Why Obama says Korean War vets 'deserve better'

President Obama urged Americans to pause today, the 60th anniversary of the war's armistice, and "listen closely and hear their story of a generation."

By Darlene Superville,?Associated Press / July 27, 2013

U.S. President Barack Obama stands onstage to deliver remarks on the 60th anniversary of the Korean War armistice, at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, July 27, 2013.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

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President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Americans to take time from their "hurried lives" to listen to the heroic stories of Korean War veterans who returned to a country weary of war and deserved a better homecoming.

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"Unlike the Second World War, Korea did not galvanize our country. These veterans did not return to parades," Obama said in a speech at the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall, making the 60th anniversary of the war's armistice.

"Unlike Vietnam, Korea did not tear at our country. These veterans did not return to protests. For many Americans tired of war, there was it seemed a desire to forget, to move on," Obama said.

They "deserve better," the president said, adding that on this anniversary, "perhaps the highest tribute we can offer our veterans of Korea is to do what should have been done the day you came home."

Obama appealed to Americans to pause "in our hurried lives" and let these veterans "carry us back to the days of their youth and let us be awed by their shining deeds. Listen closely and hear their story of a generation."

The 1950-1953 war involved North Korean and Chinese troops against U.S.-led United Nations and South Korean forces. It ended on July 27, 1953 ? 60 years ago Saturday ? with the signing of an armistice.

But a formal peace treaty was never signed, leaving the Korean Peninsula in a technical state of war and divided at the 38th parallel between its communist north and democratic south.

At least 2.5 million people were killed in the fighting.

Obama told veteran in the crowd that it's "perhaps taken longer to see clearly and full the true legacy of your service."

"Here today, we can say with confidence, that war was no tie, Korea was a victory," with 50 million South Koreans living in freedom and "a vibrant democracy" in stark contrast to dire conditions in the North.

"That is a victory and that is your legacy," Obama said.

In a proclamation declaring Saturday as National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, Obama said the anniversary marks the end of the war and the beginning of a long and prosperous peace.

In the six decades since the end of hostilities, Obama said, South Korea has become a close U.S. ally and one of the world's largest economies.

He said the partnership remains "a bedrock of stability" throughout the Pacific region, and he gave credit to the U.S. service members who fought all those years ago and to the men and women currently stationed there.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/cl-Pa7iOCLg/Why-Obama-says-Korean-War-vets-deserve-better

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The Developing States of America? (Powerlineblog)

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Egyptian security forces shoot dead dozens of pro-Mursi supporters

By Tom Perry and Noah Browning

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces shot dead at least 70 supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi on Saturday, his Muslim Brotherhood said, days after the army chief called for a popular mandate to tackle "violence and terrorism".

Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said the shooting started shortly before pre-dawn morning prayers on the fringes of a round-the-clock sit-in being staged by backers of Mursi, who was toppled by the army more than three weeks ago.

"They are not shooting to wound, they are shooting to kill," Haddad said. The death toll might be much higher, he said.

Activists rushed blood-spattered casualties into a makeshift hospital, some were carried in on planks or blankets. One ashen teenager was laid out on the floor, a bullet hole in his head.

Al Jazeera's Egypt television station reported that 120 had been killed and some 4,500 injured in the early morning violence. A Reuters reporter at the scene counted 36 bodies at an improvised morgue.

There was no immediate comment from state authorities on what had happened. If the death toll is confirmed it would be the deadliest incident since Mursi was deposed, who is under investigation for a raft of crimes, including murder.

Weeks of violence have followed his ousting, leaving more than 200 dead and laying bare divisions that have polarized the Arab world's most populous state.

MASS RALLIES, "LIVE ROUNDS"

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians came out onto the streets in answer to General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's call on Wednesday for mass protests on Friday. Muslim Brotherhood supporters protested in similar numbers to demand Mursi's reinstatement. He is being detained at an undisclosed location.

The Brotherhood is a highly organized movement with grassroots support throughout Egypt, making it hard to silence even if the army decides to mount a more major crackdown.

Reporters at Rabaa al-Adawia, a northeastern Cairo suburb, said there was still firing hours after the violence started. Dr. Ibtisam Zein, overseeing the Brotherhood morgue, said most of the dead were hit in the head, some between the eyes.

A senior Brotherhood politician, Saad el-Hosseini, said he thought security forces were looking to clear the Rabaa sit-in.

"I have been trying to make the youth withdraw for five hours. I can't. They are saying have paid with their blood and they do not want to retreat," he told Reuters.

Haddad said the Brotherhood was committed to pursuing peaceful protests, despite Saturday's deaths - the second mass shooting of its supporters this month by security forces, who killed 53 people on July 8.

Brotherhood activists at Rabaa said they would not be cowed and warned of worse bloodshed if the security forces did not back down. "We will stay here until we die, one by one," said Ahmed Ali, 24, helping treat casualties at the field hospital.

"We have the examples of Algeria and Syria in our minds. We don't want it to become a civil war. If we take up arms it might become one. This is a religious belief."

Haddad said police had started firing repeated rounds of teargas after 3:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) at protesters who had spilled out of the main area of the Rabaa sit-in and were on a main thoroughfare close to 6th October Bridge.

"Through the smog of the gas, the bullets started flying," he said. In addition to "special police forces in black uniforms" firing live rounds, he said that snipers shot from the roofs of a university, other nearby buildings, and a bridge.

State news agency MENA quoted an unnamed security source as saying that only teargas was used to disperse protesters. He said no firearms were used.

Egypt's army-installed interior minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, said on Friday that the month-old Cairo vigils by Mursi supporters would be "brought to an end soon and in a legal manner", state-run al Ahram news website reported.

TRAPPED IN MOSQUE

There is deepening alarm in the West over the army's move against Mursi. The country of 84 million people forms a bridge between the Middle East and North Africa and receives $1.5 billion a year in mainly military aid from Washington.

The United States has delayed delivery of four F-16 fighters because of the turmoil, however, officials have indicated they do not intend to cut off aid to a country seen as a vital ally and which has a peace deal with neighboring Israel.

The worst of Friday's violence was reported in Egypt's second city, Alexandria, and the Brotherhood said some of its supporters were still trapped in a city mosque by "thugs".

The Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, called for more protests in the Mediterranean port.

There was little mention of the violence on Egypt's two state television channels, which broadcast weather reports and a talk show on Saturday morning. All three state newspapers headlined their morning editions with Friday's rallies, saying Egyptians had given Sisi the support he had asked for.

"The people give the army and the police a mandate to confront terrorism," said a strap headline on the bottom of a broadcast on the state's Nile TV.

However not all Egyptians appeared ready to endorse an army crackdown, with growing concern among some activists that the confrontation between the military and Islamists could push the country into an abyss.

(Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla, Yasmine Saleh, Tom Finn, Maggie Fick, Omar Fahmy, Edmund Blair, Michael Georgy and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo, Abdel Rahman Youssef in Alexandria; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Louise Ireland and Michael Georgy)

(This story corrects the spelling of Mohammed in first paragraph)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/violence-deepens-egypt-turmoil-deposed-leader-probed-murder-020435120.html

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Manslaughter charge filed in Hudson boat crash

In this still frame made from WABC-TV video, Carol Stewart, center, mother of missing woman Lindsay Stewart, speaks to an official about the ongoing search for her daughter following a boating accident on the Hudson River near Piermont, N.Y. on Saturday, July 27, 2013. The Coast Guard says the recreational boat struck a barge near the Tappan Zee Bridge on Friday night, sending two people into the water who haven't been found and injuring four others. (AP Photo/WABC-TV)

In this still frame made from WABC-TV video, Carol Stewart, center, mother of missing woman Lindsay Stewart, speaks to an official about the ongoing search for her daughter following a boating accident on the Hudson River near Piermont, N.Y. on Saturday, July 27, 2013. The Coast Guard says the recreational boat struck a barge near the Tappan Zee Bridge on Friday night, sending two people into the water who haven't been found and injuring four others. (AP Photo/WABC-TV)

In this still frame made from WABC-TV video on Saturday, July 27, 2013, officials search for missing people following a boating accident on the Hudson River near Piermont, N.Y. The Coast Guard says a recreational boat struck a barge near the Tappan Zee Bridge on Friday night, sending two people into the water who haven't been found and injuring four others. (AP Photo/WABC-TV)

This still frame made from WABC-TV video on Saturday, July 27, 2013, shows a boat recovered from the Hudson River following a boating accident near Piermont, N.Y. The Coast Guard says a recreational boat struck a barge near the Tappan Zee Bridge on Friday night, sending two people into the water who haven't been found and injuring four others. (AP Photo/WABC-TV)

In this still frame made from video on Friday, July 26, 2013, authorities respond to a boating accident on the Hudson River near Piermont, N.Y. The Coast Guard says a recreational boat struck a barge near the Tappan Zee Bridge on Friday night, sending two people into the water who haven't been found and injuring four others. (AP Photo/The Journal News, Hoa Nguyen)

In this still frame made from WABC-TV video, Carol Stewart, center, mother of missing woman Lindsey Stewart, speaks to an official about the ongoing search for her daughter following a boating accident on the Hudson River near Piermont, N.Y. on Saturday, July 27, 2013. The Coast Guard says the recreational boat struck a barge near the Tappan Zee Bridge on Friday night, sending two people into the water who haven't been found and injuring four others. (AP Photo/WABC-TV)

PIERMONT, N.Y. (AP) ? A deadly nighttime speedboat crash on the Hudson River hurled a bride-to-be and her fiance's best man into the water and left the groom and three others injured, including a friend charged with vehicular manslaughter on Saturday, just two weeks before the couple was to exchange their vows.

Six friends were on board the boat Friday night when it struck a barge near the Tappan Zee Bridge, sending Lindsey Stewart and Mark Lennon, both 30, into the water and injuring the other four, including groom-to-be Brian Bond, officials said.

A body matching Stewart's description was recovered Saturday while Lennon is presumed dead, Rockland County Sheriff's Department Chief William Barbera said. The search for Lennon's body will resume Sunday.

"The search has been suspended this evening and the tides have a lot to do with that," Barbera said. "We'll start again first thing in the morning."

Authorities charged the boat's operator, Jojo John, 35, of Nyack, with vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault. He was arraigned from a hospital bed and ordered held on $250,000 bond, Barbera said. John is suspected of operating the boat while intoxicated but authorities are still awaiting the result of blood tests.

Attempts to reach John's family were not immediately successful and it was not clear if he had an attorney.

Earlier Saturday, authorities pulled a woman's body from the water that matched Stewart's description. Officials were working to confirm that the body was Stewart's but it was unclear how long that could take.

Stewart and Lennon were thrown from the boat when it struck a barge carrying materials for the construction of a replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge, about a half-hour's drive north of New York City.

The boat, a 21-foot Stingray, had left the village of Piermont for a short trip across the river to Tarrytown, authorities said.

Stewart, of Piermont, worked for an insurance company. She and Bond were set to be married Aug. 10, family members said.

Bond, 35, was knocked unconscious in the crash but later woke and was able to call 911, Stewart's mother, Carol Stewart-Kosik, said.

Stewart's stepfather, Walter Kosik, said the couple have known each other since they were young children and used to go to church together.

"They have been friends the whole time, and they fell in love about 3 ? years ago," Kosik said.

They were to be married at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Pearl River, with a reception at a vineyard in Hillburn, he said.

Barbera declined to identify the other people aboard the boat and had no information on their conditions. He said the barge was equipped with lights, but it was still difficult to see on the water late at night.

The New York State Thruway Authority, which is overseeing the bridge project, said it was reviewing safety procedures.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families during this difficult time," the authority said in a statement. It added that the lighting on the barges appeared to be functioning normally.

Stewart's former English teacher at Pearl River High School, who remained in contact with her through Facebook, called the accident "heartbreaking."

"She was one of my students and a bright, sweet girl loved by everyone," said Doreen Arney. "I knew that she was getting married, and to Brian. To happen to two such special kids ? it just shouldn't happen."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-07-27-US-Hudson-River-Boat-Accident/id-3c93e567bff4402b8106badce98c1fa3

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MOUNTING QUESTIONSRep Demands Answers on Huma Abedin's Dual Jobs

Despite her husband being the butt of late-night jokes and water-cooler ridicule, Huma Abedin is standing by Anthony Weiner, and he, by her. "I love her,? Weiner said at a press conference Thursday. ?She loves me. We have a son. Nothing else matters."

?But?Abedin is facing her own troubles?-- less salacious than her husband's, but potentially more severe.

On June 13, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote her and Secretary of State John Kerry asking why Abedin, the deputy chief of staff at the State Department under former Secretary Hillary Clinton, was granted status as a "special government employee" after the birth of her son.

That ?title allowed her to work from home as a part-time consultant to State, earning $135,000 as a government employee -- while also?earning? $355,000 as a consultant for Teneo, where former President Bill Clinton is a board member.

Grassley wants to know who?authorized Abedin's change in status, what effect that change had on her security clearances, and whether the department interacted?with the companies with which Abedin consulted.

Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a government ethics watchdog group, says Abedin's dual status raises serious questions.

"If this story pans out that Huma actually had access to inside information while serving as a government official but at the same time serving as a strategic consultant to a firm that actively trades in the stock market, this?could be quite a problem, " he said.

Grassley's office late Thursday gave Fox News the written responses sent to him by the State Department and Abedin.

Abedin wrote that?her consultancy was approved by State Department lawyers.?She added that once approved, she "was not asked, nor did I provide, insights about the Department, my work with the Secretary, or any government information to which I may have had access."

The State Department?said it uses special government employees routinely "to provide services and expertise that executive agencies require..."

But Grassley found the letters unresponsive.? In a statement late Thursday, he said that neither "provided a single document that I requested."

Click for more on the Anthony Weiner scandal.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/26/huma-abedin-faces-employment-questions/

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The Hobbit director Peter Jackson liveblogs the last day of the ...

Movie buffs, you wouldn?t want to miss this chance. Ace director Peter Jackson is currently live-blogging the final day of shooting of The Hobbit trilogy. Jackson is using his Facebook page to put up real-time updates, including behind-the-scene photographs to inform fans on what?s going down on the last day of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug shoot.

The movie?s production began two years ago and is the second in the trilogy series based on J.R.R. Tolkien?s 1937 Novel of the same name. The series started off with the first movie in 2012 called The Unexpected Journey and will conclude in 2014 with There and Back Again.

The Hobbit director takes you behind-the-scenes

?

Jackson has been pretty prolific on his Facebook page, keeping his fans in sync with how the movie is progressing and with the last day of the shoot coming up, has decided to spend whatever time he isn?t shooting, by liveblogging scenes from behind the sets. In the past month or so, Jackson has written goodbye posts to Martin Freeman, who plays Bilbo Baggins, Orlando Bloom who?s essaying the role of Legolas and even Ian McKellan, playing the wise Gandalf.

Since the shoot is taking place in Wellington, New Zealand, it is already half-way through. Jackson posted his first update at about 1AM IST.? At the time of publishing, Jackson's last post was about a couple of hours ago that the crew had broken for lunch and has a long day ahead.

All you Lord of the Rings fans can head on to Peter Jackson?s Facebook page and catch up on the rest of the last day?s shoot of The Desolation of Smaug. To watch the movie, though, you might have to wait till December.

Source: http://tech2.in.com/news/social-networking/the-hobbit-director-peter-jackson-liveblogs-the-last-day-of-the-movies-shoot/909064

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Deposed Egyptian president faces murder, kidnapping charges - report

CAIRO | Fri Jul 26, 2013 10:54am BST

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities have detained deposed President Mohamed Mursi for 15 days over an array of accusations, including killing soldiers and conspiring with the Palestinian group Hamas, the state news agency said on Friday.

The report came just hours before millions of Egyptians were expected to take to the streets in mass rallies for and against Egypt's first freely elected leader, who was ousted by the military on July 3.

Friday's step provided legal grounds for the continued detention of Mursi, who has been held by the military since he was ousted. The charges relate to his escape, along with other top Brotherhood leaders, from a prison north of Cairo.

The report on the state news agency said investigating judge Hassan Samir had confronted Mursi with evidence during his questioning. It did not say when or where he had been questioned.

A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, which says the army has staged a coup against the democratically elected head of state, described the accusations as "ridiculous". Gehad El-Haddad said the move marked the return of the "old regime".

Mursi and many other Brotherhood leaders were rounded up by the authorities during the 2011 uprising that swept Hosni Mubarak from power.

The accusations listed against Mursi included arson, destruction of prison records and "collaboration with Hamas to undertake aggressive acts in the country, attacking police facilities, officers and soldiers".

It also accused him of "killing some prisoners, officers and soldiers deliberately and with prior intent". It added the accusation of "kidnapping some officers and soldiers".

The authorities have issued a gag order stipulating the media may only publish official statements on the case, citing the secrecy of the investigations and national security.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the probe marked a "grave development", adding that the new government "viewed the Palestinian cause as hostile".

"We challenge the current rulers of Egypt to bring a single piece of evidence on their alleged claim Hamas has intervened in internal Egyptian affairs," he told Reuters.

(This story was refiled to add dropped words in paragraphs 10 and 11)

(Reporting by Tom Perry in Cairo and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Michael Georgy)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/Reuters/UKWorldNews/~3/ZLhenuW5kDM/uk-egpyt-protests-mursi-accusations-idUKBRE96P0A120130726

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