VOCR-Sunday Sins 070713

 Sunday July 7th 2013

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Egypt gears up for more protests as Muslim Brotherhood calls for rallies

 Egypt's new leadership wrangled over the naming of a prime minister, as both the Muslim Brotherhood and their opponents called for new mass rallies Sunday, renewing fears of another round of street violence over the military's ousting of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

The calls for competing rallies come after clashes two days ago between the rival camps left at least 36 dead and more than 1,000 injured nationwide.
The military said troops are beefing up security ahead of the protests and warned against any "provocative actions." Any violators will be "dealt with decisively, under the law," the army spokesman said in an official Facebook posting. In Friday's violence it sided with the anti-Morsi crowds and in one case, opened fire on pro-Morsi demonstrators.
The Brotherhood, which helped propel Morsi to power as Egypt's first democratically elected leader, has denounced the military's move as a coup against democracy and demands he be reinstated. Currently, Morsi is in detention with the military, though his location is unknown.

Abu Qatada deported from Britain

Radical cleric Abu Qatada has appeared in court in Jordan after being deported from the UK.

His plane left RAF Northolt at 02:46 BST for his home country, where he was formally charged with terror offences, which he denies.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "delighted" at his removal.
Abu Qatada was first arrested in the UK over alleged terror connections in 2001. He was rearrested in 2005, when attempts to deport him began.
The Palestinian-Jordanian cleric's deportation was finally able to proceed after the UK and Jordan signed a treaty agreeing that evidence obtained through torture would not be used against him.
Home Secretary Theresa May said she was glad that the government's determination to remove him had been "vindicated".
"This dangerous man has now been removed from our shores to face the courts in his own country," she said.
She added that she wanted to streamline such deportation processes in future.
"I am also clear that we need to make sense of our human rights laws and remove the many layers of appeals available to foreign nationals we want to deport.
"We are taking steps - including through the new Immigration Bill - to put this right."


Blasts Hit Buddhist Sites In India

PATNA, India -- A series of blasts hit three Buddhist sites in eastern India early Sunday, injuring at least two people and drawing condemnation from the prime minister.
Senior police officer S.K. Bhardwaj said a gate at one of the two temples that was hit was badly damaged in Bodhgaya, a town 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Patna, the capital of Bihar state. No other damage was reported to the Buddhist sites.
Junior Home Minister R.P.N. Singh said that no one claimed responsibility for the explosions and that an investigation would be carried out to determine who was involved.
Four blasts took place on the grounds of the Mahabodhi Temple, or the Great Awakening Temple, Bhardwaj said. Another four explosions were reported at the nearby Karma temple and at a site with a 55-meter-tall (180-foot-tall) Buddhist tower.
Abhyanand, the director-general of state police, said the blasts ranged from low to high intensity. He also said police recovered two unexploded bombs, which were defused in the area. Abhyanand uses only one name.
A Tibetan and a pilgrim from Myanmar received minor injuries in the blast at the Mahabodhi Temple and were taken to a hospital, Bhardwaj said, adding that a temple gate was badly damaged.
Another explosion damaged an empty tourist bus parked near the Mahabodhi Temple, he said. The temple is a UNESCO world heritage site where Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment.

Bahrain: Policeman killed, 3 hurt in twin attacks

Bahrain says twin attacks have left a policeman dead and three injured in the latest sign of targeted strikes by anti-government factions in the restive Gulf nation.

Bahrain's 29-month uprising is dominated by street clashes between mostly Shiite protesters and security forces for the Sunni-led monarchy. But homemade explosives and firebombs have increasingly been used in ambush-style attacks against police.
More than 60 people have died in unrest since Bahrain's majority Shiites renewed demonstrations for a greater political voice.
The official Bahrain News Agency said Sunday a bombing killed a policeman in the Shiite-dominated area of Sitra.
Later, the Interior Ministry said three policemen were injured when their patrol was hit by firebombs in another area of the strategic kingdom, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

Turkish protesters clash with police

Turkish riot police have been using tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters trying to enter a park cordoned off by police in Istanbul.

Thousands have converged on Gezi Park, near the city's Taksim Square - which was a focus of unrest last month.
Protests against plans to redevelop the park grew into nationwide rallies against PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
On 15 June police expelled protesters occupying the park. A recent court ruling annulled the redevelopment plan.
The administrative court said the government's plan to replace Gezi Park with a replica of an Ottoman-era military barracks would not serve the public.
It is not clear yet whether the government will appeal against the ruling.
Activists had called for a march on Saturday to enter the park, which is sealed off. The governor of Istanbul had warned that they would be confronted by police.
Five people died and thousands were injured in last month's wave of protests across Turkey - the worst unrest the country had seen in 10 years of rule by Mr Erdogan.

Economic disaster adds to Syrians' woes

Damascus taxi driver Abu Ali works practically non-stop but barely makes ends meet, like many Syrians who are struggling to weather the economic effects of the bloody conflict raging in their country.
"Prices are exorbitant, my earnings are barely enough to feed my family," the father of five says, adding that he has limited his spending to key necessities.
"I don't have the means to cover other expenses. We're getting by on the minimum."
His story is a familiar one in Syria, where anti-government protests that began in March 2011 descended into a bitter civil conflict that has ravaged the economy.
"The war has impoverished the great majority of Syrians and led to a serious reduction in their purchasing power," says Jihad Yazigi, editor in chief of the economic news and analysis site Syria Report.

14 Afghan soldiers, 64 Taliban killed: Officials

KABUL, Afghanistan: A roadside bomb seriously wounded a prominent member of Afghanistan's High Peace Council on Sunday, an official said, while the government announced that recent fighting in the country has killed 14 Afghan soldiers and 64 Taliban militants.

Fazil Ahmad, the High Peace Council's chief in Ghazni province, was in critical condition in a hospital with three others who had been traveling with him when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb, said deputy provincial police chief Asadullah Ensafi. The car's driver was killed.

The High Peace Council numbers about 80 members and has been tasked by President Hamid Karzai with finding a negotiated settlement with insurgents.

In Kabul, the Defense Ministry said 14 soldiers and 27 Taliban militants had been killed in fighting and in roadside bomb attacks over the previous 24 hours.

The ministry said the casualties included 10 Taliban fighters killed in a single operation in Wardak province, west of Kabul. Three soldiers were killed in Wardak by artillery fire and roadside bombs.

Seven more soldiers were killed in Helmand province by roadside bombs, and four others were killed in other attacks across the country.

The Interior Ministry, which controls the country's police forces, reported another 37 Taliban killed. It announced no police casualties.

Swiss court allows Credit Suisse to hand secret client data to U.S.

Switzerland’s top court has ruled that the government can transfer the bank records of an American client of Credit Suisse to the U.S. tax authorities, giving a boost to the country’s efforts to end U.S. investigations of Swiss banks.
The Swiss Federal Supreme Court said in a statement on Friday it had rejected an appeal against a lower court’s decision, ruling that requests for such assistance were admissible in cases of suspected tax fraud.
The ruling comes as the Swiss government is trying to seal a deal to end U.S. investigations into the country’s banks. The deal is expected to result in fines totalling up to $10-billion (U.S.) and the transfer of names of Americans suspected of evading tax.
The United States submitted a fresh request to Switzerland last year for information on former Credit Suisse clients suspected of cheating on their U.S. taxes, after an earlier attempt was blocked by a Swiss court.
Credit Suisse is among more than a dozen banks under formal U.S. investigation, including Julius Baer, the Swiss arm of Britain’s HSBC, privately held Pictet and state-backed regional banks Zuercher and Basler.
The Swiss government agreed on Wednesday that banks could seek permission to help them to avoid U.S. criminal charges by handing over data including on bank staff, though they would not be allowed to hand over client names directly.
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Washington Republicans rip Kerry for Nantucket outing during Egyptian crisis

Republicans ripped Secretary of State John Kerry for being on his yacht Wednesday as former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was removed from office. 
A Web ad released Saturday by the National Republican Senatorial Committee showed Kerry windsurfing with the caption "Was John Kerry on his yacht? He wasn't" before reversing the footage and saying "He was." The ad then cut to the photo of Kerry on his yacht, "Isabel."
The ad, titled "Windsurfing II -- Some Things Never Change," recalls the famous advertisement from the 2004 presidential campaign, in which then-President George W. Bush's re-election campaign used the footage to portray Kerry, then a Massachusetts senator, as a flip-flopper on the war in Iraq. 
Last week, a CBS producer Tweeted that Kerry had been seen on his yacht in Nantucket Sound as Morsi was being removed from power by the Egyptian Army. That prompted an angry denial from State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, who called the Tweet "completely inaccurate." When confronted with a photo of Kerry on his yacht, Psaki modified her statement, saying that Kerry was "briefly on his boat on Wednesday," before adding that the Secretary of State had "worked around the clock all day, including participating in the President's meeting with his National Security Council."

In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of N.S.A.

WASHINGTON — In more than a dozen classified rulings, the nation’s surveillance court has created a secret body of law giving the National Security Agency the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans while pursuing not only terrorism suspects, but also people possibly involved in nuclear proliferation, espionage and cyberattacks, officials say.
The rulings, some nearly 100 pages long, reveal that the court has taken on a much more expansive role by regularly assessing broad constitutional questions and establishing important judicial precedents, with almost no public scrutiny, according to current and former officials familiar with the court’s classified decisions.

FBI Hasn't Responded to Sen. Rand Paul's Request for 'Prompt' Answers on Domestic Drones

More than two weeks have passed since Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., requested "prompt" answers to questions about the FBI's use of drones within the United States, but he is still waiting for a response.
It's unclear why the FBI did not immediately provide answers to Paul's 11 questions, but the delay could conceivably morph into an unwelcome spectacle for the Obama administration.
Paul inquired about the domestic use of drones in a June 20 letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller, after the director told the Senate Intelligence Committee his agency was using the unmanned devices without clear guidelines.
Paul asked Mueller to explain how long the FBI has been using drones, how many drones the FBI has, whether or not FBI drones would ever be armed, why they are used, what policies guide their use and what has been done with the information they collect.
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Obama says U.S. is not aligned with any Egyptian party: White House


(Reuters) - President Barack Obama condemned the violence in Egypt on Saturday and said that the United States was not working with any particular Egyptian political party or group as the country reels from a military takeover.
Obama, spending the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat, convened a secure conference call with members of his national security team to discuss events in Egypt days after a military ouster of elected President Mohamed Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood-led government.
"The president condemned the ongoing violence across Egypt and expressed concern over the continued political polarization. He reiterated that the United States is not aligned with, and does not support, any particular Egyptian political party or group," a White House statement said.
The Obama administration had grown skeptical of Mursi's ability to lead Egypt. While the United States has expressed concern about the military takeover, it has not condemned it nor called it a coup, prompting speculation that the United States tacitly supports it.
Obama has ordered a review to determine whether annual U.S. assistance of $1.5 billion, most which goes to the Egyptian military, should be cut off as required by law if a country's military ousts a democratically elected leader.
Violence sweeping Egypt in reaction to Mursi's ouster has led to the deaths of 35 people.

Obamacare Strikes: Part-Time Jobs Surge To All Time High; Full-Time Jobs Plunge By 240,000

As a reminder: jobs have quantity and quality components. The quantity component was good enough to convince the 10 Year the taper is imminent (if not stocks, which continue to trade dislocated from any and all fundamentals). But how about the quality? In a word: not good. In June, the household survey reported that part-time jobs soared by 360,000 to 28,059,000 - an all time record high. Full time jobs? Down 240,000.  And looking back at the entire year, so far in 2013, just 130K Full-Time Jobs have been added, offset by a whopping 557K Part-Time jobs. And there is your jobs "quality" leading to today's market euphoria (if only for now).

June full-time vs part-time:

And the divergence historically:

Source: BLS
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