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N. Korea agrees on emergency six-way talks: Beijing   By Kim Young-gyo
HONG KONG, Dec. 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has agreed to China"s proposal to hold emergency discussions among chief envoys to the six-party talks on Pyongyang"s nuclear disarmament in a bid to defuse tensions on the Korean Peninsula, China"s foreign ministry said Tuesday.

   Beijing proposed on Nov. 28 that the lead negotiators from the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia meet at an early date to discuss ways of easing inter-Korean tension sparked by the North"s shelling of a South Korean island.

   "The agreement was reached when Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang last week," Jiang Yu, spokesperson for China"s foreign ministry, said in a regular press briefing.

   "China and North Korea have agreed that the two sides should prevent the tense situation from further escalating and put constructive effort in building peace on the Korean Peninsula, while maintaining calmness and restraint," Jiang said.
The visit came as China, North Korea"s closest political ally and largest benefactor, has been under growing international pressure to exercise its influence over Pyongyang to discourage the belligerent regime from further provocations.

   Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have come to a head after North Korea fired artillery on a South Korean island near the disputed maritime border on Nov. 23. The North"s attack on Yeonpyeong Island, which is home to fishing communities and military bases, killed two South Korean marines and as many civilians, and left 18 others wounded.

   Dai, who advises top Chinese officials on foreign policy, made an unannounced trip to Seoul at the end of November and paid a visit to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to discuss measures for easing tensions on the peninsula.

   A high-level U.S. delegation, led by Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, is expected to arrive in China later Tuesday in an effort to urge Beijing to play a greater role in reining in Pyongyang.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/
2010/12/14/14/0401000000AEN20101214007800320F.HTML


 
Категория: Новини
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Последна промяна: 10.08.2012 09:26

  EU shelves recognition of Palestine

Foreign ministers from European Union say they will recognise a Palestinian state "when appropriate".


Last Modified: 14 Dec 2010 01:59 GMT


Foreign ministers from the European Union have said they would recognise a Palestinian state "when appropriate".

The ministers" declaration on Monday followed a call from Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, for the EU to recognise Palestine based on the 1967 borders.

Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 war. It withdrew its troops from Gaza in 2005.

The EU foreign affairs council "reiterates its readiness, when appropriate, to recognise a Palestinian state", the European foreign ministers" said in a statement.

"Urgent progress is needed towards a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." The ministers said.

Stalled talks

They also "noted with regret" Israel"s failure to extend a moratorium on construction of Jewish settlements.

"In the days ahead our discussion with both sides will be substantive two-way conversations, with an eye toward making real progress"

George Mitchell,
US Middle East envoy

"Our views on settlements, including in East Jerusalem, are clear: they are illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace." The statement said.

Argentina and Brazilhave recently joined the growing number of countries to recognise Palestine, a move that Israel described as "highly regrettable" in the face of stalled peace talks.

Despite the collapse of direct Israeli-Palestinian talks, the US Middle East peace envoy said he would strive to achieve "real progress" in the coming months.

Launching the first round of shuttle diplomacy since negotiations hit an impasse over Jewish settlement building, George Mitchell met Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, at his office in Jerusalem on Monday.

"In the days ahead our discussion with both sides will be substantive two-way conversations, with an eye toward making real progress in the next few months on the key questions of an eventual framework agreement," Mitchell said as talks began.

Mitchell shuttled between Israeli and Palestinian leaders for months before direct talks began in September. They broke down weeks later when Netanyahu refused to extend a 10-month
freeze on housing starts in settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Earlier this month, Washington formally abandoned efforts to persuade Israel to agree to a partial renewal of the settlement moratorium in exchange for security guarantees.

"Framework agreement"

Netanyahu praised Washington"s move, telling a business forum in Tel Aviv on Monday: "I welcome this American decision. It is good for Israel. It is good for peace."

Standing beside Mitchell later in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said the goal was now "a new path, to achieve a common goal which is to get a framework agreement for peace that will ensure both peace and security."

image
Direct talks aimed at finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict collapsed in late September [AFP]

Mitchell will hold separate talks with Abbas on Tuesday in the occupied West Bank.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, announced on Friday the United States would refocus efforts on a return to indirect talks and would push to resolve core issues in the six-decade conflict.

These include borders, security, the future of Jerusalem and settlements in territory Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East War, and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Palestinian officials, who have been highly critical of the US policy shift, said the seriousness of any diplomacy would depend on a halt to settlement building and setting out clear terms of reference.

Palestinian officials fear settlement expansion on land where they aim to establish their future state will make statehood impossible, and have voiced concern Israel may try to avoid discussion of their future state borders.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation"s executive committee met on Monday and said Israel"s policy "threatened the stability of the region" and showed its priorities were "settlement, expansion and perpetuating the occupation".

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/12/201012140844942770.html

Категория: Новини
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Последна промяна: 14.12.2010 19:31


France plays bit part in Indo-US relations Analysis: France"s economic woes may spell trouble for US corporations in India.



By Jason Overdorf - GlobalPost
Published: December 9, 2010 06:11 ET in Asia

  image French President Nicolas Sarkozy (left) and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (right) speak after a joint press conference at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Dec. 6, 2010. (Pedro Ugarte/AFP/Getty Images

 

NEW DELHI, India — Leggy Carla Bruni hogged the headlines during French President Nicholas Sarkozy"s first visit to India this week, but the flurry of business and defense deals that her husband unveiled suggests that France"s economic woes have thrown up an unexpected rival for the United States in New Delhi.

With his popularity at a record low because of dismal economic conditions at home — where he faces protests against pension reform that may spawn a grassroots run on his country"s banks — Sarkozy this week inked deals with India worth more than $20 billion in the defense, civil aviation and nuclear industries.

But the impact is likely to be felt as keenly in Washington as it is in Paris, as the apparent willingness of the French to compromise looks set to undercut America"s negotiating position on the very nuclear deal that transformed U.S.-India relations in 2008.

"If the French are more accommodating in terms of this liability legislation, then American companies would find it very difficult to tell us [the French can do what they like but] we want what we want," said former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal. "To that extent the closure of the deal with the French would have a bearing on the negotiations with the U.S."

So far, that looks likely. Once regarded as the world leader in nuclear power technology, France is keen to quell concerns about high costs surrounding Areva"s European Pressurised Reactors (EPR) — which in October lost a $20 billion contract in the United Arab Emirates to Korea Electric Power — and the ongoing economic woes have only added fuel to the fire.

Perhaps as a result, earlier this week when Anne Lauvergeon, Areva"s chief executive, announced the signing of a preliminary agreement to build the first two of six nuclear power plants in India, as well as supply nuclear material to fuel them for 25 years, she found time in her speech to emphasize that the civil liability bill that U.S. firms have been bellyaching about was not a "deal breaker" for the French company.

 

"All they want is clarification on how India plans to implement the legislation," Sibal said. "Whereas on the U.S. side, the U.S. companies are not willing to accept any liability or any right to recourse."

After the 2008 U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement facilitated the removal of sanctions imposed on India following its 1998 nuclear tests, New Delhi announced plans to add more than 15,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity by 2020, which would mean importing as many as 24 new reactors over the next decade or so.

But a controversial law known as the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill has so far prevented U.S. firms from benefiting from U.S. moves to open the market. Because the Indian law holds the supplier of the reactor — not only the operator — liable for damages in the event of an accident, U.S. nuclear companies have argued that it makes building nuclear plants in India too risky.

In that context, a little flexibility could help Areva lead the way in fighting the so-called "champagne effect" — high prices that have kept bilateral trade between the France and India in the doldrums despite a special relationship that is in some respects stronger than the U.S.-India alliance.

France"s efforts to carve an independent role for itself within NATO appeals to the India of the Non-aligned Movement, helping to stave off the knee-jerk opposition that America faces from India"s Left. And even though it lacked the muscle to make it happen, France acted faster than the United States in seeking to free India from nuclear sanctions, bring India into the G8 and grant India a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

And while trade statistics and a host of other measures indicate that Paris will never truly compete with Washington for influence in New Delhi, there"s a chance that the shared penchant for non-alignment could throw India and France together more and more as the world lines up to become "strategic partners" with the rising power.

When India and the United States were still dithering over the terms of the nuclear pact, for instance, some pundits made the derogatory suggestion that India could well become an ally "like France" — reluctant to fight and quick to criticize.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/india/101208/france-sarkozy-indo-us-relations

Категория: Новини
Прочетен: 10630 Коментари: 0 Гласове: 0


Krisenlдnder schulden Deutschland eine halbe Billion



Es ist ein kaum kalkulierbares Risiko: Irland und Co. schulden den deutschen Anlegern und Institutionen offenbar mehr als eine halbe Billion Euro.

 

image

 

 Frankfurt: Die Banken zittern um ihre Engagements in den Krisenlдndern




In der neu aufgeflammten Euro-Schuldenkrise stehen auch fьr Deutschland Milliardensummen auf dem Spiel. Deutsche Kreditinstitute und Anleger haben in den Euro-Krisenlдndern Forderungen von mehr als einer halben Billion Dollar, wie aus dem jьngsten Bericht der Bank fьr Internationalen Zahlungsausgleich (BIZ) hervorgeht. Dabei geht es um die Krisenlдnder Griechenland, Irland, Portugal und Spanien, die mit etwa 513 Mrd. Dollar (388 Mrd. Euro) bei Deutschland in der Kreide stehen.

 

Die „Zentralbank der Zentralbanken“, wie die BIZ mit Sitz in Basel auch genannt wird, sieht die Gesamtforderungen auf der Welt an diese vier Lдnder fьr das zweite Quartal 2010 bei 2,2 Billionen Dollar. Fьr Deutschland ergeben sich laut BIZ zum Ende des Quartals folgende Forderungen: Griechenland 65,4 Mrd. Dollar, Portugal 44,3, Irland 186,4 und Spanien 216,6 Mrd. Dollar.

Angesichts der schweren Euro-Krise wird der EU-Gipfel an diesem Donnerstag eine Ergдnzung des Lissabonner Vertrags beschlieЯen. Damit soll ein dauerhaftes Rettungssystem fьr klamme Euro-Staaten von 2013 an rechtlich verankert und der Euro wetterfester gemacht werden. Das berichteten Nachrichtenagenturen und beriefen sich dabei auf einen ihnen vorliegenden Entwurf der Abschlusserklдrung. Demnach wird darin vorgeschlagen, den Paragrafen 136 des EU-Vertrages um zwei Sдtze zu ergдnzen: „Die Mitgliedstaaten, deren Wдhrung der Euro ist, kцnnen einen Stabilitдtsmechanismus einfьhren, der die Stabilitдt der Euro-Zone als Ganzes sichert. Die Bewilligung finanzieller Hilfen wird dabei unter strikte Bedingungen gestellt“, heiЯt es in dem Papier. Der Artikel 136 regelt die Arbeitsweise der Lдnder mit dem Euro – derzeit sind dies 16 Staaten.


Die Bundesregierung betonte aber, die Abstimmung mit den EU-Regierungen sei noch in vollem Gange. Besonders wichtig sei fьr Deutschland, dass die Hilfe fьr notleidende Euro-Staaten auch kьnftig nur im Fall der Gefдhrdung der gesamten Euro-Zone und unter dem Prinzip der Einstimmigkeit der beteiligten helfenden Staaten erfolgen darf.

 

Wegen der anhaltenden Debatten um die Zukunft der Gemeinschaftswдhrung hat die Entscheidung zur Дnderung des Lissabonner Vertrags eine besondere Brisanz: So wird seit mehreren Wochen darьber spekuliert, dass auch das hochverschuldete Portugal unter den derzeitigen, bis zum Jahr 2013 befristeten Rettungsschirm der Europдer und des Internationalen Wдhrungsfonds von 750 Mrd. Euro schlьpfen kцnnte.

  setSmartAdContent("6916","contentbar01"); checkSmartAdContent("6916");

Die Staats- und Regierungschefs hatten sich bereits im Oktober grundsдtzlich darauf verstдndigt, ein dauerhaftes Anti-Krisensystem zu schaffen und dafьr auch den Vertrag zu ergдnzen. Letzteres war vor allem eine deutsche Forderung gewesen. Als einziges Land profitiert Irland von Hilfen in Hцhe von 85 Mrd. Euro aus dem befristeten Rettungsschirm. Welchen Umfang der neue „Krisenmechanismus“ haben wird, ist noch offen. 


 

Unterdessen geht der Streit um gemeinsame Anleihen der Euro-Staaten – sogenannte Euro-Bonds – weiter. Bundesfinanzminister Wolfgang Schдuble (CDU) lehnte Euro-Bonds ab und bekrдftigte damit das strikte Nein der Bundesregierung. Dann mьssten auch die Lдnder mit solider Haushaltspolitik hцhere Zinsen zahlen, argumentierte Schдuble in der „Bild am Sonntag“. Eine gemeinsame Anleihe der Euro-Lдnder zur Vermeidung einer weiteren Wдhrungskrise hatte der Luxemburger Ministerprдsident Jean-Claude Juncker vorgeschlagen. Juncker sieht diese als geeignetes Mittel zur Ьberwindung der Schuldenkrise. Vor allem Deutschland und Frankreich aber wehren sich vehement dagegen, weil Euro-Bonds wegen der Beteiligung klammer Staaten ihre Bonitдt belasten kцnnten. Das wьrde zu hцheren Zinsen fьhren.

  Schдuble warnte davor, Euro-Staaten mit einem hohen Defizit von der Gemeinschaftswдhrung auszuschlieЯen. „Wenn auch nur eines der kleineren Lдnder ausscheiden wьrde, wдren die Folgen unabsehbar. Und mit Blick auf die Auswirkungen der Lehman-Pleite sage ich: Lasst uns den gleichen Fehler nicht zweimal machen.“ Der Kollaps der US-Investmentbank Lehman Brother 2008 hatte fьr Schockwellen weltweit gesorgt. Kritik an der deutschen Finanz- und Wдhrungspolitik wies Bundesfinanzminister zurьck. Manchmal werde der Versuch unternommen, „die Deutschen in Europa zu den Verantwortlichen der gegenwдrtigen Krise zu machen“, sagte er. „Das sind wir in keinerlei Hinsicht.“

Indiens Ministerprдsident Manmohan Singh sagte bei einem Besuch in Berlin, die Euro-Zone mьsse ihre Probleme lцsen. Es sei im Interesse der Welt, dass es dem Euro-Raum gut gehe. Im Gesprдch mit Kanzlerin Angela Merkel mahnte er laut Delegationskreisen, dass fьr die Stabilisierung alle Opfer bringen mьssten.


 

Das deutsche Risiko in der Schuldenkrise

Das schulden die Krisenlдnder den deutschen Institutionen und Anlegern:

Griechenland


65,4 Milliarden Euro

 

Irland


186,4 Milliarden Euro

 


Portugal


44,4 Milliarden Euro

 

Spanien


216,6 Milliarden Euro

 




  Die Daten der Eurolдnder image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE Wie stehen die 16 Lдnder der Eurozone derzeit da? Ein Ьberblick, beginnend mit Irland. image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE image Foto: Infografik WELT ONLINE image

http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article11579516/Krisenlaender-schulden-Deutschland-eine-halbe-Billion.html?wtmc=RSS.Wirtschaft.Wirtschaft&utm_medium=twitter
Категория: Новини
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Последна промяна: 13.12.2010 15:25

Clean and green, for a price Britain can have clean energy or cheap energy, but not both

Dec 9th 2010 | from PRINT EDITION

 
  image

DESPITE its reputation for wind and rain, Britain is not used to cold weather. Unseasonal snow over the past couple of weeks has blocked roads, shut airports, closed schools and brought the army out to help clear Edinburgh’s streets. Energy-watchers, meanwhile, have been fretting about the spike in energy consumption caused by the chill. On December 6th prices rose to a two-year high as Britain recorded one of its highest-ever levels of electricity demand.

Such figures are in the news because Britain is facing an energy crunch. All but one of its nuclear stations, and about half of its coal power plants, will shut by 2023 and must be replaced. Left to its own devices, the market would replace them with natural gas, but the government has committed itself to eye-wateringly tough climate-change targets, aiming to reduce emissions of planet-heating gases by 2050 relative to their 1990 levels by 80%. To that end, ministers hope to encourage a mix of nuclear reactors and wind-, wave- and solar-powered electricity.

Two developments, one last month and one to come next week, suggest how hard it is going to be to achieve that aim. On November 26th Ofgem, the energy regulator, announced an inquiry into competition in the energy sector after profits in the industry jumped by around 40%. Several big suppliers, including Scottish and Southern Energy and British Gas, have imposed price rises of up to 9%. Previous inquiries have found no evidence of collusion. But high energy bills remain politically poisonous: at a time of street protests over university fees and an embarrassing series of WikiLeaks, David Cameron, the prime minister, was asked about energy bills at his once-a-week question session in Parliament this week.

image

Next week, perhaps on December 16th, the government will publish proposals for reforming the energy market, in an attempt to secure the Ј200 billion ($316 billion) of investment in new generating capacity that Ofgem thinks is needed to keep the lights on while hitting carbon-reduction targets (see chart). Ministers talk of a renaissance of nuclear power, involving the construction of up to eight new reactors over the coming decade, coupled with a huge expansion in renewable energy. According to a European target that Britain has signed up to, renewables will account for 15% of total energy consumption by 2020, up from 3% today.

So far at least, it isn’t happening. Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, admitted recently that Britain ranks 25th out of the EU’s 27 member countries in the amount of energy generated from renewable sources (only Malta and Luxembourg do worse). And although several sites in Britain have been earmarked for new nuclear reactors, construction—or, indeed, licensing of reactor designs—has yet to start.

The issue, say the power firms, is one of risk. Neither nuclear nor renewable energy is competitive with gas or coal unless there is some form of government support. Nuclear plants in particular have low running costs but enormous capital costs: investors must make a 20- or 30-year bet that power prices will remain high enough to pay off the cost of building the plant. Both the previous Labour government and its coalition successor have insisted that nuclear power will not receive public subsidy. Utility bosses, meanwhile, are making it very clear that Britain is not the only place where they can invest their cash.

Ministers have not been short of advice, and the theme underlying most of it is that, with the government desperate to secure investment, the no-subsidy pledge will have to be torn up. On December 7th the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which polices Britain’s 2050 commitment, published a report saying explicitly that there needed to be much greater state involvement and control. It recommended that the government award decades-long, more or less fixed-price contracts to firms to make sure that nuclear plants and wind farms get built. For a country that pioneered liberalised energy markets in the 1990s, that is quite a reverse.

As The Economist went to press, the government was hinting that it would seek to impose a floor price for carbon and European-style “feed-in tariffs”, designed to increase the cost of fossil-fuelled electricity and ensure that nuclear and renewable electricity is profitable. Other possible plans include rewarding firms for maintaining stand-by capacity to supply power to the grid in an emergency, and preventing the construction of new coal stations that do not have some way of capturing and storing their planet-heating emissions.

The trouble is that all this will mean higher bills. Britain now pays around Ј1 billion a year in subsidies for renewable energy, which adds some Ј80 to a typical household’s annual bill. Projections from uSwitch, a price-comparison website, suggest that propping up nuclear and renewable energy could cost every household more than Ј500 a year by 2020.

Paradoxically, the very size of the required subsidies may make firms reluctant to invest, says Peter Atherton, a utilities analyst at Citigroup, a big bank, out of fear that the government may not honour the commitments if voters start to complain. “After all, the build time of a wind farm or a nuclear plant is longer than the lifetime of a parliament,” he points out. He cites experience in Europe, where generous German and Spanish subsidies for renewable energy were hastily clipped once it became apparent how popular (and therefore costly) they were.

Mr Atherton reckons that the long-term, high-price contracts recommended by the CCC might persuade firms to pony up, since these commitments would be hard to wriggle out of. That may secure the needed investment, but it would mark the end of Britain’s love affair with liberalised energy markets—and would make the cost of clean energy uncomfortably explicit.

http://www.economist.com/node/17679633?story_id=17679633&fsrc=scn/tw/te/rss/pe

Категория: Новини
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