Gazette - 103113

 

Thursday October 31st 2013

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Syria chemical equipment destroyed

Syria's declared equipment for producing, mixing and filling chemical weapons has been destroyed, the international watchdog says.

This comes a day before the deadline set by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
The weapons have been placed under seal, an OPCW spokesman said.
Inspectors were sent to Syria following allegations, denied by the government, that its forces had used chemical weapons in civilian areas.

Russian opposition demonstrators detained 

Moscow police have detained the leader of an opposition group and about a half-dozen other activists who were trying to hold an unauthorized demonstration in the center of the city.

There were no immediate reports of whether charges would be filed against those detained, including Eduard Limonov, leader of the unregistered political group called The Other Russia.
Limonov is an avant-garde author and longtime political fringe figure. He and his supporters try to hold demonstrations on the 31st day of every appropriate month. The date choice refers to the 31st Article of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees the right of assembly.
Authorities routinely deny permission for the rallies.

NSA Director Says Europeans Did The Spying And Handed Data To U.S.

WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The political uproar over alleged U.S. eavesdropping on close European allies has produced an unusual defense from the National Security Agency: NSA says it was the Europeans themselves who did the spying, and then handed data to the Americans.
It is rare for intelligence officials to speak in any public detail about liaison arrangements with foreign spy agencies because such relationships are so sensitive. Even more unusual is for the United States to point fingers at partners.
But that is what NSA Director General Keith Alexander did at a public congressional hearing on Tuesday when, attempting to counter international complaints about the agency's alleged excesses, he said its sources for foreign telecommunications information included "data provided to NSA by foreign partners."
Alexander's disclosure marked yet another milestone in NSA's emergence from the shadows to defend its electronic surveillance mission in the wake of damaging revelations by former agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Russia job for whistleblower Snowden

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has found a new job, his lawyer says.

The former US spy agency contractor will work for a major private website in Russia, where he was granted asylum after fleeing the United States.
"Edward starts work in November," his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Mr Snowden, 30, fled to Russia in June after leaking details of far-reaching US telephone espionage.
Mr Kucherena would not disclose which site has employed Mr Snowden, citing security concerns.
However, Mr Snowden had a very public job offer earlier this year from the head of VKontakte, a popular social networking site seen as a rival to Facebook.
Pavel Durov, who founded VKontakte in 2006, invited Mr Snowden through a post on his own webpage to join the company's St Petersburg headquarters to work on data protection.

UK prosecutor: Senior tabloid executives Andy Coulson, Rebekah Brooks had affair

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and ex-News Of The World editor Andy Coulson had a long-standing secret affair lasting at least six years, jurors in the phone hacking trial have heard.
Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC told the Old Bailey that in February 2004, when the pair were both working at the media giant, they had been having a relationship for some years.
He said during the police investigation into the hacking of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's phone, a letter was found on Brooks' computer to Coulson from February 2004, that made the relationship clear.
Mr Edis said: "The point that I'm going to make in relation to that letter is that over the relevant period, what Mr Coulson knew, Mrs Brooks knew too. And what Mrs Brooks knew, Mr Coulson knew too - that's the point.

China Demands Answers From U.S. Over Embassy Spying Allegations

BEIJING, Oct 31 (Reuters) - China is demanding an explanation from the United States after a report in an Australian newspaper said Australian embassies, including the one in Beijing, were being used as part of a U.S.-led spying operation.

The Sydney Morning Herald said on Thursday that the intelligence collection takes place in Australian embassies across Asia, as well as other diplomatic missions, without most Australian diplomats knowing about it.

"China is extremely concerned about this report and demands that the United States offers a clarification and explanation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing.

"We also demand that foreign embassies in China and their staff respect the Vienna Convention ... and other international treaties and not get involved in any activities which do not accord with their status or post and harm China's security and interests," she added.

G20 spying: From Russia with bugs

Rome: Russia denied reports in the Italian media and elsewhere that Russian spy agencies distributed special USB thumb drives doctored to let them eavesdrop on delegations attending last month's Group of 20 summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia.
''We don't know the sources of the information,'' said Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, according to RIA Novosti, the state news agency. ''However, this is undoubtedly nothing but an attempt to shift the focus from issues that truly exist in relations between European capitals and Washington to unsubstantiated, nonexistent issues.''

Afghan security staff fired after microphone bomb kills governor

Six senior officials sacked or suspended after blast targeted Arsala Jamal as he led prayers at Logar province mosque

Afghan investigators have fired or suspended at least six senior police, spies and other security officials over a microphone bomb that killed a provincial governor as he led prayers in a mosque this month.

The police chief of Logar province, who was on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia at the time of the assassination, has been fired, and the spy chief for the strategically vital area suspended while investigators try to determine how the explosives got inside the building.

Logar, lying south of Kabul on a trail for insurgent fighters heading toward the capital from the Pakistani border, has become increasingly violent in recent years.

The attack prompted outrage among many Afghans as the governor, Arsala Jamal, had been leading prayers for the holiday of Eid when he was killed. But it was not the first time insurgents had targeted officials in mosques.

In the deeply religious country, prayers are one stop on an official's agenda that is relatively easy to predict. Three years ago, a much larger bomb in a mosque in northern Afghanistan killed the governor of Kunduz province and at least 11 other people.

The explosion in Logar wounded more than a dozen worshippers but killed only Jamal. It had apparently been specifically targeted at him, like the small but deadly turban bomb that took the life of the former president Burhanuddin Rabbani two years ago.

Reports: Syrian air base destroyed in missile attack from sea 

Unclear who is behind the attack on base located in stronghold of Assad's Alawites, but Syrian, Lebanese media accuse Israel; Channel 2 reports attack's target were S-125 surface-to-air missiles.

A Syrian air defense base near the port city of Latakia was completely destroyed on Thursday morning in a missile attack from the sea, Arab media reported.
According to reports emanating from the rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, a large explosion occurred near the army base in Latakia on Wednesday night. Witness posted on Twitter that the explosion happened near coastal city Jableh, 30 kilometers south of Latakia, a stronghold of Assad's Alawites.
It is unclear who is behind the explosion or its purpose. There were no reports of casualties.
Members of the Syrian and Lebanese media have charged that Israel is behind the attack. Israel's defense establishment has not responded to the report.
Channel 2 News reported that the attack's target was a S-125 surface-to-air missiles battery.
Satellite images of the area obtained by Channel 2 show the Russian-made Neva missiles, as well as a SA-3 missile battery, that also includes a command center with a radar to track the missiles' targets and broadcasting anthenas to track the missiles as they are launched. The missiles have a range of 35km. and a 70k. warhead.

'Militant activities spreading in China'

BEIJING: The daring suicide attack at Tiananmen Square here marks a major shift in militant activities as they have spread from the troubled Xinjiang province to the rest of the country, Chinese experts have warned and called for a united front against terrorism.

"Violent terrorists are the common enemies of all China ... People from Xinjiang and the inland regions should join hands in fighting against violent terrorist forces," state-run Global Times said in its editorial titled "China needs united front against terrorism".

"The violent terrorists involved in the incident are all Uighurs. Society will see the real negative effects brought by the violent terrorists," it said.

"What they have done is against the interests and will of the majority of Uighurs, who have benefited from the unity of the country, from the reform and opening-up, and from the country's preferential policies for non-Han ethnic groups," the China Daily said in its editorial.
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Clinton signals possible 2016 campaign theme

NORFOLK — In recent stump speeches and policy remarks, Bill and Hillary Clinton have offered sharp criticisms of the partisan gridlock paralyzing Washington, signaling a potential 2016 campaign theme if Hillary Clinton chooses to run for president.

The Clintons’ critiques in recent days have been explicitly aimed at congressional Republicans, who helped spur a 16-day government shutdown and potential debt default in October. But their remarks also seem to contain an implicit rebuke of President Obama’s failure to change Washington as he pledged when first running for the White House.

Senate GOP blocks Obama pick for housing agency

WASHINGTON –  Senate Republicans have blocked President Obama's nominee to head the federal agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The Senate voted Thursday 56-42 for Congressman Melvin Watt's nomination. But that was 4 short of the 60 votes needed to end GOP delaying tactics.
Watt is a North Carolina Democrat whom Obama picked to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency as the wounded housing industry has begun to recover. Democrats said Watt's 21 years in the House, on the Financial Services Committee, gave him expertise needed for the job.
Republicans say Watt is too political, while conservative groups have attacked his support for government involvement in the housing industry.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the giant government-owned mortgage lenders that own or back half of U.S. mortgages.

Feds and contractors with clearance owe $85 million in unpaid taxes

Thousands of federal employees and contractors approved for security clearances owed $85 million in back taxes as of June 2012, according to a report released Thursday by Congress’s nonpartisan investigative wing.

The Government Accountability Office found that about half of the 8,400 individuals with unpaid tax bills had worked out a repayment plan with the Internal Revenue Service. The debts owed ranged from $100 to more than $2 million, with the median  at $3,800.
Nearly 5 million civilian and military employees held security clearances as of October 2012, according to the GAO. About 4,700 of those owing money were federal employees, while the remainder were contractors, the report said.

Kerry to Visit Saudi Arabia to Smooth Relations

Secretary of State John Kerry will begin a nine-day trip to the Middle East, Europe and North Africa on Sunday by stopping in Saudi Arabia for talks with King Abdullah, a major ally who apparently has been simmering with anger over what he sees as Obama administration failures on Syria, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and relations with Iran.

Mr. Kerry’s trip, announced by the State Department on Thursday, will begin Sunday and include stops in Warsaw, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Amman, Abu Dhabi, Algiers and Rabat.

“In Riyadh, Secretary Kerry will meet with King Abdullah to discuss a wide range of bilateral and regional issues,” Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement posted on the department’s website. “He will reaffirm the strategic nature of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, given the importance of the work between our two countries on shared challenges, and the leadership Saudi Arabia provides for the region.” 

Rob Ford video showing alleged crack use in police hands 

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford appears in a video recovered by police during the Project Traveller investigation, police Chief Bill Blair said today after Ford's friend and occasional driver was arrested on an extortion charge.
Blair said a video seized during an investigation contains images of Ford that have been described by media outlets, an apparent reference to an alleged video that shows Ford smoking crack cocaine.
“We have recovered a digital video file, which is consistent with that which had previously been described in various media reports, and that file forms part of the evidence of the charge that we have laid today,” Blair said.
"I think it’s fair to say that the mayor does appear in that video, but I’m not going to get into the detail of what activity is depicted on that video," said Blair, who added that he was disappointed at the contents of the video.

Analysis Wright-Duffy cheque affair: Harper’s explanations changing by the day

The prime minister doesn’t need to give voice to his exasperation with the Senate expense scandal as he heads to Calgary for a two-day policy convention.
Stephen Harper pantomimes his frustration almost every time he rises in the Commons to answer another barbed question.
He raises his palms heavenward, shakes his head balefully and repeats how "crystal clear" he's been since May in telling Senator Mike Duffy that he had to repay $90,000 in improperly claimed living expenses, in saying his former chief of staff resigned for deciding, on his own, to pay that money back out of his own pocket, and in reiterating that — had he known — he would have directed Nigel Wright not to do it in the first place.
Written down like that, it does all seem crystal clear. Except the prime minister has said more than that. Much, much more. And what he’s said about Wright, in particular, keeps changing. From month to month, week to week, day to day.

Condemned senators facing reprieve?

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper urged his hand-picked team in the Senate on Wednesday to quit dilly-dallying and get on with suspending three of his appointees.

“The Senate has a choice in front of it. It has a motion in front of it,” Harper said in the Commons, where he faced another grilling over the spending scandal and the role his office played based on a series of bombshell accusations by Sen. Mike Duffy
“It is very clear what we expect in this particular case ... there has been a breach of public trust, claiming expenses to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars that should never have been claimed,” he said.
Harper wants all three -- Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau -- off the public payroll – preferably before he delivers his keynote speech Friday evening at a party convention in Calgary.
His angst follows a series of missteps and miscues by Conservative leaders in the Senate and Liberal shenanigans that have delayed a final vote on the fate of the three senators.
The latest fumble came Wednesday over a government notice to end debate that was ruled out of order by the Speaker.
Government leader Claude Carignan has sent conflicting messages about softening the sanctions to suspend the trio without pay and benefits for the remainder of the session because of pressure by some Tories calling for leniency.
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