The Malaysian Insider :: World |
| Tunisia forces fight presidential guards near palace Posted: 16 Jan 2011 06:35 PM PST  A Tunisian army soldier patrols downtown Tunis yesterday January 16, 2011. — Reuters pic Fighting erupted near the presidential palace in a Tunis suburb, the source told Reuters, following other gun battles in the capital two days after Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted after more than 23 years as president. Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi promised rapid action to fill the power vacuum. "'Tomorrow we will announce the new government which will open a new page in the history of Tunisia," he said in a brief statement. Three opposition leaders would take posts in the new coalition, two sources close to negotiations on building the new government told Reuters. However, the interior and foreign ministers in the old administration would keep their jobs. The military source, who did not want to be identified, said people loyal to the arrested head of Ben Ali's security force had opened fire as they passed near the front of the palace. "Special military groups came out (from the palace) to pursue them and they started to exchange fire," the source said. Two witnesses who live near the palace, in the Carthage area several kilometres from the centre of Tunis, told Reuters by telephone they could hear heavy gunfire. "There is firing from around the presidential palace, intensive and continuous," said one woman. "It is a very loud noise. I think it is something more than just bullets." The official in charge of security for Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia on Friday after a wave of rioting, is to appear in court on charges of stoking violence and threatening national security. State television reported earlier that two other gun battles had broken a relative calm enforced by the army in Tunis, one near the central bank building and another outside an opposition party's headquarters about 1km away. Military and police sources said security forces had killed two gunmen stationed on a rooftop near the central bank, state TV's reporter said from the scene. A military official told the station that the two had been killed by fire from a helicopter. Earlier, the opposition PDP party said police and troops had stopped a carload of armed men and shots had been fired outside its headquarters. Najib Chebbi, founder of the PDP, would become regional development minister in the new government, the sources close to the negotiations said. Opposition leaders would also get the higher education and health portfolios. Ahmed Friaa, a former academic and junior minister appointed interior minister only last week when Ben Ali fired the previous incumbent during the rioting, would stay in his job, they said. Tanks were stationed around Tunis and soldiers were guarding public buildings. Residents, some of whom had said they were starting to get back to normal life during daylight, rebuilt makeshift barricades from branches and trash cans to block their streets and protect property as a night curfew approached. "We came out on the streets and dressed in white vests so we can identify one another," one man told Reuters Television earlier in the day. "We told the police in the neighbourhood that we are here and we're dressed in white — it was during curfew hours . . . some brought sticks and we collected rocks." Many Tunisians believe Ben Ali's family stole much of the country's wealth, and at his nephew's Mediterranean beachside mansion, they were taking it back yesterday. Crowds of people, some in family groups, filed through the villa in the resort of Hammamet, 60km from the capital, to take pictures and remove what some called "souvenirs". Visitors helped themselves to an air conditioner, pulled up an underground sprinkler system from the lawn, and tore electricity cables from the wall. "The people's money went into the garden," said one man as he held up two large decorative quartz rocks. "It makes me sad because he (Ben Ali and his family) stole all the money to build this house from the people of Tunisia," said Priska Nufar, who was taking a look around the mansion. "He lives in luxury and the people do not have money for food." On the highway heading north into Tunis, a group of youths with sticks and knives were stopping private cars and robbing them just a few kilometres from an army checkpoint, a Reuters Television crew said. Speaker of parliament Fouad Mebazza, sworn in as interim president, had asked Ghannouchi to form a government of national unity, and constitutional authorities said a presidential election should be held within 60 days. Ghannouchi held talks yesterday to fill the vacuum left when Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia after a month of protests over poverty, jobs and repression that claimed scores of lives. Opposition parties wanted assurances that presidential elections would be free, that they would have enough time to campaign, that the country would move towards greater democracy, and that the power of the ruling RCD party would be loosened. Chebbi said on Saturday that elections could be held under international supervision within six or seven months. The ousting of Tunisia's president could embolden Arab opposition movements and citizens to challenge entrenched governments across the Middle East. "It was always said that the Arab world was boiling, but the continued state of stagnation made some doubt infiltrate minds," said Hany al-Masri, a Palestinian commentator based in Ramallah. "I think this doubt has now gone." Hundreds of European tourists stranded by the unrest have been flown home on emergency flights. Police said they had caught two men with Swedish passports after one of the shooting incidents, and state television quoted a security source as saying four people carrying German passports had been detained in the same incident. However, the Swedish news agency TT said the men were part of a Swedish group visiting Tunisia to hunt wild boar, where they were attacked by a mob. — Reuters |
| Dampening the fireworks as Hu heads for US Posted: 16 Jan 2011 05:02 PM PST  President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao when they last met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Seoul last November 11, 2010. — Reuters pic The last time Hu and President Barack Obama met face-to-face was at the Group of 20 leaders summit in Seoul in November, when Washington was on the defensive because of widespread criticism over the Federal Reserve's US$600 billion (RM1.8 trillion) bond-buying programme. Instead of pressuring China to allow its yuan currency to rise more rapidly, Obama found himself trying to convince allies that the United States was not intentionally devaluing the dollar to gain a trade advantage. Back then, China's Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said "they owe us an explanation" over the Fed's bond buying, and admonished the US central bank to "consider the impacts on other countries in the world when they make their decisions, not just their own economy". The circumstances will look a little different when Hu visits the White House on Wednesday. Currency tensions have cooled somewhat. China's high inflation means the yuan has appreciated in real terms considerably more than the nominal exchange rate shows. Republican party gains in Congress suggest there may be less pressure coming from lawmakers to label China a currency manipulator or impose stiff new tariffs. "There isn't the unified sense that there was before the mid-term elections that the US needs to go after China," said Eswar Prasad, a Brookings Institution economist and former International Monetary Fund official. As for those fears about the Fed inflicting dollar damage, the dollar has actually strengthened against a basket of currencies since the central bank announced its bond-buying plan in early November. Hu will also be able to point to China's latest trade data showing December exports were not as strong as most economists expected. Comparable US data is not yet available, but figures for November showed exports to China hit a record high of US$9.5 billion, bolstering China's argument that it is doing its part to rebalance global growth. Cui once again spoke out ahead of this week's summit, but his tone was softer than in November. His most pointed comment was that Beijing would welcome assurances that its financial assets in the United States were safe. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner shrugged that off as nothing more than "the kind of things that you typically see . . . foreign ministry people say in the run-up to these meetings. It's the typical pattern, nothing exceptional or interesting in this." Sore spots To be sure, there are still plenty of trade frictions. The US trade deficit with China swelled to US$252.4 billion through November, up 21 per cent from the same period a year earlier. China's foreign exchange reserves climbed to US$2.85 trillion in December, much of it held in dollar-denominated assets, making China Washington's largest creditor. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke called for "more equitable" trade with China in a speech last week, and said China did not always follow through on its promises. Obama will no doubt press Hu to make good on pledges to enforce intellectual property protections and open the doors a bit wider to US businesses, which have long complained about unequal access. And yes, Obama will renew an oft-repeated call for China to allow the yuan to rise even more rapidly. Many economists expect that plea to receive a somewhat more favourable reception now because China is struggling to tamp down inflation, and a stronger yuan would be a useful tool. By tying a rise to domestic needs rather than foreign demands, China could do what Washington wants without appearing to bow to outside pressure. Chinese inflation data, scheduled for release the day after Hu's White House visit, is expected to show a year-on-year rise in the consumer price index of 4.4 per cent. That would be a modest cool-down from November's 5.1 per cent reading, but still uncomfortably high. Prasad, the Brookings economist, said thanks to the political shift in Congress and the inflation-driven rise in the yuan's real effective exchange rate, both sides feel less pressure now. "This creates a little bit of space in the short term for them to back off from a confrontation stance and focus on long-term strategic issues," he said. — Reuters |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: World To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Tiada ulasan:
Catat Ulasan