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9/28/2014

Weekend 092814

Islamic State crisis: Coalition bombs Syria refineries

US-led coalition aircraft have targeted four makeshift oil refineries under Islamic State (IS) control in Syria, as well as a command centre.
Early indications were that the attacks by US, Saudi and UAE planes were successful, US Central Command said.
Explosions at a refinery at Tel Abyad, near the Turkish border, lit up the night sky, an eyewitness watching from across the frontier said.
But Syrian opposition activists played down the significance of such targets.
An initial wave of air attacks on Thursday, the third day of the air campaign against IS in Syria, targeted 12 refineries.
According to the Pentagon, small-scale mobile refineries used by IS in Syria generate up to $2m (£1.2m) per day in revenue for the militants.
The US-led coalition of about 40 countries, including Arab states, has vowed to destroy IS, which controls large parts of north-eastern Syria and northern Iraq.
The group's brutal tactics, including mass killings, beheadings and abductions of members of religious and ethnic minorities, triggered the international intervention.
Al-Nusra Front, a fellow Islamist militant group in Syria, has denounced the air strikes as "a war against Islam" and called on jihadists around the world to target Western and Arab countries involved.

Kurds manning northern Iraqi bridge face off with Islamic State fighters

Behind the wall of sandbags at the end of a narrow bridge in northern Iraq, a man in a black ski mask paces back and forth, brandishing a machine-gun and poking the barrel above the wall. Alongside him, a second militant in a red and white turban waves angrily. A third looks across the bridge with binoculars.
"If they shoot one bullet at us, we're going to return it with five," said Lt. Gen. Bapir Sheikhwasani of the Kurdish peshmerga militia as he tracked the Islamic State fighters through his own binoculars. "They are not the type of people who are up to stand against the peshmerga."
The Kurdish fighters, who number in the dozens, have been in a standoff with the extremists across the bridge for three months. They say U.S. airstrikes that began Aug. 8 have helped to weaken the Islamic State group in remote areas, but efforts to retake more populated areas have stalled because militants are taking refuge among civilians, making it harder for ground forces to go after them.
Stationed in an abandoned house they've barricaded in the town of Mantiqa, the Kurds are unable to effectively engage the militants, who retreat to the nearest town whenever they come under fire, the Kurdish fighters say.
Over the past 10 days, the peshmerga commanders have given strict instructions not to fire at the militants on the bridge. Sheikhwasani believes the Islamic State fighters may be plotting to blow up the bridge, but would need to lay explosives in the middle in order for the charge to be effective.

Al Qaeda And ISIS Had A Spectacular Falling Out. Here's What Happened

To an outsider it may seem they have a lot in common, but al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, are nothing less than bitter rivals. While they were once allied, a complex blend of power struggles, ideology and strong disagreements over ISIS's especially brutal tactics pulled the extremists apart.
ISIS “is not a branch of the al-Qaeda group . . . does not have an organizational relationship with it and [al-Qaeda] is not the group responsible for their actions,” al-Qaeda's leadership communicated decisively in February.
Here's the backstory of how the groups went from partners to bitter enemies in a few years.

Taliban seize strategic Afghan district in Ghazni province

Taliban fighters have seized control of a strategic district in the Afghan province of Ghazni, officials say.
Insurgents killed about 70 villagers after taking Ajrestan district late on Thursday night after a week of battle.
A spokesman for the provincial governor said 15 people suspected of collaborating with authorities were beheaded, including women.
The Taliban is active in many parts of Ghazni, an important gateway to the capital, Kabul, from the south-east.
Fighting is continuing as security forces try to regain the district but officials fear surrounding districts are now vulnerable to attack.
Strategic district Some analysts say that control of Ajrestan also provides militants with a launching pad for attacks into adjacent provinces in the east of the country.
Ajrestan is a small town surrounded by about 100 villages in a predominantly rural area.

US drone strike kills four suspected militants in Pakistan

A US drone strike killed four suspected militants on Sunday in a north-western tribal region in Pakistan along the Afghan border, intelligence officials and Taliban fighters said.
Those killed included two Arab militants and two of their local allies in a compound in the town of Wana in South Waziristan, the two officials and three Taliban fighters said.
All of them spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to journalists. Authorities don’t allow journalists into Pakistan’s tribal areas, which have long been a safe haven for local and al-Qaida linked foreign militants.
Pakistan’s army largely cleared militants from South Waziristan in a 2009 operation, but militants still maintain a presence in its pockets, especially in its rugged terrain and thick forests.
Soldiers and Pakistan’s air force now are fighting militants in North Waziristan in an operation that began in June.
US drone strikes are widely unpopular in Pakistan, where many consider them a violation of the country’s sovereignty that also killed civilians. But Washington has long relied on them to take out the militants in areas where Pakistan’s army won’t deploy.
The US does not comment on the strikes, which are carried out by the CIA.
On 24 September, a suspected American drone strike killed 10 alleged militants in the region that is also home to Afghan militant groups, including the Haqqani network, which attacks US and allied Nato troops in Afghanistan.





Hong Kong: Tear gas and clashes at democracy protest

Hong Kong police have used tear gas to disperse thousands of pro-democracy protesters near the government complex, after a week of escalating tensions.
Dozens of demonstrators were arrested, with hundreds remaining in the city centre late on Sunday.
Protesters want the Chinese government to scrap rules allowing it to vet Hong Kong's top leader in the 2017 poll.
Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung said the demonstration was "illegal" and elections would go ahead as planned.
China has also condemned the protest, and offered "its strong backing" to the Hong Kong government.
The broader Occupy Central protest movement threw its weight behind the student-led protests on Sunday, bringing forward a mass civil disobedience campaign due to start on Wednesday.
Regrouping Protesters blocked a busy road that runs through the heart of Hong Kong's financial district on Sunday, clashing with police as they tried to join a mass sit-in outside government headquarters.
Police used pepper spray and shot tear gas into the air to drive back the protesters, who defended themselves with umbrellas and face masks.
Related: Hong Kong police threaten crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators



More Than 30 Believed Dead After Japan's Ontake Volcano Erupts

TOKYO (AP) -- Rescue workers have found 30 or more people unconscious and believed to be dead near the peak of an erupting volcano in central Japan, local government and police said Sunday.
Nagano prefecture posted on its website that about 30 people had heart and lung failure, the customary way for Japanese authorities to describe a body until police doctors can examine it. At least four of the victims were being brought down from Mount Ontake on Sunday afternoon, one day after the volcano erupted.
A Nagano police official described the number of unconscious people as more than 30. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.
Mount Ontake in central Japan erupted shortly before noon Saturday, spewing large white plumes of gas and ash high into the sky and blanketing the surrounding area in ash. The mountain is a popular climbing destination, and at least 250 people were initially trapped on the slopes, though most made their way down by Saturday night.

Authorities say 7 killed in 4.9 Peru quake near Cuzco

Peruvian authorities say a shallow 4.9-magnitude earthquake has killed at least seven people whose crudely constructed homes collapsed in a remote Andean village near Cuzco.
The deaths in Paruro were reported by the Civil Defense agency. It said on its website that the moderate quake centered just 5 miles underground had destroyed 15 homes and left 75 people homeless.
It said five people were injured and power was knocked out to the village.
Mayor Wilber Loaiza of the neighboring town of Yarisque told The Associated Press that Paruro is a small farming town of about 1,000 inhabitants. It is a two-hour drive from Cuzco.


Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov calls for ‘reset’ of relations with US
 
Lavrov says west sparked Ukraine conflict in its own interests, but that Moscow wants to improve relations with Washington
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has called for a “reset” with the United States, following statements by western leaders that their sanctions could be lifted if Russia works toward peace in Ukraine.
In an interview with Russian Channel Five, Lavrov accused the west of setting off the Ukraine conflict in the pursuit of its own interests but also said Russia wanted to improve relations with the US.
Western countries have imposed sanctions against Russia’s financial, oil and defence sectors over Moscow’s reported support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. Russia responded in August by banning food imports from Europe and North America.
“The main problem is that we’re absolutely interested in normalising these relations, but it wasn’t us who ruined them. And now we need what the Americans will probably call a ‘reset,’” Lavrov said. “Something else will probably be thought up, ‘reset number two’ or ‘reset 2.0.’”
Lavrov was referring to President Barack Obama’s initiative in 2009 to improve ties between the former cold war enemies, which started off on the wrong foot when then secretary of state Hillary Clinton presented Lavrov with a badge labeled “reset” that was misspelled in Russian to read “overload”. Any progress on improving relations was soon again set back by the US Magnitsky Act banning Russian officials implicated in the death of the whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky and Moscow’s retaliatory ban on adoptions by American families.
Lavrov’s comments come amid talk that the western sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis could be softened or even lifted. Obama said last week US sanctions could be lifted if Russia “changes course” and stops its “aggression” in Ukraine, where it has been accused of providing men and weapons to rebels in the eastern part of the country.
European council president, Herman Van Rompuy, has also said the EU could review its sanctions as early as the end of September if the peace plan for eastern Ukraine continues to move forward.
Related: Russia's Lavrov says time for a 'reset 2.0' in US ties


EU rejects Putin demand for Ukraine deal changes

Russian President Vladimir Putin's letter to European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso reportedly threatened retaliatory measures if the EU and Ukraine do not stick to their agreement with Moscow to delay the implementation of the deal until 2016.

BRUSSELS: The European Union said on Friday (Sep 26) that Russian President Vladimir Putin had written to Brussels demanding changes to a landmark EU-Ukraine accord, but it ruled out reopening the deal without Kiev's consent.
Putin's letter to European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso reportedly threatened retaliatory measures if the EU and Ukraine do not stick to their agreement with Moscow to delay the implementation of the deal until 2016.
The Ukrainian and European parliaments last week both ratified the association agreement, the rejection of which by then-president Viktor Yanukovych last year triggered the political crisis in the former Soviet state.
European Commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen confirmed that Barroso had received a letter from Putin about the deal and said Brussels "will of course decide on the best way to respond." But she pointed out that the controversial pact was a "bilateral agreement" between Kiev and Brussels.
"If there are any changes they have to be agreed between the EU and Ukraine," Hansen told a press briefing. "We are not seeking any changes to the agreement, Ukraine is free and sovereign to make choices in its interests."
The Association Accord, which includes a wide-ranging Free Trade Agreement, is at the heart of the bitter stand-off between the EU and Russia over the future of its Soviet-era satellite. Moscow has repeatedly charged that the tie-up damages its legitimate interests and its economy.
During trilateral talks between the EU, Ukraine and Russia on September 12, the EU announced unexpectedly that it had agreed to delay implementation of parts of the FTA to the end of 2015. The EU said it was a step to help bolster a ceasefire negotiated by Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on September 5. The trilateral talks, it insisted, were only about how to implement the accord and not about the content.
Moscow has since tried to widen the talks to include amendments to the Association Accord itself, EU sources said. Putin's letter "casts a much wider net" than any concerns raised during talks on the September 12 agreement, an EU source said.
The letter talks not only about specific trade issues but also about "systemic problems" with the Association Agreement, the source said. The clear impression is that Putin is seeking new concessions, the source said, adding: "The EU cannot accept that Russia decide for Ukraine."
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Madison Square Garden spot for India's Modi on US visit

Thousands of Indian-Americans have gathered at Madison Square Garden in New York for a speech by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He is on his first visit to the US since being elected this summer, when the US lifted a visa ban brought in on grounds of religious intolerance.
The former chief minister of Gujarat has always denied wrongdoing during deadly riots against Muslims in 2002.
He is due to meet President Barack Obama and top US business leaders.
Analysts say Mr Modi's visit has generated huge excitement among Indian-Americans who believe that he could help to portray India as a rising global power.
n an unusual display of glamour for a visiting foreign leader, Mr Modi took the stage at the New York venue made famous by the late rock star John Lennon and the boxer Muhammad Ali among others.
Speaking in Hindi from a rotating platform measuring 15m (yds) across, he told the crowd that the 21st Century was "Asia's century".
Mars mission Flagging up modern India's achievements, he singled out its success in sending a satellite to orbit Mars - a considerable achievement, says BBC science correspondent Jonathan Amos.
India, Mr Modi boasted, had travelled through space to Mars at a cost of "seven rupees [£0.07; $0.11; 0.09 euros] per kilometre, much cheaper than travelling a kilometre in Ahmedabad" (Gujarat's biggest city).
India, he said, should be proud of "three things - democracy, demographic dividend and demand".
Pushing his "Make In India" campaign, he said India offered human resources and low-cost production.
During his four-day visit, Mr Modi is expected to meet Mr Obama in Washington, and will see top leaders of Fortune 500 companies, including Google, IBM, GE and Boeing.
Delhi and Washington have strong security and trade ties, but relations deteriorated in recent months.
India's refusal to sign a global trade deal, a row over alleged American surveillance on the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a diplomatic spat involving an Indian envoy to the US are among some of the issues causing tension.

Secret Service handling of 2011 White House shooting reportedly angered Obamas

The Secret Service reportedly did not discover that the White House had been struck by at least seven bullets in a 2011 shooting incident until the damage was pointed out by an usher and did not interview witnesses until after the bullets were found. 
A report published Sunday by The Washington Post details the Secret Service response to the November 11, 2011 incident, in which Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez fired on the executive mansion from his car. It comes as the agency is having to answer more questions about their ability to protect the White House and the first family after a man with a knife hopped the fence and made it inside the North Portico doors last Friday. 
According to the paper, Secret Service personnel began to respond to the shots fired by Ortega-Hernandez, only to be told by a supervisor over the radio to stand down. The explosions, he believed, were only backfires from a nearby construction vehicle. 
Even after the fact that shots were fired had been confirmed, agency supervisors initially theorized that members of rival gangs in separate cars had gotten into a gunfight. At least one officer stationed near the White House that night told the Post that she was reluctant to state her belief that the mansion had been hit to her supervisors, claiming "fear of being criticized."
Because the Secret Service did not initially believe that the White House had been targeted, the Post reports, they were slow to put out national law enforcement bulletins for Ortega-Hernandez, who was not arrested until the following Wednesday, November 16, in Pennsylvania. The initial arrest warrant for Ortega-Hernandez was issued by U.S. Park Police, which oversees much of the area around the White House and had been given control of the initial investigation by the Secret Service.

Obama: U.S. Underestimated Threat Of Militants

President Barack Obama said Sunday he agrees with intelligence leaders who believe the United States not only underestimated the threat of militants seeking to form the Islamic State group but also overestimated the ability and will of the Iraqi army to fight.

Obama spoke to CBS' "60 Minutes" during an interview that is to air Sunday. The network released excerpts ahead of time. In the interview, Obama was asked how Islamic State group fighters were able to control so much land in Syria and Iraq. He said U.S. military forces with the help of Sunni tribes were able to quash al-Qaida fighters, who went "back underground."

"During the chaos of the Syrian civil war, where essentially you have huge swaths of the country that are completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos," Obama said.

He called Syria ground zero for jihadis around the world. He said military force is necessary to shrink their capacity, cut off financing and eliminate the flow of foreign fighters.

At the same time, political solutions are needed in the Middle East that accommodate both Sunnis and Shiites. He said conflicts between Islam's two largest sects are the biggest cause of conflict throughout the world.

Top Republican calls for US ground war amid fresh strikes on Isis

New US-led wave of bombing raids target Islamic State oil supplies as John Boehner ramps up military rhetoric
The Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, on Sunday ramped up the political rhetoric over Syria and Iraq by saying American forces will need to be put on the ground in the battle against the Islamic State (Isis).
Boehner’s comment that at some point “boots have to be on the ground” marks a significant inflation in the terms of the debate over how to deal with Isis. President Barack Obama has repeatedly said US ground forces will not be used in the conflict, which on Sunday saw US-led strikes in Syria and the first British strikes in Iraq, though the Pentagon has ordered the dispatch of 1,600 US troops to Iraq for what it insists will be training and other support functions.
Speaking to ABC News, Boehner criticised Obama’s plan to degrade and ultimately destroy Isis. “If the goal is to destroy Isil as the president says it is,” he said, “I don’t believe the strategy he outlines will accomplish it. At the end of the day I think it’s going to take more than airstrikes to drive them out – at some point somebody’s boots have to be on the ground, that’s the point.”
Asked whether such boots would need to be American ones if other countries failed to step up to the challenge, the top Republican in the House replied: “We have no choice. They intend to kill us. These are barbarians, if we don’t destroy them first we are going to pay the price.”
While Boehner introduced the idea of a ground war against Isis, the Obama administration continued to stress that it had no intention of being sucked back into an Iraqi war involving forces on the ground. Tony Blinken, the deputy national security adviser in the White House, told Fox News Sunday the air campaign in Syria and Iraq was totally different to the prolonged wars of the past decade.
“We are not sending hundreds of thousands of troops back to Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere else,” he said. “We are not going to be spending trillions of American dollars. What we are doing is supporting local forces with some of our unique assets – air power, training and equipment, intelligence. They will be doing the fighting on the ground.”

Cuba hands down 15-year sentence to Canadian executive 

A court in Cuba has sentenced the president of a Canadian transport company to 15 years in jail for bribery.
Cy Tokmakjian, 74, was detained in Cuba in 2011 as part an anti-corruption operation. He denies the charges.
The Tokmakjian Group said the court had seized its assets in Cuba, worth about $100m (£62m).
The company said the ruling was worrying development for potential investors on the Communist-run island.
"Lack of due process doesn't begin to describe the travesty of justice that is being suffered by foreign businessmen in Cuba," the company said in a statement.
Two other executives from the Tokmakjian Group - fellow Canadian citizens Claudio Vetere and Marco Puche - were sentenced to eight and 12 years in prison.
The Ontario-based company used to sell transportation, mining and construction equipment to Cuba.
There has been no comment on the case from the Cuban authorities.
Claims Its offices in Havana were seized in 2011 when President Raul Castro launched a major drive against corruption in the Caribbean nation.
Canadian MP Peter Kent visited Mr Tokmakjian in jail last year.
"The trial was, from almost any measure, extraordinarily unfair and rigged," Mr Kent told the Financial Post newspaper.
The Tokmakjian Group was the sole representative of South Korean company Hyundai in Cuba, which has been making efforts to replace its ageing car and bus fleet.

Child among 15 injured, one critically, in Miami nightclub shooting

Eleven-year-old child the youngest victim in gunfire that erupted at The Spot nightclub early on Sunday
Fifteen people were wounded in a shooting that sent terrified patrons scrambling from a Miami nightclub early Sunday, police said, adding the youngest victim is 11 years old.
When Miami police and rescue crews arrived at a club called The Spot, around 1am, they said they found chaos among a large crowd of adults and teenagers. Rescuers found wounded people inside and outside the club, reporting that some were too hurt to flee. At least one person was reported in critical condition but the extent of the other injuries wasn’t immediately known.
Some people were running, “people were screaming, people were saying they were shot,” said Miami fire rescue captain Ignatius Carroll said.
One male was found unresponsive and not breathing when emergency responders arrived. Five girls between 11 and 17 years old also suffered gunshot wounds, Carroll said.
Details were sparse in the hours after the shooting as investigators were seeking to piece together what happened.
“The investigators are still interviewing witnesses. They’re going from hospital to hospital,” police spokeswoman Frederica Burden said. She said it was not immediately clear how many shooters there were and what prompted the gunfire.
“What was very surprising to the responders was that these were kids that were out at one o’clock in the morning in a club and this type of violence took place where a bunch of kids were gathering … it’s very disturbing to see that,” Carroll said.
Authorities say one of the victims is in critical condition, but they had no immediate information on the extent of other injuries or the victims. At least three were transferred to a pediatric unit.
A spokeswoman for Jackson Memorial Hospital said she did not have permission from the victims to release their conditions.
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