Friday August 9th 2013

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Gunmen seize Turkish Airlines pilots

Two pilots working for Turkish Airlines have been abducted in Lebanon, near Beirut's international airport.

The men were snatched from a bus which was carrying several other crew members and passengers between a hotel and the airport terminal.
A group called Zuwwar al-Imam Rida has said it seized the men, saying they would be freed in exchange for nine Lebanese hostages in Syria.
Turkey has advised its citizens in Lebanon to leave if possible.
Turkey backs Syria's Sunni rebels, and is seen to have influence over them, while much of Lebanon's Shia community supports President Bashar al-Assad.

3 US drone strikes kill 12 militants in Yemen, officials say

The U.S. has sharply escalated its drone war in Yemen, with military officials in the Arab country reporting 34 suspected Al Qaeda militants killed in less than two weeks, including three strikes on Thursday alone in which a dozen died.

The action against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemen branch is known, comes amid a global terror alert issued by Washington. One Mideast official says the uptick is due to its leaders leaving themselves more vulnerable by moving from their normal hideouts toward areas where they could carry out attacks.
The U.S. and Britain evacuated diplomatic staff from the capital of Sanaa this week after learning of a threatened attack that prompted Washington to close temporarily 19 diplomatic posts in the Middle East and Africa.
On Thursday, the U.S. State Department warned Americans not to travel to Pakistan and ordered nonessential government personnel to leave the U.S. Consulate in Lahore because of a specific threat to that diplomatic mission.

Eiffel Tower Evacuated Due To Bomb Threat

PARIS, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The Eiffel Tower was completely evacuated on Friday afternoon following a bomb alert, a police official told Reuters.
The 324-metre-high (1,062-foot) iron tower was evacuated around 2 p.m. (12:30 GMT) and had not reopened to tourists by 1600. The police official could give no further details.
Built in 1889 and one of the world's most recognisable monuments, the Eiffel Tower sees some 7 million visitors each year and up to 30,000 a day in the peak summer season.
It is regularly subject to bomb scares but these threats are usually quickly found to be hoaxes and only cause full evacuations a couple of times a year.

Egypt's Coptic Pope 'fears attacks'

A bishop in Egypt's Coptic Church says Pope Tawadros II has cancelled weekly public meetings due to concerns over possible attacks on his congregation.

Bishop Angaelos, who heads the Church in the UK, says in one incident the flag of al-Qaeda was raised on church property while worshippers hid inside.
Several human rights groups have criticised Egypt's authorities for failing to protect Christians.
Some Islamists say the Church backed the removal of President Morsi.
Two weeks ago Bishop Angaelos told the BBC that he didn't mind what kind of government led Egypt - even an Islamist one - as long as individual rights were respected and the country was able to flourish.
Now the bishop has revealed that the Church's leader, Pope Tawadros II, has cancelled some public events at St Mark's Cathedral in Cairo because of the worsening security situation.
Pope Tawadros is concerned about the risk of potential attacks on the Coptic congregation.
Egypt's Christians have long been a target for disaffected Islamists, many of whom now openly accuse the Church of playing a role in the recent removal of President Mohammed Morsi.

Philippines says 23 rebels killed in a month

The Philippine military says it killed three communist rebels in a clash in a province north of the capital, bringing the number of guerrillas who have died in combat in the past month to 23.

Col. Henry Sabarre says the three New People's Army fighters were part of a 12-man team that clashed Friday with soldiers in Dona Remedios Trinidad township in Bulacan province.
He says the guerrillas fired on the troops as they approached to check reports of the presence of armed men in the area.
At least 20 guerrillas were killed earlier in three separate clashes around the country since last month. One soldier has died.
Norway-brokered talks on ending one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies collapsed two years ago.

Police top brass killed in funeral bombing

Karachi: Nearly half the top police commanders in Pakistan's Baluchistan province have been killed after insurgents shot a police inspector, then bombed his funeral hours later, where most of the province's police commanders had gathered. At least 30 people were reported dead and 40 wounded.
The attack in Quetta, Baluchistan's capital, was claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, the formal name for the Pakistani Taliban. The claim of responsibility called it revenge for a recent crackdown on Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an ally of al-Qaeda. But militants said they thought Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was the more likely suspect because the Pakistani Taliban lacked the local resources to launch any such operation in Quetta.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has had a resurgence recently thanks to help from Afghan Taliban who've been flocking to Baluchistan in anticipation of an expected Pakistani military operation in northern Pakistan.
The attack was similar to one on June 15 in which a Lashkar-e-Jhangvi suicide bomber targeted a bus full of female university students in Quetta and other Lashkar-e-Jhangvi fighters then besieged the hospital where survivors had been taken.

Authorities said the most recent two-pronged assault began with the shooting of a police inspector who was shopping with his family in preparation for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

US tells diplomatic staff to leave Lahore

Non-essential staff told to move to capital, Islamabad, after specific threat comes amid soaring terrorism in Pakistan

The United States has ordered its diplomatic staff to leave Lahore, citing a specific security threat amid soaring terrorist violence in Pakistan.
Even though the US consulate in Pakistan's second largest city was closed for the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, non-essential staff were told it would not be safe for them to remain in their homes in the city.
They were ordered to move to the capital, Islamabad, where an embassy spokeswoman said it was unclear when the Lahore mission would reopen.
Diplomatic outposts in Peshawar and Karachi, which are considerably more volatile than Lahore, were not affected by the security warning.
US officials said they were unable to say for certain whether the alert was linked to an al-Qaida threat this week that prompted the US state department to shut down 19 missions in 16 countries in the Middle East and Africa.
On Thursday, a state department travel warning said several foreign and indigenous terrorist groups posed a potential danger to US citizens throughout Pakistan.
The withdrawal of staff from Lahore, the politically important capital of the Punjab province, comes after days of relentless terrorist strikes across the country.
On Friday, gunmen attacked the car of a politician in the south-western city of Quetta, killing nine bystanders and wounding 27. The politician, an ex-minister in the provincial government of Baluchistan called Ali Mohammad Jattack, was not hurt.
He told local media: "They killed innocent worshippers belonging to different communities. This is against humanity, it is brutality on the level of animals."

Report: Iran's Arak reactor to have nuclear weapons grade plutonium by next summer

The Arak heavy water nuclear reactor in Iran will be capable of producing two nuclear bombs' worth of weapons grade plutonium a year and will be capable of producing the material by next summer, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Monday that cited US, UN and EU officials.
Progress at Arak could complicate international efforts to negotiate with Iran on its suspected nuclear arms program and it also "heightens the possibility of an Israeli strike on the site," the report stated, citing officials.
According to the report, US and the West has been focused mainly on Iran's program to enrich uranium and that the issue of plutonium, that can also serve as a material for an explosive devise, took some officials by surprise.
Regarding the capabilities of the Arak reactor, the report quoted an official based at the IAEA's Vienna headquarters who said that it "really crept up on us."

Anti-India protests erupt in Kashmir

Indian forces used tear gas and pellet guns to quell thousands of stone-throwing protesters who took to the streets after special Eid prayers on Friday in the Indian portion of Kashmir.

A police officer said dozens of protesters, police and paramilitary officers were injured in the clashes at several places in Srinagar, the main city in Kashmir. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
The protesters chanted "We Want Freedom," and "Down with India" as they marched through the streets of Srinagar after offering prayers in mosques.
The clashes erupted as thousands of policemen and paramilitary soldiers deployed in the city asked them to disperse.
The injured included 19 police and paramilitary soldiers, said Kishore Prasad, a spokesman for the Central Reserve Police force.
Several separatist leaders had been put under house arrest on Thursday night to stop them from leading the protests on the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which caps the fasting month of Ramadan.
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Obama holds secret surveillance meeting with tech leaders: report

U.S. President Barack Obama quietly met with the CEOs of Apple Inc, AT&T Inc. as well as other technology and privacy representatives on Thursday to discuss government surveillance, according to a media report.
Google Inc. computer scientist Vint Cerf and civil liberties leaders also participated in the meeting, along with Apple’s Tim Cook and AT&T’s Randall Stephenson, Politico said late Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The session was not included on Obama’s daily public schedule for Thursday.
The closed-door meeting followed another private session on Tuesday between top Obama administration officials, industry lobbyists and privacy advocates, Politico reported, adding that the latest meeting “was organized with greater secrecy.”
One administration aide characterized Tuesday’s meeting was as part of a larger outreach effort, Politico said.
“This is one of a number of discussions the administration is having with experts and stakeholders in response to the president’s directive to have a national dialogue about how to best protect privacy in a digital era, including how to respect privacy while defending our national security,” the official told the news outlet.
This report comes after revelations about the U.S. government’s secret surveillance tactics detailed in various media reports from information disclosed by fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Tsarnaev friends indicted in Boston Marathon bombing case

WASHINGTON — Hours after the FBI released surveillance images of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sent a college friend a hurried text message asking him to go to his dorm room and "take what's there."
"If yu want yu can go to my room and take what's there," he texted on April 18, three days after the bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260 others. Tsarnaev ended with "salam aleikum," Arabic for "peace be upon you."
According to a federal grand jury indictment issued Thursday in Boston, Dias Kadyrbayev showed the text to a mutual friend, Azamat Tazhayakov. The two allegedly went to Tsarnaev's room at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and removed his laptop computer and a backpack containing fireworks, a jar of Vaseline, a thumb drive and other items, taking it all to their apartment in nearby New Bedford.

Obama set to sign student loan deal

Students heading back to college this fall will save thousands in interest charges on their loans after they graduate once President Obama signs into law a rare bipartisan compromise.
The president was scheduled to sign the deal Friday at the White House, ending a frenzied summer of negotiations to restore lower interest rates before millions of college students moved back into the dorms. About 11 million students this year are expected to have lower interest rates, saving the average undergraduate $1,500 on interest charges on this year's loans.
The legislation links student loan interest rates to the financial markets. It offers lower rates this fall because the government can borrow money cheaply at this time. If the economy improves in the coming years as expected, it will become more costly for the government to borrow money and that cost would be passed on to students.
Rates on new subsidized Stafford loans doubled to 6.8 percent July 1 because Congress could not agree on a way to keep them at the previous 3.4 percent rate. Without congressional and presidential action, rates would have stayed at 6.8 percent -- a reality most lawmakers called unacceptable.

White House defends Obama's Martha's Vineyard vacation

President Obama will head for vacation Saturday on Martha's Vineyard -- where Press Secretary Jay Carney said he hopes to spend time with family.
But, first, Carney joked to reporters, "He's going to make a Fed chairman decision and then we'll let you know. Joke!"
That answer came after reporters asked whether the week-long Massachusetts holiday was "purely a vacation" or whether Obama would "do anything on the work side" with regard to budget or fiscal issues or pending international crises.
Mostly vacation, Carney suggested, saying that Obama "very much looks forward to being able to spend a few days with his family and it also remains the case that wherever he is, he's president of the United States and will be dedicating a portion of his day to being briefed and working on all the issues that are on the table in front of him."
Carney said Obama will be regularly updated on the terrorist threat that has shuttered embassies, but that "with any luck he'll also have some time to relax with his family."
Carney wouldn't discuss who is paying for the holiday -- given that Obama has to travel with security and staff, taxpayers bear a share of the cost.
Carney said he'd be "using the same formulas that have been in place, I'm sure for administration after administration after administration...that has been the case for years, whether it was President Bush, President Clinton, President Bush, President Reagan."
Carney noted as president, "you carry a little baggage when you travel. And that's true whether it's on a summit or international meeting, a domestic trip, or for a vacation."
- See more at: http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/washington/2013/08/white-house-defends-obamas-marthas-vineyard-vacation-.html#sthash.oe9JwSAx.dpuf

Read more here: http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/washington/2013/08/white-house-defends-obamas-marthas-vineyard-vacation-.html#storylink=cpy

President Obama will head for vacation Saturday on Martha's Vineyard -- where Press Secretary Jay Carney said he hopes to spend time with family.

But, first, Carney joked to reporters, "He's going to make a Fed chairman decision and then we'll let you know. Joke!"

That answer came after reporters asked whether the week-long Massachusetts holiday was "purely a vacation" or whether Obama would "do anything on the work side" with regard to budget or fiscal issues or pending international crises.

Mostly vacation, Carney suggested, saying that Obama "very much looks forward to being able to spend a few days with his family and it also remains the case that wherever he is, he's president of the United States and will be dedicating a portion of his day to being briefed and working on all the issues that are on the table in front of him."

Carney said Obama will be regularly updated on the terrorist threat that has shuttered embassies, but that "with any luck he'll also have some time to relax with his family."

Carney wouldn't discuss who is paying for the holiday -- given that Obama has to travel with security and staff, taxpayers bear a share of the cost.

Carney said he'd be "using the same formulas that have been in place, I'm sure for administration after administration after administration...that has been the case for years, whether it was President Bush, President Clinton, President Bush, President Reagan."

Carney noted as president, "you carry a little baggage when you travel. And that's true whether it's on a summit or international meeting, a domestic trip, or for a vacation."

Chuck Todd: Hillary miniseries 'nightmare' for NBC News

NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd is calling a planned Hillary Clinton miniseries on NBC a “nightmare” for the network’s news operation, which is sometimes “at war” with its entertainment division.
Discussing the separation between NBC News and NBC Entertainment, which is behind the miniseries, on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday, Todd lamented that even well-informed people don’t understand the wall that exists between the two entities.
“This is why this miniseries is a total nightmare for NBC News,” Todd said.
“We know there’s this giant firewall. We know we have nothing to do with it. We know that we’d love probably to be as critical or whatever … if it comes out, but there’s nothing we can do about it and we’re going to only own the negative,” Todd continued. “People are going to see the peacock, and they see NBC, and they see NBC News, and they think, ‘Well, they can’t be that separate.’”
(WATCH: Reince Priebus: NBC doesn’t care about Republicans)
Todd, presciently, had tried to get ahead of the “nightmare” when the miniseries was first announced, tweeting last month that NBC News and Entertainment were separate.

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8/09/2013

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