http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63B3S320100412
(Reuters) - A Russian judge who sentenced neo-nationalists for hate crimes was shot dead Monday in the stairwell of his apartment building as he left for work, officials said.
World | Russia
Eduard Chuvashov, 47, was shot in the chest and head at 8:50 a.m. (1:50 a.m. EDT) and died on the spot outside his flat near the center of Moscow, the Prosecutor General's investigative unit said in a statement.
Possible links between his work and his murder are being examined, the statement said.
Chuvashov last week sentenced two members of the far-right "Ryno Gang" to 10 years in prison. Convicted of killing 20 people of "non-Slavic" appearance, they triumphantly posted videos of their brutal killings online.
"Everything will be done so that the organizers and perpetrators of this cynical murder be found and punished," President Dmitry Medvedev said, Interfax news agency reported.
An unnamed law enforcement source quoted by Russian news agencies said neo-nationalists were likely to be behind the murder. That would make it the second high-profile killing to be carried out by neo-nationalists in Russia in as many years.
Activists warn that increasing xenophobia and a corrupt police force allow far-right groups to prosper.
At least 60 people were killed in Russia last year in hate crimes, and 306 were injured, according to SOVA, a non-governmental organization that tracks racist violence in the country.
"It could be retribution from far-right groups," Allison Gill from the Moscow branch of Human Rights Watch (HRW) said of Chuvashov's death.
She added that judges, lawyers, rights defenders and journalists have "now become the clear targets" of neo-nationalists in Russia.
Chuvashov also jailed at least nine ultra-nationalists from the Russian fascist group known as the "White Wolves" in February.
Mostly teenagers, the group were found guilty of 11 brutal murders. The victims were dark-skinned migrants from Central Asia, Several of them had been bludgeoned to death.
In January 2009, human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and opposition journalist Anastasia Baburova were killed near the Kremlin. A Moscow court blamed their murders on nationalists.
Markelov had represented the mother of an anti-fascist campaigner in 2006 who said her son was killed by neo-Nazis.
The one-year commemoration of their deaths in January drew 1,000 people, who demanded a crackdown on neo-nationalists, an unusually large crowd for a Moscow demonstration.
(Additional reporting by Ludmila Danilova; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Monday, April 12, 2010
China dislikes proposed Iran energy sanctions: envoys
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63B0WD20100412
(Reuters) - China has made clear to the United States and four other world powers that it dislikes a proposed ban on new investments in Iran's energy sector as part of a new round of U.N. sanctions, diplomats said on Sunday.
Barack Obama | China | Russia
After months of delay, China reluctantly agreed to join the other permanent members of the Security Council and Germany -- a group often referred to as the "P5-plus-one" -- in New York last week to begin drafting a sanctions resolution against Iran for refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment program.
But the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Chinese U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong indicated his displeasure at the proposals affecting Iran's energy sector during the 3-hour meeting with his U.S., British, French, German and Russian counterparts on Thursday.
"In general, the Chinese ambassador did not want to discuss specifics of the text," a diplomat said, referring to a U.S. sanctions proposal that is the basis of talks among the six.
"The first meeting in New York was for an initial exchange of views on the U.S. draft," the diplomat added. Another envoy confirmed his comments.
The Chinese did convey the impression that Beijing had problems with the proposals regarding Iran's energy sector, a diplomat said.
"It was perceived that the Chinese do not agree with the energy proposals," one of the diplomats said.
Those proposals include a ban on new investments in Iran's energy industry, several diplomats have told Reuters. The U.S. draft does not include a call for import or export restrictions on Iran's oil and gas industries, as some in the United States and Israel had hoped for, the diplomats said.
Li told reporters after last week's 3-hour meeting of the six powers that it was "a very constructive negotiation."
He said the group planned to meet again this week.
RUSSIAN CONCERNS
Several diplomats familiar with talks said the delegations remain far from agreement on a fourth round of U.N. sanctions on Iran. They are expected to gather again in New York in the middle of this week to continue their discussions.
It was not clear whether the Russians also disliked the idea of banning new investments in Iran's energy sector. Such a measure would have no impact on the Bushehr nuclear reactor that Russia is building in the Islamic Republic.
Russian officials have told the Americans that they also have problems with the U.S. draft, diplomats say. Moscow wants any new sanctions to focus on Iran's nuclear and missile industries, as three previous rounds of U.N. sanctions have.
Iran, a major oil and gas exporter, says its nuclear ambitions are limited to generating electricity and refuses to suspend its enrichment program. The Security Council has passed five resolutions ordering it stop enriching uranium.
The U.S. draft was agreed upon with the three European powers and passed on to Russia and China a month ago. It targets the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and shipping and other firms, and calls for a ban on the establishment of new Iranian banks abroad and new foreign bank branches in Iran.
Although the U.S. and European delegations would like a resolution adopted this month, diplomats say negotiations could continues at least until June as China and Russia are expected to work to dilute any proposed punitive steps before handing a draft resolution to the Security Council.
The issue may also come up on the sidelines of U.S. President Barack Obama's summit on nuclear security in Washington on Monday and Tuesday, which Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and dozens of other leaders plan to attend.
(Editing by Sandra Maler)
(Reuters) - China has made clear to the United States and four other world powers that it dislikes a proposed ban on new investments in Iran's energy sector as part of a new round of U.N. sanctions, diplomats said on Sunday.
Barack Obama | China | Russia
After months of delay, China reluctantly agreed to join the other permanent members of the Security Council and Germany -- a group often referred to as the "P5-plus-one" -- in New York last week to begin drafting a sanctions resolution against Iran for refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment program.
But the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Chinese U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong indicated his displeasure at the proposals affecting Iran's energy sector during the 3-hour meeting with his U.S., British, French, German and Russian counterparts on Thursday.
"In general, the Chinese ambassador did not want to discuss specifics of the text," a diplomat said, referring to a U.S. sanctions proposal that is the basis of talks among the six.
"The first meeting in New York was for an initial exchange of views on the U.S. draft," the diplomat added. Another envoy confirmed his comments.
The Chinese did convey the impression that Beijing had problems with the proposals regarding Iran's energy sector, a diplomat said.
"It was perceived that the Chinese do not agree with the energy proposals," one of the diplomats said.
Those proposals include a ban on new investments in Iran's energy industry, several diplomats have told Reuters. The U.S. draft does not include a call for import or export restrictions on Iran's oil and gas industries, as some in the United States and Israel had hoped for, the diplomats said.
Li told reporters after last week's 3-hour meeting of the six powers that it was "a very constructive negotiation."
He said the group planned to meet again this week.
RUSSIAN CONCERNS
Several diplomats familiar with talks said the delegations remain far from agreement on a fourth round of U.N. sanctions on Iran. They are expected to gather again in New York in the middle of this week to continue their discussions.
It was not clear whether the Russians also disliked the idea of banning new investments in Iran's energy sector. Such a measure would have no impact on the Bushehr nuclear reactor that Russia is building in the Islamic Republic.
Russian officials have told the Americans that they also have problems with the U.S. draft, diplomats say. Moscow wants any new sanctions to focus on Iran's nuclear and missile industries, as three previous rounds of U.N. sanctions have.
Iran, a major oil and gas exporter, says its nuclear ambitions are limited to generating electricity and refuses to suspend its enrichment program. The Security Council has passed five resolutions ordering it stop enriching uranium.
The U.S. draft was agreed upon with the three European powers and passed on to Russia and China a month ago. It targets the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and shipping and other firms, and calls for a ban on the establishment of new Iranian banks abroad and new foreign bank branches in Iran.
Although the U.S. and European delegations would like a resolution adopted this month, diplomats say negotiations could continues at least until June as China and Russia are expected to work to dilute any proposed punitive steps before handing a draft resolution to the Security Council.
The issue may also come up on the sidelines of U.S. President Barack Obama's summit on nuclear security in Washington on Monday and Tuesday, which Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and dozens of other leaders plan to attend.
(Editing by Sandra Maler)
China slaps duties on U.S., Russian silicon steel
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63B2A720100412
(Reuters) - China has imposed countervailing duties on grain-oriented electrical steel produced in the United States, as well as anti-dumping duties against Russian and U.S. steel, its customs administration said.
Barack Obama | China | Russia
U.S. producers will be assessed for anti-dumping duties of up to 64.8 percent, and anti-subsidy duties of up to 44.6 percent, it said on its website on Monday.
The state-backed China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters hailed the Ministry of Commerce's April 10 ruling, which the Ministry has not yet publicly announced, state news agency Xinhua said.
"During the investigation the Ministry found that U.S. producers had received subsidies by the U.S. government, and their unfair competition hurt Chinese producers," Xinhua said, quoting an unnamed person at the chamber of commerce.
On Friday, the U.S. announced a final decision to impose stiff duties on Chinese-made oil country tubular goods, which are steel pipe used in the oil industry.
China has not yet formally responded to that decision, which was announced days before a trip by Chinese president Hu Jintao to Washington. Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis is also in Beijing this week, to hold meetings on trade with Chinese counterparts.
China is encouraging its steel industry to move up the value chain and produce more high-tech steel, but its increased exports of those products threaten lucrative markets for American producers. The steel used for petroleum pipes, for instance, must be particularly resistant to corrosive oil and gas.
Grain-oriented electrical steel, also known as grain-oriented silicon steel, is used for the cores of high-efficiency transformers, electric motors and generators.
ANTI-DUMPING DUTIES
China will impose anti-dumping duties of 7.8 percent on AK Steel Corp. and 19.9 percent on Allegheny Ludlum Corp., the two American producers that responded to its request for information. AK Steel faces anti-subsidy duties of 11.7 percent and Ludlum faces 12 percent.
It said Russian silicon steel producers OJSC Novolipetsk Steel and VIZ-Stal Ltd face anti-dumping duties of 6.3 percent, while others face duties of 25 percent.
The investigation was prompted by China's two largest silicon steel producers: Baosteel Group, the state-owned parent of Baoshan Iron and Steel, and Wuhan Iron and Steel Group, parent of Wuhan Steel.
Probes into imports of U.S. grain-oriented electrical steel focused on six issues, including subsidised electricity, gas and coal, and incentives for steel sales and funding in the state of Pennsylvania, the ministry said last summer.
(Reporting by Lucy Hornby and Zhou Xin)
(Reuters) - China has imposed countervailing duties on grain-oriented electrical steel produced in the United States, as well as anti-dumping duties against Russian and U.S. steel, its customs administration said.
Barack Obama | China | Russia
U.S. producers will be assessed for anti-dumping duties of up to 64.8 percent, and anti-subsidy duties of up to 44.6 percent, it said on its website on Monday.
The state-backed China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters hailed the Ministry of Commerce's April 10 ruling, which the Ministry has not yet publicly announced, state news agency Xinhua said.
"During the investigation the Ministry found that U.S. producers had received subsidies by the U.S. government, and their unfair competition hurt Chinese producers," Xinhua said, quoting an unnamed person at the chamber of commerce.
On Friday, the U.S. announced a final decision to impose stiff duties on Chinese-made oil country tubular goods, which are steel pipe used in the oil industry.
China has not yet formally responded to that decision, which was announced days before a trip by Chinese president Hu Jintao to Washington. Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis is also in Beijing this week, to hold meetings on trade with Chinese counterparts.
China is encouraging its steel industry to move up the value chain and produce more high-tech steel, but its increased exports of those products threaten lucrative markets for American producers. The steel used for petroleum pipes, for instance, must be particularly resistant to corrosive oil and gas.
Grain-oriented electrical steel, also known as grain-oriented silicon steel, is used for the cores of high-efficiency transformers, electric motors and generators.
ANTI-DUMPING DUTIES
China will impose anti-dumping duties of 7.8 percent on AK Steel Corp. and 19.9 percent on Allegheny Ludlum Corp., the two American producers that responded to its request for information. AK Steel faces anti-subsidy duties of 11.7 percent and Ludlum faces 12 percent.
It said Russian silicon steel producers OJSC Novolipetsk Steel and VIZ-Stal Ltd face anti-dumping duties of 6.3 percent, while others face duties of 25 percent.
The investigation was prompted by China's two largest silicon steel producers: Baosteel Group, the state-owned parent of Baoshan Iron and Steel, and Wuhan Iron and Steel Group, parent of Wuhan Steel.
Probes into imports of U.S. grain-oriented electrical steel focused on six issues, including subsidised electricity, gas and coal, and incentives for steel sales and funding in the state of Pennsylvania, the ministry said last summer.
(Reporting by Lucy Hornby and Zhou Xin)
Poland moves to fill key posts after plane crash
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6390NQ20100412
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland moved on Monday to fill key state posts after a weekend plane crash in western Russia killed President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other top officials, plunging the country into mourning.
Russian investigators found the body of Kaczynski's wife Maria after the president's coffin was returned home on Sunday to a Warsaw awash with flowers, candles and red-white national flags, but had identified the remains of only a quarter of the 96 victims of the crash.
Flying in an aged Russian Tupolev plane, Kaczynski and an entourage of military leaders, opposition figures and the central bank governor, went down in thick fog after hitting tree tops near Smolensk airport on Saturday.
Russia has said the pilot ignored advice from air traffic controllers not to land and some media have speculated Kaczynski himself may have ordered the landing in Smolensk, but Poland's chief prosecutor said there was no evidence at the moment to support that conclusion.
The deaths are a huge blow to the political and military elite, but the crash poses no threat to stability in the country of 38 million people, which is firmly anchored in the European Union and the U.S.-led NATO alliance.
Although the president has power to veto laws in Poland, it is the government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which decides policy. Only three deputy ministers from the government were on the plane.
Financial markets broadly shrugged off the crash, with the Polish zloty little changed against the euro and stocks ending 1 percent higher.
"Despite the terrible loss for Poland, the impact on the main economic variables should remain limited especially given the stability of the Polish economy," economists at Unicredit said in a research note.
COCKPIT RECORDERS DECODED
Acting President Bronislaw Komorowski, a member of Tusk's centrist Civic Platform (PO) who was favored to beat the right-wing Kaczynski in an election planned for October, said on Monday he had filled important roles in the president's chancellery, much of which was wiped out by the crash.
"The first task I am going to set for the new National Security Bureau (BBN) chief is a review of the rules for travel of top military officials," he told reporters.
Kaczynski, a combative nationalist known for his distrust of both the EU and Russia, had been traveling to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of Polish officers by the Soviet NKVD secret police in the nearby Katyn forest.
Speculation that he might have ordered the landing appeared to stem from an incident in 2008, when Georgia fought a brief war with Russia. Kaczynski flew to Georgia at the time to show his solidarity and reportedly grew irate when his pilot refused to land in the capital Tbilisi due to safety concerns.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said both cockpit voice recorders had been retrieved from the wreckage and were being decoded.
"It has been confirmed that the crew in a timely manner received a warning about adverse weather conditions and a recommendation to land at another airport," Ivanov said.
Komorowski said he would not rush a decision on who should replace Slawomir Skrzypek, the governor of the central bank.
But the bank's Monetary Policy Council met on Monday and agreed that Skrzypek's deputy Piotr Wiesiolek, who has taken over day-to-day operations, would chair sessions of the rate-setting body until a new governor was chosen.
The central bank has not changed interest rates since June of last year but it intervened in the foreign exchange markets on the day before the crash, selling zlotys for euros in order to push down the value of the Polish currency -- its first such move since a free float was introduced a decade ago.
The Polish economy was the only one in the 27-nation European Union which did not contract in 2009 and the zloty had risen to 16-month highs versus the euro before the intervention.
ELECTION MOVED FORWARD
On Tuesday, a special joint session of the Polish parliament will be held and Komorowski is expected to begin talks with the country's political parties on setting a date for the presidential vote.
"I want to ask the opposition factions for their preferred election date," Komorowski told Polish television. "If that doesn't yield a result, I'll be inclined to call the elections for the latest possible time. The last date that is technically possible is July 4."
Russia's health minister Tatyana Golikova said a total of 24 bodies from the crash had been identified so far. On a visit to Moscow, her Polish counterpart Ewa Kopacz expressed gratitude to the Russian authorities for their professionalism and collaborative approach.
The crash shocked Russia, Poland's historic foe and communist-era overlord, which declared Monday a day of mourning.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev laid flowers at a candle-lit memorial to Kaczynski at the Polish embassy in Moscow on Monday and signed a book of condolences.
Kaczynski's coffin, greeted in silence by tens of thousands of people lining its route from Warsaw's military airport to the presidential palace on Sunday, will be available for public viewing from Tuesday. A funeral date has not been set.
"We have to ask ourselves why this happened. It's not about arguing or placing blame on anyone, but we have to draw conclusions, lessons for the future," Lech Walesa, Poland's former president and onetime leader of the Solidarity movement that overthrew communism in 1989, told Polish TV.
Kaczynski belonged to Solidarity in the 1980s but later quarreled with Walesa. He and his identical twin brother Jaroslaw, a former prime minister, have led opposition to some of Tusk's market reforms and his drive to take Poland into the euro as soon as possible.
(Additional reporting by Conor Sweeney in Moscow, Chris Borowski in Warsaw; Writing by Noah Barkin)
Russia, U.S. to sign deal on plutonium
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63B32M20100412
(Reuters) - Russia and the United States will sign a deal on Tuesday on reducing stocks of weapons-grade plutonium, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Barack Obama | Russia
Under the agreement, each country is to dispose of 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium removed from military programs by burning it in reactors, U.S. officials said.
The United States and Russia initially reached a similar deal on plutonium disposal in 2000 but it never went into force.
The planned signing during a global nuclear security summit comes after Russia President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama signed the "New START" treaty committing the Cold War foes to reducing their deployed nuclear arsenals.
"Tomorrow in Washington a bilateral protocol will be signed to the agreement on the disposal of surplus weapons-grade plutonium," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview broadcast on Ekho Moskvy radio station on Monday.
Senior Obama advisor Gary Samore said on Friday the deal "is very significant in the sense that over a period of a decade or so it will remove very large quantities of weapons-useable materials, and also it's an agreement that's been long stalled.
"It was really President Obama's focus on this issue and the reset of his relationship with Russia that has finally been able to finalize this agreement."
The U.S.-Russia Plutonium Disposition agreement would be signed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Samore said.
The deal will provide for the United States to spend up to $400 million to transform the Russian plutonium involved, said Matthew Bunn, a nuclear expert at Harvard University.
The process would involve taking plutonium that is "ready to be put right into a weapon" and "putting it in a much more secure form for decades to come," Bunn said on Friday.
He said U.S. critics question the deal because reactors used for the Russian plutonium could potentially be remodified to produce new weapons-grade plutonium.
Medvedev is due in Washington on Monday for a two-day nuclear security summit that Obama is hosting as part of his push to reduce threats from nuclear weapons and materials.
(Writing by Conor Humphries and Steve Gutterman; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Bill Trott)
(Reuters) - Russia and the United States will sign a deal on Tuesday on reducing stocks of weapons-grade plutonium, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Barack Obama | Russia
Under the agreement, each country is to dispose of 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium removed from military programs by burning it in reactors, U.S. officials said.
The United States and Russia initially reached a similar deal on plutonium disposal in 2000 but it never went into force.
The planned signing during a global nuclear security summit comes after Russia President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama signed the "New START" treaty committing the Cold War foes to reducing their deployed nuclear arsenals.
"Tomorrow in Washington a bilateral protocol will be signed to the agreement on the disposal of surplus weapons-grade plutonium," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview broadcast on Ekho Moskvy radio station on Monday.
Senior Obama advisor Gary Samore said on Friday the deal "is very significant in the sense that over a period of a decade or so it will remove very large quantities of weapons-useable materials, and also it's an agreement that's been long stalled.
"It was really President Obama's focus on this issue and the reset of his relationship with Russia that has finally been able to finalize this agreement."
The U.S.-Russia Plutonium Disposition agreement would be signed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Samore said.
The deal will provide for the United States to spend up to $400 million to transform the Russian plutonium involved, said Matthew Bunn, a nuclear expert at Harvard University.
The process would involve taking plutonium that is "ready to be put right into a weapon" and "putting it in a much more secure form for decades to come," Bunn said on Friday.
He said U.S. critics question the deal because reactors used for the Russian plutonium could potentially be remodified to produce new weapons-grade plutonium.
Medvedev is due in Washington on Monday for a two-day nuclear security summit that Obama is hosting as part of his push to reduce threats from nuclear weapons and materials.
(Writing by Conor Humphries and Steve Gutterman; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Bill Trott)
Pakistan, Russia, U.S. need more nuclear security
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63B63Y20100412
(Reuters) - Rich and poor countries around the world -- including Pakistan, Russia and the United States -- need to boost security at their nuclear sites if they want to keep atomic bombs out of the hands of terrorists.
Barack Obama | Russia
The risk of a militant group getting hold of nuclear material and building a bomb with it is "possible, plausible, and over time probable," Robert Gallucci, president of the MacArthur Foundation, told a gathering of nuclear security experts ahead of a summit meeting on the same subject.
John Brennan, U.S. President Barack Obama's counter-terrorism adviser, underlined the threat by telling reporters on the sidelines of Obama's summit that al Qaeda appears to have been trying to get nuclear bomb material.
"There have been numerous reports over the past eight or nine years of attempts to obtain various types of purported material," Brennan said on the sidelines of the summit.
"We know al Qaeda has been involved a number of times. We know they have been scammed a number of times," he said.
Gallucci told the gathering of experts that he had a message for the dozens of world leaders in Washington for Obama's nuclear security summit -- stop producing arms-grade plutonium and uranium, the raw materials for nuclear bombs.
"This material is going to be around for a very long time," he said, adding that growing stockpiles of fissile material for arms increased the risk of it falling into the wrong hands.
Brennan said with more countries investing in nuclear power to meet rising energy demand, there would be a growing amount of potentially dangerous atomic material around the world.
The experts said that terrorists could theoretically build a crude but deadly nuclear device -- or possibly something more sophisticated if they have the money, technical personnel and required amount of fissile material.
Obtaining arms-grade material is the biggest challenge, which is why keeping it secure is so important.
Representatives of 47 nations are participating in Obama's two-day summit, which ends on Tuesday. The point of the meeting is to agree on an action plan for participants to secure all of their nuclear weapons material within four years so that it is no longer vulnerable to theft.
BANNING BOMB-GRADE MATERIAL PRODUCTION
The summit -- the biggest U.S.-hosted assembly of world leaders in Washington six decades -- will be a test of Obama's ability to rally global action on his nuclear agenda.
It had its first tangible outcome when Ukraine announced it would give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium by 2012, most of it this year.
Kiev has enough nuclear material for several weapons. It will convert its civil nuclear program to operate on low-enriched uranium. Washington agreed to provide technical and financial support for the effort, U.S. officials said.
Gallucci and other nuclear security experts said that securing nuclear stockpiles was a good place to start, but insufficient. They said it was time to agree a ban on producing fissile material for nuclear weapons.
The 65-nation U.N.-backed Conference on Disarmament in Geneva has long been considering such a ban. But Pakistan has blocked the start of negotiations, arguing that it would put it at a permanent disadvantage to India, with which it has fought three wars since independence in 1947.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said earlier on Monday that he would urge the 47 participants at the summit to resume negotiations on such a ban without delay.
Harvard University professor Matthew Bunn said wealthy Western countries like the United States and European Union members needed to do more to improve security at their atomic sites. He said U.S. research reactors that yield plutonium are exempt from U.S. security rules.
Bunn said that exemption should be ended and the costs for upgrading security at research reactors borne by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Pervez Hoodbhoy, a professor at Quaid-i-Azam University in Pakistan, highlighted the risks in South Asia. He said that the situation had changed since disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan admitted in 2004 to sharing nuclear enrichment technology with Iran and Libya.
Since that time, he said, the walls around Pakistan's nuclear program have been "raised higher," which might make it more secure but also more difficult for outsiders to know what is going on. Hoodbhoy said Pakistan has around 80 atomic weapons and bomb-grade material for up to 150 more.
RUSSIA, PAKISTAN CALLED VULNERABLE
Hoodbhoy said Pakistan was very vulnerable. Militants have carried out suicide attacks and successfully targeted installations belonging to the military and the security services in Pakistan, a nuclear weapons state like its neighbor India.
A new report commissioned from Bunn by the U.S.-based Nuclear Threat Initiative said that the highest risks of nuclear theft today were in Pakistan and Russia. The report said Russia's nuclear stockpiles, the largest in the world, could be vulnerable given "endemic corruption in Russia."
Pakistan's heavily guarded stockpile "faces immense threats, both from insiders who may be corrupt or sympathetic to terrorists and from large attacks by outsiders," it said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are among those attending the conference. Neither country signed the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear arms.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
(Reuters) - Rich and poor countries around the world -- including Pakistan, Russia and the United States -- need to boost security at their nuclear sites if they want to keep atomic bombs out of the hands of terrorists.
Barack Obama | Russia
The risk of a militant group getting hold of nuclear material and building a bomb with it is "possible, plausible, and over time probable," Robert Gallucci, president of the MacArthur Foundation, told a gathering of nuclear security experts ahead of a summit meeting on the same subject.
John Brennan, U.S. President Barack Obama's counter-terrorism adviser, underlined the threat by telling reporters on the sidelines of Obama's summit that al Qaeda appears to have been trying to get nuclear bomb material.
"There have been numerous reports over the past eight or nine years of attempts to obtain various types of purported material," Brennan said on the sidelines of the summit.
"We know al Qaeda has been involved a number of times. We know they have been scammed a number of times," he said.
Gallucci told the gathering of experts that he had a message for the dozens of world leaders in Washington for Obama's nuclear security summit -- stop producing arms-grade plutonium and uranium, the raw materials for nuclear bombs.
"This material is going to be around for a very long time," he said, adding that growing stockpiles of fissile material for arms increased the risk of it falling into the wrong hands.
Brennan said with more countries investing in nuclear power to meet rising energy demand, there would be a growing amount of potentially dangerous atomic material around the world.
The experts said that terrorists could theoretically build a crude but deadly nuclear device -- or possibly something more sophisticated if they have the money, technical personnel and required amount of fissile material.
Obtaining arms-grade material is the biggest challenge, which is why keeping it secure is so important.
Representatives of 47 nations are participating in Obama's two-day summit, which ends on Tuesday. The point of the meeting is to agree on an action plan for participants to secure all of their nuclear weapons material within four years so that it is no longer vulnerable to theft.
BANNING BOMB-GRADE MATERIAL PRODUCTION
The summit -- the biggest U.S.-hosted assembly of world leaders in Washington six decades -- will be a test of Obama's ability to rally global action on his nuclear agenda.
It had its first tangible outcome when Ukraine announced it would give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium by 2012, most of it this year.
Kiev has enough nuclear material for several weapons. It will convert its civil nuclear program to operate on low-enriched uranium. Washington agreed to provide technical and financial support for the effort, U.S. officials said.
Gallucci and other nuclear security experts said that securing nuclear stockpiles was a good place to start, but insufficient. They said it was time to agree a ban on producing fissile material for nuclear weapons.
The 65-nation U.N.-backed Conference on Disarmament in Geneva has long been considering such a ban. But Pakistan has blocked the start of negotiations, arguing that it would put it at a permanent disadvantage to India, with which it has fought three wars since independence in 1947.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said earlier on Monday that he would urge the 47 participants at the summit to resume negotiations on such a ban without delay.
Harvard University professor Matthew Bunn said wealthy Western countries like the United States and European Union members needed to do more to improve security at their atomic sites. He said U.S. research reactors that yield plutonium are exempt from U.S. security rules.
Bunn said that exemption should be ended and the costs for upgrading security at research reactors borne by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Pervez Hoodbhoy, a professor at Quaid-i-Azam University in Pakistan, highlighted the risks in South Asia. He said that the situation had changed since disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan admitted in 2004 to sharing nuclear enrichment technology with Iran and Libya.
Since that time, he said, the walls around Pakistan's nuclear program have been "raised higher," which might make it more secure but also more difficult for outsiders to know what is going on. Hoodbhoy said Pakistan has around 80 atomic weapons and bomb-grade material for up to 150 more.
RUSSIA, PAKISTAN CALLED VULNERABLE
Hoodbhoy said Pakistan was very vulnerable. Militants have carried out suicide attacks and successfully targeted installations belonging to the military and the security services in Pakistan, a nuclear weapons state like its neighbor India.
A new report commissioned from Bunn by the U.S.-based Nuclear Threat Initiative said that the highest risks of nuclear theft today were in Pakistan and Russia. The report said Russia's nuclear stockpiles, the largest in the world, could be vulnerable given "endemic corruption in Russia."
Pakistan's heavily guarded stockpile "faces immense threats, both from insiders who may be corrupt or sympathetic to terrorists and from large attacks by outsiders," it said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are among those attending the conference. Neither country signed the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear arms.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Obama says Israel home plans not helpful for peace
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday Israeli plans to build more homes near East Jerusalem were not helpful for the Middle East peace process, but he said the issue had not led to a crisis with one of the United States' closest allies.
"Israel's one of our closest allies, and we and the Israeli people have a special bond that's not going to go away," Obama said in an interview on Fox News Channel's Special Report with Bret Baier.
"But friends are going to disagree sometimes," Obama said.
Israel touched off a spat with the Obama administration last week when it announced during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that it planned to build 1,600 more homes for Jews near East Jerusalem, angering Palestinians.
Israel regards all of Jerusalem, including the eastern sector captured 43 years ago, as its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of the state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Obama said in the interview that he had sent Biden to the region at a moment when the United States was trying to restart talks between Israelis and the Palestinians.
"I specifically sent Vice President Biden to Israel to send a message of support and reassurance about my belief that Israel's security is sacrosanct and that we have a host of shared interests," Obama said.
"There is a disagreement in terms of how we can move this peace process forward," he added.
Israel's Interior Ministry gave approval for the 1,600 new homes hours after Biden spoke about Obama's commitment to Israel's security in the face of what both countries see as threats from Iran.
"The actions that were taken by the interior minister in Israel weren't helpful to that process. Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu acknowledged as much and apologized for it," Obama said.
"What we need right now is both sides to recognize that it is in their interests to move this peace process forward," Obama said.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Deborah Charles; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE62G56820100317?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true
"Israel's one of our closest allies, and we and the Israeli people have a special bond that's not going to go away," Obama said in an interview on Fox News Channel's Special Report with Bret Baier.
"But friends are going to disagree sometimes," Obama said.
Israel touched off a spat with the Obama administration last week when it announced during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that it planned to build 1,600 more homes for Jews near East Jerusalem, angering Palestinians.
Israel regards all of Jerusalem, including the eastern sector captured 43 years ago, as its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of the state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Obama said in the interview that he had sent Biden to the region at a moment when the United States was trying to restart talks between Israelis and the Palestinians.
"I specifically sent Vice President Biden to Israel to send a message of support and reassurance about my belief that Israel's security is sacrosanct and that we have a host of shared interests," Obama said.
"There is a disagreement in terms of how we can move this peace process forward," he added.
Israel's Interior Ministry gave approval for the 1,600 new homes hours after Biden spoke about Obama's commitment to Israel's security in the face of what both countries see as threats from Iran.
"The actions that were taken by the interior minister in Israel weren't helpful to that process. Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu acknowledged as much and apologized for it," Obama said.
"What we need right now is both sides to recognize that it is in their interests to move this peace process forward," Obama said.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Deborah Charles; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE62G56820100317?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true
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