uawchild
uawchild's JournalUp to 20 dead as northern Mali fighting threatens peace deal
Source: Reuters
Up to 20 people were killed and at least 40 others wounded, according to health workers, in two days of fighting in northern Mali between Tuareg rebels and pro-government militia threatening a shaky year-old peace deal.
The Tuareg-dominated Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and rival Gatia militia fighters, who had peacefully shared control of the town of Kidal since February, clashed for a second day on Friday before pro-government fighters withdrew.
Both groups signed a United Nations-backed deal a year ago with the government in Bamako, the capital in southern Mali, that was meant to end a decades-long cycle of uprisings and let the army focus on defeating jihadist groups in the desert north.
A nurse at the main health center in Kidal, one of the largest towns in northern Mali, said she had seen about 20 dead, both at the clinic and on the town's streets.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mali-violence-idUSKCN1020VF
EU approves Monsanto, Bayer genetically modified soybeans
Source: Reuters
The European Commission on Friday approved imports of Monsanto's Roundup Ready 2 Xtend genetically modified soybean variety, after months of delays that had derailed the U.S. seed giant's product launch this spring.
The decision now clears the way for widespread planting next season and removes a hurdle for North American farmers and grain traders, who have to keep close track of unapproved biotech traits that can disrupt trade. Top importer China approved the soybeans earlier this year.
U.S. grain trader and processor Archer Daniels Midland Co told Reuters on Friday its elevators and processing plants will now accept the Xtend soybean variety. Rivals Cargill Inc [CARG.UL], Bunge Ltd and CHS Inc, which had also refused to accept the variety without EU import approval, could not be immediately reached for comment.
The EU is the second largest importer of soybeans and its approval is not expected to have a major impact on merger talks by German suitor Bayer AG, whose sweetened $64-billion buyout offer of Monsanto was rejected last week, as it had been widely anticipated, analysts said on Friday.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-grains-gmos-idUSKCN10212M
Obama denies any U.S. involvement in attempted Turkey coup
Source: Reuters
President Barack Obama on Friday said the United States strongly supports Turkey's democratically elected government, but that any extradition request for a U.S.-based Muslim cleric accused of being involved in last week's attempted coup will have to go through normal channels.
Obama, speaking at a news conference, said he told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a call earlier this week that the United States had no prior knowledge of the failed military coup.
"Any reports that we had any previous knowledge of a coup attempt, that there was any U.S. involvement in it, that we were anything other than entirely supportive of Turkish democracy are completely false, unequivocally false," Obama said, warning that such rumors threatened "a critical alliance and partnership between the United States and Turkey."
He said he also told Erdogan his government must present evidence of cleric Fethullah Gulen's alleged involvement in the abortive coup and that an extradition request targeting him would receive the review required by the Justice Department and other government agencies just like any other petition.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-obama-idUSKCN102219
Exclusive: Top Obama aide to take call for South China Sea calm to Beijing
Source: Reuters
U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice will urge Beijing next week to avoid escalation in the South China Sea when she makes the highest-level U.S. visit to China since an international court rejected its sweeping claims to the strategic waterway.
Even as Washington has sought to keep a lid on the situation, Rice - in an interview with Reuters – vowed that the U.S. military would continue to “sail and fly and operate” in the South China Sea, despite a Chinese warning that such patrols could end “in disaster.”
With less than six months remaining of President Barack Obama's tenure, Rice’s broader mission in her July 24-27 trip is aimed at keeping overall ties between the world’s two largest economies, which she called “the most consequential relationship we have,” on track at a time of heightened tensions. "I'll be there to advance our cooperation," she said.
But the trip, due to be formally announced later on Friday, follows a July 12 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that China has no historic title over the waters of the South China Sea. Beijing has angrily rejected the verdict and pledged to pursue claims that conflict with those of several smaller neighbors.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-usa-exclusive-idUSKCN10210Z
Head of Major Jewish Organization Slams Polish Officials for Casting Doubt on Polish, Nazi Murder
Source: The Alegmeiner
The head of a major Jewish organization slammed Polish officials on Wednesday for questioning Polish and Nazi involvement in the murder of Jews during the Second World War.
World Jewish Congress president Ronald S. Lauder said in a statement that recent comments to this effect by Polish Education Minister Anna Salewska and Jedwabne Mayor Michael Chajewski are a “slap in the face” to Holocaust victims.
Last week, Zalewska cast doubt on the involvement of Poles in two pogroms in the 1940s — the 1941 Jedwabne massacre, in which Poles burned alive more than 300 Jews in a barn, and the 1946 Kielce massacre, in which 42 people died. The anniversaries of both pogroms were commemorated earlier this month.
During an interview with public broadcaster TVN, when asked whether the massacres should be taught in schools, Zalewska answered, “Jedwabne is a historical fact that has led to many misunderstandings and very biased opinions,” adding that the perpetrators of the Kielce massacre were antisemites, “but not quite Polish.”
Read more: https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/07/21/head-of-major-jewish-organization-slams-polish-officials-for-casting-doubt-on-polish-nazi-murder-of-jews-in-wwii/
"According to Lauder, the comments by the minister and mayor undermine the efforts of Polish scholars, “who have spent more than 25 years unearthing evidence of horrifying acts of violence against Jews committed by Poles.”
Good Lord. It certainly does.
Exclusive: White House to review ban on military gear for police - police leaders
Source: Reuters
The White House will revisit a 2015 ban on police forces getting riot gear, armored vehicles and other military-grade equipment from the U.S. armed forces, two police organization directors told Reuters on Thursday.
Shortly after the recent shooting deaths of police officers, President Barack Obama agreed to review each banned item, the two law enforcement leaders said.
That could result in changes to the ban imposed in May 2015 on the transfer of some equipment from the military to police, said Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, and Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations.
Last year's ban came after a public outcry over police in cities, such as Ferguson, Missouri, using military-grade riot gear and armored vehicles during protests against police brutality.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-police-gear-exclusive-idUSKCN1012KW
"A White House official said the administration regularly reviews what military equipment can be transferred to police and that current rules ensure police get “the tools that they need to protect themselves and their communities while at the same time providing the level of accountability that should go along with the provision of federal equipment.”
Pictures of police in riot gear and driving armored vehicles toward peaceful protesters sparked a national debate that drew attention to a program used by the U.S. military to unload its excess equipment on local police."
So, is this article saying the President is now being pressured to again give "riot gear, armored vehicles and other military-grade equipment from the U.S. armed forces" by police officials?
PLA unveils new weapons for air and sea combat following Hague tribunal ruling
Source: South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
Rare disclosure of arsenal seen as warning to US not to provoke military confrontation
The Southern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army unveiled a series of new weapons for sea and air combat during a visit by top military officers.
In a rare revelation, the weapons were shown on state television in the wake of a landmark international tribunal rejecting Beijing’s claims to almost all of the South China Sea.
Military experts said the disclosure was intended to show that the newly formed Southern Theatre Command, which covers the South China Sea, was well-prepared for any potential military confrontation with the US.
Read more: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/1992973/pla-unveils-new-weapons-air-and-sea-combat-following
"Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie said Fan’s visit indicated that the southern command could carry out joint combat operations of land, rocket, naval and air forces as well as other strategic support forces.
“All the weapons showed on state media are defensive arms of short to medium range within 1,500km, meaning China so far is using restrained deterrence to warn the US not to challenge Beijing’s bottom line in the South China Sea,” Li said."
Yes, all our weapons are defensive arms too.
WHY does everyone always say that? My favorite is "missile shields" are purely defensive.
Uh huh. That's born out by the entire history of warfare, that shields are purely defensive in nature.
tongue in cheek picture
Rights groups decry abduction and torture in eastern Ukraine
Source: The Irish Times
The Ukrainian security services and Moscow-backed separatists in the east of the country are guilty of illegal detention, secret imprisonment and torture of civilians, according to two major international rights groups.
Ukraine’s pro-western authorities have repeatedly denied such practices, but in May a United Nations panel cut short a visit to the country, saying it had been denied access to places of suspected secret detention and torture
.
The UN team’s suspicions appear to be confirmed in a report that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch released on Thursday, which depicts a hidden, dirty war raging in and around separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine.
Both government and separatist forces “have held civilians in prolonged, arbitrary detention, without any contact with the outside world, including with their lawyers or families”, the report reads.
Read more: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/rights-groups-decry-abduction-and-torture-in-eastern-ukraine-1.2729799
"The report alleges that Ukraine’s security service, known as the SBU, is operating secret and illegal detention facilities in several locations in eastern Ukraine, near a conflict zone where almost 10,000 people have died in more than two years of fighting."
Again, that's Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch saying this.
It's refreshing to see an even handed appraisal of the situation in eastern Ukraine, but will any other news source carry this story? I'll keep looking... nope, no major media so far.
"The rise of Turkey as a superpower"
A prescient article from 2012 about Turkey:
Author: Nicholas Burns, Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, Harvard Kennedy School
Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Future of Diplomacy Project
When the Cold War ended, more than a few European and American officials predicted that Turkey would decline rapidly in geopolitical significance. Without the Soviet threat, they said, Turkey’s role as a bulwark against communist expansion was finished and it was destined to be a second-tier power in the 21st century.
That prediction, of course, could not have been more shortsighted. During the past decade, Turkey has become the rising power in Europe, arguably the world’s most influential Muslim country and a dynamic inspiration for young Arab reformers. Turkey is the only European country that has grown in power since the financial crisis and the start of the Arab uprisings. While European economic fortunes have contracted, Turkey has one of the fastest growing global economies. Turkey may even now be more powerful in the Middle East than Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. This is all supremely ironic for a country long excluded from positions of power in NATO and which has had the door to the European Union slammed shut in recent years.
Turkey’s rise has been engineered by its brilliant, proud, and often prickly prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A devout Muslim, Erdogan has revolutionized Turkish politics by challenging his country’s historic commitment to secularism and introducing a greater role for Islam in Turkish politics. Under his leadership, Turkey was, for a time, the only country that managed decent relations with all the regional powers, including Israel, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Long a geographic bridge between East and West, Turkey under Erdogan became the go-to marriage counselor in the violent and unstable Middle East — mediating secret talks between Israel and Syria, building a close strategic relationship with the Israelis, and nudging Iran to be more reasonable on the nuclear issue.
During the last two years, however, Erdogan has shifted dramatically from honest broker to a more aggressive, independent, and often unpredictable course — breaking relations with Israel over the Palestinian issue, spurning the Europeans, and, most surprisingly this year, turning his back on his former friend, Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad and calling openly for revolution against his regime.
Turkey’s relationship with the United States has been no less controversial. Long a stolid and unquestioning supporter of America during the Cold War, Turkey has become a mercurial and more dyspeptic ally since 9/11. The Turkish Parliament refused to permit American troops to invade Iraq from Turkish soil in 2003. In recent years, Turkey has blocked US efforts on Cyprus and prevented closer NATO ties with the European Union. Erdogan has also turned worrisomely authoritarian at home, imprisoning large numbers of former military leaders without charge and restricting press freedoms. Indeed, when the subject of Turkey is raised in government offices across Europe and even in Washington, officials will often roll their eyes and complain about just how difficult it is to work with newly confident Turkey.
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/21970/rise_of_turkey_as_a_superpower.html
Man surrenders after tossing fake bomb into police van in Manhattan
Source: Reuters
A New York City man accused of tossing a fake bomb into a police van in Times Square and later barricading himself inside a vehicle in an hours-long standoff was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation on Thursday after surrendering to police.
Hector Meneses, 52, gave up at about 8 a.m. EDT after forcing police to shut down Columbus Circle, a busy shopping area and major traffic circle north of Times Square, through the morning rush hour, a New York Police Department spokesman said.
Meneses, who wore a red plastic helmet and was from the borough of Queens, was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, police said.
He was accused of lobbing a makeshift device into a marked police van in tourist-packed Times Square at about 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday and then fleeing in a gold-colored SUV.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-standoff-idUSKCN1011RX
Actions of a nut job or a dry run gone bad? Both?
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