VOCR Gazette -062813

Friday June 28 2013

--------------------

Egypt braced for mass rival protests

Egypt is preparing for rival mass demonstrations, amid tight security in the increasingly polarised nation.

President Mohammed Morsi's supporters are to hold "open-ended" rallies - two days ahead of opposition protests calling for the president to resign.
Meanwhile, one person died and a number of others were injured in clashes in northern Egypt late on Thursday.
Mr Morsi said divisions threatened to "paralyse" Egypt, in a speech on Wednesday to mark a year in office.
Troops have been deployed in the capital Cairo and other cities.
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 as president has been marred by constant political unrest and a sinking economy.
The president also used his televised speech late on Wednesday to warn the media not to abuse free speech.
Within hours ripples from the speech could be felt across Egyptian media.

Bombs hit checkpoint in western Iraq, killing 11

 Iraqi officials say two bombs have exploded near a checkpoint run by government-allied Sunni militiamen in western Iraq, killing at least 11 people.

Police say the blasts struck near a checkpoint run by Sahwa members in the village of Zangoura, south of the former insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad.
Police and hospital officials say 22 people were wounded in the attack.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Sahwa militiamen joined forces with U.S. troops to fight al-Qaida during the Iraq War. Since then, the group has been a target for Sunni insurgents who consider its members traitors.

5,000 Brazilians Battle Police Outside Global Soccer Tournament

FORTALEZA, Brazil — About 5,000 anti-government protesters battled police on Thursday near a stadium that hosted a semi-final match of the Confederations Cup soccer tournament.
The protesters marched peacefully but clashed with police as they neared the outer limits of a security zone about 1 mile (2 kilometers) from the stadium in Fortaleza, where Spain beat Italy in penalty time in the warm-up tournament to the 2014 World Cup. In Rio de Janeiro, about 2,000 protesters marched but didn't clash with police.
They're the latest in a series of massive, nationwide protests that have hit Brazil since June 17. Demonstrators are angered about corruption and poor public services despite a heavy tax burden. Protests are also denouncing the billions of dollars spent to host the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio – money they say should be going toward better hospitals, schools, transportation projects and schools.
Victoria Ferreira, a 16-year-old protesting near the Castelao stadium in Fortaleza, said it was ironic that "if something broke out here, some violence, there would be no hospitals to take care of us."
Acrid tear gas still drifted in the air around Ferreira as police and clusters of protesters battled. Authorities fired tear gas and rubber bullets in an effort to scatter the crowd, while protesters responded with slingshots, fireworks and rocks. At one point, a group of protesters broke through the outer police barrier and made a dash for the stadium, but they were pushed pack by police.
A few other scattered protests were reported around Brazil, smaller gatherings of demonstrators focused on individual issues, not the sort of massive protests seen last week when as many as 1 million Brazilians poured into the streets to call for change.
In Brasilia, President Dilma Rousseff met with union leaders and legislators as the government continued to scramble to meet protester demands over anti-corruption measures and improved public services.

Ecuador breaks US trade pact to thwart 'blackmail' over Snowden asylum

Government renounces Andean Trade Preference Act even as Snowden's prospects of reaching Ecuador from Moscow dimmed
Ecuador has ramped up its defiance of the US over Edward Snowden by waiving preferential trade rights with Washington even as the whistleblower's prospect of reaching Quito dimmed.
President Rafael Correa's government said on Thursday it was renouncing the Andean Trade Preference Act to thwart US "blackmail" of Ecuador in the former NSA contractor's asylum request.
Officials, speaking at an early morning press conference, also offered a $23m donation for human rights training in the US, a brash riposte to recent US criticism of Ecuador's own human rights record.
   Betty Tola, the minister of political coordination, said the asylum request had not been processed because Snowden, who is believed to be at Moscow airport, was neither in Ecuador nor at an Ecuadorean embassy or consulate. "The petitioner is not in Ecuadorean territory as the law requires."
Tola also said Ecuador had not supplied any travel document or diplomatic letter to Snowden, who is reportedly marooned in Moscow airport's transit lounge because his US passport has been invalidated.
A document leaked to Univision on Wednesday showed that someone at Ecuador's consulate in London did issue a safe conduct pass for the fugitive on June 22, as he prepared to leave Hong Kong. The name of the consul general, Fidel Narvaez, was printed but not signed.
Tola said it was unauthorised: "Any document of this type has no validity and is the exclusive responsibility of the person who issued it."
The renunciation underlined divisions within Ecuador's government between leftists who have embraced Snowden as an anti-imperialist symbol and centrists who fear diplomatic and economic damage.

China accuses US of hypocrisy over internet spying

Defence ministry says Snowden's disclosures bolster the case for China's internet security efforts.

BEIJING: The Chinese Ministry of National Defence has accused the United States of hypocrisy over cybersurveillance and said the disclosures made by Edward Snowden bolstered the case for China's internet security efforts.
These were the harshest public comments so far from the Chinese government about Mr Snowden's revelations.
Until now, the Chinese government's comments on the disclosures have come through its foreign ministry, which has used relatively muted words to answer reporters' questions about Mr Snowden's allegations.
Mr Snowden, a former CIA employee, has described US monitoring of Chinese internet sites and installations, and Prism, a National Security Agency program to mine internet information.

In recent days, Chinese state-run media have amplified criticisms of the United States, and the remarks from the defence ministry spokesman, Colonel Yang Yujun, struck a tougher tone. He did not refer explicitly to the United States, but he left no doubt about his target.
"The Prism-gate affair is itself just like a prism that reveals the true face and hypocritical conduct regarding internet security of the country concerned," Colonel Yang said at a monthly news conference in Beijing. The comments from the briefing, which was open only to Chinese reporters, were reported on the defence ministry's website.
"The Prism-gate affair again reminds us that we must attach even more importance to internet and information security protection, and resolutely protect internet security and national security," Colonel Yang said.
His casting of China as the unblemished victim of internet intrusions is unlikely to convince the US government. Washington has laid out evidence that it says points to heavy involvement of the People's Liberation Army in computer hacking and espionage.

Blast in Damascus Christian quarter

A blast in an old Christian quarter of the Syrian capital Damascus has left four people dead, in what Syrian state TV describes as a suicide attack.

Several people were injured in the attack in the Bab Sharqi neighbourhood, near a church.
Rebel sources confirmed the number of dead, but said the attack was caused by a mortar bomb.
More than 90,000 people have died and millions have been displaced by Syria's two-year conflict, the UN says.
Reports say that the bomber was wearing a suicide belt and blew himself up outside the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox church.
Some shops were damaged in the blast.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
There have been consistent but unverified reports of violence directed against Christians in Syria since the uprising began in March 2011, including attacks on churches.
Syria's Christians are believed to make up about 10% of the population, but despite their minority status they have long been among Syria's elite.
They were at first reluctant to take sides in the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad but have gradually been drawn into the conflict on both sides.

Ethnic riots kill dozens in China

Twenty-seven people have died in mob attacks on police stations and other buildings in China's Muslim north-west, in the latest deadly incident to undermine Beijing's claims of harmonious ethnic relations.
Attackers stabbed several police and security officials and set police cars on fire, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Nine members of police and security forces were killed in Lukqun, a remote township in Turpan prefecture in the resource-rich region of Xinjiang. Eight civilians were also killed and officers shot and killed 10 of the alleged assailants, Xinhua said.
The violence appeared to be the deadliest in the restive region since July 2009, when almost 200 people died in riots in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi. And in April, 21 people died in clashes near Kashgar, China's westernmost city.

China is dominated by the Han ethnic group, but Xinjiang is home to the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim people. Many people there complain that China's authorities impose discriminatory policies, increase Han immigration to dilute the indigenous population and extract resources to benefit the rest of China.
Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the exiled, Germany-based World Uighur Congress, blamed this week's clashes on ''continuous repression and provocation'', as well as a burst of detentions of Uighurs in the area.
''This clash did not happen by chance,'' he said. ''There have been sweeps and crackdowns in the area, leading to many Uighur men disappearing, and the authorities have refused to give information about their whereabouts.''
Nicholas Bequelin, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said there seemed to be ''a worrying increase in the number of violent incidents against a background of ever-increasing political, religious and cultural restrictions''.
The region has grown popular with increasingly affluent Han tourists from the rest of China, who flock to join tours along the old Silk Road.
-
Central Nigeria ethnic violence kills at least 28: Army

   JOS: Gunmen have raided three villages in ethnically divided central Nigeria, leaving at least 28 people dead in what appeared to be reprisal attacks linked to cattle theft, the military said Friday.
"Villages attacked were Karkashi, Bolgang and Magama," Captain Salisu Mustapha, spokesman for a military task force in the region, told AFP. "Twenty-eight locals lost their lives."

Nigerian media quoted a local official saying that more than 100 homes were also burnt, but the information could not be immediately confirmed.

Residents said the attacks on Thursday followed incidents of cattle rustling.

Herdsmen, suspected to be from the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group were suspected to be behind the raids on the villages populated by the mainly Christian Taroks.

Cattle rustling often sets off violence in the region, located in the so-called Middle Belt of Africa's most populous nation, dividing the mainly Muslim north from the predominately Christian south. The villages are located in the remote Langtang area of Nigeria's Plateau state.

  - 

Iran signals no scaling back in nuclear activity despite victory of 'moderate' Rouhani

ST PETERSBURG, Russia - Iran will press ahead with its uranium enrichment program, its nuclear energy chief said on Friday, signaling no change of course despite the victory of a relative moderate in the June 14 presidential election.
Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, head of the Islamic Republic's Atomic Energy Organization, said production of nuclear fuel would "continue in line with our declared goals. The enrichment linked to fuel production will also not change."
Speaking through an interpreter to reporters at a nuclear energy conference in St Petersburg, Russia, he said work at Iran's underground Fordow plant - which the West wants Iran to close - would also continue. Iran refines uranium at Fordow that is a relatively close technical step away from weapons-grade.
Iran says it is enriching uranium to fuel a planned network of nuclear energy power plants, and also for medical purposes.
But enriched uranium can also provide the fissile material for nuclear bombs if processed further, which the West fears may be Tehran's ultimate goal.
-

 Obama clashes with African host over gay rights

Dakar, Senegal: President Barack Obama on Thursday praised the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage as a "victory for American democracy" but clashed with his African host over gay rights in a sign of how far the movement has to go internationally.
Mr Obama said recognition of gay unions in the United States should cross state lines and that equal rights should be recognised universally. It was his first chance to expand on his thoughts about the ruling, which was issued on Wednesday as he flew to Senegal, one of many African countries that outlaw homosexuality.

"We are in a Muslim country, so we certainly cannot have it here," said Papi Nbodj. "And for me it's not OK to have this anywhere in the world." 

Senegalese President Macky Sall rebuffed Obama's call for Africans to give gays equal rights under the law.

"We are still not ready to decriminalise homosexuality," Mr Sall said, while insisting that the country is "very tolerant" and needs more time to digest the issue without pressure. "This does not mean we are homophobic."

Advertisement

Mr Obama said gay rights didn't come up in their private meeting at the presidential palace, a mansion that looks somewhat similar to the White House. But Mr Obama said he wants to send a message to Africans that while he respects differing personal and religious views on the matter, it's important to have nondiscrimination under the law.
"People should be treated equally, and that's a principle that I think applies universally," he said.

Snowden father sets terms for return

The father of US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has said in an interview he believes his son would go back to the US if several conditions were met.

Lon Snowden has told NBC News his son may return if he is not detained before trial, not subjected to a gag order and can choose where his trial is held.
Mr Snowden Snr said his lawyer had written to US Attorney General Eric Holder to convey those terms.
The former intelligence contractor faces espionage charges in the US.
He flew to Moscow last weekend and has requested asylum in Ecuador.
During Friday morning's television interview, Lon Snowden said he had not spoken to his son since April, a month before he fled to Hong Kong after leaking to media details of a huge US snooping programme.

'Misbehaviour'
He said that his son had broken the law, but denied he was a traitor.
"At this point I don't feel that he's committed treason," he said. "He has in fact broken US law, in a sense that he has released classified information."

US general 'target' in leak probe

A retired high-ranking US general is under investigation for allegedly leaking classified information about a covert cyber attack on Iran's nuclear programme, US media report.

Retired Marine General James "Hoss" Cartwright has been informed by the Justice Department that he is a target in their inquiry, NBC News reports.
Gen Cartwright was vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2007-11.
The Stuxnet virus temporarily disabled Iranian nuclear facilities in 2010.
The New York Times gave a detailed account last year about the virus, and how it temporarily took out nearly 1,000 centrifuges that Iran was using to purify uranium.
The newspaper said the attack was part of a wider cyber operation called Olympic Games, that began under President George W Bush and accelerated under President Barack Obama.
The revelations prompted the US attorney to order an investigation into the leaks.
NBC News quoted legal sources as saying that 63-year-old Gen Cartwright had a received a letter from the Justice Department informing him that he is a target in their investigation.
A target is a suspect in a criminal case who has not yet been formally charged but is expected to be, the Washington Post reports.

Immigration bill faces uncertain future in House after clearing Senate

Attention is shifting to the Republican-led House after the Senate approved a sweeping immigration overhaul that would extend legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants while increasing border security.
The Senate on Thursday voted 68-32 to approve the bill, following a series of test votes that already demonstrated the legislation had enough support to pass.
The question now is whether the Senate vote can compel the Republican-led House to follow suit. Though 68 votes is a strong majority, backers fell short of the 70 votes they were hoping to secure, a number they felt would help persuade House leaders to move forward. Some Republicans have already declared the Senate bill "dead on arrival" in the House, but House lawmakers are nevertheless working on their own piecemeal version of immigration legislation.
House Speaker John Boehner, who says both chambers should act on immigration, declined to say Thursday how his caucus would proceed.

Obama Administration, Congress Intensify Opposition To Global Generic Drug Industry

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration and members of Congress are pressing India to curb its generic medication industry. The move comes at the behest of U.S. pharmaceutical companies, which have drowned out warnings from public health experts that inexpensive drugs from India are essential to providing life-saving treatments around the world.
Low-cost generics from India have dramatically lowered medical costs in developing countries and proved critical to global AIDS relief programs; about 98 percent of the drugs purchased by President George W. Bush's landmark PEPFAR AIDS relief program are generics from India. Before Indian companies rolled out generic versions priced at $1 a day, AIDS medication cost about $10,000 per person per year.
But India's generic industry has also cut into profits for Pfizer and other U.S. and European drug companies. In response, these companies have sought to impose aggressive patenting and intellectual property standards in India, measures that would grant the firms monopoly pricing power over new drugs and lock out generics producers.
On Thursday, a House subcommittee held a hearing on international trade disputes with India that included testimony from American manufacturing and solar energy groups. Most of the event, however, was devoted to U.S. drug company Pfizer's complaints about Indian policies that have fostered the country's billion-dollar generics industry. The hearing followed Secretary of State John Kerry's trip to India earlier this week for the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, a major diplomatic mission.
Last week, a bipartisan group of 170 House lawmakers sent a letter to Kerry and President Barack Obama raising objections to India's patent system. But at Thursday's hearing, few seemed well-versed on intellectual property or public health issues.
-