The Pentagon will send hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size, U.S. officials said.
The project is aimed at transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been dominated for the past decade by the demands of two wars, into a spy service focused on emerging threats and more closely aligned with the CIA and elite military commando units.
DUBAI: Dubai is back in the business of unveiling mega projects, three years after a severe financial crisis crippled its booming property sector, but doubts still linger over finance and feasibility.
Just as the economy in the glitzy city-state begins to look promising, despite a large debt burden dating back to the years when growth appeared endless, Dubai has once again set its sights on building superlatives.
"We do not anticipate the future. We build it," Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, architect of its meteoric rise into a regional tourism and services hub, boasted last week as he unveiled plans to build a "city" carrying his name.
Among the attractions of the new mega plan is a mall touted to be the largest in the world, not far from what is already the world's largest shopping and entertainment destination, the Dubai Mall.
Mohammed bin Rashid City will sprawl over a large swathe of the emirate's desert and have gardens 30 per cent larger than London's Hyde Park, in addition to 100 hotels, and a Universal Studios theme park.
No price tag was attached to the project which is to be developed by the ruler's Dubai Holding conglomerate and Emaar, which built Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower.
This week, Dubai also announced a 10 billion dirham (US$2.7 billion) leisure centre and theme parks.
Dubai appears keen to capitalise on its growing tourism sector which it said is expanding 13 per cent a year, with hotel occupancy rate hitting 82 per cent last year.
Sheikh Mohammed said the emirate must stay ahead of expanding demand and match its ambitions.
"The current facilities available in Dubai need to be scaled up in line with the future ambitions for the city," he said, highlighting a constant rise in tourism and the business of hosting forums and exhibitions.
"A large part of these projects are linked to expanding Dubai's capacity in core sectors with comparative advantage, such as tourism, which is positive," said Monica Malik, chief economist at EFG-Hermes investment bank in Dubai.
But the source of funding for such grandiose projects remains vague.
"We do have our own resources and way to finance... We are sure that these projects will be achieved," the Arabian Business online magazine quoted Hani al-Hamli, Dubai Economic Council secretary general, as saying.
Beyond general assurances, Dubai continues to deal with the burden of maturing debt, after it racked US$113 billion in borrowings during years of extensive investments, with US$9.8 billion reportedly coming due next year and US$3 billion in 2014.
"Banks remain wary about lending to real estate developments at a time when they still have to make major provisions against non-performing real estate loans from the last development boom," said real estate consultancy firm Jones Lang LaSalle in a statement on Thursday.
However, "the fact that these projects have long-term time lines is positive as they can be developed alongside demand, both domestically and internationally, so as not to build overcapacity," Malik told AFP.
"The funding of these plans is important and should be matched with revenue growth potential," she added.
Dubai's economy contracted 2.4 per cent in 2009 when it rattled global markets over its debt crisis before receiving a US$10-billion bailout from Abu Dhabi, its oil-rich partner in the Emirates, and reaching restructuring deals with lenders.
The economy has since made a comeback, growing 2.8 per cent in 2010, 3.4 per cent in 2011, and 4.1 per cent on an annual basis in the first half of this year, as tourism, trade and transport keep expanding.
But real estate -- a main engine of rapid growth before the crisis -- lags behind other sectors, with growth of just 1.5 per cent in the first six months of 2012.
The sector crashed in 2009 as the global crisis dried up finance and investors walked away from planned projects, many of which were eventually put on hold or cancelled.
"Encouragingly, there are indications that some of the lessons of the last real estate crisis have been learned," said Jones Lang LaSalle.
"The most important of these is the need to adopt a long-term and coordinated approach, rather than developing too much real estate too quickly."
- AFP/xq
BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday that voting inside the parliament would decide as to who is in favour of national interest and who is working for international interests.
"The government feels that their responsibility is to safeguard the interest of international market mafias instead of national interest and for saving the interest of international market mafias, the government is ready to compromise with national interests. Now, the parliament will decide as to who is in support of international market mafias and who are supporting national interests," said Naqvi.
The government's decision to allow foreign supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart had triggered protest not only from opposition parties but also from some of its allies.
BJP had sought debate on the issue of allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector, under the rule that entails voting after discussions.
Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister Office (PMO), V Narayanaswamy said the government would answer all the queries raised by the opposition parties in the parliament and will explain the benefits of allowing FDI in retail sector.
The lower house of parliament has set December 04 and 05 as the date to vote and debate on FDI. The dates for the upper house are yet to be decided.
Narayanaswamy said the government is confident of becoming victorious in the debate.
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
A spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into the ocean, sending up plumes of steam as it made contact with the waves.
Though lava can still be viewed from Kalapana near the Big Island's Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, ocean entry is no longer occurring, according to the National Park Service.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
The lava traveled 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Kilauea’s Pu'u O'o vent to the ocean. When lava reaches the water, it cools and hardens, forming a lava delta that can be dangerous to nearby onlookers, according to Reuters.
The news service reported that no communities on the Big Island were threatened by the lava flow.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
A burst of volcanic activity erupts from Kilauea’s crater in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on November 27.
The volcano has been erupting continuously for nearly 30 years. No major damage has been suffered by a town since 1986, according to Reuters.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
“Ocean entries are beautiful but dangerous,” said Janet Babb, spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, in a statement reported by Reuters. She warned that the steam could be more hazardous than it appears.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Matt Northam, My Shot
A plume of smoke billows where lava from Kilauea meets the sea in this aerial photo taken November 27.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Peter Vancoillie, Your Shot
Published November 30, 2012
(Brendan Smialkowski/AFP/Getty Images)
Bradley Manning’s former guards testified today that they did not intimidate the man accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified cables to the anti-secrets website Wikileaks during a Jan. 18, 2011 incident that resulted in Manning being placed on a temporary suicide risk watch.
Manning’s attorneys cite the event as a key reason why his pre-trial confinement at the Marine brig in Quantico, Va., was unlawful and warrants the dismissal of the charges against him.
Manning faces life imprisonment on charges that he leaked the classified military and diplomatic cables to Wikileaks. Details of those charges will come at a trial scheduled for February and are not being discussed at this week’s hearing, which is focused on his nine-month confinement at Quantico from July 2010 to April 2011.
On Jan. 18, 2011 Manning was being moved to his daily “recreation call” in a room at the brig when he experienced an apparent anxiety attack. Manning said Thursday the guards escorting him seemed to have an aggressive attitude that made him feel nervous and ultimately feel faint.
Manning testified Thursday that he “lost my demeanor” during a later discussion with brig officials about the incident that led them to place him on temporary suicide risk watch.
Former Marine guards Lance Corporal Joshua Tankersly and Lance Corporal Jonathan Cline testified today that Manning had been moving around while his hand and leg restraints were placed on him for the escort to the exercise room. They said they reminded Manning that he should respond properly to their orders by referring to their ranks when he answered them.
When Manning entered the recreation room they described a situation in which Manning fell backwards and landed on his backside.
They then said that when out of his leg restraints Manning ran to a weightlifting machine, hid behind it and began to cry. Both Cline and Tankersly said they could not explain Manning’s behavior. Both guards were ordered to leave the room and were replaced by two other guards who escorted Manning back to his cell.
Cline said he was puzzled when a supervisor later told him “we intimidated him or something like that.”
Each guard said he could not recall if they sounded harsh when they talked to Manning on the way to the exercise room.
They both said that aside from the January incident, Manning was courteous and professional in his interactions with them. Both described him as an average prisoner, though Tankersly acknowledged that Manning was a high profile detainee who had the attention of high-ranking officials at the base.
“It’s hard to put ‘average’ on such a high profile, when you have higher ups on base come and check through to that see all was OK,” Tankersly said.
Gunnery Sgt. William Fuller, one of the senior officers at the brig, also testified today about his participation in a Classification and Assessment board that routinely assessed whether Manning’s Maximum Custody and Prevention of Injury status should be downgraded. The board never reduced Manning’s status during his stay.
Fuller acknowledged that before the January incident he and another brig official had considered a downgrade because Manning was “doing pretty good.”
He said the Jan. 18incident “kind of reset things … we had to keep him on Prevention of Injury.”
Fuller also cited Manning’s quiet interactions with him as a reason for keeping Manning on that status.
According to Fuller “he wouldn’t communicate … it seemed like he didn’t really want to talk” and that concerned him, given training he had received that being withdrawn could be an indicator of suicidal behavior.
Fuller admitted that the conversations were really just quick interactions to see how Manning was doing.. When asked to provide examples of longer exchanges he had with other prisoners, Fuller provided brief sentences. That led David Coombs, Manning’s defense attorney to say sarcastically, “so if he’d thrown in more words then he would have classified as a Chatty Patty?”
Manning’s attorneys claim that a protest on Jan. 17 by Manning supporters, at the entrance to the base, may have motivated an aggressive attitude towards the detainee.
Cline recalled other guards “were annoyed” by the protest” because it would close parts of the base and hinder or interrupt how they got home.” But Tankersly said the protest had no impact on Manning’s treatment.
The three Republican senators emerged grim-faced from a basement meeting room in the Capitol on Tuesday and took turns before a bank of televisions cameras, blasting away at the Obama administration for its handling of the deadly attack on an American outpost in Benghazi, Libya.
The first two were prominent national security heavyweights, Arizona’s John McCain and Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina. Then the third senator, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, stepped forward. A freshman in her second year and ranked 99th in seniority, Ayotte said she had not been swayed by the administration’s efforts to explain how and why U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice had initially suggested the attack was the result of a spontaneous street protest, instead of a coordinated terrorist attack.
MACAU: A Macau triad boss known as "Broken Tooth" walked free from jail on Saturday after more than 14 years behind bars for heading a gang blamed for a string of murders and bombings in the former Portuguese colony.
The release of Wan Kuok-koi has triggered tightened security in the world's biggest gaming hub, although experts say it is unlikely Macau will witness a return to the violence seen before 1999.
Wan, wearing a white T-shirt, walked out from a high-security prison and was collected by two men -- one reported to be his brother -- in a white car just before 7:00 am (2300 GMT Friday), an AFP photographer saw.
Now aged 57, he smiled but did not gesture to waiting journalists.
Wan was leader of the 14k triad, the largest organised crime outfit in Macau in the mid-1990s, and was jailed over offences linked to loan sharking, money laundering and triad activities.
At his trial, police said his gang had been involved in a string of murders, bombings, drive-by shootings and kidnappings that plagued the colony in the run-up to the handover to Chinese rule.
He stood trial with nine other gang members facing a raft of charges, among them membership of a triad society, illicit gambling, extortion, drug trafficking, smuggling and illegal possession of firearms.
His release has rekindled memories of Macau's darker days, but a lawyer representing Wan, said he intends to lead a quiet life.
"The only thing he wants is for people to forget him," Pedro Leal told the South China Morning Post.
"In recent weeks he's been on the cover of many magazines and they've all talked about his past. All he wants is to be left in peace. He's going to lead a quiet life from now on," the lawyer said.
During Wan's time in prison, Macau has been transformed into the world's top gaming destination after the casino sector that was once monopolised by tycoon Stanley Ho was opened up to foreign competition in 2002.
Macau now earns five times the gaming revenue of Las Vegas, with six firms licenced to operate casinos there.
- AFP/xq
Speaking at the 49th All-Member Convention organized by KEB Engineer's Association at JK grounds here on Friday, he said though the government has sanctioned 60,000 employees, there are 15,000 vacancies. "As many as 1,500 engineers' posts are vacant, which need to be filled at the earliest. KEB requires quality personnel," he said, and added: "Employees must be willing to work anywhere in the state, rather than sticking to a particular place."
In spite of implementing advanced technology, KEB has not been able to tackle certain situations, he said, adding that people continue to target it in cases of power failure and technical issues.
Speaking on power shortage in the state, Karnataka is passing through power shortage mainly due to sudden spurt in demand from the irrigation sector and reduction in power generation.
"KEB is trying to cut losses in transmission and distribution (T&D). Unlike neighbouring states, Karnataka has not been equipped with latest machineries," he claimed.
At present, the state is unable to meet the demand, which would rise in the coming days. KEB is unable to generate sufficient capital too, Selva Kumar said.
!KEB Engineer's Association president V Venkatasivareddy said the Association has rejected Shunglu committee report on power distribution which speaks of franchise system. The report has said that franchise model is a preferred mode for reduction in T&D losses given the issues in the sector. The committee does not see meaningful reduction in T&D losses in the foreseeable future. "Franchise system gradually leads to privatization of the power sector," he said.
Nov 30, 2012 1:45pm
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
The outlook for reaching some sort of bipartisan agreement on the so-called “fiscal cliff” before the Dec. 31 deadline is looking increasingly grim. Shortly after noon today, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, appeared before the cameras to say the talks had reached a “stalemate.”
But there may be a glimmer of hope. There are currently 33 outgoing members of Congress — they’re either retiring or were defeated last month — who have signed the Grover Norquist pledge stating that they will not raise taxes. Those members, particularly the ones who have traditionally been somewhat moderate, could hold the key to that stance softening.
“You have 33 people who do not have to worry about the future political consequences of their vote,” said ABC political director Amy Walter. “These are people who theoretically can vote based purely on the issue rather than on how it will impact their political future.”
One outgoing member has publicly indicated a willingness to join with Obama and the Democrats on a partial deal.
“I have to say that if you’re going to sign me up with a camp, I like what Tom Cole has to say,” California Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack said on CNN on Thursday. Cole is the Republican who suggested that his party vote to extend the Bush tax-rates for everyone but the highest income earners and leave the rest of the debate for later. Mack’s husband, Connie, however, also an outgoing Republican member of Congress, said he disagreed with his wife.
But in general, among the outgoing Republican representatives with whom ABC News has made contact, the majority have been vague as to whether or not they still feel bound by the pledge, and whether they would be willing to raise tax rates.
“[Congressman Jerry Lewis] has always been willing to listen to any proposals, but there isn’t,” a spokesman for Rep. Lewis, Calif., told ABC News. “He’s said the pledge was easy because it goes along with his philosophy that increasing tax doesn’t solve any problems. However, he’s always been willing to listen to proposals.”
“Congressman Burton has said that he does not vote for tax increases,” a spokesman for Dan Burton, Ind., said to ABC.
“With Representative Herger retiring, we are leaving this debate to returning members and members-elect,” an aide for Wally Herger, Calif., told ABC News.
The majority of Congress members will likely wait until a deal is on the table to show their hand either way. However, it stands to reason that if any members of Congress are going to give in and agree to raise taxes, these would be the likely candidates.
An agreement will require both sides to make some concessions: Republicans will need to agree to some tax increases, Democrats will need to agree to some spending cuts. With Republicans and Democrats appearing to be digging further into their own, very separate territories, the big question is, which side will soften first?
TOKYO: Japan on Friday welcomed the green light given by the European Union to launching negotiations on a massive free trade agreement (FTA) between the two economies.
The long-awaited move by EU trade ministers was hailed as particularly good news for Japanese automakers, who have struggled with the shrinking domestic market, a strong yen and a bitter island row with China.
"Acting on the principle of competition and cooperation, Japan's motor industry has, over many years, cultivated an ever-growing number of fruitful partnerships with European automobile manufacturers," said a statement by Akio Toyoda, Toyota president and chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.
"We are convinced that an EU-Japan FTA will provide a key impetus in promoting robust trade, investment and industrial cooperation between the two sides... fuelling growth and expansion of the automobile industries in both Japan and Europe."
Japan's Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba also welcomed the development, saying "the economic partnership agreement will benefit economic growth both for Japan and Europe."
European car and car part manufacturers are fearful the removal of tariffs will lead to a rise in Japanese car imports, pointing to a previous trade deal with South Korea that bumped up sales of their vehicles in Europe.
EU trade ministers pledged to safeguard Europe's struggling carmakers, but auto companies have slammed the envisaged deal as what the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association dubbed "a one-way street" for Japanese cars.
- AFP/xq
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