Gazette 072114

Monday July 21st 2014

MH17 plane crash: Dutch experts examine bodies

Pro-Russian rebels have allowed Dutch investigators to examine bodies from the crashed Malaysia Airlines plane at a railway station in eastern Ukraine.

The three Dutch experts said the train might leave the town of Torez later.
All 298 people on board flight MH17 died when it crashed over the rebel-held area on 17 July. The US and other nations say there is growing evidence of Russian complicity in the crash.

Putin lashes out at criticism over plane crash as more bodies found

Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out against a chorus of international condemnation Monday over Moscow's role in training and arming the rebels believed to have shot down a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane Thursday, killing all 298 on board. 
Putin said Russia was doing everything possible to allow a team of experts from the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. agency, to investigate the scene. He also again criticized the Ukraine authorities in Kiev for reigniting the fighting with the pro-Russian rebels who control the crash site.

"We can say with confidence that if fighting in eastern Ukraine had not been renewed on June 28, this tragedy would not have happened," Putin said. "Nobody should or does have a right to use this tragedy for such mercenary objectives."
That statement came in the wake of comments by the United States on Sunday, presenting what it called "powerful" evidence that the rebels shot down the plane with a Russian surface-to-air missile.
"Russia is supporting these separatists. Russia is arming these separatists. Russia is training these separatists," Secretary of State John Kerry said on CNN's `State of the Union.'
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Australia also spoke to Putin by phone late Sunday. European foreign ministers are also meeting in Brussels Tuesday to consider further sanctions on Russia.

Mideast Conflict: Palestinian Death Toll In Gaza Fighting Tops 500

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The death toll among Palestinians from the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip reached 508 on Monday, Gaza health officials said as the two sides counted their dead following the bloodiest day of fighting so far in the two-week campaign. Diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire intensified amid the mounting carnage.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council expressed "serious concern" about Gaza's rising civilian death toll and demanded an immediate end to the fighting following an emergency session.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon pressed ahead with his push for a truce in a trip to the region, and was expected in Cairo later Monday. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was also heading back this week to bolster regional efforts to reach a cease-fire.

As Israeli airstrikes continued to pound Gaza on Monday, rescue workers near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis were digging out bodies from a home flattened in one of the strikes overnight, said Ashraf al-Kidra, a Gaza health ministry official.
Related: 2 American-born Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza fighting

Egyptian troops killed at checkpoint

Gunmen have killed at least 20 soldiers in an attack on a checkpoint in western Egypt, security officials say.

The attackers used grenade launchers and machine guns when they attacked the desert post some 480km (300 miles) south-west of Cairo, officials said.
It is not yet clear who carried out the assault.
Militants have intensified a campaign against the security forces since the Islamist President Mohammed Morsi was ousted from power just over a year ago.
The attack took place on the Farafra-Cairo highway in Wadi al-Jadid governorate, security officials said.
Three of the gunmen were also killed, state-run news agency Mena reported.
The country's presidency has declared three days of mourning, saying: "Terrorism will be uprooted from every part of Egypt."
'Significant victory' The area borders Sudan and Libya. Some reports suggested that the attackers could have been smuggling weapons from Libya into Egypt.
The BBC's Suzanne Kianpour in Cairo says the Egyptian army has been struggling to keep Islamist insurgents at bay.
This checkpoint attack marks a significant victory for the militants in a campaign that has already claimed the lives of dozens of policemen and soldiers, our correspondent adds.

Iraq Attacks Kill At Least 16 As Authorities Struggle To Stop Sunni Militants' Offensive

BAGHDAD (AP) — Attacks overnight in two Iraqi cities killed at least 16 people, officials said Monday as authorities struggle to stop the Sunni militants' offensive that has left huge areas in northern and western Iraq outside of government control.

In one of the attacks, mortar rounds rained down on Shiite neighborhoods in the town of Mahmoudiya on Sunday night, killing 11 civilians and wounding 31, a police official said. The mixed Shiite-Sunni town is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad.

And in Baghdad's western suburb of Abu Ghraib, a roadside bomb struck an army patrol, killing two soldiers and three volunteers who took up arms following the Sunni militant push across Iraq in recent weeks. Eighth people were wounded in that attack, said the police official.

Two medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to media.

Australia teenager behind Iraq blast

Australia says a man who killed himself and several other people in a suicide attack in Iraq last week was an 18-year-old from Melbourne.

The attack took place in a market near a Baghdad mosque on Thursday.
The man detonated explosives in a suicide vest, killing at least three other people and injuring dozens more.
The Islamic State (Isis) militant group, in an affiliated Twitter feed, said it was behind the attack and named the man as Abu Bakr al-Australi.
Australia's Attorney-General George Brandis, in a statement, said the news was a "disturbing development".
"The government deplores the violent actions being undertaken by ISIL (Isis) and other extremist groups in Iraq and Syria, and is deeply concerned about the involvement of Australians in these activities."
The involvement of Australians posed "a significant domestic security threat to Australia when those involved return home and seek to pursue violence here".
The man was the second Australian suicide bomber in the Iraq and Syria conflicts, the statement added.
Late last week, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the government was working hard to stop young Australians becoming radicalised.
"We're doing all we can to prevent people going overseas as foreign fighters," the Australian Broadcasting Corporation quoted her as saying.

Iran completes process of eliminating enriched uranium

Iran has turned all of its enriched uranium closest to the level needed to make nuclear arms into more harmless forms, the UN nuclear agency says.

The conversion of its stock of 20%-enriched uranium was part of a deal to curb Iran's nuclear programme.
The US said last week it would unblock $2.8bn in frozen Iranian funds in return for Iran's compliance.
A four-month extension to talks on Iran's nuclear ambitions was agreed on Friday between Iran and world powers.
The talks are aimed at persuading Iran to limit its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
The six world powers involved in the talks - the US, France, China, Russia, Germany and the UK - suspect Iran seeks atomic weapons, which Iran denies.
The country insists that it is enriching uranium for use in nuclear power stations and for medical purposes.

Afghan official: Suicide bomber targets police convoy, killing 2 people in southern province

KABUL, Afghanistan –  An Afghan official says a suicide bomber has targeted a police convoy in the southern province of Helmand, killing two people, a policeman and a civilian.
Omar Zwak, the spokesman for the provincial governor, says the attack took place on Monday morning in Lashkar Gah, the province's capital.

Zwak also says the explosion wounded 15 people — eight policemen and seven civilians. He says the police convoy was en route to the district of Sangin for an operation there.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which comes amid a Taliban spring offensive that is seeking to undermine the Western-backed government in Kabul.

Libya Militias Resume Battle For Control Of Tripoli's International Airport

CAIRO (AP) — Clashes between rival Libyan militias fighting for control of the international airport in the capital, Tripoli, have killed 47 people over the past 24 hours, Libya's Health Ministry said.
The ministry said on its website late Sunday that the fighting also left 120 people wounded. It also said it had not yet received the full casualty report.
The weeklong battle over the airport is being waged by a powerful militia from the western city of Zintan, which controls the facility, and Islamist-led militias, including fighters from Misrata, east of Tripoli. The clashes resumed Sunday after cease-fire efforts failed.
Television footage broadcast Sunday showed a mortar shell striking a Libyan Arab Airlines plane and a column of black smoke billowing from inside the airport, which has been closed since last Monday.
Libya is witnessing one of its worst spasms of violence since the ouster of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The rival militias, made up largely of former rebels, have forced a weeklong closure of gas stations and government offices.
In recent days, armed men have attacked vehicles carrying money from the Central Bank to local banks, forcing their closure. The Central Bank had said banks would reopen Sunday, but then remained closed as the fighting resumed.
Libyan government officials and activists have increasingly been targeted in the violence. Unknown gunmen kidnapped two lawmakers in the western suburbs of Tripoli on Sunday, a parliament statement said, and urged the government to intervene to free them.

Armed bandits demand north Indian villagers deliver 35 buckets of water daily during drought

LUCKNOW, India –  Police say armed bandits are threatening villagers with death unless they deliver 35 buckets of water each day in northern India.
So far, 28 villages have been taking turns to deliver what the bandits are calling a "water tax," but officer Suresh Kumar Singh in the city of Banda says persistent drought and poor supply lines have made the deliveries difficult.

The rugged Bundelkhand region on the southern border of Uttar Pradesh state has been starved for rain since 2007, with the yearly monsoon bringing only half the usual number of 52 rainy days each year.
Local charity worker Bagwat Prasad says the villagers, afraid of the bandits, began hauling water into the forests and mountain areas on Wednesday.
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Police ties to Ku Klux Klan shock Florida town of Fruitland Park

Report links two city officers with secret hate society
• Deputy chief resigns but denies KKK membership

Ann Hunnewell and her central Florida police officer husband knelt in the living room of a fellow officer's home, with pillow cases as makeshift hoods over their heads. A few words were spoken and they, along with a half-dozen others, were initiated into the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, she says.
Last week, that initiation ceremony, which took place five years ago, stunned residents of the small town of Fruitland Park, who found out an investigative report linked two city officers with the secret hate society that once was violently active in the area. Ann Hunnewell's ex-husband, George Hunnewell, was fired, and deputy chief David Borst resigned from the 13-member Fruitland Park Police Department. Borst has denied being a member.
James Elkins, a third officer who Ann Hunnewell says recruited her and her husband, resigned in 2010 after his Klan ties became public.
Violence against blacks permeated the area more than 60 years ago, when the place was more rural and the main industry was citrus. These days, the community of less than 5,000 residents about 50 miles northwest of Orlando has been infused by the thousands of wealthier, more cosmopolitan retirees in the area. Those who live in the bedroom community, which is less than 10% black, have reacted not only with shock, but disgust that officers could be involved with the Klan, the mayor said.
"Maybe I'm ignorant, but I didn't realise that they still met and organised and did that kind of thing," said Michele Lange, a church volunteer.
Mayor Chris Bell says he heard stories about a Klan rally that took place two years before he arrived, in the 1970s, but he has never seen anything firsthand. As recently as the 1960s, many in law enforcement in the South were members but "it's exceedingly unusual these days to find a police officer who is secretly a Klansman," said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups.

China 'spy ship' at US-led navy exercise off Hawaii

China says it has the right to send a surveillance ship to monitor a US-led naval exercise, after US media reported the vessel's presence off Hawaii over the weekend.

Navy ships had the right under international law to operate in "waters outside of other countries' territorial waters", the defence ministry said.
China is also taking part in the drill.
It has sent four ships with an estimated 1,000 sailors onboard to the Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) operation.
Twenty-two countries are taking part this year and it is the first time China has been included.
The US acknowledged that it was the first time that a participating country had also sent a vessel to monitor the exercise.
Captain Darryn James, chief spokesman of the US Pacific Fleet, told agencies that China had sent a similar ship to the last Rimpac exercise in 2012.
He added that the US had taken "all necessary precautions to protect our critical information".
Some US-based media outlets have questioned the presence of the ship.
The Wall Street Journal labelled it a "party crasher" that was "enjoying an intelligence buffet at the world's largest maritime gathering", while Bloomberg quoted an analyst as saying that it sent "a bad signal".
In December 2013 the US and China squared off over a near-collision of their ships in the South China Sea.
The US said its guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens was forced to take evasive action, while Chinese media reports suggested that the US had been harassing its new aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, as it underwent sea trials.

Obama administration was warned about VA scheduling following 2008 election

The Obama administration was told by technology officials in the Department of Veterans' Affairs that they were working on an overhaul of the department's system for scheduling patient appointments shortly after the president was first elected in 2008.
The Washington Times reported Sunday that the officials had briefed the Obama transition team on the need to reduce "excessive wait times through the development of a new system. The paper reported that the briefing papers noted that "application development" on the new system had been taking place since 2002. 

In testimony before a House panel this past Wednesday, Government Accountability Office Managing Director for Information Technology Joel Willemssen said that work on the VA's schedule replacement policy had actually begun in 2000 and had cost $127 million since 2005. 
The VA's scheduling system has been thrust into the spotlight in recent months by a scandal surrounding manipulation of patient wait times in order for VA hospital executives to claim unwarranted bonuses. Last week, acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson described the system as "outdated" in a congressional hearing, but had no update on the progress of creating a replacement. 
"VA has been trying — and failing — to replace its outpatient scheduling system since 2000, wasting nearly $130 million in the process," Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, told the paper. "Because VA acquisition officials have proven time and again they are simply too inept to guide the development of a new proprietary appointment-scheduling system in an expedient and cost-effective manner, department leaders need to look at adopting commercial technologies that are being used in the private sector."

Lindsey Graham Calls John Kerry 'Delusional,' Obama 'King Of Indecision'

Sen. Lindsey Graham expressed his qualms with the Obama administration's approach to foreign policy during a "Meet the Press" interview on Sunday, calling Secretary of State John Kerry's foreign policy analysis "delusional."
Kerry appeared on NBC Sunday morning to discuss the state of foreign affairs amid the escalating conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. He noted that the U.S. is "in the center leading and trying to make peace" in these conflict areas.
Graham snapped back during an interview following Kerry's appearance, criticizing the secretary of state's perception of the current state of foreign affairs.
“He gave the most ridiculous and delusional summary of American foreign policy I could imagine,” Graham told NBC.
"It scares me that he believes the world is in such good shape. America is the glue that holds the free world together. Leading from behind is not working. The world is adrift. And President Obama has become the king of indecision. His policies are failing across the globe, and they will come here soon."
Watch Graham's comments above.
Though Kerry noted that the president had imposed more sanctions on Russia the day before Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was believed to be shot down by Russian separatists last week, Graham called on Obama to impose sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, chastising Kerry and the Obama administration for not reacting strongly enough to the downed flight.
“He didn’t call Putin the thug that he is, he didn’t call for arming the Ukraine so they can defend themselves against rebel separatists supported by Russia,” Graham insisted. “All of the enemies of our nation are being well supplied, Russian and Iran are helping Syria.”
Graham said it's "indispensable" that the U.S. lead because the Europeans "never" will. Kerry expressed hope that the incident would serve as a "wake-up call" to some European nations.

US readies to transfer six Guantánamo Bay detainees to Uruguay, officials say

Pentagon notified Congress of intent to transfer group, including four Syrians, one Palestinian and one Tunisian

US officials said the Pentagon has notified Congress of its intent to transfer six Guantánamo Bay detainees to Uruguay.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica has opposed the way detainees are treated at Guantánamo and has said that he would take them in, but then they would be free to leave.
The officials, who spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity because it is the administration's policy not to publicly confirm such notifications, said the Pentagon alerted Congress of the plan last week. In practice, the actual transfer would not take place until at least 30 days after the congressional notification.
It would be the first transfer of Guantánamo Bay detainees since five former Taliban commanders were exchanged in May for Bowe Bergdahl, the army sergeant who had been held for five years by the Taliban. The release of the five for Bergdahl irritated Congress because it was not given the required 30-day notice.
There are currently 149 Guantánamo detainees.
The New York Times, which first reported the plan to release the six detainees, reported that the group includes four Syrians, one Palestinian and one Tunisian.
US and Uruguayan officials have spoken publicly in recent months about their negotiations over terms under which Uruguay would allow a number of Guantánamo Bay prisoners to resettle there. It is not clear what Uruguay would gain, beyond advancing the cause of eventually closing Guantánamo Bay.
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