Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/151335
4B Daily News – Wednesday, August 14, 2013 WORLD BRIEFING Turmoil of Arab Spring JERUSALEM (AP) — The same negotiators, the same issues, a familiar venue: The sense of deja vu is overwhelming as Israelis and Palestinians start Wednesday on their third attempt in 13 years to draw a border between them. But they face even longer odds than in the last round, which ended in 2008. Since then, at least 40,000 more Israelis have settled in areas the Palestinians want for a state, making it even harder to partition the land. The chaos of the Arab Spring has bolstered Israeli demands for ironclad security guarantees, such as troop deployments along Palestine's future border, widening a dispute that seemed near resolution five years ago. The talks come after months of prodding by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who made six visits to the region since taking office in his bid to bring together Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. together Despite U.S. cheerleading, expectations have been low on both sides. Ahead of Wednesday's talks at Jerusalem's King David Hotel, the atmosphere soured further after Israel said in a series of announcements in the past week that it is advancing plans for more than 3,000 new homes for Jews in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel frees 26 Palestinian prisoners JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel released 26 Palestinian inmates, including many convicted in grisly killings, on the eve of renewed Mideast negotiations, angering families of those slain by the prisoners, who were welcomed as heroes in the West Bank and Gaza. Buses carrying the inmates departed the Ayalon prison in central Israel late Tuesday, a nighttime release that was aimed at preventing the spectacle of prisoners flashing victory signs as has happened in the past. Relatives of the victims, many with their hands painted red to symbolize what they say is the blood on the hands of the inmates, held protests throughout the day, and some protesters tried briefly to block the buses from leaving. The decision to release the men stirred anguish in Israel, where many Israelis view them as terrorists. Most of the prisoners were convicted of killings, including Israeli civilians, soldiers and suspected Palestinian collaborators, while others were involved in attempted murder or kidnapping. Celebrations erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where thousands of Palestinian wellwishers awaited the buses' arrival. Palestinians generally view the prisoners as heroes regardless of their acts, arguing they made personal sacrifices in the struggle for independence. Fireworks lit the sky in Gaza, where rival Hamas and Fatah supporters, including several masked gunmen, celebrated to the beat of drums. Some danced while others flashed victory signs and waved flags of the Palestinian factions. Cars with loudspeakers blasted nationalistic songs. Air Force nuclear unit fails inspection WASHINGTON (AP) — An Air Force unit that operates one-third of the nation's land-based nuclear missiles has failed a safety and security inspection, marking the second major setback this year for a force charged with the military's most sensitive mission, the general in charge of the nuclear air force told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Lt. Gen. James M. Kowalski, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said a team of ''relatively low ranking'' airmen failed one exercise as part of a broader inspection, which began last week and ended Tuesday. He said that for security reasons he could not be specific about the team or the exercise. ''This unit fumbled on this exercise,'' Kowalski said by telephone from his headquarters at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., adding that this did not call into question the safety or control of nuclear weapons at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Mon- JUST MOVE IT Part of a national campaign to promote physical activity for American Indians and Alaskan Natives FRIDAY, AUGUST 16 TH 11:30 - 12:30 Registration and Start Psycho Fitness & MMA 1450 Schwab St., Red Bluff Join us for a series of Non-competitive walks and runs. Open to families, individuals of all ages and people of all cultures. For more information contact Avery Vilche at 200-0526 ROLLING HILLS CLINIC DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY tana. ''The team did not demonstrate the right procedures,'' he said, and as a result was rated a failure. To elaborate ''could reveal a potential vulnerability'' in the force, Kowalski said. Rubio warns that Obama could act alone to legalize immigrants WASHINGTON (AP) — Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio warned Tuesday that if Congress doesn't pass immigration overhaul legislation, President Barack Obama may act on his own to legalize the 11 million immigrants already in the U.S. illegally. Rubio, a potential presidential candidate and an author of the sweeping immigration bill that passed the Senate in June but stalled in the House, noted that the Obama administration took action a year ago to give legal status to many immigrants brought here illegally as children. He said without congressional action, the president might well be tempted to do the same for everyone else here illegally, too. ''I believe that this president will be tempted, if nothing happens in Congress, he will be tempted to issue an executive order like he did for the DREAM Act kids a year ago where he basically legalizes 11 million people by the sign of a pen,'' Rubio said on ''The Morning Show with Preston Scott'' on Tallahassee radio station WFLA. Rubio said the possibility highlighted the need for congressional action because the alternative would be legalization without benefits like border security and an E-Verify system to require employers to check their workers' legal status. ''We can't leave it, in my mind, the way it is because I think a year from now we could find ourselves with all 11 million people here legally under an executive order from the president, but no E-Verify, no more border security, no more border agents — none of the other reforms that we desperately need,'' Rubio said. Nigerian village demands guns KONDUGA, Nigeria (AP) — Residents of a village in northeastern Nigeria where suspected Islamic extremists gunned down 47 worshippers praying in a mosque demanded on Tuesday that the government give them weapons to defend themselves. Earlier reports about Sunday's attack in Konduga village had given a lower death toll, 44. Another 12 civilians died in a simultaneous attack on a nearby village, security agents said. The violence has been blamed on the Boko Haram terrorist network, and district head Yale Zannah Masu told The Associated Press that his village of Konduga was besieged for hours by ''terrorists'' — including women who set ablaze 51 homes. Terrorist attacks by women would be unusual in Nigeria, but its military has reported arresting suspected women members of the banned Boko Haram as well as male suspects disguised in women's robes and veils. Zannah Masu spoke during a visit to Konduga by governor of Borno state, Kashim Shetimma, who drove under military escort the 35 kilometers (22 miles) from his base in the state capital, Maiduguri, to the nearly deserted village. Egypt's proMorsi sit-in takes on a permanent look CAIRO (AP) — Instead of rushing for the exits, Islamist supporters of Egypt's ousted president are replacing tents with wooden huts in their sprawling Cairo encampment. Barbershops have sprung up and many tents now have satellite dishes. There's little sign of alarm over the potential for violence if security forces move to clear this ground zero of resistance to the coup six weeks ago. On Tuesday, solar power panels were added to the encampment's several generators in case authorities cut off power. The post-coup government has repeatedly warned that the sit-ins outside the Rabaah alAdawiya mosque and a smaller one on the other side of the city cannot stay. They portray them as a threat to national security and launch pads for terrorism. The protesters say their vigils are peaceful and will end only when Mohammed Morsi is reinstated as president. As the faceoff has dragged on, participants in the larger of the two vigils have had time to weave a narrative about their cause immersed in religious fervor, revolutionary rhetoric and martyrdom. Thrown into the mix is the evolution of the protest camp into a sort of autonomous entity with its own institutions and social order. Many protesters frame the standoff as pitting Islam's true followers against enemies of the faith or between revolutionaries and forces of darkness determined to rob Egyptians of their freedom. Teen convicted in school bomb plot says he's rehabilitated SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah teenager arrested last year in a Columbine-inspired plot to blow up his high school will find out Tuesday if voters in the small city of Roy will take his run for mayor seriously. Joshua Kyler Hoggan, 18, says he recognizes what he did was wrong but insists that he never had any explosives or intent to bomb the school in early 2012 when he and an older classmate were arrested. He says his six months in juvenile detention helped him deal with personal issues that plagued him then and says that he's rehabilitated and ready to lead the city of about 37,000 people north of Salt Lake City. ''People should trust me because I have proven one thing: That I am human,'' Hoggan said in an email to The Associated Press. ''I have made mistakes, just like the rest of us. We've all made mistakes in our pasts, and I am no exception.'' He faces off in Tuesday's primary against the current mayor, Joe Ritchie, and Councilman Willard Cragun. Most consider Hoggan a long shot to get through the nonpartisan primary, in which voters will choose two of the three to advance to the general election. Ritchie has been mayor for eight years and Cragun a councilman for six years. In blocking merger, government relies on executives' words to build case NEW YORK (AP) — In making its case against an American Airlines-US Airways merger, the government relies heavily on an unusual source of evidence: the airlines' own executives. Throughout the 56-page lawsuit filed Tuesday, Department of Justice lawyers quote internal emails, investor presentations and public comments by the two airlines' top executives noting how past mergers have allowed the industry to raise fares and given passengers no choice but to put up with everincreasing fees for checking a bag or changing flights. The suit recalls how US Airways President Scott Kirby noted in 2011 that industry consolidation had paved the way for the airlines to push through three airfare hikes that year. The next year, speaking at an industry conference, Kirby noted that it's ''impossible to overstate the benefit'' of mergers in giving airlines the ability to impose new fees. Iowa plant drops horseslaughter plan ALBUQURQUE, N.M. (AP) — An Iowa company is dropping plans to slaughter horses in the wake of a federal judge's ruling that temporarily banned the practice as part of a lawsuit filed by animal welfare groups, a company executive said Tuesday. Responsible Transportation, which owns a slaughterhouse in Sigourney, Iowa, was among two companies that had secured federal permits for horse slaughter. But the Iowa company's president, Keaton Walker, told The Associated Press that his firm cannot afford to wait for more court deliberations and was turning its focus to cattle. ''We just can't sit with our heads down,'' Walker said. ''We have to get back to work. Our main focus now is going to be beef.'' The other company with a federal permit, Valley Meat Co. of Roswell, N.M., was ''still prepared to stay the course,'' company attorney Blain Dunn said. Valley Meat has been at the fore of the fight, pushing for more than a year for permission to convert its cattle plant into a horse slaughterhouse.