January 20, 2014

Obama Says Race May Blunt Poll Standing in Interview

By Brian Wingfield - Jan 20, 2014

President Barack Obama said racial tensions may partially explain his declining popularity among white voters, according to a story in the New Yorker magazine this week.

“There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black president,” Obama said in the article by David Remnick, which was posted on the publication’s website yesterday and appears in the magazine’s Jan. 27 edition.

“Now, the flip side of it is there are some black folks and maybe some white folks who really like me and give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black president,” Obama said in his most direct comments on how race has affected his political standing since he’s been in office.

In a series of interviews with the New Yorker, Obama reflected on a range of issues including head injuries in professional football, the legalization of marijuana in some states as well as his place in history. As he prepares for his State of the Union address scheduled for Jan. 28, the president is seeking to overcome recent controversies such as the troubled rollout of health-insurance expansion and revelations that the National Security Agency has gathered personal mobile phone data.

Gallup Poll

Obama’s approval rating among all voters is 39 percent and his disapproval rating is 53 percent, according to a Gallup Poll conducted Jan. 14-16. In the 2012 presidential election, Republican candidate Mitt Romney won 59 percent of the white vote, compared with Obama’s 39 percent, according to exit polling by a consortium of major news outlets. Obama won 43 percent of the white vote in 2008 against 55 percent for opponent John McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-20/obama-says-race-may-blunt-poll-standing-in-interview.html

January 20, 2014

Israel’s Herzog Doubts Netanyahu’s Commitment to Peace

By Jonathan Ferziger and Gwen Ackerman - Jan 20, 2014

Isaac Herzog, the new leader of Israel’s parliamentary opposition, said he doubted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s willingness to buck political pressure and sign a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

“I’m not sure he has the guts,” Herzog said today in an interview. “I say to Netanyahu -- if you fail I will replace you and we will do it.”

The son of former Israeli President Chaim Herzog, the Labor party leader also criticized Netanyahu for what he described as a weak response to Israel’s 22 percent poverty rate, the highest in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. He said he would raise taxes on the rich to help the poor and divert government funds from West Bank settlements to develop less populated areas in Israel’s south and north.

Herzog has restored the Labor party traditional focus on the peace process after his surprise victory in a November primary vote. While voicing concern about Israel’s widening income disparity, Herzog, 53, said he’ll mobilize parliamentary support to prod Netanyahu into signing a peace treaty with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

He praised U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for making a “herculean effort” to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and said disparaging remarks made by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon about Kerry show the opposition Netanyahu faces in his own party.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-20/israel-s-herzog-doubts-netanyahu-s-commitment-to-peace.html

January 20, 2014

Trust in Governments Slides to Record Low Amid U.S. Spy Programs

Source: Bloomberg

By Elisa Martinuzzi - Jan 20, 2014
More Davos Coverage >>

Trust in governments fell, making them the world’s least-trusted institutions for a third year, according to a survey published before policy makers and executives gather for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Faith in governments fell to 44 percent from 48 percent in 2013, according to the 2014 Trust Barometer survey published by Edelman, a public-relations firm. Trust in business held steady at about 58 percent, bringing its lead over government to the widest in the 14 years the poll has been taken.

Governments are struggling to maintain public trust amid the disclosure of U.S. spy programs by former contractor Edward Snowden and record unemployment in Europe. Confidence in government in the U.S. plummeted 16 points to 37 percent, Edelman said.

“This is a profound evolution in the landscape of trust from 2009 where business had to partner with government to regain trust, to today, where business must lead the debate for change,” Richard Edelman, the firm’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-20/trust-in-governments-slides-to-record-low-amid-u-s-spy-programs.html

January 20, 2014

Syrian Invitation to Iran Prompts Rebels to Suspend Talks

By Donna Abu-Nasr and Sangwon Yoon - Jan 20, 2014

Syria’s opposition suspended its participation in this week’s peace talks in Switzerland after the United Nations invited Iran, jeopardizing the latest attempt to end a war that has killed more than 100,000 people.

The first rebel delegates were due to leave for Switzerland at 10 a.m. local time and had postponed their departure, Badr Jamous, secretary-general of the opposition coalition, said in a phone interview from Istanbul.

The Syrian National Coalition, the main political opposition group, will attend only if the invitation to Iran is withdrawn, or if Iran fully accepts an international plan adopted in 2012 that calls for a transitional government, Jamous said. Iran will attend the talks without preconditions, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said today.

Jamous said the coalition had made its opinion clear on Iran’s participation in previous talks with UN officials and “we can’t understand why we have this surprise 48 hours before the conference.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked Iran, the foremost ally of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, to join 39 other countries at the meeting in Montreux, Switzerland on Jan. 22, in advance of negotiations between Syria’s opposition and government in Geneva starting Jan. 24. The three-year conflict began with peaceful protests before it evolved into a war that the UN says has forced millions to flee their homes.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-19/un-s-ban-invites-iran-to-syria-peace-talks-in-switzerland.html

January 19, 2014

Islamist Rebels Reject 'Hollow' Syria Peace Talks

Source: REUTERS

(Reuters) - A powerful alliance of Syrian Islamist rebels rejected upcoming peace talks on Sunday, meaning that even if the talks reach an unlikely breakthrough in the three year old civil war, it will be harder to implement it on the ground.

Syria's main political opposition group in exile, the National Coalition, agreed on Saturday to attend the talks beginning on Wednesday in Geneva, setting up the first meeting between President Bashar al-Assad's government and its foes.

But the Islamic Front, an alliance of several Islamist fighting forces that represents a large portion of the rebels on the ground, said on Sunday it rejected the talks.

Syria's future would be "formulated here on the ground of heroism, and signed with blood on the front lines, not in hollow conferences attended by those who don't even represent themselves," Abu Omar, a leading member of the Islamic Front, said on his Twitter account.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/19/us-syria-crisis-idUSBREA0I0BZ20140119

January 19, 2014

Investigatory Traffic Stops Target Those “Driving While Black”

An African-American man must reach the age of 50 to have the same odds of not being stopped as a 25-year-old white man.

By Frederick Reese

For many, being pulled over by a police car brings only the fear of being ticketed. But for an increasing number, the routine traffic stop brings the reality of racial targeting and potential arrest. As profiled in a recent piece in Voice of San Diego, the San Diego Police is the latest among a growing trend to use investigatory traffic stops.

Investigatory traffic stops are a form of “Terry” stops — also known as “stop & frisk” — in which an officer briefly stops an individual in order to question about the possibility of criminal involvement.

In the case of an investigatory traffic stop, a police officer — who pulled over a driver for a valid violation or based on reasonable suspicion — takes the opportunity to investigate the possibility of outstanding warrants, criminal complaints and traffic citations for the driver and the occupants of the driver’s car. The officer may also ask probing questions or may seek permission to search the car.

“Community policing is great, but we don’t have the resources to get out there and walk. Vehicle stops are community policing,” said Samuel Morales, a patrol officer with the San Diego Police Department, who was profiled in the Voice of San Diego’s piece “In Defense of Investigatory Traffic Stops.” “That’s the tool the state has given me to do community policing.”

Many that defend the use of investigatory traffic stops point to April 19, 1995, when Oklahoma Patrol Trooper Charlie Hanger stopped a 1977 Mercury Marquis for having no rear license plate. Noticing a semiautomatic pistol under the driver’s left arm, Hanger arrested the driver, who turned out to be Timothy McVeigh, who had killed 168 in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

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http://www.mintpressnews.com/investigatory-traffic-stops-target-driving-black/177245/

January 19, 2014

In Israel, Bid To Outlaw The Word Nazi Sparks Freedom Of Expression Concerns

JERUSALEM — An Israeli draft law that would criminalize the use of the word Nazi in most cases has sparked a debate on freedom of speech in a state that was founded out of the ashes of the Holocaust.

Seven decades later, memories of the extermination of millions of Jews during World War II permeate virtually every aspect of life in Israel. Public figures and interest groups frequently invoke the World War II genocide to score political points, and the word and Nazi symbols have slipped into Israeli discourse over the years.

The bill would impose a fine of 100,000 shekels (nearly $29,000) and six months in jail for anybody using the word or symbols from Adolf Hitler's Third Reich in a "wrong or inappropriate way." Educational settings would be exempt, as would certain artistic performances, said Shimon Ohayon, the bill's sponsor.

The Knesset gave preliminary approval to the measure on Wednesday, but it still must pass three more readings and committee discussions before becoming law. A similar effort in 2012 fell in committee amid opposition.

Ohayon, from the hard-line Yisrael Beitenu party, said the law would put Israel on par with other nations "battling anti-Semitism." He acknowledged enforcement would largely rely on violations being reported to police.

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http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/28670a51b4004330bb448c0cd7843dc0/ML-Israel-Nazi-Ban

January 19, 2014

Mexico's Goverment 'Strongly Rejects' Upcoming Execution In Texas Of Mexican Citizen

Source: Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government said Sunday it "strongly rejects" the execution scheduled this week in Texas of a Mexican man convicted of killing a police officer.

The Foreign Relations Department said in a statement that executing Edgar Tamayo would be yet another U.S. violation of an international treaty involving such cases.

Tamayo is set for lethal injection Wednesday for the 1994 fatal shooting of a police officer who had arrested him for a robbery.

Mexico has been asking the United Sates to halt Tamayo's execution because the inmate wasn't told he could get legal help from the Mexican government as agreed under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Read more: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/958d17e6e0c2482ca790502179da6f99/LT--Mexico-Texas-Execution

January 19, 2014

Afghan President Again Demands An End To US Airstrikes, Says It's Condition For Security Deal

Source: Associated Press

By PATRICK QUINN Associated Press
January 19, 2014 - 3:34 pm EST

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's president demanded Sunday that the United States no longer carry out military operations or airstrikes and must jump-start peace talks with the Taliban before his country signs a security deal to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014.

President Hamid Karzai's deepening anti-American rhetoric comes as the Taliban intensifies its assaults ahead of the planned withdrawal and after Friday's militant raid on a popular Kabul restaurant, the deadliest single attack against foreign civilians in the course of the nearly 13-year U.S.-led war.

Although Karzai has made similar demands in the past, he has in recent weeks ratcheted up his condemnations of alleged U.S. failures as Afghans look fearfully ahead to an uncertain future.

Karzai made the statement after being presented with the findings of an investigation into a joint Afghan-U.S. military operation last week that resulted in civilian casualties which he blamed on a U.S. military air strike.

Read more: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/855b40c6d2dd4531a5c2190fca40da1f/AS--Afghanistan

January 19, 2014

14 Arrested After Protest Against Southern Calif. Police's Acquittal In Homeless Man's Death

FULLERTON, California — Police have arrested a 14th person following a protest against the acquittal of officers in the beating death of a homeless man.

The protest in the Orange County city of Fullerton turned violent when a few of the 200 participants attacked a television news camera operator Saturday afternoon.

Initially, one person was arrested for assault, two for vandalism and 10 for refusing to follow police orders to disperse.

Fullerton police Sgt. Jeff Stuart said Sunday a 14th protester was arrested later, after trying to steal from a nearby supermarket. More arrests are possible.

The protesters objected to a verdict earlier this month that absolved two Fullerton police officers in the 2011 death of Kelly Thomas, whom police had kneed and jolted with an electric stun gun.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/c9a156e5f0ee455396ea16c5f31c467e/US-Police-Homeless-Death