WASHINGTON: The Russians want him to hold off on installing a missile defense shield in Poland. The Europeans want him to renounce the idea of "regime change" when it comes to Iran, while the Israelis want to be sure he does not give Iran a pass when it comes to nuclear weapons. The Taliban also issued a statement this week urging him to "put an end to all the policies being followed by his Opposition Party, the Republicans, and pull out U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq." There is a world of advice out there for President-elect Barack Obama. Within minutes of his election Nov. 4, the calls from foreign governments began, Obama aides say, and have still not stopped. While the first telephone exchanges between Obama and foreign leaders have been limited to pledges of future cooperation and invitations to visit, those leaders and their underlings have also been targeting Obama's advisers and their surrogates with suggestions for how the Obama administration should conduct, and change, American foreign policy.
WASHINGTON: The Russians want him to hold off on installing a missile defense shield in Poland. The Europeans want him to renounce the idea of "regime change" when it comes to Iran, while the Israelis want to be sure he does not give Iran a pass when it comes to nuclear weapons.
The Taliban also issued a statement this week urging him to "put an end to all the policies being followed by his Opposition Party, the Republicans, and pull out U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq."
There is a world of advice out there for President-elect Barack Obama. Within minutes of his election Nov. 4, the calls from foreign governments began, Obama aides say, and have still not stopped.
While the first telephone exchanges between Obama and foreign leaders have been limited to pledges of future cooperation and invitations to visit, those leaders and their underlings have also been targeting Obama's advisers and their surrogates with suggestions for how the Obama administration should conduct, and change, American foreign policy.
Welcome to our world, Mr. President-elect - International Herald Tribune
British and French officials are urging the Obama team to work on the atmospherics before sitting down to talk with Iran, out of concern that Obama's pledge to open talks with the Islamic Republic without preconditions will not work unless it is delicately plotted. <...> Vice President-elect Joseph Biden Jr. has said in the past that he believes the Bush administration should explicitly assure the Iranian regime that it will not seek regime change, as part of a package of incentives and sanctions that the United States and Europe have been using to pry Iran away from its nuclear program. Obama, for his part, has been a little less clear: He told The New York Times in September that "I think it is important for us to send a signal that we are not hell-bent on regime change, just for the sake of regime change, but expect changes in behavior and there are both carrots and there are sticks available to them for those changes in behavior." <...> The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said over breakfast with reporters in Washington this week that he believed "that the personality of Barack Obama can make a difference" when it comes to Iran. But Kouchner also urged that Obama exercise caution, using a speech at the Brookings Institution to warn that the carefully plotted but so-far-unsuccessful trans-Atlantic effort to rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions could collapse if the American game changer did not actually change the game. <...> A senior Israeli official said that Israeli officials were in touch with Obama's close aides, in particular Dennis Ross, President Bill Clinton's former envoy to the Middle East. "For us, it's Iran," the official said, adding that Israel wanted to make sure Obama would tackle the Iran issue as soon as he took office. "We can't afford a vacuum."
Vice President-elect Joseph Biden Jr. has said in the past that he believes the Bush administration should explicitly assure the Iranian regime that it will not seek regime change, as part of a package of incentives and sanctions that the United States and Europe have been using to pry Iran away from its nuclear program.
Obama, for his part, has been a little less clear: He told The New York Times in September that "I think it is important for us to send a signal that we are not hell-bent on regime change, just for the sake of regime change, but expect changes in behavior and there are both carrots and there are sticks available to them for those changes in behavior." <...>
The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said over breakfast with reporters in Washington this week that he believed "that the personality of Barack Obama can make a difference" when it comes to Iran. But Kouchner also urged that Obama exercise caution, using a speech at the Brookings Institution to warn that the carefully plotted but so-far-unsuccessful trans-Atlantic effort to rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions could collapse if the American game changer did not actually change the game. <...>
A senior Israeli official said that Israeli officials were in touch with Obama's close aides, in particular Dennis Ross, President Bill Clinton's former envoy to the Middle East.
"For us, it's Iran," the official said, adding that Israel wanted to make sure Obama would tackle the Iran issue as soon as he took office. "We can't afford a vacuum."
And Iran's POV (at least according to the Washington Post):
Facing Obama, Iran Suddenly Hedges on Talks - washingtonpost.com
"People who put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal, and who enter from the angle of negotiations without preconditions, are more dangerous," Hossein Taeb, deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency. "The power holders in the new American government are trying to regain their lost influence with a tactical change in their foreign diplomacy. They are shifting from a hard conflict to a soft attack," Taeb said. <...> President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent Obama a congratulatory letter last week, but by Wednesday his welcoming tone had dissipated. "It doesn't make any difference for us who comes and who goes," he said in a speech in the northern town of Sari. "It's their actions which are studied by the Iranian and world nations." <...> "The U.S. must prove that their policies have changed and are now based upon respecting the rights of the Iranian nation and mutual respect," said Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, the president's closest adviser. Ahmadinejad's media adviser, Mehdi Kalhor, said that "in fair circumstances" Iran would be open to talks. "But that is not when you have a bayonet pressed at your artery," he added, referring to the U.S. forces deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. <...> Kalhor, Ahmadinejad's media adviser, said Iran's "policies and position towards America have not changed at all." He added: "Our problems with America are strategic." <...> In comments during his first news conference, Obama set some Iranian leaders on edge. "Iran's development of a nuclear weapon, I believe, is unacceptable. We have to mount an international effort to prevent that from happening," Obama said. "Iran's support of terrorist organizations, I think, is something that has to cease." Ali Larijani, speaker of Iran's parliament and a political rival to Ahmadinejad, heard echoes of the past. "Obama's words were tantamount to moving on the previous wrong track," Larijani told reporters.
"People who put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal, and who enter from the angle of negotiations without preconditions, are more dangerous," Hossein Taeb, deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency.
"The power holders in the new American government are trying to regain their lost influence with a tactical change in their foreign diplomacy. They are shifting from a hard conflict to a soft attack," Taeb said. <...>
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent Obama a congratulatory letter last week, but by Wednesday his welcoming tone had dissipated. "It doesn't make any difference for us who comes and who goes," he said in a speech in the northern town of Sari. "It's their actions which are studied by the Iranian and world nations." <...>
"The U.S. must prove that their policies have changed and are now based upon respecting the rights of the Iranian nation and mutual respect," said Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, the president's closest adviser.
Ahmadinejad's media adviser, Mehdi Kalhor, said that "in fair circumstances" Iran would be open to talks. "But that is not when you have a bayonet pressed at your artery," he added, referring to the U.S. forces deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. <...>
Kalhor, Ahmadinejad's media adviser, said Iran's "policies and position towards America have not changed at all." He added: "Our problems with America are strategic." <...>
In comments during his first news conference, Obama set some Iranian leaders on edge. "Iran's development of a nuclear weapon, I believe, is unacceptable. We have to mount an international effort to prevent that from happening," Obama said. "Iran's support of terrorist organizations, I think, is something that has to cease."
Ali Larijani, speaker of Iran's parliament and a political rival to Ahmadinejad, heard echoes of the past. "Obama's words were tantamount to moving on the previous wrong track," Larijani told reporters.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev plans to travel this month to Cuba and Venezuela, which have increasing military and trade ties with Moscow.The U.S. has objected to Russia's greater links with the two countries that have antagonistic relations with Washington.Medvedev will visit Cuba on Nov. 27, the Kremlin press service said. He will also visit Brazil during the trip.
Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians said on Thursday Israel did not need any "dramatic" intervention in the peace process from U.S. President-elect Barack Obama when he takes office in January. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who could become prime minister after Israel's general election in February, told Jewish leaders in New York the international community should limit itself to backing the talks according to parameters set out at a peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, nearly a year ago. The talks have been hobbled by violence and bitter disputes over Jewish settlement building and the future of Jerusalem. Livni said she welcomed the outcome of a meeting she attended last weekend in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with the Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- and Arab and Palestinian leaders.
Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians said on Thursday Israel did not need any "dramatic" intervention in the peace process from U.S. President-elect Barack Obama when he takes office in January.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who could become prime minister after Israel's general election in February, told Jewish leaders in New York the international community should limit itself to backing the talks according to parameters set out at a peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, nearly a year ago.
The talks have been hobbled by violence and bitter disputes over Jewish settlement building and the future of Jerusalem.
Livni said she welcomed the outcome of a meeting she attended last weekend in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with the Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- and Arab and Palestinian leaders.
Tony Blair has called on Barack Obama to lead the world in finding a solution to conflict in the Middle East. The former Prime Minister said the new President would have the chance to heal divisions in an 'era of real possibility'. Speaking during a visit to Rwanda, Mr Blair said world leaders had been too tied up with their own domestic agendas to focus properly on the decades-old Middle East conflict. He admitted that though he tried to influence the Middle East peace process while serving as Prime Minister, his efforts were doomed because he could not acquire the necessary detailed understanding of the issues. And he said Mr Obama could heal rifts between America and Europe by being prepared to champion causes regarded as priorities in Europe such as the Middle East, poverty and the environment.
The former Prime Minister said the new President would have the chance to heal divisions in an 'era of real possibility'.
Speaking during a visit to Rwanda, Mr Blair said world leaders had been too tied up with their own domestic agendas to focus properly on the decades-old Middle East conflict.
He admitted that though he tried to influence the Middle East peace process while serving as Prime Minister, his efforts were doomed because he could not acquire the necessary detailed understanding of the issues.
And he said Mr Obama could heal rifts between America and Europe by being prepared to champion causes regarded as priorities in Europe such as the Middle East, poverty and the environment.
his efforts were doomed because he could not acquire the necessary detailed understanding of the issues.
And since you've been an ex-prime minister you've been so busy on the US lecture circuit replenishing the coffers so to speak, that you've not had time to do the job as Middle East envoy for the UN.
Mind you, as the person who refused to criticise the invasion of Lebanon last year and the excessive destruction Israel did, even in areas entirely unconnected with Hizbollah, you have to wonder exactly how neutral he was. keep to the Fen Causeway
In a 1968 plane crash, the US military lost an atom bomb in Greenland's Arctic ice. But this was no isolated case. Up to 50 nuclear warheads are believed to have gone missing during the Cold War, and not all of them are in unpopulated areas. It was a little early to be swimming in the Mediterranean that year. But in early March 1966, Manuel Fraga Iribarne, the Spanish information minister at the time, and Biddle Duke, the American ambassador in Madrid, together with their respective families, plunged into the chilly waters off the Costa Cálida. Journalists from around the world had gathered on the beach of the small village of Palomares to report on the two families' spring bathing outing. Their interest would have been surprising, if it hadn't been for the hydrogen bomb lying on the ocean floor only a few kilometers away, a bomb with more than 1,000 times the explosive force of the one that flattened Hiroshima. Only a few weeks earlier, on Jan. 17, 1966, the worst nuclear weapons incident of the entire Cold War had taken place off Spain's southeastern coast. During an aerial tanking maneuver, an American B-52 bomber and a KC-135 tanking aircraft collided in mid-air at 9,000 meters (29,000 feet), and both planes exploded in a giant fireball over Palomares. There were four hydrogen bombs in the hold of the B-52. One landed, unharmed, in tomato fields near the village. The non-nuclear fuse detonated in two others causing bomb fragments and plutonium dust to rain down on the impact site. The fourth bomb fell into the water somewhere off the coast, burying itself in several meters of silt. But where exactly did it fall?
In a 1968 plane crash, the US military lost an atom bomb in Greenland's Arctic ice. But this was no isolated case. Up to 50 nuclear warheads are believed to have gone missing during the Cold War, and not all of them are in unpopulated areas.
It was a little early to be swimming in the Mediterranean that year. But in early March 1966, Manuel Fraga Iribarne, the Spanish information minister at the time, and Biddle Duke, the American ambassador in Madrid, together with their respective families, plunged into the chilly waters off the Costa Cálida. Journalists from around the world had gathered on the beach of the small village of Palomares to report on the two families' spring bathing outing. Their interest would have been surprising, if it hadn't been for the hydrogen bomb lying on the ocean floor only a few kilometers away, a bomb with more than 1,000 times the explosive force of the one that flattened Hiroshima.
Only a few weeks earlier, on Jan. 17, 1966, the worst nuclear weapons incident of the entire Cold War had taken place off Spain's southeastern coast. During an aerial tanking maneuver, an American B-52 bomber and a KC-135 tanking aircraft collided in mid-air at 9,000 meters (29,000 feet), and both planes exploded in a giant fireball over Palomares. There were four hydrogen bombs in the hold of the B-52. One landed, unharmed, in tomato fields near the village. The non-nuclear fuse detonated in two others causing bomb fragments and plutonium dust to rain down on the impact site. The fourth bomb fell into the water somewhere off the coast, burying itself in several meters of silt. But where exactly did it fall?
Climate change and property values L.A. Land: latimes.com LA Land Blog Posted by Peter Hong on November 13, 2008 Eroding beaches, disappearing snowpacks, subdivisions decimated by wildfires. Climate change in California could be expensive. Now the costs of global warming's projected effects in the nation's largest state have been quantified. According to a new report authored by UC Berkeley researchers Fredrich Kahrl and David Roland-Holst, about $2.5 trillion of real estate assets in California are at risk from extreme weather events, sea level rise and wildfires with a projected annual price tag of $300 million to $3.9 billion. The report includes an assessment of climate change's impact on California real estate. --Margot Roosevelt
Eroding beaches, disappearing snowpacks, subdivisions decimated by wildfires. Climate change in California could be expensive.
Now the costs of global warming's projected effects in the nation's largest state have been quantified. According to a new report authored by UC Berkeley researchers Fredrich Kahrl and David Roland-Holst, about $2.5 trillion of real estate assets in California are at risk from extreme weather events, sea level rise and wildfires with a projected annual price tag of $300 million to $3.9 billion.
The report includes an assessment of climate change's impact on California real estate.
--Margot Roosevelt
extrapolating from 15 years in the same spot, and from what locals tell me, i guess a continuation of slow drying out. lake trasimeno is consistently low, and many people run out of water in the summer now who didn't 10 years ago.
it still rains a fair amount, right now we are in a damp period that has lasted 10 days with very few peeps of sun, but there are more cloudy days without rain, especially in fall and spring and less snow every winter, which also is less extreme.
so climate chaos seems to avoid us, touch lignite, though there is the hints of the desertification process i have observed and heard about south of rome, in the length and heat of the summers, which were already plenty warm.
they tend to get more dramatic weather north and south of here, which i believe is caused by sardinia deflecting and taking the brunt of rainy and stormy atlantic low pressure events.
there is still plenty of groundwater, though i have observed that water tables in south facing slopes have dwindled much more that in north facing, which can have 3 hours less daily sunshine per day in midwinter!
i used to gaze across the valley in envy at those lucky sods basking in 5pm sunshine from my shaded side, and i see the snow take 2 weeks longer to melt chez moi than it does 'there', but when i heard about the water situation, i realised i had made a fortituous choice, my winters may be colder than theirs, and my house take more firewood to heat, but my water situation remains copious, though one spring has dried up, sadly, since my sojourn started.
most importantly, with respect to global warming, it is cooler and greener in the 'microwave' months of july and august, and that's something i appreciate more each year.
i know you can get numbers from google, but that's how it is on the ground.
earthquakes, especially living in a 400 year old 3-floor stone cottage, with some of the old 'cement' binding the stone made of sand and clay, and easily scrapable out with a fingernail, are my worst fear. i went through 2 pretty bad ones, one of which did some damage, though nothing like as much as they did to assissi and foligno... where people say they could see church spires from spots they couldn't before, and some wells started to spout hot water!
now that's a side effect i could go for. we went to rapolano hot springs again tonight, and i feel as close to wonderful as makes no difference, even though it's an hour each way drive...
i don't know if global warming increases earthquake risk, i sure hope not, it's too far from low already... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
i forgot wildfire, i am surrounded by forest 360°, and yes virginia, in summer i do get paranoid...
have cut all around house, and it would have to get through metre thick walls to get at the main beams, but that's no problem if the wind's strong and the heat intense.
don't go there!
Very strict rules about summer burning, and small plane surveillance helps. every year i see small roadside fires caused by buttflippers, and the plane is called in and over them in like 10 minutes! ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
