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Bethlehem (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – US Secretary of State John Kerry reaffirmed on Wednesday Washington’s rejection of Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories as „illegitimate.””We consider now, and have always considered, the settlements to be illegitimate,” Kerry said, after talks in Bethlehem with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas focused on shoring up the peace negotiations.”I want to make it extremely clear that at no time did the Palestinians in any way agree, as a matter of going back to the talks, that they could somehow condone or accept the settlements,” Kerry said.”That is not to say that they weren’t aware — or we weren’t aware — that there would be construction,” he added.His remarks related to a bitter row that has erupted over Israeli moves during the past week to push ahead with construction of more than 3,700 new settler homes.View gallery.”
A map locating the east Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo, where Israel is planning to build 1,50 …Several Israeli officials have claimed the settlement announcements were in keeping with tacit „understandings” between the two sides linked to the release last week of 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners.Their comments sparked furious denials from the Palestinians.”The Palestinians believe the settlements are illegal. The United Sates continue to believe the settlements are not helpful,” Kerry said.A previous round of direct talks collapsed in September 2010 in an acrimonious row over settlements, with the Palestinians refusing to negotiate while Israel builds on land they want for a future state.After six months of shuttle diplomacy, Kerry managed to coax the two sides back to the table in late July.View gallery.”
Palestinian laborers work on a construction site in Ramat Shlomo, a Jewish settlement in the mainly …But already tempers are fraying, once again over Israeli construction on land seized during the 1967 Six Day War.
Research dispute puts EU-Israel ties under severe strain
By Luke Baker 3 hours ago IsraelBenjamin Netanyahu 
View galleryIsrael’s President Shimon Peres (L) holds a joint news conference with European Commission President …By Luke Baker BRUSSELS (Reuters) – As Israel looks warily west in the hope that the United States has its back in any conflict with Iran, it might do well to glance north and consider its relations with Europe too.Over the past four years, ties between the European Union and Israel have grown increasingly fractious, with Brussels seldom missing an opportunity to lambaste Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for building settlements on occupied Palestinian land and restricting access to large portions of the West Bank.In a series of statements since June 2009, soon after Netanyahu came to power and settlement expansion began, EU foreign ministers have steadily sharpened their tone, leading to the publication in July this year of strict new rules on how EU funds can be distributed to Israeli organizations.The funding guidelines, which effectively ban EU money being allotted to Israeli research institutes and other entities that have operations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, are a source of great aggravation to Israel.From Europe’s point of view, they merely put down on paper what has been a long-held position: that the occupation of Palestinian land is illegal under international law and EU governments don’t want to finance activities there.Either way, it has brought relations to a tense pass, one of the worst periods diplomats can recall in the past decade, and the situation may well get worse.”There has been a steady downward trend in relations, although perhaps not as bad as sometimes portrayed in the Israeli media,” said Mattia Toaldo, a specialist on Israel and the Middle East at the European Council on Foreign Relations.”The guidelines are part of a political trend that has been part of EU policy since the 1970s but has become more explicit since 2009, and has been stepped up since last December.”While the EU, which provides more than 450 million euros a year to the Palestinians, is regarded by Israel as a less substantial ally than the United States, it still matters a great deal, especially in terms of trade and investment.The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, supplying nearly 35 percent of Israel’s imports, the largest share, while more than a quarter of its exports go to the EU.In 2000, the EU granted the country preferential trade terms, mainly for agricultural and industrial goods, and there has been a steady rise in cooperation on scientific research and technology too, which is where the guidelines come in.BRIGHT FUTURE?—From next year until the end of the decade, the EU will spend 70 billion euros – 10 billion a year – on scientific research and development, a program called Horizon 2020.Israel is the only non-EU country invited to take part and will contribute some of the funding, around 600 million euros. In return, its top-notch scientists and researchers will gain access to the wider funding pot, with the expectation that they will secure far more financing than the country puts in.And there’s the rub. The EU’s guidelines proscribe any of the money going to entities in the West Bank or East Jerusalem, even though some of the financing ultimately comes from Israel.”As it stands, we cannot sign Horizon 2020,” Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin told Reuters last month. „It would force us to discriminate against our own institutions.”When the guidelines were published in July there was widespread finger-pointing by Israel over whether the EU had kept it informed of the plans. Some Israeli officials suggested the EU had been less than transparent.Records show Israel was in fact briefed by the EU five times before the publication, although it had essentially no say in shaping the language drafted by the European Commission.Since then, senior officials have met in Brussels and Jerusalem to try to work out a way of interpreting the guidelines that is acceptable to both sides. There has been little progress so far. Another meeting is due before the end of the month to try to strike a deal in time for Horizon 2020 to begin as planned from January 1, 2014.While EU and Israeli officials are reasonably hopeful that a compromise can be reached in time, others are not so sure. Toaldo of the European Council on Foreign Relations expects Horizon 2020 to start without Israel, but with the door left open for them to join at some point in the coming years.That would mark a further decline in ties, although not an irreparable break. However, another set of EU proposals, this time on the labeling of goods made by Israel at factories or farms on the West Bank, is in the pipeline and is likely to be even more sensitive for Israel and disruptive to relations.Asked when rules on labeling would be published, a senior EU official said: „These are discussions that take some time. They are proceeding and they are rather sensitive ones, so I think one can expect that it may take some more time.”In the past, the EU and Israel have always managed to patch up their differences. A similar outcome is likely now – no one expects a fundamental breakdown in diplomatic relations.But the EU, which wants Israel to change policy on settlement building and loosen restrictions in the West Bank, specifically Area C that makes up 60 percent of the territory and is controlled by Israeli security, does not appear minded to soften its approach. It thinks the pressure is working.Toaldo agrees that the EU’s approach is having an impact, whether intentional or not, for example in helping to shunt the Israelis and Palestinians back to talks. But he also warns against seeing such an attitude as a workable policy.”I would say one step at a time. You can strain EU-Israel relations too much and too quickly,” he said, adding that while Europe matters to Israel, the reverse is also true.(Writing by Luke Baker; additional reporting by Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem; editing by Giles Elgood)
EU execs back OK for genetically modified corn
By RAF CASERT 21 minutes ago European CommissionEuropean Union
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BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union moved closer to approving the cultivation of a second genetically modified corn on the continent despite years of objections by environmental groups and widespread apprehension about GMO food among European consumers.Wednesday’s approval by the EU Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, now sends the plan to approve DuPont-Pioneer Maize 1507 to the EU’s 28 member nations for consideration — and could lead to a decision on the issue within months.EU member states have sharply diverging views on the cultivation of Genetically Modified Organisms — commonly known as GMOs —and decisions have been often been deadlocked for years. A continued stalemate over the next few months would throw the issue back to the Commission, which could then make the decision itself.Since DuPont Pioneer had first applied for approval to commercialize the cultivation in Europe 12 years ago, it welcomed the latest step.”1507 maize meets all EU regulatory requirements and should be approved for cultivation without further delay,” the company said in a statement.View gallery.”
European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy Tonio Borg addresses the media, at the European …Environmental groups sharply criticized the EU Commission for opening the door to further GMO cultivation in Europe.”Instead of banning this toxic maize (corn) and protecting both consumers and the environment, the European Commission has buckled once again to industry pressure,” said Mute Schimpf of Friends of the Earth Europe.It said the GMO corn was highly toxic and would harm the delicate habitat of butterflies and moths.DuPont Pioneer, however, insists that its 1507 corn is grown throughout the world and had received no less that 7 positive safety reports from the EU.The EU has strict guidelines on authorizing and informing consumers about foods containing GMOs — a policy that has caused problems for producers of genetically modified seeds such as the U.S.-based Monsanto Co., which are used to less stringent rules around the world.View gallery.”
European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy Tonio Borg addresses the media, at the European …At the moment, Monsanto’s MON 810 corn is the only GMO farm product cultivated in the EU, and even then, it only represents 1.35 percent of the EU’s corn cultivation.That contrasts sharply with the widespread use of GMOs in North and South America.The European Commission also proposed to change the way that GMOs could be introduced in Europe, allowing individual member states to reject their cultivation based on a series of social or political grounds even if it has been approved throughout the EU on a scientific basis.___Follow Raf Casert on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/rcasert
Thousands of Russian nationalists march in MoscowNovember 4, 2013 11:37 AM MoscowVladimir Putin
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Moscow (AFP) – About 10,000 Russian ultra-nationalists marched through Moscow on Monday in a protest against Muslim migrants that saw police make dozens of arrests.Moscow authorities said they detained about 30 young men for making Nazi-style salutes and breaking the windows of cars driven by people who looked like they came from impoverished Muslim regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia.”Why are there foreigners in our cities? This is our home,” said a young woman on the march who identified herself only as Nadezhda.Another man with a shaved head and a young child on his shoulders said simply: „We are all Russians here. Kids have nothing to be afraid of.”He spoke as a group of flag flag-waving youths marched by holding up a banner proclaiming: „Today, a mosque — tomorrow, jihad.”View gallery.”
Russian nationalists hold a giant Russian Empire flag as they rally in the southeastern outskirts of …The protest concluded with a booming performance by Kolovrat — a white supremacist rock group whose lyrics idolise Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and call for the destruction of other ethnic groups.The demonstration took place in the same blue-collar region on the city’s outskirts that saw riots break out three weeks ago over a deadly stabbing blamed on a citizen of Azerbaijan.Attacks on ethnic minorities and foreigners working in the city have been a regular feature of the annual „Russian March” — an event coinciding with a new Unity Day holiday President Vladimir Putin introduced to commemorate the expulsion of Poles from Moscow in 1612.The US embassy in Moscow urged Americans to steer well clear of the protest and be vigilant throughout the day.”Extreme violence has been witnessed during previous nationalist protests, and spontaneous demonstrations of support may appear anywhere throughout the city, at any time of the day,” the US embassy said in a special security message.View gallery.”
Russia nationalists take part in the so-called „Russian March” in the southeastern outskirts of Mosc …Ethnic tensions have been building-Analysts and Kremlin critics have long accused Putin of fomenting dangerous nationalist sentiments in order to build a broad-based coalition of middle-class Russians around his 13-year rule.Ethnic tensions have simmered in Moscow and other major cities with a steady inflow of labourers from crisis-hit regions of the former Soviet Union.The workers often endure hazardous labour and living conditions and are regarded with disdain by many Muscovites.The tensions came to a boil on October 13 when a crowd of thousands chanting „Russia for Russians!” and other neo-Nazi slogans rioted in the southern Biryulyovo district following the murder of a young Muscovite.View gallery.”
Russian nationalists take part in the so-called „Russian March” in the southeastern outskirts of Mos …Smaller protests continued until city authorities arrested a man from Azerbaijan who worked at the vegetable warehouse where the stabbing occurred.Stemming the migration of ethnic Muslim labourers was also a major theme of Moscow mayoral elections in September that Putin ally Sergei Sobyanin won over opposition leader Alexei Navalny — a nationalist who has attended previous „Russian March” rallies.Navalny said he still believed in the need to rid Moscow of migrants but would not be joining Monday’s demonstration.”I still support the Russian March as an idea and as an event,” Navalny wrote on his blog.”But today, my participation in the Russian March would turn into a hellish comedy,” Navalny said in reference to the growing media attention he has been gaining both in Russia and abroad.Putin meanwhile marked Unity Day by attending an exhibit honouring the Romanov dynasty together with Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill.”Cohesion and solidarity have turned into the bedrock of the Russian state,” said Putin.”This unbreakable national unity has repeatedly helped Russia defend its freedom and national independence, overcoming years of trouble and achieving triumphs.”Russian police harassed Norwegian journalists reporting on Sochi: rights groupBy Thomas Grove 23 hours ago SochiVladimir Putin
View galleryA general view shows the Bolshoy Ice Dome during sunrise at the coastal cluster of 2014 Sochi Winter …By Thomas Grove MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian police harassed and detained two Norwegian journalists on their way to Sochi, venue of the 2014 winter Olympics, a rights group and their television station said on Tuesday.Human Rights Watch said in a statement the International Olympic Committee (IOC) must demand an explanation from authorities and insist that no further incidents of this kind occurred.HRW said police accused one of the journalists from Norway’s TV2, the country’s official games broadcaster, of taking drugs and both had their luggage searched.The Krasnodar regional police, who oversee Sochi, were not available to comment.A TV2 representative confirmed its crew was in Russia last week to report on Olympic preparations, but was not allowed to do their job by police.”There is no doubt is that their main purpose was to obstruct our work,” news director Jan Ove Aarsaether told Reuters. „Of course they haven’t been drunk or on drugs, they had been working very professionally.”Russia has spent more than $50 billion in preparations for the games and President Vladimir Putin has staked his international reputation on the success of the event in the Black Sea resort town.Jane Buchanan, HRW’s associate director for Europe and Central Asia, said the International Olympic Committee, „needs to demand a full explanation from the Russian authorities about the bullying of an Olympic broadcaster’s staff and insist that no other journalists suffer this kind of intimidation and harassment.”Russian media has focused almost exclusively on the successes of the games preparations. Any criticism of the increased police presence and the environmental impact of construction for the games has been limited mainly to personal blogs.JOURNALISTS DETAINED SEVERAL TIMES-The HRW statement said that the journalists had been detained several times travelling in and out of the Sochi region, which borders the volatile North Caucasus.One of them was forced to drive to a local drug clinic after officers claimed he might be on narcotics. This incident ended only when another officer arrived at the centre saying there had been a ‘misunderstanding’.Police did not give clear reasons as to why the reporters were targeted, according to the HRW report.However the journalists were quoted as saying that an unidentified officer had told them their rented car’s plate had been notified to police posts by the Federal Security Service, a successor of the KGB.Another policeman inquired if they were planning to report „anything negative” on the Olympics, the journalists said.”The Russian authorities tried almost every pressure tactic in the book to try to scare these journalists away from critical reporting on Sochi and other Olympics-related topics,” Buchanan said.Russia ranks 148th out of 179 countries on the World Press Freedom index compiled by the journalist watchdog Reporters Without Borders. Pressure on the media in Russia has increased since Putin returned to power last year following an unprecedented wave of opposition protests.(Reporting By Thomas Grove, additional reporting by Balazs Koranyi in Oslo; editing by Barry Moody)
Tajiks vote to re-elect Rakhmon for fourth termBy Akbar Borisov 49 minutes ago Tajikistan
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Dushanbe (Tajikistan) (AFP) – Tajikistan was Wednesday set to hand President Emomali Rakhmon a fourth term at the helm of the poorest ex-Soviet state, in high-turnout elections in which he lacked any serious opponent.In a tale all too familiar throughout Muslim but vehemently secular ex-Soviet Central Asia, the five candidates standing against Rakhmon were virtual unknowns even inside the country, each with next to no chance of victory.Turnout was 80 percent by two hours before the close of polls, approaching the figure of over 90 percent recorded in the last elections in 2006, the central election commission said.Polls had opened before dawn at 6:00 am (0100 GMT) in an apparent bid to maximise participation.Polling stations closed at 1500 GMT without any reports of serious disturbances, officials said. No results were due to be announced until Thursday.View gallery.”
Map locating central Asian country of Tajikistan (AFP Photo/)Rakhmon’s most significant rival, female rights lawyer Oinikhol Bobonazarova of the moderate opposition Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan, was unable to stand after narrowly failing to muster the signatures required to register her candidacy.Bobonazarova gathered only 202,000 of the 210,000 signatures required that equates to five percent of the electorate, a shortfall her party blamed on harassment from the local authorities.”The opposition is not represented in these elections. Even the registered candidates are not opposed to the president,” Bobonazarova’s party spokesman Khikmatullo Saifullozoda told AFP.’The result is clear’Another main opposition party, the Social Democratic Party, said it boycotted the elections because of „a lack of democracy and transparency”.View gallery.”
Tajik musicians play music near a polling station in Dushanbe, on November 6, 2013 (AFP Photo/)The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which is monitoring the polls, noted in its interim report that „there is no visible campaign by other candidates so far”.One of Rakhmon’s purported rivals, the candidate of the Agrarian Party, Tolibek Bukhoriyev, appeared unworried by the prospect of Rakhmon’s looming victory.”Today is a great holiday, today is the elections and the day of the constitution. I expect a great improvement in our lives from these elections,” he told AFP.Communist Party candidate Ismoil Talbakov also thanked the authorities Wednesday for giving him a chance to familiarise voters with his programme.At the entrance to Dushanbe Plaza, the capital’s tallest building, Tajiks were greeted by live music and poll workers dressed in traditional costumes who were handing out free drinks in an effort to attract a bigger vote.View gallery.”
A car passes a polling station in Dushanbe, on November 6, 2013 (AFP Photo/)”I think the result is clear. We know who the president will be for the next seven years,” said Abdurozik, 57, after casting his ballot.A taxi driver named Rakhim, 43, expressed a similar sentiment.”My only question is why they put up so many other candidates,” he said. „Everyone knows Rakhmon. But who are these other guys?”Shadowed by the more than 7,000-metre (23,000-feet) high peaks of the Pamir Mountains, Persian-speaking Tajikistan boasts a crucial strategic position, bordering China and Afghanistan, as well as ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.Its importance could grow with the pullout of US troops next year from neighbouring Afghanistan, with whom Tajikistan shares a long and porous border.View gallery.”
Tajik voters cast their ballots at a polling station in Dushanbe, on November 6, 2013 (AFP Photo/)Rakhmon, 61, who has dropped the Russian ‘ov’ from is name and downgraded the status of Russian in his country, has had tricky relations with Moscow. But this year he agreed to extend the presence of a Russian military base in the country until 2042.The resource-poor country suffers from chronic energy shortages and is mired in grinding poverty that has left it the poorest ex-Soviet state and forced many to work in Russia, with their remittances providing a crucial contribution to the economy.In an apparent bid to lift the electorate’s mood, the government promised not to cut power supplies anywhere in the country as long as polling stations remained open.Rakhmon, who came to power in 1992 amid the chaos of the start of Tajikistan’s five-year civil war, has made energy independence the key plank of his campaign, in particular ensuring the construction of his vastly ambitious pet project, the Rogun hydroelectric dam.He also has deeply acrimonious relations with powerful Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, who has accused Tajikistan of trying to rob his country of water resources and effectively warned that the building of the Rogun dam could lead to war.After his initial wartime appointment by the Tajik Supreme Soviet in 1992, Rakhmon enjoyed easy re-elections in 1994, 1999 and 2006. With the Tajik presidential mandate now seven years, he could potentially stay in power until 2020.
Clampdown on illegal workers felt in several Saudi areas18 hours ago
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Riyadh (AFP) – Stores in a usually bustling district of the Saudi capital were closed, construction work at some sites slowed and bakeries around the country shuttered Tuesday, amid a clampdown on illegal workers.On Monday, authorities began arresting people who had failed to take advantage of a months-long grace period to leave or legalise their status, and detentions were continuing on Tuesday.Residents in Riyadh said stores were closed in the popular Al-Batha commercial hub, a cheap market that employs low-paid Asian vendors.At the same time, residents said work had slowed at a construction site in Thumamama, north of Riyadh.And Fahd Al-Salman, chairman of the National Committee for Bakeries at the Council of Saudi Chambers, told the Arab News daily that the labour shortage had led to the closure of many bakeries in the kingdom.View gallery.”
Foreign female workers gather outside the Saudi immigration department as they try to get visas and …Meanwhile, private schools that had closed on Monday re-opened following reassurances that expat teachers, working illegally, could remain until the end of the first school semester in December, residents said.Nearly 4,000 people have so far been arrested in Jeddah alone, the kingdom’s commercial capital, said local police spokesman Lieutenant Nawaf al-Bouq.In the capital Riyadh, 818 illegal immigrants, including two women, were arrested on Tuesday, the police spokesman there General Nasser al-Qahtani told AFP.In the southwestern Jazan province, border guards have arrested more than 8,000 people of various nationalities trying to cross the border to Yemen in the past 24 hours, the official SPA news agency quoted a spokesman there as saying Tuesday.Three thousand of these have been deported as authorities are still finalising deportation procedures for the remainder, the spokesman said.View gallery.”
Foreign workers have a breakfast at a construction site in the Saudi capital Riyadh on October 30, 2 …Hundreds of expatriates have also been arrested in other areas across the kingdom, according to local media.Nearly a million Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis, among others, took advantage of the amnesty announced on April 3 and then extended for four months, and have left the country.Another roughly four million have legalised their situation by finding employers to sponsor them, a must to reside in most Gulf monarchies.On Monday, illegal Indonesian workers staged a protest in the port city to protest their consulate’s slow pace in handling administrative procedures needed to organise their departure, local press reported.In the past, foreigners desperate to work in the country were willing to pay for sponsorship, and sponsoring expatriates became a lucrative business for some Saudis.View gallery.”
Some of the 30 Filipino workers repatriated from Saudi Arabia arrive at the Manila International Air …But under the new rules, workers may be employed only by their own sponsors, banning the practise of working independently or for non-sponsors.Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is seen as a goldmine for millions of people from Asia and elsewhere in the Arab world, who find work as common labourers, drivers, porters and house maids.Expatriates account for around nine million of the country’s 27-million-population.Saudi Arabia has the Arab world’s largest economy, but the unemployment rate among natives is above 12.5 percent, a figure the government is aiming to reduce.
Saudi migrant sweep aims to quell local demandsBy BY ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI and AYA BATRAWY 23 hours ago Saudi ArabiaUnited Arab Emirates
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Many workers stayed off the streets to avoid checkpoints looking for invalid labor papers. Thousands of others had already arranged one-way journeys home, with Saudi officials insisting that those without the right visas and documents would receive no leniency.After seven months of warnings, a nationwide culling of Saudi Arabia’s massive foreign workforce took effect this week spearheaded by a special task force of 1,200 Labor Ministry officials combing shops, construction sites, restaurants and businesses. Police manned roadblocks to enforce the kingdom’s strict labor rules that make it virtually impossible to remain in the country without an official employee-sponsor.More than 4,000 people were arrested by Tuesday as part of the crackdown, officials said. But the effort means far more than just a letter-of-the-law push by one of the Middle East’s powerhouse economies.It reflects a wider drive to trim reliance on foreign workers across the Gulf Arab states, whose rulers have so far ridden out the Arab Spring but fear that demographics may not be on their side in the future. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries have aggressively supported proposals to open more jobs for their own citizens, worrying that chronic unemployment could eventually feed greater dissent and challenges to their tight grip on power.It’s another sign of the fraying of the longstanding Gulf social contract as populations grow, costs rise and the Middle East’s upheavals change views on the streets. For decades, the two-way bargain was Gulf rulers doling out civil servant jobs and generous state benefits in return for political security. The rest was handled by the seemingly endless flow of workers, mainly from South Asia, who built the cities, tended to their employers’ children and staffed businesses running from malls to banks to supermarkets.Now, there is concern in the Gulf palaces that the framework may be in need of a drastic overhaul with young and increasingly impatient populations.”We want more Saudi men and women to work in the private and public sectors,” Saudi Deputy Labor Minister Mufrej Al-Haqbani told reporters Sunday just before the end of an „amnesty” period for the estimated 1.5 million foreigners — about 16 percent of the total 9 million non-Saudi work force — who are believed to have violated residency and labor rules by leaving their sponsors, sneaking into the country or simply staying after making the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. Workers had until Monday to comply with the law or face arrest and deportation.While some Gulf countries have plentiful oil and gas resources to lavish on relatively small local populations — foreigners outnumber natives about 5-to-1 in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — the pressures on Saudi Arabia stand out. Its 27 million people are more than the populations of all the other Gulf citizens combined, and its vast oil wealth has not trickled down enough to appease domestic demands or raise up impoverished areas and slums.View gallery.”
FILE – In this file photo taken on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010, Sumiati from Indonesia lies in a bed at …Unlike other many places in the Gulf, low-income Saudis are willing to work the types of jobs that have long been held by Indian, Egyptian, Pakistani and Filipino migrant workers, though perhaps not for the same low wages that can be the equivalent of just several hundred dollars a month. Yet unemployment among Saudi nationals has remained stuck at 10 percent for several years, according to the International Monetary Fund. Unemployment among Saudis under 30 years old — about two-thirds of the population — is about three times the national average.A sharp jolt to Gulf rulers came from an unexpected corner — normally sleepy Oman — where Arab Spring-inspired protesters demanded more jobs in early 2011. Gulf governments responded in predictable fashion: opening the state vaults.Saudi Arabia promised $120 billion to fund job creation, debt forgiveness, higher public sector wages and social programs that help young Saudis buy homes, a prerequisite for marriage. It also accelerated its so-called „Saudization” program, which seeks to require businesses to ensure that Saudi nationals make up at least 10 percent of the work force.But numbers tell another story. Only one-third of the 7 million new jobs created over the past decade went to Gulf nationals, according to the IMF.A report in the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National said at least 51 million more jobs are needed by 2020 to avoid a rise in unemployment among Arab Gulf nationals.The Saudi crackdown and other measures may whittle down the number of foreign workers, but fail to directly address deeper issues that touch all Gulf nations such as allegations of abuses of domestic help and employment rules that have been harshly criticized by rights groups.Nearly every worker in the Gulf — from construction sites to board rooms — is directly „sponsored” by an employer who has say over exit visas, residency and work permits. Groups such as Human Rights Watch and the International Labor Organization have accused employers of violations such as withholding workers’ passports or ignoring their demands. In May, hundreds of construction workers in the United Arab Emirates were sent back to Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries after waging a strike to protest meal costs deducted from their pay.Any worker who leaves a sponsor without permission to find another job is considered in violation of labor rules.View gallery.”
FILE – In this Monday, Oct. 14, 2013 file photo, Muslim pilgrims pray on a rocky hill called the Mou …”The problem on one level is that the migrants keep salary levels low,” Saudi expert and author Karen Elliott House said. „Another problem is that Saudis are either not qualified for the jobs they want or do not want to accept the low salaries of jobs they are qualified to do.”The sponsorship system also has led to corruption under so-called „free visa” arrangements where Saudis posing as sponsoring employees charge up to $3,200 to import workers for businesses that do not exist. The arrangement allows foreigners a cover to begin looking for work once in Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch said.Additionally, the security sweeps do not include raids on homes, leaving domestic workers largely out of the view from authorities. In 2010, a 23 year-old woman from Indonesia was hospitalized in after her Saudi employers allegedly burned her, broke her middle finger and cut her lips with scissors.Authorities say that since warnings were issued earlier this year, 3.8 million people renewed their residency permits and 2.7 million corrected their papers to accurately reflect their occupation and workplace. The kingdom meanwhile issued more than 1 million final exit visas, which ban people from ever returning.Employers who hired foreign workers illegally now face up to two years imprisonment and fines up to $27,000 for each case under the new rules.The lax oversight of the past years also has been considered a security problem for Saudi police, who face resistance from criminal gangs when trying to enter the country’s many slums. Saudi officials say the country’s 1,800-kilometer (1,100-mile) border with Yemen is breached daily by drug traffickers, al-Qaida militants and African refugees.In the Red Sea port area of Jiddah alone, slums comprise almost 40 percent of the city. In the holy city of Mecca, the figure is estimated to be even higher, said a Saudi official who wished not to be named because he was not authorized to release the information to media.Internal security, said the analyst House, is „one of the reasons they want to look under the mattress.”—Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Britain lays on the pomp for S. Korean president23 hours ago David CameronSouth Korea
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London (AFP) – South Korea’s President Park Geun-Hye was treated to a full display of British pomp and ceremony as she began a three-day state visit to London on Tuesday.Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip accompanied Park in a horse-drawn carriage as they rode to Buckingham Palace, while troops welcomed her with a 41-gun salute at Green Park and the Tower of London.The president also inspected a guard of honour with Philip and was greeted by Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary William Hague and interior minister Theresa May.Wrapped up in a dark purple coat against the damp chill, Park smiled from the window of the ornate black and gold carriage as she sat beside the 87-year-old queen, who wore a pink coat and hat.The president was set to join the queen’s grandson Prince William later at a groundbreaking ceremony for a memorial dedicated to British soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, ahead of a banquet at the palace.View gallery.”
British military personnel march on the Mall outside Buckingham Palace in London on November 5, 2013 …Park, who is staying at Buckingham Palace, is due to hold talks with Cameron on Wednesday.Foreign Secretary Hague described South Korea as „a long-standing political friend and ally of the UK”.”This truly is one of our most important partnerships in Asia, and we welcome South Korea’s growing role in international affairs,” he said.The visit comes amid a rise in tensions between South Korea and Japan, a key ally in efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear programme.In an interview with the BBC ahead of the trip, Park suggested it would be pointless to hold a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe given Tokyo’s refusal to apologise for abuses during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule, a source of deep resentment in South Korea.View gallery.”
South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye is escorted by Britain’s Prince Philip as she inspects a Guard …The strain in relations is especially problematic at a time when the international community is struggling to build a consensus on dealing with the nuclear ambitions of North Korea.
EU envoys resume efforts to free Ukraine’s TymoshenkoBy Richard Balmforth 1 hour ago Ukraine
View galleryUkraine’s Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara (C), Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski (L) and Sweden’s …By Richard Balmforth KIEV (Reuters) – European Union mediators resumed efforts in Ukraine on Wednesday to secure the release from jail of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko as the clock ticks down to the signing of landmark trade accords at the end of the month.The agreements on association and free trade, due to be signed at an EU-Ukraine summit on November 28 in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, offer the former Soviet republic of 46 million people the chance of an historic shift west away from Russia.But signature hinges on freedom for ex-prime minister Tymoshenko, a fierce opponent of President Viktor Yanukovich. She was jailed in 2011 for seven years for abuse of office after a trial which the EU says was political.Irish politician Pat Cox and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who have been shuttling between Brussels and Kiev for more than 18 months on a mission to nail down a deal over Tymoshenko, went straight into meetings with officials after arriving in Kiev on Wednesday, EU sources said.They are due to meet Yanukovich and opposition members and are likely to visit Tymoshenko in the northern town of Kharkiv, where she is receiving hospital treatment under prison guard.Before their arrival, Yanukovich, whose pro-Europe course has upset Russia, Ukraine’s biggest trade partner, told a regional economic forum the Vilnius accords would mark „the beginning of a process of broader and deeper integration”.He made no specific reference to Tymoshenko or the efforts to reach a compromise on her case.”SELECTIVE JUSTICE”—EU foreign ministers are due at a pre-summit meeting on November 18 to assess whether Kiev has met key democratic criteria, including ending what the bloc calls „selective justice”, to allow for the signing to go ahead.The EU mediators are focusing their attention on a compromise under which Tymoshenko, 52, can travel to Germany to receive medical treatment for spinal problems.The Ukrainian parliament, dominated by pro-Yanukovich deputies and allies, is now haggling over the wording of a draft law that would allow her to travel abroad – the crux being whether she goes as a free person or as a convicted criminal.Yanukovich, who only narrowly beat her in a run-off vote for president in February 2010, has balked at granting her a pardon. Political analysts say he wants her politically side-lined when he makes his bid for a second term in early 2015.Her supporters want a „full amnesty” so she can be cleared of her jail sentence and be free to return to politics one day.Pro-Yanukovich deputies are pushing for a tougher draft which would mean she would have to return to Ukraine to complete her sentence after medical treatment.The conditions attached by the Yanukovich camp to any release of Tymoshenko to Germany could have a direct bearing on any decision made at the November 18 EU meeting.The EU is split etween states such as Poland, which stress the need to prise Ukraine away from Russia’s embrace, and those like Sweden and the Netherlands, which argue the bloc should not compromise on principles of civil rights and justice.(Editing by Gareth Jones)
Ahead of ECB, evidence mounts of weak recoveryBy PAN PYLAS 3 hours ago
View galleryPeople queue to enter a government unemployment office in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday Oct. 5, 2013. The number of people registered as unemployed in Spain rose by a little over 87,000 in October as many jobs created in the summer tourist season come to an end. The increase comes amid some hopeful signs over Spain’s economy with a two-year recession coming to an end in the third quarter, albeit with modest quarterly growth of 0.1 percent. (AP Photo/Paul White)LONDON (AP) — A day before the European Central Bank meets to decide whether to cut interest rates, further evidence emerged Wednesday to indicate the economic recovery in Europe is muted.Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said Wednesday that retail sales across the 17-country eurozone fell 0.6 percent in September from the month before. The fall offset the previous month’s 0.5 percent rise and was just below market expectations for a more modest 0.4 percent decline.September is the final month of the third quarter, so the drop may alter expectations about how much the eurozone grew during the period.Markit, the financial information company, also revealed that its composite purchasing managers’ index, a broad gauge of economic activity, faltered in October.While the October PMI reading of 51.9 points was revised up from the initial estimate of 51.5, it was down from September’s 27-month high of 52.2. Still, it’s above the 50 threshold indicating expansion.Though the figures continue to point to a second straight quarter of growth for the economy of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro, they suggest the recovery lacks strength and is vulnerable to setbacks. Whether that will be enough for the ECB to cut its main interest rate to a record low of 0.25 percent on Thursday remains unclear.”The loss of momentum raises concerns that the upturn is faltering and piles further pressure on the European Central Bank to reinvigorate the recovery,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.Williamson noted that the economic backdrop has been complicated by the fall in the eurozone’s consumer price inflation to a near four-year low of 0.7 percent in October, which has raised concerns about deflation — a prolonged drop in prices — taking hold. The ECB is tasked with setting policy to keep inflation at just below 2 percent.But with interest rates already at record lows, ECB policymakers will be gathering in Frankfurt knowing they have few traditional monetary policy tools left to shore up the recovery. The ECB has been reluctant to inject cash in the economy to stimulate growth the way the Federal Reserve has done. A rate cut may also not do much good since banks are still too worried about the economy to lend at low costs.As such, many economists think the ECB will hold off a rate cut and revisit the issue in December, when it will be armed with its staff’s latest quarterly economic projections.Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch say it’s a close call, but expect the ECB to cut the main interest rate Thursday.”Not doing so could risk being perceived by markets as never be willing to venture into this territory,” they said in a note to clients.Hopes of a rate cut helped shore up European stock markets Wednesday. The Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares was up 0.5 percent by midday.Even if a rate cut doesn’t materialize, recent figures have dashed hopes that the recovery from the eurozone’s recession would gather velocity. With many countries, such as Greece and Spain, still facing record unemployment and imposing austerity cuts, those hopes now appear overdone.Next week, Eurostat figures are expected to show the eurozone grew again in the third quarter, but few economists think growth will outstrip the 0.3 percent quarterly rate recorded in the April to June period. That second-quarter growth was the first since late 2011, the longest recession to afflict the single currency zone since its creation in 1999.
Bombings in Damascus, southern Syrian city kill 16
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Palestinian leader Arafat was murdered with polonium: widowBy Paul Taylor | Reuters – 1 hour 45 minutes ago
View PhotoSuha Arafat poses near a portrait of her late husband and Palestinian leader Yasser …By Paul Taylor PARIS (Reuters) – Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned to death in 2004 with radioactive polonium, his widow Suha said on Wednesday after receiving the results of Swiss forensic tests on her husband’s corpse.”We are revealing a real crime, a political assassination,” she told Reuters in Paris.A team of experts, including from Lausanne University Hospital’s Institute of Radiation Physics, opened Arafat’s grave in the West Bank city of Ramallah last November, and took samples from his body to seek evidence of alleged poisoning.”This has confirmed all our doubts,” said Suha Arafat, who met members of the Swiss forensic team in Geneva on Tuesday. „It is scientifically proved that he didn’t die a natural death and we have scientific proof that this man was killed.”She did not accuse any country or person, and acknowledged that the historic leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization had many enemies.Arafat signed the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords with Israel and led a subsequent uprising after the failure of talks in 2000 on a comprehensive agreement.Allegations of foul play surfaced immediately. Arafat had foes among his own people, but many Palestinians pointed the finger at Israel, which had besieged him in his Ramallah headquarters for the final two and a half years of his life.The Israeli government has denied any role in his death, noting that he was 75 years old and had an unhealthy lifestyle.An investigation by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television news channel first reported last year that traces of polonium-210 were found on personal effects of Arafat given to his widow by the French military hospital where he died.That led French prosecutors to open an investigation for suspected murder in August 2012 at the request of Suha Arafat. Forensic experts from Switzerland, Russia and France all took samples from his corpse for testing after the Palestinian Authority agreed to open his mausoleum.”SMOKING GUN”—The head of the Russian forensics institute, Vladimir Uiba, was quoted by the Interfax news agency last month as saying no trace of polonium had been found on the body specimens examined in Moscow, but his Federal Medico-Biological Agency later denied he had made any official comment on its findings.The French pathologists have not reported their conclusions publicly, nor have their findings been shared with Suha Arafat’s legal team. A spokeswoman for the French prosecutor’s office said the investigating magistrates had received no expert reports so far.One of her lawyers said the Swiss institute’s report, commissioned by Al Jazeera, would be translated from English into French and handed over to the three magistrates in the Paris suburb of Nanterre who are investigating the case.Professor David Barclay, a British forensic scientist retained by Al Jazeera to interpret the results of the Swiss tests, said the findings from Arafat’s body confirmed the earlier results from traces of bodily fluids on his underwear, toothbrush and clothing.”In my opinion, it is absolutely certain that the cause of his illness was polonium poisoning,” Barclay told Reuters. „The levels present in him are sufficient to have caused death.”What we have got is the smoking gun – the thing that caused his illness and was given to him with malice.”The same radioactive substance was slipped into a cup of tea in a London hotel to kill defecting Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. From his deathbed, Litvinenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder.The British government refused to hold a public inquiry into his death after ministers withheld some material which could have shed light on Russia’s suspected involvement.Barclay said the type of polonium discovered in Arafat’s body must have been manufactured in a nuclear reactor.While many countries could have been the source, someone in Arafat’s immediate entourage must have slipped a miniscule dose of the deadly isotope probably as a powder into his drink, food, eye drops or toothpaste, he said.BRIEF RECOVERY—Arafat fell ill in October 2004, displaying symptoms of acute gastroenteritis with diarrhoea and vomiting. At first Palestinian officials said he was suffering from influenza.He was flown to Paris in a French government plane but fell into a coma shortly after his arrival at the Percy military hospital in the suburb of Clamart, where he died on November 11.The official cause of death was a massive stroke but French doctors said at the time they were unable to determine the origin of his illness. No autopsy was carried out.Barclay said no one would have thought to look for polonium as a possible poison until the Litvinenko case, which occurred two years after Arafat’s death.Some experts have questioned whether Arafat could have died of polonium poisoning, pointing to a brief recovery during his illness that they said was not consistent with radioactive exposure. They also noted he did not lose all his hair. But Barclay said neither fact was inconsistent with the findings.Since polonium loses 50 percent of its radioactivity every four months, the traces in Arafat’s corpse would have faded so far as to have become untraceable if the tests had been conducted a couple of years later, the scientist said.”A tiny amount of polonium the size of a flake of dandruff would be enough to kill 50 people if it was dissolved in water and they drank it,” he added.The Al Jazeera investigation was spearheaded by investigative journalist Clayton Swisher, a former U.S. Secret Service bodyguard who became friendly with Arafat and was suspicious of the manner of his death.Hani al-Hassan, a former aide, said in 2003 that he had witnessed 13 assassination attempts on Arafat’s life, dating back to his years on the run as PLO leader. Arafat claimed to have survived 40 attempts on his life.Arafat narrowly escaped an Israeli air strike on his headquarters in Tunisia in 1985. He had just gone out jogging when the bombers attacked, killing 73 people.He escaped another attempt on his life when Israeli warplanes came close to killing him during the 182 invasion of Beirut when they hit one of the buildings they suspected he was using as his headquarters but he was not there. In December 2001, Arafat was rushed to safety just before Israeli helicopters bombarded his compound in Ramallah with rockets.(Additional reporting by Gerard Bon; Writing by Paul Taylor; editing by Crispian Balmer and Ralph Boulton)
