Gazette 080714

Thursday August 7th 2014

Hamas official at rally says Gaza war not over until demands met

GAZA CITY, Gaza City –  A senior Hamas official told supporters at a Gaza City rally on Thursday that the war with Israel won't be over until the group's demands for a lifting of the Gaza blockade are met, insisting that its fighters would never give up their arms.
"Our fingers are on the trigger and our rockets are trained at Tel Aviv," the official, Mushir al-Masri said, as Egypt struggled to broker a lasting truce between Israel and Hamas, with an Egyptian official saying that Gaza-based militants were refusing to compromise.

Cairo is mediating indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on extending a 72-hour cease-fire that expires Friday morning. Hamas has demanded the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade imposed on the coastal territory after the Islamic militant group seized power in 2007.
Israel has said the militants must disarm first, which al-Masri insisted was out of the question.
"The war is not over yet. Our men are still in the field, manning forward positions, our fingers are on the trigger, and our rockets are trained on Tel Aviv, and Lod and beyond," he told several thousand supporters in the first mass rally since the fighting began on
July 8.
Related: Israel Gaza: Mediators seek to extend truce in Cairo

Israel, Hamas Dig In As Gaza Talks Continue

A senior Hamas official told supporters at a Gaza City rally on Thursday that the war with

Israel won't be over until the group's demands for a lifting of the Gaza blockade are met, insisting that its fighters would never give up their arms.

"Our fingers are on the trigger and our rockets are trained at Tel Aviv," the official, Mushir al-Masri said, as Egypt struggled to broker a lasting truce between Israel and Hamas, with an Egyptian official saying that Gaza-based militants were refusing to compromise.
Cairo is mediating indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on extending a 72-hour cease-fire that expires Friday morning. Hamas has demanded the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade imposed on the coastal territory after the Islamic militant group seized power in 2007.

Israel has said the militants must disarm first, which al-Masri insisted was out of the question.
"The war is not over yet. Our men are still in the field, manning forward positions, our fingers are on the trigger, and our rockets are trained on Tel Aviv, and Lod and beyond," he told several thousand supporters in the first mass rally since the fighting began on July 8.
"It is out of the question that the weapons of the resistance should be on the negotiating table. They have not been put on the table, and God willing, they will never be."
Related: Hamas warns residents of South: 'Don't return home, unless Israel meets our demands'

Iraq Christians flee as Islamic State takes Qaraqosh

Up to a quarter of Iraq's Christians are reported to be fleeing after Islamic militants seized the minority's biggest town in the country.

The Islamic State (IS) group captured Qaraqosh in Nineveh province overnight after the withdrawal of Kurdish forces.
Meanwhile, the UN says some of the 50,000 members of the Yazidi religious minority trapped by IS on Mount Sinjar have been rescued.
IS controls parts of Iraq and Syria and says it has created an Islamic state.
Nineveh, located 400km (250 miles) north-west of Baghdad, is home to a large number of religious minorities.
Tens of thousands have been forced to flee since IS, a Sunni Muslim group formerly known as Isis, launched their onslaught in the north in June.

A majority of Nineveh inhabitants left their homes overnight, according to Fraternite en Irak, an international Christian organisation based in Paris.
As many as 100,000 people are believed to be fleeing toward the autonomous Kurdistan Region.
Pope Francis has made an impassioned appeal to the international community to do much more to address the crisis.
A Vatican statement said the Pope appealed for "all necessary help" to be given to those forced to flee their homes, "whose fate depends entirely on the solidarity of others".
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has called for the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting over the situation.

Islamic State Militants Seize Iraq's Biggest Dam

Residents living near Iraq's largest dam say Sunni militants from the Islamic State group have overrun the complex.

The residents say the militants stormed the Mosul Dam complex in one hour on Thursday.
The dam, north of Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul, lies on the Tigris River, which runs through the capital, Baghdad.
The Islamic State group has fought local Kurdish peshmerga fighters for control of the dam for nearly one week.
At least three residents who live in the area spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, fearing for their own safety.
The government did not immediately comment on the developments.

Suicide attack kills 12 people in Baghdad, Iraqi officials say

BAGHDAD –  Iraqi officials say a suicide car bomber has rammed his explosives-laden car into a police checkpoint in Baghdad, killing at least 12 people.
The official said seven civilians were among the dead in Thursday's attack that took place in the predominantly Shiite northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah. He added that 25 other people were wounded.

A medical official confirmed the causality figure. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.
Since Islamic militants seized much of the country's north and west, there has been a campaign of bombings against Baghdad. A string of car bombs killed 51 Wednesday night.

Jordan 'refuses' Palestinians fleeing Syria conflict

Jordan is turning away Palestinian refugees from Syria in violation of international law, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch says.

It is said to have forcibly repatriated more than 100 asylum seekers, including women and children, since mid-2012.
Most of the Palestinians come from refugee camps or villages in Syria that have experienced heavy fighting.
It appears that Jordan fears an influx of Syrian Palestinians would cause instability.
There was no immediate comment on the report from Jordanian officials.
Jordan reportedly introduced its non-admission policy in January last year.
The 44-page HRW report, entitled "Not Welcome: Jordan's Treatment of Palestinians Escaping Syria," documents Jordan's alleged deportation of seven Palestinian men who were separated from their families, and evidence of the transfer of four others to Cyber City, a closed holding facility for Palestinian and Syrian refugees in northern Jordan.
It also describes how Jordan withdrew citizenship from Palestinians who had lived in Syria for years and who had been detained or deported without identity documents.
By contrast, HRW says, Jordan has accepted more than 600,000 Syrian nationals into the country since the Syria conflict began.
Human Rights Watch say in May 2013, Fayez Tarawneh, Jordan's former prime minister, defended the non-admittance policy, telling its representatives that a big influx of Palestinians from Syria would alter the demographic balance of the kingdom and cause instability.
At least half the population of Jordan is believed to be of Palestinian origin. 

Hagel: Growing Threat Of Russia Invading Ukraine

Russia's troop buildup on the Ukrainian border increases the threat of an invasion by President Vladimir Putin's army, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters at U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, Hagel said he agrees with Poland's foreign minister, who said Wednesday that the increase in Russian forces near Ukraine's border heightened the risk of an invasion.
"I think it's a reality, of course it is," said Hagel, who was in Stuttgart for meetings with his military leaders in Europe, including the top commander, Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove. "When you see the build-up of Russian troops and the sophistication of those troops, the training of those troops, the heavy military equipment that's being put along that border, of course it's a reality, it's a threat, it's a possibility - absolutely," Hagel said.

U.S. and NATO officials say there are now about 20,000 Russian troops massed just east of Ukraine's border. The U.S. also says Russia continues to train and equip separatists battling Ukraine's government.
Russia has repeatedly rejected Ukrainian and Western claims of a military buildup on the border.
"The longer that Russia perpetuates and instigates this tension and the possibility of escalating their activity, it's going to get worse. And we have to be prepared for that," Hagel said.
Among the scenarios that worry some in NATO is Putin potentially sending Russian troops into eastern Ukraine in the guise of a "peacekeeping" force. That concern has deepened as the Russian-supported separatists appear to lose the initiative against Ukrainian government forces.

Russia bans wide array of western food imports in response to sanctions

Dmitry Medvedev announces immediate import ban on meat, fish and dairy items from EU, US, Australia, Canada and Norway

Russia has banned fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, milk and dairy imports from the US, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway, Russia's prime minister told a government meeting on Thursday.
Dmitry Medvedev said the ban was effective immediately and would last for one year.
Russian officials were on Wednesday asked to come up with a list of western agricultural products and raw materials to be banned.
The agriculture minister, Nikolai Fyodorov, said on Thursday that greater quantities of Brazilian meat and New Zealand cheese would be imported to offset the newly prohibited items. He added Moscow was in talks with Belarus and Kazakhstan to prevent the banned western foodstuffs being exported to Russia from the two countries.
The Kremlin's move comes in response to the grounding of the budget airline subsidiary of Aeroflot as a result of EU sanctions over Moscow's support for rebels in Ukraine.
Medvedev also said officials were considering a ban on European airlines flying to Asia over Siberia.
Russia is Europe's second-largest market for food and drink and has been an important consumer of Polish pig meat and Dutch fruit and vegetables. Exports of food and raw materials to Russia were worth €12.2bn (£9.7bn) in 2013, following several years of double-digit growth.
The UK is less likely to lose out; in 2013, its biggest food and drink export was £17m of frozen fish, followed by £5.7m of cheese and £5.3m of coffee.
Food has already been caught up in political tensions between Russia and the west. In recent days Russian food safety authorities have banned the import of Polish fruit and vegetables, while McDonald's cheeseburgers and milkshakes are being investigated by a regional branch of consumer protection agency Rospotrebnadzor.
EU pork was banned at the start of the year as the Ukraine crisis escalated, cutting off 25% of all European pig meat exports in a move that the European commission said exposed European farmers to significant losses.
Related:Russia tensions with west over Ukraine hit Coca-Cola bottler and Adidas

Top Khmer Rouge leaders guilty of crimes against humanity

Two top Khmer Rouge leaders have been jailed for life after being convicted by Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal of crimes against humanity.

Nuon Chea, 88, served as leader Pol Pot's deputy and Khieu Samphan, 83, was the Maoist regime's head of state.
They are the first top-level leaders to be held accountable for its crimes.
Up to two million people are thought to have died under the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime - of starvation and overwork or executed as enemies of the state.
Judge Nil Nonn said the men were guilty of "extermination encompassing murder, political persecution, and other inhumane acts comprising forced transfer, enforced disappearances and attacks against human dignity''.
Lawyers for the pair said they would appeal against the ruling. "It is unjust for my client. He did not know or commit many of these crimes," Son Arun, a lawyer for Nuon Chea, told journalists.
They will remain in detention while this takes place.
'Anger remains' The regime sought to create an agrarian society: cities were emptied and their residents forced to work on rural co-operatives. Many were worked to death while others starved as the economy imploded.
During four violent years, the Khmer Rouge also killed all those it perceived as enemies - intellectuals, minorities, former officials - and their families.

Five Chinese workers hurt in PNG mine attack: Report

SYDNEY: Five Chinese workers were hurt after armed villagers stormed a nickel mine in Papua New Guinea, damaging equipment and forcing it to close, a report said on Thursday.

PNG police said they were investigating the attack after the staff were injured when the villagers charged into the Kurumbukari mine southwest of Madang on Monday morning, PNG's The National reported.

"Five Chinese employees got injured with one receiving 14 stitches," the newspaper quoted an unnamed Ramu company representative as saying.

Mining machinery was burnt and office equipment trashed, the report said, adding that Ramu NiCo president Wang Jicheng had visited the site to access the damage.

The Kurumbukari mine is part of the US$2.1 billion Chinese-run Ramu Nickel project, which produces 31,000 tonnes of nickel and 3,000 tonnes of cobalt annually on the northern coast of the Pacific nation.

The project's Basamuk refinery site was attacked by PNG mine workers in 2009, injuring five Chinese and three locals.

The Chinese government-owned Metallurgical Group Corporation, known as MCC, is the majority owner of the project. Local partner Highlands Pacific owns an 8.56 percent stake.

The National reported that while the company was looking into what sparked the attack, earlier investigations suggested illegal migrants to the area were unhappy with the firm's hiring policies.

The Ramu representative said his firm had been trying to encourage locals to undergo training, and was trying to recruit skilled workers from outside the region "to occupy the increasing skills gap requirement so the project production is increased".

"We will continue to establish a mutual understanding and relationship with the project landowners for their long-term benefit and that of the project shareholders," the representative said.

 John Kerry Makes Surprise Visit To Afghanistan To Meet Feuding Candidates


U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Afghanistan late Thursday on an unannounced visit to press the country's two feuding presidential candidates on the urgency of ending a bitter dispute over June elections and forming a new government by early September.

Kerry's visit comes as the election results are being audited in a process that he brokered last month. Senior officials traveling with Kerry said the U.S. wants to see the ultimate winner inaugurated — and a new "chief executive officer" chosen by the loser under the terms of a national unity government compromise — before the upcoming NATO summit in Wales Sept. 4.
At that summit, NATO leaders are hoping to make decisions about their nations' role in Afghanistan after the end of the year, when most combat troops will be withdrawn.

Kerry's arrival in Kabul follows Tuesday's killing of a U.S. general by an Afghan soldier at the national defense university, an incident that underscored the tensions that persist as the U.S. combat role winds down. The political uncertainty that Kerry is trying to address is another complicating factor in the transition.
Kerry planned to meet both candidates — former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai — on Thursday night and then meet with current Afghan President Hamid Karzai before he leaves Friday for an Asian security conference in Myanmar.
The audit of ballots from the June 14 presidential runoff resumed Monday after a holiday break and is still likely to take weeks to complete.
Preliminary results showed Ghani Ahmadzai well ahead of Abdullah, but both sides alleged fraud.
Faced with the prospect of the two sides clashing amid bitter disputes over the vote tallies, Kerry made an emergency visit to Kabul and persuaded the two sides to agree to a full audit of the ballots.

GOP Candidates Top Clinton in 2016 Arkansas Poll

A new Public Policy Polling survey shows five prospective Republican candidates leading

Hillary Clinton in a presidential matchup in Arkansas. It also shows that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is his native state’s favorite for the 2016 GOP nomination.

Huckabee joined New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul in mock matchups against Clinton. By varying degrees, they all led the prohibitive Democratic frontrunner -- should she choose to run. Huckabee held the largest edge, leading Clinton 55 percent-39 percent with only 7 percent undecided. Huckabee was the only Republican candidate to register over 50 percent support, however. Paul, Cruz and Bush led Clinton by three, four and five points, respectively. Christie fared the worst out of all five Republicans, edging Clinton by only one percentage point.

In terms of intra-party competition, potential 2016 Republican primary voters were asked to choose among those five along with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Huckabee received one-third of the support, although 45 percent of those surveyed believe he should not run. Cruz was the next most popular choice at 12 percent, followed by Bush with 10 percent; 11 percent had not yet decided and the rest of the field received support in the single digits.

Barack Obama hails 'new Africa emerging'

US President Barack Obama has hailed a new emerging Africa, on the last day of a summit in Washington DC with 40 African leaders.

Wednesday's talks covered security concerns and corruption - two areas the US administration says are holding back growth and investment in Africa.
US firms pledged $37bn (£33bn) in investment during the summit.
Closing the summit, Mr Obama said the leaders had held "genuine discussions" and pledged to hold another gathering.
"I'll strongly encourage my successor to carry on this work because Africans must know they will always have a strong partner in the United States of America," he said, describing the three-day summit as "an extraordinary event".
On Wednesday, the White House announced new aid to support African peacekeeping forces and new security co-operation. 

Russian strategic bombers conduct more than 16 incursions of US air defense zones

Russian strategic nuclear bombers conducted at least 16 incursions into northwestern U.S. air defense identification zones over the past 10 days, an unusually sharp increase in aerial penetrations, according to U.S. defense officials.
The numerous flight encounters by Tu-95 Russian Bear H bombers prompted the scrambling of U.S. jet fighters on several occasions, and come amid heightened U.S.-Russia tensions over Ukraine.

Also, during one bomber incursion near Alaska, a Russian intelligence-gathering jet was detected along with the bombers.
“Over the past week, NORAD has visually identified Russian aircraft operating in and around the U.S. air defense identification zones,” said Maj. Beth Smith, spokeswoman for U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
Smith called the Russian flights “a spike in activity” but sought to play down the threat, stating the flights were assessed as routine training missions and exercises.

Edward Snowden Gets Permission To Stay In Russia For 3 More Years: Lawyer

Former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden, who is wanted by the U.S. for leaking details about once-secret surveillance programs, has been granted permission to stay in Russia for three more years, his lawyer said Thursday.

Snowden last year was granted temporary asylum of one year in Russia, but that expired on Aug. 1.
His lawyer, Analtoly Kucherena, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying Snowden now has been granted residency for three more years, but that he had not been granted political asylum.

That status, which would allow him to stay in Russia permanently, must be decided by a separate procedure, Kucherena said, without specifying if Snowden is seeking it. He faces espionage charges in the U.S. that carry a sentence of up to 30 years, but Russia has no extradition treaty with Washington.
Snowden was stranded in a Moscow airport last year en route from Hong Kong to Cuba, shortly after he released extensive documentation about National Security Agency's surveillance programs. He reportedly spent a month in the airport before receiving the temporary asylum, but was seen only at one tightly restricted meeting with human rights representatives.
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