WASHINGTON, March 25: President Barack Obama has told his crisis-weary nation that he sees signs of economic progress but pleaded for “patience” as he battles to overcome the worst financial maelstrom in decades.

At a prime-time news conference on Tuesday, Mr Obama also vowed to stay focussed on enormous foreign policy challenges, arguing that Middle East peace was not getting easier but remained as vital as ever.

The president said his two-month-old government had framed a strategy to attack the economic crisis on “all fronts” and touted his 3.6-trillion-dollar budget as the key to recovery.

“It’s a strategy to create jobs, to help responsible homeowners, to restart lending, and to grow our economy over the long term. And we are beginning to see signs of progress.

“We’ll recover from this recession, but it will take time, it will take patience,” he said, at the climax of an intense week of economic and foreign policy rollouts ahead of his first big trip abroad next week.

The president said his budget, which opposition Republicans argued would run up huge deficits for years, would create clean energy jobs, promote a highly skilled workforce and make health care affordable.“That’s why this budget is inseparable from this recovery --- because it is what lays the foundation for a secure and lasting prosperity.”

But John Boehner, Republican leader in the House of Representatives, accused Mr Obama of “outright distortion” in selling his budget plan, insisting it was “flat-out untrue” of him to claim Republicans were offering no proposals of their own.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, fresh from outlining details of a banking rescue, meanwhile asked Congress for unprecedented powers to seize non-bank financial firms if needed to maintain stability.

Mr Obama anticipated “strong support from the American people and from Congress to provide that authority” so that a non-banking company such as giant insurer American International Group could not hold the entire economy hostage.

The president takes his first big steps on the world stage at the Group of 20 summit in London on April 2, including meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

Everyone at the G20 would have to do more to shoulder their burden of growth, through stimulus measures, regulatory reform and resisting protectionist pressure in trade, Mr Obama said.

“We don’t want a situation in which some countries are making extraordinary efforts and other countries aren’t, with the hope that countries that are making those important steps lift everybody up,” he said.—AFP

JERUSALEM, March 25: Israel fired white phosphorous shells indiscriminately over densely populated areas of Gaza in what amounted to a war crime, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Wednesday.

The New York-based group called on the United Nations to launch an investigation into alleged Israeli violations of the rules of war, including the use of white phosphorous, during its three-week Gaza offensive.

Israel’s military had no comment on Wednesday, but said previously it was investigating the matter.

International law permits the use of phosphorous weapons as flares or to create smoke screens masking the movement of troops. However, Human Rights Watch said Israeli troops frequently fired the shells over densely populated areas.

The firing “was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes,” the report said.

The group documented some cases, including white phosphorous shells fired at a Gaza City hospital, the UN headquarters, a school and a market. In six attacks, 12 civilians were killed and dozens wounded, said Human Rights Watch researcher Fred Abrahams.

Each shell bursts into 116 burning white phosphorous wedges, over a radius of more than 135 yards. The wedges burn on contact with oxygen, creating intense heat, and can cause severe burns.

The phosphorous kept burning for many days, and was still smouldering well after Israel’s withdrawal on Jan 18.

Abrahams said the Israeli military was aware of the destructive nature of white phosphorous. Army medical officers warned during the war that the weapons is “potentially extremely destructive to tissue”, according to an internal army document attached to the report.—AP
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