Weekend Edition 04-19-14

To expand the story click on headline

Saturday April 19th 2014

-----------------------------

Blast kills suspected al-Qaeda militants in Yemen

An air strike killed at least 13 suspected al-Qaeda militants in central Yemen on Saturday, security officials said.

The strike in the province of al-Bayda targeted vehicles the insurgents were travelling in at the time.
Some reports say three civilians in another car were also killed.
The exact nature of the strike is unclear, but the US has launched several drone attacks on militants in Yemen in the past.
Al-Bayda has seen serious security incidents recently, and earlier this week suspected al-Qaeda militants shot dead the deputy governor as he was leaving his home.
Yemen's Defence Ministry website quoted a security source as saying a number of "terrorists" had been killed in the air strike.
"An air strike targeted cars that suspected al-Qaeda militants were in and killed 13 of them in the Sawma'a area of al-Bayda," a security source told Reuters.
The US has stepped up drone strikes as part of a campaign against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is based in Yemen.

US sends small number of advanced weapons to Syrian rebels

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have supplied Syrian rebel groups with a small number of advanced American antitank missiles for the first time in a pilot program that could lead to larger flows of sophisticated weaponry, people briefed on the effort said.
The new willingness to arm these rebels comes after the failure of U.S.-backed peace talks in January and recent regime gains on the battlefield. It also follows a reorganization of Western-backed fighters aimed at creating a more effective military force and increasing protection for Christian and other religious minorities—something of particular importance to Washington.

This shift is seen as a test of whether the U.S. can find a trustworthy rebel partner able to keep sophisticated weapons out of the hands of extremists, Saudi and Syrian opposition figures said. The U.S. has long feared that if it does supply advanced arms, the weapons will wind up with radical groups—some tied to al Qaeda—which have set up bases in opposition-held territory.
The White House would neither confirm nor deny it had provided the TOW armor-piercing antitank systems, the first significant supply of sophisticated U.S. weapons systems to rebels. But U.S. officials did say they are working to bolster the rebels' ability to fight the regime.
Rebels and their Saudi backers hope the Obama administration will be persuaded to ease its long-standing resistance to supplying advanced weaponry that could tip the balance in the grinding civil war—especially shoulder-fired missiles capable of bringing down planes.

4 French Journalists Held Hostage In Syria Freed

PARIS (AP) — Four French journalists held hostage in Syria for 10 months have been released, officials said Saturday, the latest batch of reporters to be freed in what has become the world's deadliest conflict for the media.
President Francois Hollande's office said in a statement that he felt "immense relief" over the release of Edouard Elias, Didier Francois, Nicolas Henin and Pierre Torres — all said to be in good health in neighboring Turkey despite the "very trying conditions" of their captivity.
"We are very happy to be free ... and it's very nice to see the sky, to be able to walk, to be able to ... speak freely," said Francois, who works for Europe 1 radio, in footage recorded by the private Turkish news agency DHA as the journalists left a police station.
Elias, a freelance photographer, also was working for Europe 1 radio. Henin and Torres are freelance journalists.
A DHA report said soldiers on patrol found the four blindfolded and handcuffed in Turkey's southeast Sanliurfa province late Friday.
Turkish television also aired images of the four at the police station and then a local hospital.
It wasn't clear whether a ransom had been paid for their release, nor which group in Syria's chaotic 3-year-old conflict held the men. In his statement, Hollande thanked "all those" who contributed to the journalists' release without elaborating. Longstanding French practice is to name a specific country that contributed to hostage releases. France denies it pays ransom to free its hostages.

Two killed in Bahrain car explosion

Two people have been killed and a third severely wounded when the car they were travelling in exploded in Bahrain.

The Interior Ministry said there were signs the car was carrying explosives.
It is not clear whether the victims were deliberately targeted or whether they were planning to carry out an attack themselves. 

Bahrain has been hit by several bombings in recent weeks as clashes between police and anti-government protesters continue.
An uprising against the ruling Sunni dynasty in the Shia-majority kingdom began in 2011.
The explosion on Saturday happened in a Shia village near Bahrain's capital, Manama.
"Initial inspections uncovered two burnt bodies and a third with burn wounds was taken to hospital," the ministry said.
Police found traces of explosives inside the car, it added, but gave no further details.
Witnesses said they heard a loud bang shortly before the car was engulfed by flames.

Russia promises wide but unspecified support in ending Ukraine crisis

MOSCOW –  Russia's foreign ministry on Saturday promised it would offer strong assistance to Ukraine to overcome its crisis, but emphasized that the ultimate responsibility for reducing tensions lies with Ukrainians rather than outsiders.
The comments in a statement came two days after top diplomats from Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the European Union issued a statement calling for an array of actions including the disarming of militant groups and the freeing of public buildings taken over by insurgents.

Those terms quickly became a heated issue as pro-Russian armed groups that have seized police stations and other government buildings in eastern Ukraine said they wouldn't vacate unless the country's acting government resigned.
The insurgents say the Kiev authorities, who took power after pro-Russia Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February following months of protests, aim to suppress the country's Russian-speakers. Eastern Ukraine, which was Yanukovych's support base, and has a substantial Russian-speaking population.
Ukraine's turmoil has sparked the most severe East-West tensions since the Cold War. Washington and the EU imposed sanctions on Russia after it annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea last month following a referendum that overwhelmingly approved Crimean secession. Russia has positioned troops in regions bordering Ukraine and critics say Moscow is encouraging unrest in eastern Ukraine and seeking a pretext for a military incursion.

Paper Shows U.S.-Flagged Plane in Iran Has Ties to Ghana

New details emerged on Friday about an American plane, owned by a small community bank in Utah and mysteriously parked this week at Tehran’s airport, showing that it had been leased by a Ghanaian mining company owned by a brother of Ghana’s president.

Buffeted by questions about why an American plane was in Tehran, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the plane had been used to transport top Ghanaian officials as part of a broader push to expand cooperation between the two countries.

The visit comes as Iran seeks to cultivate close relations with West African countries including Ghana, which also enjoys warm relations with the United States. In what seemed like an indirect reference to the chilly relationship between the United States and Iran, Marziyeh Afkham, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman who announced the purpose of the visit in a statement, emphasized that the passengers and crew “were all non-American.”

Still, the American-flagged plane, a Bombardier jetliner powered by two General Electric engines, was an extraordinary sight in Iran and illustrated how aircraft operators can obscure themselves under United States rules that some American law enforcement officials find troubling. Iran has been so ostracized by the West over the years, particularly by the United States, that typically permission is required from officials in Washington for such a plane to fly there.

A confidential document reviewed by The New York Times showed that the plane is held in a trust by the Bank of Utah on behalf of the mining company, Engineers and Planners, which is based in Accra, the Ghanaian capital. As the beneficiary of the trust, the company operates the plane. The company’s chief executive is Ibrahim Mahama, a brother of President John Dramani Mahama.

Iran: Row with world powers over Arak reactor 'virtually solved'

Iran and six world powers have "virtually solved" a dispute over the Arak heavy-water reactor, which the West fears could yield bomb-grade material in the future, AFP reported Iran's nuclear chief as saying on Saturday.
Ali Akbar Salehi - the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran - was reported as saying the the P5+1 powers had agreed to a proposal presented by Iran to alter the course of production at the plant. 
"Iran has made a proposal to the P5+1 to make certain changes in Arak and they have accepted. This question is virtually resolved,"  Salehi was quoted as telling the Arabic-language al-Alam TV.
The fate of the heavy-water plant, which has not yet been completed, is one of the central issues in negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 powers aimed at reaching a long-term deal on Tehran's nuclear program by an agreed July 20 deadline.
Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China on Wednesday ended their last round of negotiation in Vienna and said they would start drafting an agreement at their next meeting there on May 13. But officials said significant gaps needed to be bridged.

Boko Haram claims responsibility for attack on Nigeria's capital
  
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack ever in Nigeria's capital in a video obtained on Saturday, as the search continued for 85 schoolgirls still missing after a mass abduction by the Islamists.

The bombing at a bus station packed with morning commuters early on Monday killed at least 75 people on the outskirts of Abuja, hours before gunmen kidnapped 129 girls from a school in northeastern Borno state, Boko Haram's base.

Officials said a total of 44 have since escaped and are now safe. The shock of the bombing and the kidnapping, which have broad worldwide condemnation, have underscored the serious threat posed by the insurgents to Africa's most populous country and wealthiest economy.

"We are the ones that carried out the attack in Abuja," Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau said in video message obtained by AFP.

"We are in your city but you don't know where we are." Shekau, declared a global terrorist by the United States which has a $7 million (5.1 million euro) bounty on his head, spoke in Arabic and the Hausa language that is dominant in northern Nigeria.

The 28-minute video made no reference to the abductions from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok but the military, local officials and girls who have escaped have blamed that attack on Boko Haram.

Russia writes off 90 per cent of North Korea debt; eyes gas pipeline

Russia’s parliament has agreed to write off almost $10 billion of North Korea’s Soviet-era debt, in a deal expected to facilitate the building of a gas pipeline to South Korea across the reclusive state.
Russia has written off debts to a number of impoverished Soviet-era allies, including Cuba. North Korea’s struggling communist economy is just 2 percent of the size of neighbouring South Korea’s.
The State Duma lower house on Friday ratified a 2012 agreement to write off the bulk of North Korea’s debt. It said the total debt stood at $10.96 billion as of Sept. 17, 2012.
The rest of the debt, $1.09 billion, would be redeemed during the next 20 years, to be paid in equal instalments every six months. The outstanding debt owed by North Korea will be managed by Russia’s state development bank, Vnesheconombank.
Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak told Russian media that the money could be used to fund mutual projects in North Korea, including a proposed gas pipeline and a railway to South Korea.
The two Koreas remain technically at war and are separated by one of the world’s most militarised frontiers. Parts of the international community have been seeking to re-engage with North Korea amid hopes that the reclusive state’s government would seek ways to end years of isolation and poverty.
Russia’s state-owned top natural producer Gazprom, has long planned to build a gas pipeline via North Korea to South Korea with a view to shipping 10 billion cubic metres of gas annually.
Moscow has been trying to diversify its energy sales to Asia away from Europe, which, in its turn, wants to cut its dependence on oil and gas from the erstwhile Cold War foe. Moscow aims to reach a deal to supply gas to China, after a decade of talks, this May.

Report: One fifth of China's soil contaminated

Almost a fifth of China's soil is contaminated, an official study released by the government has shown.

Conducted between 2005-2013, it found that 16.1% of China's soil and 19.4% of its arable land showed contamination.
The report, by the Environmental Protection Ministry, named cadmium, nickel and arsenic as top pollutants.
There is growing concern, both from the government and the public, that China's rapid industrialisation is causing irreparable damage to its environment.
The study took samples across an area of 6.3 million square kilometres, two-thirds of China's land area.
"The survey showed that it is hard to be optimistic about the state of soil nationwide," the ministry said in a statement on its website.
"Due to long periods of extensive industrial development and high pollutant emissions, some regions have suffered deteriorating land quality and serious soil pollution."
Because of the "grim situation", the state would implement measures including a "soil pollution plan" and better legislation.
Levels of pollution ranged from slight to severe.
About 82.8% of the polluted land was contaminated by inorganic materials, with levels noticeably higher than the previous survey between 1986 and 1990, Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying.
-

Kansas families complain about Michelle Obama giving high school graduation speech

TOPEKA, Kansas –  If expanding the guest list to include Michelle Obama at graduation for high school students in the Kansas capital city means fewer seats for friends and family, some students and their parents would prefer the first lady not attend.
A furor over what the Topeka school district considers an honor has erupted after plans were announced for Obama to address a combined graduation ceremony for five area high schools next month an 8,000-seat arena. For some, it was the prospect of a tight limit on the number of seats allotted to each graduate. For others, it was the notion that Obama's speech, tied to the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education outlawing segregation in schools, would overshadow the student's big day.

‘Ridiculous’: Administration punts on Keystone, Obama faces Dem revolt

The Obama administration once again has punted on a final decision for the Keystone XL pipeline, announcing ahead of the holiday weekend it is extending a key review period indefinitely -- a move that could push off a determination until after the midterm elections. 
Republicans, as well as red-state Democrats who want the proposed Canada-to-Texas pipeline approved, slammed the administration for the delay. Democrats even threatened to find ways to go around the president to get the project approved. 
"It's absolutely ridiculous that this well over five year long process is continuing for an undetermined amount of time," Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., said in a statement. 
Republican Nebraska Rep. Lee Terry called the decision "shameful," noting that another spring construction season will come and go without the project. 
The administration had been in the middle of a 90-day review period for federal agencies assessing an environmental study from the State Department. 
But the State Department said Friday it is giving agencies "additional time" to weigh in, in part because of ongoing litigation before the Nebraska Supreme Court which could affect the pipeline's route. If the route changes, officials made clear the State Department reserves the right to conduct another environmental impact study to include more public comments, which could delay the process more. 
Further, the department said officials need to go over the "unprecedented number" of new public comments -- roughly 2.5 million of them -- received during a separate comment period that ended in early March. 

Beau Biden, son of U.S. VP, to run for governor of Delaware

(Reuters) - At least one member of the Biden family will be seeking higher office in 2016.
Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, the son of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, said on Thursday he plans to run for governor of the Mid-Atlantic state.
In a message to voters posted on his website, Biden, a Democrat like his father, said he would not be seeking re-election to a third term as Delaware attorney general.
"After careful consideration, I have concluded that it is not right to ask for your support in 2014, knowing that my focus would be divided between doing my job as attorney general while at the same time running as a candidate for governor," he said.
Biden, 45, will be seeking the seat held by Democratic Governor Jack Markell, 53, who will leave office after serving two terms.
Biden's announcement comes as his father continues to mull a possible run for the U.S. presidency in 2016. The elder Biden said he would announce his plans in the next year.
Beau Biden was elected attorney general in 2006, and in 2010, he decided not to run for the U.S. Senate seat from Delaware once held by his father.
He served a year-long tour in Iraq as a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard and underwent surgery at a cancer center in Texas last year. He suffered a mild stroke in 2010.

For Hillary Rodham Clinton, archives evoke fiery White House years

Hillary Rodham Clinton has been basking in the glow of good news for months.
Poll after poll shows her towering over the 2016 Republican field. She has been warmly received at her paid speeches (with the exception of that flying shoe). She has a glossy new cover for her June 10 memoir. And her daughter told the world Thursday that the former first lady, senator and secretary of State will become a grandmother this fall.
So the latest batch of archived documents from the Clinton White House -- while not particularly newsworthy -- were a rather bracing reminder that the very mellow former first lady has emerged in her current happy state after many years in a White House that often took on the tone of war zone.
Mark that down as one reason why Clinton might not want to go racing back.
Friday’s release of some 7,000 documents that were sealed under the Presidential Records Act did not uncover much new ground about Clinton’s role as first lady. (The papers, part of a collection of some 33,000 pages, were sealed for more than 12 years under the act because they contained confidential advice or information related to federal appointments).
The documents once again underscored the combative fashion in which the Clinton White House drove its agenda, and its obsession with the administration’s adversaries.
One unsigned and undated document contained in the files of Jane Sherburne, a Special Counsel to the White House between 1994 and 1996, details theories about how the right wing, with the help of think tanks and conservative publications, was funneling “fringe” stories to the media. It also expounds on the financial powers and connections of billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, who was referred to as “The Wizard of Oz.”
Part of the problem, the memo suggested, was the fact that the Internet “allows an extraordinary amount of unregulated data and information to be located in one area and available to all.”

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford launches re-election bid

Toronto's embattled mayor kicked off his re-election campaign at an event his brother and campaign aide called "history in the making".

Rob Ford thanked his supporters at the Toronto Congress Centre on Thursday, the venue where he also celebrated his mayoral win in 2010.
Mr Ford has been stripped of many of his powers after admitting to using and purchasing drugs while mayor.
He faces two major challengers in the 27 October election.
Conduct code "No matter what challenges lay ahead, no matter what mud is thrown at me, my message couldn't be clearer: I won't back down," Mr Ford said to cheering supporters.
"The people of Toronto deserve nothing less than accessibility, accountability and transparency," he added. "I know I'm the right person for the next four years to continue doing the right job at the right time."
Mr Ford was first elected in 2010 to lead Canada's largest city on a pledge to tackle wasteful spending at city hall. He draws much of his support from the suburban areas of Toronto.
He soon privatised rubbish collection across much of the city and did away with a vehicle tax, but quickly became bogged down in disputes with the council.
And over the past year, he has admitted smoking crack cocaine "in a drunken stupor" and to purchasing illegal drugs while mayor, while videos have emerged appearing to show him ranting obscenely in an intoxicated state.
Allegations have also surfaced in police documents that Mr Ford used racially abusive language, threatened staff, sexually propositioned a female colleague, and snorted cocaine in a restaurant.
He denies the allegations.
-