Gazette 04-17-14

Thursday April 17th 2014

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Putin cautious on 'right' to send troops into Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he has "a right" to send troops into Ukraine but hopes he will "not have to exercise that right".

He was speaking live on Russian TV after a clash in Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, in which three pro-Russian protesters were reportedly killed.
Mr Putin said he hoped the crisis would be resolved through dialogue.
Talks have opened in Geneva between Russia, Ukraine, the EU and US - the first since unrest erupted in Crimea.
In his annual live television phone-in, Mr Putin warned the Ukrainian authorities of "the abyss they're heading into" and urged dialogue.
He also admitted for the first time that Russian forces had been active in Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow last month. Previously he had insisted that the camouflaged, masked gunmen who took over Crimea were a local "self-defence" force.
Related story: Putin: Russia may invade Ukraine to protect locals

UN nuclear agency claims Iran cuts uranium stock in new report

VIENNA –  Iran has converted most of a nuclear stockpile that it could have turned quickly into weapons-grade uranium into less volatile forms as part of a deal with six world powers, the U.N. atomic agency reported Thursday.
The development leaves Iran with substantially less of the 20-percent enriched uranium that it would need for a nuclear warhead. Iran denies any interest in atomic arms. But it agreed to some nuclear concessions in exchange for a partial lifting of sanctions crippling its economy under the deal, which took effect in January.

Uranium at 20 percent is only a technical step away from weapons-grade material. By the time the agreement was reached late last year, Iran had amassed nearly 440 pounds. With further enrichment, that would have yielded almost enough weapons-grade uranium for one atomic bomb.
Under its agreement, Iran agreed to stop enriching to grades beyond 5 percent, the level most commonly used to power reactors. It also committed to neutralizing all its 20-percent stockpile -- half by diluting to a grade that is less proliferation-prone and the rest by conversion to oxide used for reactor fuel
In line with information given The Associated Press by diplomats earlier this week, the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Thursday that Iran had completed the dilution process.

Algeria Election: Police Break Up Protest Ahead Of Vote

ALGIERS, April 16 (Reuters) - Algerian police broke up a rare anti-government protest on Wednesday, a day before elections that look set to give President Abdelaziz Bouteflika a fourth term in office although he is still recovering from a stroke.

Small groups of demonstrators from Barakat - the name means "Enough" - tried to hold a sit-in in downtown Algiers before uniformed police surrounded them and dragged them off.

The ruling Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) and the army have been the main influence on the North African state's politics since independence from France in 1962.

"We are carrying out this sit-in to denounce this electoral masquerade," said one protester called Massi. "We are just peacefully demonstrating, we are not calling for a revolution or trying to make trouble."

Police dispersed several small groups of protesters, some waving Algeria's green and white flag. Some groups were faced with chanting Bouteflika supporters.

If Bouteflika wins, as is widely expected, his health and a possible transition during his fourth term have raised questions about stability in Algeria, a partner in the U.S. campaign on Islamist militancy in the Maghreb and a major supplier of Europe's gas.

A group of opposition parties, once rivals, have joined forces to call for a boycott, saying the election is unfairly tilted in favour of the FLN and its allies. In past elections they have denounced the results as fraudulent.

Backed by the ruling party, Bouteflika has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke last year. He has not campaigned for himself before the April 17 vote.

His closest rival is Ali Benflis, a former FLN leader who ran against Bouteflika a decade ago.

India struggles with rebel threats during election

RAJNANDGAON, India –  Indians cast ballots Thursday on the biggest day of voting in the country's weekslong general election, streaming into polling stations even in areas where leftist rebels threatened violence over the plight of India's marginalized and poor.
Nationwide voting began April 7 and runs through May 12, with results for the 543-seat lower house of Parliament to be announced four days later. Among the 13 key states voting Thursday was Chhattisgarh, now the center of a four-decade Maoist insurgency that has affected more than a dozen of India's 28 states.

With roadside bombings, jungle ambushes and hit-and-run raids, the rebels aim for nothing short of sparking a full-blown peasant revolt as they accuse the government and corporations of plundering resources and stomping on the rights of the poor.
But authorities say that, amid the bloodshed, there are signs that the rebels have waning support -- including lines of voters shuffling into polling booths in rebel strongholds.
"I want a good life for my baby, security and peace," said Neha Ransure, a 25-year-old woman who was voting in the Chhattisgarh town of Rajnandgaon. "The rebels are bad. They kill our soldiers. I don't go outside of town. It is too dangerous."

Egyptian Court Jails More Than 100 Morsi Supporters

Court sentences 119 Mursi supporters over Oct. 6 protests

• More than 50 killed in protest after president toppled
• Army-backed authorities have banned Muslim Brotherhood
• In separate case, Islamist leader given 7-year sentence (Adds Abu Ismail conviction, background)

CAIRO, April 16 (Reuters) - An Egyptian court sentenced 119 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood of former president Mohamed Mursi to three years each in prison on Wednesday in connection with protests last October against his overthrow, judicial sources said.

More than 50 people were killed in the Oct. 6 protests called by Mursi's supporters, one of the bloodiest days since his overthrow by the military on July 3. Judge Hazem Hashad acquitted six people in the case. They faced charges including unlawful assembly and thuggery.

The army-backed authorities have banned the Muslim Brotherhood and driven it underground, killing hundreds of its supporters and arresting thousands in the weeks after Mursi, Egypt's first freely elected president, was toppled by the military following mass protests against his rule.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the general who ousted Mursi, declared last month that he would run in a presidential election that he is expected to win easily.

In another case last month, a court in southern Egypt sentenced 529 Mursi supporters to death in a ruling that drew criticism from rights groups and Western governments.

South Sudan attack on UN base leaves dozens injured

At least 14 wounded when gunmen attack civilians sheltering inside UN peacekeeping base in Bor, says aid official

Several people were wounded in South Sudan when gunmen attacked civilians sheltering inside a UN peacekeeping base in the war-ravaged town of Bor, the UN said.
The top UN aid official in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, said he was outraged by what he said was an "attack of armed youth in Bor on civilians seeking protection".
He added: "We will not be deterred."
Almost 5,000 civilians are sheltering inside the fortified base of the UN mission in South Sudan (Unmiss) in the town, one of the most bitterly contested regions in the four-month long conflict in the world's newest nation.
Mayor Nhial Majok said at least 14 people were wounded, but added that the number could be higher.
"Local youth were demonstrating ... there was shooting of guns," Majok told AFP, adding that at least 14 young men had been seen with gunshot wounds. He said the demonstrators had clashed with peacekeepers inside the base, but it was not immediately clear who had fired the shots.
"Some of the youth were armed," Majok said, adding that the situation was now returning to calm.
The conflict in South Sudan has left thousands dead and forced around a million people to flee their homes since fighting broke out on 15 December in the capital Juba, before spreading to other states in the oil-rich nation.
More than 67,000 civilians are still seeking UN protection from ethnic attacks. The fighting is between soldiers loyal to president Salva Kiir and mutinous troops who sided with Riek Machar, who was sacked as vice-president in 2013.

Israeli police disperse Palestinian protesters at Jerusalem holy site

Israeli police stormed a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem on Wednesday, firing tear gas to disperse a protest by Palestinian Muslim worshippers, officials said.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the crowd hurled stones and firecrackers from atop the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Rosenfeld said police then entered the site and dispersed the group with tear gas and other non-lethal means.
The compound is known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and is Islam’s third-holiest site. Israel captured the area along with the rest of east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war.
Clashes often erupt at the site.
Jews typically pray below, at the Western Wall, but tensions have grown lately with an increased number of Jews arriving to pray at the Temple Mount as well. Israel permits Jews to ascend to the Temple Mount for visits, but they are barred from praying at the site. These visits often stoke rumours that Israel is preparing to take over the site.
Sheikh Azzam Tamimi, head of the Waqf, the Islamic authority that manages the site, said worshippers had barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque “to defend” the site from Jewish groups. Israeli TV stations showed footage of police running across the compound in riot gear with piles of stones strewn on the ground. The entrance to a mosque was barricaded with furniture, as protesters inside threw objects toward police. Tamimi said 30 people suffered from tear gas inhalation or had been struck by rubber-coated bullets. None of the injuries appeared to be serious.

Shin Bet arrests Israeli-Arab journalist for alleged contact with Hezbollah

An Israeli-Arab journalist was arrested on Saturday for allegedly contacting a foreign Hezbollah agent in Lebanon, the Shin Bet announced on Thursday after a gag order was lifted.
The journalist, Majd Kayyal, the editor of the website for Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel,  is suspected of traveling to Lebanon for a conference commemorating 40-years of the Lebanese newspaper As-Saphir, where he came in contact with Hezbollah agents. 
Adalah lawyers met yesterday with Kayyal in the Shin Bet Prison in Kishon, for the first time since his arrest.
Kayyal told his lawyers that the investigation is focusing on his visit to Lebanon and explained that his visit was part of his job as a journalist.
Kayyal claims he was being held in a cell 24 hours a day, without any daylight, a bed or a lamp, and that he had lost his sense of time. He claims he was intensively interrogated and questioned about his private life.
The Haifa Magistrate's Court released Kayyal to house arrest on Thursday until the next hearing on his case  which is April 22.
The Adalah center accused the police of misconduct and said that "the steps taken against Kayyal are very serious, especially preventing him from meeting with lawyers and having a gag order on his arrest."
According to his lawyers, there was no justification for not allowing him to meet with his lawyers immediately after his arrest or having a gag order on the case. They added that Kayyal's visit to Beirut was published by him on his personal Facebook page and many other sites before he returned to Israel, implying he has nothing to hide.

Taliban negotiator under house arrest in UAE, Afghanistan says
 
KABUL: A leading Taliban peace negotiator has been placed under house arrest in the United Arab Emirates, officials said on Thursday, dealing a blow to President Hamid Karzai's efforts to jump-start a nascent Afghan peace process before leaving office.

Agha Jan Mutassim, a finance minister during Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, has been missing for over a week, according to the Afghan government, disappearing after arranging a meeting in Dubai between Afghan and Taliban officials in February.

"Mutassim ... one of the key Taliban leaders and who supported Afghan peace initiative, was put under house arrest in the UAE where he lived," the Afghan High Peace Council, a body formed by Karzai to engage in peace talks with the Taliban, said on Thursday.

"The Afghan government has made requests to the UAE authorities to lift all the restrictions," it said in a statement.

A Western security source in Kabul confirmed Mutassim had been put under house arrest, and that the UAE was considering deporting him to Afghanistan. 

Girl locked for nine years in a garage in Argentina rescued by sister

A teenage girl has been rescued after being starved, beaten and kept in a garage by her adoptive family in Argentina for nine years.

The 15-year-old was forced to live with a monkey and dogs while surviving on bread and water at a house in Buenos Aires, authorities said.
When she was rescued by police, the malnourished girl weighed only 20 kilogrammes (44 pounds). She is being treated in hospital for mental and physical abuse.
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The L Word: Voters call Obama a liar

The L Word: Voters call Obama a liar
• Who else doesn’t believe Obama? Vladimir Putin
• Does Warren have a ‘fighting chance’ against Hillary?
• u mad bro?
• The name is Cocaine. Edward Cocaine

THE L-WORD: VOTERS CALL OBAMA A LIAR
 
As Democrats ramp up a midterm version of President Obama’s successful 2012 divide-and-conquer campaign strategy, a new poll shows the limits to that approach. The latest Fox News poll shows that voters have little trust in the president these days, with 61 percent of respondents saying Obama lies about significant issues “most of the time” or “some of the time.” That includes 38 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of independents. This survey goes beyond the conventional “honest and trustworthy” measurement common in polls and tests the loaded term “lie.” For so many to say that the president lies is a big deal in a country where trust in government continues to crater. But there’s a more pressing, practical concern for Democrats as they try to cling to a Senate majority. The Obama 2012 strategy relied on using the trust voters placed in him. Obama could vilify his rival and still claim the high ground because American voters were inclined to take him at his word. That redoubt is no longer accessible to him and his party.

Obama Lied About Obamacare, Now Wants Political Lying To Be Legal

A Gallup poll published on April 16th finds that about five out of every six Americans who had no health insurance before Obamacare, still do not have health insurance. This finding, of about 85% of the uninsureds remaining uninsured under Obamacare, is actually better, not worse, than the CBO's projections; so it cannot be any surprise to Obama.
At the time when President Obama was merely Senator Obama running to win the White House, there were 46 million healthcare uninsureds. During his Presidential campaign, he promised to eliminate 100% of that number of uninsureds: He said that he would be "making health insurance universal." 

Once he won the White House and was starting his Presidency, he was promising to cut 31 million off that number, which still would bring it down 67%. But instead, the health insurance plan that he initiated and signed into law has brought this number down only around 16%, and though the impact of the despicable and largely even racist Republican intransigence against Obama has accounted for a portion of that failure, the vast majority of this shortfall in the drop in the size of the uninsured population is due entirely to Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, itself. 

Whereas in states that had Republican control and where Obamacare's Medicaid expansion was rejected by the state's governor, the decline in uninsureds was only around 4%; the states that had Democratic control and where the governor accepted the Medicaid expansion experienced a decline in uninsureds of around 16% (which though much better was still far short of President Obama's promised 67% decline, or of candidate Obama's promised decline of 100% on which he had won the White House); so, even in the states that didn't do anything to block Obamacare, the decline in uninsureds fell far short of Obama's promised 67% decline in that number, when Obama first entered the White House.

Obama aims to reinvigorate Asia strategy

President Obama’s bid to focus U.S. attention on Asia has failed to meet the lofty expectations he set three years ago in a grand pronouncement that the new emphasis would become a pillar of his foreign policy.

The result, as Obama prepares to travel to the region next week, has been a loss of confidence among some U.S. allies about the administration’s commitment at a time of escalating regional tensions. Relations between Japan and South Korea are at one of the lowest points since World War II, and China has provoked both with aggressive actions at sea despite a personal plea to Beijing from Vice President Biden in December.

Former Iran official describes alleged US sabotage of nuke program

The former head of Iran's nuclear program is laying out in detail how the U.S. and other intelligence agencies allegedly carried out a constant campaign of sabotage against his country. 
According to Fereydoon Abbasi, who spoke to an Iranian newspaper, the U.S. would prevent companies from sending equipment to Iran -- but would then put that kind of equipment on the black market, having ensured it would actually damage Iranian operations. He claims the U.S. would find out, via the U.N. nuclear agency, what parts Iran was trying to get and from whom, and plant everything from viruses to explosives on the equipment. 
"They would pressure that country or company not to transfer the parts or equipment to Iran, or would allow them to do so [only] after sabotaging [the parts]," he told the Iranian daily Khorasan. "For instance, if it was an electronic system, they would infect it with a virus, or plant explosives in it, or even alter the type of components, in order to paralyze [Iran's] system."
The interview was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI. 
"They opened the channels that they personally control, in order to provide Iran with equipment that would also benefit them," Abbasi reportedly said. 
Abbasi claimed this is how the U.S. got the Stuxnet virus into Iran. "They planted it in equipment that Iran purchased," he said. 
Stuxnet was the computer virus that is credited with slowing Iran's nuclear program for months. 
U.S. officials have never commented on any involvement in that operation, but leading nuclear expert David Albright -- a former weapons inspector and now head of the Institute for Science and International Security -- says such sabotage operations are obviously and necessarily happening. 
"Iran is going out and buying these things illegally for sanctioned programs that the U.N. Security Council says have to stop -- therefore, the western intelligence agencies are taking steps to ... make it harder for Iran to succeed in operating those sanctioned and banned activities," he said.

Obama budget plan would boost U.S. tax revenues, cut deficits: CBO

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's fiscal 2015 budget request would boost U.S. tax revenues by nearly $1.4 trillion over 10 years if fully enacted, slashing deficits by $1.05 trillion while funding new spending, the Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday.
There is virtually no chance that Congress will advance Obama's plan in its entirety. But the CBO's latest analysis will feed campaign messaging by both Democrats and Republicans ahead of congressional elections in November.
The analysis compares Obama's request to a new "baseline" estimate that CBO released last week that assumes no changes to current tax and spending laws.
But Obama's budget plan is loaded with new policy changes, including an assumption that sweeping immigration reforms are enacted, producing a net 10-year deficit reduction of $158 billion.
It proposes to boost revenues by limiting tax breaks for wealthy Americans and businesses, imposing a new tax on millionaires, raising tobacco taxes, and restoring estate and gift taxes to their previously higher, 2009 levels.
At the same time, it would boost spending by expanding cash tax credits for low-income Americans, canceling the "sequester" automatic spending cuts to military and domestic programs, and increasing funds for job training programs, among other changes.
Republicans, who last week in the House of Representatives passed an austere, 10-year balanced budget plan with deep domestic spending cuts and no tax increases, will focus their criticism on tax hikes in Obama's plan. Democrats, who are basing their re-election campaigns on efforts to reduce the gap between rich and poor, are expected to highlight Obama's proposals to aid the middle class and the poor.
The CBO analysis shows that Obama's budget plan would increase deficits slightly relative to current law in fiscal 2014 and 2015, with deficits just above $500 billion in both years.

Canada sending 6 CF-18s for NATO operation in eastern Europe

Canada is sending six CF-18s and military personnel to assist NATO in operations in Eastern Europe.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was to announce the measures Thursday morning. The move comes following a request from NATO amid increasing tensions in Eastern Ukraine.
The fighter jets will be based at Lask, Poland.
Sources tell CBC News that this is "incremental posturing," meaning there will be a small a number of support staff to fly and maintain the planes.  
Canada will also provide a contingent of approximately 20 Canadian Armed Forces officers to NATO headquarters in Brussels. These officers will be a part of security planning. 
There is no word on when the assets are to be deployed.  
Harper was meeting with the chief of Canada's defence staff, Gen. Tom Lawson, in Ottawa Thursday, where he was expected to make a statement. 
Earlier this week, Harper sat down with Marcin Bosacki, the Polish ambassador to Canada​, and envoys from Ukraine, Georgia, Latvia, Estonia and the Czech Republic and condemned Russian "provocateurs" for fomenting untrest in eastern Ukraine. Harper called the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin "aggressive, militaristic and imperialistic" and a grave threat to world peace.
Harper said the situation in Ukraine is getting worse.
"You can certainly be sure that Canada will take additional measures. We've already imposed a number of sanctions, and we will clearly be taking further action," he said.
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