World News Brief, Tuesday July 30 | Pundit

Israel and Palestine to resume peace talks; Japan and Chins to hold talks in effort to de-escalate territorial row; Cambodia's opposition leaders reject election results; China activates natural gas pipeline from Burma; John Kerry to visit Pakistan; Morsi supporters call for fresh protest rallies in Egypt; Italian court to make appeal judgement on Berlusconi's alleged tax evasion; and more

Top of the Agenda: Kerry Restarts Mideast Peace Talks

Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams will resume peace talks (Haaretz) Monday night in Washington, DC, after the Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners who have been jailed since before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. The release of the prisoners had been one of the major obstacles (AP) to the resumption of peace talks, which were brokered by U.S. secretary of state John Kerry. The talks represent the first direct dialogue (WaPo) since the peace process fell apart in September 2010, and will see Israel's Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Molcho sitting down with Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and Mahmoud Abbas aide Mohammed Shtayyeh.

Analysis

"Just this month [President Obama] gave a speech defending vigorously his use of drone attacks. So we escalate our effort to kill terrorists while urging an ally to release terrorists from prison. It would be worth asking the administration how that position can be defended morally," writes CFR's Elliott Abrams on his blog, Pressure Points.

"Israel and Palestine need a two-state peace. It would involve bitter compromises on both sides, but no more bitter than those accepted by Nelson Mandela in putting the future before the past, hope before grievance," writes Roger Cohen for the New York Times.

"The two-state solution may well be on the line as well. As former Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin warned recently, Israel is 'approaching a point of no return.' Against this backdrop, Kerry's great challenge is to apply some Kissinger muscle. Putting the full-court press on the Israeli and Palestinian leadership, however, is going to require a little more media savvy," writes Bruce Van Voorst for Foreign Policy.

?

PACIFIC RIM

Japanese Minister Visits China

A top Japanese minister will visit China (Reuters) on Monday and Tuesday for talks with senior officials in a bid to smooth relations soured by an escalating territorial row. A top government adviser also said Sunday that Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe could soon hold a summit with Chinese president Xi Jinping.

CFR's Sheila Smith discusses Japan and the East China Sea dispute in this article.

CAMBODIA: Cambodia's opposition leaders rejected the preliminary results (NYT) of Sunday's election, accusing the authoritarian government of Prime Minister Hun Sen of cheating.

BURMA: China has activated a new pipeline bringing natural gas (AP) from Burma in a project that has raised concerns about China's energy project and its impact on Burma's locals.

SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA

Kerry to Visit Pakistan

U.S. secretary of state John Kerry is scheduled to visit Pakistan (Dawn) on July 31 after accepting an invitation on the sidelines of the ASEAN conference in early July. Kerry will hold meetings with Pakistani leaders and participate in the Pakistan-U.S. strategic dialogue.

This CFR Crisis Guide covers Pakistan's contentious history and evolution.

ELSEWHERE:

Morsi supporters call for more protests in Egypt

Italian court to make appeal judgement on Berlusconi's alleged tax evasion

?This is an excerpt of the CFR.org Daily News Brief. The full version is available on CFR.org.

Source: http://pundit.co.nz/content/world-news-brief-tuesday-july-30

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Is Snowden about to become a refugee in Russia?

The former NSA contractor could walk out of the Moscow airport with temporary political asylum Wednesday ? much to the chagrin of the United States.

By Fred Weir,?Correspondent / July 23, 2013

NSA leaker Edward Snowden looks down during a press conference at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, Friday, July 12, 2013.

Tanya Lokshina/Human Rights Watch/AP

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Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden could walk out of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Wednesday as a documented Russian political refugee, according to the Kremlin-connected lawyer who's been handling his affairs.

Skip to next paragraph Fred Weir

Correspondent

Fred Weir has been the Monitor's Moscow correspondent, covering Russia and the former Soviet Union, since 1998.?

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"He should get this certificate [allowing him to leave the airport] shortly," the official Voice of Russia radio station quoted lawyer Anatoly Kucherena as saying.

Russian authorities have suggested it could take up to three months to fully process his request for political asylum. But Mr. Kucherena said a temporary document will likely be issued?tomorrow?that will enable him to leave the legal limbo of Sheremetyevo's transit zone ? where he has now been stranded for exactly a month ? and move to premises in downtown Moscow.

One straw in the wind that suggests Russian authorities may be leaning toward taking in the wayward ex-CIA employee, despite intense US pressure not to, is a timely round of statements from Russian government sources slamming the US for its "double standards" in dealing with Russian extradition requests.

The main thrust of Washington's appeal to Moscow has been that Mr. Snowden is a common criminal who should be handed over out of shared civilizational values, even though there is no formal extradition treaty between the US and Russia.

"Mr. Snowden ought to be returned to the United States to face the felony charges against him," United States Ambassador to Moscow?Michael McFaul tweeted?on Monday.

But in what looked like a coordinated pair of official blasts, Russian law enforcement agencies claimed that they have never experienced that sort of courtesy from their US counterparts.

"[Russian] law agencies have asked the US on many occasions to extradite wanted criminals through Interpol channels, but those requests were neither met nor even responded to," interior ministry spokesman Andrei Pilipchuk is quoted as saying by the Kremlin-funded, English-language news network Russia Today, which prefers to be known as RT.

And Sergei Gorlenko, head of the chief prosecutor's extradition office in Moscow, told the independent Interfax agency that "the United States has repeatedly refused Russian requests to extradite individuals, to hold them criminally liable, including those accused of committing serious crimes. We have been denied the extradition of murderers, bandits and bribetakers."

Officially, Russia has struck an ambivalent attitude toward Snowden since he arrived ? completely uninvited, President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly insisted. On one hand, Mr. Putin has said from the beginning that Russia will never extradite him to the US. On the other hand, he and other Russian officials have frequently wished out loud over the past month that Snowden would just move along, and stop creating unwanted complications for an already troubled US-Russia relationship.

Many Russians have embraced the idea of taking Snowden in, largely because it would represent an impressive turning-of-cold-war-tables, in which Russia becomes a free-speech haven for dissidents fleeing the US.

But Putin has been visibly cold to the idea, perhaps out of worries that the ongoing Snowden situation could chill planned talks with President Barack Obama?at the St. Petersburg G20 summit that's barely a month away, or even prompt a US-led boycott of the upcoming Sochi Winter Olympics, as at least one US senator has suggested.

One piece of the puzzle regarding official Russia's attitude toward Snowden concerns the role of the lawyer, Mr. Kucherena, who has apparently enjoyed almost unrestricted access to his client in the extraterritorial no-man's land of Sheremetyevo's transit zone.

Kucherena is chairman of the law enforcement commission in Russia's Public Chamber, a semi-official assembly of Kremlin-approved civil society groups and a prominent Moscow lawyer. The Kremlin-funded RT network, which has been able to talk extensively with Kucherena,?has posted a thumbnail biography of him.

But other analysts suggest Kucherena may be part of a Kremlin plan to admit Snowden to Russia, but keep him boxed in and under tight control of Russian security services.???

In other words, Snowden may successfully leap from the frying pan of Sheremetyevo's sterile transit zone, but it remains to be seen where he will land.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/Eesx52ajFW4/Is-Snowden-about-to-become-a-refugee-in-Russia

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Alleged Exploding Samsung Galaxy S4 Adds to China's Smartphone Woes

Posted 07/29/2013 at 1:11pm | by Leif Johnson

It turns out it's not just Apple products that have been involved in tragic incidents in China lately. As reported by Gizmodo, a man in Hong Kong was simply playing an app on his Samsung Galaxy S4 when the device allegedly exploded. After he threw it across the room and under the couch in panic, the fire spread and caused some massive damage to his apartment.

The man, known only as "Du," claims he was using products that all originated with Samsung, including the battery and the charger. Du claims he was playing a game called "Love Machine," a simple and poorly reviewed app that can picked up for iOS as well. (Although, considering the circumstances, you might want to think twice before you attempt to mimic Du's evening on your iOS device.)

Source: Xianguo

Previously Apple bore the brunt of the horror stories surrounding faulty smartphones and accessories in China, particularly after a flight attendant suffered a fatal electrocution from a charging iPhone. It was later revealed that the charger was manufactured by a company other than Apple.

That's not to say that we're necessarily safe from such accidents on the home front. Just last month, we reported that Best Buy had recalled 5,100 third-party battery replacements for the MacBook Pro following 13 incidents in which the batteries went up in flames.

Follow this article's writer, Leif Johnson, on Twitter.

Source: http://www.maclife.com/article/news/alleged_exploding_samsung_galaxy_s4_adds_chinas_smartphone_woes

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Impaired boaters target of weekend crackdown on Lake Washington

Law enforcement agencies will take to the water this weekend looking for impaired boaters during the annual Seafair activities on Lake Washington.

The?Washington State Patrol, along with city, county and federal agencies, will participate in the?Impaired Boating Emphasis from Friday through Sunday during the hydroplane races and airshow.?During last year?s emphasis patrols,?officers made a total of 61 arrests for boating under the influence (BUI); and 70 arrests in 2011.

According to the State Patrol, boating under the influence is similar to DUI:?the legal limit is .08 or under the influence and/or affected by drugs.? In addition, new BUI laws that went into effect on Sunday include:

? BUI?changed from a misdemeanor to?a gross misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum fine of $5,000 and up to 364 days in jail;

? Law enforcement is now able to require operators suspected of BUI to take a breath or blood test;

? Law enforcement now has the authority to issue citations to vessel operators during the investigation of collisions/accidents they did not witness, thus holding negligent and reckless boaters more accountable.

Source: http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2013/07/impaired-boaters-target-of-weekend-crackdown-on-lake-washington/

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