Obama Will Meet With Leaders In The Middle East And Europe

   Senator Barack Obama is expected to sit down with European leaders as well as King Abdullah of Jordan, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas; he is also scheduled to meet with opposition leaders in Israel and Britain.

Because of security concerns an itinerary for the trip has not been released.  On a conference call with reporters, Team Obama said they were not yet ready to disclose where in Berlin Obama will speak when he delivers an address on U.S.-European relations.

“The trip is not at all a campaign trip, a rally of any sort,” said spokesman Robert Gibbs. He said Obama would hold “a series of substantive meetings with our friends and our allies to talk about the common challenges that we face and the national security dangers for the 21st century.”

Denis McDonough, a senior foreign policy adviser, said Obama would meet with:

·       Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Germany

·       President Nicolas Sarkozy in France

·       Prime Minister Gordon Brown as well as Conservative Party Leader David Cameron in Britain.

In Israel, Obama will meet with:

·       Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as well as President Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. He also will talk with Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party.

U.S. And Iraq Agree To Set Troop Reduction Goal

  Slowly but surely Obama’s ideas on Pakistan, Iran and Iraq are all being implemented by Bush.  It seems to me that Obama should be in charge of Foreign Policy for the next six months! 

The United States and Iraq have agreed to seek ”a general time horizon” for deeper reductions in American combat troops in Iraq.

Iraqi officials, in a sign of growing confidence as violence decreases, have been pressuring the United States to agree to a specific timeline to withdraw U.S. forces. President Bush has adamantly opposed a timeline, and the White House said Friday that the timeframe being discussed would not be ”an arbitrary date for withdrawal.”

Economy: Merrill Lynch Credit Rating Drops After Massive 2nd Qtr Losses. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley OK

   Merrill Lynch & Co. declined in New York trading after the third-biggest U.S. securities firm reported a wider-than-estimated second-quarter loss on $9.7 billion of credit-market write downs.

Moody’s Investors Service cut Merrill’s credit rating and the shares fell more than 4 percent. The net loss of $4.65 billion, or $4.97 a share, that the firm posted yesterday exceeded its $1.96 billion first-quarter loss, while rivals Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley stayed profitable.

Merrill earned $2.14 billion in the second quarter of 2007, before the credit contraction led to losses that now stretch over 12 months.

Chief Executive Officer John Thain cut about 4,200 jobs in the first half of the year and is selling assets to replenish the firm’s capital. Merrill completed the $4.43 billion sale of its stake in Bloomberg LP and said it signed a letter of intent to sell a controlling interest in Financial Data Services Inc., a mutual-fund administrator valued at $3.5 billion, to an undisclosed buyer.

Analysts’ estimates ranged from a loss of 93 cents a share to a loss of $4.21 a share, according to a survey by Bloomberg. Merrill’s charges from the credit crisis now exceed $46 billion.

“Clearly the size of the loss was a surprise,” Jeff Harte, an analyst at Sandler O’Neill & Partners in Chicago, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “It still leaves people with the question of when are these marks going to stop and does Merrill Lynch have enough capital to weather the storm.”

Harte has a “hold” rating on Merrill shares.

Goldman Sachs, the biggest U.S. securities firm by market value, reported earnings of almost $2.1 billion for the three months ended May 30. Morgan Stanley, the industry’s second- largest company, posted $1 billion of net income. Both are based in New York.

Security Fears As Obama Travels To The Middle East And Europe

  Obama 's planned trip to Israel and the West Bank has raised security concerns to levels not seen since the Illinois senator began his presidential bid.

Coming just weeks after shots were fired at Israel's Tel Aviv airport during a farewell ceremony for France's Sarkozy, from an apparent suicide of a security guard, Obama's trek to the region has become a serious logistical and safety challenge.

"I would prefer if he did not make the trip to Ramallah," a concerned government official explained Thursday night from Washington. "And he must use extreme caution throughout Israel at this time, in my opinion, especially Jerusalem."

A planned foot tour of Jerusalem's Old City has been called off, a senior source reveals.

Senator Obama's exact itinerary is not being made public but campaign officials have announced stops in Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England.