Economic Sanctions

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration has warned China that it risks the imposition of stiff economic sanctions in the next few months because it has ignored previous warnings and continues to violate a key trade agreement signed a year ago.The warning, made after a series of White House meetings in recent days to reassess the administration's China policy, comes despite considerable concern from some U.S. officials that prompting a confrontation over...

WASHINGTON - - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Sunday that the severe sanctions the West is threatening against Iran could force a change in the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions, especially since the country already is under severe economic distress. Speaking as officials from six world powers were preparing to meet with Iranian negotiators this Thursday to discuss Tehran's nuclear program, Gates noted that the unemployment rate is 40 percent among Iran's young people and asserted that past economic sanctions "are having an impact."

WASHINGTON - President Bush eased economic sanctions on Libya yesterday, rewarding Col. Muammar el Kadafi for renouncing weapons of mass destruction and opening opportunities for American companies to do business in his nation. The action, announced by the White House while Bush was in Florida, had been anticipated for many weeks. But it was nonetheless drastic, since it softened a hard-line policy that has been in place for years against a leader who was once an enemy of the United States.

WASHINGTON - Filling up at the gas pump isn't just financially painful. Paying $4 a gallon also is creating headaches for the United States that are likely to spark new fighting overseas and to aggravate old conflicts. Iran, which trains, arms and finances terrorists across the Middle East, is raking in an extra $4 billion a month thanks to the increased price of oil. That money may show up as sophisticated new roadside bombs in Iraq or as rockets raining down on Israel, experts say. The cascade of cash also gives Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad extra protection against the economic sanctions the U.S. is hoping will force Iran to give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, increasingly convinced that Saddam Hussein will hold onto power even after the rout of his forces, is quietly forging a strategy to prompt a coup in Baghdad by preventing the Iraqi president from rebuilding his shattered economy and offering a brighter future to his war-weary people.Senior U.S. officials said yesterday that the United States intends to maintain the economic sanctions that block Iraqi oil exports, depriving Saddam of the money his country desperately needs to recover from the allied bombing.

WASHINGTON - Gen. Tommy R. Franks, commander of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, arrived in Baghdad for the first time yesterday, as American troops fought deadly gunfights for the second day in the fractious northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Other U.S. forces fanned out from the capital, seeking to pacify cities and towns and receiving the surrender of some Iraqi army units. President Bush, meanwhile, urged the United Nations, now that Saddam Hussein's regime has fallen, to end the economic sanctions that were imposed on Iraq in 1990.

PRESIDENT BUSH'S decision to lift economic sanctions against South Africa is good news -- especially for black South Africans, who have been materially hurt more than anyone by the effects of these penalties.Pretoria has made extraordinary strides toward democracy and the removal of the ghastly system of apartheid.Much more needs to be done and the democratic world is obligated to keep pushing. But the reform process is far advanced..It is doubtful that sanctions ever had quite the effect in pushing South Africa toward liberalization that proponents asserted.

LOS ANGELES -- Today is Day 14 of the teddy bear hostage crisis.Inside a warehouse at Los Angeles International Airport, more than 2,000 stuffed toy animals that had been collected for Iraqi children remain in cardboard boxes, detained by U.S. Customs. Nearly a year after the liberation of Kuwait, the fate of these teddy bears is in limbo, awaiting the outcome of a dispute that pits a Santa Barbara, Calif., nurse against the collective authority of the United States government and the United Nations.

WASHINGTON -- Maryland members of the House split evenly yesterday on the question of whether to use military force to drive Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, with some saying that only the threat of war can succeed and others urging patience to allow economic sanctions and diplomacy to work."

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri is scheduled to begin talks today at the United Nations aimed at reaching an agreement to allow weapons inspectors back into his country - and, from the Iraqis' perspective, make it harder for the United States to attack them. But Iraqis insist they will not bow to threats and will allow inspectors to return only as part of a comprehensive deal to end more than 11 years of economic sanctions and restore the nation's territorial integrity. The United States and Britain enforce "no-fly" zones over northern and southern Iraq and regularly report airstrikes against military targets.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is considering designating Eritrea as a state sponsor of terrorism, accusing it of running arms to Islamic insurgents in Somalia, the State Department's top official for Africa said yesterday. American officials say Eritrea, on the Red Sea, has been trying to destabilize the fragile government in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. That government came to power after Ethiopian troops, backed by the U.S., invaded Somalia and toppled an administration run by radical Islamic militias.

Fresh from his fight over Iraq war spending, President Bush has been busy this week at the more constructive task of burnishing his humanitarian credentials. He's stepping up pressure on Sudan to halt the genocide in Darfur; proposing to double funding for global AIDS programs to $30 billion over five years, and installing at the World Bank a skilled negotiator knowledgeable in these and many related issues. And yet Mr. Bush's positive initiatives remain crippled by the global ill will engendered by America's pre-emptive attack on Iraq.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration restored full diplomatic ties with Libya yesterday, rewarding a longtime foe for giving up terrorism and unconventional weapons, while tacitly encouraging Iran and other countries to follow suit. Completing a reversal that began three years ago, Bush administration officials said they will open an embassy in Tripoli and drop Libya from their list of nations that sponsor terrorism. C. David Welch, assistant secretary of state for the Middle East, said the announcement demonstrated that when countries "follow international norms, they will reap concrete benefits."

WASHINGTON - Iran's decision to resume its uranium conversion activity in defiance of Europe and the United States raises the specter of sanctions imposed against Tehran by the U.N. Security Council. Sanctions always have been a favorite punishment against the rogue state. But as the Iraqi case shows, they are easily breached and do little to bring about behavioral change. With no realistic military option, economic sanctions are always the fallback. In Iran's case, economic sanctions may be a double-edged sword.

BEIJING - China has ruled out applying economic or political sanctions to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program and still hopes negotiations can succeed in achieving that result, a Foreign Ministry official said yesterday. China has come under intensifying pressure from the United States to stiffen its approach to North Korea. Its announcement yesterday is certain to disappoint the Bush administration. Chinese officials acknowledge privately that they have grown increasingly frustrated with North Korea's refusal to resume six-nation negotiations that have been stalled since last year.

TOKYO - The association of relatives of Japanese abductees to North Korea and ruling and opposition parties are calling on the government to impose economic sanctions on Pyongyang following an official announcement Wednesday that said the remains given to Japan by Pyongyang were not those of Megumi Yokota. The government for its part is waiting to see how North Korea will explain the discrepancy between the results of DNA testing in Japan and Pyongyang's claims that the remains were those of Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977 at age 13. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters Wednesday night that talks with Pyongyang would continue despite the latest development.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is considering designating Eritrea as a state sponsor of terrorism, accusing it of running arms to Islamic insurgents in Somalia, the State Department's top official for Africa said yesterday. American officials say Eritrea, on the Red Sea, has been trying to destabilize the fragile government in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. That government came to power after Ethiopian troops, backed by the U.S., invaded Somalia and toppled an administration run by radical Islamic militias.

WASHINGTON -- The United States said yesterday that it had new evidence showing that President Saddam Hussein had spent money to build a sprawling amusement park to entertain his political followers instead of feeding hungry Iraqis.In a report intended to convince other governments to retain tough economic sanctions against Iraq, the State Department said the entertainment complex was detected in aerial photographs."Despite its claims that the people of Iraq are dying due to a lack of food and medicine, Saddam Hussein doesn't hesitate to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for the entertainment of Baath Party officials and cadres," said James P. Rubin, the State Department spokesman.

This holiday season provides both humorous and sad money stories. In the midst of wondering whether we'll receive a surprise Lexus or Jaguar with a red bow on Christmas morning, or whether Santa will reward us for knowing the answer to the business-related question that Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings got wrong, it's easy to lose perspective. There are more important considerations in the world than Donald Trump firing someone on The Apprentice television program. The sad story is the United Nations' oil-for-food scandal unfolding this holiday season.

Because of federal regulations, Goucher College has to move this winter's Cuba study-abroad program. The new location? Probably Miami. "Obviously, Little Havana isn't the same thing, and it would radically change the context of the class," said Eric Singer, Goucher's director of international studies. "We have no choice." Schools across Maryland and the nation are scrambling to deal with the federal government's recent ruling that prohibits academic programs in Cuba unless they are at least 10 weeks long.