News Topic - Middle East

Obama pledges to work for Middle East peace
Barack Obama arrived in Jerusalem for a 24-hour visit to Israel and the West Bank after promising he would work for a negotiated breakthrough in the Middle East conflict, "starting from the minute I'm sworn into office".
The Independent  –  22 hours, 33 minutes ago  ¦  comment?
found in World: Middle East

Mobile phones: Spanish troubles drag down Vodafone
Vodafone became the latest victim of the slowdown yesterday as the mobile group warned that its annual revenues would be at the bottom end of forecasts. The revision - mainly caused by falling sales in Spain - shocked the City and sent shares down almost 14% to close at 129p, making it the biggest percentage faller in the FTSE 100. It cast a shadow over the departure of chief executive Arun Sarin, who is stepping down next week after five years at the helm. Ericsson also suffered from a Vodafone effect, with shares down 11% despite reporting better than expected quarterly earnings figures. Although Vodafone said results were in line with expectations, and reiterated guidance on operating profit and cash flow, it said full-year revenues were likely to be at the lower end of its previously stated range of £39.8bn to £40.7bn. The company said trouble at its Spanish operations had dragged European organic revenues down by 0.2% year on year in the three months to the end of June. With more than 16 million customers, Spain is one of the company's four main European markets, along with the UK, Italy and Germany. Service revenues in Spain were down 2.5% in the quarter, contrasting with 8.1% growth over the course of last year. Jonathan Groocock, an analyst at Investec, said the evidence of slowdown in Spain "shatters the widespread perception that the company is immune to an economic slowdown". "Perhaps it was always too good to be true," said Mark James at Collins Stewart. "The Spanish and UK telecoms markets, resilient to the economic slowdown to date, finally look to have cracked." Sarin said Vodafone had suffered from a "relatively severe macroeconomic environment". "We are not immune to it but we are much more resilient than most other companies. If anyone thought we were immune, that would have been a mis-thinking about how we operate." He said one problem in Spain was that migrant workers who had been working in construction were returning home. "Migrants and small-to-medium-size companies have taken a lot of share. But here comes the downturn - there's less construction work and some migrants have gone home. But it's not a business that's falling apart, it's a segment within that business." He said in the UK - where service revenues for the quarter were up 2.1% thanks to data and messaging, but revenues from phone calls fell by 4.4% - the main difficulty was competition from other mobile networks. Sarin said earnings would be protected by the company's cost-reduction plans and the strength of the euro against the pound could, on current trends, benefit the company by as much as £750m over the six months to the end of September. Revenues for eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific were up 9.2% on an organic basis in the quarter. Overall Vodafone added 8.5 million subscribers in the quarter, taking the company's customer base to around 269 million. Group revenues rose 19% to £9.8bn in the quarter, with overall organic growth of 1.7%.Related StoriesBSkyB and Universal to launch digital music serviceSaharan sun could power European supergridSolar power from Saharan sun could provide Europe's electricity, says EUUS media: Wife's rant on YouTube falls foul of judgeJohn Sutherland on how Google's library project could transform research
The Guardian  –  22 hours, 34 minutes ago  ¦  comment?
found in Technology

Solar power from Saharan sun could provide Europe's electricity, says EU
A tiny rectangle superimposed on the vast expanse of the Sahara captures the seductive appeal of the audacious plan to cut Europe's carbon emissions by harnessing the fierce power of the desert sun. Dwarfed by any of the north African nations, it represents an area slightly smaller than Wales but scientists claimed yesterday it could one day generate enough solar energy to supply all of Europe with clean electricity. Speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona, Arnulf Jaeger-Walden of the European commission's Institute for Energy, said it would require the capture of just 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and Middle East deserts to meet all of Europe's energy needs. The scientists are calling for the creation of a series of huge solar farms - producing electricity either through photovoltaic cells, or by concentrating the sun's heat to boil water and drive turbines - as part of a plan to share Europe's renewable energy resources across the continent. A new supergrid, transmitting electricity along high voltage direct current cables would allow countries such as the UK and Denmark ultimately to export wind energy at times of surplus supply, as well as import from other green sources such as geothermal power in Iceland. Energy losses on DC lines are far lower than on the traditional AC ones, which make transmission of energy over long distances uneconomic. The grid proposal, which has won political support from both Nicholas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown, answers the perennial criticism that renewable power will never be economic because the weather is not sufficiently predictable. Its supporters argue that even if the wind is not blowing hard enough in the North Sea, it will be blowing somewhere else in Europe, or the sun will be shining on a solar farm somewhere. Scientists argue that harnessing the Sahara would be particularly effective because the sunlight in this area is more intense: solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in northern Africa could generate up to three times the electricity compared with similar panels in northern Europe. Much of the cost would come in developing the public grid networks of connecting countries in the southern Mediterranean, which do not currently have the spare capacity to carry the electricity that the north African solar farms could generate. Even if high voltage cables between North Africa and Italy would be built or the existing cable between Morocco and Spain would be used, the infrastructure of the transfer countries such as Italy and Spain or Greece or Turkey also needs a major re-structuring, according to Jaeger-Walden. Southern Mediterranean countries including Portugal and Spain have already invested heavily in solar energy and Algeria has begun work on a vast combined solar and natural gas plant which will begin producing energy in 2010. Algeria aims to export 6,000 megawatts of solar-generated power to Europe by 2020. Scientists working on the project admit that it would take many years and huge investment to generate enough solar energy from north Africa to power Europe but envisage that by 2050 it could produce 100 GW, more than the combined electricity output from all sources in the UK, with an investment of around €450bn. Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK's chief scientist, welcomed the proposals: "Assuming it's cost-effective, a largescale renewable energy grid is just the kind of innovation we need if we're going to beat climate change." Jaeger-Walden also believes that scaling up solar PV by having large solar farms could help bring its cost down for consumers. "The biggest PV system at the moment is installed in Leipzig and the price of the installation is €3.25 per watt," he said. "If we could realise that in the Mediterranean, for example in southern Italy, this would correspond to electricity prices in the range of 15 cents per kWh, something below what the average consumer is paying." The vision for the renewable energy grid comes as the commission's joint research centre (JRC) published its strategic energy technology plan, highlighting solar PV as one of eight technologies that need to be championed for the short- to medium-term future. "It recognises something extraordinary - if we don't put together resources and findings across Europe and we let go the several sectors of energy, we will never reach these targets," said Giovanni de Santi, director of the JRC, also speaking in Barcelona. The JRC plan includes fuel cells and hydrogen, clean coal, second generation biofuels, nuclear fusion, wind, nuclear fission and smart grids. De Santi said it was designed to help Europe to meet its commitments to reduce overall energy consumption by 20% by 2020, while reducing CO² emissions by 20% in the same time and increasing to 20% the proportion of energy generated from renewable sources. Backstory High voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission lines are seen as the most efficient way to move electricity over long distances without incurring the losses experienced in alternating current (AC) power lines. HVDC cables can carry more power for the same thickness of cable compared with AC lines but are only suited to long distance transmission as they require expensive devices to convert the electricity, usually generated as AC, into DC. Modern HVDC cables can keep energy losses down to around 3% per 1,000km. HVDC can also be used to transfer electricity between different countries that might use AC at differing frequencies. HVDC cables can also be used to synchronise AC produced by renewable energy sources.Related StoriesUS media: Wife's rant on YouTube falls foul of judgeJohn Sutherland on how Google's library project could transform researchCharlotte Higgins takes on the challenge of becoming a full-time bloggerVideo: British Motor Show goes greenTwitter searches for the next step
The Guardian  –  22 hours, 34 minutes ago  ¦  comment?
found in Technology

McCain Takes Aim At Obama's Foreign Policy Experience
With Sen. Barack Obama's Middle East trip making headlines, Sen. John McCain is making sure he gets a piece of the media spotlight back at home.
TheBostonChannel.com  –  23 hours ago  ¦  comment?
found in Local: Massachusetts: Boston

Obama: Surge Doesn't Meet Long-Term Goals
During his historic trip to the Middle East, Barack Obama spoke exclusively with Katie Couric in Amman. Obama detailed his stance on the Iraq troop surge, saying conditions have improved there, but meanwhile are deteriorating in Afghanistan.
CBS News  –  23 hours, 3 minutes ago  ¦  comment?
found in Top Stories

Analysis: Obama pledges engagement in Mideast
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Is there anything new a presidential candidate can say about the absence of peace in the fragile Middle East?...
AP  –  Jul 22, 2008 8:26 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Politics

Obama-mania foreign in parts of Middle East
Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday toured the Jordanian capital of Amman, where the much talked about "Obama-mania" is not that easy to find.
CNN.com  –  Jul 22, 2008 8:17 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in U.S. News

GE, Abu Dhabi investment co. form ventures
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- General Electric Co. has agreed to a joint venture with an Abu Dhabi government investment company that will pump $4 billion of outside capital into its weakened commercial finance business, part of new global partnership to expand on GE's fast-growing sales in the Middle East....
AP  –  Jul 22, 2008 8:16 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Business

Obama Campaign Bans Green On Mideast Trip
An Obama campaign ban on green clothing during the candidate"s visits to Israel and Jordan has created wide puzzlement among observers of the Middle East, writes The Politico.
CBS News  –  Jul 22, 2008 7:24 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Politics

Obama gets in the way of bully pulpit
Barack Obama’s trip to Middle East war zones has significantly increased media pressure on the White House to get involved...
TheHill.com  –  Jul 22, 2008 7:01 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Politics