GM makes new offer to ease bankruptcy

US auto giant General Motors says if its bondholders accept the company's bid to sell its assets under bankruptcy protection law, they will be offered 10 percent of GM's stocks.

Based on GM's new offer, bondholders will be offered 10 percent of the company when restructured in addition to warrants to purchase another 15 percent, explained the Detroit-based carmaker through a US regulatory filing on Thursday.

In return, creditors who represent about 20 percent of the company's debt, will allow GM to sell its profitable assets to a government-funded company established in accordance with the bankruptcy law.

The new company would cede 17.5 percent of its stock to the United Auto Workers union's health-care trust fund and 10 percent to back the "old GM" to pay creditors.

The GM filing says if the bondholders do not agree to support the sale, then they would have less or no chance to obtain stocks or warrants.

US government to own 72% of GM

Fallen US auto giant General Motors pulled back from the brink, winning government and bondholder support for a new restructuring plan.

GM, kept afloat so far with USD 19b in taxpayer money, had been facing a deadline on Monday to come up with an agreed reorganization.

The new plan endorsed by bondholders, would see the government hold a 72.5 percent stake in return for possibly more than USD 50b of fresh funding.

The Treasury Department "has indicated to GM that if GM decides to seek relief under the US Bankruptcy Code and seek bankruptcy court approval for the sale of substantially all of its assets ... a new company sponsored by the US Treasury (New GM) would agree to acquire such assets," a GM filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said.


The government could provide "in excess of USD 50b" for this reorganization that would be converted to stock, it added.


GM's survival was thrown into doubt earlier this week when holders of some USD 27b in GM bonds rejected a plan to swap that debt for 10 percent of the new company.

Oil prices hit 7-month high, above $66

Oil prices hit a seven-month high above $66 a barrel with signs of recovery in US, Japanese and Indian economies and a fall in dollar value.

US light sweet crude for July delivery jumped to $66.47 per barrel, its highest prices as of November, 2008 and London Brent oil increased $1.23 to $66.31 on Friday.

Oil markets marked a 30 percent jump in prices this month -- the largest monthly climb since March 1999.

This is while the dollar experienced a five-month low against other currencies to support oil prices.

New data on Friday showed positive signals in the economies of the US, Japan and India, suggesting that the economic crisis may be easing.

Analysts says prices will continue rising amid optimistic economic figures. Oil consumption had fallen as a result of the global financial meltdown with crude prices now rebounding.

At the Vienna summit last week, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) left production quotas unchanged.

Russia's chemical stockpile for WWIII to shrink

Thousands of tons of the chemical weapons, reportedly set aside for a contingency plan to fight the World War III, are to be rendered harmless in Russia.

On Friday, international officials attended the opening ceremony of the factory which is to remove and neutralize the lethal contents of the weapons, Reuters reported.

The facility, codenamed 'Unit 1027', can process Sarin, Soman and the most deadly nerve gas VX from both cannon shells and warheads.

The 5,500 tons of chemical weapons, however, is slightly above a fourth of what the country should rid itself of by 2012 - the deadline for a wholesale clear-out.

Moscow is criticized for its alleged lax cooperation with the Chemical Weapons Convention which came in effect in 1997; ten years after Russia ceased to produce the weaponry.

At the time of the treaty, the country had been found in possession of more than half of the world's 71,000 metric tons of deadly chemical agents.

It has, however, stepped up its efforts to dispose of the weapons and meet the limit.

Ex-US senator, Richard Lugar, who had joined the inauguration, said "the arsenals had been built to fight World War III," adding that "thankfully that confrontation never came but today we must ensure that the weapons are never used and never fall into the hands of those who would do harm to us or others."

Washington and the EU also reportedly chipped in to fund the facility.

Obama to ban PoW photos exposing rape, torture

The US administration asks an appeals court to stop the release of prisoner abuse images, showing that Obama has fully backtracked on his promise of transparency.

In a motion filed Thursday in a New York federal appeals court, the Obama administration said that it did not want the photos to be available to the public, arguing that they could lead to violence against US troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and even Pakistan.

"[Distributing the photos poses] a clear and grave risk of inciting violence and riots against American and coalition forces, as well as civilian personnel, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan," the motion said.

The court filing also included two semi-classified statements by the top US commander in Iraq, General Raymond Odierno, and the head of US Central Command General David Petraeus, who leads US military activities in the Middle East and Central Asia.

"[The release of the images] would… further endanger the lives of US soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors, civilians and contractors," said Petraeus.

Odierno also claimed that Iraqi officials had told him the release of the photos, which are believed to number in the thousands, could disrupt democratic progress in Iraq before the national elections.

Last month, Obama's administration said that it would comply with a court order, which was issued following a lengthy Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The order said the pictures must be released by May 28.

Earlier in May, however, Barack Obama reversed his position, saying that he did not feel comfortable with his previous decision.

The new US administration's U-turn on the issue drew a heavy backlash from the ACLU, which expressed outrage and said the decision "makes a mockery" of Obama's campaign promise of transparency.

While Amnesty International said that it was disappointed, other US human rights groups also accused Obama of following in the footsteps of former president George W. Bush.

News of the US government's official stance came as Press TV released some images of the maltreatment of prisoners by US soldiers, confirming an earlier Daily Telegraph report, which revealed the photos of abuse at Iraqi jails include images of rape and sexual assault.

Washington-based investigative journalist Wayne Madsen emailed the horrific images to Press TV, rejecting allegations by neoconservative media that they were fake.

Madsen said when some of the disputed photos were randomly published by the Boston Globe in 2004, neoconservatives made the same accusations against the paper.

The Daily Telegraph report focused on information provided by Major General Antonio Taguba, a former army officer who published a report in 2004 into the abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Contradicting an Obama administration claim that photos did not include pictures of sexual abuse, Taguba said the images showed mistreatment, torture, and rape.

Bush sees parity with 'brother' Clinton

Former US President George W. Bush says ex-President William J. Clinton never criticized him as both leaders followed similar policies in their tenures.

Speaking at their first cameo appearance in a Toronto forum on Friday, Bush refused to vilify the current US administration under President Barack H. Obama, saying he disliked it when former governments attacked his.

The two leaders rubberstamped each other's policies, agreeing that little differences existed between the two.

Bush supported Clinton's silence during the 1994 Rwanda genocide in which over 800,000 thousands Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered.

He backed Clinton's notion by admitting that the quick mobilization of 20,000 troops was not feasible at the time.

Clinton, however, acknowledged that he could save around 400,000 lives in case he took the initiative.

"It's one of the two or three greatest regrets of my presidency," he said.

Clinton for his part praised Bush for his 'diverse' cabinet picks.

Tickets for "A conversation with Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton," were sold for C$200 to C$2,500 as hundreds of opposition had staged a rally outside the heavily-guarded venue.

Commenting on the financial benefits of the forum, Bush said, "President Clinton and I used to believe in free speech …So thanks very much for coming _ we are glad you're here."

He also called Clinton a 'brother' for the amount of time he spent with the Bush family.

The comments put a new light on the true differences between the two main political parties.

US senator rejects Cheney torture claim as 'lie'

A US senator says claims by former Vice President Dick Cheney that enhanced interrogation techniques -- torture -- saved countless American lives are wrong.

The powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Carl Levin, said an investigation into detainee abuse charges over the use of the tactics "gives the lie to Mr. Cheney's claims," CNN reported.

In April, President Barack Obama released classified CIA memos that showed Bush administration lawyers authorized the use of techniques such as waterboarding, which stimulates drowning, against enemy combatants.

Later, Obama banned the use of the techniques.

Levin noted that the two CIA documents that Cheney wants released "say nothing about numbers of lives saved, nor do the documents connect acquisition of valuable intelligence to the use of abusive techniques."

"I hope that the documents are declassified, so that people can judge for themselves what fact is, and what is fiction," he added.

Cheney had asked the Obama administration to declassify the documents to make more "honest debate" on the Bush administration's decision to use the methods on suspected terrorists, but his request was rejected by the CIA.

Cheney argued that those techniques provided valuable intelligence that saved American lives, but critics say they amounted to the illegal torture of prisoners in US custody.

Paris implicated in Zoe's Ark orphan fraud?

The French charity Zoe's Ark faces trial as an organization for "fraud" related to the "snatching" of 103 Chadian children in 2007, a court source says.

The group's head Eric Breteau was brought before judges on Thursday to have the charges which also include assisting in the illegal immigration of foreign children "with a view to adoption" read out to him.

Breteau and his partner, Emilie Lelouch, have already been charged personally on similar counts following complaints from five former volunteers who claimed to have been duped by the association.

The five were sent to Chad in September 2007 and told they were on a mission to help Darfur orphans, but returned to France shortly before six members of the organization were arrested on October 25 that year.

Chad's government accused the organization of kidnapping, while its members argued they were helping orphans from the war-ravaged Darfur region in neighboring Sudan. It later emerged the children were not Sudanese but from Chad and only a handful were actually orphans.

Zoe's Ark, founded by volunteer firefighter and four-wheel-drive enthusiast Breteau, describes itself as a non-profit organization "dedicated to orphaned children."

Zoe's Ark controversial plan to airlift 1,000 children from Sudan's troubled Darfur region and place them in foster care with French families was launched in June 2008 and advertised as the only means to "save them from certain death".

It admitted signing up 500 foster families to cover evacuation costs, each paying USD 4,000 to USD 8,600 dollars.

On its website, Zoe's Ark claimed that 800,000 children are at the risk of dying by the end of the year.

In Oct. 2007, the French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights, Rama Yade, accused the group of hiding its identity by registering in Chad under the name of Children Rescue.

She recalled that the government warned Zoe's Ark months before that it risked breaking the law and that it had no way of proving that the children involved were orphans.

French police have been investigating the charity since July 2007 on charges of illegal adoption. It has also been revealed that French military planes in Chad carried charity members on several occasions.

France has 1,000 troops and fighter jets stationed in Chad, home to some 236,000 refugees from Darfur as well as some 173,000 people displaced by a local rebellion.

There have been accusations from various political sectors about former colonial power France being an "accomplice" in the crime.

"We have got ourselves into an impossible situation and I would like to know exactly what the French authorities' role was," said former premier, Laurent Fabius, in October 2007.

In a book published in 2008, Breteau said that both the French Foreign Ministry and the French president's office had known about his mission beforehand and backed it.

Iraq decries Riyadh's 'negative positions'

The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al Maliki, has taken a swipe at Saudi Arabia's 'negative positions' towards his country.

Comparing recognition from other neighbors of Iraq, including Iran, with continued Saudi rejections, Maliki said in a statement on Thursday, “We succeeded in opening ourselves to many countries, but Saudi has negative positions.”

Iraq, which has a Shia majority, for the first time elected a Shia-led government in 2005, headed by Maliki's Dawaa Party, and Saudi Arabia, which presumes itself as the representative of the Sunni Islam, has snubbed Iraqi overtures for recognition and better relations.

“We rushed to create not just a normal but positive relation [with Saudi Arabia], but the initiative was mistakenly understood as a weakness.”

Saudi Arabia remains the prime source for foreign volunteers traveling to Iraq to engage in sectarian anti-Shia violence.

Maliki has distanced himself from sectarianism and reached out to minority Sunni Arabs in forming his government.

Nevertheless Saudis are also said to be suspicious of Maliki over its close ties with Iran.

Still, Maliki says that his government remains open, and hopeful, for better relations with the Saudis. “We continue to be ready for any Saudi initiative but we have used up initiatives from our side and it would be useless to repeat them unless Saudi has a clear intention to [improve] these relations,” Maliki said.

The US government has called on Iraq's neighbors to extend diplomatic recognition and better ties with Iraq. But, these calls have been mostly ignored, especially by Saudi Arabia, an otherwise steadfast US ally.

In contrast, Iran was the first of Iraq's neighbors to exchange ambassadors with the war-ravaged country.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan backed the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during his eight-year war against Iran in the 1980's.

The Saudis are demanding the return of some $40 billion that Riyadh had loaned to Saddam Hussein to finance his war against Iran, although they have suggested readiness to write off 80 percent of it. Iraq disputes the amount, claiming that it owes only $15 billion.

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NATO standing between US-Russia ties: Putin

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says NATO military exercises in Georgia could impede attempts by Washington and Moscow to "reset" their strained relations.

In an interview ahead of a trip to Tokyo, Putin said that the NATO exercise was "a step backwards" and a "signal in the other direction" despite efforts to repair US-Russia relations, Reuters reported.

"We really hope that today's leaders of the United States will hit the pedal properly to put a brake on the negative trends in our ... ties and take the necessary steps to make sure they really gain new substance," Putin said.

Russia has questioned the timing of the exercises when tension in the Caucasus is on the rise.

Putin also criticized the NATO war games, saying they will prop up the pro-Western Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

President Saakashvili, who is detested by Moscow after igniting and fighting a war against Russia in August 2008, in recent weeks has faced major protests from the opposition who want him to resign.

The NATO exercise is the latest in a series of obstacles standing the way of better US-Russia relations. The two sides remain at odds over Washington's plans to deploy elements of an anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe.

The Kremlin views the move as a threat to its sovereignty, while the White House says the deployment is mere precaution against possible missile attack from 'rogue states'.

In March, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed a 'reset button' as a gift to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in move viewed a first step in betterment of relations between the Cold War-era rivals.

Following the move Moscow and Washington decided to reduce their nuclear warheads and work together on a number of issues.

US sends mixed signals over Pakistani nukes future

as Pakistan continues to struggle with the Taliban insurgency, senior officials in Washington issue contradictory statements over the future of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal.

Top US military chief, Admiral Michael Mullen, on Monday told reporters that Pakistan's nuclear facilities were well protected. "I remain comfortable that the nuclear weapons in Pakistan are secure."

However, hours later, National Security Adviser, General James Jones, said the White House needed assurances from the Pakistani government that its nuclear weapons would not fall into the hands of al-Qaeda or Taliban militants.

The development comes as Pakistan's army continues to grapple with the looming insurgency near the capital, Islamabad.

US officials are expected to discuss the perceived vulnerability of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal with President Asif Ali Zardari during his three-day visit to Washington which began on Monday.

US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, has warned that the US was worried about the "unthinkable" in Pakistan - that the Taliban and al-Qaeda could topple the government, giving them "the keys to nuclear arsenal".

There are also reports of back-door plans in Washington to take over the Pakistani nukes in the event of any exigencies in the face of further advance by the insurgents in the violence-hit country.

The Taliban have announced that they plan to infiltrate into Islamabad and other major cities across Pakistan.

US forgives Israeli spies amid AIPAC heat

A US court has formally dropped espionage charges against two pro-Israeli lobbyists amid a scandal that had threatened to expose the extent of Israeli grip on US politics.

US District Judge T. S. Ellis on Monday dismissed all charges against former AIPAC lobbyists Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, three days after Justice Department prosecutors announced that handling the case would require the release of top secret military intelligence and should therefore be shelved.

Rosen and Weissman were indicted in 2005 for conspiring to obtain and leak classified information regarding Iran to the Israeli government and journalists from The Washington Post and other media outlets.

Pentagon expert Larry Franklin -- who pled guilty to passing restricted military intelligence to the two indicted lobbyists -- was sentenced in April to 12 years and seven months in prison.

AIPAC, billed as the most powerful lobbying group in Washington, has strived to distance itself from the spy case to escape further controversy for the sake of its reputation.

The controversy, however, was further fueled by revelations of the involvement of California representative Jane Harman -- a longtime member of the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence who has access to highly classified security information.

Harman was reportedly overheard on a wiretapped phone conversation while agreeing to act on behalf of a suspected Israeli agent and persuade the Justice Department into reducing espionage charges against Rosen and Weissman.

The Israeli agent, in return, promised to smooth the way for Harman to become the next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

According to a Congressional Quarterly report released on April 19, the FBI was poised to question Harman about the telephone call and her interactions with the suspected Israeli agent but US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez blocked efforts to launch an investigation.

Harman, who has denied any wrongdoing, has taken the matter up with AIPAC policymakers and has tried to turn the tables by accusing the US government of illegally recording her conversation -- a move that has shifted media attention away from AIPAC involvement in the spy case, also named the Lawrence Franklin affair.

In an address to the 2009 AIPAC policy conference on Monday, she chose to focus on the wiretapping rather than her bargaining deals with the suspected Israeli spy and called herself "a warrior on behalf of our Constitution and against abuse of power."

She went on to promise the heavyweight American politicians who had come to swear allegiance to Israel that she would "not quit on this, until I am absolutely sure that this never can happen to anyone else".

Baruch Weiss, the lawyer who helped cripple the US government's case against Rosen and Weissman, says the prosecution's loss is a "great victory" for Israel's friends.

This is not the first time pro-Israeli lobbyists charged with espionage escape trial in the US.

Stephen D. Bryen, a pro-Israel activist who played a key role in forging close ties between Israel and the Pentagon, was seen passing confidential documents to an Israeli Mossad agent in a restaurant in Washington.

Michael Saba, former executive director of the influential National Association of Arab Americans, who was witness to the security breach, promptly reported the incident to the Justice Department.

"After I reported this incident to the Justice Department, FBI and Justice Department investigators gathered sufficient evidence on Dr. Bryen's activities to recommend he be brought before an investigative grand jury for espionage," Saba explained in Armageddon Network

"The case was quietly closed, however, by Philip Heymann, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, a close personal friend and associate of Dr. Bryen's attorney. Bryen was never formally charged or made to account for his actions under oath," he added.

UN pushing Israel toward legal proceedings

In pursuit of the case of Israeli war crimes, the United Nations moves to report to the Security Council that UN facilities in Gaza had been targeted willfully.

After the United Nations Works and Relief Agency (UNRWA) compound became the target of GPS-guided Israeli mortars on January 15, the UN set up a commission to bring Israeli human rights violations in Gaza out into the open.

The commission -- led by the former British secretary-general of human rights group Amnesty International, Ian Martin -- assembled a report on Israeli actions in Gaza for submission to the Security Council.

"Israel deliberately fired at UN institutions even though it knew it was forbidden", read the report.

According to Israeli daily Ynet, the report blames Israel for disproportionate fire and excessive use of force and goes on to confirm that IDF forces shot at Palestinian civilians unnecessarily and excessively.

A member of the American delegation at the UN described the report as "unprecedented in its gravity towards Israel."

"Israel will have to lick the wounds of the report for many years, if the current wording is accepted as it is," the source was quoted as saying.

The report which includes serious charges against Israel has ruffled feathers in Israel, raising fears that it would prompt legal proceedings.

As the commission gets set to submit the report to the council on Tuesday, Israel made a move to reject the findings of the controversial report on Tuesday saying that Hamas "are misleading the investigators, the UN and public opinion."

Israel is suspected of committing war crimes including the use of the deadly white phosphorus shells in densely populated civilian areas, as revealed in an investigation by The Times in January.

While Israel initially denied using the controversial weapon, later mounting evidence forced Israeli officials to admit to having employed the shells.

Earlier in April, the IDF issued a statement claiming that Israeli probes had found that its forces did not violate international law during the recent war in Gaza.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in its Tuesday statement that Israel has held an independent review of its behavior during Operation Cast Lead and "the conclusions of these probes were released two weeks ago and they proved beyond all doubt that there was no deliberate shooting by the IDF at UN facilities."

N. Korea accuses US of planning nuke war

North Korea pledges not to wind up its nuclear weapons program, claiming the United States is plotting a nuclear attack on its soil.

The Korean peninsula is "on the brink of war because of a new war scheme by US hostile forces," the North's ruling party's newspaper Rodon Sinmun said in an editorial published Tuesday.

The editorial reiterated that Pyongyang will push ahead with its nuclear program to reinforce its deterrent against a new "nuclear war scenario for aggression".

"We are compelled to bolster our nuclear deterrent" as hostile forces have made clear their plan to occupy North Korea by force, it added.

The UN Security Council introduced a resolution against North Korea last month after the country carried out an illegal ballistic missile test.

The North reacted to the UN move by starting to reprocess spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon complex to make weapons-grade plutonium.

Pyongyang claims the missile put an experimental communication satellite into orbit while the US, South Korea and Japan maintain that it was a disguised missile test.

Israel, US colliding over ME peace?

Israeli daily Haaretz reported Tuesday that 'a classified telegram was received in Jerusalem a few days ago' in which Obama's National Security Adviser, General James Jones, advised an unnamed European foreign minister that 'unlike the Bush administration, Obama will be 'forceful' with Israel'.

"The new administration will convince Israel to compromise on the Palestinian question," read the message.

The telegram however made it clear that Washington "will not push Israel under the wheels of a bus, but we will be more forceful toward Israel than we have been under Bush."

According to a report published earlier this week by the Israeli website DEBKA, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 'can expect the full force of a bludgeon to be wielded in his White House talks on May 18'.

Citing its sources from Washington, the website claimed Barack Obama would be the first US president in decades of friendship that would openly clash with Israel.

"According to our sources, the White House staff is working at top speed on options for imposing its will," read the report.

AIPAC, donors were also informed earlier this week that, Obama will 'firmly and decisively' let Netanyahu know that the US is determined to see the implementation of the 'two-state-solution'.

The new Israeli government refuses to consider the two-state solution saying the peace process has reached a dead end.

Nonetheless, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told an AIPAC conference last night that the two-state-solution remains 'the only solution' and Israel has arrived at 'its moment of truth'.

The developments come as the US president whose country has vetoed all but one UN anti-Israeli resolutions has refused to take a stance over Israel's devastating offensive into Gaza which killed over 1350 peopl and wounded thousands others, a large number of women and children.