Gazette 073114

Thursday July 31st 2014

Israel 'to destroy' Hamas Gaza tunnels - Netanyahu

Israel will not stop its operation in Gaza until the tunnels constructed by Hamas have been destroyed, PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said.

Speaking ahead of a cabinet meeting, he said Israel was determined to destroy the tunnels - used to attack troops and towns - "with or without a ceasefire".
Some 425,000 people in Gaza have been displaced by fighting, the UN says.
That is as much as 25% of the population of the territory.
Israel began Operation Protective Edge on 8 July. Since then 1,390 Palestinians have been killed, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Some 58 Israelis have been killed, of which 56 were soldiers and two civilians. A Thai worker in Israel has also died.
Earlier on Thursday Israel called up 16,000 reservists, fuelling speculation that the ground campaign would be widened.
But the Israeli army told the BBC that the new reservists would relieve a similar number who were standing down.
The army said a total of 59,000 reservists were deployed in Gaza.

US restocks Israel with ammunition as it condemns attack on United Nations school

Washington: The US has confirmed it has restocked Israel's supplies of ammunition, hours after issuing a strong condemnation of an attack on a United Nations school in Gaza.
The Israeli military requested additional ammunition to restock its dwindling supplies on July 20, the Pentagon said. The US Defence Department approved the sale just three days later.
"The United States is committed to the security of Israel and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defence capability," Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement on Wednesday. "This defence sale is consistent with those objectives."

Hezbollah Commander Killed In Iraq

BEIRUT (AP) — Officials say a commander with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was killed in Iraq.
The Lebanese officials, close to the Shiite Hezbollah, say Ibrahim Mohammed al-Haj was killed during the past week while on a "jihadi mission" without providing further details.
It is the first known Hezbollah death in Iraq since Sunni extremists captured large parts of the country north and west of Baghdad in June.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Iraqi officials have said that a handful of advisers from Hezbollah are offering front-line guidance to Iraqi Shiite militias fighting jihadi militants north of Baghdad.
Hezbollah fighters openly joined Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces last year in a decision that has fueled sectarian tensions in Lebanon.

Iraqi Shiite militia hangs 15 executed Sunnis on power poles in public square

Iraqi Shiite militia forces have executed 15 Sunni Muslims and hung them from electricity poles in a public square in the town of Baquba, north-east of Baghdad, police said. With Iraq sliding ever closer to all-out sectarian civil war, a car bomb exploded near restaurants and shops in the capital's Shiite district of Sadr City, killing 16 people, while another car bomb killed five in Baghdad's Ameen district, police said on Wednesday.
A police officer at the scene in Baquba, a mixed Sunni and Shiite town 65 kilometres from Baghdad, said he believed the gruesome display of the bodies was designed to warn Sunnis off supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, the  militant group that has seized swathes of land in an advance through northern Iraq. The group recently changed its name to Islamic State and declared a "caliphate".

A member of the Iraqi security forces after clashes against ISIL militants. Photo: Reuters

The victims, who had been kidnapped over the past week, were shot and then hung up by cables.
"The militia forces are preventing the medical crew from taking down the bodies," the police officer said. "They are following a new tactic of keeping bodies hanging for a longer time to deter the Sunni population from backing the Islamic State. We asked them to let us evacuate the bodies but they refused."
Even before ISIL's dramatic advance, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government had alienated many in the Sunni minority with what they saw as authoritarian government biased towards Shiites, prompting some to find common cause with Sunni militants.
The US-funded and trained Iraqi army unravelled in the face of ISIL's sweep through the north, and violence in other parts of Iraq has increased since then, raising fears  the country will relapse into the dark days of sectarian civil war that peaked in 2006-2007.
Mr Maliki is currently ruling in a caretaker capacity, having won a parliamentary election in April but failing to win enough support from the Kurdish and Arab Sunni minorities, as well as fellow Shiites, to form a new government.
On the battlefield, Shiite militias have stepped in to challenge the Sunni insurgents after Iraq's top cleric called on his compatriots to take up arms against ISIL.
Mr Maliki promised in his weekly speech to the nation on Wednesday to end the threat from ISIL.

Six judges accused of leading role in Iranian crackdown on free speech

Human rights groups say judges, under influence of intelligence apparatus, spearheading crackdown on journalists and activists

Iran's crackdown on journalists and political activists is being spearheaded by a small group of judges under the influence of the country's intelligence and security apparatus, according to human rights organisations.
Four judges with Iran's revolutionary court and two appeal judges have led numerous court sessions that activists say did not conform to fair trial principles according to Iran's constitution, and are in breach of international treaties to which Tehran is a signatory.
The six judges are accused of losing their judicial impartiality and overseeing miscarriages of justice in trials in which scores of journalists, lawyers, political activists and members of Iran's ethnic and religious minorities have been condemned to lengthy prison terms, lashes and even execution.
Those accused are judges Abolghassem Salavati and Mohammad Moghiseh, former justices Yahya Pirabbasi and Hassan Zareh Dehnavi (known as judge Haddad), and appeal judges Hassan Babaee and Ahmad Zargar.
According to several former prisoners who spoke to the Guardian, and testimonies received by human rights groups, common violations by the judges include holding trials behind closed doors, lasting only a few minutes and without essential legal procedures, intimidating defendants, breaching judicial independence by acting as prosecutors themselves and depriving prisoners of access to lawyers.
"This group is among the most notorious judges in Iran," said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, an Iranian human rights activist in Norway. "They are known for their politicised verdicts, unfair trials [and] sentencing prisoners based on confessions made under duress."

Arrest warrants issued for Australians suspected of fighting in Syria

The Australian federal police issue warrants for two nationals after photos on Twitter showed one holding severed heads

Australia has issued arrest warrants for a pair of Australian citizens believed to be fighting in Syria, the ABC reported on Tuesday, after images emerged of one of them holding severed heads.
Australian federal police counter-terrorism chief Neil Gaughan told the ABC warrants had been issued for Australians Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar on terrorism offences.
A Twitter account linked to al-Qaida offshoot Islamic State last week published grisly pictures of the beheaded corpses and heads of five soldiers killed in Syria's Raqqa province, saying the soldiers were from Syria’s 17th division.
Sharrouf and Elomar travelled to Syria and Iraq late last year, the ABC reported, and late last week a Twitter account purported to belong to Sharrouf showed pictures of Elomar handling severed heads.
"As soon as they set foot on Australian soil they will be taken into custody," Gaughan said.
The Australian government has raised the alarm about the number of its citizens believed to be fighting alongside insurgents overseas, including an Australian suicide bomber who killed three people in Baghdad this month.
That has added to concern about radicalised fighters launching attacks when they return home, a threat the government has used to justify a package of new intelligence legislation.
The attorney general, George Brandis, told the ABC that concrete evidence had emerged to support those concerns.
"There is evidence that they are trained in terrorist tradecraft to perform acts of domestic terrorism in the event that they return either to their home countries or go elsewhere after they have been in theatre," Brandis told 7.30. "So that is a new and very alarming development."

'Dozens of bodies' at captured base in Benghazi, Libya

At least 35 bodies have been recovered from a Libyan military base that was overrun by Islamist-led militias, the Libyan Red Crescent says.

The special forces base in Benghazi was captured on Tuesday, after two days of intense fighting.
Libya has been gripped by a wave of violence involving the militias that spearheaded the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.
The new parliament is reportedly going to hold an emergency meeting this week.
The parliament, elected late last month, was due to have met in Benghazi on 4 August.
However it will now meet on Saturday in the city of Tobruk, some 200 km (125 miles) east of Benghazi, the AFP new agency reports.
Abu Badr Biira, an MP quoted by the agency, said the venue for the meeting had been changed "in light of the dangerous situation".
Many Western governments - including the UK, France, Germany and the US - have already asked their citizens to leave the country. Several have also evacuated their embassies.

Libya: Islamic extremist militias declare control of the eastern city of Benghazi

CAIRO –  Islamic hard-line militias are claiming to have taken control of Libya's second largest city, Benghazi, after defeating army units, taking over military barracks and seizing tanks, rockets and hundreds of boxes of ammunition.
A commander of one of the militias in the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries umbrella group told The Associated Press on Thursday, "We are the only force on the ground in Benghazi." He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

In a video put out by the umbrella group, Mohammed al-Zahawi, the head of the Ansar al-Shariah militia, congratulates his followers on "this victory and conquest."
The militias have been battling forces loyal to a renegade general, Khalifa Hifter, who had been waging a campaign to crush extremist militias.

Ukraine MH17: Forensic scientists reach jet crash site

International forensic scientists have reached the site of the flight MH17 crash in east Ukraine after the government halted military operations.

Australian and Dutch police experts arrived in a convoy of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitors.
Fighting between government and rebel forces had prevented them getting there for nearly a week.
Australia believes that around 80 bodies remain at the crash site.
Explosions were reportedly heard near the site after their arrival.
A journalist for AFP news agency heard several "powerful" blasts and saw a plume of smoke less than 10km (six miles) from the crash site.
Russian aviation experts are also in Ukraine, hoping to visit the site.
Related: Malaysia PM calls for cease-fire in area around MH17 crash site

Sierra Leone declares Ebola public health emergency

Sierra Leone's president has declared a public health emergency to curb the deadly Ebola outbreak.

Ernest Bai Koroma said the epicentres of the outbreak in the east would be quarantined and asked the security forces to enforce the measures.
The UN says 729 people in West Africa have died of Ebola since February - 233 of them in Sierra Leone.
This includes Dr Sheik Umar Khan who led Sierra Leone's fight against the virus. His funeral is on Thursday.
Ebola is spread through human contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.
Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure. 
Related: Europe, Asia on alert as Ebola fears spread

House Republicans vote to sue President Obama

The US House of Representatives has passed a resolution to sue President Barack Obama for allegedly exceeding his constitutional powers.

The 225-201 vote along party lines means House lawyers will now draft legal documents to launch a lawsuit.
Its supporters say Mr Obama exceeded his powers when he delayed an insurance deadline in his healthcare law.
The president himself has dismissed it as a waste of time. "Everyone sees this as a political stunt," he said.
"If they're not going to do anything, we'll do what we can on our own," the president added.
"And we've taken more than 40 actions aimed at helping hardworking families like yours. That's when we act - when your Congress won't."
The action is reportedly the first time either the House or Senate has brought legal action against a president over the legality of his powers, although members of Congress have sued the president before.
Republicans in Congress have complained that Mr Obama has exceeded his constitutional authority on numerous occasions, in order to bypass Congress by issuing executive orders.
They object, for instance, to his order unilaterally easing deportations of some young illegal immigrants, and the prison exchange that won the release of a US soldier held captive for five years by the Taliban.

House on collision course with Senate over border crisis bill

Congress once again is scrambling at the 11th hour to strike a compromise on urgent legislation as the House and Senate clash over how to address the border crisis. 
House Republicans have teed up a series of votes today on the matter, while the Senate is waiting and watching. The House and Senate have modified the White House's emergency $3.7 billion spending bill request in starkly different ways -- but leadership in neither chamber has shown any signs of giving in, with a five-week recess about to begin. 

At issue is not only the overall dollar amount -- the Senate bill, authored by Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, would authorize $2.7 billion while the House version calls for just a fraction of that, at $659 million -- but also the scope of the bill. While Mikulski insists on a "clean" supplemental with no policy riders, Republicans are holding firm that any border funding bill include changes to a 2008 law that would require the government to treat illegal immigrants apprehended at the border the same, regardless of country of origin. 
While the Senate remains in stasis, House Republicans are voting on their version of the supplemental Thursday. In addition to offering just a slice of the aid the administration sought -- along with the policy changes Democrats oppose -- another wrinkle is House Republicans' decision to exclude emergency funding to fight wildfires in the western states and assist Israel in shoring up its Iron Dome anti-missile system. 
While House leaders are confident they can round up the votes to pass their version -- which the White House has said it opposes -- it doesn't go far enough for some conservative members, who wanted to see a provision that would halt the administration's deferred action program, under which so-called "dreamers" (illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children) are a low priority for deportation.

Fed, on Target to End Bond Buying, Stresses Concerns on Jobs Market 

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve affirmed its commitment to stimulate the economy on Wednesday in a policy statement that said labor market conditions remained well below the level that most of the central bank’s officials consider healthy.

The Fed announced, as expected, that it would reduce its monthly bond purchases to $25 billion, but it gave little indication that recent signs of stronger growth had altered its determination to hold short-term interest rates near zero into 2015.

Instead, the Fed emphasized its concern about the millions of Americans who still cannot find jobs. “A range of labor market indicators suggests that there remains significant underutilization of labor resources” even as the unemployment rate is falling back toward normal levels, the Fed said in a statement released after a two-day meeting of its policy-making committee.

The emphasis on unemployment was particularly striking as it came just hours after the government reported stronger economic growth in the second quarter. The Fed’s statement acknowledged that growth had “rebounded,” but its tone was measured. It described the chances of faster growth as roughly balanced against the chances that the expansion would slow down.

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In campaign mode, Obama slams Republicans for 'hating all the time'

In a campaign-style speech in Kansas City, Mo., a loose and grinning Obama ribbed his political opponents as “mad all the time” and told them to “stop just hating all the time.”

The president at one point tried for dry understatement, but couldn’t deliver the lines without cracking himself up at the podium. “They haven’t been that helpful,” he said, laughing. “They have not been as constructive as I would have hoped.”
The talk was an extended version of a riff Obama has repeated in several recent speeches. As he tries to drum up Democratic enthusiasm ahead of the midterm elections, Obama is casting his opponents as almost misguided children.
They’re singularly focused on opposing him, rather than boosting the economy, he said. While he works to build infrastructure and improve health care, Republicans prepare to file a lawsuit accusing him of executive overreach, he added.

Marijuana advocate Marc Emery vows 'political revenge' against Tories

B.C. marijuana advocate Marc Emery vows to take political revenge on the Conservative government once he is finally released from U.S. custody and returns to Canada later next month.
Speaking with CBC Radio in his first interview since being transferred from a U.S. federal prison to a private deportation facility in Louisiana, Emery said he is frustrated but eager to get home and continue his campaigning work.
"My own government betrayed me and I'm going to wreak an appropriate amount of political revenge when I get home and campaign against the Conservative government," Emery said.
"The whole thing is nonsense. I should never have been turned over to the U.S. government," said the fervent Liberal supporter, already fired up for next year's general election.

• Marc Emery, B.C.'s 'prince of pot,' to return after 5 years in U.S. prison
• Marc Emery, the 'prince of pot,' may be a liability for the Liberals
• Background | Marc Emery gets 5 years in prison

Emery and his wife, Jodie, have already announced plans to hold rallies in 30 Canadian cities to try to unseat the Conservatives and stir up support for Trudeau.

"Hopefully we'll do a good job and get the young people to vote for Justin Trudeau's Liberals and get that legalization agenda enacted in Canada as soon as possible."

Trudeau has said that by legalizing pot, the government can tax and regulate it. However, the Liberals have so far been cool in their response to the couple's support for Trudeau.
In a brief statement to CBC News last month, Liberal spokesman Dave Sommer said the party “does not endorse the Emerys' plans in any way. They are not affiliated with the party and we haven’t had any hand in planning these events at all.”
The Conservatives, meanwhile, who oppose efforts to legalize marijuana, seem more than eager to exploit any possible connection between Emery and the Liberals.
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