EU Sets Summit to Assess Alliance's Future

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced an informal summit of European Union leaders to consider the future direction of the troubled alliance.

The Blair announcement came on the first day of Britain's six-month tenure in control of the European Union's rotating presidency.

The British presidency coincides with a crisis in confidence in the 25-nation alliance, after voters in France and the Netherlands rejected the EU constitution, and EU leaders failed to agree on a budget for coming years.

Mr. Blair says EU leaders will gather in Britain in a few months for an informal summit on what he sees as the core issue facing the bloc: how to sustain economic growth, while maintaining a strong social safety net.

"The most important thing is to try to get people to come together and debate ... how we make sense of the dilemma of Europe today, which is a desire to be a strong competitive economy and a desire to keep in place a strong social dimension, where we are looking after our citizens, making sure people are given proper protection when they are changing their jobs, how we are equipping our people on the basis of justice and fairness and solidarity to be able to face the challenges of today," he said.

The EU has been shaken by the rejection of the constitution by French and Dutch voters, followed by a bitter argument between Britain and France over the EU budget, which gives large subsidies to French farmers and an annual rebate to the British treasury.

There are also differences over future EU expansion. Britain supports EU membership for Turkey, but there is opposition within Germany and France. Negotiations on Turkish membership are set to begin in October.

China Evacuates 150,000 People as Typhoon Nears

Chinese authorities have evacuated more than 150,000 people from the country's southeastern coast as one of the strongest typhoons in years approaches the region. Typhoon Megi was centered over the northern part of the South China Sea late Thursday and was moving north slowly toward the eastern part of China's Guangdong province. Weather models predict the storm will make landfall Saturday near Shantou city, east of Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Observatory said Megi had maximum sustained winds of 175 kilometers an hour and could intensify before hitting land. China has issued a red alert for the typhoon, the highest of its four-step warning system. It warned of huge storm surges that could devastate coastal villages and cities. In Hong Kong, a strong wind warning was in effect.Chinese authorities said they were moving residents of Guangdong to higher ground and already had evacuated 150,000 people in Fujian province to the north.

At the ASEAN Defense Ministers meeting in Hanoi

Chinese Minister of Defense Liang Guanglie invited his U.S. counterpart Defense Secretary Robert Gates to visit China, in what seems like an easing of military tensions in the region.
Diplomacy appears to be making some progress in reducing tensions at the ASEAN Plus Eight defense ministers' meeting. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations invited the United States, China, Japan, Russia and other regional powers to address security issues in the Pacific.
China resumes military relations
By inviting Defense Secretary Robert Gates to visit next year, China is resuming high-level military relations with the United States. Earlier in the year, China suspended military contacts because of U.S. planned arms sales to Taiwan.
The Chinese Defense Minister also said talks with Japan's defense officials were positive. Tensions between the two countries have increased after a Chinese fishing boat collided with Japanese coast guard patrol ships in waters claimed by both sides.
U.S. support for Southeast Asia
Earlier in the day, speaking to members of the military and students at the Vietnam National University in Hanoi, Secretary Gates sent a message to reassure Southeast Asia.
"I think all Asia can be confident that the U.S. intends to remain engaged in Asia as we have been for so many scores of years before and that we intend to be an active party, not only in economic and political matters but also in defense and security matters," Gates said.
The United States is concerned territorial disputes over small island chains in the region could hurt access to one of the world's busiest sea lanes.
Beijing says its claims over the Spratly and Paracel islands are a "core national interest." Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia also claim all or part of the islands. Although largely uninhabited, the islands are believed to sit atop vast reserves of oil and natural gas.
Solution to sea disputes
The United States says it has a national interest in freedom of navigation in international waters. Mr. Gates said Asian sea disputes should be resolved peacefully through negotiations.
The defense secretary also says by acting together in a multilateral organization like ASEAN, smaller Asian countries can better resolve regional security issues.
"Increasingly we find that relying exclusively on bilateral relationships is not enough," said Gates. "We need multi-lateral institutions in order to confront the most important security challenges in the region."
During his two-day visit, Gates will meet with several Asian defense ministers who want U.S. support to counter the growth of China as a regional power.

Iraqi Political Leaders Plan to Re-Convene Parliament by Tuesday

Negotiators for the major political groups in Iraq say they plan to reopen the Iraqi parliament by Tuesday and announce the new government's top leaders. Negotiators are trying to include as many groups as possible in the new government, but they are also under pressure from Iraqis who are expressing growing frustration over the delays.

Negotiators for the major Shi'ite and Kurdish political groups say the parliament, which was elected nearly two months ago, but only inaugurated last week, will re-convene in order to elect the senior leaders.
 
A negotiator for the Shi'ite group, former Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum, says negotiators have completed what he calls Phase One, which is a set of principles to guide the formation of the new government.

"We are in Phase Two now, including agreement about the principal [major] positions of the state: the presidential council and the chief of parliament, as well as the prime minister," he said.
The leader of one of the main Kurdish groups, Jalal Talabani, concurred, saying in a [al-Arabiya] television interview that the negotiators have agreed on most of the leadership points.

Mr. Talabani said agreement has been reached on the posts of president and prime minister, and talks continue on the ministerial portfolios.

Reports say agreement has been reached to allocate the presidency to the Kurdish group, the post of prime minister to a Shi'ite leader, and the speaker-of-parliament job to a Sunni.
Shi'ite parties won more than half of the parliamentary seats in the elections in January. The Kurds came in second, with more than one-fourth of the seats.

Both groups say they are keen to include other parties in their government of national unity, especially Arab Sunnis. The Sunnis make up about one-fourth of the population, but won only a few parliamentary seats, because of a boycott of the elections.

A negotiator for the Sunni group, Mishan al-Juburi, says Arab Sunnis are pressing for an influential role in government, despite their relatively small presence in parliament.
He says his group believes it should receive a couple of the important ministries, like Finance and Defense.

The negotiations intensified this past week, after religious leaders warned that the delays were creating a climate of uncertainty that could worsen the security situation in Iraq.

Insurgents opposed to the formation of the new government carried out several suicide car bombings across the country, killing more than a dozen Iraqi security officials and several civilians.

The U.S. military Saturday announced that two American soldiers were killed and two others wounded by a suicide bomber in southern Baghdad. A third U.S. soldier was reportedly killed Friday in central Iraq.

Meanwhile, Iraq's Defense Ministry announced that security forces detained 120 suspected insurgents, including some foreigners, and seized tons of explosives south of Baghdad. The ministry said it believes the group was planning attacks during upcoming Arbaeen Shi'ite holy celebrations.

Australia has upgraded its travel advisory to Indonesia after the fatal hotel bombings in Jakarta

The Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra warns Australians to reconsider their need to travel to Indonesia because of the possibility of further terrorist attacks.

The explosions at Jakarta's Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels killed nine people, including three Australians and a New Zealander.

The attacks have prompted the Australian government to warn its citizens to think twice before traveling to Indonesia.

The upgraded travel advisory warns that further acts of terrorism are possible.

In Canberra, officials say that Bali, a resort island popular with Australian tourists, remains vulnerable to attack.

David Mackney, a security expert in Jakarta, says Indonesia has responded quickly to this new threat.

"Security has been beefed up at the big hotels and also in the shopping malls," Mackney said. "I know that the police in Bali for instance have reported that they've gone on a higher alert and there is extra security at Bali airport and all the main tourist spots in Bali."

Security has been tightened across Indonesia, with 500 troops put on standby to support police in the capital, Jakarta.

　
No arrests have yet been made but investigators think the suicide bombings were part of a sophisticated plot.

Suspicion has fallen on fugitive Malaysian militant Noordin Mohammed Top. He is suspected of involvement in a series of attacks, including the twin blasts that killed more than 200 people died on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali in 2002.

Noordin is thought to have been a key figure in Jemaah Islamiah, a militant Islamic organization, but is now believed to lead a splinter group.

　
Relatives of the Australians killed in Friday's blasts have traveled to Indonesia to claim their bodies as the investigation continues.

As countries begin emerging from the global financial crisis, France is proposing to measure progress in a new way

One that includes happiness and well being, as well as traditional economic benchmarks.

By standard measures, the world has certainly been going through some tough times. But do these indicators capture all facets of progress? According to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the answer is 'no.'

Mr. Sarkozy announced France will begin including less tangible indicators, like happiness and well being, into its measurements of economic progress.

　
The French President said the current crisis does not just give the international community the freedom to imagine another economic model, it obliges the world to do so. We do not have the choice, he said.

　

Mr. Sarkozy's remarks coincided with the publication of a new report by two Nobel economists, Joseph Stiglitz and Armatya Sen, that looks at non-traditional ways at measuring social progress. The report was commissioned by the French government.

　
The report recommends shifting the ways policymakers look at progress from what economists call gross domestic product, or GDP, which is a general measure of goods and services produced in a country. The new indicators also would include non-material 'wealth', like access to education and health care.

　

France is not the first country to look at the non-material aspects of progress. The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan emphasizes a concept it calls 'gross national happiness,' rather than GDP. Bhutan's main research center collects a wide variety of data to measure this, including things like psychological well being, good governance, ecological diversity and living standards.

　

In France, Mr. Sarkozy says focusing too much on gross domestic product as the main measure of prosperity contributed to the financial crisis. He wants other countries to follow France's example in looking at less materialistic indicators of progress.

United Nations talks on climate change are nearing a close with no clear consensus yet in sight

The meeting is aimed at laying the groundwork for progress at a major climate change meeting in Mexico later this year.
While many of the negotiators for a global climate change accord consider it a pressing issue, there is less agreement on how to share the burden of tackling the problem.
Last year, the international community failed to reach an agreement that included legally binding emissions reductions at a high-profile meeting in Copenhagen.
Precursor to Cancun meeting
This week's meeting in the Chinese port city of Tianjin is the precursor to the world's next big attempt, at Cancun, Mexico, later this year.
Jake Schmidt is with the U.S. environmental group, National Resources Defense Council. He says some countries in recent days appear to be stalling, by raising questions about procedural, rather than substantive issues, which could hamper efforts to produce a deal in Cancun.
"Instead of trying to produce a text which incorporated every single element that we could possibly envision, the chair proposed a set of, effectively, bullet points, that said here are the things that I think we can legitimately agree to in Cancun," Schmidt said. "And obviously there are going to be some things off that list. And the Chinese, Saudi Arabia and others, questioned whether or not the chair had the ability to do that."
Foundation for agreement
Schmidt says as of Thursday, he is pessimistic that this week's meeting will, in his words, "lay the foundation" for an agreement in Cancun
He says many countries appear to be ready to agree to things like reforestation efforts and technology adaptation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But they are not ready to agree on what he described as "the tougher things."
"Like whether or not they're going to formalize their international commitments, their commitments to reduce emissions, and whether or not they're going to agree to a set of transparency provisions," Schmidt added.
Causes
Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide released by burning fuels such as oil and coal, are thought to contribute to global warming.
One of the big sticking points is whether there should be binding targets to reduce emissions. Although China has overtaken the United States to become the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, Beijing refuses to commit to targets because it says it is still a developing nation.
Solutions
Earlier in the week, Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo told the conference one of his country's top priorities is to develop the economy.
Dai says China's ability to control greenhouse gas emissions faces great pressure. He says the speed of industrialization and urbanization in the country is still quickening, which means its energy demand will also increase.
Delegates from nearly 200 countries began their meeting in Tianjin on Monday. The talks end Saturday.