Gazette 101414

Tuesday October 14th 2014

One American Killed, Another Wounded In Attack In Saudi Capital Riyadh

RIYADH, Oct 14 (Reuters) - A U.S. national was shot dead and another wounded in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh on Tuesday, police said, in what appeared to be the first killing of a Westerner in years in a gun attack in the kingdom.
Police later shot and wounded an assailant and then arrested him, said the brief statement, carried by state media.
"The attack resulted in the killing of one person and wounding another and it turned out they were of American citizenship," it said.
Police said the attack happened when the two stopped their vehicle at a filling station in an eastern district of the capital.
The last reported killings of Westerners by armed assailants in Saudi Arabia happened in 2007 when three French nationals were shot dead while camping in the northwest of the country. 

Islamic State crisis: Kurds 'recapture key Kobane hill'

Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State (IS) say they have recaptured a strategically important hilltop west of Kobane on Syria's border with Turkey.

The advances were made after a series of air strikes by the US-led coalition.
The hill, Tall Shair, was captured more than 10 days ago by IS militants, who have besieged the area for a month.
Later on Tuesday, US President Barack Obama will hold talks with military chiefs from more than 20 countries on how to combat IS in Syria and Iraq.
Correspondents say the meeting in Washington is the first time such high-ranking military officials from so many countries have come together since the US-led coalition was formed last month.
In a separate development, Turkish warplanes on Monday bombed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebel targets in Hakkari province near the Iraqi border, causing "heavy casualties", Turkish media report.
If confirmed, this would be the first major air raid by Turkey on the PKK since a ceasefire was reached in March in 2013.
Suicide bombings The battle for Kobane, a predominantly Kurdish town, has emerged as a major test of whether the coalition's air campaign can push back IS.
Two weeks of air strikes against IS targets in and around Kobane have allowed Kurdish fighters to slow the jihadists' advance, but Turkish and Western leaders have warned that the town is still likely to fall.

Fear and firepower: Bloodlust biggest weapon in ISIS arsenal

The terrorist army of Islamic State has missiles, tanks and bombs, but the potent weapon that allows a relatively small force to keep much of Iraq and Syria in its grip is bloodlust - in the form of beheadings, crucifixions and mass executions.
An army estimated at 25,000 - roughly the size of one U.S. division - is at war with Syria, has a large city near the Turkish border under siege and is believed to have set its sights on Baghdad. It also controls cities, roads and territory nearly the size of Great Britain, some 81,000 square miles, according to The National Counterterrorism Center.

Experts say the key to Islamic State's ability to project such power with relatively small numbers is the sheer brutality it uses to strike fear in the hearts of enemies. The beheadings of U.S. and British journalists and aid workers have shocked the west, but in northern Iraq and Syria, entire villages have come to fear the same fate, meted out without warnings or slickly produced videos.

ISIS May Have Chemical Weapons

WASHINGTON -- The Islamic State militant group may possess chemical weapons that it has already used to extend its self-proclaimed caliphate, according to photos taken by Kurdish activists and examined by Israeli researchers.
The group, making gains in Iraq and Syria, may have captured chemical agents in Iraq in June and used them in July to kill three Kurdish fighters in the strategically important region of Kobani in northwest Syria, suggests a report released Sunday by the Global Research in International Affairs Center, a branch of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.
If verified, Islamic State's possession of unconventional weapons could make international efforts against it more urgent, and bolster claims that the world has not responded quickly or powerfully enough to the threat. The group, also known as ISIS, has intensified its effort to conquer Kobani over the past month, and battles there have attracted global attention as the region's defenders -- both Kurds and U.S.-backed rebels -- have urged international help.

Airstrikes hit ISIS positions, oil refineries in Syria, activists say

MURSITPINAR, Turkey –  Activists say the U.S.-led coalition has launched several airstrikes on positions of Islamic State group militants in northern and eastern Syria, most on the town of Kobani near Turkey.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees say some of the airstrikes targeted the eastern town of Mayadeen.

The Observatory said the airstrikes struck oil refineries near Mayadeen, sparking a huge fire.
The group and Idriss Nassan, a local Kurdish official from Kobani, said Tuesday that intense airstrikes hit members of the Islamic State group around the town.
Nassan said Kurdish militiamen captured the Tel Shair hill that overlooks the town and brought down the black flag of the Islamic State group.
Kobani has been under attack for about a month.

Iraq: Shia militias 'killing Sunnis in reprisal attacks'

Shia militias in Iraq have kidnapped and killed scores of Sunni civilians in recent months, a report by campaign group Amnesty International has said.

The killings were in apparent revenge for attacks by Islamic State (IS).
Amnesty said the militias had been supported and armed by the Iraqi government and operated with impunity.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who took office last month, has admitted to previous "excesses" by security forces and vowed to govern for all Iraqis.
On Monday, the United Nations warned that as many as 180,000 people had fled fighting between Iraqi forces and IS militants in and around the city of Hit in western Anbar province.
US President Barack Obama and military chiefs from more than 20 countries are meeting in Washington to discuss how to stop IS in Iraq and Syria.

Report: Turkish Jets Hit Kurdish Rebel Targets

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish warplanes have struck suspected Kurdish rebel positions in southeastern Turkey, media reports said Tuesday, the first major airstrikes against the rebel group since peace talks began two years ago to end a 30-year insurgency.
Turkish media had varying accounts, but the private Dogan news agency said Turkish F-16 jets hit Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, targets in Hakkari province, near the border with Iraq on Monday. A military statement said the armed forces had responded "in the strongest way" to shelling of a military outpost by the rebels, without specifying that airstrikes were launched.
Firat news agency, which is close to the PKK, confirmed the airstrikes, saying at least five locations around Hakkari were targeted. The agency had a different version of events, however, saying that the military had attacked rebel fighters in the region with artillery for three days, forcing the PKK to retaliate by firing at a military unit.

Iran could pose a greater threat than Isis, says Andrew Nikolic

Liberal figure believes the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran would dwarf that posed by Islamic State

The Liberal backbencher and former army commander Andrew Nikolic has warned that Iran presents a potentially worse threat than Islamic State (Isis), one that may require an urgent military response.
On the day that Tony Abbott threatened to “shirtfront” Vladimir Putin, Nikolic described Iran, Russia and North Korea as the “maverick trifecta” of “problem states”.
“Admittedly, Isil casts a long and fearful shadow, but there are potentially worse – albeit quieter – threats lurking, which also demand urgent attention,” Nikolic wrote for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Ukraine far right battles police at parliament in Kiev

Ukrainian nationalists have hurled smoke canisters and stones at riot police during clashes outside the parliament in Kiev.

Violence erupted when the protesters demanded that MPs pass a law to recognise a World War II nationalist group which opposed Soviet forces.
Fifteen policemen were injured and at least 50 protesters had been arrested, the Ukrainian interior ministry said.
MPs did not vote to recognise the wartime Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
Most of the crowd has now dispersed. Police used batons in the clashes and linked arms to protect the parliament.
At least one petrol bomb was thrown at the parliament building in the unrest and there are unconfirmed reports that some bullets were fired.
Reporting the injuries and arrests, interior ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook that "the clashes at the Supreme Rada [parliament] have just ended" and "the police used a degree of force allowed by law".
Among the many Ukrainian flags in the crowd there were also flags of the far-right Svoboda and Right Sector groups. Both groups later denied that their supporters had been involved in the violence.
UPA members fought for Ukrainian independence in the war, but recognising their role is highly controversial, the BBC's David Stern reports from Kiev. 

Kim Jong Un mystery: Health questions remain as leader resurfaces with cane

SEOUL, South Korea –  After vanishing from the public eye for nearly six weeks, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is back, ending rumors that he was gravely ill, deposed or worse.
Now, a new, albeit smaller, mystery has emerged: Why the cane?

Kim, who was last seen publicly at a Sept. 3 concert, appeared in images released by state media Tuesday smiling broadly and supporting himself with a walking stick while touring the newly built Wisong Scientists Residential District and another new institute in Pyongyang, part of his regular "field guidance" tours. The North didn't say when the visit happened, nor did it address the leader's health.
Kim's appearance allowed the country's massive propaganda apparatus to continue doing what it does best — glorify the third generation of Kim family rule. And it will tamp down, at least for the moment, rampant rumors of a coup and serious health problems.
Before Tuesday, Kim missed several high-profile events that he normally attends and was described in an official documentary last month as experiencing "discomfort."
Archive footage from August showed him overweight and limping, prompting the South Korean media to speculate he had undergone surgery on his ankles. Some experts thought he was suffering from gout or diabetes.
A South Korean analyst said Kim probably broke his media silence to dispel outside speculation that he wasn't in control and to win sympathy from a domestic audience by creating the image of a leader who works through pain.

Ebola outbreak: UN health worker dies in Germany hospital

A UN medical worker infected with Ebola has died at a hospital in Germany.

Doctors at the hospital in Leipzig said the man, 56, originally from Sudan, died despite receiving experimental drugs to treat the virus.
More than 4,400 people have died from the outbreak, mainly in West Africa.
The rate of new cases at some of the "epicentre" areas has slowed down, the World Health Organization says, but the number of cases in the capitals of the worst-affected countries is rising.
Senior WHO official Bruce Aylward told reporters on Monday that the outbreak was also continuing to spread geographically to new districts in the capitals of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Elsewhere:

• The US and UK are among countries to have introduced scanning at airports
• A Spanish nurse remains in critical condition after becoming the first person to contract the disease outside of Africa last week, although doctors say there are signs of improvement
• UN Ebola mission leader Tony Banbury has called for massive support from governments worldwide, saying: "We need everything. We need it everywhere, and we need it superfast." 

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Dozens arrested in Ferguson protests

Nearly 50 people have been arrested at protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the shooting of an unarmed black teenager two months ago.

Civil rights activist Cornel West was among those held after he led a march to the police station.
Riot police lined up outside the building and arrests were made when people tried to break the line.
The protests were part of four days of events called "Ferguson October", which calls for an end to police brutality.
Demonstrators also demanded that charges be brought against the white officer who killed Michael Brown, 18, at the start of August.

Debt Collectors Harass Americans Even After They've Lost Their Homes To Banks

NEW YORK, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Many thousands of Americans who lost their homes in the housing bust, but have since begun to rebuild their finances, are suddenly facing a new foreclosure nightmare: debt collectors are chasing them down for the money they still owe by freezing their bank accounts, garnishing their wages and seizing their assets.

By now, banks have usually sold the houses. But the proceeds of those sales were often not enough to cover the amount of the loan, plus penalties, legal bills and fees. The two big government-controlled housing finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as other mortgage players, are increasingly pressing borrowers to pay whatever they still owe on mortgages they defaulted on years ago.

Using a legal tool known as a "deficiency judgment," lenders can ensure that borrowers are haunted by these zombie-like debts for years, and sometimes decades, to come. Before the housing bubble, banks often refrained from seeking deficiency judgments, which were seen as costly and an invitation for bad publicity. Some of the biggest banks still feel that way.

But the housing crisis saddled lenders with more than $1 trillion of foreclosed loans, leading to unprecedented losses. Now, at least some large lenders want their money back, and they figure it's the perfect time to pursue borrowers: many of those who went through foreclosure have gotten new jobs, paid off old debts and even, in some cases, bought new homes.

"Just because they don't have the money to pay the entire mortgage, doesn't mean they don't have enough for a deficiency judgment," said Florida foreclosure defense attorney Michael Wayslik.

Advocates for the banks say that the former homeowners ought to pay what they owe. Consumer advocates counter that deficiency judgments blast those who have just recovered from financial collapse back into debt - and that the banks bear culpability because they made the unsustainable loans in the first place.

US readiness to handle Ebola virus questioned after Texas nurse's infection

It is not yet clear how Nina Pham became infected with deadly virus, but CDC chief said it was likely breach of protocol

• Dallas nurse gets blood transfusion from Ebola survivor

The revelation that a nurse who treated Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas was diagnosed with Ebola after an apparent breach in protocols has cast doubts over whether US hospitals are adequately prepared to deal with the deadly virus.
It is not clear how the nurse became infected, but the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Tom Frieden, said it was likely a breach in infection control protocol. The CDC is urgently reviewing whether its procedures are adequate.
“We need to rethink the way we address Ebola infection control because even a single infection is unacceptable,” Frieden said in a media briefing.
Federal health officials in Dallas are investigating the circumstances that led to the first case of Ebola transmission in the US. According to medical records, the nurse, Nina Pham, was among about 70 staff members at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who contracted the disease before arriving in the US.
Frieden said on Monday that health officials will be on hand at the Dallas hospital to help workers remove their gear after leaving the isolation room where the nurse is being treated. The CDC is monitoring all hospital workers who treated Duncan and planned to “double down” on training and outreach on how to safely treat Ebola patients, Frieden said. He could not provide a number of health care workers under surveillance.

Kmart shops hit by payment card hack attack

Cash registers at 1,200 Kmart stores were infected with malware that scooped up payment card numbers for over a month, reports the retailer.

In a statement, Kmart said the security breach was discovered on 9 October and that the malware had been operating since early September.
An initial investigation suggests the cyber-thieves stole credit and debit card numbers.
So far, it is not clear how many cards and customers have been affected.
Retail target In its statement, Kmart said no personal information, pin codes, email addresses or social security numbers were taken with the card numbers.
The malware has now been removed and the breach contained, it said, but it was continuing its investigation to gauge its full impact.
It added that there was no evidence that any of the card numbers stolen were being used to create counterfeit cards and land victims with bills for items they did not buy.
Despite this, Kmart said it would be offering free credit monitoring protection for customers to ensure any fraudulent use of their cards did not affect their credit score.
The US Secret Service, which leads investigations into financial fraud, is known to be investigating the case.
"I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our members and customers," said Alasdair James, president of Kmart, in the statement.
News about the Kmart breach comes soon after the Dairy Queen restaurant chain revealed that some of its outlets across 46 US states were hit by hackers. Malware was used to steal names, card numbers and expiration dates of payment cards at 395 restaurants. 

Trial begins for former UBS banker accused of helping US wealthy hide $20B from IRS

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. –  Jury selection is set to begin for the trial of a former top executive at Swiss bank UBS AG on charges of helping thousands of wealthy Americans conceal some $20 billion in assets from the Internal Revenue Service.
Raoul Weil faces up to five years in prison if convicted of fraud conspiracy. Jury selection begins Tuesday morning in Fort Lauderdale federal court for a trial expected to last several weeks.

Weil was formerly head of wealth management at UBS. He was originally indicted in 2008 and was a fugitive until his 2013 arrest in Italy. Weil pleaded not guilty after his extradition to the U.S.
In 2009, UBS paid a $780 million fine and agreed to turn over names of customers suspected of evading U.S. taxes. Many were later prosecuted.
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'Republican cuts kill': Advert politicises Ebola

With the Ebola outbreak in Africa and subsequent appearance of the disease on US soil coming in the middle of US congressional campaigns, it was only a matter of time before the subject became a topic of political discussion.

Debate has centred around whether recent reductions to US public health funding have had an adverse effect on the government's ability to respond to the disease and, if so, who deserves the blame.
Last week former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US response to the Ebola crisis has been at least partially hampered by budget cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approved by Congress.
"They're working heroically, but they don't have the resources they used to have," she said.

Continue reading the main story

Detroit bankruptcy center stage in tight Michigan gubernatorial race

The historic Detroit bankruptcy is playing a lead role in the Michigan gubernatorial race, as Republican Gov. Rick Snyder defends the decision to hand the city and its backbreaking financial problems over to an emergency manager who opened the door to controversial cuts. 
At a recent debate at Wayne State University in Detroit, Democratic challenger Mark Schauer pounced on the decision to bring in emergency manager Kevin Orr and ultimately cut what had been considered sacred: pension obligations to city employees. 

"I would have personally led rather than having an unelected, unaccountable person do it, and I never would have thrown Detroit, pensioners, police officers and firefighters under the bus," Schauer said. 
But just a few weeks out from Election Day, Snyder is not backing down from his decisions aimed at saving the Motor City. He notes the city was $18 billion in the hole and claims his plans are working. 
"That was one of the toughest decisions to be made in the United States," Snyder said Sunday. "It was the right decision to make. Look at where we are today. We're within a month to two months of coming out of bankruptcy."

Mitch McConnell: I Didn't Earn My Millions, I Inherited Them!

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) doesn't deny that he's rich. But what stuck in his craw Monday night was his Democratic opponent's insinuation that he had earned his wealth using his position as senator. An outraged McConnell clarified for debate viewers how he became a millionaire: He and his wife inherited the money.
The pointed exchange between McConnell and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) came when moderator Bill Goodman, host of the program "Kentucky Tonight," asked the two candidates whether they believe the current minimum wage ($7.25 an hour) is a living wage.
McConnell replied that the "minimum wage is largely an entry-level wage." He argued that raising it to $10.10 an hour -- as many Democrats would like -- would lead to "destroying jobs for young people." (In fact, according to the Economic Policy Institute, 88 percent of workers who would benefit from a higher minimum wage are older than 20.)

Grimes, however, said the country needed to "increase the minimum wage so that it is a living wage. $7.25 an hour does not allow a family of four to actually rise above poverty level."
She then blasted McConnell for not caring about the interests of low-income residents of the state: "He's gotten rich while consistently voting to keep Kentucky poor, and we can't have a senator like that any longer."

McConnell then jumped in to defend his honor:Continue reading...

Obama meets foreign military chiefs to discuss Isis strategy

US president gathers foreign defence chiefs at Andrews air force base in attempt to strengthen coalition response to crisis

Barack Obama is to discuss the US-led strategy to counter Islamic State (Isis) with military leaders from 20 countries including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, amid growing pressure for the US-led coalition to do more to stop the militants’ advance.
President Obama will attend a meeting on Tuesday led by Gen Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, with foreign defence chiefs at Andrews air force base outside Washington.
“It is part of ongoing efforts to build the coalition and integrate the capabilities of each country into the broader strategy,” said Alistair Baskey, spokesman for the White House national security council.
The meeting comes after the US-led coalition launched air strikes on Monday evening on Isis positions in Syria, most on the town of Kobani near Turkey.
The coalition’s strategy is being called into question. The Republican senator John McCain, a frequent Obama critic, said on Sunday that “they’re winning and we’re not”, referring to Isis.
The UN said on Monday that fighting in Iraq’s western Anbar province had forced up to 180,000 people to flee after Isis captured the city of Hit.
“This is a long campaign. It hasn’t gone badly, but it certainly hasn’t gone well,” said Anthony Cordesman, national security analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
“It is very important, quite aside from trying to show Americans that he’s [Obama is] leading, that he shows other countries he’s committed,” Cordesman said, adding that the defence officials from abroad were in many cases more involved in setting policy than their US military counterparts.

‘Unemployed’ man in Dem attack ad is actually employed

The Democratic Governors Association has again run into trouble with one of the ads it is funding, this time using a picture of a man employed by a company that has praised Maine Republican Governor Paul LePage to represent one of the state’s unemployed.
The ad comes from Maine Forward PAC, a group funded largely by the DGA, which threw nearly $1 million into the group in September alone. The DGA was one of the founding organizations for the PAC, along with some of Maine’s largest labor unions.

The ad attempts to paint a somber picture of Maine’s economic situation, and blames LePage for the state’s 40,000 unemployed individuals. But the main image used to represent the unemployed is a man named Roger Gay who is not unemployed at all.
Not only does Gay have a job, but his employer, General Dynamics, has praised the economic policies of LePage’s administration.
The company was featured in Mainebiz as one of the companies that has greatly benefitted from economic initiatives created by LePage.
“It’s nice to know there are these initiatives going on that are going to address the need to develop the work force,” said Chuck Bates, a manager at General Dynamics, referring to a work-force development strategy crafted by LePage designed to address Maine’s worker skill gap.
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