Gazette 081313

Tuesday August 13th 2013

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Egypt police break up Morsi march

Egyptian police have fired tear gas to disperse crowds of supporters of detained ex-leader Mohammed Morsi during a march in central Cairo.

Morsi supporters went to a government compound to protest at the appointment of army officers as local governors.
Local residents then clashed with the pro-Morsi crowds and both sides threw bottles and stones at each other, before security forces moved in.
The army deposed Mr Morsi in July and put in place an interim government.
Supporters of Mr Morsi, an Islamist leader who came from the Muslim Brotherhood movement, refuse to accept the new government and insist he must be reinstated.
They say the military overthrew a democratically elected government and is now attempting to entrench its power.
Opponents of Mr Morsi say he used his year in power to dismantle secular, democratic institutions in order to increase the influence of Islam.

Israel's Iron Dome system shoots down rocket near Egypt border 

The Israeli military shot down a rocket launched toward a Red Sea resort town near the border with Egypt on Tuesday, the army said.

It was the first time Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system successfully intercepted a rocket attack on the resort of Eilat, the military said. The incident came after days of heightened tension along the Egypt-Israel border.
The army said the rocket was intercepted early Tuesday and that there were no injuries. It didn't provide more details and declined to comment on the origins of the projectile.
An al-Qaida-inspired militant group based in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Ansar Jerusalem, claimed responsibility for launching the rocket in an email to The Associated Press. The little known group is hostile to both Israel and Egypt and was behind an attack in August 2011 near Eilat that killed eight people.

At Least 13 Dead In Major Iraqi Oil Pipeline Bombing

Attacks in Iraq killed 13 people on Tuesday, including four who died in a blast targeting Shiite worshippers, while militants bombed a major oil pipeline, halting exports, officials said.
The attacks are the latest in a surge in violence that security forces have failed to curb, despite carrying out major operations against militants said to have resulted in scores of arrests, including 82 on Monday.
In the deadliest attack on Tuesday, a car bomb exploded after midday prayers at Al-Zahraa husseiniyah, a Shiite place of worship south of Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 14.
Militants have carried out attacks on both Sunni and Shiite mosques this year, raising fears of a return to all-out sectarian conflict in Iraq, which peaked in 2006-2007 and killed tens of thousands of people.
In the northern province of Kirkuk, another car bomb killed three police, while bombings also killed a soldier, a Sahwa anti-Al-Qaeda fighter and two civilians in Salaheddin province, north of the capital
And in Nineveh province, also in north Iraq, gunmen shot dead a former soldier and a civilian.
Militants also bombed a major pipeline carrying oil from northern Iraq to Turkey, near the town of Albu Jahash in Nineveh province.

Gunmen attack gas plant in Yemen

Suspected al-Qaeda militants have killed five soldiers in an attack on a gas terminal in southern Yemen, reports say.

They opened fire on a checkpoint near the Balhaf terminal in Shabwa province, killing the soldiers before fleeing.
Almost all US diplomatic missions recently closed in the region due to threats were due to reopen on Sunday.
But the US embassy in the capital, Sanaa, was to stay closed "because of ongoing concerns".
Yemen is a stronghold of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) - an al-Qaeda offshoot considered by Washington to be the most dangerous to the West.
On Thursday, at least 14 suspected al-Qaeda militants - reportedly including seven from Saudi Arabia - were killed in Yemen in three drone strikes, Yemeni officials said.
The US closed 19 diplomatic missions in the Middle East and Africa last Sunday in response to what it said was a threat of a terrorist attack, but 18 out of the 19 missions were due to reopen on Sunday.

Philippines, US talk troops amid South China Sea tensions

Manila: The Philippines will hold talks with the US on boosting American troop levels there as the Southeast Asian nation seeks to counter southern insurgents and China's push for more influence in the region.
The two sides will discuss rotating more US troops through the Philippines, joint military exercises and stationing equipment in the country to address natural disasters, Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said at a briefing on Monday in Manila. The talks will start on Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Carlos Sorreta said.
The Philippines is strengthening its US alliance and modernising its military to counter what it sees as a Chinese move for greater sway in a region rife with disputes over the ownership of fish and gas-rich waters of the South China Sea. The government also wants to contain an insurgency in the southern Mindanao region, where US troops have conducted counter-terrorism training since 2001.
"As an American ally, the Philippines would benefit from increased US presence," said Rommel Banlaoi, executive director of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research. "Expect China to react negatively."

White House spokesman Jay Carney also declined to comment when asked about possible negotiations, though he cited a move by President Barack Obama's administration to rebalance its foreign policy toward a focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
"We need to be fully engaged throughout the region, both economically and when it comes to security matters," Mr Carney said.

44 gunned down in Nigeria mosque

MAIDUGURI: Suspected Islamic militants wearing army fatigues gunned down 44 people praying at a mosque in northeast Nigeria, while another 12 civilians died in an apparently simultaneous attack, security agents said Monday.

Sunday's attacks were the latest in a slew of violence blamed on religious extremists in this West African oil producer, where the radical BokoHaram group, which wants to oust the government and impose Islamic law, poses the greatest security threat in years.

It was not immediately clear why the Islamic Boko Haram would have killed worshipping Muslims, but the group has in the past attacked mosques whose clerics have spoken out against religious extremism. Boko Haram also has attacked Christians outside churches and teachers and schoolchildren, as well as government and military targets.

Since 2010, the militants have been blamed for the killings of more than 1,700 people, according to a count conducted by Associated Press.

The news about Sunday's violence in Borno state, one of three in the northeast under a military state of emergency, came as journalists received a video featuring Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, who gloats over recent attacks, threatens more, and even says his group is now strong enough to go after the United States.

Muslims receive death sentence as ethnic conflict grows in Xinjiang

Court case took place against background of rising tension between Uighurs and majority Han Chinese
A Chinese court has sentenced two Muslim men to death and jailed three more for their roles in clashes that left 21 dead in the north-western region of Xinjiang in April, state media has reported.
The case took place days after claims of fatal violence in another city in the restive region. Officials in Aksu played down that incident as "small scale" or denied there had been any problems at all.
Xinjiang has been the scene of repeated outbreaks of violence in recent years and there are long-running tensions between the state and Uighurs, the largely Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic group that makes up almost half the population. In other recent unrest, 35 people were killed in Turpan in June last year while, in July 2009, ethnic violence in Urumqi left almost 200 people dead and 1,700 injured.
Fifteen officials and security officers, and six inhabitants died in April's clash in Kashgar.
Musa Hesen, accused by the state of playing a leading role in the violence, was sentenced to death on Monday for murder, forming and leading a terrorist organisation, and illegally manufacturing explosives. Rehman Hupur was also sentenced to death for murder and membership of a terrorist organisation, the state news agency, Xinhua, said. An unnamed defendant was jailed for life and two more given nine-year sentences.
Nineteen suspects were arrested in all and further trials are expected.

Report: Iran’s new defense minister nominee behind 1983 bombing of US Marine base in Lebanon 

Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan was a commander in Lebanon overseeing Hezbollah operations during 1983 bombing.
Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, nominated to be defense minister by Iran’s new president Hassan Rouhani, was a commander in Lebanon overseeing Hezbollah operations during the time of the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.

According to a report by Brig. Gen. (ret.) Dr. Shimon Shapira, a senior research associate at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Dehghan was sent to Lebanon and served as a commander of the training corps of the Revolutionary Guard in Syria and Lebanon. He joined the Revolutionary Guard after they were formed in 1979 and spent his entire military career there.

Shapira writes that after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, Dehghan was sent to Lebanon and became responsible for supervising Hezbollah’s military force. Dehghan then took over the command for the Revolutionary Guard in Lebanon.

It was from a base in the Beqaa valley where Iran planned along with Hezbollah, attacks against the Multinational Force and IDF soldiers in Lebanon. In 1983, two separate suicide bombings killed 241 US Marines and 58 French soldiers in their respective barracks in Beirut. 

7-Year-Old Allegedly Raped On Train In India

A 7-year-old girl was allegedly raped on a train traveling through the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, authorities revealed to local media Monday.
The young girl told police the man handed her a 10 Indian rupee note (about $0.16) after the brutal act, the Press Trust of India reports.
The rape is believed to have taken place on an express train sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning. As local publications describe, the man allegedly followed the girl to the bathroom, where he then forced himself inside the stall and sexually assaulted her. He then gave her money and dumped her near a train station in the Bilaspur of the central Indian state, reports note.
It's not known whether the girl was traveling alone or with company at the time.
While a medical examination confirmed the young girl was raped, police are still trying to determine whether the crime took place on the train or at another location in the region.
Bilaspur Superintendent of Police Ratanlal Dangi told the PTI that the girl was found "seriously injured and profusely bleeding" at a market near a train station in the district.
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British Warship Heads To Gibraltar Amid Tensions

The British warship HMS Westminster set sail on Tuesday on a training exercise that will include a stop at Gibraltar, the territory at the centre of a row between Britain and Spain.
The type 23 frigate left Portsmouth naval base on England's south coast to join nine other Royal Navy vessels heading for the Mediterranean and the Gulf.
Defence officials said the training exercise has long been planned and follows similar deployments in 2011 and 2012, but it comes at a time of heightened tensions over Gibraltar, a rocky outpost on the southern coast of Spain.
The British government on Monday said it was considering legal action over "totally disproportionate" border checks imposed by Spain on the British outpost, which have led to traffic tailbacks lasting several hours.
But Spain refused to stop the checks, which it countered were "legal and proportionate", and has said it was considering taking the row over the disputed territory to the United Nations and the International Court of Justice.
Relatives of sailors deployed on HMS Westminster waved off the warship from its home port as it began a seven-month deployment.
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US state first to require voter ID

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has signed into law a controversial bill requiring voters to show photo IDs when they go to the polls.

His state becomes the first in the US to impose restrictions on voters since the Supreme Court struck down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in June.
Civil liberties groups immediately challenged the decision, arguing it hit minorities and poorer voters hardest.
But supporters of the law say it tackles voting fraud.
'Protection' The Voting Rights Act was originally enacted to fight entrenched racial discrimination against voters in the 1960s.
But the Supreme Court ruled in June that circumstances had since changed and key elements of the Act were intended to be only temporary.
In effect, the ruling brought an end to the requirement for federal "pre-clearance" of changes to election laws in 15 mainly Southern states.

Latest Obamacare Carve Out a Boon to Big Insurance 

“We can't have a system that works better for the insurance companies than it does for the American people…. And they will keep on doing this for as long as they can get away with it.”
-- President Obama in a March 8, 2010 speech at Arcadia University calling for passage of his health law.
The wealthy and well-connected seem to be having a much better go of getting exemptions from Obamacare.
When President Obama’s health legislation was teetering after the election of Sen. Scott Brown, the president and his administration went on the attack, ripping into the profits of Americas big insurance companies. He and his team said that those who oppose his law were putting “profits ahead of people.”
Today, as the law lurches into full implementation, we learn that the administration has imposed another delay in a key provision of the law, this time to help the profits of those same insurance companies he once attacked.

Man Who Misled Congress On Surveillance To Lead Oversight Group

President Barack Obama on Monday announced that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper will head a review group designed to assess the nation's intelligence gathering and surveillance capabilities, raising questions about whether a board led by a top government official will be as independent as he promised.
Obama announced the creation of an "independent group" of "outside experts" to review privacy issues raised by the nation's surveillance programs during a Friday press conference. "We’re forming a high-level group of outside experts to review our entire intelligence and communications technologies," he said, adding that the group would "consider how we can maintain the trust of the people, how we can make sure that there absolutely is no abuse in terms of how these surveillance technologies are used."
A statement released by Clapper on Monday announcing the formation of the group does not discuss abuses, instead mentioning the risk of "unauthorized disclosure."
"The Review Group will assess whether, in light of advancements in communications technologies, the United States employs its technical collection capabilities in a manner that optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while appropriately accounting for other policy considerations, such as the risk of unauthorized disclosure and our need to maintain the public trust," Clapper said.
Clapper recently apologized for making an "erroneous" statement to Congress after saying in a congressional hearing that the National Security Agency does not collect data on Americans.

Hillary Clinton calls for election reform in first in series of speeches 

Potential 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton kicked off a series of speeches on Monday with a call to combat what she called an "assault on voting rights."
She spent most of her 45-minute talk to about 1,000 members of the American Bar Association assailing a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a significant part of the Voting Rights Act and discussing what she sees as "deep flaws in our electoral system" as it relates to racial discrimination at the polls.
The former U.S. secretary of state spoke in San Francisco after receiving the group's highest award for service to the law. She said her upcoming speeches would look at national security and U.S. global leadership.
Next month, she intends to speak in Philadelphia about the "balance and transparency necessary in our national security policies as we move beyond a decade of wars to face new threats." Later, Clinton said she would discuss the implication of American's global leadership and the nation's moral standing around the world.

Holder seeks to avert mandatory sentences for some drug offenders

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced Monday that low-level, nonviolent drug offenders with no ties to gangs or large-scale drug organizations will no longer be charged with offenses that impose severe mandatory sentences.

The new Justice Department policy is part of a comprehensive prison reform package that Holder unveiled in a speech to the American Bar Association in San Francisco. He also introduced a policy to reduce sentences for elderly, nonviolent inmates and find alternatives to prison for nonviolent criminals.
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