SPIII - Saturday July 20th 2013 -Weekend 1

                Saturday July 20th 2013

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Israel to free Palestinian prisoners

Israel says it will release a number of Palestinian prisoners as part of an agreement made with US Secretary of State John Kerry to resume peace talks.

Yuval Steinitz, minister responsible for international relations, said it would involve "heavyweight prisoners in jail for decades".
Mr Kerry announced on Friday that initial talks would be held in Washington "in the next week or so".
The Israeli minister's remarks are the first details of the deal.
Mr Kerry had declined to tell reporters in Amman what the two sides had agreed to, saying that the "best way to give these negotiations a chance is to keep them private".
The agreement came at the end of four days of frenetic shuttle diplomacy, on Mr Kerry's sixth visit to the region in the past few months.
Mr Steinitz told Israeli public radio that the deal adhered to the principles set out by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for kick-starting the talks.
The release of prisoners would take place in stages, he said.


Man injures self after setting off bomb at Beijing airport, Chinese state media reports

Chinese state media say that a man set off a homemade bomb in Terminal 3 of the Beijing International Airport, but that no one besides the man was injured and order has been restored.
 
The official Xinhua News Agency cited witnesses in reporting that the explosion was heard at 6:24 p.m. Saturday, but gave no further details.

State-run China Central Television says on its microblog that the man was injured and sent to a hospital after setting off the bomb. It says no one else was injured, no flights were affected and order has been restored at the airport.

Reached over the phone, the airport's news office said it was not aware of the explosion, and airport police declined to answer questions.

Violence erupts in France over police check of veiled Muslim woman 

PARIS - Six people were arrested after overnight violence that erupted in a Paris suburb after police checked the identity of a woman wearing a Muslim veil, French authorities said on Saturday.
Public disturbances have shaken depressed, largely immigrant quarters of major French cities at regular intervals for years, often triggered by resentment over spot police checks.
It is illegal in France for women to wear full face veils in public but the law is contested in the mainly Muslim suburbs that ring major cities - where tensions reign in relations between residents and police.
In Trappes, a gritty suburb southwest of Paris, police said a crowd gathered in response to the arrest on Thursday of a man who had assaulted a police officer during an identity check on his wife, who was entirely veiled.
Some 250 people who collected outside the Trappes police station on Friday night threw stones and other projectiles and destroyed property before being repelled by riot police in the early hours of Saturday, a police statement said.
A witness said the crowd called on police to release the husband but were "insulted" by authorities.
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UK halts export of arms components to Egypt due to fears over state force

The British government has revoked five export licences for equipment destined for Egypt in response to reports that security forces have used excessive force in dealing with protests since the fall of ex-president Mohamed Morsi.
The business secretary, Vince Cable, said on Friday the licences concerned the sale of arms components from UK companies to Egypt's military and police forces.
A Foreign Office official told the Guardian the revocation was linked to reports of military and police malpractice during recent protests. A Guardian investigation published on Thursday reported that the deaths of 51 pro-Morsi supporters on Monday 8 July was the result of a co-ordinated assault by both police and army officials on largely unarmed protesters.
The official said the UK government felt there was now an "increased likelihood" that the weapons parts could be used in the excessive repression of protesters in the near future.
"We judge that there is now a clear risk that the equipment covered by these licences might contribute to the excessive use of force during crowd control," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It is unclear which British companies – and how many of them – have been banned from making the sales. But the official confirmed that the bans concerned the supply of armoured personnel carrier components to Egypt's interior ministry, which controls the police force. They also revoked the delivery to Egypt's military of radios, vehicle aerials, machine-gun components, tracked armoured fighting infantry vehicle components, and tank communication equipment.

Iraq violence: Diyala mosque bomb attack 'kills 20'

A suicide bomb blast inside a Sunni mosque in central Iraq has killed at least 20 people and injured dozens more, officials say.

The explosion hit the Abu Bakr al-Sadiq Mosque in the town of Wajihiya in Diyala province, police said, wounding around 40 people.
A surge of violence in recent weeks has seen a number of mosques targeted.
More than 2,500 Iraqis have died in violent attacks since April, according to UN figures released this month.
Witnesses said the bomber in the latest attack had detonated his explosives as the imam was giving his sermon.
"I was sitting near the imam and the mosque was full of dozens of people when a big explosion happened, and the place went completely dark," said Omar Mundhir, who was injured in the leg.
"I found myself on the ground at the hospital later, with many other wounded," he told Agence France-Press.
Diyala is a religiously mixed province and saw some of the fiercest fighting sectarian fighting in the years after the US-led invasion in 2003.
Provincial official Sadiq al-Husseini said all the victims had been civilians, and called for people to show self-restraint. 

Egypt to reevaluate Syria ties

Egypt's new foreign minister says Cairo is reevaluating its relationship with Syria following the military's ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
Nabil Fahmy said Saturday in his first public comments since becoming Egypt's top diplomat that the country continues to support the Syrian uprising but that Cairo has no intention of waging jihad, or holy war, in Syria.
Fahmy's comments signaled a shift from Morsi's approach.
Just weeks before Morsi was deposed on July 3, a senior presidential aide said authorities would not prevent Egyptians from traveling to Syria to join the rebel cause.

Court frees Russian protest leader

A Russian court has unexpectedly freed protest leader Alexei Navalny pending his appeal against a five-year sentence on embezzlement charges, after his jailing prompted thousands to take to the streets in protest.
The judge in the northern city of Kirov ruled on Friday that keeping President Vladimir Putin's top opponent in custody would deprive him of his right to stand in mayoral elections in Moscow on September 8.
"What happened now is a completely unique phenomenon in the system of Russian justice," said Navalny, who was immediately set free from the glass-fronted defendants' cage and rushed to embrace his wife Yulia.
A lower court in the city of Kirov 900 kilometres north-east of Moscow had on Thursday sentenced Navalny to five years in a penal colony, in a decision that sparked international concern.

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Navalny was found guilty of defrauding the local government in the Kirov region of 16 million roubles ($547,345) in a timber deal while acting as an unpaid adviser to the local authorities in 2009.
Navalny's co-accused, Pyotr Ofitserov, who was sentenced to four years in prison, was also released on Friday pending his appeal.
Activists said the conviction was ordered by the Kremlin for Navalny daring to challenge Mr Putin and late on Thursday thousands of his supporters filled the central avenues of Moscow and Saint Petersburg in protests.
The guilty verdict disqualifies Navalny from politics, but the restriction will come into force only if the verdict is upheld on appeal, leaving him still able to stand in the upcoming Moscow mayoral elections.

Portugal crisis talks break down

A week of talks by Portugal's three main parties on how to end a political crisis has broken down, leaving the country's bailout programme in doubt.

President Anibal Cavaco Silva is seeking a "national salvation" deal to back austerity policies demanded by EU and IMF lenders.
But opposition leader Antonio Jose Seguro said the governing coalition had rejected most of his party's proposals.
He said it was now up to the president to decide how to end the crisis.
It began nearly three weeks ago with the resignation of the finance and foreign ministers.
Foreign Minister Paulo Portas was unhappy with the extent of the austerity measures needed to comply with the conditions set in the 78bn euros ($102bn; £67bn) bailout received in May 2011.
Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar - seen as the architect of austerity - quit because of a lack of support for his approach.

Morsi supporters rally in Egypt

CAIRO: Three Egyptians were killed during clashes between supporters and opponents of deposed President Mohamed Morsi late on Friday, after thousands rallied in Egyptian cities demanding the reinstatement of the Islamist leader.

Two women and a 13-year-old boy were killed and eight others were injured, including one in critical condition, in the clashes that erupted in the Nile Delta town of Mansoura, health ministry official Saed Zaghloul said.

At least 99 people have died in violence since Morsi's removal by the army on July 3, more than half of them when troops fired on Islamist protesters outside a Cairo barracks on July 8. Seven people died earlier this week in clashes between opposing camps.

But the Egyptian armed forces, which shunted the country's first freely elected president from office, looked in no mood to make concessions, putting on a show of force in the hazy skies above Cairo.

Australia intercepts boat with asylum-seekers

A boatload of 89 asylum-seekers has been intercepted off the coast of northern Australia, a day after the Australian government announced that boatpeople will no longer be resettled in the country.
Tony Burke, the immigration minister, said on Saturday that the group - "entirely or almost entirely" Iranians - would be offered the choice of either pressing ahead with an asylum claim and being sent to Papua New Guinea, or transfer to another country.
Earlier, a protest at an Australian-run immigration detention camp in Nauru turned violent, with some of the asylum seekers injured, officials and witnesses said.
Buildings were torched as hundreds of asylum-seekers escaped detention during riots at the refugee facility, witnesses said on Saturday.
The riots on Friday night saw detainees take control of the immigration processing centre on the remote Pacific island of Nauru and arm themselves with knives and steel bars.
As of midnight Australia's immigration department said all the asylum-seekers had been accounted for and order had been restored.
An immigration spokeswoman said that most of the major buildings including the accommodation blocks, medical centre, dining hall and offices had been destroyed during the protest, which involved about 150 detainees.
Four detainees had been hospitalised with minor injuries and no staff were hurt, she added.
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'Trayvon could have been me' - Obama

President Barack Obama has said that "Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago", in his first comments on the case since last week's verdict.

The unarmed black 17-year-old was shot and killed in Florida in February 2012.
George Zimmerman, 29, said he opened fire on the teenager in self-defence and was acquitted of murder by a Florida court last week.
In an unexpected press call, Mr Obama said very few black men in the US had not experienced racial profiling.
Related story angles: 
Obama enters Martin debate with personal remarks, questions 'stand-your-ground' 
Obama Takes Over White House Press Briefing To Speak On Trayvon Martin (VIDEO) Zimmerman defense team responds to Obama’s comments

State Department agency deemed 'critical' to information security is a mess, report shows

An obscure little State Department agency whose work is called "critical to the Department's information security posture" has been in a shambles for years, and is still in chaos, according to an audit report by the department's inspector general released yesterday.
As one result of all the bumbling and inaction, the security checks that the agency is supposed to perform and subsequent approvals for use that it is supposed to bestow every three years on 36 of those State Department systems have lapsed entirely, meaning that they are operating, in effect, illegally. 
Some of the lapses have gone on for two years; in at least a couple of cases involving information systems that the audit calls "primary general support systems," the lapses have gone on since 2007.

Wall Street Faces Threat As Federal Reserve Launches Review

The Federal Reserve said late Friday it is revisiting a landmark ruling that allowed big banks to enter the lucrative commodities business, raising the specter that banks may be banned from the highly profitable activity.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and other large financial institutions have the most to lose, given their revenues from investing in and trading commodities, such as oil and aluminum. Representatives for the three banks declined to comment.
The Fed's statement follows a Huffington Post story this week that detailed how a coalition of beer brewers, automakers, Boeing and Coca-Cola has accused big banks, including Goldman and JPMorgan, of anti-competitive behavior in the aluminum market, fueling regulatory concerns on both sides of the Atlantic. The allegations also have prompted a Senate probe into Wall Street's expansion into the commodities business, as concerns multiply over whether the broader economy is being hurt by banks using important raw materials for trading.
"The Federal Reserve regularly monitors the commodity activities of supervised firms and is reviewing the 2003 determination that certain commodity activities are complementary to financial activities and thus permissible for bank holding companies," the central bank said in a one-sentence statement.

Confusion in Detroit as judge challenges legality of bankruptcy

The ongoing crisis in Detroit took another -- and confusing -- turn Friday after an Ingham County judge ruled the city's historic bankruptcy filing violates the state’s constitution and must be withdrawn.
“I have some very serious concerns because there was this rush to bankruptcy court that didn’t have to occur and shouldn’t have occurred,” Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said Friday in a spate of orders arising from three separate lawsuits.
There was no immediate response from Detroit Emergency Manger Kevyn Orr, who filed the bankruptcy document Thursday, and no indication if city officials planned to take any action in response to Aquilina's ruling.
Aquilina said Michigan’s constitution prohibits actions that will lessen the pension benefits of public employees, including those in the city of Detroit. She added that Gov. Rick Snyder and  Orr overstepped their authority and violated state law by proceeding with the bankruptcy filing because they knew the outcome could affect benefits to thousands of Detroit residents.

 Poll Suggests Justin Trudeau's Honeymoon May Be Wearing Off 

Though Justin Trudeau's Liberals remain ahead of the pack in the latest federal poll, it seems the new leader's honeymoon may be wearing off.
The survey, conducted by EKOS Research for iPolitics earlier this month and surveying 2,900 Canadians, found support for the Liberals to be at 30 per cent, a drop of eight points since EKOS's last poll (April 30-May 2). This is not the first survey to show some weakness in Liberal support from the heady days just after Trudeau's leadership victory.

UPDATE: EKOS also released the results of a late May poll Thursday that had not previously been ublicized. That poll had the Liberals at 35 per cent, the Conservatives at 26 per cent and the NDP at 21 per cent. This further suggests the Liberal decline is part of a trend, while the Conservative and NDP movement has been within the margin of error

The Conservatives had 28 per cent support in the poll, up two points, while New Democrats were down one point to 23 per cent. The Greens had nine per cent and the Bloc Québécois were at six per cent support among decided voters. Undecided voters numbered about nine per cent of all of those surveyed.
The poll found the Tories and Liberals to be tied at 31 per cent apiece among men, but among women, Liberals were ahead with 30 per cent support to 27 per cent for the NDP and only 25 per cent for Conservatives — one reason why the party took pains to emphasize the new women named to cabinet in this week's shuffle.
The Liberals appear to have taken their biggest hit in Ontario and Quebec, with drops of nine and 11 points, respectively. The party remains in front in both seat-rich provinces, however, with 33 per cent in Ontario and 29 per cent in Quebec. Conservatives trail in Ontario with 31 per cent while the Bloc placed second in Quebec with 27 per cent support.
The Quebec numbers are particularly interesting, as both Liberals and NDP took statistically significant steps backwards (the New Democrats were down eight points to 23 per cent). The Bloc Québécois was the big winner, with an eight point gain. That might be an anomaly of the poll, though, as there has not been much of anything going on in the province that could explain the Bloc's increase in support.

Alberta MLA Mike Allen charged in U.S. prostitution case

Allen was one of 13 people arrested in prostitution sting Monday 

Mike Allen, MLA for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, has been formally charged following his arrest in a prostitution sting in St. Paul, Minn.
Allen was one of 13 people arrested during the sting Monday. He was in the state attending a conference as a representative of the Alberta government.
In a complaint signed Friday, the state alleges that Allen responded to an ad that undercover officers had placed on a classified website, offering sexual services.
Allen then allegedly took a limousine to a hotel to meet an undercover officer.
“The defendant then agreed to pay $200 in exchange for sex with two women for one hour while wearing a condom,” said St. Paul city attorney Sara Grewing.
“The defendant placed the cash on the counter and began to undress. Then, as is typical, the undercover officer gave a bust signal to the other officers who were monitoring the room electronically and the other officers entered the room and arrested the defendant.”
The allegations have not been proven in court.