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Tag: InternationalNews

  • Jeb Bush Considers Run for White House

    Jeb Bush Considers Run for White House

    {{Jeb Bush({right}), Brother to former US President George W Bush({center}) and also son to former US President George H.W. Bush({Left}) is expected to compete in the 2016 Presidential race.}}

    Mr. Jeb gets the question at just about every public appearance these days: Will you run for president?

    The former Florida governor gives a well-worn answer: ”I can honestly tell you that I don’t know what I’m going to do.” It’s an answer that won’t satisfy the GOP faithful for much longer.

    The scion of the Bush political dynasty will likely be asked the question many times in the coming weeks as he raises his profile with appearances in Tennessee, New Mexico, Nevada and Texas — where he’ll bump into another possible 2016 presidential candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

    Bush’s ”yes” or ”no” is one of the most significant factors looming over the 2016 Republican presidential contest. A White House bid by the brother and son of presidents would shake up a wide-open GOP field, attract a legion of big-money donors and set up a showdown with the influential tea party movement. Bush has said he’ll consult with his family this summer and make a decision by the end of the year.

    With New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie facing multiple investigations in a political retribution probe, many Republicans see Bush as a potent alternative: a two-term GOP governor who thrived in the nation’s largest swing-voting state and could make the party more inclusive.

    Friends and advisers say he is seriously considering a presidential run. His busy schedule will do little to quiet speculation.

    This month, Bush is expected to visit New Mexico and Nevada to campaign for Republican governors there, even though both incumbents are widely expected to cruise to re-election. In Las Vegas, he’ll address leaders of the Republican Jewish Coalition, an influential political group backed by casino magnate and GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson.

    And in Dallas next week, Bush is scheduled to co-host an education conference where Clinton is also set to appear.

    With no clear frontrunner for the GOP nomination, Bush’s standing is rising in early presidential polls and among donors. His popularity with wealthy insiders was on display last month at a Republican fundraiser in the gilded ballroom of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Palm Beach estate. The night’s keynote speaker was a tea party firebrand, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, but a short video message from Bush received far more applause.

    ”Jeb is striking a chord amongst many thoughtful donors,” said Fred Malek, finance chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

    ”He’s a proven conservative,” Malek said. ”But at the same time, he is not viewed as extreme or an ideologue and therefore can appeal to the moderate element of the party as well.”

    Bush would carry both the benefits and the baggage of one of America’s most prominent political dynasties. Its patriarch, George H.W. Bush, was elected to one term in 1988; his son, George W. Bush, served two presidential terms beginning in 2001. The family’s vast fundraising network and political connections, in addition to Jeb Bush’s own constellation of donors and advisers, could fuel a formidable campaign. A senior adviser at the financial firm Barclays, Jeb Bush remains a favorite of the Wall Street set.

    But the shadow of his older brother’s controversial presidency still looms. The family’s matriarch, former first lady Barbara Bush, has repeatedly spoken of the potential for Bush fatigue, saying, ”If we can’t find more than two or three families to run for high office, that’s silly.”

    A Washington Post-ABC News poll this month signaled head winds Jeb Bush could face: nearly half of all Americans, and 50 percent of registered voters, said they ”definitely would not” vote for him for president.

    Nevertheless, friends and advisers say, he is mulling a bid and reaching out to influential donors.

    ”He is seriously considering this, but he is not following the timeline that the pundits or the press would like him to follow,” said Sally Bradshaw, Bush’s former chief of staff.

    Bush briefly considered a presidential campaign in 2012 but declined to run.

    ”It’s much more serious this time,” said Slater Bayliss, a lobbyist and former Bush aide. ”The question for him is whether he’s willing to make the sacrifices that he’s seen his brother and his dad make at a time in his life when he’s having an impact on policy issues he cares about.”

    Bush has spent much of his post-governorship studying education policy and advocating for the kinds of changes he pioneered in Florida, including publicly-funded private school vouchers and stricter accountability standards for teachers and students. At the same time, he has promoted overhauling the nation’s immigration system and providing a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants who are here illegally, an intensely personal effort. His wife, Columba, grew up in Mexico. The two met while Bush was an exchange student there; she is now an American citizen. Bush speaks fluent Spanish.

    His personal story and immigration advocacy could help him connect with Latinos, a group that Republicans have long struggled to court.

    ”He needs no briefing sheets when it comes to what’s important to Hispanics,” said Ana Navarro, a Bush friend and GOP strategist.

    But the former Florida governor’s education and immigration efforts would likely put him at odds with conservative activists.

    Bush has been a champion of so-called ”Common Core” academic standards, which were developed by a bipartisan group of governors and state school officials and later promoted by the Obama administration. Many conservatives see them as a federal takeover of local classrooms. Likewise, anti-immigration activists have battled Bush-backed immigration legislation in Congress that they consider ”amnesty” for lawbreakers.

    ”We’re seeing from Jeb Bush’s actions that he likes having a government that has much more say in people’s lives,” said Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots.

    Over the past two years, in speeches and public appearances, Bush has chafed at what he calls ”purity tests” inside the GOP, saying both his father and former President Ronald Reagan would struggle in the tea party era.

    Citing a scheduling conflict, he declined an invitation to speak this month at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the country’s largest annual gathering of conservative activists.

    ”I’m a conservative and I’m a practicing one, not a talk-about-it one,” Bush said last year.

    In Florida, Bush slashed billions of dollars in taxes, toughened crime laws and revamped the state’s education system. But he has refused to sign the anti-tax pledge that many activists now consider sacrosanct. He has told Republicans the party needs to shed the perception that it’s ”anti-everything.”

    Allies and adversaries alike question whether Bush, a policy wonk who often talks about ”big, hairy, audacious goals,” could stomach the hyper-partisanship and gridlock in Washington.

    ”He’s accustomed to moving an agenda,” said Dan Gelber, a former state senator and Democratic leader who often tussled with Bush in Tallahassee, ”and I think he’s got to be wondering how he would do that.”

    {Jeb Bush is also former Governor of Texas state}

    {telegram}

  • China to Buy 150 Airbus Passenger Jets worth $20Billion

    China to Buy 150 Airbus Passenger Jets worth $20Billion

    {{China is in talks to buy at least 150 Airbus passenger jets potentially worth $20 billion when Xi Jinping pays his first visit to Europe as president at the end of this month, people familiar with the matter said.}}

    In a broad-ranging deal that could help reset trade relations between China and Europe after a bumpy year, the deal could include an agreement to buy more A330 passenger jets in exchange for a deal to open Airbus’s second plant in the country.

    The “cabin completion” plant for A330s would bolster Airbus’s presence, five years after the opening of its first final assembly plant outside Europe in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, where local workers piece together complete A320 jets.

    The deal could also involve a decision to unfreeze the purchase of 27 A330s blocked by China during a recent row with the European Union over environmental policies.

    A package to be announced during French and German stages of the trip could also include some A320 and A350 aircraft, the people familiar with the matter said.

    However, the final outcome depends on negotiations that could continue up to the last minute.

    A spokesman for Airbus, a subsidiary of Airbus Group (AIR.PA), previously known as EADS, declined to comment. The people declined to be identified as they are not authorized to speak to the media due to the confidentiality of the matter.

    reuters

  • Hunger Strike Against Missing Malaysian Jet

    Hunger Strike Against Missing Malaysian Jet

    {{Relatives of the Chinese passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight have threatened a hunger strike if the Malaysian authorities fail to provide more accurate information.}}

    Families vented their anger at a meeting with the airline in Beijing.

    Officials in Malaysia say they are trying to narrow the search area, which now covers about 2.24m square nautical miles (7.68m sq km).

    Flight MH370 went missing on 8 March with 239 people on board.

    Some 25 countries are involved in looking for the plane.

    A total of 153 Chinese nationals were on board the missing aircraft, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

    China’s state media has been criticising the Malaysian operation.

    {{‘Political fight’}}

    Some Chinese relatives have said they believe the Malaysian authorities are holding information back and have demanded more clarity.

    After a meeting with officials from Malaysia Airlines on Tuesday, families held a vote on organising a hunger strike.

    “What we want is the truth,” said one woman.

    “Don’t let the passengers become the victims of a political fight.”

  • Scientists Say Have New Evidence on Big Bang Theory

    Scientists Say Have New Evidence on Big Bang Theory

    {{Scientists say they have extraordinary new evidence to support a Big Bang Theory for the origin of the Universe.}}

    Researchers believe they have found the signal left in the sky by the super-rapid expansion of space that must have occurred just fractions of a second after everything came into being.

    It takes the form of a distinctive twist in the oldest light detectable with telescopes.

    The work will be scrutinised carefully, but already there is talk of a Nobel.

    “This is spectacular,” commented Prof Marc Kamionkowski, from Johns Hopkins University.

    “I’ve seen the research; the arguments are persuasive, and the scientists involved are among the most careful and conservative people I know,” he told media.

    The breakthrough was announced by an American team working on a project known as BICEP2.

    This has been using a telescope at the South Pole to make detailed observations of a small patch of sky.

    The aim has been to try to find a residual marker for “inflation” – the idea that the cosmos experienced an exponential growth spurt in its first trillionth, of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second.

    Theory holds that this would have taken the infant Universe from something unimaginably small to something about the size of a marble. Space has continued to expand for the nearly 14 billion years since.

    Inflation was first proposed in the early 1980s to explain some aspects of Big Bang Theory that appeared to not quite add up, such as why deep space looks broadly the same on all sides of the sky. The contention was that a very rapid expansion early on could have smoothed out any unevenness.

    But inflation came with a very specific prediction – that it would be associated with waves of gravitational energy, and that these ripples in the fabric of space would leave an indelible mark on the oldest light in the sky – the famous Cosmic Microwave Background.

    The BICEP2 team says it has now identified that signal. Scientists call it B-mode polarisation. It is a characteristic twist in the directional properties of the CMB. Only the gravitational waves moving through the Universe in its inflationary phase could have produced such a marker. It is a true “smoking gun”.

    Speaking at the press conference to announce the results, Prof John Kovac of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and a leader of the BICEP2 collaboration, said: “This is opening a window on what we believe to be a new regime of physics – the physics of what happened in the first unbelievably tiny fraction of a second in the Universe.”

    Completely astounded

    The signal is reported to be quite a bit stronger than many scientists had dared hope. This simplifies matters, say experts. It means the more exotic models for how inflation worked are no longer tenable.

    The results also constrain the energies involved – at 10,000 trillion gigaelectronvolts. This is consistent with ideas for what is termed Grand Unified Theory, the realm where particle physicists believe three of the four fundamental forces in nature can be tied together.

    But by associating gravitational waves with an epoch when quantum effects were so dominant, scientists are improving their prospects of one day pulling the fourth force – gravity itself – into a Theory of Everything.

    The sensational nature of the discovery means the BICEP2 data will be subjected to intense peer review.

    It is possible for the interaction of CMB light with dust in our galaxy to produce a similar effect, but the BICEP2 group says it has carefully checked its data over the past three years to rule out such a possibility.

    Other experiments will now race to try to replicate the findings. If they can, a Nobel Prize seems assured for this field of research.

    Who this would go to is difficult to say, but leading figures on the BICEP2 project and the people who first formulated inflationary theory would be in the running.

    One of those pioneers, Prof Alan Guth from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the BBC: “I have been completely astounded. I never believed when we started that anybody would ever measure the non-uniformities of the CMB, let alone the polarisation, which is now what we are seeing.

    “I think it is absolutely amazing that it can be measured and also absolutely amazing that it can agree so well with inflation and also the simplest models of inflation – nature did not have to be so kind and the theory didn’t have to be right.”

    British scientist Dr Jo Dunkley, who has been searching through data from the European Planck space telescope for a B-mode signal, commented: “I can’t tell you how exciting this is.

    Inflation sounds like a crazy idea, but everything that is important, everything we see today – the galaxies, the stars, the planets – was imprinted at that moment, in less than a trillionth of a second. If this is confirmed, it’s huge.”

    {“Everything we see today – the galaxies, the stars, the planets – was imprinted at that moment”}

    {BBC}

  • President Putin Starts Formal Absorption of Crimea

    President Putin Starts Formal Absorption of Crimea

    {{Russian President Vladimir Putin has informed parliament formally of Crimea’s request to join the country, the first legislative step towards absorbing the peninsula.}}

    Putin, who signed an order on Monday recognising Crimean independence, also approved a draft bill on the accession.

    It comes after a referendum on Sunday in which Crimean officials say 97% of voters backed splitting from Ukraine.

    The EU and US have declared the vote illegal and imposed sanctions.

    Travel bans and asset freezes have been imposed on government officials and other figures in Russia, Crimea and Ukraine.

    Pro-Russian forces have been on the streets of Crimea since late February, though Moscow denies they are under its direct control.

    But the West and the Ukrainian government in Kiev say the referendum – called by Crimea’s pro-Russian parliament in early March – was carried out in haste and under military occupation.

    Voters were asked to choose between joining Russia or having greater autonomy within Ukraine. There was no option for those who wanted the constitutional arrangements to remain unchanged.

    Many among Crimea’s ethnic Ukrainians and Tatars – about a third of the population – had said they would boycott the vote. The election process was widely criticised by Western leaders.

    {{Ratification}}

    Mr Putin is due to address both houses of the Russian parliament in a special session at 15:00 local time (11:00 GMT). A delegation of Crimea’s new leaders is also expected to attend.

    Russian news website Gazeta.ru, quoting sources, says that after the speech, President Putin and the speaker of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, are expected to sign an agreement on Crimea’s “entry into the Russian Federation”.

    Having approved the draft bill, Mr Putin has told MPs “to consider it practical to sign the agreement at the highest level,” Russia’s Interfax news agency reports.

    Once signed, the bill must be approved by the constitutional court and then ratified by parliament. The process is expected to be completed this week.

    Crimea was transferred from Russia to Ukraine while under Soviet rule in 1954 and much of its population is ethnic Russian. Thousands celebrated the results of the referendum on Sunday.

    The peninsula was taken over by pro-Russian forces in late February after Ukraine’s pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia following months of protests.

    While the Kremlin denies the armed men are Russian soldiers, it has conceded that MPs authorised the use of force after a formal plea for help from Mr Yanukovych.

    {wirestory}

  • Harrison Guitar Leads Beatles Memorabilia Auction

    Harrison Guitar Leads Beatles Memorabilia Auction

    {{An electric guitar played by George Harrison on British television prior to the Beatles’ “invasion” of the United States will go on the auction block along with a rare album cover signed by the Fab Four, Julien’s Auctions said on Monday.}}

    Harrison’s black-and-white 1962 Rickenbacker 425 electric guitar is expected to fetch between $400,000 and $600,000 at an auction on May 16-17 at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City.

    Harrison, who died in 2001 at age 58, played the guitar on 1963 appearances on British TV shows “Ready Steady Go!” and “Thank Your Lucky Stars” months before the group brought Beatlemania to the United States with a series of performances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in February 1964, launching the British Invasion of rock bands.

    The guitarist bought the instrument in 1963 in Mount Vernon, Illinois, while on a trip to visit his sister, according to the Beverly Hills, California, auction house.

    The guitar, which Harrison had painted white and black to match John Lennon’s Rickenbacker guitar, was also used during the sessions when the band recorded “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “This Boy” in October 1963.

    Harrison later gave the guitar to friend and musician George Peckham, who played it in an appearance on UK TV show “Top of the Pops” with the band the Fourmost.

    Also up for sale is a copy of the album “Beatles ’65” signed by Lennon, Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. The album is expected to fetch between $200,000 and $300,000 because it was rare for all four members of the group to sign copies of albums after their popularity exploded in the United States in 1964.

    A used Hofner bass rented by McCartney in the mid-1960s is expected to sell for $30,000 to $50,000, while a signed cover by the group of the 1963 album “Please Please Me” is expected to bring in between $40,000 and $50,000.

    An original artwork by Lennon called “Shroud of Tourin” is estimated to sell for $20,000 to $30,000. The piece of un-stretched canvas, created circa 1966, shows a man who looks like Lennon with a Batman symbol on his chest and words scrawled across it.

    {reuters}

  • China FDI Data Shows Sharp Drop in February

    China FDI Data Shows Sharp Drop in February

    {{China drew $19.3 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first two months of 2014, up 10.4% from a year earlier, the Commerce Ministry said on Tuesday, indicating a sharp slowdown in February due to the Lunar New Year holidays.}}

    Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang told a media briefing that the ministry did not release data for February alone due to seasonal distortions caused by the Lunar New Year holidays, when factories, offices and shops often close for long periods.

    Based on the published data, FDI in February alone was $8.6 billion, up 4.1% from a year earlier, slowing sharply from a 16.1% increase in January.

    FDI from the top 10 Asian economies rose 11.6% in the first two months to $16.9 billion, while investment from the United States jumped 43.3% to $711 million and investment from the European Union fell 13.8% to $1.1 billion, the ministry said.

    “Despite weak international investment and the fact that we face various problems in our development, the FDI data shows that foreign investors are still very confident,” Shen said.

    Shen said that it is normal to see greater two-way fluctuations in the yuan and that the government will still keep the yuan basically stable, echoing recent central bank comments.

    On Saturday, the People’s Bank of China doubled the yuan’s daily trading range, so that it can now rise or fall 2 percent around the daily midpoint rate.

    China’s exports could be affected by global uncertainties this year, Shen said without giving details. The government aims for 7.5% annual growth in foreign trade this year.

    The government has shifted its focus on attracting FDI inflows to high-end manufacturing, a modern services sector and energy-saving and environmental industries, while encouraging local companies to quicken investment overseas.

    China’s service sectors received $10.6 billion in FDI in the first two months, up 25.5% from a year earlier and accounting for 54.9% of the total, the ministry said.

    Outbound direct investment by Chinese firms totaled $11.54 billion in the January-February period, down 37.2% from a year earlier, it added.

    The sharp drop was due to a high comparison base caused by offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC’s (0883.HK) $15 billion acquisition of Nexen in early 2013, Shen said

    {reuters}

  • No-fly Zones Above Brazil World Cup Venues

    No-fly Zones Above Brazil World Cup Venues

    {{Brazil is to set up no-fly zones in airspace surrounding World Cup venues hosting matches during the tournament, it was reported Sunday.}}

    The O Globo newspaper reported that authorities would exclude air traffic within a seven-kilometer radius of each stadium on the days when they stage matches.

    The decisions will cause disruption at eight airports near World Cup stadia that fall within or are near to the exclusion zones.

    At least 805 flights will be canceled because of the move while a further 150 will be rerouted, disrupting travel for around 16,000 passengers on Brazilian carriers such as Gol, TAM, Avianca and Azul, O Globo reported.

    Host cities affected by the move include Rio, Belo Horizonte, Cuiaba, Manaus, Fortaleza, Recife, Salvador and Curitiba.

    Only military aircraft will be allowed within the exclusion zones, the report said.

    The no-fly zones will operate differently depending on each venue.

    For the opening match of the tournament at Sao Paulo’s Itaquerao Stadium, when Brazil faces Croatia, the exclusion zone will be in force for three hours before kick-off and four hours after the final whistle.

    A similar exclusion zone would be set up on the day of the final at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.

    AFP

  • Syria ‘Recaptures Rebel Border Town

    Syria ‘Recaptures Rebel Border Town

    {{The Syrian military says it has recaptured Yabroud, the last rebel stronghold near the Lebanese border.}}

    Government forces and Lebanese allies from the Hezbollah group have besieged the town for weeks, as part of a battle for control of key transport routes.

    Separately, two Hezbollah members were killed in a car bomb in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, near the border with Syria.

    The Shia group has increasingly become the target of attacks over its involvement in the Syria conflict.

    At least three people died in the suicide car bomb attack that struck a petrol station in Al-Nabi Othman village, security sources say.

    {{‘Revenge for Yabroud’}}

    A group calling itself the al-Nusra Front in Lebanon put out a statement on Twitter claiming to be behind the attack, saying it was “a quick response to the bragging and boasting of the party of Iran [Hezbollah] over their raping of Yabroud”.

    It is not clear what links the group has to the al-Nusra Front in Syria – an al-Qaeda-linked force fighting Mr Assad’s government.

    Another extremist group – Liwa Ahrar al-Sunna in Baalbek – also claimed responsibility for the attack, describing it as “revenge for Yabroud”.

    The government launched an offensive in mid-November to oust rebel fighters from the Qalamoun mountains near the Lebanese border.

    {agencies}

  • El Salvador ex-rebel’s Presidential Victory Confirmed

    El Salvador ex-rebel’s Presidential Victory Confirmed

    {{El Salvador’s electoral court has confirmed the victory of former left-wing rebel Salvador Sanchez Ceren in a tight presidential run-off election.}}

    It said Mr Sanchez Ceren won 50.11% of the votes in the 9 March poll, defeating conservative candidate Norman Quijano, who polled 49.89%.

    Mr Quijano had challenged the result, alleging fraud.

    But the court’s decision makes Mr Sanchez Ceren the country’s first ex-rebel to serve as president.

    On Sunday, the court said that there was not enough evidence to back Mr Quijano’s claim.

    “Based on the results, Salvador Sanchez Ceren and Oscar Samuel Ortiz are declared president and vice-president elect respectively, for the period from 1 June 2014 to 1 June 2019,” court president Eugenio Chicas was quoted as saying by Reuters.

    The country’s outgoing President Mauricio Funes said he would meet Mr Ceren later on Monday to begin the handover process.

    Mr Sanchez Ceren became vice-president of El Salvador in 2009, while Mr Quijano was the mayor of the capital, San Salvador.

    {wirestory}