Weekend Gazette pt.1 04-26-14

Saturday April 26th 2014

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Weekend report Pt.1

Ukraine crisis: Moscow 'to help free European observers'

Moscow says it will do all it can to bring about the release of European military observers detained in eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists.

The assurance came as EU diplomats revealed they will meet on Monday to discuss new sanctions against Russia.
Earlier, the G7 group of economic powers agreed to intensify sanctions.
The West accuses Russia of leading a secessionist revolt in Ukraine's east, after it annexed Crimea last month. Moscow denies the allegations.
Rebel militia continue to occupy official buildings in a dozen eastern cities, defying the Ukrainian government in Kiev.
Russia has tens of thousands of troops deployed along its side of the border with Ukraine and has said it would act if its interests were threatened.
The US accused Russian jets of violating Ukraine's airspace on Friday in a further sign of escalation.
On Saturday, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by telephone with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier about ways to defuse tension in Ukraine.

G-7 leaders agree to 'move swiftly' to impose new sanctions on Russia

Leaders of the G-7 announced late Friday they had agreed to "move swiftly" to impose new sanctions against Russia over its continued role in the unrest in Ukraine.
A statement released by the White House said the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission "have now agreed that we will move swiftly to impose additional sanctions on Russia.

"Given the urgency of securing the opportunity for a successful and peaceful democratic vote next month in Ukraine's presidential elections, we have committed to act urgently to intensify targeted sanctions and measures to increase the costs of Russia's actions."
While not addressing any specific actions, the statement said, "We reiterate our strong condemnation of Russia's illegal attempt to annex Crimea and Sevastopol, which we do not recognize. We will now follow through on the full legal and practical consequences of this illegal annexation, including but not limited to the economic, trade and financial areas."

Russian Aircraft Has Entered Ukrainian Airspace: Pentagon

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. defense officials said Friday that Russian fighter jets flew into Ukrainian airspace a handful of times over the last 24 hours, in what one called a continued provocation of the heightened tensions in the region.
The officials said it's not clear what the intent was, but the aircraft could have been testing Ukrainian radar or making a show of force.
Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, confirmed the flights, adding that the U.S. is calling on the Russians "to take immediate steps to de-escalate the situation."
The flights come as Russia increases military exercises along the Ukraine border, including moving a broad array of fixed wing and rotary aircraft, infantry and armored troops. The exercises inflame worries about a potential Russian military incursion into Ukraine.
The West has threatened additional sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean region in March and the ongoing escalation of military operations along the border.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, on Thursday and to express "grave concern" over Russia's aggressive military behavior, the Pentagon said in a statement. "The two military leaders agreed on the need to reduce tension, avoid miscalculation and keep an open line of communication," according to the statement.
Warren said U.S. officials have let Russian defense ministry officials know that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel would like to speak to his counterpart, Russia Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. There has been no response yet, Warren said.

Deadly blasts at Baghdad rally

At least 31 people have been killed in Iraq as a series of blasts targeted a Shia election rally in Baghdad.

Several people were seriously injured in the attack, which took place at a rally for the Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq party.
The attack - claimed by al-Qaeda-linked militants - comes less than a week before Iraqis are due to head to the polls in parliamentary elections.
Iraq has been enduring the worst unrest since it pulled back from the brink of civil war in 2008.
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant - an al-Qaeda offshoot also known as ISIL - said it had carried out Friday's attack.
Three bombs exploded as people left the rally, says the BBC's Nahed Abouzeid in Baghdad.
The first two blasts were caused by truck bombs and the third by a roadside bomb.
Desperate act Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq is backed by Iran and is a public supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
This is likely to have antagonised Sunni groups in both countries, our correspondent says.

5 NATO troops killed in Afghan helicopter crash

KABUL, Afghanistan –  Five NATO troops died in a British helicopter crash Saturday in southern Afghanistan, authorities said, the single deadliest day this year for foreign forces as they prepare to withdraw from the country.
The helicopter crash came as an Afghan university official identified two Americans killed in a shooting at a Kabul hospital earlier this week, the latest incident of local security forces opening fire on those they are supposed to protect.

The cause of the helicopter crash was not immediately known. Kandahar provincial police spokesman Zia Durrani said the helicopter went down in the province's Takhta Pul district in the southeast, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the Pakistani border. He said five international troops were killed but did not know what caused the crash.

Obama: Lack Of Will In Israel, Palestinian Talks

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Voicing pessimism about a prompt restart to Mideast peace talks, President Barack Obama said Friday that neither Israelis nor Palestinians have shown the political will to make tough decisions to advance negotiations.
Obama described a reconciliation agreement between the Palestinian Authority and the militant group Hamas as "unhelpful" and said it was "just one of a series of choices that both the Israelis and Palestinians have made that are not conducive to trying to resolve this crisis."
"Folks can posture, folks can cling to maximalist positions, but realistically there is one door and that is the two parties getting together and making some very difficult political compromises in order to secure the future of both Israelis and Palestinians for future generations," Obama said. "Do I expect that they will walk through that door next week, next month or even in the course of the next six months? No."
While he said the U.S. would continue to offer the parties "constructive approaches," he also conceded that "there may come a point at which there just needs to be a pause and both sides need to look at the alternatives."
Obama made his remarks during a news conference with South Korea's President Park Geun-hye, a day after Israel broke off Mideast peace talks in protest of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas agreement.
The burden of brokering the talks has largely been carried by Secretary of State John Kerry, who has devoted personal time and travel for months in hopes of keeping negotiations alive. But Obama has also stepped into the effort, personally prodding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last month in separate White House meetings to make the difficult choices needed to advance the talks.

Far-right march through Berlin blocked by thousands of counter-protesters

BERLIN –  Thousands of Berliners have blocked a group of right-wing extremists from staging a march through the German capital.
Police say some 2,000 people stood in the way of the planned route of a demonstration organized Saturday by the far-right National Democratic Party.

The party, known by its acronym NPD, had planned to march through Berlin's Kreuzberg district, which has a large immigrant population. Germany's security services say the party has a racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic agenda.
Police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf says the 100 far-right activists were able to proceed only for a couple of hundred meters (yards) before their path was blocked and "it's unlikely they'll get any further today."
Neuendorf says four NPD supporters and nine counter-demonstrators had been arrested by mid-afternoon.

Gaza wants back in from the darkness as Hamas feels the isolation

Toppling of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has left territory out in cold as residents consider life under Palestine unity government

In his haberdashery, Saleem Salouha tracks the ups and downs of his business against events beyond his control.
The good times for his shop in Gaza City were when Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood were in power in Egypt. The bolts of cloth stacked behind Salouha came via the network of smuggling tunnels under the border at Rafah. Gazans had money too to buy his goods in the middle of a mini-economic boom.
All that, however, ended last July when Morsi was deposed in a military coup and the new regime deemed the Brotherhood a "terrorist" organisation.
Egypt accused Hamas, the Brotherhood's sister group that rules Gaza, of contributing to the security crisis in northern Sinai and closed down the smuggling tunnels.
Now Salouha orders the same goods, but they are brought through an Israeli crossing, pushing up prices by 30%, even as half his customers have withered away.
"It is a double blockade," Salouha says, referring to the long-term Israeli policy of limiting goods to Gaza since Hamas assumed control in 2007. He adds bitterly: "Israel and the Egyptians are competing with each other."
The story of the Salouha shop, in business since 1962, offers a microcosm of what has happened to Gaza and Hamas since Morsi was ousted.
It explains too why, after seven years governing Gaza at odds with its rival Fatah on the West Bank, Hamas might just be serious this time about moves to reconcile the often toxic Palestinian divisions. And if it is not serious, why Hamas views the agreement, signed this week, as an expedient move.

Al-Qaida chief urges Westerner kidnappings for prisoner swaps

DUBAI - Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has called on Muslims to kidnap Westerners, particularly Americans, who could then be exchanged for jailed jihadists including a blind Egyptian cleric convicted in 1995 of conspiring to attack the United Nations and other New York landmarks.
In a wide ranging audio interview, the al-Qaida leader expressed solidarity with the Muslim Brotherhood which is facing a violent crackdown by the army-backed government in Egypt and urged unity among rebels in their fight against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the Zawahiri tape, but the voice resembled that of the al-Qaida leader.
"I ask Allah the Glorious to help us set free Dr. Omar Abdel-Rahman and the rest of the captive Muslims, and I ask Allah to help us capture from among the Americans and the Westerners to enable us to exchange them for our captives," said Zawahiri, according to the SITE website monitoring service.
Abdel-Rahman is serving a life term in the United States for a 1993 attack on New York's World Trade Center.
Zawahiri also urged "jihad and overthrowing the criminal al-Assad regime" in Syria and renewed his call to end infighting among jihadists that increased this year, pitting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against rival rebels including other hardline Islamists.

Saudi reports five new MERS deaths, taking toll to 92

RIYADH: The Saudi health ministry on Saturday announced five new deaths from the MERS coronavirus, taking the country's death toll to 92.

A statement released overnight added that 14 new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome were detected in the kingdom, bringing the total to 313 since the virus first emerged there in September 2012.

Among the five who died were two elderly Palestinians and a Bangladeshi woman in her 40s, the statement said. The two other victims were Saudis.

Public concern over the spread of MERS mounted last week after the resignation of at least four doctors at Jeddah's King Fahd Hospital who refused to treat patients for fear of infection.

On Thursday King Abdullah visited the Red Sea city and commercial hub in a bid to reassure the public amid fears the virus had mutated to make it more transmissible from person to person.

National Guard Minister Prince Mitab said his father King Abdullah went to Jeddah "to reassure the public and to prove that the exaggerated and false rumours about coronavirus are not true."

"The MERS situation is reassuring and it has not reached the level of an epidemic," he said.

That did not stop the king from dismissing health minister Abdullah al-Rabiah on Monday without an official explanation.-
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Illinois Dems back off $100 million push for Obama library following outrage

Illinois Democrats are backing off an effort to give $100 million in a push to land President Obama’s presidential library and museum -- following accusations of voting “shenanigans” and nasty Chicago-style politics, not to mention the state’s dire financial situation.
A Democrat-led House committee approved the money last week at an out-of-town hearing in Chicago with no Republicans in attendance. They instead relied on a procedural move that allowed them to use votes from a previous meeting.

“What they did last week was under-handed and sneaky and offers further proof that they no longer can be trusted with taxpayer money,” said House Republican Leader Jim Durkin.
State GOP Rep. Dwight Kay said his previous vote shouldn’t count because he was only a temporary member of the committee, beyond Democrats breaking their own House rules.
“This is typical Chicago politics at work,” he said. “The Chicago Democrats knew I wouldn’t support spending $100 million that we don’t have on a presidential library, so they decided to violate their own rules and cast my vote anyway.”

Kerry to visit Ethiopia, Congo and Angola next week

(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola from April 29 to May 5 to promote democracy and human rights, the State Department said on Friday.
Kerry will meet with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom in Addis Ababa to discuss peace efforts in the region and strengthen ties with Ethiopia, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.
"In Kinshasa, Secretary Kerry will meet with President Joseph Kabila and will discuss how the DRC government's progress in neutralizing some of the dozens of dangerous armed groups that victimize the Congolese people can be consolidated and how to best advance the DRC's democratization and long-term stability, including through a timely and transparent electoral process," she said.
Kerry will meet Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos in Luanda to commend him on his engagement in the peace process in Africa's Great Lakes region, Psaki added.

Obama visits Malaysia on third stop on Asia tour

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia –  Opening the first visit to Malaysia by a U.S. president in nearly half a century, President Obama looked ahead Saturday to economic and security talks with Prime Minister Najib Razak, who leads a southeast Asian nation with an important role in efforts to forge deeper relations with Asia.
Stepping off his plane and onto a red carpet at the Royal Malaysian Air Base, Obama was whisked by limousine to Kuala Lumpur's Parliament Square, where canon salutes rang out as Malaysia's king and prime minister greeted Obama under muggy skies. A military band played the U.S. and Malaysian national anthems -- twice -- and Obama inspected an elaborate honor guard in crisp green and white before the arrival ceremony came to a close.

Obama's next stop was the Istana Negara, the National Palace, for an audience with Malaysia's royal family before he takes his seat later Saturday at a state dinner being held in his honor.

White House announces new teacher preparation regulations will be out soon

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced on Friday that it put out a draft of new teacher preparation regulations this summer.
“We’re talking about new efforts that this administration is pursuing to better support our teachers and meet the urgent mission of elevating and strengthening teacher education and preparation,” White House Policy Director Cecilia Muñoz said in a call for reporters.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said too many teachers say they weren’t well prepared for teaching. “Our nation’s children pay the price,” he said.
Final regulations are expected within the next year after a comment period.
The proposed regulations will ask states to rate their teacher training programs, use better data and make the results publicly available, the Obama administration said in a news release.
The ratings will be based on such information as how many graduates are placed in schools, retention rates, the satisfaction of graduates of teacher training programs, the satisfaction of principals in the schools where they’re placed and measures of how well their students are learning, Duncan said.

Canada military orders sexual misconduct review

Canada's military has ordered an internal review after publication of a report suggested sexual assault "plagues" the country's armed forces.

An investigation by Canadian magazines Maclean's and L'actualite found five alleged assaults per day within the military community.
The report says those who reported rape or assault faced reprisals.
In a statement, Defence Minister Rob Nicholson said he was "deeply angered upon learning of the alleged assaults".
"Sexual misconduct of all kinds will not be tolerated within the Canadian Armed Forces," Mr Nicholson said, adding he had asked Chief of Defence Staff General Tom Lawson "to get to the bottom of these serious matters".
Gen Lawson said he said he had "directed an immediate internal review" of workplace programmes and policies.
"Further to this, I will consider options for external review."
The two magazines interviewed 12 alleged victims of rape or sexual assault and obtained records through access to information laws to develop the months-long investigation.
According to a preview video by Maclean's, the alleged assaults took place in a variety of locations, including postings in Afghanistan, and occurred to both women and men. 
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