Can Egypt?s military trump the ballot box?

Reuters

Supporters of the Islamist Ennahda movement hold a portrait of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi during a demonstration at Kasbah Square in Tunis.

The street politics in Egypt have redefined the term ?coup? in the politico-legal lexicon, writes Dan Kuwali.

The street politics in Egypt, which led to the overthrow of a legitimate leader through a popular uprising supported by the military, have redefined the term ?coup? in the politico-legal lexicon.

Mohamed Morsi, a Western-educated Islamist who had been elected president in a close election a year earlier, was deposed on July 3, despite a conciliatory offer that he had made to form an interim coalition government to oversee parliamentary elections and revise the six-month-old constitution.

The country?s military chief, General Abdel-Fatah el-Sisi, declared that Morsi ?did not achieve the goals of the people?.

The head of Egypt?s Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mansour, was sworn in the following day as interim president, claiming that the Egyptian people had given him the authority ?to amend and correct? the revolution that had toppled the former ruler, Hosni Mubarak, in 2011.

The international community?s response to the ousting of Egypt?s first democratically elected civilian president was ambivalent and its condemnation of the political role being played by the military was less than strident ? perhaps due to a shared Western distaste for Morsi?s Islamist agenda.

By contrast, the AU unequivocally determined that ?the overthrow of the democratically elected president? amounted to ?an unconstitutional change of government?, thereby suspending Egypt from the AU ?until the restoration of constitutional order?.

The displacement of Morsi raises several questions: first, whether what happened was a coup; second, whether there were other options for the Egyptian people to remove Morsi; and third, the implications of the overthrow of a legitimate leader by popular protest on the AU?s principled stance on unconstitutional changes of government.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a coup d??tat as a ?sudden deposition of government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment ? typically the military ? to depose the extant government and replace it with another body, civilian or military?.

Accordingly, Morsi?s removal is a textbook example of a coup, regardless of the fact that General el-Sisi did not impose military rule but only played the role of guarantor of national integrity and stability.

The 2007 AU Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, which informed the AU?s decision to suspend Egypt, prohibits perpetrators of an unconstitutional change of government from participating in subsequent elections or holding political office and also requires them to be prosecuted.

The question is whether the interim president and his deputy, Nobel peace laureate Mohamed elBaradei, among others, should be barred from elections and face prosecution for being accomplices by assuming political control.

Prior to the coup, the AU requested all Egyptian stakeholders to ?find an appropriate response to the popular aspirations? according to the Egyptian constitution and intended to dispatch a group of eminent Africans to ?assist in the initiation of a responsible and constructive dialogue?.

However, General el-Sisi changed the guard in Cairo before these emissaries boarded their plane, side-stepping possible options such as a referendum or a government of national unity leading to early elections.

Such options could have included the opposition capitalising on popular discontent against Morsi to achieve a majority in the impending parliamentary elections and amend the constitution to counterbalance the president?s powers.

A longer term option would have been to vote Morsi out of power.

To restore constitutional order and stability, the interim government should develop an all-inclusive national political dialogue, respect human rights and protect all citizens.

While popular protests manifest a robust democracy, to avoid anarchy and confusion, citizens in a multi-party dispensation ought to wait for a constitutionally set interval before removing an elected government through the ballot, not by the bullet.

Such a ?putsch? defeats the purpose of the AU Charter on Democracy, which seeks adherence to the rule of law premised upon respect for, and the supremacy of, constitutional order, to ensure peace, security, and development in Africa.

* Kuwali is a senior researcher at the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.

Sunday Independent

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/can-egypt-s-military-trump-the-ballot-box-1.1557195

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Ban it? Google Glass actually made me a safer driver, says app developer

The use of Google Glass specs could make driving safer than when using traditional in-car devices, according to one developer creating apps for the future-thinking device.

This week, the UK government's Department for Transport suggested the device will suffer the same fate as mobile phones and be banned from use while driving, with offenders incurring up to ?90 in fines.

While the DfT said Google Glass could be a distraction for drivers, the maker of the TeslaGlass app, said using his Google Glass Explorer Edition behind the wheel has helped his focus.

Sahas Katta told Stuff.tv he'd stopped checking his phone while driving thanks to Google Glass notifications in his eye line and claimed the device had negated the need for a distracting satnav on the dashboard.

No distractions

He said: "Cellphones are extremely distracting in a vehicle. But I've been using Glass for about three months now and my experience so far is that I've completely stopped touching my phone ... Glass has eliminated that necessity for me."

Katta added that, while performing complex tasks like browsing the web could certainly be distracting for road users, Glass has proved to a safer solution for navigation compared with traditional sat navs.

He said: "With navigation, it's the best technology I've used to date ? there's no in-car, mounted or smartphone navigation system that can beat the experience of having Glass so far.

"With a dashboard navigation, at night it's glowing and is very distracting, and through the day it's reflective and sometimes you can't see it. With Glass on the other hand, your entire dash is completely clear, there's nothing on the windshield.

"With Glass, as you approach a turn it makes a little sound and tells you there's a turn coming up, and then once you're closer, it turns on for a second time to remind you that it's time to turn. It removes any constant distraction so you're not seeing anything on the screen."

'OK Glass: Save my life'

The developer, whose app gives drivers limited control over Tesla electric cars, says Glass has already made him a safer driver, but suggested future innovations could even save lives.

He said eye sensors rumoured to be present within the device could alert drivers if detects their eyes have been closed for too long. It's interesting stuff, but will the tech ever be given the opportunity the opportunity to flourish?

Source: http://www.techradar.com/news/portable-devices/ban-it-google-glass-actually-made-me-a-safer-driver-says-app-developer-1170800?src=rss&attr=all

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China?s tallest building to reach highest point even as economy stalls

Shanghai Tower, which will be China?s tallest building when it is completed in 2015, will reach its highest point of its main structure Friday, adding to the country?s construction boom even as the economy slows.

The 632-meter (2,074-foot) Shanghai Tower is scheduled to have the last beam placed on its main structure Friday, or a topping out ceremony. The building in the city?s Pudong business hub is also set to be the world?s highest building after the 828-meter Burj Khalifa in Dubai, according to the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The 125-story Shanghai Tower, which broke ground in November 2008, will include offices, a luxury hotel and retail space, according to the developer, Shanghai Tower Construction & Development Co.

?We could have built taller technically, but we didn?t aim for physical height when we planned the building,? Gu Jianping, president of Shanghai Tower Construction & Development, said at a press conference in Shanghai yesterday. The new tower integrates with two nearby skyscrapers: Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center, he said. At 492 meters, Shanghai World Financial Center, also in Pudong, is currently China?s tallest building.

Competition to build the country?s skyline higher is continuing even as China?s economy slowed for a second quarter and Premier Li Keqiang reins in a credit boom. China completed 22 buildings higher than 200 meters last year, accounting for 33% of the global number, more than any other country, according to the council on tall buildings.

Vacancy Rate

Shanghai Tower will include a five-star hotel with the lobby on the 101th floor, at 470 meters, through a venture with Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Group Co.

The vacancy rate for prime offices in Shanghai rose to 6.2% in the second quarter, compared with 4.3% at the same time last year, the eighth lowest among 29 cities tracked by Cushman & Wakefield Inc. in the Asia-Pacific region. Office rents fell 4.5% from a year ago to US$6.82 per square foot a month, it said.

About 2 million square meters of prime office space will be added to the Shanghai 2015 if projects are completed on schedule, according to CBRE Group Inc.

?Huge supply could intensify competition on the landlord?s side and hence place pressure on office leasing and rents,? said Sam Xie, a Shanghai-based analyst at CBRE, wrote in an e-mailed response to queries.

Shanghai Tower will start marketing to attract tenants around the world after today?s event, according to Gu.

The 660-meter Ping An Finance Center in the southern city of Shenzhen will be China?s tallest building when it is completed in 2016, according to the skyscraper centre database of the council on tall buildings.

www.bloomberg.com

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/08/02/chinas-tallest-building-to-reach-highest-point-even-as-economy-stalls/

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Motorola Moto X 'Solid Android Competitor,' But Not Enough To Displace iPhone

Motorola?s new Moto X phone, the first smartphone that Motorola Mobility has built from scratch after Google?s acquired the company, may win out over other Android phones but isn?t likely to do serious damage to Apple Inc.?s iPhone market standing.

At least that?s the take by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

?Despite strong launches in Android devices including [Samsung?s] Galaxy S4 and HTC One, we note that iPhone sales have continued to exceed investor expectations over the past two quarters,? said Munster after Motorola unveiled the new smartphone at an event in New York today. ?We do not view the Moto X device as significantly different than the aforementioned devices to change the current market dynamics between Android and iPhone.?

Apple, with its iOS mobile operating system, and Google with Android, are in a heated battle to win over smartphone customers with cool new hardware so that they ultimately buy into the ecosystem of mobile apps and services they provide. Apple is expected to update its iPhone as it?s done every year and deliver a new model in the fall dubbed the iPhone 5S. Munster is also counting on the company to introduced a lower-priced iPhone this year with a 3.5-inch display that has a lower-quality screen resolution, casing, and processor, and to follow that up in 2014 with a 4.5 to 5-inch model he?s calling the iPhone 6.

A year in the works, the Moto X features a high-resolution 4-inch screen, 16-gigabytes of memory and a 10 megapixel camera and starts at $199 for a base model (with a two-year contract). Other Android phones have better specs, Munster notes. Where the new Motorola device shines: The consumer experience built around ?Touchless Control,? which lets users control the phone through voice commands by asking ?OK Google Now.? But that, and new color options, just aren?t compelling enough to draw users away from Apple?s device and ecosystem, he says.

?In an Apple-like move, Motorola chose to make one of the core features of the Moto X the design. The company will allow users to eventually design custom phones including front face colors, back colors, and accessories like headphones. Motorola also plans on introducing wood as an option for the phone?s back panel,? Munster added. ?The design as a feature puts the Moto X in a strong position against other Android devices (largely plastic), but may be unlikely to change customer desire for iPhones.??

You can read and see all the details about the Moto X in a review by Forbes? Alex Konrad, as well as the thinking behind it in Parmy Olson?s interview with Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside.?

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Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/connieguglielmo/2013/08/01/motorola-moto-x-phone-solid-android-competitor-but-not-enough-to-displace-iphone/

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ECB holds rates, confirms no move for 'extended period'

By Eva Taylor and Sakari Suoninen

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank left interest rates at a record low 0.5 percent on Thursday and affirmed that they will remain there for some while to come and could yet fall further.

ECB President Mario Draghi hinted that policy would not be tightened until well into next year at the earliest, although the central bank will give no time horizon for when rates might move.

"Our monetary policy stance ... provides support to a gradual recovery in economic activity in the remaining part of the year and in 2014," Draghi told a news conference.

"The Governing Council confirms that it expects the key ECB rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time," he said, reiterating last month's first stab at giving forward guidance on rates.

That was unanimously supported by the 23-strong council, he said. Draghi was guarded, however, when pressed on whether the policymakers discussed a rate cut this month.

"We actually discussed only forward guidance, and within that ... confirmation of forward guidance you have an implicit decision about today's interest rates," he said. "And the decision about forward guidance was in fact unanimous."

The apparent absence of a discussion about cutting rates contrasted with last month, when Draghi said the council had an "extensive discussion" about a cut before deciding to hold.

Berenberg bank economist Holger Schmieding said this change and the ECB's view that an upturn in economic indicators pointed to a pick up later this year, "can be seen as modestly hawkish, in the sense that they may dampen residual rate cut hopes".

A closely watched business survey showed earlier on Thursday that euro zone manufacturing grew for the first time in two years in July. [ID:nL9N0EG006] Moreover, unemployment in the bloc fell for the first time in more than two years in June.

Despite the promising economic reports, the ECB policy options are complicated by market responses to the U.S. Federal Reserve's plans to slow its stimulus program.

NO PRECISE DEADLINE

The ECB reacted last month to market turmoil sparked by the Fed's exit plan by breaking with precedent and offering forward guidance on rates.

Individual policymakers' interpretations of that guidance over the last month have blurred the message, however, with Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann insisting the ECB had not "tied itself to the mast", while fellow German policy Joerg Asmussen said the guidance was good for "beyond" 12 months.

The result is that the initiative has proven only partially successful in calming markets and offsetting fallout from the Fed's stance.

"There is no precise deadline," Draghi said, before adding: "Current expectations of rate hikes in money markets are according to our assessment unwarranted."

On Wednesday, the Fed said it would keep buying $85 billion in mortgage and Treasury securities per month in an effort to strengthen the economy, and gave a more dovish tilt to its post-meeting statement.

The ECB decision to leave rates unchanged was almost universally expected in a Reuters poll.

Draghi wants to begin publishing the minutes of ECB meetings, which until now have been kept secret, and said proposals on providing markets with more information would be brought forward later in the year.

Draghi said he favored a "richer communication", explaining why decisions had or had not been taken. But he said it was vital that any change did not put at risk the independence of ECB members.

"We are not a one-country set-up," he said.

A move to increase transparency could meet resistance from some ECB policymakers, who fear the move could open them up to political pressure from national governments.

The ECB's forward guidance is more flimsy than the guidance offered by the Fed, which, aside from getting ready to call time on its quantitative easing plan, has promised to keep its main interest rate near zero at least until the unemployment rate falls to 6.5 percent and as long as inflation stays below 2.5 percent.

Draghi said there was no discussion of the ECB adopting an economic threshold as a trigger.

(Writing by Paul Carrel/Mike Peacock. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ecb-holds-rates-economy-perks-114921994.html

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Bradley Manning verdict could test notion of aiding enemy

Deliberations are set to begin in the trial of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who stands accused of leaking 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News

A judge was due to announce her verdict Tuesday in the case of Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history after he handed hundreds of thousands of documents to the Wikileaks website.

The judge, Army Col. Denise Lind, said Monday she had reached a decision and would reveal it at 1 p.m. Tuesday in a courtroom at Fort Meade, Md., officials said. Sentencing was expected to be decided starting on Wednesday.

Manning is charged with 21 counts in connection with the leak of some 700,000 classified documents to the WikiLeaks website. He pleaded guilty to lesser charges in March.

The most serious charge is ?aiding the enemy,? which could carry a life sentence. The prosecution chose not to pursue capital punishment, which was an option.

Legal experts said an aiding-the-enemy conviction could set a precedent because Manning did not directly give the classified material to al Qaeda, but to the Wikileaks website, which then published many of them.

"Most of the aiding-the-enemy charges historically have had to do with POWs who gave information to the Japanese during World War II, or to Chinese communists during Korea, or during the Vietnam War," Duke law school professor and former Air Force judge advocate Scott Silliman told The Associated Press.

Air Force Reserve Lt. Col. David J.R. Frakt, a visiting professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh, said a conviction on the most serious charge, if upheld on appeal, ?would essentially create a new way of aiding the enemy in a very indirect fashion, even an unintended fashion.?

Some expect Manning will be convicted of at least some of the 21 counts.

?He's just a dumb kid who got himself into a situation where he felt he was saving the world,? Joseph Wippl, a professor of international relations at Boston University and a former CIA officer, told Reuters.

?I think he should be convicted and they should be easy on him. They need to do more on limiting access to classified information,? he added.

Some of the classified documents leaked by Manning ended up in the hands of Osama bin Laden and were recovered in the raid on his compound by U.S. Navy Seals in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Prosecutors have argued that Manning is a traitor, while his lawyers have characterized him as a na?ve whistleblower who did not know the material he leaked would end up in the hands of terrorists.

In closing arguments in Manning?s court-martial Friday, his lawyer, David Coombs, said that Manning was a well-intentioned young man who was ?trying to ply his knowledge to hopefully save lives.?

In a rebuttal, Maj. Ashden Fein, arguing for the Army, said Manning ?knew exactly what he was doing? and that his actions represented ?general evil intent.?

Lind started her deliberations on Friday after nearly two months of evidence and testimony about the 25-year-old intelligence analyst.

A judge is deciding the case, not a jury, at Manning?s request.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said Friday that if Manning was convicted of aiding the enemy it would be "the end of national security journalism in the United States."

Whatever verdict and sentence is handed down, it will be reviewed and could be reduced by the commander of the Military District of Washington, currently Maj. Gen. Jeffery S. Buchanan.

The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC News? Jim Miklaszewski and Jeff Black contributed to this report.

Related:?

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This story was originally published on Tue Jul 30, 2013 6:20 AM EDT

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663306/s/2f559478/sc/42/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A70C30A0C197717890Ebradley0Emanning0Everdict0Ecould0Etest0Enotion0Eof0Eaiding0Eenemy0Dlite/story01.htm

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