US Senate to delay committee's Iran bill vote
Latest update : 2015-03-20
Showing posts with label Stephen Hoffman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stephen Hoffman. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
US Senate Delays Vote on Iran Bill
Venezuelan President Granted Decree Powers
Venezuela’s Maduro granted decree powers
Latest update : 2015-03-15
Venezuela’s parliament granted President Nicolas Maduro decree powers on Sunday for the rest of 2015 in a move he says is to defend the country from U.S. meddling but opponents decry as evidence of autocracy.
US and Afghanistan "revitalise" ties
US and Afghanistan hail ‘revitalised’ ties on Ghani visit
As President Ashraf Ghani began his visit to Washington on Monday American and Afghan officials laid the groundwork for new relations between the two countries, which the Pentagon described as “a revitalised partnership”.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Forensics conclude that Nisman was murdered
Forensics show Argentine prosecutor was murdered, says ex-wifein
Forensic tests on the body of an Argentine state prosecutor who died days after accusing President Cristina Fernandez of plotting to cover up Iran’s alleged role in a 1994 bombing indicate that he was murdered, his ex-wife said on Thursday.
The mysterious circumstances surrounding Alberto Nisman’s death in January unleashed a storm ofconspiracy theories. His former wife, Sandra Arroyo Salgado, hired a private team to analyse the autopsy results and run additional tests.
Argentine authorities have not released full results of Nisman’s autopsy, more than six weeks after he was found sprawled in a pool of blood in his flat. The few details made public so far have suggested suicide, although the lead investigator into Nisman’s death said she could not categorically say if he shot himself in the head or was killed.
“Nisman didn’t have an accident. He didn’t commit suicide. They murdered him,” Arroyo Salgado told a news conference.
Nisman, 52, was the father of their two children.
Earlier on Thursday, Arroyo Salgado, who is a judge, deposited the forensic evidence behind her allegations at the state prosecutors’ office in Buenos Aires. She did not give details of the findings to journalists.
Fernandez has branded as “absurd” Nisman’s accusation that she sought to whitewash his investigation into the truck-bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center 21 years ago, and has said rogue state spies were behind his death.
Iran has consistently denied it was involved in the bomb attack, which killed 85 people.
A judge last week threw out the accusations against Fernandez. On Wednesday, however, the prosecutor who picked up Nisman’s case appealed that ruling, prolonging a scandal that has plunged Fernandez’s last year in office into turmoil.
Polls show two in three Argentines believe they will never know the truth about what happened to Nisman, who was found dead the day before he was to appear in Congress to discuss his criminal complaint.
Viviana Fein, the state prosecutor investigating Nisman’s death, said she would study the evidence put forward by Arroyo Salgado’s team.
“Up until now ... there has been nothing which allows me to say categorically whether this was a suicide or homicide. Nothing,” Fein told the state-run National Radio.
(REUTERS)
Venezuela Declared a Threat, Sanctions levied.
US declares Venezuela a threat, sanctions top officials
Latest update : 2015-03-10
The United States on Monday declared Venezuela a national security threat and ordered sanctions against seven officials in the worst diplomatic dispute with the oil-rich country since socialist President Nicolas Maduro took office in 2013.
President Barack Obama issued and signed the executive order, which senior administration officials said did not target the energy sector or Venezuela’s broader economy. The move raises tensions between Washington and the OPEC member just as US relations with Cuba, another longtime US foe in Latin America, are set to be normalized.
Declaring a country a national security threat is the first step in starting a sanctions regime. The same process has been followed with countries such as Iran and Syria, US officials said.
'OBAMA WILL BRED FOR HIS AGGRESSION AGAINST VENEZUELA'
The White House said the executive order targeted people whose actions undermined democratic processes or institutions, had committed acts of violence or abuse of human rights, were involved in prohibiting or penalizing freedom of expression, or were government officials involved in public corruption.
“Venezuelan officials past and present who violate the human rights of Venezuelan citizens and engage in acts of public corruption will not be welcome here, and we now have the tools to block their assets and their use of US financial systems,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.
“We are deeply concerned by the Venezuelan government’s efforts to escalate intimidation of its political opponents. Venezuela’s problems cannot be solved by criminalizing dissent,” he added.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez told reporters that Caracas would respond to the US move soon.
The seven individuals named in the order, which included top domestic security and intelligence officials, would have their property and interests in the United States blocked or frozen and would be denied entry into the United States. US persons would also be prohibited from doing business with them.
Blame Game
The White House also called on Venezuela to release all political prisoners, including “dozens of students,” and warned against blaming Washington for its problems.
“We’ve seen many times that the Venezuelan government tries to distract from its own actions by blaming the United States or other members of the international community for events inside Venezuela,” Earnest said in the statement.
“These efforts reflect a lack of seriousness on the part of the Venezuelan government to deal with the grave situation it faces.”
US officials told reporters in a conference call that the executive order did not target the Venezuelan people or economy and stressed that upcoming legislative elections should be held without intimidation of the government’s opponents.
The sanctions effectively confirm Venezuela as the United States’ primary adversary in Latin America, a label that was for decades applied to Communist-run Cuba until Washington and Havana announced a diplomatic breakthrough in December.
Washington said last week it would respond through diplomatic channels to Venezuela’s demand for a cut in the US Embassy’s staff in Caracas after the government called for a plan within 15 days to reduce staff to 17 from 100 at the American facility.
Commercial ties between Venezuela and the United States have, however, been largely unaffected by diplomatic flare-ups, which were common during the 14-year-rule of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.
The United States is Venezuela’s top trading partner, and Venezuela in 2014 remained the fourth-largest supplier of crude to the United States at an average of 733,000 barrels per day - despite a decade-long effort by Caracas to diversify its oil shipments to China and India.
Opposition leader and twice-presidential candidate Henrique Capriles told Reuters the sanctions were a problem for a corrupt elite in the Maduro government, but not ordinary Venezuelans.
“It’s not a problem with Venezuela or with Venezuelans; it’s a problem for the corrupt ones. It doesn’t affect we Venezuelans.”
(REUTERS)
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Controversy Surrounds Argentine President
Argentine judge dismisses case against President Fernandez
Thursday, February 5, 2015
US Welcomes Letter from Castro
US welcomes letter from Fidel Castro on thaw in relations
The United States welcomed Tuesday former Cuban leader Fidel Castro's belated response to the thaw in ties between the Cold War foes as a sign that change is under way in Havana.
Venezuelan Officials Barred by US
US bars Venezuelan officials over alleged rights abuses
Fraught relations between the US and Venezuela turned openly hostile on Monday as Washington slapped new visa restrictions on Venezuelan officials involved in alleged human rights abuses and public corruption.
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