FEDERAL VOTING .COM

Jerusalem/Ramallah, March 8 (DPA) Israel okayed the construction of 112 apartments in a West Bank settlement Monday, a move that angered Palestinians a day after they reluctantly agreed to hold indirect peace negotations with Israel’s hardline government.

The move also comes as US Vice-President Joe Biden was due to arrive for a visit to Israel, the highest-ranking official from Barack Obama’s administration to visit the region so far.

During Biden’s visit, the US hopes to announce the restart of – indirect – Israeli-Palestinian “proximity talks”, to be mediated by Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, who was holding last-minute preparatory talks with the sides in Jerusalem and Ramallah Sunday and Monday.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak, of the left-to-centre coalition Labour Party, authorised builders to continue the construction of 112 aparments in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Beitar Illit, south-west of Jerusalem.

A spokeswoman for his office said the project of 112 apartments had already been given the green light by the previous Israeli government of Ehud Olmert and its first phase had started before

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a moratorium on construction in the occupied West Bank in November.

She said the project was given “exceptional” authorization despite the moratorium for “safety reasons,” because it was dangerous to leave the construction site as is.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the move.

“We cannot tolerate that every time we have a round of negotiations, more settlements will be built.

“This will put a question mark on what we are trying to do,” he told reporters after Mitchell met Abbas in Ramallah.

“The president has raised this issue with Mitchell,” he added.

Asked when an announcement of the start of indirect talks could be expected, he said this was “premature.”

“Our discussions will continue,” he said.

He said Abbas received a letter of assurances from Obama over the weekend, which said the US was committed to playing an active role of mediator and, more importantly, that if the indirect talks failed, it would stipulate who was responsible.

Such a stipulation has been one of the demands raised by the Palestinians, who have been reluctant to enter into negotiations with the Israeli government of hardline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office just under one year ago.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Sunday backed the start of the US-mediated “proximity talks,” with a four-month time limit.

Intense negotiations between a team appointed by Abbas and the previous Israeli government of centrist premier Ehud Olmert were broken off some 15 months ago, just before Israel headed into

elections that saw Netanyahu’s nationalist Likud party return to power, while Olmert’s Kadima was sent into the opposition.

Biden was due to land in Tel Aviv Monday afternoon for a three-day trip that is also to include the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem on Wednesday, a statement from the US embassy in Tel Aviv confirmed.

He is slated to depart for Amman, Jordan, Thursday evening. The Cairo leg of his visit was postponed because Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is recovering from surgery in Germany, will be out of the country.

Amid the frozen peace process, Obama himself has thus far refrained from visiting Israel, or the West Bank.

Washington, Mar 8(ANI): In an article for The Newsweek magazine, Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy and a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, has said that the Obama administration needs to shore up its support for beleaguered Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

Suggesting the need for easing internal tensions between Zardari and the Pakistani Army on the one hand, and improving ties with India by working out their differences on key issues, Harrison has recommended four steps that need to be taken.

He believes the U.S. should encourage India and Pakistan to give greater autonomy to Kashmiris under their respective jurisdictions, and promote intra-Kashmir trade as part of the growing India-Pakistan economic cooperation that Zardari advocates.

Harrison further recommends that the U.S. should also reject the Pakistani Army’s attempt to use the absence of Kashmir negotiations as an excuse for supporting the Taliban.

“Parties must recognize that defusing Kashmir will take time, because it involves much more than a dispute over territory,” Harrison said.

He also stressed that New Delhi should lift non-tariff procedural barriers that block Pakistani exports of textile products and raw cotton, thus necessitating costly imports.

Harrison says Zardari is cornered on two-fronts extremists taking advantage of economic unrest in Pakistan and hardliners who argue that opening up trade would lead to economic domination by India.

He, however, believes that Zardari has demonstrated surprising courage and consistency in seeking to downgrade the Kashmir issue and to jump-start economic cooperation with India, starting with liberalized trade, as the key to stabilizing Pakistan. (ANI)

New York, March 8 (ANI): A Tennesee CEO has apologised after comparing Michelle Obama to a famous movie chimp in an emailed ‘joke’.

Walt Baker, the CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association, stirred controversy after forwarding an offensive e-mail to several people, including the media and a public official, comparing the US First Lady to Cheetah from the Tarzan movies.

Baker has now issued an apology in a statement, saying he only meant the gag as a form of ‘political humor.’

‘I deeply apologize to anyone who is offended by this action. I hope that those who know me realize that the message was not intended to be malicious or hurtful in any way and can find it in their hearts to forgive me,’ the New York Daily News quoted Baker as saying.

He told News Channel 5: ‘I did not think or consider its implications, other than that it was political humor. I am saddened that anyone misinterpreted the sentiments behind the e-mail.’ (ANI)

Beijing, Mar 7(ANI): – Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has urged the United States to take China’s position seriously and respect its core interests and major concerns through credible steps.

“The United States should properly handle relevant sensitive issues and work with the Chinese side to return the China-US relationship to the track of stable development,” The China Daily quoted Jiechi, as saying.

Jiechi said the China-US relationship had a good start after U.S. President Barack Obama took office last year.

However, he added that the US arms sales to Taiwan and US leaders’ meeting with the Dalai Lama “caused a serious disturbance to the China-US ties and posed difficulty to the cooperation between the two countries,”

“Such a situation is not in the interest of either side, and the responsibility for the difficulty in Sino-US relations does not lie with China,” he added.

Jiechi further said China’s position had been announced a few days ago, when US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and National Security Council Senior Director for Asian Affairs Jeffrey Bader visited China.

“The Chinese side further stated in full its principled position on China-US relations and on major issues, including Taiwan and Tibet related issues,” Yang said.

“We pointed out that the relevant moves taken by the United States side had seriously violated the principles set out in the three China-US joint communiques and the China-US joint statement.”

“The moves undermined China’s core interests and the overall interests of China-US relations, and China is firmly opposed to these moves,” he added. (ANI)

Mogadishu (Somalia), Mar 6(ANI): The United States is aiding the Somali Government, which is preparing a major offensive to finally reassert its control over its capital and bring order to a country that has been steeped in anarchy for two decades.

New chief of Somalia’s military General Mohamed Gelle Kahiye said that he recently shared plans about the coming military operations with American advisers.

“It’s the Americans. They’re helping us,” The New York Times quoted General Kahiye, as saying.

For the U.S., it is part of a counterterrorism strategy to deny a haven to Al-Qaeda, which has found sanctuary for years in Somalia’s chaos and has helped turn it into a magnet for terrorists from around the world, the report said.

The Obama administration is increasingly concerned about the link between Somalia and Yemen, a growing extremist hot spot, with fighters going back and forth across the Red Sea – described by many as an “Al Qaeda exchange program.” the report added.

However, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Johnnie Carson, said: “This is not an American offensive.”

“The U.S. military is not on the ground in Somalia. Full stop. There are limits to outside engagement, and there has to be an enormous amount of local buy-in for this work,” Carson added.

According to reports, most of the American military assistance to the Somali government has been focused on training, or has been channeled through African Union peacekeepers.

According to the report, an American official in Washington, however, has predicted that American covert forces would get involved if the offensive dislodged Al-Qaeda terrorists.

“What you’re likely to see is airstrikes and Special Ops moving in, hitting and getting out,” the official said.

Over the past several months, American advisers have helped supervise the training of the Somali forces to be deployed in the offensive, though American officials said that this was part of a continuing program to “build the capacity” of the Somali military, and that there has been no increase in military aid for the coming operations. (ANI)

Washington, Mar. 6 (ANI): Republican Congressman Paul Broun has said that he is not sure whether President Barack Obama is an American citizen or a Christian, but he is a socialist for sure.

During an interview with Sirius XM host Pete Dominick, Broun was asked if he thought Obama is an “American citizen and a Christian.”

Broun first responded, “I’m not going to get involved in that.”

But pressed on whether he thought Obama is a citizen, he said: “I don’t know.”

“Is he a Christian?” Dominick then asked.

“I don’t know that. I’m a Christian but only me and the Lord know that for sure,” the Georgia congressman responded.

However, he spent much of the rest of the interview attacking Obama as a “socialist.”

“I know he is (a socialist). You look at his own writings. He said when he was in college he leaned to Marxist tendencies and is linked to Marxist professors. He joined Marxists clubs. And look at who he’s put in his administration, they’re devout socialists,” Politico quoted Broun, as saying.

“America has to stand up and decide if we want to be a socialist nation or if we’re going to be a free nation,” he added.

Later, Broun’s spokeswoman Debbee Keller clarified: “Dr. Broun did not cast doubt on Obama’s religious beliefs or citizenship. When someone else forced the question, he said it wasn’t fair to speculate.” (ANI)