Sunday Roundup - October 19, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US corporate mainstream media.  Today we look at Gaza, Ebola, Turkey, Ukraine, the brightest pulsar, the Catholic synod's "midterm" statement on gays, and, in brief, the Argus II bionic eye.

Gaza
The Gaza Donor Conference held October 12 raised $5.4 billion for the reconstruction of the enclave devastated this summer by the Israeli assault.  Global donors have pledged a sum of $5.4bn in aid to reconstruct the Gaza Strip amid warnings that the Palestinian territory remains a "tinderbox" following the summer war between Hamas and Israel.  The pledged amount surpasses the $4bn which Palestinians had asked for during the conference to reconstruct the enclave, after the 50-day Israeli military campaign. "The participants pledged approximately $5.4bn," Boerge Brende, Norwegian foreign minister, said during the closing statement at the Cairo conference which Norway co-hosted.  The pledged amount includes $1 billion from Qatar, $570 million from the European Union, and $212 million from the United States.  [Al Jazeera, October 12]

A Palestinian reacts after his mother's body was removed from the rubble in Rafah.

The UN Human Rights Commission began its investigation into war crimes committed in this summer's conflict.  A United Nations panel has started preliminary investigations into potential war crimes committed in the conflict between Palestinians and Israel this past July and August. The panel will submit its findings over to the UN Human Rights Commission.  One incident in particular is drawing attention as some legal experts suspect it may constitute a war crime. On the morning of August 1, Israel invoked what is called the “Hannibal directive,” which directs its forces to take drastic measures to avoid the capture of an Israeli solider....In order to carry out the directive, the IDF intensely bombed the eastern portion of the heavily-populated city of Rafah in southern Gaza. Israel's bombing killed 150 people and wounded more than 200 in a matter of hours. The artillery fire was so heavy that at times a shell was fired once every 60 seconds. It was the deadliest day in the conflict. Because the Israeli attack came just as a ceasefire was supposed to come into effect, hundreds of civilians that had been taking cover had gone out under the impression that a cease-fire was indeed in place....Palestinians are set to join the International Criminal Court, which will open the door to proceedings against Israel. The head of the U.N. Human Rights Commission panel investigating the Gaza war has said any evidence it gathers could be used by the ICC in a war crimes case against Israel. [Telesur, October 13]  Photo credit: August 4 file photo by Reuters;from Telesur article.

Ebola
As of October 15, the World Health Organization (WHO) put the official death toll from the Ebola virus at 4,493.  But as the BBC reports, because of difficulties with the Ebola data from West Africa, 12,000 could be a better estimate.  The BBC analysis notes that under-reporting, both of cases and of deaths, may be occurring. We know people are contracting the disease, and dying from it, without being noticed....Also, comparing current cases and current deaths does not take account of people living with the disease for some time before either dying or recovering.  What you need is quality data and the best comes from a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.  A team, including scientists at Imperial College London, looked at a sub-set of patients with full medical records from diagnosis through to either recovery or death. [Dr Christopher Dye, the director of strategy in the office of the director general at the WHO] told the BBC: "On the basis of this analysis, our best estimate is a 60-70% case fatality and it's sensible to use a range as there are variations from one place to another." [BBC News, October 15]

The U.S. Defense Department won permission to shift $750 million in war funds to fight Ebola in West Africa as a Republican senator on Friday lifted his remaining objections to the transfer.  The action by Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma will give the Pentagon enough funding for about six months of operations in West Africa, including the deployment of up to 4,000 troops and the establishment some 17 Ebola treatment facilities with 100 beds each.  But key members of Congress are still withholding about $250 million of the Obama administration's original request to shift $1 billion to the Ebola effort under an arcane procedure known as a "reprogramming request."  [Reuters, October 10]

See also: Ebola - the threat, the heroes, the politics

Turkey
The sectarian war flaring across the Middle East continues with Turkey becoming the latest country to be destabilized.  Turkey and Kurdish military groups had been observing a ceasefire since 2013. That appears to be over for now.  Turkey is bombing rebellious Kurds inside its own borders in a conflict over the country's refusal to let Kurdish fighters travel to Syria to fight ISIS, reports say....Turkey's conflict with its Kurdish population is long-running, and while the country has accepted refugees fleeing ISIS's attack on the city of Kobani—which is just over the border in Syria—it refuses to allow Kurdish fighters to cross the other way.  [Slate, October 14]

Ukraine
The ceasefire in Ukraine is holding as the presidents of Russia and Ukraine met in Milan on Friday. On October 12, Reuters reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian troops to withdraw to their permanent bases after military exercises in Rostov region near the border with Ukraine, the Kremlin said, in a sign of some tension easing before a key meeting .... The troop pullout came before an expected meeting between Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko in Milan. The Russia Times reported that the meeting is to be held "on the sidelines" of the EU-Asia (ASEM) summit.  The presidents of Russia and Ukraine are to meet at a business breakfast in Milan on Friday October 16, with the fragile peace in Ukraine and gas supplies to Europe expected to dominate. The summit carries hopes of further progress in resolving the crisis.  Ukrainian President Poroshenko stressed the "high expectations" for the meeting in a statement before the meeting: "...the leaders of the European states and the European Union together with me, the president of Ukraine, will hold the talks with the leadership of the Russian Federation concerning extremely important issues: establishment of peace in Ukraine, securing the peace process, development of the political process, de-escalation of the situation in the east of the country."   The morning meeting between Russia, Ukraine, and European governments lasted an hour later with various leaders...later telling reporters some progress had been made and promising further talks. "It was good, it was positive," a smiling Putin told reporters after the meeting, held on the margins of a summit of Asian and European leaders in Milan.  However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later poured cold water on hopes of any breakthrough, saying "certain participants" had taken an "absolutely biased, non-flexible, non-diplomatic" approach to Ukraine. [Reuters, October 17]


The Brightest Pulsar Ever Discovered

photo credit: Optical: DSS; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

Astronomers using NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) have found the most luminous pulsar ever discovered. Located 12 million light-years away in the galaxy Messier 82 (M82), a pulsar exists that is 10 million times brighter than the sun. The research was led by Matteo Bachetti of the University of Toulouse and the paper was published in Nature. As with many incredible discoveries, this one came by chance as the team was looking for something else entirely. While using NuSTAR to image a supernova in M82, they noticed two incredibly bright X-ray signatures. One of these sources was a medium-sized black hole, but the other signal was pulsing, indicating that they were looking at a pulsar.  Pulsars are neutron stars that spin rapidly and are magnetized. As gas and dust are pulled inward, they are heated up and become illuminated.   [IFLScience website, October 9]

Gays and the Catholic Church
A Vatican working document generated much discussion after it was introduced Monday at the Vatican's Synod on the Family.  The so-called "midterm report" said that homosexuals had "gifts and qualities to offer" and asked if Catholicism could accept gays and recognize positive aspects of same-sex couples.  The document, prepared after a week of discussions at an assembly of 200 bishops on the family, said the Church should challenge itself to find "a fraternal space" for homosexuals without compromising Catholic doctrine on family and matrimony. The document, reflecting "Pope Francis' desire to adopt a more merciful pastoral approach on marriage and family issues", asked, "...are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing to them a further space in our communities? Often they wish to encounter a Church that offers them a welcoming home.  Are our communities capable of proving that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?...Without denying the moral problems connected to homosexual unions it has to be noted that there are cases in which mutual aid to the point of sacrifice constitutes a precious support in the life of the partners."  [Huffington Post, October 13]

The publication of the controversial document summarizing the interventions made during the Synod on the Family’s first week brought both rapturous praise and fierce criticism.[Commonweal, October 15] Conservative groups and bishops have challenged the report and there will be continuing discussion and revisions before it is released from the Synod.  Already the English language version has softened some of the language in the Italian original.  Nevertheless, judging by the comments at Wednesday's press conference, writes dotCommonweal blogger Grant Gallicho, you'd scarcely be able to tell that yesterday a cardinal went in front of the world press and claimed their coverage of the synod's working document had put the bishops in "an irredeemable position." Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, and Archbishop Joseph Kurtz--president of the U.S. bishops conference--did not show any displeasure with the [working document].

In Brief
The Best News of the Year post (December 2013) listed the Argus II bionic eye as one of the things to celebrate in 2013.  After living in darkness for most of his life, a North Carolina man can now see thanks to a bionic eye. He is the seventh person to receive the FDA-approved device. [HuffPost Live, October 10]