49.1.113009_VOA News

113009.01

Obama Launches Afghanistan War Strategy Ahead of National Address

Michael Bowman, White House

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says President Obama informed his national security team of his strategy decision for Afghanistan late Sunday, and issued orders for its implementation.

Since then, the president has held a series of telephone calls with U.S. allies, a process that will continue through Tuesday, when Mr. Obama is scheduled to unveil his revised Afghan war strategy to the nation in an address from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Press Secretary Gibbs declined to divulge specific details about the strategy, which the administration has been pondering for months amid a deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, a contested national election there and public opinion polls showing declining American support for the eight-year war.

But one day before President Obama was expected to announce a troop buildup in the tens of thousands, Gibbs repeatedly stressed that the U.S. military commitment in Afghanistan is not open-ended. "We are not going to be there forever. And we do not have the resources -- manpower or budgetary -- to be primarily responsible for the security of Afghanistan. Afghans have to be primarily responsible for that security," he said.

Gibbs said a major goal will be to train Afghan forces so that they can assume control of areas secured by foreign troops.

For the plan to succeed, however, the press secretary said the United

States needs a reliable partner in Kabul. "It is time for a new chapter in our relationship as it relates to corruption and improved governance in order to address the security situation," he said.

The press secretary said President Obama will touch on the costs of the new plan for Afghanistan in Tuesday's speech, but that he is unlikely to delve into the subject in detail. Gibbs stressed that the financial impact has been part of the administration's deliberations from the beginning. He declined to comment on whether Mr. Obama would consider a proposal by some fellow Democrats in Congress for a special war tax to pay for an expanded U.S. mission in Afghanistan.

Some Democratic lawmakers say they worry that mounting war expenditures will sap the already-debt-ridden federal budget of funds that could otherwise pay for domestic priorities. Cost estimates for the 30,000-to-35,000 troop build-up Mr. Obama is expected to announce run as high as $75 billion.

Gibbs said that while outlining and advocating a new way forward in Afghanistan, Mr. Obama's speech will address the need for strengthened diplomatic engagement with neighboring Pakistan, which is also threatened by militant extremists.

President Obama has described Afghanistan as a war the United States cannot afford to lose. But he has also decried what he sees as the previous administration's diversion of resources away from Afghanistan in order to wage war in Iraq.

Analysts say that in Tuesday's address to the nation, the president will stress that success in Afghanistan can still be attained, and that further investment and sacrifice are necessary and worthwhile.

Mr. Obama is expected to refer to the enhanced Afghan mission as an international endeavor. Britain announced on Monday that it will send 500 additional troops to Afghanistan in the next few weeks, boosting its forces in the country to more than 10,000.

113009.02

Iran Says Diplomacy Still Option in Nuclear Dispute

Elizabeth Arrott, Cairo

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani's outreach Monday seemed to temper the announcement of plans to build the new uranium enrichment plants.

Larijani said parliament expects the

nuclear issue, currently being negotiated

by six major world powers, can be

resolved by diplomatic means.

The parliament speaker also repeated

Iran's position that it is abiding by the

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a

rebuttal to western suspicions that Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons. Also Monday, the head of Iran's nuclear program, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Iran had

no intention of building the new

enrichment plants until the International Atomic Energy Agency censured Tehran last week.

The IAEA board overwhelmingly chose to criticize Iran for failing to cooperate on nuclear issues and called on Tehran to halt construction of a recently revealed uranium enrichment plant.

China and Russia went along with the censure, leaving Iran without its traditional backers in international negotiations.

Western powers have long been concerned that Iran is enriching uranium for military purposes. The material would need to reach 90-percent enrichment to be suitable for nuclear weapons. Currently, Iran is enriching to fuel grade, about three percent.

A massive increase in enrichment capacity - without any clear Iranian

Iranian parliament speaker Ali

Larijani speaks with media, during his press conference in the parliament, Tehran, 30

Nov 2009

plans for corresponding civilian energy use, such as new reactors - has added to Western worries.

113009.03

Dubai Markets Falter Under Debt Crisis

Elizabeth Arrott, Cairo

Both Dubai's and neighboring Abu Dhabi's stock exchanges slid quickly after markets opened.

It was the first day of trading since state-owned Dubai World asked for a six-month delay in repaying its debts. The announcement Wednesday came just before the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

The repercussions were felt last week in other markets around the world.

But Asian markets Monday were up, following word Sunday that the United Arab Emirates' Central Bank in Abu Dhabi would step in to help Dubai World.

The property company has been hard hit by the global financial and real estate crises, putting on hold many of the grandiose projects for which Dubai has gained fame.

Louis Hobeika, an economist at Lebanon's Notre Dame University, says one lesson of the crisis should be Dubai's reassessment of its financial limits.

"Dubai had lots of potential, lots of ambition," Hobeika said. "However it has very little, or limited resources to implement those ambitions or realize them."

Hobeika says that Dubai will have to downsize its ambitions, and with Abu Dhabi's, and possibly Saudi Arabia's, eventual help with debt rescheduling, the crisis should soon pass.

The Emirate's Central Bank has said it will not give an unconditional bail-out to Dubai World, but look at components of the company to see if they are worth saving.

113009.04

Demjanjuk Trial Begins in Germany

Lisa Bryant, Paris

John Demjanjuk arrived at the Munich courthouse in an ambulance. He did not speak as the trial opened, and he kept his eyes mostly closed.

But his lawyer, Ulrich Busch, accused the judge and prosecutors of bias. He said Germans who worked at the Sobibor death camp in then Nazi-occupied Poland, where Demjanjuk is accused of working as a guard, were acquitted in previous trials.

Demjanjuk has been tried before for alleged Nazi-era crimes. An Israeli court sentenced him to death in the 1980s on charges of being a brutal camp guard nicknamed Ivan the Terrible. The supreme court later overturned the ruling on grounds of mistaken identity.

Now Demjanjuk is again in court on charges he was an ordinary camp guard. If proved, that would make him the lowest-ranking person to go on trial for Nazi war crimes.

Nonetheless, the prosecution accuses him of complicity in the killings of nearly 28,000 Jews at the Sobibor camp. One of the court witnesses, camp survivor Thomas Blatt, spoke to reporters as he arrived at the courthouse.

Blatt said he would tell the court how things were at the camp. He said he did not know Demjanjuk personally. He hoped Demjanjuk would be sentenced if he was found guilty, but he is not looking for revenge. Demjanjuk says he is again a victim of mistaken identity. He says he served as a Soviet army soldier and was himself held prisoner.

Demjanjuk emigrated to the United States in 1952 and became a U.S. citizen six years later . He has since been stripped of his citizenship. His trial is expected to last until May.

113009.05

Counting Underway in Equatorial Guinea Presidential Election Kate Thomas, Dakar

With only a quarter of votes counted, President Teodoro Obiang looks set for victory in Equatorial Guinea's presidential election. Voter turnout was reported to be low Sunday in the oil-rich yet dirt-poor central African nation.

Four candidates are running against President Obiang, who has ruled Equatorial Guinea since taking power from his uncle in a 1979 coup.

Among them is Placido Minko Abogo of the

Convergence for Social Democracy Party.

He accused President Obiang of taking $22

million from state funds to finance his

re-election campaign.

Equatorial Guinea is one of the world's

richest oil-producing countries, with an

annual oil revenue of $3 billion. Offically, it

has a per-capita income of about $50,000, but most of the population lives in dire poverty. "Today the U.S. imports up to 100,000

barrels of oil a day from the country. But the State Department, the IMF and others have repeatedly noted that the government of

Equatorial Guinea does not spend enough money on its own people," said Arvind Ganesan, a researcher for Human Rights Watch on Equatorial Guinea.

Rights groups say living conditions have worsened in recent years, with President Teodoro Obiang is shown casting his vote for

president at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, 29 Nov 2009

20 percent of the children dying before their fifth birthday.

According to the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, Equatorial Guinea is the 12th most corrupt country in the world. The group accuses President Obiang of using public money on fancy cars and luxury homes, while most Equatorial Guineans struggle to buy food to feed their families.

A graduate of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Detroit, President Obiang, 64, owns houses in Maryland and Los Angeles, where his next-door neighbours include Britney Spears and Mel Gibson. Though he is believed to be suffering from terminal prostate cancer, Mr. Obiang shows no signs of releasing his grip on the country.

"Under his rule, Equatorial Guinea has no free press, no independent judiciary or independent society and arbitary detentions, torture and corruption are rife," said Arvind Ganesan.

In 2004, the government and international security forces thwarted an attempted coup by a former British special forces officer, Simon Mann, who was pardoned and released from jail in Malabo earlier this month after serving five years of a 34-year jail term.

If he wins this election, Mr. Obiang has pledged to pardon Severo Moto, who would have been installed as head of state if the 2004 coup attempt was successful. Moto was sentenced to 62 years in prison. 113009.06

CAR Military Recapture Rebel-Held Town

Scott Stearns, Dakar

Military officials in Bangui say government troops have recaptured the town of Ndele, about 675 kilometers north of the capital. It was at the center of fighting earlier this year that drove more than 8,000 civilians across the border into Chad.

Rebels from the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace took control of Ndele last Thursday in a three-pronged attack that the government says killed at least 15 people including two soldiers. Government forces from the garrison there regrouped and regained command of the town over the weekend, driving out rebels led by former prime minister Charles Massi.

Mr . Massi broke away from the larger Union

of Democratic Forces for Unity when it

joined other opposition groups in last year's

peace accord. That deal includes the

demobilization and reintegration of former

combatants.

President Francois Bozize says he is pushing

ahead with the accord.

In an interview on state-run radio, President Bozize says a new structure is in place

within local committees near former combatants and former rebels. If this demobilization takes hold, he says conditions will be in place to bring more investment and social development.

With the recapture of Ndele, President Bozize says the situation is now normal after rebels cut the route to the north. He says there is peace now, as illustrated by the October return of former President Ange Felix Patasse.

Mr . Bozize toppled Mr . Patasse in a 2003 rebellion and won election as the country's president in 2005. Mr . Patasse returned from exile in Togo last month promising to challenge Mr . Bozize in next year's presidential elections.

While the former leader has received a pardon in the Central African Republic for crimes allegedly committed in the final days of his presidency, the International Criminal Court is investigating Mr .

Patasse's connection with Congolese rebel leader Jean Pierre Bemba.

Central African Republic President Francois Bozize (file photo)

Bemba is facing war crimes charges at the ICC. Prosecutors say Bemba and then-President Patasse agreed on a single mandate: "to protect the Patasse presidency and attack civilians thought to be allied to rebels."

President Bozize says Mr. Patasse is free to contest the 2010 election, in which they will be joined as candidates by former prime minister Martin Ziguélé.

As that vote approaches, President Bozize is eager to secure the demobilization of former fighters and end the rebellion in the north to restore security along the border with Chad, where two aid workers were kidnaped at gunpoint one week ago.

He is also facing an incursion by Ugandan rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army in the south. Ugandan government troops are fighting in the Central African Republic against those rebels after pursuing them through the Democratic Republic of Congo.

113009.07

Britain to Send More Troops to Afghanistan

Jennifer Glasse, London

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says the decision to send 500 more troops to Afghanistan is about keeping Britain safe.

"As long as three-quarters of the most serious terrorist plots against Britain have links to those Pakistan-Afghan border areas, we should be failing in our duty if we did not work with our allies to deal with the problem where it starts. A more stable and more secure Afghanistan and Pakistan will help ensure a safer Britain," he said.

Even through al-Qaida is able to operate elsewhere in the world; including Somalia,Yemen and in internet chat rooms, Mr. Brown says Afghanistan is vitally important.

"As long as the Afghan-Pakistan border areas are the location of choice

for al-Qaida and are the epicenter of global terrorism, it is the

government's judgment that we must address the terrorist threat at its source," he added.

Britain is sending new equipment to support

its troops, helicopters, armored vehicles,

aerial surveillance drones and special

bomb-disposal personnel. Air Chief

Marshal Jock Stirrup is the head of British

forces.

"Overall the force of about 9,500, which we

are likely to have in December in

Afghanistan will be better equipped, much higher levels than the force of 9,000 we had in August," said Stirrup.

With special forces, Britain will have more than 10,000 troops in

Afghanistan. Mr . Brown says the military surge is complimented by a political surge that is most of all an Afghan surge.

"The long-term security of Afghanistan is best secured by training the Afghan army and police, building up civilian government at a local, as well as national, level, and through economic development, giving Afghans a stake in their future," he said.

Mr . Brown says the NATO secretary general assured him other nations will be increasing their force levels too.

"In addition to the U.K. and U.S. - eight countries have already made offers of additional troops, and that other countries are likely to follow," Brown explained. "It is often said that America and Britain are fighting alone. This is wrong. Excluding America and Britain, the numbers of international troops, risen from in January 2007, 16,000 troops to around 30,000 soon," he said.

America's senior general in Afghanistan has reportedly asked U.S.

President Barack Obama for up to 40,000 more troops in Afghanistan.

A local boy watches as British soldiers search a

compound in Afghanistan's Helmand province (File)

Mr . Obama is scheduled to make an announcement about the U.S. Afghan strategy on Tuesday.

113009.08

Asian Markets Rebound After Dubai Scare, but Concerns Linger Kurt Achin, Seoul

Asia reacted positively Monday to word from the United Arab Emirates' central bank that it would inject money into the banking system.

Dubai's neighboring emirate, Abu Dhabi, promised support for certain Dubai companies, alleviating concerns over Dubai debt that dragged world markets down on Friday.

In South Korea, shares on the Kospi index rose nearly 2.7 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose more than three percent, and

Tokyo's Nikkei was up almost three percent. Gold and oil also traded at higher prices.

Kwon Hyouk-se, vice chairman of South

Korea's Financial Services Commission, on

Monday offered investors a message of

reassurance.

He says South Korea's exposure to Dubai

debts is not big, and that local financial

markets and the economy in general are in

good shape to cushion its impact.

He adds that Seoul will strengthen a daily market monitoring system to prevent possible instability resulting from the Dubai shock.

Last week, Dubai World, the state-owned holding company responsible for much of the city-state's massive development portfolio, said it

needed more time to pay off nearly $60 billion in debt. That spooked investors around the world, sending markets sharply lower

.

The Gate building, left, of Dubai International Financial Center, DIFC, in

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 28 Nov 2009

Financial analysts say markets reacted swiftly because of the global context of the announcement.

Sung Taeyoon is an economics professor at Seoul's Yonsei University.

He says Dubai is not big enough by itself to damage other countries, but its debt crisis can keep moving to other countries, such as Ukraine and other areas of eastern Europe which are heavily dependent on international financing.

Market experts like Sung say memories of last year's U.S. financial crisis are still very fresh. They worry that Dubai's debt problems may cause banks to clamp down on lending that is necessary for economic growth.

The U.S. dollar strengthened slightly against the yen Monday, easing worries about Japanese exports. The dollar has steadily weakened against the yen recently, making Japanese goods more expensive overseas.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano expressed concern Monday about the currency market's effects on the country's troubled economy.

He says the yen is rising, while stocks are falling. Japan is trying economic strategies to create jobs, but Hirano wonders aloud whether it will be enough.

The government on Monday announced plans new stimulus spending of about $31 billion before next March.

113009.09

India's Economy Grows at Fastest Pace Since Global Financial Crisis

Anjana Pasricha, New Delhi

Officials say the latest numbers show that the Indian economy is

beating forecasts to grow at a faster-than-expected rate. The growth in the July to September quarter is the highest since April, last year .

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee says the recovery has been helped by government stimulus spending and a surge in manufacturing.

"One point is quite clear [is] that the

initiatives taken by the government by

providing stimulus and helping the

generation of demand domestically has paid

dividend," he noted. "And, corporate

sector is also responding. The industrial

growth is taking place. Negative growth of

exports has come down. And, I do hope

things will be okay."

The good news cheered stock markets. The benchmark Sensex index was up by

about one-and-a-half percent, Monday, after the government released the new data.

But, as the economy picks up, the focus is now on how the government will handle inflation, which has been rising in recent months. Food prices have climbed by more than 12 percent, recently, adversely affecting millions of poor people in the country.

Most policy makers expect the government to raise interest rates in the coming months.

However , a top policy adviser to the government, Montek Singh

Ahluwalia, says the government is unlikely to tighten monetary policy in the near future.

"At the moment, the main concern on the inflationary front, I think, is food prices and you know food prices are not something that is going to be affected by introducing a monetary squeeze," he said.

Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee (file photo)

Although the global slowdown put the brakes on India's economy, it weathered the financial crisis better than Western countries. And, like other several other Asian economies, India now appears to be recovering quickly. Economists say Asia is leading the world out of recession, as countries like China, Singapore, and South Korea begin to post good growth in recent months.