Differences remain with Russia on missile defense: US

 

WASHINGTON  ( 2008-03-28 10:42:24 ) : 

US and Russian officials ended two days of meetings here on Thursday without bridging the gap on Washington's plans to deploy parts of a missile shield in eastern Europe, US officials said.
The two sides are intensifying efforts to end a row with echoes of the Cold War by planning more talks on missile defense at a summit in early April in Russia between US President George W. Bush and his counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The talks in Washington followed high-level meetings in Moscow last week.
"There are differences on missile defense. The two secretaries set the stage for progress, but there are differences that remain," acting secretary for political affairs Daniel Fried told reporters after two days of talks.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates met in Moscow last week with their Russian counterparts Sergei Lavrov and Anatoly Serdyukov in a bid to ease Russian concerns about the project.
"This is pretty much what we expected," Fried said of the remaining differences during a telephone conference call with reporters.
But he said the two sides made progress on a strategic framework that Bush raised earlier this month in a letter to Putin aimed at mapping out future US-Russian ties on more than a dozen security, economic and other areas.
These issues range from missile defense to fighting terrorism and nuclear weapons proliferation.
"And this strategic framework has sections on security that go beyond missile defense. It is a very substantive document. And so we made progress in all these areas, including this security area," Fried said.
The two days of talks here were led by US arms control expert John Rood and Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak as a follow up to Rice's and Gates' meetings in Moscow.
"We were prepared for lengthy and extensive negotiations over the last two days (after the Moscow meetings) and we're going to stay at this at a pretty intense pace with the hope of reaching agreement soon," Rood said.
But Rood said he could not guarantee that there would be agreement on the strategic framework document by the time Putin leaves office in May and hands over to president-elect Dmitry Medvedev.
Putin is widely expected to stay on as a powerful prime minister, however.
Russia opposes US plans to install 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic as part of an anti-missile system which Washington says is aimed at protecting against "rogue" states such as Iran and North Korea.
The Russian side has seen the shield as a direct threat to its security, especially with a radar installation that could survey parts of Russia's territory.
But, in an early sign of progress in tough talks, Lavrov said last Thursday that Washington gave Moscow guarantees that its proposed anti-missile shield "will be not directed" at Russia.

PKK threatens to retaliate against Turkey

MOUNT QANDIL  ( 2008-03-28 14:08:41 ) : 

Turkey's rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has threatened to retaliate against Ankara after the violence during the New Year celebration of Newroz in southeastern Turkey.
"The Turkish state must listen to the message of freedom from the Kurdish people and immediately halt its violence against civilians," the number two of the PKK group, Bozam Tekim, told AFP in an interview on Thursday.
"There will be uncontrolled reaction. The Turkish state and the ruling party will bear the responsibility of these new developments."
Tekim warned that unless Ankara ended its actions of "abuse against civilians, the PKK will retaliate".
The interview was conducted in the Qandil mountains, an area of tall, rugged mountains which serves as a PKK hideout in Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region along the border with Turkey and Iran.
Two people were killed and dozens injured over the past week in southeast Turkey during the celebration of the Kurdish new year, which fell on March 21.
Dozens of people have been detained in Turkey's mainly Kurdish-populated southeast where celebrations of Newroz Day turned into protests of support for the PKK.
Newroz is a traditional platform for Turkey's Kurds to demonstrate support for the rebels and demand broader rights. "The Kurdish people continue to fight for freedom. They have once again demonstrated their support for the PKK and its leader Abdullah Ocalan (PKK founder who is imprisoned in Turkey)," said Tekim, whose group is regarded as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and European Union.
"The new violence against civilians demonstrates that the Turkish state continues its policy of force and denial of our rights," he charged.
The recent incursions by the Turkish army in northern Iraq, "despite the support of the United States, has resulted in its failure", the rebel leader said.
The Turkish army "got a severe lesson" during the incursion in the last week of February in the Zap region of Iraq.
The PKK claims it killed 127 Turkish soldiers and lost nine of its fighters.
Ankara says it dealt a severe blow to the rebel movement during the incursion that killed 240 rebels.

Fireworks blast in China kills 25: official media

BEIJING  ( 2008-03-27 13:34:13 ) : 

Journalists and police officers were among 25 people killed in a fireworks explosion in a remote part of northwestern China, state media reported.
The explosion occurred on Wednesday night as authorities were trying to destroy eight truckloads of fireworks in the Gobi desert near Turpan city in Xinjiang, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Twenty-two people were killed immediately, and three died later, Xinhua said.
Five people are still missing and two others are in hospital with serious injuries, Xinhua said, citing a local official.
The victims include police officers, staff of a local explosion detonation company and journalists covering the event, Xinhua said.
Seven of the eight trucks that were used to transport the fireworks were destroyed, the report said, but no details were given as to how the explosion occurred.
China has a huge fireworks industry that is notorious for its lax safety standards.

Maliki Gives Shiite Militias 72 Hours to Halt Fighting

 

BAGHDAD — A day after launching a huge operation that ignited heavy fighting in two of Iraq’s largest cities, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki gave the Shiite militias controlling the southern oil city of Basra an ultimatum on Wednesday: lay down their weapons within 72 hours or face more severe consequences.

As the fighting in Basra and Baghdad intensified on Wednesday, the American military command, speaking for the first time about the crackdown, characterized it as an Iraqi-led operation in which American-led forces were playing only an advisory role. An Iraqi hospital official said that the battle in Basra between Iraqi forces and Shiite militias led by Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric, had so far claimed the lives of 40 people and wounded at least 200, figures that include militia members as well as Iraqi officers.

The fighting threatens to destabilize a long-term truce that had helped reduce the level of violence in the five-year-old Iraq war. Mr. Maliki, who considered the operation so important that he traveled to the city to direct the fighting himself, issued his ultimatum on Iraqi state television.

“Those who were deceived into carrying weapons must deliver themselves and make a written pledge to promise they will not repeat such action within 72 hours,” he said. “Otherwise, they will face the most severe penalties.”

An American military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, repeatedly sought on Wednesday to distance Western forces from the operation, saying that Mr. Maliki and his security ministers planned and carried it out on their own. He said American-led forces were on standby.

Nearly 16,000 Iraqi police officers and 9,014 Iraqi Army troops were involved in the operation, which General Bergner said was not specifically aimed at Mr. Sadr’s Mahdi Army.

“This is about criminal activity,” he said. “This is about those who are not respecting the rule of law.”

The Iraqi hospital official, who requested anonymity, did not specify how many of the people killed or wounded so far were militiamen, Iraqi soldiers or civilians caught up in the fighting. Three United States citizens working for the American government in Baghdad were seriously wounded Wednesday in a mortar attack on the Green Zone, the diplomatic and government compound, Reuters reported, citing an American Embassy spokeswoman.

The fierce battles, along with indications in recent weeks that militia and insurgent attacks had already been creeping up, raised fears across Iraq that Mr. Sadr could pull out of a cease-fire he declared last summer. If his Mahdi Army militia does step up attacks, that could in turn slow American troop withdrawals.

There were also serious clashes reported Tuesday in the southern cities of Kut and Hilla, and Major Bergner said Wednesday that fighting involving the Mahdi Army was continuing around the country.

In Basra on Tuesday, American and British jets roared through the skies, providing air support for the Iraqi military. A British Army spokesman for southern Iraq, Maj. Tom Holloway, said that while Western forces had not entered Basra, the operation already involved nearly 30,000 Iraqi troops and police forces, with more arriving. “They are clearing the city block by block,” Major Holloway said.

The scale and intensity of the clashes in Baghdad kept many residents home. Schools and shops were closed in many neighborhoods and hundreds of checkpoints appeared; in some neighborhoods they were controlled by the government and in others by militia members.

Also on Tuesday, barrages of rockets and mortar shells pounded the fortified Green Zone area. An American military spokesman said there were two minor injuries to civilians in the Green Zone.

Even before the crackdown on militias began on Tuesday, Pentagon statistics on the frequency of militia and insurgent attacks suggested that after major security gains last fall, the conflict had drifted into something of a stalemate. Over all, violence has remained fairly steady over the past several months, but the streets have become tense and much more dangerous again after a period of calm.

It is not clear how responsible the restive Mahdi militia commanders are for stalling progress in the effort to reduce violence. In recent weeks, commanders have protested continuing American and Iraqi raids and detentions of militia members.

If the cease-fire unravels, there is little doubt about the mayhem that could be stirred up by Mr. Sadr, who forced the United States military to mount two bloody offensives against his fighters in 2004 as much of the country exploded in violence.

Sadiq al-Rikabi, the prime minister’s political adviser, and other Iraqi officials said that just how the unrest in Baghdad was related to the crackdown in Basra was unknown.

Argentine Nights

THE tango dancers took their places inside a cramped apartment in downtown Buenos Aires, as David Lampson, a 29-year-old television writer from Boston, wiped his brow. Despite the 100-degree weather, the fans had been shut off, spotlights switched on and windows blacked out with trash bags. The cameraman waited until the smoke machine blurred the parquet floor before yelling “Action!” Then just as the iTunes track reached its dramatic crescendo, the fuse blew. For the fourth time.

“Let’s unplug the other fan and try again,” Mr. Lampson told the polyglot cast and crew, which included a Greek mother, a Colombian architect and an Argentine shoemaker. Also present was a New York Cityfilm student, who was editing the footage for YouTube distribution. Mr. Lampson likened the process to creatingart from garbage. “There is a tango dance based on this idea,” he added, “called cambalache.”

A better term might be bohemians-in-exile. A new kind of tango is taking shape along the crooked back streets of Buenos Aires. At a former furniture factory on CalleHonduras, the British music engineer Tom Rixton, who has worked with top acts like Depeche Mode, runs a stylish boutique hotel called Home with his Argentine wife. Nearby on Calle Garruchaga, Amanda Knauer, a fashion designer from Manhattan, sells a chic line of leather handbags at Qara. And at Zizek, a weekly dance party run by an expat from San Antonio, the cha-ch-ch-cha rhythms of cumbia folk music quivers to an electronic beat.

“There are expats everywhere tapping into the city’s thriving cultural and arts scene,” said Grant C. Dull, Zizek’s founder, who also runs the popular bilingual Web guideWhatsUpBuenosAires.com. “And it’s not backpacker types, but people with money and contacts.”

Drawn by the city’s cheap prices and Paris-like elegance, legions of foreign artists are colonizing Buenos Aires and transforming this sprawling metropolis into a throbbing hothouse of cool. Musicians, designers, artists, writers and filmmakers are sinking their teeth into the city’s transcontinental mix of Latin élan and European polish, and are helping shake the Argentine capital out of its cultural malaise after a humbling economic crisis earlier this decade.

Video directors are scouting tango ballrooms for English-speaking actors. Wine-soaked gallery openings and behemoth gay discos are keeping the city’s insomniacs up till sunrise. And artists from the United States, England, Italy and beyond are snapping up town houses in scruffy neighborhoods and giving the areas Anglo-ized names like PalermoSoHo and Palermo Hollywood.

Comparisons with other bohemian capitals are almost unavoidable. “It’s like Prague in the 1990s,” said Mr. Lampson, who is perhaps best known for winning a Bravo TV reality show, “Situation: Comedy,” in 2005, about sitcom writers. Despite his minor celebrity, he decided to forgo the Los Angeles rat race and moved to Buenos Aires, where he is writing an NBC pilot, along with his Web novela, www.historyandtheuniverse.com. “Buenos Aires is a more interesting place to live than Los Angeles, and it’s much, much cheaper. You can’t believe a city this nice is so cheap.”

That wasn’t always the case. For much of the 20th century, Buenos Aires ranked among the world’s most expensive capitals, on par with Paris and New York. Broad boulevards were lined with splendid specimens of French belle époque architecture that evoked the Champs-Élysées, and tree-lined streets were buzzing with late-night cafes and oak-and-brass bars. Locals, it is often said, identify more as European than South American.

Then came the financial crisis of late 2001. The Argentine peso, which was once pegged to the United States dollar, plunged to a low of nearly 4 to 1 in the face of mounting debt and runaway inflation. (It holds steadily today at about 3 to 1.) Overnight, Buenos Aires went from being among the priciest cities to one of the world’s great bargain spots.

There was a silver lining. Even as local artists flocked overseas, producing a kind of creative brain drain from Buenos Aires, foreigners arrived in record numbers. And what they discovered was that this fast-paced city of three million offered more than just tango and cheap steaks. The Argentine capital also had balmy weather, hedonistic night life and a cosmopolitan air that thrives on novelty.

Situated at the wide mouth of the Río de la Plata, Buenos Aires sprawls across the flat landscape with the force of a concrete hurricane. It takes more than an hour to traverse opposite ends by yellow-and-black taxi. And that’s not mentioning the 48 barrios that creep inland, each with a distinct personality and crisscrossed by a web of cobblestone alleys and 12-lane mega-streets. There are business districts like Microcentro, leafy barrios like Recoleta and manufacturing sectors like La Paterna.

And nearly everywhere you turn these days, the new arrivals seem to be planting their flags, whether at a so-called chorizo house in historic San Telmo or a glassy condo in Puerto Madero. Or, for that matter, a former door factory on Calle Aguirre, which Sebastiano Mauri, 35, a painter and video artist from Milan, recently bought with several artists on the industrial outskirts of Palermo.

“Some are now calling this area Palermo Brooklyn,” said Mr. Mauri during a recent visit of his renovated factory, a bright yellow building on an otherwise gray street. Cost for the entire four-story factory? $130,000. “Buenos Aires makes Milan look like a neighborhood. It’s lively, multiethnic and you have Europeans from all over.”

After gutting the third floor, Mr. Mauri spent the past year converting it into an artist-in-residence studio with hardwood floors, stainless-steel kitchen cabinets and midcentury-modern furniture. To celebrate the near-completion, he held a rooftop barbecue on a breezy Saturday in January that drew a cross section of Buenos Aires’s art elite.

Drinking malbec out of plastic cups and eating steaks with dollops of ratatouille, the crowd of about 20 artists, curators and collectors chatted easily about the hyper-commercialized state of art, a towering sex hotel (known as a telo) nearby and the city’s obsession with ice cream. “Artists come here because they can be free,” said Florencia Braga Menéndez, whose namesake contemporary art gallery is arguably the city’s most influential. “As a gallerist, I never tell my artists what sells. They must create for themselves.”

That creative freedom has fueled plenty of cultural cross-pollination. Dick Verdult, an avant-garde musician and artist from the Netherlands, began toying with cumbia around 2000, manipulating the childish rhythms of the South American folk music with electronic bass lines, time delays and sampled voices. “Cumbia is like a ball of clay,” said Mr. Verdult, 53, who is better known by his stage name, Dick El Demasiado. “If you stick to the simple laws” — a 4/4 rhythm that he likens to a galloping horse — “but disregard the tradition, you can do a lot with it. Argentina has a very elastic culture.”

Berlin urges Gilani to push democratic reforms

BERLIN  ( 2008-03-25 18:44:05 ) : 

The German government welcomed the swearing-in of new Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani on Tuesday and urged him to pursue democratic reforms.
"The government hopes that the new prime minister ensures the strengthening of democracy, the consolidation of economic reforms and the struggle against poverty and terrorism in all forms," foreign ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said at a regular government news conference.
Jaeger also welcomed one of Gilani's first acts as prime minister, the release of judges jailed by President Pervez Musharraf when he imposed emergency rule late last year.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari