DTN News - RUSSIA ECONOMY NEWS: Putin Blames West Responsible For Coming Recession in Russia

DTN News -  RUSSIA ECONOMY NEWS: Putin Blames West Responsible For Coming Recession in Russia

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources By Michael Birnbaum - Washington Post
(NSI News Source Info) HONG KONG - December 5, 2014: With recession looming, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the West has had his nation in the crosshairs for “centuries” and vowed that Russia would be unbowed in its attempts to pursue an independent and muscular foreign policy.

In an annual state of the nation address delivered to Russia’s political elite, Putin blasted the West and “speculators” who he said were waging an economic war against Russia over its actions in Ukraine. He made no concessions in response to Western sanctions on Russia, saying instead that they were a spur to bring offshore money home and to invest in domestic industry.

In his speech, delivered in a vast gilt hall in the Kremlin, Putin said Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s autonomous Crimean Peninsula in March was a “historic event” that would not be reversed. He likened Crimea to the Temple Mount — a sacred site in Judaism, Islam and Christianity — in its foundational importance to Russian civilization. The Crimean annexation kicked off the worst stretch of relations between the West and Russia since the Cold War.

“This year we faced trials that only a mature and united nation and a truly sovereign and strong state can withstand,” Putin said. “Russia has proved that it can protect its compatriots and defend truth and fairness.”

He was more conciliatory on domestic policy, assuring investors that “Russia will be open to the world” and ready to do business with anyone — even the West. In the 70-minute speech, which was focused largely on the economy, he offered measures to streamline markets, spur investment and bolster Russian self-sufficiency. Unlike in previous speeches, he held back from condemning opposition forces at home and pressed only against the speculators who he said were profiting from the falling ruble.

Russia has been locked in a bitter fight with the West over the conflict in Ukraine, which has claimed more than 4,300 lives. Hours after Putin’s speech, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Russia brought on the sanctions because of its “own actions” in Ukraine.

Russia’s economy is expected to go into recession next year, the result of plummeting oil prices and sanctions that have crimped investments. The ruble has fallen significantly in recent weeks and has lost more than a third of its value against the dollar since July. On Thursday, it dropped more than 2 percent.

Putin’s popularity ratings remain near record highs, but surging inflation and diminished growth have made many Russians increasingly pessimistic about the economy.

Putin said the Western sanctions were the product of a fight against Russia that began long before what he called the “Crimean Spring.”

“If none of that had ever happened,” he said, “they would have come up with some other excuse to try to contain Russia’s growing capabilities.” The efforts to thwart Russia, he said, have gone on “for decades, if not centuries.”

Putin likened Russia’s enemies to the Nazis and said they should remember the lessons of World War II. Hitler “set out to destroy Russia and push us back beyond the Urals. Everyone should remember how it ended,” he said.

He also said that although Russia is boosting its defense spending, it did not desire a new arms race with the West, saying it had more inexpensive ways to strengthen its capabilities.

President Obama said a day earlier that Putin “has been improvising himself into a nationalist, backward-looking approach to Russian policy that is scaring the heck out of his neighbors and is badly damaging his economy.” Obama said the West intends to maintain economic pressure.

Obama’s comments are “obviously unfriendly and obviously unconstructive,” Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said Thursday.

Putin’s speech came shortly after the worst outbreak of violence in years in the Russian region of Chechnya, where he crushed an insurgency early in his presidency. Authorities said at least nine gunmen and 10 police officers were killed in a battle in Grozny, the regional capital. Putin said he had full confidence in Russian authorities’ ability to eliminate any threats.

In an effort to boost the economy, Putin said in his speech that he would freeze taxes on businesses for several years. He also promised to reduce government inspections of small and mid-size enterprises that are found to be compliant with Russian regulations. And he vowed to fight corruption and offered a full, no-questions-asked amnesty for Russians who bring money back from abroad.

Money has mostly been going in the opposite direction. Russia has been plagued by investors pulling their money from the country: Up to $128 billion in capital flight is expected in 2014.

The Economy Ministry said this week that it expected Russia’s economy to contract by 0.8 percent next year. Independent economists have forecast an even more biting recession.


Economic officials also have said that they expect inflation of up to 10 percent next year, largely driven by the falling ruble and the rising cost of food. Russia banned most U.S. and European Union food imports in August in retaliation for Western sanctions, and the move has driven up the cost of food staples.

*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources By Michael Birnbaum - Washington Post
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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: In Shifting Syria Conflict, Assad Assumes Command of Forces

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: In Shifting Syria Conflict, Assad Assumes Command of Forces

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Samia Nakhoul - Reuters
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - October 10, 2012: The picture is deceptively normal. Posted on the Facebook page of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, it shows the first lady Asma, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, accompanying her daughter and three sons on their first day back at school.

Two of the boys wear camouflage shorts with khaki t-shirts and caps, in keeping with the spirit of a ruler under siege. Yet when she dropped off Hafez, the eldest, named after his strongman grandfather, only one other child had arrived in class because of rebel attacks in Damascus that morning.

More than 18 months into the battle for Syria, an estimated 30,000 people are dead and the country is disintegrating.

The rebels are outgunned by the government but can still strike at will, and Assad has assumed personal command of his forces, still convinced he can prevail militarily.

U.N. mediation efforts headed by Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi are adrift and there is no indication Western pressure on Assad will translate into real military support for Syria's rebel forces. Russia and Iran continue to back Damascus.

Supporters of Assad say the government has steadied its nerve after a wave of defections and rebel attacks on strategic government targets since the summer.

A Facebook picture of Assad dressed in military uniform sums up his transformation since a bomb attack in July killed his inner circle security leadership, including his brother-in-law and defense minister.

Recent visitors say the 47-year-old president has taken over day-to-day leadership. They speak of a self-confident, combative president convinced he will ultimately win the conflict through military means.

"He is no longer a president who depends on his team and directs through his aides. This is a fundamental change in Assad's thinking," said a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician with close ties to Assad. "Now he is involved in directing the battle."

The endgame may have changed too. "Nobody is now talking about the control of the regime over all of Syria, they talk about the ability of the regime to continue."

Until recently, the Lebanese politician said, people asked daily who would defect next. But for some time now there had been no significant military defections.

"The fighting nerve is steady. The Iranians and the Russians may have helped them. Their ability to manage daily and control the situation has improved."

The government has decided to focus its effort on essential areas - the capital Damascus, the second largest city of Aleppo, and the main highways and roads.

Other close observers of the conflict say Assad is deluded if he believes he can prevail.

"The problem is the regime lives in its own world. It is clear the people are rejecting this idea - the regime's narrative - that it is a secular regime set upon by extremists, a battle between good and evil and Bashar will one day be vindicated. Bashar is not the victim. He is the cause of the violence," said a Western diplomat.

DAILY KILLINGS

The conflict has spiraled into a civil war with almost daily massacres and sectarian killings which some observers say make Assad's fate almost irrelevant.

"Everybody is kind of hypnotized by the issue of whether Bashar is president or not, whether he is leaving or not," said one Arab official. "I fear the problem is much bigger than that. The problem is to see how Syria is going to survive, how the new Syria is going to be born."

The feuding among the opposition and its failure to unite under one command is one factor that has helped Assad to hold on. There is still no serious effort to unify the opposition.

Some rebel groups, made up of moderate liberals and Islamist zealots, have clashed with each other militarily, activists say. Their religious and ideological disagreement is displayed in the open on Islamist web sites with individuals trading insults.

"The opposition has got to grow up and get its act together and stop just reciting this mantra, Bashar must go, Bashar must go," the Arab official said. "There are other things they can do starting with some unity among them."

"One has got to gather all sorts of building blocks that are lying around and make of them a viable construction. It is terribly important to see how violence can be stopped. It is creating walls of hatred between neighbors. It is becoming more and more sectarian," he said.

The rebels have so far failed to sustain gains in the face of superior government firepower. They have lost many bases that they had won in the suburbs of Damascus and elsewhere. Frustrated, they seem to have switched tactics to suicide bombings and hit-and-run attacks.

"Militarily the regime is more relaxed but from a security position the country is falling apart," said the pro-Syrian politician."An explosion might happen anywhere, an assassination might happen, the situation is chaotic and out of control."

Having seen the country of 23 million become an arena in which foreign players are fighting proxy wars, mediators have come to the same conclusion - that the longer the conflict lasts the more Syria will become beyond rescue.

Talk of political reform - as demanded originally by peaceful protesters wanting greater freedom, democracy and an end to vested interests by an Alawite minority ruling a Sunni Muslim majority - have long ceased to be realistic.

Only an orderly transition can save Syria, they say.

"The solution will have to involve regime change not only the change of one man. The problem is how to engineer this momentous change in a country that is complicated and where fighting has further complicated things. This certainly cannot all happen overnight," the Arab official said.

A Western envoy familiar with Syria said U.N. envoy Brahimi was trying to find a formula.

"By virtue of what has happened, the destruction and the fighting - if you don't have a transitional government with a strong army, Syria will be lost for a long time," he said

Hopes for the Brahimi mission are dim given that arms and funds are still flowing to rebel groups, while Assad's forces are still getting Russian and Iranian support.

"The Russians and the Iranians are even more robust. They support them with funds and political support and technical expertise," said the Lebanese politician.

Despite a collapse in revenues, a halt in oil sales and tourism income, and a fall in the value of the national currency, the economy has so far avoided meltdown. But this may only be a temporary respite for a government spending heavily on its military campaign. Support from Iran, its own currency collapsing, cannot be relied on indefinitely and the Syrian government's capacity to withstand economic headwinds is diminishing.

"The following five or six months will be essential in the battle and not like the past four or five months that have passed. The Americans would have completed their election, the Russians will have evolved their position and the situation in Iran will have crystallized," the Lebanese politician said.

"Until now, the Arabs have not changed their position, the Americans don't want to be decisive and the Russians haven't seen one factor that makes them back track one iota from their position. For the Russians, the matter is bigger than a naval base in Tartous, they can secure it through negotiations, it is about their role in the region."

VIOLENCE AND CHAOS

For the average Syrian citizen, the primary preoccupation remains violence, insecurity and chaos.

In Damascus, shops open during the day but life grinds to a halt by late afternoon, residents say. The government and army have set up roadblocks. They carry out searches of neighborhoods, they storm houses and arrest activists.

There is a sense of despair among residents. Kidnapping on sectarian grounds and also for ransom is rife. In rebel-controlled areas devastated by government firepower, resentment simmers among people who believe the rebels have brought havoc.

Most analysts predict a long battle. The stakes are high for Assad and his two million Alawite community - an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam linked religiously and politically to Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah. Bashar cannot leave easily.

There are people tied to him, there are people who fought a battle with him, he cannot abandon them and wash his hands of them," the pro-Syrian politician said.

Observers say, Russia is unlikely to give up its ties to Syria and get out of the Mediterranean.

And Iran looks unlikely to abandon its strategic ally.

"It is not easy for the nerve centre, the leadership in Iran to abandon or leave Syria because when we say Iran is giving up Syria it means it is getting out of the regional power play which means it will lose a lot of its external influence," said the Lebanese politician.

Yet officials from countries aligned against Assad remain hopeful that there will be a trigger to bring him down.

Until then, regional and Western powers are working on measures that need to be in place for a time when Assad is gone to avoid a post-Saddam-style, anarchic power vacuum.

"There will be some event which causes the regime to fall. The fall of Damascus, a regime coup, or something else. I can't predict what the trigger will be but the regime will fall," said the Western diplomat.

(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam; Dominic Evans and Mariam Karouny; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Janet McBride)

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Samia Nakhoul - Reuters
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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: In Fleeing Pilot, Hints Of Trouble For Syria’s Assad

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: In Fleeing Pilot, Hints Of Trouble For Syria’s Assad

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By C. J. Chivers for The New York Times
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 18, 2012: To escape the government he served until it gave him an order he could not obey, Capt. Akhmed Trad, a pilot in Syria’s air force, needed a plan: how to spirit himself over a border quickly, and leave no family behind.

In hurried meetings between the pilot and his parents, and indirect conversations over cellphones, evading what they worried were monitored calls, the Trad family set a time and place for everyone to meet, and fled.

Now safely in Turkey, where he is providing information to the rebels and helping them plan attacks, Captain Trad represents one of the great challenges to the government of President Bashar al-Assad and his military.

The Syrian government hails from the Alawite minority. But much of its administration and its military ability depend on Sunni bureaucrats, soldiers and officers like Captain Trad, whose alienation has been growing and whose defections risk increasing as Syria’s internal war takes on deepening sectarian tones.

Defected Sunni army officers have played a large role in the armed opposition since the war began last year, and they lead many of the field units of the Free Syrian Army, the umbrella antigovernment force. While the skills of defected air force pilots have less direct application for the rebels (who have no aircraft), the pilots’ decisions to join the uprising amount to both a moral and public relations victory for the rebels, and undermine the Assad military’s strength.

Captain Trad, interviewed with several family members in a village near this city by the Turkish-Syrian border, said he decided last year to defect, and he waited for his chance. When violence against Sunni citizens escalated this spring, he decided he could serve no more.

Captain Trad is a Mi-17 helicopter pilot; he said his aircraft was equipped to fire rockets. Pro-Assad forces were accused of ethnically motivated killings of Sunni Muslims in Houla, and as the primarily Sunni opposition forces were gaining strength, his commanders ordered his helicopter squadron to attack cities where the resistance was strong, including Idlib. This is where the Trads were born.

“We were told to bomb them, and for us, we did not accept it,” he said. “Bomb what? My town and my friends?”

Captain Trad said he had not yet fired a weapon in the war; he said he had shuttled troops and supplies, and had been assigned to protect Syrian V.I.P.’s.  

Captain Trad traveled to Aleppo, deceiving his commander and the military along the way, and prepared to rush his family over the border. Once in Aleppo, he met one of his brothers, Mohammed, an L-39 training pilot who was posted to an air force academy there but had been convalescing from shrapnel wounds suffered when an officers’ bus was hit by a bomb in April.

Their extended family — 15 people in all, including 5 women and 4 children — were waiting, too, ready for a dash north to the border, a journey made in multiple cars with a scout traveling ahead, looking for checkpoints or patrols and relaying information by cellphone. “It was like an operation,” said Thaer Trad, another of his brothers.

Short of the border, they left the cars and met a guide from a smuggling network. He showed them the route on the border area’s many foot trails, repeating the path of thousands of other Sunnis who have fled.

Just before crossing, Akhmed Trad said, his commander, who had been calling Mohammed Trad’s cellphone all day in search of Akhmed, called again, demanding to know why Akhmed had not reported to duty in Damascus. The two officers switched off their phones, crossed the border and became refugees.

Akhmed Trad was not a ground-combat officer. He joined the Free Syrian Army in a support role. These days, he said, he works in a refugee camp in Turkey, helping fellow Syrians with humanitarian aid. He said he also spends time sharing intelligence with ground fighters. “I give information about the air bases and where the helicopters are,” he said. His insider’s portrait of Syria’s helicopter squadrons offers details of a military capacity that, while potent, is undermined by sectarian division and operational limits.

For the pilots, squadron life could be riven by unequal standards and simmering distrust. Though Alawites are a minority, they make up roughly two-thirds of the pilots, another pilot who defected said. Captain Trad said Alawite officers had higher social standing, greater professional latitude and more privileges than their Sunni colleagues: a climate that fueled resentment.

“If a Sunni officer is even five minutes late, there will be a response,” he said. “But let an Alawite officer be late for a day. Nothing will happen to him.”

The Alawite commanders’ suspicions were so great that Sunni pilots, when they are not flying, are largely confined to bases, he said. They are rarely allowed to leave their duty stations to visit their families, or meet together outside the base walls, out of fear that they will defect or rise up.

In one five-month period, he said, he was allowed to leave his base only 10 times when off duty; Alawite pilots could go home between each mission.

Helicopters in his squadron flew with three-man crews, he said, but their commanders made certain no crews were all Sunni.

Since he and his brother fled, Akhmed Trad said, a group of like-minded Sunni helicopter pilots in his squadron have also deserted and crossed lines. “Of my friends, there were eight,” he said. “All of them defected.”

Qassem Saaddedine, a former Syrian Air Force colonel and a MIG-23BN airplane pilot who defected seven months ago and is now head of the opposition’s military council in Rastan, Syria, said Friday that about 15 pilots had defected to date. He said he expected more.

“Morale is becoming weaker and weaker among the pilots,” he said. “This regime is not using Sunni pilots. They fear after their defection they might hit the presidential palace” with ordnance.

These numbers cannot be independently confirmed. In Captain Trad’s case, he showed The New York Times his Syrian officer’s identification card and accurately answered an extensive set of questions about Mi-17 munitions. He also gave thorough descriptions of tactics, demonstrating a degree of knowledge consistent with an aviation career.

The Syrian Air Force is equipped with Russian-built helicopters — transport aircraft of the Mi-8 family and attack aircraft of the Mi-24 line — widely recognized as reliable and sturdy.

The aircraft are also well armed. He said his squadron was regularly equipped with S-5 rocket pods and trained to drop OFAB unguided bombs and RBK cluster-munitions canisters. By the time he defected in June, he said, pilots were routinely firing S-5 rockets and sometimes dropping OFABs, but he was not aware of any cluster-munitions use yet.

There were reports last week of cluster munitions being used by Syrian helicopters; the reports, while gaining credibility, have not been independently verified.

For all of the technical capacity, the air force suffers from shortfalls in skills and equipment, as well as the sectarian tension. Pilot-training hours are less than in the West — Captain Trad said he had 300 flight hours in a career nearly a decade long, far less than that of a Western pilot of similar service time.

And the Mi-8 and Mi-17 pilots do not have night-vision goggles or significant experience flying by darkness, limiting their influence in battle and allowing opposition forces greater leeway at night.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By C. J. Chivers for The New York Times
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DTN News - IRAN DEFENSE NEWS: Iran Will Strongly Counter Intrusive Powers In Region: Lawmaker

DTN News - IRAN DEFENSE NEWS: Iran Will Strongly Counter Intrusive Powers In Region: Lawmaker
*Iran drill conveys message of sovereignty to world: Foreign Ministry Spokesman
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Press TV
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 4, 2012:  A senior Iranian lawmaker says Iran has a policy to maintain security in the Persian Gulf and strongly counter any military intrusion in the region.

“The policy of the Islamic Republic is based on maintaining security in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz for all ships and oil tankers,” Chairman of the Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Alaeddin Boroujerdi told reporters on Tuesday. 

He added that Iran has the power to counter all elements behind regional insecurity. 

The senior legislator pointed to the ongoing missile drill by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in central Iran and stated that the military maneuvers display the country’s missile capability. 

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has entered a new phase of military might,” Boroujerdi pointed out, adding that such measures are not tantamount to any threats to the region and only denote that the Islamic Republic has the required capabilities to counter aggressions.

The three-day IRGC missile drill, entitled the Great Prophet 7, started in the central Iranian province of Semnan on Monday. 

The indigenous missiles, including Shahab (Meteor) 1, 2, 3, Khalij Fars (Persian Gulf), Tondar (Lightning), Fateh (Victor) and Zelzal (Quake) as well as Qiam (Uprising) were fired at mock targets during the drill. 

In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in the defense sector and gained self-sufficiency in essential military hardware and defense systems. 

Iran has repeatedly assured other nations, especially regional neighbors, that its military might poses no threat to other countries, insisting that its defense doctrine is merely based on deterrence.

*Iran drill conveys message of sovereignty to world: Foreign Ministry Spokesman

Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says the ongoing Great Prophet 7 missile drill in the central sector of the country is intended to convey a message of sovereignty and full preparedness to establish security in the Persian Gulf as well as the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking at a weekly press conference in Tehran on Tuesday, Mehmanparast said the drill aims to display Iran's might and attentiveness to establish safety in the Persian Gulf and secure the passage of oil cargos through Hormuz Strait. 

The senior Iranian official added that the Islamic Republic attaches great significance to the security of the Persian Gulf, stressing that Iran has both the capability and power to ensure the security and safe movement of energy supplies in the region. 

Deputy Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami said earlier on Tuesday that the Great Prophet 7 missile drill serves as a “firm response” to the threats of a military option against the Islamic Republic. 

“The main aim of this drill is to demonstrate the Iranian nation’s political resolve to defend [its] vital values and national interests,” he stated. 

The three-day IRGC missile war games, entitled the Great Prophet 7, started in the central Iranian province of Semnan on Monday. 

The indigenous missiles, including Shahab (Meteor) 1, 2, 3, Khalij Fars (Persian Gulf), Tondar (Lightning), Fateh (Victor) and Zelzal (Quake) as well as Qiam (Uprising) were fired at the mock targets during the drill. 

In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in the defense sector and gained self-sufficiency in essential military hardware and defense systems. 

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Press TV
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DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Chinese Firm Suspected In Missile-Linked Sale To North Korea According To U.S. official

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Chinese Firm Suspected In Missile-Linked Sale To North Korea According To U.S. official
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Matt Spetalnick - Washington Reuters
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 23, 2012: The United States believes a Chinese firm sold North Korea components for a missile transporter showcased in a recent military parade and will press Beijing to tighten enforcement of a U.N. ban on such military sales, a U.S. official said on Saturday.

The Obama administration suspects the Chinese manufacturer sold the chassis - not the entire vehicle - and may have believed it was for civilian purposes, which means it would not be an intentional violation of U.N. sanctions, the senior official said.

But such a sale - coming to light amid tensions over a failed North Korean rocket launch earlier this month - raises concerns in Washington on whether China is making enough of an effort to abide by the prohibition on weapons sales to Pyongyang.

The New York Times first reported on U.S. findings about the origin of parts of the transporter launcher system - essentially a large truck on top of which a missile is mounted - displayed in a parade in Pyongyang on Sunday.

The newspaper said the administration suspected the Chinese manufacturer involved in the transaction was Hubei Sanjiang. The official, who confirmed details of the administration's thinking on the matter, said the firm likely sold the part to a front company that was used to mask the buyer's true identity.

Beijing, reclusive North Korea's only major ally, has denied it has broken any rules, although a modern, eight-axle missile transporter spotted in the military parade to celebrate the founder of North Korea was said by some western military experts to be of Chinese design and possibly origin.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told U.S. lawmakers on Thursday that China has provided some assistance to North Korea's missile program, but he said he did not know the "exact extent of that."

The White House plans to convey its concerns to China and use the incident to ratchet up pressure on Beijing to tighten enforcement of international sanctions on North Korea, the U.S. official said. It was unclear, however, exactly how such a complaint would be lodged.

Under United Nations Security Council resolutions from 2006 and 2009, states including China are banned from helping North Korea with its ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities as well as supplying heavy weapons.

TENSIONS AFTER ROCKET LAUNCH

Pyongyang has said it was ready to retaliate in the face of widespread condemnation of its failed rocket launch, increasing the likelihood the isolated state will go ahead with a third nuclear test.

After last week's launch, which the United States said was a disguised long-range missile test, the Obama administration responded by suspending a food aid deal with North Korea. Pyongyang insists the launch was meant to put a satellite into orbit.

Obama had pressed Chinese President Hu Jintao at a global nuclear security summit in Seoul last month to use its influence to get Pyongyang to cancel the launch. But administration officials had doubted Beijing, an increasingly assertive U.S. rival in the Asia-Pacific region, would act forcefully enough.

China has called for "dialogue and communication" as tensions with North Korea mount and reiterated its long-standing call for a return to regional denuclearization talks that have been stalled for years.

Panetta was asked during testimony before the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee whether China had been supporting North Korea's missile program through "trade and technology exchanges."

He declined to give details but said, "Clearly there's been assistance along those lines."

Panetta said there was "no question" North Korea's efforts to develop long-range missile and nuclear weapon capability were a threat to the United States. "For that reason we take North Korea and their provocative actions very seriously," he said.

"And China ought to be urging them to engage in those kinds of ... diplomatic negotiations. We thought we were making some progress and suddenly we're back at provocation," he added.

(Reporting By Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Vicki Allen)


*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Matt Spetalnick - Washington Reuters
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DTN News - MYANMAR NEWS: British Prime Minister David Cameron In Myanmar - Support Suspending Sanctions

DTN News - MYANMAR NEWS: British Prime Minister David Cameron In Myanmar - Support Suspending Sanctions
*British PM calls for suspending Myanmar sanctions
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources AP
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 13, 2012: British Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday that he would support suspending the European Union's economic sanctions on Myanmar, which are to be reviewed by the end of the month.

Cameron spoke after meetings with the country's reform-minded president, Thein Sein, and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a longtime political prisoner who was recently elected to parliament in Myanmar, a former British colony.

However, Cameron specified that he did not want to see an arms embargo on Myanmar be lifted as part of any easing of sanctions. The embargo, along with economic and political sanctions, was imposed during the repressive rule of the country's previous military government.

"We know there is still much, much more needed to be done, as the president himself has acknowledged, that there are more changes that need to be made," Cameron said at a news conference after meeting with Suu Kyi. "The right thing for the world to do is to encourage the change and to believe in the possibility of peaceful progress towards democracy."

By talking of suspending rather than lifting sanctions, Cameron was making clear the move would be a provisional one that could easily be withdrawn, if judged necessary.

Western nations have held out the prospect of easing sanctions if Thein Sein, a former general who retains close ties to the military, continues the political liberalization he began after taking office a year ago. Foreign investors as well as Myanmar entrepreneurs expect a business boom when restrictions are lifted.

Cameron, speaking with Suu Kyi by his side, told reporters that he had met with Thein Sein and concluded "there are prospects of change in Burma, and I think it is right for the rest of the world to respond to those changes. It is right to suspend the sanctions there are against Burma." He added that the suspension would "obviously" not include ending the arms embargo. Burma is the former name for Myanmar.

Thein Sein's reforms are seen as being mainly driven by a desire for sanctions to be lifted, with those imposing them gradually easing restrictions in return for more reforms, which so far have included the freeing of many political prisoners and reconciliation with Suu Kyi's pro-democracy movement.

If the EU, which is scheduled to take up the issue on April 23, suspends sanctions, it will put pressure on the United States to do likewise, for competitive business reasons. Both the EU and the U.S. restrict investment and trade with Myanmar, along with a slew of more targeted measures aimed at Myanmar military figures involved with repression, and their families and business cronies.

Suu Kyi — who attended Oxford and whose late husband was British — endorsed Cameron's approach.

"I support the idea of suspension rather than the lifting of sanctions because this would be an acknowledgment of the role of the president and other reformers," she said. "This suspension would have taken place because of steps taken by the president and other reformers and it would also make it quite clear to those who are against reform that should they try to obstruct the way of the reformers, then sanctions could come back."

While the international community has applauded political liberalization in Myanmar, it remains concerned about conflict with ethnic rebel groups, who have long been seeking greater autonomy from the central government. The government has been negotiating cease-fires with many, but remains embroiled in a bitter, fitful struggle with the Kachin minority in the country's far north.

As long as such fighting continues, there is no chance the arms embargo will be lifted. However, the failure to do so will affect Myanmar very little, as it had gotten around the embargo for years by buying military items from other suppliers, including China, North Korea and Eastern European nations.

Cameron held talks with Thein Sein soon after arriving in Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw, and later met separately with Suu Kyi at her home in Yangon during his one-day visit.

His visit is the first in memory by a British prime minister, and it may actually be the first by a serving British head of government since Myanmar obtained its independence from Britain in 1948, when it was called Burma.

Suu Kyi was under house arrest during most of the past two decades under military rule. But as part of her rapprochement with the government, her National League for Democracy party took part in April 1 by-elections to win 43 of the 44 parliamentary seats it contested.

She will head the opposition bloc in parliament when it convenes on April 23, though Suu Kyi's party has suggested that it may delay taking its seats because it finds the wording of the oath of office contrary to its principles. The oath talks of protecting the constitution, which has clauses the NLD considers undemocratic.

Cameron invited Suu Kyi to come to the United Kingdom in June to see her "beloved Oxford" and said that it would be a sign of progress if she were able to leave her country and then return to carry out her duties as a lawmaker. When she was at odds with the former ruling junta, she declined to leave for fear she would be barred from returning.

Suu Kyi replied that "two years ago I would have said 'thank you' for the invitation, 'but sorry.' But now I am able to say 'perhaps,' and that's great progress."

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources AP
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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Syrian Blasts Kill 14, Arab Monitors May Stay

DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Syrian Blasts Kill 14, Arab Monitors May Stay
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Reuters
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 21, 2012: Bombs killed at least 14 prisoners in a Syrian security vehicle on Saturday, and fierce battles erupted between rebels and state forces as the Arab League considered whether to keep monitors in place.
The League looks set to extend its monitoring mission in Syria, given the lack of any Arab or world consensus on how to halt the bloodshed there, an Arab diplomatic source said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the 10-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, said an explosive device planted on a road in the northwestern province of Idlib had killed 15 detainees and wounded dozens.

Syria's state news agency SANA said a "terrorist" group had set off two explosions on the road between the towns of Idlib and Ariha, killing 14 prisoners and wounding 26. Six police guards were also wounded, some critically.

Activists in Idlib offered a very different account, saying the vehicle had actually been carrying dead bodies. They uploaded videos of corpses on the bloodied floors of a hospital morgue, some of which appeared to be decomposing, and said they had come from the vehicle.

Foreign journalists are mostly banned from Syria and such reports are impossible to verify.

Elsewhere in Idlib, clashes broke out between rebels and troops in the city of Maarat Noaman.

"Ten soldiers were trying to desert and their escape sparked clashes between the army and the rebels. One rebel was martyred when he helped give the defectors cover and nine army personnel were killed," the Observatory's head Rami Abdelrahman told Reuters by telephone from Britain.

The Observatory said troops had clashed with army deserters who had joined the insurgency in the town of Jebel al-Zawiya, also in Idlib province, which borders Turkey.

FIGHTING NEAR DAMASCUS

Rebels seized parts of the town of Douma near Damascus before retreating, activists said. Explosions and gunfire rocked the area, a hotbed of revolt after dark.

The fighting began on Saturday afternoon, after security forces killed four people when they fired on a funeral march for a slain protester. Ensuing clashes left dozens wounded, activists said.

Syria accuses its neigbours of failing to combat arms smuggling to insurgents across their borders. On Saturday Syrian forces killed a Lebanese fisherman and wounded another when they seized their boat at sea, the father of the dead man said.

Residents said the Syrians may have suspected the men of smuggling.

Hundreds of people have been killed during the month-long observer mission, despatched to assess Syria's implementation of an Arab peace plan originally agreed in early November.

Sudanese General Mohammed al-Dabi, head of the 165-strong monitoring team, was due in Cairo on Saturday to submit his report for a League committee on Syria to consider on Sunday.

Syria is keen to avoid tougher action by the Arab League or the United Nations. It has tried to show it is complying with the plan, which demands a halt to killings, a military pullout from the streets, the release of detainees, access for the monitors and the media, and dialogue with opposition groups.

Critics say the Arab monitors have only given Assad diplomatic cover to pursue a bloody crackdown on his opponents.

The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) told Reuters it had formally asked the League to refer the Syrian crisis to the U.N. Security Council.

But an Arab source said the League was most likely planning only to extend the mission's mandate: "Yes, there is not complete satisfaction with Syria's cooperation with the monitoring mission. But in the absence of any international plan to deal with Syria, the best option is for the monitors to stay.

This month the Syrian authorities have freed hundreds of detainees, announced an amnesty, struck a ceasefire deal with armed rebels in one town, allowed the Arab observers into some trouble spots and admitted a gaggle of foreign journalists.

"TERRORISTS"

Assad also promised political reforms, while vowing iron-fisted treatment of the "terrorists" trying to topple him.

Burhan Ghalioun, head of the SNC, was in the Egyptian capital for meetings with opposition colleagues and Arab League officials.

The group said in a statement he would ask for the case to go to the Security Council in order to get a resolution imposing a no-fly zone or safe zone.

Western powers have failed to overcome Chinese and Russian opposition to any Security Council resolution condemning Syria or imposing sanctions.

The United States and the European Union have toughened their own punitive measures, but have shown no desire to mount a Libya-style military intervention to help Assad's opponents, who include both armed insurgents and peaceful protesters.

Washington warned on Friday that it might soon close its embassy in Syria due to worsening security conditions and said it believed Assad no longer had full control of the country.

U.S. concern about the safety of its mission in Damascus, which was attacked by a pro-Assad crowd in July, intensified after three deadly blasts in the Syrian capital in recent weeks, blamed by Syrian authorities on al-Qaeda suicide bombers.

Closing the embassy would not amount to cutting diplomatic ties, but would reduce direct U.S. contacts with Damascus.

A White House spokesman said Assad's fall was "inevitable" and demanded he halt violence against protesters in which the United Nations says more than 5,000 people have died since March. Syria says 2,000 security personnel have been killed. (Writing by Alistair Lyon and Erika Solomon; editing by Andrew Roche)

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Reuters
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