US President Barack Obama said the world backed his plan to end the Afghan war in two years, as President Hamid Karzai promised a NATO summit his bloodied state would no longer be a “burden.”

Leaders of the 28 NATO nations stood in solemn silence as a bugler’s lament recalled the heavy cost of a conflict that has killed over 3,000 coalition soldiers, maimed thousands more and left tens of thousands of Afghans dead.

As war weary western publics pine for an exit, the two-day summit was set to endorse a withdrawal strategy and seek firm commitments from alliance states to train and bankroll Afghan forces to ensure a decade of sacrifice is not wasted.

Before the summit, Obama met Karzai three weeks after his dramatic flight into Kabul where the two leaders inked a security pact for going forward after the withdrawal of international troops in late 2014.

“We’re confident that we are on the right track, and what this NATO Summit reflects is that the world is behind the strategy that we’ve laid out,” Obama told reporters, even as France prepares to pull its troops out in 2012, a year earlier than planned.

Karzai said his country no longer wanted to be a “burden,” urging the international community to complete a security transition to his Afghan forces as it pulls combat troops, currently numbering 130,000, by the end of 2014.

“Afghanistan… is looking forward to an end to this war and a transformational decade in which Afghanistan will be working further for institution building and the development of sound governance in the country,” he said.

Along with reaffirming the 2014 deadline, the summit is expected to back Obama’s plan to cede the lead in combat missions to Afghan troops next year, while making a commitment to securing $4 billion annually for Afghan forces.

A Western official told AFP Sunday that nations with troops in Afghanistan had pledged roughly $1 billion to bankroll Afghan security forces after 2014. The bulk of the funding is expected to come from the United States.

While NATO said the war effort was on track, it faced more uncertainty over the reopening of key supply routes into Afghanistan, closed in November after botched US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani troops.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s attendance at the summit had raised hopes his government was ready to lift the blockade on NATO convoys, but talks on reopening the routes have stumbled over Islamabad’s demand to charge steep fees for trucks crossing the border.

In a sign of the waning appetite to engage in further conflict, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the western defense alliance was not prepared to intervene in Syria despite concern at the bloodshed there.

“We strongly condemn the behavior of the Syrian security forces and their crackdowns on the Syrian population and we urge the Syrian leadership to accommodate the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people,” he told reporters.

“But again NATO has no intention to intervene in Syria.”

The summit in Obama’s hometown went ahead under a massive security operation as normally bustling Chicago streets were deserted and monitored by police.

Boats with machine guns patrolled a river near Obama’s hotel and the police and Secret Service enforced a wide security perimeter around the conference center. It was the first summit of the 28-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization on US soil in more than a decade.

Thousands of protestors have taken to the streets in recent days calling for an end to war. Although the rallies have been largely peaceful, scuffles broke out Sunday when some hardcore demonstrators refused police orders to disperse.

The NATO talks come against a backdrop of a changing geopolitical landscape for the 63-year-old organization which also has to confront shrinking defense budgets.

Leaders on Sunday launched the first phase of a US-led missile shield for Europe, risking the wrath of Russia which has threatened to deploy rockets to EU borders in response.

“We have decided to develop a NATO missile defense system, because we consider the missile threat a real threat, and against a real threat we need a real defense to protect our populations effectively,” Rasmussen said.

But he added the dialogue with Russia would continue.

Obama and fellow leaders also agreed on a slew of some 20 joint projects to pool military hardware as part of a so-called “Smart Defense” initiative.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/294381/show-of-nato-unity-over-unpopular-afghan-war

At a NATO summit in Chicago, alliance chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen voiced concern about the violence, but said NATO had “no intention” of taking military action against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

No one was hurt in the Douma blast, which came as UN truce mission head Major General Robert Mood and peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous were leading observers around the north Damascus suburb, an AFP correspondent reported.

But elsewhere in the country at least 48 people were killed, including 34 in an assault by regime forces on a village in central Hama province, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Syrian troops rained shells down on the village of Souran, it said, describing the deaths as a “massacre” and urging UN observers to deploy immediately in the area.

The device in Douma, a rocket propelled-grenade according to a Syrian army officer in the area, exploded just a few dozen metres (yards) from the UN team.

The UN observers could not immediately confirm the nature of the explosion, but urged all parties to respect the ceasefire that went into effect on April 12 and put an end to fighting.

“I think this is clearly one of these situations where it is absolutely imperative that all parties exercise restraint and do not engage in any more fighting,” said Ladsous.

“There is not a ceasefire. But there has been a decrease in the level of violence… in large part thanks to the presence of the UN observers. It is clear at the same time that the ceasefire is not complete,” he said.

Ladsous also reported meeting Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem earlier on Sunday to discuss the observers’ mission.

“There are still some aspects that need to be discussed regarding the function of the mission,” said Ladsous, adding “there were still more aspects that needed to be looked at and worked out cooperatively.”

State-run SANA news agency said Muallem informed Ladsous that armed rebels had violated the UN-backed ceasefire hundreds of times.

“The armed opposition has carried out 3,500 violations since the ceasefire was established,” Muallem’s spokesman Jihad Makdisi was quoted as saying.

Fierce clashes between regime troops and rebels determined to oust Assad from power had been underway in Douma and other parts of Damascus since the early hours of the day, activists said.

The Observatory said regime forces shelled the outskirts of Douma overnight with rockets crashing into the suburb during the day.

Sunday’s blast followed several other close calls for the UN monitors since they deployed in Syria, where 260 observers are now on the ground according to Mood.

On May 16, a convoy of UN observers was struck by a homemade bomb in the central city of Homs, damaging three vehicles but causing no casualties.

A similar convoy was hit by a roadside bomb on May 9 in the southern province of Daraa, wounding six Syrian soldiers escorting them.

NATO chief Rasmussen said the Chicago summit “strongly condemn(ed) the behavior of the Syrian security forces and their crackdowns on the Syrian population”.

It also urged “the Syrian leadership to accommodate the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people”.

“But again NATO has no intention to intervene in Syria.”

NATO governments have come under criticism for backing an air war in Libya but ruling out military intervention in Syria, where opposition demonstrators and badly outgunned rebels have been hammered by heavily-armed regime forces.

Rasmussen urged the Syrian regime to comply with a UN ceasefire and peace plan, saying it was “the best platform for finding a solution in Syria”.

The United States is supplying communication equipment and night-vision goggles to Syrian rebels, but so far has stopped short of openly arming the rebels.

In Hama province “thirty-four people were killed under shelling and gunfire in Souran village while it was being raided,” the Observatory said, adding that children were among the dead.

Elsewhere across the country 14 other people were killed in violence on Sunday, it added.

The latest violence came after the G8 nations said a “political transition” was needed to end the crisis in Syria, where monitors say more than 12,000 people have died in a government crackdown since March 2011.

The AFP correspondent said the streets of Douma were deserted and most of its shops were closed.

“When the observers leave, the armed men will come back to cause trouble,” a soldier told reporters, in a reference to rebels.

After the blast, Ladsous described what he saw of Douma as “a city paralysed”.

“People who cannot go out, who cannot exercise their normal lives, this is simply hard to accept.”

Meanwhile gunmen assassinated ruling Baath party official Adib Habb al-Rumman in the city of Jisr al-Shughur, in northwestern Idlib province, the Observatory said.

“There is definitely an increase in assassinations targeting people associated with the regime, be they officials or pro-regime businessmen,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Also on Sunday protests took place in southern Daraa province to demand the release of activist and citizen journalist Mohammed al-Hariri, who was arrested on April 16 after he gave an interview to Al-Jazeera.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Hariri has been sentenced to death for “high treason.”

Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Makdisi said meanwhile that Kofi Annan, the special UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, was expected in Damascus at the end of the month and that Syria “welcomes” the visit.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/294386/blast-near-un-monitors-as-syria-deaths-mount

The largest demonstration of the summit weekend ended late Sunday with a tense scuffle between protesters and police, with officers wielding batons and some demonstrators throwing bottles and other debris.

There was no official tally on injuries, but seven demonstrators were treated at one hospital. Police had no information on any officers who were injured. There were hundreds of demonstrators when the confrontation began, but the crowd thinned considerably as police held their ground and slowly pushed the demonstrators away.

Peace activists joined with war veterans and people more focused on the economy for the protest, which was expected to draw thousands of participants. They walked 2-1/2 miles Monday morning (Thailand time) to the site where President Barack Obama and other world leaders were meeting to discuss the war in Afghanistan, European missile defense and other issues.

Obama had earlier moved the G8 summit out of Chicago in order to spare world leaders the protests.

On Sunday, it began escalating. Marchers arrived at Grant Park with signs denouncing Nato, including ones that read: “War=Debt” and “NATO, Go Home.”

As a massive anti-war rally ended Sunday afternoon, police and demonstrators scuffled just blocks from where Nato dignitaries were meeting.

Police and demonstration leaders urged calm, but several hundred protesters pushed repeatedly against a line of police dressed in full riot gear – and police donned gas masks.

Officers lined up four deep in a show of strength, hoping to keep the demonstrators at bay. As the crowd surged forward, some officers swung their batons.

One protester had blood pouring from the side of his head.

Moments earlier, a group of veterans had taken the stage holding an American flag.

Some in the crowd chanted “Burn that flag! Burn that flag!” The veterans then folded the flag and handed it to Mary Kirkland, whose son was killed on his second tour in Iraq.

“I’m here to protest NATO, which I feel is the enforcement arm of the ruling 1 per cent – of the capitalist 1 per cent,” said protester John Schraufnagel, who took a bus from Minneapolis to Chicago.

Sunday’s protest followed several smaller demonstrations over the previous two days, including a march Saturday to the home of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff.

Police and activists clashed repeatedly Saturday evening in a series of pushing and shoving confrontations in the main downtown area called the Loop, following a day of cat-and-mouse marches that tested the physical and mental stamina of both sides.

Police and activists clashed repeatedly Saturday evening in a series of pushing and shoving confrontations in the main downtown area called the Loop, following a day of cat-and-mouse marches that tested the physical and mental stamina of both sides.

The crowd remained largely peaceful and there were no reports of major damage. Police likewise accomplished a goal of keeping protesters away from the glizty Michigan Avenue retail district, where many Nato dignitaries are staying.

A mob wielding batons and hammers entered the Ashford House restaurant Sunday and began attacking patrons.

Police called the melee a targeted assault by 18 young men, all wearing hooded jackets obscuring their faces. Ten diners were hurt in the attack, and three of those were hospitalised.

Hackers attacked the City of Chicago’s official website, putting it off the internet with a “denial of service attack”.

The statement said, quoting verbatim: “let us unite and show the violent Chicago police, and the government big brother tactic’s that we are not gonna take this.”

A YouTube video attributed to Anonymous and a previously unknown AntiS3curityOPS claimed the hackers started “an operation toward the Chicago police department and its websites”.

Five men have been arrested and charged with planning terrorism to disrupt the meeting.

Just before the summit, police arrested and charged three activists with terrorism.

A Cook County judge ordered the trio held on $1.5 million (47 million baht) bail each, and their legal plight quickly offered a new rallying point for protesters who dubbed them the “NATO 3″.

The men were charged with making Molotov cocktails to throw at the protests on Sunday. They allegedly planned to attack Obama’s campaign headquarters and the home of Chicago mayor and major Obama supporter Rahm Emanuel, prosecutors alleged.

The men were arrested in a raid that defence attorneys said was nothing more than a scare tactic designed to quell protests planned around the meeting of world leaders in the city.

“We believe this is all a setup and entrapment to the highest degree,” defense attorney Michael Deutsch told reporters.

On Sunday, police announced the arrest of two more on charges of terrorism and making a false threat. They were also accused of planning to make Molotov cocktails to be used during the summit.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/294304/protesters-face-police-in-chicago

Beijing aims to take advantage of “mostly US” defense-related technologies in the private sector in a concerted effort to modernize the country’s armed forces and extend China’s reach in the Asia-Pacific region, the Pentagon wrote in a report to Congress on Friday.

The annual assessment of China’s military resembled previous reports but adopted more diplomatic language, possibly to avoid aggravating delicate relations with Beijing, analysts said.

“I am struck by the decidedly mellow tone,” Christopher Johnson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told AFP.

Chinese officials are sure to privately welcome the report’s wording, after having been irritated by a strategy document issued by President Barack Obama in January that portrayed China as a military rival.

“This is much friendlier” than the January strategy paper, Johnson noted.

The report said Beijing had a goal of leveraging “legally and illegally acquired dual-use and military-related technologies to its advantage.”

“Interactions with Western aviation manufacturing firms may also inadvertently benefit China’s defense aviation industry,” the Pentagon warned.

Echoing recent warnings from intelligence officials, the Pentagon also blamed China for “many” of the world’s cyber intrusions over the past year targeting US government and commercial networks, including companies “that directly support US defense programs.”

The report warned that “Chinese actors are the world’s most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage,” and predicted that those spying efforts would continue.

China’s investments in cyber warfare were cause for “concern,” said David Helvey, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia and Asia Pacific security affairs.

Beijing was clearly “looking at ways to use cyber for offensive operations,” Helvey told reporters.

The American military has long worried that China could potentially limit the reach of US naval ships in the western Pacific with new weapons, and the Pentagon report underlined those concerns.

China “is also acquiring and fielding greater numbers of conventional medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) to increase the range at which it can conduct precision strikes against land targets and naval ships, including aircraft carriers, operating far from China’s shores beyond the first island chain,” said the report.

Beijing is pouring money into advanced air defenses, submarines, anti-satellite weapons and anti-ship missiles that could all be used to deny an adversary access to strategic areas, such as the South China Sea, it said.

US strategists — and some defense contractors — often refer to the threat posed by China’s so-called “carrier-killer” missiles, but Helvey said the anti-ship weapons currently have “limited operational capability.”

China’s military budget officially reached $106 billion in 2012, an 11.2 percent increase.

But the US report said China’s defense budget does not include major expenditures such as improvements to nuclear forces or purchases of foreign-made weapons. Real defense spending amounts to $120 to $180 billion, the report said.

US military spending, however, still dwarfs Chinese investments, with the Pentagon’s proposed budget for 2013 at more than $600 billion.

Despite a sustained increase in defense spending over the past decade, China has experienced setbacks with some satellite launches and ambitious projects to produce a fifth-generation fighter jet and modern aircraft carrier still face challenges, according to the report.

Although looking to expand its traditional missions to include counter-piracy and humanitarian efforts, the top priority of the People’s Liberation Army remains a possible conflict in the Taiwan Strait.

The report said China is focused on preventing the United States from intervening successfully in support of Taiwan.

The document was released as the House of Representatives voted to force the US government to sell 66 new fighter-jets to Taiwan.

President Barack Obama’s administration, anxious to keep ties with China on track, is only planning to upgrade existing planes. The measure still needs Senate approval.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/294109/china-pursuing-steady-military-build-up-pentagon

The blastoff of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the unmanned Dragon and over half a ton of cargo toward the orbiting lab, is scheduled for 4:55 am (0855 GMT) Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in south Florida.

The forecast was 70 percent favorable for the first-of-its kind attempt to send a privately built spacecraft to the research outpost, where it plans to do a fly-under followed by a berthing in the coming days.

Until now, only the space agencies of Russia, Japan and Europe have been able to send supply ships to the ISS.

The United States had that capacity too, with its iconic space shuttle that long served as part astronaut bus, part delivery truck for the lab.

But the 30-year shuttle program ended for good in 2011, leaving Russia as the sole astro-taxi to the ISS until private industry could come up with a replacement.

SpaceX is the first of several US competitors to try sending its own cargo-bearing spacecraft to the ISS with the goal of restoring US access to space for human travelers by 2015.

The company made history with its Dragon launch in December 2010, becoming the first commercial outfit to send a spacecraft into orbit and back.

“If successful, there is no doubt this is a historic flight,” said SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell. “We really stand in awe of the opportunity to attempt this.”

However, she acknowledged that even if liftoff goes as planned, many complicated and risky maneuvers lie ahead as the Dragon attempts to berth with the space outpost, which has six astronauts on board.

“I think we are going to be biting off our fingers between now and hour 75,” she said, referring to the time span between Saturday’s launch and berthing, scheduled for Tuesday.

Another key hurdle is the near-instantaneous launch window, which, if not met within seconds, would force the mission to be postponed until May 22, 25 or 29, Shotwell said. Slightly less favorable windows also open on May 23 and 26.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk, an Internet entrepreneur, billionaire and cofounder of PayPal, also admitted in an interview with AFP earlier this month to suffering sleepless nights.

Musk has publicly fretted over the the complicated matter of latching on to the space station, which he described as moving faster than a speeding bullet.

“The space station is zooming around the Earth every 90 minutes, and it is going 17,000 miles (27,000 kilometers) an hour,” he told reporters in April.

“So you have got to launch up there and you’ve got to rendezvous and be backing into the space station within inches really, and this is something that is going 12 times faster than the bullet from an assault rifle. So it’s hard.”

However, the 40-year-old vowed to keep fans posted by “tweeting live from mission control during launch,” for those who follow his Twitter handle, @elonmusk.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, NASA’s acting director of Commercial Spaceflight Development Phil McAlister played down expectations for the flight.

“This is a test flight. NASA views test flights primarily as learning opportunities,” said McAlister.

“If it gets us in a better posture to fly next time, that is a good thing.”

SpaceX, a California-based company, has benefited from NASA dollars in its quest but has also poured its own money into the endeavor.

Shotwell said SpaceX is firmly in the black and has been for years, even after spending about $1.2 billion on its space projects so far.

SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation both have billion-dollar contracts with NASA to supply cargo to the ISS in the coming years, and they get NASA funds in exchange for meeting key milestones in their projects.

NASA has given SpaceX about $390 million so far of the total $680 million SpaceX has spent on cargo development, she said.

SpaceX also gets funding from NASA on a separate effort to develop a commercial crew vehicle for carrying astronauts to space, along with competitors Blue Origin, Boeing and Sierra Nevada.

In a few years’ time, Shotwell said she hopes SpaceX will be able to undercut the hefty price NASA pays Russia for US astronauts to get a seat aboard the Soyuz space capsule — around $63 million a ticket.

With seven seats aboard the Dragon capsule, she said SpaceX could someday offer that to NASA for $140 million per mission — about $20 million per seat.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/294110/spacex-counts-down-to-ambitious-iss-launch

The shares, priced at $38 on Thursday in the largest-ever initial public offering (IPO) for a technology firm, eked out a gain of 0.61 per cent to end at $38.23, amid record volume of more than 567 million shares.

Facebook stock saw roller-coaster action in what was one of most keenly awaited issues in history.

Shares jumped 12 per cent to $42.55 in the opening Nasdaq trades but within minutes fell back to the offering price and despite a midday rally closed almost flat.

“The negativity in the market overall has put a damper on the IPO,” said Darren Hayes, a Pace University professor and former investment banker.

“It’s not uncommon in an IPO to see a big rise and then for the price to come back down, but I’m a bit surprised after all the hype to see such a small gain,” he said.

“I think there may be some skeptical investors who see some challenges in the long-term outlook of the company.”

Gerard Hoberg, an economist at the University of Maryland said there was enthusiasm from some buyers but skepticism from professionals.

“What I think is going on is you have a lot of bullishness from retail investors, people who use Facebook, and there’s a lot of those investors creating a lot of buying pressure,” he said.

Hoberg said the market introduction “is not a disaster by any stretch, and you also could say that the Facebook owners are quite pleased because they didn’t leave a lot of money on the table. But it will not be a pleasant taste in people’s mouths if Facebook falls below $38 anytime in the near future.”

A report on the Business Insider financial blog said the price did not fall below $38 because of a large number of standing orders at the offering price. The Wall Street Journal said the underwriting investment banks also stepped in to support the price.

This sets up questions about Facebook trade on Monday.

James Hughes, chief market analyst at London’s Alpari said “the real value of Facebook is not likely to be known until the hype of the IPO has died away and investor have been able to digest how the company is going evolve to be the money-making machine many expect it to be.”

Investors were expected to be hungry to get a piece of Facebook, which has become a global phenomenon since its beginnings in 2004 as a project of then-Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg and his classmates.

Zuckerberg, wearing his trademark hooded sweatshirt, remotely rang the bell to open the Nasdaq, marking the historic share offering that confirms the growing importance of the social network giant.

“Going public is an important milestone in our history,” Zuckerberg told the crowd at the company’s campus in Menlo Park.

“But here’s the thing. Our mission isn’t to be a public company. Our mission is to make the world more open and connected.”

Zuckerberg and hundreds of employees cheered as the 28-year-old co-founder rang the bell via video for the New York-based Nasdaq. He wore a dark hoodie, unfazed by criticism from some on Wall Street about his casual attire.

The market debut was disappointing compared with some recent tech IPOs: the LinkedIn social network doubled on its first day last year and Groupon jumped 30 per cent. But Pandora rose a more modest 8.9 per cent and Zynga lost five per cent on its first day.

Trip Chowdhry, who follows Facebook for Global Equities Research, said the “lackluster” opening was because Facebook failed to answer questions about how it will increase revenues and adapt to the mobile Internet.

“Management cannot sing and dance around the key issues,” he said.

The IPO gave Facebook a dizzying value of $104 billion at its market debut.

It raised more than $16 billion, making it the richest after that of financial giant Visa in 2008, according to Renaissance Capital. The addition of a possible stock “over-allotment” could boost the total to $18.4 billion.

Facebook itself sold 180 million shares and early investors in the company the remaining 241 million.

With its current market value, Facebook is now among the most valuable US companies, ahead of sector giants Amazon ($97 billion) and Cisco ($89 billion), and more than twice the value of Ford Motor Co. ($38 billion).

But it remains behind Google ($201 billion) and Apple ($498 billion).

Under the share plan, Zuckerberg will hold 55.8 per cent of the voting power of Facebook shares, and over 18 per cent of the value of the company.

One of the shadows hanging over Facebook is concerns over privacy.

Some consumer and privacy advocates say Facebook has been too loose with user data, and hope that as a publicly traded company, it may change its tune.

The IPO’s net proceeds to Facebook were some $6.8 billion. The rest of the cash goes to Facebook insiders and others who made early investments in the social network, and to cover the IPO costs.

Facebook posted a profit of $668 million last year as revenue vaulted to $1.06 billion.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/294099/facebook-falls-flat-in-public-debut

Spain’s Queen Sophia has pulled out of the event at Windsor Castle, west of London, amid tensions over Gibraltar, while there were protests over the invite of Swaziland’s King Mswati III.

Rights groups are also angered that the guest list, released by Buckingham Palace on Friday, includes Bahrain’s King Hamad, whose Gulf island country is in a state of civil unrest following a deadly crackdown on protests.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “The sovereigns lunch is a matter for Buckingham Palace, but we understand all reigning sovereigns have been invited.

“The jubilee celebrations are about marking 60 years of the queen’s reign, they are not a political event.

“The palace is not releasing further details, including details of the guest list, until the day of the engagement.”

Queen Sofia, the consort of King Juan Carlos, cancelled her trip due to tensions with Britain over the tiny Gibraltar peninsula, which Spain ceded to Britain in perpetuity in 1713.

Last week Madrid protested to London over a planned June 11-13 jubilee visit to Gibraltar on behalf of Queen Elizabeth by her youngest son Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

“The government considers it is hardly adequate that in the current circumstances, Queen Sofia take part in Queen Elizabeth’s jubilee,” a spokesman for the Spanish royal household said Wednesday.

The Spanish king and queen were due to attend the Windsor lunch, which is being held to mark Elizabeth’s 60 years on the throne, but King Juan Carlos had already pulled out, recovering from hip replacement surgery after a fall during an elephant hunting expedition in Africa.

After the lunch, Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are hosting a dinner for the foreign sovereign monarchs at Buckingham Palace in London.

Not all the sovereigns are attending both events.

Japan’s Emperor Akihito — who attended Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953 — and Empress Michiko are going. They visited the Kyoto Garden in London’s Holland Park on Thursday.

On Wednesday, a group of Swazis living in Britain protested outside London’s luxurious Savoy Hotel, where King Mswati was said to be staying with an entourage of more than 30 people.

Swaziland Vigil co-ordinator Thobile Gwebu said that in contrast Swazis had been reduced to eating cow dung.

She said Swazis in Britain did not want to spoil the jubilee celebrations but had written to Queen Elizabeth, asking her to influence King Mswati.

Meanwhile former Europe minister Denis MacShane blasted the Foreign Office — thought to have assisted on logistical matters — for not stopping King Hamad’s invite.

The Bahraini regime “has done such terrible things to its own people since the Arab awakening a year ago”, he said.

“For too long we have turned a blind eye to the repression carried out under the rule of royals in Arabia.”

The Foreign Office “should protect the British queen rather than expose her to having to dine with a despot”.

Prominent rights campaigner Peter Tatchell went further, saying that “inviting blood-stained despots brings shame to our monarchy and tarnishes the diamond jubilee celebrations”.

He said the monarchs of Brunei, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland and the United Arab Emirates all “preside over regimes that abuse human rights”.

Queen Elizabeth, 86, and her husband Prince Philip, 90, visited northwest England on Thursday as part of their jubilee tour of Britain. They took a trip round the Albert Dock in Liverpool in an amphibious “Yellow Duckmarine”.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/293965/tensions-over-regal-jubilee-lunch-of-queen-elizabeth-ii

The Pentagon gave director Peter Berg access to a huge naval exercise and allowed him to film scenes on six ships, including four destroyers, an aircraft carrier and an amphibious assault ship, officials said.

Even the retired USS Missouri, known for hosting the surrender of the Japanese in World War II, gets screen time in the film, which opens at the US box office on Friday after debuting abroad in April.

Script writers have not taken much interest in naval warfare for decades but US naval recruiters will be ecstatic over scenes from “Battleship” with sailors performing heroic deeds on deck in blue camouflage, the new uniform for American surface warfare officers.

“It’s very much a SWO picture,” said Philip Strub, who oversees the Pentagon’s cooperation with the movie industry.

The sea power-theme echoes talk by strategists in Washington who now speak of returning to America’s “maritime roots,” as the United States keeps a watchful eye on China’s growing military and economic might.

But aliens — and not the Chinese — are the bad guys in “Battleship.” And unlike World War II-era movies, “Battleship” portrays Japan as a staunch American ally, including a supporting role for a Japanese naval officer.

Inspired by the classic board game, “Battleship” stars Liam Neeson as Admiral Shane and pop singer Rihanna dons a naval uniform to play the part of Petty Officer Cora “Weps” Raikes.

She falls under the command of an impulsive young officer named Alex Hopper, played by Taylor Kitsch of NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” fame, who finds himself face-to-face with a powerful alien enemy.

Pentagon advisers to the film gave Rihanna high marks for her portrayal of the petty officer, Strub said.

“What I heard from people in the navy is that she does a pretty good job. People say she’s credible,” he told AFP.

During filming, a naval officer on the set noticed Rihanna failed to wear a regulation T-shirt under her navy uniform, unlike other female sailors standing nearby. The officer told them that would never be allowed on a real warship.

The filmmakers quickly obliged and the pop diva opted for a more modest look, Strub said.

Dozens of real sailors also appear in the movie, as well as a wounded Army officer from the Iraq war who lost both his legs in combat. Colonel Greg Gadson plays a veteran recovering in Hawaii from his critical war injuries.

To put modern warships on the screen, the film production made the most of aerial shots from a “Rim of the Pacific” exercise in 2010, a drill that the US Navy conducts every two years with allies.

The USS John Paul Jones, one of several guided missile destroyers in the picture, was filmed in port at San Diego and at sea during a training exercise in August, officials said.

Hollywood producers and directors are permitted to film American military hardware for a fee but only after the Pentagon reads a script and approves how military characters are portrayed.

The Defense Department weighs whether a film subject offers “valuable information” to the public or could help with recruitment, and sometimes goes to great lengths to cooperate with movie projects, such as “Black Hawk Down.”

The Pentagon turned down a chance to work with the makers of “The Hurt Locker,” a film about a bomb disposal team that went on to win six Oscars in 2010, partly because the main character’s venturing off base was considered unrealistic.

Navy leaders apparently have no qualms about the script, as the service’s civilian chief, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, appears in the film as the skipper of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/293979/us-navy-destroyers-steal-the-show-in-battleship

The shares will begin trading Friday under the symbol “FB” on the Nasdaq, the company said in a statement announcing the richest-ever technology IPO and second biggest for a U.S. firm.

The announcement comes amid keen anticipation among investors for a piece of the world’s biggest social network, which grew from a Harvard dormitory project in 2004 to more than 900 million members.

Facebook said some 421 million shares of its common stock will be sold at a price of $38 per share. Facebook itself is offering 180 million and holders of previous shares selling 241 million.

A so-called over-allotment of up to 63 million shares will be made available to the underwriters, a consortium of investment banks including Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and others.

That will mean one of the biggest IPOs for a US firm, raising between $16 billion and $18.4 billion, behind only that of financial giant Visa in 2008, according to Renaissance Capital.

Under the share plan, co-founder Mark Zuckerberg will hold 55.8 percent of the voting power. The 28-year-old controls the firm through a dual class stock structure and certain shares that give him a “proxy” for voting.

Wall Street and investors around the globe have been girding for a frenzy for Facebook shares with investors hungry for a piece of the social network’s share offering.

In the past few days, Facebook boosted the estimated price for the shares, and added to the number of shares being offered from insiders.

London bookmakers were anticipating a stampede for shares. At the betting firm Spreadex, clients have been speculating that shares could rise above $56 after their first day.

“Our market on the percentage change in the price of Facebook shares after the first day’s trading has seen appetite from clients in buying on the price as the big day approaches, moving the spread up from 30-35 percent earlier in the week to 35-40 percent,” Spreadex spokesman Andy MacKenzie said Thursday.

Spreadex noted that among other tech IPOs, LinkedIn rose 109 percent the first day while Groupon surged 31%. Social game maker Zygna lost ground on its first day.

But MacKenzie noted that “we have had some customers holding back based on their belief that Facebook shares may well fall in value after the furor over the initial launch has died down.”

Lou Kerner, founder of The Social Internet Fund, said he expects a strong response.

“U.S. institutional demand has been good, the retail and global demand has been overwhelming,” he said.

London-based Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers said Facebook may have a hard time living up to lofty expectations but pointed out that it is “a relatively developed company which can display ‘real’ income and profit.”

“There are extremely high expectations for the company’s prospects and perhaps on that basis it deserves the punchy valuation it has been given, the brokerage said in a note to clients.

But the brokers said Facebook faces challenges including how to make money from mobile users, which account for half its base.

The net proceeds to the company were estimated at $6.4 billion, a filing with regulators said. The rest of the cash would go to Facebook insiders and others who made early investments in the social network, and to cover the IPO costs.

The Wall Street Journal said 57% of shares will be from insiders, which is an unusually high percentage. Under Wall Street rules, these investors would have to wait six months to sell any shares not offered at the IPO.

The excitement about social networks was highlighted separately when Pinterest, a bulletin-board style sharing website, attracted a $100 million investment led by Japanese online giant Rakuten, with existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital, and “a number of angel investors.”

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/technology/view/facebook-sets-richest-tech-ipo-in-motion/feed/atom

A caretaker government of technocrats and retired politicians, headed by a senior judge, will have the sole task of organising a fresh election on June 17, some six weeks after the last polls.

The head of Greece’s top administrative court, was the compromise choice after ten days of talks between political leaders failed to produce a coalition government.

Aside from being aptly named to head the fragmented country, Pikrammenos — “embittered” in Greek — takes over with Greece once again at the crossroads.

A growing segment of the population has had enough of austerity after two years of salary and pension sacrifices which have failed to bring the promised economic benefits within sight.

But officials from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which are all that stands between Greece and a disorderly debt default — and a possible exit from the euro currency zone — have warned daily that no new loans will be released if progress on pledged reforms falters.

“It is clear to all that our homeland is going through difficult times. We must safeguard its prestige and assure a smooth transition,” said Pikrammenos, whose cabinet is to be sworn in at 0700 GMT on Thursday, after accepting the mandate from President Carolos Papoulias.

The new parliament will convene an hour later, but given the brevity of its mission, its 300 deputies will remain unpaid for the duration of their term.

Greece and the world’s financial markets had been anxiously awaiting the date for new polls amid growing fears the cash-strapped nation could be forced out of the 17-member eurozone.

“The country is on a knife’s edge,” said the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises, one of Greece’s main business lobby groups.

In a sign of the growing paralysis feared by creditors and investors alike, the agency overseeing state asset sales — another condition for EU-IMF funds — on Wednesday suspended its operations until a fully fledged government is in place.

“The board of directors decided that, in the course of the current period, and until the formation of a government as a result of the forthcoming elections, it will not take any decisions which commit the fund,” the Hellenic Republic asset development fund said.

It added that observers from the EU and the eurozone had “expressed their concern” about this decision.

Tough austerity measures included in a 240-billion euro ($300 billion) EU-IMF deal for Greece saw voters on May 6 desert the main Pasok and New Democracy parties which had supported the bailout, and the strings attached to it.

But there is no guarantee that the re-run vote will produce a viable government and left-wing Syriza, which has threatened to tear up the EU-IMF deal, is tipped to win after surging into second place in the May election.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has insisted once again that it is not possible to renegotiate the EU-IMF deal, the second in two years aimed at averting bankruptcy.

“Greece must be ready to accept the (EU-IMF) aid… Those who win the elections will have to decide if they accept the conditions or not,” he said on Wednesday.

European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso made the same point.

“There is no way of changing the commitments taken by Greece and also by the other 16 euro area member states,” he said.

“In these elections Greeks will vote on whether Greece should stay in the eurozone or not,” outgoing finance minister Philippos Sachinidis said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will on Thursday renew his call for eurozone leaders to take decisive action or face the break up of the single currency over the Greek debt crisis.

The euro sank to a four-month low against the dollar Wednesday amid the ongoing concerns that debt-wracked Greece will leave the euro, spreading financial contagion throughout the eurozone.

In New York the euro was changing hands at $1.2715 around 2100 GMT, down from $1.2728 at the same time Tuesday, after plunging to $1.2681 during the day.

A poll released on Wednesday, before the party talks collapsed, showed that 59 percent of those questioned would have preferred the formation of a coalition government, while 32 percent favoured new elections.

The VPRC poll for online magazine epikaira.gr also found that 69 percent of respondents were unhappy with the result of the last election, which put seven parties in parliament including a neo-Nazi group.

The radical leftist Syriza party still tops the list with 20.3 percent of the vote, building on the 16.78-percent result gained two weeks ago.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/293721/divided-greece-hurtles-towards-new-elections