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Why world leaders smacked down Obama at G20 summit
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By Howard LaFranchi
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (TCSM) How do you say “shellacking” in Chinese? Or German? Or Korean?
Fresh from his self-described shellacking in this month’s midterm elections, President Obama has gotten pretty much the same treatment from foreign leaders as he has made his way through Asia this week.
Leaders at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Seoul, South Korea — China and Germany topping the list — made it clear that they feel freer than ever to stand up to the United States on global economic issues. And South Korea refused to bow to Obama administration demands for reworking a US-Korea free-trade agreement dating from the Bush administration, putting off conclusion of the trade pact until at least next year.
Mr. Obama’s drubbing at the polls Nov. 2 is no doubt one factor in these countries’ willingness to stand up to a US president who remains popular in many of their countries.
“It would be naive to say [the election results] don’t have an impact, because it does hurt him,” says I.M. Destler, who specializes in international security and economic policy at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy. “I’m just not certain that if the election had been much more positive for Obama, he would have done much better” in winning global support for his economic views.
Another, bigger explanation for the global defiance can be found in the state of the US economy relative to that of some of the US’s largest trading partners, global economic analysts say. China this year rocketed to the No. 2 slot of world economies (behind the US), while Germany’s unemployment rate is already several notches below the US’s 9.6 percent as German exports have boomed — despite slow overall German economic growth.
But perhaps nothing played a bigger role in lining up international opposition to Obama than the Federal Reserve’s action last week — pumping $600 billion in new money into the economy. The world saw that move as devaluing the dollar to make American products cheaper, rather than as an effort to stimulate US economic growth.
“Remember that before the G20, there was much more pressure on China than on the US in terms of this question of global imbalances” of deficits and surpluses, says Benn Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York. “But given the timing of the Fed’s actions,” just days before the summit, “it makes it look as if the US is behaving no differently,” he adds, “and China exploited that to the maximum.”
One result of the announced US plans? is that China and Germany suddenly found themselves on the same page in their opposition to global measures (as advocated by Obama) to address trade imbalances. “When the Chinese and the Germans find each other, you get a powerful coalescing of interests, and it emboldens them,” says Mr. Destler.
This rejection of the US vision of the way forward for the world economy is not new and certainly does not date from Nov. 2, some experts point out. But it is nevertheless easier for world leaders to tell Obama they do not agree with him when they believe the American people have just done the same.
Another explanation is that countries that early on in the global economic crisis rejected or mostly resisted Obama’s call for hefty stimulus spending to get the economy moving again believe that time has proven them right. German Chancellor Angela Merkel could rebuff Obama’s call for trade rebalancing measures in Seoul smug in the assurance that her nein to Obama’s stimulus prescription last year paid off — at least for Germany.
“Some of what we’re seeing, particularly in the case of Germany, is this feeling that ‘We were right,’ ” says University of Maryland’s Destler.
The G20’s final communique makes a bland reference to watching out for imbalances in trade accounts, but includes no triggers or mention of measures to be taken. And with countries watching out for their own bottom lines in a weak and uncertain global economy, coordinated economic action is not likely to flourish any time soon, international economists say.
“Prospects for common action are very tough at the moment and are unlikely to improve very soon,” says the CFR’s Mr. Steil. It will take a stabilizing of the value of the dollar — which remains the world’s major reserve currency — and a strengthening of the US economy for that to happen, he says.
It may also take a US president in a position of strength — which is not where Obama finds himself at the moment. “He looks very weak on the international stage,” says Steil. “You combine that with the US economy performing as weakly as it is, and it emboldens others to act in ways they might not have otherwise.”
Militants torch NATO trucks in Pakistan
Police say the gunmen targeted two vehicles in Dasht Bado town in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province on Tuesday.
The attack comes a day after three NATO supply trucks were set on fire in the same province.
Two men riding a motorbike set fire to the tankers after “forcing the drivers and their helpers to leave,” Reuters quoted a police official as saying.
Dozens of NATO supply tankers and trucks have been set on fire in Pakistan this month.
Pro-Taliban militants usually claim responsibility for such attacks. They argue that the assaults are in retaliation for non-UN-sanctioned US drone strikes on Pakistan’s tribal region.
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants have stepped up attacks on convoys carrying supplies for US-led forces.
DB/MB/MMN
Taliban capture US base in Afghanistan
They also said that the Americans fled the military outpost in Kunar’s Marawara district in helicopters on Monday.
A senior Taliban commander said the group is now in full control of the district where the outpost is located.
He added that the militants attacked the outpost with rockets and machine guns.
Taliban say the ensuing clashes forced the US forces stationed there to flee.
The militants say they have seized all weapons and munitions left behind in the outpost.
A Press TV correspondent says the US military has not yet commented on the attack.
HSH/HRF/JR/AKM/MMN
Videos From The AfPak Front
Map of Afghanistan showing the security situation by district and opium cultivation by province in t...
Source
AfPak is the abbreviated name for the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Things are going no better for the Americans there than for the Russians and the British who also foolishly attempted to occupy that nation.
First up is
this report that Pakistan is cutting off NATO supplies to Afghanistan because America is killing too many innocent people while it refuses to negotiate with the Pashtun tribesmen.
All of this killing and dying is done to justify holding prisoners, torturing them and torturing their children.
The US as I have explained before has been shipping Afghan opium paste out of Baluchistan Pakistan using Global Hawk drones which cost taxpayers $35,000,000 each.
Russia has lost 30,000 young people every year from heroin overdoses. It is possible that this plant disease killing Afghan opium poppies was designed in a Russian lab.
The use of drones to make targeted assassinations is expressly forbidden by international law. It has been estimated that we are killing 37 innocent civilians for each person we killed for resisting the occupation of their homeland.
The Taliban have never attacked Americans outside of occupied territory. It is lawful under international law to resist an invasion.
http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/
Whom the Afghan People Sided With? With the Islamic Emirate or …?
Image by secretlondon123 via Flickr
Shawwal 12, 1431 A.H, Wednesday, September 22, 2010
UNAMA and other Western and internal stooge entities which were delegated to conduct the so-called parliamentary elections on Sept. 18, had earlier predicted that only in 30% area of Afghanistan, the situation would be ready for holding the elections.
Reason: the security problems. But on the day of the polling, people witnessed that even that prediction did not come true. Less than 10% voters took part in the ridiculous American drama by casting their votes. The low turn-out can be ascribed to fear and wide-spread rigging.
The Americans and their allies spent $200 million dollars to maintain security and conduct other clandestine dealing of bribery etc. in order to bring to success the fake elections process. They deployed 300,000 foreign and domestic soldiers on the polling day to make safe the few polling stations and pave the way for voters to cast votes. All these notwithstanding, with the help of Allah (SwT) and the assistance of Mujahideen with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the so-called elections were disrupted and thus remained limited to a few cities.
Therefore, have had derogatory results for the implementers. We would like to leave alone hundreds of events which evidently prove our claim. Instead, we deem it suffice to mention examples of only two elections centers as the tip of the iceberg: a district elections center in Ghazni and an election center in a populated village in Logar province. Now all those with insight and sagacity can judge for themselves that what will be the credibility of the elections and the next parliament after all that shameful cases that happened on the day of the polling.
More than 300,000 people are living in Andar district of Ghazni province. The officials and observers at the polling stations admitted themselves that only 3 voters cast their votes during the day despite the fact that the polling station had remained open the whole day. In Pad khwab Shana, 3 kilometers in proximity of the provincial center, Pullie Allam, with population reaching 30,000 persons, only 250 ballots were cast. That too, because of tribal affiliation, bribery, coercion and material incentives.
Other reports from various parts of the country say that no polling station had been opened in 162 districts out of 360 districts of the country. 1260 polling stations were forced to close before 11 o’clock of the day. Voting process was disrupted in the remaining polling stations due to successful attacks of the Mujahideen. Not only the people did not participate in the elections but remained at their houses as a sign of opposition to the so-called elections. After 4 o’clock of the day, in the dusk time, when the official time ended for ballot casting, Mujahideen ambushed ballot boxes which were being hauled from a few city centers to the capital of the country. They were torched and destroyed.
Now the world, the UNAMA and the observers can decide what credibility these fake and failed elections will have? They should also ponder whether they are going to give importance to the voice of the majority people of Afghanistan or to the subservient media, the pre-planned commentaries and the distorted news items about the elections? Similarly, they should make clear whom the Afghan people sided with—with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, or with America, UNAMA and the stooge Kabul Administration?
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
Chinese premier threatens action against Japan
Top news: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao demanded the immediate release of a Chinese fishing boat captain, who has been held for two weeks, as Chinese-Japanese tension continued to rise.
“This is totally illegal, unreasonable and has already caused much suffering to the family of the captain… If Japan clings to its course, China will take further action,” Wen said to a Chinese-American group in New York, where he is attending the U.N. General Assembly. His comments were reprinted on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
The captain was arrested after colliding with a Japanese coast guard vessel near a chain of disputed islands, known as Senkaku in Japanese. The crew of the boat has been released and Japanese prosecutors have until Sept. 29 to decide whether to try the captain.
The customary meeting between Chinese and Japanese leaders at the U.N.G.A. has been called off this year because of the heightened tension. Anti-Japanese protests have broken out throughout China. Activists from mainland China and Taiwan have attempted to sail to the islands, called Diaoyu in Chinese, in order to assert territorial claims. It is believed that the waters around the islands may also contain rich oil and gas deposits.
14 more die due to floods in western UP; toll 270
At least 14 persons have been killed in the past 24 hours in flood-affected districts of western Uttar Pradesh, taking the death toll due to rain-related incidents in the region to 270.
All the 14 rain-related deaths are reported from different districts of western UP, an official spokesman of the Relief Department told reporters in Lucknow.
A total of 1,032 villages have been affected by the flood of which 47 have been marooned, he said, adding that a population of 4.73 lakh has been affected in west UP alone.
According to the Central Water Commission, the Ganga was flowing almost at the danger mark in Fatehgarh, Gumatia (Kannauj), Ankinghat (Kanpur dehat), Kanpur and Dalmau (Rae Bareilly) and was rising at Fafamau and Chatnag in Allahabad, Mirzapur, Varanasi and Ghazipur.
River Ramganga was flowing above the red mark in Bareilly and rising in Dabri in Shahjahanpur.
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Dubai drops away in world finance index
Big News Network.com Tuesday 21st September, 2010
 Dubai has dropped back four places on the world finance index. Falling behind cities such as Munich, Guernsey, Sydney and Seoul, Dubai is now 28th on the list which is ranked by the Global Financial Centres Index, put together by a London-based finance research agency. Dubai’s recent debt crisis has caused the slide with the emirate taking the booby prize as the Gulf’s biggest business loser. With real estate and banking jobs still at risk in UAE, Dubai is likely to retain its low ranking for awhile. Dubai is no longer seen as the rising star in the financial community, being eclipsed by some of Asia’s up-and-coming financial hubs. |
NATO helicopter goes down in Afghanistan killing nine
Big News Network.com Tuesday 21st September, 2010
 A helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan has taken the lives of nine service members from the US and Afghanistan. Others were injured in the crash which occurred on Tuesday. NATO has said the enemy were not active in the area when the helicopter went down, so the crash will be fully investigated for other causes. Separately, NATO has stated that Afghan and coalition forces captured a Taliban commander and killed two Taliban insurgents on Tuesday after a raid on enemy buildings in northern Baghlan province. The captured commander has been linked to several attacks during Saturday’s elections in Afghanistan. |
China executes former FDA chief amid product safety crisis
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 | 5:38 AM ET
The Associated Press
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/07/10/china-tainted-products.html#ixzz0ziw54FTl
China executed the former head of its food and drug watchdog on Tuesday for approving untested medicine in exchange for cash, the strongest signal yet from Beijing that it is serious about tackling its product safety crisis.
The execution of former State Food and Drug Administration director Zheng Xiaoyu was confirmed by state television and the official Xinhua News Agency.
During Zheng’s tenure from 1998 to 2005, his agency approved six medicines that turned out to be fake, and the drug-makers used falsified documents to apply for approvals, according to previous state media reports. One antibiotic caused the deaths of at least 10 people.
“The few corrupt officials of the SFDA are the shame of the whole system and their scandals have revealed some very serious problems,” agency spokeswoman Yan Jiangying said at a news conference held to highlight efforts to improve China’s track record on food and drug safety.
Yan was asked to comment on Zheng’s sentence and that of his subordinate, Cao Wenzhuang, a former director of SFDA’s drug registration department who was last week sentenced to death for accepting bribes and dereliction of duty. Cao was given a two-year reprieve, a ruling which is usually commuted to life in prison if the convict is deemed to have reformed.
“We should seriously reflect and learn lessons from these cases. We should step up our efforts to ensure food and drug safety, which is what we are doing now and what we will do in the future,” Yan said.
Zheng, 63, was convicted of taking cash and gifts worth $832,000 US when he was in charge of the State Food and Drug Administration.
His death sentence was unusually heavy even for China, believed to carry out more court-ordered executions than all other countries combined, and indicates the leadership’s determination to confront the country’s dire product safety record.
Tainted products spark fears abroad
Fears abroad over Chinese-made products were sparked last year by the deaths of dozens of people in Panama who took medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol imported from China. It was passed off as harmless glycerin.
Yan said she did not have any information about whether the Chinese manufacturer, Taixing Glycerin Factory, and the Chinese distributor, CNSC Fortune Way, had been punished.
“We will try to get more information from the department concerned and we will release it to you,” Yan said. She wouldn’t elaborate.
China admitted last month that it was the source of the deadly chemical that ended up in cough syrup and other treatments but insists the chemical was originally labelled as for industrial use only. Beijing blames the Panama traders who eventually bought the shipment for fraudulently relabelling it as medical-grade glycerin.
In North America earlier this year, pet food containing Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine was blamed for the deaths of dogs and cats.
Since then, U.S. authorities have turned away or recalled toxic fish, juice containing unsafe colour additives and popular toy trains decorated with lead paint.
Yan said the food and drug administration was working to tighten its safety procedures and create a more transparent operating environment. The administration has already announced a series of measures to tighten safety controls and closed factories where illegal chemicals or other problems were found.
But Yan acknowledged that her agency’s supervision of food and drug safety remains unsatisfactory and that it has been slow to tackle the problem.
“China is a developing country and our supervision of food and drugs started quite late and our foundation for this work is weak, so we are not optimistic about the current food and drug safety situation,” Yan said.
Chinese officials have already said the country faces social unrest and a further tarnished image abroad unless it improves the quality and safety of its food and medicine.
The government has faced increasing pressure from its international trading partners to improve quality controls after a series of health scares attributed to substandard or tainted Chinese food and drug exports.
The list of food scares within China over the past year includes drug-tainted fish, banned Sudan dye used to colour egg yolks red, and pork tainted with clenbuterol, a banned feed additive.
China has also stepped up its inspections of imported products and said some U.S. products are not safe.
In the latest case, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday that a shipment of sugar-free drink mix from the United States had been rejected for having too much red dye.
Last week, China’s food safety watchdog said almost 20 per cent of products made for consumption within China were found to be substandard in the first half of 2007. Canned and preserved fruit and dried fish were the most problematic, primarily because of excessive bacteria and additives, the agency said.
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