Gazette -Afternoon Edition 12-30-13

Monday December 30th 2013

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Afternoon Edition

Lebanese troops fire at Syrian jets

Lebanese troops have fired at Syrian warplanes violating its airspace, for what is thought to be the first time since the conflict in Syria began.

Lebanon's National News Agency said the army had responded to a raid on Khirbet Daoud, near Arsal in the Bekaa Valley.
Syrian government forces have fired into Lebanon in the past, targeting rebels sheltering over the border.
The Lebanese authorities had until now not responded militarily, hoping they would not be dragged into the war.
Arsal is predominantly Sunni and its residents have been broadly supportive of the Sunni-dominated uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam.
The north-eastern town has been flooded with refugees since the Syrian military launched an offensive in the Qalamoun mountains last month.
Some 20,000 people have settled in makeshift camps, as Syrian troops backed by members of the militant Lebanese Shia Islamist movement Hezbollah have sought to cut rebel cross-border supply routes.


Russian city hit by suicide bombing for second straight day


For the second time in as many days, an explosion rocked the Russian city of Volgograd Monday morning. Russian officials say a suicide bomber blew himself up on a trolleybus, killing at least 14 people and wounding nearly 30 others. The latest attack came one day after at least 17 people died in a suicide bombing at the city's central rail station.
The explosion ripped away much of the bus's exterior and broke windows in nearby buildings. The BBC reported that the explosion took place near a market in the city's Dzerzhinsky district. It virtually paralyzed public transport in the city, forcing many residents to walk long distances to get to work.
Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for Russia's main investigative agency, said Monday's explosion involved a bomb similar to the one used in Sunday's attack.
"That confirms the investigators' version that the two terror attacks were linked," Markin said in a statement. "They could have been prepared in one place."

Uganda Threatens To Turn South Sudanese Violence Into Regional Conflict

JUBA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Uganda's president said on Monday East African nations had agreed to unite to defeat South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar if he rejected a ceasefire offer, threatening to turn an outburst of ethnic fighting into a regional conflict.

Two weeks of clashes have already killed at least 1,000 people in the world's newest nation, rocked oil markets and raised fears of a civil war in a region ravaged by fighting in Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo.

"We gave Riek Machar four days to respond (to the ceasefire offer) and if he doesn't we shall have to go for him, all of us. That is what we agreed in Nairobi," Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni told reporters in South Sudan's capital, Juba.

Asked what that meant, Museveni said: "to defeat him."

There was no immediate confirmation of the pact from other countries, including economic powerhouses Kenya and Ethiopia, who have been trying to mediate and last week gave the sides until Dec. 31 to lay down their weapons.

The United Nations, Washington, and other Western countries who have poured millions of dollars of aid into South Sudan since it won its independence from Sudan in 2011, have also scrambled to stem the unrest.

Fighting between rival groups of soldiers erupted in the capital Juba on Dec. 15, then triggered clashes in half of South Sudan's 10 states - often along ethnic lines, between Machar's group, the Nuer, and President Salva Kiir's Dinka.

Kiir, who sacked Machar in July, accused him of starting the fighting in a bid to seize power - a charge denied by Machar. He has since retreated into the bush and acknowledged he is leading rebel fighters.

The fighting, alongside unrest in Libya, has lifted oil prices, holding it above $112 a barrel on Monday. South Sudan has the third-largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa after Angola and Nigeria, according to BP.

Ten die as Iraq clears protest camp

At least 10 people have been killed in violence as Iraqi security forces dismantled an anti-government protest camp in the western city of Ramadi.

A defence ministry spokesman said local Sunni leaders and clerics had agreed to end the 12-month sit-in peacefully.
But there was an exchange of gunfire after police moved against the Sunni camp in western Anbar province.
Sunni Arabs have been calling for the resignation of Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki for more than a year.
They accuse his government of discriminating against their minority community and unfairly targeting it with tough anti-terrorism measures which officials say have been implemented to stem the surge in sectarian violence.
The UN says more than 7,150 civilians and 950 security forces personnel have been killed since January, the highest annual toll since 2008.
'Al-Qaeda headquarters' The protest camp in Ramadi, a predominantly Sunni city some 115km (70 miles) west of Baghdad, was situated beside the motorway to Jordan.
Defence ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari told state TV that on Sunday evening Sunni leaders had agreed to end the months-long sit-in.

Congo military repels armed attacks in capital after apparent coup attempt

Assailants armed with sticks, pieces of wood and firearms attacked the state television station, the airport and the main military base in Congo's capital in what appeared to be a coup attempt early Monday, before being repelled by the country's military, officials and witnesses said.

Congo's government spokesman Lambert Mende confirmed the attack, saying around 40 people were killed in the exchange of fire Monday morning, including 16 at the military base, 16 at the airport and eight at the TV station. Another six were captured, he said.  He also said shooting had broken out in Lubumbashi, the country's second-largest city located in southeastern Congo, though by afternoon calm had returned.
"These are terrorists, you can't call them anything else," Mende said.
Most residents of this sprawling African capital first realized the attack was under way while watching a morning talk show on Radio Television Nationale Congolaise, the state broadcaster. Jessy Kabasele, the presenter of "Le Panier," or "The Breadbasket" show heard a commotion at around 8:10 a.m. local time, including screams.

Children 'beheaded and mutilated' in Central African Republic, says Unicef

UN warns of unprecedented levels of violence against children, as December sectarian clashes result in 1,000 dead in Bangui

The UN agency for children says attacks against children have reached new levels of viciousness in the Central African Republic (CAR), where fighting between Muslim Seleka rebels and Christian militias left more than 1,000 people dead and displaced an estimated 400,000 in Bangui, the capital, this month.
According to Unicef, at least at least two children have been beheaded, and one of them mutilated, in the violence that has gripped Bangui since early December.
"We are witnessing unprecedented levels of violence against children. More and more children are being recruited into armed groups, and they are also being directly targeted in atrocious revenge attacks," said Souleymane Diabate, Unicef representative in CAR. "Targeted attacks against children are a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and must stop immediately. Concrete action is needed now to prevent violence against children."
Unicef and its partners say they have verified the killings of at least 16 children, and injuries among 60, since the outbreak of communal violence in Bangui on 5 December. In November, the UN warned that the number of child soldiers in the former French colony had more than doubled to up to 6,000 as anti-balaka militias have sprung up to counterattacks by the Seleka.

Iranian President Rouhani optimistic as nuclear talks resume

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was optimistic as technical talks with world powers resumed in Geneva on Monday.
"The negotiations will yield positive results in the next one to two months and then we can have development in the country’s economy,” Rouhani was quoted as saying by the semi-official Iranian news agency Fars.
Restarting the talks was a vital step in implementing a nuclear deal signed last month which suspends key elements of Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for limited sanctions relief.
The talks between expert teams from Iran and six world powers were meant to translate the political deal into a detailed implementation plan by the end of January, Iran's state news agency, IRNA, quoted an unnamed source as saying.
Hamid Baeidinejad, the director general for political and international affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, will be leading the Iranian delegation which includes experts from nuclear, banking, oil and transportation sectors, according to Fars.
A key sticking point appears to be how much advance information Western governments will get so they can verify that Iran is meeting its end of the deal before they lift any sanctions.

Gunmen spray German ambassador's residence in Greece

Assailants raked the German ambassador's residence in Athens with gunfire in an attack that caused no injuries, Greek police officials said.
Police found 60 spent bullet casings at the scene and detained six people in connection with the incident, which occurred early in the morning in an affluent suburb north of Athens. The bullet casings came from two Kalashnikov assault rifles, according to the police.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, in which four bullets hit a security gate. But anti-German sentiment has been festering among many Greeks struggling with record unemployment and reduced salaries under a harsh austerity plan required for Greece's international bailout, which Germany had a major role in selecting the terms of.
"Nothing, but really nothing, can justify such an attack on a representative of our country," the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said in a statement in Berlin. He said Germany took the attack seriously, and a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Greek authorities had reacted swiftly and assured Germany they would strengthen security in Athens.

Chancellor Angela Merkel received a phone call from Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of Greece, which for the next six months will hold the rotating presidency of the European Union, according to the government spokesman, Steffen Seibert. Greece can count on Germany's full support, he added.
"The Greek government expresses its abhorrence and utter condemnation of today's cowardly act of terrorism, the sole and obvious target of which was Greece's image abroad just a few days before the start of the Hellenic Presidency of the Council of the EU," the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attack Monday, the incident follows an apparent rise in violent incidents both by far-right and far-left groups in Greece.

BBC server hacked over Christmas
 LONDON: BBC, the world's largest and oldest broadcaster, reportedly fell victim to a hacker who tried to sell access to the system over Christmas.

The hacker, claimed to be Russian, took over a BBC server and launched a Christmas Day campaign to convince other cyber criminals to pay him for access to the system.

However, BBC's security team reportedly secured the site on Saturday.

A BBC spokesperson refused to confirm or deny the reports, saying: "We do not comment on security issues."

The server belonging to the British public broadcaster was reportedly broken into via a server usually used for uploading large files.

The attack was first identified by Hold Security LLC, an American cyber security firm in Milwaukee monitoring underground cyber-crime forums in search of stolen information.

The firm's researchers noticed a notorious Russian hacker known as 'HASH' and 'Rev0lver' attempting to sell access to the BBC server on December 25, the company's founder and chief information security officer, Alex Holden, was quoted in the British press as saying.

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US unveils commercial drone test sites

The US aviation regulator has announced the six states that will host sites for testing commercial use of drones.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) picked Alaska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Texas and Virginia.
The sites are part of a programme to develop safety and operational rules for drones by the end of 2015.
Hitherto mainly used by the military, the potential of drones is now being explored by everyone from real estate agents to farmers or delivery services.
The head of the FAA, Michael Huerta, said safety would be the priority as it considers approval for unleashing the unmanned aircraft into US skies.

Impeach Obama? DNC raises fear in new email

In 2014, the Democratic National Committee wants you to vote Democrat – if only so you can protect President Obama from being impeached.
An email sent out Saturday evening explicitly raises the fear that the president could be removed from office if enough Republicans take control of Congress, the Daily Caller reported.
The notice – entitled “Impeachment” in the subject line – was sent to Obama for America supporters and featured quotes from Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Mich., and Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, who raise the possibility of impeaching the president on grounds of alleged presidential misconduct.
“Republicans are actually excited about the idea,” the email says, according to the Daily Caller. “Show these Republicans that they are way, way off base and give President Obama a Congress that has his back.”
Rhetoric aside, no representative has introduced an inquiry of impeachment to the House Judiciary Committee or introduced a bill of impeachment since President Obama took office in 2009. Democratic desires to remove George W. Bush from office were famously squashed shortly after the party regained the House in 2006, when then-incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said impeachment was “off the table.”
Only Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton have been impeached, but both were acquitted in the Senate and were permitted to finish out their terms.

One million US jobless to lose financial aid

More than a million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits after an emergency federal programme expired on Saturday.

Lawmakers failed to agree on an extension of the scheme before the US Congress began its winter recess.
Former President George W Bush introduced the assistance plan in 2008 at the start of the recession.
Under the programme, jobless people received an average monthly stipend of $1,166 for up to 73 weeks.
The White House says the benefits have kept millions of families out of poverty, but many Republicans argue that the scheme's annual $25bn price tag is too expensive.
The stalemate comes two months after a budget fight in the US Congress led to the partial shutdown of the government.
'Urgent priority' President Barack Obama has vowed to push for the renewal of the expired programme when Congress reconvenes in early January.
"The president said his administration would, as it has for several weeks now, push Congress to act promptly and in bipartisan fashion to address this urgent economic priority," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
An estimated 1.3 million people will initially be cut off with the end of the "emergency unemployment compensation", US officials say.

Democrats Turn to Minimum Wage as 2014 Strategy

WASHINGTON — Democratic Party leaders, bruised by months of attacks on the new health care program, have found an issue they believe can lift their fortunes both locally and nationally in 2014: an increase in the minimum wage. 

The effort to take advantage of growing populism among voters in both parties is being coordinated by officials from the White House, labor unions and liberal advocacy groups.

In a series of strategy meetings and conference calls among them in recent weeks, they have focused on two levels: an effort to raise the federal minimum wage, which will be pushed by President Obama and congressional leaders, and a campaign to place state-level minimum wage proposals on the ballot in states with hotly contested congressional races.

With polls showing widespread support for an increase in the $7.25-per-hour federal minimum wage among both Republican and Democratic voters, top Democrats see not only a wedge issue that they hope will place Republican candidates in a difficult position, but also a tool with which to enlarge the electorate in a nonpresidential election, when turnout among minorities and youths typically drops off.

Related story: UK firms 'must pay workers more'

Senate scandal just getting interesting

OTTAWA — The Senate spending scandal was one of the biggest stories from Parliament Hill in 2013 and promises more juicy headlines in 2014.
The RCMP is investigating Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of staff and a pack of senators the Mounties allege flouted the rules and committed bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Four senators — three Tory appointees and a Liberal — are accused of making improper housing, travel and other expense claims totalling about $500,000. Most of the money has been returned to taxpayers.
The three Conservatives — Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau — have been benched without pay for the remainder of the session while the Grit — Mac Harb — resigned to collect a $123,000 annual pension. All deny wrongdoing.
The messy affair has all the hallmarks of a political corruption paperback — allegations of a coverup, a secret payment the Mounties allege was a bribe and a prime minister who says he was unaware Nigel Wright slipped $90,000 to Duffy to make a problem go away.
A specialized unit of sleuths in the RCMP has been sifting through hundreds of thousands of e-mails only to discover that more people were aware of the payment than originally let on while others were active participants in what Duffy says was a plot to deceive Canadians.
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