MOSCOW:-Vladimir Putin has said that a US bill imposing sanctions on Russian officials accused of human rights violations is "unfriendly" and is hurting Russian-American relations.
Congress last week passed a bill imposing sanctions on Russian officials accused of human rights violations. The Russians have bristled at the bill, which they interpret as U.S. intervention in Moscow s domestic affairs.
The Russian parliament has vowed to retaliate and blacklist U.S. citizens suspected of committing crimes against Russian citizens.
In remarks carried by Russian news agencies Putin on Thursday described the U.S. bill "a politicized and unfriendly act." He also lauded the Russian parliament s planned response and said the reaction should be "appropriate."
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Monday 11 October 2010
No progress in US talks on 'fiscal cliff'
WASHINGTON: Just 18 days remain, but President Barack Obama and the top Republican in Congress appear no closer to giving ground in negotiations aimed at avoiding the Dec. 31 austerity measures of big tax increases for all Americans and deep spending cuts that threaten to push the nation into a new recession.
Obama s schedule for Thursday showed no meetings on the so-called "fiscal cliff, and a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the two men did not have any follow-up talks Wednesday after talking twice by phone Tuesday.
"The president and I had a pretty frank conversation about just how far apart we are," Boehner said Wednesday.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said the central bank s actions would not solve the fiscal crisis, and on Wednesday he warned, "Clearly, the fiscal cliff is having effects on the economy." The uncertainty is affecting consumer and business confidence and leading businesses to cut back on investment.
The talks are weighed down heavily by conservatives objections to raising tax rates and Obama s determination to carry out his campaign promise to start solving the U.S. budget crisis by raising taxes on wealthy Americans.
Beyond that is a deep philosophical disagreement on government spending, especially so-called entitlement programs like the Medicare health insurance program for older Americans and the Social Security pension program. Republicans want big cuts, and Democrats don t.
Neither side has given much ground, and Boehner s exchange of proposals with Obama seemed to generate more hard feelings than progress. The White House has slightly reduced its demands on taxes from $1.6 trillion over a decade to $1.4 trillion
but isn t yielding on demands that rates rise for wealthier earners.
Boehner responded with an offer very much like one he gave the White House more than a week ago that proposed $800 billion in new revenue, half of Obama s original demand. Boehner is also pressing for an increase in the Medicare eligibility age.
The Dec. 31 deadline to stop the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts and the start of across-the-board spending cuts is the result of Washington s failure to complete a deficit-reduction deal last year. casino en ligne francais
Obama s schedule for Thursday showed no meetings on the so-called "fiscal cliff, and a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the two men did not have any follow-up talks Wednesday after talking twice by phone Tuesday.
"The president and I had a pretty frank conversation about just how far apart we are," Boehner said Wednesday.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said the central bank s actions would not solve the fiscal crisis, and on Wednesday he warned, "Clearly, the fiscal cliff is having effects on the economy." The uncertainty is affecting consumer and business confidence and leading businesses to cut back on investment.
The talks are weighed down heavily by conservatives objections to raising tax rates and Obama s determination to carry out his campaign promise to start solving the U.S. budget crisis by raising taxes on wealthy Americans.
Beyond that is a deep philosophical disagreement on government spending, especially so-called entitlement programs like the Medicare health insurance program for older Americans and the Social Security pension program. Republicans want big cuts, and Democrats don t.
Neither side has given much ground, and Boehner s exchange of proposals with Obama seemed to generate more hard feelings than progress. The White House has slightly reduced its demands on taxes from $1.6 trillion over a decade to $1.4 trillion
but isn t yielding on demands that rates rise for wealthier earners.
Boehner responded with an offer very much like one he gave the White House more than a week ago that proposed $800 billion in new revenue, half of Obama s original demand. Boehner is also pressing for an increase in the Medicare eligibility age.
The Dec. 31 deadline to stop the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts and the start of across-the-board spending cuts is the result of Washington s failure to complete a deficit-reduction deal last year. casino en ligne francais
IAEA team reaches Iran for talks
TEHRAN: UN atomic watchdog experts arrived in Iran on Thursday to renew efforts to engage Tehran over its disputed nuclear programm, but media reports said an inspection visit to suspect sites was off the agenda.
The seven-strong International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team was scheduled to hold closed-door sessions with officials during its one-day stop in the Iranian capital, the ISNA news agency reported.
"If the talks are progressing constructively, the IAEA team will be able to stay as long as necessary," a Vienna-based diplomat told AFP.
Iranian media outlets kept quiet on the visit and no details of the talks were released.
The IAEA says the talks aim to reach agreement on a "structured approach" for Tehran to address allegations of weaponisation and for the watchdog to gain broader access to Iran s nuclear sites and people working in the programme.
The agency also wants to inspect Parchin, a restricted military complex near Tehran where the IAEA suspects experiments with explosives capable of triggering a nuclear weapon could have been carried out.
"We also hope that Iran will allow us to go to the site of Parchin, and if Iran would grant us access we would welcome that chance and we are ready to go," team leader chief inspector Herman Nackaerts told reporters at Vienna airport on Wednesday before leaving for the Islamic republic.
But ISNA said, without giving a source, that "for now no inspection or visit" for the IAEA team of Iran s nuclear infrastructure or "other sites" was on the agenda. It did not elaborate.
The IAEA visited Parchin twice in 2005. But it accuses Tehran of carrying out clean-up operations at the base to undermine its efforts to probe possible past nuclear weapons research work, an allegation Iran denies.
Thursday s talks are the latest in a string of fruitless meetings this year between Iran and the IAEA, with the latest in August in the Austrian capital. casino en ligne francais
The seven-strong International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team was scheduled to hold closed-door sessions with officials during its one-day stop in the Iranian capital, the ISNA news agency reported.
"If the talks are progressing constructively, the IAEA team will be able to stay as long as necessary," a Vienna-based diplomat told AFP.
Iranian media outlets kept quiet on the visit and no details of the talks were released.
The IAEA says the talks aim to reach agreement on a "structured approach" for Tehran to address allegations of weaponisation and for the watchdog to gain broader access to Iran s nuclear sites and people working in the programme.
The agency also wants to inspect Parchin, a restricted military complex near Tehran where the IAEA suspects experiments with explosives capable of triggering a nuclear weapon could have been carried out.
"We also hope that Iran will allow us to go to the site of Parchin, and if Iran would grant us access we would welcome that chance and we are ready to go," team leader chief inspector Herman Nackaerts told reporters at Vienna airport on Wednesday before leaving for the Islamic republic.
But ISNA said, without giving a source, that "for now no inspection or visit" for the IAEA team of Iran s nuclear infrastructure or "other sites" was on the agenda. It did not elaborate.
The IAEA visited Parchin twice in 2005. But it accuses Tehran of carrying out clean-up operations at the base to undermine its efforts to probe possible past nuclear weapons research work, an allegation Iran denies.
Thursday s talks are the latest in a string of fruitless meetings this year between Iran and the IAEA, with the latest in August in the Austrian capital. casino en ligne francais
N Korea still years away from credible missiles
SEOUL:-North Korea s first successful launch of a three-stage, long-range rocket has outraged world leaders who consider it similar to a missile capable of attacking the United States, Europe and other far-away targets. But experts say Pyongyang is years away from even having a shot at developing reliable missiles that could bombard the American mainland.
A missile program is built on decades of systematic, intricate testing, something extremely difficult for economically struggling Pyongyang, which faces guaranteed sanctions and world disapprobation each time it stages an expensive launch.
"One success indicates progress, but not victory, and there is a huge gap between being able to make a system work once and having a system that is reliable enough to be militarily useful," said Brian Weeden, a former US Air Force Space Command officer and a technical adviser to the Secure World Foundation, a think tank on space policy.
North Korea s satellite launch Wednesday came only after 14 years of painstaking labor, repeated failures and hundreds of millions of dollars.
South Korea s Defense Ministry said Thursday the satellite is orbiting normally at a speed of 7.6 kilometers per second, though it s not known what mission it is performing. North Korean space officials say the satellite would be used to study crops and weather patterns.
Though Pyongyang insists the project is peaceful, it also has conducted two nuclear tests and has defied demands that it give up its nuclear weapons program.
The UN Security Council said in a brief statement after closed consultations Wednesday that the launch violates council resolutions against the North s use of ballistic missile technology, and said it would urgently consider "an appropriate response."
"This launch is about a weapons program, not peaceful use of space," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. Even the North s most important ally, China, expressed regret.
North Korea has long possessed the components needed to construct long-range rockets. Scientists in Pyongyang, however, have been trying and failing since 1998 to conduct a successful launch. Only this week, on the fifth try, did they do so, prompting dancing in the streets of the capital.
Making even a single long-range missile or rocket hit its target is mind-bogglingly complicated. But it pales in comparison to the task of building an arsenal of missiles that could be relied on in a war to strike the far-off places they re programmed to attack.
North Korea s far more advanced rival, South Korea, has failed twice since 2009 to launch a satellite on a rocket from its own territory, and postponed two attempts in recent weeks because of technical problems.
North Korea has trumpeted its long-range capabilities. Earlier this year, former North Korean military chief Ri Yong Ho bragged that the country was "armed with powerful modern weapons ... that can defeat the (U.S.) imperialists at a single blow."
Each advancement Pyongyang makes causes worry in Washington and among North Korea s neighbors. In 2010, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned that within five years the North could develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States.
Wednesday s launch suggests the North is on track for that, said former U.S. defense official James Schoff, now an expert on East Asia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
But he and other experts say the North must still surmount tough technical barriers to build the ultimate military threat: a sophisticated nuclear warhead small enough to mount on a long-range missile, something experts say will be the focus of future nuclear tests.
And despite Wednesday s launch, Pyongyang is also lacking the other key part of that equation: a credible long-range missile.
"If in the future they develop a nuclear warhead small enough to put on a rocket, they are not going to want to put that on a missile that has a high probability of exploding on the launch pad," David Wright, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists who has written extensively about North Korea s missile program, said in an email.
To create a credible missile program, experts say, North Korean technicians need to conduct many more tests that will allow them to iron out the wrinkles until they have a missile that works more often than it fails. Pyongyang s past tests have been somewhat scattershot, possibly because of the heavy international sanctions the rocket and nuclear tests have generated.
"I expect North Korea to milk this situation for everything they can get," he said. "But I don t think that perception will be matched by the actual hard work and testing needed to develop and field a reliable, effective weapon system like the ICBMs deployed by the US, Russia and China."
North Korea already poses a major security threat to its East Asian neighbors. It has one of the world s largest standing armies and a formidable if aging arsenal of artillery that could target Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Nearly 30,000 U.S. forces are based in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice, not a formal peace treaty.
The North s short-range rockets could also potentially target another core US ally, Japan.
Darryl Kimball, executive director of the nongovernmental Arms Control Association, said those capabilities, rather than the North s future ability to strike the U.S., still warrant the most attention. casino en ligne francais
A missile program is built on decades of systematic, intricate testing, something extremely difficult for economically struggling Pyongyang, which faces guaranteed sanctions and world disapprobation each time it stages an expensive launch.
"One success indicates progress, but not victory, and there is a huge gap between being able to make a system work once and having a system that is reliable enough to be militarily useful," said Brian Weeden, a former US Air Force Space Command officer and a technical adviser to the Secure World Foundation, a think tank on space policy.
North Korea s satellite launch Wednesday came only after 14 years of painstaking labor, repeated failures and hundreds of millions of dollars.
South Korea s Defense Ministry said Thursday the satellite is orbiting normally at a speed of 7.6 kilometers per second, though it s not known what mission it is performing. North Korean space officials say the satellite would be used to study crops and weather patterns.
Though Pyongyang insists the project is peaceful, it also has conducted two nuclear tests and has defied demands that it give up its nuclear weapons program.
The UN Security Council said in a brief statement after closed consultations Wednesday that the launch violates council resolutions against the North s use of ballistic missile technology, and said it would urgently consider "an appropriate response."
"This launch is about a weapons program, not peaceful use of space," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. Even the North s most important ally, China, expressed regret.
North Korea has long possessed the components needed to construct long-range rockets. Scientists in Pyongyang, however, have been trying and failing since 1998 to conduct a successful launch. Only this week, on the fifth try, did they do so, prompting dancing in the streets of the capital.
Making even a single long-range missile or rocket hit its target is mind-bogglingly complicated. But it pales in comparison to the task of building an arsenal of missiles that could be relied on in a war to strike the far-off places they re programmed to attack.
North Korea s far more advanced rival, South Korea, has failed twice since 2009 to launch a satellite on a rocket from its own territory, and postponed two attempts in recent weeks because of technical problems.
North Korea has trumpeted its long-range capabilities. Earlier this year, former North Korean military chief Ri Yong Ho bragged that the country was "armed with powerful modern weapons ... that can defeat the (U.S.) imperialists at a single blow."
Each advancement Pyongyang makes causes worry in Washington and among North Korea s neighbors. In 2010, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned that within five years the North could develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States.
Wednesday s launch suggests the North is on track for that, said former U.S. defense official James Schoff, now an expert on East Asia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
But he and other experts say the North must still surmount tough technical barriers to build the ultimate military threat: a sophisticated nuclear warhead small enough to mount on a long-range missile, something experts say will be the focus of future nuclear tests.
And despite Wednesday s launch, Pyongyang is also lacking the other key part of that equation: a credible long-range missile.
"If in the future they develop a nuclear warhead small enough to put on a rocket, they are not going to want to put that on a missile that has a high probability of exploding on the launch pad," David Wright, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists who has written extensively about North Korea s missile program, said in an email.
To create a credible missile program, experts say, North Korean technicians need to conduct many more tests that will allow them to iron out the wrinkles until they have a missile that works more often than it fails. Pyongyang s past tests have been somewhat scattershot, possibly because of the heavy international sanctions the rocket and nuclear tests have generated.
"I expect North Korea to milk this situation for everything they can get," he said. "But I don t think that perception will be matched by the actual hard work and testing needed to develop and field a reliable, effective weapon system like the ICBMs deployed by the US, Russia and China."
North Korea already poses a major security threat to its East Asian neighbors. It has one of the world s largest standing armies and a formidable if aging arsenal of artillery that could target Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Nearly 30,000 U.S. forces are based in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice, not a formal peace treaty.
The North s short-range rockets could also potentially target another core US ally, Japan.
Darryl Kimball, executive director of the nongovernmental Arms Control Association, said those capabilities, rather than the North s future ability to strike the U.S., still warrant the most attention. casino en ligne francais
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