

The AU has budgeted $ 1.27m for Saturday’s celebrations, according to official documents seen by South Africa’s Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

Erastus Mwencha, AU Commission deputy chief, said he did not have the exact figure but that some $ 3m would be spent on Saturday’s festivities and on other events over the coming year.

The AU took over from the OAU in 2002, switching its name in a bid to shrug off its troubled past.

OAU non-interference in member states’ affairs allowed leaders to shirk democratic elections and abuse human rights without criticism from their neighbours.

Combat roles

In recent years, the AU’s role in combat – such as its mission in Somalia to battle al-Qaeda-linked groups – has shown it can take concrete action, even if the funding for that mission comes mainly from Western backers.

But at the same time, the splits revealed by the 2011 conflict in Libya – when members squabbled between those wanting to recognise rebels and those backing Muammar Gaddafi – showed its disunity and lack of global clout.

Gaddafi’s death also robbed the AU of a major source of funding. Leaders will discuss finding backers for the cash-strapped body at a two-day summit following Saturday’s anniversary celebrations.

Development indicators on the continent – including health, education, infant mortality,economic growth and democracy – have improved steadily in the past 50 years.

Africa is home to some of the fastest growing economies in the world according to the IMF, and has attracted huge amounts of foreign investment in recent years.

At the same time 24 out of the bottom 25 nations at the bottom of UN human development index are in Africa, and the subsequent summit will tackle a range of crises the continent faces.

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AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)

Italian Consumer Confidence rises less-than-expected

Investing.com – alian consumer confidence rose less-than-expected last month, official data showed on Thursday.

In a report, Italian National Institute of Statistics said that Italian Consumer Confidence rose to 85.9, from 86.3 in the preceding month.

Analysts had expected Italian Consumer Confidence to rise 86.8 last month.

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Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

Deadly Gas Cylinder Blast Hits Pakistan School Bus

Pakistani officials say a gas cylinder blast on a school bus has killed at least 16 children and a teacher in eastern Pakistan.

Police said at least seven more children were injured on May 25, when the faulty gas cylinder exploded on the outskirts of the city of Gujrat, some 200 kilometers southeast of the capital, Islamabad.

The incident occurred as the bus was taking the children and the teacher to a school.

Previous vehicle explosions have been blamed on substandard cylinders used to contain compressed natural gas.

The fuel is used in millions of vehicles in Pakistan as a cheaper alternative to diesel and petrol.


Based on reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Congressmen Seek Release of Kidnapped Syria Archbishops

Washington – 72 Members of Congress, led by Representatives Brad Sherman (D-CA), Gus M. Bilirakis (R-FL), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), John Sarbanes (D-MD), Trent Franks (R-AZ), and Mike Pompeo (R-KS), urged the State Department to prioritize the release of two kidnapped Archbishops in a letter to Secretary Kerry.

Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo, and Metropolitan Yohanna Ibrahim, the Syriac Archbishop of Aleppo, were abducted by unknown assailants while carrying out humanitarian work in the northern province of Aleppo on April 22, 2013. Their driver, Fatha’Allah Kabboud, a deacon in the Syriac Orthodox Church, was shot dead. Pope Francis has called for the release of these Archbishops.

“I am pleased that 72 bipartisan Representatives in the House joined together in urging the Secretary of State to make this issue a priority,” said Rep. Sherman, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and a member of the International Religious Freedom Caucus. “We must do everything we can to ensure that Christians and other religious minorities have a safe future in Syria. I am deeply alarmed about the safety of the Archbishops and call for their immediate and safe release.”

“It has been almost a month since Metropolitan Ibrahim and Metropolitan Yazigi were kidnapped,” said Rep. Bilirakis. “I am deeply concerned about their safety and demand their immediate return. These men of God faithfully served the Orthodox community during the ongoing conflict in Syria and their kidnapping highlights the troubling rise in abductions. This type of tragedy only heightens the need for the Assad regime to step aside. The United States needs to identify pro-democracy elements within Syria, so the country may work to establish a new government based on democratic institutions that promote and respect human rights and religious freedoms for all. I thank my colleagues in the House for joining us on this important letter urging Secretary Kerry to prioritize the safe return of the Archbishops to Aleppo.”

“I am deeply concerned for the safety of Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo, and Metropolitan Yohanna Ibrahim, the Syriac Archbishop of Aleppo, who were kidnapped as they carried out humanitarian work near the Turkish border of Syria,” said Rep. Maloney. “Not only were these religious leaders abducted, but their driver, an innocent victim, was murdered by these armed individuals. It is a travesty that weeks have gone by since the Archbishops were initially captured, and we have still heard nothing on their release. These Archbishops have nothing to do with the Syrian civil war, and I call on their immediate and safe release.”

“The kidnapping of Metropolitan Ibrahim and Metropolitan Yazigi is part of an alarming trend of violence directed at religious minorities, especially Christians,” said Rep. Pompeo. “I am glad to be joined by 71 Members of the House of Representatives to demand the release of the Archbishops and to reaffirm our commitment to religious freedom around the world.”

“We urge the State Department to make Metropolitan Yazigi and Metropolitan Ibrahim’s immediate release and safe return to Aleppo a priority in our efforts in the region,” said the Members in the letter. “As Members of Congress committed to religious freedom in the Middle East and around the world, we believe the United States must do everything it can to ensure that all the diverse religions and ethnicities of Syria have a safe future.”

Full text of letter:

The Honorable John Kerry

Secretary of State

U.S. Department of State

Washington, D.C.

Dear Secretary Kerry,

We write to express our grave concern over the kidnapping of Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo, and Metropolitan Yohanna Ibrahim, the Syriac Archbishop of Aleppo. The two Archbishops were abducted by unknown assailants while carrying out humanitarian work in the northern province of Aleppo on April 22, 2013. We mourn the murder of Fatha’Allah Kabboud, a deacon in the Syriac Orthodox Church, who was serving as the Archbishops’ driver at the time of their abduction.

We urge the State Department to make Metropolitan Yazigi and Metropolitan Ibrahim’s immediate release and safe return to Aleppo a priority in our efforts in the region.

Metropolitan Yazigi and Metropolitan Ibrahim had previously made public pronouncements that religious tolerance and diversity was under threat from the two-year conflict in their country.

The kidnapping of Metropolitan Yazigi and Metropolitan Ibrahim reflects the troubling rise in abductions in Syria, the expanding chaos and brutality of the civil war that has killed more than 70,000 Syrians, and an increasingly dangerous environment for religious minorities.

As Members of Congress committed to religious freedom in the Middle East and around the world, we believe the United States must do everything it can to ensure that all the diverse religions and ethnicities of Syria have a safe future.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

The Honorable Brad Sherman
The Honorable Gus M. Bilirakis
The Honorable Carolyn Maloney
The Honorable John Sarbanes
The Honorable Trent Franks
The Honorable Mike Pompeo
The Honorable Eliot Engel
The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
The Honorable Joseph Crowley
The Honorable Peter King
The Honorable Chris Van Hollen
The Honorable Peter Roskam
The Honorable Darrell Issa
The Honorable Don Young
The Honorable Steve Israel
The Honorable Charles B. Rangel
The Honorable Walter Jones
The Honorable Chris Smith
The Honorable Carolyn McCarthy
The Honorable Nick J. Rahall, II
The Honorable Doug Lamborn
The Honorable James P. McGovern
The Honorable William Keating
The Honorable Jim Langevin
The Honorable Michael E. Capuano
The Honorable Albio Sires
The Honorable Mike Fitzpatrick
The Honorable Frank R. Wolf
The Honorable Gerald Connolly
The Honorable Peter DeFazio
The Honorable Bill Johnson
The Honorable Bill Foster
The Honorable Michael F. Doyle
The Honorable Anna Eshoo
The Honorable Justin Amash
The Honorable Jared Polis
The Honorable John A. Culberson
The Honorable Bill Huizenga
The Honorable Gary C. Peters
The Honorable Pete Olson
The Honorable Rick Larsen
The Honorable Steven Cohen
The Honorable Tim Huelskamp
The Honorable Tim Griffin
The Honorable Roger Williams
The Honorable Jim Bridenstine
The Honorable Tim Murphy
The Honorable Michael H. Michaud
The Honorable Matt Salmon
The Honorable Alan Nunnelee
The Honorable Bill Pascrell, Jr.
The Honorable Scott Garrett
The Honorable Gregg Harper
The Honorable Steven Palazzo
The Honorable Keith J. Rothfus
The Honorable Richard Hanna
The Honorable Joseph R. Pitts
The Honorable Kevin Cramer
The Honorable Andy Harris
The Honorable James Lankford
The Honorable Stephen Fincher
The Honorable Jan Schakowsky
The Honorable David N. Cicilline
The Honorable Chris Stewart
The Honorable Rush Holt
The Honorable Ted Deutch
The Honorable James P. Moran
The Honorable Leonard Lance
The Honorable Rodney Davis
The Honorable Joaquin Castro
The Honorable Grace Meng
The Honorable Lynn Jenkins

http://www.reporter.am

Assyrian International News Agency

Core durable goods orders rise more-than-expected

Investing.com – U.S. core durable goods orders rose more-than-expected last month, official data showed on Thursday.

In a report, Census Bureau said that Core durable goods orders rose to a seasonally adjusted 1.3%, from -1.7% in the preceding month whose figure was revised up from -2.9%.

Analysts had expected Core durable goods orders to rise 0.5% last month.

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Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

The Demise of Middle East Borders

A common theme running through much of the leading commentary on the Syrian crisis is the idea that the principal borders of the modern Middle East, created by the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement, are about to be fundamentally altered if not erased completely. In mid-March, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu gave a university speech in which he said that the political order in the Middle East created by the Sykes-Picot Agreement was coming to an end. He envisioned Turkey’s influence returning to those areas which were once under its sovereignty but were lost to the European colonial powers.

It seems that everyone is talking about the end of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. In mid-May, David Ignatius of The Washington Post warned the Russians that they would suffer most from “the dissolution of the Sykes-Picot boundaries in the Middle East.” At the same time, Elliot Abrams, who served as the deputy national security adviser under former U.S. President George W. Bush wrote about “the unraveling” of the Sykes-Picot agreement. Several weeks earlier, one of France’s leading commentators in the Middle East, Antoine Basbous, wrote in Le Figaro on April 21 that the “artificial boundaries” established by Sykes-Picot were about to receive their final blow from what he called “the Arab tsunami and its aftershocks.”

It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this change should it transpire. In October 1916, during World War I, Sir Mark Sykes, representing Britain, and Charles Francois Georges-Picot, representing France, reached a secret understanding dividing the Asian territories of the Ottoman Empire into spheres of influence that would be dominated by both countries. When the League of Nations established mandates over the former Ottoman territories that the allies subsequently captured, the mandate for Syria and Lebanon went to France while the mandate for Iraq went to Britain. These mandatory regimes in the years that followed led to the empowerment of the Alawite minority over the Sunni majority in Syria and the establishment of the domination of the Sunni minority in Iraq over the Shiites.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement also separated what would become British mandatory Palestine, which had been known among its Arab residents prior to WWI as Surya al-Janubiyya (Southern Syria) from French mandatory Syria to its north. In 1916, Russia, still under the Czar, supported the Sykes-Picot agreement in exchange for its territorial demands being recognized by the British and the French in what became Turkey. Thus the borders of at least five Middle Eastern states would eventually be determined by the original Sykes-Picot Agreement.

Presently, the Middle Eastern border that most observers are focusing on is the 600 kilometer (370 mile) border separating Syria from Iraq. On the Syrian side, important newspapers, like the Financial Times, have been writing this week about the “disintegration of Syria.” Similarly, The New York Times asserted that the Syrian state is “breaking up.” It suggested that at least three different Syrias are now emerging: one loyal to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, another loyal to the opposition, and a Kurdish Syria with ties to Northern Iraq and Kurdish groups in Turkey.

Particularly accelerating the demise of the Sykes-Picot borders are events on the Iraqi side of the border. Incidents during the last year point in the direction of the eventual breakup of the Iraqi state. This coming September, a new pipeline carrying Kurdish oil through Turkey, will link Iraqi Kurdistan to its Turkish market instead of to the rest of Iraq. This development is seen in the West as the first step toward the independence of Kurdistan. Indeed, the Kurds are cutting separate deals with international oil companies and circumventing the central Iraqi government in Baghdad. A spokesman for U.S. President Barack Obama’s National Security Council has stated on the record that the U.S. opposes oil exports from any part of Iraq “without the appropriate approval of the Iraqi federal government.” Washington opposes Kurdish economic initiatives that could lead to the dissolution of Iraq into at least three states: Kurdish, Shiite, and Sunni.

Kurdistan may be ready to become independent. What about the rest? The Shiite areas of Iraq south of Baghdad to the Kuwaiti border will be dominated one way or another by Iran. But what will happen to the Sunni sectors of Iraq, like the al-Anbar Province? In the last year, the Sunni Arab tribes in Iraq that span the Syrian-Iraqi border have joined the war against the Assad regime. Tribes like the Shammar, who migrated from the Arabian Peninsula to the Jazira plain between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the 17th century, have been regularly crossing the Iraqi-Syrian border back and forth for many years.

The prospect that their Sunni cousins in Syria will eventually defeat the Assad regime, or at least take over part of the Syrian state, has energized the Sunni Arabs of Iraq, who felt previously that the 2003 Iraq War had lead to the defeat of their Sunni-dominated regime under Saddam Hussein and a victory for Iraq’s Shiite majority. Now, they sense they can take back their autonomy from Baghdad.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker (serving between 2007 and 2009) wrote in The Washington Post on May 1 that al-Qaida-Iraq has re-established itself in areas in which it was defeated by U.S. and Iraqi forces over the last five years. It should come as no surprise that Crocker defines the leading jihadist force fighting Assad’s army, Jabhat al-Nusra, as a front group for al-Qaida in Iraq. In March, the executions of eleven Syrian soldiers in a public square in the town of al-Raqqa, inside northern Syria, were carried out under the flag of Iraqi al-Qaida. The old Sykes-Picot border was clearly meaningless for affiliates of al-Qaida. An Iraqi commentator noted that since 2011, there have been religious calls for erasing the old Iraqi-Syrian border and unifying the Sunni regions on both sides.

Should the fragmentation of Syria combine with the Balkanization of Iraq, what will the Middle East look like? The Sunni Arabs are the likely candidates to look for mergers with their neighbors. If they are politically dominated by the same branch of al-Qaida, then the emergence of a new Afghanistan in the heart of the Arab world might be the result. If more moderate forces among the Iraqi Sunnis emerge, then it should not be ruled out that they might consider some federal ties with their western Sunni neighbor, Jordan, which would give them an outlet to the Red Sea.

But however the political systems in Syria and Iraq evolve, it is clear that the map of the Middle East is likely to be very different from the map that the colonial powers fixed during World War I and which has endured for roughly 97 years since British and French officials first put it on paper. The only boundary in the Middle East that Western diplomats have become rigidly obsessed with, despite the far more profound changes that are occurring across the region, is not even formally an international border under international law, but only an armistice line from 1949 — what is inappropriately called the 1967 border. While a solution to this territorial dispute must be addressed, the final borders drawn between Israel and it’s neighbors will have to take into account the current dramatic strategic shifts.

By Dore Gold
http://www.israelhayom.com

Assyrian International News Agency

Bosnia President Freed From Jail

The president of Bosnia’s Muslim-Croat federation has been freed from jail following his arrest last month on corruption charges.

The Constitutional Court ruled on May 24 that Zivko Budimir and four co-accused aides all be released immediately.

Budimir was arrested along with 19 other officials in late April in the most high-profile anti-corruption drive in Bosnia since independence more than two decades ago.

A court had order Budimir and his four aides to be held in detention because some of them held Croat passports, raising the risk they might try to flee.

Budimir left the prison in the southern town of Mostar late in the evening on May 24 and was welcomed by dozens of supporters and relatives.

He has been charged with accepting bribes to grant amnesty to a number of convicts.

Budimir denies the charges.

Based on AFP and AP reporting

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Violence spreads outside calmer Stockholm

A nearly week-long spate of rioting has spread outside Stockholm but authorities said police reinforcements sent to the Swedish capital has reduced the violence there.

The rioting continued for a sixth night on Friday in mainly immigrant areas in Stockholm. Dozens of youths set cars and a recycling station ablaze.

Two cars were torched in Stockholm but the city appeared to have had its calmest night since the trouble began.

But in Orebro, a town in central Sweden, some 25 masked youths set fire to three cars, a school and tried to torch a police station, police said. An old empty building was set alight in the town of Sodertalje, less than an hour’s drive from the capital.

Pupils at a primary school in the Stockholm suburb of Kista – an information-technology hub that is home to the likes of telecoms equipment maker Ericsson and the Swedish office of Microsoft – arrived on Friday to find that the inside of the small red wooden building had been burned out.

“In the short run, the acute thing is to ensure that these neighbourhoods get back to normal everyday life,” Erik Ullenhag, Sweden’s integration minister, told the Reuters news agency. “In the long run we need to create positive spirals in these neighbourhoods.”

The police said they had called in backup from the cities of Malmo and Gothenburg. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt held an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the crisis.

Police shooting

The spree of destruction was sparked by the fatal police shooting earlier this month of a 69-year man, reported by local media to be a Portuguese immigrant and suspected of wielding a large knife, in the Stockholm suburb of Husby.

The scale of riots pales to the disturbances seen in London and Paris in recent years and there have been almost no injuries. Much of the capital has gone about business as normal.

But the violence – with more than 100 cars set ablaze this week – has shocked a nation that has long taken pride in its generous social safety net.

Youth unemployment is especially high in neighbourhoods such as the ones where the riots have taken place, home to asylum seekers from Iraq to Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria, Latin America and war-torn countries.

About 15 percent of Sweden’s population is foreign born.

Kicki Haak, head of the small Montessori school that was set alight in Kista on Thursday night, said she did not know if it would be able to reopen. The 94 students will move into improvised classrooms in nearby office buildings on Monday.

There are signs that residents in the affected areas are getting fed up with the violence. Many community leaders, dressed in fluorescent jackets, have taken to the streets to try to calm things down.

Risto Kajanto, brother-in-law of the man who was shot dead, told Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet he condemned the violence.

“I want to say to all those who are burning cars that it is totally wrong to react that way,” he said.

One recent government study showed up to a third of young people aged 16 to 29 in some of the most deprived areas of Sweden’s big cities neither study nor have a job.

The gap between rich and poor in Sweden is growing faster than in any other major nation, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, although absolute poverty remains uncommon.

551

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)

Iraq Vows Action Against Kurdish Crude Sales

SYDNEY (Reuters) — Iraq has vowed to take legal action against companies to halt Kurdistan’s crude oil sales to Turkey.

“Any oil that is taken out of the country and payments not made to the Iraqi people through the central government is considered to be taking Iraq’s national wealth,” said Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Hussain Al-Shahristani.

“There are a number of means the Iraqi government is considering, and any responsible government would have the same priority to protect the wealth of the people,” said the deputy prime minister, who is also an adviser to the prime minister on energy matters and was attending a conference.

Crude exports from the Taq Taq oil field in the autonomous northern region of Kurdistan to Turkey’s Mersin port started at a trickle in early January and have risen to just over 40,000 barrels per day (bpd).

They are expected to hit around 60,000 bpd by the end of June as trucks unload at the neighboring Dortyol terminal in southern Turkey.

Oil lies at the heart of a feud between the central government and Kurdistan. Baghdad says it alone has the right to control exports and sign deals, while the Kurds say their right to do so is enshrined in Iraq’s federal constitution.

In retaliation, Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) sent letters warning customers not to touch any oil that had not been marketed by SOMO and the ministry intends to sue producers, namely Anglo-Turkish firm Genel Energy.

Turkish intermediary Powertrans has found a steady stream of customers in Northwest Europe for its crude and condensate sales. Major oil firms with interests in southern Iraq have opted not to participate in tenders.

Germany’s Select Energy lifted the first two Taq Taq cargoes in April. The grade is a light sour crude, a highly sought after quality.

Select is loading a third larger 80,000 ton cargo.

Austria’s OMV, already black-listed by Baghdad due to upstream stakes in Kurdistan, also bought one cargo in May, sources said.

Iraq’s central government says Kurdistan is expected to provide 250,000 bpd towards Iraq’s 2013 oil export target of 2.9 million bpd.

Assyrian International News Agency

Natural gas declines as investors take profits, weather weighs

Investing.com – Natural gas prices fell in U.S. trading on Friday after investors locked in gains and sold for profits after official data showed supplies rose less than expected last week.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in June traded at USD4.237 per million British thermal units, down 0.57%.

The commodity hit a session low of USD4.216 and a high of USD4.295.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report on Thursday that natural gas storage in the U.S. in the week ending May 17 rose by 89 billion cubic feet, below expectations for an increase of 91 billion cubic feet, which reflected heightened demand.

Inventories rose by 75 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change for the week is a rise of 90 billion cubic feet.

Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 2.053 trillion cubic feet as of last week. Stocks were 680 billion cubic feet less than last year at this time and 84 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 2.137 trillion cubic feet for this time of year.

The report showed that in the East Region, stocks were 111 billion cubic feet below the five-year average, following net injections of 46 billion cubic feet.

Stocks in the Producing Region were 22 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 850 billion cubic feet after a net injection of 32 billion cubic feet.

The data sent prices shooting up to levels ripe for profit taking on Friday.

Elsewhere, weather forecasting models pointed to a longer-term warming trend for much of the U.S., though some calls for below-normal temperatures in parts of the eastern U.S. weighed on prices.

Hotter temperatures send prices rising on sentiments that demand for natural gas will increase at the country’s thermal power plants as businesses and households crank up their air conditioning units.

Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in July were down 0.07% and trading at USD94.18 a barrel, while heating oil futures for June delivery were down 0.03% at USD2.8592 per gallon.

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Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

Dividing Iraq: Now is the Time to Split the Country in Half

Currently Iraqi commentators seem to think there are two options for ending current protests and ensuing violence: civil war between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Or a new Iraq with various autonomous regions.

Over the years since the US-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein, there has often been discussion about whether it would be a good idea to split Iraq up, mainly dividing the country into the two sects of Islam that make up most of the population: that is, Sunni and Shiite Muslim.

And every now and then the idea has seemed a credible solution to Iraq’s troubles, when violence between the two sects and other ethnicities has continued to threaten the general public’s well being and lives. Now is such a time too — and mainly because of the protests comprised mainly of Sunni Muslim demonstrators in certain parts of the country.

The Sunni Muslim protestors say they are discriminated against and marginalised by the current Shiite Muslim-led government in Baghdad, headed by Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.

Recently things became even more tense when Iraqi army forces, acting on behalf of the Shiite Muslim-led government, turned on mostly Sunni Muslim protestors in Hawija in the north of the country, killing around 50 demonstrators. Since then there have been a number of deadly incidents around the country.

Recent events in Iraq indicate an escalation [of sectarian tensions],” Harith Hassan, an Iraqi political researcher, wrote on his personal blog. “The increased tensions may lead to the failure of the current political process and the increased levels of violence could ignite a new civil war. Social divides in the Iraq would become even more established. All this would put an end to any opportunity for peaceful coexistence.”

Hassan believes that current protests have seen the Sunni Muslims of Iraq starting to form their own ethnic identity even more strongly, which takes them even further from Iraqi nationality. He also warned against the increasing influence of extremist groups within the ranks of the protestors as well as growing links between them and similarly radical groups fighting in Syria. Recently there’s been evidence that the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, a particularly violent group with links to the Sunni Muslim extremist group, Al Qaeda, has been fighting among Sunni Muslims in Syria.

At a May 19 press conference Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that his government was considering new strategies for domestic security. Partially this was because some of the recent attacks used methods security personnel had not seen before. For example a senior police officer in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, explained that at a bomb attack outside the Sunni Muslim Sariyat al-Jadid mosque, extremists had used two bombs. After the first had gone off, it was followed by a second explosion which killed those who had rushed to the aid of the first bomb’s victims.

“In both attacks, armed groups also used new forms of explosives,” the police officer said.

In terms of the escalation of sectarian conflict, there is evidence that both sects have been forming their own militias in response to the growing violence. And neither side has been short of emotional rhetoric either. In a statement issued by Lebanese-based Hezbollah in mid-May, the Shiite Muslim group wrote that, “they murdered us for centuries before Saddam Hussein and they continued to do so when Saddam ruled the country. Even today, they don’t stop murdering us. Nothing will stop them. They don’t believe in a partnership, they believe they are our superiors. We, the political majority, should be prepared for the clash.”

Similar speeches have been made by Iraq’s Sunni Muslims. “Some of the tribal leaders here have agreed that things cannot go backwards,” Hamid al-Jibouri, one of the leaders in Sunni Muslim protests in the central Iraqi city of Samarra, told NIQASH. “That’s why they and their men have agreed to carry arms and joined the protestors’ group that is against the government.”

All of this is why the idea of splitting Iraq into regions based on their sectarian populations is being revived again. At the same May 19 press conference even the Prime Minister seemed to welcome the idea.

“Anyone who wants to form a region in Iraq should express that intention openly,” al-Maliki said. “And we will welcome it. However, we won’t tolerate the use of force. These demands can only be achieved through constitutional mechanisms.”

Meanwhile local politician Hamid Majid Mousa, the Secretary General of the Iraqi Communist Party, believes that his colleagues must take some of the blame for the current escalation. “These unfortunate calls for revenge and retaliation are the reason behind the exacerbation of the problem and the increased violence, and are the basis for the formation of armies, militias and armed gangs. And they’re being repeated by politicians,” Mousa complained. “We cannot solve the problem this way. By doing what we always do, we’re only making things worse and removing any possibility for a peaceful solution.”

By Daoud al-Ali
http://www.niqash.org

Assyrian International News Agency

Gold falls as order for U.S. durable goods surprise on upside

Investing.com – Gold prices fell on Friday after data revealed orders for long-lasting manufactured goods in the U.S. came in much stronger in April than anticipated and fueled demand for the U.S. dollar, which normally trades inversely with gold.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for June delivery were down 0.37% at USD1,386.55 a troy ounce in U.S. trading on Friday, up from a session low of USD1,382.65 and down from a high of USD1,396.85 a troy ounce.

Gold futures were likely to test support USD1,353.55 a troy ounce, Wednesday’s low, and resistance at USD1,413.05, Wednesday’s high.

In the U.S., the Commerce Department reported that core durable goods orders, which are stripped of volatile transportation items, rose 1.3% in April, beating expectations for a 0.5% increase after contracting by 1.7% in March.

Broader orders for durable goods, which include transportation items, rose 3.3% last month, more than market calls for a 1.5% increase after a 5.9% contraction in March.

The numbers sparked demand for the greenback by stoking sentiments that the Federal Reserve may be closer to winding down monetary stimulus programs.

Stimulus tools such as the Fed’s monthly USD85 billion bond-buying program weaken the dollar to spur recovery, and talk of their dismantling can strengthen the greenback.

The dollar gave back its earlier gains on Friday, though gold prices continued to hover in negative territory.

Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for July delivery was down 0.09% at USD22.487 a troy ounce, while copper for July delivery was down 0.09% and trading at USD3.301 a pound.

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Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

How Iraq Can Pull Back From the Brink

The Samarra terror attack in February 2006 sparked more than a year of sectarian violence that threatened to rip Iraq apart.

Last month violence erupted between troops and demonstrators in the northern town of Hawija. Many now ask if history is about to repeat itself.

There is certainly much to worry about. Violence increased after Hawija, with more bombings and firefights between security forces and armed opposition groups.

There also seems to be a qualitative shift in political rhetoric. Sunni Arabs of western Iraq are today more prepared than ever to talk about creating their own federal region or regions. They also are spending far more time courting regional powers such as Turkey and Qatar than talking to the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

With the tense situation in Syria polarising the whole region along sectarian lines, it is no exaggeration to say that the political problems in Iraq may be at their most acute since the tumultuous civil war period between 2005 and 2007.

At the same time, it is important to take notice of the factors that continue to make the situation in Iraq quite different from what the Balkans experienced in the 1990s, and to avoid rushing to conclusions about partition fixes for political problems for which non-territorial solutions may provide more sustainable arrangements.

For example, it seems significant that the Iraqi army soldiers that have been killed during the latest uptick of violence come from all parts of the Iraqi population and do not represent any particular sect. As an institution, the Iraqi army is vastly stronger today than it was in 2006. Similarly, in the Sunni areas that have seen the most marked change of political rhetoric, a considerable number of moderate politicians continue to urge against violent protest and often speak against the most radical political solutions, such as federalism.

Without making light of Iraq’s current problems, it seems prudent to take into account the degree to which our perception of the situation there is – to some extent – the result of punditry by people who have promised mayhem ever since the early days of the Iraq War, and who came to life again with the recent 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion after having had relatively little to write about during the past few years.

Many of the western and Arab critical comments on Iraq converge with respect to attacks on prime minister Nouri Al Maliki and his centralisation of power. This is a time-honoured theme that materialised when Mr Maliki had managed to reestablish a sense of order and security in Iraq in 2008 following years of upheaval. Less attention seems to be given to the question of what the alternative to Mr Al Maliki would be, and whether a return to pre-2008 conditions is really what Iraq and the region needs. Change Mr Al Maliki and everything will be wonderful – as it was in, well, 2005?

Particularly important seems the fact that the Shiite competitors to Mr Al Maliki with whom secularists, Sunnis and Kurds like to flirt are in fact often the ones that push him to make the very decisions to which the opposition takes exception – including unpopular moves in sensitive areas of national reconciliation such as de-Baathification of officials of the Saddam Hussein regime.

Mr Al Maliki’s ability to maintain some ties with Sunnis and secularists even in times of crisis is also noteworthy. Amid the recent escalation, the Sunni agriculture minister returned to cabinet whereas an emergency session of parliament designed as an anti-Maliki demonstration failed to attract more than 141 deputies, quite despite the presence of some Shiites including Sadrists. That is significantly less than the 163 MPs needed to depose him.

Perhaps critics of Mr Al Maliki should wait to see how the formation of new provincial councils across the Shiite-majority parts of southern Iraq will shape up over coming weeks and months. In many of those places, Mr Al Maliki is in intense competition with challengers from other Shiite Islamist parties. Recently, Mr Al Maliki has for the first time also indicated preparedness to accept federalism in Sunni areas if legal procedure is adhered to – apparently a conciliatory move that could prompt a more open debate about what the priorities of citizens of those areas really are. It is far from clear that federalism is universally espoused among the Sunnis of northwestern Iraq.

Ironically, in the midst of the deteriorating security situation, local elections in the two Sunni governorates bordering Syria that had been postponed until July because of security problems have actually been moved forward again, this time to June 20. These elections are by their very nature intra-Sunni competitions and, hopefully, they will play out as contests about the provision of local services rather than competitions in Sunnism.

The people of Anbar have chosen pragmatism over extremism before, not least when they expelled Al Qaeda from their own areas in 2006. Perhaps if they study carefully what sort of political forces speaking in the name of Sunnism have been propelled to the forefront in certain parts of Syria lately, Iraqi Sunnis may once more choose pragmatism at the ballot box.

By Reidar Visser
http://www.thenational.ae

Assyrian International News Agency

FBI identifies consulate attack suspects

The FBI has identified five men it believes were involved in last year’s deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.

Washington has not officially asked the Libyan government to apprehend the men, but Al Jazeera has learned that US officials have tried to get powerful armed groups to co-operate.

The US initially said that the violence was in response to a video posted online that was insulting to Islam, however recent evidence suggests it was a planned attack. 

The attack left four Americans dead including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who died from smoke inhalation.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reporting from Benghazi said that the FBI had released photos of the suspects earlier this month, captured by security cameras during the attack.

When our correspondent spoke to a commander of the Libyan Sheild Brigade in Benghazi, he said there is confusion as to whether the violence started after the protesters came under fire from inside the consulate.

“They need to give us evidence. Then we can capture them,” Adel Belgaid said. “But we will carry out our own investigation and they would face trial here. And if US uses ground troops to capture them, this would violate our sovereignty and it will be confronted.” 

Former US ambassador to Libya on Benghazi probe

Another member of a different brigade told our correspondent that the US should have heeded his warnings three days before the attack about the deteriorating security.

Unilateral action

In an interview with Al Jazeera, David Mack, former ambassador to Libya, said that Libya is facing a situation of turmoil in which various groups are contesting for power.

“The government faces some serious constraints in maintaining order,” he said. “We want to help that but we must insist that the perpetrators of this crime be brought to justice.”

Mack added that it was too premature to talk about the US going into Libya unilaterally. He said the important task right was to reassert the Libyan presence in terms of security and it is up to the Libyans to decide whether their justice system is up to dealing with the suspects.

Washington no longer has an official presence in Benghazi. But recently, a confirmation hearing of Stevens’ successor, Ambassaor Deborah Jones, was held in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The appointment has yet to be endorsed by the full Senate.

431

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)

The Shiite Waqf: Iraqis will they be pulled to sectarian strife in any way

5-24-13 All Iraq News:   Head of the Shiite endowment, the Iraqis will not need they be pulled into sectarian strife sought by some.

Baghdad has seen a number of provinces in recent days targeting mosques and killed dozens of imambaras of dead and wounded, the most violent in Kirkuk province targeting husseiniyas and claimed the lives of more than 150 dead and wounded and Diyala have seen a roadside bomb on the mosque in Baquba last after Friday prayers, killing and wounding more than 100 worshippers, detonated two car bombs near Hillah Hussainia mosque, killing and wounding more than 90, most of the worshippers.

Haidari said at Friday prayers in common Shaheed monument in Baghdad today, “at all times on Iraq from sectarian attack intended bloodshed there stands the Shiite one Sunni endowments within and outside Iraq go where we hear say it follows the best and tell them that Iraq will not accept sectarian strife cannot differentiate enemies between Sunnis and Shiites and could only be one unit and stand one position for the good of Iraq And Iraqis, not the Shiite and Sunni the stoppings alone but there are many who speak in this direction. ”

“Religious reference in front of Mr. Ali [as the canopy] says there is no religious conflict between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq but there is a political crisis and sectarian violence from rivals for political gains, and also says that some do not hesitate to use violence to reach the targets.

Haidari said the reference was “Islamic unity, but within the framework of national unity,” he said, adding “today we announce to the whole world that Sunnis and Shiites are one heart and one goal and one direction and worship and one approach and say that sectarian strife and raised and no way can you get. There is a reaction to the good people of Iraq and not be dragged into strife and rivalry on the contrary go hand in hand for Iraq and Iraqis and people sought atonement and rule on their hands with the blood of Iraqi Baathists want discord between us and tell them mercy and we here at this place represent Iraq every representation of countrywide and represent one unit. ”

And that “what we are witnessing these days of blind violence that hits all over the place and killed a small child and a pregnant woman calls us the great Sheikh notthat move in our souls and the souls of others where common sense of faith that transcends the individual and society to the highest ethical behavior, we are required to offer University of Muhammadiyah Islamic culture to the nation and must restore the hope of the nation that we are all awaiting the call of brotherhood, love and peace, the nation is waiting for care and attention and interests, and inspired from the Prophet peace be upon him and his family who says I Good and in the hereafter. ”

“We also need to seek contemporary Islamic discourse to the extremists and deviants and the terrorism and bloodshed, and we need to get away from the style of atonement for others or offend the other opinion and take our Islamic discourse an integral approach to the unity of the nation and unite and unite the hearts and feelings and emotions in those who choose by Division and strife and to say that we are brothers and Shia Arabs and engagements and other communities and that we are all as one flesh, Oh God, make your blessings on Iraq and Iraqis and most convoys of martyrs And forgive us our sins that you bestow “.

The security tension is Iraq bombings targeting civilians by car bombs and explosive devices, as well as the operations of killing and abduction of security forces as occurred in Anbar, was the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces Nuri al-Maliki, on the background of explosions, several changes among the leaders and security officers.

Maliki had on Sunday called in a statement received in copy, responding to a question about the repeated targeting of mosques and worshippers in selected areas of Iraq, “common prayer deemed gathering Shiite and Sunni Iraqis and this is what we want, true unified prayer must bring together Muslims all sects in one mosque, and I call for unified prayers in a Baghdad mosque and permanently continue every Friday.”

The political situation has intensified in Baghdad and several provinces since Wednesday 15 may present a series of car bombings and IEDs are the deadliest months ago killing hundreds of dead and wounded, mostly civilians.

LINK

Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

Our rate opinion has not changed

Friday, 24 May, 2013 | Doc

5-24-2013 Newshound Guru Doc Our rate opinion has not changed. Keep in mind despite erroneous reports the CBI has talked about the dinar on par with the dollar including Shabibi himself. The SIG report and Iraq’s own 5 year plan both state around 1 to 1. Every time the $ 3+ rates are mentioned it is in a longer time perspective. The 5 year plan shows $ 3+ rates out 3-5 years. Also keep in mind that all the recent articles about raising the value are in reference to getting the street value down from 1300+ to 1166. This alone has an impact of 11.5% inflation rate.

Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

UPCOMING: Briefing With Author Philip Shishkin

Eurasia Foundation, RFE/RL and Foreign Policy’s “Democracy Lab”
invite you to a briefing and Google Hangout:

“Restless Valley:
Revolution, Murder and Intrigue in the Heart of Central Asia”

 
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
9:00-10:15 AM
 
RFE/RL – Washington
1201 Connecticut Ave NW, 4th Floor
[entrance on Rhode Island Ave NW, next to St. Matthew's Cathedral]
 
Please RSVP by email to
dc-response@rferl.org

Featuring author
   Philip Shishkin
   Former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Fellow at the Asia Society

Discussants (by videolink from Prague)
    Aida Kasymalieva
    Correspondent, RFE/RL Kyrgyz Service

    Alisher Sidikov
    Director, RFE/RL Uzbek Service

Moderated by
    Joshua Foust
    Young Professionals Network, Eurasia Foundation and Freelance Writer

Restless Valley has the makings of a gripping thriller: revolutions, massacres, civil war, drug-smuggling, brazen corruption, contract hits and larger-than-life characters who may be villains…or heroes…or possibly both. Yet Philip Shishkin’s new book is not a novel.
 
Join Shishkin, two top RFE/RL experts on Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and moderator Joshua Foust in a discussion of this firsthand account of Central Asia’s unfolding history from 2005 to the present.
 
Come and be a part of the live audience or watch the discussion on Google+ and YouTube.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

UK security criticised after death of soldier

Britain’s security services have faced questions over whether they could have done more to prevent the murder of a soldier who was hacked to death in London.

It has emerged that the suspected killers of 25-year-old Drummer Lee Rigby were already known to intelligence officers before they hacked the Afghan war veteran to death on Wednesday near the Woolwich army barracks.

The two suspects, Michael Adebolajo, 28 and Michael Adebowale, 22, are under guard in hospitals after being shot and arrested by police after the murder. They have not yet been charged.

Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday said that a parliamentary committee would carry out an investigation into the role of the security services, according to a cabinet minister.

Britain’s MI5 domestic spy agency had been aware of the men, but neither was considered a threat, a government source told Reuters news agency.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said there would be a thorough investigation into the role of the police and intelligence agencies. However, he said the incident underlined how “difficult it is in a free society to be able to control everyone”.

The family of the murdered soldier spoke publicly on Friday after a memorial service held for Lee.

‘Wonderful father’

His wife and the mother of his two-year-old son, Rebecca, said that she had thought her husband would be safe once he was back in the UK.

His stepfather Ian Rigby described him as a “loving son and a wonderful father”.

Police on Thursday arrested another man and a woman, both aged 29, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder.

The woman was released with out charge on Friday along with a 31-year-old woman who was arrested and released on the same day.

“This is a large, complex and fast-moving investigation which continues to develop,” London police said in a statement. “Many lines of inquiry are being followed by detectives and the investigation is progressing well.”

Detectives said they were searching six houses; three in Greenwich in south London, one in Romford, east London, one in north London, and a property in Lincoln in central England.

A new video has emerged of the two suspects, who appear to run at the police as they arrived at the scene of the crime.

Extra police

London deployed more than 1,200 extra police officers on the capital’s streets amid fears of a backlash on British Muslims after the mosque where one of the suspects is thought to have prayed was pelted with eggs.

Two other mosques in the country were attacked after the suspects made references to Islam in amateur footage broadcast on television.

Murdered soldier was “larger than life” [Al Jazeera]

Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from London’s Scotland Yard, said the government is “making this gesture to calm down people’s fears”.

“People are shocked and scared from what they saw, but the government wants to make sure that there is no blame attributed to minorities. These extra police are on streets to reassure people,” our correspondent said. 

Footage broadcast by Britain’s ITV news channel showed a man, with hands soaked in blood and holding a meat cleaver and a knife, claiming that he had, motivated by Britain’s foreign policy, killed a soldier.

Witnesses said he requested to be filmed by a passerby and shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the killing.

In the amateur video, he said: “I apologise that women had to witness this today but in our lands, our women have to see the same … you people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don’t care about you.”

616

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)

MP Pushpa Fri: Iraq’s entry to the WTO would damage the economy of the country

Baghdad (newsletter). Warned Committee member Deputy economy and investment/Iraqi/coalition Qusay Juma, the likelihood of damage to the national economy when Iraq’s accession to the World Trade Organization because of the lack of a local competitor.

He said Juma (News Agency): that Iraq is now an observer member in the WTO, negotiations by the Ministry of Commerce for permanent membership, noting that the organization imposed obligations on Iraq for full access.

He added: the country is not ready to enter the WTO, if joining would hurt the economy because there is no local producer either industrial, agricultural competitor for foreign products, and is to be executed in reviving local industry and agricultural sector, Iraq remains dependent on foreign imports.

He said: as well as the lack of activation of the important economic laws in the House legislation, including tariffs and protection of national product and that its functions to facilitate accession to WTO.

The Commerce Department announced that the Trade Minister will head the Baboucar Khairallah Hassan negotiating delegation to Iraq to join the World Trade Organization, which comprises representatives from the relevant Iraqi ministries and private sector bodies to negotiate with {159} State member of the World Trade Organization, which will be negotiated on Iraq’s files in his career to join this organization.

Iraq reportedly sought for years to join the World Trade Organization to improve trade and economic status.
The Organization, inter alia, imposed on Iraq in order to join her as Iraq seeks to gradually applied and end all entitlements to join

LINK

Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

Iran Prepares Itself for June Presidential Vote By Stepping Up Security Measures

Iran’s clerical establishment has made it clear that it will not condone the insubordination that marked the country’s last presidential contest, and has taken steps over the interim to ensure the 2013 election goes as planned.

Touting the importance of a “peaceful” vote on June 14, officials have said in recent months that “sedition,” a term they use to refer to the mass demonstrations that followed the 2009 election and the political forces that organized them, will not be tolerated.

Any semblance of political opposition has been marginalized or eliminated since the last vote, with prominent opposition leaders Mehdi Karrubi and Mir Hussein Musavi under house arrest, and reformist parties banned.

Warnings were also directed toward the “deviant current” — a term used to describe the close circle around President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

The outgoing president’s preferred successor, Esfandiari Mashaei, was taken out of the running this week by the powerful Guardians Council, which approves the final list of candidates.

Likewise, the proposed candidacy of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pillar of the establishment who gave some support to the opposition camp following the controversial 2009 election, was denied.

Should anyone object, the regime has a number of tools at its disposal to hammer home its message, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Intelligence Ministry, and the Basij militia.

“Due to the preparedness of intelligence bodies and security forces, the events that took place in 2009, will not be repeated,” Ahmadi Moghadam, Iran’s Police chief, said in comments reported by the ISNA news agency on May 22.

‘A Decisive Response’

Hossein Aryan a U.K. based military and security expert, shed some light on what Moghadam was referring to.

“In pursuit of [their] aim, [the authorities] have been quite active in terms of gathering information, gathering intelligence, and preparing themselves for likely unrest following the election or before that,” he said. “In doing that, as it has been practiced in the past, the IRGC has been using its intelligence wing and also the paramilitary force Basij to gather information.”

Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi, on the sidelines of an April 9 cabinet meeting, said no mercy would be shown to anyone — domestic or foreign — who tries to disrupt the election.

“Certain groups and streams, as well as intelligence agencies from outside the country, may intend to take action to create problems for us,” the semiofficial Fars news agency quoted him as saying. “And if this happens they will meet with a decisive response.”

ALSO READ: Candidate Offers ‘Contrasting Accounts’ Of Crackdown

Moslehi said heavy monitoring was being conducted to prevent possible seditionist moves.

Also in April, IRGC Intelligence officer Mohammad Javad Khoshnavaz said the corps was eyeing the “enemy’s movements” carefully. “We are ready to intelligently counter a new sedition,” he said, while expressing the hope that new protests would not take place.

This week, Colonel Rasool Sanaeirad, who heads the IRGC’s political office, was quoted by Fars as saying that the election would be “unpredictable,” and warning that a “possible riot” could spread from Tehran to other regions of the country.

Underlining the efforts to prevent such unrest, Iranian media this month published pictures of a training maneuver held in Tehran on May 14 by a unit affiliated with the IRGC.

The “Ale Mohammad Security brigade” was shown engaging in what appeared to be mock street battles against rioters, adding to similar exercises carried out in the capital since the 2009 protests.

Disrupting News And Information

There are signs that the Iranian authorities are also attempting to hamper Iranians’ ability to obtain and send news and information.

In recent weeks, Iranian authorities have disrupted the use of most circumvention and privacy tools that allow users to bypass state-imposed Internet filtering already in place.

On May 10, Mohammad Saleh Jokar, a member of the parliamentary committee of national security and foreign policy, said the government would block attempts to “instigate people as we witnessed in 2009,” according to the Cairo’s “Al-Ahram Online.”

Washington D.C.-based researcher Collin Anderson believes Iran will maintain a slow and heavily filtered Internet connectivity.

“What they try to do is have as much control as possible without collateral damage or economic cost,” he said. “So I think that, if they feel for the most part they can cut off the things that they don’t want people going to — such as independent media or international broadcasters or social networks — that [those people] won’t feel compelled to.”

Pressure on the press intensified several months ago, with the January arrest of more than a dozen journalists from at least six media outlets. Intelligence Minister Moslehi said the arrests were an attempt to “prevent the emergence of sedition prior to the elections.”

More recently, the “Kalame” news outlet reported this month that the Intelligence Ministry had summoned the editors of newspapers and instructed them about “red lines” they shouldn’t cross in their election coverage.

Among the no-no’s listed by the opposition website were interpreting the supreme leader’s comments and presenting a dark picture of the situation in the country.

“Kalame” also reported that the Intelligence Ministry had given its approval to criticism of Ahmadinejad.

RFE/RL’s Guide To Iran’s Presidential Election

Reza Moini, an Iran expert with the French media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, suggested that other methods to constrain the media are also being employed.

“The pressure includes, according to our information, the summoning, interrogation, and arrest of journalists and also threats against them,” he said. “We also have information that some journalists have recently been sent into internal exile, meaning that [the authorities] have forced some journalists to leave Tehran or other cities where they work.”

The formation of a new election-monitoring unit called Fajr has also been announced, with the task of monitoring satellite networks, opposition websites, and social-networking sites.

In late April, Deputy Culture Minister Mohammad Jafar Mohammadzadeh said that the surveillance of media would increase in the run-up to June 14.

“We are of course hoping that the press will also have greater self-control and publish the news responsibly,” Mohammadzadeh was quoted by Fars as saying.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Biden to discuss by telephone the political crisis and increasing violence in Iraq

5-24-13 All Iraq News:   Search House speaker Osama Al-nujaifi, with us Vice President Joseph Biden’s political crisis in Iraq and the region.

The security tension is Iraq bombings targeting civilians by car bombs and explosive devices, as well as the operations of assassination and abduction of security forces as occurred in Anbar, and the abduction of civilians by fake tight in some areas of Baghdad, and was made Commander in Chief of the armed forces Nuri al-Maliki, on the background of explosions, several changes among the leaders and security officers.

According to a statement by the Office of the President of the Chamber of Deputies, each agency received in Iraq, “Al-nujaifi said Thursday received a phone call from u.s. Vice President, discussed the political situation and the crisis in Iraq”, adding that “Biden expressed concern about the increasing incidence of violence and extremism, especially in Iraq and Syria, noting the need to find solutions for Iraqi calm.”

According to the statement, “Al-nujaifi said the partnership must respect and refrain from the use of the army in the Suppression of peaceful demonstrations, and militias that have emerged in the recent period, prompted the Government to open a dialogue with the protesters and to accept peace initiatives on the demonstrations, in particular King Abd Al-Saadi initiative and withdraw troops from cities and replace them with local police.”

“Iraq also demanded off arrest warrants against leaders of the Iraqi list and the awakening leaders, including role in defusing the crisis.”

The political situation has intensified in Baghdad and several provinces in the past few days, a series of car bombings and IEDs are the deadliest months ago killing hundreds of dead and wounded, mostly civilians.

LINK

Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

Iranian Filmmaker Presents Secret Film At Cannes

An Iranian director sentenced to prison in 2010 for antigovernment propaganda has appeared at the Cannes film festival for the screening of a new film about censorship, which he shot in secret in Iran.

The circumstances of Mohammad Rasoulof’s visit to Cannes on May 24 and the location where he now lives remain strictly confidential.

He was arrested with fellow director Jafar Panahi after they tried to make a documentary on the unrest that followed the disputed 2009 reelection of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

Rasolouf was jailed for six years for acting against national security and antiregime propaganda, he was also banned from making films for 20 years.

The sentence was reduced to one year on appeal.

Because of Iranian censorship, his new film, “Manuscripts Don’t Burn”, has no credits.

It received a standing ovation at a press screening in Cannes on May 24.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

I walked out of the bank like a stun gun hit me.

5-24-13 Majik: I will make this as simple as I can. Today I went to a local wells Fargo bank near where I live to open up a savings account for my 1.5 year old son.

I walked in a personal banker meant at the front and he said he would be glad to help me with that.

We went to his office area and proceeded to open up my son’s account. He asked me if I banked with Wells Fargo and I said no that I banked with my credit union in North Carolina and had been with them for 30 years, and was going to move my banking soon, that I was waiting on an investment to come in soon and that I would do everything then.

Then he asked me may I ask what that investment was and I said it was a foreign currency and that he was probably not familiar with it. Then I asked him did they have a private banker at this location and he said no.

I told him I would need one later, then he ask me again what currency was it, and I finally got the guts to tell him thinking I would be laughed out of the bank.

It’s the Iraqi dinar, I said. This is where its gets interesting. He looks at me and says I’m very familiar with it. He says I would like you to meet my branch manager do you have time? I said yes.

He takes me back to her nice big office and introduces me to her. She says I understand you will be having a currency investment coming in soon, and I said anytime. She says don’t worry about nothing we will have a private banker and foreign currency trader meet with you here and you will not have to leave this branch. I was in shock and awe.

They introduced me to the tellers and took me to where the safety deposit area was and an area where I could do my private banking when everything was done.

So that’s just the important part of this conversation; the funny thing is I did not plan this I was in there to open a simple saving account for my son. I hope this gives the members faith that his thing is real.

I walked out of the bank like a stun gun hit me.

Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

THIS HAS NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE

5-24-13 Wildduck: FOR SURE IT IS A BIG DEAL FLIPPING FROM FRACTIONAL BANKING TO BASIL III, THIS HAS NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE…DID YOU EVER BUILD A WEB SITE AND HAVE IT ALL WORK RIGHT THE FIRST TIME YOU LIT IT UP, WELL THIS IS WAY MORE COMPLEX THEN THAT, REMEMBER TECHIES ARE NOT DRIVEN BY DEAD LINES THEY ALWAYS WANT TO TWEAK JUST ONE MORE THING IMO.

THE PROBLEM IN ROLLING OUT NEW SOFTWARE…THEY KEEP HITTING THE BUTTON AND FIXING ON THE FLY, ALL DAYS ARE GREEN LIGHT…THE ENERGY IS WOUND UP LIKE A TREBRUCHET.

Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

In Moldova’s Breakaway Transdniester, A Tale Of Two Cities

CHISINAU — When Ukraine took on the rotating chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) this year, it pledged to use the post to resolve one of the region’s most intractable issues — Moldova’s breakaway region of Transdniester.

But as negotiators conclude a second day of talks in the Ukrainian city of Odesa, hopes of a breakthrough appear increasingly distant.

The so-called 5+2 group – bringing together officials from Russia, Ukraine, the United States, the European Union, and the OSCE, as well as Moldovan and Transdniestrian authorities – has been barely able to agree on an agenda for the talks, let alone negotiate a final settlement to the 21-year-old frozen conflict.

The talks come just days after Transdniester’s pro-Moscow leader, Yevgeny Shevchuk, made a startling proposal to move the region’s legislature, the Supreme Council, from Tiraspol to the territory’s second-largest city, Bender.

The choice of Bender was clearly symbolic: the city is the site of one of the bloodiest battles in the 1990s war that ended with Transdniester declaring independence from the Republic of Moldova.

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Transdniestrian leader Yevgeny Shevchuk

The proposed move would also take the significant step of carrying Transdniester’s political center of gravity across the Dniester River, which geographically separates the bulk of the breakaway region from Moldova proper. Bender is one of the few regions on the Dniester’s western bank that is under Transdniester’s de facto jurisdiction.

Bender also lies within the security zone established after the war, a narrow strip that includes Transdniestrian and Moldovan exclave territories on both banks of the river.

The terms of the 1992 cease-fire agreement prohibit either party from taking actions that would deliberately aggravate tensions between the two sides.

In this light, the Bender proposal has been interpreted by some as the kind of land grab that has been seen in other territorial conflicts in the former Soviet Union and the post-war Balkans.

Shevchuk and his supporters say the move is meant to stop “aggressive moves” by Chisinau to build up its presence in Bender, where Moldova has managed to maintain a police headquarters and several institutions since the war.

The Transdniestrian administration has already put the squeeze on Moldovan law-enforcement structures in Bender, most recently by limiting their use of uniforms.

Chisinau has reacted angrily to the Transdniestrian moves, calling the proposal to relocate the Supreme Council an attempt by Tiraspol to unilaterally shift “local realities.”

Moscow Maneuvers Or An Internal Squabble?

The Bender issue comes as Moldova is grappling with its own political crisis, following the collapse of its pro-European governing coalition earlier this year.

Oazu Nantoi, a political analyst based in Chisinau, sees two possible explanations for the proposal.

“The first possibility is that these initiatives arose in Tiraspol,” he says. “The second is that Moscow isn’t happy about the partnership between Moldova and the EU, in spite of the political turbulence right now in Chisinau, and they’re looking to destabilize situation by unleashing some kind of provocation in Bender.”

Ukraine’s ambassador to Chisinau, Serhiy Pirozhkov, has argued that Shevchuk’s move puts the current stability in the security zone at risk.

Observers inside Transdniester, however, suggest that the proposal has more to do with internal politics than a strategic move against Chisinau.

Andrei Safonov, a Tiraspol-based political analyst, suggests that Shevchuk, in power since the end of 2011, is looking to build his own power base by isolating the Supreme Council, which is dominated by opposition lawmakers.

““The bottom line is simple: He’s saying, ‘Although you’re all elected, your actual weight is zero and I can drive you away whenever I want, to wherever I want.,’” Safanov says. “That’s the first thing. And the second, of course, is the desire to disrupt the work of the Supreme Council and thereby remove it from the political arena.”

Undermining Ukraine?

Supreme Council lawmakers rejected the proposal on May 23, voting to pass a resolution stating that the Transdniestrian parliament should remain in the territory’s de facto capital, Tiraspol.

In neighboring Ukraine, however, not everyone is buying the notion that an internal political squabble is at the root of the Bender proposal.

Noting the timing of Shevchuk’s proposition just days before the Odesa talks, Oleksandr Sushko of the Kyiv-based Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation maintains that Tiraspol frequently manufactures unforeseen political tempests to blow diplomatic sessions off course.

Shevchuk notoriously pulled out of Lviv talks in February, setting back Ukrainian hopes for a 2013 Transdniester resolution. 

Sushko believes such moves suggest that Moscow, which is determined to maintain a dominant presence in its near abroad, is colluding with Transdniester to undermine Ukraine’s tenure at the helm of the OSCE.

“It’s no secret to anyone that right at the start of this year, the Russian side took steps with the Tiraspol leadership that pushed them into a tougher stance,” he says. “One of the indirect goals of this was to torpedo the Ukrainian chairmanship of the OSCE in order to make any progress on this issue impossible.”

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Taliban launches deadly attack in Kabul

Explosions rocked central Kabul for five hours after Taliban gunmen launched a major suicide and gun attack centred on a compound of the International Organization for Migration, an aid agency.

There are still conflicting reports on the number of casualties in the attack on Friday, but Al Jazeera has learned that at least one police officer was killed, alongside four gunmen, as security forces hunted down the attackers, with prolonged bursts of gunfire and grenade blasts heard across the Afghan capital.

One of the gunmen reportedly died by blowing himself up, injuring three security personnel who were hunting him, Al Jazeera’s Qais Azimy, reporting from Kabul, said.  

A United Nations building and several other official premises were caught  up in the coordinated assault that started when a suicide car bomb sent a plume of dark smoke into the sky.

At least 18 people were also injured, including four UN staffers and four Nepalese guards, Al Jazeera’s Azimy said.   

The Taliban, fighting to expel Western forces and establish Islamic rule, claimed responsibility, saying a compound used by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), had been targeted, our correspondent said.

Azimy also quoted the Taliban as saying that “they are proud” to have carried the attack in the area, which is under high security.

“It’s a show to the people in Afghanistan that they are strong,” our correspondent said.  

Concern is mounting about how the 352,000 members of the Afghan security forces will cope with the militants after most foreign NATO-led combat troops leave by the end of next year.

Kabul police chief Ayoub Salangi said four attackers had entered a UN compound.

“Our security forces have already killed two of them and two are still on the second floor and fighting with Afghan security forces,” Salangi said.

Four blasts

There was no information about anyone who had been inside the compound at the time of the attack.

There were at least four large blasts and exchanges of fire reported between the attackers and Afghan forces, supported by Norwegian special forces, at 6:20 pm (1350 GMT), witnesses said.

The first blast was a suicide car-bomb blast at about 4 pm (1130 GMT) near a main intersection, said Kabul police chief spokesman Hashmatullah Stanikzai.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, speaking to Reuters by telephone, separately claimed responsibility.

Shooting erupted after the first bomb, with more blasts beginning about 30 minutes later.

Insurgent attacks against civilians, government workers and Afghan security forces have increased in recent weeks as the Taliban, toppled by a US-led force in 2001, exert increasing pressure on the Afghan government.

Fifteen people, including six Americans, were killed on May 16 in a suicide bombing by the Hezb-i Islami rebel group, which is allied with the Taliban.

Last year, more than a dozen people were killed during a Taliban attack in Kabul which started with coordinated suicide attacks and led to an 18-hour long siege.

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Iraqi government warns oil companies operating in the Kurdistan region

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5-24-13 Al Estiqama / BAGHDAD / electronic integrity:    Iraqi government threatened today to take legal action against companies that export crude oil from Kurdistan to Turkey.

Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani, said that “any oil is taking it out of Iraq and any payments are not submitted to the Iraqi people through the central government is stealing Iraq’s national wealth.”

He added that “there are a number of ways being considered by his government, pointing out that Baghdad may take legal action against Ankara on oil transactions with the region.”

LINK

Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

Podcast: Kremlin ‘Cold War’ Heats Up

They’re as different as night and day. One’s a cerebral economist with a talent for balancing budgets even amid mind-bending corruption. The other is a suave, flamboyant political operator whose hand was behind much of the political intrigue over the past decade.

Both were key inside players during Vladimir Putin’s first stint in the Kremlin and each played a major role in making it look successful. Both had strained relations with Putin’s siloviki allies.  Both, in their own way, went off the reservation.

And both Aleksei Kudrin and Vladislav Surkov were back in the news this week.

Amid mounting speculation in the Russian media that Putin was going to name him prime minister, Kudrin gave two speeches slamming the government’s economic policies and calling for more pluralism in the political system.

And a week after his resignation from the government, Surkov popped up in a rather odd way: Photos posted on the Internet showed him fishing with the powerful Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov — who went on to praise Surkov. Those photos surfaced days before press reports claimed Surkov was in the Investigative Committee’s crosshairs and suspected of funneling state funds to the opposition.

As different as they are, Surkov and Kudrin are on one side in the struggle that has been raging in the Russian elite — pitting technocrat managers like themselves who want the system to change and security service veterans fighting hard to maintain the status quo.

And their appearance in the news this week is the latest evidence that this battle is heating up.

In the latest edition of the Power Vertical podcast, I discussed these issues with co-hosts Kirill Kobrin of RFE/RL’s Russian Service,  Mark Galeotti of New York University, and Sean Guillory of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies.

Enjoy…

Power Vertical Podcast: Kremlin ‘Cold War’ Heats Up — May 24, 2013

Listen to or download the podcast above or subscribe to “The Power Vertical Podcast” on iTunes.
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

None have signaled the time has come.

Friday, 24 May, 2013 | Doc

5-24-13 Doc: We emphatically tell all that tiered payouts are fantasy. Banks do have the right to set their own spreads and may charge less for more dinar exchanged but that’s it. There is no secret government sponsored tier system. No one has officially been prepaid. Keep in mind collectively we represent close to $ 1 billion in holdings. We are working with every major financial institution on getting the best deal when time comes. None of these have signaled the time has come. When the RV is official as triggered by the CBI all will see it simultaneously throughout the world’s financial systems. We report, you decide.

Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

Islamabad Remains Opposed To Drones After Obama Address

The Pakistani government has reiterated its view that U.S. drone attacks on its territory remain illegal, after President Barack Obama unveiled new rules for their use.

Islamabad said on May 24 that it welcomes some aspects of Obama’s speech, particularly his recognition that “force alone cannot make us safe”, but said it remained firm that “the drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives, [and] have human rights and humanitarian implications.”

The statement by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry added that drone attacks “violate the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law.”

The Foreign Ministry says a minimum of 330 drone strikes have been carried out in Pakistan since 2004, causing at least 2,200 deaths.

The attacks typically target suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants but are believed to have killed some civilians.


Based on reporting by AFP, AP, and dpa

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

UK arrests two men on Pakistan flight

Two men have been arrested after British fighter jets were launched to divert a civilian plane carrying nearly 300 passengers from Pakistan to England after a threat call was made to air traffic control.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence said on Friday that the Typhoons were launched from RAF Coningsby, in Lincolnshire, to investigate an incident involving a civilian aircraft.

The civilian plane was diverted from Manchester Airport to Stansted Airport, which is used to handle security incidents on planes.

British security forces and police said that early indications suggest the plane had not be subject to a terror attack.

Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from London, said the men, aged 30 and 41, had been arrested on suspicion of endangering an aircraft.

“The plane is safely on the ground and has been isolated in a part of the airport away from passenger planes,” our correspondent said.

“It does seem that the initial fears surrounding this incident are starting to calm down a bit.”

Our correspondent said that concerns were raised about the flight about ten minutes before it was due to land after a threat call was made to the UK’s air traffic control.

Pakistan International Airlines confirmed that Flight P709, travelling from Lahore to Manchester, was involved.

Spokesman Mashood Tajwar said the airline had been unable to contact the pilot of the Flight P709 despite repeated attempts. He said 297 passengers and 11 crew members were on the diverted plane.

The MOD said the incident was now a police matter and that the ministry’s involvement was over.

“Typhoon aircraft from RAF Coningsby have been launched to investigate an incident involving an aircraft in UK airspace,” the MoD spokesman said, adding that Typhoon planes can be scrambled if the pilot or crew of a passenger aircraft sends out a passenger signal.

“The purpose of going up is to investigate what the situation is. Often when a Quick Reaction Alert aircraft is launched the details are not known, but it is known that a signal has been sent.”

“Part of the purpose of sending a Typhoon up is to have a look and see what they can see.”

Essex Police confirmed that “an incident has occurred” on the plane and that police and partners are responding.

“Essex Police have boarded a passenger plane diverted to Stansted Airport and two men have been arrested on suspicion of endangerment of an aircraft,” the force said in a statement.

“They have been removed from the plane.” 

Al Jazeera’s Simon McgGegor Wood, reporting from Stansted, said the passengers had been disembarked and would be sent to Manchester later today.

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