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GUARDIAN Tue, 26 Apr 2011 10:18:49 GMT
Ben Bernanke, chairman of Federal Reserve, expected to maintain loose monetary policy
The US dollar has fallen to new lows against other major currencies, undermined by predictions that the US would continue to resist pressure to raise interest rates.
In early trading, the dollar dropped to its weakest level ever against the Swiss franc, having touched a record low against the Australian dollar overnight. It also hit a four-week low against the yen, while the dollar index, which measures it against a basket of rival currencies, was close to its lowest level since August 2008.
The fall came a few hours ahead of the start of the Federal Reserve's monthly two-day meeting to set monetary policy.
City experts believe that this will be a defining week for the dollar. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Fed, will for the first time hold a press conference on Wednesday evening immediately after the Federal open market committee has voted. Traders expect no change to the Fed's current loose...
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WORLDPRESSNETWORK 22 March 2011
By cartoonist Leon Kuhn whose work can also be seen on his own website http://www.leonkuhn.org.uk where postcards of some of his cartoons can be ordered.
See Leon Kuhn's page on "SpideredNews | Politics" at http://www.spiderednews.com/LeonKuhn.htm
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WORLDPRESSNETWORK 2 March 2011
By cartoonist Leon Kuhn whose work can also be seen on his own website http://www.leonkuhn.org.uk where postcards of some of his cartoons can be ordered.
See Leon Kuhn's page on "SpideredNews | Politics" at http://www.spiderednews.com/LeonKuhn.htm
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WORLDPRESSNETWORK 22 February 2011
By cartoonist Leon Kuhn whose work can also be seen on his own website http://www.leonkuhn.org.uk where postcards of some of his cartoons can be ordered.
See Leon Kuhn's page on "SpideredNews | Politics" at http://www.spiderednews.com/LeonKuhn.htm
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GUARDIAN Sun, 05 Dec 2010 12:33:06 GMT
Friday, 29 May 2009, 11:46
C O N F I D E N T I A L RIYADH 000716
EO 12958 DECL: 05/22/2019
TAGS PREL, PTER, EFIN, AF, PK, SA
SUBJECT: SAUDI INTERIOR MINISTRY BRIEFS SPECIAL ADVISOR
HOLBROOKE AND TREASURY DAS GLASER ON TERRORISM FINANCE
REF: RIYADH 702
Classified By: CDA DAVID RUNDELL, 1.4 (b),(d)
1. KEY POINTS:
-- (SBU) Special Advisor Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and Treasury DAS Glaser were briefed on Saudi terror finance efforts at a May 16 meeting with Interior Ministry (MOI) officials at the Security Forces Officers Club in Riyadh. Holbrooke also received a briefing on Saudi counterterrorism strategies (reftel). -- (SBU) Saudi Arabia will join the Egmont Group by the end of May 2009. -- (C) Holbrooke pushed for stronger cooperation in pursuing sources of funding for the Taliban, particularly in the Gulf States. -- (C) The Hajj is still a major security loophole for the Saudis, since pilgrims often travel with large amounts of cash and the Saudis cannot refuse them entry..
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GUARDIAN Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:52:44 GMT
Government insists al-Qaida threat is exaggerated and far from top concern, but is keen to flaunt anti-terror credentials
It's not easy trying to follow Yemen's fight against al-Qaida. Until a bomber tried to down a US airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day, this rugged Arabian peninsular country had attracted little attention beyond the likes of the CIA and MI6 worrying that its "ungoverned spaces" were becoming a safe haven for jihadis. Now it is in the uncomfortable glare of intense international publicity.
Yemen's government insists the problem of terrorism is being exaggerated. It has tried from the start to suggest that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian student accused of carrying out the plane attack, was radicalised in London rather than in Sana'a, where he was studying Arabic.
Foreign journalists who have been streaming to this picturesque city since the new year are told by officials that al-Qaida is far from Yemen's biggest challenge: war in the north, unrest in the south, unemployment, illiteracy and shortages of water and oil all figure far higher on the list of national priorities. Ordinary Yemenis tend to agree.
Priorities are different at the heavily guarded US embassy in the capital. The checkpoints that surround it carry fading posters of Yemeni security personnel who were "martyred", with 15 others (some of them the al-Qaida perpetrators), in a September 2008 bombing. Fears of new attacks prompted closure of the US, British and other western missions earlier this month, apparently because of intelligence warnings. They are open again but security remains intense.
In the run-up to next week's London conference on Yemen, the government here is simultaneously bending over backwards to play down the threat from al-Qaida in the Arabian peninsula (Aqap) and flaunting its own robust anti-terrorist credentials.
"We understand the western mentality," quips one senior Yemeni with a smile. Not a day goes by without some new official claim of a deadly blow against the group: six men killed in air strikes on their vehicles; three more captured near the Saudi border; two more in a remote southern tribal area.
The Saudis did their bit yesterday by announcing that three wanted terrorists – they use the Arabic word "deviants", with its powerful Qur'anic resonance – had been killed in Yemen in September. Mugshots of supposedly dead al-Qaida fighters are posted on Yemeni government and news websites sometimes only minutes after an air attack is over.
Aqap challenges every statement made by those it scorns as "tyrants and crusaders." On Sunday it flatly denied a government claim to have killed Qasim al-Raimi, the group's military leader. It even boasted that Raimi and four or five of his fellow fighters were holding a celebratory meal after their escape.
The latest official boast is the capture of Said Ali al-Shihri, a Saudi who is the group's deputy leader, after he tried to bypass a roadblock in Shabwa, where tribes are said to be backing the jihadis. Shihri, a freed Guantánamo prisoner who is accused of involvement in the Sana'a embassy attack in 2008, would be a very big catch indeed. This claim may eventually turn out to be true but official credibility is so poor that western diplomats remain sceptical pending irrefutable confirmation. Too many others have proved premature or false.
Aqap in any event now urges supporters not to believe anything until they hear its own version of events. "It is a sad state of affairs when one trusts Aqap's statements more than the Yemeni government's press releases," said the highly regarded Yemen watcher Gregory Johnsen on his Waq al-Waq blog.
Still, there is a sense that the Yemeni government has raised its game: there is talk in Sana'a of better co-ordination between different agencies and ministries and troops being diverted from the war against the Houthi rebels in the north to concentrate on fighting al-Qaida. How long that will last – especially once current.....
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PRESSTV Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:06:34 GMT
A high-ranking Saudi national security advisor has warned Tel Aviv against repeating the mistakes it made during the 2006 war on Lebanon.
Citing "informed sources", Al-Moltaqa news website reported that Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi advisor, contacted Israeli officials to caution them.
The Israeli onslaughts on Gaza, which started on Saturday, have killed at least 387 Palestinians, while over 1,800 others are reported to be wounded.
The Saudi prince termed the situation in the Gaza Strip as grave and warned that his country could not stand the mounting pressure by Arab and regional nations for a long time.
He reportedly told Israeli officials that Saudi Arabia would do its best to delay the Arab summit with Egypt and even Jordan.
According to the sources, Prince Bandar met an Israeli official in Jordan on Sunday and apparently discussed the issue of Gaza.
The report came as Saudi sources said that in a telephone conversation with US President George W. Bush, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia informed the president that he would not ask Israel to halt its operations immediately.
Political analysts believe that Saudi Arabia and particularly Egypt would try to delay the summit by any means possible in order to provide Israel with the opportunity to destroy Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
According to diplomatic sources, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal has put pressure on his Arab counterparts form Persian Gulf littoral states to postpone the emergency Arab summit called over the Gaza issue.
The Saudi state-run news agency had earlier quoted Saud al-Faisal as saying that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) had not made a decision on a call for an emergency meeting on Gaza.
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PRESSTV Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:29:48 GMT
A report reveals Saudi Arabian intelligence agencies were behind the abduction of a group of Iranian police officers by Jundullah.
According to information obtained from sources in Peshawar, Saudi Arabia has been directly supporting Jundullah to carry out the hostage taking of Iranian police officers.
The report claims Saudi Arabia and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have been using the "proxy army" to destabilize the government in Iran.
Earlier in July, Pakistan's former Army Chief, Retired General Mirza Aslam Baig, said the outlawed group is the main recipient of US financial and military aid.
Baig said Washington has been providing Jundullah with training facilities to fuel unrest in the area and strain Tehran-Islamabad relations.
ABC News, in 2007, cited US and Pakistani intelligence sources that the group, which "has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of Iranian soldiers and officials", "has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials."
In another report in July, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that US Congressional leaders secretly agreed last year to President George W. Bush's $400-million funding request for a major escalation in covert operations in Iran.
Under the ruling, the US can arm and fund terrorist groups such as the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) and Jundullah militants.
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COUCHTRIPPER JUNE 25, 2008
We have received repeated threats of legal and police action from Alastair Brett, legal manager of News International’s Times Newspapers on June 28 and July 2. Brett claims a Times Journalist, Bronwen Maddox, has been subject to threatening emails from Media Lens readers. Brett also claims that we have breached copyright by publishing an email from Maddox without permission. We have sought legal advice and, having essentially zero resources for fighting a court case, feel we have no choice but to delete Maddox’s email from our media alert, ‘Selling The Fireball’, as demanded. You can see the amended version here:
http://www.medialens.org/alerts/08/080625_selling_the_fireball.php
With more than 1 million people lying dead in Iraq, it pains us greatly to see our attempt to host an honest, rational discussion on the looming threat of war with Iran butchered in this way.
It is almost exactly seven years since we started Media Lens and this is the first time we have been threatened with legal action. We will have more to say about this in due course, as will others. As ever, we strongly urge readers to maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone in communicating with journalists.
Best wishes
The Editors
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PRESSTV Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:56:41 GMT
OPEC members at the Jeddah oil summit have joined the Saudi King in blaming 'speculators' for fueling the surge in energy prices.
"Among other factors behind this unjust increase in oil prices is the abhorrent act of speculators acting for their own selfish interests," said Saudi King Abdullah in his address at the June 22 oil summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
King Abdullah acknowledged that some of the blame for higher energy costs falls on higher oil consumption and taxes on fuel but he also urged enhanced tracking of oil commodities transactions to help prevent unbridled market speculation.
Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have agreed in large part that speculators in the commodities market are the culprits for skyrocketing costs.
Western powers however have mainly blamed inadequate oil supply in the market for higher energy prices.
OPEC President Chakib Khelil insists there is enough oil to supply the market.
"We believe that the market is in equilibrium. The price is disconnected from fundamentals. It is not a problem of supply," Khelil said.
"We believe speculation, in its noble and not noble terms, has its impact," the OPEC chief continued, adding that 'uncertainties on the dollar' were also responsible for soaring prices.
Iran has joined fellow OPEC members in deflecting blame for escalating energy costs.
“It is not correct to point the finger of blame at OPEC for the price hike and call for dismantling it,” said Iranian Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari.
“Everybody can see the efforts by OPEC to stabilize the market, which means an apology is owed the organization for all the criticism it has been subjected to.”
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NEWS SUMMARY
Saudi star-gazers accused of bungling dates of Ramadan
Saturnine faces as astronomers query moon sighting over Saudi Arabia
9/11: Chronicle Of A Catastrophe Foretold
Yemen's Saleh vows to return home
Saudi Arabia recalls Syria envoy
Yemen's Saleh 'leaves hospital'
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