NEWS,13.07.2013

Morales says US hacked Bolivian e-mails

Bolivia's leftist president Evo Morales on Saturday accused US intelligence of hacking into the e-mail accounts of top Bolivian officials, saying he had shut his own account down.
Latin American leaders have lashed out at Washington over recent revelations of vast surveillance programs, some of which allegedly targeted regional allies and adversaries alike.
Bolivia has joined Venezuela and Nicaragua in offering asylum to Edward Snowden, the former IT contractor for the US National Security Agency who publicized details of the programs and is now on the run from espionage charges.
Morales said that he learned about the alleged US e-mail snooping at the Mercosur regional summit in Montevideo earlier this week.
"Those US intelligence agents have accessed the e-mails of our most senior authorities in Bolivia, Morales said in a speech.
"It was recommended to me that I not use e-mail, and I've followed suit and shut it down," he said.
Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman told the same summit that more than 100 of his country's officials were under electronic surveillance from a nation he did not name.
Bolivia's Morales, who has long had a thorny relationship with the United States, speculated that Washington hoped to use the information in the e-mails to plan a future "invasion" of his country.
His allegations followed a diplomatic dust-up last week when, during a flight home from Moscow, European authorties diverted Morales's plane to Austria and searched it after rumours that he had Snowden on board.
Morales renewed his offer of asylum to Snowden on Saturday, saying La Paz would follow all "diplomatic norms and international accords" in the case.
The 30-year-old intelligence leaker has been stranded in an airport transit zone in the Russian capital since 23 June.
Snowden is seeking to avoid US espionage charges for revealing vast surveillance programs to collect phone and internet data.
US authorities say the revelations threatened national security, insisting the secret programs are fully legal and have helped foil dozens of terrorist attacks.

Russia: No asylum application from Snowden

Russian immigration officials say they have not received an application from Edward Snowden, the US National Security Agency leaker who wants to get asylum in Russia.

Snowden came to Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport on 23 June from Hong Kong, apparently intending to board a flight to Cuba. But he did not get on that flight and is believed to have spent the last three weeks marooned in the airport's transit zone.

On Friday, he met there with human rights activists and said he would seek Russian asylum, at least as a temporary measure before going to Venezuela, Bolivia or Nicaragua, all of which have offered him asylum.

But the Interfax news agency quoted Russian migration service head Konstantin Romodanovsky as saying no asylum request had been received as of Saturday.

US Homeland Security chief resigns

US Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said on Friday she was resigning to take up a job in academia, opening up a surprise vacancy in President Barack Obama's cabinet.
Napolitano, a former governor of Arizona, said she was being nominated as the president of the University of California, and had served as Homeland Security secretary since Obama took office in 2009.
"I thank President Obama for the chance to serve our nation during this important chapter in our history," Napolitano said in a statement.
"I know the Department of Homeland Security will continue to perform its important duties with the honour and focus that the American public expects."
Napolitano leaves at a crucial moment with a bid to reform the US immigration system under discussion in Congress.
The Homeland Security department plays a key role enforcing US border security, as well as protecting the United States from terrorist threats.
Obama said in a statement that Napolitano had met some of the "toughest challenges" facing the United States.
"The American people are safer and more secure thanks to Janet's leadership in protecting our homeland against terrorist attacks," he said.

Belfast Riots Injure 32 Police Officers

Hundreds of police reinforcements from Britain were deployed on Belfast's rubble-strewn streets Saturday after Protestant riots over a blocked march left 32 officers, a senior lawmaker and at least eight rioters wounded.
Northern Ireland's police commander, Chief Constable Matt Baggott, blamed leaders of the Orange Order brotherhood for inciting six hours of running street battles in two parts of Belfast that subsided early Saturday. He derided their leadership as reckless and said they had no plan for controlling crowds they had summoned.
The anti-Catholic fraternity's annual July 12 marches always raise tensions with the Irish Catholic minority. Over each of the previous four years, Irish republican militants in Ardoyne have attacked police after an Orange parade passed by that Catholic district in north Belfast, the most bitterly divided part of the capital.
This year British authorities ordered Orangemen to avoid the stretch of road nearest Ardoyne, an order that police enforced by blocking their parade route with seven armored vehicles. Orange leaders took that as a challenge and rallied thousands of supporters to the spot, where some attacked the vehicles and the lines of heavily armored officers behind them.
Baggott said the Orange leaders behaved recklessly and should not duck responsibility for the mayhem.
"Having called thousands of people to protest, they had no plan and no control," said Baggott, an Englishman who has commanded the Police Service of Northern Ireland since 2009.
Orange leaders insisted the blockade decision was the problem, not the alcohol-fueled fury of their own members. But they backed off their original threat to mount indefinite street protests across Northern Ireland and ordered a suspension of protests early Saturday. The order's leaders declined requests for interviews.
That climb-down came too late for north Belfast's Protestant member of British Parliament, Nigel Dodds. An Orangeman himself, Dodds had gone to the riot's front line to appeal for calm and ended up getting knocked unconscious by a brick that fell short of police lines. He was released from the hospital Saturday.
The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said it ferried eight wounded civilians from the riots. But other rioters undoubtedly nursed their wounds away from hospitals, because those admitted for riot-related injuries can be identified and arrested by police.
Britain's Cabinet minister for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers, said it was "vitally important for the Orange Order to make clear now that their protests have come to an end. It would be disastrous if we were to see a recurrence of last night's violence over the next few days."
On Saturday, Baggott received 400 more officers from England, Scotland and Wales to boost his force's overall strength on the streets above 5,000, including more than 600 officers already imported from Britain.
This is the first time police from other parts of the United Kingdom have been deployed against Northern Ireland rioters. The approach stems from Northern Ireland's recent peaceful hosting of the Group of Eight summit, when officers from Britain received anti-riot training before that brief, uneventful assignment here last month.
But the sudden need for reinforcements also suggests that the Northern Ireland police, though riot-savvy and heavily armed, lack sufficient numbers to cope with their homeland's seasonal flare-ups of mob violence.
Since the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998, Northern Ireland police numbers have been cut nearly in half and, since 2007, British troops have stopped providing backup as part of wider efforts to make the country seem normal. Reform of the once-overwhelmingly Protestant force has, within a decade, produced an organization with 30 percent Catholic officers today.
Such rapid change has rattled Protestants and influenced their rising alienation from the police, most vividly demonstrated during widespread street blockades throughout December and January. The trigger then was a surprise decision by Catholic members of Belfast City Council to sharply reduce the flying of the British flag outside City Hall. As with the increasing restrictions on Orange parade routes, Protestants saw the public space for their British identity being challenged as never before.
During Friday's street fighting, rioters shouted anti-Catholic and anti-Irish epithets at officers and mocked their allegiance by draping their vehicles in the green, white and orange flags of the Republic of Ireland.
The Orange Order, founded in 1795 at a time of rising economic competition with Catholics, long served as an essential umbrella for politicians to unite Protestants from many bickering denominations into one powerful force. Without the order, Northern Ireland might have lacked the organizational muscle necessary for the territory's creation in 1921, months before the mostly Catholic rest of Ireland won independence from Britain.
Their July 12 parades officially commemorate a 17th-century battlefield victory over Catholics. But in practical terms, the mass military-themed mobilizations including 550 on Friday alone provide a graphic annual test of whether Protestants still wield control in a land where the government and police for decades were almost exclusively Protestant.
These days, most of Belfast has a growing Catholic majority and Protestant communities must hold their ground with high walls of brick, steel and barbed wire called "peace lines." The Northern Ireland unity government forged by the 1998 peace deal is half Catholic by design, with a former Irish Republican Army commander as co-leader. And a British-appointed Parades Commission, stubbornly boycotted by Orange leaders, wields the power to impose restrictions that police must enforce.

Spain's Running Of The Bulls: 23 Injured During Stampede

The penultimate bull run of Spain's San Fermin festival left at least 23 people injured Saturday, when thrill-seekers fleeing the beasts were crushed at the narrow entrance to the bullring, officials said. Two of the injuries were gorings.
As the huge animals thundered into the entrance of the tunnel, they were blocked by a mound of dozens of people who had fallen and were piled on top of one other.
One bull that had fallen before the entrance got up and charged into the clogged passageway. Two steers jumped over the pile of people as they began to get up and flee.
A gate normally used to let regional police into ringside positions was pushed wide open by a flood of runners, causing an obstruction for others trying to enter the main arena, Interior Ministry regional spokesman Javier Morras said.
"We all know that alley is a funnel and a critically dangerous point at the entrance to the ring," Morras said. "Pileups there are one of the biggest risks that can occur in the running of the bulls," he said.
The blockage ended after attendants managed to let the beasts escape through a side door normally reserved for matadors.
Javier Sesma, a health spokesman for Navarra province, said two of the 23 injured people were gored by bulls and that the others were hurt in the stampede.
Sesma said one runner, a 19-year-old Spaniard from Vitoria city, was seriously injured when his thorax was crushed at the bull ring entrance. An Irish citizen also suffered asphyxia.
"His situation remains very grave, but he appears to be evolving favorably," Sesma said of the Spaniard. "We are hopeful. His life was at risk, but he is now more stable."
One person was gored in his buttock and another in an armpit during the 928-yard (850-meter) dash through Pamplona's narrow streets, the official said. Neither injury was serious, said the Navarra government, which organizes the annual festivities. One of those gored had received treatment in one of the two operating rooms at the bullring, Sesma said.
The rest of the injured sustained cuts and bruises.
Sesma said one spectator had a heart attack while watching the stampede. By early afternoon, nine of the injured had been discharged from hospitalization, Sesma said.
On Friday, the festival drew widespread attention when an American college student and two Spaniards were gored, and videos and photos of the attacks were seen around the world. Sesma said the American patient was "evolving favorably" in a hospital Saturday.
The number of revelers attending the festival tends to swell at weekends, causing the narrow streets of Pamplona to be thronged with runners, increasing the risk of pileups and injuries.
The festival in this northern city dates back to the late 16th century and also is known for its all-night street parties.
The runs, eight in all, are the highlight of a nine-day street festival to honor Pamplona's patron saint, San Fermin.
Each morning, six fighting bulls and six bell-tinkling steers that try to keep the beasts together head from stables to the ring where matadors will star in late afternoon bullfights.
The festivities, which end Sunday, were made famous by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises."
The fiesta attracts tens of thousands of young people, many from abroad, eager to mix alcohol with the adrenaline of running alongside the massive bulls at 8 o'clock every morning.
Dozens of people are injured each year, with gorings often producing the most dramatic injuries.
The last fatal goring happened in 2009.

Singapore Suicide Rate Hit Record High In 2012

Suicides in Singapore hit an all-time high of 487 in 2012 as more young people bogged down by stress and relationship woes took their own lives, a charity group dealing with the problem said Friday.
The tally, a 29 percent increase from the 2011 total, was boosted by an 80 percent rise in the 20-29 age bracket, the Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) said in a statement.
"Common problems presented by this group of people involved stressful life events, and interpersonal relationship issues," said SOS, which aims to prevent suicides by providing emotional support through private counselling and a 24-hour telephone hotline.
"These include unemployment, stress with studies or work, financial worries, family life, and struggles with social interactions and feelings of loneliness."
Christine Wong, executive director of SOS, said young people under stress "tend to hide their pain behind a facade, not knowing where, how or who they can approach for help".
"People around them may not be aware of their distress and are hence unable to provide the support needed," she said in the statement.
Wong added that the community should play an important role in "de-stigmatising" suicide by encouraging those under stress to talk about their struggles and suicidal feelings.
SOS received 39,994 calls on its telephone hotline in 2012, down from 40,025 in 2011.
Suicides cases have consistently hovered around two percent of total deaths in Singapore, an affluent city-state of 5.3 million residents known for its pressure-laden school system.
Despite a virtually full employment rate, Singapore also has a highly competitive work environment.
Suicide is an offence in the compact island-state, and anyone who survives an attempt faces a jail term of up to a year, a fine or both.
The World Health Organisation last year said one million people commit suicide every year worldwide, accounting for more deaths than wars and murders put together.
The number of suicide attempts is five times higher, it said, with five percent of the people in the world having tried to kill themselves at least once during their lifetime.

NEWS,17.06.2013

Poll shows confidence in Obama slipping

Confidence in President Barack Obama has dropped below 50% to its lowest level in 19 months as Americans worry over broad government surveillance and other controversies, a poll showed Monday.
The tumbling approval numbers come as the White House faces criticism about a domestic program that gathers data on millions of Americans, the US tax agency's targeting of conservative groups which applied for tax-exempt status, and secret collection of journalists' phone records.
Obama's approval rating has now dropped to 45%, an eight-point slide since mid-May, according to CNN which conducted the survey.
Some 54% of the public say they disapprove of how the president is handling his job, marking the first time since November 2011 that a CNN poll showed a majority of Americans with a negative view of Obama.
It shows that for the first time in Obama's presidency, half of Americans do not believe he is honest and trustworthy.
"The drop in Obama's support is fueled by a dramatic 17-point decline over the past month among people under 30, who, along with black Americans, had been the most loyal part of the Obama coalition," CNN polling director Keating Holland said.
Fifty-one percent of respondents say that the existing National Security Agency program that scoops up a billion phone records per day - a programme leaked by a former defense contractor - is appropriate as part of counter-terrorism efforts.
But 43% say Obama has crossed the line in restricting civil liberties in order to fight terrorism, according to the telephone poll of 1 014 people 11-13 June.
"It is clear that revelations about NSA surveillance programs have damaged Obama's standing with the public, although older controversies like the IRS matter may have begun to take their toll as well," Holland said.
Obama opponents have seized on an inspector's damning May report which concluded that Internal Revenue Service agents inappropriately targeted tea party groups, to highlight abuse of power by the administration.
They also pointed to the White House's handling of a deadly attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya last 11 September, and revelations that the Justice Department ordered the seizure of reporters' phone records as part of a leak probe.
Number two House Republican Eric Cantor told CNN that the poll sends a "troubling" message to Obama in that the public is witnessing "a government that has abused its power, and, frankly, has lost focus on the issue that most Americans care about, which is getting people back to work".
But he held fire on the surveillance programmes themselves, saying he believed they strike a balance between civil liberties and national security.

Obama: Make peace permanent in N Ireland

US President Barack Obama on Monday urged young people in Northern Ireland to finish making "permanent peace" and set an example to other parts of the world stricken by religious conflict, violence and war.

Obama, accompanied by his wife Michelle, stopped in Belfast before leaving for the G8 summit, which is being held at a secluded lakeside hotel not far from the site of one of the worst killings in the province's conflict.

A 1998 peace agreement largely ended more than three decades of violence in the British-controlled province between mainly Catholic Irish nationalists seeking union with Ireland and predominantly Protestant unionists who want to remain part of the United Kingdom.

But militant nationalists, who include former operatives who split from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) after it declared a ceasefire, still stage sporadic gun and bomb attacks.

‘A courageous path toward permanent peace’

US leaders have a long history of promoting peace in Northern Ireland and Obama was eager to put his stamp on the issue.

"If you continue your courageous path toward a permanent peace...that won't just be good for you. It will be good for this entire island, for the United Kingdom, for Europe, and it will be good for the world," he told an amphitheatre packed with students.

Obama said people experiencing ethnic, religious, and tribal conflict elsewhere in the world were watching what was happening in Northern Ireland.

"You are their blueprint to follow," he said. "You are their proof of what's possible. Hope is contagious. They're watching to see what you do next."

He did not specifically mention the war in Syria, which is expected to dominate part of the discussions among leaders at the G8.

The summit site is 8km from Enniskillen, where an IRA bomb tore through a mainly Protestant crowd at a memorial service for Britain's war dead in 1987, killing 11 and wounding 63.

The deaths rocked support among Irish Catholics for the IRA and pushed its leaders towards dialogue with Unionists, which lead to a ceasefire and the peace deal.

‘Your choice’

The summit host, British Prime Minister David Cameron, is gambling that the remnants of the IRA are too weak to trouble the visiting leaders.

Obama said there was a time when no one could imagine that such a summit could be held in Northern Ireland.

He encouraged the students to move forward with the progress made by their political leaders and parents who helped achieve peace.

"Ultimately, whether your communities deal with the past and face the future united, together, isn't something you have to wait for somebody else to do that's a choice you have to make right now," he said.

Snowden dismisses claim he is Chinese spy

The young intelligence technician who leaked details of the vast US programme to monitor private internet traffic on Monday dismissed claims that he was working as a Chinese agent.
"This is a predictable smear that I anticipated before going public," Edward Snowden said in an online interview hosted by the Guardian newspaper in which he was asked why he had gone to Hong Kong before making his revelations.
Earlier, AP reported that Snowden defended his disclosure of top-secret US spying programs in an online chat and attacked US officials for calling him a traitor.

He adds the government will not silence him by jailing or, in his words, murdering him.

The Guardian said that its website hosted an online chat with Snowden, in hiding in Hong Kong, with reporter Glenn Greenwald receiving and posting his questions.

Snowden says he did not reveal any US operations against what he called legitimate military targets, but instead showed the NSA is hacking civilian infrastructure like universities and private businesses.

US officials say the data-gathering programmess were legal and operated under court supervision.

An e-mail to the NSA for comment was not immediately returned.

Merkel: US helped foil terror plot

Germany's chancellor says US intelligence was key to foiling a large-scale terror plot, acknowledging her country is "dependent" on co-operating with American spy services.

But Angela Merkel also told broadcaster RTL on Monday that she was "surprised" to learn of the scope of recently leaked US spying programmes.
Merkel said the US must clarify what information on people's communications is monitored and how, reiterating that she will raise the issue in talks with President Barack Obama in Berlin on Wednesday.
However, Merkel said security services could have not foiled a 2007 terror plot without "tips from American sources".
Four Islamic extremists were then arrested while preparing an explosive device with power equivalent to more than 400kg of TNT that authorities said was meant to attack American soldiers and citizens in Germany.