Al-Qaeda leader 'killed'

Mr Yazid, also known as Sheikh Said al-Masri, died along with his wife and three children, Islamist websites said, quoting a statement from al-Qaeda.U.S officials say they believe he was killed recently in the tribal areas of Pakistan in an American drone attack.Al-Qaeda's operational commander in Afghanistan, he is believed to have had a hand in everything from finances to operational planning.A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was "strong reason" to believe that Mr Yazid was killed in Pakistan's tribal areas in the past two weeks.Mr Yazid's last public statement was released on 4 May, eulogising the two top al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq - Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayub al-Masri - who were killed in April.

source by-news.bbc

Germany in crisis after surprise

Germany in crisis after surprise resignation of President Horst Köhler.The President read a short televised statement announcing that he was going immediately because he had been so misunderstood over military operations abroad. On a trip last week to meet German troops in Afghanistan he had declared that a country such as Germany, dependent on exports and free trade, must be prepared to use military force.The country, he said, had to act “to protect our interests, for example, free-trade routes, or to prevent regional instability which might certainly have a negative effect on our trade, jobs and earnings”. “Köhler has said something openly that has been obvious from the beginning,” said Klaus Ernst, head of the Left party. “German soldiers are risking life and limb in Afghanistan to defend the [exports] of big economic interests.”

The President tried to correct his statements but it was clear that he had opened a debate about Afghanistan which could embarrass the Government.

“The criticism [of me] has gone so far that people are accusing me of supporting unconstitutional army operations,” Mr Köhler, 67, said. “There is absolutely no basis for such criticism.” Chancellor is under criticism across Europe for her hesitant leadership in the eurozone crisis. “Everything is falling apart,” said the former head of the Greens, Joschka Fischer. However, it is the Afghan war that is having the most troubling effect. The first Cabinet casualty of Ms Merkel’s centre-right coalition was Franz Joseph Jung, who had been slow to apologise for civilian casualties caused by a German-ordered attack in Kunduz province.On his visit President Köhler, a former head of the International Monetary Fund, asked soldiers what they thought would happen next in Afghanistan. The soldiers stared at their boots. Annoyed, the President turned to a US soldier who replied promptly: “I think we can win this one, Sir!” The President approved. “That’s the answer I wanted to hear.”
“It was an honour to serve Germany as President,” he said, and turned abruptly from the cameras.
source by-timesonline.

Gaza aid ship seized by Israeli

U.S. ambassador aboard a Gaza aid ship seized by Israeli commandos is on his way home, his wife said Monday evening.Md., a Washington suburb, was among activists in the flotilla trying to get humanitarian aid to Gaza, Ann Peck said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

She said she received a brief e-mail from Israel's foreign ministry on Monday informing her that her husband was fine and headed home. The e-mail said he would likely arrive Tuesday, didn't have a cell phone with him and would call from a New York airport when he landed, she said, adding that it didn't say which airport.

She seemed to take the situation, including numerous phone calls from news organizations, in stride."He gets himself into these messes, and the phone is going to ring," she joked.Ann Peck said that as of Monday evening she hadn't spoken with U.S. officials, nor was she able to talk to her husband, a former U.S. ambassador to Mauritania."Knowing him I doubt there are regrets," she said. "I think he was really hopeful of it making a difference."

Jean Meadors, wife of Joe Meadors, 63, of Corpus Christi, Texas, a Navy veteran also on board a seized ship, said Monday evening that she believed he was safe, "but I'd like to hear that from him."

She said his exact status, whether under arrest, detention or otherwise, was unclear.

Joe Meadors was serving aboard the U.S. Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty that was attacked by Israeli forces in 1967, killing 34 crew members.

"He hasn't had much luck with the Israelis," Jean Meadows said.

Israeli commandos on Monday rappelled down to the aid flotilla, which was trying to thwart a Gaza blockade.

source by-chron.com

Ship clash leaves Israel

Israel could pay a heavy price including damage to peace efforts with the Palestinians over the killing of 10 international activists on a Turkish ship trying to break a blockade of Gaza. Islamist Hamas's rival for Palestinian loyalties, secular president Mahmoud Abbas, was quick to condemn the naval attack as a "massacre" an ill omen for the U.S.-mediated negotiations with Israel on which he embarked three weeks ago.
Barack Obama will have to balance relations with Turkey and other Muslim allies of the United States against Washington's ties with Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on a visit to Canada when the Israeli raid took place, canceled a planned White House meeting with Obama on Tuesday and would leave later on Monday for home, Israeli officials said.
Netanyahu's White House invitation was widely seen in Israel as an attempt by Obama to mend fences and shore up U.S. Jewish support for Democratic candidates in a November mid-term election after a frosty Oval office meeting in March.
Oussama Safa of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies predicted Obama might "ante up the pressure against the Israelis" to accommodate Palestinian demands though the Netanyahu government has said the Gaza blockade will remain.
Turkey, a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, said it would seek a resolution against Israel a poke in the eye for Israel and the United States, which would prefer to see the Council sanction Iran for its nuclear programme.
"I see all the looks that I'm getting," Ben-Eliezer told Israel's Army Radio by telephone.Hamas government head Ismail Haniyeh said of the activists: "You were heroes, whether you reached (Gaza) or not."
"The difference is that this time foreigners are involved, which means a much wider impact," Shai told Israel Radio.
source by-reuters.com

We need raid 'facts' ASAP:Obama

President Barak Obama meeting with the prime minister, presses for IDF flotilla-raid details, expresses "deep regret at loss of life."Obama spoke by telephone with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Monday after the latter cancelled a planned Oval Office meeting scheduled for Tuesday. Their 15-minute conversation, Obama conveyed his understanding for Netanyahu’s decision to return immediately to Israel from Canada and not stop in Washington following the deadly clash between the IDF and activists trying to break the Gaza blockade earlier in the day.


source by jpost.com

Pakistan lifts Facebook ban

Pakistan banned Facebook on 19 May but said it would continue to block individual pages containing "blasphemous" content.online competition that invited people around the world to submit drawings of the prophet Muhammad. Muslims consider all depictions of Muhammad as heretical.Yesterday Bangladesh also banned Facebook, saying it would lift the restriction only when the offending material was removed.
Najibullah Malik, the Pakistani official orchestrating the censorship, said Facebook had removed all "sacrilegious material" from its website and promised that "nothing of this sort will happen in the future". Afternoon a Facebook page entitled "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!" was still online.Facebook critics say some drawings on the Muhammad page are so offensive to Muslims that they constitute hate material. They point out that the site has previously censored sensitive material in Pakistan, including blocking a lawyer who tried to set up a satirical page entitled Taliban Times.Pakistan already bans a wide variety of websites with political or human rights content including those run by Baloch or Sindh nationalists, and videos of Pakistani soldiers beating civilians. Pornography, however, is freely available.

E.C.B. Says, Europe’s Banks at Risk From Slower Growth.

European Central Bank said Monday in a report that catalogued in sometimes alarming detail the problems facing the region’s financial institutions. E.C.B. expressed particular concern about banks’ need to refinance some €800 billion, or $980 billion, in long-term debt by the end of 2012. Borrowing costs could rise as the banks compete with governments in the bond market “making it challenging to roll over a sizeable amount of maturing bonds by the end of 2012,” the report said.
“The financial markets remain fragile and especially the developments in recent weeks have shown the necessity of heightened alertness,” Axel Weber, president of the German Bundesbank and a member of the E.C.B.’s governing council, said Monday in a speech in Mainz, Germany.
“It is possible that the short-term impact will not be as severe as seems to be expected at the moment,” said Mr. Papademos, whose term ended Monday.
European banks will need to set aside an estimated €123 billion in 2010 for bad loans, the report said, in addition to the €238 billion they set aside from 2007 to 2009. However, the sum for 2010 was lower than earlier estimates. Banks also benefited from a rebound in securities markets, the report said.
While profitability of larger banks has improved, their shares are likely to fall in the near future, the E.C.B. report said, citing an analysis of options that investors use to bet on the direction of stock prices.“The continued reliance of some smaller or medium-sized euro area banks on central bank refinancing continues to be a cause for concern,” the report said.

“The tensions in the sovereign bond markets spilled over to other market segments, such as the foreign exchange market and equity markets,” the E.C.B. president, Jean-Claude Trichet, said Monday in a speech in Vienna. “Trading volumes and liquidity became erratic, and volatility spiked.”

“In view of these exceptional circumstances prevailing in the financial markets, we decided that exceptional intervention was necessary,” Mr. Trichet said. He said that the E.C.B. could only do so much to restore stability to the financial system. Euro governments must ultimately craft a system for disciplining countries that violate treaty limits on debt and deficits.

“I call on euro area governments in particular to work actively together to reach agreement on a quantum leap of the effectiveness of their collegial surveillance,” Mr. Trichet said.

source by nytimes.com