VOCR-SPIII 061513

Saturday June 15th 2013

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Cleric Rouhani leads Iran vote count

Reformist-backed candidate Hassan Rouhani is maintaining a commanding lead with more than half the ballots counted in Iran's presidential poll.

The cleric has just under 51% of 27.5 million votes counted so far - well ahead of the next candidate, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
Mr Rouhani could win in the first round if he finishes with more than 50%.
Turnout was estimated at 80% among the 50 million Iranians eligible to vote for a successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
His eight years in power have been characterised by economic turmoil and Western sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.
Surge of support Final results are expected later in the day.
Preliminary figures began to emerge early on Saturday after a delay of several hours.
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Turkish protesters to stay in park despite government appeals 

Protesters have agreed to press on with their 2-week-long sit-in at an Istanbul park, despite government appeals and warnings for the standoff with authorities to end, an activist said Saturday.
Tayfun Kahraman made the comment to The Associated Press after a series of discussions among the protesters in Gezi Park to decide on their next move.
He was one of two activists in Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group of protest movements, who had met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday.
The protesters are angry about government plans to pull down trees and redevelop the park area. An initial sit-in drew a forceful police response on May 31, setting off a wave of protests -- Turkey's biggest in decades.
Saturday's announcement is likely to return the spotlight on Erdogan's government, which in recent days offered to defer to a court ruling on the legality of the redevelopment plan and possibly hold a referendum on it. But on Thursday, he issued a "final" warning that the protesters must leave the park.

Violent Clashes Rock Brazil

SAO PAULO -- Protesters on Friday promised more organized action across Brazil in the days to come, following clashes in which police in Sao Paulo set upon thousands of young demonstrators angered by hikes in bus and subway fares.
Newspapers carried photos of bloodied protesters and journalists with battered, swollen faces, a young couple being beaten by police and videos of tear gas canisters and rubber bullets being fired into crowds chanting "no violence!" Protesters set fire to garbage bags piled in streets, broke windows and spray-painted graffiti on buildings and buses.
Protest organizers said more than 100 demonstrators were injured. Police would only say that 12 officers were hurt and that more than 230 people were detained and later released in the Thursday night demonstrations in Sao Paulo.
Similar protests were seen in Rio de Janeiro, the capital Brasilia and in Porte Alegre in southern Brazil. The conflicts come just as the Confederations Cup football tournament opens and the nation prepares to host Pope Francis next month on his first international trip as pontiff.

Thousands protest against G8 summit

There was a major security presence for an anti-G8 protest in Belfast.

The rally against G8 policies was organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ahead of the summit in County Fermanagh.
Leaders from some of the world's most powerful countries will gather at Lough Erne on Monday for the two-day summit.
The ICTU said one billion people were living in "extreme poverty" around the world, due to Western capitalism and the policies of the G8 leaders.
Addressing the protesters, ICTU chairperson Pamela Dooley said: "There is an obligation on the trade union movement and civil society to stand together to demand a different and better way."
'Corrupt capitalist system' Ms Dooley said the G8 leaders did not have consent "to force their damaging policies on the rest of us".
She added that unemployment had risen to "unprecedented levels" on the island of Ireland.
She told the crowd that in the Irish Republic "prosperity for working people is over" while in Northern Ireland "almost one third of the population is classed as economically inactive".
"We know that we are facing the consequences of a corrupt capitalist system bereft of moral standards, Ms Dooley said.
"It is a system which puts profit before people and always will. It is a system for the few and not for the many."
She added that the ICTU had "credible alternative proposals which can create a fair and just world".

Russia rejects Syria no-fly zone

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said any attempt to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria using US fighter jets and missiles operating from Jordan would violate international law.

The US has moved Patriot missiles and F-16 fighter jets to Jordan, officially as part of an annual exercise.
Russia opposes any foreign military intervention in the Syrian conflict.
The uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, which began in 2011, has left an estimated 93,000 people dead.

"There have been leaks from Western media regarding the serious consideration to create a no-fly zone over Syria through the deployment of Patriot anti-aircraft missiles and F-16 jets in Jordan," said Mr Lavrov, speaking at a joint news conference in Moscow with his Italian counterpart.

"You don't have to be a great expert to understand that this will violate international law," he said.
Mr Lavrov also said evidence presented by the US of chemical weapons use in Syria apparently did not meet reliability criteria set out by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Turning tide The US administration said earlier this week that it would give lethal aid to the Syrian rebels in light of evidence that President Assad's forces had used chemical weapons in the civil war.
The support of the West's regional allies, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, helped the rebels after the uprising became militarised.

Mortars, RPGs Among Weapons U.S. Planning To Send To Rebels

WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters) - The United States is likely to send weaponry like rocket-propelled grenades and mortars to Syria's rebels after President Barack Obama approved arming the insurgents, sources said on Friday.
A source in the Middle East who is familiar with U.S. dealings with the rebels told Reuters that weapon supplies would include automatic weapons, light mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, known as RPGs.
Accusing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces of using chemical weapons, the White House said on Thursday the United States would supply direct military assistance to the rebels. A U.S. official said that meant sending them weapons supplies for the first time.
Two European security sources said the United States would increase the caliber of the arms and ammunition being supplied to the rebels by regional powers including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as supply some heavier weapons, including RPGs.
More RPGs would give the rebels, who have lost ground to government forces and Lebanese Hezbollah militants in recent weeks, greater ability to fight government armored vehicles and even tanks.
But a U.S. official who has been briefed on the new policy said he did not expect the new U.S. aid to seriously affect the course of events in Syria.
All three sources said there were no plans to send shoulder-held anti-aircraft missiles, known as MANPADS, to the mostly Sunni rebels fighting Assad and his Lebanese Hezbollah Shi'ite allies.
The first military supplies - to be sent to groups under rebel commander Salim Idriss that are vetted by Washington and its allies - could take a minimum of two to three weeks to be delivered.
Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes refused to say on Friday how Washington would arm the rebels.

Bomb on Pakistani women's university bus kills 11

A bomb tore through a bus of female university students in southwestern Pakistan Saturday, killing 11, officials said. As family and friends gathered at the hospital another blast went off, followed by a flurry of bullets that sent bystanders running for cover.

The violence in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, came hours after militants destroyed a historic house elsewhere in the province that at one time was used by the country's founder.
No one claimed responsibility for the multiple attacks Saturday that highlighted the violence that has continued to plague the sparsely populated province. Baluch nationalists pushing for more say in the province's future, Taliban militants and violent sectarian groups all have a presence in the region.
At least 19 other students were wounded when the bomb went off near the bus, said police officer Mir Zubair Mahmood. Television footage of the bus showed a blackened hulk with twisted pieces of metal and articles of women's clothing strewn about.

Second Louisiana chemical plant blast kills one worker and injures seven

Blast at CF Industries plant occurs miles from scene of Geismar explosion on Thursday which killed two people
One worker was killed and seven others were injured on Friday night, in an explosion at a south Louisiana chemical plant, only miles from where a blast the previous day led to the deaths of two workers, authorities said.
A Louisiana state police trooper, Jared Sandifer, said seven people were injured, some severely, and were taken to area hospitals following the explosion at a CF Industries facility in Donaldsonville. Police identified the deceased worker as Ronald "Rocky" Morris, 55, of Belle Rose.
Sandifer said the explosion didn't pose a threat to the area surrounding the plant. Workers were running nitrogen through hoses from an 18-wheeler and pressurizing an unspecified "vessel" when the pressure built and caused the explosion, Sandifer said. He said the vessel was designed "to hold thousands of pounds of pressure and it failed", causing a blast that could send someone flying and scatter pieces from the metallic vessel.
"It did horrific damage to the area," Sandifer said, adding that the state police's hazardous materials unit will inspect the plant to ensure that it's safe and help determine if there was negligence involved.
CF Industries' website says the plant can produce roughly 5 million tons of nitrogen for agricultural and industrial uses annually. On Thursday, an explosion at a chemical plant in Geismar owned by Williams Cos Inc led to two deaths and injured dozens of others. Donaldsonville and Geismar are both located in Ascension Parish and straddle the Mississippi River, between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.


Facebook, Microsoft reveal surveillance request figures

Facebook and Microsoft have struck agreements with the US government to release limited information about the number of surveillance requests they receive, a modest victory for the companies as they struggle with the fallout from disclosures about a secret government data-collection program.
Facebook on Friday became the first to release aggregate numbers of requests, saying in a blog post it received between 9,000 and 10,000 US requests for user data in the second half of 2012, covering 18,000 to 19,000 of its users' accounts. Facebook has more than 1.1 billion users worldwide.
The majority of those requests are routine police inquiries, a person familiar with the company said, but under the terms of the deal with the justice department, Facebook is precluded from saying how many were secret orders issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Until now, all information about requests under Fisa, including their existence, were deemed secret.
Microsoft said it had received requests of all types for information on about 31,000 consumer accounts in the second half of 2012. In a "transparency report" Microsoft published earlier this year without including national security matters, it said it had received criminal requests involving 24,565 accounts for the whole of 2012.
If half of those requests came in the second part of the year, the intelligence requests constitute the bulk of government inquiries. Microsoft did not dispute that conclusion.
Google said late on Friday it was negotiating with the government and that the sticking point was whether it could only publish a combined figure for all requests. It said that would be "a step back for users", because it already breaks out criminal requests and national security letters, another type of intelligence inquiry.
Facebook, Google and Microsoft had all publicly urged the US authorities to allow them to reveal the number and scope of the surveillance requests after documents leaked to the Guardian suggested they had given the government "direct access" to their computers as part of the National Security Agency program called Prism.

 'Albert Einstein' freighter docks with space station

Europe's big freighter, the Albert Einstein ATV, has docked with the International Space Station (ISS).

The 20-tonne vehicle hooked onto the back of the 415km-high orbiting platform at 14:07 GMT.
It is carrying food, water, equipment and fuel for the six live-aboard astronauts on the ISS.
Albert Einstein will also provide some useful extra space during its four-month stay, and use its engines to push the platform higher into the sky.
The station has a tendency to drift back towards the Earth over time, and the European freighter with its powerful thrusters can provide an altitude boost.
European Space Agency (Esa) astronaut Luca Parmitano and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Misurkin sat in the aft of the station to watch Albert Einstein's approach.
They had the ability to command the vehicle to retreat if they had any concerns about its behaviour, but Albert Einstein performed flawlessly, docking over the Pacific Ocean just east of Japan.
The freighter - also known by its generic name of Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - was launched from Europe's Kourou spaceport on an Ariane 5 on 5 June.
It is the fourth such vehicle produced by Esa and European industry. The cargo ships form part of the subscription Europe pays to belong to the ISS project.
One more vehicle is planned to fly next year before production ceases at Bremen, Germany.

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Detroit defaults on some debts

Detroit will immediately stop debt payments, the city's financial manager has announced, as he set out a proposal to creditors that would see them take a drastic cut on the money they are owed.

Kevyn Orr announced a moratorium on all Detroit's payments on unsecured debt.
That money will instead be used to keep the city operating, and $1.25bn (£800m) will be reinvested in public services over the next decade, he said.
Creditors were asked to accept 10 cents on the dollar of what they are due.
According to figures presented by Mr Orr, Detroit has some $11.5bn of unsecured debt.
A further $7bn is secured, and the emergency chief said secured creditors would get better treatment, without going into specific details.
Other measures in Mr Orr's proposed plan include spinning off Detroit's Water and Sewerage Department to be run by an independent authority, and reducing city-provided healthcare for retirees.

Washington taxpayers get $77,000 bill for most unproductive Legislature gathering in state’s history

 The Legislature’s first overtime session this year tied the record for the most unproductive gathering of lawmakers in state history. That doesn’t mean it didn’t cost taxpayers.

Not a single bill passed through both chambers by the time the Legislature adjourned the 30-day session on Tuesday. Still, many lawmakers from both parties have continued claiming regular per diems totaling at least $77,000, according to an Associated Press review of records.
Those politicians are now back in Olympia for another special session because of squabbling over the budget, and they still have the option of collecting $90 per diems for every day until their work is complete. At the same time that legislators are adding to their overall compensation, agencies are preparing to send out notifications to state workers who may be temporarily laid off if no budget deal is reached.

Inside The Government's Massive Spying Program

WASHINGTON -- In the months and early years after 9/11, FBI agents began showing up at Microsoft Corp. more frequently than before, armed with court orders demanding information on customers.
Around the world, government spies and eavesdroppers were tracking the email and Internet addresses used by suspected terrorists. Often, those trails led to the world's largest software company and, at the time, largest email provider.
The agents wanted email archives, account information, practically everything, and quickly. Engineers compiled the data, sometimes by hand, and delivered it to the government.
Often there was no easy way to tell if the information belonged to foreigners or Americans. So much data was changing hands that one former Microsoft employee recalls that the engineers were anxious about whether the company should cooperate.
Inside Microsoft, some called it "Hoovering" – not after the vacuum cleaner, but after J. Edgar Hoover, the first FBI director, who gathered dirt on countless Americans.
This frenetic, manual process was the forerunner to Prism, the recently revealed highly classified National Security Agency program that seizes records from Internet companies. As laws changed and technology improved, the government and industry moved toward a streamlined, electronic process, which required less time from the companies and provided the government data in a more standard format.
The revelation of Prism this month by the Washington Post and Guardian newspapers has touched off the latest round in a decade-long debate over what limits to impose on government eavesdropping, which the Obama administration says is essential to keep the nation safe.

Decision to arm Syrian rebels made weeks ago

President Obama’s decision to begin arming the Syrian rebels followed more than a year of internal debate over whether it was worth the dual risks of involving the United States in another war and seeing U.S. weapons fall into the hands of extremist groups among the rebels.

The White House said the final push came this week after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded with “high certainty” that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces had used chemical weapons against the rebels.
But U.S. officials said that the determination to send weapons had been made weeks ago and that the chemical weapons finding provided fresh justification to act.
As Syrian government ­forces, with the help of Hezbollah and Iranian militias, began to turn the war in Assad’s favor after rebel gains during the winter, Obama ordered officials in late April to begin planning what weaponry to send and how to deliver it.
That decision effectively ended the lengthy disagreement among those in the White House — primarily Obama’s political advisers — who argued that providing arms would be a slippery slope to greater involvement, military leaders who said it would be too risky and expensive, and State Department officials who insisted that Syria and the region would collapse in chaos if action were not taken, officials said.

Hillary Clinton Takes the Stage, and the Speculation Heats Up

CHICAGO — She’s come home. 

After a temporary tour as a lieutenant in President Obama’s army, Hillary Rodham Clinton rejoined the Clinton family business on Thursday and went right to work on one of its main objectives: advancing the Clinton brand.

Mrs. Clinton appeared alongside her husband, Bill Clinton, in a crowded ballroom here and left little doubt that she planned to reclaim the political stage she exited more than four years ago to become the nation’s top diplomat.

At the annual gathering of the foundation established by her husband, Mrs. Clinton delivered a speech that plunged her back into the heart of the conversation about the country’s future, highlighting the need for creating jobs for young people and expanding early childhood development programs.

“In too many places in our own country, community institutions are crumbling,” she said, expressing concern about “disconnected young men in our society.”

Mrs. Clinton also pledged to continue her work of expanding opportunities for women and girls as she moves into her new role at what has been renamed the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

“This is truly a labor of love for our entire family,” she said.

The convention here in downtown Chicago had been billed as the foundation’s effort to bring together leaders from the business, nonprofit and government sectors to discuss ways to revive the nation’s economy.

Holder to meet with GOP lawmakers to explain testimony on reporter surveillance

Attorney General Eric Holder has agreed to meet with House Republicans next week in a closed-door session to explain questionable testimony he gave on reporter surveillance.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Friday that Holder will meet with committee leaders and will respond in writing to questions submitted by the committee's Republican leadership about his May 15 testimony before the committee.
At the time, the attorney general said under oath he knew nothing of the "potential prosecution" of the press. Days later, it emerged that Holder was involved in his department's successful effort to obtain Fox News reporter James Rosen's personal emails -- the Justice Department sought access to the documents by arguing Rosen was a likely criminal "co-conspirator" in a leak case.