U.S. military will conduct an anti-submarine warfare exercise with South Korea early next month

The U.S. military will conduct an anti-submarine warfare exercise with South Korea early next month, sending a message to the North that Washington is committed to defending its ally, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the joint exercise, which is likely to annoy regional power China, would be conducted off the western coast of the Korean Peninsula and was aimed at defending against “sub-surface” attacks, particularly following the sinking of one of the south’s warships in March.

“This exercise certainly sends a clear message to North Korea that the U.S. is committed to the defense of the Republic of Korea,” Whitman told reporters. “Our commitment is unequivocal.”Asked about China’s likely negative reaction, Whitman said Beijing had no reason to view the joint series of exercises as a threat to its security.

“These exercises are intended to deter North Korea from future destabilizing attacks such as that which occurred with Cheonan,” he said, referring to the sinking of the South Korean warship earlier this year, which was blamed on Pyongyang.The North has denied involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors, and sees the latest string of joint exercises as a provocation by its neighbor and Washington.After Seoul competed drills near a disputed maritime border off the west coast this month, the North retaliated by firing a barrage of artillery shells in the same area.

SUCCESSION JITTERS

Relations across the divided peninsula have become more fraught following the attack on the Cheonan and there also is growing concern in Washington over the North’s increasingly unpredictable behavior.U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week that recent provocations by the North should be seen in the context of tensions surrounding the succession of leader Kim Jong-il, who is expected to hand over power to his youngest son.

Gates said Kim’s youngest son was probably seeking to “earn his stripes” with the North Korean military and he was concerned that there were more attacks ahead.The latest military exercise, planned for early September, followed a visit by Gates and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Seoul last month, Whitman said.The exercise will focus on anti-submarine warfare tactics, techniques and procedures and was designed specifically to improve the readiness and proficiency of U.S. and South Korean forces against potential sub-surface attacks, he said.Whitman said the exercise was still in the planning stages and declined to provide details on which U.S. ships might be involved or the scope or length of the exercise.As the North’s only major ally, China has called the U.S. drills a threat to both its security and regional stability.After a joint U.S.-South Korea naval drill in the Sea of Japan last month, China conducted its own heavily publicized military exercises.(Reuters)

Arizona to be Sued by US Government

Arizona Immigration Law SB1070 Text 2010 Update  Arizona to be Sued by US Government. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been quoted as saying that the Department of Justice could be planning to sue the state government over their controversial immigration law, citing that it is unconstitutional.Arizona’s law makes it a criminal offense to be present in the state without proper immigration or resident status.  It requires law enforcement to inquire about immigration status if probable cause to believe that someone is in the country illegally exists.

It also requires that everyone – citizens and immigrants alike, have proof of their status on their person at all times.  This can be accomplished with something as simple as a driver’s license.Many fear that the law will cause racial profiling at massive levels. Even the President has hinted that the law could cause issues for some immigrants.

Governor Jan Brewer plans on fighting hard against any lawsuit.  She found out about a potential lawsuit through a June 8 interview between Clinton and a TV station in Ecuador.  Brewer was outraged, and the AP reports that the governor said “If our own government intends to sue our state to prevent illegal immigration enforcement, the least it can do is inform us before it informs the citizens of another nation.Whether or not a lawsuit will be successful is something that will likely take months – if not a year or more – to determine.  This fight would go all the way to the Supreme Court and set important precedent over what will happen with immigration law.  This is definitely an issue that will polarize natural born citizens and immigrants alike. (AP)

Dozens of Palestinian stone-throwers clashed with Israeli police in East Jerusalem on Tuesday on a "day of rage" Hamas Islamists declared in protest at Israel's consecration of an ancient synagogue in the city

Dozens of Palestinian stone-throwers clashed with Israeli police in East Jerusalem on Tuesday on a “day of rage” Hamas Islamists declared in protest at Israel’s consecration of an ancient synagogue in the city.The violence presented another challenge to U.S. efforts to revive Middle East peace talks after Israel angered Palestinians and touched off a dispute with Washington by announcing plans last week to build 1,600 homes for Jews near East Jerusalem.Palestinians hurled stones at police and burned tires and trash bins in several areas of East Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in a 1967 war.

Police responded with tear gas and fired rubber bullets, witnesses said. Some 40 Palestinians were treated at East Jerusalem hospitals for minor injuries, medical officials said.A police spokesman said some 3,000 officers were put on high alert after Hamas, an Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip and wields influence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, called for anti-Israeli protests.”We call on the Palestinian people to regard Tuesday as a day of rage against the occupation’s (Israel’s) procedures in Jerusalem against al-Aqsa mosque,” Hamas said in a statement.

Hamas and Palestinian officials affiliated with its rival Fatah movement have said the restoration work at the ancient Hurva synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s walled Old City endangered al-Aqsa, situated some 400 meters (yards) away.Israel has denied the allegation.An inauguration ceremony was held Monday at the synagogue, which was blown up by Jordanian forces when they overran the Jewish Quarter in the 1948 Middle East war. Israel captured the area 19 years later.

Sporadic violence has erupted in recent weeks in Jerusalem after Israel decided to include West Bank religious sites in a Jewish national heritage plan stoked Palestinian anger.Citing biblical and historical links, Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In Washington Monday, a State Department spokesman voiced concern about the tensions over the rededication of the synagogue and appealed for calm.”We’re deeply disturbed by statements made by several Palestinian officials mischaracterizing the event in question, which can only serve to heighten the tensions that we see,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

A crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations over the settlement housing project, opposed by Washington, deepened Monday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s said he would not curb construction of homes for Jews in and around Jerusalem.After Netanyahu’s defiant comments, U.S. officials said U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who had planned to leave Washington Monday for discussions with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on getting indirect negotiations under way, had put off his departure.Announcement of the housing plan during a visit last week by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden embarrassed the White House and Palestinians, who had just agreed to begin indirect talks with Israel, demanded the project be scrapped first.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in unusually blunt remarks, called Israel’s actions an insult.Clinton telephoned Netanyahu Friday to convey unspecified demands about the housing project as well as about demonstrating commitment to the U.S.-mediated peace talks, the State Department said, without elaborating.U.S. officials said they were still waiting for Israel’s formal response. Israeli media reports said Clinton had asked for the settlement plan to be scrapped and for Israel to agree to discuss core statehood issues with the Palestinians.(Reuters)

Hillary Clinton flies to Latin America on Sunday, working to buff a lackluster U.S. image in a region where Brazil is emerging as a regional power with global aspirations

WASHINGTON  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flies to Latin America on Sunday, working to buff a lackluster U.S. image in a region where Brazil is emerging as a regional power with global aspirations.The trip, featuring Clinton’s first stops in South America as secretary of state, includes a visit to Chile on Tuesday, although officials said they were assessing the situation after Saturday’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the country.Brazil is the centerpiece of Clinton’s five-day visit and she will use her March 3 stop there to seek support for the drive on the U.N. Security Council to put new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.Brazil  a non-permanent member of the council  has been reluctant to get tough on Iran and analysts say Clinton faces a diplomatic test as she seeks to bring President Inacio Lula da Silva on board in the final weeks before U.N. diplomats unveil the sanctions strategy in New York.But the trip also marks a fresh U.S. start in Latin America, which saw early hopes for better ties with the Obama administration fade amid disputes over last year’s Honduras coup and the continued U.S. embargo on communist-ruled Cuba.That disappointment was underscored this week when the “Rio Group” including Mexico and Brazil agreed to form a new regional bloc that explicitly leaves out the United States  a thumbed nose at a power many feel is still too cavalier in its dealings with its southern neighbors.”Their early expectations were very large, and probably impossible to meet,” said Peter DeShazo, director of the Americas program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“There has been a lot more continuity in policy than people expected.”Latin America-watchers say Clinton’s itinerary speaks volumes. The first two stops on the trip, Uruguay and Chile, have both recently held smooth elections and are regarded as models of moderate, market-oriented economies.She winds up with stops in Costa Rica, another stable longtime U.S. ally, and Guatemala, which has seen its strategic importance skyrocket as a major new front in the battle against international drug traffickers.”She is making the right stops,” said Roberto Izurieta, head of the Latin America Department at The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.”She is supporting moderate economic policies and democratic principles. It is the right message.”

TOUGH SELL ON IRAN

Despite the Latin America focus, Iran will top the agenda as the United States and other veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, along with Germany, seek to agree on a resolution calling for new sanctions on Tehran.Russia has sounded more positive about possible sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes but which western powers fear is a cover for building atomic weapons.But China has called for more talks, and Brazil which hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in November is also reluctant, a position Clinton may not be able to change.

Julia Sweig, director of the Latin American program at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Brazil’s own experience with both nuclear energy and democratic transformation made it leery of U.S. saber-rattling over Iran’s current crisis.”They see themselves as having had an experience both in shifting toward a peaceful nuclear program and in shifting to democracy that Iran might have the potential to undergo right now,” Sweig said.

“They are still insisting on not isolating Iran, though I don’t know how long they will be able to play that out.”Brazil has also pushed for a change in U.S. isolation of Cuba Lula payed an “emotional” visit to the island last week and those calls are likely to be repeated during Clinton’s two stops in Central America.While the Obama administration resumed migration talks with Cuba that had been suspended by former President George W. Bush in 2004, it has been cautious on any broader policy change despite repeated prodding by its Latin American neighbors.

Clinton is also likely to be pressed on Honduras, which is struggling to return to stability and legitimacy after a coup last year toppled President Manuel Zelaya.The United States helped to broker new democratic elections in November that brought President Porfirio Lobo to power. But Washington was widely accused of failing to take a strong enough line on Zelaya’s ouster  raising bitter memories of U.S. support for past military coups in the region.”She’s got to make up for lost time, especially over Honduras,” Sweig said. “American credibility has really taken a hit.”(Reuters)

Iran's supreme leader accused the United States on Wednesday of war-mongering and of turning the Gulf into an "arms depot," hitting back at U.S.

TEHRAN  Iran’s supreme leader accused the United States on Wednesday of war-mongering and of turning the Gulf into an “arms depot,” hitting back at U.S. accusations that the Islamic state was moving toward a military dictatorship.The comments by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were the latest sign of growing tensions between Tehran and Washington, which are embroiled in a long-running and escalating row over Iranian nuclear work the West suspects is aimed at making bombs.The United States is leading a push for the U.N. Security Council to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran, which says its nuclear program is solely to generate electricity so it can export more of its oil and gas.

Last month, U.S. officials said the United States had expanded land- and sea-based missile defense systems in and around the Gulf — a waterway crucial for global oil supplies — to counter what it sees as Iran’s growing missile threat.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday the United States believed Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were driving the country toward military dictatorship and should be targeted in any new U.N. sanctions.In an apparent reference to Clinton’s visit to the Middle East earlier this week, Khamenei said the Americans had dispatched “their agent” to the region to accuse Iran’s Islamic system of government.

“But no one believes these lies because they know that America is the real war-mongering state. They have turned the Persian Gulf into an arms depot,” Khamenei said.”They invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and are now accusing the Islamic Republic. Everybody knows that the Islamic Republic is for peace and brotherhood among all Islamic states in the world,” Khamenei said, state television reported.PUNCH IN THE MOUTHIran faces growing Western calls for a new round of targeted U.N. sanctions against it after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week ordered the start of higher-grade uranium production.

During her three-day visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Clinton denied the United States planned to attack Iran and said Washington wanted dialogue with Tehran but could not “stand idly by” while Iran pursued a suspected nuclear weapons program.The West accuses Iran of covertly trying to build nuclear bombs. Iran, the world’s fifth-largest crude oil exporter, says its nuclear facilities are part of a peaceful energy program and it would retaliate for any attack on them.
Khamenei, Iran’s top authority, said the Iranian people had punched its enemies “in the mouth” by turning out in large numbers to rallies last week marking the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

On Thursday, Iranian state television said “tens of millions of people” rallied to support the revolution across the country of 70 million, which is facing its worst domestic crisis in three decades after a disputed presidential election last June.An opposition website said security forces fired teargas at opposition supporters staging a Tehran counter-rally on the February 11 anniversary of the revolution that toppled the shah.Khamenei, who like other Iranian leaders accused the West of stoking post-election unrest and meddling in Iran’s internal affairs, accused “arrogant powers” of opposing the Islamic Republic because of its call for justice in the world.(Reuters)

A former provincial minister and three other people have been killed in a bomb attack at north-western Pakistani town of Hangu

Asif Ali Zardari

A former provincial minister and three other people have been killed in a bomb attack near the north-western Pakistani town of Hangu, police said.Ghani ur-Rhaman, a former North-West Frontier Province education minister, died when a roadside bomb exploded next to the car in which he was travelling. His driver, bodyguard and a friend were also killed, officials said. The attack comes two days after 99 people were killed by an explosion at a volleyball tournament in Lakki Marwat.

The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, condemned the attack and said Washington would continue supporting Pakistan’s efforts to combat extremism and bolster democracy. For his part, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said such actions would not weaken his government’s resolve to fight terrorism. Lakki Marwat lies in an area regarded as a Taliban stronghold until recently, when the militants were driven out by the Pakistani army.

U.S. will decide on Afghan policy ( President Barack Obama will announce a policy )

President Barack Obama will announce a policy on whether or not to add troops in the United States in the coming days, according to an official statement the White House.Obama’s main advisers met Monday night to discuss the possibility of the current situation in Afghanistan.White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that”the President has the information he wanted and needed to make a decision.”Obama currently considering a request from the highest general in Afghanistan to add another 40.000 additional troops to help the war there.A report called the military and other officials expect Obama will send the aid of about 32.000 to 35.000 additional troops.Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that presidential advisers is waiting for the reaction among members of parliament over attempts to send a number of 20.000 to 30.000 additional troops.

National Speech

Among the officials present at the meeting were Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.White House press secretary, Gibbs said the two-hour meeting was aimed to discuss”a number of questions that are owned by the president, and some additional questions of what he had previously asked”.”After finishing the meeting, President Obama has to have the information he wanted and needed to issue a policy and he will announce in a few days,”Gibbs said.Obama is expected to deliver a national address on this wisdom, which is expected to be the fastest next week.Session with the opinion of the Congress which would then be likely to involve the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, Clinton and Defense Secretary Gates.