Changing alliances affect Israel-Hamas clash

July 14, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

If the conflict between Israel and Hamas seems familiar, it is. But there are big differences this time that may prove difficult for Hamas to weather.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

To read this post and thousands more articles, subscribe today!

Russia's foreign ministry said Sunday that a Ukrainian shell hit a Russian border town, killing one person and seriously injuring two others. Ukraine denied firing a shell into Russian territory.

A statement from Russia's foreign ministry labeled the incident a "provocation," and warned of the possibility of "irreversible consequences, the responsibility for which lies on the Ukrainian side."

Russia said the shell hit the courtyard of a residential building in the Russian town of Donetsk – near the Ukrainian city of the same name that has become a rebel stronghold – early on Sunday. Ukraine's restless east has been mired in a pro-Russian separatist insurgency against the Kiev government.

Ukrainian officials denied that any Ukrainian shells had fallen on Russian territory. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, was quoted by Interfax Ukraine as saying that Ukrainian forces "do not fire on the territory of a neighboring country. They do not fire on residential areas." He placed blame for the attack on the rebels themselves.

Russia has made repeated claims that settlements along its porous border with Ukraine – which the West and Kiev say is a key supply route for the rebels – have been hit by Ukrainian fire, but no deaths have been previously reported.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday major differences persist between Iran and six world powers negotiating on Tehran's nuclear program, with a week to go before a deadline for a deal.

The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China want Iran to reduce its nuclear fuel-making capacity to deny it any means of quickly producing atom bombs. In exchange, international sanctions that have crippled the large OPEC member's oil-dependent economy would gradually be lifted.

Iran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful energy purposes only and wants the sanctions removed swiftly. But a history of hiding sensitive nuclear work from U.N. inspectors raised international suspicions and the risk of a new Middle East war if diplomacy fails to yield a long-term settlement.

"Obviously we have some very significant gaps still, so we need to see if we can make some progress," Kerry said ahead of meetings with foreign ministers who flew into the Austrian capital at the weekend to breathe new life into the talks.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi delivered a similar message. He was quoted by Iran's Arabic language al-Alam television as saying that "disputes over all major and important issues still remain.

Leading Republican lawmakers balked on Sunday at supporting a White House spending request aimed at bolstering the US border with Mexico, where thousands of children have crossed recently, while calling for changes in the law to allow faster deportations.

The White House has asked for $3.7 billion in emergency funds to help pay for border security, temporary detention centers, and additional immigration court judges to process asylum cases.

The Obama administration warned lawmakers on Thursday that border security agencies would run out of money this summer if the request was not approved.

Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said when asked about the spending bill that the priority had to be stopping the flow of children and teenagers from Central America to the United States.

"The best way to do that is for planeloads of these young people to be returning to the country of origin," he told CNN's "State of the Union." "As soon as they (parents) see their money is not effective in getting their kids to this country, it will stop."

More than 52,000 children traveling alone from Central America have been caught at the US-Mexico border since October, twice as many as the same period the year before.

Israel briefly deployed ground troops inside the Gaza Strip for the first time early Sunday as its military warned northern Gaza residents to evacuate their homes, part of a widening offensive that has killed more than 160 Palestinians.

Neither Israel nor Palestinian militants show signs of agreeing to a cease-fire, despite calls by the United Nations Security Council and others to end the increasingly bloody six-day offensive. With Israel massing tanks and soldiers at Gaza's borders, some fear that could signal a wider ground offensive that would cause heavy casualties.

"We don't know when the operation will end," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting Sunday. "It might take a long time."

Early Sunday, Israeli troops launched a brief raid into northern Gaza to destroy what the military described as a rocket-launching site, an operation the military said left four soldiers slightly wounded.

The Israeli air force later dropped leaflets warning residents to evacuate their homes ahead of what Israel's military spokesman described as a "short and temporary" campaign against northern Gaza to begin sometime after 12 pm, local time. The area is home to at least 100,000 people.

A gunman who killed a rookie officer responding to a report of an armed robbery at a drugstore early Sunday never tried to rob the store and instead lay in wait for police, telling a witness to watch the news because he was "going to be famous," authorities said.

Lawrence Campbell shot Officer Melvin Santiago in the head shortly after he and his partner arrived at the 24-hour Walgreens at around 4 am, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said. Other officers returned fire at Campbell, killing him.

Campbell, of Jersey City, was one of three suspects wanted by police for a prior homicide, Fulop said.

Fulop said Campbell was carrying a knife when he walked into Walgreens and asked for directions to the greeting card aisle. He assaulted an armed security guard at the store and snatched his gun, Fulop said. He waited for police to arrive, then shot Santiago with what police believe was the guard's weapon.

"Today was a horrible day for Jersey City," Fulop said.

Dozens of officers stood single file at the entrance of the hospital and saluted as Santiago's flag-draped body was carried into an ambulance.

Pakistani rights activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls' education, pledged while on a trip to Nigeria to help free a group of schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militants.

On Sunday, Malala met parents of the more than 200 girls who were kidnapped by the militant group Boko Haram from a school in the northeastern village of Chibok in April.

Boko Haram, inspired by the Taliban, say they are fighting to establish an Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria. The group, whose name means "Western education is sinful", has killed thousands and abducted hundreds since launching an uprising in 2009.

Some of the parents broke down in tears as Malala spoke at a hotel in the capital Abuja on Sunday.

"I can see those girls as my sisters ... and I'm going to speak up for them until they are released," said Malala, who was due to meet President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday, her 17th birthday.

"I'm going to participate actively in the 'Bring back our girls' campaign, to make sure that they return safely and they continue their education."

First, the Cavaliers got LeBron James' word. Then they got his signature.

James signed a two-year, $42.1 million contract with the Cavs on Saturday, a day after he announced he was returning to play in Cleveland and try to end the city's 50-year championship drought.

The deal provides flexibility for the NBA's biggest star with the league's maximum salary expected to rise in the future.

A person familiar with the negotiations said James' contract includes an option for the four-time league MVP to become a free agent next summer. However, it is strictly "a business deal," according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team is not providing any details about the agreement.

By only signing for two years, James can get another contract with the Cavs before the 2016-17 season, when a new television deal is expected to push the maximum salary higher. The max contract for next season is $20.7 million. Until this deal, James had never been the highest paid player on his team in 11 seasons as a pro.

The Cavs did not provide any terms of the contract in a release, citing league policy.

It was late on Saturday evening in a fourth-floor room of the US ambassador's residence in Kabul that the election crisis in Afghanistan that had threatened to divide the nation was staved off.

US Secretary of State John Kerry was in the room with former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, one of the two warring presidential candidates.

The door was opened to Abdullah's rival and bitter foe Ashraf Ghani.

Ending months of bitter squabbling, Ghani walked arms wide open toward Abdullah, embracing him warmly and shaking his hand, according to a US official who was present.

A few hours later the two candidates announced they had agreed to a full recount of the disputed June 14 vote, meaning there would be a delay in the Aug 2 inauguration of a new president to replace Hamid Karzai, who was installed in office by the United States after the ouster of the hardline Islamic Taliban regime in 2002.

It took Kerry a marathon 44 hours of "intensive" and "emotional" talks to broker a deal between the two candidates, whose rupture had threatened to divide Afghanistan along ethnic lines, said several US and Afghan officials who were involved in the process.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.