SPIII -Gazette 071613

Tuesday July 16th 2013

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Seven die in Egypt protest clashes

Seven people have been killed in Cairo in overnight clashes between security forces and supporters of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

Police used tear gas to drive back protesters, some hurling rocks, who had blocked a main route in the capital.
The clashes came as a senior US envoy visited Egypt, saying it had been given a "second chance" at democracy.
William Burns met interim leaders but was snubbed by rival groups, including Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.
Mr Morsi was ousted on 3 July in what many have said was a military coup. The army says it was fulfilling the demands of the people after mass anti-Morsi protests.
Monday's battles erupted after hundreds of protesters, mostly members of Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood Islamist movement, blocked the Sixth of October bridge, a major route over the Nile and through the capital, and the nearby Ramses Square, a transport hub.


Panama Seizes NKorean Ship For Allegedly Carrying Ballistics Missiles

PANAMA CITY — Panama's president said the country has seized a North Korean-flagged ship carrying what appeared to be ballistic missiles and other arms that had set sail from Cuba.
Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli told RPC radio on Monday that the ship had been headed for North Korea.
There were no immediate details on the quantity of arms aboard.
Martinelli said the undeclared military cargo appeared to include missiles and non-conventional arms. He said the ship was violating United Nations resolutions against arms trafficking.
Earlier, the president said on his Twitter account that the arms were "hidden in containers underneath the cargo of sugar."
He offered no details but posted a photo of what appeared to be a green tubular object sitting inside a cargo container or the ship's hold.
Hugh Griffiths, an arms trafficking expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said the seized ship is called Chong Chon Gang and has been on the institute's suspect list for some time.
He said the ship had been caught before for trafficking narcotics and small arms ammunition. It was stopped in 2010 in the Ukraine and was attacked by pirates 400 miles off the coast of Somalia in 2009.

Iran slams Israeli role in atomic dispute

 Iran on Tuesday accused arch-rival Israel of attempting to poison the mood against its moderate president-elect Hassan Rowhani, who has raised hope to end a dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called Rowhani "a wolf in sheep's clothing" who would "smile and build a bomb".
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said Netanyahu was "angry" that Rowhani's June election had created "a positive atmosphere in the international community".
Netanyahu's remarks, he said, "is a sign of his regime's interference in Iran's relations with other countries, and a proof of its destructive role and attempt in damaging those relations".
Rowhani, an ex-nuclear negotiator who has held top state positions since the 1979 inception of the Islamic republic, is to take office from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on August 3.

Russia Flexes Military Muscle In Biggest War Games In Decades

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday watched Russia's biggest military maneuvers since Soviet times, involving 160,000 troops and about 5,000 tanks across Siberia and the far eastern region in a massive show of the nation's resurgent military might.
Dozens of Russia's Pacific Fleet ships and 130 combat aircraft also took part in the exercise, which began on Friday and continue through this week. Putin watched some of the drills on Sakhalin Island in the Pacific, where thousands of troops were ferried and airlifted from the mainland.
Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov assured foreign military attaches on Monday that the exercise was part of regular combat training and wasn't directed against any particular nation, though some analysts believe the show of force was aimed at China and Japan.
Konstantin Sivkov, a retired officer of the Russian military's General Staff, told the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the Sakhalin part of the maneuvers was intended to simulate a response to a hypothetical attack by Japanese and U.S. forces.
Russia and Japan have a dispute over a group of Pacific islands, which Russia calls the Kurils and Japan calls the Northern Territories.
The islands off the northeastern tip of Japan's Hokkaido Island were seized by Soviet troops in the closing days of World War II. They are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and are believed to have offshore oil and natural gas reserves and other mineral resources.

Wave of deadly bombings hits Iraq

A series of bomb attacks across Iraq on Sunday left at least 34 people dead, according to police and medics.

As the sun set before the iftar meal, ending the day-long Ramadan fast, co-ordinated blasts in primarily Shia towns killed some 28 people.
Earlier, bombings in the northern city of Mosul left six people dead.
More than 2,500 Iraqis have died in violent attacks since April, according to UN figures, putting violence at its highest level since 2008.
The recent surge in attacks comes amid heightened tensions between Iraq's Sunni and Shia communities, and claims by the Sunnis that they are being marginalised by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Shia-led government.

Nine Syrians 'executed' at checkpoint: NGO

 At least nine Syrians, including a child, were executed by regime forces at a checkpoint in Damascus province, a watchdog said on Tuesday.

"Nine citizens, including a child, were shot dead by regime forces near the town of Qara, in the Qalamun area of Damascus province, yesterday (Monday) evening," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The nine were "executed" at a military checkpoint in the area, the group said, citing local activists.
Video footage shot by activists and distributed by the Observatory showed bodies lain out on the white floor of a room, some of them partially covered with a piece of white plastic sheeting.
Several appeared to have been shot in the head, and others in the chest.
In Homs province in the centre, members of a pro-regime militia killed seven members of a reconciliation committee in the village of Hajar Abyad, the Observatory said.

Afghan jailer helps Nato soldier's killer escape

An Afghan soldier who shot dead a Nato soldier and injured several others last week has fled a military jail with the help of the officer in charge of prison security, Afghan and Nato officials said.
The security chief claimed the man was ill and needed to go to hospital, and once the detainee's shackles were off the pair escaped. They are believed to have headed towards the eastern mountain provinces, full of lawless pockets where insurgents hold sway.
The incident in Kandahar is the latest blow to western efforts to train Afghanistan's patchy and fast-growing army and police before the departure of all foreign combat troops next year. Last year a spate of insider attacks claimed around 60 lives and severely strained relations between Afghan troops and coalition forces working on the training mission.
The toll is down to nine deaths so far this year after better vetting of Afghan recruits, the deployment of armed "guardian angels" who follow foreign forces at any meeting with Afghans, and other measures. But the killing on Kandahar airfield and subsequent escape underline pervasive resentment of foreign forces among the soldiers and police they are ostensibly there to support.
The dead and wounded were all Slovakians. The eastern European country has more than 200 troops stationed in Afghanistan, and the death was the first among their troops.
Javed Faisal, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, said: "Four days ago, a soldier who was in the air force area opened fire on [Nato] soldiers. We put him in prison, but yesterday afternoon the head of the security for the jail helped the prisoner and ran away with him."

Violent Riots Flare In Belfast

BELFAST, July 15 (Reuters) - Rioters threw petrol bombs, bricks, bottles and fireworks at police in a third night of violence in Northern Ireland around traditional Protestant marches, wounding one officer early on Monday.

Protesters built a burning barricade across one road and burned out one car during the clashes that first flared on Friday following a dispute over a marching route.

Thousands of pro-British Protestants march every summer, a regular flashpoint for sectarian violence as Catholics, many of whom favour unification with Ireland, see the parades as a provocation.

A 1998 peace deal mostly ended decades of sectarian strife in the British province but trouble still breaks out, particularly around the Orange parades which mark a 1690 Protestant victory over a Catholic king.

Police said they had brought hundreds of reinforcements from Britain to cope with any more violence.

Both the Protestant Orange Order, which organises the marches, and the devolved government, called for calm.

"It's very important that cool heads prevail in these circumstances and I hope people will obey the announcement and statement by the Orange Institution that people should desist from violence," said Peter Robinson, who heads the government.

Protestant marchers, unhappy because authorities ruled they could not walk along a stretch of road that divides the two communities, started throwing bricks and bottles at police on Friday. The force responded with water cannon and rubber bullets.

Bangladesh braces for violence after Islamist politician's war crimes verdict

The Bangladesh authorities were bracing themselves for a new wave of violence after a controversial war crimes court sentenced a leading Islamist politician to life in prison on Monday.
The judgment was the latest in a series this year that have prompted unrest in the south Asian state. An election is scheduled to take place within the next six months and there are fears of increasingly intense clashes as political factions seek to establish supremacy on the streets in the runup to the poll.
Even before the verdict on Ghulam Azam, 91, a former leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party (JI), was announced, there had been rioting, attacks with makeshift bombs and pitched battles. Approximately 100 people have been injured since Sunday, according to local police officials.
The series of trials has revealed a deeply polarised society, in which grievances dating back more than 40 years to the brutal war of independence that saw Bangladesh break away from Pakistan remain raw.
Azam was sentenced to 90 years in prison for planning, conspiracy, incitement and complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1971 conflict, lawyers and tribunal officials said. An ambulance brought the cleric, who uses a wheelchair, to court.
"He was tried for five charges and all the five charges have been proved … He deserves highest priority of death but considering his age and ailments ... he has been awarded a sentence of 90 years or unto death in prison," MK Rahman, Bangladesh's attorney general, told reporters.
JI, the main Islamist party in the country and a key part of an opposition coalition led by the Bangladesh National party (BNP), called a day-long strike to protest against the verdict. Further demonstrations are planned for on Tuesday, officials said.

Pakistan to hold presidential election on Aug 6
 
ISLAMABAD: The election to choose the next Pakistan President will be held on August 6, over a month earlier than expected, in a move seen as an attempt to hasten the exit of incumbent Asif Ali Zardari.

The schedule for the presidential election was announced on Tuesday by the Election Commission. "The schedule has been approved by chief election commissioner Fakhrudin G Ibrahim in a special meeting," an election commission official, who did not want to be named, told PTI.

Zardari, currently on a private visit to Dubai and London, is set to complete his five-year term on September 8. He has announced that he will not run for a second term.

The announcement of the date for the presidential poll came as a surprise to observers as the electoral college is currently incomplete. Bye-elections for 42 vacant seats in the national and provincial assemblies will be held on August 22.

The four provincial assemblies and the two houses of parliament form the electoral college for the presidential poll and voting is held in the assemblies. According to the current strength of political parties in the national and provincial assemblies, the nominee of the ruling PML-N of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will easily win the election.
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US inflation rises to 1.8% in June

Annual US consumer price inflation hit 1.8% in June as clothing, petrol and services costs all increased.

That was up from the 1.4% figure recorded in May but still below the target inflation figure of 2%.
The consumer price index increased by 0.5% in June from the month before.
The US economy is growing more strongly than most of Europe, but unemployment has put downward pressure on wages, making it harder for retailers and other firms to raise prices.
Most of the month-on-month price increase was attributed to the rising cost of petrol.
'Comforting' Taking out energy and food, core consumer prices increased by 0.2% between May and June, giving an increase over 12 months of 1.6%, the slowest pace in two years.
"It's comforting to see some stabilisation in core services prices," said Laura Rosner, economist at BNP Paribas in New York, adding that "we expect personal consumption to remain weak".

Feds admit candidate, donor tax records were improperly scrutinized, report says

The Treasury Department has admitted that confidential tax information of several political candidates and campaign donors were improperly scrutinized by government officials, according to The Washington Times.
In response to questions from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George said investigators are probing two allegations that the Internal Revenue Service "targeted for audit candidates for public office," the newspaper reported.
George reportedly told Grassley that a review turned up four cases since 2006 in which government officials took part in "unauthorized access or disclosure of tax records of political donors or candidates." The officials were not identified.
George described one of the disclosures as "willful," while the three other cases were determined to be "inadvertent," according to the report.

Intelligence court says government should reveal 2008 Yahoo data order info

Yahoo has won a court fight that could help the public learn more about the government's efforts to obtain data from Internet users.

The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews government requests to spy on individuals, ruled Monday that information should be made public about a 2008 case that ordered Yahoo Inc. to turn over customer data.
The order requires the government to review which portions of the opinion, briefs and arguments can be declassified and report back to the court by July 29.
The government sought the information from Yahoo under the National Security Agency's PRISM data-gathering program. Details of the secret program were disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has fled the U.S.

Senate reaches deadline on rules change

The Senate inched closer to an eleventh-hour deal late Monday night in a bid to avert an unprecedented maneuver to change the chamber’s rules governing presidential appointees, with nearly all 100 senators spending more than three hours huddled in a rare bipartisan, closed-door caucus.

Rank-and-file senators came out of the meeting reporting progress on the confirmation prospects of President Obama’s selections to head low-profile but influential agencies. Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) echoed that sentiment but said no resolution had been reached, leaving in place a critical 10 a.m. Tuesday vote that would set up the historic clash over changing the Senate rules on a raw party-line vote so that Cabinet- and agency-level nominees could be confirmed without having to overcome a filibuster.

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley subpoenaed to testify in police-torture case 

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley was served with a subpoena Friday to testify at an evidentiary hearing for a rape convict who says he was framed decades ago when Daley was Cook County’s elected state’s attorney.

The legal move involves a post-conviction petition by Stanley Wrice, who was found guilty in a 1982 gang rape but says he was tortured by Chicago Police into giving a false confession.

In Second Term, Obama Is Seen as Using ‘Hidden Hand’ Approach

WASHINGTON — In the nearly two weeks since Egypt’s military seized power, President Obama has promoted a better federal bureaucracy, given a medal to George Lucas of “Star Wars” fame and had former President George Bush to the White House for lunch. What he has not done is publicly address the violent upheaval in Cairo. 

That is not to say Mr. Obama is uninvolved. In the privacy of the West Wing, away from the cameras, he has made calls to leading figures in the Arab world and has met with advisers trying to influence the crisis. But his low public profile on issues like immigration, Syria and health care underscores a calculated presidential approach that admirers consider nuanced and detractors call passive.

While other presidents have put the bully in the bully pulpit, Mr. Obama uses his megaphone, and the power that comes with it, sparingly, speaking out when he decides his voice can shape the trajectory of an issue and staying silent when he thinks it might be counterproductive. In his first year, the president seemed to be everywhere, talking about everything. In his fifth year, he is choosing his opportunities — even if it appears he is not always in command of events.

Howard Dean: Hillary Will Face Primary Challenge

Hillary Clinton's apparently inevitable victory in the Democratic presidential primaries could hit a roadblock due to her age, former White House candidate Howard Dean says.
"She's of my generation, not of the new upcoming generation out of the Barack Obama generation," said the former Vermont governor who was, for a time, front-runner for his party's nomination in 2004.
"That's the only weakness she's really got."
Dean told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he believes Clinton, who will be 69 by the 2016 election, will face a primary battle and not be crowned as nominee. He said Govs. Martin O'Malley of Maryland and Andrew Cuomo of New York are both likely candidates. O'Malley will be 53 by November 2016, and Cuomo will be 58.
But he still thinks the former first lady, senator, and secretary of state will prevail.
"I love Hillary, and I can't imagine anybody coming between her and the presidency this time," he said. "But, you know, there's a long, long way to go.
"The difference, though, is I don't think there's a Barack Obama who's going to emerge, a flaming supernova if you will, to come on to the scene and sort of steal her moment."