Gazette 06-04-14

Wednesday June 4th 2014

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Gen Khalifa Haftar: Libya bomb targets home near Benghazi

A suicide bomb attack at the home of a rogue Libyan general - who has been leading an offensive against government-funded Islamist militia - has killed four people.

General Khalifa Haftar survived the blast, which happed at a farmhouse in the town of Abyar, about 60km (37 miles) east of Benghazi.
Several people were wounded.
Gen Haftar's forces have been waging a campaign against Islamist armed groups in Benghazi for almost three weeks.
The general, who was an army chief-of-staff under Col Muammar Gaddafi, accuses the government of supporting terrorism, which the authorities deny.
His actions have been backed by an array of groups, including military forces in the east as well as some members of the air force.
Meanwhile, a Swiss national working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been killed in Sirte.
Local media said the man was shot dead as he visited a Libyan Red Crescent building in the coastal town. The ICRC has since confirmed the death of one of its employees in Libya.

Car bombs strike Iraq city as attacks kill 17

BAGHDAD –  Back-to-back car bombs rocked the ethnically mixed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Wednesday, in the deadliest of a string of attacks across the country that left 17 people dead.
The first car bomb was parked in a lot near a police building in the city center, while the second one was parked nearby and targeted a commercial area, said Maj. Gen. Torhan Abdul-Rahman Youssef, the deputy police chief.

Youssef said a policeman and seven civilians were killed in the blasts, and that another nine people were wounded.
Kirkuk, about 180 miles north of Baghdad, is in an oil-rich region and is home to an ethnic mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen, all of whom have competing claims to city.
Earlier Wednesday, a parked car bomb ripped through a commercial area in northern Baghdad, killing four civilians and wounding 12, a police officer said. In Baghdad's western Mansour neighborhood, a bomb went off next to a passing police patrol, killing two civilians and wounding seven other people.

Ukraine Separatists Seize Government Bases, Several Killed

LUHANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine have taken two government bases in battles around Luhansk, seizing quantities of ammunition and explosives from a border guards post and taking another installation after National Guard forces ran out of ammunition.
The twin setbacks highlighted the ineffectiveness of Ukraine's poorly trained and cash-starved armed forces, which have struggled to uproot the mutiny that has engulfed the regions that form the nation's industrial heartland.
Officials said in a statement Wednesday that six militants were killed and three Ukrainian servicemen were injured in 10 hours of fighting overnight at the National Guard base.
Rebels seized a border guards base on the outskirts of Luhansk following a nearly two-day-long siege. An Associated Press reporter saw pro-Russian militia carrying crates of ammunition and explosives out of the base Wednesday and driving away in border guards' cars.
Alexei Toporov, spokesman for the Luhansk People's Republic defense ministry, said the guards were fleeing and the insurgents did not try to detain them.
"We released them and let them go home, we impeded nobody," he said. "They left their weapons, and this base is now coming under the control of the Luhansk People's Republic."
Ukraine's Border Guards Service said on Wednesday that the troops from that outpost had been evacuated to unspecified "safe locations."

Mers virus: Saudi Arabia raises death toll to 282

Saudi Arabia says 282 people are now confirmed to have been killed by the Mers virus, almost 100 more than initially thought.

The increase came after a national review of hospital data from the time the virus emerged in 2012.
The deputy health minister, who has been criticised for his handling of the crisis, was sacked on Monday.
Cases of the virus, for which there is no known cure, have been confirmed in almost a dozen other countries.
Saudi authorities said there had now been 688 confirmed Mers (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) infections in the kingdom. Before the revision the number of cases was believed to be 575.
Saudi health ministry spokesman Tariq Madani said that despite the revised figures, fewer people were now contracting the disease.
"Though the review showed confirmed cases that needed to be added, we are still witnessing a decline in the number of newly registered cases in the past few weeks" he said.
Deadly symptoms Of those infected, the country's health ministry said, 53 were still receiving treatment.
Saudi Arabia has registered the largest number of infections of Mers.
The virus is from the same family as the common cold, but can lead to kidney failure and pneumonia.

Russia’s Gazprom part of secretive natural gas group within UN European unit

The Russian natural gas company Gazprom, which supplies much of Europe’s gas imports, is at the center of a secretive cabal of mostly state-owned natural gas companies that has been operating for two decades under the aegis of the United Nations, according to a first-ever audit of the operation obtained by Fox News.

Even though it is a U.N. entity, the group, known simply as the Gas Centre, runs on a budget funded by its corporate members. Its supervisory Executive Board has never been approved by the U.N. agency of which it is nominally a part, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, or UNECE. The group’s priorities, and its detailed budget, likewise manage to stay below the U.N.’s supervisory radar.

According to the U.N., the Gas Centre’s mandate is purely technical, and related to issues of gas contract methodology, collection of statistical databases, and the promotion and facilitation of foreign investment in the industry.
But in fact its mandate, as gleaned from U.N. documents examined by Fox News, includes the creation and maintenance of a “dialogue” on such issues as “the restructuring and consolidation of the gas sector, facilitation of “the integration of natural gas industries in Europe through greater convergence and harmonization of norms and practices,” and “know-how on legal and regulatory matters [and] gas market liberalization.”

G7 presses Vladimir Putin to pursue peaceful end to Ukraine crisis

Western nations want Russian president to recognise country's newly elected leader and rein back armed separatists

Heads of the G7 leading industrial nations, chaired by David Cameron, on Wednesday called on Vladimir Putin to engage with Ukraine's incoming President Petro Poroshenko, but stopped short of triggering fresh sanctions against Russia at a curtailed two-day summit in Brussels. The group is keeping its options open, saying it is willing to escalate sanctions if Russia fails to engage in a peaceful resolution of the crisis.
The G7 leaders – many of whom are due to see the Russian president individually later this week about the D-day commemorations in Normandy – are likely to impress on Putin to meet Poroshenko to open a dialogue on the kind of federal structure Ukraine might develop, as well as future trade relations.
Cameron's spokeswoman said: "The Ukrainian elections last week had given a clear mandate, and we will work with the new Ukrainian president." She added there was no sign yet that Russia was using its influence to rein in the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Russia sought an emergency meeting of the UN security council this week to call for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and the introduction of humanitarian corridors for refugees from Ukraine into Russia.
The G7 statement described the Russian annexation of Crimea as illegal, stating: "We are united in condemning the Russian Federation's continuing violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine". It also condemned "the use of energy supplies as a means of political coercion" and called for energy security and the diversification of supplies to be "at the centre of our collective agenda".
Putin had been due to chair a full meeting of the G8 in Russia, but the remaining seven nations pulled out in protest at the annexation of Crimea. It is the first time Russia has been excluded from the forum in 17 years.
Putin will meet Cameron on Friday, as well as the German chancellor Angela Merkel, for meetings on the margins of the Normandy D-day commemorations. He will also meet President François Hollande in Paris the night before the celebrations, suggesting Putin is hardly being excluded from discussions with western leaders.

Iran's demand for reactor fuel emerges as sticking point in nuclear talks

The Islamic Republic has said it should be able to produce fuel for its Bushehr nuclear power plant, a demand that may put July deadline for a deal in jeopardy.

BRUSSELS/VIENNA - Iran has said it should be able to produce fuel for its Bushehr nuclear power plant, a demand that world powers are unlikely to agree to and which may put a July deadline for a deal to end its nuclear standoff with the West in jeopardy.
Diplomats from the major powers negotiating with Tehran said Iranian negotiators expressed the demand at the latest talks in May - identifying one reason little progress was made towards a nuclear deal that could end Tehran's economic isolation.
Iran's ability to produce enriched uranium goes to the heart of a decade-old dispute over its nuclear program as the fuel can be used both to power reactors and - if further processed - to make the core of a nuclear warhead.
"They expect to get capacity to fuel Bushehr and that's unrealistic," one diplomat from the 'P5+1' countries in talks with Iran - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - told Reuters.
"It gets you a very short breakout time," he said, referring to the time that would be needed to produce enough highly enriched uranium for one bomb.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Altaf Hussain held on suspicion of money laundering; protests rock Karachi
 
LONDON/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's self-exiled politician Altaf Hussain was on Tuesday arrested in London on suspicion of money-laundering. Altaf Hussain was on Tuesday arrested in London on suspicion of money-laundering.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader was being probed since 2012 and his residence had been raided twice since then. Police had seized $418,450 from MQM's headquarters in London in December 2012 and $384,974 from Hussain's home in Edgware the following year. London's metropolitan police said a 60-year-old man was arrested during an early morning raid on a house in northwest London, but declined to confirm his identity. "Officers are at present searching the address. Not prepared to discuss further at this stage,'' it said in a statement.

An MQM spokesman confirmed Hussain, who has controlled his party from London since 1992 when he fled Pakistan, had been taken into custody.

MQM leader Farooq Sattar had last week disclosed that Hussain's bank accounts in London were being frozen. Hussain is also facing probe in connection with the murder of MQM founding member Imran Farooq in London in 2010 and alleged telephonic hate speeches in Pakistan.

Beijing tense on Tiananmen massacre anniversary

Chinese security personnel have swamped Beijing's Tiananmen Square on the 25th anniversary of the Beijing massacre.

Foreign journalists were ushered away from the square and passers-by were searched and had their papers checked.
In recent weeks, the authorities have detained dozens of activists to ensure their silence on the anniversary.
The 1989 protesters wanted political reform, but the crackdown was ordered after hardliners won a power struggle within the ruling Communist Party.
The authorities classify the 1989 protests as counter-revolutionary riots and hold no memorial.
In Hong Kong, however, thousands have gathered in a central park to participate in a Tiananmen remembrance rally.
Activist groups in Taiwan also marked the anniversary by erecting a huge image of Tiananmen Square during the crackdown.

Northern Ireland man pleads guilty to running IRA firing range, plotting attack

BELFAST, Northern Ireland –  A Northern Ireland man has pleaded guilty to charges that he helped run an Irish Republican Army firearms training camp and plotted a possible attack on a prison governor.
A Belfast judge said Wednesday he would postpone sentencing 48-year-old Sean Kelly until the trial of three others. Like Kelly, the others were arrested in March 2012 in a County Tyrone forest near the IRA firing range. The three others continue to deny involvement.

Lawyers for Kelly said he would plead guilty to six of 10 charges against him, including possessing a rifle, ammunition and other firearms; involvement in weapons training; and gathering information for a potential gun attack on a prison governor at his home.
While most IRA members renounced violence in 2005, several small breakaway factions remain active.
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Russian fighter intercepted US Air Force plane

A Russian jet buzzed a US Air Force plane over international waters near Japan in April, US officials have said.

The incident on 23 April involved a Russian SU-27 Flanker fighter and a US intelligence-gathering RC-135U.
The SU-27 came within 100ft (30m) of the RC-135U while the US plane flew a routine mission in international airspace over the Sea of Okhotsk.
The incident came amid tension between the US and Russia over Russia's involvement in Ukraine.
"The SU-27 approached the RC-135 and crossed the nose of the US aircraft," Lt Col Myles Caggins III told the BBC.
The Russian aircraft manoeuvred aggressively and exposed its belly to the American pilots to demonstrate it was armed with air-to-air missiles, Defense News and CNN reported.
US and Russian defence officials are said to have later discussed the incident.
Earlier in April, another Russian fighter jet made repeated low-altitude passes over US Navy destroyer Donald Cook in the Black Sea.
On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama condemned Russian "aggression" in Ukraine .
"We will not accept Russia's occupation of Crimea or its violations of Ukraine's sovereignty," Mr Obama said in Warsaw.
He and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to meet in France on Friday during 70th anniversary commemorations of the D-Day landings in Normandy.


Administration bypassed intel community to pursue Bergdahl trade, shelved ransom plan
The Obama administration largely bypassed the intelligence community to green-light the risky swap of five Taliban leaders for American Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, officials tell Fox News, as new details emerge about concerns with the deal at the highest levels of President Obama's team. 
A military intelligence source also confirmed to Fox News that a second option -- involving the payment of a cash ransom for Bergdahl's freedom -- was pursued as late as December 2013. 

The source said the goal was to reach out to Pakistan leadership with direct ties to the Taliban, and float the possibility of trading cash, instead of prisoners, for Bergdahl. That option, though, was put "on hold" in December when it was made clear the administration intended to pursue a prisoner swap. 
Intelligence officials confirmed to Fox News that the Bergdahl prisoner swap was then on an accelerated track, and no formal assessment of the entire intelligence community was conducted. This made the opportunity to push back against the transfer extremely limited. 
Further, top officials including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta were firmly against the proposed transfer in 2012 after it was first floated.

90,000 Californians Voted For Birther Queen Orly Taitz As Attorney General

Birtherism is alive and, well, alive, in California.
Orly Taitz didn't come remotely close to advancing her bid for California attorney general in Tuesday's open primary, finishing second-to-last in a crowded field of seven candidates. Incumbent Kamala Harris (D) easily prevailed over the competition with 53 percent of the vote.
But the "Birther Queen" famous for challenging President Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as president did get about 3% of the vote, or 92,995 votes, to be exact.
Taitz similarly won 3 percent of the vote when she ran for the U.S. Senate in 2012, where she failed to advance in the state's primary against Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
A little over ninety thousand votes is minuscule in a populous state like California, where Harris garnered 1,584,800 votes alone during an off-year primary election. But the numbers are striking when compared to Tuesday's hotly contested Republican Senate primary in Mississippi, where Tea Party favorite Chris McDaniel and Sen. Thad Cochran appear to be heading toward a runoff.

Monica Lewinsky Is Giving Her First Interview In 10 Years...To National Geographic

Monica Lewinsky has granted another television interview, this time to the National Geographic Channel.
Lewinsky is sitting down for the National Geographic's special "The 90s: The Last Great Decade?" She will be one of 120 people featured in the three-part miniseries, which debuts July 6.
She has not done an interview on American television since 2003. After years of not speaking about her affair with Bill Clinton, Lewinsky re-entered the limelight last month with an essay in Vanity Fair. "It’s time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress," she wrote.
Lewinsky's first interview about her affair with Bill Clinton was, of course, with Barbara Walters in 1999. Their exchange remains the most-watched interview of all time. Walters, who retired last month, said last year that she would like to interview Lewinsky one more time.

Hillary Clinton Says She Has ‘Moved On’ From Lewinsky Scandal

Hillary Rodham Clinton, in an interview with People magazine released Wednesday, said she had “moved on” from the Monica Lewinsky scandal that dominated her husband’s second term as president.

In an interview timed to the publication of her memoir “Hard Choices,” Mrs. Clinton said she did not take time to read an essay by Ms. Lewinsky that Vanity Fair published last month about the Clinton affair and her life since then. “I think everybody needs to look to the future,” Mrs. Clinton said.

And asked about published reports that she called Ms. Lewinsky a “narcissistic loony toon” after the affair became public, Mrs. Clinton said, “I’m not going to comment on what did and didn’t happen.”

The brief comments are the first time Mrs. Clinton has publicly addressed questions about Ms. Lewinsky since the scandal was revived in recent months, partly by conservatives and partly by Ms. Lewinsky’s Vanity Fair article.

The People cover story, accompanied by photographs of Mrs. Clinton walking her dogs, is part of a media blitz for the June 10 publication of “Hard Choices.” On Monday, Mrs. Clinton will sit down with Diane Sawyer of ABC News for an interview, and she is also scheduled to make appearances on the other major broadcast networks as well as on CNN and Fox News.

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