Mahmoud Khalil vows to continue activism after release | REUTERS

Egypt hosts an emergency Arab summit on Palestinian territories

LIVE: UNHRC opens the first of its three sessions of the year | REUTERS

Pope Francis is hospitalized in Rome, Italy

New Mexico child abuse suspects accused of training children for shootings

August 8, 2018 / 6:17 AM / Updated 2 hours ago


Andrew Hay

TAOS, N.M. (Reuters) - Two men charged in the abuse of 11 youths found malnourished at a ramshackle compound in New Mexico were training the children with firearms to commit school shootings, prosecutors said in court documents filed in the case on Wednesday. 

Conditions at a compound in rural New Mexico where 11 children were taken into protective custody for their own health and safety after a raid by authorities, are shown in this photo near Amalia, New Mexico, U.S., provided August 6, 2018. Taos County Sheriff's Office/Handout via REUTERS 

One of the suspects, identified as Huraj Wahhaj, is the father of a young boy whose disappearance from his home near Atlanta months ago prompted the investigation that led authorities to raid the compound, located north of Taos, New Mexico, last week.

Remains believed to be that of the boy, who was 3 years old when his mother reported him missing, were found at the property on Monday but have not yet been positively identified, authorities said.

Wahhaj, a second man accused of harboring him as a fugitive, Lucas Morton, and three women presumed to be the mothers of the 11 children, who were taken into protective custody from the compound, were each charged with 11 counts of felony child abuse.

The five defendants made their initial court appearance before a local magistrate on Wednesday. They were due to be arraigned later in the day.

Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe told reporters on Tuesday that investigators found a shooting range built at one end of the squalid compound, located on the outskirts of the community of Amalia in northern New Mexico, near the Colorado border.

Wahhaj, 39, whose first name is alternately presented in some court documents as Siraj and is the person described as being “in control” of the compound, was heavily armed when taken into custody, the sheriff said.

A foster parent of one of the 11 children told authorities that Wahhaj “had trained the child in the use of an assault rifle in preparation for future school shootings,” prosecutors alleged in an expedited motion for pretrial detention.

The document further stated that Wahhaj was “under investigation for the death” of a 12th child at the compound, as well as for “training of children with weapons in furtherance of a conspiracy to commit school shootings.”

The court filing also states he “transported children across state lines for the purpose of children receiving advanced weapons training to commit future acts of violence.”

Similar allegations were leveled in a motion prosecutors filed seeking expedited pretrial detention of Morton.

The court documents said that most of the defendants appeared to be from Georgia, New York or elsewhere from the U.S. East Coast.

No mention was made of ideology or motive in initial court filings. The sheriff in comments over the weekend referred to the suspects as “extremists of Muslim belief,” but he declined to elaborate on that characterization when asked about it by reporters at a news conference on Tuesday.

According to CNN, Wahhaj is himself the son of a prominent Muslim cleric in New York.


The FBI is also taking part in the investigation, the sheriff said. So far, no federal charges are known to have been brought in the case.


Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, N.M.; additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, editing by Larry King and Jonathan Oatis

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'Weed Apocalypse' dawns for California pot dealers on Sunday

By Rollo Ross, Reuters • June 29, 2018





FILE PHOTO: Customers queue for recreational marijuana outside the MedMen store in West Hollywood, California U.S. January 2, 2018. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File PhotoMore


By Rollo Ross

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Six months after California made recreational marijuana use legal, the so-called "Weed Apocalypse" arrives this weekend, as tight state regulations going into effect on Sunday have dispensaries scrambling to unload non-compliant product.

But while the deadline is giving pot shop owners headaches, it is creating an opportunity for consumers. They are already anticipating deep discounts on their favorite marijuana products on what has been dubbed "Green Saturday" - for the color of cannabis - and for black market dealers.

"There's going to be a lot of massive sales, a lot of retails fire-selling a lot of products," said Nick Danias, manager of The Pottery cannabis dispensary in mid-city Los Angeles.

"It's about getting rid of a lot of older product that doesn't meet city and state requirements and getting through that old inventory and moving on to the next steps after July 1," he said.

The state Bureau of Cannabis Control regulations require shops to sell only marijuana that has been tested for pesticides, potency and microbiological contaminants.

The government-approved pot will be marked with a harvest and "best use by" date and sealed in child-resistant packaging. The rules were designed to take effect on July 1, six months after legalization approved by voters in November formally took effect on Jan. 1.

Business owners say they have struggled to meet the deadline because of a lack of approved testing facilities in California, which has created a bottleneck in the supply of compliant marijuana that could drive customers to the black market.

The Bureau of Cannabis Control lists 31 labs for testing on its website but says only 19 are operational.

"We issued our emergency regulations back in November, and at that time, we were pretty clear about the fact that there would be a six-month transition period for retailers to use up their existing supply," said Alex Traverso, a spokesman for the bureau. "We felt that was a sufficient amount of time to deplete stock on hand and adapt to California’s new rules."

‘Caravan’ Migrants Weigh Risks of US vs. Life in Mexico

Americas

April 29, 2018 3:06 AM

Reuters

Members of a migrant caravan from Central America pray in preparation for an asylum request in the U.S., in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, April 28, 2018.



TIJUANA, MEXICO —

Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans who drew the wrath of President Donald Trump in a monthlong caravan to the U.S. border will make hard decisions Sunday: Risk being deported all the way home by trying to cross in the U.S., or to build a life in Mexico.

After angry tweets from Trump, U.S. border authorities said some people associated with the caravan had been caught trying to slip through the fence, and encouraged the rest to hand themselves in to authorities.

“We are a very welcoming country but just like your own house, we expect everyone to enter through our front door, and answer questions honestly,” San Diego Chief Patrol Agent Rodney S. Scott said in a statement.

Central American migrants, moving in a caravan through Mexico and traveling to request asylum in U.S, arrive in Mexicali, Baja California state, Mexico, April 25, 2018. The words read, "I just want Rock and Roll."

​Sober advice, mood

Most of the group of about 400 travelers who arrived in border city of Tijuana on buses over the past couple of days said they intended to legally seek asylum in San Diego on Sunday, but lawyers advising the group gave them stark advice: Not everyone will be successful.

After the grueling journey, a somber mood took hold as the reality sank in that many of them would be separated from their families. Lovers and parents with slightly older sons and daughters could be forced to split up.

At venues around the city, U.S. immigration lawyers working pro bono Saturday listened to harrowing tales of life in the immigrants’ home countries.

Death threats from local gangs, the murder of family members, retaliatory rape, and political persecution back home prompted them to flee, the migrants and lawyers say.

Honduran family Nolvia Luja, left, Willian Bonilla, and their son Wilmer Bonilla, who attended the annual Migrants Stations of the Cross caravan for migrants' rights, rest at a shelter in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco state, Mexico, April 18, 2018.

Many of the immigrants who spoke at length with Reuters at various points during their trip through Mexico had been short on knowledge of their legal rights, but at least 24 recounted detailed stories of facing death threats.

As poor migrants from Central America on a perilous route through Mexico, they feared they could be robbed, raped, arrested and assaulted, so traveling by caravan offered their only protection, they said.

The lawyers advised which cases had higher chances of passing the “credible fear” test required to enter the long and often difficult U.S. asylum process, said immigrant rights organization Al Otro Lado, Spanish for On the Other Side.

“A lot will depend on how well they can articulate their case,” said one of the pro bono lawyers, who preferred to remain anonymous.

Some advised to stay in Mexico

The rest were advised to stay put in Mexico, which would remove the risk that U.S. authorities fly them the more than 2,000 miles (3,600 km) back home.

“We’ll wait and see,” said Bryan Garcia, from Honduras, seated beside 4-year-old Nicole, who was eating a strawberry biscuit as they waited for her mother to come out of a meeting with a lawyer.

Nicole and her mother are from El Salvador. They befriended Garcia along the caravan’s journey and the adults had fallen for each other.

But Garcia would not be asking for asylum. He would stay in Tijuana, having already been deported once from the U.S.

“We’ll just have to try to stay connected,” he said as Nicole paused from eating her biscuit and blinked up at him.

Pressure on Mexico

Trump has been pressuring Mexico to stop the migrants before they reached the border, linking the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to Mexican efforts to stem the flow of Central Americans.

The friction has coincided with high intensity efforts by U.S., Canadian and Mexican teams to renegotiate NAFTA on Trump’s bidding, with officials saying a deal could be just a few weeks away after months of talks.

Mexico deports tens of thousands of Central Americans every year back across its southern border with Guatemala.

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Pope Francis grieves, prays for atheist revolutionary Castro

Reuters

November 26, 2016



VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said the death of Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro was "sad news" and that he was grieving and praying for his repose.

Francis expressed his condolences in a Spanish-language message to Fidel's brother, President Raul Castro on Saturday.

The pope, who met Fidel Castro when he visited Cuba last year, said he had received the "sad news" and added: "I express to you my sentiments of grief."

Fidel Castro, who was a professed atheist, was baptized as a Catholic and educated in schools run by the Jesuits, the religious order of which the pope is a member.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Raw: Pope Francis' Last Mass Of Cuba Trip


Speaking at Mass in Cuba's holiest shrine, with President Raul Castro attending, Pope Francis calls on Catholics to "build bridges, sow reconciliation." (Sept. 22)



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Conservative cardinals challenge Pope over teachings on family

By Philip Pullella
Reuters

November 14, 2016



Pope Francis leads a Jubilee audience in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican November 12, 2016. REUTERS/Remo CasilliLess


By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Four conservative Roman Catholic cardinals on Monday made a rare public challenge to Pope Francis over some of his teachings in a major document on the family, accusing him of sowing confusion on important moral issues.


The cardinals - two Germans, an Italian, and an American - said they had gone public with their letter to the pope because he had not responded.

The pope has clashed before with conservatives who worry he is weakening Roman Catholic rules on moral issues such as homosexuality and divorce while focusing on social problems such as climate change and economic inequality.

At issue are some of the teachings in a 260-page treatise called "Amoris Laetitia" (The Joy of Love), a cornerstone document of Francis' attempt to make the 1.2 billion-member Church more inclusive and less condemning.

In the document, issued in April, he called for a Church that was less strict and more compassionate towards any "imperfect" members, such as those who divorced and remarried, saying "no one can be condemned forever".

Most critics have focused on what the pope's letter said about the full re-integration into the Church of members who divorce and remarry in civil ceremonies.

Under Church law they cannot receive communion unless they abstain from sex with their new partner, because their first marriage is still valid in the eyes of the Church and therefore they are seen to be living in an adulterous state of sin.

In the document the pope appeared to side with progressives

who had proposed an "internal forum" in which a priest or bishop decide jointly with the individual on a case-by-case basis if he or she can be fully re-integrated and receive communion.

Conservatives have contested this and, in their cover letter, the four cardinals asked the pope to "resolve those doubts which are the cause of disorientation and confusion".

In the letter, sent to several news organizations, they said even bishops were offering "contrasting interpretations" of the rules regarding divorced and remarried Catholics.

The cardinals are Raymond Leo Burke, an American who was demoted from a senior Vatican position in 2014 and who has often criticized the pope, Germans Walter Brandmuller and Joachim Meisner, and Italian Carlo Caffarra.

In their letter, they officially asked the pope to take a stand on five "doubts" they have about some of the pronouncements in his document and declare whether those supersede rulings by previous popes.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Global climate change action "unstoppable" despite Trump - U.N.'s Ban

Reuters

November 15, 2016

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks at the UN World Climate Change Conference 2016 (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco, November 15, 2016. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal


MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday action on climate change has become "unstoppable", and he expressed hopes that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump would drop plans to quit a global accord aimed at weaning the world off fossil fuels.

At a meeting of almost 200 nations in Morocco to work out ways to implement the 2015 Paris agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions, Ban said U.S. companies, states and cities were all pushing to limit global warming.

"What was once unthinkable has become unstoppable," he told a news conference of the Paris Agreement, agreed by governments last year, ratified in record time and formally adopted by more than 100 nations including the United States.

The accord, aiming to phase out net greenhouse gas emissions this century, was a breakthrough after more than two decades of negotiations, driven by increased scientific certainty that man-made emissions drive heat waves, floods and rising sea levels.

Ban said that he hoped that Republican Trump, elected last Tuesday, would drop his view that man-made climate change is a hoax and his pledge to cancel the Paris Agreement.

"I am sure he will make a quick, wise decision," Ban said, saying that climate change was having severe impacts from the Arctic to Antarctica. He noted this year is on track to be the warmest year since records began in the 19th century.

"I hope he will really hear and understand the severity and urgency of addressing climate change. As President of the United States I hope he understands this, listens and evaluates his campaign remarks," he said.

Ban said that companies including General Mills and Kellogg, states such as California and cities such as Washington, Nashville and Las Vegas were working to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

He said that Trump, as a "very successful business person", would understand that market forces were already acting to push the world economy towards cleaner energies, away from fossil fuels.

Ban, who will step down at the end of the year after a decade in charge of the United Nations, has made action on climate change a core issue of his time in office.

(Reporting By Aziz El Yaakoubi, Nina Chestney and Alister Doyle; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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IRS says data thieves accessed information on 100,000 taxpayers

CYBER CRIME

6:53 p.m. ET

Joe Raedle/Getty Images


From February to May, data thieves were able to gain access to the tax return information for roughly 100,000 taxpayers, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said Tuesday.

During those four months, the thieves attempted to get information 200,000 times through the agency's "Get Transcript" online application, Reuters reports, and were successful about half of the time. It wasn't a hack, since the cyber criminals already had names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and other personal information that they used to access the system. IRS data outside of the application was not affected, and the agency said it plans to strengthen its security measures.

Koskinen did not share any information on who might have been behind the attack, and said the data theft was intended to steal information in order to submit fraudulent tax returns next year. "We're confident these are not amateurs," he said. "These are actually organized crime syndicates that not only we but everyone in the financial industry are dealing with." Catherine Garcia

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Russia's Putin meets Cuban leader Raul Castro in Moscow

http://reut.rs/1KmPJ6f
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Thursday, May 07, 2015 - 00:46


Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Cuban leader Raul Castro who arrived in Moscow for the World War Two celebrations and the May 9 Victory parade on Red Square. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).



ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) STORY: Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Thursday (May 7) with Cuban President Raul Castro, who arrived in Moscow for World War Two victory celebrations. The leaders heartily greeted each other with a welcome hug and a handshake. "I fondly remember my last trip to Cuba and the way you warmly greeted us," Russian leader said. Raul Castro thanked Putin for the invitation. "First of all, I would like to thank you for the invitation for us to take part in such an important event of the anniversary of the great victory," Cuban president said. The guest list for the military parade has come to embody Russia's place in the world as it struggles to avoid being isolated over the events in east Ukraine. Since Western powers imposed economic sanctions on Russia last year, Moscow has accelerated attempts to build ties with Asia, Africa and South America, as well as warming up relations with its former Soviet-era allies.

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SantaCon to scale back festivities in NYC due to protests

BY SEBASTIEN MALO

NEW YORK Thu Dec 11, 2014 6:15pm EST






Revelers dressed as Santa Claus gather at a park during the SantaCon event in New York December 14, 2013.

CREDIT: REUTERS/EDUARDO MUNOZ


(Reuters) - SantaCon, an annual New York City bar crawl that typically draws tens of thousands of revelers dressed like Santa Claus, will "scale back" this year when a march against police brutality is also planned for Saturday.

Originating in San Francisco as a counterpoint to Christmas consumerism, SantaCon has spread to 300 U.S. cities, according to organizers, and New York's version is the largest.

But on Saturday it will take place on the same day as the Millions March, potentially bringing two large crowds in close proximity in Manhattan.
"Due to the planned protests this Saturday, Santacon is scaling back this weekend's festivities in order to create the lowest possible impact," organizers wrote on the event's Facebook page.

The Millions March comes after more than two weeks of protests over decisions not to charge white police officers involved in the deaths of two black men, Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York.

More than 40,000 people have said they would join the march on the rally's Facebook page. A rally will begin at 2 p.m. in Greenwich Village's Washington Square Park.

SantaCon runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It has drawn big crowds in the past, with about 30,000 alcohol-fueled participants last year, according to media reports. The organizers declined to estimate the number of participants last year.In the past, the pub crawl's "route" has been kept secret until the day before. This year, it may take place in midtown Manhattan, a lawyer working with the organizers said.

"My understanding is that it's going to be in Midtown Manhattan," Norman Siegel, a prominent civil rights attorney, said. Organizers did not respond to a request for confirmation but have said they would make a map public later on Thursday.

The event was initially planned for Bushwick, a neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn, but business owners objected because of complaints in years past about rowdy behavior, urinating and vomiting in public by some SantaCon revelers.

A local community board meeting told organizers "that they were not welcome here," said Willie Morales, who works for the board.

New York's SantaCon organizers have taken to Twitter to urge participants to behave themselves.

"Santa leaves presents, not puddles of puke," a Tweet posted on the group's official account reads.

"It does bring a lot of people, but they're destructive," said Jesse Levitt, who co-owns Bushwick's Kings County Saloon. "They're the worst kind of customers, but instead of one or two of them, you have thousands of them all together."



(Editting By Frank McGurty, Bernard Orr)

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Russia sends big aid convoy to Ukraine, West sounds warnings

By By Dmitry Zhdannikov and Pavel Polityuk 3 hours ago





A Russian convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Ukraine sets off from near Moscow in this still image taken from video August 12, 2014.

CREDIT: REUTERS/REUTERS TV

By Dmitry Zhdannikov and Pavel Polityuk

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Russian aid convoy will be accompanied by OSCE inside Ukraine: mediator Reuters

MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - A Russian convoy carrying food, water and other aid set off on Tuesday for eastern Ukraine, where government forces are closing in on pro-Russian rebels, but Kiev said it would not allow the vehicles to cross onto its territory.

Kiev and Western governments warned Moscow against any attempt to turn the operation into a military intervention by stealth in a region facing a humanitarian crisis after four months of warfare.

"This cargo will be reloaded onto other transport vehicles (at the border) by the Red Cross," Ukrainian presidential aide Valery Chaly said.

"We will not allow any escort by the emergencies ministry of Russia or by the military (onto Ukrainian territory). Everything will be under the control of the Ukrainian side," he told journalists.

Russian media said the column of 280 trucks had left from near Moscow and it would take a couple of days for it to make the 1,000 km (620 mile) journey to Ukraine's eastern regions where rebel fighters seek union with Russia.

Western countries believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has whipped up nationalist fervor in Russia through the state-controlled media since annexing Crimea in March, might be spurred to fresh action since separatists in their main redoubt of Donetsk are now encircled by Kiev government forces.

Rossiya 24 TV showed a 3-km long line of containers and trucks loaded with crates of water stretched along a road with workers in a light summer wear of shorts and shirts loading sacks of aid. A Russian orthodox priest marched across a line of trucks, spraying them with holy water before they left.

A Russian convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Ukraine sets off from near Moscow in this s …

"It has all been agreed with Ukraine," Business FM radio quoted Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, as saying of an operation publicized with fanfare on Russian TV channels.

The U.S., French and Australian governments voiced concern that Russia, sole international supporter of rebels in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east, could use the humanitarian deliveries to carry out a covert operation to help fighters who appear to be on the verge of defeat.

With Ukraine reporting Russia has massed 45,000 troops on its border, NATO said on Monday that there was a "high probability" Moscow might now intervene militarily in Ukraine.

Itar-Tass news agency said the convoy was carrying 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid. It included 400 tons of cereals, 100 tons of sugar, 62 tons of baby food, 54 tons of medical equipment and medicine, 12,000 sleeping bags and 69 generators of various sizes.

BITTER FIGHTING

Thousands of people are believed to be short of water, electricity and medical aid in Donetsk and in the border town of Luhansk due to bitter fighting, involving air strikes and missile attacks.

U.N. agencies say well over 1,000 people have been killed, including government forces, rebels and civilians, in the conflict in which a Malaysian airliner was downed on July 17 with the deaths of all 298 people on board.

A Russian convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Ukraine sets off from near Moscow in this s …

Kiev and its Western allies say Russia, which opposes the new leadership's pro-Western policies, has been funneling tanks, missiles and other heavy weapons to the rebels for months. Moscow denies this.

Suspicious of Russian intentions, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said Ukraine will allow Russian aid into the country only as part of an international relief mission, under the auspices of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and involving the United States, European Union and other states.

In Geneva, an ICRC spokesperson said: "We still need clarification, details on the content (of the convoy) and type of transportation and storage needed."

With the humanitarian crisis growing by the day in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin might welcome the opportunity to garner sympathy if the Russian convoy arrives at the border and is turned away by the Ukrainians.

A former Ukrainian president, Leonid Kuchma, who has been involved in tentative mediation with the rebels said on Tuesday the convoy would travel down through north-eastern Ukraine to Luhansk under an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) escort.

"TRANSPARENT ARTIFICE"

Speaking in Sydney on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said: "Our hope is that in the next days and weeks, we can find a way for President Poroshenko and Ukraine to be able to work with the Russians to provide the humanitarian assistance necessary in the east."

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters: "Any intervention by Russia into Ukraine under the guise of an humanitarian crisis would be seen for the transparent artifice that it is and Australia would condemn (it) in the strongest possible terms."

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said: "Wemust be extremely careful because this (the convoy) could be a cover for the Russians to install themselves near Lugansk and Donetsk and put us before a done deed."

"This (convoy) is only possible, only justifiable, if the Red Cross authorizes it," he told France Info Radio.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that any Russian intervention without Kiev's consent would be unacceptable and violate international law.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also warned on Monday "against any unilateral military actions in Ukraine, under any pretext, including humanitarian".

(Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets in Kiev, Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay in Geneva and Polina Devitt in Moscow; Writing by Richard Balmforth)

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Russia Mounts Aid Convoy to Ukraine Despite NATO Warnings

By Allen McDuffee 18 hours ago




Russia Mounts Aid Convoy to Ukraine Despite NATO Warnings


Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that, in conjunction with the Red Cross and with approval of the Ukrainian government, Russia is sending an aid convoy to eastern Ukraine, despite warnings from NATO that humanitarian help could act as a pretext for invasion.

Related Stories
Russia sending aid convoy to Ukraine despite Western warnings of 'invasion pretext' Reuters
Russia says to send aid to Ukraine despite West's warnings AFP
Russia's 'humanitarian' Ukraine mission is likely prelude to invasion, NATO warns The Week (RSS)
Russia sends big aid convoy to Ukraine, West sounds warnings Reuters
Kiev will not allow Russian military to escort aid convoy into Ukraine Reuters

Last week, the Ukrainian military closed in on the pro-Russian rebel-held towns of Donetsk and Luhansk, the target of the proposed humanitarian aid. The area has seen intense fighting in recent weeks which has caused hundreds of thousands of residents to flee.

Although the Ukrainian presidential press service said that President Barack Obama agreed to the plan in a phone call with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, NATO says there is "a high probability" of Russian military intervention.

"We see the Russians developing the narrative and the pretext for such an operation under the guise of a humanitarian operation, and we see a military build-up that could be used to conduct such illegal military operations in Ukraine," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said to Reuters. Russia has reportedly assembled 45,000 troops by the border.

RELATED: New Gaza Ceasefire Lasts Through the Night

As a partner in the convoy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso "warned against any unilateral military actions in Ukraine, under any pretext, including humanitarian," in a statement following a call with Moscow.

All of this falls on the heels of another day of fighting in which officials said 106 inmates in a high-security prison near Donetsk escaped after rockets struck the complex, further adding to the chaos.

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/08/russia-mounts-aid-convoy-to-ukraine-despite-nato-warnings/375875/

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Georgia, an Unlikely Winter Wonderland, Braces for More Snow

By Reuters
Filed: 2/10/14 at 4:30 PM | Updated: 2/11/14 at 2:29 PM



Two weeks ago a 2 inch snowfall brought the Atlanta area to a halt Mark Makela/Reuters


ATLANTA (Reuters) - Officials across the southeastern United States braced on Monday for a blast of freezing rain, snow and ice, with Georgia's governor advising "extreme caution" and declaring a state of emergency across almost one-third of the state.

The storm is expected to bring a wintry mix to a broad swath of the country stretching from Texas to North Carolina, according to the National Weather Service. It comes two weeks after a 2-inch snowfall brought the Atlanta area to a halt, stranding hundreds of thousands of commuters and leading to intense criticism of local and state officials for failing to prepare.

"Ice is the big danger here," Georgia Governor Nathan Deal told reporters. "We are exercising extreme caution."

Widespread power outages are likely from ice forming on power lines, a problem the state did not face during the storm that hit on January 28.

The amount of ice possible could be "catastrophic," a Georgia Power official told reporters, adding the utility was bringing in extra crews from outside the state.

"The next three days are going to be challenging days," Deal said.

Deal, a Republican up for re-election this year, has admitted the state's response to last month's storm fell short and vowed to take steps to be better prepared.

The governor said he had put the state's National Guard on notice on Sunday that they could be called up to help, and he directed transportation officials to have equipment in place in areas where snow and ice are expected.

The state's new system for notifying residents about hazardous weather is ready and may be used over the next few days, Deal said.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said the city had doubled its ability to salt roads and was coordinating closely with the state and other municipalities after missteps during the previous storm.

"We're going to be in constant contact with the state," Reed said.

Many Atlanta-area school systems announced they would be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. Some schools in Mississippi also announced cancellations, and the South Carolina General Assembly session was called off again due to the weather.

The weather service said northeast Georgia and the western Carolinas would experience the heaviest precipitation on Wednesday, with snow accumulations of 6 to 8 inches in the mountains.

The largest ice accumulations were expected along the Interstate-20 corridor from Augusta, Georgia, to Columbia and Florence in South Carolina.

Forecasters said widespread travel delays were likely by mid-week across the region.

Arkansas has replenished its stocks of road salt and was pre-treating possible trouble spots ahead of the storm.

"It's been a rough winter for us this year. There are a lot more winter events that we're used to. In a typical year, we spend $6 million a year on weather and I suspect that we've already eclipsed that," said Randy Ort, a spokesman for the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department.

Two massive searches in the state were going on ahead of the storm, one for a small plane that disappeared with its pilot on January 31 and the other for a woman who jumped into an icy river over the weekend to avoid a jack-knifed truck skidding her way on a frozen road.


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NSA surveillance covers 75 percent of U.S. Internet traffic: WSJ

View Photo
A general view of the large former monitoring base of the U.S. intelligence organization …



(Reuters) - The National Security Agency's surveillance network has the capacity to reach around 75 percent of all U.S. Internet communications in the hunt for foreign intelligence, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Citing current and former NSA officials, the newspaper said the 75 percent coverage is more of Americans' Internet communications than officials have publicly disclosed.

The Journal said the agency keeps the content of some emails sent between U.S. citizens and also filters domestic phone calls made over the Internet.

The NSA's filtering, carried out with telecom companies, looks for communications that either originate or end abroad, or are entirely foreign but happen to be passing through the United States, the paper said.

But officials told the Journal the system's broad reach makes it more likely that purely domestic communications will be incidentally intercepted and collected in the hunt for foreign ones.

In response to a request for comment, NSA said its intelligence mission "is centered on defeating foreign adversaries who aim to harm the country. We defend the United States from such threats while fiercely working to protect the privacy rights of U.S. persons.

"It's not either/or. It's both," NSA said in an email statement to Reuters.

The Journal said that these surveillance programs show the NSA can track almost anything that happens online, so long as it is covered by a broad court order, the Journal said.

Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, first disclosed details of secret U.S. programs to monitor Americans' telephone and Internet traffic earlier this summer.

(Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Philip Barbara)


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"Yes We Scan" protest in Berlin ahead of Obama visit

"Yes We Scan" protest in Berlin ahead of Obama visit (0:39)

June 18 - Demonstrations take to the streets in Berlin to air grievances ahead of U.S. President Obama's visit to Germany. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

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Meteorite Falls in Russian Urals

EUROPE NEWS
Updated February 15, 2013, 2:23 a.m. ET


Associated Press

MOSCOW—A meteor flew across the skies above Russia's Ural Mountains Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and injuring about 100 people, including many who were hurt by broken glass.

Fragments of the meteor fell in a thinly populated area of the Chelyabinsk region, the Emergency Ministry said in a statement.



Reuters

A contrail above an apartment block in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk; Russian officials said a meteorite or a shower of meteorites fell in the area, collapsing one roof and causing more than 100 injuries.

Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov said 102 people had called for medical assistance following the incident, mostly for treatment of injuries from glass broken by the explosions.

Reports are conflicted on what happened in the clear skies. A spokeswoman for the Emergency Ministry, Irina Rossius, said there was a meteor shower, but another ministry spokeswoman, Elena Smirnikh, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying it was a single meteorite.

Kolsenikov said about 600 square meters (6,500 square feet) of a roof at a zinc factory had collapsed.

Amateur video broadcast on Russian television showed an object speeding across the sky about 9:20 a.m. local time, leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash.

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Obama holiday drama

Obama holiday drama (0:31)

Dec. 27 - Barack Obama cuts short Hawaiian holiday to return to Washington for crucial budget talks. Adam Brauner reports. ( Transcript )

U.S. President Barack Obama cuts short his Hawaiian holiday and returns to Washington. Leaving his wife Michelle and two daughters behind, Obama's getting ready for a crucial budget deadline - with the White House andRepublicans still far apart. In one sign of hope, Speaker John Boehner has urged the Democrat-controlled Senate to avoid the so called fiscal cliff. He's offered to at least consider any bill the upper chamber produces. The President was due in the White House on Thursday morning.

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