US President Barack Obama says North Korea’s reported nuclear and missile tests today are “a threat to international peace” and warrant “action by the international community”.

“These actions, while not a surprise given its statements and actions to date, are a matter of grave concern to all nations,” Obama said in a written statement.

“North Korea’s attempts to develop nuclear weapons, as well as its ballistic missile program, constitute a threat to international peace and security.”

He said further that “the danger posed by North Korea’s threatening activities warrants action by the international community.’

North Korea said it carried out its second and more powerful nuclear test today, defying international pressure to rein in its nuclear programmes after years of six-nation disarmament talks.

The hardline communist state, which stunned the world by testing an atomic bomb for the first time in October 2006, had threatened another test after the UN Security Council censured it following a long-range rocket launch in April.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said:

“The North successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defence in every way,”

“The current nuclear test was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology,”

The United States, Britain, the European Union and others expressed concern about the test, which was confirmed by Russia’s defence ministry, according to the ITAR-TASS news agency.

A US State Department official said:

“We are gravely concerned by North Korea’s claims,”

“We are consulting with our six-party and UN Security Council partners on next steps.”

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak convened an emergency National Security Council meeting and both South Korea and Japan announced the formation of government crisis teams.

Japan said it would seek an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, which imposed sanctions on the North for its first test.

Takeo Kawamura, the chief cabinet secretary said:

“It is absolutely unacceptable. Japan will take stern action against North Korea,”

The KCNA report did not say where the test was conducted. South Korean officials said a tremor was detected around the northeastern town of Kilju, near where the first was staged.

The Korea Meteorological Administration said the tremor measured 4.5 on the Richter Scale compared to 3.6 in October 2006.

Yonhap news agency said the North also appears to have test-fired a short-range missile Monday from its launch site at Musudan-ri near Kilju. There was no immediate confirmation of that report.

China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States have been negotiating since 2003 to persuade the North to abandon its nuclear programmes in exchange for energy and security guarantees.

The negotiations led to an agreement signed in 2007, under which the North said it would dismantle its nuclear facilities. The deal bogged down last December over ways to verify the North’s declared nuclear activities.

In April the North irked the international community with a long-range rocket launch, a move that many nations said was actually a ballistic missile test.

After the Security Council condemned the launch and tightened sanctions, the North vowed to conduct a second nuclear test as well as ballistic missile tests unless the world body apologised.

It also announced that it was quitting the six-way talks, which are hosted by its closest ally China, and would restart its plutonium-making program.

Analysts believe the North has stockpiled enough plutonium for six to 12 small nuclear bombs. Its first test was seen as only partially successful, with a yield of less than one kiloton.

KCNA said today’s test had resolved

“scientific and technological problems arising in further increasing the power of nuclear weapons and steadily developing nuclear technology.”

North Korea has frequently said it needs a nuclear deterrent to prevent any attack.

It said today’s test would “contribute to defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism and ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula and the region around it with the might of Songun (the army-first policy).”

The North has expressed disappointment at the new US administration of President Barack Obama, calling it no better than its predecessor.

Kim Yong-Hyun of Seoul’s Dongguk University said:

“The second test was earlier than expected and reflects the North’s growing anger at Washington,”

“Or some internal problems may be forcing Pyongyang to take a strong attitude.”

Leader Kim Jong-Il, 67, was widely reported to have suffered a stroke last August, prompting speculation overseas about the succession. The North’s position has noticeably hardened since then.

Today’s test was staged while South Korea was in mourning for former president Roh Moo-Hyun, who leapt to his death Saturday after being questioned in a corruption probe.

Roh had always championed engagement with the North, and Kim Jong-Il sent condolences to his family.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, KCNA, Kim Jongil, Korean Central News Agency, North Korea, nuclear tests

The mass hysteria from the right rolled in overnight, just two days after Wanda Sykes appeared at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and gave Rush Limbaugh a taste of his own medicine. Much like when Limbaugh would gleefully sing “Barack the Magic Negro” on a daily basis or when he rabidly, and brutally ripped into Michael J. Fox and his illness – Sykes decided to take it to the next level in her digs aimed at Rush.

Sykes, who was on fire riffed hard on Limbaugh – claiming she was the 20th hijacker on 9/11 but missed the plane because he was so strung out on Oxycontin, and that while Rush “hoped Obama failed”, she hoped Limbaughs “kidneys failed”. Undoubtedly, it was a fun routine – and with anything funny – all hell has broken loose with commentators and politicians alike chiming in on why they hated what Wanda said.

It’s shocking that right wing politicos/talking heads are taking so much (and I sense, contrived) outrage over Sykes stand-up routine. If you simply add up all things “disgusting”, “vile” or any other adjective being used to describe Sykes routine – that Rush Limbaugh has said just over the year or two you would come up with a compilation that would over shadow anything Sykes said to such a degree, it would be silly to even compare the two, and their public commentary.

Technorati Tags: Comedy News, Daily Show, Daily Show Wanda Sykes, Jon Stewart, Jon Stewart Wanda Sykes, video, Wanda Sykes, Wanda Sykes Daily Show, Wanda Sykes Jon Stewart, Wanda Sykes Rush Limbaugh, Wanda Sykes White House Correspondents Dinner

Former US vice-president Dick Cheney says intelligence extracted from tough interrogations of suspected al-Qaeda militants had saved “perhaps hundreds of thousands” of US lives.

“No regrets. I think it was absolutely the right thing to do,” he said on CBS television arguing that techniques decried by critics as torture were essential to break the resistance of captured extremists.

Cheney said, arguing again that al-Qaeda was bent on attacking a US city with a nuclear device:

“I’m convinced, absolutely convinced, that we saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of lives,”

But at the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents’ Association late on Saturday, President Barack Obama skewered Cheney’s doomsday view of the world for comic effect.

“Dick Cheney was supposed to be here but he is very busy working on his memoirs, tentatively titled How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People,”

In one of his first acts as president, Obama reversed predecessor George W Bush’s approval of harsh interrogation methods such as “waterboarding”, or simulated drowning.

Recently released memorandums detail the reasoning used by Bush administration lawyers to justify waterboarding and other techniques such as sleep deprivation, physical slaps and painful “stress positions”.

Cheney reaffirmed his belief that Obama had made the US more vulnerable to attack, and condemned calls by Democratic lawmakers for the Bush legal officials to face prosecution.

“The memos do exist. I have seen them. I had them in my files at one time. Now everything is part of the National Archives. I’m sure the agency (CIA) has copies of those materials,”

“If we’re going to have this debate, it ought to be a complete debate. Those memos ought to be out there for people to look at and journalists like yourself to evaluate in terms of what we were able to accomplish.”

Obama’s national security advisor, General James Jones, dismissed Cheney’s claim that the US was now less safe from attack.

“Oh, I don’t believe that,” the former supreme commander of NATO told ABC, rebutting Cheney’s arguments for the interrogations and for detaining terror suspects without trial in Guantanamo Bay.

“And I think frankly in the Bush administration, there wasn’t complete agreement with the vice-president on that score,”

Obama, he added, was “absolutely committed” to upholding the rule of law while protecting the nation.

While Bush has kept a low profile since leaving office, Cheney has repeatedly gone on the airwaves to defend his own legacy as probably the most powerful US vice-president ever.

“If I don’t speak out, then where do we find ourselves? Then the critics have free run and there isn’t anybody there on the other side to tell the truth,” he said, adding he was prepared to testify in Congress if necessary.

Cheney also heaped scorn on his one-time cabinet rival, former secretary of state Colin Powell, who has been vilified by right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh after endorsing Obama for the presidency.

“If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh, I think,”

“My take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn’t know he was still a Republican”.

Cheney said there was still “room for moderates in the Republican Party”, but that the party should stay true to its core principles and not “move dramatically to the left”.

The Democratic Party’s national committee responded:

“It’s sad that because Republican leaders in Congress are so devoid of ideas and direction that Dick Cheney has emerged as the party’s leading voice.”

Technorati Tags: barack obama, Dick Cheney, george w. bush, sleep deprivation, torture techniques, waterboarding

Barack Obama will make his long-awaited address to Muslims in Egypt on June 4, accelerating his bid to mend the US image in the Islamic world from an epicentre of Arab civilisation.

The speech, fulfilling an Obama campaign promise, will focus on how Americans and Muslims abroad can secure the “safety and security” of their children in a more hopeful future, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

The trip, certain to unfold amid a massive security operation, will come as Obama tries to ignite stalled Middle East peace efforts and will represent his most significant attempt yet to engage the Muslim world.

Arabs and Muslim believers across the world have been alienated by the war in Iraq, abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail outside Baghdad and the Guantanamo Bay “war on terror” camp which Obama has ordered closed.

Gibbs said that the exact venue for the speech had yet to be decided, but most speculation will centre on Cairo, the capital of Egypt, the most populous nation in the Arab world.

“On June 4, the president will give a speech in Egypt. The speech will be about America’s relations with the Muslim world,”

He added that there were no plans for Obama to make any further stops in the Middle East during the visit, which will precede a trip to France and Germany focusing on World War II commemorations.

The president promised during his 2008 election campaign to make a speech at a major Islamic forum within the first 100 days of his administration which ended last week, but the timetable slipped for logistical reasons.

As Obama tries to kick start Middle East peacemaking, the visit will follow trips to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.

Obama is also trying to coax sworn US foe Iran to the negotiating table in a bid to halt the Islamic state’s nuclear program.

Gibbs defended Obama from claims that by choosing Egypt, where the State Department says there are

“significant restrictions on the political process and freedom of expression” the US president was watering down US support for democracy promotion abroad.

“It is a country that in many ways represents the heart of the Arab world,”

“I think it will be a terrific opportunity for the president to address and discuss our relationship with the Muslim world.”

Obama last month reached out to Muslims from the well of the Turkish parliament.

“You cannot put out fire with flames,”

Obama said, arguing that brute force alone could not thwart extremism as he sent a flurry of coded messages throughout the Middle East.

Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia and is the son of a Kenyan father of Muslim heritage, drew on his own biography as he sought to forge new trust with the Islamic world.

The president said US ties with Islam could not be simply defined by opposition to terrorism, decades into a US struggle with extremism that was sharpened by the September 11 attacks in 2001.

“The United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country – I know, because I am one of them.”

Within days of taking office in January, Obama launched his effort to engage the Muslim world by granting an interview with the Al-Arabiya television network.

Jon Alterman, the director of the Middle East Program at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies here said:

“Obama has created a combination of curiosity and excitement throughout the Middle East,”

“He embodies change in a region where many people are terribly thirsty for political change.”

The White House also said Friday that Obama will visit the German city of Dresden and the former Nazi death camp at Buchenwald in June 5, before travelling onto D-Day commemorations in France.

Obama’s great-uncle, Charlie Payne, took part in the liberation of part of the Buchenwald camp in 1945 with the US Army but Gibbs said it was unclear whether he would travel with the president.

Payne was a private in the 89th Infantry Division during World War II when he took part in the liberation of Ohrdruf, a forced-labour camp that was part of Buchenwald.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, egypt, Middle East, Muslims

The world is on the brink of a “robotics revolution” in military combat that will have profound social, psychological, political and ethical effects, says a leading US defence analyst.

Peter Singer, who headed Barack Obama’s defence policy team during last year’s presidential campaign, said yesterday that the use of robots for fighting war was growing exponentially.

The US had invaded Iraq in 2003 with just over a handful of unmanned aerial drones, and no unmanned ground vehicles, he said. Today it used more than 7000 drones in the air, and more than 12,000 unmanned ground vehicles capable of combat.

More than 43 countries were developing military robotics, including Israel, Iran, China, Pakistan and Russia, as well as Britain and Australia.

In 25 years, Dr Singer said,

“our robotics will be about a billion times more powerful [in their computing power] than today”.

Their use in warfare was a massive development in human history, he told the Lowy Institute in Sydney, via videolink from Washington.

“We are living through the end of humankind’s 5000-year-old monopoly on the fighting of war … The robots of today are the first technologies to change the ‘who’ of war, not just the ‘how’ of war…”

Dr Singer, who has just written Wired For War, warned that remote war-fighting could come at a high price, as nation-states would be unable to keep the technology to themselves.

Adversaries such as al-Qaeda were also likely to gain the use of remote war-fighting devices. And there were a host of social, ethical and doctrinal questions developing from the use of such weapons.

With robotics transforming the nature of warfare, it was risky, he warned, to

“make grand commitments before you figure out where things are headed”.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, defence policy, Peter Singer, Robot soliers, robots

New Yorkers evacuated offices in panic on Monday when an unexpected overflight by one of President Barack Obama’s Boeing 747s triggered fears of a new 9/11.

The jumbo, escorted by low-flying fighter jets, roared over southern Manhattan and the Hudson River for about 30 minutes on what officials later described as a photo-op.
9/11 plane scare over New York

A government exercise involving low-flying planes creates a scare in New York City.

A livid New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he had not been warned and called the lack of notice “ridiculous and poor judgment“.

Stunned office workers who failed to spot the presidential markings feared facing a repeat of the attacks of September 11, 2001, in which two hijacked airliners smashed into the World Trade Centre, killing almost 3000 people.

Commodities trader Jurgens Bauer said:

“I saw everybody running and I ran out too. My heart is still pounding,”

Mr Bauer said that his room had no window so he had not seen the plane – which is painted white with a blue nose and blue stripe – but that the terror was real.

“I was there on 9/11. I saw thousands of people die. I don’t like when I am not aware of a military photo op,”

Police confirmed that some offices were evacuated, but did not specify how many.

“I guess people panicked,” a spokesman said.

Officials explained the confusion after saying that the commander in chief’s aircraft had merely been conducting an exercise. Mr Obama was not aboard.

US Air Force spokesman Major Richard Johnson said:

“The presidential airlift group conducted an aerial photo in the New York city area today,”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) called the manoeuvre a “photo op“.

FAA spokesman Jim Peters said:

“The Defence Department is conducting a photo op that involves deploying two F-16s and escorting a military version of the Boeing 747  close to lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty”

“The manoeuvre was not an emergency and was co-ordinated in advance with the FAA and state and local officials,”

But Mr Bloomberg said no one had told him of the visitors to New York’s skies.

The mayor, who is running for a third term later this year, said in televised comments that he was

“annoyed – furious is a better word – that I wasn’t told”.

“Why the Defence Department wanted to do a photo op right around the site of the World Trade Centre catastrophe defies imagination,”

“It didn’t have the normal language of saying that this is sensitive information.”

Hijackers slammed two planes into the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Centre in 2001, destroying the complex on the southern tip of Manhattan in what was the worst terrorist attack on American soil.

A reconstruction project has been hampered by financial and planning delays, but the foundations of new towers are now rising at Ground Zero.

Technorati Tags: New York, Obama plan, photo op, scare

Israel recalled its ambassador to Switzerland last night in protest over a meeting between the Swiss President, Hans-Rudolph Merz, and Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mr Ahmadinejad was greeted by the Swiss President after landing in Geneva on Sunday where he was due to address a United Nations conference on racism today.

Mr Ahmadinejad, who has described the Holocaust as a “myth” and vowed repeatedly to “wipe Israel off the map”, was expected to launch another inflammatory attack on Israel when he addressed delegates on the opening day of the conference.

The Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, branded Mr Ahmadinejad a racist and expressed outrage at the special treatment accorded him.

Mr Lieberman also questioned why the conference’s opening day was being held on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day:

“The fact that a racist like Ahmadinejad is the main speaker proves the true aim and nature of the conference,”

The Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, described the Swiss President’s meeting with Mr Ahmadinejad as pathetic and an embarrassment to Switzerland.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said:

“It is fair to say that the meeting between the Iranian President and the Swiss raised more than a few eyebrows,”

“We are extremely unhappy about it and our ambassador Ilan Elgar has been recalled for consultations,”

“We understand the Swiss are obliged to host the conference as part of their UN commitments, we understand that the Iranian President has to be given a visa. What we don’t understand is why the Swiss President greeted Ahmadinejad on arrival.”

The Geneva meeting is a follow-up to the UN’s first conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, and is meant to take stock of progress in fighting racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance.

But after the first conference was dominated by criticism of Israel, in particular by Arab and Muslim nations, Israeli officials waged a campaign against the Durban II meeting, arguing it would be similarly marred by anti-Israel sentiment.

US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland joined in boycotting the conference because of concerns it would be used as a forum to bash Israel.

“Regrettably, we cannot be confident that the review conference will not again be used as a platform to air offensive views, including anti-Semitic views,”

The US President, Barack Obama, defended his decision not to send a delegation, saying that despite progress in negotiations in recent weeks, anti-Israel language in a draft final communique was “often times completely hypocritical and counterproductive”.

He told reporters in Trinidad:

“If we have a clean start, a fresh start, we’re happy to go to a future meeting”

Last night the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, thanked those countries that had boycotted the summit.

“Six million of our people were slaughtered in the Holocaust. Not everyone has learnt the lesson ,”

“While we commemorate them, a conference purporting to be against racism will convene in Switzerland. The guest of honour is a racist, a Holocaust-denier who makes no secret of his intention of wiping Israel off the face of the earth.”

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, decried Western nations for boycotting the conference.

“Some nations, who by rights should be helping to forge a path to a better future, are not here,”

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said she was disappointed the US was not attending.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, Benjamin Netanyahu, Hans-Rudolph Merz, iran, Iranian President, Israel, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Switzerland

President Barack Obama directed his administration Monday to allow unlimited travel and money transfers by Cuban Americans to family in Cuba, and to take other steps to ease U.S. restrictions on the island.

The formal announcement was being made at the White House Monday afternoon, during presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs’ daily briefing with reporters. The official spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to upstage the president’s announcement.

With the changes, Obama aims to create new space for the Cuban people in their quest for political freedom and a democratic government, in part by making them less dependent on the Castro regime, the official said.  Other steps taken Monday include allowing gift parcels to be send to Cuba, and issuing licenses to increase communications among and to the Cuban people.

About 1.5 million Americans have relatives in Cuba.Obama had promised to take these steps as a presidential candidate. It has been known for over a week that he would announce them in advance of his attended this weekend of a Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

“There are no better ambassadors for freedom than Cuban Americans,”

Obama said in a campaign speech last May in Miami, the heart of the U.S. Cuban-American community.

“It’s time to let Cuban Americans see their mothers and fathers, their sisters and brothers. It’s time to let Cuban American money make their families less dependent upon the Castro regime.”

Sending money to senior government officials and Communist Party members remains prohibited.

Restrictions imposed by the Bush administration had limited Cuban travel by Americans to just two weeks every three years. Visits also were confined to immediate family members.  Other steps taken Monday include expanding the things allowed in gift parcels being sent to Cuba, such as clothes, personal hygiene items, seeds, fishing gear and other personal necessities.

The administration also will begin issuing licenses to allow companies to provide cell and television services to people on the island, and to allow family members to pay for relatives on Cuba to get those services, the official said.

Also in that Miami speech nearly a year ago, Obama promised to depart from what he said had been the path of previous politicians on Cuba policy –

“they come down to Miami, they talk tough, they go back to Washington, and nothing changes in Cuba.”

“Never, in my lifetime, have the people of Cuba known freedom. Never, in the lives of two generations of Cubans, have the people of Cuba known democracy,”

he said then.

“This is the terrible and tragic status quo that we have known for half a century — of elections that are anything but free or fair; of dissidents locked away in dark prison cells for the crime of speaking the truth. I won’t stand for this injustice, you won’t stand for this injustice, and together we will stand up for freedom in Cuba.”

He also promised to engage in direct diplomacy with Cuba, “without preconditions” but with “careful preparation” and “a clear agenda.”

Some lawmakers, backed by business and farm groups seeing new opportunities in Cuba, are advocating wider revisions in the trade and travel bans imposed after Fidel Castro took power in Havana in 1959.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, Cuba, Robert Gibbs

Barack Obama drew praise from troops and veterans groups for his surprise visit this week to Baghdad, another step in his concerted effort to win the support of the military, despite having opposed the war in Iraq and never having served in uniform.

“I’m honoured and grateful to be with all of you. And I’m not going to talk long because I want to shake as many hands as I can,” the President said, to loud applause and shouts. The troops, he said, had performed “brilliantly” and he pledged to do “everything we can” for military families and combat veterans.

“We have not forgotten what you have already done – we are grateful for what you will do,” Mr Obama said.

“And as long as I am in the White House, you are going to get the support that you need and the thanks that you deserve from a grateful nation.”

The unannounced trip to Baghdad on Tuesday is Mr Obama’s latest gesture designed to win over the armed forces since he went on a “listening tour” with top Pentagon brass seven weeks ago. Last month, speaking to marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, he promised a pay rise and more help for wounded veterans, which brought the most applause in a speech detailing his plan to end the Iraq war and bring troops home.

Rudy DeLeone, a military specialist at the Centre for American Progress, a liberal-leaning Washington think tank, said Mr Obama knew the military had a key role in shaping the tone of his early presidency.

“Taking care of the men and women who are serving in the field is one of the unique requirements of the President as commander-in-chief. He gets that,”

Yet members of the military and their families have long been sceptical of Democratic leaders, especially those who have not served in the military.

Mr Obama was no exception. A Military Times poll conducted three weeks before his inauguration showed two-thirds of men and women in uniform either questioned or doubted his ability as commander-in-chief, pointing to his lack of service and his opposition to the Iraq war.

Meanwhile, Michelle Obama has made support for military families her signature cause – including a trip to the army’s Fort Bragg base – to show concern for military spouses and dependents.

“Our soldiers and their families have done their duty, and they do it without complaint,”

“And we as a grateful nation must do ours – do everything in our power to honour them by supporting them.”

Yesterday, in a speech broadcast on state radio, Libya’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi, compared Mr Obama to a beacon of light in the “obscurity of imperialism“.
After Mr Obama spoke in favor of a Palestinian state and reached out to Muslims, he said:

“So far his political discourse has been reasonable, breaking with the arrogance prevalent in statements by former US presidents,”

Technorati Tags: barack obama, Irqa, Muammar Gaddafi, Rudy DeLeone

Lawrence Summers, the top economic adviser to the US President, Barack Obama, earned millions over the past year as managing director of the hedge fund D. E. Shaw Group and through speaking fees, some from financial institutions now at the centre of the Government’s rescue program.

Financial disclosure reports released by the White House show that Dr Summers received $US5.2 million from D. E. Shaw.
He also reported payments for appearances before institutions such as J. P. Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.

Overall, Dr Summers was paid $US2.7 million for more than 40 appearances before different organisations and companies, including financial institutions.

Mr Obama has enacted strict rules against hiring lobbyists for Administration positions that would have influence over their former clients. A White House official said Dr Summers would not work on issues specifically related to D. E. Shaw for two years. The official noted that Dr Summers was not an adviser or an employee of the firms that paid him to give speeches.

Another senior adviser at the White House, David Axelrod, disclosed that he sold his share of two campaign and media strategy businesses last year for $US3 million. The money will be paid to him in annual instalments over the next five years, beginning on December 31. Mr Axelrod also reported income of more than $US1 million last year from the two companies, David Axelrod & Associates and ASK Public Strategies.

Dr Summers began as managing director at D. E. Shaw Group in October 2006. A company press release at the time said he would be involved part-time to offer advice on strategic initiatives, provide high-level research and advise the executive committee.

A White House spokesman, Ben LaBolt, said Dr Summers

“has been at the forefront of this administration’s work to shore up our nation’s financial system and to put in place a regulatory framework that will strengthen the financial system and its oversight – all in an effort to help the families across America who have paid a very steep price for risky decisions made by Wall Street executives”.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Lawrence Summers, Lehman Brothers