Security Council to hold open debate on Middle East on July 26, according to provisional calendar.
The UN Security Council plans to discuss in July the possibility of Palestine becoming a United Nations member state, the Security Council president said on Tuesday.
The Arab League has said it would request UN membership for a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital at the UN General Assembly in September.
An open debate on the Middle East has been scheduled for July 26 according to a provisional calendar for the Security Council for July.
"I think (that) will be an occasion to explore the various options that might exist on the Palestinian side," said German Ambassador Peter Wittig, UN Security Council president, in response to a question about when the issue would be debated. Germany holds the Security Council presidency in July.
Wittig pointed to an upcoming Quartet meeting as a possible indicator on the situation.
The Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- are expected to meet on July 11. The meeting, expected to take place in Washington, will come amid a U.S. push to revive peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Separately, a spokesman for UN chief Ban Ki-Moon said he could not give a firm date as to when the much-delayed findings from a panel set up to investigate the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident would be released.
"I don't think we are at the point where the report would be handed over - when that happens obviously we'll let you know," he said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Last August, Ban appointed a panel headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer to investigate last year's Israeli attack on an aid convoy bound for Gaza.
Haarez
hostgator coupon 2011
In his numerous fund-raising and policy speeches around the country these days, President Obamaoften bemoans the difficult economic times and uncertainties afflicting millions of Americans, including the nearly 14 million still seeking work unsuccessfully.
The Democrat argues that his administration needs more time to straighten out the economic mess left by somebody else, who's been gone almost 900 days now.
But good news this morning: The challenging Obama era and 9.1% national unemployment rate do not include the 454 people now helping President Obama do presidential things.
This crowd is being paid a total of $37,121,463 this year. That's up seven staff members and nearly $4 million from 2008, the last year of George W. Bush's presidency.
Fully 141 Obama aides -- or nearly one-in-three -- earn more than $100,000 a year. That's also up from the 130 with that scale salary in Bush's last year.
Twenty-one Obama aides earn the top-dollar $172,200.
The staff names and salaries report, required annually by Congress, was released on Friday by the White House. The timing, however, was probably an accident because last Friday most Americans were not watching the news closely and were thinking of not working for a three-day holiday weekend.
Because Americans would no doubt be pleased to know of the Obama staff's economic success amid the bleak national scene for so many others, we saved the information for today, when most Americans who are still employed are back at their own jobs and can share the joy.
The 2011 White House salary report does not include mention of the 41 unidentified Obama staff members who owe the Internal Revenue Service $831,000 in back taxes. That report came out last fall (Scroll down for the link.)
The report comes as Republicans and Democrats, led from behind by Obama, appear stalemated in closed-door negotiations over a package deal to raise the national debt limit by Aug. 2 and begin spending cuts to tame the $14.2-trillion national debt, up 35% since Obama's inauguration. Obama maintains a deal must include new revenues to cover the rising costs of government.
Having Chicago connections appears to be useful for obtaining the maximum $172,200 salary from the Illinois ex-state senator Obama, who is paid $400,000 a year, almost twice the amount paid toJoe Biden for doing whatever he does. But he's only from Delaware.
The top paychecks include:
Chief of Staff William Daley, who is the brother of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who just retired and left the top Democratic-machine job there to Rahm Emanuel, who was Obama's chief of staff and before that held the Chicago House seat of Rod Blagojevich, who had given it up to become governor of Illinois, which he no longer is due to impeachment and, now, conviction on 17 counts of fraud.
The Daleys' father, Richard J. Daley, was also a longtime Chicago mayor whose operatives provided Illinois' crucial electoral votes to elect John F. Kennedy president back in 1960 before Obama was born.
Valerie Jarrett has a White House title as long as Chicago's winters (senior advisor and assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement). Before this, she was a chief of staff for the most recent Mayor Daley and hired an assistant named Michelle Robinson, who went on, of course, to become Mrs. Barack Obama, whose chief of staff also earns the top $172G paycheck.
This year, the one before Obama's attempted reelection, he reduced his staff by 15 people and $1.7 million.
Some White House aides have already returned to Chicago as campaign employees, including political strategist David Axelrod, who helped elect the most recent Mayor Daley, as well as, briefly, Sen. Obama and then President Obama. Axelrod also made the top salary when he had to live in Washington.
Los Angeles Times
hostgator coupon 2011
The credit ratings agency Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Portugal's debt to junk status.
The agency said there was a growing risk the country would need a second bail-out before it was ready to borrow money from financial markets again.
Moody's was concerned that if there was a second bail-out, private lenders might have to contribute.
Portugal's government said Moody's had not taken into account the strong backing for austerity measures.
It said that the programme of economic measures announced last week was "the only way to reverse the course and restore confidence" in Portugal.
Discussions are under way about the possibility of banks that have lent money to Greece waiting longer to be repaid.
Moody's said that prospect would scare private investors and make it even harder for Portugal to borrow money commercially again.
It said the talk of a private bail-out was "significant not only because it increases the economic risks facing current investors but also because it may discourage new private sector lending going forward".
Portugal, Greece and the Irish Republic were all given bail-out loans to give them time to repair their economies so they could borrow money normally again.
But Greece has already had to start negotiating a second bail-out.'Formidable challenges'
The agency also said it was concerned that Portugal would not be able to achieve the deficit reduction targets set out as conditions for its first bail-out from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
It blamed this on "the formidable challenges the country is facing in reducing spending, increasing tax compliance, achieving economic growth and supporting the banking system".
Portugal was supposed to cut its deficit to 3% of its gross domestic product by 2013, from last year's 9.1%.'Contagion'
"The Portugal downgrade clearly is negative because as the downgrades spread from the weakest to the weaker, the market is now asking, 'if Portugal is downgraded, will Spain be next?'" said Cary Leahey, an economist at Decision Economics in New York.
"It's symptomatic of the contagion effects in the eurozone."
Moody's cut Portugal's rating by four notches from from Baa1 to Ba2.
The other two major ratings agencies still list Portugal as BBB, which is above junk status.
Moody's last cut Portugal's rating in April, predicting the original bail-out loans of 78bn euros ($112bn; £70bn) from the EU and the IMF.
The country was bailed out in May, when it could no longer manage its debts.
It was the third country to be bailed out, after Greece and the Irish Republic.
Portugal got into trouble because low growth in the economy made it difficult for the government to fund its spending.
It gradually lost competitiveness as wages increased and tariffs on cheap exports from Asia were cut.
When the financial crisis came, Portugal had a great deal of debt, which was suddenly much more expensive to finance.
BBC
MORE:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14038529
hostgator coupon 2011
