EU, Arab Spring favorites for Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Arab Spring or European Union? Speculation ahead of the Nobel Peace Prize announcement on Friday is split after cryptic comments by the award committee's chairman.

Thorbjoern Jagland, General Secretary of the Council of
Europe and Norwegian chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize
award committee gestures during an interview with the
Associated Press at his office at the Council of Europe in
Strasbourg, eastern France, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011.
Jagland says his panel has already decided on its laureate
for this year and he is confident that the selection will be
well-received. (AP Photo/Christian Lutz)

Many Nobel watchers have seen the revolutions against autocratic regimes in North Africa and the Middle East as the most likely subject of this year's prize. An American 

professor who wrote a guide to nonviolent protests was a bookmaker's favorite Thursday.

But Norway's TV2 expected the prize to go to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, while remarks by Thorbjoern Jagland, who has led the five-member Norwegian panel 

since 2009, have fueled speculation the prize could go to the EU.

Even though Norway is not a member, Jagland is a strong supporter of the 27-nation bloc, which many consider a peace-building project as much as an economic union.

In 1990, Jagland wrote a book titled "My European dream" about European unity following the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Aside from his Nobel duties he serves as 

secretary-general of the Council of Europe, a European human rights organization that is separate from the EU.

Jagland told The Associated Press this week that the prize — decided last Friday — would go to something "obvious" that he considered "the most positive development" in the world right now.

On Thursday he told Norwegian newspaper VG that this year's winner "is involved with something that has been important to me my whole life."

In several interviews he's suggested that Norwegian media are looking in the wrong places — and most of them have speculated about the award going to someone linked to the Arab Spring.

The deadline for nominations was Feb. 1, and committee members could add their own suggestions until Feb. 28. Jagland told AP that was "not necessarily" too late for consideration of leaders of the Arab Spring revolutions, which toppled regimes in Tunisia in January and Egypt in February.

But he added "that doesn't mean that the prize goes in that direction, because there are many other positive developments in the world."

The EU, or some institution within it, could be a strong candidate if the committee views the prize as a booster shot, like it had intended with the 2009 award to Barack Obama in the first year of his presidency.

The European debt crisis has put the bloc under heavy pressure, with Greece, Portugal and Ireland needing bailouts from international creditors including other nations in the 17-nation eurozone that uses the common euro currency.

But Sverre Lodgaard, a deputy member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee who didn't take part in its deliberations, told reporters Wednesday that he didn't believe in an EU award because it's a divisive issue in Norway.

Leading Nobel-guesser Kristian Berg Harpviken, the director of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, also doubted that the EU would get the prize.

His top picks are Egyptian activists Israa Abdel Fattah, Ahmed Maher and the April 6 Youth Movement, a pro-democracy Facebook group they co-founded in 2008.

He also suggested Wael Ghonim, a marketing executive for Google, for re-energizing the protests on Cairo's Tahrir Square after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, and 

Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni who started criticizing the Tunisian regime before the uprising began in December.

Another candidate could be Turkey's Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Harpviken said, to honor Turkish peace efforts "as a bridge builder between east and west."

Betting site paddypower.com gave the lowest odds Thursday to retired American scholar Gene Sharp, whose writings on nonviolent resistance are believed to have inspired some protesters in the Arab world. The second-lowest odds were given to Afghan human rights activist Sima Samar, a recurring name in Nobel speculation over the years.

Others getting bets include the Russian human rights organization Memorial and its founder Svetlana Gannushkina, and the social networking site Facebook.

Norway's TV2 predicted that Johnson Sirleaf would get the prize for promoting peace, democracy and economic growth in her country and advocating for women's rights at the U.N.

Source: 
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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EU bans imports of Syrian oil over crackdown

BEIRUT (AP) — The European Union banned oil imports from Syria on Friday in a move that will cost the embattled regime millions of dollars each day as it uses deadly force to try to crush a 5-month-old uprising. The same day, activists said, at least six people were killed in the crackdown. The deaths came as President Bashar Assad's security forces fired on thousands of anti-government protesters and surrounded mosques in southern and eastern cities to prevent worshippers from streaming into the streets to join the rallies, activists said. 

In this citizen journalism image made on a mobile phone and provided by Shaam News Network, anti government protesters hold Arabic placards reading:"The Friday of Death Rather Than Humiliation", center right, and "We want the free media to enter and reveal the truth", center left,during a demonstration against the Syrian regime, at Andan village, in Aleppo province, Syria, on Friday Sept. 2, 2011. Syria faced international calls for tougher sanctions as anti-government protesters vowed Friday they will choose death over humiliation at the hands of the regime. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS HANDOUT PHOTO

The U.N. estimates some 2,200 people have been killed since March as protesters face a barrage of shells and sniper fire. The regime is in no imminent danger of collapse, but the protesters are determined, leading to concerns violence could escalate. On Friday, Syrian protesters marched under the slogan "Death Rather Than Humiliation." The EU oil ban follows other international sanctions and blistering worldwide condemnation. The EU ban covers the purchase, import and transport of oil and other petroleum products from Syria. The EU also has banned European banks from opening credit lines for such sales, and prohibited insurance companies from insuring the cargos. In addition to the oil ban, four more Syrian individuals and three entities were added to a list of those facing an EU asset freeze and travel ban. Over the past few months, the EU has imposed travel bans and asset freezes against 35 Syrian government officials and military and police commanders, including Assad himself. Syria exports some 150,000 barrels of oil per day, generating $7 million to $8 million daily, according to David Schenker, director of the Program on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The vast majority of that oil goes to the European Union. Without that revenue, Syria will likely burn through foreign reserves far more quickly. It had $17 billion in reserves at the start of the uprising. Still, some analysts believe Syria is getting financial assistance from Iran, which would cushion the EU blow. Syria gets about 28 percent of its revenue from the oil trade and sells fuel to France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The EU has in the past been reluctant to ban Syrian oil and gas imports for fear of the impact on the Syrian public and small businesses. The EU oil embargo will bring the 27-nation bloc in line with the latest U.S. moves to isolate Assad's regime, including a ban on the import of petroleum or related products. In Poland, foreign ministry spokesman Marcin Bosacki told The Associated Press that the embargo is taking effect on Saturday. He said that EU foreign ministers meeting in the Baltic Sea resort of Sopot, in Poland, were to discuss the situation in Syria later Friday. Some EU nations have been lobbying for other sectors to be added to the sanctions regime, including telecommunications and banking. Recent weeks have seen a subtle change in tone among some activists, who are calling on Syrians to take up arms and inviting foreign military action like the intervention that helped topple the government of Libya. "The possibility of conflict in Syria entering a new phase is becoming more likely following almost six months of largely peaceful protests ... and growing external pressure," according to a briefing by Maplecroft, a British-based risk analysis company. Syrian troops fanned out Friday in cities including Daraa in the south and the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syria has banned foreign journalists and restricted local coverage, making it difficult to independently confirm events on the ground.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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US targets EU over GM crops - Wikileaks Leaks

The US embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a military-style trade war against any European Union country which opposed genetically modified (GM) crops, newly released WikiLeaks cables show.

In response to moves by France to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety in late 2007, the ambassador, Craig Stapleton, a friend and business partner of former US president George Bush, asked Washington topenalise the EU and particularly countries which did not support the use of GM crops.

"Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits.

"The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory. Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices," said Stapleton, who with Bush co-owned the St Louis-based Texas Rangers baseball team in the 1990s.

In other newly released cables, US diplomats around the world are found to have pushed GM crops as a strategic government and commercial imperative.

Because many Catholic bishops in developing countries have been vehemently opposed to the controversial crops, the US applied particular pressure to the pope's advisers.

The US embassy in Paris wanted to penalise the EU after France moved
to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features

Cables from the US embassy in the Vatican show that the US believes the pope is broadly supportive of the crops after sustained lobbying of senior Holy See advisers, but regrets that he has not yet stated his support. The US state department special adviser on biotechnology as well as government biotech advisers based in Kenya lobbied Vatican insiders to persuade the pope to declare his backing. "… met with [US monsignor] Fr Michael Osborn of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, offering a chance to push the Vatican on biotech issues, and an opportunity for post to analyse the current state of play on biotech in the Vatican generally," says one cable in 2008.

"Opportunities exist to press the issue with the Vatican, and in turn to influence a wide segment of the population in Europe and the developing world," says another.

But in a setback, the US embassy found that its closest ally on GM, Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the powerful Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the man who mostly represents the pope at the United Nations, had withdrawn his support for the US.

"A Martino deputy told us recently that the cardinal had co-operated with embassy Vatican on biotech over the past two years in part to compensate for his vocal disapproval of the Iraq war and its aftermath – to keep relations with the USG [US government] smooth. According to our source, Martino no longer feels the need to take this approach," says the cable.

In addition, the cables show US diplomats working directly for GM companies such as Monsanto. "In response to recent urgent requests by [Spanish rural affairs ministry] state secretary Josep Puxeu and Monsanto, post requests renewed US government support of Spain's science-based agricultural biotechnology position through high-level US government intervention."

It also emerges that Spain and the US have worked closely together topersuade the EU not to strengthen biotechnology laws. In one cable, the embassy in Madrid writes: "If Spain falls, the rest of Europe will follow."

The cables show that not only did the Spanish government ask the US to keep pressure on Brussels but that the US knew in advance how Spain would vote, even before the Spanish biotech commission had reported.


Source: Gaurdian

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