cia officers in afghanistan last week was considered the agency best lead on
al qaeda in years the new york times said wednesday
citing us intelligence officials the times said the jordanian man was thought
to have information about top al qaeda members including the whereabouts of
ayman al zawahiri the organization number two
in fact the central intelligence agency was so enthusiastic about the
information humam khalil abu mulal al balawi might offer that top officials at
the cia and white house were told he was being brought to afghanistan for
meeting
but instead of offering some of the tips the united states has sought for years
balawi detonated an explosives belt in the middle of us base in khost killing
seven cia operatives
the times reported that balawi background as radical islamist was known to
both jordanian and us intelligence but that the two agencies believed he had
been persuaded to turn on his former colleagues
this was one of the agency most promising efforts senior intelligence
official told the paper on condition of anonymity
balawi had established his credibility by feeding his jordanian supervisor
series of tips about al qaeda that checked out and built up so much trust with
jordanian and us intelligence that he was not properly searched when he entered
forward operating base chapman for meeting with cia operatives
while working as an informant he had contributed anti american essays to jihadi
websites under the name abu dujana al khorasan purportedly to maintain contacts
and gather information the times reported
but officials told the newspaper that the views he expressed online turned out
to represent his real beliefs
the attack was the deadliest against the cia in years
it has also been followed by barrage of criticism against the cia including
from the top us military intelligence official in afghanistan who accused the
agency of poor intelligence gathering and analysis on afghanistan in report
released monday
us stocks slip after jobs report
new york jan afp
us stocks mostly slipped wednesday after data showed the us private sector lost
more jobs than expected in december ahead of the government keenly awaited
labor report
the dow jones industrial average fell points percent to
in opening trades
the technology heavy nasdaq composite edged up point percent to
and the broad market standard amp poor index dropped
points percent to
payrolls firm adp reported before the opening bell that the nonfarm private
sector shed jobs in december decline of percent from the prior
month and the smallest drop since march
most analysts had expected losses in the key private sector report which
comes ahead of the labor department highly anticipated december jobs data
friday
all signs are indicating friday employment report should be relatively good
yet participants still need to respect the possibility of disappointment
said patrick hare at briefing com
the cautious start on wall street came after shares closed mixed tuesday as
traders paused after an opening new year rally
the dow lost percent day after jump of percent to kick off
trading the nasdaq eked out gain of percent and the amp index
edged up percent
fbi probe us plane bomber contacts in ghana minister
accra jan afp
fbi agents in ghana are trying to piece together the movements of the would be
nigerian plane bomber and identify those he met during two week stay that
ended the day before he flew to detroit minister said wednesday
the fbi are still in the country to thoroughly investigate whom the culprit
might have been in contact with while in ghana deputy information minister
james agyenim boateng told afp
the federal bureau of investigation agents are working closely with ghana
bureau of national investigations to build picture of umar farouk
abdulmutallab movements during trip that began december
the minister refused to give details of the investigation which he said was
going smoothly
it will take little bit of time before the investigations would be
concluded he said
the year old suspect flew out of ghana on december transiting at lagos
for flight to amsterdam and on to detroit where on december he was
overpowered by fellow passengers as he tried to set off bomb hidden in his
underwear as the northwest airlines plane came in to land
abdulmutallab had flown into ghana from ethiopian capital addis ababa
agyenim boateng said on tuesday that the suspect gave one hotel as his address
in accra but checked into different one
he bought the ticket for the northwest flight in ghana on december
tennis atp chennai open results st update
chennai india jan afp
results from the third day of the dollar atp chennai open tennis
tournament here on wednesday denotes seeding
nd round
marin cilic cro bt marcel granollers esp
thiemo de bakker ned bt robin haase ned
santiago giraldo col bt jan hajek cze
many german wages lower since unification study
berlin jan afp
many germans now earn less than they did when east and west germany reunified
two decades ago major study showed on wednesday with real incomes falling in
half of the sectors examined
those suffering the worst drop included people in marketing information
technology and dentistry while those taking home more money included civil
servants and workers in least popular profession banking
adjusted for price rises of percent between and the study by stern
magazine and the statista institute was based on surveys of more than
people carried out every year since
the study did not give absolute figures for the categories
tennis sharapova pulls off comeback win against zheng
hong kong jan afp
maria sharapova pulled off comeback win against zheng jie at an exhibition
match in hong kong on wednesday as the year old russian sets her sights on
the australian open later this month
sharapova recovering from shoulder injury got off to strong start and
pulled ahead of zheng in the first set
but zheng ranked in the world fought back to even the match at as both
players traded powerful ground strokes
the year old chengdu native then took the first set in tie breaker
after sharapova blasted shot past the baseline
zheng continued the pressure in the second set several times answering
sharapova blistering serves with cross court winner
but three time grand slam winner sharapova now ranked in the world found
her stride and clawed back from two games down to win the second set
forcing third set which she took
zheng definitely played really well but as we all know in tennis it never
over until the last point sharapova told reporters after the match
ll take whatever comes my way if that means losing the first set and then
coming back fine but obviously would have loved to win it in two sets
sharapova the former world number one who crashed out of beijing in october in
third round loss to china peng shuai had arthroscopic surgery over year
ago on her right shoulder and was out of action until may last year
the hong kong tournament features four teams with three players each
representing russia europe the americas and asia pacific in singles and
mixed doubles play
on thursday american champion venus williams is set to play caroline wozniacki
the teenaged danish sensation ranked number four in the world while retired
star michael chang will play six time grand slam winner stefan edberg
earlier wednesday russia vera zvonareva easily overpowered japanese
newcomer ayumi morita beating her in just over an hour
despite warm support from the crowd morita billed as one of asia rising
stars struggled with weak service game and unforced errors in her match with
the more experienced zvonareva
tennis hong kong tennis classic results
hong kong jan afp
results from the first day of the hong kong tennis classic exhibition tournament
on wednesday
vera zvonareva rus bt ayumi morita jpn
maria sharapova rus bt zheng jie chn
argentina demands resignation of central bank president
buenos aires jan afp
argentina president cristina kirchner on wednesday demanded the resignation of
the central bank chief who refused to step down in dispute over repaying
billions of dollars in national debt spokesman said
bank chief martin redrado reportedly had been reluctant to transfer some
billion dollars from the central bank to pay down the country debt in
ordered by kirchner late last year
the standoff could lead to major political crisis since redrado does not
serve at the pleasure of the president and can only be fired by argentina
senate
an official at the central bank told afp that redrado had refused the
government order to step aside
they have asked him to step down he responded that he will not quit the
official said asking not to be named
the unnamed central bank official told afp that the bank charter requires
joint congressional commission be convened to remove sitting central bank
president
at present redrado term is due to end in september
kirchner announced the call for redrado resignation on her official website
saying the post had been offered to mario blejer who held the position from
to under an earlier presidential administration
kirchner in nationally broadcast message last month announced that she was
setting aside the billion dollars to guarantee the debt payment in an
effort to help argentina end its isolation from global credit markets
kirchner said in her december speech that the prospective payment aimed to
lower as much as possible the future potential indebtedness of our country
her statement sought to reassure international investors who are still skittish
after the country massive sovereign debt default
argentina faces maturing debt repayments totaling billion dollars in it
fulfilled its repayments of billion dollars in
football china iran qualify for asian cup finals
singapore jan afp
china and iran qualified for the asian cup finals on wednesday but
indonesia and vietnam crashed out of contention
they join uzbekistan and syria who had already booked their places at the
showpiece in qatar along with the host nation and iraq saudi arabia and south
korea the top three in the tournament
india are also through as the afc challenge cup winners with australia
japan bahrain and united arab emirates qualifying later wednesday if results go
in their favour
perennial underachievers china secured their berth with hard fought goalless
draw in zhejiang against syria in group
but gao hongbo team had to wait an agonising minutes to hear the result
from beirut where minnows lebanon held vietnam to draw which sent the
chinese through
it was sweet revenge for china who lost to syria at the start of the
qualifying campaign almost year ago under caretaker coach yin tiesheng but
since then have recorded three straight wins before wednesday draw
iran traditional asian powerhouse still recovering from its failure to make
next year world cup in south africa ensured they will kick off in doha in
january with convincing victory in singapore
while the home team started brightly defensive blunders gifted iran two goals
in the space of seconds
hadi aghli opened the iranian account with penalty on minutes and mehrzad
madanchi made it minute later after picking up stray mustafic fahrudin
pass on the edge of the box and firing the ball home
nor alam shah pulled one back for the home side just after half an hour but
delicate chip from radham rezaei mid way through the second period sealed
victory for an ecstatic iran
while they progressed there were tears for indonesia who slumped out of the
running with defeat to oman in jakarta
the victory put the omanis level on seven points at the top of group alongside
australia and kuwait who play each other in crucial match later wednesday
despite losing singapore can still reach their first asian cup finals since
hosting the competition back in after bryan robson thailand failed to
dispatch jordan
their draw in bangkok draw means singapore and thailand both have six points
with jordan on five and game to play
jordan would appear to have the advantage with home tie against singapore on
march while thailand must travel to iran
meanwhile world cup qualifiers japan will progress if they pick up point
against yemen in sana match that was under threat of being called off
following the attempted bombing on christmas day of us bound airliner
al qaeda in the arabian peninsula the group yemen based arm claimed
responsibility for the attack
pim verbeek australia are in kuwait with win needed to see them safely
through while bahrain take on the already eliminated hong kong at home with
victory enough to secure their berth
elsewhere the united arab emirates host malaysia with point sufficient to
book their passage
football inter stretch lead over milan with win over chievo
rome jan afp
serie champions inter milan started the new year with win over chievo to
stretch their lead over ac milan who face genoa later wednesday to points
inter were deprived of number of midfield stars handing rare start to
wantaway french midfielder patrick vieira who is being tipped to move to
manchester city
however their absences due to injury proved no major handicap and striker mario
balotelli gave jose mourinho side welcome lead when he struck on the counter
in the th minute
inter were given little trouble for the remainder of the match and pocketed the
three points to sit on in total after games
milan with england star david beckham back for the first game of his loan spell
from la galaxy host genoa at the san siro where they will be favourites to
claim the spoils in the day late match
juventus sit in third point adrift of milan and face parma away at gmt
when the rest of serie will also be in action
clinton to visit australia zealand png
washington jan afp
us secretary of state hillary clinton will leave next week on visit to
australia new zealand and papua new guinea the state department announced
wednesday
clinton will be joined in australia by defense secretary robert gates for
annual consultations with their counterparts on building relations between the
longtime pacific allies
clinton also will visit honolulu hawaii where she will deliver policy speech
on multilateral engagement with the asia pacific region and meet with the us
military pacific command the state department said
the january visit marks clinton first trip to the countries since the
inauguration year ago of president barack obama who has developed close
relationship with australian prime minister kevin rudd
clinton will arrive on january in canberra where she and gates will hold the
th australia united states ministerial consultations with their counterparts
foreign minister stephen smith and defense minister john faulkner
she also will stop in melbourne the state department said
clinton will meet in new zealand with prime minister john key and will meet with
veterans from the two countries at the auckland war memorial museum the state
department said
the united states has been hopeful about building relations with new zealand
since the conservative key was elected in
new zealand declared itself nuclear free in and refused entry to us nuclear
ships leading the united states to suspend its defense obligations to the then
ally under three way treaty with australia
clinton will head on january to papua new guinea for meetings with government
officials along with civil society to discuss environmental protection and
women empowerment
clinton has made outreach to civil society and the advancement of women rights
priority in her travels to the developing world
afp world economic news summary
paris jan afp
the top world economic stories on wednesday
japan politics economy
tokyo japan prime minister named his deputy naoto kan as finance minister
replacing year old hirohisa fujii who is stepping down for health reasons in
blow to the three month old government
argentina economy banking politics debt
buenos aires argentina president cristina kirchner demanded the resignation
of the head of the central bank who refuses to step down in dispute over
repaying billions of dollars in national debt spokesman said
china finance economy forex yuan
beijing china should let its currency rise against the us dollar as soon as
possible and allow for one off percent appreciation of the yuan an
official at government backed think tank said
china economy bank
beijing china central bank said it aimed to keep inflation in check in
while maintaining its pro growth monetary policy as the world third largest
economy recovers from the financial crisis
ecb bank greece eu economy budget deficit pact
rome greece struggling with double digit public deficit cannot expect the
european union to save it the european central bank chief economist said
ecb eurozone inflation rate forex money
rome the european central bank top economist said that inflation was likely
to be subdued for two years suggesting the ecb main interest rate could
remain at percent for longer than had been expected
iceland britain netherlands politics banking
reykjavik iceland was swept up in political and economic storm with clouds
building over its credit rating economic recovery and eu membership bid after
the president vetoed an international compensation deal for the icesave bank
collapse
turkmenistan iran diplomacy gas pipeline
dovletabad turkmenistan iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad inaugurated
new gas pipeline link to iran from its energy rich neighbour turkmenistan which
will more than double supplies to his country
britain airline court company strike ba
london the trade union representing british airways workers said that it will
hold fresh talks with the airline on bitter dispute over pay and working
conditions
france banking crime trial
paris french banker jerome kerviel will stand trial in june over the huge rogue
trading scandal of early that embarrassed major bank societe generale
court source said
polish media denounces blackmail over wwii museum row
berlin jan afp
polish media on wednesday levelled accusations of blackmail against german mp
embroiled in row about museum to commemorate millions of ethnic germans
expelled after from nazi occupied areas
erika steinbach is blackmailing not only poland but also the german
government said the daily polska the times
steinbach on tuesday demanded that the german government agree by the end of the
month to give the body organising the planned documentation and exhibition
centre in berlin more independence
the decision to create the museum by chancellor angela merkel government
followed decades of agonised debate over how to remember the million ethnic
germans forced to flee to germany from areas now in countries including poland
the czech republic slovakia and hungary which were occupied during world war
ii
many of these ethnic germans had roots in central and eastern europe going back
centuries and tens of thousands died as they fled in
steinbach the head of the federation of the expelled bdv has also demanded
more representatives of those expelled on the organising body board in return
for foregoing her own nomination to the board
if her demands are not met however she has threatened to go ahead with her
nomination move that would antagonise germany neighbours poland and the
czech republic
steinbach declaration is offensive to the german authorities by de facto
accusing the government of angela merkel of discriminating against her bdv
organisation said the newspaper
steinbach was born near to gdansk in poland then known by its german name
danzig she has attracted bitter controversy for refusing to accept the german
polish border after german reunification in
cold hit turkish president cancels abbas talks
ankara jan afp
turkish president abdullah gul was forced to cancel bilateral talks wednesday
with his palestinian counterpart mahmud abbas as he is suffering from cold
his office said
gul and abbas were to hold one on one meeting before press conference but
his office said the programme was narrowed down to just state dinner later
wednesday on account of gul health
union says holding fresh talks with british airways
london jan afp
the trade union representing british airways workers said on wednesday that it
will hold fresh talks with the airline over bitter dispute over pay and
working conditions
late last month ba won an injunction against the unite union to prevent
planned strike over the peak time christmas and new year holidays
unite the union and british airways have agreed to hold talks aimed at finding
negotiated settlement to their dispute over cabin crew terms and conditions
under the auspices of the trades union congress tuc unite said in
statement
representatives of both sides will be meeting the tuc over the next few days to
start the process of finding resolution to the dispute which led to
decision by the cabin crew to take strike action subsequently prohibited by the
high court last month it added
plans for day walkout by cabin crew over the festive season were scrapped
after the high court ruled that the ballot was invalid because it included
workers who had already accepted voluntary redundancy
despite news of the talks unite added wednesday that it would continue with
plans to re ballot its members
we have said all along that this dispute could only be resolved through
negotiation rather than imposition or litigation so we are delighted to be
joining ba management in talks at the tuc unite joint general secretaries
derek simpson and tony woodley said in the statement
we will be approaching those talks in constructive spirit seeking to find
settlement that meets the real concerns of ba skilled loyal and professional
cabin crew while keeping the airline flying
had the christmas strike gone ahead it would have ruined the holiday plans of
up to million ba passengers over the festive break when many people travel to
see friends and family
spain defends afghan mission as poll shows split
madrid jan afp
defence minister carme chacon defended spain mission in afghanistan as
essential on wednesday as new poll showed nearly half the public are opposed
to madrid decision to send further troops
it is certainly the hardest most complex and risky international mission our
troops have had in years but it is not any the less essential chacon
said
the international community cannot allow afghanistan to return to being
terrorist sanctuary
the comments come after poll of around people for el mundo newspaper
found that percent of those surveyed considered the decision to send in the
reinforcements bad or very bad
twenty two percent considered the decision good or very good while
percent judged it as normal
the new troop commitment to the nato led international security assistance force
isaf in afghanistan was announced by the government last month the decision
has not yet been approved by parliament
the extra troops were among the around additional military personnel that
us allies and partners announced after us president barack obama pledged
further us troops to bolster the already in afghanistan fighting
the taliban led insurgency
spain troops currently in afghanistan are located in the west of the
country
football italian league results
rome jan afp
italian league results on wednesday
chievo inter milan balotelli
playing later
atalanta napoli bari udinese cagliari roma catania bologna lazio
livorno parma juventus sampdoria palermo sienna fiorentina all
gmt ac milan genoa gmt
us intel chief vows action after obama rebuke
washington jan afp
bruised by stinging rebuke from president barack obama the top us
intelligence chief has pledged to repair flaws in the security services to
confront an evolving threat from terror groups
the intelligence community received the president message today we got it
and we are moving forward to meet the new challenges director of national
intelligence dennis blair said in statement
we can and we must outthink outwork and defeat the enemy new ideas the
intelligence community will do that as directed by the president working
closely with our nation entire national security team
an angry obama tuesday blasted us spy chiefs accusing them of an intelligence
screw up that left us airliner carrying people open to al qaeda attack
on christmas day which was only narrowly averted
in highly unusual public rebuke of the us clandestine community obama made
terse televised statement about the thwarted bombing after gathering agency
chiefs and national security aides at high stakes white house meeting
it is increasingly clear that intelligence was not fully analyzed or fully
leveraged obama said saying that missed red flags before the attack were
more serious than originally thought
that not acceptable and will not tolerate it
obama was even more explicit during the meeting in the secure white house
situation room an official said calling for immediate repairs to the flawed us
homeland security system
this was screw up that could have been disastrous the official speaking on
condition of anonymity quoted obama as saying in the meeting
we dodged bullet but just barely it was averted by brave individuals not
because the system worked the president said according to the official
nigerian suspect umar farouk abdulmutallab is accused of trying to bring
down the northwest jet outside detroit with explosives sewn into his underwear
the device failed to explode as the plane approached detroit setting off fire
and passengers and crew sprung into action thwarting his attempted attack
as yet no heads have rolled over the incident and white house spokesman robert
gibbs dodged the issue when asked tuesday by reporters if anyone would lose
their jobs
but chagrined blair admitted mistakes had been made the system did not catch
umar farouk abdulmutallab and prevent him from boarding an airliner and entering
the united states we must be able to stop such attempts he said
in the statement released just hours after obama very public dressing down
blair said progress had been made in developing collection and analysis
capabilities and improving collaboration
but he stressed we need to strengthen our ability to stop new tactics such as
the efforts of individual suicide terrorists
the threat has evolved and we need to anticipate new kinds of attacks and
improve our ability to stay ahead of them and protect america
obama said probes into the botched plot to blow up the airliner showed us
intelligence missed other red flags as well as the already revealed fact that
abdulmutallab was nigerian extremist who had traveled to yemen
he said us intelligence knew that al qaeda in the arabian peninsula wanted to
strike not only us targets in yemen but in the united states itself over the
holiday season
the bottom line is this the us government had sufficient information to have
uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the christmas day attack but our
intelligence community failed to connect those dots obama said
this was not failure to collect intelligence it was failure to integrate
and understand the intelligence that we already had
when suspected terrorist is able to board plane with explosives on
christmas day the system has failed in potentially disastrous way
obama promised that he would lay out further steps to safeguard aviation
security in the coming weeks including better integration of information and
enhanced passenger screening
us agencies have already moved to boost security measures at airports and moved
dozens of names onto no fly lists
hungary to meet deficit target ministry
budapest jan afp
hungary will be able to achieve public deficit of below percent of total
economic output thanks to bigger than expected surplus in december the
finance ministry said wednesday
we have reached our budget deficit target easily because the december surplus
amounted to billion forints million euros billion dollars instead
of the expected billion forints the ministry said in statement
for the entire year the budget deficit reached percent of gross domestic
product gdp instead of the anticipated percent the ministry said
the total public deficit ratio which includes the budgets of local
governments was set to amount to percent
in the wake of the global downturn hungary came close to bankruptcy in and
was forced to turn to the international monetary fund the european union and
the world bank for help
in exchange for billion euro lifeline hungary embarked on drastic
austerity measures aimed at bringing down the deficit which topped percent
of gdp in
clinton to visit australia zealand png
washington jan afp
us secretary of state hillary clinton will leave next week on visit to
australia new zealand and papua new guinea the state department announced
wednesday
clinton will also visit honolulu hawaii where she will deliver policy speech
on multilateral engagement with the asia pacific region and meet with the us
military pacific command the state department said
boeing wins uae deal for six military transport aircraft
washington jan afp
