Gazette -12-16-13

Monday December 16th 2013

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Breaking news :

Harvard University evacuates buildings over reports of explosives

Harvard University has evacuated four buildings on campus Monday over unconfirmed reports of explosives, MyFoxBoston.com reports.

UN launches record Syria aid appeal

The United Nations has announced its biggest ever appeal, seeking $6.5bn (£4bn; 4.7bn euros) for humanitarian aid to Syria.

The UN estimates nearly three-quarters of Syria's 22.4 million population will need humanitarian aid in 2014.
The appeal coincides with a new study by the International Rescue Committee, which warns that starvation is now threatening the Syrian population.
Bread prices have risen by 500% in some areas, according to the report.
Four out of five Syrians said their greatest worry was that food would run out, the survey found.

In total, the UN is asking for almost $13bn to fund its humanitarian operations next year.

Some $2.3bn are destined for civilians inside Syria, while $4.2bn would go to Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries.
The latest call exceeds the UN's record appeal for $4.4bn in June, of which only 60% has been funded so far.

Editors note: How about confiscating Assad's property and bank accounts from around the World to offset costs? 

Official: Coup Attempt In South Sudan

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A South Sudanese official says a group of disgruntled soldiers and politicians led by a former vice president have attempted to overthrow the government.
South Sudanese Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said Monday some troops within the main army base raided the weapons store and were repulsed. Benjamin says casualties from fighting Monday morning are still unknown.
He says some politicians have been arrested but could not confirm if former Vice President Riek Machar, who he said led the attempt, was among them.
The president has ordered a dawn to dusk curfew. Tension has been mounting in the world's youngest nation since South Sudan President Salva Kiir fired Machar as his deputy in July. Machar has expressed a willingness to contest the presidency in 2015

China Riot: Clashes Between Police, Armed Mob Leave 16 Dead

BEIJING, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Chinese police shot and killed 14 people during a riot near the old Silk Road city of Kashgar in which two policemen were also killed, the regional government said on Monday, in the latest incident of unrest in the far western region.
Police were attacked by a mob throwing explosive devices and wielding knives on Sunday when they went to arrest "criminal suspects" in a village near Kashgar in Xinjiang province, the government said on its official news portal Tianshan (www.ts.cn).
"Police responded decisively," the government said in a brief statement, adding that two people had also been detained and that an investigation had been launched.
Reuters was unable to immediately reach government officials for comment.
At least nine civilians and two policemen were killed when a group of people armed with axes and knives attacked a police station also near Kashgar last month, state media has said.
China has stepped up security in Xinjiang after a vehicle ploughed into tourists on the edge of Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October, killing the three people in the car and two bystanders.
China called the crash an attack carried out by Islamist militants from Xinjiang plotting holy war, and has reacted angrily to suggestions that it was because of frustration and anger over government repression of the region's Muslims.
Many of Xinjiang's Turkic-speaking, Muslim people chafe at restrictions on their culture, language and religion, although the government insists it grants them broad freedoms.

Etna's volcanic ash cloud forces flights shutdown

An ash cloud from Mount Etna's latest spectacular eruption has forced the closure of Catania's airport in eastern Sicily.

The airport said it would remain closed at least until Monday evening. Several flight departures and arrivals were canceled, and at least two flights were diverted to Palermo's airport in the western part of the Mediterranean island.
Etna is Europe's most active volcano. Its latest series of eruptions has lasted for weeks now, occasionally causing a change in flight routes. The eruption hasn't forced evacuation of the villages on the mountain's slopes. Its last major eruption occurred in 1992.

Israeli troops shoot two Lebanese soldiers in border skirmish

Israel and Lebanon have been embroiled in a cross-border skirmish after an Israeli soldier was shot dead, prompting retaliatory fire that hit two Lebanese soldiers.
Despite the potential for the incident to blow up into a serious clash, there was no further escalation in the hours following the cross-border fire. The Israeli-Lebanese border has been relatively quiet in recent years but there is a long history of fighting in the area.
The Israeli soldier was named as Staff Sergeant Shlomi Cohen, aged 31. According to army radio, he was alone in his vehicle close to the border on Sunday evening when several shots were fired, causing his vehicle to overturn. He died after being taken to a nearby hospital, and was due to be buried at the military cemetery in Haifa at 5pm on Monday.
IDF troops fired at suspects near the site of the incident in the early hours of Monday, after identifying "suspicious movement". Two members of Lebanon's armed forces were hit, said Israel Defence Forces spokeswoman Libby Weiss, but no information was given on their condition.
The Lebanese media reported that the soldier who killed the Israeli sergeant went missing for several hours before reporting back to his base on Monday morning.
Unifil, the UN peacekeeping force along the Israel-Lebanon border, said it had no information about a shooting on Monday.

Amazon German workers strike as Christmas orders peak

Hundreds of workers at Amazon.com Inc’s German operations went on strike on Monday, just as pre-Christmas sales were set to peak, in a dispute over pay that has been raging for months.
Germany is Amazon’s second-biggest market behind the United States and sales there grew almost 21 per cent in 2012 to $8.7-billion, a third of its overseas total. Amazon took its most daily orders in Germany last December 16, with shipments peaking on December 17.
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Poll reveals most Palestinians think peace talks with Israel are dead 

A majority of Palestinians believes that the current peace talks with Israel have reached a dead end and see no point in their continuation, a public opinion poll published Monday showed.
The poll also showed that a majority of Palestinians expect the talks to fail.

Previous public opinion polls have also indicated that a majority of Palestinians are opposed to the negotiations with Israel and expect a third intifada.
The poll, which covered some 1,000 Palestinians from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, was conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion between November 27 and December 10.
The survey showed that 56 percent of the Palestinians expect a fresh confrontation with Israel. 
According to the poll, 51% of respondents expressed opposition to the talks with Israel, while only 33% supported their continuation.
Another 56% of respondents said they did not expect the negotiations to lead to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The poll showed that 57% of Palestinians expect the talks with Israel to fail as opposed to only 19% who predicted success.
Another 53% of respondents said they did not believe that the Israeli government is genuinely interested in the success of the peace talks, the survey showed.


Top Pakistani Taliban commander arrested in Karachi 
 KARACHI: A top Tehreek-e-Taliban commander was arrested in Pakistan's largest city amid fears that the TTP and other militant outfits have penetrated deep into government departments and institutions.

The police's Crime Investigation Department (CID) said they had arrested a key Pakistani Taliban commander, Abu Hamza, during a raid in Karachi's West Wharf area last night.

"Muhammad Adnan alias Abu Hamza is placed at number 36 in the Red Book - the list of wanted militants and was working in the Auqak department in Lahore," CID chief of investigation unit, Mazhar Mashwani told reporters.

He confirmed that investigations had revealed that some other relatives of the key TTP commander were also working in government departments.

"He was arrested in 2007 arms case but was released by the court after moving to Lahore," he added.

Mashwani said that it was confirmed that the TTP commander was planning a major attack as he had been shadowing residences of Pakistan Army's corps commander in the city's Bath Island, daughter of former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf and offices of Intelligence Bureau ( IB).

 

US Navy helicopter makes emergency landing in Japan

A U.S. Navy helicopter made an emergency landing near Tokyo on Monday, injuring two crew members, U.S. and Japanese officials said.

Kanagawa prefectural police said the helicopter was carrying four crew members when it made the emergency landing at a landfill near Misaki Port, just west of Tokyo.
Footage on public broadcaster NHK showed the helicopter on its side, with its rotor blades apparently torn off and lying on the ground. There was no sign of fire.
U.S. Forces Japan spokesman David Honchul said two injured crew members from the MH-60 helicopter were taken to a hospital for treatment. Kyodo News agency said one suffered a broken leg and the other had bruises.
The cause of the accident and other details were not immediately known, Honchul said.
Chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said no damage was reported in the surrounding area.
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NSA considering Snowden amnesty

The US National Security Agency is considering offering an amnesty to fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden if he agrees to stop leaking secret documents, an NSA official says.

The man in charge of assessing the leaks' damage, Richard Ledgett, said he could be open to an amnesty deal.
Disclosures by the former intelligence worker have revealed the extent of the NSA's spying activity.
But NSA Director Gen Keith Alexander has dismissed the idea.
Mr Ledgett spoke to US television channel CBS about the possibility of an amnesty deal: "So my personal view is, yes it's worth having a conversation about.
"I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured, and my bar for those assurances would be very high, would be more than just an assertion on his part."
But Gen Alexander, who is retiring early next year, rejected the idea of any amnesty for Mr Snowden.
"This is analogous to a hostage taker taking 50 people hostage, shooting 10, and then say, 'if you give me full amnesty, I'll let the other 40 go'. What do you do?"

Army Corps flushed $5.4M on ‘unusable’ trash incinerators, probe finds

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers paid $5.4 million for shoddy trash incinerators that were delivered years behind schedule and never used, leaving soldiers at an Afghanistan base with no other option than to keep burning waste in open-air pits, according to an internal probe.
The report from Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John F. Sopko was released Monday. It found the failure to complete the trash incinerators left soldiers exposed to potential health hazards from the burn pits, and taxpayers, once again, with nothing to show for a multimillion-dollar investment.
“This project appears to have been a complete waste,” Sopko said in a statement to FoxNews.com. “Even worse, the open-air burn pit used instead of the incinerators put the health of our troops at risk.”
The base where the units were sent -- Forward Operating Base Sharana in southeastern Afghanistan -- was turned over to the Afghan government in October. According to the report, officials now expect the unused incinerators to be salvaged for “scrap.”
Sopko’s scathing report, the latest in a series of critical findings on Afghanistan spending, accused the Army Corps of paying the contractor in full for incinerators that were not only finished more than two years behind schedule but riddled with operational problems that rendered them “unusable.”
Though the Army Corps did its own review and declined to fault any of its own contracting officers, Sopko is now pressing top military commanders for “complete” documentation by the end of the month.

In Senate, few hopes for a productive 2014

The bipartisan budget compromise that passed the House by a wide margin last week has inspired House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to blast outside conservative groups that he said were using Republican members of Congress for their own gain. It has inspired kind words between the two legislators — Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) — who hammered out the deal. And it has inspired hope that, after years of governing by crisis, Congress may begin returning to something resembling regular order.

But that hope masks a deeply divided Senate, where ill will over recent rule changes has heightened a bitter partisan divide. As the Senate prepares to take up the budget deal this week, both sides say it is likely to be one of the final pieces of significant legislation to pass the 113th Congress as midterm elections loom.

Dems slipping away from Reid on budget deal

Buzz Cut:
• Dems slipping away from Reid on budget deal
• ObamaCare navigators not trained, committing fraud
• Vast majority believes ObamaCare will harm them
• Fournier: The devolution of Obama
• Sheriff Joe tries stop and frisk
DEMS SLIPPING AWAY FROM REID ON BUDGET DEAL - Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that his team will need at least eight Republicans to pass a two-year budget deal approved last week by the Republican controlled House. That’s his way of saying that three members of the Democratic conference have already told him that they will not vote for the deal. Which three? Vulnerable Democrats Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Kay Hagan of North Carolina have been noncommittal, but Fox News First suspects that the trouble is on the left. No word as yet from Elizabeth Warren, the freshman Democrat who has taken the reins of the liberal wing of Reid’s conference. Every vote Reid loses means another he will have to get from Republicans. John Boehner delivered. Can Reid?

Saudi Prince Criticizes Obama Administration, Citing Indecision in Mideast

MONACO — An influential Saudi prince blasted the Obama administration on Sunday for what he called indecision and a loss of credibility with allies in the Middle East, saying that American efforts to secure a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians would founder without a clear commitment from President Obama. 

“We’ve seen several red lines put forward by the president, which went along and became pinkish as time grew, and eventually ended up completely white,” said Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former intelligence chief of Saudi Arabia. “When that kind of assurance comes from a leader of a country like the United States, we expect him to stand by it.” He added, “There is an issue of confidence.”

Mr. Obama has his problems, the prince said, but when a country has strong allies, “you should be able to give them the assurance that what you say is going to be what you do.” The prince no longer has any official position but has lately been providing the public expression of internal Saudi views with clear approval from the Saudi government.

Arctic ownership race about more than Santa and science

Canadian politicians can claim Santa Claus as a Canadian citizen if they want, but they'd be best to make him wait in line like all the other law-abiding immigrants.
On the other side of the Arctic Ocean, there is a dour, steely-eyed Russian by the name of Vladimir Putin who doesn't care whether Paul Calandra, the prime minister's parliamentary secretary, and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau want to claim old St. Nick as our own or not.
The Russian president just wants to make sure that Canadians and the rest of the world know his country has planted a flag on the North Pole and he's daring us to come and pull it down.
Well, someone in the Canadian government took Putin up on his challenge and — Santa-silliness aside — we're claiming the Pole, too.
And that's a good thing, says Rob Huebert.
"Of course you're going to go for the maximum knowing that you're going to have to negotiate back. That's just international diplomacy," argued the University of Calgary professor and Arctic specialist.
Trudeau can invoke Santa's citizenship and then leave the decisions to the scientists, as he said last week on CBC News Network's Power & Politics, but Huebert said it's going to take more than bathymetric coordinates to beat Moscow.
"If you're negotiating with Russia, you want to make sure that you've got all your ducks in a line. And second of all, the Russians historically have always seemed to respect those that will understand that this is a hardball game," he said in an interview.
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