Weekend Gazette 080314

Sunday August 3rd 2014

Gaza crisis: Deadly strike 'at UN school in Rafah'

At least 10 people have been killed in a strike near a UN-run school housing Palestinians displaced by the Gaza conflict, medics say.

The attack hit the entrance of the facility in Rafah, where thousands of Palestinians are said to be sheltering.
The Israeli military has not commented but has been carrying out renewed strikes in Gaza.
Gaza health officials say 30 people have died on Sunday, while militants continue to fire rockets into Israel.
The latest exchanges came after Israel's military said that an officer it feared had been captured had now been confirmed dead. Hadar Goldin went missing on Friday near Rafah.
Confirmation of 2nd Lt Goldin's death means 66 Israelis have now died in the fighting, all but two of them soldiers. A Thai worker in Israel also died.

Israeli forces begin regrouping near Gaza border after Netanyahu issues new warning to Hamas

Some Israeli forces have begun pulling back to near the country's border with the Gaza Strip after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a new warning to Hamas Saturday and promised that Israel would fight "as long as it will take" to prevent further rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
The Wall Street Journal, citing witnesses, reported that Israeli tanks had begun to pull back toward the border late Saturday. Residents of at least one area of northern Gaza that had been heavily shelled by Israel were given the all-clear to return to their homes, while a military spokesman confirmed to The Journal that some troops were crossing back into Israeli territory. 

A United Nations school sheltering displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip was hit Sunday by what a U.N. official said appeared to be an Israeli airstrike.
Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said at least 10 people were killed and 35 wounded after the strike near a boys' school in the town of Rafah. Robert Turner, the director of operations for the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza, said preliminary findings indicated the blast was the result of an Israeli airstrike near the school, which had been providing shelter for some 3,000 people. He said at least one U.N. staffer appeared to be dead.

IPS foils attempt by Islamic Jihad prisoners to tunnel out of Israeli jail

The Israel Prisons Service on Sunday foiled an attempt by Palestinian security prisoners to tunnel their way out of Gilboa prison, according to a statement the IPS put out Sunday.

According to the IPS, the eight prisoners, all affiliated with Islamic Jihad, and some of whom are serving lengthy sentences, had begun building a tunnel in the bathroom of the cell.

At the moment the IPS is trying to figure out where the destination of the tunnel was meant to be, though for now they suspect that it was to be used for an escape.

They added that they found the tunnel because of "intelligence" they received.

In an earlier incident in June, a group of Islamic Jihad prisoners, including some serving life sentences, tried to tunnel their way out of Shateh prison in northern Israel. In that case as well the IPS got intelligence ahead of time and found the tunnel before it was finished.

They said that they believe that the prisoners planned an attack on prison staff by way of the tunnel that they had begun digging in a bathroom in their cell.

The tunnel was four meters long and almost two feet wide and had been dug in recent days, and led into a yard at the prison. The IPS said at the time that they believe that the prisoners eventually intended to dig until they reached outside the prison walls.

They added that they also found found improvised knives in another cell, as well as fake prison guard uniforms. The prisoners had made fake IPS badges out of cardboard and toothpaste the service said.

Islamic State Seizes Small Towns In Iraq's North

Militants with the Islamic State extremist group on Sunday seized two small towns in northern Iraq after driving out Kurdish security forces, further expanding the territories under their control, officials and residents said.

The fresh gains by the Sunni extremist militants have forced dozens of residents to flee from the religiously mixed towns of Zumar and Sinjar, near the militant-held city of Mosul, to the northern self-ruled Kurdish region, they said.
Mosul governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, who fled to the largely autonomous Kurdish region when the Islamic State group and allied Sunni militants seized Iraq's second-largest city in June, told The Associated Press that the two towns fell after fierce clashes that erupted the day before.

A resident in Sinjar said the militants blew up a small revered Shiite site and two Yazidi shrines. Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking sect and religious minority. Another resident in Zumar said they took over at least two small oil fields. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Iraq is facing its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Islamic State, an al-Qaida breakaway group, captured large swaths of land in the country's west and north in a lightning offensive earlier this year.
When it overran the cities of Mosul and Tikrit in June, Iraqi security forces virtually collapsed. In most cases, police and soldiers simply ran, abandoning arsenals of heavy weapons.


ISIS grabs key Iraqi dam defeating Kurds 
BAGHDAD: Islamic State fighters seized control of Iraq's biggest dam, an oilfield and three more towns on Sunday after inflicting their first major defeat on Kurdish forces since sweeping through the region in June.

Capture of the Mosul Dam after an offensive of barely 24 hours could give the Sunni militants the ability to flood major Iraqi cities, sharply raising the stakes in their bid to topple Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shia-led government.

Islamic State, which sees Iraq's majority Shias as apostates who deserve to be killed, also seized the Ain Zalah oil field, adding to four others already under their control, and three towns.

They faced strong Kurdish resistance only at the start of their latest offensive when taking the town of Zumar. The Islamists then hoisted their black flags there, a ritual that usually precedes mass executions of their captured opponents and the imposition of an ideology even al-Qaida finds excessive.

The group, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, poses the biggest challenge to the stability of OPEC member Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Since thousands of Iraqi soldiers fled the Islamic State offensive, Shia militias and Kurdish fighters have been seen as a critical line of defence against the militants, who have threatened to march on Baghdad.

But Sunday's battles have called into question the effectiveness of the Kurdish fighters and have increased pressure on Iraqi leaders to form a power-sharing government capable of countering the Islamic State.

Lebanese soldiers die as Syria rebels raid border town

Eight Lebanese soldiers have been killed in clashes with Syrian rebels who raided the border town of Arsal in Lebanon on Saturday.

The fighting broke out on Saturday after Lebanese soldiers detained an alleged member of the Syrian Islamist group Nusra Front.
On Sunday morning, the fighting was continuing in the mainly Sunni town.
The area has been the scene of regular tension between the Lebanese army and Syrian militias.
Throughout the night, troops battled the gunmen who fired mortar shells at Arsal and the surrounding region, the Lebanese army said.
At least two Lebanese civilians were also reported to have been killed in the clashes.
On Saturday, the Syrian fighters briefly seized a police station in the town, which is home to thousands of refugees from the war in Syria.
A Nusra Front spokesman told Reuters news agency they were demanding the release of a leader, Emad Jumaa, after he was arrested at a checkpoint near the town.

Ukrainian military closes in on pro-Russia rebels in Donetsk

Kiev's forces capture two towns just outside the rebels' stronghold, as Russia and the west step up their war of words

Government forces tightened the noose around the main stronghold of pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, as Moscow and the west stepped up their war of words.
The seizure of Krasnogorovka and Staromikhailovka, towns just outside Donetsk, brought the army to the edge of one of the last cities still in rebel hands following its advances in the past month. The other is Luhansk, near the border with Russia.
Shelling near the area where a Malaysian airliner was downed last month forced international experts to stop their search for victims at one part of the crash site, but a local ceasefire enabled them to work unhindered at the main part.
Working with sniffer dogs, they recovered more human remains and personal belongings for examination, officials said.
Diplomatic efforts to end the wider conflict, the worst standoff between Moscow and the west since the Cold War ended in 1991, show no sign of progress.
David Cameron said Nato must rethink its ties with Moscow and called for it to overhaul itself to be able to better defend member states from a potential Russian military threat.
"Six months into the Russia-Ukraine crisis we must agree on long-term measures to strengthen our ability to respond quickly to any threat, to reassure those allies who fear for their own country's security and to deter any Russian aggression," the British prime minister wrote in a letter to fellow alliance leaders and the Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Barack Obama also vented his frustration with Russia after speaking to Vladimir Putin by telephone on Friday.
The US president told reporters Washington had done "everything that we can do" short of going to war, to persuade Putin of the need to resolve the crisis diplomatically.
"But sometimes people don't always act rationally, and they don't always act based on their medium or long-term interests," he said.

Royal Navy ship arrives in Tripoli to help evacuate Britons from Libya

HMS Enterprise believed to be carrying out 'assisted departure' as Foreign Office urges Britons to leave amid fierce fighting

British nationals stranded in Libya amid increasingly fierce recent fighting are in the process of being evacuated from Tripoli to a Royal Navy ship in waters off the country's capital.
The Ministry of Defence said it was unable to confirm reports that HMS Enterprise, a survey ship diverted from a routine deployment in the Mediterranean, had arrived at Tripoli to collect around 100 British nationals would had sought assistance amid heavy battles near the city's airport.
However, a Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are currently carrying out an assisted departure. It is happening at the moment. The majority [of those being evacuated] are British."
It is believed that the 90m survey ship, which usually carries out work to update navigation charts, will deposit those feeling to safety in Malta, just over 200 miles away.
The Foreign Office's advice to Britons in Libya, updated on Sunday, says they are "strongly urged to leave immediately by commercial means" because of fighting around Tripoli and wider instability across the country. The advice says that some international flights are still leaving Misrata and Mitaga airports, to the west of Tripoli, while certain land crossings remain open, though both could change at short notice.
"The British embassy is arranging an assisted departure for British nationals. Places are limited and requests for travel will be strictly prioritised."
The embassy in Tripoli will suspend operations on Monday, the statement says, with registration for assisted exit closing at 6pm Libyan time on Sunday (5pm BST). Those seeking help are asked to call the Foreign Office.
According to reports, HMS Enterprise was to moor off Tripoli with Britons brought on board by launches protected by Royal Marines.

China says 96 killed in week of violence in restive Xinjiang province

BEIJING –  Chinese state media released a detailed casualty count Sunday for last week's violence in the western province of Xinjiang, with 37 people and 59 attackers killed in the deadliest unrest in months that authorities blame on ethnic separatists.
The official Xinhua News Agency, which had previously said only dozens were killed, reported that attackers armed with knives and axes stormed a police station and government offices in Elixku township last Monday and then moved onto nearby Huangdi township. The agency said 13 people were injured and 215 attackers arrested, and that the dead civilians included 35 Han ethnic majority members and two Uighurs.

The earlier official account was immediately disputed by the U.S.-based Uyghur American Association, which represents the prevalent ethnic group in Xinjiang. It quoted local sources as saying police opened fire on people protesting Chinese security forces' crackdown on Muslims during Ramadan, killing more than 20.
Neither version could be independently verified.
Xinhua's Sunday report said the attackers had set up roadblocks, slashed at some passengers and forced others to join the attack. Xinhua named the mastermind behind the violence as Nuramat Sawut, whom the agency said is connected to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. China designates the group as a terrorist organization.
Violence has erupted repeatedly over the past year in Xinjiang as Uighurs bristle under what they say is heavy-handed Chinese policies.

Southwest China Quake Kills At Least 150

A strong earthquake in southern China's Yunnan province has killed at least 150 people and injured more than 1,400.

China's official Xinhua News Agency says at least 150 people died in Sunday's quake. Yunnan province's information bureau says at least 120 of the dead were in densely populated Ludian county, with another 180 missing and 1,300 people injured there. Yunnan's seismological bureau says another 24 people died and more than 100 were injured in Qiaojia county.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude-6.1 quake struck at 4:30 p.m. at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the quake was the strongest to hit Yunnan in 14 years.
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Barack Obama: 'Full confidence' in CIA director

President Barack Obama has defended CIA Director John Brennan and acknowledged the US tortured prisoners after 9/11.

His comments come as the Senate prepares to release a report on the CIA's interrogation programme.
"We tortured some folks," Mr Obama said. "We did some things that were contrary to our values."
He said Mr Brennan had his "full confidence" despite admitting the agency had searched Senate computers during the investigation.
Mr Obama has previously said the methods used by the CIA on al-Qaeda prisoners at secret "black sites" outside the US amounted to torture.
In April 2009, he said that he "believed that waterboarding was torture and, whatever legal rationales were used, it was a mistake".
On Friday the US president said officials at the time had used harsh methods because of the "enormous pressure" to prevent another attack on the US in the wake of 9/11.

Carson takes major steps toward a 2016 White House bid

Dr. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and conservative sensation, is taking a couple of major steps toward a 2016 presidential bid, forming a political action committee and selecting a campaign chairman for a potential White House run.
The 62-year-old Carson made the announcement Friday after two days of meetings in Florida, as reported first by The Washington Times.

Carson has selected Texas businessman Terry Giles as the chairman and approved the formation of the PAC, named One Nation.
“No doubt he’s one step closer to making a decision,” John Philip Sousa IV, chairman of the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee, told FoxNews.com on Saturday. “And we all think his decision will be to run.”
Sousa said the super PAC, which is gathering signatures across the country to convince Carson to run, has already raised $8 million for the presidential campaign.
Carson suggested his decision will be largely influenced by whether Republicans take control of the Senate in November.
Carson has already shown the potential to make a solid presidential run, likely as a Republican candidate. He finishing third in this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference poll and tied for third in the Northeast Republican Leadership Conference poll.

House Passes Dead-On-Arrival Bill To Address Border Crisis

WASHINGTON -- The House approved a funding bill Friday evening to address a crisis of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S. border illegally, sending the legislation to a Senate that is out of town and wouldn't consider it anyway -- and a president who has already promised a veto.
The bill passed 223 to 189. One Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, joined Republicans voting for the bill, while four Republicans joined Democrats in opposition: Reps. Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, Paul Broun of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Walter Jones of North Carolina.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement after the vote that it was "a responsible bill to address the humanitarian crisis at our southern border." He called on the Senate to approve it.

"If President Obama needs these resources, he will urge Senate Democrats to put politics aside, come back to work, and approve our bill," Boehner said. "There are also steps the president can take to address this crisis within the law, and without further legislative action. Every day the president and his party fail to act is another day this crisis continues.”
The legislation is meant to address an influx of 57,500 unaccompanied minors who have been apprehended since October crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. President Barack Obama requested $3.7 billion in funds, which House members quickly ruled out. They first considered a $1.5 billion package, which shrunk to less than $1 billion, then to $659 million.
It almost didn't get a vote at all. Republican House leaders pulled the bill from the schedule on Thursday, the last planned day before the August recess, because it didn't have the votes to pass. On Friday, the leadership returned with a reworked bill containing stricter provisions and $35 million in funding for states that send National Guard troops to the border on their own, putting the final price tag at $694 million.
The bill received significant opposition from Democrats, who criticized provisions such as changing a 2008 law so unaccompanied minors from countries other than Mexico or Canada could be deported more quickly. Democrats also said sending the National Guard to the border was unnecessary, and the funding was far too little to address the crisis. Democratic opposition was strong even before the GOP made changes to toughen the bill, and was nearly unanimous by Friday evening.

Army to force out 550 majors; some to get news while in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON –  About 550 Army majors, including some serving in Afghanistan, will soon be told they have to leave the service by next spring as part of a budget-driven downsizing of the service.
Gen. John Campbell, the vice chief of the Army, acknowledged Friday that telling troops in a war zone that they're out of a job is a difficult task. But he said some of the soldiers could join the National Guard or the Army Reserve.

The decision to cut Army majors comes on the heels of a move to slash nearly 1,200 captains from the ranks. Army leaders were criticized at the time for giving 48 of them the bad news while they were deployed to Afghanistan.
The Army declined to say how many majors will be notified while they are at the battlefront.
"The ones that are deployed are certainly the hardest," Campbell told reporters. "What we try to do there is, working through the chain of command, minimize the impact to that unit and then maximize the time to provide to that officer to come back and do the proper transition, to take care of himself or herself, and the family."
Campbell said it's difficult to avoid cutting deployed soldiers because of the timing schedules.
All the soldiers being forced to leave have probably already been given a heads-up that they were at risk of the job cut and will meet with a senior officer, according to the Army.

After Heated Week, President Blows Off Steam

WASHINGTON — At the end of a week of frustrating developments for the White House, at home and overseas, President Obama took time on Friday afternoon to vent.

The president revealed a long list of gripes in a nearly 50-minute news conference: a recalcitrant Congress that is refusing to deliver the amount of emergency funding he requested for a border bill; crises in the Middle East and Ukraine that defy quick or simple solutions; even a press corps that neglected to wish him a happy birthday.

For a president who has already shown signs of second-term fatigue and disillusionment, the question-and-answer session was a display of Mr. Obama’s exasperation with the limits of his power and the burden of outsize expectations.

“It kind of will be seen in history as his ‘I’m sick of the gridlock’ press conference,” said Douglas G. Brinkley, a presidential historian. “It’s a president that feels that he has no more patience with Congress’s shenanigans and what he considers the politics of the moment.”

“There’s a frustration in the second term, and there’s a bit of a scolding feel here,” Mr. Brinkley added. “He’s the president that promised to keep us out of foreign wars and get the economy going, and he’s done that, but people are still nit-picking.”

The news conference started on a cheery note as Mr. Obama opened with the day’s economic news of strong job growth. “Things are better,” he said. “Our engines are revving a little bit louder.”

But it soured from there. The president complained of “really unfair criticism” leveled at Secretary of State John Kerry for his efforts to reach a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and gave a pessimistic prognosis for restoring the most recent truce, which broke down Friday 90 minutes after it began.

“It’s difficult, and I don’t think we should pretend otherwise,” Mr. Obama said of the conflict. 

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