Gazette 05-28-14

Wednesday May 28th 2014

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Chechen fighters among ranks of rebel militants in Ukraine, self-appointed mayor says

Chechen fighters are among the ranks of rebels active in eastern Ukraine, according to the self-appointed mayor of a militant stronghold in the region.
Vyachoslav Ponomariov, who spoke to Fox News on Wednesday, said the Chechen fighters are in the city of Slovyansk and the Donetsk region.  

Chechnya's regional leader said Wednesday that he hasn't sent any troops to fight alongside pro-Russia insurgents, but he says some Chechens may have gone there on their own.
In a statement posted on his Instagram, Ramzan Kadyrov said two-thirds of three million Chechens live outside the province in Russia's North Caucasus mountains, so he "can't and mustn't know where each of them goes."
Fighters who looked like residents of the Caucasus have been seen among pro-Russia rebels, where they have seized government buildings and fought with Ukrainian forces, according to The Associated Press. Ukraine and the West have accused Moscow of fomenting the unrest, but it has denied the claim.
In the most ferocious battle yet, rebels in Donetsk tried to take control of its airport Monday, but were repelled by Ukrainian forces using combat jets and helicopter gunships and lost dozens of men. Some insurgents said up to 100 may have been killed.

Iraq violence: Bombing hits Baghdad Shia mosque

At least 17 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shia mosque in the centre of Iraq's capital, Baghdad.

The attack occurred as worshippers prepared to attend midday prayers in the Shorja district of the capital. No-one has claimed responsibility so far.
Last week, at least 24 Shia Muslim pilgrims were killed in three bombings in Baghdad.
The country has been without a government since last month's polls.
A bomb also went off in the eastern Shia district of Sadr City, killing two, police said.
In April's parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Shia-dominated State of Law alliance won the largest number of seats.
Negotiations over forming a coalition government are under way.
Other parties have voiced strong opposition, blaming the prime minister for the sectarian violence that has left more than 3,500 people dead this year, and accusing him of trying to monopolize power.

U.N. Fact-Finding Team Ambushed In Syria

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Members of an international fact-finding mission into alleged chlorine attacks in Syria were ambushed and briefly held by gunmen in rebel-held territory, the global chemical weapons watchdog said Wednesday.
Releasing details of the chilling attack on its inspectors a day earlier, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said a joint OPCW-United Nations convoy was first hit by a roadside bomb and then sprayed by automatic gunfire as it headed toward Kfar Zeita, a rebel-held village in Hama province some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Damascus.
After the lead vehicle in the convoy was severely damaged in the roadside bomb blast, the remaining vehicles turned around and headed for safer territory only to come under attack in a built-up area by gunmen who sprayed the lead vehicle with automatic gunfire from close range, the OPCW said in a statement.
Occupants of two remaining vehicles "were briefly detained by some gunmen" but were released after the intervention by Syria's main opposition group, according to the OPCW. One driver sustained minor injuries.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visited members of the international fact-finding mission at their headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday, calling the ambush "a brutal attack." He said terrorists were behind it, a term the government uses for rebels trying to oust President Bashar Assad from power.
The attack came despite the team negotiating a ceasefire with Syrian authorities and rebels.
Mekdad reiterated the government's commitment to providing security and safety for the team and said Tuesday's attack will not prevent the inspectors from conducting their mission "in an honest and evenhanded way."

Lebanese security officials say Hezbollah commander wanted by FBI has been killed in Syria

BEIRUT –  Security officials in Lebanon say a Hezbollah military commander wanted by the FBI has been killed in Syria while fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's forces against rebels trying to overthrow him.
The officials said Wednesday that the Hezbollah commander, Fawzi Ayoub, was killed in combat in Syria last week. The security officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to speak to journalists.

A Twitter account by a pro-Hezbollah media arm known as Mouqawama also confirmed Ayoub's death Wednesday, posting a picture of him performing Islamic prayers, dressed in a military uniform.
Ayoub, also known as Abu Abbas, was a dual Lebanese and Canadian citizen. He was wanted on charges of attempting to use a forged U.S. passport to enter Israel.

Chinese Court Conducts Mass Sentencing In Front Of Stadium Audience

BEIJING (AP) — In a stadium filled with 7,000 people, a court in China's restive northwest region has announced guilty verdicts for 55 people on charges of terrorism, separatism and murder.
It was a show of force as the government tries to display its determination to combat unrest in Xinjiang after 43 people were killed last week in an attack at a vegetable market in the regional capital, Urumqi.
At least one convict received a death sentence at the event Tuesday in Yili, in northern Xinjiang near the Kazakhstan border, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. It said the audience in the stadium was made up of local residents and officials.
The report gave few details about the cases, but defendants whose names were reported all appeared to be Uighurs, members of the region's biggest Muslim ethnic minority group.
On Tuesday, authorities said police in southwestern Xinjiang foiled a bomb plot and arrested five people. The government says more than 200 people have been detained this month in Xinjiang and 23 extremist groups broken up, though it has released no details about them.
The government says unrest among Uighurs is caused by extremist groups with ties to Islamic terror groups abroad, but experts say they see little evidence of that.
Uighur activists say public resentment against Beijing is fueled by an influx of settlers from China's Han ethnic majority and official discrimination against minorities.
Among Tuesday's cases, three defendants were convicted of using unspecified "extremely cruel methods" to kill four people, including a 3-year-old girl, in the city of Yining on April 20, 2013, according to Xinhua.

France in 14bn-euro tax black hole

The French government faces a 14bn-euro black hole in its public finances after overestimating tax income for the last financial year.

French President Francois Hollande has raised income tax, VAT and corporation tax since he was elected two years ago.
The Court of Auditors said receipts from all three taxes amounted to an extra 16bn euros in 2013.
That was a little more than half the government's forecast of 30bn euros of extra tax income.
The Court of Auditors, which oversees the government's accounts, said the Elysee Palace's forecasts of tax revenue in 2013 were so wildly inaccurate that they cast doubt on its forecasts for this year.
It added the forecasts were overly optimistic and based on inaccurate projections.
The figures come a week after French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who was appointed in March following the poor showing of Mr Hollande's Socialists in municipal elections, appeared to criticise the president's tax policy by saying that "too much tax kills tax".
Inconsistent growth Opinion polls put Mr Hollande's approval rating among voters consistently below 20% and critics say his tax policies have hurt France's chance of a sustained economic recovery.
Despite being elected on a wave of anti-austerity sentiment, Mr Hollande has had to implement a series of spending cuts, alongside a number of tax rises.
Meanwhile, economic growth has been inconsistent and the unemployment rate hit a record high of 11% at the end of 2013.

Faction of Pakistani Taliban announces breakaway

A major faction of the Pakistani Taliban has announced it is splitting from the militant outfit following bloody clashes with a rival group since March.
Observers said the split was a victory for the Pakistani military's strategy of pitting militant factions against each other while gaining the loyalty of key commanders.
Peace talks between the government and Taliban that began this year have stalled, with the military last week resorting to air strikes on militant hideouts, killing at least 75 people.
The breakaway faction belongs to the Mehsud tribe, widely considered the most important of the various groups that comprise the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has fought the government since 2007 to implement its version of sharia law.
"We announce our defection from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. We have chosen our Khalid Mehsud as the new leader for South Waziristan," said Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the breakaway group.
Khalid Mehsud was earlier known by the name Khan Said Sajna, and was a contender for the TTP's leadership after its former chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike last November. The post eventually was handed to Maulana Fazlullah, who hails from the Swat valley.
Since March, Khalid Mehsud's followers have been involved in bloody clashes with followers of the late Hakimullah Mehsud, who are now led by Sheheryar Mehsud.
Tariq, the spokesman, accused the TTP's leadership of criminality and of targeting civilians. "The TTP leadership has fallen into the hands of a bunch of conspirators. The umbrella organisation is involved in criminal activities like robbery and extortion," he said in a statement.

Palestinians riot on Temple Mount as Jews gather at Wall for Jerusalem Day 

Less than 48 hours after Pope Francis beseeched Jerusalem's Grand Mufti to condemn violence on the Temple Mount, rioting ensued there Wednesday morning as thousands of Jews gathered at the Western Wall in observance of Jerusalem Day.

According to police, upon opening the main gate to the holy site, rocks and bottles were thrown at officers, forcing them to disperse the crowd with stun grenades and temporarily cordon off part of the site to visitors.

“Police immediately responded to the rioting and pushed them back into Al-Aqsa Mosque,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, adding that one officer sustained a light injury.

After containing the scene, Rosenfeld said over 1,000 tourists and 250 Israelis entered the compound to tour under police protection.

Although no arrests were made during the riot, Rosenfeld said police are studying the surveillance footage taken of it and plan to apprehend those involved.

The violence comes after the pontiff's historic Monday visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque to discuss tolerance and non-violence as a means of resolving long held differences with Jews.

According to Muslim media reports, during a private 15-minute meeting with the mufti, Mohammed Hussein, Francis beseeched him and his followers to disavow violence and “work together [with Jews] for justice and peace.” 

 

At least 33 dead in Nigerian police, military base raid: Source

 

KANO, Nigeria: A suspected Boko Haram attack on a military base and police station in northeastern Nigeria left at least 33 people dead, a security source told AFP on Wednesday.

The source, who requested anonymity, said 18 soldiers and 15 police lost their lives in the assault in the town of Buni Yadi, in Yobe state, at about 8pm (1900 GMT) on Monday.

"The militants arrived in vans wearing military uniform and went to the army barracks overlooking the police station," the source added.

"They were mistaken for soldiers and the soldiers opened the gates. They then began the attack."

Multiple witnesses told AFP on Tuesday that the insurgents fired first on soldiers manning a checkpoint before razing the local police station.

The home of a local government leader and several government buildings were then torched before they turned their guns on an empty primary school.

Details were slow to emerge because of poor mobile phone reception in the area, where the militants, who are seeking to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, have destroyed much of the telecommunication infrastructure.

Boko Haram gunmen on April 14 seized more than 200 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok, provoking international outrage.

Five dead as Sierra Leone records first Ebola outbreak

Five people have died in Sierra Leone’s first confirmed outbreak of Ebola virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday, signalling a new expansion of the disease which regional officials said had been brought under control.
Ebola, a haemorrhagic fever with a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent, is believed to have killed some 185 people in neighbouring Guinea and Liberia since March in the first deadly appearance of the disease in West Africa.
Previously, several suspected cases of Ebola were recorded in Sierra Leone early on in the West African outbreak, but they later tested negative for the disease.
In a statement posted on its website, the WHO said the outbreak in Sierra Leone was located in an area along the country’s border with Guinea’s Guéckédou prefecture, where some of the earliest cases of the disease were recorded.
“Preliminary information received from the field indicates that one laboratory-confirmed case and five community deaths have been reported from Koindu chiefdom,” it said.
The WHO said it was deploying six experts to the area along with essential supplies.
The West African outbreak spread from a remote corner of Guinea to the capital, Conakry, and into Liberia, causing panic across a region struggling with weak health-care systems and porous borders.
A total of 258 clinical cases have been recorded in Guinea since the outbreak was first identified as Ebola, including 174 deaths – 95 confirmed, 57 probable and 57 suspected – according to the WHO.
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Obama: US must show restraint abroad

The US would still lead, he told graduates at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, but would avoid the "costly mistakes" of the past.
"For our actions should meet a simple test: We must not create more enemies than we take off the battlefield."
Under attack from critics who say his foreign policy is weak, he pointed to progress in Ukraine and Iran.
"Sceptics often downplay the effectiveness of multilateral action. For them, working through international institutions, or respecting international law, is a sign of weakness. I think they're wrong."
The end of the combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of the year would free up resources to tackle emerging threats elsewhere, such as a new $5bn (£3bn) "terrorism partnership fund" to help other countries fight extremists.
The money would go towards missions such as training security forces in Yemen, supporting a multinational force to keep the peace in Somalia, working with European allies to train a functioning security force in Libya, and helping French operations in Mali, he said.
Turning to the civil war in Syria, he promised to "ramp up support" for those in opposition to the regime of President Assad, although he did not give details about what that would mean in practice.

Officials: Army hospital chief relieved of command

The chief of an Army medical center has been relieved of his command because of problems with patient care, and the Pentagon has ordered a review of its health care system, defense officials said.
The commander was replaced Tuesday at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and three deputies were suspended, the Army said in a statement.

The shake-up comes after two deaths this month of patients in their 20s and problems with infection control at the facility that were pointed out in March by a hospital accreditation group, according to two defense officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Also, the Pentagon announced late Tuesday that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had ordered a 90-day review of the entire military health care system. He was spurred by the investigation into allegations of treatment delays at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The review will assess the quality of the health care at military treatment facilities and care the department buys from civilian providers, press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said.

NYPD officers to carry heroin overdose antidote

New York City police officers will carry an antidote to treat heroin overdoses, responding to an alarming spike in heroin-related deaths in recent years, authorities have said.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman hailed the "stunningly effective" antidote's record in other communities, saying it would "save lives".
The purchase of 20,000 kits of naloxone will be funded by seized assets.
City officials have said lethal overdoses rose 71% between 2010-12.
In a statement, New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said the New York Police Department was "proud" to join the state's Community Overdose Protection programme and said a recent pilot programme in the borough of Staten Island had saved five people.
The kits cost $60 (£36) each and include two syringes and two inhalers of naloxone. They have a shelf-life of two years.
The state was releasing about $1.2m from its civil and criminal asset forfeitures to pay for New York City's kits. They will be carried by patrol, transit and housing officers.
"By providing NYPD police officers with naloxone, we are making this stunningly effective overdose antidote available in every corner of the five boroughs," Mr Schneiderman said in a statement. "This program will literally save lives."
The attorney general said the kits had saved 563 lives last year in New York's Suffolk County.

Obama may soon approve training and equipping some moderate Syrian rebels

In an open move that would significantly boost U.S. support to Syrian rebels seeking military help in their quest to oust President Bashar Assad, the White House may soon sign off on a project to train and equip moderate forces.
President Barack Obama is weighing sending a limited number of American troops to Jordan to be part of a regional training mission that would instruct carefully vetted members of the Free Syrian Army on tactics, including counterterrorism operations, administration officials said. They said that Obama has not yet given final approval for the initiative and that there is still internal discussion about its merits and potential risks.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss administration deliberations by name.
In a speech at the U.S. Military Academy on Wednesday, Obama was expected to frame the situation in Syria as a counterterrorism challenge and indicate that he will expand assistance to the opposition, although he was not expected to announce the new program, the officials said.
However, the State Department, Pentagon and U.S. intelligence community, along with many in Congress who back the move, have concluded that Assad will not budge without a change in the military situation on the ground, according to the officials. At the same time, there are growing fears about the threat posed by al-Qaida-linked and inspired extremists among the rebels fighting in Syria, the officials said.

Edward Snowden Says The U.S. Stranded Him In Russia

Edward Snowden said he is "surprised" he ended up in Russia after leaking documents detailing the NSA's surveillance programs last year.
During an exclusive interview with NBC News' Brian Williams that will air Wednesday night, Snowden blamed his time in Russia on the State Department, saying he was stranded.
"The reality is I never intended to end up in Russia," Snowden said. "I had a flight booked to Cuba onwards to Latin America and I was stopped because the United States government decided to revoke my passport and trap me in Moscow Airport."
"So when people ask why are you in Russia, I say, 'Please ask the State Department,'" Snowden continued.
Asked about Snowden's comments on Wednesday morning, Secretary of State John Kerry said the infamous whistleblower needed to "man up" and return to the United States.
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