Gazette - Evening Edition 081613

Friday August 16th 2013

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EVENING EDITION

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Egypt crisis: Dozens dead in Egypt 'day of anger'

More than 80 people have been killed in Egypt, officials say, as protesters loyal to the ousted President Mohammed Morsi clashed with security forces.

Most of the reported deaths were in Cairo, but about 25 were elsewhere, including 12 in Nile Delta cities.
Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood said on Friday that there would be a week of daily rallies across Egypt.
Two days ago the protesters' camps were cleared, leaving at least 638 dead and sparking international condemnation.
In the wake of Wednesday's violence, the interior ministry says police have been authorised to use live ammunition "within a legal framework".
A state of emergency is also in force, including a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

related story: ‘Incoherent’ Obama Under Fire as Egypt Erupts
As Egypt descends into chaos, President Obama is facing increasing criticism that an “incoherent” policy toward the country — much like U.S. policy toward Syria — is putting U.S. money and influence on the line without a clear end-game.
The Obama administration claims to be staying neutral in the violent confrontation between the military-backed government and Muslim Brotherhood supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi. More than 600 people have been killed so far across the country.
“America cannot determine the future of Egypt,” Obama said Thursday, in brief remarks from Martha’s Vineyard, where he’s vacationing, as he appealed for calm and condemned the violence.
Yet the administration is sending mixed signals. While the president directly spoke out against the military-backed government on Thursday — and canceled upcoming joint military exercises — the U.S. has refused to label Morsi’s ouster a coup. That means, under U.S. law, the administration can continue to send $1.5 billion in annual aid to the Egyptian government.
The mixed signals raise concern that the U.S. is simply breeding distrust on both sides.

Related story: EU set for emergency Egypt talks

Dozens Injured After Authorities Crush Prison Riot In Bahrain

MANAMA, Bahrain -- Bahraini authorities crushed a prison riot on Friday, leaving at least 40 injured after they fired stun grenades and tear gas, rights groups said.
Prisoners called their families from inside the prison to alert them to the crackdown, Sayed al-Muhafada of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights said.
The rioting occurred in Bahrain's Dry Dock prison on the island of Muharraq, northeast of the capital, Manama, the group said in a statement, adding that the ward at the center of the revolt houses many anti-government activists and human rights defenders waiting to be tried on terrorism charges.
The Interior Ministry announced that order had been restored following the riots, saying on their official twitter feed that prisoners had tried to "break the doors and police interfered and restored order."
Gulf researcher Nicholas McGeehan of Human Rights Watch called for an investigation into the incident. In a statement to The Associated Press, he said reports of the riot were of utmost concern "given well-documented previous instances of brutality and torture at Dry Dock prison."
Bahrain has seen over two years of unrest linked to the Shiite majority's demands for a greater say in the affairs of the minority Sunni-ruled kingdom. In recent months, security forces have mostly kept protests away from the center of the capital.
The island nation with a native population of more than 550,000 has been gripped by near nonstop turmoil since February 2011, when Shiites inspired by the Arab Spring wave of revolts began the uprising.

Hezbollah blames Sunnis for bomb

The leader of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah, says radical Sunni Muslim militants bombed a Beirut suburb, killing 22 people.

Mr Nasrallah's Shia group supports the government of President Assad in the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
"I will go myself to Syria if it is necessary in the battle against the takfiris (Sunni radicals)," Mr Nasrallah said, on his own TV channel.
A Syrian rebel group said it carried out Thursday's bombing.

Suspected Boko Haram attack in north Nigeria kills 11

Suspected Boko Haram Islamists have stormed a town in northeast Nigeria, opened fire on police and civilians and killed 11 people, residents and a local lawmaker told AFP Friday.

The attack happened late Thursday in the town of Damboa in Borno state, Boko Haram's stronghold and where Nigeria has imposed a state of emergency as it pursues an offensive against the insurgent group.
"The attack lasted until about midnight," said Adamu Isah, a student who lives in Damboa. He said groups of gunmen opened fire on police and civilians and that "11 people died."
He blamed the attack on "Boko Haram" fighters.
State lawmaker Ayamu Lawan Gwasha, who represents Damboa, confirmed the details, as did a local security official who requested anonymity.

Germany Suspends Aid To Egypt

Reactions on Friday around the world to developments in Egypt following clashes in which hundreds of people were killed and thousands injured:

EUROPEAN UNION
European leaders spoke Friday about the need for a coordinated EU response to the violence in Egypt and agreed there should be a meeting of the European Union's foreign ministers next week. French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for an end to violence and a resumption of dialogue in Egypt. The German government statement said Merkel told Hollande that Germany, one of Egypt's biggest trading partners, would "re-evaluate" its relations with Cairo in light of this week's bloodshed. Hollande also discussed the violence with Italian Premier Enrico Letta and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on French television that no options would be off the table at the foreign ministers' meeting, including a possible suspension of aid. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called the deaths in Egypt "shocking."

SAUDI ARABIA
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah voiced support for Egypt's military-backed interim government, saying the kingdom stands by the country in its fight against "terrorism and strife" – an apparent reference to deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement. In a televised statement, Abdullah called for honest people and intellectuals "to stand firmly against all those who try to shake the stability of a country that has always led the Arab and Islamic worlds."

Gibraltar: David Cameron urges Europe to send monitors to border

David Cameron has urged the president of the European commission to dispatch a monitoring team to the border between Spain and Gibraltar, where increased checks imposed by Spanish authorities have been at the centre of a diplomatic spat.
In a telephone call to José Manuel Barroso, the prime minister underlined Britain's belief that the additional checks were "politically motivated and disproportionate", and contrary to the EU right of free movement as a result.
He said Britain was now actively considering legal action and had begun collating evidence on the "sporadic nature of the measures" which would prove they were illegitimate.
Political tensions in the region flared after the British territory began work on a concrete reef in the Mediterranean, which Spain claims will destroy fishing in the area.
Spain's increased border controls have led to delays of several hours for those travelling to and from the British overseas territory.
The European commission had previously said that it planned to send a team of monitors to Gibraltar next month to check whether Spain was breaking EU rules on frontier controls, but on Friday a Downing Street spokesman said Cameron had asked Barroso to ensure it was sent "urgently".

China ships enter disputed waters: Japan coastguard 

Chinese coastguard ships on Friday sailed into disputed waters at the centre of a bitter row with Tokyo, officials said, a day after China blasted Japanese lawmakers for visiting a controversial war shrine.

The four government vessels spent about two hours within the 12-nautical-mile band around the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku islands -- which Beijing calls the Diaoyu islands -- in the East China Sea.
Japan's coastguard said the vessels had left territorial waters by 12:30 pm (0330 GMT) but remained in the area.
Following the incursion, Junichi Ihara, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, lodged a protest with a senior diplomat at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo, Kyodo News agency reported.
Kyodo said seven ships were spotted just outside of the waters earlier Friday, before the four Chinese coastguard vessels entered the disputed waters.

Car bomb near Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut kills 20, injures 212 

At least 20 people were killed and more than 212 were injured on Thursday when a car bomb went off near a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut's Dahia quarter, a security source in Lebanon said.
While a Sunni Islamist group claimed responsibility for the bombing, Hezbollah and Lebanese officials said it bore the markings of a Zionist attack and served the interests of Israel.
The Lebanese Armed Forces stated that 60-80kgs. of explosive materials were used in the blast. A witness said at least five nearby buildings were damaged and many cars in the area were destroyed. The blast sent a column of black smoke over the densely populated area in the south of the Lebanese capital.
Several minutes after Thursday's blast, live television footage showed fires still burning in the street where the explosion took place. The facades of neighboring residential buildings were also badly damaged.

Al-Qaeda increases attacks in Iraq from Syrian haven

Washington: The spiralling conflict in Syria has provided a sanctuary for leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq who are orchestrating attacks in Baghdad and other cities, posing an additional challenge in efforts to maintain security there.
''They are flush with jihadi recruits, who are coming into Syria, and we think they are sending a number of them into Iraq,'' a State Department official said.
In 2011 and 2012, suicide bombings in Iraq averaged between five and 10 a month. But over the past 90 days, the number has risen to about 30 a month, the official said.
Concerns that the chaos in Syria might destabilise Iraq were at the top of the agenda on Thursday when US Secretary of State John Kerry met Iraq's Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, to discuss security, political and economic issues.

''Sunni and Shia extremists on both sides of the sectarian divide throughout the region have an ability to be able to threaten Iraq's stability if they're not checked,'' Mr Kerry said.
The State Department says the leader of al-Qaeda's Iraq affiliate, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and other senior members of the group are operating from Syria.
''Al-Qaeda, as we have seen, has launched a horrific series of assaults on innocent Iraqis,'' Mr Kerry said, referring to an attack last weekend that killed more than 60 people during the holiday to mark the end of Ramadan.
And just hours before he spoke, more car bombs were detonated in Baghdad during the morning commute, targeting a hospital and a cafe and killing at least 30 people and wounding more than 60. ''We have seen the new violence or terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda more frequently, and it is costing many lives,''Mr Zebari said.
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NSA 'broke snooping privacy rules'

The US National Security Agency (NSA) broke privacy rules and overstepped its legal authority thousands of times in the past two years, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

The incidents resulted in the unauthorised electronic surveillance of US citizens, according to documents published by the Washington Post.
Mr Snowden, a former NSA contractor, has leaked top secret documents to the US and British media.
He has been given asylum in Russia.
On Thursday, the Washington Post posted on its website a selection of documents it said had been provided by Mr Snowden, who fled the US in June after providing documents detailing NSA surveillance programmes to the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers.

Obama faces Dem backlash over latest NSA revelations

The Obama administration faced a backlash from congressional Democrats on Friday following revelations that the National Security Agency broke privacy rules and overstepped its authority thousands of times since 2008. 
The details were reported late Thursday in The Washington Post, based on an audit and other secret documents provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The report challenged claims by President Obama just last week that the NSA was not abusing its authority, and complicated his effort to reassure Americans and Congress that -- with a little more oversight and transparency -- the surveillance programs are nothing to be worried about. 
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called the latest reports "extremely disturbing."

Majorities Say Intelligence Chief Should Be Prosecuted

Polls say Americans are concerned about National Security Agency surveillance. According to a progressive group's survey, many want to see a top intelligence official punished for giving Congress inaccurate answers about the NSA's efforts.
An internal NSA audit, released Thursday by The Washington Post, found that the agency has violated privacy rules thousands of times every year since 2008. But even before those revelations, a majority of voters in five state-level polls said that James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, should be prosecuted for giving Congress a "clearly erroneous" answer about NSA surveillance.
The five polls were conducted by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which has raised money for NSA leaker Edward Snowden's defense fund.
In the spring, Clapper denied to Congress that the NSA collected "any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans." He later told NBC's Andrea Mitchell that he had given the "least untruthful" answer possible. (On Monday, he was tapped by President Barack Obama to establish a "high-level group of outside experts" to review surveillance and privacy issues.)
Sixty-nine percent of voters in Kentucky said Clapper should face charges for perjury, as did 68 percent in Texas, 65 percent in Iowa, 57 percent in Hawaii and 54 percent in California.

Philadelphia Borrows So Its Schools Open on Time

PHILADELPHIA — Just a month after Detroit became the largest American city to file for bankruptcy, and with major cities like Chicago and Los Angeles struggling, this former manufacturing behemoth is also edging toward a financial precipice. But here the troubles are centered on the cash-starved public schools system. 

The situation is not as dire yet as Detroit’s. There is no talk of resorting to bankruptcy. But the problem is so severe that the city agreed at the last minute on Thursday to borrow $50 million just to be able to open schools on time. Even with that money, schools will open Sept. 9 with a minimum of staffing and sharply curtailed extracurricular activities and other programs.

Bill Clinton defends foundation after Times details financial, management problems 

Former President Bill Clinton on Friday issued a lengthy defense of the foundation bearing his name in response to a New York Times article that detailed problems with the organization’s finances and management.
“I am immensely proud of what we've accomplished in the last 12 years,” Clinton said, in an open letter posted on the Clinton Foundation’s website.  
The New York Times on Wednesday published an in-depth report that described internal debates and problems concerning the group's finances and the role of long-time Clinton aides. 
The report said the foundation ran a $40 million deficit in 2007 and 2008. While some blamed the recession, it still ran a deficit of more than $8 million last year, the Times said.
Clinton, though, said the financial documents are “misleading.” He said the foundation is required to report multi-year commitments only in the year they are made. So, Clinton wrote, a $103 million commitment reported in 2005 and 2006 does not show up on future documents, even though it helps cover the foundation’s budgets.
“Like many foundations, we were hit by the economic slowdown in 2007 and the crash in 2008. Thankfully, we had the cash reserves to cover our largest budgets, in our HIV/AIDS, malaria, and health training programs, and we decided to do it because so many lives were at stake,” Clinton said. “For 2012, the reported deficit of $8 million is incorrect, and was based on unaudited numbers included in our 2012 annual report. When the audited financials are released, they will show a surplus.”
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