Sunday, June 27, 2010

DTN News: World Leaders Agree To Cut Deficits By 2013 At G20 Summit In Toronto (Presentation # 8)

DTN News: World Leaders Agree To Cut Deficits By 2013 At G20 Summit In Toronto (Presentation # 8)
Source: DTN News By Roger Smith - Special Feature
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - June 27, 2010: The leaders of the world's most powerful economies pledged to slash back spiraling debts on Sunday as they sought to rebalance a global economy knocked off its axis by a financial crisis. The heads of the G20, which groups established world powers and the most dynamic emerging players, vowed to nurture the still shaky recovery with coordinated measures to spur growth and ensure financial stability. "The cohesion of the G20 was striking," host Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada said. "We're following different policies but with a single objective; to ensure growth and recovery in a durable and balanced way. "Fiscal consolidation is not an end in itself," he warned, reflecting concern from the United States and the emerging economies that European spending cuts could stifle domestic demand and dampen growth. "It is a simple reality that we are in a global economy and the global economy is determining where we are heading and our futures." But skeptical observers quickly noted the agreements were not binding and the summit statement was filled with caveats and exemptions, pushing many of the tougher decisions on to the next G20 summit in Seoul in November. DTN News reports, the leaders' joint statement, released at the end of two days of talks in Toronto, warned that "failure to implement consolidation where necessary would undermine confidence and hamper growth." "Reflecting this balance, advanced economies have committed to fiscal plans that will at least halve deficits by 2013 and stabilize or reduce government debt-to-GDP ratios by 2016," it promised. Nevertheless, the group exempted Japan and its huge public deficit from the pledge and noted that measures should be "tailored to national circumstances." The statement called for "greater exchange rate flexibility in some emerging markets" but shied away from specifically fingering China, which is under pressure to allow the yuan to strengthen to ease trade imbalances. Amid US fears that global growth may once again become overdependent on American consumers, the G20 called for "efforts to rebalance global demand to help ensure global growth continues on a sustainable path." European leaders -- Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron -- came to the talks calling for fiscal restraint and a new levy on bank profits. They made some headway on the former, but will be forced to go it alone on the banking tax, as countries like Australia, Canada and India that have experienced no banking failures rejected the proposal out of hand. "We agreed the financial sector should make a fair and substantial contribution towards paying for any burdens associated with government interventions," the G8 statement said. "We recognized that there are a range of policy approaches to this end. Some countries are pursuing a financial levy. Other countries are pursuing different approaches." Observers said the degree of divergence in the countries' policies for dealing with the recovery showed that, now that the initial shock of recession has passed, national agendas are once more crowding out G20 cooperation. "I think we're seeing the end of the kind of lifeboat ethos here," said Andrew Cooper of the Center for International Governance Innovation.
"If you look back to November 2008, there was a great deal of focus on this sort of near death experience. I think that has loosened considerably. We've seen an allowance for national perspectives," he added. "Certainly no bank tax; certainly no sort of hard, firm criteria for debt fighting and certainly lots of exceptions, notably Japan." The Toronto meeting followed on the heels of Friday's G8 summit, which was held just outside of the city, and violence flared on the fringes of protest marches for three days running. By Sunday, nearly 600 people had been arrested in incidents linked to the summit, and police had resorted to tear gas and rubber bullets to defend local property and the concrete and steel summit perimeter fence from vandals.
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com

DTN News: Chinese President Hu Jintao Attends At G20 Summit In Toronto (Presentation # 7)

DTN News: Chinese President Hu Jintao Attends At G20 Summit In Toronto (Presentation # 7)
Source: DTN News By Roger Smith - Special Feature
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - June 27, 2010: Chinese President Hu Jintao and other leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) members gathered in Toronto on Sunday for the group's fourth summit, which will focus on ways to secure the world economic recovery and address the economic challenges and risks. At the summit, the leaders will exchange views on ways to consolidate the recovery from the global economic and financial crisis and implement commitments from previous G20 summits while laying the foundation for sustainable and balanced growth. They will discuss a wide range of issues, including the world economic situation, the European debt crisis, "the Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth," the reform of the international financial institutions, the global trade and the strengthening of financial regulations, said a senior Chinese official. At the Pittsburgh summit, leaders of G20 members agreed to take action to address imbalances in the global economy by launching the Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth. The framework committed G20 members to evaluating their national policies to ensure they are collectively consistent with more sustainable and balanced trajectories of growth. President Hu is expected to deliver a speech at the summit to explain China's propositions on the world's major economic and financial issues, such as financial reforms and balanced economic growth, said Chinese officials.
­DTN News reports., as protesters and police geared up for another day of new confrontations outside the gates of the G20 summit Sunday morning, the leaders inside the fence were meeting to find ways to make sure the world is not plunged back into another recession. "It is incumbent upon us to act with the same unity of purpose, the same sense of urgency, and the same commitment to the enlightened exercise of our national sovereignty as we did at the beginning of the crisis," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said as he opened the Sunday morning meeting of G20 leaders. "The fate of millions of people depends on our actions." Harper said if the G20 can get it right over the next five years, as many as 54 million new jobs could be created around the world and 90 million people could be lifted out of poverty. Meanwhile, Harper's office is standing firmly with Toronto police after they came under criticism from both ends, for being too harsh Saturday night with thousands of peaceful protesters and for showing too much restraint with a handful of violent thugs in the middle of the protest. Some police cars were torched and some downtown businesses were vandalized. Over 400 people were arrested. "Our police services did a magnificent job in order to ensure that these thugs don't rampage around the city wreaking more havoc," said Dimitri Soudas, Harper's chief spokesman. Inside the leaders' summit, there is widespread agreement that the massive government spending programs initiated two years ago helped lift the world out of recession. "The action deployed up until now in the G20 has given positive results, and all the world is profiting from this, but recovery remains fragile. To be quite frank with you, private demand has not yet picked up enough, or even at all, in all G20 countries," Harper said. But those spending programs meant the world's governments racked up massive debts and deficits. In some cases, like Greece or Japan, the debt situation is so bad, it could spark another fiscal crisis. "The recent skittishness of markets is telling us they're awaiting our actions, actions that must be decisive but also co-ordinated and balanced," Harper said. "Here's the tightrope that we must walk: To sustain recovery it is imperative that we follow through on existing stimulus plans ... but at the same time, advanced countries must send a clear message that as our stimulus plans expire, we will focus on getting our fiscal houses in order."
At the Toronto summit, the G20 leaders should pay more attention to development issues and provide political support to the United Nations' high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals in September this year, and oppose trade protectionism and promote the completion of the Doha round of trade talks, he added. Established in 1999, the G20 consists of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. Members of the G20, the world's premier forum for international economic cooperation, account for 90 percent of global output, 80 percent of world trade and two-thirds of the world's population.
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com

DTN News: US Drone Strike Kills Six Militants In Pakistan

DTN News: US Drone Strike Kills Six Militants In Pakistan
Source: DTN News / By Hasbanullah Khan - AFP
(NSI News Source Info) MIRANSHAH, Pakistan- June 27, 2010: A US drone attack killed six militants Sunday in Pakistan's North Waziristan district, a stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda cohorts on the Afghan border, officials said. The attack targeted a militant compound in Tabbi Torkhel village about four kilometres (2.5 miles) north of Miranshah, the main town in the lawless tribal district. "The death toll has gone up to six," a security official said. A local administration official confirmed the attack and the casualties. The missiles hit a compound and also destroyed a vehicle belonging to the militants, he said, adding: "The identity of the militants was not immediately known as the bodies were mutilated." Local officials said there was no immediate report of a "high-value" target among the dead. The attack was the latest in the surge of drone strikes in North Waziristan, where Pakistani commanders have come under increasing US pressure to carry out a military offensive. More than 900 people have been killed in nearly 100 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, including a number of senior militants. However the attacks fuel anti-American sentiment in the conservative Muslim country. A similar drone strike killed two militants and wounded two others on Saturday, security officials said. The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy pilotless drones in the region. Militants based in the rugged terrain attack US-led forces across the border in Afghanistan, where the Afghan Taliban are waging a nearly nine-year insurgency to evict the estimated 140,000 foreign troops. On June 1, Al-Qaeda said its number three leader and Osama bin Laden's one-time treasurer Mustafa Abu al-Yazid had been killed in what security officials said was an apparent drone strike in North Waziristan. Washington has branded the tribal belt a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and officials say it is home to Islamist extremists. Waziristan came under renewed scrutiny when Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American charged over an attempted bombing in New York on May 1, allegedly told US interrogators he had been there for bomb training. Pakistani commanders have not ruled out an offensive in North Waziristan, but argue that gains elsewhere need to be consolidated to prevent their troops being stretched too thin.

DTN News: France Offers To Indian Air Force For Purchasing 40 Rafale Fighters

DTN News: France Offers To Indian Air Force For Purchasing 40 Rafale Fighters
Source: DTN News - compiled from reliable sources by Roger Smith
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - June 27, 2010: A French company offered to sell 40 of its state-of-the-art aircraft Rafale fighter jets to India for a bi-lateral air exercise on Friday. An Indo-French joint exercise is to be held somewhere in India in 2011 – 12. The offer was made by the maker of the Rafale and Mirage fighters, Charles Edelstennie, who is also the scion of the Dassult family. Dassult is a multi-billion French military and civil aerospace company. The chairman and chief executive of Dassult said, “We know the Indian Air Force, with which we have a decade-long close association, is facing force depletion. So we are ready to supply 40 Rafales, the world’s first omni-role fighters to India, in a short span of time.” The officers of French Air Force discussed the idea with the Indian Air Force team, which is now in France for a tri-lateral air exercise in which the Singapore air force is also involved. According to Edelastennie, Rafale fighters could be an interim sale to India to acquire 126 Multi Role Combat Aircraft at cost of Rs 40,000 crore. He said, “It is fulfilling the needs and tasks of the French air force and navy globally. An Indian Air Force officer, who is the part of the Indian continent for Garuda-2010 exercise in Istres air base in France, said, “At present, the talks for the next Indo-French exercise are also on and the French officials have expressed their desire to bring the Rafale aircraft for the next joint air exercise likely to be held in 2011-12 in India.” The current exercise also reached its final stage and exercise will be finished tomorrow. K K Nowhar, Air Marshall of Indian Air Force, who visited the Indian contingent said, “Our participation in the exercise has reinforced the manner in which we conduct our operations.”
The origins of the Rafale can be traced to joint discussions between European nations taking place in the early eighties. But in the wake of the tri-national Tornado program which had put the most emphasis on air-to-surface functions, it soon appeared that the prime requirement of participating nations other than France was predominantly on the air-to-air side.
The French Forces wanted a balanced multi-role aircraft that would be able to replace 7 types of aircraft around 2000-2010 :
- air defence missions- reconnaissance missions
- precision strike/interdiction with conventional weapons (air-to-ground attack)
- nuclear strike
These needs were taken into account from the conception; thus it enabled the engineers, using all the new technologies, to conceive an aircraft which goes beyond objectives of each mission. Versatile and better in everything, Rafale is truly effects multiplying.
The Rafale has exhibited a remarkable rate of survivability during latest main French Air Force and Navy operations thank to an optimized airframe and a wide range of smart and discrete sensors. It is slated to be the French armed forces' combat aircraft until 2040 at least.
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com

DTN News: Indian Air Force IAF Joins France & Singapore In Air Drills

DTN News: Indian Air Force IAF Joins France & Singapore In Air Drills
Source: DTN News By Roger Smith
(NSI News Source Info) PARIS, France - June 27, 2010: Fighter aircraft and mid-air tankers of the Indian, French and Singaporean air forces are taking part in Exercise Garuda 2010 over the Istres Air Base in France. An IAF officer said the aircraft had flown more than 60 missions in the war games that are to conclude on June 25. Six Indian Air Force Sukhoi-30MKI (in picture) along with the Mirage-2000-5 and the Rafale of the French Air Force and the Singaporean Air Force’s F-16 practised air defence manoeuvres like implementation of “no-fly zones” and large force engagements during day and night. The SU-30 also took part in the high-value air-borne asset protection as well as protection-busting missions. Air Marshal K.K. Nowhar of the IAF said: “Our participation in the exercise has reinforced the manner in which we conduct our operations. It has also helped us refine our doctrine. In future, there is a slim chance that a country will operate in isolation, especially in a co-operative defence scenario. Thus knowing each others’ best practices... is the main objective of this exercise.”