*National Affairs
Political Headlines:
1. Inter-Palestinian clashes overshadow Egypt's mediation. (The Egyptian Gazette)
EGYPT has always been working to help resume the inter-Palestinian dialogue in the past months. However, analysts expect the latest conflicts between rival Palestinian movements Hamas and Fatah would cast shadows on the Egyptian mediation efforts.
"The recent clashes between Hamas and Fatah caused psychological barriers and enlarged the rift between the two major Palestinian groups, which would consequently hinder the Egyptian efforts to help resume the inter-Palestinian dialogue," Magdi el-Dakak, a political analyst told Xinhua in a telephone inter-view. During a recent visit to Egypt, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was in favor of re-launching the inter-Palestinian dialogue under the auspices of Egypt. Following talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on July 27, Abbas said he agreed with Mubarak that Egypt would soon start extending invitations to various Palestinian factions to participate in the dialogue in a bid to reconcile Palestinians. Four days later, deputy chief of Hamas political bureau Moussa Abu Marzouq, who also paid a visit to Egypt, said his group received Egypt's invitation for holding an inter-Palestinian dialogue in Cairo."
http://www.egyptiangazette.net.eg/gazette/region/detail_1_11.shtml
2. Aboul Gheit in Serbia. (The Daily Star Egypt)
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic and his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Aboul Gheit gesture as they address the media during a joint press conference after their meeting in Cairo on August 4. The Serbian top diplomat is on an official visit to Egypt.
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=15504
----------------------------------
Economic Headlines:
1. Egypt to supply 200 MW of power to Lebanon, says minister. (The Daily Star Egypt)
Egypt is to supply power-starved Lebanon with 200 megawatts (MW) of electricity to help it meet a drastic shortfall, Lebanon’s Energy Minister Alan Taburian said yesterday.
“Egypt has an excess of 600 MW of electricity which will be divided as follows: 200 MW for Jordan, 200 for Syria and 200 for Lebanon,”
Taburian told reporters after talks in Beirut with his Egyptian counterpart, Hassan Younis.
“If later Syria or Jordan don’t need the full amount they are offered, we could use an additional 50 MW,” the minister said, adding that the grid in Lebanon would not be able to absorb more than an additional 250 MW.
“Our electricity deficit would be reduced to 500 MW,” Taburian said.
According to state-run utility company Lebanon Electricity (EDL), the country needs 2,200 MW of electricity to meet its daily needs but it currently generates only 1,700 MW. However it also draws 100 MW from Syria.
Electricity is a constant concern for the Lebanese government, which allocates the third largest slice of its budget, after debt servicing and salaries, to power supply.
The country suffers daily power outages, including in the capital Beirut where many businesses have bought generators to tide them over during lengthy blackouts.
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=15522
2. Steel prices surge again, Investment Minster announces new plant. (The Daily Star Egypt)
In a week that has brought a flurry of headlines to the steel industry, the Egyptian Iron and Steel Company announced its plan to increase steel prices from LE 5,900 to LE 7,500.
The move comes at a time when steel prices have been steadily increasing and government officials have taken a myriad of steps to curb this trend that has had broader cross-industry implications.
“Prices have been increasing since 2005,” noted Patrick Gaffney, vice-president at EFG-Hermes and steel industry expert.
Gaffney also observed that 2004 represented a rare year of price stability, with volatile years before and after.
Al Ezz Steel Rebars is a prime example of a company whose steel prices have skyrocketed in 2008. The steel giant recently raised its ex-factory price of steel again in August from LE 6,250 per ton to LE 6,630 per ton, an increase of LE 680 from the previous month’s price.
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=15507
3. Concord’s equity fund acquires shares in Lecico Egypt. (The Daily Star Egypt)
Concord International Investments announced that its New York-based private equity funds acquired 8.16 percent of Lecico Egypt’s share capital, the firm said in a statement.
Coral Growth Investments Limited and Coral Growth Investments (Parallel) Limited have collectively purchased 3,265,105 shares of Lecico Egypt.
The investment in Lecico is the Coral Fund’s second investment in Egypt. Its first investment is Egypt’s Amoun Pharmaceuticals. “These investments are in line with Coral Funds policy to invest in Egypt’s trophy growth companies,” the statement added.
Lecico is one of the world’s largest sanitary ware producers and a major ceramic tile producer in Egypt and Lebanon. With a production capacity of 6.7 million pieces in 2008, it stands as the sixth largest sanitary ware producer worldwide. It has 38 percent of Egypt’s and 45 percent of Lebanon’s market share.
With a production capacity of 22.5 million square meters, Lecico is among the major players in the tile market in both Egypt and Lebanon with a market share of 17 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=15506
----------------------------------
*Regional and International Affairs
Political Headlines:
1. Lebanese Cabinet OKs goals, parliament now to vote. (The Washington Times)
Lebanon's unity Cabinet unanimously adopted a statement laying out its goals Monday, clearing the way for parliament to vote on seating a new government that includes the country's bitterly divided pro-Western and pro-Syrian factions.
The new government was formed in a compromise aimed at ending a monthslong paralyzing political deadlock that led to bloody street battles in May, during which Hezbollah and its allies routed supporters of parliament's pro-Western majority.
Information Minister Tarek Mitri said all 30 members of the compromise Cabinet endorsed the draft policy statement, which outlines what the new government hopes to accomplish before elections next May, including plans to boost the economy and strengthen security forces.
The statement includes a provision indicating the Islamic militant group Hezbollah can keep its weapons. With Hezbollah holding a veto in the new Cabinet, both sides agreed on the vaguely worded provision Friday.
Parliament will now debate the policy statement before holding a vote of confidence on the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, probably later this week. The Cabinet is widely expected to win the vote because it has representatives from both sides of political divide.
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/aug/04/lebanese-cabinet-oks-goals-parliament-now-to-vote/
2. Proposal May End Stalemate on Iraqi Provincial Elections. (The New York Times)
After a third day of intense negotiations, Iraqi political leaders may have come to an agreement that would allow nationwide provincial elections to take place by the end of the year.
The disputes that have held up a law to provide for the elections centered on the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, which is claimed by Arabs and Kurds, and heavily populated by Turkmens.
The Kurds have been insisting that the law include a clause mandating a referendum on whether Kirkuk will join the Kurdistan regional government or remain under the control of Baghdad. The Arabs and Turkmens have consistently refused to include such a clause.
The proposed solution, put forth by a representative of the United Nations late Monday night, is simply to include an article calling for a resolution to the Kirkuk issue sometime before the end of October. Preparations for the elections could then proceed in the rest of the country, if Parliament passed the bill at a session scheduled for Tuesday.
“This removes a huge burden from everyone’s shoulders,” said Haider al-Abbadi, a member of the Dawa party who attended the meetings. “Kirkuk is the problem, and we’re delaying the whole election.”
He said that he was unsure if the proposal would pass on Tuesday, but that elections could take place this year if it did.
Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurd, said that though there were some technical issues to be worked out, he otherwise supported the idea. “I think it’s not bad, just to delay it so these elections can take place,” he said.
Parliament was scheduled to begin a monthlong recess last week but has remained in session because a supplementary budget has not been passed. Several lawmakers said that if an election law was not approved on Tuesday, Parliament members would pass the budget and put aside the election law until they reconvened in September.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/world/middleeast/05iraq.html?ref=middleeast
3. Iran escalates military rhetoric. (The International Herald Tribune)
Iran warned yesterday that it could easily close a critical Gulf waterway to oil shipments and said it had a new long-range naval weapon that could sink enemy ships nearly 200 miles away.
The warning, by the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, followed the weekend expiration of an informal deadline for Iran to respond to incentives from six world powers to stop enriching uranium.
The United States, which has warships deployed in the Gulf, has said new sanctions should be imposed on Iran for failing to respond to the deadline. On Monday, a State Department official said the six powers the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany had agreed to pursue new sanctions, but it remained unclear what they might be or which nations would take part.
In comments carried by the semiofficial Iranian news agency, Fars, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of the Revolutionary Guards, said Iran was capable of imposing "unlimited controls" at the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf, an important oil route.
"Closing the Strait of Hormuz for an unlimited period of time would be very easy," he was quoted as saying.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/05/africa/05iran.php
4. Iran Set to Respond to Offer of Incentives in Nuclear Dispute. (The Washington Post)
Iran will present a formal response today to an offer of incentives by world powers in exchange for suspending its nuclear enrichment program, U.S. and European officials said. But they expressed little expectation of a positive reply.
Chief Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili told European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in a telephone conversation yesterday that he will provide a written explanation of Iran's position on the two-week-old offer to freeze efforts to impose further economic sanctions and begin substantive talks with Tehran, officials said.
The United States, Britain and France issued statements expressing disappointment that Iran had not met the initial deadline for response on Saturday. "Unless tomorrow's answer is unambiguous and positive, we will have no choice but to proceed with further sanctions," a British Foreign Ministry statement said.
Tehran countered with an announcement that it had tested a long-range naval weapon that it could use to close oil-shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz, at the entry to the Persian Gulf, if Iran came under attack. The announcement was reported by a semi-official Iranian news agency that attributed it to Mohammad Ali Jafari, head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080401927.html
----------------------------------
US:
1. Bush rules on fuel economy hit from 2 sides. (The San Francisco Chronicle)
President Bush drew rare praise from environmentalists last year when he signed into law the biggest increase in fuel economy in three decades. But consumer groups and environmentalists now warn that the administration's new rules to implement the law are too weak to shift the country from gas-guzzling to gas-sipping cars and trucks.
At the first public hearing on the rules Monday, critics accused the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of using false assumptions about gas prices and environmental impacts when it set the proposed fuel economy standards. For their part, auto industry officials insisted that the standards are so aggressive, they might be tough for some automakers to meet.
The administration is proposing that automakers meet a fleetwide average of 31.6 miles per gallon starting in the 2011 model year, including 35.7 mpg for passenger cars and 28.6 mpg for light trucks. With consumers demanding greater fuel efficiency in response to $4-a-gallon gas prices, some advocates say the industry should deliver more fuel savings more quickly.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/04/MNK9124RHF.DTL
2. Pentagon spends $300M to study troops' stress, trauma. (The USA Today)
The Pentagon is spending an unprecedented $300 million this summer on research for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, offering hope not only for troops but hundreds of thousands of civilians.
The money the most spent in one year on military medical research since a $210 million breast cancer study in 1993will fund 171 research projects on two of the most prevalent injuries of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Gregory O'Shanick, national medical director for the Brain Injury Association of America, says the funding initiative is "without a doubt … an all-time high" for spending by the government on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). He says civilian victims will benefit directly from the military studies.
By contrast, the National Institutes of Health, the world's largest government sponsor of medical research with an annual budget of $28 billion, spends about $80 million per year on TBI research, according to the NIH.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-08-04-military-research_N.htm
3. US election: Obama shifts policy on offshore oil drilling as petrol prices soar. (The Guardian Unlimited)
Barack Obama reversed his position over petrol prices yesterday in the face of polls showing it has emerged as the dominant issue of the presidential election.
The Democratic candidate said he would dip into the US strategic oil reserves to try to drive down prices, a policy he had previously opposed. He also confirmed that, as president, he would be willing to compromise over his earlier opposition to an expansion of oil drilling in US offshore waters.
John McCain's campaign team were quick to portray him as "two-faced Obama". McCain is fighting on an energy platform based on increased drilling, more nuclear plants and cleaner coal.
Obama's poll lead has dwindled over the past fortnight, in part because McCain's energy policy is proving to be more popular. A Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday showed that petrol prices were the main election issue. US drivers are paying almost $4(£2) a gallon, double last year's price.
Seeking to expand his electoral base, Obama has had to make a series of policy shifts over the past two months, ranging from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to wire-taps and campaign finance.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/05/barackobama.uselections2008
4. McCain Rebukes Obama's Energy Shift. (The New York Sun)
Amid record gas prices and mounting criticism from the McCain campaign, Senator Obama is shifting his stance on key energy issues.
His campaign insists the moves demonstrate his pragmatism, but Republicans say the Illinois senator is merely following the polls.
Mr. Obama yesterday called for releasing 70 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, less than one month after he voiced opposition to tapping the emergency stockpile.
The presumptive Democratic nominee also said he is open to a Senate compromise that includes new offshore drilling, though he has spent weeks criticizing Republican drilling proposals.
http://www.nysun.com/national/mccain-rebukes-obamas-energy-shift/83181/