Gazette 05-09-14

Friday May 9th 2014

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Ukraine crisis: Russian victory parade buoyed by Crimea

Russia has held a huge parade to mark 69 years since the Soviets defeated the Nazis, amid a surge of patriotism over the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin said it was a day when "patriotism triumphs", and vowed to defend the motherland.
Unconfirmed reports say Mr Putin will visit a parade in Crimea later.
Meanwhile, several people are reported to have been killed in a shoot-out between Ukrainian troops and separatists in the town of Mariupol.
Kiev recently recently launched an operation to retake official buildings occupied by pro-Russia rebels in Mariupol and several other cities in Ukraine's east and south.
Video footage from Mariupol showed armoured vehicles with Ukrainian flags in the streets, with the sound of gunfire in the background.
Soviet 'iron will' Ukraine's interim authorities earlier said the Soviet victory would be marked with a low-key wreath-laying ceremony.
The Kiev authorities feared that pro-Russian activists would try to stoke violence if there were any higher profile celebrations.
Related Story: Fighting Rages In Ukraine's Mariupol As Troops Storm Rebel-Held Police HQ

Ukraine State TV Disrupted; Security Forces Blame Foreign 'Saboteurs'

Ukraine's security service said on Friday foreign "saboteurs" had knocked out state television transmissions for several hours, suggesting Moscow had backed the action as part of a campaign fomenting rebellion in the east.

Viktoria Syumar, deputy head of the SBU agency, said they had set fire to underground cables carrying power and signals to the broadcaster and several radio stations on the morning the country, and Russia, marks World War Two Victory Day.

"The logic of the Russian special services to this very day is based on the teachings of Lenin on the priority of 'post, telephone and telegraph'," she said in reference to the Bolshevik leader's seizure of power in 1917.

"According to preliminary details, they set fire to cables in the tunnel, which could be accessed from the street and introduced flammable material. Only professionals know of such underground canals. This is classic sabotage."

The Kiev mayor's office had earlier said the fire had been due to a short circuit.

State television returned to the air broadcasting a talk show about Victory Day celebrations which have become a source of tension with Russia. Kiev accuses its Soviet-era masters in Moscow of backing armed rebellion in the east of the country.

Nigerian president vows to 'conquer' terrorists as US weighs additional aid

Nigeria's president vowed Thursday to find 276 schoolgirls abducted by Islamic terrorists and counter threats from militant group Boko Haram, as U.S. officials and agents arrived in Nigeria to assist in rescue efforts.
"By God's grace we will conquer the terrorists." President Goodluck Jonathan said at the World Economic Forum in the capital, Abuja, thanking the U.S., Britain, France and other nations for supporting the rescue mission, Reuters reported.

The kidnapping of more than 300 schoolgirls on April 15 in the town of Chibok has sparked accusations that the Nigerian government is not doing enough to stop the militants. While at least 53 of the girls—ranging in age from 16 to 18—escaped,  the Nigerian government says 276 are still being held captive by the terrorists. 
Jonathan thanked delegates for attending the event, the continent's version of Davos, despite the danger posed by the militants, according to Reuters. Abuja was the site of two recent bomb blasts blamed on Boko Haram. 
"As a nation we are facing attack from terrorism," Jonathan told delegates. "I believe that the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end of terrorism in Nigeria."

Thailand police fire tear gas at protesters in Bangkok

Thai police have fired water cannons and tear gas at protesters in Bangkok, two days after a court ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Hundreds of protesters have been holding a rally outside a government compound in the city.
Ms Yingluck was ordered to step down on Wednesday over the illegal transfer of her security chief. Another court has indicted her for negligence.
The protesters want the government out and the political system reformed.
At least five people were injured outside the Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order when they tried to topple concrete barriers that were topped with barbed wire, the Associated Press news agency said.
Thai newspaper The Nation reported that protestors also attempted to occupy television stations and force them to air their announcements. Police in riot gear have been posted outside the stations.

Syrian troops enter Old City of Homs as last batch of rebels waits to be evacuated

HOMS, Syria –  Syrian government troops have entered the last rebel-held districts of the Old City of Homs for the first time as part of a deal that also has granted opposition fighters safe passage out of the city.
Homs Gov. Talal Barazi said that engineering units were combing the old neighborhoods of the city, including the former opposition stronghold of Hamidiyah, in search of mines and other explosive devices to dismantle.

Some 1,700 rebels have left Homs since Wednesday under the deal struck by the government and opposition.
However, the evacuation of the last batch of fighters was still up in the air Friday after opposition fighters in northern Syrian prevented aid from reaching besieged pro-government villages.
The aid delivery to Nubul and Zahra was part of the Homs evacuation agreement.

Syrian Regime Hasn't Abandoned Chemical Weapons

Despite its pledge to eliminate chemical weapons, the Assad regime is attacking towns and villages with chlorine gas bombs. SPIEGEL visited the communities hit by the most recent bombings to interview victims, doctors and eyewitnesses.

The green wheat fields shimmer in the late afternoon light as the wind slowly starts to pick up. A cloud of dust drifts by. This is good, says Abu Abdu, a farmer from the village of Telminnes, located deep in the south of Syria's Idlib province. Prior to the war, the evening wind had been an annoyance for the dust it kicked up. But these days, it is windless nights that people in the area despise. That's when air force helicopters come and the gas attacks take place. Often, they circle over the city before dropping their cargo.
Usually, there is no big bang, just the sound of a minor detonation, sometimes even just the thud of an impact. Death comes quietly, as it did on the evening of April 21 in Telminnes.
That's the evening a bomb landed near Abu Abdu's garden. The farmer says the explosion was a quiet one. "I thought the point of impact was far away," he recalls. The bomb, which carried a small amount of explosives and a gas cylinder, fell close by -- so close that Abu Abdu could already see the cloud before he had the chance to flee. "Yellow vapor rose, it smelled strongly of chlorine and it burned like fire. I could no longer speak or breathe," he says. Neighbors took him to a makeshift hospital where he was treated with oxygen and an anticonvulsant. "Hours later, I could still barely move my arms, I was coughing up blood and every breath I took was hellish."
Between 200 and 300 people went to hospital in Telminnes that night, suffering from burns in their respiratory passages, difficulty breathing and eye irritation. None showed signs of external injuries. Abu Abdu and others were then transferred to hospitals in the north. The patients suffering the worst injuries were taken to Turkey, where two children later died.

North Korea Media Calls Obama A 'Wicked Black Monkey'

North Korea's state news agency KCNA resorted to sickening racist language to lash out at Barack Obama this week, calling the U.S. president "reminiscent of a wicked black monkey."
The editorial, which also called South Korea's President Park Geun-hye an "old prostitute," was published in English on Friday during Obama's tour of Asian nations.
Another KCNA article from that same day -- this one in Korean -- took the ugliness even further. According to North Korea blogger Josh Stanton, the second story said Obama "should live as a monkey in an African natural zoo licking the breadcrumbs thrown by spectators." The article also calls Obama a "crossbreed with unclear blood."
Crazed diatribes are nothing new to KCNA, but as the Washington Post notes, it is rare for the agency to so outrageously savage a U.S. president. The newspaper explains that the articles highlight North Korea's state ideology of racial purity, which leads to forced abortions or infanticide if defectors become pregnant outside Korea.
Despite North Korea's defiant isolation, another recent diatribe in the state press shows some are paying close attention to U.S. politics. In response to a February U.N. report detailing "crimes against humanity" in North Korea, Pyongyang released its own report calling the U.S. "the world's worst human rights abuser." Citing NSA surveillance, unemployment and gun crime, the report boldly asserts that "the U.S. is a living hell."
While Americans are "the grip of famine," the report says, Obama "indulges himself in luxury almost every day, squandering hundred millions of dollars on his foreign trip in disregard of his people's wretched life."
The North Korean report also berates the U.S. for the acquittal of George Zimmerman in Trayvon Martin's killing, saying the case reveals America's "true colors as a kingdom of racial discrimination."

On Air Force visit, Susan Rice pledges continued US commitment to Israeli security 

Rice emphasizes strength of the Israel-US relationship, shared bond and values while speaking at Palmahim Air Force base.
US National Security Adviser Susan Rice toured the Palmahim Air Force base in central Israel on Friday, pledging sustained commitment to Israel's security.

Rice said US and Israel's security cooperation has reached "unprecedented levels' under US President Barack Obama's administration, making great progress in missile defense technology.

"There can be no doubt, whatsoever, America's commitment to Israel's security is unwavering and iron-clad," she said.

Two months ago, US and Israel signed an agreement under which nearly $500 million will be invested in Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, Rice said.

She said joint research, investment and training will continue.

Budget-strapped Israel is pressing the United States to conclude a deal extending defense aid beyond 2017, when Washington's current $3 billion annual payouts to its Middle East ally expire, officials said on Friday.

Taliban launch 'spring offensive' to cleanse 'the filth of the infidels' from Afghanistan

Kabul: Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan announced the start of their annual "spring offensive" on Thursday, vowing a final summer of bloody attacks on foreign forces before the 13-year NATO combat mission ends.
The Islamist extremists said that the offensive, beginning on Monday, would cleanse "the filth of the infidels" from the country, and warned that Afghan translators, government officials and politicians would also be targeted.
The "Khaibar" offensive, named after an ancient battle between Muslims and Jews, will coincide with a planned second round of elections next month to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, who has ruled since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
The 51,000 US-led NATO troops still deployed in Afghanistan are set to withdraw by December, ending a long and costly battle to defeat the rebels, who launched a fierce insurgency after being ousted from power.
A small number of US troops may stay on from next year on a training and counter-terrorism mission, but the Taliban warned that the insurgency would continue against even a few thousand US troops.
The Taliban "insists on the unconditional withdrawal of all invading forces ... and sees the continuation of its armed Jihad (as) imperative to achieving these goals," said an English-language statement on the group's website.
"If the invaders or their internal stooges believe that reducing the number of foreign forces will dampen our Jihadi fervour then they are sadly mistaken."
It added that attacks during the coming "fighting season" would target US military bases, foreign embassies and vehicle convoys, as well as the Afghan government.

China flexes its muscles in dispute with Vietnam

BEIJING: China's escalating dispute with Vietnam over contested waters in the South China Sea sent new shudders through Asia on Thursday as China demanded the withdrawal of Vietnamese ships near a giant Chinese drilling rig and for the first time acknowledged its vessels had blasted the Vietnamese flotilla with water cannons in recent days.

While China characterized the use of water cannons as a form of restraint, it punctuated the increasingly muscular stance by the Chinese toward a growing number of Asian neighbors who fear they are vulnerable to bullying by China and its increasingly powerful military. The latest back-and-forth in the dispute with Vietnam — the most serious in the South China Sea in years — sent the Vietnamese stock market plunging on Thursday and elicited concern from a top American diplomat who was visiting Hanoi.

Political and economic historians said the China-Vietnam tensions signaled a hardening position by the Chinese over what they regard as their "core interest" in claiming sovereignty over a vastly widened swath of coastal waters that stretch from the Philippines and Indonesia north to Japan. In Chinese parlance, they say, "core interest" means there is no room for compromise.
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House votes to establish select committee on Benghazi

The House voted Thursday to establish a select committee on Benghazi, formally launching a comprehensive and contentious investigation aimed at answering lingering questions about what happened before, during and after the terror attack that killed four Americans.
The House voted 232-186 to approve the panel. The vote breakdown was 225 Republicans and 7 Democrats in favor, with 186 Democrats voting against the measure. The Democrats who backed the probe were all moderate to conservative party members who face tough re-election campaigns.

The vote was never in doubt, as majority Republicans largely were united in support of the committee ever since House Speaker John Boehner called for it last week. Unclear is whether Democrats will boycott the investigation itself.
Immediately after the vote, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., issued a statement accusing Republicans of "unending eagerness to exploit" the four American deaths in Benghazi, adding, "our nation deserves better than yet another deeply partisan and political review."
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who will head the panel, said, “This resolution equips the select committee with the scope and tools necessary for the seriousness of this investigation. We are charged with a clear mission: uncover all the facts and provide answers to the American public."
The probe ensures that Benghazi will remain front and center during the midterm election season, something Democrats say is by design. They have slammed the select committee as a partisan, and unnecessary, exercise.
But Republicans argue that individual congressional committee and other investigations have been insufficient in getting at the full truth, pointing in part to emails released last week that had been kept under wraps since 2012. One email – from a White House adviser stressing the role of an anti-Islam web video – is effectively what prompted Boehner to call for the select committee, after months of balking at demands from his rank-and-file to empanel one.
Related Story :US House backs new Benghazi inquiry

White House Solar Panels Are Finally Up

WASHINGTON –- President Barack Obama will visit a Walmart in Mountain View, California, on Friday, where he will be tout the administration's push for solar power and energy efficiency.
The president will announce a Department of Energy solar instructor training network, which will assist with training programs at community colleges. The program's goal is getting 50,000 additional workers to enter the solar industry by 2020, according to the White House.
Obama also will announce a goal of $2 billion in new spending on energy efficiency improvements to federal buildings over the next three years. The amount is in addition to the $2 billion for energy efficiency the administration announced in 2011.
The announcements follow Tuesday's release of a major federal assessment of climate change impacts in the U.S.
The administration also said Friday that installation of electricity-generating solar panels on the White House is finally complete. Environmental groups had campaigned for Obama to replace solar panels that President Jimmy Carter had installed in 1979 that were removed during the Reagan administration. The White House said in October 2010 that it would install new panels, and work began in August.
The solar panels, said White House spokesman Matt Lehrich, demonstrate Obama's "commitment to lead by example to increase the use of clean energy in the U.S." 

Colorado Collects More Than $20 Million From Marijuana Sales

Colorado raked in nearly $22 million from marijuana taxes, licenses and fees in the first three months of recreational pot sales, according to state Department of Revenue data released Thursday.
Sales of recreational marijuana were nearly $19 million in March, up nearly one-third from about $14 million in February, according to state figures.
The state has reaped $7.3 million from recreational marijuana taxes alone in the first three months since the first legal sales began on Jan.1.
Despite the historic law, medical marijuana -- legal in Colorado for years -- continues to vastly outsell recreational pot. March medical marijuana sales were about $34 million.
Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) said in February that he expected combined sales from legal medical and recreational marijuana in the state to reach nearly $1 billion, and forecast the state would collect about $134 million in taxes and fees during the fiscal year that begins in July. Citing uncertainty in the marijuana market, Hickenlooper last month scaled backed those predictions, saying he now expects the state to collect about $114 million in taxes and fees.
More marijuana dispensaries continue to open. As of May 1, about 200 marijuana dispensaries were licensed, according to the state Department of Revenue.

US House backs new Benghazi inquiry

LA JOLLA, Calif. — President Obama acknowledged Thursday that the executive actions he has been taking to work around an uncooperative Congress will go only so far in achieving his agenda, and said Democrats need to win control of the legislative branch to set the country on the right path in the final two years of his tenure.

The remarks at a fundraiser here were striking because Obama has released high-profile executive actions every few weeks as part of a “year of action” meant to bypass the Republicans who lead the House and who have refused to cede almost any legislative achievement to the president since taking control in 2010.
FEC allows political groups to accept bitcoin donations 

The Federal Election Commission ruled unanimously Thursday that certain political committees can accept contributions in bitcoins, a digital currency that has gained traction among free-market advocates but drawn criticism for making it easier to sell drugs online.
The decision allows political action committees involved in federal elections to take bitcoin contributions, as long as the donors identify themselves.
The decision allows political action committees involved in federal elections to take bitcoin contributions, as long as the donors identify themselves.
The FEC's action adds some legitimacy to the controversial online currency but leaves key questions unanswered, including the maximum amount of a bitcoin contribution and whether the committees can use bitcoins to make purchases.
The limited ruling aimed to “give some guidance to the community … that is not going to raise some of the bigger issues that might accompany a bitcoin transaction,” said Ann Ravel, a Democrat who is the commission's vice chairwoman.
The FEC decided that a $100 contribution limit per person and per electoral cycle was acceptable, but it did not explicitly rule out larger donations.
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