Gazette 12-19-13

Thursday December 19th 2013

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Jury convicts 2 Muslim converts in brutal murder of British soldier

A jury on Thursday convicted two men who called themselves "soldiers of Allah" of murdering a British soldier who was run down with a car, stabbed to death and nearly decapitated in a brutal attack on a London street.
The jury of eight women and four men deliberated for just 90 minutes before finding Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale guilty of murdering Fusilier Lee Rigby. They were acquitted of attempting to murder a police officer.
Both men had pleaded not guilty to murder, though neither denied taking part in the May 22 attack.
The 25-year-old Rigby, an Afghan war veteran, was returning on foot to his barracks in south London when he was hit by a car and then stabbed.
Adebolajo was filmed by a passer-by moments after the attack, covered in blood and holding a cleaver and a knife, justifying the killing as revenge for British troops killing people abroad.

Rebels take key South Sudan town

South Sudanese rebels have taken over a key town, the military has said, as fighting continues after Sunday's reported coup attempt.

"Our soldiers have lost control of Bor to the force of Riek Machar," said army spokesman Philip Aguer.
President Salva Kiir has accused Mr Machar, the former vice-president, of plotting a coup - a claim he denies.
The unrest, which began in the capital Juba, has killed some 500 people and sparked fears of widespread conflict.
Since independence, several rebel groups have taken up arms and one of these is said to have been involved in the capture of Bor.
The UN has expressed concern about a possible civil war between the country's two main ethnic groups, the Dinka of Mr Kiir and the Nuer of Mr Machar.

The United Nations has called for political dialogue to end the crisis, and the Ugandan government says its president has been asked by the UN to mediate between the two sides.

The UN peacekeeping mission says it is sheltering civilians in five state capitals, including Juba, Bor and Bentiu, the main town of the oil-producing state of Unity.
Britain and the US have both sent planes to airlift their nationals out of the country, and a US defence official described the situation as "getting ugly".

Iraqi officials: Suicide attack kills 11 pilgrims

Officials in Iraq say an attack by a suicide bomber in Baghdad has killed 11 Shiite pilgrims who were on their way to a holy city.

Police officials say the suicide bomber set off his explosive belt Thursday afternoon near a group of pilgrims in Baghdad's southern district of Dora. They say 22 people were wounded in the attack.
The pilgrims were heading to the holy Shiite city of Karbala, 90 kilometers (55 miles) to the south. Shiite pilgrims are commemorating Arbaeen, the end of 40 days of mourning following the anniversary of the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein, a revered Shiite figure.
Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

US prosecutor defends arrest and strip-search of Indian diplomat

A US federal prosecutor has defended the arrest and strip-search of an Indian diplomat held on visa charges, saying she was treated well and given coffee and offered food while detained.
The US attorney Preet Bharara made the highly unusual move of issuing a lengthy statement addressing the arrest and issues not in a criminal complaint. He said the diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, was afforded courtesies most Americans would not get, such as being allowed to make phone calls for two hours to arrange childcare and sort out personal matters, after she was arrested by state department agents outside the school her children attend in Manhattan.
Khobragade was arrested last week on charges that she lied on a visa application about how much she paid her housekeeper, an Indian national. Prosecutors say the maid received less than $3 an hour for her work.
Bharara said Khobragade, who has pleaded not guilty, was not handcuffed, restrained or arrested in front of her children. She was "fully searched" in private by a female deputy marshal, which he said was a standard safety practice that all defendants had to undergo.
Khobragade has been transferred to India's mission to the United Nations, according to her lawyer and a former colleague. It is unclear how such a move might affect her immunity from prosecution, and a UN spokesman said on Wednesday evening it had not received a necessary transfer request from her.
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Peres to Chinese FM: Peace is Israel's greatest desire, Iran is the greatest problem 

Israel faces not only grave threats but also great opportunities, President Shimon Peres said Thursday to visiting Chinese Foreign Minster Wang Yi, adding that peace is Israel’s greatest desire, and “Iran is the greatest problem”.
The chance for peace must not be ignored despite the threat of a nuclear Iran, Peres stated.
Like China, he said, Israel prefers a diplomatic solution to Iran's disputed nuclear issue rather than the use of military means. Peres insisted that peace and stability could be brought about through a united stand by the global community.
Diplomatic pressure must be maintained to ensure that sanctions remain effective said Peres, adding that Iran must be forced to comply with the inspections and limitations that the international community demands.
The president called on China, as a major world power, to help the Iranian people to divorce themselves from the policies of threats and hostilities so as to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capabilities and serving as a center of hostility.

EU summit to approve banking reforms

EU leaders are heading to a summit in Brussels, hours after a long-awaited pact was agreed on how to respond to failing eurozone banks.

Under the plan a 55bn-euro ($75bn; £46bn) fund would be set up, financed by the banking industry, over 10 years.
A new European resolution authority would be created, which would decide when and how banks would be closed.
The deal is part of wider efforts towards building a banking union to avoid taxpayer-funded bank bailouts.
On paper, the agreement represents the biggest centralisation of power in the European Union since the launch of the euro, BBC Europe correspondent Chris Morris reports.
The UK and 10 other non-eurozone economies are not part of the deal.
Under the complex agreement, a resolution fund paid for by the banks themselves would gradually merge national pots into a common European fund over the course of the next decade as a new European agency, the resolution authority, is set up.

Watchdog warns of delays in destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons

Following an offer from the United States last month to destroy the chemical weapons at sea, the Syrian government will start transporting hundreds of tons of toxic agents to the port of Latakia around the end of the year, according to a plan approved by the executive council of the watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
The removal starts a new phase in the program that Russia and the United States agreed on in September calling for complete destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities by June. Despite initial doubts about the cooperation they could expect from President Bashar al-Assad’s government, international inspectors have confirmed that Syria has already destroyed the means of producing chemical weapons and the munitions for delivering them.
But the proposal that Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, presented to the executive council in The Hague warned that “technical factors have caused delays regarding some aspects of removal operations and may also affect future implementation activities.” The plan was approved late Tuesday and announced Wednesday.

Ousted President To Be Tried For Conspiring With Foreigners

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt state media is reporting that the country's top prosecutor has referred ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to trial for conspiring with foreign groups with the intention of carrying out terrorist operations in the country.
The state news agency reported Wednesday that Morsi and 35 others, including the Muslim Brotherhood's top three leaders, are charged with revealing state secrets to a foreign country, sponsoring terrorism and carrying out military training and other acts that undermined Egypt's stability and independence.
Morsi is already under investigatation over allegations he and the Brotherhood worked with the Palestinian militant group Hamas on a prison break that freed him and other members of the group during Egypt's 2011 uprising. That attack killed 14 inmates.
Morsi is already on trial on other charges.

Rupert Murdoch's UK paper hacked phone of Prince William wife's Kate, court hears

LONDON: The phones of Prince Harry, Queen Elizabeth's grandson, and Kate Middleton, the wife of his elder brother Prince William, were hacked by staff working for Rupert Murdoch's defunct News of the World tabloid; it was revealed in a London court on Thursday.

Prosecutor Andrew Edis told the Old Bailey that messages from William left on Kate's mobile phone, including one in which he called her "babykins", had been discovered at the house of the paper's former royal editor and a private eye working for the tabloid in 2006.

William and Kate met as students at St Andrew's University in Scotland in 2001 and married in a spectacular ceremony in April, 2011, watched by up to two billion people globally.

The court also heard extracts of transcripts of a message William left for his younger brother Harry in which he put on a high voice and pretended to be Harry's then girlfriend Chelsy Davy and called him "ginger", referring to his hair colour.

France Seeks Help for Africa Intervention

Despite its financial troubles, France remains committed to an expensive military intervention in the Central African Republic. Now the country is looking to its European partners, chiefly Germany, to support the operation.
Bernard Kouchner can't get the images of massacred women and children out of his mind. The co-founder of the organization Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, was in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, when some 800,000 people were killed in less than 100 days.
Later, as the French foreign minister in President Nicolas Sarkozy's government, Kouchner fought for what he calls the "right to humanitarian intervention." In Rwanda the international community stood idly by while the slaughter continued. But France has learned from its mistakes, and Kouchner now says that he is filled with "pride" that 1,600 French soldiers marched into the Central African Republic last week. "The population wants us to help them," he argues. In the capital of Bangui alone, up to 500 civilians were killed within just a few days. "We cannot allow that," Kouchner says.
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 40 million at risk after Target card heist

Payment details from up to 40 million credit cards could have been stolen after they were used in the stores of US retail giant Target.

The retailer said it was investigating after discovering that thieves had gained access to its payment systems.
The data breach began around 29 November, known as Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
The attackers are believed to have been scooping up credit card details for almost three weeks.
"We take this matter very seriously and are working with law enforcement to bring those responsible to justice," said Target boss Gregg Steinhafel in a statement.
In addition, he said, the company was working with a data forensics firm to work out how the theft occurred.
Data-stealing code Target said the thieves had taken credit card numbers, names, expiration dates and security codes for the cards.
It urged people who shopped at its stores in the vulnerable period to check credit card records and query unusual activity.
"We regret any inconvenience this may cause," said Mr Steinhafel.

Thousands in Illinois told to start over on health insurance

CHICAGO –  Illinois officials are emailing and calling thousands of people, advising them to start over on their health insurance applications if they believe the federal government mistakenly referred them to Medicaid.
The latest wrinkle in the troubled enrollment process for the nation's new health insurance system was announced Wednesday, just days ahead of a key enrollment deadline.
The federal HealthCare.gov website received more than 30,000 applications from Illinoisans who may be eligible for Medicaid, the government health program for the poor. That federal site has been plagued by glitches that now are mostly fixed.
Those 30,000 applications are the ones in question. Some Illinois residents who were referred to Medicaid believe they were incorrectly denied private health coverage, said Illinois Department of Insurance spokesman Mike Claffey.
Individuals who make less than $15,860 a year qualify for Medicaid, as do families of four with annual income below $32,500. States have final say on who's eligible for Medicaid.


States await FAA decision on drones, and the billions that could follow

Economic development offices and major research universities across the nation are waiting with the anticipation of a kid on Christmas Eve for the Federal Aviation Administration to decide where it will station research and test sites for drones. The FAA’s decision, which could be worth billions of dollars in economic activity and tens of thousands of new jobs, will hand some states a Christmas bonus, and leave others with a lump of coal during the holidays.
The decision will be the culmination of the FAA’s nearly year-long search for six sites to research and test drones — more formally known as unmanned aircraft systems — after Congress directed the agency to come up with a plan to integrate them into the nation’s airspace.
The FAA put out a request for proposal back in February, in search of a site that included proprietary airspace and access to the agency’s Next Generation Air Transportation System. The administration is looking for a site that would allow them to develop certification standards for both civil and public unmanned systems, according to a March news release.
Laura Brown, an administration spokeswoman, said they hope to make the decision by the end of the year. States that have bid for the program can hardly contain themselves.

Chinese hackers reportedly crashed Federal Election Commission website

Chinese hackers crashed the Federal Election Commission’s website Oct. 1, the first day of the partial government shutdown, in “what may be the worst act of sabotage in [the FEC’s] 38-year history,” a non-partisan investigative journalism group reported.
David Levinthal, senior reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, told Fox News the hackers’ motivation was not yet clear, but taking down a website of the U.S. federal government is a “big deal to them.
"These are not people who like the United States,” he added. “These are people who want to do damage to the country. They want to do damage to freedom and democracy as we have it in this country.”
Because of the shutdown, none of the FEC’s 339 employees was on the job the day of the reported hacking attack.
The FEC declined comment on the subject, referring all inquiries to the Department of Homeland Security.
A DHS official told Fox News that it was investigating what happened at the FEC, adding, “While the investigation is ongoing and no final determination has been made, at this point, there are no indications that any sensitive information or other personal data was compromised.”
According to CPI, an independent audit of the FEC earlier this year found its IT systems were vulnerable to a hacking attack, but the FEC insisted its computer systems were "secure.”

Klayman to push for Obama's impeachment

Larry Klayman, who recently sued the NSA over its domestic spying programs, is hot on the trail of the Obama administration and impeachment is his goal. In a report published yesteday on World Net Daily, Klayman said the "misdeeds of Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace, pale in comparison to President Obama’s."
“In Watergate, Richard Nixon faced impeachment for breaking into the offices of the chairman of the Democratic National Party,” Klayman told WND. "Obama has broken into the homes of 300 million Americans.”
When asked by WND if he was calling for the impeachment of Obama, Klayman responded, “Yes. The NSA and the Obama administration are engaging in criminal behavior, and both are lying.”
Klayman and his Judicial Watch group were instrumental in brining about the impeachment of former-President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. As much as Democrats wanted the American public to believe that case was a private matter about sex and marital infidelity, it was much more. It was about a president who lied under oath and obstructed justice.
The crimes of the Obama administration are much more serious than even that.
Klayman told WND that the actions of the NSA were “ the most outrageous violation of constitutional rights in American history.”
The lawsuit filed by Klayman against the NSA on behalf of a Verizon Wireless customer came about as the result of revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden who released classified documents that exposed the agency's constitutional violations.
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