Thu, 08/13/2009
The Jakarta Post
Opinion

World leaders and human rights groups could only spew condemnation and anger in the direction of the chief of Myanmar’s junta, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, for his continuous, merciless and brutal treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi, the county’s incarcerated democracy leader.

Than Shwe’s latest act of injustice came Tuesday, when he extended the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s house arrest by 18 months for allowing an uninvited American to stay in her home for two nights in May. One Myanmarese general rendered the rest of the world’s will irrelevant for no good reason.

Than Shwe and his cadres fully know that no one will ever be able to punish them, not even the world’s most powerful man, US President Barack Obama, because the leaders of the other nine members of ASEAN – Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia – are staunch opponents of any efforts to punish Myanmar’s heartless rulers.

Writer: AFP, Bangkok Post
Published: 13/08/2009 at 03:43 AM

Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is set to appeal against her conviction, here lawyers said, as the ruling junta faced a global wave of anger over her extended house arrest.

Powerful ally China urged respect for Burmese 's sovereignty, but Southeast Asian nations issued a rare expression of disappointment at the military regime's decision on Tuesday to detain her for another 18 months.

US President Barack Obama joined the worldwide outrage while the UN Security Council was due later Wednesday to resume an emergency meeting on the verdict, which shuts the Nobel peace laureate out of elections in 2010.

In Rangoon, Suu Kyi's lawyer Nyan Win said her legal team would appeal because they were "not satisfied" with the judgement, which stemmed from a stunt in which American man John Yettaw swam to her lakeside house in May.

A prison court sentenced her to three years of hard labour after finding her guilty of breaching the terms of her incarceration, but junta strongman Than Shwe commuted the punishment to a year and a half under house arrest.

The authorities allowed Suu Kyi's legal team to meet her at her home for one hour on Wednesday, Nyan Win said, adding: "We discussed the appeal and we haven't finished our discussion."

Police and security forces blocked off the road outside the 64-year-old opposition leader's house on Wednesday.

Lawyers for Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years of hard labour and imprisonment, said they would also appeal and if it failed they would urge Than Shwe to deport him.

The 54-year-old former US military veteran, who is epileptic and diabetic, is "very calm" and "hopes for the best", his lawyer Khin Maung Oo said.

Suu Kyi has been confined for 14 of the past 20 years, ever since the military regime refused to recognise her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in the last elections held in 1990.

Burmese state media hit back at outside involvement, with the junta-controlled New Light of Myanmar newspaper deriding those who "interfere in the internal affairs of other countries".

On the streets of Rangoon there was no sign of the unrest that the state media had warned against.

"People are glad that she (Suu Kyi) is at home... But things will be quiet again after one week as our people have to worry about their own lives. It is more important than politics," said security guard Zaw Naing.

But the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which Burma is a member, added to the global chorus of dismay at the verdict, expressing "deep disappointment".

It also called for the immediate release of Suu Kyi but added that the 10-nation group - which has been criticised in the past for failing to tackle the junta - would "remain constructively engaged with Burma".

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Wednesday offered his support to Suu Kyi, saying he was "deeply saddened" by her extended detention.

But China - a key ally and major military supplier of the junta - urged the international community to "fully respect Myanmar''s judicial sovereignty", foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said, using the junta's name for Burma.

The UN Security Council, which counts China and Russia among its five veto-wielding members, failed to sign off on a US-drafted statement condemning the verdict on Suu Kyi.

Debate was due to resume on Wednesday after some delegations, including China, insisted on sending the draft statement to their capitals.

In Washington, Obama called for Suu Kyi's "immediate, unconditional release" and for the freeing of more than 2,000 other political prisoners held in Burma.

The US president said the "unjust" sentence against Suu Kyi would never be able to stamp out Burmese desire for freedom, accusing the regime of "continued disregard" for UN Security Council statements.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply disappointed" by the Suu Kyi verdict, while UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she deplored "the ongoing persecution of a democratically elected leader".

Tue Aug 11, 2009
By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - A court in army-ruled Myanmar on Tuesday sentenced opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi guilty to 18 months in detention for violating an internal security law, a ruling certain to anger the West and further isolate the regime.

The court sentenced her to three years in prison but that was immediately reduced to a year-and-a-half on the orders of the military government, which said she could serve the time in her Yangon home.

A guilty verdict had been widely expected in a case critics say was fabricated by the military regime to keep Suu Kyi out of circulation ahead of a general election scheduled for next year.

Delays in the trial of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi have fuelled the rumour mill about what the secretive junta is really up to as elections draw closer
Writer: By Larry Jagan
Published: 9/08/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Spectrum
The delay in the trial of Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has fuelled intense speculation about why the military junta is dragging out the court ruling and what its real agenda is. As Burma's top general Than Shwe has often told subordinates, international pressure "is like an elastic band" - when it's pulled tight nothing should be done as it only makes matters worse. When the elastic band is relaxed "we proceed with our plans".

There is no doubt that the international pressure is very taut at the moment, and the delaying tactics appear to fit neatly into Than Shwe's strategy of dealing with the opposition leader's continued detention. But he must know that the campaign in support of Aung San Suu Kyi will not subside.

The democracy icon is poised to learn her fate on Tuesday when the judges reconvene their secret court inside Insein prison. She is on trial for allegedly breaking the conditions of her house arrest, when she gave food and shelter to an uninvited American who swam to her lakeside residence. If found guilty, she faces a maximum of five years in jail.

The verdict was originally scheduled to be announced more than a week ago, but the court postponed its decision on the grounds that it needed more time to consider the legal arguments in relation to the 1974 constitution - which Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyers insist is no longer relevant.

There is no doubt that one of the regime's main concerns is the possibility of street protests when the verdict is announced. The state-run media warned the public against protesting for several days before the scheduled court verdict last week. They particularly wanted to avoid the Aug 8 anniversary of the mass pro-democracy movement which toppled the previous military ruler, Ne Win.

Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Bangkok-based Burma researcher, said the delay could be a tactic to "bait any potential demonstrators or activists anticipating a guilty verdict to identify themselves, and then switch the date of the verdict so there is enough time to crack down on them".

At least 30 National League for Democracy (NLD) activists were arrested in Rangoon and other towns on the eve of the original verdict hearing, although many have since been released.

Some Burma watchers say that Aung San Suu Kyi being found guilty is a fait accompli.

"These charges are a complete and crude fabrication, a pretext to keep Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in detention," the former UN human rights rapporteur for Burma, Professor Paulo Pinheiro, told Spectrum.

British ambassador to Burma Mark Canning, who completed his posting there last month, said: "The trial has been entirely scripted and the end already decided before hand," he said after a rare occasion when he was allowed to attend the court hearing.

Public sentiment echoes that of the diplomats. "No one is in any doubt about the outcome," said Moe Moe, a taxi driver in the country's main commercial city.

"Those men in green in Naypyidaw [the new capital] know she is the people's hero and the real leader of this country."

But is it as cut and dried as the diplomats would have us believe, or is Than Shwe unsure of how to handle the case with one eye on next year's election and the ongoing problem Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters would present him with after a transition to his homegrown version of "democracy"?

Than Shwe plans to announce the formation of an interim government that will hold administrative power for at least one year, until the elections are staged, according to senior military sources in Naypyidaw.

He and other senior generals around him, especially Maung Aye, plan to stand down when the time is right, after the elections planned for next year. New houses are being built for them near Maymeo. The regional commander has confiscated large tracts of land there and new residences for the top military brass are already being built, according to Burmese military sources.

All government ministries have been told to complete all their outstanding work by the end of August, especially the preparation of statistical information.

Aung Thaung, the minister and a close confidant of Than Shwe's, recently told his deputies that there would be a new government soon, and he may no longer be the minister. Most of the current crop of ministers have also told their staff they will no longer be ministers by the end of the year. It is understood that members of the interim government will not be allowed to run in the elections, which is why the ministers will resign their posts and not take part in the pre-election administration.

"According to Than Shwe's plans, all the current ministers will have to resign, if they are to join a political party and fight the forthcoming elections," said the independent Burmese academic, Win Min.

Many analysts believe Than Shwe has been waiting for the verdict to further marginalise Aung San Suu Kyi before proceeding with his plans for a a civilian administration ahead of the elections. "The whole country will really be surprised to see how power is handed over," he reportedly told a high-ranking visiting foreign official.

So far there have been no hints as to who will be in the interim administration. Some analysts speculate that it may even include a senior member of the NLD - which would then preclude them from running for office in next year's elections.

This would also be one way of giving this body credibility - both nationally and internationally. It is possible that Than Shwe wants Aung San Suu Kyi herself to participate in the interim administration, a senior government official recently told Spectrum.

For Than Shwe, there is another major consideration - what to do with Aung San Suu Kyi after the elections. While it may be relatively easy to keep her locked up until then, the problem is that releasing her afterwards would only ensure she would be an enormous thorn in the side of any civilian government.

So Than Shwe's plans must involve finding a way to neutralise her and at the same time give her her freedom. That is the key issue Than Shwe now has to grapple with, and until he decides what to do with her, she will remain in detention.

The timing of the election is crucial to what happens next week. All indications are that it is likely to take place towards the end of next year. So the further away it is, the more likely it is that the process will be drawn out - first a verdict, then another delay before sentencing, and appeals to the high court.

If Than Shwe is considering ways to co-opt Aung San Suu Kyi, then there must be secret talks or contact between the two. Leading opposition figures in Rangoon, including her lawyers, categorically dismiss these suggestions. Diplomats are equally sceptical.

"But if there were such talks I wouldn't tell diplomats - and certainly not journalists," a western diplomat in Rangoon told Spectrum. After all, it took months for news of the regime's secret talks with Aung San Suu Kyi to emerge, when she was under house arrest in 2000. Those, brokered by the UN envoy Razali Ismail, led to her release in May 2002.

"Whatever happens, Aung San Suu Kyi will be freed before the elections take place," claimed a senior government official with close links to Than Shwe.

Friday, 07 August 2009 15:03 Nathan Green
Bali, Indonesia

WITH tears flowing down her face, a trafficking survivor told a court of international jurists how she was condemned to a life with HIV by handlers who repeatedly raped her for refusing to have sex with strangers in a Malaysian brothel.

"I haven't talked to anyone about having the disease at all, except for my doctor," she told the Southeast Asia Court of Women on HIV, Human Trafficking and Migration on Thursday. "Whenever we talk about it, all I can do is cry, but I want to share my story so that if others are facing similar situations, they will have an idea of what to do."

The Cambodian, who uses the pseudonym Wanta and spoke only on condition of anonymity, was barely a teenager when she was forced into prostitution, but officials say she is far from alone in her plight.

Though the exact number is not known, it is estimated that more than 250,000 women and children are trafficked in Asia each year - one-third of the global total.

Caitlin Wiesen, Regional HIV/Aids practice leader and programme coordinator for the United Nations Development Programme, said: "These numbers are staggering and involve forms of violence that are numbing."

Trafficking is not only a "hideous crime" and "gross violation of human rights", but also a major contributor to the spread of HIV, Wiesen warned. "Sexual exploitation is an integral part of human trafficking, and unprotected sex is the major vector for the transmission and spread of HIV."

Wanta appeared with 21 other survivors of trafficking and exploitation, including the woman pictured above, at an emotionally charged 37th sitting of the Court For Women in Bali, Indonesia, set up to explore the links between HIV and human trafficking.

August 7, 2009 -- Updated 2054 GMT (0454 HKT)


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Mel Martinez, a Florida Republican, announced Friday that he will resign his seat as soon as a replacement can be named by the governor.
"My priorities have always been my faith, my family and my country, and, at this stage of my life and after nearly 12 years of public service in Florida and in Washington, it is time to return to Florida and my family," the 62-year-old said in Orlando, Florida.

"So today I am announcing my decision to step down from public office."

Martinez said he is resigning "of my own free will. There is no impending reason; it's only my desire to move on and to get on with the rest of my life."

He added that he is in good health and that he expects the next phase of his life will take place in the private sector.

"However, I do hope that I can have a voice to speak out on issues I think are important," he said.

Martinez added that he has no plans to run for any other public office.

At a news conference at McDill Air Force Base in Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist said he will "undertake a very thorough, comprehensive, thoughtful process" to find a replacement for Martinez.

He vowed not to appoint himself to complete Martinez's six-year term, which ends in about 17 months, and predicted that he would reach a decision before the Senate returns from recess September 8.

Crist, a Republican, had announced in May that he would not seek a second term as governor and instead would run for Martinez's seat in the 2010 election.

Martinez was elected in 2004. He announced in December his intention to retire at the end of his term.

Martinez is the only Hispanic Republican in the Senate. He joined eight other Republicans on Thursday in voting to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Democrats hold a tenuous filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, with 60 votes. Martinez is one of six Republicans who have stated they would not seek re-election in 2010. But the Florida senator is the second Republican who has decided to leave before the curtain drops on the 111th Congress next fall.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, recently announced her intention to quit the Senate three years before her term expires, in order to run for governor next year.

The five other Republicans who are retiring are Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning and Ohio Sen. George Voinovich.

Two Democrats will not run in 2010: Illinois Sen. Roland Burris and Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman.

Republicans must defend 19 seats next year, and Democrats must protect 18.

A car bomb has killed at least 30 people and injured 72 at a mosque in the Northern Iraq city of Mosul on Friday while a wave of bomb attacks targeted Shia-Muslim pilgrims in Baghdad. Authorities in Mosul say that the explosives detonated outside the mosque as worshippers walked to an annexe to offer condolences. The mosque is used by members of the Turkmen minority in the mainly Sunni-Muslim city.
The bombing follows an explosion in Mosul on Thursday in which two Christian women were wounded. Mosul, along with Baghdad and Kirkuk, remains a scene of frequent attacks despite a drop in violence over the rest of the country.

In Baghdad, a string of explosions in the city killed four as Shia-Muslims returned from marking a religious ceremony in the city of Karbala.

One roadside bomb at the entrance to Baghdad's Shia district of Sadr City killed three pilgrims on a bus and wounded eight, while another explosion at the edge of the district wounded another five travelling in a minibus. A separate explosion killed one pilgrim and wounded five in the Zayune neighbourhood of central Baghdad.

Shia-Muslims have been commemorating the birth of the Twelfth Imam, revered as a coming Messiah. Roads to and from Karbala have been crowded with pilgrims all week.

The number of violent deaths in Iraq fell from 437 in June to 275 in July.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the United States and South Africa will work more closely together to push for reform in Zimbabwe and full implementation of a power sharing agreement there. The countries have also agreed to scale up their bilateral relationship.

Secretary Clinton said that South Africa is already deeply involved in trying to advance political reform in neighboring Zimbabwe.

"South Africa is deeply involved in working toward a complete fulfillment of the terms of the agreement that was reached to establish the coalition government," she said. "Obviously, South Africa, on the doorstep of Zimbabwe, has a lot of contacts with all of the different players in Zimbabwe, and the minister, and I talked about ways we can try productively to create a better outcome for the people of Zimbabwe."

Jacob Zuma (File)
Jacob Zuma (File)
Earlier this week, South African President Jacob Zuma met with Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangerai and promised the Zimbabwean leader he would raise what he called Zimbabwe's weighty problems with President Robert Mugabe. These are likely to include continuing violence against Mr. Mugabe's opponents and what Mr. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change says are gratuitous arrests of party legislators.

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoane-Mashabane said South Africa will be urging Zimbabwe to speed up implementation of the power sharing signed by Mr. Mugabe and Mr. Tsvangirai, and which includes provisions to prevent such incidents.

Mrs. Clinton is also seeking to reinvigorate bilateral ties with South Africa. Nkoane-Mashabane said she and Mrs. Clinton agreed to establish a mechanism to elevate the relationship.

"We have, amongst other things, agreed to elevate our bilateral relations to a higher level, a level of Madame Secretary and myself, to lead and coordinate our engagements between the two countries," she said.

Mrs. Clinton noted that President Barack Obama has made Africa a high priority for his administration and that the United States recognizes the central leadership role South Africa plays in Africa.

"One cannot think about making progress on so many fronts, from health and education to conflict resolution, without working hand in hand, closely cooperating and coordinating with South Africa," she said.

Mrs. Clinton also met briefly with elder statesman Nelson Mandela and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, and had lunch with some business leaders.

President Obama says his administration has rescued the U.S. economy from catastrophe. "Today, we are pointed in the right direction. We are losing jobs at less than half the rate we were when I took office," he said.

U.S. stocks soared on Friday on news from the Labor Department that fewer jobs are being lost than earlier in the recession.

U.S. employers cut 247,000 positions in July, the smallest reduction of any month this year. The unemployment rate dipped from 9.5 percent in June to 9.4 percent in July. White House officials call it the least bad report in a year, but they say the president expects unemployment to top 10 percent in the coming months.

Global economist Jay Bryson, with Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina, agrees with the administration that a full recovery, including widespread job creation, is still far away. "The massive job losses that we saw earlier this year are starting to come to an end, but I do not think we are looking for positive employment growth any time soon, probably well into next year," he said.

While the White House says the $787 billion Recovery Act, passed in February, has stabilized the economy, Bryson says the initiative has done little to stimulate it. "Tax cuts that were put into effect earlier this year have stabilized consumer spending, and that certainly has helped, but a lot of the bigger-ticket infrastructure projects have not really gotten underway yet," he said.

Despite Friday's encouraging news, Mr. Obama says he will not be satisfied until the U.S. is seeing sustained job growth. "It will not be easy, though. Change is hard, especially in Washington. We have a steep mountain to climb, and we started in a very deep valley," he said.

The president is campaigning for policy changes on health care, education and energy, which he says will contribute to the nation's economic recovery.

Indonesian police say they have launched a series of raids against suspected hardline Islamic terrorists, including the alleged mastermind of suicide bombings last month in Jakarta.

But there was conflicting information coming from police and media on whether leading terror suspect Noordin Top had been arrested, killed or surrounded inside a home in Temanggung, Central Java.

Shooting which began Friday evening at his alleged hideout continued into Saturday, with gunmen firing back at a special anti-terror unit from inside the compound.

In a separate raid late Friday in the Bekasi area on the outskirts of Jakarta, police said they killed two militants and found bombs. Several arrests were also reported during both raids.

The July 17 attacks on the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta killed nine people and wounded more than 50.

An Indonesian police officer pins up a poster of terrorist suspect in Denpasar, Bali, 07 Aug 2009
An Indonesian police officer pins up a poster of terrorist suspect in Denpasar, Bali, 07 Aug 2009
The Malaysian-born fugitive Top is one of the most wanted men in south-east Asia. He has been linked to previous terror attacks in Indonesia and to the al-Qaida-linked regional group, Jemaah Islamiyah.

Indonesian officials were also quoted as saying police had identified the two suicide bombers from the July attacks, a 19-year-old man and a 28-year-old man.

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North American business groups urged leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada on Friday to rein in "buy local" provisions they called a threat to free trade and economic growth.

"In this global economic downturn, it is imperative that the three countries work together more intensively than ever to make the most of their strengths and set the stage for robust and sustained economic recovery," the North American Competitiveness Council said.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon will host U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Sunday and Monday in Guadalajara for an annual meeting of North American leaders.

The advisory group made up of leading U.S., Mexican and Canadian business associations had its sternest advice for Obama, who they urged direct his administration to "clarify its intent and interpretation" of Buy American provisions passed as part of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill.

Obama, responding to an international outcry over the measure, persuaded Congress to exempt free-trade partners like Canada and Mexico from the strict requirement that public works projects funded by the bill use only U.S.-made goods.

But state and local governments carrying out stimulus projects can sidestep that instruction because they are not bound by international pacts. That has caused project delays and prompted some Canadian city and provincial governments to consider banning U.S. goods in Canadian projects.

Critics say the Buy American provisions also are at odds with the spirit of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which phased out tariffs among the three countries beginning in 1994 and promoted greater economic integration.

CONSISTENT WITH U.S. OBLIGATIONS

The advisory group urged the White House to make clear that when state and local governments "engage in procurement with the support of federal funds," they award any contracts in a manner consistent with U.S. trade obligations and the April 2 pledge Obama and other G20 leaders made not to raise any new barriers to trade and investment.

"For the same reasons, we urge provinces and municipalities in Canada not to proceed with 'buy local' requirements for public procurement that have been proposed in that country," the group said, adding a better approach would be for the countries to negotiate reciprocal access to government contracts at the state, provincial and city level.

"We have similar concerns about the new "Buy Mexican" program, but recognize that it is confined to an awareness campaign rather than an active policy," the group said.

Other recommendations included:

* Full implementation of a long-delayed U.S. commitment to allow Mexican trucks to operate in the United States.

* Rejection of a "carbon tax" on imports from countries judged not to be doing enough to fight global warming.

* Stronger regulatory cooperation among the three countries, and rigorous protection of intellectual property rights essential to innovation and economic growth.

By Sue Pleming

PRETORIA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged South Africa on Friday to use its clout to bolster reforms in Zimbabwe and said closer ties would be built with Pretoria after strains under the Bush administration.

Before meeting South Africa's foreign minister on Friday, Clinton said she would urge the new government to get Zimbabwe to raise the pace of political reform which has been too slow for donors to release substantial amounts of aid.

"South Africa is very aware of the challenges posed by the political crisis in Zimbabwe because South Africa has 3 million refugees from Zimbabwe," Clinton told a news conference after meeting International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.

"And every one of those refugees represents a failure of the Zimbabwean government to care for its own people and a burden that South Africa has to bear," she added.

The United States, troubled by what it sees as an absence of reform in Zimbabwe, has no plans either to offer major development aid or to lift sanctions against Mugabe and some of his supporters.

"Now we, as you know are attempting to target the leadership of Zimbabwe with sanctions that we think might influence their behavior without hurting the people of Zimbabwe," said Clinton.

Before sanctions can be lifted or major aid can flow, Washington wants more evidence of political, social and economic reforms by Mugabe and the government he shares with opposition leader and now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, is blamed for plunging Zimbabwe into economic ruin. He argues that his country's economic woes, which include hyperinflation and a collapsed infrastructure, are caused by sanctions.

New South African President Jacob Zuma, due to meet Clinton in the coastal city of Durban on Saturday, has taken a harder line on Zimbabwe than his predecessor Thabo Mbeki, but the United States wants more.

GOODWILL

Clinton hopes there will be a burst of goodwill due to the change of government in both South Africa and the United States and that it will lead to better relations with Pretoria than the Bush administration had.

"I know that the (foreign) minister and I are interested in making sure that our two countries not only lead but demonstrate the kind of cooperation that results in positive results for the people of the world," said Clinton.

Nkoana-Mashabane said coordination with the previous U.S. administration had been poor and that she wanted to "elevate" the relationship with the Obama team. She also promised that South Africa would try and get Zimbabwe to move faster in implementing reforms.

A senior official said earlier that "U.S.-South African relations were not as warm and friendly in reality as many people thought" when President Thabo Mbeki was in power.

The United States had disagreed, for example, with Mbeki's views on how to handle the HIV/AIDS crisis, which the former South African president had been slow to grasp.

Friday, August 07, 2009
By Lynn Ockersz
The Island (Sri Lanka)

Late Philippine President Cory Aquino would be best remembered for being swept to power in a completely bloodless popular revolt against one of the most repressive of dictatorships in Asia. It was indeed a momentous moment in Third World political history in that the people had their say in the most decisive fashion with not ‘a shot being fired’.

It was Chinese communist icon Mao Tse Dong who famously stated that ’power comes from the barrel of a gun’ and this saying by the Chinese revolutionary had taken its place in the political ‘wisdom of the ages’, when the 1986 ‘People’s Power’ revolt in the Philippines stood the magisterial pronouncement on its head. The seemingly soundly entrenched Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship was eased out of office by the ordinary people of the Philippines who brought life to a halt for days on end in the archipelago by massing on the country’s highways in a show of phenomenal peaceful protest against their rulers, but power changed hands without a drop of blood being shed. The people wielded no violence to achieve their ends and the law enforcers largely refrained from coming down hard on the protesting public with a mailed fist. However, governance was not possible in a country which had ground to a halt and the people eventually had their say.

By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Judge Sonia Sotomayor won approval on Thursday to become the first Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court in a Senate vote that President Barack Obama said broke another social barrier.

The Democratic-led Senate voted largely along party lines, 68-31, to confirm Obama's nomination of Sotomayor for a lifetime appointment to the highest U.S. court. She will be sworn in on Saturday.

All the opponents were Republicans, reflecting the party's resistance to the Democratic president on several fronts, including his bid to overhaul healthcare.

Obama, who became the first black U.S. president six months ago, made no mention of the partisan split when he spoke after the vote but said the Senate had upheld American ideals of justice, equality and opportunity.

"They're ideals she's fought for throughout her career, and the ideals the Senate has upheld today in breaking yet another barrier and moving us yet another step closer to a more perfect union," Obama said at the White House.

Sotomayor, 55, a federal judge since 1992, will be the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve in the history of the 220-year-old Supreme Court.

Both parties praised her rise from a child born to Puerto Rican parents and living in poverty.

REPLACES SOUTER

In replacing retired Justice David Souter, Sotomayor is not expected to change the court's ideological balance. Souter sided with the liberal wing of the court, which in recent years often issued 5-4 rulings in favor of conservatives.

The appointment nonetheless underscores an effort by Obama to move the court to the left after eight years of rightward pushing by his predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush.

In opposing Sotomayor, Republicans risk a backlash from her fellow Hispanics, the fastest growing U.S. minority. Hispanics make up 15 percent of the U.S. population and voted by a two-to-one margin for Obama in the 2008 presidential election.

But Republicans seemed unconcerned. They said many Hispanics were conservatives and more interested in such issues as jobs and the economy.

Janet Murguia of the National Council of La Raza, a major Hispanic civil rights group, said: "This vote will matter -- and it will be long remembered."

Democrats hailed Sotomayor as fair-minded, but Republicans charged she lacked impartiality. Critics had zeroed in on her past comments that a "wise Latina" woman might reach a better decision than a white man.

By Mark Felsenthal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is unlikely to tip his hand as soon as financial markets would like on whether he plans to name Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to another term.

Many investors have signaled they would prefer Bernanke to get a new four-year term after his first one expires on January 31, 2010 and they would like Obama to lay to rest any uncertainty about the renomination without delay.

But the president is likely to take his time as he weighs whether Bernanke's role in the runup to the credit crisis will be a political liability going forward and if there is firm evidence the economic recovery is on track.

"If you get beyond August without an announcement, the markets will begin to get nervous," said Camden Fine, the president of the Independent Community Bankers of America.

Taking history as a guide, a public announcement could be delayed until late October. That is when former President George W. Bush announced his replacement for Alan Greenspan in 2005. Obama is considering putting his own stamp on a Fed that has seen its reputation dented in the wake of the financial meltdown of the past two years.

MARKET SUPPORT

Financial markets have given Bernanke high marks on the job and rate his chances for reappointment at about 80 percent.

Investors care about who runs the Fed because a new figure, likely a Democrat, might focus on lowering unemployment while tolerating higher-than-desirable inflation.

Such an assumption might lead markets to recalibrate their bets about longer-term securities, sending longer-term interest rates higher.

In addition, while Bernanke has mapped out his exit strategy to pull the economy back from exceptionally low interest rates and extricate the Fed from a flood of loans to financial markets without sparking unwanted inflation, other candidates might chart a different course.

For the president, however, the calculus may be complicated by the economy's slow path to recovery and a public backlash against financial bailouts for big business at a time when ordinary Americans are suffering rising joblessness and lost personal wealth.

Critics also say Bernanke was part of a Fed that failed to spot a ballooning housing bubble and stood idly by as risky lending proliferated, leading to the credit crisis.

Obama has publicly praised Bernanke's handling of the crisis, but stopped short of saying he wanted him to stay on.

The president's advisors will evaluate the merits of extending Bernanke's term in the light of their own political fortunes, which will be tested in a mid-term election in November 2010 that could be a referendum on Obama's first two years.

African governments should uphold the rule of law to attract investment and ensure economic growth, Clinton said during a town hall meeting at the University of Nairobi.

"The fact is Kenya has not fulfilled its economic promise," Clinton said. "I believe it has not realized ... a functioning democracy."

Clinton, who arrived at the capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday, met with government leaders Wednesday and attended the African Growth and Opportunity Act conference, an annual meeting that aims to bolster trade and investment between the United States and African countries.

Her visit comes a few days after Kenya said it will use its judiciary to try perpetrators of post-election violence, reneging on an earlier pledge to use an independent tribunal.

Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and more than 1,300 were killed in fighting that flared after the 2007 elections.

It started after the main opposition candidate disputed the results, sparking the worst violence in the nation's history.

Kenyans, foreign donors and the United States have criticized plans to try suspected perpetrators in the judiciary, saying the nation's system is not credible enough to do so.

At the beginning of the town hall meeting, Clinton, acknowledged the shortcomings in Kenya's judiciary system by using a phrase commonly used by its citizens. It is common parlance that if you have a problem, "Why hire a lawyer when you can buy a judge," Clinton said, referring to corruption associated with the nation's judiciary system.

The secretary of state said that by addressing corruption, she was sharing a sentiment from President Obama, whose father was from the East African nation.

"The government has to reform itself if Kenya will be all that it can be," Clinton said, adding that was a message from Obama. "It is tough but it's also lovingly presented."

However, she said, the United States has no plans to impose sanctions while Kenya tries to wipe out corruption.

"We will consider consequences aimed at individuals, not aimed at the people of Kenya," she said.

She is scheduled to meet Thursday with Somalia's new president, whose government is waging a bloody battle against an Islamic insurgency -- with some help from the United States.

Clinton will meet with Somalia's transitional president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, in the Kenyan capital as part of her multi-nation visit to the African continent.

The United States announced in June that it is providing weapons and ammunition to Sharif's government as it fights al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants.

The weapons shipments are in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolutions, which ban some arms shipments to Somalia, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

The First Year
A look at the issues, events and people in President Obama's next 100 days and beyond

On reflection, the official was only too willing to take us behind the scenes as he settled back into his desk chair.

Two hundred days in, "the incline on the treadmill is not as steep," the official said, but added, "it's still moving very fast."

Obama has not slowed since coming into office. Restructuring the auto industry, a speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, Egypt, and his big push to get health care reform are just a few of the president's ambitious efforts since the last "Hallmark holiday."

Health care reform has proved to be especially difficult, because the White House isn't just battling Republicans but also fiscally conservative Democrats who are concerned about how to pay for it.

And then there are critics who say Obama should have gotten more involved earlier in the nitty-gritty, instead of relying on Congress to condense several plans into something he could support.

In the end, an administration-imposed August deadline of getting bills from the House and Senate before the summer recess was abandoned. The goal now is to get health care reform by the end of the year.

Obama's handling of his ambitious agenda is starting to eat into his popularity. While he continues to enjoy broad support, polls show his approval rating is no longer in the mid-60s.

In the most recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 56 percent of Americans approve of how Obama is handling his job, down 5 points from June. Also in the current poll, 40 percent disapprove of the job he's doing.

Despite all this, behind the scenes, deputy press secretary Josh Ernest says staffers remain dedicated and are "still invigorated by the opportunity so far. They were under no illusion about the amount of hard work that had to be done."

So what does 200 days in office boil down to?

"There's a certain rhythm and level of familiarity," Ernest said. "We understand how things work ... and we're settling more into a groove."

The closest the White House has come to recognizing this milestone is a recent weekend retreat attended by Cabinet members and senior staffers. It was billed as a chance to assess the past six months and look ahead to the next six.

But a senior administration official said it was also a chance to "make sure that everyone was on the same page."

As the administration moves ahead to the next 100 days, advisers expect Obama to continue his balancing act of focusing on his domestic and foreign policy agenda. A senior administration official said Afghanistan will be a focus, and "we'll be watching how things stabilize in Iraq."

And while the official did not want to characterize Iran as a thorn in the side of the United States, that country and its nuclear ambition will continue to be a high priority.