'US military aid would delay Israeli strike'

Arming Israel with extra military capabilities could allay its leaders' impatience to strike Iran, thus buying time for diplomacy, Obama's former national security adviser says

Yitzhak Benhorin

WASHINGTON - A former national security adviser to President Barack Obama says that the United States should provide Israel with the military aid that would sway its leaders to delay a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Dennis B. Ross, who served as a special assistant to Obama for the Middle East and South Asia from 2009 to 2011, says in an opinion piece published by the New York Times on Friday that by bolstering Israel's military capabilities with "additional bunker-busting bombs, tankers for refueling aircraft and targeting information," the US could allay the Jewish state's impatience to attack the Islamic Republic.

What Pussy Riot teaches us

By Olga Oliker, Special to CNN

Olga Oliker is a senior international policy analyst at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.

Pussy Riot has been everywhere. The blogosphere has been awash for weeks in demands that the three jailed members of this Russian performance art collective be freed. Yesterday, a Russian court rejected those demands.

The Case for a Change of Course in European Policy

Peter Bofinger

The euro crisis reflects the failure of a dead-end policy. The German government lacks the courage to move beyond a status quo that has become untenable. This is why, despite extensive rescue programs and countless crisis summits, the situation of the eurozone has steadily deteriorated over the past two years. In the wake of its economic crash, Greece faces the prospect of leaving the eurozone, which would have incalculable knock-on effects for the other member countries. Italy, Spain and Portugal are all in the grip of a severe recession, which is driving up unemployment. The economic downturn in these problem countries is making the fragile situation of the banks even more precarious, and the growing uncertainty about the future of monetary union is undermining the confidence of investors, who are increasingly reluctant to buy bonds issued by the problem countries. Rising interest rates for government bonds, coupled with the steadily deteriorating economic situation, are hampering the processes of consolidation – which were never going to be easy in the first place.

The Israeli Crisis

By George Friedman

Crises are normally short, sharp and intense affairs. Israel's predicament has developed on a different time frame, is more diffuse than most crises and has not reached a decisive and intense moment. But it is still a crisis. It is not a crisis solely about Iran, although the Israeli government focuses on that issue. Rather, it is over Israel's strategic reality since 1978, when it signed the Camp David accords with Egypt.

Perhaps the deepest aspect of the crisis is that Israel has no internal consensus on whether it is in fact a crisis, or if so, what the crisis is about. The Israeli government speaks of an existential threat from Iranian nuclear weapons. I would argue that the existential threat is broader and deeper, part of it very new, and part of it embedded in the founding of Israel.

Israel now finds itself in a long-term crisis in which it is struggling to develop a strategy and foreign policy to deal with a new reality. This is causing substantial internal stress, since the domestic consensus on Israeli policy is fragmenting at the same time that the strategic reality is shifting. Though this happens periodically to nations, Israel sees itself in a weak position in the long run due to its size and population, despite its current military superiority. More precisely, it sees the evolution of events over time potentially undermining that military reality, and it therefore feels pressured to act to preserve it. How to preserve its superiority in the context of the emerging strategic reality is the core of the Israeli crisis.

Greeks confront crime wave amid austerity

 

Some areas, locals say, are too dangerous to visit at night

Greece's faltering economy has put many people out of work and cut support for illegal immigrants. Now Greeks are facing a rise in crime their police seem unable to stop.

It probably never occurred to Niki Yanakopoulou that she might be in danger as she let herself into her central Athens apartment building in the middle of the day.
The 75-year-old had just been to the bank and police say the man who followed her home most likely chose her at random, hoping she would be carrying her pension.
He entered the building behind her and hit her on the back of the head with a metal pipe before stealing her purse.
Her son found her lying in a pool of blood in the hallway outside her flat but by then it was too late to save her life.

Βραζιλία, η ανερχόμενη δύναμη

Η φιλοξενία των δύο κορυφαίων αθλητικών γεγονότων του κόσμου -του Παγκοσμίου Πρωταθλήματος Ποδοσφαίρου το 2014 και των Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων το 2016- δεν αποτελεί απλά μία οργανωτική πρόκληση για τη Βραζιλία. Για την ανερχόμενη οικονομική και πολιτική δύναμη της λατινικής Αμερικής, οι δύο αυτές διοργανώσεις αποκτούν και ένα πολύ ισχυρό συμβολικό περιεχόμενο. 

Τα τελευταία χρόνια η Βραζιλία έχει αποκτήσει πιο ισχυρή «φωνή» σε θέματα όπως το διεθνές εμπόριο και η ενέργεια. Όταν ξέσπασε η παγκόσμια οικονομική κρίση του 2008, η Βραζιλία φαινόταν έτοιμη να ανακάμψει πιο γρήγορα από άλλους, κυρίως λόγω των ισχυρών βιομηχανικών και γεωργικών εξαγωγών της. 

Κλιμακώνεται η ένταση στις σχέσεις Κίνας - Ιαπωνίας

Ένας στολίσκος από περίπου 20 ιαπωνικά σκάφη αναχώρησε σήμερα για τα διαφιλονικούμενα νησιά Σενκάκου ώστε να επαναβεβαιώσει την κυριαρχία της Ιαπωνίας σε αυτό το αρχιπέλαγος στη Θάλασσα της Ανατολικής Κίνας, παρά τις έντονες διαμαρτυρίες του Πεκίνου. Ο στολίσκος αναχώρησε περίπου στις 14:30 ώρα Ελλάδας από το ιαπωνικό νησί Ισικάγκι, στο νοτιότερο σημείο της Ιαπωνίας, για τα νησιά Σενκάκου, τα οποία η Κίνα αποκαλεί Ντιαογού.

Λίγο νωρίτερα το Πεκίνο είχε καλέσει την Ιαπωνία «να σταματήσει αμέσως τις ενέργειες που ζημιώνουν την εδαφική ακεραιότητα» της Κίνας, καθώς κλιμακώνεται η ένταση μεταξύ των δύο χωρών για την κυριότητα των νησιών αυτών.

Οι ΗΠΑ εξετάζουν την αποδέσμευση πετρελαίου από τα στρατηγικά αποθέματα

Ο Λευκός Οίκος επιβεβαίωσε σήμερα ότι η αποδέσμευση πετρελαίου από τα στρατηγικά αποθέματα των ΗΠΑ αποτελεί μια επιλογή που εξετάζεται και σημείωσε ότι παρακολουθεί τις αλλαγές στις τιμές στην παγκόσμια αγορά πετρελαίου.

"Όπως έχουμε πει εδώ και κάποιο καιρό, μια αποδέσμευση από τα Στρατηγικά Αποθέματα Πετρελαίου αποτελεί μια επιλογή που βρίσκεται στο τραπέζι», δήλωσε ο εκπρόσωπος του Λευκού Οίκου Τζος Έρνεστ.