The cronies of Mr Putin and his clique in the Kremlin are the people who have to bear the pressure

Said : UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond Commenting on the EU's enhanced sanctions.

EU sanctions on Russia : French want British to act first by curbing Russian oligarchs who have sought refuge in London.  

The US and UK have asked France to cancel the US$1.6 billion deal for the supply of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers to Russia in view of Moscow's role in the Ukrainian crisis. They have even suggested France to sell these ships to the NATO instead of Russia. However, French President Francois Hollande said that the plan to deliver the two Mistral helicopter carriers was made in Paris and will go forward despite calls from the US and UK.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that the order is "unthinkable,” calling for tougher sanctions and to halt all arms sales to Russia.  He urged the EU to extend sanctions to the arms sector.

“The Russians have paid. Should we repay 1.1 billion euros if the boat was not delivered to the purchaser?” he asked while speaking to reporters late on Monday – the night before EU foreign ministers are to meet in Brussels to discuss tougher sanctions on Russia following the downing of a Malaysian airline which left 298 dead, reported rt.com.

Hollande’s decision has found support among French officials, despite going against the wishes of the US and UK.

Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, head of Hollande's ruling Socialist Party, told iTélé television on Tuesday : "Hollande is not backing down. He is delivering the first (ship) despite the fact he is being asked not to." "This is a false debate led by hypocrites...When you see how many (Russian) oligarchs have sought refuge in London, David Cameron should start by cleaning up his own backyard," he continued. 

According to BBC, a new sanctions list naming individuals and organisations will be drawn up by EU ambassadors by Thursday, Mr Timmermans told reporters after meeting his EU colleagues in Brussels. The sanctions would be aimed at forcing Russia to help defuse the Ukraine conflict and put pressure on the rebels to disarm. But the BBC's Europe editor Gavin Hewitt says it is still unclear if EU leaders will be prepared to accept harm to their own economies in order to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Philip Hammond

The EU and US have imposed asset freezes and travel bans on some top Russian officials, military commanders and companies since Moscow's annexation of Crimea in March. The US has gone further than the EU in targeting members of President Putin's inner circle.

BBC has quoted UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond's comments on the EU's enhanced sanctions. Hammond said : "the word is 'cronies': the cronies of Mr Putin and his clique in the Kremlin are the people who have to bear the pressure". "If the financial interests of the group around the leadership are affected, the leadership will know about it."

"I think so much of politics is background noise, and we don't need the background noise anymore"

Said : Bill Clinton in an interview with CNN in Vietnam, commenting on Hillary Clinton's chances for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016.

Bill Clinton said that although Hillary Clinton hasn't asked him for advice on her 2016 decision, he thinks that the former secretary of state "really does need some time to think through this."

"We've reached a point in our life when we think you really shouldn't run for office if you don't have a clear idea of what you can do and a unique contribution you can make and you can outline that," Clinton told CNN's Anna Coren. "Now that the book is done, she wants time to think about that and work through it. I think so much of politics is background noise, and we don't need the background noise anymore."

Defending his time on the paid speaking circuit, Bill Clinton said that after leaving the White House and paying his debts, he "wanted to try and save enough money so that if anything happened to me, Hillary and Chelsea could both be in public service if they wanted to be, and I don't apologize for that."

"I don't think it's a bad thing to make money," Bill Clinton said. "I think it's bad if you live in a system that's rigged against the poor and the middle class. That's a very different thing and the purpose of politics is to create a system of shared opportunities and shared responsibilities."

Full story and Video....

'Our economies are strong, and growing in strength. And yet we sometimes behave as if we need Russia more than Russia needs us...."

David Cameron

Said : British Prime Minister David Cameron, reported by the Daily Mail.

Writing in the Sunday Times Mr Cameron said: "We must establish the full facts of what happened. But the growing weight of evidence points to a clear conclusion: that MH17 was blown out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile fired from a rebel-held area. If it is the case, then we must be clear what it means: this is a direct result of Russia destabilising a sovereign state, violating its territorial integrity, backing thuggish militias, and training and arming them." Mr Cameron continued: "This is not about military action, plainly. But it is time to make our power, influence and resources count. We must turn this moment of outrage into a moment of action. That action must go wider than just bringing those responsible to justice, he said, adding: 'If president Putin does not change his approach on Ukraine, then Europe and the West must fundamentally change our approach to Russia."

More reactions from UK :

David Cameron: This is an outrage made in Moscow...

David Cameron Published: 20 July 2014

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17: UK government response

We'll freeze Russian billions, furious Cameron warns Putin over jet outrage and tells him: 'You have contributed to an appalling tragedy'

"The opportunity expires to show the world that Putin is serious about helping."

Said : Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a press briefing, CNN reported on July 19. 

More than two days after the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in Ukraine, the bodies still have not been removed from the crash site. The remains of the 298 people killed in the crash have not been secured. World leaders have complained that the recovery is not happening fast enough, mainly because pro-Russia militants control the crash site.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to use his influence to force the rebels to allow full access.

"I want to see results in the form of unimpeded access and rapid recovery," Rutte said in a press briefing. "This is now priority number one." Rutte called images of people rummaging through the debris and belongings of victims "downright disgusting."

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte during a news conference
at the Ministry of Safety and Justice in The Hague, The Netherlands, on Friday. 

According to CNN, Rutte told reporters of what he called "a very intense conversation" with Putin on Saturday in which he told the Russian leader "the opportunity expires to show the world that he is serious about helping."

Nearly two-thirds of the people on the jetliner, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, were Dutch.

More details at Read :

Furious Dutch prime minister tells Putin to exert his influence 

Dutch Premier Decries 'Utterly Disrespectful Behavior' At MH17 Crash Site
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte warns Vladimir Putin of 'last chance' to help recover bodies

If you want it, you can't get it; if you can get it, you don't want it : Alibaba IPO

Rick Schmidt

Said : Rick Schmidt, portfolio manager at Bridgewater, New Jersey’s Harding Loevner, when asked about the forthcoming debut of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's IPO.

Harding Loevner manages $37 billion, primarily in international stocks, and Schmidt helps lead the firm’s $2.2 billion emerging markets fund.

Steve Schaefer of Forbes, spoke to Schmidt shortly before Alibaba formally filed documents to list in the United States, last month. "Schmidt lauded the company while lamenting that the deal would probably be priced too high to hold much appeal for him initially," Forbes reported.

In 2013, Ailbaba processed 11.3 billion orders worth $248 billion, well ahead of Amazon and Ebay combined, with its sales accounting for 84% of China’s online shopping.

Alibaba Group's corporate campus in Hangzhou, China

According to Schmidt, Alibaba's IPO has the typical characteristics of emerging markets IPOs where the appealing IPOs generally get too expensive thanks to growth-hungry buyers. “If you can get it, you don’t want it,” he adds. “If you want it, you’re not gonna get it.”

In Schmidt's opinion, the most-hyped IPOs draw demand that far exceeds the number of shares being offered, driving up price and shutting out all but the biggest institutions and most well-connected investors. "In the current landscape, with many high-flying tech stocks falling out of orbit, it’s worth remembering that even the hottest deals often revisit their IPO prices – Twitter has gotten close in recent sessions – and even those that don’t will go through trying periods that make for more attractive buying opportunities," he said.

Schmidt prefers to wait for some time before taking a call at a certain price in case things go sour either due to broader market headwinds or some kind of post-offering swoon. “The busts are the best,” he says. “There’s never more information asymmetry than an IPO – the company knows everything about themselves and only lets you know what they want you to through the filter of the investment banks. With time, every day we learn more and get a track record. I’d much rather wait.”

“This is a man who took us directly into Iraq. Please.”

John Kerry on Dick Cheney

Said : US Secretary of State John Kerry in reply when asked about former vice-president Dick Cheney’s assertion that President Barack Obama has been wrong all along about the Middle East, as per the Reuters report in Gulf News today.

The report quoted Kerry as saying : “We are interested in communicating with Iran. That the Iranians know what we’re thinking, that we know what they’re thinking and there is a sharing of information so people aren’t making mistakes,” in an interview on NBC News.

He said violence is on the rise in Iraq because Syria’s Bashar Al Assad, who has been under siege for at least three years, “is a magnet for terrorists of all walks.” He reiterated that air strikes have not been ruled out, saying that “nothing is off the table” in administration discussions. However, he made it clear that whatever assistance (from us) is forthcoming won’t necessarily be aimed at bailing out embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki. The efforts will be “focused on the people of Iraq,” he said. Kerry warned that the militant Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) is “more extreme than even Al Qaida and they are a threat to the US and western interests.”

Former vice president Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz criticised had President Obama in an op-ed that was published in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Their op-ed received very harsh criticism from the US media.

Amazon has the blessing of Wall Street to lose money as long as it is gaining market share

David Streitfeld

Said : David Streitfeld, who covers technology for The New York Times, in his news analysis titled "With an Amazon Smartphone, the Retailer Seeks a Tether to Consumers" published in today's edition. In 2013, Mr. Streitfeld was part of the team awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.

David, in his analysis of Amazon's much hyped event on Wednesday in Seattle for a possible launch of a 3D phone, writes that by launching the so called phone Amazon "aims to close any remaining gap between the impulse to buy and the completed act" decoding a quote of an Amazon mobile executive who had commented a few years ago : “We’re trying to remove the barrier between ‘I want that’ and ‘I have it.’ ”

According to David, Amazon, known for directing all of its considerable energy to break up the usual way of doing things, has invested billions of dollars on multiple fronts: constructing warehouses all over the country to deliver goods as fast as possible, building devices as varied as tablets and set-top boxes, and creating and licensing entertainment to stock those devices." He calls Amazon's mobile venture "a wildly ambitious venture without precedent in modern merchandising." 

In his article, David has discussed the pros and cons of the mobile business for Amazon. He feels that the mobile phone - which is the last and most crucial link in this colossal enterprise (Amazon) - is a singular gamble for a company that, for all its technology components, is still primarily a merchant. Because even the smartest tech companies have trouble with phones. Giving examples, he writes : "A Google smartphone, the Nexus One, failed to catch on. Google next bought Motorola and then dumped it. BlackBerry, once the dominant smartphone maker, is struggling to survive. Microsoft’s Windows Phone has less than 3 percent of the global market. A Facebook phone stumbled last year." Referring the mobile ambitions of Amazon, David feels : "Now Amazon is giving this brutal business a shot."

And for those who wonder why Amazon has to keep playing with - and investing in - unconventional and brutal business plans, David has a wonderful observation : "Most of all, Amazon has the blessing of Wall Street to lose money as long as it is gaining market share — although recently the enthusiasm has dimmed a bit. The stock is about 20 percent off its peak."