US mulls sanctions against Ukraine

US mulls sanctions against Ukraine

White House "appalled" by Ukrainian government's crackdown on massive protests at Kiev's Independence Square.

Last updated: 12 Dec 2013 02:23

 Ukraine has been gripped by weeks of demonstrations after the government rejected an EU trade deal [Reuters]

The United States may impose sanctions against Ukraine if security forces intensify a crackdown on anti-government demonstrators in the capital's Independence Square.

US lawmakers said on Wednesday they were considering legislation to deny visas to Ukrainian officials or to freeze their American assets if violence escalates at the central protest camp.

White House deputy spokesman Josh Earnest said the US was "appalled" at how the government has handled the political crisis.

"The Ukrainian government's response to peaceful protests over the last two weeks has been completely unacceptable... The right to peaceful protest and assembly must be respected," Earnest said.

Kiev has been gripped by weeks of demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of people against President Viktor Yanukovich's decision to reject a European Union trade pact and steer Ukraine closer to Russia.

If he continues to use bulldozers and batons to break up peaceful demonstrations, there could be consequences.Chris Murphy, Democratic Senator

Several dozen people were injured in the early hours of Wednesday when riot police and Interior Ministry special forces moved against the demonstrators' last stronghold in Independence Square.

Security forces initially tore down makeshift barricades but were eventually forced to retreat amid cheers from the demonstrators, whose ranks swelled through the night.

US Senate and House of Representatives aides cited discussions at the staff level about Congress responding to the unrest in Ukraine with legislation along the lines of the Magnitsky Act, which bars Russian officials believed to be involved in human-rights abuses from entering the United States.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who chairs the Senate's Europe subcommittee, said lawmakers would be closely monitoring Yanukovich's conduct in the days ahead.

"If he continues to use bulldozers and batons to break up peaceful demonstrations, there could be consequences, real consequences, from the Congress," Murphy said.

The US State Department said it was considering all options, including sanctions.

Talks rejected

Ukraine's police have been criticised by the West for heavy-handedness in dealing with protests even before the latest crackdown, with dozens of demonstrators injured in clashes last week.

Yanukovich has vowed that the authorities would never use force against peaceful protests, and urged the opposition to sit down for talks.

"For the sake of achieving compromise I am calling on the opposition not to reject [talks], not to follow the path of confrontation and ultimatums," Yanukovich said in a statement on Wednesday.

But the opposition, which earlier ruled out any negotiations until he dismissed the government and punished riot police for crushing a smaller protest on November 30, vowed to do everything to topple the president.

"With what happened last night, Yanukovich closed off the path to any kind of compromise," opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko told a news conference, adding they "had planned to have talks with Yanukovich. We understand that Yanukovich has no wish to talk to the people and only understands physical force, which he uses against the protesters."

An estimated 5,000 pro-EU demonstrators were camping out in Independence Square on Wednesday night, reinforcing barricades with snow and sand bags.

U.S. Suspends Nonlethal Aid to Syrian Rebels in North

U.S. Suspends Nonlethal Aid to Syrian Rebels in North

The decision was made after moderate Syrian rebel forces reporting to Gen. Salim Idris, the nominal head of the rebel Free Syrian Army, came under attack last week from fighters aligned with Al Qaeda, according to an account provided by an American official.

The Islamic Front, an alliance of rebel fighters that has broken with General Idris’s moderate opposition but opposes the Qaeda affiliate in Syria, joined the fray, the American official said.

After the dust cleared, the Islamic Front appeared to have taken control of warehouses in Atmeh that contain equipment and supplies provided by the United States, added the American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing internal reports.

The first reports of military actions are often confused and inexact. But it seems clear that American officials are concerned that some aid has indeed fallen into the wrong hands.

“We have seen reports that Islamic Front forces have seized the Atmeh headquarters and warehouses,” a State Department official said.

“As a result of this situation, the United States has suspended all further deliveries of nonlethal assistance into northern Syria,” the official added. “The humanitarian aid to the Syrian people is not impacted by this suspension.”

The episode illustrates two trends that pose major challenges for the Obama administration’s goal of strengthening the moderate Syrian opposition and persuading President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to yield power.

One is the growing strength of Qaeda-affiliated forces, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The other is the fracturing of the Assad opposition, which has led some commanders to break away from General Idris’s Supreme Military Council, which the United States is backing, to form their own coalitions.

Since suspending aid, American officials have begun an inventory to determine how much of the nonlethal equipment and supplies are controlled by forces reporting to General Idris.

Under the Obama administration’s division of labor, the State Department is in charge of supplying nonlethal aid, like radios, vehicles and food rations. The C.I.A. runs a covert program to arm and train Syrian rebels. There was no indication that the nonlethal-aid suspension would affect that program.

“We are working with General Idris and the S.M.C. to inventory the status of U.S. equipment and supplies provided to the S.M.C.,” the State Department official said, referring to the Supreme Military Council. “We are gathering the facts and consulting with friends of the Syrian opposition on next steps in support of the
Syrian people.”

Time Magazine's PERSON OF THE YEAR 2013

December 6, 2013 12:05 pm
The scandal at the Vatican bank
By Rachel Sanderson
An 11-month FT investigation reveals the extent of mismanagement at the €5bn-asset bank
©Reuters

On June 28 this year, Italian police arrested a silver-haired priest, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, in Rome. The cleric, nicknamed Monsignor Cinquecento after the €500 bills he habitually carried around with him, was charged with fraud and corruption, together with a former secret service agent and a ­financial broker. All
three were suspected of attempting to smuggle €20m by private plane across the border from Switzerland.
Prosecutors alleged that the priest, a former banker, was using the Institute for Religious Works – the formal name for the Vatican’s bank – to move money for businessmen based in the Naples region, widely regarded in Italy as a haven of organised crime. Worse still, Scarano (who, together with the other men, has
denied any wrongdoing) had until only a month earlier been head of the accounting department at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, the treasury of the Vatican.

The arrest, and the headlines that screamed across the Italian press, was the latest shock for the Holy See. The year had already witnessed an emotional upheaval in the church with the resignation in February of the aged Pope Benedict XVI – the first time in 700 years a pope had stepped down voluntarily. But this new
crisis demanded cold, hard resolve. For regulators and politicians in Europe who had pushed for change in the Vatican’s scandal-plagued bank over the previous four years – from the Bank of Italy under Mario Draghi to officials in Mario Monti’s government and in Brussels – it served as evidence of their concerns.

Those worries also jolted a number of international financiers determined to press for reform.
In early July, Peter Sutherland, non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International and the former attorney-general of Ireland, flew into Vatican City. His mission – although described by some insiders as simply a “bit part” in the wider drive for change – was an illuminating one. Sutherland, a practising Catholic and an unpaid consultant to the Vatican’s treasury, had been asked by reformers in the church to speak with the council of cardinals, the most senior advisers to the pope. His message to the men who filed into a room near Doma Santa Marta, the plain-fronted residence of Pope Francis, was respectful but direct.
The banker, who declined to comment for this story, added his voice to the many in and outside the church asking the world’s smallest city-state to change its ways. “Transparency is important and necessary,” Sutherland said, according to two people who were informed of proceedings in the closed-door meeting.
The cardinals, known for long, contemplative consultations, were surprisingly receptive, said one of those informed. After a decade of paedophilia scandals, the allegations of financial impropriety seemed set to unleash another storm of criticism and had to be addressed. Outside auditors as well as financial risk
consultants were already coming into the Vatican but the arrest of Scarano made the case for reform unavoidable. “We cannot have any more scandal. It is so shameful,” a senior member of the Vatican’s financial administration said.

The Financial Times has investigated the extent of the mismanagement at the Vatican bank. In this audio slideshow, find out how the scandal erupted and what has been done to help strengthen the bank.
How God’s bank ended up as a financial penitent this year is a bracing chapter in the history of financial reforms that have swelled up in the aftermath of the 2008 credit crisis. Untouchable havens such as Switzerland and Liechtenstein were forced to open their chocolate-box palaces to the probes of international regulators. This year the power of the popes was challenged.

''I am one of the countless millions who drew inspiration from Nelson Mandela's life'' US President Obama.

The Independent Cartoon

''I am one of the countless millions who drew inspiration from Nelson Mandela's life. My very first political action, the first thing I ever did that involved an issue or a policy or politics, was a protest against apartheid. I studied his words and his writings. The day that he was released from prison gave me a sense of what human beings can do when they’re guided by their hopes and not by their fears. And like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, and so long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him.'' 

US President Obama