Gazette 03-31-14

North Korea declares no-sail warning off coast to conduct firing drills

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea declared a no-sail warning on Monday for areas off its west coast near a disputed border with South Korea and has notified the South that it will conduct firing drills, a South Korean government official said.

The area is near the so-called Northern Limit Line, drawn up at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, which the North has refused to recognize. Past clashes between the two navies in the area killed scores of sailors on both sides.

The warning comes amid heightened tensions surrounding the North after the U.N. Security Council condemned Pyongyang for its mid-range missile launches last week, just as the leaders of South Korea, Japan and the United States met to discuss the North's arms program.

The areas marked by the North are north of the naval border but lie close to islands populated by civilians, said the official, who requested anonymity. South Korea's military will be watching closely for any infringement of its waters, he said.

North, South Korea exchange fire across disputed western sea border
North and South Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells into each other's waters Monday in a flare-up of animosity that forced residents of five front-line South Korean islands to evacuate to shelters for several hours, South Korean officials said.
South Korean Marines fired artillery shells across a disputed sea border after North Korean shells from a live fire drill conducted by Pyongyang fell into the water south of the frontier, Seoul officials told the Associated Press. 
There were no reports of any injuries. Residents on front-line South Korean islands spent several hours in shelters during the firing, and officials temporarily halted ferry service linking the islands to the mainland. Kang Myeong-sung, speaking from a shelter on Yeonpyeong island, which is in sight of North Korean territory, said he didn't hear any fighter jets but heard the boom of artillery fire.
North Korea fired 500 rounds of artillery shells over more than three hours, about 100 of which fell south of the sea boundary, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said later Monday. South Korea responded by firing 300 shells into North Korean waters, he said.

Talks between US, Russia fail to break Ukraine deadlock

Four hours of talks between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart failed to break a tense East-West deadlock over how to proceed on the Ukraine crisis, though the two men agreed the situation requires a diplomatic solution.
The talks came hours after a leading Ukrainian military analyst told Fox News there are now about 50,000 Russian troops within several hours of the two nations' border, but there has been a "general decrease in tensions" since Russian President Vladimir Putin called President Obama on Friday.
Sitting face-to-face but not seeing eye-to-eye on any of the most critical issues, Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov advanced far different proposals on how to calm tensions and de-escalate the situation, particularly as Russia continues to mass troops along its border with the former Soviet republic. As he called for Moscow to begin an immediate pullback of the troops, Kerry also ruled out discussion of Russia's demand for Ukraine to become a loose federation until-and-unless Ukrainians are at the table.
"The Russian troop buildup is creating a climate of fear and intimidation in Ukraine," Kerry told reporters at the home of the U.S. ambassador to France after the meeting, which was held at the Russian ambassador's residence and included a working dinner. "It certainly does not create the climate that we need for dialogue."
The U.S. believes the massing of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, ostensibly for military exercises, along the border is at once an attempt to intimidate Ukraine's new leaders after Russia's annexation of the strategic Crimean peninsula and to use a bargaining chip with the United States and the European Union, which have condemned Crimea's absorption into Russia and imposed sanctions on senior Russian officials.

 Ukraine crisis: US-Russia deadlock despite 'frank' talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a "partial withdrawal" of troops from the border with Ukraine, the German government has said.

Mr Putin informed Chancellor Angela Merkel of the move in a telephone conversation, according to her office.
Thousands of Russian soldiers are still said to be deployed along the border.
Earlier, Ukraine condemned a visit to Crimea by Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and a delegation of government ministers.
A foreign ministry spokesman in Kiev said the highest-level trip to the Black Sea peninsula by officials from Moscow since its annexation by Russia was a "crude violation" of international rules.
A note protesting against the presence of an official in "the territory of another state without preliminary agreement" had been sent, he added.
Crimeans voted to leave Ukraine for Russia on 16 March, in a referendum condemned as illegal by the UN General Assembly.

Pervez Musharraf pleads not guilty to treason charges in Pakistan court

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's once all-powerful military ruler, has been indicted on high treason charges in a court appearance, despite claims he would be allowed to escape abroad.
Amid a massive security operation on Monday, the former president appeared for only the second time in a trial that has dragged on since December to plead not guilty to the five charges against him.
"I prefer death to surrender," the former army chief told the special court in Islamabad.
It is the first time a civilian court has put a senior member of Pakistan's military establishment on trial.
It was also a moment that Musharraf's legal team had tried to avoid. Most experts agree he will struggle to defend himself against the charges once the trial begins in earnest.
Security threats and a health scare had enabled Musharraf to largely avoid the indignity of appearing before the court. He has been staying at a military hospital in the garrison city of Rawalpindi since experiencing chest pains in January that he claims can only be treated overseas.
His legal team boycotted Monday's proceedings in protest against the lead judge, who they claimed had recused himself from the trial after storming out during a previous hearing.
But with the support of a new lawyer, Musharraf took the opportunity to deliver a lengthy defence of his nine years in power and a firm denial that he was a traitor.

Israel's ex-PM Ehud Olmert convicted of bribery

Israel's former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who resigned from office in 2008 amid a corruption inquiry, has been found guilty in a bribery trial.

Olmert was convicted in what is known as the "Holyland affair" in which bribes were paid to speed up a luxury property development in Jerusalem.
He has already been cleared in several other corruption trials.
The 68-year-old former Kadima party leader had denied wrongdoing and had hinted at a political comeback.
The offences happened when Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem and subsequently a government minister.
Delivering the verdict in Tel Aviv on Monday, Judge David Rozen said the case "exposed governance that grew more corrupt and rotten over the years, with bribes paid to public officials," the Associated Press news agency reported.
Olmert succeeded Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister after the latter had a stroke in January 2006. He was mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003.
In 2012 Olmert was cleared of two major corruption charges but convicted of illegally granting favours to a business friend during his time as trade and industry minister under Mr Sharon.
He was fined $19,000 and given a one-year suspended jail sentence.

Related Story: Ehud Olmert: The bigger they are the harder they fall


French government resigns after economic woes cause political reshuffle 
France's government has resigned ahead of a reshuffle that comes 24 hours after President Francois Hollande's Socialists suffered losses in nationwide municipal elections seen as a referendum on his leadership.
Disappointment with the Socialists' handling of the economy drove many voters to conservative or anti-immigrant far-right candidates in the elections Sunday.
Hollande is expected to announce a new prime minister Monday evening, after having met with outgoing Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.
Hollande hopes the reshuffle will boost the government's popularity.

Zhou Yongkang: China seizes $15b in assets from family, associates of former security chief

Beijing: Chinese authorities have seized assets worth at least 90 billion yuan  ($15.8 billion) from family members and associates of retired domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang, who is at the centre of China's biggest corruption scandal in more than six decades, two sources said.
More than 300 of Mr Zhou's relatives, political allies, proteges and staff have also been taken into custody or questioned in the past four months, the sources, who have been briefed on the investigation, said.
The sheer size of the asset seizures and the scale of the investigations into the people around Mr Zhou – both unreported until now – make the corruption probe unprecedented in modern China and would appear to show that President Xi Jinping is tackling graft at the highest levels.
But it may also be driven partly by political payback after Mr Zhou angered leaders such as Mr Xi by opposing the ouster of former high-flying politician Bo Xilai, who was jailed for life in September for corruption and abuse of power.
Mr Zhou, 71, has been under virtual house arrest since authorities began formally investigating him late last year. He is the most senior Chinese politician to be ensnared in a corruption investigation since the Communist Party swept to power in 1949.
''It's the ugliest in the history of the New China,'' said one of the sources, who has ties to the leadership and did not want to be named.
The government has yet to make any official statement about Mr Zhou or the case against him and it has not been possible to contact Mr Zhou, his family, associates or staff for comment. It is not clear if any of them have lawyers.
The party's anti-corruption watchdog and the prosecutor's office did not respond to requests for comment. In the secretive world of China's Communist Party, targets of its investigations usually disappear, often for months or even years, until an official announcement is made.


 Outbreak: Borders On Lock Down as Ebola Spreads: “We Will Lose Many People”

One of the world’s most terrifying viruses is multiplying. Thus far at least 70 people have died from the Ebola virus in Guinea in recent weeks and though officials have taken steps to shut down the country’s border it may already be too late. The deadly strain of hemorrhagic fever has reportedly already spread to neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The virus is normally acquired as a result of the butchering of or consumption of meat from bats or monkeys, which has prompted Guinea’s government to issue a ban on, among other things, the sale and preparation of bat soup. But because the virus can be spread from human-to-human via feces, blood, saliva, or sweat, it’s possible that the virus is now spreading through the general population.
Frighteningly, while the virus has historically be contained in rural areas of Africa, the latest outbreak has spread to Conakry, Guinea’s capital city of two million people.
As noted by Underground Medic, the strain of virus detected in those that have already died has been confirmed as the Zaire strain of Ebola, which has a fatality rate of 90%.

The disease has traveled 526 miles from Nzerekore to Conakry since Wednesday. It is a highly infectious disease and there are fears that community spread has already occurred.
With an incubation time between 4 and 21 days, and an average mean of 16 days, the amount of people an infected person has come into is considerable. Public transport is often overloaded and crowded living conditions give the disease ample opportunity to spread.

Syrian rocket slams into mosque in Turkish border town, injuring 60-year-old refugee

Officials say Turkish artillery units have fired into Syrian territory in retaliation for a rocket that hit a mosque in a Turkish border town, injuring a 60-year old Syrian woman refugee.

The governor's office for Turkey's Hatay province said Monday three mortar rounds fired during fighting between the Syrian regime and opposition forces also landed on Turkish territory, but did not hurt anyone.
It said Turkish artillery retaliated by firing at the region the rocket and mortar rounds originated from. Turkey frequently retaliates against stray fire from Syrian government or opposition forces.
Last week, Turkey shot down a Syrian fighter jet which it said violated Turkey's airspace.
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 Why is Obama's Pentagon providing Russia with free military equipment?

GOP lawmakers are alleging that the U.S. government has been giving President Vladimir Putin's Russian armed forces free military equipment regardless of President Barack Obama's threats against the Russian Federation as well as cancellation of planned U.S.-Russian military exercises, according to a number of news stories appearing on Friday.
The secret weapons and equipment deal was revealed by Republican members of Congress when they were perusing the Fiscal Year 2014 budget and the proposed Fiscal Year 2015 budget request, according to the nonpartisan, public-interest group Judicial Watch.
According to reports, including a Judicial Watch investigative report, the already-problem filled Nuclear Security Administration (NSA) has been providing the Russian Federation with the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES), the congressmen allege.


Obama Spends $967 Million to Create 10 Solar Energy Jobs

President Barack Obama has spent billions of taxpayer dollars trying to kill the oil industry in favor of green energy.  The shutdown of Solyndra has become the poster child of Obama’s failed green energy program.
So perhaps Obama will start touting the success of the Aqua Caliente Solar Project in Yuma, Arizona.  Yuma is one of the sunniest places in America averaging 350 sunny days a year out 365.  Located in the Lower Sonoran Desert in the southwestern corner of Arizona, there are miles of open and nearly barren desert, making it an ideal place to build the world’s largest solar panel power generating system.
Aqua Caliente Solar Project covers nearly 2,400 acres of desert land.  Its construction took several years and is projected to produce 350 MW of power, enough to service about 225,000 homes in California.  President Obama helped secure $967 million in federal loans for the construction and start-up of ACSP.  Currently, Aqua Caliente has 10 permanent employees, which means that it cost US taxpayers nearly $100 million per permanent job.
Perhaps I should note at this point that Yuma has an unemployment rate of 26.1%, one of the highest, if not the highest in the nation.  Aqua Caliente is supposed to be completed later this year and at that time they plan on having 16 permanent jobs at the facility which still means it cost taxpayers $60.4 million per job.
Now contrast Yuma with Midland, Texas.  Midland sits on top of a huge shale oil and uses fracking to extract the oil. Between 2009 and 2011, the Texas town saw a 25% increase per capita income which is more than three times the national average.  What is the unemployment rate in Midland you ask?  Try 2.9% unemployment, the lowest of any metro area in the nation.  How much in federal guaranteed loans did Midland get?  After a little research, I couldn’t find any.

Obama's popularity abroad.

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 The Buried Secrets Of Bill And Hillary Clinton Revealed  

Bill and Hillary Clinton’s lawyers have circled the wagons around documents, photos, videos, and, most recently, newly discovered audio recordings—likened to the Nixon tapes—held at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. After the government watchdog group Judicial Watch sued to force the Clinton Library to release the literally millions of files, the Library released a scant 5000 records, claiming that the FOIA requests don’t reflect the other documents being held. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. On the other side of town, the documents held at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in Little Rock, documenting Bill Clinton’s years as governor of Arkansas, make the security at the Clinton Library seem mild. The files are held in a giant safe and require the personal signature of Clinton crony Bruce Lindsey for even a peek—and Lindsey has released exactly zero files. And there’s a lot to hide. Let’s start with the “suicides” of teenagers Don Henry and Kevin Ives by laying on the railroad tracks. Clinton’s medical examiner conveniently ruled the deaths suicide; but when the parents of the teens screamed bloody murder, the bodies were exhumed showing that the medical examiner, Dr. Fahmy Malak, had lied. Their bodies clearly showed signs of foul play, one teen having a knife wound, the other with blunt force trauma to the head. It has been rumored for years that the boys had witnessed a  huge drug deal go down, part of Clinton’s infamous cocaine empire based in Mena, Arkansas—and so had to disappear. What secrets do the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Butler Center for Arkansas Studies hold? We will never know. Presidents and former Presidents in this country, as we now know, are above the law. Unless the American people demand otherwise.

GOP donors reportedly working to draft Jeb Bush for 2016 presidential run

A group of top Republican donors have reportedly begun an intense effort to draft former Florida governor Jeb Bush into the race for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.
A Washington Post report quotes one major donor as saying that the "vast majority" of the top 100 givers to 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney would back Bush in a nomination fight. 
The report also claims that a hard press has begun to get Bush into the race because conservative leaders and longtime Republican operatives are concerned about the electoral viability of New Jersey governor Chris Christie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. Christie's standing and poll numbers, both nationally and among Republicans, have been damaged by the ongoing investigation into whether he knew of access lane closures to the George Washington Bridge ordered by his staff as apparent political retaliation. 
On the other hand, Paul's libertarian views on matters like surveillance by the National Security Agency and his perceived softness on foreign policy has also raised red flags in the GOP establishment. Paul's victories in straw polls at the Conservative Political Action Conference and the Northeast Republican Leadership Conference earlier this month may also have been a factor in the renewed push for a Bush candidacy. 
Earlier this week, Bush met privately with casino magnate and GOP donor Sheldon Adelson and addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition's senior members at a dinner held Thursday at Adelson's company airport hangar. The Post, citing a donor in attendance at the dinner, reported that the crowd of about 60 guests applauded when one told Bush, "I hope you run for President in 2016."
Bush, the brother of former President George W. Bush and the son of former President George H.W. Bush, served two terms as governor of Florida between 1999 and 2007. After leaving office, his name was put forward as a possible Senate candidate in 2010 and a presidential candidate in 2012. However, despite the rumors, Bush has remained out of political life.
Bush's advisers told The Post that the former governor was not actively exploring a candidacy and would not make a decision on running until the end of this year.

Yellowstone National Park rattled by largest earthquake in 34 years

(Reuters) - Yellowstone National Park, which sits atop one of the world's largest super-volcanoes, was struck on Sunday by a magnitude 4.8 earthquake, the biggest recorded there since February 1980, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported.

The tremor, a relatively light event by seismic standards, struck the northwest corner of the park and capped a flurry of smaller quakes at Yellowstone since Thursday, geologists at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations said in a statement.

The latest earthquake struck at 6:34 a.m. near the Norris Geyser Basin and was felt about 23 miles away in two small Montana towns adjacent to year-around entrances to the park - Gardiner and West Yellowstone.

The national park spans 3,472 square miles (8,992 square km) of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, and draws about 3 million visitors each year to its iconic geysers and wildlife attractions, including bison.

A U.S. Geological Survey team planned to tour the Norris Geyser Basin on Sunday to determine if the quake altered any of Yellowstone's geothermal features, such as geysers, mud pots and hot springs.

Several people reported having felt shaking they compared to the rumble of a tractor-trailer truck driving by, and a few items fell off the shelves at a local grocery store, a West Yellowstone police dispatcher said.

About 1,000 to 3,000 earthquakes strike Yellowstone each year, according to the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, a research partnership of the park, the University of Utah and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The ancient super-volcano, or caldera, that lies beneath the surface of the park was discovered by scientists in recent years to be 2.5 times larger than previously thought, measured at 30 miles wide, according to the park.

Sunday's quake occurred near the center of an area of ground uplift that geologists have been tracking for several months, University of Utah seismologists said. Elevated seismic activity was also found in the area during a previous period of uplift from 1996 to 2003.

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 Dimitri Soudas fired as Conservative Party executive director

Dimitri Soudas has been forced out as the Conservative Party of Canada's executive director after trying to interfere with his fiancée's Conservative nomination battle.
Soudas, who was Prime Minister Stephen Harper's director of communications in 2011, has been the party's executive director since December. He worked for Harper for nine years, starting when Harper was the leader of the official opposition. Soudas left after the party won a majority government in May 2011, and took a job with the Canadian Olympic Committee. He left that job just days before the party announced they'd hired him in the top staff job.
Sources tell CBC News the party's national council was to be briefed on the move during a conference call at 9 p.m. ET.
Soudas's fiancée, Eve Adams, is fighting local chiropractor Natalia Lishchyna for the Conservative nomination in Oakville-North Burlington, a newly created riding that technically won't exist until the next election. Adams is the MP for Mississauga-Brampton South, a riding that's being split in 2015.
The Canadian Press has reported that tempers flared when Adams showed up at a riding board meeting March 19, and was asked to leave after an unpleasant exchange. Two separate Conservative sources said one board member threatened to call the police when she stayed on.
Soudas couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
A spokesman for the party confirmed that Soudas "stepped down as executive director" of the party, but wouldn't comment further. A source told the CBC's Hannah Thibedeau that Soudas was told to resign or he would be fired.

New policy bars Ontario doctors from accepting drug company gifts

An updated ethical policy from the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons calls on doctors to stop accepting gifts from pharmaceutical companies or putting their names to studies written by commercial interests.
It's well-known that drug companies offer doctors funding, trips and personal gifts as inducement to prescribe their products.
And even when doctors don't think they're being influenced, they likely are, the college says.
"A growing body of empirical evidence demonstrates that patient trust and clinical care can be adversely affected by these conflicts," the report says.
The draft guidelines aim to help doctors understand and manage their relationships with industry appropriately so they can avoid conflicts of interest.
Doctors may not accept incentives or fees from drug companies or their reps except under certain circumstances and in certain forms - such as a lunch meeting or some other "modest" meal.
Furthermore, doctors have to be more critical of the information provided to them by drug companies and not rely on that information alone in their decision-making on the treatment of a patient.
A doctor must not be listed as author on any published article "ghostwritten" by an industry representative who is reporting the findings of a company's study on its own products or treatments, the draft says.
And "in the spirit of good science," doctors must actively look to publish negative findings as well as positive ones.
The college is accepting feedback from industry and from the public until May 14 and will release the final version of the policy at a later date.

Justin Trudeau drops f-bomb at boxing match

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau invoked a word his father once famously used in the House of Commons, using it as an adverb to emphasize his passion about boxing.
It's led the Prime Minister's Office to question Trudeau's judgment.
Speaking from the ring, Trudeau said it pained him to be standing there and not suited up to take on an opponent.
"I will tell you, there is no experience like stepping into this ring and measuring yourself. All that — your name, your fortune, your intelligence, your beauty — none of that f--king matters," Trudeau can be heard saying in a video of the event posted to YouTube.
The line was met with huge cheers from the fight night crowd.

'Lack of judgment'

A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper wasn't as enthusiastic.
"This is yet another example of Justin Trudeau's lack of judgment," Harper's spokesman said in an email to CBC News.
In 1971, his father Pierre, then the prime minister, was accused of mouthing a profane phrase in the House of Commons to Conservative MPs John Lundrigan and Lincoln Alexander. Asked about it later, Pierre Trudeau referred to the term as "fuddle duddle." He also accused the MPs of being sensitive and going "crying to mama."
The younger Trudeau has been known to use coarse language in the past. In 2011, he called then-environment minister Peter Kent a "piece of shit" in the House of Commons.

Pauline Marois Willing To Invoke Notwithstanding Clause For Secular Charter

TROIS-RIVIERES, - Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois says she is prepared to invoke the notwithstanding clause to ensure her party's controversial secular charter is adopted.
Marois says she has plans to reintroduce the values charter project as it currently stands if her party forms a majority government in next Monday's Quebec election.
Marois told a news conference today that any legal threat against the charter will be met with the notwithstanding clause.
The clause is enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and allows Parliament or provinces to override the charter in order to adopt legislation.
The federal government and other parties have already said they will take whatever action is necessary to stop the charter.
In the past, Marois has said she was confident the charter would be able to withstand legal challenges, but is bringing up using the seldom-used clause for the first time.
Identity issues and language have taken centre stage a week before the vote.

Senators' Pension Plan Ejection May Bring Court Challenge To Tories 

OTTAWA - The Harper government may face a court challenge over its bid to preclude disgraced senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau from the parliamentary pension plan while they are under suspension from the upper house.
Wallin's lawyer, Terrence O'Sullivan, said Friday the move amounts to retroactively changing the penalty for the three senators after they've been sentenced — precisely the reason given by the Supreme Court last week for striking down the government's attempt to retroactively tighten parole eligibility for those already behind bars.
"My client is now in the position of not only being unable to work but of being unable to accrue pensionable service even though she is still a senator," O'Sullivan said in an interview.
"In our view, this is wrong and contrary to law."
Wallin has not yet decided whether to challenge the government's latest move to restrict her pension eligibility, but "we have not ruled out any option," O'Sullivan said.
As part of an omnibus budget implementation bill introduced Friday, the government is proposing amendments to the Members of Parliament Retiring Allowances Act.
The amendments would ensure the three senators don't accrue pensionable service while under suspension for making allegedly fraudulent expense claims.
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