Gazette 070714

Monday July 7th 2014

Israeli air strikes on Gaza kill nine Palestinian militants

Nine Palestinian militants have been killed in Israeli air raids on Gaza following rocket attacks on Israel.

Hamas said six members of its military wing died in a strike near Rafah, in the south. Three others died in separate air strikes in response to rocket and mortar fire on Israel.
Later, a rocket struck near the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Tensions in the region are high following the murder of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdair last week.
On Sunday, police said they had arrested six Jewish suspects in connection with the killing. Police told the BBC the 16-year-old was apparently "murdered because of his nationality". Details have not been divulged because the case is subject to a gagging order.
Mohammed Abu Khdair's killing followed the murder of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank, whose bodies were found a week ago.
Israel says two members of Hamas abducted and killed the youths, but it has denied any involvement.
Call for revenge Emergency services in Gaza confirmed only two deaths from the air strike in Rafah but four others are believed to be buried under the collapsed site. A seventh victim was reported killed in another attack.
Earlier, two other Palestinian militants were killed in a separate air attack near a refugee camp in central Gaza.
Related: IAF strikes Gaza underground rocket launchers as Eshkol region comes under heavy fire

Amid deadlock, Iraqi parliament postpones next session until Aug. 12

BAGHDAD –  Iraq's deadlocked parliament on Monday postponed its next session until mid-August, prolonging the country's political impasse despite urgent calls for a new government that can confront Sunni extremists who have overrun much of the country.
The new legislature held its first session since April elections last week, but failed to make any headway on selecting new a new prime minister, president and other leaders.

Lawmakers were expected to meet again Tuesday for a second session, but called off that meeting since no progress was made over the past week untangling the political situation.
The parliament said in a statement Monday that "after discussions with the heads of the blocs and concerned parties" that the next session will be held instead on Aug. 12. It expressed hope that "another chance will be available for more dialogue and discussions to arrange that meeting."
The main sticking point is the post of prime minister, which holds most of the power in Iraq.
Incumbent Nouri al-Maliki, whose State of Law bloc won the largest share of seat in April's election, has vowed he will not abandon his bid for a third consecutive term. But he didn't win a majority in parliament and so needs allies to form a government, setting the stage for what now appears to be protracted political negotiations.

Afghans await presidential election results amid fraud claims

Preliminary results due but many fear political crisis over disputed poll could destabilise country and spark violence

Afghans will finally get preliminary results from their presidential election on Monday – more than three weeks after they went to the polls – but the numbers may only deepen a crisis about who should take over from Hamid Karzai next month.
The figures from the 14 June runoff vote will put former World Bank technocrat Ashraf Ghani clearly in the lead, his supporters and opponents agree. The dispute that has paralysed the country since the euphoria of a relatively safe election day first dissipated centres on how he came by such a commanding victory.
Abdullah Abdullah, the former mujahideen doctor who faced off against Ghani, claims that 2m of the votes cast for his rival are fake. He has officially withdrawn from the vote-counting process, demanding stricter auditing of potentially suspicious votes.
Ghani's team says that he mobilised clerics, provided transport for would-be voters and persuaded many men from his own Pashtun ethnic group to break with conservative tradition and let their wives, sisters and daughters cast ballots for the first time.
Election authorities had already delayed announcing the winner to check results from nearly 2,000 polling stations for fraud, but both Abdullah and independent observers have called for stricter checks in more than a quarter of voting sites.
European Union election observers have suggested checks on all voting stations with 595 of 600 possible votes cast – at present only 599 out of the 600 votes issued to each station triggers an audit – and areas with unusual ratios of male and female voters.

Syrian troops advance in and around the country's largest city of Aleppo

BEIRUT –  Syrian troops advanced inside and near northern Aleppo on Monday in what appears to be an attempt to lay siege to rebel-held parts of the country's largest city, activist said Monday.
If successful, it would be the biggest blow to the opposition since they entered the northern city two years ago. Aleppo, once Syria's commercial center, has been carved up into rebel- and government-controlled areas since opposition fighters launched an offensive in the country's north in mid-2012.

The push also comes a month after extremist fighters of the Islamic State group seized territories straddling Syria and neighboring Iraq, mostly running across the Euphrates river where they have declared a self-styled caliphate. Most of the land was seized in June during a push across Iraq.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Monday that reinforcements, including members of the elite Republican Guards and allies from Lebanon's Hezbollah group, had recently arrived in the city.
Abdurrahman and an activist based near Aleppo that goes by the name of Abu al-Hassan said Monday's fighting concentrated near an army infantry base that rebels captured two years ago.
"The latest attack does not mean that Aleppo will fall. It is going to be a very difficult battle," said Abdurrahman, whose group has a network of activists around the country. He said the aim of government forces currently is to try capture Aleppo's northern district of Handarat to be able to further close in on rebels.
Syrian government forces last week seized a key industrial area, allowing them to choke off rebel-held parts of Aleppo.
Marea said government forces captured the village of Kafr al-Saghir and Moqbila, just north of Aleppo tightening the grip on the city's entrances.

Ukraine to lay siege to rebel-held regional centres

Ukraine is to blockade two major cities still in rebel hands as it continues its operation against pro-Russian separatists, a senior official says.

The government says its forces have retaken two more eastern towns, Artemivsk and Druzhkivka.
The official said they would now lay siege to the regional centres of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Government forces regained control of the key rebel strongholds of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk on Saturday.
Senior Ukrainian security official Mykhaylo Koval told Ukrainian television: "There is a clear strategic plan, which has been approved. The plan is focused on two major regional centres: Luhansk and Donetsk. These cities will be completely blockaded," he said.
"These measures will result in the separatists - let us call them bandits - being forced to lay down arms."

Fears of renewed insurgency as Ugandan military battles gunmen near border with Congo

KAMPALA, Uganda –  A Ugandan military official says more than 80 people have been arrested as the security forces chase gunmen who attacked police posts and military barracks in three western districts.
Lt. Ninsiima Rwemijuma, a Ugandan military spokesman, said Monday that at least 60 of the attackers have been killed and more than 80 suspects are in custody.

Men armed with guns and crude weapons killed at least a dozen civilians, police and soldiers on Saturday.
Although the attacks appeared coordinated, Uganda's military says there is still no evidence the government faces an insurgency in a region with a history of armed rebellion.
The military has described the attackers as a "tribal militia" motivated by rivalry with other ethnic groups in the mountainous region near Uganda's border with Congo

Gruesome attacks in Kenyan villages kill at least 29

 

Nairobi: At least 29 people have been killed in two attacks on Kenya's coast - with residents saying that many of the victims had their hands bound and their throats slit - in the latest in a string of gruesome assaults with ethnic undercurrents.
The violence has deeply unnerved this country at a time of increasing insecurity and rising political tensions. Nonetheless, Kenya's leading opposition politician, Raila Odinga, vowed on Sunday to press ahead with a large demonstration in downtown Nairobi on Monday.
The Kenyan government fears opposition supporters may try to occupy a public park, setting up what could be a bloody showdown with the police. Government officials said that such a sit-in would be illegal.
Many Kenyans are worried about the Monday rally, given the heightened insecurity and tightening mood. Some families have already begun to flee ethnically mixed areas in Nairobi and surrounding towns after mysterious leaflets surfaced warning members of certain ethnic groups to leave.
In Kenya, it is hard to draw a line between politics and ethnicity. Most people back politicians from their own ethnic group, and political tensions often stir up ethnic ones. Many analysts say that Kenya has not been this ethnically polarised since a disastrous election in 2007 set off riots and clashes that killed more than 1000 people.
"Government, opposition must step back from the brink," read the lead editorial in the Sunday Nation, one of Kenya's biggest newspapers.
Thousands of police officers will be deployed throughout Nairobi for the protest, with orders to keep roads open and trade flowing. Even so, many businesses have advised employees and customers to stay away from downtown Nairobi, fearing that riots could break out.
At the same time, Kenya's security forces seem overwhelmed by the spate of killings along the coast that the government says is politically motivated.

63 abducted women, girls escape from Boko Haram

Kano, Nigeria (CNN) -- Sixty-three women and girls kidnapped by Boko Haram last month in Nigeria escaped from their captors and have returned to their burnt village, a security source and a local vigilante fighting the militant group said.

The hostages were seized from the Kummabza village in northern Borno state on June 18 after a four-day invasion of the village by Boko Haram insurgents. The militants killed 30 men and burned the entire village.

The group is still believed to be holding over 200 schoolgirls abducted April 14 from their hostels in the town of Chibok -- a case that drew international outrage and prompted a global campaign for their release.

Bukar Kyari, a local vigilante fighting Boko Haram in Maiduguri, said the female hostages escaped Friday while their captors left their camp to launch an attack against the military and police in nearby town of Damboa.

But soldiers overwhelmed the insurgents, forcing them to mobilize all their men and leave the abducted women in the camp, Kyari said.

"The women seized that rare opportunity to escape when they realized they were alone in the camp," Kyari said. "But we still have five women, including a nursing mother, missing."

News of the escape was slow to emerge due to trouble with telecommunications towers in the area destroyed by previous Boko Haram attacks.

Boko Haram has recently intensified abductions of women in northeastern Borno state where its five-year insurgency is largely concentrated.

When a group of women and girls abducted in November were later rescued from Boko Haram, some were pregnant or had children. Others had been forcibly converted to Islam and married off to their kidnappers.

Merkel in China: US spying allegations 'serious'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has voiced concern about an alleged US spy in German intelligence, in her first comments on the affair.

Speaking on a visit to China, Ms Merkel said that if the allegations about a double agent were true, it would constitute a serious breach of trust.
"It would be a clear contradiction of what I consider to be trusting co-operation" with the US, she said.
She was speaking at a news conference with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
It is the second day of her three-day visit, which is dominated by trade issues.
Last week a German employee of the country's foreign intelligence service (BND) was arrested.
The man is suspected of having handed over more than 200 documents over a two-year period in exchange for 25,000 euros (£20,000; $34,000).
"If the reports are correct, it would be a serious case," Ms Merkel said on Monday.
German Interior minister Thomas de Maiziere has asked the US for clarification.
German-US relations have been strained since it emerged that the US National Security Agency had been monitoring Ms Merkel's mobile phone calls.
The scale of NSA surveillance was revealed by US whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor who remains a fugitive in Russia.

Strong quake hits Mexico, Guatemala; 2 dead

MEXICO CITY: A magnitude 6.9 earthquake on the Pacific Coast jolted a wide area of southern Mexico and Central America on Monday. At least two people are reported dead and dozens of houses damaged in Guatemala.

The US Geological Survey said the quake hit at 6.23 am (7.23 am EDT; 11.23 GMT) on the Pacific Coast 1 mile (2 kilometers) north-northeast of Puerto Madero, near the Guatemala border. It initially calculated the magnitude at 7.1 but later lowered the figure to 6.9.

Firefighters spokesman Raul Hernandez said at least two people died in their homes from collapsed walls in the Guatemalan town of San Marcos near the Mexico border. Hernandez reported damage in at least 30 homes, as well as landslides and collapsed utility poles.

There were reports of power outages in Guatemala as well.

In the Mexican state of Chiapas, where the quake was centered, panicked people poured into the streets and the Red Cross said it was treating some frightened adults and children.

"I thought the house was going to collapse," said Claudia Gonzales, 32, who ran to the street in the town of Comitan with her 1-year-old daughter.

The quake was felt across a broad swath of southern Mexico and as far away as Mexico City, but officials had no immediate reports of damage.

The quake was centered 37 miles (60 kilometers) below the surface.

Soviet defector's trove of KGB secrets released

CAMBRIDGE, England –  The papers spent years hidden in a milk churn beneath a Russian dacha and read like an encyclopedia of Cold War espionage.
Original documents from one of the biggest intelligence leaks in history — a who's who of Soviet spying — were released Monday after being held in secret for two decades.

The files smuggled out of Russia in 1992 by senior KGB official Vasili Mitrokhin describe sabotage plots, booby-trapped weapons caches and armies of agents under cover in the West — the real-life inspiration for the fictional Soviet moles in "The Americans" TV series.
In reality, top-quality spies could be hard to get. The papers reveal that some were given Communist honors and pensions by a grateful USSR, but others proved loose-lipped, drunk or unreliable.
Intelligence historian Christopher Andrew said the vast dossier, released by the Churchill Archives Centre at Cambridge University, was considered "the most important single intelligence source ever" by British and American authorities.
Mitrokhin was a senior archivist at the KGB's foreign intelligence headquarters — and a secret dissident. For more than a decade he secretly took files home, copied them in longhand and then typed and collated them into volumes. He hid the papers at his country cottage, or dacha, some stuffed into a milk churn and buried.
After the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Mitrokhin traveled to a Baltic state — which one has never been confirmed — and took a sample of his files to the U.S. Embassy, only to be turned away. So he tried the British embassy, where a junior diplomat sat him down and asked, "Would you like a cup of tea?"
"That was the sentence that changed his life," said Andrew.
Smuggled out of Russia, Mitrokhin spent the rest of his life in Britain under a false name and police protection, dying in 2004 at 81.
The world did not learn of Mitrokhin until Andrew published a book based on his files in 1999. It caused a sensation by exposing the identities of KGB agents including 87-year-old Melita Norwood, the "great-granny spy," who had passed British atomic secrets to the Soviets for years.
Mitrokhin's files describe Norwood as a "loyal, trustworthy, disciplined agent" who was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour for her service.

US airport checks target electronics

American officials have ordered some overseas airports with direct flights to the US to intensify screening of electronic devices.

Transport officials said in a statement passengers could be asked to switch on devices, and equipment that does not power up would not be allowed on board.
An official told the BBC that London's Heathrow was among the airports.
The US announced new security measures last week, apparently in response to a terror threat, but gave no details.
Analysts say the changes appear to be in response to intelligence that Islamic militants in Syria and Yemen are developing bombs that could evade airport security.
American officials said earlier that there was a "credible" threat, but did not link the security changes to any specific intelligence.
 
Phones singled out
The US does not directly control security at overseas airports.
But airlines and airports are obliged to meet security standards set by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in order to carry on operating non-stop flights.
The TSA's statement for the first time gave details of enhanced screening of electronic equipment.
"During the security examination, officers may also ask that owners power up some devices, including cell phones," it said.
"Powerless devices will not be permitted on board the aircraft. The traveller may also undergo additional screening."
Reuters news agency reported that officials had singled out mobile phones made by Apple and Samsung for extra checks.
The UK, France and Germany have all said they would comply with the American demands.
But it is still not clear how many airports will be affected, or if passengers will be delayed.

Deportations on decline, despite $1M PR campaign to counter border surge

The Obama administration is launching a pricey public relations campaign to convince Central American children not to make the dangerous and illegal trek across the U.S. border -- but Washington's warning that those who cross will not get papers is belied by the reality on the ground. 
While administration officials stress that children crossing the border will not get "permisos" to stay, statistics suggest they won't get deported any time soon, either. 

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, in an interview on Sunday, struggled to answer questions on whether the tens of thousands of Central American children who recently have entered the U.S. illegally will be deported or allowed to stay. 
And the Los Angeles Times reports that deportations for illegal immigrant minors have dropped precipitously in recent years. 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, according to the report, show that the number of minors deported or turned back at ports of entry fell to 1,669 last year, from 8,143 in 2008. 
Fewer than 100 minors were deported from nonborder states last year, according to the report. 
Republicans say that recent Obama administration directives have fueled the latest surge, particularly a 2012 order allowing some illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to stay. But the Obama administration points to a 2008 Bush administration-era law that made it difficult to send back minors from Central America who cross the border unaccompanied. 
The Obama administration is now seeking additional authority to speed up such deportation proceedings, but until then is pursuing a multi-pronged PR campaign whose results remain to be seen. 
Announced last week, the $1 million media campaign will warn families in Central America that making the trek to the U.S.-Mexico border is not worth the risk. 
The so-called "Dangers Awareness Campaign" will employ hundreds of billboards and some 6,500 public service announcements for radio and television stations in the target countries.

Senate Democrats Attempt To Steer Attention Away From Obamacare

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan has her Republican opponent right where she wants him geographically — and, therefore, politically.

Thom Tillis is stuck at the state capitol trying to resolve a budget quarrel as speaker of the North Carolina House. It's a spot that helps Hagan emphasize Tillis' role leading a Republican-controlled state government that Democrats contend has gone overboard with conservative zeal by restricting access to abortion and the voting booth while cutting corporate taxes and slashing spending on schools.

If Tillis is worried by Hagan's portrayal, he doesn't show it. Drinking coffee this past week from a hand-grenade-shaped mug in his no-frills legislative office, he's got his own message in his campaign to take Hagan's Senate seat. "Obamacare," he said, "continues to be a big problem."

Similar themes are playing out in other crucial Senate races, as voters have four months to decide which party will control the chamber in the final two years of Barack Obama's presidency. For Republicans, it's all about tying Democrats to Obama — especially to a health care law that remains unpopular with many Americans. And for Democrats, the election is about just about anything else, especially if they can steer attention away from Washington and federal matters.

Navy to add Triton to unmanned aircraft fleet in Guam

The Navy has announced plans to bring the next generation of unmanned maritime surveillance aircraft to Guam, which is already home to the Air Force operated RQ-4 Global Hawk.

A pair of MQ-4C Tritons will arrive in Guam in mid- to late 2017 for initial operational tests and evaluation, according to program manager Capt. Jim Hoke.

Initial flight testing of the Triton was completed in March, which essentially cleared the aircraft to fly at “various altitudes, speeds and weights,” according to a statement from Northrop Grumman, which manufactured the drone.

The Triton is similar to the Global Hawk — both have a 130-foot wingspan — but features frame upgrades, de-icing mechanisms as well as 360-degree views at a radius of more than 2,000 nautical miles, all which make it better equipped to track ships at sea, Navy officials said. The Triton has the capability to fly 24-hour missions and monitor 2 million square miles of ocean at altitudes of more than 10 miles.

Navy officials declined to say where the unarmed drone fits into the Pacific picture, amid ongoing provocations from North Korea and territorial disputes involving China and U.S. allies like Japan and the Philippines.

The drones will work in concert with the manned Boeing P-8A Poseidon, the Navy’s submarine-detecting aircraft that operates in the region.

“This change is not related to a specific event or situation,” Navy Pacific Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Steven Curry wrote in a statement to Stars and Stripes. “This is part of the U.S. Navy’s long-range plan to maintain the most capable forces forward and supports the U.S. rebalance to the Asia-Pacific.”

The Triton was designed to take maritime surveillance a step further than the Global Hawk — mainstays of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — that are used in the Pacific to surveil Chinese military activities and potential North Korean nuclear tests. The Global Hawks are flying out of Misawa Air Base in northern Japan for the summer.

Obama To Move Toward Reducing Deportations Without Congress

The president plans administrative action by the end of the summer. Speaker John Boehner told Obama the House will not take a vote on immigration reform this year.

A clearly angry President Obama announced Monday that he plans to move forward with administrative action by the end of the summer on steps he can take without Congress, but within his existing authorities, to “fix as much of our broken immigration system as we can” because of Republican inaction on an immigration overhaul.

The announcement comes a week after Speaker John Boehner and Obama spoke before the PGA golf event where Boehner told him the House will not take a vote on immigration reform this year.
“Today I’m beginning a new effort to fix as much of the immigration system as I can on my own without Congress,” he said, later adding that “it’s very rare that you get labor, business, evangelicals, law enforcement all agreeing on what needs to be done.”
The most important expected policy shift is “administrative relief,” which activists have been calling for for all of 2014, a plan that would reset enforcement priorities and lessen record deportations. The president previously directed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief Jeh Johnson to look at its policies to make sure they are “humane.”
The announcement comes the same day the administration released a letter about its plans to deal with the flood of unaccompanied minors from Central America.
The plan seeks to “surge resources to our Southwest border to deter both adults and children from this dangerous journey, increase capacity for enforcement and removal proceedings, and quickly return unlawful migrants to their home countries,” the letter read in part.
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