Gazette 12-24-13

Tuesday December 24th 2013

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Egypt security HQ hit by deadly bomb

A car bomb attack at a security building in northern Egypt has killed at least 12 people and injured more than 100, officials and state media say.

The blast led to the partial collapse of the building in the city of Mansoura, north of the capital, Cairo.
Interim Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi called it "an act of terrorism".
Attacks on the security forces have gone up since the army removed Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for Tuesday's blast.
The military-backed interim government said it was an attempt to scare people ahead of next month's referendum on a new constitution - but that the violence would not disrupt voting.

Christmas a day of terror for Christians in Iraq, say human rights groups

While millions of Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Christmas, a dwindling number of believers in Iraq will be forced to mark the birth of Christ in private, if at all.
Christians are afraid to put up a Christmas tree or other decorations, according to one Christian pastor in Iraq. Such displays of faith in an increasingly extremist nation can bring threats and violence, say human rights groups. Christian churches must be regularly guarded, but congregants are even more on edge during their holiest days.
"There's a culture of fear that has developed there that makes it hard for people to want to go to church to express their faith, especially at the holiday season," David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA, told FoxNews.com. "These extremist groups desire religious cleansing and they're increasing in number particularly in northern Iraq" -- once considered a safe haven for Christians.

200 Wounded In 4 Days In Central African Republic

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — An international charity says a renewed wave of violence in the capital of the Central African Republic has caused area hospitals to receive at least 200 more wounded people in a span of four days.
The statement issued by Doctors Without Borders on Tuesday explains that the current violence is a continuation of violent clashes which began Dec. 5, and claimed at least 500 lives. After international forces arrived, a relative calm returned to Bangui.
The charity says that heavy clashes resumed on Dec. 20 and over the past four days, 190 wounded people were brought to l'Hopital Communautaire, the main hospital in Bangui.
Jessie Gaffric, project coordinator at the hospital says. "Suddenly on Dec. 20 we saw 49 gunshot wounds, and now continue to receive around 15 a day."

Christmas crowds gather in Bethlehem

Large crowds have begun to gather in the biblical town of Bethlehem to kick off Christmas Eve celebrations.

Tourists packed Manger Square in a party atmosphere, a BBC correspondent says.
The nearby Church of the Nativity sits on the spot where the Bible says Jesus was born.
The number of visitors to Bethlehem has been steadily rising in recent years as peace talks to resolve the Middle East conflict have resumed.
Despite the erection of Israel's separation barrier with the West Bank, which appears as a high concrete wall around the town, three gates have been opened for Christmas to allow the Christmas procession led by the Latin Patriarch coming from Jerusalem to enter the city, says the BBC's Yolande Knell in Bethlehem.
In Vatican City, Pope Francis has made a Christmas visit to Pope Emeritus Benedict, 86, and said he found his predecessor looking well.
Francis, who was elected in March, spent about 30 minutes with Benedict in an ex-convent on the Vatican grounds where the former pope has been living since he stepped down earlier this year, the Reuters news agency reports.

NATO commander spends Christmas Eve visiting, thanking US troops in Afghanistan 

The commander of NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan spent Christmas Eve visiting U.S. troops Tuesday at bases across the mountainous region to bring them holiday greetings and gifts for a few lucky soldiers.

Maj. Gen. James C. McConville, who commands troops in the volatile east near the Pakistani border, told troops that they were "bringing a gift to the Afghan people - you've given them an opportunity. Now it's up to them to take it."
McConville thanked the troops and told them that thanks to them "a lot of Americans will wake up tomorrow and have a peaceful day, and that's thanks to you."
The general also delivered presents in the form of special Army coins to troops who'd completed three or more deployments.
Kevin Vaughn from Detroit, Mich., said he's missing his wife and three children this Christmas — the fourth that he's been away during his five deployments.

Israel launches Gaza Strip air strike after fatal border fence shooting

Israel has launched a series of air strikes in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the deadly shooting of an Israeli civilian, killing at least two people, including a young girl, and wounding nine, Hamas officials said.
It was the heaviest outbreak of violence along the volatile border in months and threatened to destabilise a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers that largely has held for more than a year.
A series of explosions could be heard in Gaza City on Tuesday afternoon. Health ministry official Ashraf al-Kidra said one air strike killed a three-year-old girl and wounded three relatives, including two young siblings. He said a man was killed in an Israeli attack in northern Gaza. In all, nine people were wounded, one critically, he said.
Israel launched the air strikes shortly after a Gaza sniper shot an Israeli labourer as he performed maintenance work on the border fence. The man was airlifted to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The incident happened while the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, was visiting the nearby town of Sderot, a frequent target of Palestinian attacks, to inaugurate a new rail line.
"This is a very severe incident and we will not let it go unanswered," Netanyahu said. "Our policy until now has been to act beforehand and to respond in force, and this is how we will act regarding this incident as well."
Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies, but both sides largely have observed a ceasefire that ended eight days of heavy fighting in November 2012. The ceasefire has been tested by periodic rocket and mortar attacks out of Gaza. Salafist extremists have been behind most of the violence, but Israel holds Hamas responsible for any attacks out of the territory.

Security fears delay Musharraf trial

The trial of Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been postponed after explosives were found on his route to court in Islamabad.

The special court hearing on treason charges against the former president will now take place on 1 January.
On Monday, his petition that only a military court could examine his actions was rejected.
The charges relate to his decision in 2007 to suspend the constitution and impose emergency rule.
Mr Musharraf, who is on bail in several other cases, says all the accusations against him are politically motivated.

The 70-year-old also faces separate charges of murder and restricting the judiciary.

He is the first Pakistani former military ruler to face trial for treason.
Mr Musharraf's lawyer, Anwar Mansoor, told the court on Tuesday that his client could not appear in person because of a heightened security threat.
Police said 5kg of explosives along with a detonator and two pistols had been found along the route between Mr Musharraf's house and the National Library, where the hearing is taking place.
Police chief Muhammad Asjad told the AFP news agency the material had not been assembled into a bomb.
The court granted Mr Musharraf a one-off exemption, but said he must appear on 1 January when charges will be read to him.
On Monday, Mr Musharraf's lawyers had argued - unsuccessfully - that as he was the army chief in 2007, only a military court had the authority to try him.
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IDF strikes six Gaza targets in retaliation to shooting of Defense Ministry employee 


The IDF struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday afternoon in retaliation for the cross-border shooting earlier in the day in which Israel sustained its first casualty since the end of Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012.
The IDF employed the air force, tanks, and infantry to launch a response against six targets in Gaza.
Gaza hospital officials said three-year-old Hala Abu Sbeikha, was killed by shrapnel during the strike on the Bureij facility. She was standing with other family members outside their home in the nearby al-Maghazi refugee camp and her mother and two brothers were wounded, the officials said.
Three Palestinians were injured from the IAF strike in eastern Gaza, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.
The strike's targets were a site to manufacture weapons, and a terrorism infrastructure site in southern Gaza, a center for terrorism activity and a terrorism infrastructure site in central Gaza, and two terrorism targets in the north of the Strip had been hit, according to the IDF.
According to Ma'an, the targets included a military strike belonging to the Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades between Khan Younis refugee camp and the city of Deir al-Balah and in the al-Atatra area of the northern Gaza Strip.
Officials from Hamas, the Islamic group which rules Gaza, and witnesses said IAF aircraft bombed the group's training camps in Khan Younis and al-Bureij. Witnesses said IDF tanks fired shells east of Gaza city.
"We identified an accurate strike of the targets. All of our planes returned to their bases safely," the IDF Spokesman said.

Alan Turing, who broke Enigma code in World War II, pardoned by Queen over conviction for homosexuality

Britain has granted a posthumous pardon to Alan Turing, the World War II code-breaking hero who killed himself after he was convicted of the then crime of homosexuality.
Turing is often hailed as a father of modern computing and he played a pivotal role in breaking Germany's Enigma code, an effort that some historians say brought an early end to World War II.
He died in 1954 after eating an apple laced with cyanide, two years after he was sentenced to chemical castration for the "gross indecency" of homosexuality. A coroner ruled that Turing killed himself, though this has since been questioned.
The Queen has now pardoned Turing for "a sentence we would now consider unjust and discriminatory", Justice Minister Chris Grayling said.

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Homosexuality was decriminalised in Britain in 1967.
"A pardon from the Queen is a fitting tribute to an exceptional man," Mr Grayling said.

Mission's already accomplished: Edward Snowden

WASHINGTON: National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden said his "mission's already accomplished" after revealing NSA secrets that have caused a reassessment of US surveillance policies

Snowden told The Washington Post in an interview published online Monday night that he was satisfied because journalists have been able to tell the story of the government's collection of bulk Internet and phone records, an activity that has grown dramatically in the decade since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished," he said. "I already won."

"As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated," Snowden told the Post. "Because, remember, I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself."

President Barack Obama hinted Friday that he would consider some changes to NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records to address the public's concerns about privacy. His comments came in a week in which a federal judge declared the NSA's collection program probably was unconstitutional. A presidential advisory panel has suggested 46 changes to NSA operations.
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Storms cut power in parts of North America

Hundreds of thousands of households in Canada and the northern US are facing a Christmas without electricity after a severe ice storm.

Nearly 400,000 customers in eastern Canada and 390,000 in the US are still without power, with Michigan worst hit.
In Toronto, a utility has said power may not be restored for most residents until Thursday, and that some may be without electricity until the weekend.
The city has opened several warming centres for those without power.

Temperatures as low as -15C are expected in southern Canada over the next few days. Five people have died in accidents on ice-covered Canadian roads.

At least 11 deaths have been blamed on the storm system in North America, including five people killed in flooding in Kentucky.
Up to 30mm (1.2in) of ice built up on trees and other surfaces in the greater Toronto area during the storm on Sunday.
Sheets of ice fell from buildings and moving vehicles, Canadian TV channel CBC said.

US sending Marines to Africa in preparation for evacuations in South Sudan

The U.S. military is sending Marines and aircraft to the Horn of Africa in anticipation they may be needed to respond to the violence in South Sudan, Fox News confirms. 
A senior U.S. Defense official told Fox News that 150 Marines are being moved from Moron, Spain, to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, in case the State Department asks for their assistance in evacuating U.S. citizens left in South Sudan. So far, no request from the department has yet come in to evacuate the roughly 100 U.S. citizens left in the country. 
The decision comes after four U.S. troops were injured Saturday when gunfire hit evacuation aircraft. Three of those troops are stable and being sent to the military hospital in Germany, a spokesman said, while the fourth continues to get treatment in Nairobi, in neighboring Kenya. 
A few dozen U.S. troops already are in South Sudan providing security. Others are in Djibouti, where the U.S. maintains its only permanent military base in Africa. Ten aircraft are now stationed there including Osprey helicopters and C-130 transport planes. 
The U.S. continued intense diplomatic efforts Monday to calm the roiling ethnic violence, including holding a meeting between the U.S. special envoy for South Sudan, Donald Booth, and South Sudan President Salva Kiir. 
Troops deployed last week helped evacuate Americans and other foreign nationals and provided security at the U.S. Embassy in Juba. 
Toby Lanzer, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator, said Australians, Ugandans and Ethiopians are also among 15,000 total people seeking protection at a U.N. base in Bor, a city that could see increasing violence in coming days.

U.S. Softens Deadline for Deal to Keep Troops in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — With about a week left in the year, the Obama administration is backing away from a Dec. 31 deadline for securing a deal to keep American troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014, though it is standing by its warning that a total military withdrawal is still possible if delays continue, American and Afghan officials said. 

The decision is a tacit acknowledgment of what has become obvious in both Kabul and Washington: Neither a hard sell nor soft persuasion has yet induced President Hamid Karzai to go along with the American-imposed timeline for the agreement.

It is also an embarrassing turn after weeks of threats by some senior administration officials, including Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, that a complete American withdrawal from Afghanistan — the so-called zero option — would be considered if Mr. Karzai did not sign the deal by the year’s end.

Charts: The Worst Long-Term Unemployment Crisis Since the Depression

Officially, the Great Recession of 2007 ended in June 2009. Yet the economic downturn remains in full effect for millions of Americans, particularly the nearly 40 percent of the unemployed who have been looking for work for six months or more.

In less than a week, emergency federal unemployment benefits for 1.3 million of these jobless Americans are set to run out. Proponents of ending the benefits argue that the economy is expanding and that the benefits prevent people from finding work. "You get out of a recession by encouraging employment not encouraging unemployment," according to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who opposes extending benefits. However, the data shows that while corporate America has bounced back, it is not restoring all the jobs it shed when the economy tanked five years ago.
Currently, nearly 11 million Americans are unemployed. The unemployment rate stands at 7 percent. Both of those stats are improvements from a little more than four years ago, when the post-recession jobless rate peaked at 10 percent and more than 15 million people were out of work.

Beware of the carbon bubble: The biggest threat to the environment you haven’t heard of yet

While the year’s end saw an uptick in concern about a new tech bubble, the truth is that there’s a much different, scarier bubble we need to worry about: the carbon bubble. What is the carbon bubble? Basically, it’s just another way to describe the worrisome fact that many energy companies are hoarding oil and gas, despite the rest of the world’s effort to move to a more environmentally sustainable economic system. In much the same way that governments fail to accurately measure social progress and sustainability, these companies are stuck in a dying paradigm. As The Economist puts it, “either governments are not serious about climate change or fossil fuel firms are overvalued.”
It’s simple math. In the 2010 Cancun Agreements, the international community pledged to prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. But even this number is likely far too high. After all, the .8 degrees Celsius temperatures have risen thus far has already severely damaged ecosystems and economies. But given that the current trajectory would, according to IEA economist Fatih Birol, increase global temperatures by 6 degrees, 2 degrees is a politically and scientifically feasible red line. And it won’t be easy: The most recent Carbon Tracker report estimates that to have an 80% chance of holding temperatures below that threshold, no more than 900 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (GtCO2) can be released into the atmosphere between 2013 and 2049. This range is called the international “carbon budget.”
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