Gazette 082113

Wednesday August 21st 2013

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'Poisonous gas' attack by regime troops kills at least 100 in Syria, activists say

Syrian opposition groups say a "poisonous gas" attack during a government offensive near Damascus has left at least 100 people dead, with images showing pale, lifeless bodies of children lined up in makeshift hospitals.
Rami Abdul-Rahman from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said activists in the area told him that poison gas was fired in rockets as well as from the air. He added that he has documented at least 100 deaths, but said it was not clear whether the victims died from shelling or toxic gas.
Another group, the Local Coordination Committees, said hundreds of people were killed or injured in the shelling and the Syrian National Coalition, Syria's main opposition group in exile, put the number at 1,300. The group said it was basing its claim on accounts and photographs by activists on the ground. The Damascus Media Office told Reuters that at least 494 were dead.
Such different figures from activists are common in the aftermath of attacks in Syria, where the government restricts reporting.

EGYPTIAN COURT: FREE MUBARAK

CAIRO — Officials say an Egyptian court has ordered the release of ex-President Hosni Mubarak, but it's not immediately clear whether the prosecutors will appeal the order.
The Wednesday decision comes in a hearing on charges against Mubarak of accepting gifts from a state-owned newspaper, the last case that has kept the ailing leader in detention.
It raises the possibility that Mubarak will walk free, a move that is likely to fuel the unrest roiling the country after the autocratic leader's successor was removed in a military coup last month. The officials spoke anonymously because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
Mubarak, 85, has been held since April 2011. He's now on trial for the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising against him and other charges.

EU urged to keep Egypt aid flowing

The UK has urged its EU allies to maintain aid for ordinary Egyptians as European foreign ministers consider how to help end the violence in Egypt.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said most Egyptians wanted democracy, so "we mustn't do anything that hurts them or that cuts off support to them".
The foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels after a week in which more than 900 people have died in Egypt.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has offered to mediate again.
Lady Ashton visited Egypt last month, when she was allowed to meet the deposed President Mohammed Morsi.
"I am more than willing to go back... if they wish me to," she said.
The BBC's Matthew Price in Brussels says it is looking clear that the EU will not cut humanitarian aid to Egypt. Several foreign ministers have cautioned against any moves that would harm the people of Egypt.
However, they view military and security assistance differently, our correspondent says, and they may opt for a bloc-wide ban on arms deliveries.

Pakistan links Quetta 'bomb-making factory' to attacks

Pakistani authorities said Wednesday that a car bomb factory where troops confiscated more than 100 tones of chemicals had been used in recent attacks on troops and minority Shiite Muslims.

Paramilitary troops found wires, detonators and mixers to turn the chemicals into bombs during Tuesday's raid in the city of Quetta, a flashpoint for sectarian, Islamist and separatist attacks.
Eleven people have now been arrested in connection with the case and the owner of the compound has been detained for questioning, said a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC).
Suspects told investigators that potassium chlorate and ammonium chlorate had been packed with wires and detonators into vehicles at the compound, a paramilitary official said.
Experts believe the compound was effectively a bomb-making factory, which had prepared explosives used in recent bomb attacks on military targets and Shiites.

Boko Haram leader 'may be dead'

Nigeria's militant Islamist leader Abubakar Shekau may have been killed by the security forces during a shoot-out, an army spokesman has said.

An "intelligence report" showed that Shekau, the leader of the Boko Haram group, may have died between 25 July and 3 August, Lt-Col Sagir Musa said.
Boko Haram, which has waged an insurgency in Nigeria since 2009, has not commented on the statement.
The US had put a bounty of $7m (£4.6m) on Shekau's head.
'Imposter' The intelligence report suggested that Shekau was shot on 30 June, when soldiers raided a Boko Haram base at Sambisa Forest in north-eastern Nigeria. 

North Korean prison camp horror exposed at UN panel hearing

Public executions and torture are daily occurrences in North Korea's prisons, according to dramatic testimony from former inmates at a UN Commission of Inquiry that opened in South Korea's capital on Tuesday.

This is the first time that the North's human rights record has been examined by an expert panel, although the North, now ruled by a third generation of the founding Kim family, denies that it abuses human rights. It refuses to recognise the commission and has denied access to investigators.
Harrowing accounts from defectors now living in South Korea related how guards chopped off a man's finger, forced inmates to eat frogs and a mother to kill her own baby.
"I had no idea at all ... I thought my whole hand was going to be cut off at the wrist, so I felt thankful and grateful that only my finger was cut off," said Shin Dong-hyuk, punished for dropping a sewing machine.

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Born in a prison called Camp 14 and forced to watch the execution of his mother and brother whom he turned in for his own survival, Mr Shin is North Korea's best-known defector and camp survivor. He said he believed the UN panel was the only way to improve human rights in the isolated and impoverished state.
"Because the North Korean people cannot stand up with guns like Libya and Syria ... I personally think this is the first and last hope left," Mr Shin said. "There is a lot for them to cover up, even though they don't admit to anything."
There are a 150,000-200,000 people in North Korean prison camps, according to independent estimates, and defectors say many inmates are malnourished or worked to death.

Five killed, oil pipeline bombed in Iraq violence

BAGHDAD: Attacks in Iraq killed five people, damaged an oil pipeline and hit a Shiite shrine on Wednesday, as the country grapples with a months-long spike in violence. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed to press ahead with operations to try to stem the bloodshed, which has claimed more than 3,500 lives already this year, but analysts say Iraq is not tackling the root causes of the unrest.
In the deadliest attack, gunmen broke into the house of a local anti-al-Qaida militia chief west of Baghdad, killing his son and cousin.
Sunni militants consider the Sahwa, a collection of Sunni tribal militias that joined forces with the United States and turned against al-Qaida from late 2006, to be traitors and frequently attack them.
Also on Wednesday, six bombings in four different Iraqi cities, including the capital, killed three people, among them an army captain, and wounded four others and damaged a local Shiite shrine, officials said.
Meanwhile, Iraq's crude exports via Turkey were halted by three separate but apparently coordinated attacks targeting an oil pipeline in the northern provinces of Nineveh and Kirkuk.
Iraq is dependent on oil exports for the lion's share of its government income, and is seeking to dramatically ramp up its sales in the coming years to fund the reconstruction of its battered infrastructure.

 

Liberman: Turkish PM Erdogan is Nazi propagandist Goebbels' successor

Yisrael Beytenu MK reacts angrily to Erdogan's charge that Israel behind downfall of Morsi in Egypt; says Turkish PM's "hate and incitement" prove he was right to oppose apology to Ankara over Mavi Marmara affair.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's hateful and incitement filled words against Israel is reminiscent of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, Yisrael Beytenu MK Avigdor Liberman said Wednesday.
Liberman, currently the head of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and former foreign minister, spurned the restraint demonstrated by the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry toward Erdogan's charge Tuesday that  Israel was behind the downfall of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.

Pervez Musharraf charged with Benazir Bhutto murder

Lawyers believe prosecution will struggle to prove link between Pakistan's former military leader and 2007 assassination

Pakistan's former military leader, Pervez Musharraf, was formally charged by a court on Tuesday with the murder of Benazir Bhutto, the ex-prime minister assassinated during a political campaign rally in 2007.
Musharraf was indicted during a short hearing at a court in the city of Rawalpindi, a move that adds to the problems facing the former president who returned from self-exile in March only to be entangled in three legal cases, barred from contesting elections and put under house arrest.
Public prosecutor Mohammad Azhar told reporters that the 70-year-old retired general was charged with murder, conspiracy to murder and facilitation of murder.
But Afsha Adil, one of Musharraf's legal team, said the cases against his client would not stand up in court.
"There is no evidence on record," she said. "These are all fabricated cases, there is nothing solid in all these cases."
Militant groups have vowed to kill the former army chief, who was whisked to court under heavy security, with hundreds of police positioned along his route.
Bhutto warned before her death that Musharraf should be held responsible if she were assassinated. His government was widely criticised for not doing enough to protect Bhutto when she returned to the country in 2007.

US troop drawdown hinders oversight of development aid in Afghanistan

Civilian officials faced with supervision of billions of dollars in projects but security fears leave them stranded in Kabul

Since its troops swept into Afghanistan 12 years ago, the United States has dispatched hundreds of state department employees to keep track of the massive American investment in developing the country. The days of such oversight are now ending.
Nearly all US diplomats are confined to Kabul because of the shrinking footprint of the US military, which once protected and transported civilian officials. That leaves diplomats here with a predicament: how do they oversee billions of dollars in projects, most of which are far from the capital, when they can't leave Kabul?
The diplomats – often in small teams living in far-flung districts – have tried to nurture local Afghan governments to provide stability after US troops withdraw from areas where the Taliban is active. Some US officials say they were plucked from their regional posts as they were identifying important problems with government corruption and abuse.
The state department is planning unusual ways to continue monitoring US-funded projects. It will hire private contractors, who will submit photos with time and location stamps to prove they visited the sites. Firms in Kabul might call provinces by phone to ask villagers about education, nutrition or confidence in the government. Contractors might assess the progress of dams or roads by flying overhead and capturing aerial images.

Manning given 35 years for leaks

The US soldier convicted of handing a trove of secret government documents to anti-secrecy website Wikileaks has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Pte First Class Bradley Manning, 25, was convicted in July of 20 charges against him, including espionage.
Last week, he apologised for hurting the US and for "the unexpected results" of his actions.
Prosecutors had asked for a 60-year sentence in order to send a message to future potential leakers.
Pte Manning will receive credit for time he has already served in jail, plus 112 days' credit in recompense for the harsh conditions of his confinement immediately after his arrest.
Military prisoners can earn time off their sentences for good behaviour but must serve at least one-third of any prison sentence before they can become eligible for parole.

NSA can track three-fourths of US Internet

The National Security Agency's surveillance network has the capacity to spy on 75 percent of all U.S. Internet traffic. As first reported in the WSJ: “The National Security Agency -- which possesses only limited legal authority to spy on U.S. citizens -- has built a surveillance network that covers more Americans' Internet communications than officials have publicly disclosed, current and former officials say.”

Al Jazeera sues AT&T

Even on its inaugural day of broadcasting, Al Jazeera America was still fighting for visibility.
Hours after its launch at 3 p.m. ET, AJAM announced that it had filed a lawsuit against AT&T, which dropped the nascent channel from its U-verse pay-TV service at the last minute citing "breaches by Al Jazeera of the existing agreement."
“Al Jazeera America made a decision to seek judicial intervention in its dispute with AT&T. Unfortunately AT&T's decision to unilaterally delete Al Jazeera America presented us with circumstances that were untenable -- an affiliate that has willfully and knowingly breached its contractual obligations," the new network announced in a press release late Tuesday night.

Fort Hood prosecutors rest case

US military prosecutors have concluded their case against the man who admits killing 13 soldiers during the 2009 attack at Fort Hood Army base in Texas.

Major Nidal Hasan, defending himself, mentioned no plans to call witnesses as court resumes on Wednesday.
His court-appointed lawyers, whom he has barely used, have argued he is intent on getting the death penalty.
The 42-year-old Army psychiatrist has said he carried out the attack in defence of his Islamist ideals.
As prosecutors rested their case on Tuesday, having called nearly 90 witnesses in 11 days, Judge Colonel Tara Osborn reminded Maj Hasan that it was within his rights to ask her to rule he was not guilty, on the grounds that the prosecution had not proven its case.
But he declined to do so.
Judge Osborn then adjourned the court.
"We'll resume tomorrow with the defence's case, if any," she said.
Virginia-born Maj Hasan, who was shot during the attack and is paralysed, attends court in a wheelchair.
He has requested frequent breaks in the testimony for rest and for prayer.
If Maj Hasan is to face execution, the case would automatically go to the military appeals courts, which have overturned most death sentences they have reviewed.

Bill Clinton foundation reportedly racks up $50M in travel costs

WASHINGTON – Bill Clinton’s foundation has spent more than $50 million on travel expenses since 2003, an analysis of the non-profit’s tax forms reveal.
The web of foundations run by the former president spent an eye-opening $12.1 million on travel in 2011 alone, according to an internal audit conducted by foundation accountants. That’s enough to by 12,000 air tickets costing $1,000 each, or 33 air tickets each day of the year.
That overall figure includes travel costs for the William J. Clinton Foundation (to which Hillary and Chelsea are now attached) of $4.2 million on travel in 2011, the most recent year where figures are available.
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