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Sunday, August 22, 2010

Former Blackwater Firm to Pay U.S. Fine


Xe Services LLC, the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater, reached an agreement with the State Department to pay a multi-million-dollar fine over alleged violations of U.S. export-control law. The agreement spares the firm from possible criminal charges over allegations that it violated arms export restrictions, and allows the company to continue doing business with the U.S. government. Among other things, the company was said to have proposed a package to train and equip the armed forces of southern Sudan, which emerged as an autonomous region after a U.S.-brokered peace deal in 2005. McClatchy newspapers reported details of Xe's Sudan business aspirations, which were said to include a proposal to train a security detail for south Sudanese leadership and a more ambitious deal worth $100 million to train and equip the south's army. Xe was under scrutiny for other alleged export violations. The company said in a statement that most of the alleged violations occurred while it was providing support for U.S. government programs, and that all but a few of the exports under investigation were eventually authorized. "Consistent with Xe Services' core mission of supporting U.S. interests, the State Department did not find that any of the alleged violations harmed U.S. national security or foreign policy interests," the company said. Xe Chief Executive Joseph Yorio said the agreement "reflects another step forward for Xe Services LLC on the path we started over 18 months ago to improve the internal compliance infrastructure while equally maintaining our focus on supporting the missions of our government and commercial customers." The company had a major deal to provide protective services to U.S. government officials in Iraq, but the firm lost its operating license there after a deadly shootout in Baghdad in 2007 claimed the lives of Iraqi civilians. The incident was a major political headache for the U.S. government, and put the company under intense scrutiny in Washington.

Australian PM starts coalition talks


Australia faces a period of political turmoil after Julia Gillard's Labor government lost its parliamentary majority in a general election that looks set to result in the country's first coalition government in 70 years. The Australian prime minister has begun negotiations with independent candidates after acknowledging that neither her party nor the opposition conservative coalition was likely to win the 76 seats needed for an outright majority in the 150-seat House of Representatives. "It is clear that neither party has earned the right to government in its own right," she said. "It's my intention to negotiate, in good faith, an effective agreement to form government." Gillard said she hoped to enlist support for her centre-left Labor party – which has ruled for three years – and had held preliminary talks with four independents and a Green candidate. But the opposition Liberal leader, Tony Abbott, said the loss of voter support that cost the government many of its 83 seats showed Australians wanted change

Pakistanis use stones, sandbags to fight floods


Workers placed sandbags and stones to strengthen river levees in flood-ravaged Pakistan's south as the rising water threatened new areas Sunday. Three towns in the Thatta district were in danger, and officials began evacuating around 150,000 people from lower lying areas Saturday. The surge in the Indus River is expected to empty into the Arabian Sea after passing through. At least two levees along the river are potential trouble spots and are being strengthened, said Hadi Bakhsh Kalhoro, an official with the Sindh province Disaster Management Authority. "We are hopeful the flood will pass on to the delta without creating much trouble here," he said. Officials expect the floodwaters will recede nationwide in the next few days as the last river torrents empty into the Arabian Sea, state news agency APP reported. But when that happens, millions of Pakistanis will almost certainly want the government, which was already constrained by a fragile economy before the flood, to quickly deliver homes and compensation for the loss of livestock and crops. The government has been accused of moving too slowly and Islamist charities, some with suspected links to militant groups, have moved rapidly to provide relief to Pakistanis, already frustrated with their leaders' track record on the economy, security, poverty and by chronic power shortages.