VOCR Gazette 062713

Thursday June 27th 2013

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Morsi warns of risks from unrest

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has warned that continuing unrest is "threatening to paralyse the country".

In a speech marking his first year in office, Mr Morsi acknowledged making some "mistakes" and offered opponents a say in amending the new constitution.
But the president also threatened those he saw as conspiring against him and trying to "sabotage" democracy.
Troops have been deployed in cities across the country ahead of planned weekend protests demanding his removal.
Ahead of Mr Morsi's speech, deadly clashes broke out in the northern city of Mansoura.
Two people were killed and 170 injured in fighting between supporters and opponents of the government, a health ministry spokesman said.
'Radical measures' Mr Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, became Egypt's first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair. His first year in office has been marred by constant political unrest and a sinking economy.

Al Qaeda-linked terror group targeting civilians, children in Nigeria

The pastor would not renounce his Christian faith so the Islamic extremists slit his throat.

High school students were taking exams in defiance of the militants of Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden." So the gunmen mowed them down at their desks.
The group that Nigeria's government has declared a prohibited terrorist organization "declared war" last week on vigilante youths who have been arresting suspects and handing them over to soldiers fighting to crush the insurgency in the northeast part of Africa's most populous nation and the continent's biggest oil producer.
The radical group that once attacked only government institutions and security forces is increasingly targeting civilians. Some 60,000 square miles of Nigeria are now under a state of emergency.
"Today, there are no boundaries and they are targeting the civilian population in a way that shows Nigeria is at a dangerous turning point," said Comfort Ero, Africa program director for the International Crisis Group.
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5 Taliban, 5 Afghan police killed in ambushes in western Afghanistan
 KABUL, Afghanistan: Authorities say Taliban fighters ambushed a national police patrol in western Afghanistan, killing a commander and four of his men.

Herat province police spokesman Abdul Raouf Ahmadi said Thursday that Taliban fighters were believed to have been killed in the overnight attack, but that it was too dark to find any bodies.

On the other side of the country in Ghazni province, deputy police commander Assadullah Ensafi said police ambushed a group of Taliban fighters and killed five, including a leader believed to have been responsible for making roadside bombs and organizing suicide attacks in the area.

The Taliban has signaled that they are willing to talk peace with the U.S at a new office in Qatar, but at the same time have said they will continue fighting.
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Report: Russia Evacuates Troops From Base In Syria

MOSCOW — A Russian newspaper has reported that Russia has pulled out all of its military personnel from its naval base in Syria.
The base at Tartus is a minor facility, used mainly to service Russian navy ships in the Mediterranean, but it is Russia's only naval outpost outside the former Soviet Union. The number of personnel stationed there is unknown.
Vedomosti, a respected business newspaper, reported the evacuation on Wednesday, citing an interview with Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov published in the Al Hayat newspaper and its own unnamed source in the Defense Ministry.
The Defense Ministry has not commented, and the report could not be independently confirmed.
The newspaper said the decision was made because of the risks posed to Russian military personnel by the civil war in Syria.

Turkey protests: hundreds set up barricades in Ankara

Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets in a residential area of the Turkish capital, setting up barricades and lighting small bonfires.
Weeks of often violent anti-government protests have mostly died out in Istanbul and the centre of the capital, Ankara, but daily demonstrations have continued in its recently developed working-class Dikmen district.
The protesters, numbering no more than 1,000, blocked Dikmen's main road with makeshift barricades and started small fires late on Wednesday, some chanting anti-government slogans.
Riot police and water cannon trucks initially kept their distance but moved in to disperse the protesters in the early hours, footage from the anti-government channel Halk TV showed.
The images showed police firing at least two rounds of teargas and detaining at least one protester.
Several thousand people had marched through the neighbourhood the previous night in protest at the release pending trial of a policeman accused of shooting and killing a protester this month. Police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse them.
The weeks of protests have highlighted divisions in Turkish society, including between religious conservatives who form the bedrock of support for the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and more liberal Turks.
Four people were killed in the broader unrest, including one policeman, and about 7,500 wounded with injuries ranging from lacerations to breathing difficulties from teargas inhalation, according to the Turkish Medical Association.

 Australia's Old PM Is Australia's New PM...

CANBERRA, Australia -- Dubbed "Recycled Rudd" in newspaper headlines, Kevin Rudd returned as Australia's prime minister Thursday, reviving his party's hopes of avoiding an election massacre but giving voters few clues where he plans to take the country.
Rudd was sworn in a day after wrenching the job back from Julia Gillard, his former deputy, who took over through her own internal coup three years ago but had a strained relationship with Australian voters from the start.
He is seen as more charismatic than Gillard, though his abrasiveness toward his fellow lawmakers helped lead to his 2010 downfall. In Parliament on Thursday, he urged lawmakers to be "a little kinder and gentler" toward each other following Gillard's ouster.
With Gillard as leader, the ruling center-left Labor Party had appeared headed for an overwhelming election defeat at the hands of the conservative coalition opposition, but Rudd's supporters said they now have a chance to win.
"What this fundamentally does is put us in a position where we can win the next election, and no one would have been talking about that even at the beginning of this week," said Richard Marles, a Rudd supporter who quit as a junior minister in March after an aborted leadership challenge by Rudd.
"We were looking at a very bad defeat. We were not in the contest," he added.
Gillard had set elections for Sept. 14, though Rudd can now decide to hold them as early as Aug. 3. Rudd on Thursday refused to commit to a date but said "there's not going to be a huge variation" from Sept. 14.
Rudd has said he will perform with renewed "energy and purpose," but has yet to spell out what will be different under his leadership. His government remains in a state of confusion, with a Cabinet yet to be named.

UN gives go-ahead to deployment of Mali peacekeepers 

The United Nations Security Council has agreed that a UN peacekeeping force of 12,600 troops should be deployed in Mali from 1 July.

Britain's ambassador to the UN said there was "unanimous agreement" for UN peacekeepers to take over from the African-led operation imminently.
The UN will stick to a schedule drawn up in April.
International forces intervened in February to stop an Islamist advance on the capital, Bamako.
The new UN force, known as Minusma, will face security and political obstacles and will be deployed in extreme summer heat.
The force will aim to provide security for a presidential election due on 28 July.
Some clashes are continuing between Islamists groups and Tuarag rebels, according to the UN envoy to Mali, Albert Koenders.
He added that there would be "major challenges" to holding the election as scheduled.
France, key to the current deployment, will maintain at least 1,000 troops in the country for anti-terrorism operations.
British UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said the new peacekeeping contingent would initially comprise the vast majority of troops from the African mission already there.
They now have four months to meet UN human rights and equipment standards. 

Australia and US crack huge drug ring

US and Australian agencies have worked together on the largest-ever bust of a global synthetic drugs ring, seizing thousands of kilograms of illicit drugs and arresting 225 people in five countries.
US officials say millions of dollars in profits from the trafficking are being funnelled to groups in the Middle East, strongly hinting that terror networks are involved.
Authorities seized up to 1500 kilograms of "dangerous designer synthetic drugs" that were manufactured in Asia, notably China and India, and trafficked to the US and Australia, where dealers sold them to youths and young adults, the US Drug Enforcement Administration said.
US officials highlighted the international nature of the operation, particularly the involvement of agents in Australia, where the drugs have been marketed.

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Australia’s acting Ambassador to the US, Graham Fletcher, said the seizure "is a terrific result for law enforcement agencies across the globe".
The DEA described Project Synergy, which began last December but culminated in the United States on Wednesday when most of the arrests were made, as the largest synthetic designer drug bust in law enforcement history.
The drugs are part of a swelling group of illicit compounds that traffickers have begun marketing in the West in recent years, often trying to skirt laws by barely modifying the chemical makeup of products such as incense, bath salts or jewellery cleaner.
The drugs are synthetic cannibinoids that can provide a marijuana-like high, or synthetic cathinones that are stimulant hallucinogens.
They are marketed under brand names like Spice, K2, Vanilla Sky or Bliss and sold in colourful, youth-oriented packaging, often with comic book characters on the cover.
US officials say abuse of the drugs can lead to vomiting, seizures, hallucinations, high blood pressure, organ damage and loss of consciousness.
Several overdoses, mainly of people between age 12 and 29, have led to emergency hospital visits and even deaths, the DEA said.

Five men get life for sex abuse ring New

Two pairs of brothers are among five men jailed for life for their part in a sadistic sex grooming ring which abused children from Oxford.

Mohammed Karrar, 38, of Kames Close, Oxford, will serve at least 20 years after being convicted of 18 offences including child rape and trafficking.
Bassam Karrar, 34, of Hundred Acres Close, Oxford, will serve at least 15 years.
Akhtar and Anjum Doghar were also jailed for life.
Akhtar Doghar, 32, and Anjum Dogar, 31, of Tawney Street in Oxford, will each serve a minimum term of 17 years.
The men were convicted of several counts of of rape, child prostitution and trafficking.
Kamar Jamil, 27, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 12 years.
Jamil, formerly of Aldrich Road, Oxford, was found guilty of five counts of rape, two counts of conspiracy to rape and one count of arranging child prostitution.
Assad Hussain, 32, of Ashurst Way, Oxford, and Zeeshan Ahmed, 28, of Palmer Road, were both jailed for seven years after they were found guilty of two counts of sexual activity with a child.
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Obama rules out barter for Snowden

President Barack Obama has said there will be no "wheeling and dealing" as part of extradition efforts against US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.

Speaking on a visit to the West African nation of Senegal, Mr Obama also said the case would be dealt with through routine legal channels.
"I am not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," he added.
Mr Snowden, who faces espionage charges, flew to Moscow last weekend and requested asylum in Ecuador.
Mr Obama said on Thursday that he had not called China and Russia's presidents about the case, adding: "I shouldn't have to."
'Damage done' He told a news conference in the Senegalese capital Dakar: "I'm not going to have one case of a suspect who we're trying to extradite suddenly being elevated to the point where I've got to start doing wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues."

IRS Chief Faces Tough Grilling

WASHINGTON — The chief of the Internal Revenue Service is facing questions from Congress for the first time since revelations that progressives joined the tea party on a list of groups closely watched for by screeners handling applications for tax-exempt status.
Danny Werfel, invited to testify Thursday to the House Ways and Means Committee, seemed sure to face questions about whether the agency's tough scrutiny of conservative organizations extended to others as well.
Lawmakers also planned to ask Werfel about a report he issued Monday, six weeks after President Barack Obama named him to head the troubled agency. Werfel wrote that he found mismanagement but no purposeful wrongdoing at the IRS in a report that also pointed to the officials who have been replaced and other changes he has made.
Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said Wednesday that Werfel's report didn't answer key questions Republicans have had about the IRS' screening of conservative groups.
"Who started it? Why was it allowed to go on for so long? Why were conservative groups targeted for their political beliefs?" Camp said.
Democrats seem determined to shift the focus to this week's disclosure that the term "Progressive" was also on the agency's watch lists.

Senior IRS manager invokes Fifth Amendment right before House committee

For the second time in as many months, a senior IRS manager on Wednesday invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination, fueling perceptions of an agency in  crisis.
Greg Roseman, a Deputy IRS Director, spearheaded the awarding of the IRS's  largest contract in history to a company owned by a close friend of his, an action that is prohibited under government contracting regulations.
The company is Strong Castle, Inc., owned by Braulio Castillo. Castillo won several contracts totaling almost $500 million for IRS IT services in part on the basis of his friendship  with Roseman and by qualifying for two minority programs that allow disadvantaged applicants a better chance of winning lucrative government contracts.
Castillo qualified for one minority set-aside program by setting up his business in a disadvantaged area of northeast Washington D.C. The Small Business Administration program requires applicants to hire from within the economically disadvantaged community, but a House Oversight Committee report found that Castillo manipulated that requirement by hiring students from Catholic University. The school’s campus lies within the designated boundary, but its students are, on balance, far from disadvantaged.

Arrests in US synthetic drugs raids

Anti-drug agents in the United States say 225 people have been arrested in a major international operation against synthetic drugs.

Some 1,100 lb (500kg) of drugs have been seized in the US, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials said.
Arrests have been made in the US, Australia, Canada, Barbados and Panama.
The drugs are sold largely to "teenagers and young adults" under names such as K2 and Vanilla Sky, said DEA chief of operations James Capra.
"The bottom line is that these drugs are being marketed to the most vulnerable part of our society," said Mr Capra.
'Bath salts' Designer drugs are produced in clandestine laboratories and sold in colourful packaging, which the authorities say are aimed at appealing to younger consumers.
The operation was "a terrific result for law enforcement agencies across the globe," acting Australian ambassador to the US Graham Fletcher told the AFP news agency.
Project Synergy was launched in the US in December 2012, targeting the "upper echelon of dangerous designer drug trafficking organisations," says a DEA statement.
The drugs are often marketed as herbal incense or bath salts.
They are also sold as herbal blends, with chemicals that mimic the effects of cannabis and can be smoked.
"Designer synthetic drugs have caused significant organ damage as well as overdose deaths," says the DEA.
The millions of dollars in profits generated by the illegal production and sale of synthetic drugs are sponsoring terror groups in the Middle East, said Mr Capra.

Dem Calls Obama Initiatives 'War On America'

Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) took to the airwaves Wednesday to voice his displeasure with the broadly worded climate change speech delivered by President Barack Obama at Georgetown University on Tuesday.
Manchin, who has represented the Mountain State since 2010, spoke several times following the speech to declare his unhappiness with the planned regulations, especially Obama's plan to limit carbon emissions by weaning the U.S. off of coal, an important industry in West Virginia.
On Tuesday evening Manchin told Fox host Bret Baier that the proposals were "irresponsible." The new White House initiatives, he said, will kill jobs and won't effectively clean up the environment.
"Why do you want to shoot yourself in both feet and then try to run the marathon tomorrow?" Manchin remarked during the interview.
The next day, he told a receptive pair of "Fox & Friends" hosts that the proposed policies are a "war on America."
"It’s just ridiculous. I should not have to be sitting here as a U.S. Senator, fighting my own president and fighting my own government," Manchin said. "That’s ridiculous. I want to work with them. I’ve reached out. I will continue to reach out, but I need a partner here. I don’t need an adversary. I need a partner and an advocate.”
This is not the first time Manchin has broken party lines to oppose environmental policies. In 2011, Manchin was the only Democratic co-sponsor on a bill that would advance a GOP effort to restrict the Environmental Protection Agency.

Border security deal added to Senate immigration bill

Senators on Wednesday approved a plan to double the number of officers along the U.S.-Mexico border, a key concession to Republicans who plan to join with Democrats in supporting a comprehensive immigration measure this week.

At the same time, House Republicans signaled that there will be no quick resolution to the months-long debate over the nation’s immigration laws, regardless of what happens in the Senate.
House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told colleagues Wednesday that he will only hold votes on immigration proposals that are supported by a majority of his own caucus, and another senior Republican lawmaker suggested that Congress might not settle the issue until next year at the earliest.
By a vote of 69 to 29, senators amended the immigration bill to include provisions that would double the size of the U.S. Border Patrol along the Mexican border, require the construction of 700 miles of fencing along the southern border and authorize the use of new radar and unmanned aerial drones to track illegal border crossings.
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