Obama raises cash for Dems in New York

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is heading to New York City to raise campaign cash for Democrats.

Obama will attend two fundraisers at private homes for the Democratic National Committee, including one hosted by film producer Harvey Weinstein. About 60 people are expected at each event, with tickets starting at $16,200. The DNC is still paying off debt it incurred during Obama's re-election.

Obama is also appearing at a joint fundraiser for the Democratic campaign committees in the House and Senate. About 140 people are expected at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, where donors can pay $7,500 to attend or $32,400 to chair the dinner. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will attend.

Democratic officials say Obama has committed to at least 20 fundraisers in and out of Washington ahead of the 2014 elections.

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ECB raises key rate, hints at more increases (AP)

LONDON – The European Central Bank raised its key interest rate to 1.5 percent to dampen inflation and hinted at more increases in coming months, even though they would add pressure on debt-ridden economies like Greece.

Thursday's hike, the second this year, was widely expected in markets as the ECB focuses on its responsibility to get inflation, which is running at 2.7 percent, below its target of just below 2 percent.

In his press briefing, ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet hinted that there would be further interest rate rises in the months to come but probably not next month.

He said the bank was "monitoring very closely" price developments — it traditionally uses that phrase to indicate that the tightening cycle is not over but that rates would not rise next month.

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

LONDON (AP) — The European Central Bank raised its key interest rate to 1.5 percent on Thursday to dampen down inflation, even though the move will add pressure on debt-ridden economies on the fringes of the 17-nation eurozone.

The hike, the second this year, was widely expected in markets as the ECB focuses on its responsibility to get inflation, which is running at 2.7 percent, below its target of just below 2 percent.

Though higher rates may be necessary for a potentially overheating economy like Germany's, they are likely to add to the growth concerns of some of the eurozone's more indebted nations, such as Greece and Portugal.

The main focus in the markets will be what ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet says in his upcoming press briefing regarding the outlook for the eurozone economy and Europe's ongoing debt difficulties.

On the economy, markets will be interested to see if Trichet is as hawkish on inflation as he has been of late. And regarding Europe's debt crisis, the focus will be on what he says about the situation in Greece and how it affects the ECB itself. The bank has significant exposure to Greek debt since it accepts Athens' bonds as collateral for loans that help keep the economy afloat.

The ECB has repeatedly insisted that a default on those obligations is out of the question.

"Trichet might give markets some comfort by hinting that the ECB could continue to accept Greek debt as collateral for its loans to commercial banks even if the ratings agencies downgrade it to default status," said Jennifer McKeown, senior European economist at Capital Economics.

"But he will stress that any roll-over of Greek government debt by the private sector will have to be deemed 'purely voluntary' by the ECB itself to gain its seal of approval," McKeown added.

Earlier in the day, the Bank of England held its base interest rate at an all-time low of 0.5 percent as the tepid economic recovery in Britain continues to outweigh concerns over inflation.

Thursday's decision by the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee to keep the rate unchanged for the 28th straight month was also anticipated in markets.

Though inflation is running at more than double the Bank's target of 2 percent at 4.5 percent, the majority of rate-setters think inflation will drop quickly next year as the impact of rising energy costs drops out of annual comparisons.

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Chavez's odd silence raises questions in Venezuela (AP)

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is one of the world's most talkative leaders and his prolonged silence and seclusion in Cuba following surgery there two weeks ago is fueling speculation about his health.

Government officials have offered repeated assurances that Chavez is recovering well in Havana, but many Venezuelans are wondering if they are getting the true story.

Venezuelans are accustomed to near daily speeches and television appearances by Chavez that can last several hours, even when he's traveling abroad.

Yet nobody has heard him speak since he talked by telephone with Venezuelan state television on June 12, saying he was quickly recovering from surgery two days earlier for a pelvic abscess. Chavez, who turns 57 next month, said medical tests showed no sign of any "malignant" illness.

The only glimpse of Chavez came when the Cuban government released photos of the Venezuelan leader at the hospital with Fidel Castro and Cuban President Raul Castro on June 17. In one, Chavez has his hand on 80-year-old Raul Castro's shoulder.

Venezuelan officials have limited their comments on Chavez's health to saying that he's recuperating and have provided few details. It is not even clear exactly when he will return to Venezuela.

Before his pelvic surgery, a knee injury forced him to postpone a trip to Brazil, Ecuador and Cuba.

The paucity of information has fed a stream of speculation about the socialist president's condition as well as outlandish gossip on both sides of Venezuela's deep political divide.

Some people suspect Chavez has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness such as prostate or colon cancer while others claim doctors botched liposuction surgery and he suffered an infection.

Authorities have sought to quash such talk.

"In response to all the rumors, I can testify that the president is recovering in a satisfactory manner," Adan Chavez, one of the leader's brothers who is a state governor, told state television Wednesday. "The president is a strong man."

Adan Chavez added that "it's not clear" when his younger brother would return home, but said the president is expected to leave Cuba within 10 to 12 days.

Those comments did little to calm the consternation of Chavez supporters or appease government critics who accuse officials of trying to dupe Venezuelans.

"I fear his condition could be worse then than they want to tell us, but I trust in God the president isn't in danger," said Magalis Gonzalez, a street vendor who was among about 100 Chavez supporters who attended a prayer meeting in downtown Caracas on Thursday to wish the president a speedy recovery.

The president's opponents have criticized government officials for providing few details on Chavez's health and raised concerns he may not be fit to continue his duties as president. The latter idea was rejected by Vice President Elias Jaua, who said Chavez is attending to his day-to-day government duties while recuperating.

In an editorial published Thursday, the opposition-siding newspaper El Nacional complained that "incompetent Cabinet ministers are turning this into a complete mystery or a state secret that creates uncertainty and anxiety within the population."

"Nobody understands why the state of the president's health is being hidden," it said.

Officials say Chavez underwent surgery June 10 for a pelvic abscess, which is an accumulation of pus that can have various causes, including infection or surgical complications. Neither Chavez nor doctors treating him have disclosed what caused the abscess.

Dr. Demetrios Braddock, an associate professor of pathology at Yale University's School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, said surgery for a pelvic abscess is not usually difficult, although complications can arise if doctors discover a digestive disease such as diverticulitis.

Diverticulitis, which is most commonly found in the large intestine, involves the formation of pouches on the outside of the colon. Braddock said the disease can be potentially life-threatening if a perforation of the colonic wall occurs, allowing feces to pass into the pelvic cavity and causing infections.

"Any number of things could be happening," Braddock said in a telephone interview. "It's impossible to know for sure without being familiar with this particular case."

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Northern Ireland violence raises questions about paramilitary group (The Christian Science Monitor)

Dublin, Ireland – Homes and a Roman Catholic church in Belfast, Northern Ireland, came under attack last night in the city's worst night of sustained violence in recent years. And as riots erupted in a divided Catholic and Protestant area, many are asking why the Ulster Volunteer Force (UFV), the pro-British paramilitary organization being held responsible for the violence, has refused to go away despite having supposedly destroyed its weapons.

In a sign of the progress in combating sectarian divides, politicians from across the political spectrum have condemned the attacks, saying paramilitaries have no role in today's Northern Ireland.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland appealed to "anyone with any influence" work with them to stop future outbreaks of sectarian violence. Still, questions are being raised about the possible power struggles in the group that could disrupt the peace in the broader community.

The Short Strand, a small Catholic and republican enclave on the edge of predominantly Protestant and pro-British east Belfast, has long suffered from so-called “interface violence,” going back to the effective beginning of the Northern Ireland conflict in 1969.

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Willie Ward, who works at St. Matthew's, the local Catholic church in the area, witnessed the attacks.

“It was purely a sectarian attack on the Catholic community, and people came out to defend their homes,” he says. “Two to three hundred loyalists were attempting to climbs the walls of the church and local homes and attacking them with petrol bombs, stones, bricks and paint bombs."

Mr. Ward says locals – including some Protestant neighbors – are shaken: “The people here are afraid, we've had to move pensioners out of their houses. [The paramilitary members] also attacked a bus going through the area, one that included Protestants."

Chris Lyttle, a local lawmaker with the Alliance Party, which says it has no position on Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom or a United Ireland, said that "the orchestrated violence in East Belfast is utterly destructive, unjustifiable, and unrepresentative of the new Northern Ireland. Those engaging in this rioting have nothing to offer the local community and we need political representatives from all backgrounds to take a firm and united stance against it.”

Sammy Douglas, a lawmaker with the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, the largest group in the powersharing government, says he was "sad and dejected" after witnessing some of the "the worst [rioting] it's been since 1969."

Why is the paramilitary still around?Many are asking, however, why the paramilitary UVF is still in existence.

"For some weeks, there has been sporadic instances of antisocial stone-throwing across the interface in this area," said Belfast's Mayor Niall O Donnghaile, who is a member of the republican party Sinn Fein and a resident of the area. "Local community representatives and politicians have been trying to deal with it with some success. It is important that this good work continues.

"However, what happened last night was not antisocial behavior or a sectarian riot," he stated. "What happened was a well planned and orchestrated attack on the Catholic community in the Short Strand by the UVF."

He says that the UVF's activities in East Belfast have been a cause for concern for some time. "There has been a marked increase in UVF flag-flying, the painting of new paramilitary murals, and significant agitation around Loyal Order parades," Mr. O Donnghaile says.

The UVF, founded in 1966 – three years before the Northern Irish conflict started in earnest – was one of the two pro-British paramilitary organizations involved in the conflict. A total of 481 killings have been attributed to the group. A leading member, Bobby Moffet, was shot dead by members of his own organization in 2009. Earlier in 2009, the group declared it has decommissioned its weapons.

The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, led by retired Canadian General John de Chastelain, oversaw the decommissioning process. Despite this, fears have arisen that a new generation is attempting to seize power within the organization – and is willing to return to sectarian violence in order to achieve it.

Brian Walker, a professor of Irish studies at Queen’s University Belfast, cautions against seeing the violence as part of a campaign to reignite the conflict.

“It appears to have been a manifestation of loyalist disaffection. The loyalist side is less well disciplined than the republican side. It’s hard to see it as a campaign, though the numbers involved [last night] are worrying,” he said.

A community activist working in Protestant east Belfast, who did not wish to be identified, told the Monitor the attacks were a result of a power struggle within loyalist paramilitarism.

“You have to look at what’s happening within the UVF: the loss of leadership and loss of control," he says. "The east Belfast [brigade of the] UVF is flexing its muscles."

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Arrest of Pakistani officer raises fears

File photo of Hizb ut-Tahrir activists shouting anti-government slogans during a protest in Karachi on April 17.Khan is the most senior officer to face such allegations since 1995Abbas: Efforts were underway to arrest members of Hizb ut-Tahrir Hizb ut-Tahrir has urged soldiers to rebel against the military hierarchyThe group was banned in 2004 but a Pakistani court overturned it

(CNN) -- Brigadier General Ali Khan was close to retiring at the end of a distinguished career in the Pakistani Army when he was detained early in May -- and accused of links with an outlawed Islamist group.

His arrest, which became public Tuesday, shocked fellow officers at army headquarters and again raises the specter that senior ranks of the Pakistani officer corps may be infiltrated by Islamist militants.

Brigadier Khan is the most senior officer to face such allegations since 1995, according to a CNN analysis of previous cases.

Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said Khan was believed linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation). He said efforts were underway to arrest members of the group who had been in contact with Khan.

"The military has zero tolerance for any such activity and strict disciplinary action will be taken against those involved," said Major General Abbas.

Pakistani officials say Brigadier General Khan, who is 59, had an administrative role at army headquarters in Rawalpindi. His work did not involve counterterrorism and he did not command any unit. But he would have seen plenty of sensitive information.

Khan comes from a military family stretching back three generations, and has a son in the armed forces. Pakistani media report that one of his brothers is a colonel with the intelligence service.

Reuters news agency quoted Khan's wife as dismissing the allegations as "rubbish," saying her husband was "an intellectual, an honest, patriotic and ideological person."

"It's a fashion here that whosoever offers prayers and practices religion is dubbed as Taliban and militant," Reuters quoted her as saying.

One of his brothers, Bashir Khan, told the Pakistani television network Aaj that the brigadier had been in the army for 25 years - serving with UN peacekeepers in Bosnia and spending time in the United States. In 2008, Khan received the highest honor available to soldiers of his rank.

Khan's detention comes amid heightened concern about religious extremism within Pakistan's armed forces.

Hizb ut-Tahrir says it is committed to non-violence but has urged soldiers to rebel against the military hierarchy and its goal it to establish a global Islamic Caliphate.

Pakistani sources tell CNN that in the aftermath of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, it produced pamphlets urging soldiers to turn against their commanders.

The group was outlawed by General Pervez Musharraf in 2004 but a Pakistani court subsequently overturned the ban. It is also active in the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Simon Valentine, a British researcher who has studied extremism in the Pakistani armed forces, said that while Hizb ut-Tahrir doesn't advocate violence "a cardinal element of its ideology and modus operandi is to infilitrate the armed forces and, once gaining sufficient support, cause a military coup."

"Despite claims of zero tolerance of HuT within the Army," he said, "militant Islam, including the HuT, has much support from the grass roots to the highest level within all branches of the armed forces."

Valentine, who has researched Hizb ut-Tahrir in depth, said its views enjoy widespread support throughout Pakistani society.

"Such militancy as seen in the HuT is fuelled by an increasing anti-Americanism which is rife throughout Pakistan," he told CNN.

Hassan Abbas, a scholar at Columbia University who has written extensively about Pakistani military intelligence, the ISI, told CNN he suspected there was more to the case than any alleged contacts with Hizb ul-Tahrir.

"Association with such a group would not be enough to hold him for six weeks," especially as Khan was weeks away from retirement, he said.

Abbas, author of "Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America's War on Terror," said there is an alarming trend that includes Pakistani pilots refusing to bomb militant strongholds, and units surrendering to militant groups rather than fire on them.

Last month, Pakistani Taliban insurgents stormed the Naval Air Station in Karachi, apparently armed with inside information on its layout and security. They destroyed two U.S. supplied surveillance aircraft.

Days before he was abducted and murdered, Pakistani journalist Syed Shahzad described that attack as "the violent beginning of an internal ideological struggle between Islamist elements in the Pakistani armed forces and their secular and liberal top brass."

He went on to quote unnamed sources in the ISI, Pakistan's military intelligence service, as saying: "It was shown several months ago that the Pakistan navy is vulnerable to Islamists when a marine commando unit official was arrested.....Now, they (intelligence) realize how the organization (navy) is riddled and vulnerable to the influence of militant organizations."

Last year two serving officers -- including a colonel - and two former officers were indicted in a court martial for allegedly planning a terrorist attack on the Shamsi airbase.

Shamsi -- in Balochistan province -- is a remote base reportedly used by the United States drone program. The four were alleged to have been in contact with Hizb ut-Tahrir. They have pled not guilty.

And in 2004, several lower-ranking air force personnel were convicted in connection with assassination attempts against Pakistan's leader at the time, General Pervez Musharraf.

One of them, Abdul Islam Siddiqui, was hanged but maintained he was innocent of involvement. Other soldiers said they had been tortured into implicating him.

Valentine, who is a regular visitor to Pakistan, said Khan's arrest may be "part of an attempt to bolster the army's reputation amid accusations that it is pro-militant," in the wake of the raid by U.S. special forces that killed bin Laden.

But Hassan Abbas believes the military had no desire for the Khan case to become public. "The military is in deep crisis in the aftermath of Abbottabad," he says. "They would have preferred to hush this up."

CNN

USS Monterey's Black Sea arrival raises Russia's hackles (The Christian Science Monitor)

Moscow – It's not quite the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it has some Russians recalling that grim cold war episode.

Moscow claims the US is violating a strategic understanding, and potentially threatening Russia's nuclear deterrent, by sending the antimissile cruiser USS Monterey to participate in Black Sea war games with a dozen other nations.

Russia, which objects to any US military incursion into the Black Sea, was bound to disapprove of this week's Sea Breeze 2011 international naval exercises, cosponsored by the US and Ukraine, whose theme this year is antipiracy operations.

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But the decision to send the Monterey, equipped with advanced Aegis antimissile weaponry, has Moscow unusually agitated and apparently fearful that the US is trying bypass ongoing – and deeply troubled – talks over European missile defense and slip a strategic threat into Russia's own back yard under the cover of peaceful exercises.

"If a routine 'visit' to this extremely sensitive region is the issue, why was a warship with this particular type of weaponry chosen?," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a sharp statement Sunday.

"We have to state that our concerns continue to be ignored and under the guise of talks on European missile shield cooperation, efforts are under way to build the missile shield configuration whose consequences are dangerous and about which we have numerously informed our US and NATO partners," it added.

The foreign ministry statement suggested Russia has received US assurances that the planned missile defense shield, designed to protect the West from rogue attacks, would mainly focus on ship-based Aegis deployments in the Mediterranean Sea, to defend southern Europe. They would only be sent to the Black Sea if the situation "deteriorated" in the region, it said.

"The Russian side has said on many occasions that we will not leave without attention to the emergence of elements of the US strategic infrastructure in the direct vicinity of our borders and will take such steps as a threat to our security," it added.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said it sees "no threat" to any country from the naval games, which are designed to highlight international cooperation on security issues of universal concern.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday that "[The Russians] are entitled to their opinion ... . But we have a strong bilateral relationship with Ukraine, and it's in keeping with that kind of partnership that these exercises take place."

Ukraine has moved briskly into Russia's strategic orbit over the past year, and effectively shelved its previous application to join NATO.

Experts say that international exercises like Sea Breeze are crucial elements in Kiev's policy of trying to balance West against East, while hoping to enjoy good relations and wrest economic benefits from both.

But the Russians insist that missile defense is a make-or-break issue for US-Russia relations and they see the Monterey's appearance in the Black Sea, sans prior consultations with Moscow, as a troubling precedent.

"The Black Sea is a closed sea, and the intrusion of this US warship breaks existing traditions," says Konstantin Zatulin, a Duma deputy with the ruling United Russia party. "There is a realistic fear that the balance of forces in the region could be altered... .

"Remember the Cuban Missile Crisis? We know how Americans react when someone drops new strategic facts into their backyard, so they should understand that this episode gives us no joy."

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Sea spat raises China-Vietnam tensions (AFP)

HANOI (AFP) – Vietnam protested to China Thursday after what it claimed was a "premeditated" attack on an exploration ship in its waters, but Beijing hit back, warning its neighbour against violating its sovereignty.

The latest incident comes against a backdrop of increased anti-Chinese sentiment in Vietnam, where hundreds of people staged a rare protest Sunday over the activities of Chinese ships in disputed waters.

With ties between Beijing and Hanoi at their lowest ebb in years owing to territorial spats over potentially oil-rich waters, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung vowed to protect Vietnam's "incontestable" sovereignty.

Hanoi said a Chinese fishing boat "intentionally rammed" the exploration cables of a vessel, chartered by state energy giant PetroVietnam, conducting a seismic survey inside its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone Thursday.

The incident was "premeditated and carefully calculated" as China aims to bring an undisputed area into the territorial row, foreign ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga told reporters.

"This is unacceptable to Vietnam," she said, adding the foreign ministry had met Chinese embassy officials Thursday afternoon "to express our opposition to such acts".

Two Chinese fishing enforcement vessels and other fishing boats arrived to assist the Chinese boat, Nga said, adding that the collision had damaged the Vietnamese ship.

She said the area in question falls completely under Vietnamese sovereignty according to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

But, in apparent reference to the same incident, China gave a different version of events in a report carried by official news agency Xinhua early Friday.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Chinese fishing boats were chased away by armed Vietnamese ships on Thursday morning.

According to Beijing's account, during the incident the fishing net of one of the Chinese boats became tangled with the cables of a Vietnamese oil exploring vessel, which was operating illegally in the area.

The oil exploration boat continued dragging the Chinese vessel for more than an hour with Chinese fishermen forced to cut off the fishing net, the report said.

Hong said Vietnam's oil exploration in the area and the actions of the Vietnamese vessels had grossly infringed Chinese sovereignty.

The incident comes just two weeks after three Chinese marine surveillance vessels severed the exploration cables of the Binh Minh 2, another Vietnamese oil survey ship inside the 200 nautical mile zone, according to Hanoi.

Vietnam said it has since deployed eight ships to "escort" the Binh Minh 2 -- without saying what kind of vessels -- a move analysts say raises the stakes in the dispute.

After the May 26 incident, China said Vietnamese vessels were operating "illegally" and urged the country to "refrain from creating trouble".

Beijing says it is committed to peace in the South China Sea, but its more assertive maritime posture has caused concern among regional nations.

Tensions have also risen this year between China and the Philippines, another claimant to the Spratly islands, where Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also say they have a stake.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned last weekend that clashes may erupt in the South China Sea unless nations with conflicting territorial claims adopt a mechanism to settle disputes peacefully.

Hundreds of people held a peaceful anti-China protest outside Beijing's embassy in Hanoi on Sunday, the largest action of its kind since 2007. Protests are rare in authoritarian Vietnam.

Tensions have also spread to the Internet.

In the past few days a number of Vietnamese websites have been hacked including one connected with the foreign ministry, with information in Chinese and images of the Chinese flag left behind, Nga said.

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