Gazette - Weekend Edition 01-19-14

Sunday January 19 2014

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Clashes in Kiev after protest ban

Clashes have broken out in the Ukrainian capital as tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied despite new laws which aim to curb public protests.

Opposition politician Vitali Klitschko called for calm as pro-EU protesters, some with sticks and rocks, made for parliament despite police cordons.
The laws were passed with a quick show of hands on Thursday by MPs loyal to President Viktor Yanukovych.
The opposition accused the ruling party of a coup.
The president signed the bills into law soon afterwards.
US and EU officials have expressed deep concern at the new legislation.
Ukraine's current anti-government movement began in protest at Mr Yanukovych's decision in late November to pull out of a landmark treaty with the EU, but has expanded to demand his resignation.

Afghan president again demands US airstrikes end 

Afghanistan's president says the U.S. can no longer carry out military operations or airstrikes and must jump-start peace talks with the Taliban before his country signs a security deal to keep American troops in Afghanistan after 2014.

Hamid Karzai made the statement Sunday after being presented with the findings of an investigation into a joint Afghan-U.S. military operation last week that resulted in civilian casualties which he blamed on U.S. soldiers.
The U.S.-led international military coalition, however, provided a sharply different account of what happened during the two-day operation against insurgents in eastern Parwan province, saying it was an Afghan-led effort and carried out at the request of the government.
Although Karzai has set out similar conditions in the past, he has intensified his anti-American rhetoric in recent weeks.

21 killed in Kabul suicide attack
British politician and bodyguard are also victims of bombing and shooting at restaurant in Afghan capital

A suicide squad attack in the heart of Kabul's fortified diplomatic quarter has killed 21 people, among them an aspiring Labour politician, the mission head of the International Monetary Fund and a top UN official with years of experience in Afghanistan.
The carnage began on Friday night when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the door of Taverna du Liban and ended a couple of hours later with almost everyone who had been inside the popular restaurant dead: 13 of them were foreigners and eight were Afghans.
The roll call of the international victims, from the US, UK, Denmark, Lebanon, Malaysia, Canada and Russia, was testimony to the diversity of the foreign civilians working in Afghanistan. There were no soldiers in the restaurant.
The brutality of the attack and the choice of a soft civilian target are likely to alter the way expats, from aid workers to finance specialists, operate in Kabul. They have been relatively insulated from the insurgency, which has focused mostly on diplomatic or military installations in the past.
British prospective MEP Dharmender Singh, known as Del, was one of those killed in the attack. Born and raised in Southampton, he was a development consultant with years of experience working in countries including Sudan, Kosovo, Libya and Afghanistan.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said he was "appalled and shocked by this barbarous act of terror" and paid tribute to Singh. He said: "My thoughts – and the thoughts of the whole Labour party – are with the family and friends of Del Singh who was killed in yesterday's tragic suicide bomb in Kabul. He dedicated his life to working with people across the world who needed his support."

Iraq Launches Offensive Against Al Qaeda

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi government forces and allied tribal militias launched an all-out offensive Sunday to push al-Qaida-linked militants from a city west of Baghdad, a military official said.
Since late December, members of an al-Qaida offshoot — known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — have taken over parts of Ramadi, the provincial capital of the largely Sunni western province of Anbar. They also control the center of the nearby city of Fallujah, along with other non-al-Qaida groups that also oppose the Shiite-led government.
The officer said fierce clashes were taking place, but gave no details.
Hours after the offensive was announced, Iraq's Prime Minister vowed to continue fighting "terrorism," but left the door open for any political solution.
"Our battle is firstly to beat and eliminate terrorism," Nouri al-Maliki said in a speech in the southern city of Nasiriyah. "Though we welcome any solution, any proposal and any political meeting that should realize the priority of destroying terrorism, al-Qaida, its formations and its allies," al-Maliki added.

Assad: Quitting not up for debate

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is quoted as saying he has no intention of quitting, and the issue is not up for discussion at forthcoming peace talks.

"If we wanted to surrender we would have surrendered from the start," Mr Assad told Russian MPs in Damascus, according to Interfax news agency.
The government, opposition groups and Western diplomats will attend peace talks in Switzerland from Wednesday.
More than 100,000 have been killed and millions displaced in Syria's conflict.
However, the Syrian presidency later said the comments reported by Interfax were "inaccurate", without giving further details.

20 killed in northwest Pakistan bombing

A Taliban bombing inside an army compound in northwest Pakistan killed at least 20 troops Sunday, officials and militants said, in one of the deadliest attacks to target the country's forces as they battle insurgents in its volatile frontier.

The blast targeted a vehicle in a convoy about to leave a military base in the town of Bannu and drive west to the North Waziristan tribal area, police official Inyat Ali Khan said. Pakistan's military said the blast wounded 30 troops.
The Taliban claimed the attack and called it a suicide bombing. Military officials said the blast came from an explosive planted in the vehicle, hired by the paramilitary Frontier Corps. While the army has its own transport vehicles, the paramilitary forces often hire vehicles when they need to move troops in large numbers.
A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Shahidullah Shahid, told The Associated Press by telephone that the attack had been carried out to avenge the death of Waliur Rehman, the group's former second in command. He was killed last year in a U.S. drone strike.

Netanyahu welcomes visiting Canadian PM Harper 

FM Liberman greets Stephen Harper as he lands in Israel for first official visit by serving Canadian premier in past 14 years; Netanyahu lauds "courageous and moral stance" on Israel taken by his Canadian counterpart.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived Sunday for his first visit to Israel and the first by a serving Canadian premier since 2000.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman greeted Harper and his wife Laureen as they disembarked from their plane for the four-day official trip.
The Canadian premier was scheduled to meet with his Israeli counterpart Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem Monday followed by a meeting in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Earlier Sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu hailed Harper as a personal friend and "a great friend of Israel".
"Prime Minister Harper articulates a clear, courageous and moral stance in relation to the truth and the standards needed by the international community regarding Israel and the conflict here," he said. "I think he has taken a moral stand worthy of admiration, and I welcome him on behalf of the Israeli government and on behalf of all the citizens of Israel."
Harper was also slated  on Monday to make the first-ever address by a Canadian prime minister to the Knesset.

Obama tries to allay German concerns

President Barack Obama has said he will not let controversial surveillance by US intelligence services undermine Washington's ties with Germany.

Speaking to Germany's ZDF TV, he indicated that US bugging of Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone had been a mistake and would not happen again.
After the row broke out last year, Mrs Merkel accused the US of an unacceptable breach of trust.
On Friday, Mr Obama ordered curbs on how intelligence was being collected.
Personal pledge On Saturday, the US president told ZDF: "I don't need and don't want to harm that (US-German) relationship by a surveillance mechanism that somehow would impede the kind of communication and trust that we have."

"As long as I'm president of the United States, the chancellor of Germany will not have to worry about this."

But he added the US intelligence services, like all others, would continue to be interested in what world governments' intentions were.
"There is no point in having an intelligence service if you are restricted to the things that you can read in the New York Times or Der Spiegel, " he said.
"The truth of the matter is that by definition the job of intelligence is to find out: Well, what are folks thinking? What are they doing?"
It is clear that President Obama thinks there is some repairing of the relationship with Germany to be done, the BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin reports.

Voters overwhelmingly back Egypt's new constitution

Almost everyone who cast ballots supported Egypt's new constitution in this week's referendum, results announced Saturday show, but a boycott by Islamists and low youth turnout suggest the country is still dangerously divided.

Nearly 20 million voters backed the new constitution, almost double the number of those who voted for one drafted in 2012 under the government of toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Only a narrow sliver of voters -- 1.9 percent -- voted against the charter, after a massive government-sponsored campaign supporting it and the arrest of activists campaigning against it.
"Despite a milieu of intense social upheaval and acts of terrorism and sabotage that sought to derail the process, Egyptians have now marked yet another defining moment in our roadmap to democracy," presidential spokesman Ehab Badawy said. "The outcome represents nothing less than the dawning of a new Egypt."

Chinese police find 790,000 fake ID records

BEIJING: Police in China have discovered 790,000 fake ID records in their system, which can be used to gain benefits, hide assets and circumvent property ownership restrictions.

The fake records that included the same people registering with different details came to light when police used image matching technology, the ministry of public security said on Sunday.

The IDs have been nullified and those involved in the forgeries punished, said the statement from the ministry of public security, which did not give details. It also said that any police officers found to have been involved would be fired.

In China, citizens have to register their residency with police. This gives them access to housing and education benefits and an ID card.

People with multiple IDs can gain access to additional benefits.

In a high-profile case last year, a former vice-president of a rural bank, Gong Ai'Ai, was found to have acquired multiple identities and more than 40 pricey Beijing apartments. Dubbed 'Sister House', she was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for forging and trading official documents.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that a former police officer was sentenced to one year in prison for helping Gong to obtain the fake IDs.

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Pennsylvania judge strikes down voter identification law

 

A Pennsylvania judge has struck down a state law requiring voters to show photo ID in order to cast a ballot, saying it places an "unreasonable" burden on voters.

Republicans passed the law in 2012, saying it would prevent voter fraud.
Its opponents argued hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians lacked acceptable IDs and could be discouraged from voting as a result.
State courts have barred enforcement of the law since 2012.
"Voting laws are designed to assure a free and fair election; the Voter ID Law does not further this goal," Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard McGinley McGinley wrote in his 103-page opinion.
The law was one of many pushed through in recent years by Republicans in power in state legislatures who have argued they prevent voter fraud. The laws' supporters say ample opportunities exist for voters to obtain valid photo identification.

Nuke inspectors in Iran ahead of Monday’s deal deadline, as Senate weighs more sanctions

A team of international inspectors arrived Saturday in Iran, a key step toward fulfilling a deal the country has struck with the United States and other world powers to curtail its nuclear program.
The team of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors arrived in Tehran and will visit Natanz and Fordo, Iran's uranium enrichment facilities, according to Iranian state television.
The deal takes effect Monday, amid continued concern on Capitol Hill and elsewhere about whether the Iranian government will fulfill its part of the deal, in exchange for an easing of international sanctions.
Under the international deal, Iran will limit its enrichment of uranium in return for some painful economic sanctions being lifted. The deal will last for six months as Iran and the world powers negotiate a final deal.
In return, some Western sanctions to be lifted against Iran. The deal will last for six months as Iran and the world powers negotiate a final deal.
Yet the deal has skeptics. Some U.S. lawmakers have pushed for more sanctions against Iran. Iranian hard-liners call the deal a "poisoned chalice" and lawmakers there have introduced a bill calling for even higher uranium enrichment.

Obama confronts challenges of reforming collection of Americans’ phone records

President Obama’s intention to end the government’s controversial practice of amassing the phone records of millions of Americans faces a tangle of technical, logistical and political problems that defy ready solutions and are largely beyond the president’s control.

Among the challenges is stiff resistance from phone companies that do not want to be told how long to hold their customers’ data if the government does not collect it, especially if that means longer than they do now.
The companies do not have the data-sifting capabilities of the National Security Agency, which holds the records and uses them to sift for terrorist connections.
The political challenges may be particularly daunting. The president says he wants to move the data out of the government’s hands. That has positioned him between two extremes. At one end is an odd mix of tea party Republicans and civil liberties Democrats who want the government to end its bulk collection of Americans’ records, not just shift where the data are stored. At the other end are powerful lawmakers, including the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees, who have resisted any substantial changes.

'War on coal:' GOP Senate group moves to block EPA power plant rules

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 39 fellow Republicans are attempting to use a rarely used legislative tactic to block planned Environmental Protection Agency greenhouse gas standards that would limit the amount of carbon new power plants can emit.
The Kentucky senator filed a formal resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act, a rarely used provision that allows Congress to block executive branch regulations that Congress considers onerous. The EPA rules were published in the Federal Register last week.
"Kentucky is facing a real crisis here," McConnell said Thursday in introducing the disapproval motion. Regulations imposed by the Obama administration have already cost hundreds of coal jobs in Kentucky, McConnell said, adding that the EPA rule "would effectively ban coal-fired power plants from being built in the future."   
"The Obama administration appears to be sending signals that its latest regulation is just the beginning in a new, expanded front in its war on coal," said McConnell.
The agency's rules would impose tough new limits on the amount of carbon dioxide new plants are allowed to emit, essentially requiring any new coal plants to install expensive carbon-capture technology. Critics argue the technology is too expensive, not commercially available and poses safety risks.  
The Sierra Club denounced the Republican effort as a "political maneuver." 
"McConnell is attacking [the rules] before the Environmental Protection Agency has even determined what they will be. McConnell’s political maneuver is like asking for instant replay before the football is even snapped," Melinda Pierce, Sierra Club Deputy Legislative Director, said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.

Christie camp held Sandy relief money hostage, mayor alleges

Two senior members of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration warned a New Jersey mayor earlier this year that her town would be starved of hurricane relief money unless she approved a lucrative redevelopment plan favored by the governor, according to the mayor and emails and personal notes she shared with msnbc.
The mayor, Dawn Zimmer, hasn’t approved the project, but she did request $127 million in hurricane relief for her city of Hoboken – 80% of which was underwater after Sandy hit in October 2012. What she got was $142,000 to defray the cost of a single back-up generator plus an additional $200,000 in recovery grants.
In an exclusive interview, Zimmer broke her silence and named Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Richard Constable, Christie’s community affairs commissioner, as the two officials who delivered messages on behalf of a governor she had long supported.
“The bottom line is, it’s not fair for the governor to hold Sandy funds hostage for the City of Hoboken because he wants me to give back to one private developer,” she said Saturday on UP w/ Steve Kornacki. “… I know it’s very complicated for the public to really understand all of this, but I have a legal obligation to follow the law, to bring balanced development to Hoboken.”
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