Gazette 03-04-14

Thursday April 3rd 2014

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7.6-magnitude aftershock strikes off coast of Chile 

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck off Chile's northern coast Wednesday night, triggering a tsunami warning for Chile and Peru, the day after an 8.2-magnitude quake hit the region, the U.S. Geological Survey said. 
Chile's Emergency Office and navy issued a tsunami alert and ordered a precautionary evacuation of low-lying areas on the northern coast. A tsunami warning issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for Chile and Peru was canelled late Wednesday. 
The aftershock caused buildings to shake and people to run out into the streets in the port of Iquique, which was one of the cities that saw some damage from Tuesday night's big quake. But there were no immediate reports of new damage or injuries from the latest tremor, which was one of dozens that have followed the 8.2 quake.
The aftershock was centered 12 miles south of Iquique at a depth of 25 miles, the U.S Geological Survey said. The USGS initially reported the tremor's magnitude at 7.8, but downgraded it to 7.6. 
It was felt across the border in southern Peru, where people in the cities of Tacna and Arequipa reportedly fled buildings in fear.
On Tuesday, authorities reported just six deaths from the initial quake, but said it was possible others could have been killed in older structures made of adobe in remote communities that weren't immediately accessible.
About 2,500 homes were damaged in Alto Hospicio, a poor neighborhood in the hills above Iquique, a city of nearly 200,000 people whose coastal residents joined a mandatory evacuation ahead of a tsunami that rose to only 8 feet. Iquique's fishermen poked through the aftermath: sunken and damaged boats that could cost millions of dollars to repair and replace.

Russia Expects Answers On NATO Troops In Eastern Europe

MOSCOW, April 3 (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday it wanted answers from NATO on its activities in eastern Europe after the Western military alliance promised to beef up defences for its eastern members.

Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region last month has caused the deepest crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War, leading the West to impose sanctions and sparking fear President Vladimir Putin has territorial designs beyond the Black Sea peninsula with its Russian-majority population.

NATO has ordered military planners to draft measures to reassure nervous Eastern European countries - which were under Moscow's domination until the 1989 end of the Cold War - but stopped short of calls by Poland to base more forces there.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said any increase in NATO's permanent presence in eastern Europe would violate a 1997 treaty on NATO-Russian cooperation.

"We have addressed questions to the north Atlantic military alliance. We are not only expecting answers, but answers that will be based fully on respect for the rules we agreed on," Lavrov told reporters at a briefing with his Kazakh counterpart.

Special police shot Kiev protesters, inquiry says

Ukraine's special police were behind the killings of dozens of anti-government protesters in Kiev in February, a government inquiry says.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told reporters that 12 members of the Berkut police had been identified as snipers and arrested.
He presented what he said was new evidence from the shootings on 18-20 February, when 76 people were killed.
Months of mass protests led to the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych.
More than 100 people - including police officers - are now known to have died in Ukraine since the unrest began in November over Mr Yanukovych's last-minute rejection of a landmark deal with the European Union in favour with closer Russian ties.

Troops kill 40 gunmen near Baghdad, official says

BAGHDAD –  Officials in Iraq say fighting between government troops and Al Qaeda-inspired militants has killed 40 gunmen and an army officer near the capital, Baghdad.
In a statement posted on the Interior Ministry's website, spokesman Saad Maan Ibrahim said Thursday that members of security forces foiled an assault by the militants on a military base in Youssifiyah, killing 40 "terrorist attackers."
Maan said that one army officer was killed during the clashes. Youssifiyah is about 12 miles south of Baghdad
Police officials said the attack started late Wednesday and lasted for a few hours. They confirmed the military's account and said the attackers withdrew after the arrival of security enforcements to the area. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

UN: There Are Now A Million Syrian Refugees In Lebanon

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) — A teenager from central Syria became the one millionth Syrian refugee to register in Lebanon on Thursday, a "devastating milestone" for the tiny Arab country with about 4.5 million people of its own, the U.N. refugee agency said.
Signing up for aid, 19-year-old Yahya recounted his long ordeal. After being trapped by the fighting for more than two years in his native city of Homs, he was evacuated earlier this year and traveled to Yabroud, a rebel held town near the Lebanese border that soon came under a crushing government offensive.
When staying there was no longer an option, he crossed into Lebanon with his mother and two sisters on March 8. Yahya's father was not with them — he died from sniper fire in Homs in September 2011.
On Thursday, Yahya registered at the UNHCR center in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.
"We didn't know where to go. We just wanted to get away from all the shelling and fighting," he said, giving only his first name for fear that his relatives back in Syria would be targeted.
The conflict in Syria, a country with a pre-war population of 23 million, has killed more than 150,000 people, according to the Britian-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which documents the fighting through a network of activists on the ground.
The war has uprooted millions of Syrians from their homes, and the U.N. estimates there are now more than 2.5 million Syrians registered in neighboring countries, with more than 47,700 more awaiting registration.

Hungary election: Viktor Orbán's party expected to win second landslide

When Hungary's populist leader, Viktor Orbán, swept the board in national and local elections four years ago, few towns resisted his self-proclaimed "polling booth revolution". One interesting exception, however, was the prime minister's hometown of Felcsút, a tiny, impoverished village of 1,700 residents 40km (25 miles) west of Budapest.
But Felcsút didn't hold out for long. Orbán soon replaced the independent village mayor György Varga with his own man and built a 3.8bn Hungarian forint (£10.3m) football stadium, which is to open later this month.
"This stadium will seat more people than there are villagers in Felcsút," said Zoltán Somogyi, an analyst at the thinktank Political Capital. "All around the area, his friends, especially the mayor, are benefiting from government money flowing into constructions."
Welcome to the Hungary of Viktor Orbán, the country's dominant political figure and prime minister since 2010 with the biggest majority of any EU leader. Orbán's Fidesz party, which has more than two-thirds of the seats in parliament, faces a re-election contest on Sunday. But in truth the only real question is how much they win by.
Orbán has faced constant accusations of undemocratic tendencies throughout his term. Fidesz rewrote the constitution without cross-party consultation, and have already amended it five times. The opposition say Fidesz have turned state media into government mouthpieces. They have altered electoral rules and constituency boundaries to improve their chances of re-election still further. They have awarded corporate tax breaks to football funding, which have covered 70% of the costs of Orbán's Felcsút folly.
And, critics say, they look after their own.

Analysis: Despite crisis, Palestinians will continue peace talks

Palestinians in Ramallah say talks not heading toward breakdown, US won't allow failure; many see Abbas's move to join international institutions and conventions as attempt to boost standing among his people, be seen as a hero.

The current crisis in the US-sponsored peace talks does not mean that the Palestinian Authority is planning to walk out of the negotiations with Israel, Palestinians in Ramallah emphasized Thursday.
Expressing confidence that US Secretary of State was determined to prevent the two sides from declaring the failure of the peace talks, the Palestinians said that Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to join international institutions and conventions does not affect his commitment to pursue the negotiations at least until the end of April.

Putin defies Obama in Syria as arms flow fuels Assad resurgence

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin, condemned by NATO for annexing Crimea, is now defying the US in Syria by sending more and deadlier arms to help Bashar al-Assad score a string of advances against insurgents, military experts say.
Dr Assad's army, seeking to end a three-year civil war that has killed 150,000 people and displaced 9 million, started using longer-range Russian Smerch and Uragan rockets for the first time in February, according to Jane's Defence Weekly and Stratfor, a US geopolitical research company.
"Russia is now doing everything to ensure that Assad wins convincingly," Alexei Malashenko, a Middle East analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center, said by phone. "If Russia can show it's capable of carrying out its own foreign policy, regardless of America's wishes, it will be a major achievement for Putin."

Nine-month-old booked for murder in Pakistan

LAHORE: In a bizarre incident, a nine-month- old Pakistani boy has been booked for attempted murder by attacking a police team here.

Musa was produced in court where Additional District and Sessions Judge Rafaqat Ali granted bail to the minor till April 12 and directed the police to "record his statement".

Police arrested Musa and his father Ahmed in an attempted murder case by attacking police team during raids in Muslim Town, Lahore and produced them in court.

Counsel for the accused, Irfan Tarar, said the minor would again be produced in the court during the next hearing.

"The bail of the minor will be confirmed once the police declare him innocent," he said.

Senior Superintendent of Police Rana Jabbar said there had been misunderstanding on the part of police to book the minor in the case.

He said he had suspended Sub-Inspector Kashif Ahmed for registering the case against the child.

The child's father said police had registered a fake case against him, his son and 25 others.

"Our crime is that we had protested against non-availability of electricity in our locality," he said and urged authorities concerned to quash the FIR.

 

Japan cancels whale hunt off Antarctica

Japan has cancelled this year’s whale hunt off Antarctica just days after an international court ruled against the killings.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would comply with the court order, although the ministry in charge of the hunt cancelled it for this year only, leaving open the possibility that Japan may try to revive it under different legal reasoning.
Japan had relied on a loophole in a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling that allowed killings for research purposes. The ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Monday said that the scientific output from Japan’s whaling program in Antarctica appeared limited and suggested that the hunt was continued for political reasons.
While the hunt is not widely popular in Japan, it is backed by a group of nationalistic lawmakers who paint opponents as trampling Japanese culture.
Mr. Abe expressed his disappointment in the ruling during a meeting with members of the government legal delegation. Koji Tsuruoka, the head of the delegation, told reporters that Mr. Abe had “sternly reprimanded” him for losing the case.
However, Mr. Abe also told them that Japan will abide by international legal rulings, echoing comments made earlier by other Japanese officials. Analysts have said Japan may have no choice but to obey the court at a time when the nation is calling on China to adhere to international legal norms in a heated territorial dispute over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries.
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US Army probe into Fort Hood gunman

The US Army is investigating whether psychological trauma was the reason a soldier carried out a deadly shooting spree at a Texas military base.

The man has not been named by the army but US media have identified him as 34-year-old Ivan Lopez.
Three people were killed and 16 others wounded before the gunman shot himself dead in the attack at Fort Hood.
Officials said the shooter had served in Iraq and was being assessed for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Fort Hood's commanding officer, Lt Gen Mark Milley, said the man had not been injured when he served in Iraq in 2011 but had sought treatment for depression, anxiety and other problems.
He had arrived at Fort Hood from another base in February and was taking medication, Lt Gen Milley said.
"We are digging deep into his background, any criminal history, psychiatric history, his experiences in combat, all the things you would expect are being done right now," he told reporters.

Gov’t spent $700M promoting ObamaCare, despite Obama claim

President Obama contended that the government did not "make a hard sell" for Obamacare, despite his administration spending nearly $700 million to promote the law. 
"We didn't make a hard sell," Obama said in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, praising the 7.1 million sign ups for the Affordable Care Act. "We didn't have billions of dollars of commercials like some critics did." 
However, last July the Associated Press reported that Obamacare's marketing campaign would cost at least $684 million. 
Taxpayer funding went to all 50 states in efforts to encourage people to enroll, including nearly $28 million for the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, for television, radio, print, and social media ads. 
Oregon received $10 million to push the law, which it used to create advertisements that did not even mention the word "insurance." 
The Portland advertising agency North, Inc., produced psychedelic cartoons for Cover Oregon that were described by Sen. Tom Coburn's (R., Okla.) Wastebook as "what appears to be Gumby riding on the Beatles' yellow submarine."

Supreme Court ruling gives small number of wealthy donors new ways to drive campaigns

An elite class of wealthy donors who have gained mounting influence in campaigns now has the ability to exert even greater sway.

A Supreme Court decision Wednesday to do away with an overall limit on how much individuals can give candidates and political parties opens a new spigot for money to flow into campaigns already buffeted by huge spending from independent groups.
In this year’s midterm races, outside organizations financed by very rich donors, such as the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, have significantly shaped the campaign landscape with TV ads and other expenditures totaling in the tens of millions of dollars.
The ruling by a sharply split court opens the door even wider for a narrow universe of donors to expand their giving by writing single checks for as much as $3.6 million that could flow directly to candidate and party committees.
Just 591 donors reached the limit on giving to federal candidates in the 2012 election, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Even that small number of contributors has the potential to inject big sums into the system, now that they can give to as many candidates, party committees and PACs as they wish.

Senators Clear Path for Release of Detention Report on C.I.A.

WASHINGTON — Two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday announced their support for declassifying parts of a long-delayed report on the C.I.A.’s defunct detention and interrogation program, all but assuring that the committee will approve the report and send it to President Obama for eventual release.

The announcement by Maine’s two senators — Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent — effectively ended any suspense about whether the committee’s chairwoman, Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, will have enough votes to declassify the voluminous report’s conclusions and executive summary, which are said to make up about 400 pages of the 6,300-page report. The committee’s other Republicans oppose the conclusions of the report, but support from Ms. Collins and Mr. King for releasing the report will give a veneer of bipartisanship to the committee’s vote.

Senator’s Simmering Battle With C.I.A. Over Detentions ReportMARCH 12, 2014

The vote on the report, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, will bring at least partial closure to the years of partisan jousting on the committee about the report, which sets out to tell the history of what is perhaps the most controversial response by the administration of George W. Bush to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

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ATF director pressed on why no one fired over Fast and Furious

The director of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives battled accusations Wednesday that his agency has done little to punish those involved in Operation Fast and Furious. 
"Three years after the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, ATF has yet to fire anybody for their role in Operation Fast and Furious," Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said. "That is inexcusable." 
Guns linked to the failed anti-gun trafficking program were found at Agent Brian Terry's murder scene. ATF Director B. Todd Jones, in his first public testimony on Capitol Hill since he was confirmed, faced repeated questions about that operation Wednesday. 
Though Attorney General Eric Holder promised accountability, and a review board wanted those involved fired or suspended, Jones acknowledged that no one lost their job or took a cut in pay. 
"I own it, for good or bad, and when something is wrong I am going to take action to fix it," Jones said. "But doesn't happen overnight." 
Operation Fast and Furious began in 2009. Over two years, the agency helped transfer some 2,000 guns, mostly assault rifles, to Mexican drug cartels. An internal ATF review board recommended Phoenix Agent in Charge Bill Newell be removed; Case Agent Hope McAllister be suspended; and Supervisory Agent Dave Voth be demoted. 
All three remain at ATF. 
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