Gazette 05-15-14

Thursday May 15th 2014

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Turkish mine disaster: Unions hold protest strike

Trade unions in Turkey are holding a one-day strike in protest at the country's worst ever mine disaster, which has claimed at least 282 lives.

Thousands have taken to the streets in cities across the country; clashes have broken out in Izmir.
President Abdullah Gul visited the scene of the disaster in Soma, as Turkey holds three days of mourning.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was booed and jostled by angry protesters during his visit to Soma on Wednesday.
Small protests Several unions are reportedly taking part in the 24-hour strike, and blame the privatisation of the mining sector for making working conditions more dangerous.

Putin: Ukraine must pay cash in advance for gas starting in June

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday the country will only deliver gas to Ukraine if it pays in advance in cash starting from June. 
Putin first warned in April that Russia would do so, in a letter to European leaders whose nations are customers of Russian state-controlled Gazprom natural gas giant. He said Moscow would have to demand advance payment if Ukraine failed to start settling its mounting gas debt.

In the second letter released by the Kremlin Thursday, Putin said that a meeting involving Russian, Ukrainian and the European Union officials has failed to settle the issue. Putin said that Ukraine's gas debt to Russia has kept rising and has reached $3.5 billion.
"Given the circumstances, the Russian company has issued an advance invoice for gas deliveries to Ukraine, which is completely in accordance with the contract, and after June 1 gas deliveries will be limited to the amount prepaid by the Ukrainian company," Putin said in the letter.
The move is part of Russia's efforts to retain control over its struggling neighbor, which has been teetering on the verge of financial collapse and facing a mutiny in the east, where pro-Russian separatists seized administrative buildings, fought government troops and declared two regions independent following Sunday's referendum.

Anti-China Riots In Vietnam Leave Over A Hundred Injured

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A 1,000-strong mob stormed a Taiwanese steel mill in Vietnam and hunted down Chinese workers, killing one, attacking scores more and then setting the complex alight, Taiwanese and Vietnamese authorities said Thursday, further inflaming tensions between Hanoi and Beijing as they square off against each other in the disputed South China Sea.
It was the first deadly incident in a wave of anti-China protests triggered by Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in the long-disputed seas on May 1. Vietnam is angrily demanding that China remove the rig and has sent ships to confront it and a flotilla of Chinese escort ships, triggering fears of possible conflict.
Taiwanese companies, many of which employ Chinese nationals, have borne the brunt of the protests and violence, which is posing a challenge to the authoritarian government, which prides itself on maintaining peace and security. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said peaceful protests over the last few days were "legitimate," but that anyone involved in violence should be punished severely.
Nervous Chinese expatriates were fleeing by land and air. Cambodian immigration police said 600 Chinese crossed into Cambodia over the land border in southern Vietnam on Wednesday, and that others were arriving Thursday. Taiwan's China Airlines was adding two additional charter flights from southern Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, according to Taiwan's Central News Agency.
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China was "greatly shocked and concerned."

Syria conflict: Deadly blast near Turkey border crossing

At least 29 people have been killed in a car bombing near the border between Syria and Turkey, activists say.

A car filled with explosives was reportedly blown up in the Karaj Sajou area, near the Bab al-Salam crossing in the northern province of Aleppo.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that five women and three children were among the dead.
A video posted online appeared to show smoke rising from burning vehicles, charred corpses and scattered luggage.
One local activist told the Reuters news agency that at least 12 ambulances had been transporting dozens of wounded across the border to hospitals in Turkey.
The area around Bab al-Salam has been bombed on previous occasions. In February, an explosion killed six people and wounded 45 others.
The Syrian side of the crossing has been under the control of Islamist rebels who have been fighting the jihadist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) since early January, according to the Associated Press.

UK's William Hague says allies must ensure survival of moderate Syrian opposition

LONDON –  The British foreign secretary says a political end to the war in Syria is distant, and international opponents of President Bashar Assad (bah-SHAR' AH'-sahd) must unite to ensure the moderate opposition survives.
Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke after meeting Secretary of State John Kerry and other foreign ministers at a "Friends of Syria" meeting of 11 Western and Arab countries.

Despite military gains for regime forces, Hague says the group believes, quote, "there will not be a military victory for either side."
He said its goal is "to step up our efforts to ensure a moderate opposition stays in being."
The three-year conflict has killed at least 150,000 people, and no end is in sight. This week, Lakhdar Brahimi (LAHK'-dar bra-HEE'-mee) resigned as the United Nations-Arab League envoy for Syria.

Afghan Presidential Election Goes To 2nd Round

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan voters will return to the polls next month to choose a successor to outgoing President Hamid Karzai, whose refusal to sign a deal permitting U.S. troops to stay beyond the end of the year has raised security concerns as the Taliban press their deadly campaign of bombings and attacks.
The second round of voting was announced on Thursday in Kabul and the balloting was set for June 14. It will likely feature a tight race between two top vote-getters from the first round, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai.
But it is also cause for concern since the second round will coincide with the height of the Taliban spring offensive that was launched earlier this week. The insurgency has renewed its campaign of attacks on the Afghan police and military — increasing fears over security when voters head to the polls.
The Taliban have pledged to disrupt the vote with bombings and other attacks, although the first round on April 5 passed relatively free of violence.
Abdullah garnered 45 percent of votes in the first round while Ahmadzai came in second with 31.6 percent, Independent Election Commission Chairman Ahmad Yousuf Nouristani said.
The final results announced by Nouristani were almost exactly the same as the preliminary results released late last month.
Over 7 million Afghans voted in the first round, considered a strong turnout in an election plagued by Taliban threats and logistical hardships for both voters and poll workers.

Japan PM eyes landmark change on limits to military combat abroad

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a review of legal limits on the military’s ability to fight overseas on Thursday, signaling a potential landmark change in a security policy long constrained by the pacifist, post-war constitution.
Seeking to address concerns among Asian neighbors such as rival China as well as wary Japanese voters, the conservative Japanese leader also pledged that Japan would stick to a peaceful path and not again become a “country that wages war”.
“Japan has walked the path of a peaceful country for nearly 70 years since the end of World War Two. That path will not change. But we cannot protect our peaceful lives simply by repeating that we are a peaceful country. Our peaceful lives may suddenly confront a crisis. Can anyone say that won’t happen,” Abe said at a nationally televised news conference.
“I think that we, the government, must confront this reality head on. It is necessary to deepen cooperation with other countries so that we can seamlessly ... cope with any situation to protect our peaceful lives.”
Abe, pointing to growing tensions due to China’s increasing assertiveness and North Korea’s nuclear threat, called for a review of a decades-old interpretation of the constitution that has banned Japan from exercising its right of collective self-defense, or deploying its military to aid friendly countries under attack.
A lifting of the ban would be welcome to Japan’s ally the United States, but would likely draw criticism from China, whose ties with Tokyo have been strained by a territorial row and the legacy of Japan’s past aggression.

2 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in violent clash near Ramallah

Two Palestinians were killed in violent clashes with Israel security forces Thursday in the Beitunya region of the West Bank near Ramallah.
Border police and IDF soldiers reported confronting a very serious riot, in which life-threatening violence was directed at them, a security source said. 
The IDF was investigating the incident.
According to Palestinian reports of the incident, IDF fire on a Nakba Day protest near Ofer Prison killed Muhammad Abu Thahr, 22, and Nadim Nuwara, 17.

Palestinians were mourning the establishment of the state of Israel on Thursday in Nakba Day rallies in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Nigeria rejects swap of Boko Haram prisoners for schoolgirls: UK Minister

Abuja: Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has rejected the idea of a swap of Boko Haram prisoners for schoolgirls who were kidnapped by the Islamist group a month ago, Britain's minister for Africa said after talks with him in Abuja on Wednesday.
"He made it very clear that there would be no negotiations with Boko Haram that involved a swap of abducted schoolgirls for prisoners," Mark Simmonds told a news conference.
The Islamist group, which is holding more than 200 girls, posted a video on Monday offering to release them in exchange for prisoners held by the government.

Boko Haram militants, who are fighting for an Islamist state, stormed a secondary school in the northeastern village of Chibok on April 14 and seized 276 girls who were taking exams. Some have managed to escape, but about 200 remain missing.
The abductions have triggered a worldwide social media campaign under the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, and prompted the United States, Britain, France and Israel to offer help or send experts to Nigeria.
Britain offered further help to Nigeria including a surveillance plane and the offer was accepted, Mr Simmonds said.

Fast-food workers to protest in 30 countries in support of higher pay

Campaigners advocating $15-an-hour wage for workers at major chains like McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell

Labor organizers say protesters will turn out in the US and more than 30 other countries on Thursday in support of higher pay for workers at fast-food chains including McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell.
The demonstrations build on a campaign by unions to bring attention to the plight of low-wage workers and get the public behind the idea of a $15-an-hour wage. The businesses say such a wage would hurt their ability to create jobs.
The campaign comes as President Obama works to raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which translates to about $15,000 a year for a full-time job.
The protests have captured media attention at a time when the gap between the rich and poor has widened. Protest turnouts have varied widely, however.
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Bill Clinton insists wife Hillary is in good health

Former US President Bill Clinton has praised the strength and health of his wife, ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, dismissing a top Republican's public doubts about her well-being.

"As far as I can tell, she's in better shape than I am," Mr Clinton, a Democrat, said of his wife, 66.
Mrs Clinton, said to be weighing a 2016 presidential bid, fell ill in 2012.
Last week, Karl Rove questioned her capacity for the White House and reportedly said she had brain damage.
The New York Post reported on Tuesday that Mr Rove, the strategist behind George W Bush's election to the White House, had told an audience in Los Angeles last week, "Thirty days in the hospital? And when she reappears, she's wearing glasses that are only for people who have traumatic brain injury? We need to know what's up with that."
In fact, Mrs Clinton was in hospital for three days after falling ill with a stomach bug in December 2012. After becoming severely dehydrated, Mrs Clinton fell at home and struck her head, suffering a concussion. While she was in hospital doctors diagnosed a blood clot.
Mr Rove has disputed the Post report.
"I didn't say she had brain damage. I said she had a serious health episode," he said on Fox News.
Democrats and some analysts have said Mr Rove is trying to inject concerns about Mrs Clinton's health into the public debate as the start of the 2016 presidential race nears.

Hillary looks rusty at her coming out party

HILLARY LOOKS RUSTY AT HER COMING OUT PARTY
Hillary Clinton will appear tonight at her first official campaign event of this cycle – and perhaps her first since 2008 – and it’s a doozy. Hillary will appear at the home of the most famous bitter ender from her failed 2008 bid, uber-rich Lynn Forester de Rothschild, who was a principle PUMA and notorious Barack Obama trash talker. Other wealthy satellites of Planet Hillary, including Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel and Jill Iscol, will also reportedly make the scene. The beneficiary of the big event is former Rep. Marjorie Margolies D-Pa., who lost her Pennsylvania House seat in 1994, mostly a martyr for her defense of unpopular Clinton polices. She remained a Clinton intimate thereafter, including during the fraud conviction of her then-husband, former Rep. Edward Mezvinsky, D-Iowa. The couple’s son, Marc, a Wall Street banker, would go on to marry the Clintons’ only child, Chelsea. The younger Mezvinskys are expecting their first child this fall and Hillary tonight will be raising money for her fellow expectant grandmother, Margolies. But this isn’t two nannas-to-be getting together to knit booties.
[Bubba: Hey, we’re no Einsteins - “Let’s do what sensible people would do. We had a problem we had to deal with, Albert Einstein couldn’t have done it perfectly the first time, now let’s set a long-term repair process.” – Former President Bill Clinton at a debt-reduction forum when asked what Democrats ought to say about ObamaCare. Clinton, though, said some Democratic candidates “have to” simply attack the law.]

Harry Reid: 'I Can't Vote For' Obama Nominee Michael Boggs

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday became the first Democratic senator to say he can't support President Barack Obama's judicial nominee Michael Boggs, who has drawn criticism from progressive groups for his record on gay rights, abortion and civil rights.
"Unless I have a better explanation, I can’t vote for him," Reid said in an interview with BuzzFeed. "This is a lifetime appointment. He's said some things and made some decisions I think are not very good.”
The fact that the top Democrat in the Senate is publicly opposed to Boggs is a huge blow to the White House, which is trying to usher its nominee's confirmation through the Senate. Boggs, who is up for a lifetime post on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, has come under fire from Democrats for votes he took as a Georgia state legislator. Among other things, he voted to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, to keep the Confederate insignia on the state flag and to pass a measure requiring that information be posted online about the number of abortions performed by individual doctors.
Boggs had his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday and took a beating from Democrats.
The White House is backing Boggs because he's part of an all-or-nothing package of six judicial nominees that the president agreed to with Georgia's Republican senators. The White House maintains it had to compromise on Boggs to get other nominees backed by Democrats into the package. The tradeoff is that long-empty seats can get filled.

Kerry still racking up miles — though the pace may slow

Secretary of State John Kerry, off on a trip to Europe this week, has ramped up his record-setting travel schedule from 2013.
In his first year as secretary, Kerry  logged about 286,000 miles in the air, according to the State Department’s Web site,  easily besting former secretary Condoleezza Rice’s first-year total of 241,000 miles and former secretary Hillary Clinton’s 207,000 miles in her first year.
(Rice ended her four-year term with a record 1,059,247 miles logged, edging  Clinton by about 100,000 miles.)
In the first four months of 2014, Kerry accelerated to a yearly rate of about 300,000 miles, putting him on track to pass Rice and set the new outdoor record for miles traveled by a secretary of state.
Of course, as we wrote last August, “when the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapse — as they unfortunately tend to do — Jerusalem may drop off a bit as a Kerry frequent-flyer destination.”
Well, maybe things will heat up in regional disputes over some Pacific islands  between China and  Japan and between China and Vietnam. Those would be really long trips.
And there’s always Cyprus.

Veterans Secretary to Testify on Long Waits for Patients

WASHINGTON — The secretary of veterans affairs is expected to face sharp questioning Thursday as he urges lawmakers to be patient amid charges that veterans are waiting for months in some cases to receive care at veterans hospitals around the nation.

Secretary Eric Shinseki, in prepared remarks, planned to tell the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee that three employees have been placed on administrative leave in connection with an investigation by the agency’s Office of Inspector General that found that veterans hospitals around the country — including in Arizona, Colorado, Texas and Wyoming — have used off-the-books waiting lists and other methods to conceal the length of time it took for veterans to receive an appointment to see a doctor.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has an established goal that new patients seeking primary care be seen within 14 days of calling for an appointment. But in some cases, delays in receiving treatment may have extended for several months, including at the Phoenix Veterans Administration Health Care System in Arizona.

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Los Angeles oil pipe spill: 'Knee-deep' oil in streets

An oil pipe in Los Angeles has broken, spilling an estimated 10,000 gallons (38,000 litres) of oil in the streets, the LA Fire Department (LAFD) says.

Crude oil spread into an area of about half a mile (0.8km), with earlier reports of oil "knee high in some areas", the LAFD added in a statement.
The oil line was remotely shut off, and by 0600 local time (1400 BST) most of the oil had been vacuumed.
Four people reported breathing problems and two went to hospital.
A few commercial businesses were affected and a strip club was evacuated.
The above-ground oil pipe broke in the early hours of Thursday near San Fernando Road, a major road in Los Angeles.

Keystone delays are fueling push for Canada eastern oil pipeline

Delays by the U.S. in reviewing Keystone XL are helping build momentum for an oil pipeline to Canada’s East Coast.
TransCanada Corp. (TRP.TO 51.02 -0.13 -0.25%), the company proposing the $5.4 billion conduit to connect Alberta’s oil sands with U.S. Gulf Coast refiners, may have an easier path to approval with its alternative to the nation’s Atlantic Coast. The $12 billion US Energy East would be North America’s largest oil line, with capacity to ship 1.1 million barrels a day.
“We view the Energy East project a step in the right direction,” Thomas Mulcair, leader of the federal New Democratic Party, said at the Bloomberg Canada Economic Summit yesterday in Toronto. The opposition leader prefers the project over Keystone because it would support Canadian “value-added” jobs by supplying refineries in Eastern Canada.
While shipping oil-sands crude across the country to the port of Saint John, New Brunswick, is farther than sending it to the Gulf Coast, Energy East wouldn’t require U.S. approval and would let producers sell their fuel to refineries in Canada and as far away as India. Other proposals that have faced opposition include Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway to the Pacific Coast and the twinning of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP’s expansion of its Trans Mountain line.
Currently, refineries in Quebec and Atlantic Canada import 86 percent of their crude supplies, or about 700,000 barrels per day, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
‘THE CRUX’
Delays to TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline are changing the nature of Canadian and U.S. relations, Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling said at the conference.
“Nobody believes that this doesn’t set a precedent, that the world is the same as it used to be,” Girling said, referring to the lack of progress in getting U.S. approval for the pipeline. “The crux of the question is, does the U.S. want Canadian oil.”
The Obama administration on April 18 extended the U.S. review of Keystone XL because Calgary-based TransCanada’s route faces a legal challenge in Nebraska. That added fresh delays to a project first proposed in 2008 and originally intended to come online in 2012.
TransCanada is learning from its difficulties with Keystone XL as it pursues Energy East, Girling said. The company was on the ground negotiating with landowners and politicians ahead of environmental groups opposed to the project, he said. It has also changed the proposed route several times before filing for Canadian regulatory approval for Energy East, expected by the end of June.
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