Gazette 071814

Friday July 18th 2014

Afghan security forces thwart attack on Kabul airport, officials say

Afghan security forces thwarted an attack on Kabul's airport Thursday morning, killing six Taliban militants in the process, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. 
Sediq Sediqqi told told the Wall Street Journal that the attackers had stormed a five-story building under construction on the northern side of Kabul International Airport after setting off a car bomb, and had used it as a base to fire at the airport and at allied jets flying overhead. Sediqqi added that Afghan soldiers were quick to surround the building and had cleared the area by mid-morning. 

The airport is home to the operational headquarters of the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan. The coalition told The Journal no military casualties had been reported.  
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in a call to The Associated Press. 
The attack forced the cancelation of several international flights, while other flights en route to the airport were diverted to other Afghan cities. The airport was later reopened and operations returned to normal after security forces inspected the runways for shrapnel and explosives.
Afghan Army Gen. Afzal Aman said several rockets hit the airport but no planes had been damaged. Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai told The Journal that one policeman had been injured.

MH17 crash: Ukraine rebels 'to allow access to site'

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine are to give international investigators access to the crash site of a Malaysia Airlines jet.

The rebels vowed to secure the site and allow the recovery of bodies, the Organization for the Security and Co-operation in Europe said.
The plane, carrying 298 people, crashed in rebel-held territory on Thursday.
The two sides in Ukraine's civil conflict have accused each other of shooting the jet down with a missile.
The Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. It fell between Krasni Luch in Luhansk region and Shakhtarsk in the neighbouring region of Donetsk.
Latest figures released by Malaysia Airlines show the plane was carrying at least 189 Dutch nationals, 27 Australians, 44 Malaysians (including 15 crew), 12 Indonesians and nine Britons. Related:

Malaysia Airlines crash: Ukraine, Russia point fingers after missile downs plane

Russian President Putin Calls For Ceasefire In Ukraine

Ukraine conflict: Luhansk loses electricity and water

Netanyahu orders Israeli military to prepare for 'significant expansion' of Gaza ground offensive

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military Friday to prepare for a "significant expansion" of its ground operation against Gaza militants.
Netanyahu said the military's primary goal would be to destroy underground tunnels used by Hamas to attack the Jewish State. The announcement came hours after Israeli ground troops and tanks struck more than 100 terror targets in Israel's first major ground offensive in Gaza in just over five years.

The offensive follows an Egyptian effort earlier this week to halt hostilities. Israel accepted the terms, but Hamas refused, demanding that Israel and Egypt first give guarantees to ease the blockade on Gaza.
“Since there is no way to deal with the tunnels only from the air, our soldiers are doing it now from the ground," Netanyahu said at the opening of an emergency cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, the Jerusalem Post reported. “We decided to launch the action after we tried all the other ways, and with an understanding that without this operation the price we will have to pay later would be much higher."
Tanks, infantry and engineering forces were operating inside the coastal strip. In a statement, the military said it targeted rocket launchers, tunnels and more than 100 other targets. Throughout the night, the thud of tank shells echoed across Gaza, often just a few seconds apart. Several explosions from Israeli missile strikes shook high-rise buildings in central Gaza City. Pillars of smoke could be seen from the Israeli side of the border.
At Gaza's main Shifa Hospital, casualties quickly began arriving, including several members of the same family wounded by shrapnel from tank shells. Among those hurt were a toddler and a boy of elementary school age, their bodies pocked by small bloody wounds.
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in the early stage of the ground operation, including three teenage siblings and a 3-month-old boy who died after a shell hit his family's Bedouin tent in southern Gaza, The Associated Press reported, citing Gaza health officials.
Related:
Israel ready to widen Gaza ground offensive - PM

IDF unearths 8 Gaza tunnels believed used to smuggle weapons

Reports: 100 troops, workers killed when jihadis seized Syria gas field

BEIRUT –  Activists say some 100 soldiers, guards and employees were killed when jihadis seized a gas field in central Syria on Thursday.
An activist in the central province of Homs, who goes by the name Beibares Tellawi, said Friday that militants from the Islamic State group attacked army checkpoints and seized the Shaer gas field in the desert region of Palmyra the day before.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 115 people were killed. The Syrian government has not commented and an official in Homs said he had no information on the incident.
The Observatory and Tellawi said the field fell to the militants Thursday night after a day of clashes.
The Islamic State group has already captured much of the oil-rich eastern province of Deir el-Zour.

Presidential Candidate Prabowo Subianto Alleges Massive Fraud In Indonesia Vote

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto alleged Friday there had "been quite massive incidences" of fraud in general elections, which he said might prevent him from winning the most divisive polls in the fragile democracy's history.
The Suharto-era general has been claiming to be ahead in the vote count, whose official results will be announced next week.
But in an interview with The Associated Press, Subianto for the first time suggested he might lose to his challenger, former Jakarta governor Joko Widodo, due to voting fraud.
"Half of the Indonesian people support me," he said. "In my conviction, is it more than half, if there is no cheating."
Several reputable organizations have carried out "quick count" of a sample of the votes that show Widodo with a small but decisive lead. The quick counts have accurately forecast past regional and national elections in Indonesia, and independent analysts say there is no reason to think otherwise this time.
Subianto's insistence that he was on course for victory, and his allegations of fraud, have led to speculation in some quarters that the superrich candidate might be trying to himself fix the results or will refuse to concede. That would put pressure on the country's democratic institutions and could possibly lead to violence.
The 63-year-old said he may well challenge the result in the Constitutional Court because of the alleged vote fraud. The court, whose past chief justice is serving a life sentence for accepting a bribe to rule in favor of a plaintiff in a regional election dispute, has two weeks to rule.

Australia votes to repeal carbon tax

Australia's Senate has voted to repeal the carbon tax, a levy on the biggest polluters passed by the previous Labor government.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose Liberal-National coalition beat Labor in an election last year, had made the repeal a central aim of his government.
Politicians have been locked in a fierce row about the tax for years.
Labor says it helps to combat climate change, but the Liberals claim it penalises legitimate businesses.
The Australian Senate voted by 39 to 32 votes to repeal the tax.
Introduced in July 2012, it charges the 348 highest polluters A$23 (£13; $22.60) for every tonne of greenhouse gases they produce.
'Bereft of policy' Australia is the developed world's worst polluter per head of population. But critics, including Mr Abbott, said that the tax cost jobs and forced energy prices up.
There were widespread protests against the introduction of the tax in Australia and its repeal formed a major part of Mr Abbot's election manifesto. 

Bulgaria identifies airport bus bomber as Lebanese-French national 

Mohamad Hassan El Husseini was born in Lebanon in 1989, had Lebanese and French citizenship and had two Lebanese accomplices, who remain at large.
The man who blew up a bus in a Bulgarian Black Sea resort two years ago, killing five Israeli tourists as well as himself, has been identified as a dual Lebanese-French citizen, Bulgarian authorities said on Friday.

Sofia earlier blamed Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah for the attack in the Burgas airport carport. The European Union subsequently put Hezbollah's armed wing on its terrorism blacklist. Hezbollah denies any involvement.

Bulgarian media had reported in April that the bomber was of Algerian heritage and had trained in camps in Hezbollah-dominated South Lebanon.

The Israeli tourists had arrived on a charter flight and were in the bus in the airport car park when the blast tore through the vehicle, also killing the Bulgarian driver and wounding more than 30 people.

"The identity of the perpetrator of the bomb attack at Burgas airport is firmly established following DNA tests...," Bulgaria's security agency and prosecutors' office said in a joint statement.

"The perpetrator, who used a fake driving licence under the name Jacques Felipe Martin, (was) in reality Mohamad Hassan El Husseini."

He was born in Lebanon in 1989, had Lebanese and French citizenship and had two accomplices, also of Lebanese origin, who remain at large, the statement added.

"It is known that relatives of Husseini published praise of his death as a 'martyr' on social networks," it said.

Militants kill eight Pakistani paramilitary members

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Militants killed eight members of a government paramilitary force in a midnight attack on a security checkpoint in Pakistan's restive northwest, security officials said Friday.

The militants bombarded the checkpoint with rocket-propelled grenades, two senior military officials said, before overrunning and ransacking it. Local residents said the gunfire began around midnight and continued for at least two hours.

The attack, for which no militant group has so far claimed responsibility, comes amid a military offensive to push the Taliban out of North Waziristan, a remote northwestern region near the border with Afghanistan.

Nato has long urged the military to take action against Taliban safe havens in North Waziristan, where many groups had bases they used to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

North Waziristan was considered the key stronghold of the Taliban after other areas in Pakistan had been mostly cleared of militants.

But residents say most militants moved out before the Pakistani army announced its offensive last month, raising fears that they may now be beefing up their presence in other areas.

"The militants displaced from North Waziristan have returned to the Khyber agency and started attacks on security forces," said one security official.


At least 20 dead in Philippines after Typhoon Rammasun passes through 

At least 20 people have been killed and seven others injured in a typhoon that ripped through the Philippines, government officials said Wednesday.
Typhoon Rammasun, which made landfall early Tuesday, blasted the island nation with 105-mph winds and heavy rain, knocking down power lines and leading to the collapse of some bridges and buildings.

Officials have begun to survey the damage as the worst of the storm moved west off the coast of the country and toward China.
The storm is the first typhoon to touch down in the Philippines since Typhoon Haiyan, which was one of the most powerful storms ever recorded. It devastated the country in 2013, leaving thousands dead.
The fatalities from Rammasun, which included an 11-month-old baby and were mostly caused by falling trees and debris, were concentrated mainly in the Calabarzon region, just south of the nation’s capital.

Storms across China kill at least 18 people; six more missing in landslide

Heavy rains have killed at least 18 people in southern China and a state news agency says six more are missing after a landslide.
Southern China is also bracing for the arrival of Typhoon Rammasun, with wind gales expected to reach up to 150 km/h.
The government’s Xinhua News Agency said lightning strikes have killed six people in Jiangxi province. Three days of rains in neighbouring Hunan province triggered landslides that killed five people. Another seven deaths were reported in Guizhou province.
Also in Guizhou, a landslide buried a village near the city of Bijie, leaving six people missing.
Flooding also has hit the southwestern province of Yunnan and the southern region of Guangxi.
The rains reached the capital, Beijing, on Wednesday night and flooded some streets.
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US Border Patrol detaining fewer unaccompanied minors entering Texas

Agency's facilities in south Texas have been overwhelmed by rise in number of undocumented minors entering US alone

The US Border Patrol has detained fewer unaccompanied children entering South Texas illegally in the past 10 days, agency officials said Thursday.
In recent months, the Border Patrol's facilities in South Texas have been overwhelmed by a surge in the number of children entering the country without their parents. More than 57,000 children have been arrested since October, more than double the number compared to a year earlier.
The Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector Chief Kevin Oaks made the comment about declining child arrests following a media tour of a new processing facility for them in McAllen. The 55,000-square-foot converted warehouse is scheduled to open Friday and temporarily house as many as 1,000 children until they can be turned over to the Health and Human Services Department and sent to shelters.
"We arrested 80 juveniles yesterday, so within the last 10 days we've seen a decrease in the number of juveniles arrested," Oaks said. Later, Roel Rodriguez, the agent who will head the new processing facility, said that daily arrest tally was down from 200 to 300 unaccompanied children at the surge's height.

Three dead in 'violent' California bank heist

A violent police chase through three cities following a bank robbery in California left two gunmen and a female hostage dead, police have said.

Three armed robbers shot as many 14 police cars and took three hostages during the Wednesday ordeal.
Authorities later identified the deceased suspects as gang members.
The third suspect, 19-year-old Jaime Ramos, was taken into custody on charges of kidnapping, robbery and attempted murder.
Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones described the scene as "chaotic" and "fluid" on Wednesday.
"[It was] really one of the most dangerous, tense situations that a police officer could go through," he told reporters. "The gunfire on our officers was relentless."
Assault-style weapon Officers responded to reports of a robbery at a Bank of the West branch on Wednesday afternoon and saw three suspects take three hostages at gunpoint.

Republicans blast Obama for fundraising after jetliner crash in Ukraine

Republicans are assailing President Obama's decision to attend two fundraisers in New York City Thursday night after 295 people perished when a Malaysian passenger jet crashed in Ukraine after an apparent rocket attack and Israel launched a ground war in Gaza the same day.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus took to Twitter to launch a broadside against Obama for going through with the fundraisers benefiting House and Senate Democrats.

“With all that is going on, the last thing the President should be doing is fundraising right now. Now is a time for leadership,” Priebus tweeted.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was far harsher in his assessment.

Obama Speaks On Situation In Ukraine

President Barack Obama will deliver a statement Friday on the situation in Ukraine.
A Malaysian airliner was downed Thursday by what U.S. officials said they suspect was a sophisticated surface-to-air missile fired by Ukrainian separatists backed by Moscow, according to Reuters. All 298 people on board the passenger plane died.

Why did the IRS provide a trove of taxpayer information to the FBI?

Deputy Attorney General James Cole on Thursday testified before a House oversight panel about how the FBI ended up with a database from the Internal Revenue Service containing private taxpayer information for about 12,000 nonprofit advocacy groups.
The matter has helped fuel Republican suspicions that the Obama administration coordinated inter-agency efforts to quiet conservative organizations during the past two election cycles.
GOP lawmakers have persisted with that theory ever since the IRS inspector general issued a report in May 2013 that said the agency had targeted tax-exempt groups for extra scrutiny based on their names and policy positions. Since then, questions have arisen about former IRS official Lois Lerner communicating with the Justice Department, the FBI and the Federal Elections Commission.
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