Underground Stories 03-30-14

Magnitude-4.1 aftershock shakes Los Angeles area

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A magnitude-4.1 aftershock has rattled parts of Southern California where a moderate quake occurred the day before.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the aftershock struck shortly after 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
A magnitude-5.1 earthquake centered 25 miles south of Los Angeles hit Friday night, cracking foundations and causing evacuations.
More than 100 aftershocks have followed including the latest, which was the largest.

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More than 100 aftershocks rattle California following 5.1 magnitude earthquake

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Putin calls Obama to discuss Ukraine

Russia's Vladimir Putin has telephoned President Barack Obama to discuss the US proposal for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine.

Mr Obama suggested that Russia put a concrete response in writing, the White House said in a statement.
According to the Kremlin, Mr Putin suggested examining how the situation could be stabilised.
Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine has sparked international condemnation.
In the hour-long phone call, the US president urged Mr Putin to avoid the build-up of forces on the Russian border with Ukraine.
"President Obama underscored to President Putin that the United States continues to support a diplomatic path... with the aim of de-escalation of the crisis," the White House said in a statement.
"President Obama made clear that this remains possible only if Russia pulls back its troops and does not take any steps to further violate Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty."

Related Story:  Ukraine crisis: Kerry and Lavrov in push for solution
29 March 2014 Last updated at 19:13 ET

US Secretary of State John Kerry has diverted his homebound flight at the last minute, for hastily arranged talks on the Ukraine crisis with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The decision came after President Vladimir Putin spoke to President Barack Obama by phone late on Friday.
The two foreign ministers are due to meet in Paris on Sunday evening.

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Afghanistan election HQ attack: Taliban militants killed

Taliban militants who attacked Afghanistan's election commission headquarters have all been killed, police say.

Gunmen broke into a nearby building, disguised as women, and opened fire on the commission compound.
Police said special forces killed four attackers, while the Interior Ministry put the number at five.
The attack comes a week before presidential elections which the Taliban have vowed to disrupt.
Insurgents in the Afghan capital targeted a guest house for foreign aid workers on Friday.

 Ex-British premier says international donors will give Pakistan $1 billion in education aid

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says international donors have pledged to provide Pakistan with about a billion dollars over the next three years to help it provide education to millions of out-of-school children.

Now a United Nations special envoy on global education, Brown said Saturday in Islamabad that the global community will partner with Pakistan in financing the biggest education expansion in the country's history.
Pakistan recently doubled its education budget, from two to four percent of its gross domestic product.
Brown says the goal is to provide education to more than 55 million people over ten years old who are illiterate in Pakistan.

Obama May Allow Air Defense Help For Syria Rebels

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — The Obama administration is considering allowing shipments of new air defense systems to Syrian rebels, a U.S. official said Friday.
President Barack Obama's possible shift would likely be welcomed by Saudi Arabia, which has been pressing the White House to allow the man-portable air-defense systems, known as "manpads," into Syria. Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia on Friday evening for meetings with King Abdullah.
Allowing manpads to be delivered to Syrian rebels would mark a shift in strategy for the U.S., which until this point has limited its lethal assistance to small weapons and ammunition, as well as humanitarian aid. The U.S. has been grappling for ways to boost the rebels, who have lost ground in recent months, allowing Syrian President Bashar Assad to regain a tighter grip on the war-torn nation.
The actual manpad shipments could come from the Saudis, who have so far held off sending in the equipment because of U.S. opposition.
The president is not expected to announce a final decision on the matter during his overnight trip to the Gulf kingdom. U.S. and Saudi intelligence officials have been discussing the possibility of injecting manpads into the crisis for some time, including during a meeting in Washington earlier this year.
As recently as February, the administration had said Obama remained opposed to any shipments of manpads to the Syrian opposition. The U.S. has been concerned that the weaponry could fall into the wrong hands and possibly be used to shoot down a commercial airliner.
Among the reasons for Obama's shift in thinking is the greater understanding the U.S. now has about the composition of the Syrian rebels, the official said. However, the official added, the president continues to have concerns about escalating the fire power on the ground in Syria, which has been torn apart by more than three years of civil war.

House Democrats push to end congressional probe of Benghazi attacks 

WASHINGTON -- Democrats in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are demanding that Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Vista) end his “partisan” investigation of the September 2012 Benghazi attacks, which cost the lives of four Americans, including that of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

Led by the committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the 17 lawmakers say Issa has made inflammatory accusations and cost the Defense Department time and money with his investigation.
In a letter published Wednesday, Democrats attacked what they called Issa’s “reckless pattern of launching wholly unfounded accusations on national television.”
On Thursday they released a two-minute video on YouTube of Issa’s more controversial statements, including ones in which he accused former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of reducing security in Libya and suggested she ordered former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to “stand down” during the attack.
The contentious relationship between the committee’s Republicans and Democrats was heightened this month in tense hearings for the panel’s other major investigation: the inquiry into allegations that the IRS targeted conservative groups for scrutiny. Those tensions culminated in a highly publicized confrontation between Cummings and Issa, in which Issa cut off microphones as Cummings was trying to speak.
Democrats are also pointing to the cost of the Benghazi investigation, which “is estimated to be in the millions of dollars,” according to a March 13 letter from Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (D-Wash.), criticizing the redundant investigations led by his and the Oversight Committee.
But House Oversight Committee spokesman Frederick Hill defended the investigation, saying that it could have gone faster had they received the “cooperation that we would have liked to have from the administration.”
The Democrats on the committee, he said, are “desperate to stop our investigation and try to stop more damaging information [on Benghazi] from coming to the public’s attention.”

Thousands of anti-government protesters march in Thai capital to demand pre-election reforms

Thousands of anti-government protesters are out on the streets of the Thai capital, reviving their whistle-blowing, traffic-blocking campaign to force the resignation of the country's prime minister.

Protesters are marching from Bangkok's main Lumpini Park, taking six different routes through the city center. They have reiterated demands for Yingluck Shinawatra's elected government to yield power to an interim appointed council that would introduce vaguely defined anti-corruption reforms.
The march Saturday comes after a lull in anti-government street rallies that started four months ago and amid growing concern of violence between supporters and opponents of Yingluck, who has refused to step down.
Her government has come under growing threats of legal action that could force it from office, including an impeachment case in which she must submit her defense on Monday.

Armed pro-government militias wreak havoc on Venezuela protests

The masked gunmen emerged from a group of several dozen motorcycle-mounted government loyalists who were attempting to dismantle a barricade in La Isabelica, a working-class district of Valencia that has been a center of unrest since nationwide protests broke out last month.

The barricades' defenders had been hurling rocks, sticks and other objects at the attackers, who included perhaps a dozen armed men, witnesses told The Associated Press.
Lisandro Barazarte, a photographer with the local newspaper, Notitarde, caught images of several of the men shooting into the crowd while steadying their firearms on their palms.
"They were practiced shooters," Barazarte said. "More were armed, but didn't fire."
When it was over, two La Isabelica men were dead: a 22-year-old student, Jesus Enrique Acosta, and a little league baseball coach, Guillermo Sanchez. Witnesses told the AP the first was shot in the head, the second in the back. They said neither was at the barricades when he was killed.

Six killed in Turkey as rival factions battle in municipal elections

ISTANBUL/ANKARA - Six people were killed on Sunday in clashes between groups backing rival candidates in Turkey's municipal elections, which turned into a referendum on the rule of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
Security officials said four people were killed in a gun fight between two families in the village of Yuvacik in the eastern province of Sanliurfa, which borders Syria. Such clashes have occurred at previous local elections.
In Hatay province, also bordering Syria, two people died in a gun-battle between relatives of two candidates in Golbasi village, the officials said. Candidates in the voting for these local officials are not party-affiliated.
Tensions rose in Turkey in the build-up to the elections, with Erdogan trying to fight off graft allegations and stem a stream of damaging security leaks.
Erdogan looks set to win Sunday's municipal elections that have become a crisis referendum on his 10-year rule as he tries to ward off graft allegations and stem a stream of damaging security leaks.
Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party blame the leaks on "traitors" embedded in the Turkish state and he has been criss-crossing the nation of 77 million during weeks of hectic campaigning to rally his conservative core voters.
"They are all traitors," Erdogan said of his opponents at a rally in Istanbul, Turkey's commercial capital, on Saturday. "Let them do what they want. Go to the ballot box tomorrow and teach all of them a lesson ... Let's give them an Ottoman slap."
Erdogan has purged some 7,000 people from the judiciary and police since anti-graft raids in December targeting businessmen close to him and sons of ministers. He blames this on US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally, who he says is using supporters in the police to try to topple the government.

North Korea threatens a 'new form' of nuclear test

North Korea threatened on Sunday to conduct what it called "a new form of nuclear test", raising the level of rhetoric after members of the United Nations Security Council condemned the North's recent ballistic missile launch.
"It is absolutely intolerable that the UN Security Council, turning a blind eye to the U.S. madcap nuclear war exercises, 'denounced' the Korean People's Army's self-defensive rocket launching drills and called them a 'violation of resolutions' and a 'threat to international peace and security' and is set to take an 'appropriate step'," the North's foreign ministry said in a statement on the official KCNA news agency.
The statement said KPA drills to counter the US will involve "more diversified nuclear deterrence" that will be used for hitting medium- and long-range targets "with a variety of striking power".
"We would not rule out a new form of nuclear test for bolstering up our nuclear deterrence," the North's statement said, without giving any indication of what that might entail.
After Pyongyang fired two medium-range Rodong ballistic missiles into the sea off the east coast of the Korean peninsula on Wednesday, the 15-member Security Council on Thursday condemned the launches violating UN resolutions.
North Korea's first firing in four years of mid-range missiles that can reach Japan followed a series of short-range rocket launches over the past two months.
In defiance of UN resolutions, North Korea conducted its third nuclear test in February 2013 and declared it had made progress in securing a functioning atomic arsenal. It is widely believed the North does not have the capacity to deliver a nuclear strike on the mainland United States.

Dem Senator Was Arrested For Gun Running


Many leftist politicians who want to strip Americans of their Second Amendment rights say their position is based on concern for the safety of citizens. Somehow, they contend, forcing law-abiding gun-owners to give up their weapons will result in street gangs following suit.
According to a recently unsealed affidavit, however, one state senator in California allegedly wanted to curtail gun rights for everyone except violent gangsters.

State Sen. Leland Yee, the court documents state, was the subject of an FBI raid that led to his arrest Wednesday along with 25 other individuals. Among those arrested was Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, a well-known Chinese gang leader.
Though Chow claimed he left his criminal behavior in the past after his 2003 release from prison, evidence indicates he was merely putting a legitimate face on his new illegal behavior. He now faces charges of money laundering and a number of conspiracy charges.
The purportedly reformed crime boss has been praised in recent years by a number of California politicos for his public appearances working with troubled kids. All the while, however, reports indicate he was still deeply involved in his prior activities.
As for Yee, his alleged ties to the investigation stem from his acceptance of bribes from undercover FBI agents in exchange for his intervention on behalf of the ring’s ongoing criminal behavior. He faces charges of wire fraud and, despite his well-documented gun control activism, conspiracy to deal firearms.
He was released Wednesday evening under $500,000 bond and, according to his lawyer, plans to plead not guilty to the charges.
Paul DeMeester said, however, that the “future will hold a lot of work facing this case” against his client.
A Senate spokesperson confirmed the FBI conducted a raid on Yee’s office, though no officials offered a comment regarding the scope of the charges he faces. The affidavit chronicling the complex case is 137 pages long.
His apparent willingness to accept the money from undercover agents was reportedly related to the significant debt he incurred during a failed bid to become San Francisco’s mayor. Currently, Yee is mounting a new campaign to become the state’s secretary of state.

Michelle Recalls Surviving American Death Camps

Speaking to a group of awestruck Chinese citizens, Michelle Obama recounted her years of oppression as a victim of racism and how she survived the American extermination camps.

"There were laws in America that discriminated against people like me because of the color of our skin," said Michelle. A sharp inward gasp was heard as the interpreter finished her comment in Mandarin.

Still haunted by laws that were no longer in effect when she was born, Michelle outlined her plight as she endured racism in Princeton University, and narrowly escaped death at Harvard Law School. Tears were seen streaming down the cheeks of some of the visibly moved Chinese citizens. -

Women in her audience especially were deeply touched as the First Lady revealed how she had to live paycheck to paycheck as a hospital administrator with a meager six digit income.

"Sometimes we had to say no to caviar, or no to a really expensive Italian sports car because we just couldn't afford it," Michelle Obama recalled, her voice breaking, as one Chinese woman fainted and another one began sobbing uncontrollably.

However, when Michelle recalled the glorious day when her husband was chosen as the Democrat Party candidate for president - the day when she was proud of her country for the first time in her adult life - triumphant cheers broke out and she received a standing ovation.

Audience interviews showed just how significantly impressed the Chinese people were with the story of the First Lady's painful ordeal. One young woman said, "Michelle give me hope that someday I make something of self. I not know how many opportunity I have in China until I hear how bad America be to black women." 
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