Gazette 05-26-14

Monday May 26th 2014

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

Eurosceptic 'earthquake' rocks EU elections

Eurosceptic and far-right parties have seized ground in elections to the European parliament, in what France's PM called a "political earthquake".

UK Independence Party and French National Front both performed strongly. The three big centrist blocs all lost seats, though still hold the majority.
The outcome means a greater say for those who want to cut back the EU's powers, or abolish it completely.
UK PM David Cameron said the public was "disillusioned" with the EU.
Mr Cameron said their message was "received and understood".

Ukraine launches air strikes against gunmen at Donetsk airport

One day after Ukraine elected a new president, the Ukrainian military launched air strikes against armed pro-Russian separatist rebels who seized the Donetsk International Airport, an official there tells Fox News.
A bombardment of the airport reportedly began shortly after noon local time, and black smoke could be seen rising from buildings following the sounds of shelling.

A firefight broke out after the rebels seized the main airport, just as Petro Poroshenko was elected in a landslide victory on Sunday. Poroshenko, during his first remarks after the vote count, likened the armed separatists in the east to the lawless nature of “Somali pirates,” The New York Times reported.
Vladislav Seleznyov, a spokesman for Kiev's anti-terrorist operation, wrote on his Facebook account that the military presented an ultimatum earlier this afternoon to unknown armed men who had occupied the airport to lay down the arms.
He said the gunmen didn't comply and the military launched an air strike. Police blocked access to the airport.

Russia ready for talks with Kiev after pro-west victory in Ukrainian election

Moscow and Kiev promised to resume dialogue on Monday after preliminary results suggested that the pro-west businessman Petro Poroshenko had won Ukraine's presidential election – although renewed fighting in the east of the country dampened hopes of an immediate solution to the crisis.
Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow was ready to enter talks with the new leadership, in his country's first high-level response to Saturday's election. "We shouldn't miss the chance that we have now to establish an equal dialogue of mutual respect considering the vote that has taken place, the results of which Russia is ready to respect," Lavrov said.
Pro-Russia forces who have occupied government buildings in eastern Ukraine since April followed Moscow's lead in welcoming Poroshenko's election. Denis Pushilin, supreme council chairman of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, said they were ready to negotiate with Ukraine's new leadership, but only with the participation of intermediaries including Russia.
Violence flared in the east on Monday morning when armed men seized Donetsk airport. There were reports of gunfire later in the day.
Late on Sunday night the first deputy PM, Vitaly Yarema, promised that Kiev's "anti-terrorist operation" would be renewed after a pause during the presidential vote, which in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions involved only a handful of polling stations.
Lavrov said the renewal of the anti-terrorist operation would be a "colossal mistake" and could threaten the resumption of dialogue.
Poroshenko has not backed off from the harsh tone struck by Kiev regarding the armed rebels in the two regions, repeating on Monday that there could be no negotiations with terrorists and comparing the pro-Russian militia men to Somalian pirates.

Egypt Election 2014: Voters Head To The Polls To Elect Country's Next President

CAIRO (AP) — Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's supporters danced to pop tunes praising the military and sported T-shirts bearing his image as they cast ballots Monday in a presidential election that is seen certain to vault the retired field marshal to office.
But el-Sissi, who last summer ousted Egypt's first freely elected president, is looking for more than a landslide victory from the two-day vote. He also is hoping for a strong turnout to show international critics that his removal of Islamist Mohammed Morsi reflected the will of the people.
The election is a powerful contrast to 2012 presidential elections, the first after the toppling of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak by a popular uprising the year before.
In that race, there were 13 candidates and a rollicking campaign that saw lively debate over how to achieve the ideals of the "revolution," reflecting the short-lived euphoria that followed Mubarak's ouster.
Morsi, a veteran figure from the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, won in part because even many who distrusted the Islamists preferred him to his opponent — Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq — seen as a throwback to the former state.
This time, the Brotherhood is out of the race, crushed under a ferocious crackdown that has killed hundreds of Morsi's supporters and arrested thousands more since his removal. El-Sissi has been elevated by a surge of nationalism fed by media lauding him as the nation's savior. His only opponent in the race is leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, who finished third in the 2012 election.

Colombia election: Santos to face Zuluaga in run-off

Colombian ex-finance minister Oscar Ivan Zuluaga has won the first round of the presidential election, ahead of incumbent President Juan Manuel Santos.

Both fell far short of the 50% plus one needed to avoid a second round and will now face each other again on 15 June.
The election could decide whether peace talks with Farc rebels will continue.
Mr Santos supports them as the best way to end Colombia's 50-year-long armed conflict, but Mr Zuluaga prefers a tougher line.

With almost all of the votes counted, Mr Zuluaga was ahead with 29.25%, followed by Mr Santos with 25.69%.

The other three candidates trailed at least 10 percentage points behind.
The policies of the two leading candidates differ little except for their stance on the peace process with Colombia's largest left-wing rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
Mr Santos - who initiated the negotiations that formally started 18 months ago in the Cuban capital, Havana - says he hopes to sign a deal with the Farc before the end of the year.
But Mr Zuluaga has been critical of the talks, accusing President Santos of being soft on the rebels.
"We cannot allow the Farc to attempt to command the country from Havana," he told his supporters.

Thai coup leader: Don't protest, it's no use

BANGKOK –  Bolstered by an endorsement from Thailand's king, the nation's new military ruler issued a stark warning Monday to anyone opposed to last week's coup: don't cause trouble, don't criticize, don't protest -- or else the nation could revert to the "old days" of turmoil and street violence.
Speaking in his first public appearance since seizing power, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha justified the army takeover saying he had restore order after seven months of increasingly violent confrontations between the now-ousted government and demonstrators who had long urged the army to intervene.

"I'm not here to argue with anyone. I want to bring everything out in the open and fix it," said Prayuth, who spoke at the army headquarters in Bangkok dressed in a crisp white military uniform.
"Everyone must help me," he said, adding: but "do not criticize, do not create new problems. It's no use."
The tough words came as an aide to former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she had been released Monday from military custody after being held for three days at an undisclosed location without access to a telephone. The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said Yingluck had returned to her home.

China detains more than 200 suspected separatists in Xinjiang, state media says

Police in China's troubled north-west region of Xinjiang have broken up 23 terror or extremist groups and detained more than 200 suspected militants in the last month, state media has reported.
The news came as authorities said a year-long anti-terrorism crackdown would require "unconventional measures" and the region's party chief, Zhang Chunxian, announced a "people's war" against terrorism, following one of the most deadly attacks in years.
Forty-three people were killed and more than 90 injured in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, last Thursday when attackers in two off-road vehicles drove through a street market throwing explosives. Officials say four of the assailants died at the scene while the fifth was captured later that night.
The attack was the latest in a string of incidents, and has led experts to warn of a mounting terrorist threat originating in the region. Recent months have seen attacks targeting civilians, taking place outside Xinjiang and choosing symbolically significant times or locations.
In March, a group armed with knives killed 33 people at a train station in Kunming, Yunnan province. A month later, three people were killed and scores were wounded when two suspected suicide bombers struck a station in Urumqi as Chinese president, Xi Jinping, visited the region.

Netanyahu: Security barrier saves lives, anti-Israel incitement makes it necessary 

Israel wouldn’t need the security barrier, if acts of incitement and terrorism against it stopped, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Pope Francis on Monday at the start of their meeting at the Notre Dame Center in Jerusalem.

“The security barrier has saved thousands of lives,” Netanyahu said, as he spoke of the structure, partially made of concrete and partially from steel wire fences, that Israel began to build a decade ago in response to suicide bombings.

He made sure to speak with the pontiff about the barrier, after Pope Francis briefly prayed there during his trip to the West Bank Palestinian city of Bethlehem.

The pontiff's motorcade’s route passed by the barrier. Pope Francis spontaneously stopped and stood by a steel gate in the barrier. The graffiti below where he stood said “free Palestine.” The graffiti above said, “Bethlehem look like Warsaw Ghetto.” It immediately became one of the iconic shots of the day and for Palestinians, of the visit as a whole. 

Pakistan frees 151 Indian fishermen ahead of Nawaz Sharif's Delhi visit
KARACHI: In a goodwill gesture, Pakistan on Sunday freed 151 Indian fishermen, a day ahead of the visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to India to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi.

Authorities released 59 Indian fishermen from the Malir jail in Karachi and another 92 from Nara jail in Hyderabad in Sindh province.

Syed Nazir Hussain, the superintendent of the Malir jail in Karachi, told PTI that the Indian prisoners were released on written directives of the interior and foreign ministries.

"Most of these prisoners are poor Indian fishermen who were arrested and brought here for trespassing into Pakistani territorial waters," he said.

China, Japan trade barbs after close call between militaries’ aircraft 

Chinese and Japanese officials traded accusations Sunday after Chinese fighter jets came within dozens of metres from Japanese military aircraft that had entered an air defence zone declared by Beijing over the East China Sea.
China’s Defence Ministry said a Japanese surveillance plane and another plane entered the defence zone Saturday during a joint military drill with the Chinese and Russian navies.
A ministry statement condemned the Japanese move and demanded that the country “stop all reconnaissance and interference activities, or Japan would be solely responsible for all consequences.”
Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera responded by calling the Chinese actions “outrageous.” He said the two Chinese fighter jets were armed with missiles and twice came within 30 metres (100 feet) of the Japanese planes.
“I believe those were dangerous acts that could have led to unanticipated accidents,” Onodera said Sunday. “An ordinary flight above open sea should never experience a close encounter like that. Apparently, these were proximate flights (by China) that were out of line.”
The two East Asian countries have clashed frequently over conflicting claims in the East China Sea, with China declaring its air defence zone over a swath of the sea last year. The United States, Japan and South Korea do not recognize the Chinese zone and have flown aircraft through the area without notifying Chinese forces.
-

Obama Surprises Troops In Afghanistan

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (AP) — President Barack Obama secretly slipped into Afghanistan under the cover of darkness Sunday for a weekend visit with U.S. troops serving in the closing months of America's longest war.
Air Force One landed at Bagram Air Field, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, after an overnight flight from Washington. Obama was scheduled to spend just a few hours on the base and had no plans to travel to Kabul, the capital, to meet with Hamid Karzai, the mercurial president who has had a tumultuous relationship with the White House.
Obama's surprise trip comes as the U.S. and NATO withdraw most of their forces ahead of a year-end deadline. Obama is seeking to keep a small number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014 to train Afghan security forces and conduct counterterrorism missions. But that plan is contingent on Karzai's successor signing a bilateral security agreement that Karzai has refused to authorize.
Obama's visit also was taking place against the backdrop of growing outrage in the United States over the treatment of America's war veterans. More than two dozen veterans' hospitals across America are under investigation over allegations of treatment delays and deaths, putting greater scrutiny on the Department of Veterans Affairs. The agency already was struggling to keep up with the influx of forces returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq.
At least 2,181 members of the U.S. military have died during the nearly 13-year Afghan war and thousands more have been wounded. There are still about 32,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, down from a high of 100,000 in mid-2010, when as Obama sent in additional soldiers to quell escalating violence.

GOP leaders, whistle-blower join in calls to privatize veterans' care

Calls to move veterans’ health care into the hands of private hospitals, amid allegations of widespread problems in Veterans Affairs facilities, gained momentum this weekend with House Speaker John Boehner and a Department of Veterans Affairs whistle-blower backing such a plan.
“It’s absolutely a good idea,” Dr. Margaret Moxness, who exposed long waits at a VA facility in West Virginia, told “Fox News Sunday.” “This should have happened years ago.”

Derek Bennett, of the advocacy group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, also said on the show that he supports the idea.
Boehner said Saturday that he supported the idea of “privatizing” the department two decades ago, and that he has a renewed interest amid allegations that government employees kept secret records to conceal veterans’ long waits for medical treatment and that as many as 40 died while waiting.
“I still like the idea, and especially now,” he told The Columbia Dispatch newspaper, while making clear that getting veterans prompt care comes before making such a sweeping change.
The Obama administration announced Saturday that more veterans will be allowed to be treated in private hospitals in situations where the federal government cannot expand care in VA facilities.

White House Mistakenly Identifies CIA Chief In Afghanistan: Report

WASHINGTON, May 25 (Reuters) - The White House inadvertently included the name of the top CIA official in Afghanistan on a list of participants in a military briefing with President Barack Obama that was distributed to reporters on Sunday, the Washington Post reported.

The newspaper said the official, identified as "Chief of Station" in Kabul, was named as being among those at a briefing with Obama during the president's trip to Bagram Air Base near the Afghan capital.

The list of names was sent by email to reporters traveling with Obama on his surprise Afghanistan visit and included in a "pool report" shared with correspondents and others not on the trip.

The Post said the White House issued a revised list deleting the CIA official's name after it recognized the mistake.

The newspaper said its White House bureau chief, Scott Wilson, who was on the trip, copied the original list from the email provided by White House press officials and included it in a report sent to a distribution list with over 6,000 recipients.

After he spotted the reference to the station chief, Wilson asked White House press officials in Afghanistan if they had intended to include that name, the Post said.

"Initially, the press office raised no objection, apparently because military officials had provided the list to distribute to news organizations," the Post added. "But senior White House officials realized the mistake and scrambled to issue an updated list without the CIA officer's name."

'Why didn't they prepare?' Hundreds of VA vacancies, as returning vets strain system

WASHINGTON –  Despite rampant allegations of veterans stuck in limbo waiting for care, hundreds of jobs remain unfilled at the Department of Veterans Affairs -- including at some of the very locations where doctors supposedly were too short-staffed to see patients. 
A search by FoxNews.com on Friday of the USA Jobs federal employment website showed more than 1,080 current vacancies in health-related fields at the VA. 

A search of the words “VA” and “physician” yielded 167 jobs openings with top-range salaries of roughly $295,000 a year. There are 18 openings alone in the Phoenix VA Health Care System – the same one facing allegations that up to 40 people died while waiting for treatment.
One full-time position is for the chief of medicine. The vacancy, posted April 15 and open until June 13, comes with an annual salary up to $235,000.  
The VA pitches the job as a don't-miss opportunity. The ad boasts that “as a VA physician, your opportunities are endless” -- the agency offers "generous paid time off and a variety of predictable and flexible scheduling opportunities.”
So why the vacancies, at such a critical time?

Muslim group takes next step in libel suit against Stephen Harper

A national Muslim organization is proceeding with a lawsuit against Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his chief spokesman for a comment it says linked the organization to a terrorist group.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims is filing a statement of claim in Ontario Superior Court after failing to get an apology from the Prime Minister's Office for the January remark.
Lawyer Jeff Saikaley says the council is seeking a public retraction and damages of up to $100,000.
The comment in question came after the council criticized the inclusion of controversial rabbi Daniel Korobkin in a delegation accompanying Harper to the Middle East.
In January the council took its first legal step by filing a notice of libel which quotes Harper spokesman Jason MacDonald as saying, "We will not take seriously criticism from an organization with documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas."
The comment was "categorically false, offensive and defamatory," Ihsaan Gardee, the council's executive director, said at the time.

'No choice'

Discussions between the parties have not resolved the matter.
"We did have conversations with the lawyer representing Stephen Harper and Jason MacDonald, and we weren't able to reach a satisfactory agreement. So we have no choice but to proceed to the next step," Saikaley said.
"We're still hopeful that something can be done to avoid an actual trial, but for the time being this is what's been required to protect our client's interests."
-