Burma dam: Work halted on divisive Myitsone project

BBC News, 30 September 2011

Burma: Battle for Democracy 

• Viewpoint: Change one step at a time
• Burma sets up human rights panel
• Burma's exiled satirists go home
• Burma's political prisoners

Burma's President Thein Sein has suspended construction of the controversial Chinese-backed Myitsone hydroelectric dam.

The project had sparked a rare campaign of
opposition, joined by Aung San Suu Kyi

In a letter read out in parliament on Friday, he said the $3.6bn (£2.3bn) dam in Kachin state was contrary to the will of the people and lawmakers.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi had joined a rare protest campaign in the authoritarian country.

She had warned that it would displace 12,000 people from 63 villages.

As well as minority groups, environmentalists also opposed the project, arguing it would cause irreparable ecological damage along the country's main river, the Irrawaddy.

The vast majority of the electricity produced would also be for the benefit of China.

"The president sent a message comprising 10 points to the parliament this morning. One of them said that the construction of the dam on the Irrawaddy will be shelved during the term of his government," one official at parliament was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

"He said that his government, being born out of people's desire, has to act according to the desire of the people," said the official, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The U-turn will be seen as a victory for Aung San Suu Kyi, commentators say - and a blow for conservative elites with links to Chinese investors who had backed the project.

It is also a rare step against China, a key ally of isolated Burma.

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JPMorgan's Dimon's aggressive style may hurt bank cause

Reuters, by Rachelle Younglai and Philipp Halstrick, WASHINGTON/FRANKFURT,  Thu Sep 29, 2011

Jamie Dimon, CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co., poses for
 a portrait in his office in New York, in this photo taken December 22, 2010.
(Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

(Reuters) - Masters of the universe are not always so masterful after all.

JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon's squabble with the head of the Bank of Canada over bank regulation managed to achieve only one thing -- angering the central banker.

Once viewed as a star for helping the U.S. government prop up the now-defunct Bear Stearns during the 2008 financial crisis, Dimon is in danger of becoming a pariah among global regulators.

At a meeting last week between the world's most powerful bankers and Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, Dimon tried to tell the central banker that banks were suffering under the weight of all the new bank rules. But his aggression drove a red-faced and visibly angry Carney out of the room, according to people familiar with the encounter.

Dimon referred to new global bank liquidity rules as "cockamamie nonsense," according to one of the attendees at the closed-door meeting held by the Institute of International Finance on Friday.

Dimon also said the rules did not bear any relation to financial reality and that they were constructed by regulators, academics and people who did not have any market experience, the attendee said.

Major banks have lashed out at the slew of new rules being implemented in response to the financial crisis. They contend higher capital standards and other new regulations will impede their ability to lend and hurt the already-fragile economy, although their arguments appear to be falling on deaf ears with regulators.

Another person at the meeting said Dimon acted very aggressively and complained about a plan from the Basel committee of global regulators to force the world's biggest banks to hold up to 2.5 percent in extra capital.

Carney, who spent more than decade at Goldman Sachs before becoming Canada's central banker, was calm at first and tried to appease Dimon, responding: "I hear what you are saying. I don't think it will surprise you that I am taking a different view. These are reasonable responses to the financial crisis," one of the attendees recalled.

But Dimon grew increasingly aggressive, prompting Bank of Nova Scotia CEO Rick Waugh to jump in to try to smooth relations, the source said.

The outspoken Dimon has already blasted the new international bank rules as anti-American and went a step further at the meeting. "I have called it anti-American. The only reason I am calling it anti-American is because I am American. I also think it's anti-European," the attendee recalled him saying.

In the end, an agitated Carney left in the middle of Dimon's tirade. Other chief executives such as Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein and Deutsche Bank's Josef Ackermann looked stunned, the sources said.

Ackermann tried to explain why Carney left abruptly, saying the central banker was on a tight schedule.

Some bankers were shaking their heads. "It was Dimon's style that astonished all bankers, not the content," said one banker familiar with the meeting. Another voiced concern that Dimon's anger hurt his message. Others said they thought Dimon's comments were appropriately delivered.

Once singled out by President Barack Obama for running a well-managed bank, Dimon has become increasingly more vocal in his opposition to the new bank rules. For over a year, he has fought the administration privately and publicly over the Dodd-Frank regulation bill.

In June, Dimon took U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to task and said new financial regulations could jeopardize the country's economic recovery and job creation.

At the time, he was praised for speaking out. But Dimon may have exacerbated the already-tense relations between the banking community and its financial supervisors with his latest exchange, first reported by the Financial Times.

On Monday, Dimon called Carney to put his comments in context, a source close to Dimon said. Dimon told the central banker that he had the utmost respect for him and that he thought the world of him, the source said.

But that was too late for Carney, who is rumored to be in line to become the next head of the Financial Stability Board -- a body of international regulators that makes policy recommendations to the Group of 20 economies.

The Bank of Canada and JPMorgan both declined to comment.

Two days after the encounter, Carney rejected bankers' complaints in a public speech to the IIF, a lobby group for global banks.

"If some institutions feel pressure today, it's because they have done too little for too long rather than being asked to do too much too soon," Carney said on Sunday.

"While the worsening global economic outlook has implications for bank performance, it does not provide a rationale for delaying the implementation of Basel III (bank capital rules,)" he said.

(Additional reporting by Louise Egan in Ottawa, Lauren LaCapra in New York and CameronFrench in Toronto; Writing by Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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Malaysian Police Nab Four Taiwanese in Banking Scam

Jakarta Globe, September 28, 2011

Kuala Lumpur. Police have arrested four Taiwanese in northern Malaysia on suspicion of running a phone scam into China, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The suspects, aged between 20 and 31, allegedly recruited around 80 Chinese nationals to impersonate bank or police officials, said Syed Ismail Syed Azizan, director of commercial crime at the national Bukit Aman police headquarters.

The accomplices would then call potential victims in China to try to obtain personal information, or get them to transfer funds into bogus accounts.

The syndicate had rented four shops in the north--eastern town of Penang which were used as a training and call centres.

The suspects were detained at an apartment in Penang on Tuesday and were being held for questioning, Syed Ismail was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.

In June,  a coordinated crime-fighting operation across Asia, almost 600 mainly Chinese and Taiwanese nationals have been arrested over an Internet and phone fraud ring, with 177 of the arrests in Jakarta alone.

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said that those arrested here on Thursday were believed to have duped their victims into transferring money to them on a variety of pretexts. Police located the perpetrators by tracing their IP addresses.

DPA, JG

Big Four auditors face massive shake-up

Reuters, by Huw Jones, LONDON, Tue Sep 27, 2011

(Reuters) - The "Big Four" global auditors could be broken up, leaving them susceptible to takeovers if radical European Union plans to boost competition go ahead, a UK auditing official said on Tuesday.

EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier is due to publish a draft law in November to curb what he sees as a conflict of interest when auditors check the books of and supply lucrative consultancy services to the same customer.

Auditors, KPMG, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and PwC, audit nearly all big companies in the world, often serving the same clients for decades.

A copy of Barnier's draft law seen by Reuters proposes that auditors be banned from offering consultancy services to the companies they audit, or even banned from consulting altogether -- a move that could force the firms to split their operations.

"Breaking up the Big Four audit firms would make them more susceptible to be taken over by emerging Chinese firms," a UK audit official said on Tuesday on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivities involved.

Barnier's spokeswoman said he has made it clear that the audit sector displayed clear failings during the crisis, giving banks a clean bill of health just before they were rescued.

He has trailed his plans for a year and the industry had hoped they would be watered down by the time he formally proposed them next month.

"To reinforce independence and professional skepticism, the prohibition of the provision of non-audit services to the audited entities and even the prohibition of the provision of non-audit services in general would effectively address this issue," the draft said.

"Better audits and more informative audit reports will enhance confidence in the markets while also informing stakeholders of any problems with regards to any particular entity," the draft added.

The EU plans go much further than the United States, another major base for the Big Four, where the standard setter PCAOB is mulling requiring firms to switch auditors regularly, but has stopped short of recommending audit-only firms.

BREAK UPS

Deloitte said it supports improving audit quality but rejects joint audits, mandatory rotation and tendering, and a complete ban on non-audit services.

Rolf Nonnemmacher, co-chairman of KPMG Europe, said the reform goes as far as a breakup of the best performing firms.

"The implementation of these proposals would lead to a massive reduction in quality of audits, to the detriment of companies. In addition this would impose high costs on companies," Nonnemmacher said.

Ernst & Young had no immediate comment, while PWC said there was no evidence that the radical measures would improve audit quality.

However, auditor Grant Thornton, which along with peer BDO has tried to end the stranglehold of the Big Four, welcomed Barnier's plans.

"While we believe there could be some implementation issues, we still applaud what the Commissioner is attempting to achieve," a Grant Thornton spokesman said.

Accounting officials believe the Big Four would be forced to choose between auditing or consultancy.

"It would certainly mean a different profession," said Michael Izza, chief executive of the UK accounting body ICAEW.

The ACCA, another UK accounting body, said it was unclear whether imposing extensive rules and curbs was the best way to promote independence and skepticism.

The European Parliament, which will have the final say with EU states, has broadly backed the plans.

Auditing industry officials estimate that 28-30 percent of global revenues come from statutory audits, with about 18 percent from non-audit services provided to the same audit client. This means that about half of total revenues is earned from providing consultancy services to clients which are not being audited as well.

Britain, as home to the Big Four's European base, is likely to oppose some of Barnier's more radical proposals though its Office of Fair Trading said in July a full-blown competition probe into the sector is warranted.

Accounting officials say such a probe would become redundant if Barnier's draft makes it onto the statute book.

"If I was the UK Competition Authorities I would be inclined to leave this up to Europe. It's not a UK issue, it's actually a global issue," the auditing official said.

Other elements of the draft regulation include:

• Regular dialogue between auditors and their regulators about the firms they audit, a move aimed largely at banks;
  
• A company would have to change or "rotate" auditors every nine years to end the custom of decades-long auditing by the same firm;
  
• A ban on covenants whereby banks insist that a company receiving a loan must be audited by one of the Big Four;
  
• Introduction of "joint audits," so that the Big Four share auditing work with smaller rivals. Would apply to companies whose balance sheet is above 1 billion euros;
  
• The European Securities and Markets Authority to play a coordinating role in supervising auditors in the EU;
  
• Making international auditing standards mandatory.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; Additional reporting by Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck in Brussels, Kathrin Jones in Frankfurt and Dena Aubin in New York; Editing by Erica Billingham and Helen Massy-Beresford)

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Police crack down on 'Occupy Wall Street' protests

New York police accused of heavy-handed tactics as 80 anti-capitalist protesters on 'Occupy Wall Street' march are arrested

Guardian.co.uk, 25 Sep 2011

YouTube footage of protesters being pepper-sprayed

The anti-capitalist protests that have become something of a fixture in Lower Manhattan over the past week or so have taken on a distinctly ugly turn.

Police have been accused of heavy-handed tactics after making 80 arrests on Saturday when protesters marched uptown from their makeshift camp in a private park in the financial district.

Footage has emerged on YouTube showing stocky police officers coralling a group of young female protesters and then spraying them with mace, despite being surrounded and apparently posing threats of only the verbal kind.

NYPD officers strung orange netting across the streets to trap groups of protesters, a tactic described by some of them as "kettling" – a term more commonly used by critics of a similar tactic deployed by police in London to contain potentially violent demonstrations there.

The media here in New York has been accused of being slow off the mark to cover the demonstrations, which have been going on for more than a week. The Guardian was one of the first mainstream news organisation to give detailed coverage to the protests – here are some links to our earlier coverage.

• This is a gallery of photographs taken by John Stuttle last weekend.
• Karen McVeigh visited the camp in Zuccotti Park on Monday
• Later in the week, Paul Harris recorded video interviews with some of the protesters.

Now, however, the local media has paid more attention – almost certainly because Saturday's protest became disruptive, bringing chaos to the busy Union Square area and forcing the closure of streets.

The NewYork Times quoted one protester, Kelly Brannon, 27, of Ridgewood, Queens:

"They put up orange nets and tried to kettle us and we started running and they started tackling random people and handcuffing them. They were herding us like cattle."

The scenes are showing signs of attracting high-profile criticism. Anne-Marie Slaughter, who was director of policy planning, at the State Department from 2009 to 2011, said on Twitter: "Not the image or reality the US wants, at home or abroad," linking to a picture of a police officer kneeling on a protester pinned to the ground.

Here's an extract from a Reuters report, which said the demonstrators were protesting against "bank bailouts, the mortgage crisis and the US state of Georgia's execution of Troy Davis".

• At Manhattan's Union Square, police tried to corral the demonstrators using orange plastic netting. Some of the arrests were filmed and activists posted the videos online.
  Police say the arrests were mostly for blocking traffic. Charges include disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. But one demonstrator was charged with assaulting a police officer. Police say the officer involved suffered a shoulder injury.
  Protest spokesman Patrick Bruner criticized the police response as "exceedingly violent" and said the protesters sought to remain peaceful

And this is a fuller take from Associated Press.

• The marchers carried signs spelling out their goals: "Tax the rich," one placard said. "We Want Money for Healthcare not Corporate Welfare," read another.
  The demonstrators were mostly college-age people carrying American flags and signs with anti-corporate slogans. Some beat drums, blew horns and chanted slogans as uniformed officers surrounded and videotaped them.
  "Occupy Wall Street," they chanted, "all day, all week."
  Organizers fell short of that goal. With metal barricades and swarms of police officers in front of the New York Stock Exchange, the closest protesters could get was Liberty Street, about three blocks away.
  The Vancouver-based activist media group Adbusters organized the weeklong event. Word spread via social media, yet the throngs of protesters some participants had hoped for failed to show up.
  "I was kind of disappointed with the turnout," said Itamar Lilienthal, 19, a New York University student and marcher.

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Saudi authorities to try woman for driving

Google/AP, By MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press, 26 Sep 2011

FILE - In this Friday, April 29, 2011 file photo, a Saudi woman attends a traditional Arda dance, or War dance, during the Janadriyah Festival of Heritage and Culture, on the outskirts of the Saudi capital Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi King Abdullah has given the kingdom's women the right to vote for first time in nationwide local elections, due in 2015. The king said in an annual speech on Sunday, Sept. 25, 2011 before his advisory assembly, or Shura Council, that Saudi women will be able to run and cast ballots in the 2015 municipal elections. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

CAIRO (AP) — A Saudi activist will stand trial for defying the kingdom's ban on female drivers, a lawyer and rights advocates said Sunday, revealing clear limits on how far the conservative Muslim land is willing to go to grant women greater rights.

Just a day earlier, King Abdullah, who is regarded as a reformer by Saudi standards, decreed that women would be allowed for the first time to vote and run as candidates in elections for municipal councils starting in 2015. He also promised to appoint women after two years to the Shura Council, the currently all-male consultative body with no legislative powers.

Activists in Saudi Arabia and abroad welcomed the changes as a step in the right direction, while urging the kingdom to end all discrimination against women. Some also pointed to the case against Najalaa Harriri as evidence of how far the kingdom still has to go on the path of reforms.

Harriri was among the dozens of Saudi women to challenge the country's longtime ban on driving in a campaign that began in June. In a nod to the power of social media, the campaigners posted video of themselves behind the wheel on the Web, drawing international attention at a time of great tumult across the Arab world.

She was summoned for questioning on Sunday by the prosecutor general in the western port city of Jeddah, according to attorney Waleed Aboul Khair. She will stand trial in a month, joining several other women currently on trial for driving.

Activists say the trials reveal a gap between the image the kingdom wants to show to the outside world and the reality on the ground in the ultraconservative nation.

"I believe that Saudi Arabia has always had two kinds of rhetoric, one for outside consumption to improve the image of the kingdom and a more restrictive one that accommodates the religious establishment inside," Aboul Khair said.

In Saudi Arabia, no woman can travel, work, marry, get divorced, gain admittance to a public hospital or live independently without permission from a "mahram," or male guardian. Men can beat women who don't obey them and fathers or brothers have the right to prevent their female relatives from getting married if they don't approve of her suitor.

"Right now, women are harassed and they get dragged to courts and nothing has changed in this respect," said Aboul Khair, who himself has been referred to court after challenging the social restrictions women face as well as other issues. His trial has yet to start.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women — both Saudi and foreign — from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

In a high-profile case that triggered the June Internet campaign, Manal al-Sherif was detained for more than 10 days after appearing in a video clip driving her car and calling for a mass driving protest on June 17. Al-Sherif, an IT expert, was released after signing a pledge not to drive again or speak to reporters.

Since then, Harriri and dozens of other Saudi women have followed her lead. Harriri also helped start a similar campaign this month called "My Right, My Dignity" that calls for an end to all forms of discrimination against women.

In most cases, the women are stopped by police and held until a male guardian is summoned and the women sign a pledge not to drive again. Some are referred to court.

Harriri refused to sign, according to Samar Badawi, another female activist who was present at the police station with her three weeks ago.

"Najalaa is not the only one. I've received phone calls from many women who get detained and referred to trial," Badawi said. "At court, you have one of two options: either the judge issues a sentence or closes the case."

The ban is rooted in religious edicts and Saudi Arabia's conservative traditional culture, which views limitations on women's freedom of movement as a necessity to prevent sins.

However, there is no written law banning women from driving. As a result, there is no set punishment for the offense.

Also, activists like Badawi argue this means there is no legal basis for brining the women to trial.

She notes that she has been driving every two or three days in Jeddah since June and without a problem. The port city is notably more liberal than the capital, Riyadh, and other parts of the country.

"We are marginalized in very basic rights," said Badawi, who was sentenced herself to six months in prison for disobeying her father. "They think that by giving us some political rights, we will be pleased and shut up."

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Asia’s Wealthiest Avoid Banks, Opt For Family Offices

Jakarta Globe, Netty Ismail, September 26, 2011

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Singapore. Stephen Diggle, co-founder of a hedge fund that made $2.7 billion for investors in 2007 and 2008, set up a family office in Singapore to manage the millions in fees he earned instead of entrusting his wealth to private bankers.

“It was fairly demonstrably clear that there was a very significant problem of alignment of interests by private banks and their customers,” said the 47-year-old founder of Vulpes Investment Management, whose Singapore-based family office has invested in hotels in Japan and farms in Uruguay. “They ceased to be custodians of people’s money and they became salesmen.”

Asia’s wealthiest investors, whose ranks are swelling as the region’s economic growth outperforms the rest of the world, are turning to family offices to maintain control of their money after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings in 2008 made them more risk averse.

“Private banks try to sell you everything and not necessarily what’s best for your family office or for yourself,” said Clinton Ang, managing director of Singapore- based wine and spirits distributor Hock Tong Bee, who also prefers to manage his family’s wealth himself. “If sophisticated investors haven’t already learned the lessons of the past crisis, with the impending crisis that is on the horizon, they’d better.”

The MSCI World Index has tumbled 17 percent from this year’s high in May and is trading close to a one-year low after Standard & Poor’s stripped the United States of its AAA credit rating and Europe’s debt crisis deepened.

About 90 percent of Ang’s investable assets are in cash after he sold from October through March its investments in stocks, bonds and most property assets, said the 38-year-old, who describes himself a follower of Templeton Asset Management’s Mark Mobius.

Family offices are typically tailored to the families’ personal needs, and often include estate planning, philanthropy and lifestyle management such as maintaining homes and yachts. Private wealth managers at global investment banks rely on fees and commissions from managing their clients’ money.

Most family offices in Asia are more defensive in their investment strategy and tend to hire a “generalist” to manage their wealth, rather than specialists such as former hedge fund managers, said William Chan, chief executive officer of Singapore-based Stamford Privee, which manages his family’s wealth and that of two others. Such managers may cost between $300,000 and $400,000 a year, while specialists would be more expensive, Chan said.

Wealthy families tend to choose investment professionals they had previous dealings with, such as a private banker, as their office manager, said Chan. Others may select an ex-investment banker who advised them on transactions such as an initial public offering of their company.

“Being the trusted adviser is key,” Chan said.

Wealth in Asia, excluding Japan, is expected to rise at about double the global rate of almost 6 percent through the next five years, the Boston Consulting Group said in a May report. Singapore will be the world’s top wealth management center by 2013, overtaking Switzerland and London, a PricewaterhouseCoopers study published in June shows.

Asia is also attracting overseas family offices. “Anecdotally, we are seeing more European family offices inquire about setting up their Asian headquarters to participate in the Asian growth,” said Amy Lo, head of ultra-high net worth in Asia-Pacific at UBS AG’s wealth management business.

About 62 percent of US-based family offices surveyed this year said they were considering increasing allocations to Asian markets outside Japan, according to Family Office Exchange.

Some family offices cater to more than one family to gain economies of scale. It costs at least $1.5 million a year to run a family office that includes an investment team, and a family will need a minimum of $100 million to justify the expenses, said Chan of Stamford Privee.

Blue Ocean Capital Partners, a unit of Singapore-based private-equity firm Tembusu Partners, plans to set up an office with a UK-based family firm this year, said director Daniel Lin.

Lin, 28, said he and his 54-year-old father, who founded Tembusu Partners, will start by managing their family wealth with a chief executive officer. At least two other families have agreed to partner with them later, he said.

“For private banks, because they have certain targets, they need to find something that will give them a financial return pretty quickly,” Lin said. “For us, we’re not in a hurry to make money out of this; we have time to build on the intangibles such as family values and governance.”

Bloomberg

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Chinese villagers get inquiry after protests over developer 'land grabs'

Government officials strike compromise with Wukan leaders, halting angry protests at transfer of farmland for factories

guardian.co.uk, Associated Press, Sunday 25 September 2011

Chinese villagers staged three days of protests against new factory
developments in Wukan. Photograph: Reuters

Officials promised an investigation into land sales to defuse days of large, sometimes violent protests by villagers in southern China who say they are being pushed off farmland for property development, state media and local villagers said on Sunday.

Government officials struck a compromise with leaders from Wukan village on Saturday, promising a full investigation of all land sales if locals would halt the protests, according to a report in the official Southern Daily posted late on Saturday on the website of Shanwei city, which oversees Wukan.

The strategy appeared to work. While villagers gathered to protest for a fourth day Saturday as negotiations took place, no one congregated to do so as of midday Sunday, said villagers contacted by phone.

Local people, however, said they remain angry and expect the government investigation to expose what they say is an unfair transfer of farmland to build factories. "We want our land returned to us," said a woman who took part in the protests and would only give her surname, Yang.

With a booming economy, demand for land to build factories and housing complexes has soared. Land disputes have grown apace, becoming one of the leading causes of the tens of thousands of large-scale protests that hit China every year. Around Wukan village and in much of the rest of Guangdong province, conflicts have been intense because the area is among China's most economically developed, pushing up land prices.

In Wukan, hundreds of villagers overturned cars, besieged government buildings and clashed with police on Wednesday and Thursday before settling into a more peaceful standoff for two more days.

President Abbas declares 'Palestinian Spring'

The Jakarta Post, Associated Press, Ramallah, West Bank, Sun, 09/25/2011

Thousands of Palestinians cheering and waving flags gave President Mahmoud Abbas a hero's welcome in the West Bank Sunday, as he told them triumphantly a "Palestinian Spring" had been born following his historic speech to the U.N. last week.

Abbas' popularity has skyrocketed since he asked the U.N. on Friday to recognize Palestinian independence, defying appeals from Israel and the United States to return to peace talks. His request has pushed the region into uncharted waters, and left the international community scrambling over how to respond.

Thousands of people crowded Abbas' West Bank headquarters in the city of Ramallah to get a glimpse of the 76-year-old president upon his return from New York. Abbas was uncharacteristically animated, shaking his hands and waving to the audience.

Abbas compared his campaign to the Arab Spring, the mass demonstrations sweeping the Arab world in hopes of freedom, saying that an independent Palestinian state is inevitable.

"We have told the world that there is the Arab Spring, but the Palestinian Spring has been born," he said. "A popular spring, a populist spring, a spring of peaceful struggle that will reach its goal."

He warned that the Palestinians face a "long path" ahead. "There are those who would put out obstacles ... but with your presence they will fall and we will reach our end."

The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.

Israel says it's ready for peace talks, but has rejected Palestinian calls to freeze construction of Jewish settlements in lands claimed by the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also rejected Palestinian demands that the borders between Israel and a future Palestine be based on the 1967 pre-war lines.

Abbas last week asked the U.N. Security Council to grant the Palestinians full U.N. membership. The Security Council is expected to study the request for several weeks before making a decision, though the U.S. - Israel's closest ally - has promised to veto the request if it proceeds.

As an alternative, the Palestinians say they will seek lesser observer status in the General Assembly - short of full statehood but a position that would allow them to join international bodies where they could push their agenda against Israel.

The international Quartet of Mideast mediators - the U.S., EU, Russia and U.N. - last week issued a statement calling for a resumption of peace talks without preconditions and a target for a final agreement by the end of 2012.

Abbas has signaled he will reject the Quartet's plan, while Israel has hinted it accepts it.

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas waves to Palestinians
as they welcome him at his Ramallah headquarters Sunday.

Women in Saudi Arabia to vote and run in elections

BBC News, 25 September 2011

Related Stories 

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Women in Saudi Arabia are to be given the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, King Abdullah has announced.

Saudi women face severe restrictions in their
working and personal lives

He said they would also have the right to be appointed to the consultative Shura Council.

The move was welcomed by activists who have called for greater rights for women in the kingdom, which enforces a strict version of Sunni Islamic law.

The changes will occur after municipal polls on Thursday, the king said.

King Abdullah announced the move in a speech at the opening of the new term of the Shura Council - the formal body advising the king, whose members are all appointed.

"Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior clerics and others... to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from next term," he said.

"Women will be able to run as candidates in the municipal election and will even have a right to vote."

The BBC's world affairs correspondent Emily Buchanan says it is an extraordinary development for women in Saudi Arabia, who are not allowed to drive, or to leave the country unaccompanied.

She says there has been a big debate about the role of women in the kingdom and, although not everyone will welcome the decision, such a reform will ease some of the tension that has been growing over the issue.

Saudi writer Nimah Ismail Nawwab told the BBC: "This is something we have long waited for and long worked towards."

She said activists had been campaigning for 20 years on driving, guardianship and voting issues.

Another campaigner, Wajeha al-Huwaider, said the king's announcement was "great news".

"Now it is time to remove other barriers like not allowing women to drive cars and not being able to function, to live a normal life without male guardians," she told Reuters news agency.

Correspondents say King Abdullah has been cautiously pressing for political reforms, but in a country where conservative clerics and some members of the royal family resist change, liberalisation has been very gradual.

In May more than 60 intellectuals called for a boycott of Thursday's ballot saying "municipal councils lack the authority to effectively carry out their role".

Municipal elections are the only public polls in Saudi Arabia.

More than 5,000 men will compete in municipal elections on Thursday - the second-ever in the kingdom - to fill half the seats in local councils. The other half are appointed by the government.

The next municipal elections are due in four years' time.

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