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Japanese teen dismembers classmate
7/28/2014 8:08:44 PM
- 16-year-old girl accused of strangling classmate to death before cutting off her head and hand
- Reports: Girl's body discovered at alleged killer's home
- Teen tells police she acted alone
(CNN) -- A 16-year-old Japanese girl has been arrested in Sasebo, Nagasaki prefecture, on suspicion of murdering a fellow student. Police confirmed that the alleged attacker also dismembered her victim's body.
The girl, who cannot be named as she is a minor, is suspected of hitting Aiwa Matsuo, 15, with an object repeatedly before strangling her.
The victim's family said that she had gone to meet friends Saturday afternoon and alerted police when she did not return later that evening.
The teen admitted killing Matsuo, and told police she acted alone. The teen, who turned 16 the day of her arrest, admitted to dismembering the body, including decapitation and severing her left hand.
The English-language Japan Times reported that the alleged attacker's "friends and acquaintances" described her as "very smart, with emotional ups and downs."
It has been reported that her father remarried after the suspect's mother died last year and lives elsewhere in the southwestern Japanese city.
At a press conference, the principal of the school that both attacker and victim attended said that the institution was not aware of any trouble between the two.
"I have no words to say now. I am overwhelmed by sadness, regret and various feelings," he said.
Reports indicate that the body was discovered early Sunday morning on a bed at the girl's apartment, where she lives alone. Implements used in the attack were found on, and next to, the bed.
Despite Japan's deserved reputation for safety and a relative lack of violent crime in the country, it is not the first time that Sasebo has appeared in headlines featuring violence perpetrated by minors -- in 2004, an elementary school-aged girl in the city killed a classmate, slashing her throat.
Connecticut teen accused in slashing death of classmate charged as adult
12-year-old girl stabbed 19 times; friends arrested
Same-sex marriage ban overturned
7/29/2014 4:54:09 AM
- The ruling was another victory for gay and lesbian couples seeking the right to wed
- The decision was from a three-judge panel of the appeals court in Richmond
- Decision also affects bans in North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia
- NEW: Ruling can be appealed to full appeals court; could wind up at Supreme Court
(CNN) -- A federal appeals court on Monday struck down Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage, the first such decision in a southern state and another victory for gay and lesbian couples seeking the right to legally wed.
"We recognize that same-sex marriage makes some people deeply uncomfortable. However, inertia and apprehension are not legitimate bases for denying same-sex couples due process and equal protection of the laws," the divided three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit in Richmond concluded.
Utah wins delay in same-sex marriage
The decision follows similar conclusions reached in recent weeks by another federal appeals court when tossing out bans in Utah and Oklahoma.
Lower-court judges in a dozen states have also found voter-approved restrictions on the ability of same-sex couples to get married to be unconstitutional. The issue appears headed to the Supreme Court, eventually.
The 4th Circuit opinion also will affect marriage laws in other states within its jurisdiction, including West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Only Maryland has legalized same-sex marriage.
Separate orders would have to be issued for affected states in the region outside Virginia.
Gay and lesbian couples in Virginia cannot marry in the state for at least another three weeks, giving the time for another appeal to be filed on enforcement.
The Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether to review the constitutional issues pending in this case and those in several others, a process that may not begin at the earliest until later this year.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said he was "overjoyed" at the ruling. He and Virginia's attorney general have refused to defend the ban in court as is tradition, leaving it to other state officials to make the case.
"This is a historic ruling for our commonwealth, and its effect will affirm once again that Virginia is a state that is open and welcoming to all," McAuliffe, a Democrat, said in a statement.
A federal judge in February struck down Virginia's ban on constitutional grounds. The prohibition has effectively been in place since Colonial days, but only incorporated into the state's constitution in 2006.
Victories for marriage equality supporters
Monday's ruling continues a near-unbroken string of state and federal court victories nationwide in the past year, giving marriage-equality supporters unbridled encouragement that their ultimate goal will be achieved: striking all laws limiting the rights of homosexuals to wed.
"The choice of whether and whom to marry is an intensely personal decision that alters the course of an individual's life," wrote Judge Henry Floyd in an opinion supported by Judge Roger Gregory. "Denying same-sex couples this choice prohibits them from participating fully in our society, which is precisely the type of segregation that the Fourteenth Amendment cannot countenance."
In dissent, Judge Paul Niemeyer said the issue should not be in the hands of the courts.
During May oral arguments, the three seemed to agree that both sides in the case were using the appeals court as "way-station up (Interstate) 95" to the Supreme Court.
Byron Babione, senior counsel with the group Alliance Defending Freedom, said Niemeyer noted correctly, in its view, that there is "no fundamental right to same-sex marriage and there are rational reasons for not recognizing it," and that states must be permitted to have the final word.
The group represents a plaintiff in defense of the ban, and is now weighing the next step.
Same-sex marriage is legal in 19 U.S states plus the District of Columbia: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington state.
Other cases in play
A separate federal appeals court next month will hear separate challenges to same-sex marriage bans in the four states in its jurisdiction: Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
The challenge to Virginia's ban was brought by several plaintiffs, including Timothy Bostic and Tony London of Norfolk. Two Richmond-area women, whose marriage was formalized in California, but is not recognized in the commonwealth also brought suit.
Supporters of traditional marriage between one-man and one-woman have criticized the rulings in Virginia and other states, for expanding the right to homosexuals.
Thirteen months ago, the Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriages in California to resume. More importantly, it also rejected parts of a federal law that had denied federal benefits, such as tax breaks, to same-sex spouses.
Ebola battle: Liberia closes borders
7/29/2014 8:19:35 AM
- Aid organization trying to evacuate doctor infected with Ebola
- Liberia closes its borders to stop Ebola from spreading
- This is the deadliest outbreak in the history of the disease
(CNN) -- The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history continues to plague West Africa as leaders scramble to stop the virus from spreading.
Over the weekend, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf closed most of the country's borders. The few points of entry that are still open will have Ebola testing centers and will implement preventive measures, she said. The president also placed restrictions on public gatherings and ordered hotels, restaurants and other entertainment venues to play a five-minute video on Ebola safety.
"No doubt the Ebola virus is a national health problem," Sirleaf said. "It attacks our way of life, with serious economic and social consequences. As such we are compelled to bring the totality of our national resolve to fight this scourge."
As of July 20, the World Health Organization had confirmed 224 cases of Ebola in Liberia, including 127 deaths. Overall, Ebola has killed at least 660 people in West Africa. There were 45 new cases reported in the region between July 18 and July 20.
Ebola: Fast Facts
Health officials are worried about the virus spreading to other countries in the region. This is the first such outbreak to hit West Africa. On Friday, a Liberian man with Ebola died in Lagos, Nigeria, Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said.
Patrick Sawyer arrived at Lagos' airport on July 20 and was isolated at a local hospital after exhibiting common Ebola symptoms. He told officials he had no direct contact with anyone who had the virus.
Lagos State Health Commissioner Dr. Jide Idris said authorities are working to identify people who may have come in contact with the man on his flights. The process has been delayed, he said, because the airline has not provided the passenger lists for all three of the flights Sawyer took. Sawyer flew first to Ghana before he went to Togo and then switched planes to fly to Nigeria, according to the health commissioner.
"In collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Aviation, I've also put into motion mechanisms to track down all contacts at high risk," Idris said.
The state department has identified 59 people so far who came into contact with the man. Twenty have been tested for Ebola.
On Monday, Arik Air, one of Nigeria's biggest airlines, suspended operations into the country's capital, Monrovia, and another city called Freetown, according to AllAfrica.com.
It is unlikely the virus would spread on a plane unless a passenger were to come into contact with a sick person's bodily fluids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Meanwhile, American health care workers helping to fight this deadly disease abroad have put themselves at risk.
Dr. Kent Brantly, a 33-year-old Indianapolis resident, had been treating Ebola patients in Monrovia when he started to feel sick.
Brantly works with Samaritan's Purse, a Christian international relief agency founded by evangelists Franklin Graham and Robert Pierce. He has been the medical director for the Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia and has been working to help Ebola patients since October.
Deadliest ever outbreak: what you need to know
"When the Ebola outbreak hit, he took on responsibilities with our Ebola direct clinical treatment response, but he was serving in a missionary hospital in Liberia prior to his work with Ebola patients," said Melissa Strickland, a spokeswoman for the organization.
After testing positive for Ebola, he went into treatment at a Samaritan's Purse isolation center at ELWA Hospital in Paynesville City, Monrovia. His condition is rapidly deteriorating and Samaritan's Purse has been working to evacuate him for better care, but Liberia is not allowing the evacuation, according to Samaritan's Purse vice president of international relief, Ken Isaacs. The reason for the delay is unclear.
The CDC said the doctor's family had been with him, but left for the United States before he became symptomatic; as such it is highly unlikely that they caught the virus from him. Out of an abundance of caution they are on a 21-day fever watch, the CDC said.
Another American working with Samaritan's Purse has also been infected. Nancy Writebol from Charlotte, North Carolina, works with Serving in Mission, or SIM. She and her husband used to work with orphans and other children who struggle with poverty-related issues but expanded their efforts to take on the complex medical problems in Monrovia.
She had teamed up with the staff from Samaritan's Purse to help fight the Ebola outbreak in Monrovia when she got sick. She, too, is undergoing treatment.
A spokesperson for Samaritan's Purse said there have been riots outside the clinic.
Another doctor who has played a key role in fighting the outbreak in Sierra Leone, Dr. Sheik Humarr Kahn, is sick. He is being treated by the French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres --also known as Doctors Without Borders -- in Kailahun, Sierra Leone, according to a representative of that agency.
Kahn had been overseeing treatment of Ebola patients in isolation units at Kenema Government Hospital, which is about 185 miles (298 kilometers) east of the capital, Freetown.
Sierra Leone's minister of health and sanitation called the doctor a national hero for the sacrifices he has made in trying to stop the outbreak.
Doctors and medical staff are particularly vulnerable to the virus because it spreads through exposure to bodily fluids from the infected. It can also spread through contact with an object contaminated by an infected person's bodily fluids.
The disease is not contagious until symptoms appear. Symptoms of Ebola include fever, fatigue and headaches. They can appear two to 21 days after infection, meaning many who are sick don't know it.
The early symptoms then can progress to vomiting, diarrhea, impaired kidney and liver function, and sometimes internal and external bleeding.
Leaders in the international health community characterize the Ebola epidemic as the "deadliest ever."
While the World Health Organization has mobilized to fight the epidemic, it can be a difficult one to stop. It is so highly infectious that it typically kills 90% of those who catch it. The death rate in this particular outbreak had dropped to roughly 60% since it has been treated early in many cases. There is, however, no Ebola vaccination.
Is it time to test experimental vaccines?
With the announcement that Liberia is closing its borders, the country also instituted a new travel policy to inspect and test all outgoing and incoming passengers. The hope is that such measures will stop the spread of the virus.
There has never been a confirmed case of Ebola spreading to a developed country, said Kamiliny Kalahne, an epidemiologist with Doctors Without Borders.
"This is because people generally transmit the infection when they are very sick, have a high fever and a lot of symptoms -- and in these situations, they don't travel.
"And even if they do get sick once they travel to a developed country, they will be in a good hospital with good infection control, so they are very unlikely to infect others," she said.
"This is not the great plague," CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta said after his trip to the region in the spring. "But it is a pretty formidable killer."
"The grim reality is it often kills so quickly, people don't have time to spread it."
The CDC held a media briefing Monday to emphasize the fact that there is "no significant risk in the U.S." for an Ebola outbreak. CDC officials said with the spread of Ebola to U.S. health care workers, there is a real need for "vigilance" to make sure workers are careful, get tested if there is any suspicion of illness, and that all sick travelers should remain isolated when returning from areas affected directly by the epidemic.
Stephan Monroe, CDC's deputy director of the National Center for Emerging & Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, said the CDC is working with American health care providers to educate them about Ebola. The agency sent a notice Monday to remind doctors to take important steps to avoid the spread of the illness, including asking their patients about their travel history, particularly if they have traveled to West Africa in the last three weeks.
Watch: Dr. Gupta dispels Ebola myths
U.S.: Russia violated missile treaty
7/29/2014 12:11:54 AM
- NEW: President Obama sends Vladimir Putin letter addressing the matter
- U.S. believes Russia has tested cruise missiles not allowed by 1987 treaty
- Moscow says it investigated and considers the matter closed
- Source tells CNN that Washington has proposed senior-level talks with Moscow
Washington (CNN) -- The United States accused Russia on Monday of violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, citing cruise missile tests that date to 2008, senior State Department and White House officials said.
"This is a very serious matter which we have attempted to address with Russia for some time now," said a senior State Department official.
Russia's suspected violation of the treaty was first reported Monday by The New York Times.
"The 2014 Compliance Report of the treaty includes a determination that the Russian Federation is in violation of its INF Treaty obligations not to possess, produce, or flight-test a ground-launched cruise missile with a range capability of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,417 miles), or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles," a White House official said, adding that they "have kept the Congress and our allies informed of this matter."
The violation was for cruise missile tests that date back to 2008, prompting an administration review as to whether the tests are in violation of the 1987 treaty between the United States and Russia banning medium range missiles.
President Barack Obama has written his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a letter about the matter.
Monday's news comes during a increasingly icy period for relations between Washington and Moscow due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, where Russia is said to be supporting separatists. The United States will place new sanctions on Russia this week, White House Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken announced Monday without elaborating.
Opinion: We must end this trade in weapons of war
The United States also is upset with Russia for giving asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.
The officials said the administration has also informed NATO allies of Russia's suspected violation.
The officials said Washington, which first raised the issue with Russia last year, has recently notified Moscow of the determination and has proposed senior-level talks in the effort to bring Russia back into compliance with its obligations under the treaty.
Officials pointed out the treaty doesn't just protect the United States and Russia, but the 11 former Soviet republics also a party to the treaty, as well as allies in Europe and East Asia.
"The United States is committed to the viability of the INF Treaty. We encourage Russia to return to compliance with its obligations under the Treaty and to eliminate any prohibited items in a verifiable manner," the senior state department official told CNN.
One of the officials said further talks with America's allies would "take into account the impact of this Russian violation on our collective security if Russia does not return to compliance."
The administration has been raising this issue with Russia for more than a year. The Russians responded that they investigated the matter and considered it closed.
READ: Yukos win delivers blow to Russia's Putin
READ: Opinion: How MH17 disaster backs Russia's Putin into a corner
READ: To punish Russia, Europe must be prepared to suffer
CNN's Athena Jones contributed to this report.
Why we must end weapons trade
7/29/2014 7:20:00 AM
- Molly Scott Cato says UK, France have not demonstrated decency as they've defended arms trade
- She says a culture of shamelessness amongst arms traders and their political friends remains unchallenged
- The Green MEP says that, even if people don't want an arms ban, they should not treat industry like others
Editor's note: Molly Scott Cato is the first Green MEP to be elected to South West England. She sits on the Economics and Monetary Committee in the European Parliament and is finance speaker for the Green Party of England and Wales. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- The recent controversy over arms sales to Russia reminds me of an interesting exchange during a hustings I took part in during the 2009 European Election campaign.
We were in the Friends Meeting House in Gloucester and, being a Quaker, I felt very at home. A question came up about the arms trade and I fully expected to be ridiculed for being an absurd idealist.
I said that some products should not be part of a market system and that arms were one of those. To my astonishment, all but one of the candidates agreed. The candidate who disagreed, a Tory, at least had the decency to look sheepish about defending this trade in the weapons of death.
The prime ministers of the UK and France have not demonstrated even this level of decency in recent days as they have sought to defend the sale of military equipment to Russia.
This first came to my attention in the European Parliament debate on Ukraine when a French member of our group challenged his compatriot for removing from our motion a call on the French government to ban the export of Mistral helicopter carriers and end the training of 400 Russian sailors at St. Nazaire.
This questionable deal has become considerably more embarrassing since the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Yet despite French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius' earlier comments that if relations deteriorated he would ban the deal, the culture of shamelessness amongst arms traders and their political friends remains unchallenged and it is expected to proceed.
The unseemly trading of accusations of hypocrisy across the English Channel does nothing to build the confidence of the victims of the world's conflicts that our countries are concerned for their plight.
Export licenses for UK arms exports to Russia increased in the last 12 months at the very time that our prime minister and Foreign Secretary were mouthing meaningless platitudes about getting tough on Russian President Vladimir Putin. So, while money talks, the children suffering in the world's conflicts zones are condemned to silence.
Which brings me to Gaza. By international consensus Israel is not a regime that is guilty of abusing human rights and so is an excellent market for arms exports: the UK agreed licenses worth over £10 million just last year, according to the Campaign Against Arms Trade.
In 2009 Foreign Secretary David Miliband admitted that Israeli equipment being used in Gaza probably contained UK-supplied components and the same is almost certainly true of the current atrocities.
During another debate in Strasbourg last week, where our agenda was dominated by foreign policy I had to watch while the Green motions calling for "a comprehensive UN arms embargo to all parties in the region in order to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and human rights" was expunged by the Grand Coalition demonstrating its commitment to business before morality.
The Campaign Against Arms Trade recently called for an end to what it labeled "arms control by embarrassment," with governments waiting for catastrophes to occur rather than issuing ethically motivated bans on regimes with a history of abusing human rights.
Although it is Ukraine and Gaza that are the current flash-points the main export markets for British arms are the wealthy oil states of the Middle East including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and UAE where citizens put their lives at risk for merely asserting their basic human rights, and their safety is threatened with arms made in the civilized countries of Western Europe.
Since becoming an MEP I have received many letters from lobbyists for different industries.
The most disturbing by far was from a French arms company inviting me to the Farnborough Air Show, recently opened by David Cameron. As well as their enthusiasm to demonstrate the effectiveness of their weaponry they also supplied me with statistics about their "economic contribution" in terms of annual turnover and healthy profits.
I found this sickening because for every child that has died in Gaza and each of the 80 children on flight MH17 there was a weapon with a maker's serial mark and a country of origin. Even for those who would not join me in calling for an international ban on the sale of arms surely there is a need not to treat this as an industry like any other.
READ MORE: What is Israel's endgame in Gaza?
READ MORE: Americans who fight for Israel
READ MORE: Map: Tensions felt around the world
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Molly Scott Cato.
Five lessons from the Gaza war
7/29/2014 7:20:49 AM
- Violence continues as Israel and Hamas militants fight in Gaza
- Frida Ghitis: This war impacts not just Gaza, but also Europe and Mideast
- She says the U.S. should review how it balances allies and their antagonists
- Ghitis: Hamas has no interest in two-state solution; both sides need moderates
Editor's note: Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for the Miami Herald and World Politics Review. A former CNN producer and correspondent, she is the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television." Follow her on Twitter @FridaGhitis. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- The current round of fighting between Hamas and Israel will eventually stop. When it does, grieving and exhausted Israelis and Palestinians will still be neighbors. Their differences will remain.
The aftershocks of this war will reverberate not just in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, but also in the streets of Cairo and Riyadh, in the cafes and living rooms of Paris, in the foreign ministries of Arab countries and in the meetings rooms of the U.S. State Department. This war has exposed damaged nerves, deep prejudices and flawed policies.
Here are five places where we will see the impact after the fighting stops.
Israel
As Israelis were taking cover from Hamas rockets and the Gaza-based Islamist group announced it was also targeting planes flying in and out of Israel's main airport, a television anchor in Lebanon offered a most unhelpful suggestion. Iran, she said, should give nuclear weapons to Hamas to fight Israel. Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme Leader reiterated his wish to see Israel wiped away.
These messages remind Israelis of the seriousness of their situation. Hamas has no interest in a two-state solution. It is committed to obliterating Israel. Israelis do have disagreements regarding settlements and withdrawal from the West Bank. But when it comes to Hamas, there is no question. The Hamas charter reads: "Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious."
As the writer David Grossman put it, leftist Israelis now see that "the right wing's fears are not mere paranoia," and the right will see that there are limits to the use of force.
This fight will erode the position of the extreme left and the extreme right in Israel, giving a boost to pragmatic advocates of security. The debate will revive calls to find other options and strengthen more moderate forces among Palestinians who have lost ground to Hamas.
The imperative to find a new way forward with moderate Palestinians will re-emerge after frayed nerves cool. But an old obstacle has grown: Israelis' greatest fear is a Palestinian state falling to extremists, as Gaza did to Hamas, receiving weapons from Iran and others. There is no way Israelis will now accept an armed Palestinian state within tunneling distance of its major cities, especially if Hamas remains a dangerous player.
Palestine
Hamas' bravado and its killing of Israelis may give a popularity boost to the group. But Palestinians are pondering Hamas's tactics. They will blame primarily Israel, no question, but they will take a look at the Hamas strategy that resulted in so much death and destruction.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was one of the first to say it publicly. When Israel was warning Hamas to stop the rocket fire that triggered a ground assault, Abbas sounded exasperated. "What are you trying to achieve launching rockets?" he asked Hamas, adding, "We prefer to fight with wisdom."
With Hamas fighters hidden in tunnels, drawing Israeli fire to civilian areas, no matter how much you hate your enemy, is a tactic that warrants examination if not outright condemnation.
In a stark shift from previous conflicts, criticism of Hamas was widespread in Arab media. Egyptian journalists, in particular, fulminated against Hamas.
Europe
The suffering of the Palestinian population of Gaza has been a heartbreaking aspect of this conflict, and it's hardly surprising that it spurred protests, particularly in cities with large Muslim populations. But what happened in a number of European cities in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and elsewhere was something that goes far beyond a show of sympathy for the victims of war or a rejection of Israel's tactics.
Europe saw some of the ugliest eruptions of blatant anti-Semitism since the 1940s. Critics of Israel often claim that Israel unfairly hides from critics by charging anti-Semitism, but cries of "death to the Jews," "slit the Jews throats," or "Jews to the gas chambers" along with the smashing and torching of Jewish-owned shops and attacks on synagogues, have pulled back the cover, revealing anti-Jewish sentiment that still runs deep, and in most cases remains unspoken in polite circles. We will find out how seriously European leaders address the matter now that we have found what lay hidden behind the curtain of civil discourse.
Middle East
The Israel-Hamas war has highlighted the emerging ideological and political alliances of a new Middle East. Turkey and Qatar have emerged as the champions of Hamas. Their support for the Muslim Brotherhood during the Arab Spring became increasingly bold. Now the two countries have become the defenders of Islamist groups across the region, drawing the ire of other Arab governments.
Advocating for Islamists in Gaza is particularly beneficial to their political objectives, because the Palestinian cause draws popular support. That's why Egypt's decision to stand back is so remarkable. Egypt under its new government has taken a firm stance against Hamas and increasingly clashes with its supporters, particularly with Turkey. These political alliances complicate matters for the Washington.
United States
The fighting in Gaza, with the dramatic pictures of Palestinians civilian deaths and thousands of rockets fired by Hamas towards Israeli civilians, has caused a diplomatic conundrum for Washington. Israel is America's foremost ally in the region. But President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have disagreements. Instead of taking a firm stance on Israel's side, the United States has engaged in diplomacy with Qatar, which supports Israel's deadliest enemies, and Turkey, whose leaders have slandered and smeared Israel.
Details of the diplomatic process, which amazingly excluded Palestinian moderates, have caused consternation in Israel, fury in Palestinian circles and disdain in Egypt. When the cease-fire comes, the United States should review how it balances allies and their antagonists in times of crisis, because even after the shooting stops, this conflict is far from over.
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What will investigators find at site?
7/30/2014 7:30:47 AM
- NEW: Investigators tried the reach the MH17 crash site for a fourth straight day
- 50 experts, with OSCE monitors, have repeatedly been forced to abandon their attempts
- The U.N. has called for a truce between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian forces to allow access
- Investigation expert Matthew Greaves says some evidence will have perished
(CNN) -- Nearly two weeks after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was blown out of the sky by a suspected surface-to-air missile, the Dutch investigators in charge of finding out what happened have yet to lay eyes on the wreckage or the human remains believed to be still left in the enormous debris field.
Their team of 38 Dutch and 12 Australian experts, accompanied by monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), has repeatedly been forced to abandon its attempts to reach the site.
On Wednesday, the OSCE sent out a reconnaissance convoy from Donetsk to find a possible route to reach the site, according to a tweet from its official Twitter account. It marks the fourth straight day it has tried to reach the area.
Pro-Russian rebels control the area of eastern Ukraine where the Boeing 777 crashed on July 17. They gave Malaysian officials the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders or "black boxes" on July 22.
The voice recorder could include audio from the cockpit, which would show whether the pilots knew the plane had been hit. The flight data recorder will give investigators information about engine settings, pressurization and electronic communications.
The rebels have also handed over some human remains from the site. As of Monday, 227 coffins had been sent to the Netherlands, where forensic investigators are working to identify victims. Some 298 people died when MH17 was downed but it is unclear how many complete sets of bodies the coffins contain.
Michael Bociurkiw, OSCE
So nearly two weeks after the tragedy, what are the investigators hoping to find out from the crash site itself, and how will the passage of time have damaged the evidence?
CNN staff and Matthew Greaves, Head of the Safety and Accident Investigation Centre at Britain's Cranfield University, explain.
What's stopping investigators reaching the site?
On Monday, the Ukrainian military announced an offensive against a number of key towns on the main road towards the MH17 crash site. That fighting seems to be blocking the OSCE-led investigators, CNN's Ivan Watson says.
Ukrainian military spokesmen deny that government forces control the debris field. They say Ukraine is adhering to a 40 kilometer combat exclusion zone around the crash site.
But the main Ukrainian military spokesman Andrey Lisenko has also said that Ukrainian forces have gotten "very close" to the crash zone, and that they are trying to capture it from the pro-Russian rebels, Watson says.
"As soon as they leave, the experts will be able to start working there," Lisenko told reporters Tuesday.
What's being done to gain access?
The United Nations and other countries have repeatedly called for a cease-fire to allow investigators a safe working environment at the crash site
The Malaysian government had struck a deal with rebels to allow unarmed international police officers to guard the site, but the fighting has made that impossible.
The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine said "intensive planning" was under way to reach the crash site "as soon as it is safe to do so."
Spokesman Michael Bociurkiw earlier said the mission would try "every day" to gain access.
Who has had access to the site since the crash?
After initially being quite hostile to OSCE international monitors on the first day after the crash, the pro-Russian rebels made it quite easy for the delegation and journalists to make daily visits to the disaster zone, Ivan Watson said
Eventually, hundreds of Ukrainian emergency workers and coal miners were brought to the scene to collect more than 100 bodies of victims and bring them to a nearby train station for repatriation.
During his visit to the site last Friday, Watson said, the debris field felt abandoned. There were no guards or investigators on the scene. Much of the debris had been removed within the previous 48 hours.
The only people keeping an eye on the disaster zone were residents from nearby villages, who all appeared to have gone back to farming for a living, he said.
The absence of a Ukrainian government or international force to secure the site has raised concerns about tampering or pilfering.
"It is one of the biggest open crime scenes in the world as we speak, and it is not secured. There's no security perimeter around the 30- or 35-square-kilometer site," Bociurkiw said this week.
What would the process usually be -- if MH17 had not crashed in a war zone?
"You would normally get an instant response from fire and emergency services and maybe coroners and pathologists," said Matthew Greaves, head of the Cranfield Safety and Accident Investigation Centre.
"Normally you'd see that emergency services would be clearing away the bodies as quickly as possible, investigators would not normally get too involved in that. There are two very separate roles there."
Investigators would ideally mark out the wreckage, examine it at the crash site and then take it to a secure location and examine it far more carefully.
Best practice guidelines for crash investigations are set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a branch of the United Nations, Greaves said.
Those rules include who can be involved in an investigation based on the state where the accident occurred, the manufacturers of the plane and its engine, the state where the aircraft was registered and its operator based -- as well as the countries of the passengers on board.
"All of those people play into the investigation because they all have something to offer," he said.
"If an accident had happened in a field in the UK it would be absolutely clear cut who would investigate," he said. "A lot of agencies won't send investigators into an active war zone."
What evidence will investigators be looking for at the site itself?
In a statement Monday, the head of the Dutch-led repatriation team said the team's biggest priority was searching for victims.
If remains were found, they would be recovered immediately, he said: "Their motivation comes from the deep conviction that the relatives are entitled to have their loved ones and their personal effects returned to them."
Matthew Greaves said there could be information in the remains of the victims that could prove useful to investigators but that they would likely obtain this through the work of pathologists.
If shrapnel was found to be embedded in their bodies, it could support the missile theory for example, Greaves said, if the missile was of a type that blew up next to an aircraft.
"I think that probably the aircraft wreckage would tell them far more about that than the bodies," he said.
Investigators try to avoid relying on a single piece of evidence, Greaves said.
"They want, essentially, all of the evidence to support their theory. They won't just ignore something that doesn't seem to fit. They would be constantly looking to corroborate their evidence."
Aren't the data recorders enough?
Just how useful flight data recorders are depends on the accident, Greaves said.
"If you take Air France Flight 447, without the flight recorders it would have been very hard to know what went on," he said. Investigators then had already established that the plane hit the water belly down and they needed to understand why, he said.
"In this case flight data recorders may tell you very, very little. It's possible that this may be a normal fight that just stops," Greaves said. "That would tell you that there was a massive disruption when everything else appeared to be normal.
"They can provide a wonderful starting point even if there's nothing on them that itself is of interest."
Equally when Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed over Lockerbie, the black boxes recorded a snippet of the sound of the explosion, he said.
In the case of MH17, if the information has actually been downloaded off the black boxes, the investigators might be going onto the site with knowledge of some of the flight data, he said.
It's been almost two weeks -- how will the delay have hindered the investigation?
Investigators would be desperate to get to the site itself to "read" the wreckage, Greaves said, as normally the faster investigators arrived the better.
"There's what we call 'perishable evidence' and that's what you'd be looking to gather first," Greaves said.
"If you turn up to an accident and there is a very strong smell of aviation fuel then you'd start off with the idea that it hadn't run out fuel.
"Witnesses recollections are perishable as well. Clearly two weeks after there are going to be some question about how good people's recollection is."
What about the reports of looting?
If the wreckage had been dragged around or there had been wholesale looting it was to the investigators' advantage to know about it in advance, Greaves said.
Normally, Greaves said, investigators would look to ensure they had all the significant plane parts, it might be significant for example if a plane's tail was at a distance from other debris.
"In this example you'd have to keep in the back of your mind that maybe it's been moved or taken," he said.
Will investigators remove wreckage for examination?
In the case of the Lockerbie bombing, which killed 270 people, investigators took every piece of evidence to a hangar, Greaves said.
"In an ideal world you do exactly the same here." But he said given the security situation and the size and weight of the evidence the chances of removing it all were slim.
"They're not going to have days and days and days to slowly pick this up in absolute safety," he said. "They'll be realistic about what they can take."
If investigators could be certain for example that one of the engines had been producing power [a Boeing 777 can fly on just one], Greaves said, they could discount taking those back. Some of the more intact parts of the plane might also be put to one side as normal break-up damage, he said.
Alternatively if there were bits of wreckage that an investigator thought fitted their idea of how shrapnel damage looked, they might want to take them to an expert for examination.
Equally they might take samples if an explosives expert had suggested they look for residue, he said.
Have there been similar situations elsewhere -- what is the precedent for this?
Greaves said he was unaware of a similar situation for an investigation into the downing of a commercial flight in a warzone and that not all countries investigated the shooting down of their military aircraft.
However, he said when a British RAF Nimrod aircraft crashed in Afghanistan in 2006, with the loss of 14 lives, it took accident investigators a few days to get to the site. During that time the unit trying to keep the site secure had to withdraw due to fighting and some of the wreckage was taken away.
"So actually they had to do that investigation with whatever information they could find." The investigators had to refer to photographs taken when the site was first secured and eyewitness accounts from those aboard another aircraft who had seen the plane go up in flames, he said.
It would have been easy to speculate in that instance that the plane had been shot down but the fault turned out to be a fuel leak and those findings prompted an overhaul of the whole military's airworthiness chain, he said.
The same year the British military had to protect investigators after a helicopter was shot down in Basra, Greaves said.
"So sometimes people are put in harm's way to investigate."
Given how much things have been delayed, how long is it likely to be before the families of MH17 victims get answers?
Greaves said it was hard to predict how long the investigators would take to release their findings.
"There is evidence from a number of sources and I'm sure there's evidence from sources that we are not seeing. It's an area of military interest and there are capabilities they have they won't even talk about but might be willing to feed into an investigation," he said.
With the resources potentially available to them, Greaves said the investigators might not be starting cold, meaning they could release a preliminary report relatively quickly. Rather than full analysis and recommendations, this could outline the facts that have been established so far, he said.
Such a preliminary report was issued within two weeks of last November's helicopter crash in Glasgow, Scotland, he said.
Greaves said a full report into a big accident/incident would generally take one to two years.
"They go to great lengths to make sure that they've properly understood the situation. Equally I could imagine this report -- if it's as clear cut as we're being led to believe at moment -- could be two to three months."
If the evidence pointed to a missile, or a criminal act, in theory the investigators could step back at that point, he said. In usual circumstances, they would then let police take over the investigation.
But with MH17 he said a report was likely. "I would be very surprised if they didn't present something."
Echoes of a Cold War
U.S., EU coordinate on Russia sanctions, but will they work?
CNN's Khushbu Shah contributed to this report.
EU, U.S. hit Russia with fresh sanctions over Ukraine
7/30/2014 12:34:23 AM
- President Obama says sanctions will hit Russian arms, energy and finance sectors
- This is not part of a new Cold War, Obama says
- EU official: Some of the individuals affected are Putin 'cronies'
- Investigators are prevented from reaching the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash site again
Donetsk, Ukraine (CNN) -- Russia became more isolated Tuesday than it has been at any time since the end of the Cold War after new, hard-hitting sanctions were announced by the European Union and the United States, U.S. officials said.
U.S. President Barack Obama said the measures would take an "even bigger bite" out of the stagnant Russian economy than sanctions Washington and the EU had already implemented against Russia over its disputed annexation of Crimea and its support of pro-Russian rebels fighting the Ukrainian government.
"The major sanctions we're announcing today will continue to ratchet up the pressure on Russia including the cronies and companies supporting Russia's illegal activities in the Ukraine," he said from the White House South Lawn. "In other words, today Russia is once again isolating itself from the international community, setting back decades of genuine progress."
He said the EU sanctions showed to him a waning patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the impact of the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which had many Europeans among the 298 people on board when it exploded over volatile eastern Ukraine.
Some of the new EU sanctions target eight "cronies" of Putin and three "entities" by limiting their access to EU capital markets, an EU official said on condition of anonymity. The people and entities will be named Wednesday, the official said.
Three state-owned banks named Tuesday by Washington means five of the top six financial institutions in Russia were on the sanctions list, according to a senior Obama administration official. Four-fifths of their debt is in U.S. dollars, the official said.
New sanctions will also impact the future of Russia's important oil businesses with technology licensing restrictions, another senior administration official said. Restrictions will affect Russia's ability to produce oil from deep-water wells and shale fields, sectors it is only beginning to explore.
The sanctions, however, are not part of a new Cold War, Obama said.
"What it is, is a very specific issue related to Russia's unwillingness to recognize that Ukraine can chart its own path," Obama said.
The EU sanctions also will block new arms contracts between Europe and Russia, prohibit the export of European goods that can be used for both civilian and military purposes and limit the export of energy-related equipment, the EU said in a written statement Tuesday evening.
The European Union had previously been reluctant to issue harsher sanctions against Russia because both regions rely on one another for about $500 billion in trade and investment each year, according to CNNMoney.
"It is meant as a strong warning: Illegal annexation of territory and deliberate destabilization of a neighboring sovereign country cannot be accepted in 21st century Europe," the European Council's statement reads.
One of the senior administration officials said Russia hasn't been this isolated "since the end of the Cold War."
Obama said Russia could choose a different path.
"It didn't have to come to this. It does not have to be this way," Obama said. "This is a choice that Russia and President Putin in particular has made. ... The path for a peaceful resolution to this crisis involves recognizing the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the independence of the Ukrainian people."
Investigators thwarted again
Meanwhile, international investigators and observers were prevented for the third straight day from reaching the MH17 crash site.
The Dutch Justice Ministry said its team was unable to leave the city of Donetsk because of violence.
The 50-strong team of Dutch and Australian experts, accompanied by monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, was also forced to abandon its attempts to reach the site Sunday and Monday.
Dutch investigators have yet to lay eyes on the wreckage or the human remains believed still to be strewn across the huge debris field near the town of Torez.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials have said that a Russian-made missile system was used to shoot down MH17 from rebel territory. Russia and the rebels have disputed the allegations and blamed Ukraine for the crash.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte asked Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in a phone call Tuesday morning to halt the fighting around the crash site so that investigators can access it, Rutte spokesman Jean Fransman said.
Ukraine FM: The bitter lessons of MH17
Reports of ballistic missiles
The United States and others say Russia has provided arms to rebels in eastern Ukraine, including heavy weapons such as a missile system like the one believed used to down the Malaysian airliner 12 days ago.
Despite previous sanctions, the flow of weapons continues and on Tuesday the fighting appeared to have entered a dangerous new phase. There were reports that Ukraine's government in the past 48 hours used short-range ballistic missiles against the rebels, three U.S. officials told CNN.
The weapons have a range of about 50 miles (80 kilometers) and pack up to 1,000-pound (454-kilogram) warheads. If the reports are accurate, they are the most deadly missiles used in the conflict to date.
The U.S. officials did not specify where the missiles hit or what damage they caused.
One U.S. official said there has been no reaction from Russia so far.
Another of the U.S. officials said using the missiles is "an escalation, but Ukraine has a right to defend itself."
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin acknowledged that his country's military has short-range missiles, but denied that the military fired any.
In a joint news conference with Klimkin, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry praised Ukrainian officials for proposing a peace plan that includes "serious and substantive dialogue with the Russian-backed separatists."
Russia: Checkpoint came under fire
Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website that a Russian checkpoint had come under fire from Ukrainian forces.
It says Ukrainian officers used automatic weapons and grenades at the Gukovo customs checkpoint, causing damage.
On Tuesday, Klimkin, the Ukrainian foreign minister, denied that Ukrainian forces had fired into Russia.
The defense minister for the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, Igor Strelkov, said that there had been "extremely severe" battles between his rebel forces and the Ukrainian military in the area of Shaktarsk and Torez.
He said a number of injured rebel fighters, as well as some medical personnel, had been evacuated from Donetsk to Russia. Moscow has denied arming and supporting the rebels, but Strelkov's words indicate that Russia is serving as a kind of haven for the rebels.
Strelkov also denied his fighters had the weapons system needed to shoot down an airliner.
How rebels built up an arsenal capable of reaching the skies
INTERACTIVE: Is 2014 the deadliest year for flights?
To punish Russia, Europe must be prepared to suffer
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reported from Donetsk, Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported in London; Steve Almasy wrote and reported in Atlanta. CNN's Lindsay Isaac, Ivan Watson, Barbara Starr, Michael Pearson, Susannah Palk, Alexander Felton, Mick Krever, and Laura Bernardini contributed to this report.
FIFA asks Italy to probe racism claims
7/29/2014 2:39:17 PM
- FIFA asks Italian soccer federation to investigate alleged racist remarks
- Carlo Tavecchio said to have referred to African players as "banana eaters"
- Tavecchio running to be president of the Italian Football Federation in August
- Italian prime minister among those questioning his suitability for the role
Follow us at @WorldSportCNN and like us on Facebook
(CNN) -- FIFA has asked the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) to investigate alleged comments from the front runner to become its next president that referred to African players as "banana eaters."
Reports in Italy claim Carlo Tavecchio, who is currently the organization's vice-president, made the remarks at a conference of Italy's amateur leagues at the weekend.
He touched on the debate that has followed Italy's group stage exit at the recent World Cup in Brazil, with some suggesting there are too many foreign players operating in the country's top league -- Serie A.
Tavecchio made reference to the system in England, which has strict rules on players from outside the European Union.
Read: Year Zero in racism fight?
"In England, they identify the players coming in and, if they are professional, they are allowed to play," the 71-year-old was reported to have said by Reuters.
"Here instead we get 'Opti Poba' (a fictional player) who previously ate bananas and then suddenly becomes a first team player with Lazio.
"That's how it is here. In England, you need to demonstrate what you have on your CV and your pedigree."
Tavecchio's remarks prompted one of Italy's leading clubs Fiorentina to say his bid to be FIGC president was no longer "sustainable" while an online campaign set up by an Italian politician asked people to protest at his candidacy.
World soccer's governing body said on Tuesday it wanted the FIGC to investigate and stressed that tackling racism was one of its top priorities.
Piara Powar, executive director of the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), said it was little wonder some of Italy's top clubs, and the country's prime minister Matteo Renzi, have come out against Tavecchio's presidency bid.
"It's quite clear there is a strong public opinion focus on this guy and this idea he should not become president at any cost," he told CNN. "Unfortunately, the people that will vote him in later in August don't necessarily share that view.
#Pallotta: "Our position on the president of the FIGC is clear: we think Tavecchio's comments are embarrassing" #RomaUSA
— AS Roma (@OfficialASRoma) July 29, 2014 "To have someone who has said the sort of things that he's said, said them in the way he's said them, to become a president of one of the top five footballing countries in Europe really is going to be quite a big shock."
Tavecchio has been president of the Italian amateur football federation for more than a decade and has apologized twice since he made the remarks.
But he retains support from big clubs like AC Milan and is thought to be winning the battle with his rival for the presidency, former Italy midfielder Demetrio Albertini.
#Pallotta: "Tavecchio does not represent Italy or Roma: I am surprised that there are clubs who are still supporting him" #RomaUSA
— AS Roma (@OfficialASRoma) July 29, 2014 Although his comments are not enough for FIFA or its European counterpart UEFA to block his bid, Powar thinks they may act if he is elected.
"I imagine if he gets elected in two weeks' time that FIFA and UEFA will start to lobby against him," Powar added. "Because how can he look people from African nations in eye, for example, within FIFA who he has already insulted through these words?
"How can he possibly manage the national team when it has two or three black players but younger, emerging black players.
"The former FIGC president Giancarlo Abete had done a great deal to tackle racism, he was very strong and put in place some very innovative measures.
"I think the question is, where does this leave this very strong struggle, this real big problem that Italian football has had historically?"
The FIGC said they would not be commenting when contacted by CNN but FIFA made its position clear with a statement on Tuesday morning.
It read: "Media reports concerning alleged racist comments by one of the presidential candidates for the Italian FA have alerted FIFA's Task Force against racism and discrimination and its chairman Jeffrey Webb.
"As such, FIFA has written a letter to the Italian FA asking it to take the appropriate steps to investigate and decide on this matter and report to FIFA.
"In the letter, FIFA reminded the Italian FA that the fight against racism is a top priority for FIFA.
"In 2013, the FIFA Congress unanimously passed a strong resolution on the fight against racism and discrimination, which, among other measures, reminded the member associations about their obligation to put every effort into eliminating racism and discrimination in football.
"In its correspondence, FIFA also stressed that officials of the football community are expected to act as role models in the fight against racism."
Facebook: Get Messenger app or else
7/29/2014 2:52:02 PM
- Facebook reminding mobile users to download Messenger app
- Soon, users won't be able to message using main Facebook app
- The move has been happening for months
(CNN) -- For mobile users who text with friends via Facebook, it's almost time to download the social-media giant's dedicated app for doing so, or lose the ability.
Facebook says that, for the next few days, it will be notifying people that if they want to continue sending mobile message, they'll need to download the Messenger app.
"As we've said, our goal is to focus development efforts on making Messenger the best mobile messaging experience possible and avoid the confusion of having separate Facebook mobile messaging experiences," a Facebook spokeswoman said Tuesday in a written statement.
"Messenger is used by more than 200 million people every month, and we'll keep working to make it an even more engaging way to connect with people."
In April, Facebook announced the change was coming. It has been rolled out to Android and iOS users in parts of Europe and elsewhere since then, and is now coming to the United States.
In November, after Facebook launched Messenger 3.0, the company discontinued messaging in the core Facebook app for people who already had Messenger.
The good news for people still using just the Facebook app is that they'll be able to message friends in much the same way they do now. Once both apps are installed, tapping the "message" icon on the Facebook app will simply send the user to Messenger. They'll be able to return via a "return to Facebook" icon.
The popularity of apps like Messenger and WhatsApp, which Facebook purchased in February, are helping change the rules for texting. Wireless plans that charge for texting are becoming a thing of the past in the United States, though they remain the norm in places like India, South America and Africa, where WhatsApp has become a popular, nearly free alternative.
What to know about Facebook
Opinion: Did Facebook's experiment violate ethics?
Facebook is cutting back on spammy auto-posts
Attack on U.N. school in Gaza leaves 19 dead
7/30/2014 3:27:06 AM
- U.N. agency: 126 people are wounded in the attack at a refugee camp school
- 1,242 people have died in Gaza; the UN estimates at least 70% are civilian
- "Hamas is responsible for all deaths," Netanyahu's spokesman tells CNN
- Hamas says a truce must include an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza
Gaza City (CNN) -- While dueling political leaders blame each other for the carnage in Gaza, residents in the besieged territory are grappling with a new, nightmarish life:
Dozens of deaths reported each day. Dwindling fuel and water supplies. And now Gaza's only power plant is off the grid after it was struck.
The violence continued Wednesday morning, when Israeli forces shelled the Abu Hussein School in northern Gaza and killed at least 20 people, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military said it is investigating.
The school was a U.N. facility based in Gaza's Jebaliya refugee camp, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency said. Agency spokesman Gaza Adnan Abu Hasna said 19 people were killed and 126 were injured.
Abu Hasna attributed the high number of casualties to the timing of the attack -- when many had gathered for morning prayers.
The daily bloodshed is now exasperated by crumbling infrastructure from the violence.
Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli airstrike for the attack on Gaza's only power plant. But Israel said it didn't target the power plant.
"I've gone through our air force, our navy, our ground forces on the ground. Haven't been able to determine it was IDF activity," Israel Defense Forces spokesman Peter Lerner said.
Either way, residents must depend almost entirely on small generators for electricity. Clean water is inaccessible for most. And some 3,600 people have lost their homes.
"We cannot supply electricity" for hospitals, sewage treatment or domestic use, said Fathi al-Sheikh Khalil, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Energy Natural Resources Authority in Gaza. "This is a disaster."
Salah Jarour owns a small convenience store in Gaza. He now runs the store in the dark.
"This is not fair. We have children. Hospitals need power," Jarour said. "The Israelis are not human."
Many roads in Gaza City are deserted, except for ambulances pre-positioned to assist in case of an Israeli airstrike.
At least 1,242 people in Gaza have died and more than 7,000 have been wounded since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said.
The number of militants killed is unclear, but the United Nations estimates that 70% to 80% of the dead are civilians.
On the Israeli side, 53 soldiers have died since Operation Protective Edge began July 8, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Three civilians have been killed in Israel as well.
No cease-fire, but lots of blame
Hamas and Israel blamed one another for the lack of a cease-fire -- raising questions about just what it will take to end the fighting in Gaza.
International efforts to broker a deal to end the violence failed again Tuesday, with Hamas rejecting a cease-fire proposal put forward by the Palestinian Authority that called for a 24-hour truce that could be extended to 72 hours.
The sticking points: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said any truce must allow for its protection against tunnels used by Palestinian militants in Gaza to make their way into Israel.
"Hamas is responsible for all deaths on their side and on our side because they are the ones who kept this conflict going," Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev told CNN.
"People are fighting and people are dying because Hamas said no to a cease-fire."
But Hamas says any deal must include an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza. On Hamas-run TV, Mohammed Deif, chief of the group's military wing, said that "there is no middle ground" regarding a truce until Israel ends its "siege" of Gaza.
"The Israeli enemy will not have security as long as we don't have security for our people," he said.
Hamas wants Israel to lift a blockade it began on Gaza in 2007, a move Israel has said was necessary to stop Hamas and other allied militant group from bringing weapons into Gaza.
But Israel has been criticized for sealing the borders, with aid groups saying the blockade has cut off basic supplies and created a humanitarian crisis.
Inside a Hamas tunnel
What is Hamas' endgame in Gaza?
What is Israel's endgame in Gaza?
Opinion: Gaza peace struggle drains me of hope
CNN's John Vause reported from Gaza City; Holly Yan reported and wrtote from Atlanta. CNN's Chelsea J. Carter, Karl Penhaul, Elizabeth Joseph, Sara Sidner, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Amir Tal contributed to this report.
Israel-Hamas cease-fire bid fails
7/29/2014 11:03:13 PM
- NEW: Palestinian official: Israeli forces shelled a school Wednesday, killing 20
- 1,242 people have died in Gaza; the UN estimates at least 70% are civilian
- "Hamas is responsible for all deaths," Netanyahu's spokesman tells CNN
- Hamas says truce must include an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza
Gaza (CNN) -- Hamas and Israel blamed one another for the lack of a cease-fire in a conflict that has left more than 1,200 people dead, raising questions about just what it will take to end the fighting in Gaza.
The violence continued Wednesday morning, when Israeli forces shelled the Abu Hussein School in northern Gaza and killed at least 20 people, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military said they are looking into the incident.
International efforts to broker a deal to end the violence failed again Tuesday, with Hamas rejecting a cease-fire proposal put forward by the Palestinian Authority that called for a 24-hour truce that could be extended to 72 hours. Hamas maintains that any deal must include an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said any truce must allow for its protection against tunnels used by Palestinian militants in Gaza to make their way into Israel.
"Hamas is responsible for all deaths on their side and on our side because they are the ones who kept this conflict going," Mark Regev, a spokesman for Netanyahu, told CNN.
"People are fighting and people are dying because Hamas said no to a cease-fire."
Israel is "ready for a period of sustained peace and security" Regev said earlier in the day on CNN. But he asserted that Hamas has consistently rejected truces and an Egyptian initiative for a cease-fire put forth this month.
On Hamas-run television, Mohammed Deif, chief of the group's military wing, said that "there is no middle ground" regarding a truce until Israel ends its "siege" of Gaza.
"The Israeli enemy will not have security as long as we don't have security for our people," he said.
Hamas wants Israel to lift a blockade it began on Gaza in 2007, a move Israel has said was necessary to stop Hamas and other allied militant group from bringing weapons into Gaza. But Israel has been under fire for sealing the borders, with aid groups saying the blockade has cut off basic supplies and created a humanitarian crisis.
Deaths mount as fighting rages
While leaders continued to talk, the lights in Gaza flickered on and off in many homes after its only power plant was hit.
Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli airstrike. But Israel said the power plant was not a target.
At least 40% of Gaza's fuel had been burned by early Tuesday, according to Fathi al-Sheikh Khalil, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Energy Natural Resources Authority in Gaza. The plant will have to be reconstructed and will not operate as it did for at least a year, he said.
"We cannot supply electricity" for hospitals, sewage treatment or domestic use, he said. "This is a disaster."
Hamas-run television reported early Tuesday that Israeli strikes hit the Ministry of Finance in western Gaza and the house of Ismail Haniyeh, a senior political leader of Hamas. A radio station run by Hamas was bombed.
At least 1,242 people in Gaza have died and more than 7,000 have been wounded since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said.
The number of militants killed is unclear, but the United Nations estimates that 70% to 80% of the dead are civilians.
Fifty-three Israeli soldiers have died since Operation Protective Edge began July 8, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Three civilians have been killed in Israel as well.
'Underlying kinds of issues'
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry defended the Obama administration's efforts to seek a cease-fire and sloughed off strong Israeli public criticism of his initiative.
He also said Netanyahu "consistently said he would embrace a cease-fire that permits Israel to protect itself against the tunnels" used by Palestinian militants in Gaza.
"We are working very carefully, and I think thoughtfully, with our Israeli friends in order to be able to find a way to reduce the civilian loss of life, to prevent this from spiraling downwards into a place from which, you know, both sides have difficulty finding a way forward in order to address the underlying kinds of issues," Kerry said.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Palestinian leadership in the West Bank was offering a 24-hour truce, which could be extended to 72 hours, and that the idea had support from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another militant group in Gaza.
But Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said the WAFA report was not true and "not related to the resistance," which "speaks for itself."
When Hamas gets a guarantee from Israel for "international mediation regarding a humanitarian pause, then we can consider it," he said on Hamas TV.
Israel repeatedly has condemned Hamas for rejecting an Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire that Israel agreed to earlier this month. Some temporary cease-fires have taken place throughout the conflict, with each side quickly accusing the other of violating the pauses in shooting.
Refugee camp hit, 'terror sites' targeted
The Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza was shelled Tuesday, Hamas said. A medical official said more than 10 people were killed.
"Witnesses have told paramedics that entire families are still buried under the rubble," said al-Qidra, the spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, Israel reported that five people were seen emerging from a tunnel shaft in Gaza. They fired at Israeli troops, who "responded and engaged the perpetrators," the IDF said. "In addition, forces uncovered ammunition which included AK-47 assault rifles, machine guns and explosive devices. Since midnight, the IDF targeted over 110 terror sites."
Israel has uncovered 32 tunnels used by Hamas to smuggle weapons and launch attacks, Israel Defense Forces said.
Hamas has an estimated 10,000 rockets, more than a quarter of which have been fired into Israel in the past few weeks, the IDF said.
A cache of rockets was discovered at a U.N.-operated school in central Gaza that was closed for the summer, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. The school was not being used as a shelter, it said.
The rockets were discovered Tuesday during a regular UNRWA inspection, the agency said. It's the third time the rockets have been discovered at a closed school in Gaza.
"Because of fighting in the vicinity of the school we have been unable to get a U.N. munitions expert to the school, but we hope to do as soon as the security conditions allow," Chris Gunness of the UNRWA said.
Inside a Hamas tunnel
What is Hamas' endgame in Gaza?
What is Israel's endgame in Gaza?
Opinion: Gaza peace struggle drains me of hope
CNN's Karl Penhaul reported from Gaza; Chelsea J. Carter and Ashley Fantz reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Sara Sidner, Josh Levs, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Elise Labott, Tim Lister, Maryam Affane and Amir Tal contributed to this report.
'Terrorists' have laid mines on MH17 access road: Ukraine
7/30/2014 7:32:49 AM
- Ukraine says "terrorists" have laid mines near crash site
- Dutch researchers decide that it's again unsafe to visit site
- President Obama says sanctions will hit Russian arms, energy and finance sectors
- EU official: Some of the individuals affected are Putin "cronies"
Donetsk, Ukraine (CNN) -- International investigators' quest to carry out their duties at the crash site of the downed Malaysian airliner hit another roadblock Wednesday: land mines, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council claims that "terrorists" -- the term it uses to describe rebels -- have set up firing positions and laid mines on the access road to the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
This makes the work of international experts "impossible," the agency said.
Dutch investigators in Ukraine did not cite mines specifically but announced Wednesday that unsafe conditions kept their contingent from visiting the crash site for the fourth straight day.
The decision by the Dutch to stay away from the site is independent of the choices that other international observers, including from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, might make.
But for the three previous days, the OSCE has joined the 50-strong team of Dutch and Australian investigators in declaring the region too dangerous to work in.
Dutch investigators have yet to lay eyes on the wreckage or the human remains believed still to be strewn across the huge debris field near the town of Torez.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials have said that a Russian-made missile system was used to shoot down MH17 from rebel territory on July 17. Russia and the rebels have disputed the allegations and blamed Ukraine for the crash.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte asked Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in a phone call Tuesday morning to halt the fighting around the crash site so that investigators can access it, Rutte spokesman Jean Fransman said.
Ukraine foreign minister: The bitter lessons of MH17
Russian isolation
There are echoes of the Cold War as pro-Russian rebels battle Ukrainian government forces in the nation's east.
With new sanctions announced by the European Union and United States against Russia this week, the stakes are getting higher, and Moscow is getting more isolated.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the latest round of U.S. sanctions "will cause nothing but the harm" to U.S.-Russian ties and "will create a poor environment in international affairs where the cooperation between our countries often plays a key role."
A day earlier, U.S. President Barack Obama said that the new sanctions "will continue to ratchet up the pressure on Russia, including the cronies and companies supporting Russia's illegal activities in the Ukraine."
"In other words, today, Russia is once again isolating itself from the international community, setting back decades of genuine progress," Obama said.
The Russian response accused the United States of "trying to avoid responsibility" for the crisis in Ukraine and blamed the Ukrainian government for the violence in the east.
The new and harder-hitting sanctions show the West's waning patience with Russia over its disputed annexation of Crimea, its support of pro-Russian rebels and the impact of the shoot-down of Flight 17, which had many Europeans among the 298 people on board when it went down in eastern Ukraine.
Some of the new EU sanctions target eight "cronies" of Putin and three "entities" by limiting their access to EU capital markets, an EU official said on condition of anonymity. The people and entities will be named Wednesday, the official said.
Three state-owned banks were named Tuesday by Washington, meaning five of the top six financial institutions in Russia were on the sanctions list, according to a senior Obama administration official.
To punish Russia, Europe must be prepared to suffer
A parental quest
Although heavy fighting has blocked investigators from getting to the crash site, it didn't stop the determined parents of one of the victims.
George and Angela Dyczynski braved the regional conflict and saw the wreckage over the weekend.
"We have been always protected," George Dyczynski said. "I believe it was divine guidance."
"We really, really promised our daughter that we will go there and that we tried to really fulfill our promises," said Angela Dyczynski.
Despite there being no known survivors, the couple holds out hope that their daughter, Fatima, a 25-year-old aerospace engineer, is still alive.
"Fatima can only be pronounced dead when the DNA is matched with her body," Angela Dyczynski said. "So if anybody says at the moment she is dead ... it's not correct."
Up to this point, very few of the bodies recovered from the crash have been identified by Dutch authorities.
As of Monday, 227 coffins had been sent to the Netherlands, where forensic investigators are working to identify victims. It is unclear how many complete sets of bodies the coffins contain.
Reports of ballistic missiles
The United States and others say Russia has provided arms to rebels in eastern Ukraine, including heavy weapons such as a missile system like the one believed to have been used to down the Malaysian airliner 12 days ago.
Despite previous sanctions, the flow of weapons continues and on Tuesday the fighting entered a dangerous new phase.
A senior official within the Ukrainian counterterrorist unit told CNN on Wednesday that Tochka-U ballistic missiles were fired Tuesday toward the Saur-Mohyla area of eastern Ukraine, a strategic hill that has been the scene of fierce fighting for the past week. The Ukrainian military claimed to have captured the hill on Monday.
It's the same area where pro-Russian rebels shot down two Ukrainian warplanes last week.
Three U.S. officials told CNN on Tuesday of reports that Ukraine's government had used short-range ballistic missiles against the rebels over the previous two days.
The weapons have a range of about 50 miles (80 kilometers) and pack up to 1,000-pound (454-kilogram) warheads. If the reports are accurate, they are the most deadly missiles used in the conflict to date.
The U.S. officials did not specify where the missiles hit or what damage they caused.
One U.S. official said there has been no reaction from Russia.
Another of the U.S. officials said that using the missiles is "an escalation, but Ukraine has a right to defend itself."
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin acknowledged that his country's military has short-range missiles, but denied that the military fired any.
In a joint news conference with Klimkin, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry praised Ukrainian officials for proposing a peace plan that includes "serious and substantive dialogue with the Russian-backed separatists."
How rebels built up an arsenal capable of reaching the skies
Russia: Checkpoint came under fire
Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website that a Russian checkpoint had come under fire from Ukrainian forces.
It says Ukrainian officers used automatic weapons and grenades at the Gukovo customs checkpoint, causing damage.
On Tuesday, Klimkin denied that Ukrainian forces had fired into Russia.
The defense minister for the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, Igor Strelkov, said that there had been "extremely severe" battles between his rebel forces and the Ukrainian military in the area of Shaktarsk and Torez.
He said a number of injured rebel fighters, as well as some medical personnel, had been evacuated from Donetsk to Russia. Moscow has denied arming and supporting the rebels, but Strelkov's words indicate that Russia is serving as a kind of haven for the rebels.
Strelkov also denied that his fighters had the weapons system needed to shoot down an airliner.
Interactive: Is 2014 the deadliest year for flights?
Is the Cold War back?
Despite the escalating tensions and the new sanctions, Obama said this is not part of a new Cold War.
"What it is is a very specific issue related to Russia's unwillingness to recognize that Ukraine can chart its own path," Obama said.
One of the senior administration officials said Russia hasn't been this isolated "since the end of the Cold War."
Obama said Russia could choose a different path.
"It didn't have to come to this. It does not have to be this way," Obama said. "This is a choice that Russia and President Putin in particular has made. ... The path for a peaceful resolution to this crisis involves recognizing the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the independence of the Ukrainian people."
What will MH17 crash investigators find at site?
U.S., EU coordinate on Russia sanctions, but will they work?
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reported from Donetsk; Ed Payne wrote and reported in Atlanta. CNN's Michaela Pereira, Laura Smith-Spark, Steve Almasy, Lindsay Isaac, Ivan Watson, Barbara Starr, Michael Pearson, Susannah Palk, Alexander Felton, Mick Krever and Laura Bernardini and journalist Victoria Butenko in Kiev contributed to this report.
U.S. man 'sent 500 powder letters'
7/29/2014 12:37:54 AM
- Letters sent from Dallas area to President, members of Congress, schools, businesses
- Authorities arrest man after an investigation that took nearly six years
- None of the letters contained anything harmful, but still required an emergency response
(CNN) -- For nearly six years, hundreds of letters, most containing a suspicious white powder, were sent through the mail, addressed to President Barack Obama, members of Congress, hotels near the Super Bowl, schools, companies and others.
And over that time, no one was arrested -- until Monday.
That's when Hong Minh Truong, 66, of the Dallas suburb of Rowlett, was picked up by the FBI and the Postal Inspection Service.
According to a law enforcement complaint filed in federal court, more than 500 hoax letters were mailed since 2008 from the North Texas area to cities across the United States and to U.S. Embassies abroad.
The Justice Department said none of the letters contained any poison or toxins, but they still required an emergency response to determine whether they were harmful. Some letters did not contain any powder.
The language used in the letters as well as the method for sending them indicate that Truong was responsible, authorities said.
The Justice Department said the letters were sent to government offices, aerospace companies, schools, day care facilities, and hotels in the vicinity of this year's Super Bowl.
Separately, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN the letters were also addressed to Obama and members of Congress.
Texas actress who sent Obama ricin sentenced to 18 years
CNN's Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz and Jason Morris contributed to this report.
The bitter lessons of MH17
7/29/2014 8:45:36 PM
- Pavlo Klimkin: With downing of MH17, price of peace in eastern Ukraine already too high
- Klimkin: Ukrainians know bitterness of loss, share grief with families of the deceased
- He says the guilty must be promptly punished
Editor's note: Pavlo Klimkin is the Foreign Minister of Ukraine. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- During the last four months, the people of Ukraine have been fighting for their freedom, independence and European path in a war started by Russia-backed terrorists and their accomplices.
Ukrainian military forces suffer heavy losses in battles against terrorists equipped with the newest Russian weaponry. We've seen reports of the pro-Russian thugs shooting women and children, cynically calling it a "protection of the Russian-speaking population."
The price we are paying to bring peace back to the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine is too high. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has proposed the decentralization of power as part of his peace plan. It means more freedom, more economic autonomy and more opportunities to use languages spoken in a particular community for every region.
How rebels in Ukraine built up an arsenal capable of reaching the skies
Ukraine has also demonstrated its genuine willingness to resolve this crisis through negotiations and compromises. Our armed forces have shown exceptional restraint during their military operations in order to avoid casualties among peaceful civilians and prevent destruction of their towns and villages. Our unilateral cease-fire in the zone of the conflict had lasted from June 20 to June 30, during which 27 Ukrainian servicemen, from all over Ukraine, were killed by the bandits.
On July 17 we believe the terrorists fired at the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, cutting short the lives of almost 300 people. This was a tragic wake-up call to the whole world. From now on Russian exporters of terrorism bring tragedy and tears to people across the planet -- from the Netherlands to Australia.
Ukrainians, knowing too well the bitterness of loss, sincerely share grief with the families of the deceased. Our government is conducting, together with a team of international experts, a thorough investigation of the circumstances of this heinous act of terrorism. There is already incontrovertible evidence that the airliner was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile system that had arrived from Russia.
When civilian planes are shot down
For the first time since 1983, when a Soviet jet fighter deliberately shot down a South Korean Boeing 747, Russia stands entangled in such a horrendous tragedy. We remember that an objective investigation of that catastrophe was made possible only 10 years later, after the USSR collapsed. We would not like to have to wait that long to learn the truth about the tragedy of MH17.
Indeed, the guilty must be promptly punished.
We are encouraged with the growing understanding in both the West and the East of the nature of terrorism in eastern Ukraine. While U.S. senators and European Union ministers already consider designating the Donetsk People's Republic and its Luhansk twin as terrorist organizations, we expect Russia to halt its support to terrorists. Since most of them are Russian citizens and "former" security service officers, we also urge Moscow to take them away from Ukraine. They must go home.
Russian sponsorship of terrorism in Ukraine amply demonstrates that in the 21st century any regional conflict invariably poses a threat to global security.
International and internal terrorism, as well as unbridled export of conventional and high-tech weaponry, have no regard for state borders, national sovereignty or human lives.
Ukraine has been consistently advocating not only international control of nuclear weapons, but today we also stand for the creation of a universal mechanism for international control of conventional arms.
We strive for a world based on the respect for international law and trust between nations.
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Cease-fire dispute bolsters hardliners
7/29/2014 6:17:33 PM
- Alan Elsner: Israel-U.S. rift over Secretary Kerry's cease-fire plan empowers hard-liners
- Elsner: State Department said plan was an early, confidential draft of ideas. But it was leaked
- Elsner: Dispute serves Israelis who want to reoccupy Gaza, militant Hamas fighters
- Elsner: Netanyahu's war might be escalating far beyond what he intended
Editor's note: Alan Elsner is vice president of communications for J Street, a nonprofit group advocating peace between Israel and the Palestinians based on a two-state solution. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.
(CNN) -- The current rift between Israel and the Obama administration over the terms of a cease-fire in Gaza is empowering hard-liners in the Israeli government and in Hamas who don't want to end the fighting.
In recent days, the Israeli media has been full of personal attacks on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry over a draft cease-fire document he transmitted last weekend. The State Department says what it sent was a "clearly labeled confidential draft of ideas, sent in order to get Israeli comments, as part of an effort closely coordinated with the Israelis to explore a possible basis for a cease-fire." It was never intended to be an outright proposal demanding a yes or no answer from Israel.
So administration officials were understandably shocked when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting of his Security Cabinet, which voted unanimously to reject the document -- and it was quickly leaked to the Israeli media, promoting a firestorm of invective against Kerry.
Although we don't know, and probably will never know, who leaked this confidential document, it is clear that this dispute serves the interests of those within the Israeli Cabinet who want to expand the military operation, possibly to encompass a temporary reoccupation of all of Gaza so Israel can destroy the Hamas military infrastructure and kill or capture its leaders and as many of its fighters as possible.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is among those advocating that Israel "go all the way" by reoccupying all of Gaza. Some former generals are supporting him. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon oppose this idea, which some analysts believe could take several months and cost hundreds of Israeli and thousands of Palestinian lives with no certainty of ultimate success.
Still, in recent days, Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have started speaking of demilitarizing Hamas as one of their demands to end the fighting. Kerry and President Obama have endorsed this idea as a long-term goal. But in the short-term, it is impractical without totally defeating Hamas -- and that's not going to happen.
The rift between the Obama administration and the Israeli government must be healed as soon as possible to prevent this war from escalating even further. Israel has the right to demolish the tunnels it has discovered that lead under the Israeli border and threaten villages and civilians. The Kerry cease-fire agreement would have allowed them to continue that work.
But beyond that, responsible leaders in both countries must acknowledge there is no military solution to this conflict and that Palestinian civilians, who have been cynically exploited by Hamas, are suffering unendurable losses. The Israeli government has a vital interest in supporting Kerry's efforts to get massive humanitarian aid into Gaza and also fostering longer-term projects to spur economic development there.
In the middle of a war, it is natural to want one's own side to strike a shattering blow from which the enemy cannot quickly or easily recover. But Israel needs to offer the people of Gaza some hope. People without hope have nothing to lose. They are the wellspring of support for Hamas and even more extreme groups.
Netanyahu may not have wanted this war and has probably been dragged in deeper than he anticipated. He tried to avoid a ground operation and delayed it as long as he could. He accepted a cease-fire agreement that Hamas rejected.
But history is rich with examples of conflicts that escalated far beyond the intentions of those who launched them. It happened exactly 100 years ago in August 1914. It happened to the United States in 2003 when it invaded Iraq. It also happened to Israel when it invaded Lebanon in 1982.
Israel should pay heed and, with U.S. and international help, avoid at all costs going down that same disastrous road once again.
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Afghan president's cousin killed
7/29/2014 9:22:38 PM
- NEW: President Karzai condemned the attack
- Hashmat Khalil Karzai, the cousin of Hamid Karzai, was killed by a suicide bomber
- 3 years ago, the president's half-brother was shot to death
- President Karzai's father was assassinated in 1999 in Pakistan
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A cousin of Afghan President Hamid Karzai died in a bombing Tuesday, a provincial spokesman said, marking the latest killing of a Karzai relative.
Hashmat Khalil Karzai, an influential figure in southern Kandahar, died in the blast, Kandahar provincial spokesman Dawa Khan Minapal said.
Minapal said a suicide bomber was among a group of people who were visiting Hashmat Karzai at his house for Eid al-Fitr celebrations when he detonated his explosives.
Hashmat Karzai was a member of Kandahar provincial council and was a key campaigner and ally of presidential candidate Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai in the south of the country.
The killing comes three years after the president's half brother was killed and 15 years after his father was killed.
In 2011, half brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was shot to death in his home by a guard.
Ahmed Wali Karzai was the Kandahar provincial council chief. A governor's spokesman said he was shot by a guard, who was subsequently shot dead by other guards.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting, saying the guard was working for them.
And in 1999, Hamid Karzai's father Abdul Ahad Karzai, a former senator in the Afghan parliament, was shot to death in Quetta, Pakistan. The family has blamed the Taliban for that assassination.
Hamid Karzai is preparing to leave office after Afghanistan's presidential election, which took place earlier this year. But both presidential contenders allege large-scale voter fraud.
The President condemned the attrack.
"Every day, Afghans are martyred by the terrorists in Afghanistan and my family is not exceptional from this calamity and we accept this sacrifice,' he said.
READ: Kerry unveils audit in Afghan presidential election crisis
READ: Opinion: Afghanistan, the next Iraq?
READ: The Afghan voice that won't be silenced
CNN's Masoud Popalzai reported from Kabul; CNN's Holly Yan reported and wrote from Atlanta.
Girl dies after being hit by plane
7/29/2014 2:51:38 PM
- NEW: Pilot says he never saw victims on the beach
- A 9-year-old girl and her father were struck by a plane walking along a Florida beach
- The small plane was making an emergency landing when it hit them
- The girl's father died at the scene, she died at the hospital
Miami (CNN) -- The 9-year-old girl critically injured when an airplane struck her on a Florida beach last weekend has died, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday.
The girl, Oceana Irizarry, and her father, Ommy Irizarry, 36, of Georgia were struck Sunday afternoon by a plane making an emergency landing, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The father died at the scene, and the girl was rushed to a hospital.
Venice Municipal Airport officials reported a plane in distress Sunday afternoon, sheriff's spokeswoman Wendy Rose said.
The pilot of a 1972 Piper Cherokee radioed that he would be unable to make it back to the airport and that he was instead going to attempt a landing on Caspersen Beach, just to the south.
The pilot, Karl Kokomoor, and his passenger, David Theen, were uninjured. They are from Englewood, Florida.
Kokomoor -- the president and CEO of local engineering firm -- is "emotionally distraught and devastated," his pastor, Victor Willis, said Tuesday.
"Words cannot express the sorrow I feel," said a statement that was read by Willis.
'Never saw them'
Kokomoor said that he was losing altitude fast and had little time to make a decision. He said he aimed for an area on the water's edge that appeared to be remote.
"I never saw them," he said. "It was only after I landed and we exited the plane that I realized that there were people on the beach."
The investigation into the crash is being conducted by the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board.
The death investigation -- which is being conducted by the sheriff's office -- will determine if Kokomoor will face any charges, said Rose.
"I send my heartfelt apologies to the Irizarry family for my role in this tragic accident," the statement read. "I will fully cooperate with the FAA and NTSB in their investigations."
Family was celebrating wedding anniversary
On the same day he died, Ommy Irizarry posted a love message on Facebook to his wife, as they were celebrating their ninth wedding anniversary.
"Thank you for being with me through thick and thin. I love you with all my heart, mi Roma. I am very happy and can't wait to see what the next 100 have in store for us," Irizarry wrote.
According to his Facebook page, Irizarry was originally from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. He was an Army sergeant first class stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
He was a platoon sergeant assigned to Fort Stewart's Warrior Transition Battalion, the Army said. He twice deployed to Iraq since joining the Army in 2002.
"This is a heart-wrenching situation, especially losing loved ones while on vacation to celebrate a family milestone," said Maj. Gen. Mike Murray, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division and Stewart-Hunter. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the Irizarry family."
CNN's Kevin Conlon and Javier De Diego contributed to this report
China's tainted meat scandal explained
7/29/2014 9:23:54 PM
- Expired meat was repackaged and sold to fast food chains in China
- McDonald's is the only brand that will continue to work with the meat supplier
- China has 2,000 McDonald's branches across the country
- China's food safety law is currently being revised
(CNN) -- McDonald's restaurants in many Chinese cities have been eerily quiet this past week.
The fast food giant is enormously popular in China where it has 2,000 outlets, each one typically overflowing with hungry crowds.
But many McDonald's addicts have been forced to go cold turkey as numerous branches have yanked flagship burgers off the menu amid a tainted meat scandal.
The food scare broke when a video surfaced in Chinese media last week, showing appalling practices in a Shanghai food-processing factory that supplies ingredients to many international restaurant brands.
Since then, the tainted meat supply has been found to reach across China, all the way to Hong Kong, and even to Japan.
How was the scandal uncovered?
A reporter from a Shanghai broadcaster secretly filmed inside the food processing plant of Shanghai Husi Food, a subsidiary of U.S.-based food supply giant OSI Group.
The footage captured workers handling food with their bare hands. Several scenes showed them picking up meat that had fallen on the floor and returning it directly into the processing machine.
One worker, his face concealed behind a surgical mask, turned to the camera and stated, "foul meat," referring to the meat being handled.
Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) subsequently investigated the factory and found that expired beef and chicken products were processed and repackaged with new expiration dates.
Amongst the tainted products, they were able to trace forged production dates on more than 4,300 cases of smoked beef patties, with more than 3,000 cases already sold.
Who was affected?
Husi had been supplying chicken and beef products to branches of McDonald's, Papa John's, Burger King, Starbucks, KFC, and Pizza Hut in several cities in China.
Since the scandal broke, all the brands have cut ties with Husi's parent company OSI Group, except for McDonald's.
The golden arches will continue to work with the food supplier in China, eventually shifting to a Husi food plant in Henan province, which was described as the "newest state-of-the-art facility" by OSI CEO Sheldon Lavin.
McDonald's has worked with OSI for more than half a century internationally, and for more than 22 years in mainland China, a spokesperson surnamed Xu told CNN.
Meanwhile, beef and chicken products at most McDonald's in northern and central China are unavailable. Branches in southern China, which use a different meat supplier, are largely unaffected.
Xu also said the products will slowly return to menus after August 3.
In Hong Kong, McDonald's previously stated that it does not use products from Husi. It later backtracked the claim after local government issued a ban on the import and sales of Husi products.
As a result of the ban, chicken nuggets, chicken filets, as well as several vegetable products and iced lemon tea are now temporarily unavailable at the city's McDonald's branches.
Japan's McDonald's have also been affected as 20% of the meat for chicken nuggets there were supplied by Husi, and it has since stopped importing chicken from China.
Who was held responsible?
Although no one has fallen sick as a direct result of the tainted meat supply, Shanghai's FDA has closed the Husi plant at the center of the scandal, and detained five employees for questioning.
Meanwhile, Shanghai's top official has pledged to mete out "severe punishment" for anyone involved in the incident, China Daily reported.
OSI Group is conducting its own internal investigation, promising "swift and decisive action" against those responsible.
It has also announced a number of organizational changes that it says will better ensure food safety at its China subsidiaries. This includes taking the previously separate and decentralized China operations and shifting them under the global management umbrella.
It will also launch an Asia Quality Control Center in Shanghai and a three-year, RMB 10 million ($1.6 million) food safety campaign.
Is China doing enough for food safety?
Food safety has long been a top concern for China, affecting domestic and foreign companies.
In 2008, a major scandal erupted over tainted infant formula that killed several babies and left thousands more ill.
Earlier this year, Wal-Mart recalled donkey meat after it was found to be contaminated with fox meat.
Yum Brands, the owner of KFC and Pizza Hut, has just emerged from a food safety scandal that began in late 2012.
The latest Husi scandal comes amid a revision of China's food safety laws.
Earlier this month, the National People's Congress released a draft version of the law on its website, seeking public opinion. It promised harsher punishment for offenders.
"Over past years, punishment for food safety violators has been increased but it still lags far behind that in developed countries. There should be much higher punishment for offenders," an anonymous industry insider told China Daily.
Is foreign policy a liability for Clinton?
7/29/2014 7:21:16 AM
- Should she run, Clinton will have more foreign policy experience than any potential rival
- GOP will help tell the story, pointing out contradictions and inconsistencies at every turn
- Clinton's supporters are anticipating the onslaught of foreign policy-related attacks
Washington (CNN) -- Presidential candidates often lack experience in one critical area: foreign policy.
But should she run for president in 2016, Hillary Clinton would have more experience on that front than any other potential presidential competitor.
With experience, however, comes risk. Growing global crises, some of which have festered since Clinton's time as secretary of state, could turn what is seen as one of her assets into a liability.
Unparalleled experience
Of any potential presidential contender, none could match Clinton's experience overseas.
Governors are the most disconnected to foreign policy. Those aspiring for higher office often take international trips to learn about issues. Senators and members of Congress, meanwhile, can beef up their foreign policy cred by serving on committees dealing with international affairs, formulating policies and voting on matters of war, peace and which government to support. But none of that compares to the experience of being directly engaged in global events.
If Clinton does run -- and win -- it would be quite a departure from modern-day political ascension. She would be the first president since James Buchanan, the 15th president, to previously serve as the country's top diplomat. (Although it was almost a requirement closer to the founding of the country, with five of the first eight presidents being previous secretaries of state.)
But Buchanan, who preceded Abraham Lincoln, is considered one of the worst presidents in U.S. history. His failings, however, had nothing to do with his dealings with foreign policy, but with trouble at home over slavery and his reluctance to engage on the issue.
An opening
But Clinton's opponents are sure to make her resume a liability, especially if unrest around the world continues.
Sometimes excessive experience is a liability, especially in political campaigns. It's easier to talk about what you will do with no record to show than it is to explain what you've done.
Republicans will help tell Clinton's story, pointing out contradictions and inconsistencies at every turn.
"It creates an opening for the Republicans," said Alex Wong, former director of foreign policy for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential run. Wong said candidates won't win an election on foreign policy but they sure could lose one on it.
Before Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, ISIS gaining ground in Iraq and Syria, Republicans had been homing in on the issue of Benghazi -- the 2012 attack on the U.S. compound that killed four Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens -- insisting that Clinton knows more than she is willing to admit and that it was her negligence as secretary of state that led to a dangerous environment for Americans working in Libya.
Hillary Clinton: Putin 'bears responsibility' in downing of MH17
But since international hot spots are flaring, Republicans have more material to work with and more crises at which to point blame.
For instance, after an interview with CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" on Sunday in which Clinton said she was "among the most skeptical of Putin during the time" in the Obama administration, a Republican research organization, America Rising PAC, noted that it's "too late to hit the 'reset' button on your record with Russia."
During her first months at State, Clinton spearheaded an awkward media event in which she and then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hit a gimmicky reset button to signal a new start to the U.S.-Russia relationship.
"The dilemma she faces is she was either responsible for a failed foreign policy, or she was not influential enough in the administration to right the ship," Wong said.
But Clinton's supporters are anticipating the onslaught of foreign policy-related attacks.
The group Correct the Record, which was created by Clinton supporters to defend her, lists 11 foreign policy-related accomplishments on its website, including helping "restore America's leadership and standing in the world," building a coalition to enact "the toughest sanctions in Iran's history," playing "an integral role" in the missile reduction START treaty with Russia, and supporting the raid to kill Osama bin Laden.
Correct the Record also says Clinton "helped avert all-out war in Gaza" with a cease-fire in 2012.
A tricky paradox
But responding to Republican attacks is only one part of Clinton's challenge to protect and defend her record. She is also undertaking the difficult dance of distancing herself from President Barack Obama's policies while promoting her own, especially as Republicans continue to tie Clinton to what they say is Obama's failed foreign policy.
Clinton is more hawkish than Obama, but working for a President includes having to put your policy positions aside if they don't agree. With possibly higher political aspirations, Clinton must distinguish her positions from those of her former boss.
She wrote a 596-page book to do just that. She used the opportunity to frame the narrative after the events happened, when context and the outcome of her decisions were apparent.
Regarding Russia, in her memoir "Hard Choices," she placed herself in a category within the administration that had more modest expectations, which included progress on some priorities "the reset delivered."
Clinton portrayed her role in negotiations between Israel and Palestinians as a constant broker able to maintain an honest relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as his and Obama's relationship "continued to deteriorate."
Clinton wrote about phone calls she had with Netanyahu in which they "argued frequently" for more than an hour, "sometimes two."
After failing to extend the freeze on settlement expansion, Clinton wrote, "I spent much of the rest of 2011 trying to keep the situation from deteriorating from deadlock into disaster. That wasn't easy."
Clinton: Settlement policy my biggest complaint with Israeli government
Now that Israel and the Palestinians are engaged in intense fighting, Clinton promoted her role as secretary of state while defending the President in her interview on CNN.
"I think the President is doing what he can do to try to get a cease-fire and then see whether we can sort out some, you know, longer-term resolution," she said.
But Aaron David Miller, with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said Clinton's role at State is not necessarily an asset but definitely not a liability.
If the world is relatively quiet by the time 2016 rolls around, foreign policy will be at the bottom of most Americans' priority list.
Miller said he admires Clinton for her work in difficult circumstances under a president who didn't give her a lot of latitude. He said she was a good secretary of state who improved America's image around the world but that she isn't "in the category of slam dunk secretaries of state."
"There is not a foreign policy crisis that is currently ongoing that you can directly blame Hillary Clinton for," he said.
That doesn't mean her opponents won't try, though.
Why many liberals don't trust Hillary Clinton
Severed heads raised on poles in Syria
7/28/2014 10:12:39 PM
- Videos show severed heads on poles
- The videos are purportedly of Islamic State having killed Syrian soldiers
- In 10 days, 1,600 people have died in Syria, a human rights group says
- More than 115,000 have died in the conflict, the group says
(CNN) -- In some of the most gruesome images yet to emerge from the latest mass violence in Syria, videos show militants raising their victims' severed heads on poles.
The amateur videos emerged as a Syrian human rights group reported 1,600 deaths in just 10 days this month.
The latest images come from an area taken over by the militant terrorist group the Islamic State, which recently changed its name from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. The group is known for killing dozens of people at a time and beheading some.
At least three videos posted on YouTube by different people show the grisly scene at a roundabout in the city of Reqqa, where Islamic State militants have been carrying out public executions, crucifixions and other acts decided by its Sharia, or Islamic law, court.
A narrator in one of the videos says the bodies are of Syrian soldiers who were killed by Islamic State fighters.
The videos surfaced online along with news that Islamic State took over the Syrian army's 17th Division headquarters, which was considered the Syrian regime's last remaining military base in Reqqa.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has tabulated casualties in the country's civil war, reported on Islamic State's seizure of the military base in late May.
While fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza has gotten far more attention in recent days, the death toll in Syria has been higher.
Between July 16 and July 25, 1,600 people were killed, the observatory said.
And the bloodshed has continued at that pace. On Sunday, 180 people were killed, the group said.
The observatory counts more than 115,000 people killed since the beginning of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in March 2011.
Suspected U.S. sex offender killed
7/28/2014 9:53:33 PM
- Marshal says a tip during CNN's "The Hunt" helped investigators crack the cold case
- Before the tip, Charles Mozdir "was off our grid," an investigator says
- Mozdir was killed Monday in a shootout with officers in New York City
- Police have been looking for Mozdir since 2012
New York (CNN) -- Investigators say they sifted through hundreds of tips in their search for Charles Mozdir, but a phone call they got during CNN's "The Hunt" with John Walsh helped them crack the case.
On Monday, eight days after the show first aired, the 32-year-old suspected sex offender died in a shootout in New York City as police closed in.
During the show, first broadcast on July 20, a deputy U.S. marshal fielding calls got a tip about Mozdir, accused in a 2012 California child molestation case.
"I know Mozdir. He left here 10 months ago," the caller said, according to Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Steve Jurman.
The call "really stood out," Jurman said, "because they mentioned that he had a dog."
The last time Mozdir had been spotted, Jurman said, his black Labrador, Lucky, was with him.
The tip was the first strong lead about his whereabouts that investigators had in more than two years, but they didn't know where he'd gone since.
"It was the newest information we had," Jurman said. "Our case went cold in 2012. He was definitely living on cash, with a good fake ID. He was off our grid."
That changed Monday, when a New York police detective and two U.S. marshals entered the smoke shop in New York City where Mozdir worked.
Mozdir "fired on officers at a very close range," New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said, and "officers returned fire." The officers were wounded during the shootout but are expected to recover, authorities said.
He used a five-shot revolver and fired five times, a law enforcement official said.
New York Police Department Detective Mario Muniz, 45, was hit three times -- twice in a bulletproof vest and once underneath, a source briefed on the investigation said.
A U.S. marshal was shot once in the leg. It's unclear whether the second marshal was shot in the arm or the injury resulted from shrapnel and flying glass, according to the source briefed on the investigation.
Mozdir had 10 bullet wounds -- six to the abdomen, two to the chest and two to the left arm, the law enforcement official said.
A medical examiner will try to determine how many times he was shot; some of the injuries could be entry and exit wounds.
In addition, there is a chance that friendly fire injured one of the marshals, given the tight quarters where the shooting occurred, the law enforcement official added.
Armed with a search warrant, authorities seized a number of items from Mozdir's apartment Monday night, including a Gateway computer, an Acer laptop, a West Virginia driver's license and prescription pills, the law enforcement official said.
Mozdir had been sought by authorities since June 2012. He had "apparently changed his appearance from earlier times," Bratton said, declining to provide further details on what he said was an ongoing investigation.
A series of leads
Walsh said that after the episode featuring Mozdir, authorities received a tip that he was working at a restaurant in Manhattan, but the information didn't pan out.
After CNN re-aired Mozdir's episode Sunday night, another tip came in that resulted in an address for him, according to Walsh.
That tip led police to a woman in Florida. She gave Mozdir's cell phone number, a senior law enforcement official said. U.S. marshals tracked the number to New York City's West Village, a source briefed on the investigation said.
Muniz and the two U.S. marshals went to the store to see if he was there. The detective entered the shop, recognized Mozdir and then left, police said. The marshals and Muniz then went back into the store to arrest him, and that's when Mozdir opened fire, authorities said.
Mozdir had changed his appearance with a beard and longer hair, an NYPD official said.
While CNN's "The Hunt" aired Sunday, police warned that Mozdir was believed to be armed.
"Charles Mozdir owns a gun and is known to live off of the land," police in Coronado, California, posted on Facebook last week.
Mozdir had a .32-caliber revolver with 20 spare rounds of ammunition in his pocket at the time of his death, the police commissioner said.
Police are canvassing the area for video, according to a New York law enforcement source.
Read more on Mozdir
More on CNN's "The Hunt"
The wounded officers, all of whom were part of a U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, were transported to Bellevue Hospital, Bratton said.
Officials said their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening and they were in stable condition.
It's likely that a bulletproof vest that Muniz was wearing saved his life, Bratton said.
"We appreciate their bravery, their strength, their decisiveness," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said, "and we're going to make sure each one of them is taken care of."
Family 'was destroyed, terrified'
Mozdir was arrested in California in 2012 after the young son of two close friends told his parents that Mozdir had touched his private parts. Mozdir was at their house, helping care for the now 7-year-old boy, who was ill with a high fever. His parents, who requested that their names not be used, immediately went to police.
"He was on the run for almost two years. And this family was destroyed, terrified that he would come back and hurt them because they had the courage to come forward and file charges against him," Walsh said Monday.
On the run from authorities, Mozdir had apparently shared with others his plan to one day kill the young boy's father for turning him in, Walsh said. "And now they don't have to worry if this guy's coming back to hurt the family or hurt their little boy. So there's a big sigh of relief tonight that Charles Mozdir is off this planet."
After the parents' report in 2012, investigators in Coronado, California, executed a search warrant on Mozdir's house and found evidence of child pornography and bestiality on his cell phone and computers, according to U.S. Marshals Service Deputy Brian Grimes.
Mozdir was arrested four days after the incident and booked into the San Diego County jail before posting bail the next day. The district attorney told the couple that Mozdir had been accused in another child assault case when he was baby-sitting a young boy, who told his mother. On June 15, 2012, Mozdir failed to appear at his arraignment.
Charges were immediately filed, and a $1 million arrest warrant was issued. Grimes said investigators think he took all his money and fled. Mozdir indicated that he was considering going to Mexico or Japan during one of his last phone calls. His roommate told police that Mozdir had two guns and had threatened to kill himself and kill a victim's father.
The Coronado Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Service searched for Mozdir in Georgia and California, as well as the Mexican state of Baja California. On June 20, 2012, Coronado police found Mozdir's abandoned vehicle hidden in the brush outside the coastal Georgia town of Darien. The license plate had been ripped off, and there was an extra gas tank inside. A bloodhound picked up Mozdir's scent near U.S. Highway 17.
Walsh: 'This is our first capture'
"The Hunt," which premiered on CNN on July 13, aims to expose stories of ongoing criminal investigations of fugitives and expand the search internationally.
On Monday, Walsh described Mozdir's death as a "tough ending."
"It really reaffirms my belief that people don't want to be vigilantes. They want to be involved and do the right thing," he said.
"This is our first capture. I'm very sorry that those police officers got wounded in the line of duty," Walsh said, "but this is one more lowlife that's off the streets."
CNN's Leigh Remizowski and Brooke Baldwin contributed to this report.
Why Gaza cease-fire never happened
7/29/2014 1:47:45 PM
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says progress made on cease-fire
- Israel, Palestinians to agree on one thing: Washington botched the process.
- United States comes out looking bad, bloodshed continues
Jerusalem (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry looked weary and despondent at his much-delayed Cairo news conference Friday evening. Five days of shuttling through the region and endless phone calls to multiple parties had come to nothing. Having begun the year with a vision for a lasting Middle East peace, Kerry had been unable to push through a weeklong cease-fire in Gaza.
Progress had been made, he insisted; a concept was in place. But the terminology, and especially the sequence of any steps toward a lasting cease-fire, were not there.
Kerry did at least get Israel and the Palestinians to agree on one thing: that Washington had botched the process.
The Palestinians were furious they were not even invited to follow-up talks in Paris on Saturday. No talks could "bypass the PLO as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," the Palestinian Authority declared. Israeli officials were angry that various drafts of the cease-fire ageeement were short on guarantees for Israel's security. Even as Kerry made last-gasp efforts in Cairo, Israel's Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz was on CNN dismissing the plan, and saying, "Hamas and Qatar want a cease-fire that legitimizes terrorism."
Qatar? The wealthy Gulf emirate has thrust itself (and partner Turkey) into an ever muddier process by becoming the intermediary with Hamas. This annoys the Egyptians and the Palestinians as much as it does the Israelis, and speaks to a deeper rift in the Arab world.
Qatar is important because its checkbook keeps Hamas afloat, paying the salaries of government workers and investing in Gaza's rehabilitation. But it has little presence on the ground in Gaza and is deeply distrusted by both Egypt and Israel for its promotion of the Muslim Brotherhood. Its involvement in the process further deters Israel from signing on.
Hospital hit; Israel, Hamas trade blame
The United States recognizes that Qatar's involvement alienates other parties, but reluctantly accepted Qatari mediation as the only way to restrain Hamas. It saw Hamas and Israel hurtling toward an ever more dangerous conflict. Qatar helped put the brakes on Hamas; it's providing some $20 million to the Hamas treasury to pay salaries every month. "As a result of that they have some influence," said a senior U.S. official.
As Kerry headed home Saturday, State Department officials went into damage limitation mode. "There was no Kerry plan," said one. "There was a concept based on Egypt cease-fire plans that Israel had signed off on."
That's not how it was seen in Jerusalem. Relations between the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the administration of President Barack Obama have rarely been cordial. Three years ago, Obama was overheard talking about the Netanyahu with then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"You're tired of him; what about me? I have to deal with him every day," Obama said.
If the commentary in the Israeli media and the shift in language out of the White House are any guide, relations between the two allies are very strained. From left and right in Israel, a tirade of abuse has been aimed at Kerry.
"If this failed diplomatic attempt leads Israel to escalate its operation in Gaza, the American secretary of state will be one of those responsible for every additional drop of blood that is spilled," wrote Barak Ravid in the left-leaning Haaretz.
And in the Times of Israel, under a headline "John Kerry: The Betrayal," David Horowitz complained essentially that the Obama administration had abandoned an ally. "Here was the top U.S. diplomat appearing to accommodate a vicious terrorist organization bent on Israel's destruction, with a formula that would leave Hamas better equipped to achieve that goal," he wrote.
In a conference call on Sunday, a senior U.S. official berated Israeli journalists for "extremely offensive" criticism of Kerry, according to one participant. A terse statement from the White House later in the day said that in a call with Netanyahu, "the President made clear the strategic imperative of instituting an immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire that ends hostilities now and leads to a permanent cessation of hostilities."
Intelligence Minister Steinitz tried to smooth ruffled feathers Monday, describing the United States as "our best friend and ally" with whom a close dialogue would continue.
But Israeli officials tell CNN that there is "no international mechanism" for reviving talks on a durable cease-fire. Instead Israel is building on a relationship with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt and involving the Palestinian Authority. One Israeli official said his government and Egypt were moving in the same direction, at the same pace to the same destination. Neither seems ready to offer Hamas any hope that border crossings will be reopened - its chief demand - as part of an initial truce.
To the Israelis that's fine: They say they need more time to eliminate Hamas' tunnel network. Steinitz said Monday that some 30 "attack" tunnels had been discovered, and half had been destroyed. But he acknowledged that "maybe we will discover some more." Hours later, another attempted infiltration by Hamas fighters near the kibbutz of Nahal Oz showed that Israeli border communities remain vulnerable.
Nor is there much domestic pressure on Netanyahu to call it a day. In a poll for Israel Channel 10 on Sunday, 87% of Jewish Israelis supported current military operations and 69% the destruction of Hamas, despite the deaths of nearly 50 Israeli soldiers in Operation Protective Edge.
For a while Monday there was an undeclared lull in Gaza. Rocket fire was reduced (just 12 as of late afternoon), fewer sirens sounded across southern Israel, and Israeli officials spoke of an unlimited cease-fire, saying there would be only limited action against specific targets identified as the source of fire. It didn't last long. As rocket fire persisted, the Israeli air force launched wider strikes against Hamas targets, and Netanyahu told the Israeli people that they must "be prepared for a lengthy campaign."
His statement came just 48 hours after a senior State Department official asserted optimistically: "You have a way now to staunch the bleeding."
Kerry returned to the theme Monday in Washington, insisting that "the momentum generated by a humanitarian cease-fire is the best way to begin to negotiate and find out if you can put in place a sustainable cease-fire."
In the space of a few hours Monday, that momentum was halted, both sides returned to the battlefield and the bleeding continued.
Opinion: How do we get a cease-fire to end the bloodshed in Gaza?
Five lessons from the Gaza war
7/29/2014 11:48:33 AM
- Violence continues as Israel and Hamas militants fight in Gaza
- Frida Ghitis: This war impacts not just Gaza, but also Europe and Mideast
- She says the U.S. should review how it balances allies and their antagonists
- Ghitis: Hamas has no interest in two-state solution; both sides need moderates
Editor's note: Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for the Miami Herald and World Politics Review. A former CNN producer and correspondent, she is the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television." Follow her on Twitter @FridaGhitis. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- The current round of fighting between Hamas and Israel will eventually stop. When it does, grieving and exhausted Israelis and Palestinians will still be neighbors. Their differences will remain.
The aftershocks of this war will reverberate not just in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, but also in the streets of Cairo and Riyadh, in the cafes and living rooms of Paris, in the foreign ministries of Arab countries and in the meetings rooms of the U.S. State Department. This war has exposed damaged nerves, deep prejudices and flawed policies.
Here are five places where we will see the impact after the fighting stops.
Israel
As Israelis were taking cover from Hamas rockets and the Gaza-based Islamist group announced it was also targeting planes flying in and out of Israel's main airport, a television anchor in Lebanon offered a most unhelpful suggestion. Iran, she said, should give nuclear weapons to Hamas to fight Israel. Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme Leader reiterated his wish to see Israel wiped away.
These messages remind Israelis of the seriousness of their situation. Hamas has no interest in a two-state solution. It is committed to obliterating Israel. Israelis do have disagreements regarding settlements and withdrawal from the West Bank. But when it comes to Hamas, there is no question. The Hamas charter reads: "Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious."
As the writer David Grossman put it, leftist Israelis now see that "the right wing's fears are not mere paranoia," and the right will see that there are limits to the use of force.
This fight will erode the position of the extreme left and the extreme right in Israel, giving a boost to pragmatic advocates of security. The debate will revive calls to find other options and strengthen more moderate forces among Palestinians who have lost ground to Hamas.
The imperative to find a new way forward with moderate Palestinians will re-emerge after frayed nerves cool. But an old obstacle has grown: Israelis' greatest fear is a Palestinian state falling to extremists, as Gaza did to Hamas, receiving weapons from Iran and others. There is no way Israelis will now accept an armed Palestinian state within tunneling distance of its major cities, especially if Hamas remains a dangerous player.
Palestine
Hamas' bravado and its killing of Israelis may give a popularity boost to the group. But Palestinians are pondering Hamas's tactics. They will blame primarily Israel, no question, but they will take a look at the Hamas strategy that resulted in so much death and destruction.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was one of the first to say it publicly. When Israel was warning Hamas to stop the rocket fire that triggered a ground assault, Abbas sounded exasperated. "What are you trying to achieve launching rockets?" he asked Hamas, adding, "We prefer to fight with wisdom."
With Hamas fighters hidden in tunnels, drawing Israeli fire to civilian areas, no matter how much you hate your enemy, is a tactic that warrants examination if not outright condemnation.
In a stark shift from previous conflicts, criticism of Hamas was widespread in Arab media. Egyptian journalists, in particular, fulminated against Hamas.
Europe
The suffering of the Palestinian population of Gaza has been a heartbreaking aspect of this conflict, and it's hardly surprising that it spurred protests, particularly in cities with large Muslim populations. But what happened in a number of European cities in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and elsewhere was something that goes far beyond a show of sympathy for the victims of war or a rejection of Israel's tactics.
Europe saw some of the ugliest eruptions of blatant anti-Semitism since the 1940s. Critics of Israel often claim that Israel unfairly hides from critics by charging anti-Semitism, but cries of "death to the Jews," "slit the Jews throats," or "Jews to the gas chambers" along with the smashing and torching of Jewish-owned shops and attacks on synagogues, have pulled back the cover, revealing anti-Jewish sentiment that still runs deep, and in most cases remains unspoken in polite circles. We will find out how seriously European leaders address the matter now that we have found what lay hidden behind the curtain of civil discourse.
Middle East
The Israel-Hamas war has highlighted the emerging ideological and political alliances of a new Middle East. Turkey and Qatar have emerged as the champions of Hamas. Their support for the Muslim Brotherhood during the Arab Spring became increasingly bold. Now the two countries have become the defenders of Islamist groups across the region, drawing the ire of other Arab governments.
Advocating for Islamists in Gaza is particularly beneficial to their political objectives, because the Palestinian cause draws popular support. That's why Egypt's decision to stand back is so remarkable. Egypt under its new government has taken a firm stance against Hamas and increasingly clashes with its supporters, particularly with Turkey. These political alliances complicate matters for the Washington.
United States
The fighting in Gaza, with the dramatic pictures of Palestinians civilian deaths and thousands of rockets fired by Hamas towards Israeli civilians, has caused a diplomatic conundrum for Washington. Israel is America's foremost ally in the region. But President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have disagreements. Instead of taking a firm stance on Israel's side, the United States has engaged in diplomacy with Qatar, which supports Israel's deadliest enemies, and Turkey, whose leaders have slandered and smeared Israel.
Details of the diplomatic process, which amazingly excluded Palestinian moderates, have caused consternation in Israel, fury in Palestinian circles and disdain in Egypt. When the cease-fire comes, the United States should review how it balances allies and their antagonists in times of crisis, because even after the shooting stops, this conflict is far from over.
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Afghan president's cousin killed in blast
7/29/2014 4:33:50 AM
- NEW: President Karzai condemned the attack
- Hashmat Khalil Karzai, the cousin of Hamid Karzai, was killed by a suicide bomber
- 3 years ago, the president's half-brother was shot to death
- President Karzai's father was assassinated in 1999 in Pakistan
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A cousin of Afghan President Hamid Karzai died in a bombing Tuesday, a provincial spokesman said, marking the latest killing of a Karzai relative.
Hashmat Khalil Karzai, an influential figure in southern Kandahar, died in the blast, Kandahar provincial spokesman Dawa Khan Minapal said.
Minapal said a suicide bomber was among a group of people who were visiting Hashmat Karzai at his house for Eid al-Fitr celebrations when he detonated his explosives.
Hashmat Karzai was a member of Kandahar provincial council and was a key campaigner and ally of presidential candidate Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai in the south of the country.
The killing comes three years after the president's half brother was killed and 15 years after his father was killed.
In 2011, half brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was shot to death in his home by a guard.
Ahmed Wali Karzai was the Kandahar provincial council chief. A governor's spokesman said he was shot by a guard, who was subsequently shot dead by other guards.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting, saying the guard was working for them.
And in 1999, Hamid Karzai's father Abdul Ahad Karzai, a former senator in the Afghan parliament, was shot to death in Quetta, Pakistan. The family has blamed the Taliban for that assassination.
Hamid Karzai is preparing to leave office after Afghanistan's presidential election, which took place earlier this year. But both presidential contenders allege large-scale voter fraud.
The President condemned the attrack.
"Every day, Afghans are martyred by the terrorists in Afghanistan and my family is not exceptional from this calamity and we accept this sacrifice,' he said.
READ: Kerry unveils audit in Afghan presidential election crisis
READ: Opinion: Afghanistan, the next Iraq?
READ: The Afghan voice that won't be silenced
CNN's Masoud Popalzai reported from Kabul; CNN's Holly Yan reported and wrote from Atlanta.
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