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Protesters dressed as finance ministers from the ‘Put People First’ action group pose for photographers at the West Sands beach during the G-20 Finance Ministers meeting in St Andrews, Scotland yesterday. A tax on financial transactions to fund future bank bailouts should be considered with urgency, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday, a significant departure from London’s line to date.
G-20 IN SCOTLAND
Britain urges rich nations to agree on bearing climate change fight cost and to consider a global financial levy By Jane Wardell
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland, AP
Britain called for consideration of a global tax on financial transactions to insure against another crisis and urged world finance officials meeting Saturday in Scotland to agree on bearing the cost of fighting climate change. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told finance ministers from the Group of 20 rich and developing countries it was time to consider a global financial levy such as a tax on transactions or an insurance fee. In its last meeting as chair of the Group of 20 before South Korea takes over next year, Britain is attempting to push through discussion of issues it views as critical to future world economic growth. Reflecting its last-chance position, Brown superseded his Treasury chief Alistair Darling to address officials directly, saying it was time “to discuss whether we need a better economic
and social contract to reflect the global responsibilities of financial institutions to society.” But he said Britain would not act alone, and that any measures must be implemented by all major financial centers and should reinforce existing measures to enhance the stability of the international financial system. Brown’s comments bolster earlier calls from former German Finance Minister Peer Steinbruck for a global tax on all cross-border financial transactions. Critics argue that measures such as the so-called Tobin tax — a flat tax on currency transactions named after the Nobel Prize laureate James Tobin — would just dry up world financial flows. Supporters suggest the money could be used to protect countries from spillovers of financial crises. The money could also be used to assist poorer countries in the battle
against climate change — another issue being pushed by Britain at the gathering in the university and golfing town of St. Andrews in northeast Scotland. Darling urged the officials to reach an agreement on bearing the cost of fighting climate change before a UN summit on global warming next month. Darling said officials need to agree on a finance package to help poorer nations develop green industries and adapt to climate change. “I think that it really is imperative that when we reach the end of the day, that we have shown that we have made some real progress in dealing with what is a very real and urgent problem now,” Darling said. “We will do everything that we can to reach that agreement in advance of the Copenhagen meeting.” There have been disagreements about which forum was the most
Defense Ministry said Saturday that a N ATO a i r s t r i ke i n t h e western province of Badghis mistakenly hit a joint base housing coalition troops and Afghan security forces, killing four Afghan soldiers and three policemen. Page 2
MOSCOW, AP
■ President Barack Obama,
seeking to reassure a nation shaken by the mass shooting on an Army post in Texas, said Saturday that the training designed to keep U.S. forces safe abroad prevented further deaths and ended a rampage at Fort Hood. Page 3 ■ U. S . P r e s i d e n t
Barack Obama has delayed his visit to Japan next week by one day following a deadly shooting at a military base in Texas, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Saturday. Page 5 ■ A n
■ Crowds roared, church bells
rang and streams of paper rained down on Broadway as the New York Yankees celebrated their 27th World Series championship on Friday in a way only this city can, with a parade up the Canyon of Heroes. Page 7 ■ Phil Mickelson shot a third-
round five-under-par 67 to take a two-shot lead at the US$7 million WGC-HSBC C h a m p i o n s o n S a t u r d ay, setting up a rare head-to-head battle with Tiger Woods on the final day. Page 8
the key to a final deal, urging them to come up with concrete proposals on funding to help developing nations tackle and cope with a warming climate. In a speech to the G-20 meeting, he called on officials to set up a global climate fund that “should be ready to work immediately.” He also asked them to keep an open mind on raising funds from new areas such as a global cap-and-trade program for air and sea travel. The climate issue has been the focus of protests around St. Andrews. A small group of protesters blocked the coastal road Friday night between the town and the nearby resort where the meeting was held by chaining themselves together. On Saturday around 200 demonstrators gathered at West Sands beach on Saturday with a group dressed as bankers sticking their heads in the sand. There are also divisions among officials over attempts to secure future global growth. Host country Britain, still mired in recession, is keen to continued international effort to support a still fledging
recovery, while other G-20 nations, including the United States, Japan and Germany, want to debate ending measures to boost growth. The finance ministers and central bankers are trying to find a way to make good on a pledge by world leaders at their September summit in Pittsburgh to subject their economic policies to the scrutiny of a peer review. That process would determine whether each country’s efforts were “collectively consistent” with sustainable global growth. The goal is to avoid repeating problems like huge trade deficits and credit-fueled consumption in the U.S., and massive trade surpluses and savings in China and elsewhere. China’s appetite to fund U.S. debt by buying Treasuries was seen as playing a major role in fueling the U.S. housing boom and subsequent collapse. The G-20 is comprised of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United States and the rotating EU presidency.
Sanctions against Iran possible: Medvedev
■ A f g h a n i s t a n ’s
Indonesia-based study shows carbon-rich tropical peat lands trap more greenhouse gases than first thought, driving up their potential value on the carbon market and strengthening a case for their protection. Page 6
appropriate place to discuss funding to fight climate change. The push to put it on the agenda here reflects concern that nations will fail to agree in Copenhagen on Dec. 6 on a successor to the Kyoto treaty limiting carbon emissions. “It really is important ... that we as finance ministers are engaged in this, because if there isn’t an agreement on finance ... then the Copenhagen agreement is going to be much much more difficult,” he said. The G-20 represents around 90 percent of the world’s wealth, 80 percent of world trade, and two-thirds of the world’s population. The EU has said that there should be a euro100 billion annual package of public and private finance by 2020 and has urged the U.S. to lay out its position. But the Obama administration has been preoccupied with prickly domestic issues such as healthcare. Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said it was now “obvious” that the December climate change talks “can’t achieve the final result in terms of the new legally binding treaty which goes into all details.” But he said finance ministers held
Reuters
India ‘Army Mela’
Reuters
An Indian Army soldier crashes with his motorcycle through fluorescent tubes during “Army Mela 2009” celebrations at Shalugara army base on the outskirts of the eastern Indian city of Siliguri, yesterday. The exhibition was organized to attract more youths into the army.
Russia could back sanctions against Iran if it fails to take a constructive stance in international talks over its nuclear program, President Dmitry Medvedev said in remarks released Saturday. The statement echoed earlier comments by Medvedev, but contrasted sharply with the words of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has warned that the threat of sanctions could thwart talks with Iran. Medvedev said in an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine that it would be better to avoid sanctions, but they can’t be excluded if there is no progress in the talks. His comments were released by the Kremlin. “If the Iranian leadership takes a less constructive stance, everything is theoretically possible,” Medvedev said, adding that he discussed the issue with President Barack Obama when they met in New York in September. Medvedev said then that sanctions are sometimes inevitable. “I wouldn’t like to see all that ending in the introduction of international sanctions, as sanctions usually is a step in a very difficult and dangerous direction,” Medvedev told Der Spiegel. “But if there is no movement forward, no one is excluding such a scenario.”
Medvedev said that Iran can implement what it claims to be a peaceful atomic energy program under international supervision. “But it must abide by the existing rules and not try to hide some facilities,” he added. A UN-brokered plan requires Iran to send 1.2 tons (1,100 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium — around 70 percent of its stockpile — to Russia in one batch by the end of the year in order to ease international concerns the material would be used for a bomb. Senior Iranian lawmakers on Saturday rejected any possibility of
Tehran shipping uranium abroad for further enrichment, intensifying pressures on the government to reject the U.N.-backed plan altogether. Russia has walked a fine line on Iran for years. It is one of the six powers leading efforts to ensure Iran does not develop an atomic bomb. But it has close ties with Iran, a regional power close to Russia’s vulnerable southern flank, and it is building the country’s first nuclear power plant. Russia signed a contract two years ago to sell S-300 surfaceto-air defense missiles to Iran, but
No uranium shipment abroad: Iran lawmakers TEHRAN, Iran, AP
Senior Iranian lawmakers rejected on Saturday any possibility of Tehran shipping uranium abroad for further enrichment, intensifying pressures on the government to reject the U.N.-backed plan altogether. Prominent conservative lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iran won’t ship its low enriched uranium abroad in a single batch or in several shipments, a compromise suggested
by some government officials, under any circumstances. “Nothing will be given of the 1,200 kilograms (of low enriched uranium) ... to the other side in exchange for 20 percent enriched fuel, not in one batch nor in several. It is out of question,” the semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Boroujerdi as saying Saturday. The U.N.—brokered plan required Iran to send 1.2 tons (1,100 kilograms) of low-
U.S. Pres. Obama will be firm on backing Taiwan: aide WASHINGTON, AFP
U.S. President Barack Obama, set to undertake a visit to China this month to boost warming ties, will stay firm on the U.S. policy of supporting but not recognizing Taiwan, an aide said Friday. Jeff Bader, the East Asia director on the White House’s National Security Council, stayed coy on whether Washington would soon authorize more weapons to Taipei, saying only, “Our policy on arms sales to Taiwan has not changed.” Bader welcomed the easing of
tensions with China since Taiwan last year elected Beijing-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou but said it was not a reason to change U.S. policy. “This is an area where we have a tried and true basis for a stable relationship and we’re not going to tamper with that,” Bader said. He said U.S. policy was guided by the Three Communiques — under which the United States recognized Beijing as China’s sole government — as well as the Taiwan Relations Act, in which Congress required the
Russian officials said no deliveries have been made yet. No reason has been given for the delay, but Israel and the United States strongly objected to Iran obtaining the long-range missiles, which would significantly boost the country’s air defense capacities. Asked whether Russia plans to sell any weapons to Iran, Medvedev gave an evasive answer. “We will only supply weapons which are clearly defensive,” he said without elaboration. “We have no intention to supply offensive weapons.” Please turn to page2
United States to provide the island weapons of a defensive nature. “That framework is unalterable. We’re not going to touch it. There will be nothing we say or do on the trip that will go in different directions,” he said. China’s defeated nationalists fled to Taiwan after losing the civil war in 1949. Communist China considers the island a province that requires reunification, by force if necessary. Ma, who ended two decades of rule by leaders who sought a more separate Taiwanese identity, has
stepped up relations with China including by promoting trade and tourism. But Ma has also appealed to Washington to sell arms, including F-16 jet fighters, to modernize Taiwan’s aging military. The Obama administration has given signals publicly on the sale. China postponed military exchanges with the U.S. after former U.S. president George W. Bush last year proposed a 6.5 billion-U.S. dollar arms package to Taiwan which did not include the F-16 planes.
enriched uranium — around 70 percent of its stockpile — to Russia in one batch by the end of the year, easing concerns the material would be used for a bomb. After further enrichment in Russia, France would convert the uranium into fuel rods that would be returned to Iran for use in a reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. Fuel rods cannot be further enriched into weapons-grade material.
Marking the Bolshevik Revolution A Russian communist supporter takes part in a rally to mark the anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in central Moscow, yesterday. Nov. 7 was for decades a holiday celebrating the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution that ushered in more than 70 years of Soviet rule. Former President Vladimir Putin abolished the holiday on Nov. 7 four years ago.
Reuters