Ex-UN assembly chief indicted in US - Yahoo News

 

New York (AFP) - Former UN General Assembly president John Ashe was indicted by US authorities on charges of accepting more than a million dollars in bribes from Chinese real estate developers.

Ashe, from Antigua and Barbuda, president of the assembly from September 2013 to September 2014, is accused of accepting money to promote the construction of a UN conference center in Macau.

The 61-year-old is charged with accepting more than $1.3 million from 2011 to 2014 from a group of five people, according to the indictment filed by Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the southern district of New York.

Ashe is accused of hiding more than $1.2 million in his income tax return.

Four other people were also charged on Tuesday, including the main suspect in the corruption ring, Ng Lap Seng, a wealthy Chinese real estate developer.

Another is Francis Lorenzo, a UN deputy ambassador from the Dominican Republic, who heads South-South News, a UN-accredited media outfit that reports on development issues.

The indictment alleges that the corruption ring relied on Ashe and others to nail down the construction of a UN-sponsored conference center in Macau at the cost of billions of dollars, as well as real estate projects in Antigua and Barbuda

Ex-UN assembly chief indicted in US - Yahoo News

John William Ashe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

John William Ashe

President of the United Nations General Assembly

In office
17 September 2013 – 16 September 2014

Preceded by
Vuk Jeremić

Succeeded by
Sam Kutesa

Personal details

Born
(1954-08-20) 20 August 1954 (age 61)
(St.John's, Antigua)

Nationality
Redondan

Residence
New York City, New York, U.S.

Alma mater
University of Pennsylvania (PhD)
Saint Mary's University
Technical University of Nova Scotia

John William Ashe (born 20 August 1954) was the President of the United Nations General Assembly at its 68th session, which ran September 2013 to September 2014.^[1] He was also the ambassador to the United Nations for Antigua and Barbuda. His position was last confirmed on 3 May 2004. He is also his country’s Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and has ministerial responsibility for WTO and sustainable development matters.^{[citation needed]}

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Early life and education
• 2 Career
  • 2.1 Antiguan representative at the U.N.
  • 2.2 UN General Assembly President
• 3 Bribery accusation
• 4 References

Early life and education[edit]

Ashe was born in St. John's, Antigua. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Canada, and the Technical University of Nova Scotia at Halifax. He holds a Ph.D in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

^{[2][better source needed] [3][dead link]} His parents did not complete high school. His paternal grandfather was illiterate and his mother, in turn, was a descendant of slave plantation owners in Barbados. Consequently, Ashe was the first in his family to attend university.^{[4][dead link]}

Career

Antiguan representative at the U.NFrom 1989 to 1995, he worked for his country’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations as Scientific Attaché, Counsellor and Minister Counsellor. Between 1995 and 2004, he was Antigua and Barbuda's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He served as Chairman of the thirteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, which met at United Nations Headquarters on 11–22 April 2005. He also led negotiations on budgetary and administrative matters within the conventions on biological diversity and desertification, the Basel Convention, and the Montreal Protocol, and served on the Executive Boards of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).^{[citation needed]}

In April 2009, he was elected chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP), and was responsible for overseeing negotiations leading up to and including the final phase at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.^{[5][dead link]}

UN General Assembly President[]

Towards the end of 2011, Ashe was the consensus candidate of all 33 GRULAC members states to be the president of the 68th session of the UNGA,^{[6][dead link][7]} thus not necessitating an election, unlike the previous year.^{[citation needed]}

Bribery accusation[edit]

On 6 October 2015, Ashe was arrested and charged,^[8] along with five others, in a criminal complaint by federal prosecutors in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, reflecting an expansion of a probe into the dealings of Macau real estate developer Ng Lap Seng. The complaint accuses Ashe of using "his official position to obtain for Ng potentially lucrative investments in Antigua" as part of an alleged broader scheme to funnel more than $1 million in bribes from Chinese sources to facilitate business dealings, particularly in real estate.^[9]

Carville: Benghazi Scandal Created by Rupert Murdoch and Koch Brothers

 

On Tuesday – just two days before Hillary Clinton’s testimony before the House Benghazi Committee – MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell teased an upcoming interview with liberal operative and longtime Clinton hatchet man James Carville, hailing him as a “political Jedi master.” In the segment that followed, Carville proceeded to spin wild conspiracy theories about the reason behind the Democratic front-runner’s Benghazi and e-mail scandals.

Mitchell began by actually challenging Carville on the Benghazi attack: “...how could she be secretary of state, be in charge, and not have those security warnings come to her level?” Carville launched into his rant: “Trey Gowdy is a creation of the Koch brothers and the whole climate denial industry and this committee was nothing but a creation of Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Brothers. You know, Fox ran over 1,000 segments in 20 months after this thing.”

He continued: “This is a taxpayer-funded –  understand – taxpayer funded partisan operation that they're running there....All they're interested in is driving her poll numbers down. They’ve admitted as much. It's just a fact. And it’s – he got into Congress because the Koch brothers put him there.”

Before Mitchell could respond, Carville proclaimed: “You can fact-check it. They can fact-check it, I'm right here. Go – everybody fact-check it.”

Mitchell followed up: “But let me ask you about the fact that the Benghazi Committee is the first to reveal that she had the private e-mail server.” Carville repeated: “I mean, they’ve admitted that this was nothing but an attempt to drive her poll numbers down. Have employees who are life-long Republicans come out and said all they were interested in and obsessed with was Hillary's politics.”

Deciding to wrap up the exchange with a softball, Mitchell wondered:

James, if you were still advising Hillary Clinton, I don't know if you are, but if you were helping her prepare this week, what is the key advice you would give her? A woman who, let's face it, before one of the hearings, when she was a little under the weather, did lose her cool and that is the sound bite that has been, you know, viral. What advice would you give her about her demeanor on Thursday?

Carville replied: “I would just say answer the questions succinctly....You know, just understand that these people are just trying to get you politically, don't play their game. Just be above the fray, and you know, you’ll be fine.”

He added: “Everybody knows going into this what this is. This was, you know, all as a result of pressure from Rupert Murdoch and the Koch brothers. And we know where Trey Gowdy comes from. All of this stuff is in the public record. There's no doubt about it.”

Mitchell simply stated: “We will follow up, James. And of course Congressman Gowdy is welcome to come on and respond.”

Carville got in a parting shot: “Yes, and ask him about how much money the Koch brothers gave him when he ran and why is he part of this whole climate denial subculture up there?”

 

Here is a transcript of the October 20 exchange:  Carville: Benghazi Scandal Created by Rupert Murdoch and Koch Brothers

Biden Won’t Seek Democratic Nomination, Clearing Clinton's Path - Yahoo Finance

 

Vice President Joe Biden won’t seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, ending months of deliberation and speculation and clearing the path for Hillary Clinton.

The grieving process over the death of his son Beau has closed the window on any chance of mounting a presidential campaign, Biden said in a hastily arranged announcement from the White House Rose Garden with President Barack Obama and his wife, Jill Biden, at his side.

Biden’s decision clarifies the choice before the party’s voters even as Clinton faces a challenge from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and two other Democrats in the race who are trying to position themselves as an alternative to the former secretary of state.

More from Bloomberg.com: OPEC Is About to Crush the U.S. Oil Boom

At 72, Biden has likely run his last campaign for elected office, while he could be in play for secretary of state or other presidential nominations or appointments should Democrats prevail in next year’s general election. Biden served as a U.S. senator for 36 years and unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1988 and 2008 before becoming Barack Obama’s running mate.

Biden Won’t Seek Democratic Nomination, Clearing Clinton's Path - Yahoo Finance

Poll: Rauner Job Approval Hits New Low | David Ormsby

 

As Governor Bruce Rauner enters his ninth month in office, his job approval rating continues to fall, a new poll shows.
Burdened by a budget impasse that has lurched beyond 100 days, an October 10 survey conducted by Chicago-based Ogden & Fry of 533 likely voters commissioned by The Illinois Observer's subscription, e-newsletter, The Insider, finds that Rauner's job performance approval is now upside down by 17-points, falling to a new low of 32.3% and his disapproval rising to a new high, 49.9%.

The survey, which had a +/- 4.33% margin of error, shows that 17.8% are undecided.

A June 20 Ogden & Fry poll of 711 likely 2016 voters commissioned by The Insider showed that 35.7% of voters approved of the way the governor was handling his job while 46.7% disapproved or net approval of minus 11 points.
That poll, which had a +/- 3.75% margin of error, found that 17.6% are undecided, which is nearly identical to 17.8% in last week's poll.
Essentially, the governor's earlier support in June shifted to the disapproval column.
Since his term began, Rauner has witnessed his approval rating slowly but steadily drop and has seen undecided voters shrink.
In an April 22 Ogden & Fry poll, after Rauner's first 100 days, the governor's approval stood at 40.6% and disapproval at 36.3% with 23.1% undecided. After the governor's first 30 days, an Ogden & Fry survey conducted for The Insider pegged Rauner's approval at 43.1% and disapproval at 28.2% with 28.6% undecided. And at the start of his term, a January 14 We Ask America poll placed Rauner's approval rating at 52%, with just 23% disapproving and 25% undecided.
Moreover, the governor's new 32.3% job approval is below the 34% registered by then Governor Pat Quinn in a November 22-25, 2013 Public Policy Polling survey, though Quinn had a higher disapproval rating, 60%, to Rauner's current 49.9%.
Nevertheless, Rauner's approval rating shows a large gap between Northern and Southern Illinois
The Insider's July 6 survey of 556 likely voters in the Lake County-district of State Senator Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake), which had a +/- 4.24% margin of error, found that Rauner had a 52.7% job approval rating from voters and a 30.9% disapproval. 16.3% were undecided.
In 2014, Rauner defeated Quinn in Bush's district 57.8-39.1%. Libertarian Chad Grimm took 2.9%. Rauner's July job rating was off by only five points from his 2014 victory.
However, The Insider's October 3 survey of 636 likely voters in the deep Downstate district of Republican State Senator Dave Luechtelfeld of Okawville showed that just 30.5% of voters approved of Rauner's job performance and 46.5% disapproved. 23.0% were undecided.
Rauner had walloped Quinn in the district, 61.78%-32.43%.
Still, despite the nearly 50% disapproval number, the 17.8% of voters who are undecided signals that the political bottom has not fallen out for Rauner and the GOP's political prospects for legislative gains in 2016 have not been foreclosed. They're still giving the freshman governor the benefit of the doubt.
Indeed, a top campaign operative told The Insider last week that campaign focus groups organized over the summer reveal that voters, though unhappy, see Rauner as someone who is attempting to fix the perceived problems plaguing state government and who are willing to give him some time.
"I'm not convinced -- yet -- that Rauner is a risk to the GOP," the source said.
Nevertheless, the electorate's patience with the governor is not limitless. If the budget conflict drags on further and negative headlines mount, the patience of undecided voters may exhaust itself and the bottom could indeed fall out.
But what is clear is that the trend line has not been the governor's friend.
Stay tuned.

davidormsby@davidormsby.com

Poll: Rauner Job Approval Hits New Low | David Ormsby