Egypt appoints new foreign minister

Mohamed el-Orabi was previously deputy foreign ministerPrevious official stepped down to head Arab League

(CNN) -- Egypt's interim cabinet filled its recently vacant foreign minister position Sunday with Mohamed el-Orabi, the deputy foreign minister for economic affairs.

The previous foreign minister, Nabil Elaraby, was elected in May to head the 22-member Arab League after Amre Moussa decided to be a candidate in the next presidential elections in Egypt, expected to take place in December.

Orabi served in the Egyptian Army before he joined the foreign service in 1976. He was deputy ambassador in Tel Aviv from 1994 to 1998 and has worked in Kuwait, London and Washington. He held the position of ambassador in Germany from 2001 to 2008.

Orabi is the second foreign minister to be appointed since former President Hosni Mubarak stepped down February 11 after pro-democracy protesters demanded a change in government and reforms.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and Prime Minister Esam Sharaf's caretaker cabinet have since been in charge of the country.

CNN

China hosts Libyan foreign minister (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) – Libya's Foreign Minister arrived in China on Tuesday for talks and Beijing said a Chinese diplomat had visited a Libyan rebel stronghold, as China looks to play a more active role in efforts to end fighting over the fate of Muammar Gaddafi's government.

Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi will be in China until Thursday as a "special envoy" for his government, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news conference, adding that Obeidi would hold talks with the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

"Both sides will exchange views on the situation in Libya and (finding) a political solution to Libyan crisis," said Hong.

Before the Libyan envoy's visit, a Chinese diplomat based in Egypt had visited the Libyan rebel base of Benghazi for talks with the National Transitional Council fighting to oust Gaddafi, foreign ministry spokesman Hong said earlier.

China's new moves came days after it said its ambassador in Qatar had met Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the rebel's de facto political leader, in its first confirmed contact with anti-Gaddafi forces, adding to signs that Beijing is becoming more active in seeking an end to the fighting.

"China is striving with the entire international community for a political solution to the Libyan crisis," Hong told reporters, when asked if his government wanted to play a mediating role between the warring sides in Libya.

"The Libya issue is major one of concern to every country in the world at the moment, and China urges all sides to cease fire immediately and resolve the Libyan crisis through political channels," he said.

China's diplomacy reflects growing recognition that Gaddafi's days in power appear numbered, and the time left to negotiate an end to fighting could be limited, said Yin Gang, an expert on Arab affairs at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

"China had to open up contact with the rebel forces, because the government in Tripoli will have to fold sooner or later. The United States, France and so on are determined to see that happen," Yin said by telephone.

Any political solution required maintaining contact with both sides, he added.

"Russia and China may be in a position to act as go-betweens and also engage with the other powers," said Yin.

POPULAR UPRISINGS

China has bolstered ties with governments in Egypt and Tunisia after their leaders fell from power in uprisings.

The Chinese engagement of the rebels follow a spate of defections by high-profile members of the Libyan government.

The Libyan conflict is deadlocked, with rebels unable to break out of their strongholds and advance toward Tripoli, where Gaddafi appears to be entrenched.

The Chinese diplomat based in Egypt who visited Benghazi also examined humanitarian needs there, said Hong, although he added he was unsure whether Beijing was considering giving aid.

China was never very close to Gaddafi, but generally tries to avoid taking sides in other countries' domestic conflicts.

But about half of China's crude imports last year came from the region, and Chinese companies have a big presence. Beijing mobilized navy ships and civilian aircraft to help tens of thousands of Chinese workers flee Libya earlier this year.

China was among the emerging powers that abstained in March when the United Nations Security Council authorized NATO-led air strikes to stop Gaddafi's forces from threatening civilians.

China could have used its veto power as a permanent member. But it also condemned the expansion of those strikes, and has since urged a ceasefire that it says could open the way for a political compromise between the Libyan government and rebels.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Miral Fahmy and Alex Richardson)

Yahoo! News

Pakistan, U.S. agree to resume joint intel ops: Foreign Ministry (Reuters)

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan and the United States have agreed to resume joint intelligence operations against Islamist militants, the Pakistani foreign ministry said on Friday, in a first step toward rebuilding trust between the two countries.

The announcement came a week after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed Pakistan's civilian and military leaders to take decisive steps against militant groups operating in the country after the discovery of Osama bin Laden in a garrison town.

"There will be joint operations. These could be intelligence sharing," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua told Reuters.

Asked whether Pakistan would allow U.S. troops to conduct operations along with their Pakistani counterparts, she said she would not go into details.

However, she added: "Obviously the question of sovereignty is supreme to us and everything will be done through consultations."

A U.S. official traveling with Clinton during her visit to Islamabad last week suggested at the time there could be special operations to attack militants in Pakistan, seen as a threat to not just foreign forces in Afghanistan, but also Western interests elsewhere.

Bin Laden's discovery and killing by American special forces in a garrison town just 50 km (30 miles) from the capital Islamabad on May 2 raised fresh doubts about Pakistan's reliability as a U.S. partner against militancy.

Joint intelligence operations between Pakistan and the United States since 2001 have led to the arrest of several key al Qaeda and Taliban figures in Pakistan.

However, such operations had been frozen since January following the arrest of CIA contractor Raymond Davis for shooting to death two Pakistanis. Davis was finally released after the paying of monetary compensation to the heirs of slain people under an Islamic law prevalent in Pakistan.

A Pakistan analyst said resumption of joint operations was a "step in the right direction" but both uneasy allies need to do a lot more to mitigate their mistrust.

"It shows they are trying to restore their confidence in each other and trying to get the best possible results through a joint approach rather then pursuing individual approaches," said Talat Masood, a security analyst and a retired general.

"(But) mistrust won't go away right away. ... We have to wait and see how this is implemented."

Washington sees Islamabad as a critical ally in its efforts to stabilize war-ravaged Afghanistan but their relations have always been shrouded in mistrust and suspicions.

In a sign of continuing difficulties in ties, Pakistan has asked the United States to halve the presence of military trainers, numbering around 130, stationed in the country.

U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen told reporters in Washington on Thursday that there would be a significant cutback in the number of U.S. trainers, but it was "not going to zero."

(Editing by Chris Allbritton and Sanjeev Miglani)

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Analysis: S.Korea's smartphone love affair lures foreign suitors (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) – The proliferation of smartphones in South Korea is transforming this former "walled garden" ruled by local players into one of Asia's most promising destinations for global Internet and social networking firms.

A solid, wireless broadband infrastructure, feature-packed new models from homegrown giants Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, and an explosion in mobile applications and services have all contributed to the breakneck speed of smartphone adoption.

In just 18 months the number of smartphone subscribers in South Korea has exploded more than ten-fold to top 10 million, or around a fifth of the population, according to the Korea Communications Commission (KCC).

South Korea ranks first in Asia and third globally in smartphone penetration, according to eMarketer, lagging only the United States and Western Europe.

All this is music to the ears of handset makers and application developers.

"Korea is interesting because it's got a large, tech-savvy and concentrated population," said Andrew Mason, founder and CEO of group-buying site Groupon, which launched services in Korea in March. "It's the perfect market for Groupon."

Smartphones have become a "Trojan horse into the Korean market" for the likes of Google and Facebook, which had a head start on local firms in optimizing their offerings for smartphones, said Richard Min, partner at Seoul-based startup incubator, Seoul Space.

Foreign entrants have moved quickly to capitalize on the changing landscape. Twitter launched a Korean-language website in January after seeing a 3,400 percent spike in the volume of Korean tweets in 2010. It now has around 3 million local users, according to market research firm, Daumsoft.

Facebook opened a Seoul office late last year to seize on the "great momentum" in Korea, a company spokesperson said.

And Groupon Korea already ranks among the top four players in South Korea's increasingly crowded social commerce market, with a growth rate that is "accelerating every week," said local CEO, Hee Seung Hwang.

GOOGLE'S CHANGING FORTUNES

Arguably the biggest beneficiary of Korea's smartphone explosion has been Google, whose previous attempts to woo local Internet users were disappointing. As of March 2011 it held a mere 2 percent sliver of the standard Internet search market, according to Seoul-based research house, Metrix Corp.

But Metrix estimates Google now vies with Korea's Daum Communications for second place in the mobile Internet search market, with a share of more than 15 percent.

Google's Android operating system, on which Samsung and LG's latest smartphone offerings are based, powered only 3 percent of South Korea's mobile phones in March 2010. That figure jumped to 60 percent by January 2011, KCC data shows.

The onslaught of imported competition has rattled local Internet industry leaders Daum, NHN, and SK Communications, whose domestic and PC-based focus may now be coming back to haunt them.

"Without a major shift, (Korean Internet firms) are in trouble," says Min of Seoul Space. "Their biggest problem used to be their biggest asset -- they built these perfect local systems. But these days Koreans are more international and if they want to reach a global audience there is no contest."

NHN's shares have declined 17 percent so far this year, versus a 0.5 percent gain in the benchmark KOSPI, and Kosdaq-listed SK Communications is down 41 percent compared to the venture market's 7 percent fall. Daum, also listed on the Kosdaq, is a notable outperformer, up 30 percent.

NHN continues to dominate the Korean Internet, with some 75 percent of standard searches conducted via its Naver portal. Its Me2Day microblogging service boasts over 5 million users, well ahead of Twitter. But Metrix data shows the number of visitors to Twitter grew six times faster in 2010.

SK Communications' most iconic product, the Cyworld social networking service, pulled the plug in 2009 on an effort to crack the U.S. market and now appears increasingly threatened by Facebook on its home turf.

SK Communications says Cyworld has 35 million users in South Korea, around 10 times more than Facebook, but its visitor numbers barely budged last year while Facebook's shot up more than 3,000 percent.

INCUMBENTS FIGHT BACK

Korean firms acknowledge that foreign competitors are making inroads, but also say they are taking steps in response.

"(Foreign companies) are strengthening their position in the domestic mobile content market with relatively high brand awareness," says Lee Ram, director of NHN's Portal Strategy Department.

But Naver's introduction of new services such as mobile messaging and web storage has resulted in a "number of users moving from Google to Naver," Lee added.

Daum has developed new mobile applications such as the Yozm social networking service, which has already signed up more than 2 million users, according to Daum vice president of corporate communications Lee Byung-sun.

SK Comms, meanwhile, is banking on an online marketplace for new games and applications, said CFO Koo Ki-hyang.

The struggle for Korea's Internet users has spilled into the legal arena. In April Daum and NHN filed a lawsuit against Google with Korea's Fair Trade Commission, arguing the pre-installation of Google Search on Android phones was stifling competition.

Google rejected the allegations.

"Android is an open platform...we do not require carriers or manufacturers to include Google Search on Android-powered devices," a spokesperson said.

Few seem ready to count Korea's incumbents out. The healthy performance of home-grown applications like instant messaging service KakaoTalk point to a deep local pool of innovation and the market remains tricky to navigate.

"(Korea) is still very closed," said David Lee, a former director at Google and now a partner at Palo Alto-based venture capital firm XG Ventures. "If you want to publish a game, you have to go through the game ratings bureau. Payment gateways are difficult...the challenge for overseas developers is to get through those hoops."

For those that do, the Korea experience is likely to inform their strategies in other markets with rapid smartphone uptake and a strong stable of local players, such as Japan and China.

Groupon's Mason says the firm is in a "learning phase" in Asia and that South Korea is serving as a test-bed for technologies such as SMS distribution, while Google sees South Korea as demonstrating "where the rest of Asia is going as well."

But others note China is very different and not just because of censorship.

China's Baidu and Sina have "taken the best of Twitter, Facebook and so on and put them all together...adding a lot of innovations that have drawn a ton of Chinese users," said Mike Clendenin, managing director of Shanghai-based RedTech Advisors.

"I'm not convinced (foreign social networking services) would do well in China even if they were unblocked."

(Additional Reporting by Seongbin Kang, Taeyi Kim and Jungyoun Park in SEOUL: Editing by Matt Driskill)

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Libyans attack bus carrying foreign reporters (AP)

TRIPOLI, Libya – Libyans angered by fuel shortages have attacked a bus carrying foreign reporters, slashing its tires and smashing a door. The journalists escaped unharmed.

Chinese correspondent Yigun Zhou says she, a British BBC technician and a British Reuters producer were in a minibus that stalled in a fuel line in the town of Zawiya while heading to the Tunisian border.

She says men smashed the bus door and brandished knives. Others slashed the tires to prevent their escape.

Zhou says a gunman trying to help the reporters sprayed gunfire into the air to disperse the crowds.

Such attacks on foreign reporters covering the Libyan conflict have been rare.

Libyans have had to cope with shortages of fuel, long gas lines and rising food prices.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — NATO warplanes bombed command centers near Tripoli and in Libya's southwest as part of a continuing effort to cut communications links between Moammar Gadhafi and his units on the battlefields, the military alliance said Saturday.

The raids targeted a facility near the capital on Friday and a command and control node near Sebha, a Gadhafi stronghold deep in Libya's southwestern desert, a NATO statement said. Three surface-to-air missile launchers were hit near the government-held town of Sirte, and three rocket launchers near the rebel-held town of Zintan in the mountains south of Tripoli.

The alliance said its aircraft has flown more than 7,500 sorties since it took command of the aerial offensive, including nearly 3,000 strike missions.

With the bombing campaign entering its third month, NATO has come under increasing criticism that it is overstepping the U.N. Security Council's mandate, which provides for the protection of the civilian population but not for wider aerial attacks. Regional support for the daily bombings also appeared to be wavering.

This week, the South Africa-based Pan African Parliament, the legislative body of the African Union, condemned "the military aggression of NATO forces" and called for an urgent session of the U.N. General Assembly to consider the situation. The legislature reiterated its support for the AU peace plan that called for an immediate cease-fire and dialogue between the government and the rebels. The rebels have rejected that plan.

The Pan African Parliament also criticized NATO attacks on "public facilities, infrastructure and residential sites and the targeted assassination of (Libyan) leaders."

The African Union will hold an emergency session next week to discuss the crisis.

On Thursday, NATO warplanes bombed eight Libyan naval vessels in three ports, leaving ships partially sunken and charred and showering docks with debris in the military alliance's broadest attack on Moammar Gadhafi's navy.

The two frigates, a Soviet-built Koni class anti-submarine boat and a French-built Combattante class missile craft, were moored at the dock when they were hit with laser-guided bombs. It was not immediately clear whether their crews were aboard when they were struck.

NATO spokesman Wing Cmdr. Mike Bracken said the vessels were "legitimate and legal targets" because the Libyan navy had tried to mine the harbor at the rebel-held port of Misrata and had attempted to carry out attacks on shipping there.

Bracken declined to say whether the targeted frigates had actually been used in any naval operations since the start of the conflict.

But Commandant Omran al-Forjani, head of Libya's coast guard, said the ships had been deliberately left tied to their docks since a NATO warning in March that they would be considered targets if they left port.

"We were told if the boats moved, they would be hit," al-Forjani told a news conference Friday.

Al-Forjani said the targeted ships were used to patrol Libyan waters for boats carrying African migrants trying to make the dangerous sea crossing to Europe and for search-and-rescue operations.

In addition to about 200 aircraft enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya and carrying out attacks on pro-regime forces, there are also 21 warships under NATO command patrolling the central Mediterranean.

The task force has also boarded 47 vessels — including one on Friday — and seven ships suspected of carrying arms have been diverted since the naval operation started in mid-March.

The latest vessel to be boarded was identified as the MV Jupiter, NATO said Saturday. The tanker, whose registration remained unclear, was found to be carrying gasoline and was instructed not to continue to Libya "because we had reason to believe it was intended for military purposes", a NATO official said.

"It's clear to NATO that Gadhafi's regime is diverting fuel to its war machine," said the official who could not be identified under standing rules.

___

Lekic reported from Brussels.

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Egypt names foreign minister for Arab League chief (AP)

CAIRO – Egypt says it has replaced its candidate for head of the Arab League at the last minute, backing its current foreign minister for the job.

The foreign minister, Nabil Elaraby, is a popular diplomat who backed the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak's regime.

The 22-member Arab organization was due to choose a new secretary-general Sunday to replace Amr Moussa, who is running for president of Egypt.

The choice for head of the Arab League is traditionally agreed in advance. This year, Egypt and Qatar were both running candidates, dividing league members.

With the new Egyptian nomination, disclosed in a government document, Qatar withdrew its candidate.

Egypt's original candidate was Moustafa el-Fiqqi, a member of Mubarak's ruling party. Reform activists hotly criticized his nomination.

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

U.S. Gives $126.8 Million to U.N. Refugee Agency Despite Cuts in Foreign Aid

FoxNews.com

Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet

The United States announced on Friday that it was giving $126.8 million to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) despite making $377 million in cuts to various other U.N. payments as part of the $38 billion reductions for the 2011 budget.

The funding comes from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration and will support the panel's programs, which helps refugees return to places such as Afghanistan and Sudan, and provide them with basic needs, like water, food, health care and education.

Of that amount, nearly $50 million will go to the Middle East, $40 million to Africa and $23 million to Asia. The U.S. has provided more than $285 million to the agency this year. 

The latest contribution comes on the heels of news that the U.S., the top contributor to the U.N., overpaid its share of the U.N. peacekeeping budget for 2010-2011. The peacekeeping savings, including the overpayments, amount to $286.7 million -- more than three-quarters of the $377 million in U.N. cuts.

But that pales in comparison to the $6.35 billion that the U.S.sent to the U.N. in 2009, according to the latest available data compiled by the Obama administration.

Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet View ArticleLeave a CommentSort: NewestSort: Oldest Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. You must login to comment.

View Article

View All Comments

Latest Politics VideosMore »

View the Original article