Weekend Gazette 02-03-14

Sunday March 2nd 2014

Ukraine in full army mobilization

Ukraine has ordered a full military mobilisation in response to Russia's build-up of its forces in Crimea.

Prime Minster Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the country was "on the brink of disaster".
US President Barack Obama has called Russian troop deployments a "violation of Ukrainian sovereignty".
Nato is conducting emergency talks on the crisis. Its secretary-general has said Russia's actions "threatened peace and security in Europe".
Several other measures were announced on Sunday by national security officials:

• The armed forces would be put on "full combat readiness".
• Reserves to be mobilised and trained
• Ukraine's foreign minister will seek the help of US and UK leaders in guaranteeing its security
• Emergency headquarters to be set up
• Increased security at key sites, including nuclear plants.
• Airspace closed to all non-civilian aircraft.

The BBC has seen what appear to be Russian troops digging trenches on the Crimean border.

NATO head: Russia is threatening Europe's peace and security with its Ukrainian intervention

NATO's top official says Russia's military intervention in Ukraine is in violation of the U.N. charter and threatens peace and security in Europe.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen spoke Sunday before going into a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, the alliance's political decision-making body.
"What Russia is doing now in Ukraine violates the principles of the United Nations charter. It threatens peace and security in Europe. Russia must stop its military activities and threats," he said.
The NATO secretary general said he called the meeting "because of Russia's military action in Ukraine and because of President (Vladimir) Putin's threats against this sovereign nation."
Rasmussen said officials will discuss Russia's activities in the Crimean Peninsula and "their implications for European peace and security and for NATO's relationship with Russia."

Isis 'retreating' in northern Syria

Reports from northern Syria say a rebel jihadist group has been pulling back from positions after being given an ultimatum by a rival.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) is said to have been retreating towards the city of Raqqa.
The Nusra Front has given Isis until Saturday to accept mediation or face being expelled from Syria.
Infighting between rival rebel groups has seen more than 3,000 people killed in the past two months.
The main confrontation is between Isis and other Islamist militant groups.
'Residents celebrating' Abu Mohammed al-Julani of the Nusra Front, which is affiliated with al-Qaeda, warned Isis on Tuesday that it would be driven from Syria and "even from Iraq" if it did not accept arbitration within five days.
He demanded that Isis halt all military operations against other rebels, and allow an Islamic court to rule on its actions.
The threat came after the killing of an al-Qaeda emissary, Abu Khaled al-Suri, in a suicide attack on in the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday. Rebel groups blamed ISIS for the bombing.

Islamists in Syrian city offer Christians safety -- at a heavy price

Islamist militants have told Christians in a northern Syrian city that they will guarantee their safety. But there's a catch.

Make that a lot of catches.

Christian residents of Raqqa, once one of the nation's most liberal cities, will have to pay as much as 17 grams of gold per adult male in an annual payment, the extremist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) said in a statement posted online this week.

The group is also forbidding the city's Christians from repairing or refurbishing their churches and monasteries, said the statement, which has been circulated in the city, according to Syrian activists.

The list of constraints imposed by the militants also limits Christian worship, business activities and alcohol consumption.

The heavy restrictions are perhaps unsurprising coming from ISIS, which has broken away from al Qaeda and is fighting with other rebel groups in Syria.

Activists told CNN in November that Raqqa was becoming increasingly conservative after ISIS began imposing hardline Islamist law there and meting out harsh punishment to those who don't follow orders.

Locals started calling the city Tora Bora and saying it felt as if the Taliban of Afghanistan had taken over.

ISIS's new set of restrictions on Christians has drawn criticism from the Syrian opposition and even a radical Muslim cleric.

Louay Safi, a spokesman for the Syrian Coalition, said ISIS's treatment of non-Muslims was un-Islamic.

And the radical cleric, Abu Qatada, who is on trial in Jordan over terrorism charges, told CNN Arabic on Thursday that the militants didn't have the right to offer protection and demand payment from Christians because they weren't yet empowered to govern Syria.

It's unclear how many Christians remain in Raqqa after years of bloody civil war in Syria.

Officials say car packed with explosives in east Afghanistan kills 13, including 9 militants

Officials say a car packed with explosives blew up and killed 13 people including nine insurgents in eastern Afghanistan.

Dind Mohammad Darwesh, spokesman for the governor of Logar Province, said it was probably a case of militants killed by their own weapon.
He said it appeared the car was being prepared for a terror attack but that investigations are ongoing. He said Sunday that those killed in the blast included nine insurgents, plus two women and two children who were nearby.
Darwesh had no further details. The area is a Taliban stronghold, and dangerous for journalists to independently verify claims.

Tens of thousands turn out for mass haredi demonstration in Jerusalem

Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men, women and children turned out to take part in a mass prayer rally in the capital on Sunday.

The gathering was called to protest government legislation designed to conscript haredi men into national service.

Ultra-Orthodox men traveled from around the country to attend the event, while women, and children over the age of nine, living in Jerusalem also took part.

Some 3,500 officers and several helicopters were deployed to ensure order at all times, national police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

“Police units will be in and around the area from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. to make sure the protest coordinates with the arrangements made by the haredi leadership and police,” said Rosenfeld. “We will have border officers, patrol units and helicopters to oversee the demonstration from start to finish.”

Rosenfeld said that Route 1, beginning from Ben Shemen – and all local roads near the city’s entrance – will be closed beginning at 1:30 p.m. Drivers are asked to use Route 443 as an alternative until the protest concludes.

“The section of Route 1 closed, as well as other closed local roads, will gradually be reopened after the protest finishes,” he said. “We ask for the public’s patience and cooperation during that time.”

Asked why police granted permission to the haredim to hold a protest that would be so disruptive to the city, Rosenfeld said it is a right afforded to all citizens who gain lawful permission ahead of time.

Scores killed in Nigeria twin car bomb blasts

At least 51 people have been killed after twin car bomb blasts went off at a bustling marketplace in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri, a Red Cross official said.

The first blast came from a passenger car and did not cause many casualties, said Hassan Ali, the leader of an anti-terror vigilanted group.

Most of those killed had run to the scene to help when a second explosion blasted from a pickup truck carrying firewood, he said.

The attack in the birth place of the armed group Boko Haram is the latest in a string of deadly assaults to hit the West African country.

Boko Haram, blamed for widespread violence in the north east, did not claim responsibilityfor the attack.

The AP reported that many more people were believed buried in rubble from the night explosions that collapsed some buildings.

Other building caught fire with smoke billowing for hours, the AP added, citing the Red Cross official. The victims include children who were dancing at a wedding celebration and people watching a soccer match on an outdoor TV screen, survivors told the AP.

China separatists blamed for attack

Chinese officials have blamed separatists from the north-western Xinjiang region for a mass knife attack at a railway station that left 29 people dead and at least 130 wounded.

A group of attackers, dressed in black, burst into the station in the south-west city of Kunming and began stabbing people at random.
Images from the scene posted online showed bodies lying in pools of blood.
State news agency Xinhua said police shot at least four suspects dead.
A female suspect was arrested and is being treated in hospital for unspecified injuries while a search continues for others who fled the scene, the BBC's Celia Hatton in Beijing reports.
Authorities described the incident as an "organised, premeditated, violent terrorist attack".
The Kunming city government later said that evidence from the scene pointed to separatists from Xinjiang as being behind the attack. 

Bangkok demonstrators consolidate protest in park

Anti-government protesters in Thailand's capital began settling in at a park in the center of Bangkok on Sunday, withdrawing from other sites after their numbers began to dwindle and attackers endangered their security.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban addressed the demonstrators at Lumpini Park, vowing to continue the campaign to try to force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to resign and make way for an unelected interim government that they say would institute anti-corruption reforms.
He earlier said the move to the park -- already a protest site -- from several major Bangkok intersections was to avoid causing further hardships to the city's residents.
Since the protests began in early November, the demonstrators' tactics have included blockading and occupying government offices. In mid-January, they began occupying key Bangkok streets to tie up traffic. However, life had continued much as normal in most of the capital, despite several pitched battles with police.

Venezuela minister to meet Ban Ki-moon amid crisis

Caracas: Venezuela said on Saturday its foreign minister will meet United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Geneva on Tuesday amid growing international calls for dialogue between political players to ease the OPEC nation's worst unrest in a decade.
At least 17 people have died in violence during a month of opposition protests. President Nicolas Maduro says his foes are trying to trigger a coup, while his opponents accuse troops and pro-government militants of attacking demonstrators.
Appeals for the two camps to sit down for talks have poured in from leaders around the world, including in the United States, and from Pope Francis.
Venezuela's permanent representative to the United Nations, Jorge Valero, said on Saturday that the secretary general asked for a meeting with Foreign Minister Elias Jaua on Tuesday at the sidelines of a gathering of the UN Human Rights Council.

"He will have the opportunity to explain the policies for peace and promotion of dialogue that the government is pushing, and to denounce the terrorist plans that have been developing in Venezuela," Mr Valero told Noticias24 Radio in Caracas.
Mr Maduro's socialist administration blames what it calls opposition-led "fascist groups" for unrest the authorities say is aimed at triggering a coup like the one in 2002 that briefly ousted his mentor and predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.
UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay has called for an independent investigation into the recent deaths, and said on Friday that inflammatory rhetoric from both sides was unhelpful and risked escalating a tense situation.
"It is time for all sides to move beyond verbal aggression and towards meaningful dialogue," Ms Pillay said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said he is discussing with Colombia and other nations the possibility of international mediation in Venezuela.
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Crack found in dam in Washington state, authorities lower water levels

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A 65-foot-long (20-meter-long) crack has appeared along the base of a dam in Washington state, posing no danger to the public but prompting utility managers to lower water levels to assess needed repairs, a utility spokesman said.

The 2-inch-wide (5-cm-wide) crack appeared in the spillway of the 8,320-feet-long (2535-meter-long) Wanapum Dam, a large hydroelectric power plant on the Columbia River that currently can generate more than 1,000 megawatts of power, the utility said late Friday.

The spillway is a channel that allows surplus water to escape and is used for the controlled release of flows from a dam.

"As a precautionary measure, the water above Wanapum Dam (forebay) is being drawn down to reduce the pressure on the spillway while inspectors investigate," Grant County Public Utility District spokesman Thomas Stredwick said.

The dam, about 18 miles upstream from Priest Rapids Dam in a rural part of central Washington, was still generating electricity, Stredwick said. But lower water flows during repairs could force the utility to buy power on the open market and affect the broader Columbia River hydroelectric system.

Stredwick said the dams coordinate to generate energy on a regional scope, and therefore if Wanapum is impacted, that affects dams upstream as well as below.

The water level had dropped by about 12 feet by Saturday with a target reduction of 20 feet to be reached by Monday.

 GOP lawmakers move to ban welfare money at marijuana dispensaries

Republican lawmakers plan to introduce legislation next week aimed at preventing the misuse of the food stamp funds amid reports that welfare debit cards have been used to withdraw cash at ATMs at marijuana dispensaries in Colorado.
The “Preserving Welfare for Needs Not Weed Act,” is expected to be introduced on Monday by Colorado Republican Reps. Dave Reichert, Scott Tipton and Cory Gardner, KDVR.com reported.
The bill would add pot dispensaries to the current list of locations where states must block welfare electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards from being used for purchases or ATM withdrawals, Reichert’s office told the station.
KDVR.com reported last week that at least 19 different dispensaries allowed electronic benefits transfer withdrawals inside their pot shops in January. Public records obtained by the station showed 56 transactions, totaling nearly $4,000.
A separate report by National Review Online said the amounts withdrawn ranged from $20 to $400, averaging $85.55. The maximum monthly benefit for the average household receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits is $462.
Last year, Colorado lawmakers passed a bill prohibiting access to welfare benefits at casinos, gun shops, bars, and liquor stores. State lawmakers recently failed to pass legislation that would have prohibited such transactions at pot shops, NRO reported.
“It’s time to close this ‘pot shop loophole’ before it gets any bigger,” the lawmakers said in a letter circulated among House lawmakers and obtained by The Colorado Observer.

US economic growth rate revised down

The US economy grew at a much slower rate from October to December than originally predicted, the US Commerce Department said.

US gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annualised rate of 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2013, down from an initial estimate of 3.2%.
The revision is down to weaker than expected consumer spending.
Severe winter weather in the US is expected to slow growth further in the current quarter.
The Commerce Department initially predicted consumer spending had expanded by 3.3%, but spending is now estimated to have grown at a 2.6% annual rate.
Consumer spending accounts for roughly 70% of US economic activity.
Bad winter weather has cut into vehicle sales, among other purchases.
Despite the revised GDP estimate, US growth should be regarded as strong, the financial information firm Markit said.
"The details of the report suggest that investment is growing at an increased rate and underlying demand continued to expand at a reassuringly robust rate, given the headwinds during the closing months of 2013," said Markit chief economist Chris Williamson.
For all of 2013, the economy grew at 1.9%.

Ukraine crisis tests Obama’s foreign policy focus on diplomacy over military force

For much of his time in office, President Obama has been accused by a mix of conservative hawks and liberal interventionists of overseeing a dangerous retreat from the world at a time when American influence is needed most.

The once-hopeful Arab Spring has staggered into civil war and military coup. China is stepping up territorial claims in the waters off East Asia. Longtime allies in Europe and in the Persian Gulf are worried by the inconsistency of a president who came to office promising the end of the United States’ post-Sept. 11 wars.
Now Ukraine has emerged as a test of Obama’s argument that, far from weakening American power, he has enhanced it through smarter diplomacy, stronger alliances and a realism untainted by the ideology that guided his predecessor.
It will be a hard argument for him to make, analysts say.
A president who has made clear to the American public that the “tide of war is receding” has also made clear to foreign leaders, including opportunists in Russia, that he has no appetite for a new one. What is left is a vacuum once filled, at least in part, by the possibility of American force.
“If you are effectively taking the stick option off the table, then what are you left with?” said Andrew C. Kuchins, who heads the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I don’t think that Obama and his people really understand how others in the world are viewing his policies.”

Obama’s New Political Chief Tries to Reassure Democrats

WASHINGTON — David Simas left nothing to chance when he ran for the Taunton, Mass., school board at the age of 22. He packed the kickoff fund-raiser at the Portuguese-American Civic Club with his extended family, took his mother with him to knock on 5,000 doors and left a handwritten note if no one was home: “Sorry I missed you. David.”

That 1993 victory was the start of a political career that has now landed him in coveted real estate in the West Wing, where last month Mr. Simas reinaugurated the job of White House political director, which had not existed since 2011. The ascension of Mr. Simas — driven, data-obsessed and a relentless salesman — is meant as a message to anxiety-prone Democrats that the White House is serious about mitigating losses in the Republican House and defending the party’s control of the Senate.

Mr. Simas (pronounced SEE-mas) is carrying out a midterm election-year strategy that aims to put Republicans on the defensive in key congressional races by daring them to block votes on Capitol Hill on popular issues: a higher minimum wage, an overhaul of the immigration system and equal pay legislation, among others. He will oversee a staff of five to help guide President Obama’s message that the choice is opportunity for all or for the few.

Obama's dilemma: boosting domestic initiatives without adding to deficit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will unveil a budget this week that seeks to boost spending on new initiatives such as road repairs, education programs and tax breaks for the working poor while avoiding an increase in U.S. deficits.

Obama has made reducing the gap between the rich and the poor a centerpiece of his agenda for his next three years in office. But he is limited in his ability to offer bold new initiatives because of a budget accord he reached in 2011 with House of Representatives Republicans that puts strict curbs on both domestic and military spending.

An agreement reached in December between congressional Republicans and Obama's Democrats allowed a slight easing of curbs on spending in the current 2014 fiscal year, but outlays will be essentially flat in fiscal 2015, which begins October 1.

Because of the caps, spending on programs subject to annual review in 2015 will total $1.014 trillion compared to $1.012 trillion - an increase of less than two-tenths of a percent.

Obama's budget and the coming debate in Congress will focus on how to work within those limits.

"We're on track to having discretionary spending the lowest as a share of the economy since we started recording discretionary spending in 1962," White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman said last week. "With that comes a lot of choices that we'd rather not be making ... there are pretty difficult choices in just about every area of the budget."

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