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| Thursday August 21st 2014 |
Gaza crisis: Israel kills three top Hamas commanders
An Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza has killed three senior Hamas military commanders, militants say.
Mohammed Abu Shamala, Mohammed Barhoum and Raed al-Attar died
in the attack near the southern town of Rafah, which Gaza officials
said killed at least 10.An Israeli was severely injured as rockets were fired into Israel on Thursday, the army said.
Hostilities between the two sides resumed after talks on a long-term ceasefire deal collapsed on Tuesday.
Israel has vowed to pursue its campaign until "full security" is achieved.
Six weeks of fierce fighting have left at least 2,138 people dead, according to officials. All but 67 of the dead are Palestinians, with most of them said to be civilians.
In other developments:
- The Israeli air force attacked and "hit" six Islamic Jihad activists reportedly poised to fire rockets at Israel from northern Gaza
- An Israeli air strike killed four Palestinians as they were burying relatives killed earlier at a graveyard in Gaza City, medics told AFP news agency
- At least six Palestinians, four of them children, were killed in Israeli attacks overnight in the northern town of Beit Lahiya and in Gaza City, AFP reports
Military Considering Sending Additional Troops To Iraq, Officials Say
American fighter jets and drones continued to pound Islamic State militants in Iraq Wednesday, and military planners weighed the possibility of sending a small number of additional U.S. troops to Baghdad, U.S. officials said, even as the insurgents threatened to kill a second American captive in retribution for any continued attacks.
The airstrikes came in the hours after militants released a gruesome video Tuesday showing U.S. journalist James Foley being beheaded and underscored President Barack Obama's vow Wednesday afternoon to continue attacks against the group despite its threats.According to a senior U.S. official, the number of additional troops currently under discussion would be fewer than 300, but there has been no final decision yet by Pentagon leaders. Officials said that the forces, if approved, would mainly provide extra security around Baghdad.
The militants threatened to kill Steven Sotloff, an American journalist who is also being held captive, if the U.S. continued to conduct airstrikes.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the ongoing operations publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was not clear Wednesday if Obama would have to adjust his recent notifications to Congress under the War Powers Act to accommodate the higher U.S. troop level in Iraq if more soldiers and Marines are deployed.
Currently there are about 748 U.S. forces in Iraq, in addition to the approximately 100 troops that have routinely been assigned to the Office of Security Cooperation in Baghdad. Under the current war powers resolutions sent to Congress, Obama authorized up to 775 U.S. troops for security assistance, assessment teams, and advisers at two joint operations centers in Baghdad and Irbil.
Related: Hundreds of Yazidi men and boys forced to convert to Islam
New US strikes in Iraq after IS Foley video
US aircraft have launched
fresh strikes against Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Iraq,
despite threats from the group to kill a second American captive in
retribution for continued attacks.
US Navy fighters and drones provided air cover to Kurdish and Iraqi forces battling IS near the city of Mosul.On Tuesday the group released a video showing the beheading of journalist James Foley, who went missing in 2012.
In it, the militants threatened to kill another US reporter they are holding.
But since the video was released, American forces have conducted 14 new strikes near the Mosul dam, a key facility recaptured from IS militants earlier this week.
The raids provided air cover as Kurdish and Iraqi forces pushed into the hills south-west of the site, Kurdish sources said. US officials said they had successfully eliminated vehicles and other targets belonging to IS.
The US has been carrying out strikes against IS - which has been seizing large parts of Syria and Iraq - since 8 August.
Islamic State militants seize four more foreign hostages in Syria
Jihadists flush with arms and relying on shock tactics abduct Europeans and Japanese national as US strikes continue
Flush with looted weapons, buoyed by sweeping gains in Syria
and eager to shock, Islamic State militants have seized four more
foreign hostages near Aleppo in recent days, taking to more than 20 the
number of foreigners they now hold.
The latest captives, two Italian women, a Dane and a Japanese national, were seized in or near Syria's largest city. All held are either reporters, photographers or aid workers taken near Aleppo or Idlib. They have been subsequently moved to Raqqa, the Isis stronghold in north Syria.
The abductions have controversially proved good business for Islamic radicals. In the past six months at least 10 hostages, including a Dane, three French nationals and two Spaniards, were freed after lengthy negotiations with captors, who demanded ransoms. Some organisations have insisted on information blackouts about nationals still being held.
One former hostage said the suspected killer who appeared in the recent video, apparently murdering the US journalist James Foley, was one of three Britons who had guarded him in Raqqa. He said the man had been responsible for negotiating hostage releases, dealing with families of captives via email.
Attention will now turn to the captives still in Isis hands. Steven Sotloff, a freelancer who had contributed to Time magazine and Foreign Policy, was kidnapped a year ago near the Syrian-Turkish border. According to the video of Foley's death, Sotloff's fate depends on whether the US continues its aerial campaign in north Iraq, which has driven Isis fighters back from the key Mosul dam.
There is no sign of a let-up in US air strikes despite the Isis threat. "We continue to conduct strikes in Iraq," said a Pentagon spokesman.
Though Islamic State (Isis) has been pummelled in Iraq in recent days, in Syria the group is not on the back foot. Using weapons seized from the fleeing Iraqi army, the extremists are back with a vengeance, seizing 12 villages to the north of Aleppo in the past week alone and once more menacing the city.
The fate of Aleppo will largely determine who prevails in Syria's devastating civil war and what remains of the country.
UK researchers confirm worrying increase in 'suicide tourism'
LONDON: The first recorded case of an Indian travelling to Switzerland for "suicide tourism" has now been confirmed.
In a first of its kind study, researchers in UK have confirmed tremendous spike in a worrying trend of suicide tourism.
The numbers of 'suicide tourists' going to Switzerland to take their own lives have doubled within four years with citizens from Germany and UK contributing to the largest per cent.
Those with neurological conditions, such as paralysis, motor neurone disease, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis, account for almost half of the cases.
While 123 people undertook suicide tourism in 2008, the number rose to 172 in 2012.
The data shows that nationals from 31 different countries were helped to die in Switzerland between 2008 and 2012, with German (268) and UK (126) nationals making up almost two thirds of the total.
Other countries in the top 10 include France (66), Italy (44), USA (21), Austria (14), Canada (12), Spain and Israel (each with 8).
The data base made public on Thursday morning shows one case from India as well in 2012.
The study by Oxford University looked at whether the availability of suicide tourism in Switzerland had prompted changes in the law on assisted suicide elsewhere.
While assisted suicide (AS) is strictly restricted in many countries including India, it is not clearly regulated by law in Switzerland. This imbalance leads to an influx of people — suicide tourists — coming to the Canton of Zurich with the sole purpose of committing suicide. Political debate regarding 'suicide tourism' is taking place in many countries. Swiss medico legal experts are confronted with these cases almost daily, which prompted our scientific investigation of the phenomenon, said the researchers.
Researchers therefore searched the databases of the Institute of Legal Medicine in Zurich for information on investigations and post mortem examinations among non-Swiss nationals who had been helped to take their own lives between 2008 and 2012.
There are six right to die organizations in Switzerland, of which four permit nationals from other countries to use their services.
Former cricket star Imran Khan and cleric Tahir ul-Qadri, who controls a network of Islamic schools and hospitals, have been leading protests in the capital, Islamabad, since last Friday.
About 2,000 demonstrators gathered on the main road outside parliament for a second day on Thursday, hours after talks on an end to the turmoil finally got going.
"Yes, talks are on," said Ahsan Iqbal, a prominent member of parliament from the ruling party. "We are progressing."
Shahid Mursaleen, a spokesman for Qadri, also said their leaders had met negotiators.
Both Khan and Qadri want Sharif to resign over allegations of corruption and election rigging. Sharif, who won the last election, in May last year, by a landslide, has refused.
The protests have raised concern about stability in the country of 180 million people, at a time when the government is battling a Taliban insurgency and NATO troops are withdrawing from neighboring Afghanistan.
The confrontation has also shone a spotlight on the central issue in Pakistani politics: competition for power between the military and civilian leaders.
Some ruling party officials have accused elements within the military of orchestrating the protests to weaken the civilian government. The military insists it does not meddle in politics.
Most analysts doubt the military wants to seize power in a coup, and be forced to take responsibility for the country's dire economy and other problems.
Related: Two killed in attack on Nato supply convoy in Pakistan
Subianto, a former general with close links to the country's former dictator Suharto, has alleged massive fraud in the July 9 polls and filed a complaint at the Constitutional Court, the country's highest.
Police and legal experts said the court is highly unlikely to rule in
Subianto's favor given the nature of evidence he has presented at the
court so far and the number of votes he would have to have overturned to
ensure victory. The verdict cannot be appealed.
Upholding the results would remove any lingering uncertainty over the victory of Jakarta governor Joko Widodo, leaving him free to prepare to take over government in the world's fourth most populous nation and a vital Southeast Asian economic hob. He is due to be inaugurated in October.
Subianto has vowed to challenge the results, but has struggled to attract much street support in the country of 240 million people.
Around 2,000 supporters rallied in Jakarta ahead of the verdict and tried to get close to the court, which is near the presidential palace. Police fired tear gas and water cannons as a smaller number of demonstrators tried to tear down barbed wire barricades blocking their way. There were no reports of serious injuries.
The election commission has declared Widodo the winner with 53 percent of the votes -- a margin of more than 8 million votes over Subianto.
Widodo, more widely known by his nickname Jokowi, was a political unknown until a few years ago. Unlike prior Indonesian leaders and Prabowo, he is from a humble background, something that contributed to his popularity at the polls.
Subianto leads a coalition of political parties that control a majority of seats in the parliament, meaning that Widodo might have trouble pushing his agenda.
Ukrainian troops have made significant advances into rebel-held territory this week in a conflict that has already claimed more than 2,000 lives and forced over 340,000 people to flee their homes. Ukraine celebrates Independence Day on Sunday and reports are rife that the government is aiming to achieve a breakthrough by that date.
Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security Council, told reporters Thursday that government troops were still fighting separatists in and around Ilovaysk, a town near the rebel-held city of Donetsk, even though he said Ilovaysk was under government control.
On Tuesday, Liberian authorities announced that all suspected Ebola patients who had fled a Monrovia clinic that came under attack were now back in treatment at another clinic. The attack was seen as a potential major setback for Liberia’s efforts to contain the virus.
As the Geneva-based World Health Organization rushed to ramp up the global response to the outbreak first detected in March, including emergency food deliveries to quarantined zones, it announced that deaths from it had risen to 1,299 as of Aug. 16, out of 2,240 cases. Between Aug. 14-16, Liberia recorded the most new deaths, 53, followed by Sierra Leone with 17, and Guinea with 14.
The epidemic of the hemorrhagic disease also has a toehold in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy.
Hillsides caved in or were swept down into residential areas in at least five valleys in the suburbs of the western Japanese city on Wednesday, crushing dozens of houses after heavy rains.
Hiroshima prefectural police said 39 people were confirmed dead and
51 others were missing as of midday Thursday. The Fire and Disaster
Management Agency said 23 people were injured, 13 seriously. A police
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with official
policy, said there was a possibility of some inaccuracies in the tally.
About 2,500 police and military personnel searched for the missing in the mud-covered areas.
Hiroshima city officials have faced criticism because their initial evacuation advisory came an hour after the first mudslide. Officials said their response was delayed because the land collapsed so quickly at multiple locations.
Landslides are a constant risk in mountainous, crowded Japan, where many homes are built on or near steep slopes. Torrential rains early Wednesday apparently caused slopes to collapse in areas where many of the buildings were newly constructed.
Hiroshima's geology, consisting of highly water-retentive soil, makes the city particularly prone to such disasters, experts say.
-
The associate attorney general said "no institution is either too big or too powerful to escape" punishment.
The settlement will cut the bank's third-quarter profits by $5.3bn.
Bank of America will pay a total of $9.65bn in cash and provide consumer relief worth about $7bn. The cash component consists of a $5bn civil penalty and $4.63 billion in compensation payments.
Tony West, the associate attorney general, explained: "It's kind of like going to your neighbourhood grocery store to buy milk advertised as fresh, only to discover that store employees knew the milk you were buying had been left out on the loading dock, unrefrigerated, the entire day before, yet they never told you.
"And just like you might be in for an unpleasant surprise when you got home and poured yourself that glass of milk, investors -- such as public pension funds and federally-insured financial institutions -- were unpleasantly met with billions of dollars in losses when those securities investments soured."
Brian Moynihan, chief executive of the bank, said: "We believe this settlement, which resolves significant remaining mortgage-related exposures, is in the best interests of our shareholders, and allows us to continue to focus on the future."
A
week into the racial unrest and riots in suburban St. Louis, Missouri’s
white, Democratic governor, under pressure from members of his party
for his response, veered sharply and called for the “vigorous
prosecution” of a white police officer who shot a black man on August 9.
After 10 days of muddled response, Jay Nixon appears to have chosen
exactly the wrong moment to be bold. Nixon’s press team claimed that
the governor was not prejudging an officer who may have acted in
self-defense, but when Nixon spoke in a scripted video message of the
need “to achieve justice” for the family of the slain man and described
the shooting as taking place in “broad daylight,” a term usually
reserved for crimes, his message wasn’t hard to decipher. After
protesters increasingly focused their ire on the Nixon first for neglect
and then his deployment of troops to the town of Ferguson, the
second-term governor seemed eager to curry favor with those calling for
the arrest of the officer in the case.
In a court proceeding Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson set an Oct. 1 deadline for producing the list to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The Justice Department says the documents should remain confidential
and President Barack Obama has invoked executive privilege in an effort
to protect them from public disclosure.
The House panel says the Justice Department documents might explain why the department took nearly a year to admit that federal agents had engaged in a controversial law enforcement tactic known as gun-walking.
The Justice Department has long prohibited the risky practice. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives used it with disastrous results in a federal law enforcement probe in Arizona, Operation Fast and Furious.
In the operation, federal agents permitted illicitly purchased weapons to be transported unimpeded in an effort to track them to high-level arms traffickers.
Federal agents lost control of some 2,000 weapons and many of them wound up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S. Two of the guns were found at the scene of the December 2010 slaying of border agent Brian Terry near the Arizona border city of Nogales.
After Wednesday's court proceeding, Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce said that "we are pleased the judge recognized that executive privilege includes a deliberative process beyond presidential communications" -- a point the department has been arguing in its dispute with Congress.
In court papers, the Justice Department has said that if the courts were to reject a confidentiality claim, Congress could have unfettered access to all information from the executive branch of government aside from presidential communications.
The latest captives, two Italian women, a Dane and a Japanese national, were seized in or near Syria's largest city. All held are either reporters, photographers or aid workers taken near Aleppo or Idlib. They have been subsequently moved to Raqqa, the Isis stronghold in north Syria.
The abductions have controversially proved good business for Islamic radicals. In the past six months at least 10 hostages, including a Dane, three French nationals and two Spaniards, were freed after lengthy negotiations with captors, who demanded ransoms. Some organisations have insisted on information blackouts about nationals still being held.
One former hostage said the suspected killer who appeared in the recent video, apparently murdering the US journalist James Foley, was one of three Britons who had guarded him in Raqqa. He said the man had been responsible for negotiating hostage releases, dealing with families of captives via email.
Attention will now turn to the captives still in Isis hands. Steven Sotloff, a freelancer who had contributed to Time magazine and Foreign Policy, was kidnapped a year ago near the Syrian-Turkish border. According to the video of Foley's death, Sotloff's fate depends on whether the US continues its aerial campaign in north Iraq, which has driven Isis fighters back from the key Mosul dam.
There is no sign of a let-up in US air strikes despite the Isis threat. "We continue to conduct strikes in Iraq," said a Pentagon spokesman.
Though Islamic State (Isis) has been pummelled in Iraq in recent days, in Syria the group is not on the back foot. Using weapons seized from the fleeing Iraqi army, the extremists are back with a vengeance, seizing 12 villages to the north of Aleppo in the past week alone and once more menacing the city.
The fate of Aleppo will largely determine who prevails in Syria's devastating civil war and what remains of the country.
UK researchers confirm worrying increase in 'suicide tourism'
LONDON: The first recorded case of an Indian travelling to Switzerland for "suicide tourism" has now been confirmed.
In a first of its kind study, researchers in UK have confirmed tremendous spike in a worrying trend of suicide tourism.
The numbers of 'suicide tourists' going to Switzerland to take their own lives have doubled within four years with citizens from Germany and UK contributing to the largest per cent.
Those with neurological conditions, such as paralysis, motor neurone disease, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis, account for almost half of the cases.
While 123 people undertook suicide tourism in 2008, the number rose to 172 in 2012.
The data shows that nationals from 31 different countries were helped to die in Switzerland between 2008 and 2012, with German (268) and UK (126) nationals making up almost two thirds of the total.
Other countries in the top 10 include France (66), Italy (44), USA (21), Austria (14), Canada (12), Spain and Israel (each with 8).
The data base made public on Thursday morning shows one case from India as well in 2012.
The study by Oxford University looked at whether the availability of suicide tourism in Switzerland had prompted changes in the law on assisted suicide elsewhere.
While assisted suicide (AS) is strictly restricted in many countries including India, it is not clearly regulated by law in Switzerland. This imbalance leads to an influx of people — suicide tourists — coming to the Canton of Zurich with the sole purpose of committing suicide. Political debate regarding 'suicide tourism' is taking place in many countries. Swiss medico legal experts are confronted with these cases almost daily, which prompted our scientific investigation of the phenomenon, said the researchers.
Researchers therefore searched the databases of the Institute of Legal Medicine in Zurich for information on investigations and post mortem examinations among non-Swiss nationals who had been helped to take their own lives between 2008 and 2012.
There are six right to die organizations in Switzerland, of which four permit nationals from other countries to use their services.
Thousands Of Pakistani Protesters Try To Bring Down Prime Minister
ISLAMABAD, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Leaders of Pakistani protesters trying to bring down Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were talking with the government on Thursday on a way out of an impasse that has raised fears for the nuclear-armed country's political stability.Former cricket star Imran Khan and cleric Tahir ul-Qadri, who controls a network of Islamic schools and hospitals, have been leading protests in the capital, Islamabad, since last Friday.
About 2,000 demonstrators gathered on the main road outside parliament for a second day on Thursday, hours after talks on an end to the turmoil finally got going.
Shahid Mursaleen, a spokesman for Qadri, also said their leaders had met negotiators.
Both Khan and Qadri want Sharif to resign over allegations of corruption and election rigging. Sharif, who won the last election, in May last year, by a landslide, has refused.
The protests have raised concern about stability in the country of 180 million people, at a time when the government is battling a Taliban insurgency and NATO troops are withdrawing from neighboring Afghanistan.
The confrontation has also shone a spotlight on the central issue in Pakistani politics: competition for power between the military and civilian leaders.
Some ruling party officials have accused elements within the military of orchestrating the protests to weaken the civilian government. The military insists it does not meddle in politics.
Most analysts doubt the military wants to seize power in a coup, and be forced to take responsibility for the country's dire economy and other problems.
Related: Two killed in attack on Nato supply convoy in Pakistan
Indonesian police fire tear gas at poll protesters
JAKARTA, Indonesia – Supporters of losing Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto clashed with police Thursday as the country's top judges began reading a verdict on his petition to overturn the election results.Subianto, a former general with close links to the country's former dictator Suharto, has alleged massive fraud in the July 9 polls and filed a complaint at the Constitutional Court, the country's highest.
Upholding the results would remove any lingering uncertainty over the victory of Jakarta governor Joko Widodo, leaving him free to prepare to take over government in the world's fourth most populous nation and a vital Southeast Asian economic hob. He is due to be inaugurated in October.
Subianto has vowed to challenge the results, but has struggled to attract much street support in the country of 240 million people.
Around 2,000 supporters rallied in Jakarta ahead of the verdict and tried to get close to the court, which is near the presidential palace. Police fired tear gas and water cannons as a smaller number of demonstrators tried to tear down barbed wire barricades blocking their way. There were no reports of serious injuries.
The election commission has declared Widodo the winner with 53 percent of the votes -- a margin of more than 8 million votes over Subianto.
Widodo, more widely known by his nickname Jokowi, was a political unknown until a few years ago. Unlike prior Indonesian leaders and Prabowo, he is from a humble background, something that contributed to his popularity at the polls.
Subianto leads a coalition of political parties that control a majority of seats in the parliament, meaning that Widodo might have trouble pushing his agenda.
Ukraine troops, civilians killed as fierce battles reported in east
More than 2,000 killed and 340,000 displaced since mid-April
Five troops were killed and two civilians died in the past 24 hours in rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine as government troops pressed to recapture more territory from pro-Russian separatists.Ukrainian troops have made significant advances into rebel-held territory this week in a conflict that has already claimed more than 2,000 lives and forced over 340,000 people to flee their homes. Ukraine celebrates Independence Day on Sunday and reports are rife that the government is aiming to achieve a breakthrough by that date.
Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security Council, told reporters Thursday that government troops were still fighting separatists in and around Ilovaysk, a town near the rebel-held city of Donetsk, even though he said Ilovaysk was under government control.
- Is Russia's fight with Ukraine as intractable as the Middle East?
- Are sanctions on Russia beginning to bite?
Ebola death toll passes 1,200 as Liberia bears the heaviest burden
Liberia battled on Tuesday to halt the spread of the Ebola disease in its crowded, run-down oceanside capital Monrovia, recording the most new deaths as fatalities from the world’s worst outbreak of the deadly virus rose above 1,200.On Tuesday, Liberian authorities announced that all suspected Ebola patients who had fled a Monrovia clinic that came under attack were now back in treatment at another clinic. The attack was seen as a potential major setback for Liberia’s efforts to contain the virus.
As the Geneva-based World Health Organization rushed to ramp up the global response to the outbreak first detected in March, including emergency food deliveries to quarantined zones, it announced that deaths from it had risen to 1,299 as of Aug. 16, out of 2,240 cases. Between Aug. 14-16, Liberia recorded the most new deaths, 53, followed by Sierra Leone with 17, and Guinea with 14.
The epidemic of the hemorrhagic disease also has a toehold in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy.
39 dead, dozens missing after Japan landslides
TOKYO – Japanese police said the death toll from rain-triggered landslides on the outskirts of Hiroshima city rose to 39 on Thursday with 51 people still missing, as search efforts continued in the devastated area.Hillsides caved in or were swept down into residential areas in at least five valleys in the suburbs of the western Japanese city on Wednesday, crushing dozens of houses after heavy rains.
About 2,500 police and military personnel searched for the missing in the mud-covered areas.
Hiroshima city officials have faced criticism because their initial evacuation advisory came an hour after the first mudslide. Officials said their response was delayed because the land collapsed so quickly at multiple locations.
Landslides are a constant risk in mountainous, crowded Japan, where many homes are built on or near steep slopes. Torrential rains early Wednesday apparently caused slopes to collapse in areas where many of the buildings were newly constructed.
Hiroshima's geology, consisting of highly water-retentive soil, makes the city particularly prone to such disasters, experts say.
-
Bank of America in record $16.7bn mortgage settlement
Bank of America has
agreed to pay a record $16.7bn (£10bn) to US authorities for misleading
investors about the quality of loans it sold.
The loans were sold by Countrywide Financial and Merrill
Lynch before Bank of America bought them in 2008, at the height of the
financial crisis. The associate attorney general said "no institution is either too big or too powerful to escape" punishment.
The settlement will cut the bank's third-quarter profits by $5.3bn.
Bank of America will pay a total of $9.65bn in cash and provide consumer relief worth about $7bn. The cash component consists of a $5bn civil penalty and $4.63 billion in compensation payments.
Tony West, the associate attorney general, explained: "It's kind of like going to your neighbourhood grocery store to buy milk advertised as fresh, only to discover that store employees knew the milk you were buying had been left out on the loading dock, unrefrigerated, the entire day before, yet they never told you.
"And just like you might be in for an unpleasant surprise when you got home and poured yourself that glass of milk, investors -- such as public pension funds and federally-insured financial institutions -- were unpleasantly met with billions of dollars in losses when those securities investments soured."
Brian Moynihan, chief executive of the bank, said: "We believe this settlement, which resolves significant remaining mortgage-related exposures, is in the best interests of our shareholders, and allows us to continue to focus on the future."
Nixon cracks under pressure, will Holder help?
A
week into the racial unrest and riots in suburban St. Louis, Missouri’s
white, Democratic governor, under pressure from members of his party
for his response, veered sharply and called for the “vigorous
prosecution” of a white police officer who shot a black man on August 9.
After 10 days of muddled response, Jay Nixon appears to have chosen
exactly the wrong moment to be bold. Nixon’s press team claimed that
the governor was not prejudging an officer who may have acted in
self-defense, but when Nixon spoke in a scripted video message of the
need “to achieve justice” for the family of the slain man and described
the shooting as taking place in “broad daylight,” a term usually
reserved for crimes, his message wasn’t hard to decipher. After
protesters increasingly focused their ire on the Nixon first for neglect
and then his deployment of troops to the town of Ferguson, the
second-term governor seemed eager to curry favor with those calling for
the arrest of the officer in the case.
[Four dozen arrested overnight - St. Louis Post Dispatch:
“Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson … said some ‘criminals and
agitators’ threatened police, threw glass and plastic bottles — some
filled with urine — at officers and hid behind members of the media
covering the protests.]
Feeling the heat - But Nixon’s
aggressive posture came just hours before grand jurors might begin
considering charges in the case. There has been similar pressure
on the St. Louis County’s Democratic prosecutor, Bob McCulloch, deemed
suspect by activists because he comes from a police family and his
father was killed in the line of duty 50 years ago by a black suspect.
The governor having appeared to prejudge the police officer the day
before the grand jury is set to begin its probe will not make life any
simpler for McCulloch who has refused calls from members of Congress,
state lawmakers and others to step aside in the case.
Fast and Furious document list must be provided to Congress, judge rules
WASHINGTON – A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to provide Congress with a list of documents that are at the center of a long-running battle over a failed law enforcement program called Operation Fast and Furious.In a court proceeding Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson set an Oct. 1 deadline for producing the list to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The House panel says the Justice Department documents might explain why the department took nearly a year to admit that federal agents had engaged in a controversial law enforcement tactic known as gun-walking.
The Justice Department has long prohibited the risky practice. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives used it with disastrous results in a federal law enforcement probe in Arizona, Operation Fast and Furious.
In the operation, federal agents permitted illicitly purchased weapons to be transported unimpeded in an effort to track them to high-level arms traffickers.
Federal agents lost control of some 2,000 weapons and many of them wound up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S. Two of the guns were found at the scene of the December 2010 slaying of border agent Brian Terry near the Arizona border city of Nogales.
After Wednesday's court proceeding, Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce said that "we are pleased the judge recognized that executive privilege includes a deliberative process beyond presidential communications" -- a point the department has been arguing in its dispute with Congress.
In court papers, the Justice Department has said that if the courts were to reject a confidentiality claim, Congress could have unfettered access to all information from the executive branch of government aside from presidential communications.
13-year-old girl accused of starting California wildfire is fit to stand trial, judge says
A judge on Wednesday ruled that a 13-year-old girl is competent to stand trial on allegations that she deliberately started a wildfire that destroyed three dozen homes north of San Diego in May.The judge made the ruling in a brief hearing in juvenile court, where the girl pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of arson and one misdemeanour count of unlawfully allowing a fire to escape from one’s control.
A judge had ordered last month that the girl from San Marcos be psychologically evaluated to determine if she is fit to stand trial.
The girl’s attorney, Ryan McGlinn, told Superior Court Judge Rod Shelton that a doctor had evaluated the child and recommended she be found competent, and Shelton agreed, according to U-T San Diego.
Prosecutors allege the girl intentionally started the Cocos Fire, the most destructive of nearly a dozen wildfires that ripped through Southern California in May, which destroyed 36 homes and one business.
Prosecutors also told the girl’s parents at the hearing that they may be responsible for restitution costs. While the district attorney’s office didn’t mention a dollar amount, the U-T reports that official estimates have put the cost of fighting the fire and lost property at $12-million.
The court has allowed that the girl’s first name be published, but The Associated Press generally does not identify juvenile suspects.
She was told on Wednesday that she could remain in the care of her parents and subject to a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and was ordered to return to court Sept. 16.
Police: California high schoolers plotted to kill 'as many students as possible'
Two high school students plotted to kill three staffers and as many students as possible in a mass shooting plot, police in South Pasadena, California, said.
But acting on information
provided by officials at South Pasadena High School, authorities were
able to foil the plan, police said.
"This is a prime example
of school officials recognizing suspicious behavior. It was this
information that helped prevent a horrific tragedy," Sgt. Brian Solinsky
said.
Authorities have scheduled a news conference Tuesday to offer more details.
One student was arrested at his home Monday without incident. The other, police said, tried to run away -- but didn't succeed.
The South Pasadena Unified School District sent a letter to parents, addressing the alleged plot.
"The police have the situation under control and there is currently no threat to students or employees," the letter said.
The district will make
counselors available to students and employees when the new school year
begins, CNN affiliate KTLA reported.
"School starts on
Thursday, and I'm pretty sure a lot of people will be talking about it,"
student Owen Carlson told the station.
Canadian man left hometown of Windsor allegedly to fight in Syria
RCMP investigators have travelled to Calgary to look into a possible link between two Ontario men — one of whom has been fighting in Syria with Islamic militants.- Calgary police aware of jihad recruiting for 8 years, chief says
- Warnings about potential Muslim radicalization went ignored, ex-U of C prof says
- Canada’s young men joining foreign jihad: Are we doing enough to stop it?
Barahim says he was shown photographs of two men, but he was not able to recognize them.
The RCMP has neither confirmed nor denied the investigation, but a spokesperson confirms Mohammed Monir El Shaer and Ahmad Waseem — both from Windsor, Ont. — have each been charged with a passport-related offence.
Waseem flew twice to Syria allegedly to fight with Islamist extremists, but legal experts say he could evade terrorism charges if his activities abroad can't be proven.
Waseem’s Facebook page suggests he spent time in Alberta in 2010 and 2011.
Feds to Ontario: Clean up your fiscal house
TORONTO - Ontario needs to pull up its socks and get its foundering fiscal house in order or risk dragging down the rest of the country, federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver says.And it's morally wrong to pile up debt for another generation to pay off, he said.
"Canada can't reach its potential if its largest province is lagging, so we want to see Ontario prosper," Oliver said in an exclusive telephone interview Wednesday.
"We do have concerns about fiscal policies that result in a deficit of $12 billion."
He pointed to figures released this week by the Fraser Institute that show this province's debt has soared 89% since 2007-08 - faster than any other province.
"The net debt of the province has increased more than any other province or the federal government - 89%," Oliver said.
"It's now almost $20,000 per capita, which is substantial. These are numbers that have real implications."
And he said piling up debt for our children and grandchildren to pay off is morally wrong.
"There's also a moral dimension - ‘generational fairness.'
"What it really means is that debt is being incurred now for expenses today that will have to be paid for by our children and grandchildren. No mother or father would want to saddle their children and grandchildren with debt for their current expenses," he said.
Federally, the Conservatives have reduced taxes and introduced discipline in budgeting. They're projecting a $6.4-billion surplus next year and will start cutting middle-class taxes once that happens, Oliver said.
"Our tax level's at the lowest level since John Diefenbaker was prime minister - and it's all due to hard work and discipline.
"We didn't get to the point where we're able to say we're going to have a surplus next year without some hard work," he said.
"Budgets don't balance themselves - Justin Trudeau may think they do, but they don't. They require a plan and they require the discipline to follow it."
The minister is on a tour of southwestern Ontario this week - a part of the province devastated by a downturn in the manufacturing sector.
His government has cut business taxes in an attempt to stimulate job growth, but he says the province needs to do more to stop the hemorrhaging of jobs.
"We're in a Confederation where there's a lot of internal trade," he said.
"When Ontario does better, other provinces do better."
He pointed out that Alberta's booming economy is helping this province by providing jobs for 1,000 companies here.
"It's very positive for Ontarians. It's very positive for other provinces. I'd like to see Ontario do better."
Oliver said provincial Finance Minister Charles Sousa and Premier Kathleen Wynne should be more prudent in their budgeting.
Warren Kinsella Apologizes For Racializing John Tory's Transit Plan
Team Olivia Chow is in damage-control mode after one of the Toronto mayoral hopeful's senior campaign advisers apologized Wednesday for suggesting another candidate's transit plan is racist."I unreservedly and genuinely express apologies for hurting your feelings," Warren Kinsella wrote in a blog post addressed to John Tory. "I don't think you are George Wallace. And I've deleted the tweet to make that crystal clear."
Kinsella, a veteran political strategist and lawyer, was accused of racializing Tory's SmartTrack transit plan for the way it avoids two neighbourhoods with sizeable black populations. He dubbed the plan as "Segregation Track" on Twitter Tuesday.
However, any genuine attempt to made amends with Tory was short-lived. The Toronto Sun columnist also used his blog to justify his attack, claiming his comments were fair.
"It is fair, however, to criticize your transit plan. It is also fair to ask whether your plan considers some parts of the city more equal than others," Kinsella continued.
He also accused Tory of mocking his former boss, Jean Chretien, some 21 years ago. Tory was the campaign manager behind former prime minister Kim Campbell who approved an attack ad in the 1993 election that many saw as poking fun at Chretien's facial paralysis.
Kinsella supported Tory's run for Toronto mayor in 2003 and told The Globe and Mail in 2009 that he hoped Tory would run again.
Chow addressed the controversial tweet Wednesday at the unveiling of her own transit plan for the city. She was quick to distance herself from Kinsella's words, calling him just one of her “thousands of volunteers,” CP24 reported.
Smoking pot a personal choice, says Mulcair; no formal party position yet
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair said he believes the decision to smoke weed is a personal one and not something with which the Criminal Code should concern itself.The NDP doesn't have an official position on the legal marijuana debate yet, and it might not for a while yet.
Speaking at the Canadian Medical Association's general meeting Wednesday, Mulcair said his party has yet to do the necessary consultations within the party.
In the meantime, he says it doesn't make sense to criminalize weed smokers.
"The NDP has been saying for 40 years that it makes no sense for someone to have a criminal record for possession or personal use," he said.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has made it clear he intends to legalize marijuana if elected to power. But the party has yet to release details on how that would work.
The Tories have launched an aggressive anti-marijuana campaign, trying to sell Canadians on the idea that Trudeau's policy would all but put the drug directly in the hands of Canadian youth.
John Baird's Twitter Account Under Investigation By Canada's Language Commissioner
OTTAWA - When a minister tweets, is it ever really a personal account, or should he or she be required to abide by federal laws and responsibilities?Those blurred lines around government information have raised questions since social media came on the scene, and are now getting a closer look from an unexpected corner.
Canada's commissioner of official languages has launched an investigation into John Baird's Twitter account to determine if the foreign affairs minister is running afoul of federal laws around bilingual communication.
The case is being used by the watchdog's office to examine the larger issue of ministerial social media accounts and whether they fall under the Official Languages Act.
In a similar case, New Brunswick's official languages commissioner recommended in 2011 that officials should post messages in both official languages when they are communicating as a representative of the government.
"If you look at the minister's account, a lot of it is related to his role as minister. There's enough in there that warranted accepting looking at it," said Nelson Kalil, a spokesman for Fraser.
"All ministries have responsibilities with regard to communicating with the public and using their social media, so it's a nice template for us to have look at that responsibility."
Baird's department has responded by saying that the Twitter account in question — @HonJohnBaird — is his personal account, and does not fall within the ambit of the Official Languages Act.
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