Gazette 03-28-14

Friday March 28th 2014

---------------------------

Ukraine leader Turchynov warns of far-right threat

Ukraine's interim President Olexander Turchynov has condemned the ultra-nationalist Right Sector, saying the group is bent on "destabilisation".

Right Sector activists blocked the parliament (Rada) building in Kiev on Thursday night and smashed windows.
They blamed the interior minister for the killing of a Right Sector leader.
Meanwhile, ousted President Viktor Yanukovych has called for a national referendum to determine each region's "status within Ukraine".
He fled to Russia last month after massive demonstrations against him and clashes between protesters and police in which more than 100 people died. The Kremlin says the new government in Kiev came to power illegally.

Russian troops said to be hiding positions, creating supply lines near Ukraine border

The United Nations Security Council will meet Friday to discuss the ongoing crisis in Ukraine as concerns mount over new details about Russia's military buildup on the Ukrainian border, including Moscow's reported efforts to camouflage troops and equipment.
The council is expected to meet privately Friday afternoon, a day after the U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution affirming Ukraine's territorial integrity and deeming the referendum that led to Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula illegal.
The vote came as the Pentagon said there are no indications that Russian forces along the border with Ukraine are carrying out the kind of legitimate military exercises that Moscow has cited as the reason for their controversial deployment in the region, Reuters reported.
"We've seen no specific indications that these -- that exercises -- are taking place," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters.

UN Approves Resolution Calling Russia's Crimea Annexation Illegal

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In a sweeping rebuke of Moscow, the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly affirmed Ukraine's territorial integrity and deemed the referendum that led to Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula illegal.
The vote on the Ukraine-sponsored resolution was 100 countries in favor, 11 opposed and 58 abstentions.
While Ukraine has a lot of sympathy among the 193 U.N. member states, Russia has a lot of clout. Both sides lobbied hard ahead of the vote, and diplomats had predicted a significant number of abstentions and a maximum 80 to 90 countries supporting the resolution.
So the high number of "yes" votes, representing more than half the 193 U.N. member states, was a sign of international anger at Moscow's slow-motion military invasion of Crimea.
"This support has come from all corners of the world which shows that this (is) not only a regional matter but a global one," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia told reporters after the vote.
Russia was only able to muster 10 other "no" votes — Armenia, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, North Korea, Nicaragua, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
Unlike the more powerful Security Council, resolutions in the General Assembly cannot be vetoed but are not legally binding.

New Egyptian military chief sworn in

Egypt's new armed forces chief and defence minister has been sworn in, a day after Abdul Fattah al-Sisi resigned so he could stand for the presidency.

Interim President Adly Mansour confirmed Gen Sedki Sobhi's appointment at the weekly cabinet meeting in Cairo.

Gen Mahmoud Hegazi, whose daughter is married to one of Mr Sisi's sons, was named the army's new chief-of-staff.

Mr Sisi, who held the rank of field marshal, reportedly turned up at the cabinet meeting in civilian clothes.

As commander-in-chief last July, he led the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi following mass opposition protests.

The military-backed interim authorities subsequently launched a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood that has left more than 1,000 people dead and seen some 16,000 others detained.
They have also struggled to combat jihadist militants based in the Sinai peninsula who have attacked government and security forces personnel, killing more than 200. 

Rights group: Syria hindering aid by preventing passage through rebel-held border crossings

An international rights group says Syria is obstructing aid to war-torn areas by denying aid agencies a formal permission to transport aid through rebel-held border crossings.

Human Rights Watch said Friday that Damascus' actions violate a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding all parties allow access for aid groups.

The New York-based group says Syrian officials are only allowing aid organizations to use the one remaining border crossing with Turkey — near the northern city of Qamishli — that's still in government hands.

U.N. agencies by rule don't cross borders without government permission, even if a government isn't in control of a certain area or crossing.

Human Rights Watch says aid agencies need to use rebel-held crossings with Turkey and Jordan to reach some 3 million of Syrians in opposition areas.

UN brands polio outbreak in Syria and Iraq 'most challenging in history'

A UN agency has described the eruption of polio in Syria as perhaps "the most challenging outbreak in the history of polio eradication" after the number of cases in the war-ravaged country reached 38 and the first case was confirmed in neighbouring Iraq.
According to the World Health organisation (WHO), the Iraqi case – found in a six-month-old unvaccinated child in Baghdad – is related to the outbreak in Syria, fuelling fears that the virus is spreading around the Middle East.
"The current polio outbreak in Syria – now with one confirmed case in Iraq – is arguably the most challenging outbreak in the history of polio eradication," said a spokesman for the UN relief and works agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA).
"Seriously damaged health infrastructure, poor health access and utilisation because of insecurity inside Syria, and massive movements of vulnerable and at-risk populations in and out of Syria – all make controlling the outbreak and rendering health protection to Palestine refugees in Syria and across the region very challenging."
The same factors, he added, made it hard to guarantee 100% immunisation coverage and to maintain the cold chain needed to protect vaccines from heat.
The UNRWA is part of the team, led by the WHO and Unicef, that has fought to contain the virus since it was detected in Syria for the first time in 14 years last October. Until this week, Iraq had not reported a case since 2000.
In the five months since polio was confirmed, more than 22 million children in seven countries – Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Palestine – have been vaccinated as part of the largest vaccination campaign in the history of the Middle East.

Rule of Law: Trial of the century

With a Holyland verdict on the horizon, Ehud Olmert once again faces the end of his career – or redemption; court decision on whether to delay the former premier's verdict is expected late Sunday.

It is hard to imagine a more sensational trial than the Holyland trial.
Referring to the real estate project of the same name, from which one of the worst – if not the worst – bribery and fraud schemes in the country’s history arose, to its lead defendant, former prime minister Ehud Olmert, the case has filled headlines like no other.
A conviction for Olmert could lead to prison, or at least the end of his political career. An acquittal could mean redemption and possibly, his return to power.
Down to the last second, there has been one surreal and incredible development after another.
The state’s main witness, Shmuel Duchner, died mid-trial. Multiple key witnesses were hospitalized with nervous breakdowns. In the case of Olmert’s former top aide Shula Zaken, her on-the-stand breakdown led even the judge to suggest she take time to collect herself, since she was incriminating herself and testifying incoherently.
Olmert’s brother, Yossi, testified from the US because he is afraid to return to Israel where he might be hunted down by his creditors to whom he owes around NIS 3 million.
Zaken shocked the court implying a romance with her main accuser, Duchner, who had already died and so was unable to deny.

Pakistani judge sentences Christian to death for blasphemy

Lahore: A Pakistani judge has sentenced a Christian to death for blasphemy, lawyers said, in the latest of a rising tide of such legal cases.

Judge Ghulam Murtaza Chaudhry sentenced Sawan Masih to hang after a Muslim said he had insulted the prophet Mohammed in the eastern city of Lahore a year ago.
The accusation against Masih sparked a riot in which Muslims burned more than 100 Christian homes.

"Today [the judge] announced his verdict that says that Sawan must be hanged and fined," said Masih's lawyer Naeem Shakir on Thursday. Masih planned to appeal, he said.
At least 16 people are on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy and at least 20 others are serving life sentences.

Pakistan has not yet executed anyone for blasphemy. Members of religious minorities say they are often threatened with such accusations. The law does not require evidence to be presented in court and there are no penalties for false allegations.

Courts often hesitate to hear evidence, fearful that reproducing it will also be considered blasphemous. Activists who want to reform the law say it is often abused by those seeking to grab money or property from the accused.

Often the accused do not even make it to court. At least 52 people accused of blasphemy have been lynched since 1990, according to a 2012 report from the Islamabad-based think tank the Centre for Research and Security Studies.

"The severe penalties for Pakistan's blasphemy law make it one of the most repressive laws in the world," said a report released this month by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a government advisory panel. "Blasphemy charges commonly are used to intimidate members of religious minorities or others with whom the accusers disagree or have business or other conflicts."

Judges have been attacked for acquitting blasphemy defendants, the report said.

Triple bombing hits Baghdad market area, killing 4

BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities say a triple bombing has struck a busy market area in northern Baghdad, killing four people.

Police officials say the three bombs went off near-simultaneously at the entrance of the market in the city's Sulaikh district.

The officials say the explosions also wounded 16 people.

Medics confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.

Friday's attack came only a day after a series of attacks targeting commercial areas killed 26 people.

Violence has escalated in Iraq over the past year. The country last year saw its highest death toll since the worst of the country's sectarian bloodletting began to subside in 2007, according to United Nations figures.

Bolivians clash at protest over anti-drugs military HQ

Bolivian police have clashed with residents protesting against the construction of an anti-drugs military base in a coca leaves producing region.

Local leaders said most people feared that the increased police presence would lead to violence and abuse.
Regional police chief Johnny Requena blamed drug gangs for the opposition to the base, in the city of Yapacani.
Bolivia is one of the world's main producers of coca leaves, the raw material for cocaine.
The violence happened ahead of a ceremony to lay a cornerstone for the base.
Police fired tear gas canisters at protesters who hurled stones and set up road blocks in attempts to prevent the ceremony going ahead.
The European Union is financing the anti-drugs centre, which is expected to cost $1.3m (£800,000).
Legal coca Local councillor Max Barrientos told AP that Bolivia's anti-drugs police are abusive and rough up people suspected of trafficking.
Yapacani borders the Chapare coca-producing region and is known as hub for drug trafficking to Europe and Brazil.
The production of a limited amount of coca is allowed in Bolivia.
-

Is Hillary Clinton too old to be president?

Does age matter when it comes to who occupies the White House? That’s a question that could be asked with more frequency should Hillary Clinton decide to seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. president, as she is widely expected to do, and as the Republican field of potential candidates fills up with 40-year-olds.
The former first lady and secretary of state will turn 67 in October, meaning she would be moving back into the White House at 69 if she won the 2016 election. Most U.S. presidents have been in their 40s or 50s when they took office, including the current president Barack Obama who was 47 when he won, so Clinton would be one of the oldest.
What role, if any, Clinton’s age might play — in her decision and in the race if she does go for it — has already been the subject of some debate. It may be rude to talk about a woman’s age, but politics plays by different rules.
Fox News host Mike Huckabee, who hasn’t ruled out another run at the Republican nomination (he tried in 2008), said last month that he’s not sure Clinton will run.
“I think everybody assumes she will but look, she’s going to be at an age where it’s going to be a challenge for her,” he said before going on to criticize her record as the U.S.’s top diplomat.
National Journal columnist Charlie Cook recently broached the topic in a piece that prompted more than 4,200 comments on the magazine’s website as well as accusations of sexism.
Cook didn’t say that Clinton shouldn’t run because of her age, he tried to make the point that perhaps she herself is taking it into consideration in making her decision. Becoming president is typically a nine-year commitment by taking a year to run then serving two four-year terms, the maximum allowed.

Obama urged to press Saudi king on human, religious rights during visit

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pressing President Obama to raise the issue of human and religious rights during his face-to-face meeting Friday with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah. 
The latest appeal came from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who wrote Obama a letter expressing concern over Saudi Arabia’s “systematic, ongoing and egregious” infringements against what he called basic religious freedoms.
Rubio also urged the president to push for the release of religious prisoners and to “end persecution of individuals charged with apostasy, blasphemy and sorcery.”
In May 2013, Saudi religious police announced they had arrested more than 200 people during the prior year on charges of sorcery, Rubio said.
“High school textbooks in Saudi Arabia contain highly inflammatory passages that dehumanize or call for violence against non-Wahhabi religious groups such as Christians, Jews, Hindus, Shi’ites and Sufis,” the senator added.
In his letter, Rubio praised Joseph Westphal, the U.S. ambassador-designate, who told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he will work with Saudi authorities on human rights and religious tolerance issues. “Sustained interventions at the highest-levels of the U.S. government are required to make progress on this issue with our Saudi partners,” Rubio wrote. “I hope you can state such an engagement with the Saudi leadership during your meetings in Riyadh this week.”
The president will be navigating choppy waters during his meeting with the Saudi king on Friday. Not only will he be there to ease Saudi concerns that he has neglected the old U.S. ally but he’ll also have to keep pressure on the Middle Eastern country to address its human rights violations.

Bank of America to pay Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Bank of America agreed to pay $9.5bn (£5.7bn) to settle charges it misled US mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the housing crisis in 2008.

The bank will pay $6.3bn in cash and buy back $3.2bn in mortgage securities.
The settlement resolves four lawsuits filed in 2011 by US regulatory agency, the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA).
Those suits were filed against Bank of America as well as Countrywide and Merrill Lynch.
Bank of America bought Countrywide and Merrill Lynch in 2008 and 2009 respectively, during the height of the financial crisis.
The bank said the agreement resolved "one of the most significant remaining pieces" of housing market-related litigation against the firm.
"This settlement... represents an important step in helping restore stability to our broader mortgage market and moving to bring back the role of private firms in providing mortgage credit," said FHFA director Melvin Watt in a statement.
Banned from business Separately, Bank of America settled a lawsuit brought by New York's attorney general in 2010.
That suit, which was filed against Bank of America as well as the bank's former chief executive Kenneth Lewis, alleged that Bank of America failed to disclose losses at Merrill Lynch prior to the bank's acquisition of the firm.
In hiding these losses, New York's attorney general alleged that Bank of America misled shareholders about the purchase.
To settle the suit, Bank of America agreed to pay $15m and adopt certain corporate governance changes.
Additionally, Mr Lewis agreed to pay $10m, and said he will accept a three-year ban from working at any public company as part of the settlement.

House GOP Says It's Too Late To Pass An Unemployment Extension

WASHINGTON -- Republicans in the House of Representatives say it's just too late to pass legislation restoring unemployment benefits to the 2 million workers who've missed out since December.
The Senate advanced a bill reauthorizing the benefits in a procedural vote on Thursday, setting up passage as soon as next week. Then the ball would be in House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) court.
Boehner has voiced opposition to the bill. Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees unemployment insurance, elaborated Thursday on Boehner's recent argument that the Senate measure would be "unworkable" even if Congress approved it -- so lawmakers shouldn't bother.
While Congress has reauthorized federal benefits after allowing them to lapse before, the House GOP argument goes, it hasn't reauthorized them after allowing them to lapse for this long. In 2010, congressional dithering caused the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program to lapse for almost two months. The Democrat-controlled House had passed a benefits bill, but GOP filibusters tied it up the Senate.
"Given that both the House and Senate were officially on record supporting an extension BEFORE the program expired, States and recipients had a strong signal that an extension would eventually be reached," Ways and Means Republicans said in a press release Thursday.
"This meant that during that lapse, States continued to take claims in anticipation of an agreement," the statement continued. "States went about verifying weekly eligibility, as if the program were operating, and then just held the claims without paying them until the President signed the law. This time around, without action from either the House or Senate, States have long since stopped verifying weekly eligibility and holding claims."
But a few states have continued verifying weekly eligibility, at least according to their websites. The Maryland Department of Labor's website, for instance, tells claimants to keep filing: "We will continue to take the initial claims for the EUC Program after the program expires; however, we will not be able to pay any EUC benefits unless the U.S. Congress extends the program.”

Nine fired in US nuclear force cheating scandal 

The US Air Force has sacked nine mid-level nuclear commanders and will discipline dozens more in a test cheating scandal, officials have said.

Nearly one in five of the Air Force's nuclear missile officers have been implicated in a ring of cheating on monthly proficiency tests.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James has said the nuclear force is suffering from "systemic problems".
A series of programmes to improve leadership are also said to be planned.
None of the fired commanders is directly involved in the alleged cheating. Each was instead determined to have failed in leadership responsibility.
-

 Tories Defend Half A Billion Dollars In Outside Legal Costs 

OTTAWA — The Conservative government is defending spending nearly half a billion dollars on outside legal fees over the past eight years by arguing that its own lawyers are now litigating less.
The Huffington Post Canada reported Thursday that federal departments spent $481.9 million on outside legal assistance since the Tories came to power in 2006 — despite employing 2,500 Department of Justice lawyers.
On Thursday, Liberal justice critic Sean Casey asked in the Commons how the Conservative government could have spent that much on outside lawyers in a period of alleged austerity.
“Lots of cuts to public servants, cuts to social programs, cuts to EI, cuts to veterans, cuts to railway safety, cuts to health care for retired workers, cuts to infrastructure, but lots of money for legal fees,” he said.
“How can the government defend such outrageous expenditure while real people suffer?"
The parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Justice, Conservative MP Robert Goguen, responded that the government was involved, at any given time, in more than 50,000 litigation cases.
“About 85 per cent of those are not initiated by us,” he said. “[But] last year we were successful in nearly 75 per cent of those cases.”
Goguen went on to say that the Conservatives had instituted several efficiencies at the Department of Justice that were already having an effect.
“The hours of litigation filed decreased by two per cent last year,” he said. “We remain committed to defending the rights of Canadians and to ensuring that hard-earned tax dollars are efficiently spent.”

Maine city moves to block Alberta oilsands crude from reaching its port

South Portland, Maine, could be the first U.S. city to pass a law to block Alberta oilsands crude from getting anywhere near its waterfront.
The city of 25,000 people is turning into a test case for local communities that don’t want oilsands bitumen shipped from their ports.
Tom Blake, the former mayor of South Portland, gave CBC News a tour of his city this week where a temporary moratorium has been imposed on any new structures used by oil companies to help load oil from a pipeline on land, to oil tankers in their port for export.
“We have no interest in having the world’s dirtiest oil come through our community," said Blake, who currently sits on city council.
South Portland sits across the bay from Portland, Maine. It’s the third-largest oil port on the U.S. East Coast.
It has provided imported oil by pipeline to Canada since 1941, when it was built to help provide a safe source of energy to this country during the Second World War.
The oil moves north from Maine through New Hampshire to Montreal via the Portland Montreal Pipeline, a subsidiary of the Canadian parent company that is owned by three companies involved in the Alberta oilsands: Shell, Suncor and Imperial Oil.
In 2008, the company applied for a permit to reverse the flow of the pipeline to bring Canadian oil to the U.S. east coast.
The plan was scrapped because of the recession and there is no current project on the books. But the company president Larry Wilson has been quoted as saying he is looking for every opportunity to revive the plan.
“The current president has stated publicly many times and to me personally that he would love to bring tarsands to South Portland,” said Blake.

Thomas Mulcair To Testify On Satellite Offices After Tories Trip Up NDP

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair will be forced to testify before a Commons committee — and the TV cameras — to explain his party's use of House resources after the Conservatives pulled a fast one on his New Democrats Thursday morning.
Tory MP Blake Richards rose in the House to seek unanimous consent for a motion to have Mulcair appear before the Procedure and House Affairs committee, no later than May 16, 2014, to explain the "Official Opposition's improper use of House of Commons resources for partisan purposes."
Conservatives and Liberals accuse the NDP of using Parliament-funded staff to operate "satellite offices" in Quebec City and Montreal, as well as Saskatchewan where the party has no MPs. Mulcair, however, insists his party is following the rules.
As you may have guessed, the New Democrats did not give their consent to Richards' motion.
But here's where things get interesting.
Labour Minister Kellie Leitch then stood up and asked that the motion be placed before the House.
According to Standing Order 56.1, when unanimous consent for a motion has been denied (as it was in Richards' case), a cabinet minister — and only a cabinet minister — can request, without any prior notice, that the Speaker immediately put the question to the House "without debate or amendment."

Members opposed must rise to their feet, and if there are 25 or more MPs against the motion, it is withdrawn.
But the NDP did not have 25 members in the Commons, so Scheer declared it passed.

Finance Minister Joe Oliver monitoring mortgages

OTTAWA - Newly minted Finance Minister Joe Oliver says he has no immediate plans to intervene in what could be the start of a mortgage war after one of the country's major banks slashed its five-year rate.

"We've been over the long-term reducing the Canadian involvement in the mortgage market to protect the indebtedness of Canadian consumers and Canadian taxpayers and we will continue in that regard," he said Thursday.

Oliver's predecessor, Jim Flaherty, cooled things down several times between 2008 and 2012 to protect the government's exposure to the housing market and to curb household debt, including making it harder for some to buy houses.

The Bank of Montreal (BMO) is cutting its five-year rate by 50 basis points to 2.99%, which is likely to spur its competitors to follow suit.

Oliver said BMO explained its rationale during a heads-up phone call this week and he said he understands the motivation for the drop, but will monitor the situation closely.

Stephen Harper says Russia’s Vladimir Putin sees himself as a ‘rival of the Western world’

BERLIN, Germany — Prime Minister Stephen Harper and German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed their solidarity in opposing Russia’s seizure of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and the use of sanctions to try to rein in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bellicose behaviour.

But after meeting privately for more than an hour in the German capital on Thursday, Harper and Merkel revealed different ideas and approaches regarding how to get Putin and Russia to de-escalate the greatest political crisis to confront Europe in many decades.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Putin does not share our values,” Harper said in French. “Despite our best efforts to turn him into a partner, Mr. Putin has continued to see himself as a rival of the Western world and he has created a rivalry instead of a partnership.”

-