OmanObserver_30-06-13

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12 UNITED STATES President Barack Obama arrives for a town hall meeting with young African leaders at the University of Johannesburg Soweto in Johannesburg, yesterday. ‘No threat in China rivalry for Africa business’ PRETORIA — The United States does not feel threatened by the growth of trade and investment in Africa by China and other emerging powers, US President Barack Obama said yesterday. Suggestions that he has allowed China to steal a march over the United States in doing business with Africa have dogged Obama's three-nation swing through the continent, but he said the increased Chinese engagement was beneicial for all. "I don't feel threatened by it. I feel it's a good thing," Obama told a news conference during a visit to South Africa. The more countries invest in Af- rica, the more the world's least developed continent can be integrated into the global economy, the irst African- American US president said. "I want everybody playing in Africa. The more the merrier." China has greatly expanded its reach in Africa since the start of the new century. It overtook the United States as Africa's largest trading partner in 2009, a February report by the US Government Accountability Ofice (GAO) showed. China's advantage in trade stems mostly from how much it sells to Africa. Chinese exports to the continent in 2011 were almost triple the level of US exports. When it comes to investment lows, however, the picture is different. Data for 2007-2011 suggest US foreign investment lows to the region were larger than China's, the GAO said. "China's role as an investor, aid donor and inancier is not outsized," Johns Hopkins University China scholar Deborah Brautigam wrote recently. "Although Western countries fret about China's growing role in Africa, the United States alone disbursed more oficial inance to African countries than China did in 2010." Still, China's inluence looms large over the continent, partly because it US can lead climate change battle WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama touted his new climate change proposal in his weekly address yesterday, calling for Americans to lead the charge against the warming environment. "Those who already feel the effects of a changing climate don't have time to deny it — they're busy dealing with it," said Obama in his prerecorded address on radio and the Internet. "The ireighters who brave longer wildire seasons. The farmers who see crops wilted one year, and washed away the next. Western families worried about water that's drying up. "The cost of these events can be measured in lost lives and livelihoods, lost homes and businesses, and hundreds of billions of dollars in emergency services and disaster relief. And Americans across the country are already paying the price of inaction in higher food costs, insurance premiums, and the tab for rebuilding. "The question is not whether we need to act. The question is whether we will have the courage to act before it's too late," the president said. Obama laid out a broad new plan to ight climate change on Tuesday, using executive powers to get around deniers who have blocked action in Congress. He called for new restrictions on existing and new power plants to curb carbon emissions, pledged to push new generation clean energy sources and to lead a fresh global effort to stem global warming. "This is the ight America can and will lead in the 21st century. But it will require all of us, as citizens, to do our part," the president said yesterday, calling for scientists to develop biofuels and farmers to grow them, engineers to design clean technology and businesses to get them to market. "We will be judged — as a people, as a society, and as a country — on where we go from here," Obama said. Some opponents of his approach have warned that the plan could result in older coal-ired plants being taken ofline and may thereby raise electricity prices for consumers, which could disproportionately hurt the poor. Oficials counter that the plan will reduce the amount of electricity used — thereby reducing fuel bills. However, the speciics of much of his plan were unclear, and many of Obama's new rules could face court challenges that would delay their implementation. Meanwhile, speaking for Republicans on another contentious issue, Senator Pat Roberts from Kansas raised concerns over the health care reform package Obama championed in his irst term. The Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012, aims to provide health care coverage to an additional 30 million Americans. States are to implement it gradually by 2014. But many Republicans remain staunchly opposed. "As we celebrate the 4th (of July Independence Day holiday), it will be a mere 89 days until the October 1st deadline, when millions of Americans are forced to purchase health insurance in a special marketplace ... overseen by the federal government," Roberts said. — AFP Visitors view the space shuttle Atlantis on the opening day of its exhibit at the Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida yesterday. The developers of the exhibit have raised the 68,000 kg spaceship 9 metres into the air and tilted it 43 degrees over on its left side, simulating the vehicle in light. — Reuters has been so aggressive in its courtship. Obama's visit to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania will bring to four the number of countries in sub- Saharan Africa that the US President has visited in the last four years. He stopped briely in Ghana in his irst term. In contrast, China's president and vice president have visited 30 African countries over the same period, said Mwangi Kimenyi, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. There is also a sense that the United States may be resting on its laurels. — Reuters Texas woman indicted for mailing ricin-laced letter to president AUSTIN — A Texas actress was indicted and charged with sending ricin-laced letters to US President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the US Department of Justice said on Friday. Shannon Guess Richardson, 35, of New Boston, Texas, was arrested on June 7. A federal grand jury accused her in a three-count indictment of mailing the letters to Obama, Bloomberg and Mark Glaze, the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group founded by Bloomberg that lobbies for stricter gun laws. She faces up to ive years in federal prison on each charge if convicted, according to an announcement from US Attorney John Bales of the Eastern District of Texas. The letters read, in part: "You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns. Anyone wants to come to my house will get shot in the face," according to court documents. — Reuters SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 Obama meets family of ailing hero Mandela JOHANNESBURG — US President Barack Obama met the family of his "inspiration" Nelson Mandela in South Africa yesterday but was unable to see the anti-apartheid legend who remains critically ill in hospital. Despite tentative signs of an improvement in the condition of the 94-year-old icon, who has been in intensive care for more than three weeks, Obama decided not to visit Mandela for fearing of disturbing his "peace and comfort". Instead Obama met privately with relatives of his fellow Nobel peace laureate, including two daughters and several grandchildren, and spoke by telephone with Mandela's wife Graca Machel. "I expressed my hope that Madiba draws peace and comfort from the time that he is spending with loved ones, and also expressed my heartfelt support for the entire family as they work through this dificult time," Obama said, using Mandela's clan name. Machel said she had "drawn strength from the support" offered by the Obama family. "I am humbled by their comfort and messages of strength and inspiration which I have already conveyed to Madiba." Speaking earlier in Pretoria, where Mandela lay ighting for his life in a nearby hospital, Obama praised the "moral courage" of South Africa's irst black president. "The struggle here against apartheid, for freedom, Madiba's moral courage, his country's historic transition to a free and democratic nation, has been a personal inspiration to me. It has been an inspiration to the world," Obama said after talks with President Jacob Zuma. "The outpouring of love that we've seen in recent days shows that the triumph of Nelson Mandela and this nation speaks to something very deep in the human spirit — the yearning for justice and dignity that transcends boundaries of race and class and faith and country," he added. Obama said before arriving he did not need "a photo-op" with Mandela, whom he meet briely in 2005, and the White House yesterday ruled out a meeting between the two men. "Out of deference to Nelson Mandela's peace and comfort and the family's wishes, they will not be visiting the hospital," a US oficial said. Zuma said Mandela remained in "critical but stable" condition in hospital, where he was admitted on June 8 with a recurring lung infection, expressing hope that he would improve. Welcoming the US president to South Africa on the second leg of his tour, he said Mandela and Obama were "bound by history" as the irst black leaders of their respective nations. "You both carry the dreams of millions of people in Africa," Zuma said. But the US leader was not greeted so warmly by all South Africans. Riot police ired rubber bullets and stun grenades at around 300 hundred anti-Obama protesters in the township of Soweto, once a lashpoint in the anti-apartheid struggle. In Pretoria, supporters have been gathering outside Mandela's hospital to offer prayers for the man who negotiated an end to decades of white minority rule. — AFP Near-death saga for lung transplant girl WASHINGTON — A US girl whose public appeal for an adult lung donation thrust her into the media spotlight nearly died after her body rejected the organs and she has since had a rare second transplant, her mother said on Friday. Sarah Murnaghan, 10, suffers from cystic ibrosis and was said to have very little time left when her parents sued to change the rules and let her be on the list for adult lung donations, usually restricted to those 12 and over. While the US health secretary refused to intervene, a judge took the unusual step of ordering that the child be placed on an adult waiting list, and US organ regulators revised policy to allow children higher priority. Sarah received an adult lung donation on June 12, but her body soon rejected the transplant, her mother said in a Facebook post that detailed the family's post-operative saga for the irst time. "After we announced the overwhelmingly joyful news on June 12 US First Lady Michelle Obama waves nearby a student during a discussion yesterday at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in Johannesburg. that Sarah's lung transplant was a success, things quickly spiralled out of control," wrote Janet Murnaghan. "That evening, as we waited for Sarah to be transitioned back to her room, an emergency code blue was announced. Sarah's vital signs had begun descending rapidly as her new lungs started to fail. We were devastated." Sarah underwent emergency surgery and was put on a bypass machine that took over function of her heart and lungs. The diagnosis was primary graft failure, which occurs in 10 to 25 per cent of transplants and kills half of patients affected, her mother said, describing the problem as resulting from the poor condition of the donor's lungs. "Doctors told us Sarah was unlikely to survive more than a week on (bypass) given her condition and that her only hope for survival was a second lung transplant," her mother wrote. Sarah was again approved by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to be on the list for an adult lung transplant should a donor become available, and based on the severity of her condition she was again given high priority. "Her doctors prepared us for the probability that Sarah would die, either before a second surgery could take place or on the operating table," her mother wrote. "Three days later, on June 15, we learned that new lungs were available for Sarah. We were warned, though, that the lungs were high-risk because they were infected with pneumonia. They were Sarah's best and only hope." The same surgeon performed the second transplant, which Murnaghan described as "truly a success," though her daughter's "little body was very traumatized by all she had been through." Murnaghan has been posting updates on Facebook but she did not reveal the details of the ordeal — or the second lung transplant — until Friday. — AFP
SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 A group of pupils visit Tiananmen square in Beijing yesterday. China is now the third most visited country in the world with the number of overseas tourists visiting, totaling nearly 60 million annually and the number of domestic tourist visits at 1.61 billion according to the World Trade Organization (WTO). — AFP South Korea stops anti-North lealet launch SEOUL — South Korean police yesterday stopped a planned launch of anti-Pyongyang lealets following a threat of violent retaliation by the North. A group of defectors from North Korea and US human rights activists had said they would use gas-illed balloons to drop 200,000 lealets critical of Pyongyang over the tense border. But a contingent of plain-clothed policemen prevented the activists from unloading the pamphlets and other materials for the launch from a pickup truck at Imjingak, a tourist site near the border. Hours earlier, the North's military warned it would ire upon the launch site, denouncing the activ- Cambodia denies ban on foreign radio broadcast PHNOM PENH — Cambodia yesterday denied it had banned foreign radio broadcasts in the run up to next month's election, after the US accused the government of violating freedom of expression. This week, local FM radio stations were ordered to provide "neutral" coverage of election campaigning and to temporarily suspend broadcasting Khmerlanguage programmes made by foreign stations. But Chhum Socheat, an oficial at the information ministry, said yesterday "we do not ban broadcast by foreign radios". Foreign radio stations can still air their programmes on short wave transmissions, he said. He added that the directive, asking local FM radio stations not to air Khmer-language programmes produced by foreign ists as "human scum" and warning the launch site was "within the range of direct sighting strike". A leading activist, Park Sang- Hak, was taken into custody briely after he attempted to drive the vehicle through a police line to get to the planned launch site, some 300 metres away. "I'm wondering what they're so afraid of. Why is it illegal? Why is it wrong in what we are doing?" Thor Halvorssen, president of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation (HRF), told journalists. "If South Korea is going to do everything because of threats from North Korea, then South Korea is a hostage. South Korea is not a free radio until after the July 28 election, was to allow for "fair campaigning" for all political parties. The directive, released late on Friday, also barred "foreigners in Cambodia from campaigning in favour or against any political party" and said that "legal action" would be taken against local FM stations that did not comply. The move was attacked by the US, who said it was a "serious infringement on freedom of the press and freedom of expression" and by broadcasters including US-funded Radio Free Asia. The move is "the most sweeping and stunning frontal assault on media freedom in Cambodia in recent memory," RFA said in a statement posted on its website. It is "a blatant strategy to silence the types of disparate and country," he said. Police stopped similar launches in April and May this year, citing protests from local residents living in the area. Local residents oppose such action as the North has threatened to shell sites used to launch lealets which often carry messages such as calls for an uprising against the communist regime. North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator will meet senior Russian oficials in Moscow next week, state media reported, amid signs of a new push to get Pyongyang to rejoin protracted talks over ending its atomic programme. Kim Kye-gwan, North Korea’s First Deputy Foreign Minister, will varied voices that characterise an open and free society," the broadcaster, which produces shows in the Khmer language, added. Cambodia on Thursday of- icially started campaigning for the July 28 general election, expected to be won by strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen who is seeking to extend his 28-year grip on the country. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy, his main challenger, is barred from running in the polls due to a string of convictions that the opposition says are politically motivated. Rainsy, who lives in exile in France to avoid prison, faces 11 years in jail if he returns, after he was convicted in absentia for charges that included publishing a "false map" of the border with Vietnam. — AFP An aerial shot shows tens of thousands of Filipinos form a human no-smoking sign at the Bicol University football ield in Legazpi city, Albay province, south of Manila. According to local media, the project by the provincial governor aims to raise awareness on the hazards cigarette smoking poses to human health and the environment, and is also a Guinness World Records attempt for the largest human no-smoking sign. — Reuters meet deputy foreign ministers Vladimir Titov and Igor Morgulov on Thursday “as part of efforts to resume the six-party talks”, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. The reclusive Asian state walked out of the discussions with South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and its main ally China in 2009 and has often said it will never abandon its nuclear weapons, calling them its “treasured sword”. But in a lurry of statements and visits this month, North Korea has offered to hold talks with the United States to ease tension that spiked this year when the North threatened the US and South Korea with nuclear war. — AFP/Reuters Operation halted to lush out gunmen KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian authorities yesterday announced that an operation to lush out armed Filipino militants from an eastern state was over, four months after the intruders landed on Borneo island sparking a security crisis. More than 200 armed followers of a self-styled ruler from the southern Philippines landed in the state of Sabah in February, reviving a centuries-old land claim by the long-defunct Sulu sultanate. Fighting between the militants and security forces killed at least 68 Filipinos and 10 Malaysian security personnel. Musa Aman, Chief Minister of Sabah state, was quoted by The Star online as saying the operation to chase scattered militant remnants and their sympathisers who were in hiding had ended. But a security zone has been set up with troops permanently stationed along the coastline where the gunmen landed — previously known for its lawlessness and lax border control. For centuries, people have moved back and forth across the porous sea border separating Sabah and the adjacent southern Philippines. — AFP 8 Thai soldiers killed in blast BANGKOK — Suspected dissidents in southern Thailand killed eight soldiers in a roadside bomb attack yesterday, days after the government rejected demands for a ceaseire next month. The 60-kg bomb exploded as the soldiers were travelling in a military truck along a village road in Yala, police said. Another two soldiers were wounded and two villagers on a motorcycle behind the truck were also hurt, police said. The opening of peace talks with groups earlier this year has done nothing to end violence in the south, where more than 5,300 people have died since January 2004. Last week the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, one of the oldest groups operating in the south of the country and a participant in the talks, proposed a ceaseire for Ramadhan. In exchange they made demands including the release of all detainees in the south and the acceptance of Malaysia as a mediator, which the government rejected. Conlict monitors Deep South Watch said so far this year loss 240 people have been killed and nearly 460 wounded in some 800 attacks.— Reuters/AFP ASIA 13 Foreign ministers meet on smog crisis BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN — The foreign ministers of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia met yesterday to discuss solutions to the choking smog coming from forest ires in Sumatra ahead of a regional security forum. The three ministers are in the Brunei capital Bandar Seri Begawan for a series of annual meetings under the banner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) that kick off today. Foreign ministers Marty Natalegawa of Indonesia, Anifah Aman of Malaysia and K Shanmugam of Singapore met behind closed doors shortly after arriving here. The thick smog that recently smothered Singapore and parts of Malaysia is expected to be a key issue at the Asean gathering, with Indonesia under pressure to do more to stop the setting of ires to clear land for agriculture on its huge island of Sumatra. Palls of smoke from such burning pushed pollution levels to record highs in Singapore earlier this month, shrouding a city known for its clean environment. The recurring smog, dubbed "the haze" in the region, also badly affected parts of Malaysia. Haze is an annual problem during the dry season but this year's outbreak has been the worst in years, raising temperatures between Indonesia and its neighbours. Indonesia is the only member of the 10-country Asean bloc yet to ratify a 2002 treaty on preventing "trans-boundary" haze pollution. Jakarta has said its parliament was in the process of ratiication. Singapore and Malaysia have demanded that Indonesia punish those behind the blazes. Jakarta has hit back, saying some ires are on plantations owned by Singaporean and Malaysian business interests. Indonesian Forestry Minister Zulkili Hasan has said 14 people were arrested on suspicion of starting ires, 11 of whom were linked to plantation companies and three of whom were smallholders. The skies in Singapore and the parts of Malaysia that were affected have cleared due to rains and favourable winds, but oficials in the two countries have warned that the smog could return. — AFP Media warns of 'counterstrike' BEIJING — Chinese state-media accused the Philippines of using the Asean group of nations as an "accomplice" in the violation of its sovereignty claims in the South China Sea yesterday, and warned of a potential "counterstrike". The editorial in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party, came as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) was due to meet in Brunei, with disputes in the Sea expected to dominate discussions. The Philippines, which has sought closer ties with Washington amid territorial disputes with Beijing, "calls on the United States as 'patron'" and uses Asean as an "accomplice," the editorial said. It added that the Phillipines was guilty of "seven sins," including the "illegal occupation" of parts of the Spratly Islands, strengthening control over disputed coral reefs, inviting foreign companies to develop oil and gas resources in disputed waters, and promoting the "internationalisation" of the Sea. "If the Philippines continues to provoke China... a counterstrike will be hard to avoid," the editorial said. Members of the Asean group hope to reach a legally binding code of conduct aimed at easing tensions over disputed areas in the Sea, which is claimed almost in its entirety by Beijing, leading to longrunning disputes. The Philippines this year sought UN arbitration over its dispute with China, a move condemned by Beijing. — AFP A farmer carries his child on his back as he walks through a rice paddy ield during Asar Pandra festival in Bhaktapur yesterday. Rice is considered the main staple for Nepalese and is planted during the Nepali month of Asar, which usually lies between June and July. — Reuters Cops investigate Philippine MP who shot himself in Congress MANILA — Police are investigating an outgoing Philippine politician after he shot himself in parliament, a spokesman said yesterday, in a mystery that has puzzled the nation. Benjo Benaldo is being probed after shooting himself in Congress, where irearms are banned, with a pistol whose permit had expired, said national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Reuben Sindac. "He could face charges... but let us take it one step at a time," Sindac said, adding that the police were exploring all angles. Police said Benaldo was alone in his ofice late on Thursday when he shot himself in the chest, narrowly missing his heart. His 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol was recovered at the scene. The legislator was rushed to hospital where he is still admitted but out of danger, according to the latest news reports. Firearms are banned from Congress and Benaldo's permit to carry the pistol had expired in March last year, said Sindac. He said legislators were not searched or required to pass through a metal detec- tor when they enter parliament, making it easy for a congressman to bring in a gun. Benaldo is due to step down at the end of June after losing his re-election bid to an ally of President Benigno Aquino in mid-term elections last month. He has also been in the news in recent weeks over troubles with his wife, a popular Brazilian model and showbiz personality. Since the incident, the local press and social media have carried unveriied accounts of suicide notes and speculation on whether the legislator shot himself because he failed to win a seat or due to marital problems. Sindac urged the public not to speculate, saying the shooting could have been an accident or a suicide attempt. House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte said Benaldo was stable and in "good spirits" despite his injury, according to media reports on Friday. Benaldo's wife Daiana Menezes was seen accompanying him in an ambulance, after Thursday's incident, in pictures posted on Twitter by his friend Congressman Miro Quimbo. — AFP
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