Free Republic

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt — China's premier on Sunday pledged $10 billion in new low interest loans to African nations over three years, offering the beleaguered continent sorely needed cash while dismissing criticism that Beijing's motives in Africa are far from altruistic. Wen Jiabao's promise at the start of a two-day China-Africa summit was warmly received by African leaders and officials, most of whose nations confront a miasma of despair further accentuated by a global financial crisis that is only now showing signs of abating. "The Chinese people cherish sincere friendship toward the African people, and China's support to Africa's development...

This latest instance sees the financing of up to 150 million dollars for Islamic “selected projects and funds.” Not anything specific, just throw a big wad of taxdollars in the direction of the Islamic World to show what a big-hearted guy he is. It’ almost like how he spends mega-dollars on his personal with business connections trips all around he globe on lavish luxury trips, complete with shopping side trips for his family. Of course the White House is quoted as saying that “The Global Technology and Innovation Fund will ‘catalyze and facilitate private sector investments’ throughout Asia, the Middle...

The White House Friday highlighted a new multi-million-dollar technology fund for Muslim nations, following a pledge made by President Barack Obama in his landmark speech to the Islamic world. The White House said the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) had issued a call for proposals for the fund, which will provide financing of between 25 and 150 million dollars for selected projects and funds. The Global Technology and Innovation Fund will "catalyze and facilitate private sector investments" throughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa, the White House said in a statement. Eligible projects would advance economic opportunity and create...

All it took was a simple statement to resolve a huge controversy over a well-meaning $7.5 billion U.S. aid package to Pakistan and avert what could have become a major issue in U.S.-Pakistan relations at a time when neither country can afford it. The controversy grew from claims in some Pakistani quarters that the aid package, known as the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill, was designed to micromanage Pakistan's internal affairs and impinge on its sovereignty. The powerful Pakistani military establishment expressed strong reservations despite assurances by the government of President Asif Ali Zardari that it was a "pro-democracy aid package." The opposition...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama on Thursday signed into law a $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan that the U.S.-ally's military criticized as American meddling in its internal affairs. The measure provides $1.5 billion annually over five years for economic and social programs and comes as Pakistan faces a string of violent militant attacks and bombings as its military orchestrates an offensive into the Taliban heartland.

As world leaders struggle to hash out a new global climate deal by December, they face a hurdle perhaps more formidable than getting big polluters like the United States and China to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: how to pay for the new accord. The price tag for a new climate agreement will be a staggering $100 billion a year by 2020, many economists estimate; some put the cost at closer to $1 trillion. That money is needed to help fast-developing countries like India and Brazil convert to costly but cleaner technologies as they industrialize, as well as to assist the...

The Obama administration has cut funding for pro-democracy and human rights programs in Iran, reversing years of efforts during the Bush administration to help develop a civil society, congressional sources told Newsmax this week. The move is apparently intended to please Iran’s rulers after they criticized President Obama and the State Department for allegedly seeking to fund a “velvet revolution” during the June presidential elections in Iran. “It sounds like the Iranians complained in Geneva and we acceded to their demands,” a former senior government official familiar with the pro-democracy programs told Newsmax. “It’s shameful,” he added. “This sends a...

For those of you who are not familiar with the term, Chutzpa it means unmitigated gall. It has best been described as a man who kills his father and mother and then throws himself on the mercy of the court on the grounds that he’s an orphan. Saudi Arabia has Chutzpah. The oil-rich country and de facto leader of OPEC has been milking the rest of the world for decades by helping to keep oil prices artificially high. Now it it is saying that it might need a bailout. It is telling the world that if climate change protocols are...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The United States has long suspected that much of the billions of dollars it has sent Pakistan to battle militants has been diverted to the domestic economy and other causes, such as fighting India. Now the scope and longevity of the misuse is becoming clear: Between 2002 and 2008, while al-Qaida regrouped, only $500 million of the $6.6 billion in American aid actually made it to the Pakistani military...

Many of my Ron Paul "Paul Bearer" friends have a right to be disgusted with the Republican Party, ie. especially the Lindsay Graham and John McCain left wing of the party, and they, of course, want to not only End The Fed, according to Paul's book, but would also like to see the U.S. end its "unconstitutional" nose-poking into other country's affairs. Get out of Afghanistan and Iraq before they are secure, stop funding Afghanistan, cut off Israel and some Arab states from foreign aid, then all will be well under God's heaven, and we would only take care of...

GOP lawmakers are calling on the Obama administration to cancel $400,000 in economic aid to foundations run by Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi following his rambling diatribe at the United Nations this week and the hero's welcome he gave to the Lockerbie bomber last month. The State Department notified lawmakers earlier this month of its intent to disburse $2.5 million in economic aid to Libya, including $400,000 for Qaddafi's foundations. Of the $400,000 half will go to a foundation run by the leader's son, Saif, and the other half to one run by his daughter, Aisha. Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtien, the...

After getting complaints from Congress─and an inquiry from NEWSWEEK─the State Department backed away Thursday from awarding foreign-aid funds to two foundations headed by the children of Libyan dictator Muammar Kaddafi.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), other federal agencies and the Mexican government recently agreed to develop a coordinated and intelligence-driven response to cross-border weapon/drug smuggling and trafficking. DHS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Department of Justice and Mexico’s attorney general will work jointly to combat violence and criminal activity along the U.S.-Mexico border. The parties plan to develop cooperative protocols to govern weapons and ammunition trafficking investigations in the United States and Mexico, and improve information sharing between the two countries to better identify smuggling and trafficking trends,...

A prediction of events if America stays on the path it now treads

— President Barack Obama meets this weekend with leaders of Mexico and Canada at a time when drug-related violence, swine flu and the economic crisis are slipping across North America's borders like never before. Obama, along with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, are expected to work on trade and immigration, drug trafficking and security, and clean energy during their first summit Sunday and Monday in ....Guadalajara. "The bottom line is that what affects our bordering neighbors has the potential to affect us all, so we want to be certain that we have the tightest and...

(AP) — WASHINGTON - On a seven-nation tour of Africa this week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will pledge more U.S. assistance, including military aid, to Somalia's shaky government as it fights for survival against Islamist extremists. U.S. officials say the Obama administration plans to go ahead with additional weapons supplies to double an initial provision of 40 tons of arms. The U.S. also has begun a low-profile mission to help train Somali security forces in neighboring Djibouti, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivities surrounding U.S. involvement in the program.

On the afternoon of July 24, Hillary Clinton arrived back in Washington on a flight from Asia, got off the plane, and headed straight to the State Department, where reporters were assembled to join her in a teleconference with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who was in Ramallah. It was late Friday evening Ramallah time. The teleconference was called to commemorate the transfer of $200 million to the Palestinian Authority — the largest single transfer in the P.A.’s history, a part of the $900 million pledge the Obama administration has made for 2009 (more than 62 percent higher than the...

Brian Griffiths, Lord of Fforestfach and vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs International, says Pope Benedict's Caritas in Veritate offers the single best analysis of the current global economic crisis. The language may be dense, but the message is sufficiently rewarding. The encyclical analyses modern capitalism from an ethical and spiritual perspective as well as a technical one. As a result it makes the Government’s White Paper on financial reforms published two days later look embarrassingly one-dimensional and colourless.It is highly critical of today’s global economy but always positive. Its major concern is how to promote human development in the context of...

"We fought alongside the West for freedom and to preserve its values and culture, but Westerners responded by destroying ours. Can we begin to make up for this with a bit of reparation for the millions of slaves that represented our youth and who labored to create the wealth of the 'free world'?" Ghana - Ghana Web - Original Article (English) Hello brother and sister Obama. Welcome to Ghana. We're especially proud that you chose the land of the philosopher and innovator extraordinaire, Dr. Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah. I hope you know that due to his efforts, even U.S. Blacks have...

ACCRA (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama told Africans on Saturday that Western aid must be matched by good governance and urged them to take greater responsibility for stamping out war, corruption and disease plaguing the continent. Obama delivered the message on his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office in January as the first black U.S. president. He chose stable, democratic Ghana because he believes it can serve as a model for the rest of Africa. Fresh from a G8 summit where leaders agreed to spend $20 billion to improve food security in poor countries, Obama spoke of...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Three international organizations canceled $1.2 billion of Haiti's debt Tuesday, freeing up millions of dollars each year for the deeply impoverished Caribbean nation that is beset by humanitarian crises. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund said their boards decided this week to forgive Haiti's obligations to the two organizations, a move that triggered previously announced debt relief from the Inter-American Development Bank. The actions erased nearly two-thirds of Haiti's outstanding debt. As of April, Haiti owned more than $1.9 billion, according to the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. "This is a pretty...

For G-d will not forsake His people for His great name's sake; because it has pleased G-d to make you a people unto Himself. (From this week's reading of the Prophets, Samuel I Chapt. 12:22). In last week's Torah portion, we agonized through the tragically relevant story of the spies and their rejection of the Land of Israel. In this week's Torah portion, Korach, we endure another tragic story; the rejection of the leadership that is ordained to bring the Children of Israel to the Promised Land. The sins of both the spies and Korach revolved around their desire for...

US President Barack Obama announced 73 million dollars in aid for impoverished Zimbabwe following talks with Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader turned reform-seeking prime minister. Obama, citing concern "about consolidating democracy, human rights and rule of law," cautioned the aid will go to the Zimbabwean people rather than a government where Tsvangirai shares power uneasily with President Robert Mugabe. The US president hailed Tsvangirai and criticized Mugabe who he said "has not acted oftentimes in the best interest of the Zimbabwean people and has been resistant to the kinds of democratic changes that need to take place." Standing next...

The Obama administration Tuesday pledged $110 million in humanitarian aid for Pakistani refugees fleeing heavy fighting in the country's Swat Valley and asked Americans to donate $5 each via text-messaging for tents, clothing, food and medicine...The administration, which announced an initial $5 million this past week to help more than 1 million people who have fled the fighting between the military and Taliban forces in Swat, said that most of the $110 million will come from the State Department budget, with $10 million from the Pentagon..... The largest part of the new money, $26 million, will go "for the immediate...

President Obama asked Congress on Tuesday to spend $63 billion over the next six years on a new, broader global health strategy that would reshape one of the signature foreign policy efforts of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Mr. Bush made combating global AIDS a centerpiece of his foreign agenda. The program he created — the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or Pepfar — is regarded as one of his most significant achievements. But the plan Mr. Obama outlined Tuesday envisions a more far-reaching approach to global health that would focus not only on AIDS, but also on tropical...

The Obama White House said Tuesday that it wants $63 billion to be set aside in the fiscal 2010 budget to fight global diseases over the next six years. The initiative, announced by Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew, continues an effort begun under former President George W. Bush to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Obama's budget request, he said, also will specify more money for prenatal and postnatal care, children's health and fighting tropical diseases. "We cannot fix every problem," President Barack Obama said in a written statement. "But we have a responsibility to protect the health of our...

The bill authorizes $7.5 billion over the next 5 years ($1.5 billion annually for FY 2009 –2013) that is ''intended to emphasize economic growth and development,'' and advocates an additional $7.5 billion over the subsequent 5 years. This amount is separate from the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) reimbursements that Pakistan gets for servicing US presence in Afghanistan for which the bill recommends greater oversight.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked Congress on Wednesday to approve $497 million of emergency funds for Pakistan. In her opening remarks before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Secretary Clinton also said that a bill to triple US assistance to Pakistan —$1.5 billion for a period of five years —will be presented in the US Senate in the next few days. She said the $497 million will be used to support Pakistan’s efforts to stabilise the economy, strengthen law enforcement, alleviate poverty, and help displaced citizens find safe shelter. ‘It will also enable us to begin to keep the pledge...

Senior Israeli officials said Monday they were "concerned" at the prospect that the US may approve funding for a Palestinian Authority government that includes Hamas. The concern arose after it became known that the Obama administration had asked Congress for minor changes in US law that would allow the continued provision of funds to the PA even if Hamas officials became part of a Palestinian unity government. The Jerusalem Post has learned from a highly placed source that Israeli officials are very troubled by the possibility of US funds going to a government that includes Hamas. "Israel would be very...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asserted that the U.S. is losing ground in the Third World because of “our inability to break free from our own greed.” “The United States is the wealthiest nation on earth, yet we are neglecting our duty to share that wealth with the less fortunate,” Clinton exclaimed. “Americans indulge themselves with luxurious homes, fancy cars, lavish entertainment and the like at the expense of the poor. This has led the former recipients of U.S. foreign aid to transfer their allegiance to China.” The Secretary called upon the American people to “make the sacrifices that are...

WASHINGTON (AFP)--The United States risks losing influence to China because it is too slow to deliver aid to needy nations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Thursday. Speaking to a congressional committee, Clinton cited the example of an emergency deal signed by China last month to help bail Jamaica out of its financial crisis. "They (Jamaica) have just signed a memorandum of understanding with China...and now they have got a government-to-government relationship with China," Clinton said. "We have to be sure we have in place the safeguards so that the money goes where we intend it to go," Clinton told...

India has thrown down the gauntlet to developed nations in the latest round of climate change talks, saying the developing world wants to see pledges of cash before it is prepared to discuss emissions curbs. The move draws battle lines between rich and poor countries and threatens to halt progress on climate change: rich countries insisted that they cannot name sums before getting commitments that future emissions will be reduced. Shyam Saran, special envoy to the Indian prime minister, said at a UN meeting in Bonn: “The question [of developing country curbs] should not be divorced from what financial support...

* US senator says welfare, not war on terror, will define mutual ties * Says terrorism did not begin after drone attacks * PM wants Islamabad and Washington to work on trust deficit Washington will not put any conditions on its aid to Islamabad, but will recommend tools to measure its effectiveness, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said on Monday. Addressing a press conference with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi after a series of important meetings with top Pakistani officials, Kerry promised that his country’s long-term ties with Pakistan would not be defined by response to extremism...

When it comes to African poverty, everyone, it seems, wants to help—and “help” usually means foreign aid. ... Here’s the problem: It doesn’t work—and it might even make things worse. That’s the argument of Dead Aid, a new book by Dambisa Moyo, an economist born in Zambia, educated at Oxford and Harvard, and who is currently raising major hackles in development circles. In Dead Aid, Moyo does not mince words. Despite the fact that over $1 trillion has gone to Africa over the past 50 years (according to Moyo, nearly $1000 for every person on the planet), “millions in Africa...

The United States said Monday it would donate 50,000 dollars in emergency aid to Italy after a powerful earthquake killed at least 100 people. "We send our heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed in the earthquake. Our embassy in Rome will provide 50,000 (dollars) in emergency relief funding," State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. Italian authorities told the United States they did not need rescue teams, Wood said. President Barack Obama earlier offered his condolences on a visit to Turkey and voiced hope that the United States could send rescuers.

The Zambian economist and author of the new book Dead Aid explains her beef with the U2 frontman, her love for the Chinese, and her high hopes for her home continent. If there is such a thing as a sensation in African development, it would be Dambisa Moyo. The author of the new book Dead Aid, she has taken on many of the conventions of the relationship between the West and Africa--aid, celebrity spokespeople, the "China does bad" storyline that has been covered in this magazine. In her book, she argues that government aid has not helped Africa, despite...

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration plans to propose roughly $2.8 billion in aid for the Pakistani military as a US senate panel holds a full committee hearing on a bill which seeks to triple US economic assistance to Pakistan. The military aid would be in addition to a $7.5 billion aid package which will be reintroduced in the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Wednesday. A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told FOX News the military aid will be dedicated exclusively to 'equipping, training, and building infrastructure directly related to counterinsurgency operations.' Gen. David Petraeus, who is...

WASHINGTON: US Senator and former US presidential hopeful John McCain has said on Tuesday that he is in favour of additional US aid to Pakistan to overpower the menace of terrorism and rising extremism that has cost a great deal to Pakistan. However, he predicted the most part of the US aid will go in vain but did not belly out the causes, which may adversely affect the usage of US aid to Pakistan. Talking to media, McCain said the most part of the US will fail to reach the destitute people and those who deserve it badly. “Drone strikes...

President Obama plans to propose spending roughly $2.8 billion in aid for the Pakistani military, as he steps up the U.S.-led campaign to battle extremists along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. That money would be in addition to the civilian aid -- $1.5 billion a year for five years -- that the president called for Friday. A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told FOX News the money will be dedicated exclusively to "equipping, training, and building infrastructure directly related to counterinsurgency operations."

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW: Jerusalem's mayor is asking Americans to invest in upgrading his city - one of the poorest in Israel - in a plan he says also will benefit the capital's 270,000 Palestinian Arabs. "I'd like to see the world join forces to save the city of Jerusalem," Nir Barkat told editors and reporters of The Washington Times on Friday. "I told some members of the U.S. administration, 'I think the world just raised $5 billion for Gaza. So you only invest after a war. ... I will prepare the plans anyway because I believe we should invest in Arabs...

A month ago I visited Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. This suburb of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, is home to more than one million people, who eke out a living in an area of about one square mile -- roughly 75% the size of New York's Central Park. It is a sea of aluminum and cardboard shacks that forgotten families call home. The idea of a slum conjures up an image of children playing amidst piles of garbage, with no running water and the rank, rife stench of sewage. Kibera does not disappoint. What is incredibly disappointing is...

The Kibera slum in Nairobi is roughly the size of Central Park, home to 1.5 million people who live surrounded by raw sewage and garbage. Less than a mile from the slum sits the United Nations office for human settlement. Dambisa Moyo finds the proximity ironic, but hardly a shock. Kenya, meanwhile, is home to the largest slum in Africa, but also has the highest number of aid workers per capita. Sad, says Moyo, but not surprising. In the past 60 years, more than $1 trillion dollars in aid has been funneled to Africa, and the continent has only grown...

U.S. President Barack Obama will not cut the billions of dollars in military aid promised to Israel, a senior U.S. administration official said Wednesday. The $30 billion in aid promised to Israel over the next decade will not be harmed by the world financial crisis, the official told Israel Radio. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

Dollar bills don't put out a fire, not even the $4.5 billion that nations pledged for the West Bank and Gaza in 2009. If financial aid could cure what is ailing those two spots, the Palestinians would replace the Norwegians in the Global Peace Index as the most peaceful people in the world. In fact, the Palestinians are the top per-capita aid recipients in the history of the planet. In 2008, they received $3 billion in foreign aid, and they are expecting another $4.5 billion in 2009 in addition to plane-loads of relief, both in goods and services. The accumlated...

President Obama’s 2010 budget seeks to double U.S. aid payments to other countries despite a $1.75 trillion deficit and the worst recession in over a quarter of a century. Obama’s landmark proposal heralds a massive increase in the size of government, and “puts the United States on a path to double U.S. foreign assistance,” according to the White House budget overview. That would mean annual U.S. foreign assistance expenditures at over $50 billion a year, although it’s not clear yet how quickly Obama intends to attain that goal. The president also plans to rapidly expand the size of the State...

CAIRO - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered $900 million for Gazans, and made a commitment to move toward a Palestinian state at a meeting of donor nations Monday in Egypt. "By providing humanitarian aid to Gaza we also aim to foster conditions in which a Palestinian state can be fully realized, a state that is a responsible partner, is at peace with Israel and its Arab neighbors and is accountable to its people," said Mrs. Clinton at the one-day summit in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt. The meeting was to raise money for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, which...

The IDF can no longer use American foreign military aid to purchase "non-essential military items," The Jerusalem Post has learned. According to defense officials, the Pentagon informed the Defense Ministry last month that the new instruction pertained to all countries receiving US foreign military financing (FMF), and not just Israel. The instruction was sent out to all Defense Ministry branches in a letter by the head of the Procurement Department, Menahem Marmorush. Officials said that according to the FMF regulations, the $3 billion that Israel receives was supposed to be used strictly for weaponry and defense-related projects. Over the years,...

Reporting from Sharm El Sheik, Egypt -- The Obama administration intends to spend most of a $900-million Palestinian aid package on support for the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, rather than in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip communities that were badly damaged in the recent weeks-long Israeli offensive, a State Department official said Sunday. Robert A. Wood, the department's chief spokesman, said that about $300 million of the money will be spent on humanitarian relief for Gaza, and the remainder will help offset the Palestinian Authority's budget shortfall and fund its economic development, security and other projects in the West...

A US congressman plans to brief fellow members of Congress and the Obama administration about his recent trip to Gaza, saying the US should pressure Israel regarding border closures and reassess its military support for the Jewish state. Slideshow: Pictures of the week Rep. Brian Baird, a Democrat from Washington state, visited Gaza last week with fellow Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and was struck by "the level of destruction, the scope of it, specifically the civilian targets - schools, hospitals, industry." Baird also said Israel had "apparently willfully destroyed any capacity of the Palestinians to rebuild their own...

Reuters reports that "the United States plans to offer more than $900 million to help rebuild Gaza after Israel's invasion and to strengthen the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, U.S. officials said on Monday. The money, which needs U.S. congressional approval, will be distributed through U.N. and other bodies and not via the militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, said one official." This is an insane amount of American taxpayer money to be going to "rebuild" Hamas-run Gaza, let alone through UN agencies that actually has a history of allowing Hamas members to work for them. Former U.N. Commissioner-General for Gaza and...