Canadian firm which did study on Reko Diq blacklisted by World Bank

The News 21 Sept 2013 WASHINGTON: The Canadian company which carried out the controversial feasibility study into the multi-hundred billion dollars Reko Diq gold and copper mines in Pakistan has now been declared by the World Bank as the world’s most corrupt corporation and blacklisted in dozens of countries. According to the blacklist of the World Bank released two days ago, out of the 250 companies, 119 belong to this one Canadian giant, LNC-Lavalin, which has the highest number of corrupt and fraudulent companies.After the 119 Canadian companies, 46 US firms, 43 Indonesian, over 20 Chinese and even one Pakistani company have also been blacklisted. The Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin Group Inc appears on the list 58 times as a Canadian subsidiary and 14 times as an American company, with many more SNC subsidiaries named all over the world. It has been banned in Malaysia, Malta, Saudi Arabia, US, Canada, Algeria, Angola, Austria, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Egypt, India, Dominican Republic, Russia, Nigeria, Tunisia, Korea, Barbados, Mongolia, Panama, Peru, Brazil, Peuto Rico, South Africa and Uruguay. Lavalin officials are accused of bribing officials in many countries and at least $56 million were doled out to these corrupt officials for various favours and illegal things that the company was involved in. Lavalin carried out the feasibility report on the Reko Diq mines on behalf of Barrick Gold at a cost of US$70 million in recent years but that report was kept a secret from Pakistan.The widespread corruption done by the company raises a host of questions about their work in Pakistan and why the feasibility report was never made public or even not revealed to the Pakistan government in full. When I asked the spokesperson for Lavalin about this feasibility report a few months back, I got this official version: “Here is the answer from Leslie Quinton, spokesperson for SNC-Lavalin: Our apologies for the delay responding to your email. We had to gather the information in order to answer you. Yes, we were involved in this study. It was actually for Tethyan Copper (a joint venture of Barrick and Antofagasta), and the mandate was carried out between 2008 and 2012. “Unfortunately, as per our internal policy, we cannot comment on the value of our services as it is usually confidential between us and our client.” Signed Lilly Nguyen.The Canadian police two days back charged a former senior executive of Lavalin and two influential Bangladeshi businessmen and lobbyists with bribery related to the $3-billion Padma Bridge in Bangladesh. The RCMP announced on Wednesday they have laid bribery charges under Canada’s Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act against Canadian Kevin Wallace, former senior vice president of SNC-Lavalin International Inc (SLII), a division based in Oakville, Ont., that has recently been disbanded. Also charged are Zulfiqar Ali Bhuiyan, a Canadian citizen with business ties in Bangladesh, and Abul Hasan Chowdhury a prominent lobbyist in Bangladesh. Two lower-level SNC-Lavalin employees, Mohammad Ismail and Ramesh Shah, are already awaiting trial in Toronto facing similar allegations that they conspired to pay bribes to help Lavalin win a supervising contract worth $50 million for the Padma Bridge mega project. Riadh Ben Aissa, who was charged by Canadian authorities in November with fraud and corruption, arranged the massive payments to Saadi Gadhafi, 38, described as a friend of Ben Aissa who is in jail in Switzerland for suspicion of money laundering and bribery linked to at least two Canadian projects. A spokesperson for SNC-Lavalin has been quoted by some media outlets as saying some employees were suspended as a result of investigation but other parts of the company were not affected.

UN hits back at Russian claims of bias US to retain military threat against Syria

The News 19 September 2013 WASHINGTON: The US military will maintain the threat of force against Syria in case the regime fails to abide by an agreement to relinquish control of its chemical weapons, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Wednesday. “We should keep that military option exactly where it is. We have assured the president that our assets and force posture remain the same,” Hagel told a press conference. “We are prepared to exercise any option that he would select.” Hagel’s comments made clear the United States had no plans to withdraw destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean, which had been prepared to launch cruise missile attacks to punish Damascus over its alleged use of chemical weapons. He said it was clear “the credible threat of US force” helped to persuade Syria to agree to a US-Russia accord that calls for the regime to turn over its chemical arsenal to international control. US defence officials told AFP four destroyers equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles remained in place in the eastern Mediterranean, ready to launch a possible attack if diplomacy fails. Hagel and General Martin Dempsey, the military’s top-ranking officer, also said the administration was still considering whether to have the Pentagon take over the arming of Syria’s rebels from the Central Intelligence Agency, which would involve larger scale assistance. Despite agreeing to the deal on securing Syria’s chemical weapons, Washington and Moscow remain at odds over who carried out the August 21 chemical attack outside Damascus. Russia says the Syrian regime has handed over new evidence implicating rebel forces in the deadly incident. But US President Barack Obama has said it was “inconceivable” that anyone other than the Syrian regime could have carried out the attack. Meanwhile, The United Nations on Wednesday hit back at Russian claims that experts who reported on the use of chemical weapons in Syria were biased. “The terrible facts speak for themselves,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters, insisting that UN leader Ban Ki-moon has the “fullest confidence” in the team which reported this week. Nesirky said the United Nations was checking with Russia’s UN mission on comments made by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov about the UN inspectors. “On the face of it these reported remarks are an attempt to call into question the secretary general’s investigation team led by Professor Sellstrom and the credibility of its thoroughly objective report,” Nesirky said.

Iran 'never' to seek nuclear weapon: Rowhani

The News September 19, 2013 - Updated 110 PKT

The News WASHINGTON: Iran will never seek nuclear weapons, newly elected President Hassan Rowhani vowed Wednesday, as he reached out to longtime enemy the United States. In a US television interview days before he travels to New York for the UN General Assembly, Rowhani praised US President Barack Obama for taking a "positive" approach toward Tehran in a letter. "Under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever," Rowhani told NBC News. "We have never pursued or sought a nuclear bomb, and we are not going to do so," he said, according to the US network. Rowhani repeated Iran's position that the clerical state -- suffering from US-led sanctions following sensitive uranium work -- was solely "looking for peaceful nuclear technology." Rowhani, considered more moderate than his rivals, swept to power in June on promises to help repair Iran's economy and to ease tensions with the West. His stance has been met alternately with cautious optimism and skepticism in Washington, where experts note that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ultimately controls foreign policy. Rowhani told NBC News: "In its nuclear program, this government enters with full power and has complete authority." "The problem won't be from our side," he was quoted as saying. "We have sufficient political latitude to solve this problem." Asked about Rowhani's interview, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said he was "glad" to hear his remarks and that Obama had always been "willing to talk." "But I think the next step here is let's see how Iran's actions match their words," Hagel told the "PBS Newshour" on public television. (AFP)

Brahimi urges US, Russia to build on Syrian deal

The News Wednesday, September 18, 2013 From Print Edition GENEVA/KUWAIT CITY/BEIRUT: The UN-Arab League envoy on Syria on Tuesday urged the United States and Russia to build on their recent rapprochement to allow progress towards a political solution to the conflict. Veteran negotiator Lakhdar Brahimi, who wants to revive efforts to hold a peace conference in Geneva aimed at bringing the warring parties together, called on the two powers to build on the momentum from a deal on Syria’s chemical weapons. “What matters now is that this rapprochement between Russia and the United States is confirmed, lasts, and that together these two leading countries mobilise other leading countries so that we finally move towards a political solution,” he said in an interview with Swiss public broadcaster RTS. Brahimi said he would like to see negotiations begin in Geneva “the day after tomorrow”. “But to be realistic, they’re not going to be before October, and probably not in early October,” he said. “The problem isn’t getting a conference started, the problem is to be sure that there’s real, solid political will from the players who count.” The conference was first proposed by the United States and Russia in May but momentum towards holding the event was lost as Washington and Syria’s staunch ally Moscow bickered over the conflict. It is expected to be discussed when Brahimi meets US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on September 28 on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly session in New York. Washington and Moscow were deadlocked over how to deal with President Bashar al-Assad until a deadly August 21 chemical attack provided the impetus for agreement. The so-called Geneva II peace talks are meant to be based on the results of talks in the Swiss city in June 2012, when world powers agreed that Syria needed a transition government. But the warring sides failed to agree on whether Assad could play a role in forming it, or whether his closest representatives could serve on the interim team. That dispute, coupled with an inability to halt the fighting on the ground, meant the 2012 plan was never implemented. The conflict erupted after a crackdown on protests against the Assad regime in March 2011. It morphed into a sectarian war which has claimed over 100,000 lives, driven more than two million refugees from the country and displaced millions more within Syria. “There is no military solution to this conflict. There is no side which can win the war,” said Brahimi. Meanwhile, some seven million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid due to the conflict in Syria, a UN top official said on Tuesday, saying $4.4 billion is needed this year. Of those in urgent need, more than two million have taken shelter outside Syria, while more than four million people have been displaced within the country, said UN Emergency Relief coordinator Valerie Amos. “We are doing what we can but it is not enough,” she told a conference in Kuwait, adding that UN agencies have 1,000 staff on the ground, mostly Syrians. She highlighted a wide hole in the funds available for humanitarian aid to the victims of the Syrian conflict. “We need a total of $4.4 billion for Syria and neighbouring countries just for this year. So far we have raised $1.84 billion of that,” said . “The challenge we face is that the increased financial requirements for Syria could imply diverting funds from other very serious crises around the world,” she said. More than 110,000 people have been killed since the rebellion against the government of President Bashar al-Assad erupted in March 2011, according to activists. In a related development, a car bomb exploded at the main entrance to Syria’s rebel-held Bab al-Hawa border crossing into Turkey on Tuesday, a monitoring group said. “A car bomb hit the main gateway to the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which could not immediately verify whether there were any casualties

12 killed in US Navy Yard shooting rampage Obama calls incident a ‘cowardly act’;

The News Tuesday, September 17, 2013 WASHINGTON: Twelve people were killed on Monday after at least one shooter opened fire in a rampage at a Navy yard here, putting government buildings on lockdown and sending police SWAT teams rushing to the scene. One suspect is dead, but two other gunmen may be on the loose, Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said.“Right now we have multiple pieces of information to suggest that we had at least two other people seen with firearms. ... These are people that we believe are involved in some way,” Lanier said. She declined to provide specifics about why authorities believe they were involved. Authorities are looking for a white man and a black man in military-style clothing who could be connected to the shooting.A dozen people are confirmed dead after the shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, Lanier said, and others are injured. Who opened fire at the headquarters for Naval Sea Systems Command — and why — remains unclear.“We still don’t know all the facts. But we do know that several people have been shot and some have been killed,” President Barack Obama said earlier Monday afternoon. “So we are confronting yet another mass shooting. And today it happened on a military installation in our nation’s capital.” Obama called the shooting a “cowardly act” that targeted military and civilians serving their country.“They know the dangers of serving abroad,” he said, “but today they faced the unimaginable violence that we wouldn’t have expected here at home.” Earlier, authorities said a gunman dressed in all black had fired shots inside the Navy yard, injuring at least 10 people.The violence started unfolding at 8:20 a.m. when several shots were fired inside the headquarters for Naval Sea Systems Command in southeast Washington. Two witnesses told CNN affiliate WJLA-TV that they heard a fire alarm go off in the building where they worked, then saw a man with a rifle down the hallway as they exited the building.“He aimed the gun and fired our way,” a man who identified himself as Todd Brundidge told WJLA, adding, “I couldn’t believe it.”People frantically tried to run out of the building, Brundidge said. “Everyone was going down the stairs. They were pushing. They were shoving. People were falling down,” he told WJLA. “As we came outside, people were climbing the wall trying to get over the wall to get out. .... It was just crazy.” The injured included a Washington police officer who has been hospitalized, and a base security guard officer, said Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Saray Leon. Three people, including the DC police officer, were admitted to MedStar Washington Hospital Center with multiple gunshot wounds. They are expected to survive, chief medical officer Janis Orlowski told reporters. One person was pronounced dead at George Washington University Hospital, according to Dr. Babak Sarani, chief of trauma and acute care there.Meanwhile, at the Navy yard, helicopters hovered overhead. In one chopper, there appeared to be a police sniper peering out, with a scope at the ready. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent a team of about 20 special agents to the scene, a law enforcement official said. The team was the same group that helped apprehend Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the official said. Police spokesman Chris Kelly earlier described a suspect as an adult male, about 6 feet tall with a bald head and medium complexion, dressed in a black top and black jeans. Emergency personnel, the FBI, U.S. Capitol Police and local DC police responded to the shooting, shutting down traffic in the area on the District’s south side along the Anacostia River. Some people were evacuated, and others sheltered in place. Security was stepped up at the Pentagon. At least eight schools were on lockdown as a precaution, the Washington public schools said. Air traffic to Reagan National Airport in northern Virginia, the closest airport to downtown Washington, was suspended but later resumed, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The headquarters — the workplace for about 3,000 people — is the largest of the Navy’s five system commands. It has a fiscal year budget of nearly $30 billion. “With a force of 60,000 civilian, military and contract support personnel, NAVSEA engineers’ builds, buys and maintains the Navy’s ships and submarines and their combat systems,” the Navy said. The Washington Navy Yard — the Navy’s oldest land establishment — was created in 1799 following an act of Congress, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command. Originally envisioned as a shipbuilding and fitting facility on the Anacostia River, it serviced some of the Navy’s most famous early vessels, including the USS Constitution. Burned during the War of 1812, the Navy Yard was transformed into a center for ordnance and technological development. The facility was the world’s largest ordnance plant during World War II, but its military role steadily diminished during the Cold War era. Today, the Navy Yard includes the headquarters of Naval District Washington and is home to a naval museum. The area around the facility has been marked in recent years by significant commercial and residential revitalization.

ABC News 12 killed, up to 10 wounded in Navy yard shooting

WASHINGTON -- DC mayor says that at least 12 people have been killed and as many as 10 wounded in a shooting at the Washington Navy Yard. A federal law enforcement official and a Defense Department official said Monday morning that a shooter had died. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation. Two other officials have said they are looking into the possibility of a second shooter at the Navy Yard. LIVE VIDEO --> http://abc7ne.ws/7hbdv

US not expecting UN resolution on Syria to include use of force - September 14, 2013

WASHINGTON: The United States does not expect a UN Security Council resolution on Syria's chemical weapons to include a potential use of military force due to Russian opposition, senior Obama administration officials said on Friday. The officials, who briefed a group of reporters on condition of anonymity, said the United States would instead insist that the resolution include a range of consequences should Syria refuse to give up chemical weapons in a verifiable way. Those consequences could include increased sanctions, the official said. The United States wants to see progress with Russia and the United Nations toward a deal on disarming Syria of its chemical weapons over the next couple of weeks, the officials said. (REUTERS)

At least four dead in US consulate attack in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON: At least four Afghans were killed Friday in a Taliban suicide attack on the US consulate in the Afghan city of Herat, the State Department said Friday. There were no US casualties in the attack on Herat, a key business hub located in western Afghanistan near the border with Iran, deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters. At least three Afghan guards and one interpreter were killed, Harf said. Earlier, Afghan officials had said one guard was dead and 18 other people wounded. Harf cautioned that the toll could still change. The consulate compound, in which US diplomats lived, was closed until further notice, and all US officials relocated to Kabul, she said. The attack began at about 5:30 am Friday when seven heavily armed Taliban fighters set off two car bombs and fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the consulate before engaging in a gun battle with security forces. "After a while, all of these suicide bombers get killed in the attack," Abdul Hameed Hameedi, the deputy security chief of Herat province, told AFP earlier in the day. Harf said the "consulate's interior compound was not breached." "Our security measures here were effective," she told reporters. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. (AFP)

Opposition to Syria strike urged by liberal group

The News WASHINGTON: A new TV ad that urges Congress to oppose U.S. military strikes against Syria underscores the difficulty President Barack Obama is having in getting liberals to support him. The 30-second ad paid for by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org says the U.S. didn't set out to spend eight years at war in Iraq and a decade in Afghanistan and predicts the same thing will happen if Congress approves military action in Syria. The ad concludes by telling Congress, ``Don't lead us down this road again.'' Viewers are urged to call Congress to voice opposition. MoveOn says the ad will air this week on MSNBC, with a heavier rotation around Obama's address to the nation on Tuesday night. The group is spending in the ``mid five figures'' to air the ad.