Pakistan drone strikes kill 22

U.S. drones fired five missiles at a house in a Pakistani tribal region near the border with Afghanistan Friday, killing at least 22 people, said Pakistani intelligence officials.

The strike came a day after the head of the Pakistani army has denounced these attacks and could also sour already deteriorating relations between Washington and Islamabad.

Also Friday, hundreds of activists attacked a control point, in a Northwestern Pakistani District along the border during the night and in the morning, killing 14 security troops, officials said — a show of insurgents continued strength despite the offensives of the army against them.

U.S. missiles more recent success Spinwam village in Waziristan in the North, a tribal region home to Islamic militants targeting American troops and NATO in Afghanistan. The two said civilian intelligence officials were suspected of being among the dead, and also several people were injured. The number of reported deaths was relatively high for a US missile strike.

The United States rarely acknowledges missiles CIA - run program, which means that the usual sources of confirmation of the strikes are responsible for Pakistani intelligence, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they do not have permission to speak to the media. This information of the region is virtually impossible to verify independently. The region is remote, rugged and dangerous, and access is restricted by law.

Although Pakistan has long denounced the missile attack fired the drone as a violation of its sovereignty, it is widely accepted to cooperate secretly with at least some of the attacks.

But relations between Pakistan and the United States were sunk to new lows this year after that a contractor of the US CIA in January shot and killed two Pakistani, he said, were trying to steal. A March missile that reportedly killed dozens of innocent tribes developed Pakistani leaders angry.

During a visit here Wednesday, Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, accused spy service military-run of Pakistan to maintain links with the network Haqqani, a major Afghan Taliban faction.

Pakistan's military-run Inter-Services Intelligence spy has agency links to the leaders of the network dating back to the Soviet occupation of the 1980s of the Afghanistan, when the Group has also been supported by Washington. But after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Pakistan has insisted he cut these links.

However, many analysts and US officials suspect Islamabad may be trying to maintain its links with the Haqqanis so that it can be used as a means to retain influence in Afghanistan - and keep a rampart against archrival India - after the American leave.

A Pakistani army statement later dismissed what he called "negative propaganda" by the United States, while the Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said offensive multiple of its troops against insurgents in northwestern groups are evidence of Pakistan's "national resolve to defeat terrorism."

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France intensify the Libyan air strikes: Sarkozy

President Nicolas Sarkozy said that France will intensify its air strikes in Libya, at the request of the opposition forces.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the France also said Wednesday that it already has the field liaison officers in the rebel-held city of Benghazi. Officers are trying to help the rebels organize and support the NATO air campaign which has failed to implement military rout of Muammar al-Gaddafi.

Britain and the Italy are also send officers.

A presidential aid said Sarkozy, after having met a leader of the opposition Libyan Wednesday, said: "We will intensify the strikes". The aid was not allowed to be publicly named the presidential policy.

Hussien, a rebel fighter, prepares a belt of ammunition for his heavy machine gun on the front along the western entrance of Ajdabiyah line on Tuesday. AMR Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters.

Fighting in Libya, erupted two months ago, when protests against four decades of Gaddafi power transformed into an armed uprising.

Rebels control now the largest part of the East, while Gaddafi holds most of the West. However, there are areas of the rebels in the West of the Libya, particularly the Nafusa mountainous region which is home to the Libya Berber minority.

Since the end of week, Nafusa region city of Yifran, with a population of about 25,000 people, was attacked daily with Grad rockets, anti-aircraft guns and tank shells, said a veteran rebel, who would give only his first nameBelgassem, for fear of reprisals.

The bombing sent thousands fleeing in Tunisia nearby. Four rounds of mortar by the fighting, landed on the territory Tunisian Monday, Tunisian officials said late Tuesday.

International aid officials said that more than 10,000 people in the region of Mount Nafusa fled to Tunisia these days, avoiding the official boundaries inhabited by of Gaddafi's loyalists. Refugees remain in camps near the towns of Tunisian border Dehiba and Remada, or are hosted by Tunisian families.

Communities like Yifran, Qalaa, Nalut, and others close to the Tunisian borders are inhibited by Berbers who have suffered under the repressive policies of Gaddafi. Gaddafi has dubbed Berbers "product of colonialism" created by the West to divide the Libya. In the 1970s, members of pan-Berber associations were arrested and Berber activities have been banned.

In another outpost of rebels in the West of the Libya, the city under siege from Misrata, new clashes erupted Wednesday.

Exchanges of fire were heard Wednesday between troops Libyan and armed residents in the city centre. NATO planes flew above, but have not carried out air strikes.

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Pakistan wants to cut CIA drone strikes - CNN International

More than a hundred of drone strikes U.S. arrived in Pakistan last year, according to the rules of the American Foundation.New new campaign of drone in Pakistan desiredFew of these deaths in 2010 were "high value target"official saysGovernment wants also less personal CIA in the country, official says

(CNN) - the Government of Pakistan would like to campaign of drone only repeated and aggressive of the CIA "stay" under "new rules" and "formalized terms," according to a Pakistani military official familiar the discussions between the two nations.

Only then, in the case where there was "compelling evidence" that a militant "high value target" had been located and that the operation was jointly coordinated between Pakistan and the United States, the Pakistani government sanction a drone strike in the futurethe official said.

The Pakistani official pointed out that there were more than 100 reported drone CIA strike in Pakistan in 2010 - a record number - yet almost no fatalities in these strikes have been "targets of high value," as leaders to al-Qaeda or militant groups allied. Instead, the official said, the vast majority of the victims of the strikes were soldiers on foot or civil activists.

According to a number of independent of the drone strikes maintained by the new America Foundation, he y 118 U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan in 2010 killing somewhere between 600 and 1,000 people.

Only a dozen victims of the strikes 2010 drone in Pakistan have been described as militant leaders in the accounts of reliable and independent press.

The Pakistani official said that the fact that drone strikes are mostly militant leaders killing step is "shocked the masses" in Pakistan.

Opinion polls show that nine out of ten Pakistanis have an unfavourable opinion of drone strikes.

Relations between the Agency of military intelligence, the CIA and Pakistan, known by its initials ISI, become "tense", says Pakistani official, following the incident at the CIA Contractor Raymond Davis shot and killed two men in Lahore, Pakistan, at the end of January.

17 March - the day after Davis had been released from a Pakistani prison after payment of $ 2 million more in "blood money" to the families of two victims - a CIA drone strike killed 45 people in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

After the attack, GEN Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Chief of the powerful and efficient army the main engine of the foreign policy of Pakistan, made a rare public rebuke of the drone strike, saying that "peaceful citizens" were "negligently and cynically targeted" and that the strike was "unjustified and unacceptable."

According to the Pakistani official, drone strike March 17 "packed off the coast of the world" and was considered as an example of "extreme arrogance" of the US Government and helped to precipitate the visit to Washington Monday of Gen.l Ahmad Shuja Pashathe head of the ISI, for talks with the Director of the CIA Leon Panetta.

In addition to a significant reduction in the UAV program, the Government of Pakistan also wants CIA "covert operations" in Pakistan which are prohibited by the host Government to stop, citing Davis: an example of one such operator of red.

The Pakistani official said "we have not discussed specific numbers" the CIA personnel that we would like to leave Pakistan - where the Agency maintains one of its largest stations overseas - but the official said that they do not know that Davis had not acted alone, and there are "too many others" like him in the country.

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U.S. Congress strikes spending-Cut Deal to avoid the closure

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April 09, 2011, 10:43 AM EDT By Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Brian Faler

(Updates with economic effect from seventh paragraph. See EXT6 for more on the budget.)

April 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Congress leaders and President Barack Obama agreed last night to cut about $38 billion from federal spending this year while jettisoning Republican proposals to defund Planned Parenthood and block environmental rules, pulling the government back from the brink of a shutdown.

The agreement was announced less than two hours before the government’s funding authority was due to expire, which would have started a partial shutdown of services and offices.

“It’s been a grueling process.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said on the Senate floor with less than an hour to go before the midnight deadline for a shutdown. “We didn’t do it at this late hour for drama; we did it because it’s been very hard to arrive at this point. Both sides have had to make tough choices.”

The Senate and the House of Representatives quickly passed a temporary measure that makes $2 billion of the agreed-upon cuts and keeps the government open through April 14 while they work on a longer-term agreement to fund the government through the Sept. 30 close of the current fiscal year. Both chambers will vote on that measure next week.

House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said he was “pleased” with the outcome of what he called a “long fight” over the 2011 budget.

“We fought to keep government spending down, because it really will affect and help create a better environment for job creators in our country,” he told reporters.

Furlough Averted

The deal averted the furlough of 800,000 federal employees, including what would have been the delay of pay to U.S. armed service personnel even as officials such as Obama, Boehner and Reid would have continued to receive their salaries. A shutdown also would have closed federal facilities such as national parks and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, delay in the processing of tax returns and a freeze on the release of some economic data.

While the political drama played out in Washington, with officials warning of consequences from a shutdown, financial markets showed little concern about the fiscal health of the U.S.

Bond yields are lower now than when the government was running a budget surplus a decade ago even as Treasury Department data show that the amount of marketable debt outstanding has risen to $9.13 trillion from $4.34 trillion in mid-2007.

Market Expectations

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield was at 3.58 percent yesterday, below the average of 7 percent since 1980, reflecting expectations that a deal would be reached, said John Lonski, chief economist at Moody’s Capital Markets Group.

Similarly, derivatives tied to U.S. government debt show investor perceptions of America’s creditworthiness are improving. Credit-default swaps on Treasuries stood 41.12 basis points as of late yesterday in New York, according to data provider CMA Datavision. The swaps are down from this year’s high of 51.5 basis points on Jan. 27 and last year’s high of 59.7 in February. The price levels are the seventh-lowest of 51 sovereign debt markets tracked by Bloomberg and CMA.

Low borrowing costs mean the U.S. is spending less to service its debt as a percentage of gross domestic product. Interest expense fell to 2.7 percent of GDP in fiscal 2010 from 3.8 percent in 2001, the last time the U.S. had a budget surplus, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Foreign Investor Confidence

Foreign investors have continued to purchase U.S. financial assets. The class of investors that includes foreign central banks bought 60 percent of the $66 billion in benchmark 10-year U.S. notes sold this year, up from 42 percent in 2010, according to the Treasury Department. As of January, foreign investors increased their ownership of Treasuries to $4.45 trillion from $3.7 trillion a year earlier, according to the latest government data.

The dollar’s share of global currency reserves stood at 61.4 percent at the end of 2010, little changed from 61.5 percent in 2009, the International Monetary Fund in Washington said March 31. The euro’s share dipped to 26.3 percent from 27.9 percent.

Consumer confidence in the U.S. rose for a second consecutive week as an improving job market helped ease the burden of higher fuel costs. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index climbed to minus 44.5 in the period ended April 3 from minus 46.9 the previous week.

‘Different Beliefs’

At the White House, Obama, who after weeks on the sidelines stepped in this week to prod an agreement, said the deal was possible because “Americans of different beliefs came together.”

“Like any worthwhile compromise, both sides had to make tough decisions,” Obama said. “Some of the cuts we agreed to will be painful.”

The Washington Monument, honoring America’s first president, loomed through a window behind Obama in his televised comments. He began his remarks with a reference to the landmark, saying, “I’m pleased to announce that the Washington Monument, as well as the entire federal government, will be open for business.”

The deal came together after days of negotiations at the Capitol and the White House among Boehner, Reid, Obama and their aides over how much spending to cut and from which programs, as well as over so-called policy riders Republicans proposed to direct how federal money could be used.

Final Compromise

The final compromise slashes about $23 billion less than Republicans had initially sought, yet tens of billions more than Democrats originally said they could accept. It stripped most of the dozens of policy limits Republicans were seeking to impose on the Obama administration, while narrowing a handful of others Democrats said they could tolerate.

A provision barring federal funding for Planned Parenthood, the women’s health provider that offers abortions in some locations, was dropped in exchange for a commitment that the Senate would vote on defunding the organization.

Republicans dropped their bid to use the measure to cancel funding for the health-care overhaul enacted last year, and Democrats in turn agreed to hold a separate Senate vote on repealing the law, according to a summary of the deal released by Boehner’s office.

Several provisions that would have barred the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions or other pollutants were abandoned.

Abortion Funding

Among the riders that survived were a ban on taxpayer funding for abortions in the District of Columbia and $2 million for a voucher program that is a personal cause of Boehner’s and provides low-income students in the District with federal money to attend private schools.

As part of the deal, studies will be conducted of the financial regulation measure enacted last year. Critics have said some of the law’s requirements place onerous requirements on business.

The agreement would include funding for National Public Radio, which Republicans had attempted to end. It also would strip Republican riders that sought to block the Federal Communications Commission’s “net neutrality” Internet rules as well as the Education Department’s efforts to clamp down on for- profit colleges.

In a closed-door meeting last night at which he described the agreement to colleagues, Boehner said it was the best Republicans could get out of Democrats, according to an aide who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Months-Long Dispute

The months-long dispute over the 2011 budget stemmed from the failure of last year’s Democratic-controlled Congress to enact a spending plan before the fiscal year started Oct. 1. Since then, the government has been funded by a series of temporary laws.

Republicans took control of the House following November’s elections vowing to make deficit reduction one of their prime missions. The spending cuts agreed to yesterday exceed what House Republican leaders had proposed earlier this year before their rank-and-file forced them to push for $61 billion in reductions in the budget bill the chamber passed in February.

Debt Ceiling

The accord clears the way for potentially even tougher conflicts over the government’s finances. A spending plan for the 2012 fiscal year prepared by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, and scheduled for a vote in the chamber next week would phase out the traditional Medicare program -- a proposal Democrats have denounced. It also would cut spending by $6 trillion over a decade and reduce the top tax rate to 25 percent.

Also looming is a fight over raising the government’s $14.3 trillion debt limit, expected to be breached by May 16. Many Republicans are demanding that the Obama administration commit to deep spending cuts as the price for their votes to raise the limit.

“In order to raise the debt ceiling, we need to do something significant about the debt,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said yesterday. “My definition of ‘significant’ is that the markets view it as significant, the American people view it as significant and foreign countries view it as significant.”

--With assistance from Julianna Goldman, James Rowley, Lisa Lerer, Lizzie O’Leary and Nicholas Johnston in Washington. Editors: Ann Hughey, Christian Thompson.

To contact the reporters on this story: Julie Hirschfeld Davis in Washington at jdavis159@bloomberg.net; Brian Faler in Washington at bfaler@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net

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The ocean of the Japan radiation strikes 7.5 million times legal limit - Los Angeles Times

A broker walks between fish market fish Hirakata in Kitaibaraki, the Japan, trade for the first time since the disaster of earthquake and tsunami on March 11. (Toru Yamanaka / AFP/Getty Images / April 5, 2011)The operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster of the Japan said Tuesday that he had found radioactive iodine to 7.5 million times the legal limit, in a sea water sample taken near the facility and officials imposed a new limit of radioactivity in fish health.

The reading of iodine-131 was registered Saturday, said Tokyo Electric Power Co.. Another sample taken Monday found at level 5 million times the legal limit. Monday samples were also found to contain radioactive cesium to 1.1 million times the legal limit.

The exact source of the radiation was not immediately clear, although Tepco said that highly contaminated water was leaking a pit near the No. 2 reactor. The utility initially believed that the leak was from a crack, but several attempts to seal the crack failed.

Tuesday, the company said that the leak instead could come from a defective joint, where the sky meets a duct, allowing the water to seep into a layer of gravel below radioactive. The utility said that it might inject "liquid glass" gravel to stop more than leak.

In the meantime, Tepco continued releasing what he described as water contaminated with low levels of radiation in the sea to make space in the storage tanks on-site for more highly contaminated water. In all, the company said it expected release 11 500 tonnes of water, but by Tuesday morning, he had left less than 25% of this amount.

Although the Government has authorized the publication of the 11 500 tonnes and said that any radiation could be quickly diluted and dispersed in the ocean, fish with high readings of iodine are located.

Monday, officials detected more than 4 000 becquerels of iodine 131 per kilogram in a type of fish called a lance took less than three miles off the coast of the city of Kita-Ibaraki. Young fish contained also 447 becquerels of cesium-137, which is considered as more problematic than iodine-131, because it has a much longer half-life.

Tuesday the Secretary to the cabinet Chief Yukio Edano said that the Government impose a standard of 2 000 becquerels of iodine per kilogram of fish, the same level it enables in vegetables. Previously, the Government lacks a specific level for fish. Another route of Lance with 526 becquerels of cesium was detected Tuesday, more than the standard of 500 becquerels per kilogram.

Fishing for sand lances has been suspended. Local fishermen called Tepco to stop the release of radioactive water into the sea and demanded that the company compensate them for their losses.

Fishing was banned near the plant, and the vast majority of the fishing activities in the region was interrupted because of damage to the boats and ports by the tsunami on March 11 and the earthquake. Yet, some fishermen are to catch, to see the lack of interested buyers because of fears of radiation.

It was not clear that Tepco may provide fishermen, but the company said Tuesday that he had offered "condolence payments", for a total of 180 million yen ($2 million) for the residents who had to evacuate their homes due to the radiation of the Fukushima plant. A city, however, refused payment.

The company has yet to decide how it will compensate residents near the plant in damages, although analysts say that the claims could be tens of billions of dollars. Executive Vice President of TEPCO said Takashi Fujimoto on damages company's decision hinges on how much of the burden the Government will do share.

Edano urged the company to accelerate its decisions on compensation.

For now, the company has offered to give 20 million yen ($ 240,000) each of the 10 villages and towns within 12 miles of the plant, Fujimoto said.

"We hope they will find of some use for the moment," he said.

Namie, a city of would be, located approximately 6 miles north of the plant, refused to lend money. Official city Kosei Negishi said that he and other officials working out of an Office of fortune in the city of Nihonmatsu in Fukushima Prefecture and had more pressing.

"The coastal areas of Namie have been hit by the earthquake of Earth and the tsunami, but due to radiation and the evacuation order, we did not have the opportunity to search for 200 people missing," said Negishi. "Why would we use our resources below 1,000 yen ($12) each resident?

Tokyo Electric Power Fujimoto acknowledged that he had a "divide" in the views of the company and officials Namie.

TEPCO shares dropped to a record, passing down Tuesday by the maximum daily commercial - about 18% - to 362 yen, below the previous record low of 393 yen reached in December 1951. The company has lost 80% of its value - almost 1.1 billion yen - since the earthquake and tsunami, according to the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

"We take very seriously the decline in the price of the shares," Fujimoto told journalists.

Annual earnings report said Fujimoto of the company, which was originally scheduled for April 28, would be postponed, but he declined to give other details.

Julie.MAKINEN@LAtimes.com

Hall special correspondent is.

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