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| Vote Backs Mideast Talks Halt The Arab League backed the decision of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to resume direct peace talks with Israel without a full freeze on Jewish settlement building, but left the door open for Washington to continue efforts to broker a deal. online.wsj.com |
Copper mine rescue may prove a goldmine for Brand Chile Marketing experts say miner rescue provides an opportunity to step out of the shadow of Latin American neighboursIt may have been slightly overstating the case when Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, said the San José mine could become a tourist destination, but the miners' rescue is likely to benefit Chile's international reputation and help it break with its turbulent recent past.Among Latin American nations it is overshadowed by Brazil's economic growth, Argentina's international reputation and Venezuela's worldwide fame under Hugo Chávez. Slowly emerging from the shadows of Augusto Pinochet's dicatorship, which saw up to 3,000 people killed between 1974 and 1990, Chile now has a chance to rebrand itself, according to industry experts."Although it wasn't planned in any way, what the Chilean government has done in the last two months can't do anything but good in terms of Chile's brand image," said Jonathan Gabay at brandforensics.co.uk. "A brand should be able to manage expectations and so the rescue can't do them any harm. When you have a brand crisis it's interesting to see how the brand responds." Chile's reaction, he said, had been very quick and very effective.Stephen Izatt, managing director of strategic brand consultants Thinkfarm, agreed. "Chile has probably had more publicity and visibility worldwide than it has for a long time," he said. "The way the government has reacted and supported the miners has probably counteracted some of the more negative record on human rights and workers' rights."He also noted that the president, Sebastián Piñera, had been quick to spot the PR opportunity afforded him. Piñera, who was elected in January, is a billionaire businessman. He cast himself as a tough executive who would stop at nothing to save the miners and punish those responsible for the accident that trapped them. A recent poll showed that this approval rating had jumped 10 points to 56% since the mining drama began in early August."The president was very visible and obviously saw the publicity opportunity," said Izatt. "But I think he came across pretty well and did OK." The success of Chile's rebranding would now rest on how it used the good publicity it has won. "It depends what you do with it. Everyone came up safely and everyone was treated with care, but it will be interesting to see how the miners handle their fame and how the government supports them."Gabay pointed out that the government's honeymoon period would soon come to an end. "Up until now the press have been looking at the human interest story," he said. "But now that we know they're OK, it's time to ask the big questions like how did they allow this to happen in the first place?"Izatt expressed doubts about the Bolivian president's belief that the mine itself could be transformed into a tourist magnet."I can't think of any reason why you'd want to see the mine," he said. "It was the action, the technology and the relief when they arrived that was interesting."ChileSam Jonesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Democrats make pre-election pitch to help seniors By JIM ABRAMS 2010-10-19T10:57:00ZWASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats are making a pre-election pitch to give Social Security recipients a one-time payment of $250, part of a larger effort to convince senior voters that their party, and not Republicans, will best look out for the 58 million people who get the government retirement and disability benefits.... hosted.ap.org |
Malaysia Leader Seeks Stronger Party Malaysia’s leader announced a national tour to rally support for his ruling party, strengthening speculation that he might call for early general elections next year. online.wsj.com |
Attack on Iranian nuclear scientists prompts hit squad claims Tehran accuses the west and Israel of arranging co-ordinated bombings targeting its atomic programmeTehran today accused the west and Israel of dispatching a hit squad against its atomic programme, after an Iranian nuclear scientist was killed and another injured in co-ordinated attacks.The attackers rode up on motorcycles and stuck bombs to the windows of the scientists' cars as they were leaving their homes in Tehran on the way to work. Seconds later the bombs detonated.One bomb killed Majid Shahriar, of the nuclear engineering faculty at the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. His wife was in the car with him and was wounded. The second bomb injured Fereidoun Abbasi, 52, a nuclear physicist and professor at Shahid Besheshti, and also injured his wife.Both men were senior figures in nuclear research. Abbasi, a former Revolutionary Guard, is named in a UN Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran as working in banned nuclear activities with Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the scientist accused by western governments of running a secret nuclear weapons programme.Shahriari had no known links to banned nuclear work, but was highly regarded in his field. He co-authored an academic paper on fission in nuclear reactors with Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation. An Iranian news website said he was designing a "new generation of theoretical nuclear reactors".The attacks were similar to the assassination in January of Masoud Ali Mohammadi, an expert on particle physics, killed by a remote-control bomb strapped to a motorcycle as he was leaving his Tehran home on his way to work.The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, blamed "western governments and the Zionist regime" for the attacks.Both the US and Israel are reported to be conducting covert operations aimed at slowing Iran's nuclear programme, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes but which western governments say is a cover for developing a nuclear warhead. Earlier this year a computer worm, Stuxnet, hit computers around the world but appeared to affect Iranian industrial plant disproportionately, particularly in the nuclear programme. Today, for the first time, Ahmadinejad admitted the worm had affected Iran's uranium enrichment. "They succeeded in creating problems for a limited number of our centrifuges with the software they had installed in electronic parts," the president said. "They did a bad thing. Fortunately our experts discovered that, and today they are not able [to do that] anymore."Last week the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, reported that the main centrifuge plant at Natanz stopped enriching uranium altogether on November 16, and that there had been a steady decline in functioning centrifuges over the year. Nuclear experts said it was unclear what caused the problems, and speculated it could be a mix of design faults and sabotage.Other possible suspects include a Sunni rebel group, Jundullah, which today broadcast a video confession of a man it described as a nuclear worker, who admitted the existence of an Iranian weapons programme. There was no immediate way of authenticating the video, and Jundullah made no claims of responsibility for today's bomb attacks.The People's Mujahedin group has also been blamed by the Iranian government for terrorist incidents in the past, but has claimed in recent years to be pursuing a non-violent path for change in Iran.Opposition Iranian bloggers were today debating the possibility that the killings were the work of the Revolutionary Guards or the state security services, with the aim of punishing the giving-away of secrets, or of preventing defections. However, there was no evidence to justify any such theory, or explain why Tehran would kill valued academics in this manner, rather than detain them or move them to the guarded compounds on which many Iranian nuclear specialists work, minded by bodyguards.The attacks have come at a tense time, as the international community ramps up economic sanctions against Tehran, and with the possibility of an Israeli military attack hanging over the nuclear programme. US diplomatic cables leaked this week revealed that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had repeatedly urged the United States to mount such a military attack.Iranian officials are due to meet with diplomats from six major powers on Sunday, but there has not yet been agreement on whether the meeting should take place in Turkey (as Tehran wants) or in Switzerland. The meeting would discuss Iran's nuclear programme and a range of other regional security and economic issues.Who targeted the scientists?Israel The country is pursuing covert operations aimed at hobbling Iran's nuclear programme, as a less costly alternative to mounting a full-scale military attack. Israeli officials admit that such operations are in progress but they give no detail. Israel is widely believed to be responsible for the Stuxnet computer worm that caused problems for the Iranian uranium enrichment programme. The country also has a record of using assassination as a weapon in what it regards as vital national interests.United States George Bush, when he was president, ordered a covert programme to sabotage Iran's nuclear ambitions, and that mission is still believed to be under way. Targeted killings have been approved against terrorist targets, but the revelation that a US-backed hit squad was killing civilian scientists would be immensely damaging to the administration.Jundullah The "Soldiers of God", a Iranian Sunni group based in Iranian Baluchistan, has carried out a series of bloody attacks in recent years that have largely been focused on military targets. The group, known as the People's Resistance Movement of Iran, broadcast a video yesterday of a captive who it claims is a worker from a secret nuclear facility. It did not claim responsibility for the morning's attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists.The People's Mujahedin (MeK or PMOI) This longstanding rebel group carried out several bombings and assassinations in the years following the 1979 revolution, but has more recently presented itself as a non-violent group. It is focusing its efforts on having itself removed from the US state department's list of terrorist organisations.IranMiddle EastNuclear weaponsJulian BorgerSaeed Kamali Dehghanguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |