2011年6月27日星期一

Obama wants Russia trade vote before WTO deal: trade official (Reuters)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama wants Congress to approve "permanent normal trade relations" with Russia this year, before the former Cold War enemy finishes its negotiations to join the World Trade Organization, a U.S. trade official said on Wednesday.

"It's clear that Russia's ambition is to complete the accession process and become a WTO member by the end of the year," said Chris Wilson, assistant U.S. trade representative for the WTO and multilateral affairs.

"Our focus is on trying to achieve a vote before" that happens, Wilson said during a panel discussion of remaining issues blocking Russia's entry into the world trade body.

Wilson said it was important that Congress approve permanent normal trade relations, or PNTR, before a final WTO accession deal is reached to ensure U.S. exporters immediately get the full benefits of Russia's entry, which could occur this December at a WTO ministerial meeting.

If lawmakers fail to approve PNTR and revoke a Cold War-era provision known as the Jackson-Vanik amendment, WTO rules would allow Moscow to deny the United States the new access it has negotiated in the Russian market while providing it to other WTO members, he said.

But many lawmakers see a vote on PNTR as a proxy for a vote on Russia's WTO accession and have resisted past efforts to approve PNTR before a final WTO deal is struck.

They have taken that line even though Jackson-Vanik was originally passed to encourage Russia to allow Jews to emigrate freely, and Washington has judged Moscow to be in compliance with that requirement since 1994.

In addition, concern over Russia's record on human rights and its commitment to the rule of law are expected to enter into the debate on PNTR, requiring the Obama administration to mount a major lobbying effort with Congress if it serious about winning approval, one congressional aide said.

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

Although talks on Russia's bid to join the WTO have taken years, Wilson said Moscow appeared to see a window of opportunity to finish the process this year, before the 2012 Russian presidential election.

"It's certainly plausible and conceivable to us" that a final deal can be reached in 2011, Wilson said.

Russia has already made a lot of progress on that front but two big remaining issues involve how Russia will harmonize its food, plant and animal import safety rules with global standards and Russian rules for investing in the automotive sector that have raised some concern, Wilson said.

Separately, Russia must consolidate all the tariff cuts it agreed to make in bilateral negotiations with the United States and some 50 other WTO members into a single tariff schedule.

Related to that, Russia hopes to finish negotiations this month with the United States, the EU, Australia, Brazil and other WTO members on new tariff-rate quotas for imported poultry, pork and beef, Wilson said.

Washington also wants further evidence Moscow is serious about enforcing intellectual property rights, he said.

Russia has been working to resolve trade concerns with Georgia, with which it fought a brief war in 2008, so the Caucasus nation will not block its entry into the WTO.

"We are very supportive of that effort," Wilson said, noting the Swiss government has played an important role in shuttle diplomacy between the two.

(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Peter Cooney)


View the original article here

Soviet general Vladislav Achalov dies at 65 (AP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

MOSCOW – Vladislav Achalov, a former Soviet general who supported two botched anti-Kremlin coups and recently organized a protest against the government's military reform, has died. He was 65.

Airborne Forces spokesman Col. Alexander Cherednik said Achalov died at a Moscow hospital on Thursday. Achalov, an one-time commander of Soviet Airborne Forces, led a union of veteran paratroopers.

Achalov supported the 1991 hardline coup that briefly ousted Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev but didn't face trial. In October 1993, he played an active role in a rebellion against President Boris Yeltsin and spent several months in custody before being released under amnesty.

Last November he helped organize a protest against the government's military reform that drew fears of military mutiny.

The rally was organized by Achalov's union of paratroopers, who are considered the most professional and proud branch of the Russian military. But members of other branches also took part, as well as monarchists, nationalists and hardline Orthodox Christians.

Under Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov's reforms, as many as 200,000 military officers have lost their jobs and nine out of every 10 army units have been disbanded. The reforms have been strongly backed by the Kremlin but have angered many officers and military veterans who see them as destroying Russia's armed forces.

Achalov stopped short of criticizing the Kremlin and rejected talk of a possible military coup when he spoke to The Associated Press before November's protest, but insisted Serdyukov must step down.


View the original article here

Russia air crash death toll rises to 47 (AFP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

MOSCOW (AFP) – The death toll from the air crash in northern Russia rose to 47 Sunday, after two more people died of their injuries in hospital, the health ministry said.

The victims were a woman who suffered multiple injuries and burns, and a man with burns over 80 percent of his body, the Interfax news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

The RusAir Tupolev 134 with 43 passengers and nine crew crashed into a highway late Monday after missing the runway at Petrozavodsk in the Karelia region of northwest Russia in bad weather.

Investigations into the cause of the crash are ongoing but Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said last week it appeared to have been the result of an error by the pilot who failed to see the runway in bad weather.

The plane was flying from Moscow's Domodedovo airport.

Five survivors are still being treated in hospital.


View the original article here

46 injured after gas explosion in southern Russia (AP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia – An official says a gas canister explosion at a wedding reception in southern Russia has injured 46 people.

An Emergencies Ministry official in the province of North Ossetia said 11 people are in critical condition after Saturday's blast ripped through a courtyard where guests were assembling.

Ministry spokesman Alexander Andreyev told The Associated Press that the worst cases would be flown to Moscow for treatment.

Russian news agencies said the gas was being used to fuel an outdoor grill.

There was no suspicion of foul play.


View the original article here

U.S. sanctions on Iran companies raise questions: Russia (Reuters)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The sanctions imposed by the United States on a major Iranian port operator and the country's national airline may affect Russian companies and "raise serious questions," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"Such actions, based on an extra-territorial use of U.S. law, potentially create a situation when Russian business structures cooperating with these companies could be affected," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It did not specify which Russian entities could be affected.

Washington's latest actions prohibit U.S. entities from any transactions with Tidewater Middle East Co., which operates seven port facilities in Iran, and Iran Air, which serves 35 international and 25 domestic destinations with a fleet of about 40 aircraft.

The sanctions target two major segments of Iran's transport infrastructure that the U.S. Treasury said were being used to aid the country's efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.

The statement added that the move strengthens "suspicions that the U.S. sanctions policy is pursuing goals other than enforcing the regime of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

"Our position is well known: the unilateral use of U.S. sanctions against Russian individuals and companies goes against the spirit of the relationship between our two countries. Such a policy is categorically unacceptable for us and needs to be reviewed."

(Writing by Gleb Bryanski; editing by Elizabeth Piper)


View the original article here

Nets owner Prokhorov elected Russian party chief (AP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

MOSCOW – Russian tycoon and New Jersey Nets basketball team owner Mikhail Prokhorov was confirmed Saturday as the new head of a Kremlin-friendly political party.

The 46-year-old billionaire was all but unanimously elected head of the Right Cause party by its members.

Right Cause is seen as a Kremlin creation designed to lure opposition-minded, pro-business voters, while building an illusion of competition with the ruling United Russia party ahead December's parliamentary elections.

Prokhorov said last month he was targeting second place in that vote.

President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that Russia needs more political competition, but the Justice Ministry made a mockery of that only days later when it denied registration to a real opposition party.

Addressing party members on Saturday, Prokhorov underlined that Right Cause would focus on building a viable capitalism in Russia, but — perhaps wary of alienating older voters accustomed to state support — he added socialism still had its place in Russian society.

"Our main slogan, 'Capitalism for all,' is not true. That's not possible. Capitalism is only for people who like to take risks, who like to take this responsibility upon themselves. An intelligent, professional and fair state should give others social guarantees and support," Prokhorov said.

Much like fellow tycoon Alexander Lebedev, who has invested heavily in British media, Prokhorov on the surface appears to be walking proof that Russia can cultivate modern business professionals, and he plays an ambassadorial role for his homeland as an investment haven.

But some critics say these are merely PR counterweights to cases like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, who was jailed on charges seen as politically motivated after he funded opposition parties and threatened to sell off major assets to American companies. The Khodorkovsky case was seen as mammoth blow to the country's aspirations to become a major investment hub.

Prokhorov, with a net worth thought to be around $18 billion, made his fortune in metals and banking, and became a majority stakeholder in the New Jersey Nets in May of last year.

On Saturday, a few hundred supporters of the opposition party whose registration was rejected protested the decision in central Moscow.

The People's Freedom Party, whose leaders include former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and former deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, had hoped to take part in the parliamentary vote. The Justice Ministry claimed some of the signatories required by law to support the application were dead or had been included without their knowledge.

No arrests were reported at the rally.


View the original article here

Russia finds nuclear safety faults after Fukushima (AFP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia's nuclear power plants are dangerously under-prepared for earthquakes and other disasters, said a state review conducted after Japan's Fukushima accident and obtained Thursday by AFP.

The unusually candid survey was presented to a council chaired by President Dmitry Medvedev on June 9 and initially reported on its website by the Oslo-based Bellona environmental organisation.

Russia has until now steadfastly defended its 10 nuclear power plants and 32 reactors against criticism.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on April 30 pronounced the country's nuclear safety system "the best in the world".

But the State Council review revealed more than 30 weaknesses including reduced disaster safety standards and a lack of a clear strategy for securing spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste at many plants.

"The strength (stability) of engineering structures of most nuclear power plants does not meet current regulatory document requirements for stresses that occur from extreme natural impacts," the report said.

The report was released to senior government officials and a select group of Russian non-governmental organisations but not published in the state media.

It was supplied by two different sources to AFP.

Rosatom nuclear agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko mentioned recent improvement recommendations over the weekend and said the various fixes would cost around five billion rubles ($180 million).

But a spokesman for Rosatom called the readiness level of country's nuclear power plants "more than sufficient" and angrily denied suggestions that this was the report presented at the June 9 meeting.

"We do not consider this paper as official," Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov said by telephone. "It was not considered by the State Council."

Sources said the nuclear readiness portion of the report was prepared not by Rosatom itself but a different state agency.

Environmentalists applauded the paper for the first time acknowledging Soviet-era shortcomings that have been criticised by watchdogs and Russian neighbours such as Norway for many years.

"We knew everything" in the report, Bellona's Russian nuclear programme director Igor Kudrik told AFP.

"But this is honest information from Rosatom itself that there are problems, and we are kind of surprised that they admitted it publicly in such a dramatic manner," he said.

The study pinned specific blame on some nuclear power plants while revealing weaknesses in the country's overall approach.

It noted "an absence of a single science and technology policy for handling radioactive waste at several new nuclear power plant reactors" and a shortage of qualified safety inspectors.

The Leningrad plant near Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg and the Kursk facility near the Ukrainian border were singled out for specific blame.

It said the solid radioactive waste storage facilities at both plants were more than 85-percent full and in need of a clear strategy for operations once they reach capacity.

"At the moment, none of the nuclear power plants has a full range (of equipment) for dealing with liquid radioactive waste," the survey added.

It also pointed to a lack of back-up in case of power outages -- the main problem experienced at Fukushima -- and insufficient protection for workers should leaks occur.

Bellona's Kudrik said the findings confirmed that Russia has never before tested its plants for calamities such as earthquakes or hurricanes and other severe storms.

"The most important thing here is that none of the nuclear power plants have been tested for potential impact. And impact here can mean not only earthquakes but also natural disasters such as strong wind," said the nuclear safety expert.

Countries such as Norway have been particularly concerned by the Kola plant in the northwestern Murmansk region. A severe storm knocked out its power and produced a small leak that led to an emergency shutdown in 1992.

Kudrik said the plant at the time had experienced "a near meltdown".


View the original article here