Is US evangelical vote in play?
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/is.us.evangelical.vote.in.play/17237-2.htm
Evangelical Christians who have greatly influenced recent US elections are seen playing a different but once again key role in this November's White House race and analysts say both parties are keen to woo them.
"I think it (the evangelical vote) will be different this time round. The evangelical community is more fractured than it has been in the past," said Allen Hertzke, director of religious studies at the University of Oklahoma.
One in four US adults count themselves as evangelical or "born-again" Christian, giving them electoral clout in a country where religion and politics often mix.
All of the contenders in the presidential race - Republican presumptive nominee John McCain and Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who are battling for the Democratic crown - are Protestant Christians.
Obama importantly in evangelical eyes had an adult "conversion experience" into the United Church of Christ while Clinton was raised a Methodist. McCain grew up in the mainline Episcopal faith but now attends a Baptist church in Phoenix.
Analysts say if Obama is the Democratic nominee he could make inroads into this Republican bloc because of his frank talk about faith and appeal to young evangelicals.
McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam and Arizona senator, faces the difficulty of wooing skeptical religious conservatives within his own party who view him as soft on some of their core issues, such as stem-cell research and gay marriage.
This could dampen their enthusiasm to turn out and vote the way they did in 2004, when 78 per cent of white evangelicals who cast ballots did so for President George W Bush.
But Clinton, a New York senator who is an object of wrath in many conservative Christian circles because of her liberal positions and feminist image, could draw them to the polls for McCain in numbers that a match-up with Obama might not.
Opinion polls show most white evangelicals firmly in the Republican camp. A recent Pew Research Center poll shows McCain with a 70 to 25 percent lead over Obama and about the same margin over Clinton with this group.
But hard-core conservative Christians in the Republican Party are unhappy with McCain on many grounds, ranging from his failure to support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage to his past criticism of leaders in the movement.
So while polls may show him with an almost three to one edge he may find that some of those who have favored him in surveys will not show up to vote for him at the ballot box.
"Evangelicals lean Republican to such an extent that Republicans cannot win without them," said Dennis Goldford, a professor of politics at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
"They come from a background that is the whole loaf or nothing. They don't compromise and they know how to go if somebody is not with them 100 percent," he said.
But Clinton would solve McCain's problem on this score.
"If Clinton gets the nomination then conservative evangelicals will come out for vote for McCain like he's the second coming," said David Domke, a professor of communication at the University of Washington.
Those white evangelicals already in the Democratic fold in the South though show a decided preference for Clinton. Exit polls for the primary vote on Feb. 5 showed Clinton overwhelmingly won over Tennessee's white evangelical Democrats with 78 percent to only 12 percent for Obama.
YOUNG EVANGELICALS
Analysts see Obama wooing some wavering evangelicals especially young ones by his activism in areas such as the global AIDS pandemic as well as his youthful, rock star image.
"If Obama is the nominee I think he will have an ability to appeal to some of the more moderate evangelicals and there will be a generational factor as well," said Hertzke.
He said while younger evangelicals also tended to be conservative and oppose abortion rights - which Obama supports - they also had a broad range of concerns such as human rights abroad, global poverty and the environment.
The 71-year-old McCain would be the oldest American ever elected to a first presidential term while Obama would be the country's first black president.
Both tales have a wide resonance and Obama and McCain each has a compelling narrative to add that evangelicals find especially attractive: the adult convert and the war hero.
"Obama is comfortable speaking about his faith and he had an adult conversion experience and that has real resonance in the evangelical world," said Hertzke.
McCain by contrast does not seem as relaxed talking about his faith as Obama, who pointedly devotes a whole section to it on his campaign web site.
But patriotic US Christians, who regard sacrifice for "God and country" as a virtue, are impressed by McCain's record as a naval aviator and prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.
And McCain has two trump cards over the Democrats with most evangelicals: his staunch opposition to abortion rights and his unflinching backing of the Iraq war, which many conservative Christians still strongly support.
McCain Camp Keeps Distance From Backer Who Said Terrorists Will Celebrate Obama
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/08/iowa-congressman-says-terrorists-will-be-dancing-in-the-streets-if-obama-wins
John McCain’s campaign distanced itself Saturday from a supporter who told an Iowa newspaper that terrorists would be “dancing in the streets” if Barack Obama is elected president.
Iowa Rep. Steve King made the remarks to the Daily Reporter in Spencer, Iowa, basing his prediction on Obama’s pledge to pull troops out of Iraq, his Kenyan heritage and his middle name, Hussein. Obama’s campaign immediately called on McCain to denounce the remarks.
McCain traveling press secretary Brooke Buchanan told FOX News that King has no affiliation with the campaign.
“The Senator has been clear that he intends to keep this campaign about the issues. He has condemned similar comments by (radio talk show host) Bill Cunningham. He doesn’t agree with King’s comments,” Buchanan said. “He intends to run a respectful race and keep it about the issues.”
The Arizona senator recently chided Cunningham after the Cincinnati talk show host referred to Obama three times as “Barack Hussein Obama” while introducing McCain.
“These comments have no place in our politics,” Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said earlier, before McCain’s campaign responded to King.
King told the Daily Reporter that his comments were not meant to demean Obama but to warn how an Obama presidency would look to the world.
“The radical Islamists, the Al Qaeda … would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11 because they would declare victory in this war on terror,” King said.
“His middle name does matter,” King said. “It matters because they read a meaning into that.”
The Illinois senator, born in Hawaii to a white Kansas woman and a Kenyan man, is a Christian and has said he has little connection to the Islamic religion, though he acknowledges he spent part of his childhood in largely Muslim Indonesia.
Obama also had to distance himself Friday from comments made by his foreign policy adviser Samantha Power. Power described Hillary Clinton as a “monster” during an interview with a Scottish newspaper, but resigned after the interview was published.
Bush Vetoes Waterboarding Bill
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/Bush_Vetoes_Waterboarding/2008/03/08/78912.html
WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Saturday he vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have prevented attacks.
"The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror," Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. "So today I vetoed it," Bush said. The bill provides guidelines for intelligence activities for the year and includes the interrogation requirement. It passed the House in December and the Senate last month.
"This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe," the president said.
Supporters of the legislation say it would preserve the United States' ability to collect critical intelligence and raise country's moral standing abroad.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would work to override Bush's veto next week. "In the final analysis, our ability to lead the world will depend not only on our military might, but on our moral authority," said Pelosi, D-Calif.
But based on the margin of passage in each chamber, it would be difficult for the Democratic-controlled Congress to turn back the veto. It takes a two-thirds majority, and the House vote was 222-199 and the Senate's was 51-45.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Bush often warns against ignoring the advice of U.S. commanders on the ground in Iraq. Yet the president has rejected the Army Field Manual, which recognizes that harsh interrogation tactics elicit unreliable information, said Reid, D-Nev.
"Democrats will continue working to reverse the damage President Bush has caused to our standing in the world," Reid said.
Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, said Bush "will go down in history as the torture president" for defying Congress and allowing the CIA to use interrogation techniques "that any reasonable observer would call torture."
"The Bush administration continues to insist that CIA and other nonmilitary interrogators are not bound by the military rules and has reportedly given CIA interrogators the green light to use a range of so-called 'enhanced' interrogation techniques, including prolonged sleep deprivation, painful stress positions, and exposure to extreme cold," Daskal said. "Although waterboarding is not currently approved for use by the CIA, Attorney General Michael Mukasey has refused to take it off the table for the future."
The intelligence bill would limit CIA interrogators to the 19 techniques allowed for use by military questioners. The Army field manual in 2006 banned using methods such as waterboarding or sensory deprivation on uncooperative prisoners.
Bush said the CIA must retain use of "specialized interrogation procedures" that the military does not need. The military methods are designed for questioning "lawful combatants captured on the battlefield," while intelligence professionals are dealing with "hardened terrorists" who have been trained to resist the techniques in the Army manual, the president said.
"We created alternative procedures to question the most dangerous al-Qaida operatives, particularly those who might have knowledge of attacks planned on our homeland," Bush said. "If we were to shut down this program and restrict the CIA to methods in the field manual, we could lose vital information from senior al-Qaida terrorists, and that could cost American lives."
The 19 interrogation techniques include the "good cop/bad cop" routine; making prisoners think they are in another country's custody; and separating a prisoner from others for up to 30 days.
Among the techniques the field manual prohibits are:
-hooding prisoners or putting duct tape across their eyes.
-stripping prisoners naked.
-forcing prisoners to perform or mimic sexual acts.
-beating, burning or physically hurting them in other ways.
-subjecting prisoners to hypothermia or mock executions.
It does not allow food, water and medical treatment to be withheld. Dogs may not be used in any aspect of interrogation.
But waterboarding is the most high-profile and contentious method in question.
It involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of years to the Spanish Inquisition and is condemned by nations around the world and human rights organizations as torture.
The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 includes a provision barring cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment for all detainees, including CIA prisoners, in U.S. custody. Many people believe that covers waterboarding.
There are concerns that the use of waterboarding would undermine the U.S. human rights efforts overseas and could place Americans at greater risk of being tortured when captured.
The military specifically prohibited waterboarding in 2006. The CIA also prohibited the practice in 2006 and says it has not been used since three prisoners encountered it in 2003.
But the administration has refused to rule definitively on whether it is torture. Bush has said many times that his administration does not torture.
The White House says waterboarding remains among the interrogation methods potentially available to the CIA.
"Because the danger remains, we need to ensure our intelligence officials have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists," Bush said.
Peres says Israel will not act alone on Iran
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/peres.says.israel.will.not.act.alone.on.iran/17243.htm
Israel will not consider unilateral action to stop Iran getting a nuclear bomb, President Shimon Peres was quoted as saying on Saturday.
In an interview with France's Le Figaro newspaper ahead of a trip to Paris next week, Peres said, however, if economic sanctions failed to persuade Iran to stop its contested nuclear programme then "non-military options would be used up".
The United Nations has imposed sanctions on Iran to pressure it to suspend uranium enrichment.
The United States and other major powers suspect Iran is enriching uranium as part of a covert effort to develop a nuclear bomb. Iran says it is only interested in civilian nuclear energy.
"I would prefer to stop the development of the bomb without recourse to war. Sanctions have proved their efficacy in the past," Peres said, citing decisions by Libya, South Africa and North Korea to renounce nuclear plans.
Asked if Israel would act alone to stop Iran getting the bomb, Peres, a former prime minister who currently holds no executive power, replied: "Under no circumstance. We are not so imprudent as to concentrate the Iranian danger on Israel."
"It's a problem that the rest of the world must resolve. With the long-range missiles developed by Iran the problem is not only Israeli," Peres added.
He accused Iran of seeking outposts in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria and Iraq. "We mustn't close our eyes. If a minority of terrorists are able to equip themselves with nuclear missiles then the world could become ungovernable."
Peres defended Israel's attack last week on Gaza to stop missiles being fired at its territory.
"If we know that someone is preparing to launch a missile against our territory we will target them to stop it happening," he said.
In Israel, Both Sides Pledge Commitment To Peace in Aftermath of Seminary Massacre
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336108,00.html
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday said peace efforts with Israel must move forward despite an especially bloody spate of violence capped by a deadly attack on a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem.
Abbas also reiterated his support for Egypt's efforts to mediate a truce between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
"Despite all the circumstances we're living through and all the attacks we're experiencing, we insist on peace. There is no other path," Abbas said in a speech marking International Women's Day.
Israel has sent mixed signals since Thursday night's shooting, in which a Palestinian gunman burst into a prestigious Jerusalem seminary and killed eight students, many of whom were studying religious holy texts in the building's library.
Officials have indicated a willingness to move ahead with peace talks with Abbas, launched last November at a U.S.-hosted summit in Annapolis, Md. The sides hope to reach a final agreement by the end of the year. The Egyptian-backed truce efforts remain more cloudy, especially if it turns out that Hamas was behind the seminary shooting.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel "remains committed to the Annapolis framework." But he said there were no decisions on when talks would resume.
"We believe in historic reconciliation with the Palestinians. One of the foundations of Annapolis was no tolerance of terrorism. The best way to move forward is for the Palestinian side to be a real partner, not only in talks, but in helping to fight this sort of hateful extremism we saw this week," he said.
The U.S. has said extremist violence should not be allowed to derail peace talks.
Earlier this week, Abbas suspended the talks to protest an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that killed more than 120 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians. Israel launched the offensive to halt intensifying rocket fire from Gaza, which is controlled by the Hamas militant group. Abbas later backed down under heavy U.S. pressure.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said peace talks are expected to resume on Thursday with the arrival of U.S. Lt. Gen. William Fraser III for a joint meeting with Israelis and Palestinians. Fraser is supposed to monitor the sides' compliance with the "road map," a U.S.-backed peace plan.
Regev said the Fraser meeting still was not definite.
Separately, Egypt, backed by the U.S., is exploring a truce deal between Israel and Hamas that would stop rocket fire on Israel in exchange for an end to Israeli attacks on militants and the resumption of trade and travel from Gaza, where border crossings have been closed since Hamas violently seized control of the coastal strip in June.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said his group seeks a simultaneous and reciprocal calm, that is accompanied by actual measures on the ground to lift the closure on Gaza.
"So long as there is an assault, there will be resistance," he said.
Militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad traveled from Gaza to Egypt last week to confer with senior Egyptian intelligence officials on a truce. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch also was in Egypt.
In his speech Saturday, Abbas called for a "calm" in Gaza and reiterated his support for the Egyptian efforts. "These brutal attacks (in Gaza) must stop and these rockets must stop, and Gaza's border crossings must open, all of them," he said.
Regev declined to discuss the Egyptian mediation efforts. But in a sign that Israel was preparing to resume contacts, Israel Radio reported that Amos Gilad, a senior Defense Ministry official, would head to Egypt on Sunday to discuss the Gaza situation. Israeli defense officials were not immediately available to confirm the report.
The outlook could become clearer once Israel determines who was responsible for the attack. The shooter has been identified as a 25-year-old Palestinian man from east Jerusalem, but it remains unclear whether he acted alone or received support.
Relatives of the man, Alaa Abu Dheim, said he had been distraught over the violence in Gaza, and Hamas and Hezbollah flags hung outside the customary mourning tent.
Hamas radio had said Friday the militant group took responsibility, but later retracted the report. A previously unknown, Lebanese-based group, the "Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh" — after a senior Hezbollah commander killed in Syria last month — claimed responsibility, the Al-Manar satellite TV station reported. But the claim could not be independently confirmed. Hezbollah has blamed Israel for Mughniyeh's assassination and vowed revenge.
Concerned about more violence, Israel slapped a closure on the West Bank over the weekend, barring most Palestinians from entering Israel. Military officials said it was not known when the closure would be lifted.
Grim Discovery Made in Iraq
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/335664.aspx
BAGHDAD - A mass grave containing about 100 bodies was discovered Saturday in a region north of Baghdad that has seen years of intense fighting between Shiites and Sunni extremist members of al-Qaida in Iraq.
The grisly discovery came as Iraq's Sunni parliament speaker called on the nation's Shiites and Kurds to work together with the minority he represents to pass an election law that would help reconcile Iraq's often warring sects and splinter groups.
The grave, near Khalis in the Diyala province about 50 miles north of Baghdad, is still being investigated, but the U.S. military said the skeletal remains appear to have been there for a long time.
It was not immediately clear how the people had died, the military said.
Police Col. Sabah al-Ambaqi said the grave was discovered in an orchard near al-Bu Tumaa, a Sunni village outside Khalis. He said authorities including both Iraqi and U.S. forces were conducting a search when they uncovered the site.
Khalis is a Shiite town surrounded by Sunni communities and has been the scene of repeated sectarian attacks. Al-Qaida in Iraq is active in the area, which has seen hundreds of kidnapping and mass abductions in past years.
Police in Diyala reported two separate bombings Saturday in which six people were killed.
The U.S. is in charge of security in Baghdad and other parts of central and northern Iraq, but they plan to eventually hand it over to Iraqi forces. The two countries have reportedly been hashing out some of the terms for some time now, but the Defense Department said the negotiations were to officially commence Saturday.
Diplomats have been discussing agreements for a long-term relationship between the two countries and a deal that will define the legal basis for a U.S. troop presence in the future.
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said late Friday the United States' goal is to complete a deal by December, when the U.N. Security Council resolution that now governs the U.S. and coalition presence in Iraq expires.
Morrell would not discuss specifics, but said the final agreement "does not seek permanent bases, will not in any way codify the number of troops that will remain in Iraq; it will not tie the hands of a future commander in chief, it will not require Senate ratification, but we will make every effort to keep Congress apprised of progress in these talks."
Both sides see an agreement as the basis for establishing a normal state-to-state relationship, enabling Iraq to function with full sovereignty.
To do so, Iraq must work toward national reconciliation between its sectarian groups, which includes holding provincial elections on Oct. 1. The elections would transfer some power from the national government to the provinces and decentralize the decision-making process.
Parliament last month approved a bill that was to set up provincial elections. It was rejected by the Shiite member of Iraq's three member presidential council.
The disagreement over the proposed law comes over who has the right to appoint a local governor. The bill says it's the prime minister's prerogative, but some influential Shiites want the power to rest with provincial legislatures - where they have influence.
"We are seeking ... a unified stance to go forward together in the right direction," Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said.
In Basra, Iraq's second-largest city and the urban center of an oil-rich region, thousands of people took to the streets to protest deteriorating security in the southern city where Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for safety in December.
Its Shiite residents are becoming increasingly alarmed about security, saying that killings, kidnappings and other crimes have increased significantly since British forces turned over security responsibility.
In February, two journalists working for CBS were kidnapped in Basra. One was released but the other, a Briton, is still being held.
A long line of marchers, estimated to be as many as 5,000 people, demonstrated near the Basra police command headquarters Saturday, demanding that the police chief, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, and the commander of joint military-police operation, Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji, resign.
Angry Afghans Protest Cartoon Reprint
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/335560.aspx
Thousands of Afghans demonstrated on Saturday in western Afghanistan, shouting angry slogans against Denmark and the Netherlands for alleged insults against Islam.
The protesters walked through the city of Herat on their way to its main sports stadium.
They denounced Denmark, where cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were recently reprinted in several newspapers.
They also criticised the Netherlands, where a lawmaker plans to release a short film critical about Islam, police spokesman Noor Kahn Nekzad said.
He estimated that more than 10,000 people took part in the protest.
An Associated Press reporter put the crowd at about 5,000.
Demonstrators shouted "Death to Denmark for insulting our prophet" and " Death to the Netherlands for insulting our religion."
They also shouted "Death to America."
"We are here today to show our anger for what happened in Denmark, and to all infidels in the leadership of criminal America for what is going on in the world," one protestor told AP Television.
Last month, Denmark's leading newspapers reprinted a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad after Danish police said they had uncovered a plot to kill the artist, whose drawing was one of 12 cartoons that sparked deadly riots across the Muslim world in 2006.
The reprinting triggered another wave of protests in Islamic countries in recent weeks.
The protesters were also angered by an upcoming short film by right-wing Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders that reportedly portrays the Quran as a "fascist book."
Afghanistan is a Muslim nation where criticism of the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran is a serious crime that carries the death sentence.
Most Muslims consider any physical representation of Islam's prophet to be blasphemous.
Last week more than 200 Afghan lawmakers gathered at the parliament, shouting "Death to the enemies of Islam" and urging the Danish and Dutch governments to prevent blasphemy against Islam.
South American Leaders Move Away From Talk of War
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336168,00.html
South America moved away from talk of war as the presidents of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador agreed to end a bitter dispute triggered by a Colombian cross-border raid with testy handshakes and an apology.
After intense regional diplomacy and emotional debate, Latin American leaders Friday approved a declaration resolving to work for a peaceful end to the crisis, which saw Venezuela and Ecuador send troops to their borders and Colombia accuse its neighbors of backing leftist rebels seeking to topple its government.
The leaders at the summit in the Dominican Republic wasted little time in reversing their steps toward conflict.
Colombia pledged not to follow through on its threat to seek genocide charges against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at an international court for allegedly supporting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which finances its insurgency through kidnapping and the cocaine trade.
Nicaragua said it would restore diplomatic relations with Colombia, broken off only the day before. Chavez said trade with Colombia should "keep increasing," two days after saying he didn't want even "a grain of rice" from his neighbor.
"We're going to begin to de-escalate," Chavez said. "Hopefully this compromise will be honored so this never happens again."
The statement approved by the presidents notes that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe apologized for the March 1 raid inside Ecuadorean territory that killed 25 people including a senior rebel commander, and that he pledged not to violate another nation's sovereignty again.
But it also commits all the countries to fight threats to national stability from "irregular or criminal groups," a reference to Colombia's accusation that its two neighbors have ties to rebels.
The agreement didn't eliminate the causes of the crisis: a Colombian insurgency that has spilled across its borders, and a stalemate over international efforts to facilitate a swap of rebel-held hostages for imprisoned guerrillas.
The agreement came after a spirited debate followed on live television throughout Latin America. The atmosphere became so bitter that at one point Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa walked out for what an aide said was a bathroom break. He quickly returned and called Uribe a liar.
But in the end, even Correa seemed satisfied and stiffly shook Uribe's hand.
"With the commitment to never again attack a brother country and the request for forgiveness, we can consider this grave incident as over," Correa said.
On Saturday, Correa warned that his government would not immediately re-establish diplomatic relations with Colombia. Correa said on his weekly radio show that it will be "difficult to recover trust" in Uribe's government. Restoring diplomatic ties "will take a little time," he said.
The summit showdown underscored Latin America's swerve to the left in recent years — and the increasing isolation of Colombia's center-right government, Washington's strongest ally in Latin America. The United States was the only country in the Americas to offer Colombia unqualified support in the dispute.
Correa, Chavez and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, all leftists aligned against Washington, were the most strident in confronting Uribe, but even more centrist leaders from Argentina, Brazil and Chile lectured him.
The day's loudest applause came when Correa made a final appeal to Uribe to respect their border, saying otherwise no nation can be safe.
Uribe said his military was forced to act because Colombia's neighbors have provided refuge to the FARC. And he said the rebels responded by doing favors for Chavez and helping Correa get elected.
Uribe held up documents he said were from the laptop of Raul Reyes, the rebel leader killed in the attack. He said one message to the guerrillas' top commander told of "aid delivered to Rafael Correa, as instructed." Colombia promised to turn over the evidence to Ecuador for investigation.
Correa described Ecuador as a victim of Colombia's conflict, and proposed an international peacekeeping force to guard their border — an idea not included in the summit declaration.
Chavez, for his part, denied Uribe's accusation that he had given some $300 million to the rebels. He also said he never sent them weapons.
"I have never done it and will never do it," Chavez said. "I could have sent a lot of rifles to the FARC. I will never do it because I want peace."
Bush: Cuba Must Change Before U.S. Policy Does
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/bush_cuba_policy_castro/2008/03/07/78825.html
President George W. Bush on Friday scolded major democracies that do business in Cuba and spurned calls to end hardline US policies now that Fidel Castro has officially given up power.
"That sentiment is exactly backward. To improve relations, what needs to change is not the United States, what needs to change is Cuba," Bush said after meeting with relatives of imprisoned democratic activists.
"So far, all Cuba has done is replace one dictator with another. And its former ruler is still influencing events from behind the scenes," he said, referring to the recent handover of power from Fidel to his brother Raul Castro.
The seamless transfer has fueled mounting pressure, including from Democratic presidential hopefuls, to lift the embargo Washington imposed on Cuba not long after the 1959 revolution that swept Fidel Castro to power.
But Bush has argued that this would amount to doing business with a brutally oppressive regime, rewarding it for crackdowns on human rights and democratic activists, and has said the regime would siphon off any economic gains.
Bush charged that Cuba had cracked down last week on activists handing out copies of the UN Declaration on Human Rights even as it moved to sign the UN-backed International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
"The international community applauded Cuba for signing a piece of paper, but on the abuses that same week much of the world was silent," said the US president. Washington had pushed Cuba to sign the treaty for years.
The European Union, led by Slovenia as holder of the rotating EU presidency, welcomed the signing as "a positive development" even as some of Cuba's dissidents called it "a farce."
"Unfortunately, the list of countries supporting the Cuban people is far too short and the democracies absent from that list are far too notable," said Bush, who did not name names but called silence in the face of abuses "a sad and curious pattern."
Bush said US-Cuba relations cannot improve until Havana releases all political prisoners; respects human rights "in word and deed"; and moves ahead with "free and fair elections."
He spoke as he welcomed Miguel Sigler Amaya and Josefa Lopez Pena, the brother and sister-in-law of Cuban political prisoners Ariel and Guida Sigler Amaya.
"Josefa was ordered to leave Cuba with Miguel once he was released from prison in 2006. In Cuba, they're considered outlaws. In America, they are heralds of freedom, and I'm proud to stand with them," said Bush.
Some critics of the US embargo have warned that it not only failed to bring down Castro but actually helped him by providing an easy target to blame for economic hardships, notably when Soviet support dried up as the Cold War ended.
Others have pointed to growing US economic ties to countries like China, despite rights concerns there, to say that Cuba faces a double-standard tied to the presence of anti-Castro exiles living in electorally crucial Florida.
More than 100 lawmakers in the US House of Representatives have written to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging a change in US trade policy. Business leaders have also joined calls for a policy shift.
US sanctions on Cuba began in 1960 as Havana nationalized US properties and moved towards the creation of a one-party communist system, and a full economic embargo took force in 1962.
Trade, trade and diplomatic restrictions have been tightened several times, though Bush noted that food and medicine still flow from the United States to Cuba's people.
In October, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for the 16th straight year to end the embargo. The number of states voting in favor of doing so has grown over the years.
Serbia's Government Collapses
http://www.newsmax.com/international/serbia_government/2008/03/08/78939.html
BELGRADE, Serbia -- Serbia's government collapsed Saturday over an impasse between the nationalist prime minister and the pro-Western president on how Kosovo's independence affects the Balkan country's pursuit of EU membership.
"The government, which does not have united policies, cannot function," Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said as he announced the fall of his Cabinet. "That's the end of the government."
Kostunica said he will convene a session of the caretaker government Monday, which will propose to President Boris Tadic to dissolve the Parliament and call new elections for May 11.
Tadic said in a statement that he will call early elections because they are a "democratic way to overcome the political crisis."
But he disputed Kostunica's claim that their clash was over Kosovo, the Serbian medieval heartland which proclaimed independence last month with the backing of the United States and several EU countries.
"Kosovo is of course an integral part of our country," Tadic said.
"I believe the issue is that the Serbian government does not have a united position over European and economic perspectives of Serbia and its citizens," he added.
Kostunica said the government "will function in a reduced capacity until the elections are held."
He insists that EU governments recognizing Kosovo must rescind their decisions before Serbia resumes initial membership talks with the 27-nation bloc. Within his government, Kostunica accuses pro-Western ministers of failing to support his efforts to preserve Kosovo as part of Serbia.
Tadic opposes tying Serbia's EU membership to the issue of Kosovo, which has been recognized as an independent state by several leading EU nations, including Britain, France and Germany.
"All parties want Serbia to join the EU, but the question is how _ with or without Kosovo," Kostunica said. "There was no united will to clearly and loudly state that Serbia can continue its path toward the EU only with Kosovo."
Pro-Western minister Mladjan Dinkic said Kostunica's decision was "honorable, democratic and the only possible solution."
"Anything else would be an agony," Dinkic said. "It is now honest to ask the citizens which way Serbia will go in the future."
New elections could determine whether Serbia continues toward the EU and Western institutions or takes a more isolationist approach reminiscent of Yugoslavia in the 1990s under the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17. The predominantly ethnic Albanian province had been under U.N. control since 1999, when NATO launched an air war to stop a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
But Serbia, which considers the territory its historic and religious heartland, has rejected Kosovo's move as illegal under international law.
The Serbian government's cabinet, made up of Kostunica's conservatives and pro-Western democrats, was formed in May, following months of strained negotiations in the wake of the last parliamentary elections in January 2007.
The ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party said new elections are "a good solution."
"Serbia has been in a crisis for a long time," said senior party official Aleksandar Vucic.
Liberal Party leader Cedomir Jovanovic said the elections should offer a "clear chance to break up with the past policies that have divided the people and pushed it away from the world."
Jovanovic called for a new policies on Kosovo and said future government leaders should "tell the truth" about Kosovo and immediately arrest the remaining Serb war crimes fugitives.
Capture of Gen. Ratko Mladic and other suspects still at large from the wars of the 1990s is the condition set by the EU for Serbia's further integration into the bloc.
In Kosovo, deputy Prime Minister Hajredin Kuqi expressed hope Serbia's voters will leave the past behind in the new elections.
"For Kosovo it is very important to have a government in Serbia that is pro-Western and works for cooperation," he said.
China makes room for faithful during Olympics
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/china.makes.room.for.faithful.during.olympics/17234.htm
Officials in China announced on Wednesday that preparations are in full swing to accommodate Beijing religious believers attending the Olympic Games this summer.
The flock of faithful heading to the Beijing Games in officially atheist China includes a number of athletes, coaches and spectators. Religious officials said that special sites were being set up in the city and local believers were being trained to hold religious services for them throughout the Games.
Fu Xianwei, president of the government-controlled Three-self Patriotic Movement Committee for Protestant churches, confirmed that Christians in Beijing and other parts of the country were undergoing language training for the Games.
The Vice Chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, Liu Bainian, added that the Catholic community had started putting their members through language training so that they would be ready to meet the needs of visiting Catholics. He also revealed plans to hold a mass to pray for the success of the Games on the 100-day countdown.
Liu said that his request for Bibles to be placed in the rooms of Christian athletes had been met “positively” by the Games’ organisers in Beijing.
China is keen to use the Olympic Games to show off the huge economic and social strides it has made in recent years, as well as project the image of a religion-friendly country.
Earlier in the week, a high-ranking official in the Communist Party said that China should use religion to bolster social cohesion.
"We should fully follow the policy on freedom of religious belief, implement the regulations on religious affairs, ... guide religious leaders and believers ... and make full use of their positive role in promoting social harmony," Jia Qinglin, the Communist Party's fourth-ranked leader, told a news conference this week.
But it is the situation for the country’s own believers that continues to worry a number of Christian persecution watchdogs, including China Aid Association, which has accused the Chinese Government of a crackdown on the unofficial house church network.
In one February sting alone, 70 house church leaders were rounded up by more than 20 policemen in Shangqiu City, in Henan Province, during a Bible training session in the house of brother Xue Weimin.
Defend life, not euthanasia, Pope tells Luxembourg
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/defend.life.not.euthanasia.pope.tells.luxembourg/17236.htm
Pope Benedict criticised moves to legalise euthanasia in talks with Luxembourg's prime minister on Friday after the country passed laws allowing the terminally ill to end their lives.
The Pope met for about a half hour with Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, whose Christian Social Party tried and failed to block the legislation passed by parliament last month. The law is expected to come into force toward the summer.
"There was specific reference to the defence of human life and the ongoing legislative process directed at allowing euthanasia," the Vatican said in a statement after the meeting.
Under the Luxembourg legislation, euthanasia would be allowed for the terminally ill and those with incurable diseases or conditions, but only when they asked to die repeatedly and with the consent of two doctors and a panel of experts.
The Netherlands became the first country to permit assisted deaths for the terminally ill in April 2002.
Last year, lawmakers in Mexico City approved a law to allow terminally ill people to refuse treatment.
The Church opposes euthanasia but teaches that extraordinary - that is, overly aggressive and possibly painful - means of artificial life support can be stopped if the family wishes.
Last year, the Vatican ruled it was wrong to stop administering food and water to patients in a vegetative state even if they would never regain consciousness.
Employers Cut Jobs in Record Numbers
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/335410.aspx
WASHINGTON - Dangerous cracks in the nation's job market are deepening. Employers slashed jobs by the largest amount in five years and hundreds of thousands of people dropped out of the labor force - ominous signs that the country is falling toward a recession or has already toppled into one.
For the second straight month, nervous employers got rid of jobs nationwide. In February, they sliced payrolls by 63,000, even deeper than the 22,000 cut in January, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The grim snapshot of the country's employment climate underscored the heavy toll the housing and credit debacles are taking on companies, jobseekers and the economy as a whole.
"It sounds like the recession bell is ringing for the U.S. economy, although it is still faint," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.
On Wall Street, stocks tumbled. The Dow Jones lost 146.70 points, a little more than 1 percent to close at 11,893.69. The Dow was down 370 for the last two days of the week.
The worsening situation will prompt the Federal Reserve to cut a key interest rate deeply - perhaps by as much as three-quarters of a percentage point - at its next meeting March 18, or possibly sooner, to help brace the teetering economy, analysts predicted.
The shower of pink slips was widespread. Factories, construction companies, mortgage brokers, real-estate firms, retailers, temporary-help firms, child day-care providers, hotels, educational services, accounting firms and computer designers were among those shedding jobs. All those cuts swamped job gains at hospitals and other health care sites, bars and restaurants, legal services and the government.
"Losing a job is painful, and I know Americans are concerned about our economy; so am I," said President Bush. "It's clear our economy has slowed."
The big question: Just how much? The weak employment report pushed an increasing number of private economists into believing the economy is probably shrinking now. Under one rough rule, the economy would have to contract for six months for the country to be considered in a recession.
The unemployment rate actually dipped slightly from 4.9 percent to 4.8 percent, as 450,000 people left the labor force for any number of reasons. Economists thought many people probably gave up looking for work.
"It stands to reason that a large share of the people left because they didn't feel like anything was there for them - that the market was too weak to be searching for a job at this point," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.
To relieve persistent credit problems, the Federal Reserve announced Friday that it will increase the amount of loans it plans to make available to banks this month to $100 billion. The Fed already has provided a total of $160 billion in short-term loans to cash-strapped banks since December. The Fed, in another step, said it will make $100 billion available to a broad range of financial players through a series of separate transactions.
Crumbling employment conditions are feeding fears the economy will fall victim to all the stresses. Until recently, the positive forces of job and wage growth have helped to offset the negative forces hitting people from the housing and credit crises. Now people and businesses alike are more cautious, spelling more trouble for the economy.
"The debate should no longer be about whether there is or is not a recession, only about how deep it will be," said Nigel Gault, chief economist at Global Insight.
The elimination of 63,000 jobs in February was the most since March 2003 and marked the second month in a row of job losses. The last time the economy suffered two consecutive months of job losses was in May and June 2003, when the labor market was still struggling to recover from the blows of the 2001 recession.
"Businesses got cold feet, and when that happens the easiest thing to do is to put hiring on hold and wait until the dust clears," said Ken Mayland, economist at ClearView Economics.
Economic growth slowed to a near standstill of just a 0.6 percent pace in the final quarter of last year. Before Friday's employment report, many thought growth would weaken further - around a 0.4 percent pace. Now, however, a growing number think the economy is contracting.
Bush's top economic adviser, Edward Lazear, acknowledged Friday that the economy may dip into negative territory in the current quarter. Lazear's comment was the most pessimistic assessment heard out of the White House. He would not discuss whether the White House believes the economy will actually fall into a recession.
The Bush administration was hoping the government's speedily enacted economic stimulus package - including tax rebates for people and tax breaks for businesses - will help bolster the economy in the second half of this year.
"I know this is a difficult time for our economy, but we recognized the problem early and provided the economy with a booster shot," Bush said. "We will begin to see the impact over the coming months," the president predicted.
Democrats, however, said more relief is needed now.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., spoke of charting a "new direction for our economy." Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, called for action to stem record-high home foreclosures.
The Democratic presidential contenders, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, blamed the job losses on what they believe are failed Bush policies. "The news should put to rest any doubts that our economy is in deep trouble," Clinton said. Obama said the employment news meant "more heartache and struggle" for Americans.
On the employment front, workers with jobs saw modest wage gains.
Average hourly earnings for jobholders rose to $17.80 in February, a 0.3 percent increase from the previous month. Over the last 12 months, wages were up 3.7 percent. With lofty energy and food prices, though, workers may feel like their paychecks are shrinking.
Spreading fallout from the housing and credit troubles are the main factors behind the economic slowdown. People and businesses alike are feeling the strains and have turned cautious. Adding to the stresses on pocketbooks, budgets and the economy: skyrocketing energy prices. Oil prices, which have set a string of record highs in recent days, now top $105 a barrel. Gasoline prices have marched higher, too.
All those problems are putting consumers in a gloomy state of mind.
Consumer confidence sank to a new low of 33.1 in early March, according to the RBC Cash Index. That was the worst since the index began in 2002.
To help shore up the economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled last week that the central bank is prepared to lower interest rates again. Economists are now predicting a deep rate reduction by the Fed on or before its regularly scheduled meeting March 18. The Fed, which has been slicing the rate since September, recently turned more forceful. It slashed the rate by 1.25 percentage points during just eight days in January - the biggest one-month reduction in a quarter-century.
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