• by ThinkProgress
• August 22, 2012

Read more: anti islam, anti muslim, islamophobia, ramadan

• by Meghan Lewis
• August 22, 2012

In this Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012 photo, internally displaced Syrians at the Syrian side of the Bab Al-Salam crossing border as they wait to cross to one of the refugee camps in Turkey, in the town of Azaz on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria. Thousands of Syrians who have been displaced by the country's civil war are struggling to find safe shelter while shelling and airstrikes by government forces continue. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia is working closely with the Syrian government to ensure that its arsenal of chemical weapons remains under firm control and has won promises that the weapons of mass destruction will not be used or moved, Moscow's point man onSyria told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The potential use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict has put Russia, the Syrian regime's steadfast ally, in a rare point of agreement with the United States, which has pressured Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down in the face of an armed uprising.

Russia has shielded Assad's regime from U.N. sanctions and continued to provide it with weapons throughout the 18-month conflict, which activists estimate has killed more than 20,000 people. In July, Syria first acknowledged its possession of chemical weapons by threatening to use them if foreign states tried to interfere militarily.

President Barack Obama said Monday that the United States might have to intervene in Syria if the government there used or moved chemical weapons. Obama also warned of the threat of such weapons falling into the hands of rebels fighting the government or militant groups aiding either side.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Russia is in full agreement with the Americans on the need to prevent Assad's government from using the weapons or allowing them to slip out from under its control.

"We have guarantees from the Syrian government that it will not take any steps involving chemical weapons," the Russian diplomat said. "And I want to reiterate that on this issue we will restrain it in all ways possible and work toward the goal of preventing such things from happening."

He said the Foreign Ministry was in constant contact with U.S. officials, pointing to last week's visit by Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.

While in Moscow, Sherman urged the Russians to make clear to Assad that the use of chemical weapons would have disastrous consequences and delivered the message that if the weapons were used, the Russians would be expected to help with the cleanup, according to a U.S. official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authorization to discuss the details of the visit.

Russia, meanwhile, is counting on the United States and others to use their influence with opposition forces to prevent the chemical weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists, Gatilov said.

"As we all know, among the opposition are terrorist elements, in particular belonging to al-Qaida," he said. "Of course, if all of a sudden, as a result of some actions, these weapons were to fall into the hands of terrorists who could take a totally irresponsible attitude toward them, this would be a very serious development."

A senior Syrian government official, in Moscow for talks on Tuesday, said Obama's warning indicated that the West was looking for a pretext to intervene in Syria. Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil drew a comparison with the invasion of Iraq in 2003, which the Bush administration justified by claiming, falsely as it turned out, that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

The Syrian situation is different, Gatilov noted, because Syria has chemical weapons. After the Assad regime's announcement in July, Russia pointedly reminded Syria that it had ratified a global convention banning the use of chemical weapons.

Russia has staunchly opposed demands for Assad to step down and called for talks between the Syrian regime and its foes, arguing that only the Syrian people have a right to determine the future of their country. But Syrian opposition leaders have refused to take part in negotiations until Assad gives up power.

"As to the Russian position, we never put forward as a condition the demand that Assad should go or, equally, we never said that Assad should stay," Gatilov said.

He said Russia works with Syria's government and meets with visiting representatives of opposition groups.

"Regrettably, we have to state that we haven't seen our Western partners working as actively with the opposition, encouraging it to join a political dialogue," he said. "We would like to hope that, at least on the subject of chemical weapons, they will take a rather more responsible attitude to this. We all understand that chemical weapons should not be used or fall into the hands of those groups who will not be controlled in their actions."

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Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The huge U.S. trade deficit with China, fueled by Beijing's actions to depress the value of its currency, displaced or eliminated more than 2.7 million American jobs between 2001 and 2011, the labor-friendly Economic Policy Institute said on Thursday in its latest look at the issue.

The institute estimated that nearly 77 percent, or more than 2.1 million, of the lost jobs were in manufacturing.

The think tank receives about 30 percent of its funding from union groups, which have pressed both the administration and Congress for tougher steps to rein in the growing trade deficit with China, which hit a record $295 billion in 2011.

China, known as the world's factory because of its huge manufacturing sector, is the world's second-largest economy, having raced past Japan in recent years.

Robert Scott, the institute's director of trade and manufacturing policy research, said Chinese government intervention in currency markets to keep its yuan at a low value against the U.S. dollar was a major cause of the trade deficit.

China's undervalued currency effectively subsidizes its exports and taxes its imports, he said.

Scott told Reuters he believed the yuan was still undervalued by at least 33 percent against the dollar, even though it has risen in value in recent years.

Republican president challenger Mitt Romney has pledged to formally declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office. No Treasury Department, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, has labeled any country a currency manipulator since 1994, when China was last cited.

The Obama administration has declined to label China in seven semi-annual Treasury Department reports.

Administration officials say they have made progress with China on the currency issue over the past few years without ratcheting up tensions by formally labeling Beijing. The next semi-annual report is due on Oct 15.

The U.S.-China Business Council, which represents companies that do business in China, criticized the report as one-sided, saying it failed to take into account productivity gains that allow U.S. manufacturers to make more goods with fewer people.

"The U.S. is still the world's leading manufacturer - in fact, we make more than ever, and we make more than anyone else," Erin Ennis, the group's vice president, said in a statement.

In addition, the yuan has appreciated 30 percent against the dollar since 2005, without a corresponding drop in the trade gap, showing there is a limited link between the two, she said.

Last year, the institute estimated the U.S. trade deficit with China displaced 2.8 million jobs between 2001 and 2010.

The slightly lower number in this year's report reflects changes made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to benchmark jobs data, Scott said.

The biggest U.S. job losses were in the production of computers and electronics, clothing, textiles, fabricated metal, furniture and fixtures, plastics and rubber, and autos and auto parts, the report said.

Job losses were spread among all 50 states, with the most in California, Texas, New York, Illinois and North Carolina, the report said.

Ennis argued the overall U.S. economy has benefited significantly from trade, including with China.

In cases where workers are displaced by lower-priced imports, U.S. policymakers should devise ways to help them find new jobs rather than throw up trade barriers, she said.

(Editing by Stacey Joyce)

This image made from video provided by Deir Press Network and accessed by AP video on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012 purports to show heavy damage from violence in Deir El-Zour, Syria. Across the country, scores of people died in shelling and clashes, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees. The bloodshed coincided with the departure from the Syrian capital on Thursday of the last of the United Nations military observers after their mission headed by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, meant to help end the bloodshed in Syria, failed. (AP Photo/Deir Press Network via AP video) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HAS NO WAY OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS PICTURE.

This image made from video provided by Deir Press Network and accessed by AP video on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012 purports to show smoke rising after a bombing in Deir El-Zour, Syria. Across the country, scores of people died in shelling and clashes, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees. The bloodshed coincided with the departure from the Syrian capital on Thursday of the last of the United Nations military observers after their mission headed by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, meant to help end the bloodshed in Syria, failed. (AP Photo/Deir Press Network via AP video) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HAS NO WAY OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS PICTURE.

BEIRUT (AP) — France signaled Thursday that it was prepared to take part in enforcing a partial no-fly zone over Syria, piling pressure on President Bashar Assad's embattled regime as it widens a major offensive against rebels in Damascus and surrounding areas.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian urged the international community to consider backing a no-fly zone over parts of Syria, but cautioned that closing the Arab nation's entire air space would be tantamount to "going to war" and require a willing international coalition that does not yet exist.

He told France 24 television that Paris would participate in a full no-fly operation if it followed international legal principles. But for now, he suggested that a partial closure — which U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was considering — should be studied.

Syria's chief backer, Russia, meanwhile, said it was working closely with the Damascus government to ensure that its arsenal ofchemical weapons stays under firm control and has won promises that it will not be used or moved.

In Syria, troops backed by tanks and helicopters broke into the Damascus suburb of Daraya, the scene of intense fighting over the last two days. At least 18 people were killed.

Across the country, at least 100 people died Thursday in shelling and clashes, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees.

The bloodshed coincided with the departure from the Syrian capital of the last of the United Nations military observers after their mission failed. The observers were part of a six-point peace plan by outgoing envoy Kofi Annan.

As the country slides deeper into civil war, activist groups now routinely report the deaths of anywhere between 100 and 250 people on a daily basis, but it is virtually impossible to verify these figures.

Residents of Damascus said troops were bombing Daraya and nearby Moadamiyeh from the Qasioun mountain overlooking Damascus.

"It's just another regular day in Damascus," said a resident of the city of 1.7 million, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. "I woke up to the sound of explosions and it hasn't stopped since."

In the eastern part of the country, Syrian rebels fought with regime troops in the town of al-Bukamal, across the border from the Iraqi town of Qaim.

The border crossing has been in rebel hands since last month, but wresting control of al-Bukamal itself from regime troops would expand the opposition foothold along the frontier.

The opposition already controls a wide swath of territory along the border with Turkey in the north, as well as pockets along the frontier with Jordan to the south and Lebanon to the west. Together, they have proven key to ferrying people and supplies into and out of the country.

Rebels have been fighting troops for days in al-Bukamal and early Thursday took over several checkpoints, the main police station and the local command of the Political Security Directorate, one of Syria's powerful intelligence agencies, according to Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory.

"There is an attempt to take full control of al-Bukamal," Abdul-Rahman said.

The Local Coordination Committees said warplanes bombed al-Bukamal, but Abdul-Rahman said the jets were flying over the town and struck nearby areas, not the town itself.

At least six people were killed, activists said.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that an American freelance journalist who has been reporting from Syria for The Post, McClatchy Newspapers and other outlets had not been heard from in more than a week. Austin Tice, 31, spent time with rebel fighters in the north after entering Syria from Turkey in May, then traveled to Damascus, where he was one of the few Western journalists reporting from the capital.

"We're focused intensively on trying to ascertain his whereabouts and ensure his safe return," Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli said in a statement.

Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. State Department was working through the Czech Embassy, which represents U.S. interests in Syria, to get more information about Tice's welfare and whereabouts.

"We have long expressed concern about the safety for journalists in Syria, and note that freedom of movement throughout the country for journalists is one of the 6 points in the Annan Plan endorsed by the United Nations Security Council," she said in a statement. " We strongly urge all sides to ensure the safety of journalists in Syria."

The seemingly intractable conflict in Syria has defied all attempts at mediation. Human rights groups say more than 20,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011. In the past month the fighting has spread from the country's smaller towns and cities to the regime strongholds of Damascus and Aleppo.

Annan announced earlier this month that he will resign on Aug. 31. He is to be replaced by veteran diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi.

In Damascus, Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad said Syrian officials were "looking forward" to working with Brahimi but said the crisis would continue as long as foreign countries were interfering.

Mekdad accused Turkey of giving "terrorists," including al-Qaida, free access to cross into Syria from Turkey. The Syrian regime refers to the rebels as terrorists.

Turkey — once an ally of Syria — has emerged as one of Assad's harshest critics and taken in some 44,000 refugees from its Arab neighbor.

The main battle fronts over the past month have been in the capital, Damascus, as well as Aleppo, where regime forces have struggled to stamp out a rebel offensive that began last month and succeeded in capturing several districts in the city of 3 million people.

In a report released Thursday, Amnesty International said artillery, mortar fire and airstrikes by government forces in Aleppo are killing mostly civilians, including children.

The rights group said that during a 10-day, fact-finding visit to Aleppo in the first half of August, it found that some 30 attacks killed more than 80 civilians and wounded many more.

Amnesty said that among the dead were 10 members of one family, seven of them children, whose home was destroyed in two airstrikes on Aug. 6. It said the bodies of young men, many of them handcuffed and shot in the head, were found near the local headquarters of the powerful Air Force Intelligence, which is in a government-controlled area.

The uprising against Assad's regime began with largely peaceful protests but has since morphed into a civil war that has spread to almost all parts of the country.

In Daraya, the Local Coordination Committees said the government shelling killed a mother and her five children, all members of the al-Sheik family who had fled their hometown of Moadamiyeh to escape the violence. An amateur video showed the children draped in white shrouds with their faces showing; the body of the mother was covered.

The potential use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict has put Russia in a rare point of agreement with the United States, which has pressured Assad to step down.

Syria first acknowledged its possession of chemical weapons last month and threatened to use them if foreign nations intervened militarily in the conflict.

President Barack Obama said Monday the United States might have to intervene in Syria if the Assad regime used or moved chemical weapons. He also warned of the threat of such weapons falling into the hands of rebels fighting the government or militant groups aiding either side.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov, Russia's point man on Syria, said his country was in full agreement with the Americans on the need to prevent Assad's regime from using the weapons or allowing them to slip out from under its control.

"We have guarantees from the Syrian government that it will not take any steps involving chemical weapons," Gatilov told The Associated Press.

Senior diplomatic, military and intelligence officials from the U.S. and Turkey met in Istanbul on Thursday to go over detailed operational plans for dealing with emergency scenarios that may arise in Syria, including the possible use of chemical weapons.

These include positioning stocks of bio-hazard gear in the region as part of the planning for an international response if chemical weapons are used, U.S. officials said.

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AP reporters Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris, Lynn Berry in Moscow, Albert Aji in Damascus and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.