Headlines:

 

• Euro global poll shows more than 50% predicting an exit
• Russia threatens Nato with military strikes over missile defence system
• Pentagon sending trainers back into Yemen
• US secretly releasing Taliban prisoners from Bagram prison
• US panel cuts foreign aid, military aid to Pakistan

 

 

Details:

Euro global poll shows more than 50% predicting an exit:

The 17-nation euro area is on the verge of losing one of its members, with more than 50 percent of investors predicting an exit this year as Greece's election impasse threatens to push the debt crisis to new depths, according to the Bloomberg Global Poll. As Greece faces political paralysis and voters balk at austerity, 57 percent of the 1,253 investors, analysts and traders who are Bloomberg subscribers said at least one country will abandon the euro by year-end and 80 percent expected more pain for Europe's bond markets. With a majority identifying a deterioration in Europe as a large threat to the world economy, respondents to the May 8 survey were increasingly worried Spain will default and less willing to buy French debt as Francois Hollande takes power. Europe's financial turmoil is reigniting on the second anniversary of policy makers' first attempt to prevent Greece's fiscal woes from turning toxic. That raises fresh doubt over the crisis-fighting strategy just as Greece's inconclusive election spurs concern that the country may not meet the terms of its international rescues and will seek a solution outside the euro. "Certainly from a financial perspective the crisis can only intensify," said Michael Derks, a poll respondent and chief strategist at FXPro Financial Services Ltd in London. "We're likely to get more debt restructurings and it would be remarkable if Greece didn't leave the euro within a year." Europe's financial turmoil is reigniting on the second anniversary of policy makers' first attempt to prevent Greece's fiscal woes from turning toxic. That raises fresh doubt over the crisis-fighting strategy just as Greece's inconclusive election spurs concern that the country may not meet the terms of its international rescues and will seek a solution outside the euro. "Certainly from a financial perspective the crisis can only intensify," said Michael Derks, a poll respondent and chief strategist at FXPro Financial Services Ltd in London. "We're likely to get more debt restructurings and it would be remarkable if Greece didn't leave the euro within a year."

Russia threatens Nato with military strikes over missile defence system:

Russia has threatened Nato with military strikes against in Poland and Romania if a missile defence radar and interceptors are deployed in Eastern Europe. General Nikolai Makarov, Russia's most senior military commander, warned Nato that if it proceeded with a controversial American missile defence system, force would be used against it. "A decision to use destructive force pre-emptively will be taken if the situation worsens," he said. Gen Makarov has threatened to target Nato bases hosting an anti-missile system designed by the US to protect European allies against attack from states such as Iran. He said that Russia would counter Nato deployment by stationing short-range Iskander missiles in the Russian Kaliningrad exclave near Poland, creating the worst military tensions since the Cold War. "The deployment of new strike weapons in Russia's south and northwest - including of Iskander systems in Kaliningrad - is one of our possible options for destroying the system's European infrastructure," he said.

Pentagon sending trainers back into Yemen:

The Pentagon said Tuesday it is sending military trainers back to Yemen for "routine" counterterrorism cooperation with Yemeni security forces amid an intensified battle against an offshoot of the al-Qaida terror network. "We have begun to reintroduce small numbers of trainers into Yemen," a Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. John Kirby, told reporters. Another American official said the arriving troops are special operations forces, who work under more secretive arrangements than conventional U.S. troops and whose expertise includes training indigenous forces. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the subject publicly.Yemen has been a launching pad for attacks against the United States by the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. On Monday, The Associated Press disclosed that the CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design. Kirby said the return of U.S. military trainers to Yemen was for "routine military-to-military cooperation." He declined to provide details. A U.S. military training program in Yemen was suspended last year after then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh was badly injured in a militant attack. At one point the U.S. had between 100 and 150 trainers there. The new president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who took over in February, has requested increased U.S. counterterrorist cooperation, including trainers and advisers. The U.S. also has a substantial naval presence near Yemen. A Marine contingent aboard Navy ships arrived in the area over the weekend on a routine rotation. It includes the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, with about 2,000 Marines aboard vessels including the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima. Also in the group is the USS New York, an amphibious transport dock ship that was built with more than seven tons of steel from the World Trade Center. It is the New York's maiden deployment

US secretly releasing Taliban prisoners from Bagram prison:

Up to 20 prisoners have been released from Bagram prison in the past two years after giving assurances they would give up their struggle and reconcile with the government. The clandestine "strategic release" programme at the prison north of Kabul has allowed America to use prisoners as bargaining chips when trying to reach local deals with insurgents. Officials admitted the scheme was risky however and difficult to police. They would not say whether any of those released had resumed attacks on Nato or Afghan forces. "Everyone agrees that these are bad guys. But the benefits outweigh the risks." Gavin Sundwall, spokesman for the US embassy in Kabul, said the programme was two years old and "rarely used".

US panel cuts foreign aid, military aid to Pakistan:

A House of Representatives panel moved on Wednesday to cut the foreign aid budget by some nine per cent, targeting economic aid and contributions to the United Nations and the World Bank. Despite the cuts, the legislation won bipartisan backing from the Appropriations foreign aid panel, although it is sure to draw a White House veto threat because it's in line with a broader Republican spending plan that breaks faith with last year's budget and debt pact with President Barack Obama. The panel maintains aid to Israel and Egypt at the administration's requests but denies $800 million that was requested for a special fund for training and equipping Pakistan's military in counterinsurgency tactics. The move appears to reflect wariness on the part of lawmakers toward the government of Pakistan, which failed to find Osama bin Laden for years until the US military killed him a year ago. Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. accused Pakistan of "harboring a fugitive" and likened the US-Pakistan relationship to a "bad marriage." Given the animosity toward Pakistan, the $800 million request for counterinsurgency efforts was an easy target, although the measure would permit transfers from other accounts to make up for some or all of the shortfall. "It is a difficult relationship," said Rep. Kay Granger, the foreign aid measure's lead author. The measure also would boost funding to help Mexico and Colombia fight drug gangs. But lawmakers denied the administration's request for $770 million to support political and economic reforms in the Middle East and North Africa in the aftermath of last year's Arab Spring anti-government uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere.