The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- U.S., Japan drop 2014 Okinawa base-transfer deadline
- Greek govt survives vote as protesters chant insults
- Sectarian violence erupts for second night in N.Ireland
| U.S., Japan drop 2014 Okinawa base-transfer deadline Posted: 21 Jun 2011 08:54 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Japan have agreed to drop a 2014 deadline for building a new airstrip on Okinawa and transferring about 8,000 U.S. Marines from that Japanese island to Guam, the allies said on Tuesday. "Completion of the FRF (Futenma Replacement Facility) and the Marine relocation will not meet the previously targeted date of 2014," the two allies said in a statement following cabinet-level talks in Washington. They vowed to complete the projects "at the earliest possible date after 2014" and Japanese officials said Tokyo would renew efforts to win support in Okinawa for the base plan, which would lighten the burden on the crowded, subtropical island. The widely anticipated delay in the troop realignment was announced after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates hosted Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa for Security Consultative Committee talks. The allies, holding their first so-called "2+2" ministerial meeting under the Obama administration, agreed to work for the denuclearization of North Korea, and deal with other problems posed by Pyongyang, including ballistic missiles, crime and humanitarian concerns. Washington and Tokyo would "encourage China's responsible and constructive role in regional stability and prosperity, its cooperation on global issues, and its adherence to international norms of behavior," said the statement. STRUGGLE FOR OKINAWA SUPPORT The United States and Japan agreed in 2006 to shift the U.S. Marines' Futenma airbase in Okinawa to a less crowded area on the island, which is host to about half of the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan. But successive Tokyo governments have yet to win support for that plan from local residents of Okinawa, who associate U.S. bases with noise, pollution and crime. Japan's March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor disaster has caused further delays in decision-making in Tokyo. "The decision announced today on the Futenma replacement facility configuration along with other elements of the 2006 realignment roadmap shows we are making steady progress toward modernizing U.S. forward presence in the region," Gates said. "It is critical that we move forward with the relocation of Futenma and the construction of facilities in Guam for the U.S. Marines. ... Doing so will reduce the impact of our presence on local residents in Okinawa while allowing us to maintain capabilities critical to the alliance in Japan," he said. Kitazawa said the Japanese government would continue to work to build consensus on Futenma with the Okinawa government and residents. "In the aftermath of the earthquake, the understanding of the significance of the stationing of U.S. forces in Japan including the Marine Corps in Okinawa I believe has been understood," he said, referring to major aid work by the U.S. military after the disasters which killed some 23,000 people. Prime Minister Naoto Kan has agreed to step down in the coming weeks or months, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Satoru Satoh said whoever replaces Kan "should continue efforts" to secure funding and support on Okinawa for the base consolidation. (Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Greek govt survives vote as protesters chant insults Posted: 21 Jun 2011 08:23 PM PDT ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's embattled government survived a confidence vote on Wednesday that was crucial to avoiding a sovereign debt default as thousands of protesters chanted insults outside parliament
The assembly voted confidence in the government, reshuffled by Prime Minister George Papandreou to stiffen resolve behind a painful new austerity programme, by 155 votes to 143 with two abstentions. All Papandreou's Socialist Party deputies voted solidly with the government. "If we are afraid, if we throw away this opportunity, then history will judge us very harshly," Papandreou said in a final appeal for support before the vote. Protesters had besieged the parliament building during the vote, shouting insults at politicians and shining hundreds of green laser lights at the building and at Greek police. They held up a mock gallows with several nooses. The crowd mostly dispersed afterwards, but police in full riot gear fired several rounds of tear gas to disperse a smaller group of youths continuing to protest. There were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests. The successful poll, closely watched outside Greece, immediately spiked the euro higher , but the gains were short-lived as traders cited concerns about implementation of the deeply unpopular austerity measures. "The reaction of the people is going to be critical. If we see cars burning and protests tomorrow, then all this short term success is going to get sucked out the window," said William Larkin, a fixed-income portfolio manager at Cabot Money Management in Salem, Massachusetts. European Commission President Manuel Barroso expressed immediate relief. "Tonight's vote in the Greek Parliament removes an element of uncertainty from an already very difficult situation," he said, adding that Papandreou could now concentrate on implementing the reforms. "Although this clearly is not going to be a long-term fix, investors see this as a chance that the can will be kicked further down the road and so I think we are going to see tomorrow a world-wide push to risk assets," said David Dietze, Chief Investment strategist at Point View Financial Services. Papandreou's government must rapidly pass two more tests -- enacting the austerity plan and the laws needed to implement it -- to win a new bailout to avert the euro zone's first sovereign default and possible global economic disaster. ULTIMATUM The vote follows a European ultimatum requiring the debt-choked Mediterranean state implement a new five-year package of deeply unpopular reforms in two weeks or miss out on a 12-billion euro aid tranche and plunge into bankruptcy. Barroso had piled on pressure before the vote, saying that Greece faced a "moment of truth" and needed to show it was genuinely committed to the reforms. "No-one can be helped against their will," he said. Acting IMF chief John Lipsky sent a similar message, saying international lenders were willing to help peripheral euro zone economies as long as they tried to carry out reforms. He said the Greek fiscal system was broken but could be fixed with the right political will. As parliament debated the confidence motion, demonstrators stepped up their protests in the square, where hundreds have camped for weeks to show their opposition to more austerity, which has deepened the worst recession for 37 years. "I believe we should go bankrupt and get it over with. These measures are slowly killing us," said 22-year-old student Efi Koloverou. "We want competent people to take over." Glykeria Madaraki, a 39-year-old unemployed woman, said: "God help us. There is no way these people are getting us out of the crisis. I feel insecure and I see my country being sold off. They didn't ask what we think about all this. I want elections." Inside parliament the opposition poured similar disdain on the government. "This is not a programme to salvage the economy, it's a programme for pillage before bankruptcy," said Alexis Tsipras, head of the small opposition Left Coalition. Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, in an attempt to answer a key grievance of protesters, told parliament the government's top priority would be to build a fairer tax system. Papandreou stifled dissent within the party last week by replacing unpopular government figures with critics of the plan. The government must hammer through the five-year package of 28 billion euro ($39.84 billion) in tax hikes and spending cuts by June 28. It must then push through laws implementing the reforms -- potentially more difficult as it will tackle individual privatisations, tax measures and spending cuts -- in time for an extraordinary meeting of euro zone finance ministers on July 3. The cabinet will meet on Wednesday afternoon to approve a draft bill implementing the measures, officials said. The government had been widely expected to survive the confidence vote. Defeat would have led to political chaos and early elections which PASOK would likely lose. Greek bank shares gained more than 6.0 percent and 10-year Greek bonds rose in a sign of optimism on Tuesday. European and U.S. shares also rose, with the Nasdaq showing its biggest gain since October. Having already missed targets agreed in its first, year-old bailout, Athens needs the reforms if it wants to receive the next tranche of those funds and secure a second bailout worth an estimated 120 billion euros. The new mid-term plan envisions raising 50 billion euros by selling off state firms and includes 6.5 billion in 2011 fiscal consolidation, almost doubling existing measures that have helped extend a deep recession into its third year. Most analysts remain sceptical that Greece will be able to reduce its vast sovereign debt pile of 340 billion euros, or more than 30,000 euros for each of its 11.3 million people, even if the reforms are implemented. Inspectors from the International Monetary Fund and European Union arrived on Tuesday to examine a request by newly appointed Finance Minister Venizelos for changes to the mid-term plan. Greece's government has said the lenders' inspectors would discuss changes "at a technical level." Euro zone officials have told Reuters the plan for the new bailout, meant to extend Greece's year-old 110-billion-euro deal and fund it into late 2014, would feature up to 60 billion euros of fresh official loans, 30 billion euros from the private sector and 30 billion euros from privatisations. (Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou, Lefteris Papadimas in Athens and John O'Donnell in Brussels; writing by Barry Moody and David Lawder; editing by Alistair Lyon) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Sectarian violence erupts for second night in N.Ireland Posted: 21 Jun 2011 06:19 PM PDT Belfast (Reuters) - A press photographer was shot in the leg and two other people were injured when riots broke out between Protestants and Catholics in Belfast for a second successive night on Tuesday.
Police said around 700 people threw fireworks, petrol bombs and other missiles in the Newtonards area of the city, a night after two people suffered gunshot wounds in what politicians described as the worst violence of its kind in the area for a decade. The male photographer was shot in the leg by a gunman on the sidelines of the clashes, witnesses told Reuters and in an unusual move, the police urged all journalists and camera crews to stay out of the area "for their own safety". The two men who were injured were suffering from burns, police said. The police, who had brought reinforcements to the area, responded by firing stun grenades for a second night in a row and local media reported that they had brought two water canon vehicles to the area but had yet to use them. Some 500 people, many of them youths with their faces covered, fought in the Short Strand area, an enclave of Catholic houses in the predominantly Protestant east side of the city, on the previous night when shots were fired by both sides. The violence comes at the start of Northern Ireland's marching season, a time of annual parades by Protestants which has triggered violent protests by Catholics in the past. "I cannot remember in the last decade a situation like this in the Short Strand," Colm McKevitt, a member of the regional parliament for the Irish nationalist SDLP party told Irish state broadcaster RTE. "It does not augur well for the city at the outset of the marching season after a few relatively good few years." Police blamed members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), one of the deadliest pro-British paramilitary groups of Northern Ireland's bloody past, for initiating the first night of disorder. The UVF said two years ago that it had completed the decommissioning of its weapons in line with other militant groups after a 1998 peace agreement mostly ended three decades of violence in the British-controlled province. Northern Ireland was torn apart during the violent "Troubles" between loyalists, mostly Protestants, who want it to remain part of the United Kingdom, and Republicans, mostly Catholics, who want it to form part of a united Ireland. The peace deal paved the way for a power-sharing government of loyalists and Republicans. Violence has subsided over the years, but there are still dissident armed groups. The parades mainly commemmorate historical events, particularly notable British victories, and are regarded by marchers as an expression of cultural identity. Many Catholics see them as provocative. (Reporting by Ivan Little, Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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