U.S. forces warn Iran not to close Hormuz
MANAMA, Bahrain, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A day after the U.S. military warned Iran not to close off a key Persian Gulf waterway, Iran said it spotted a U.S. aircraft carrier in the area.
The country's deputy navy Commander Rear Adm. Mahmoud Mousavi said Thursday that Iranian navy craft conducting war maneuvers in the area spotted the U.S. carrier and took photos and video footage, Press TV said.
"A U.S. aircraft was spotted inside the maneuver zone … by a navy reconnaissance aircraft," Mousavi told the official state Islamic Republic News Agency.
On Saturday, Iran announced the beginning of a 10-day war games drill that covers an area stretching from east of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden.
Earlier in the week, the head of Iran's Navy, Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, said the war games drill taking place in international waters conveys a message of peace and friendship to countries in the Middle East, Press TV said.
"The free flow of goods and services through the Strait of Hormuz is vital to regional and global prosperity," said U.S. Navy spokeswoman Lt. Rebecca Rebarich of the Fifth Fleet, based in Manama, Bahrain, about 100 miles from Iran's coastline.
"Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations," she said. "Any disruption will not be tolerated."
Her statement followed two days of threats by Iran to shut the strategic waterway to all oil shipments if the West imposes sanctions on Iran's oil exports.
The narrow strait, which includes Iranian territorial waters, is a vital artery for transporting about a third of the world's tanker-borne oil and about 17 percent of all world oil shipments.
About 13 tankers carrying 15.5 million barrels of crude oil pass through the strait on an average day, including crude from Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The threats came as U.S. President Barack Obama prepared to sign legislation that could substantially reduce Iran's oil revenue, in a bid to deter Tehran from pursuing a nuclear weapons program.
Kim Jong Un declared supreme leader
PYONGYANG, North Korea, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Kim Jong Un, the youngest son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, Thursday won allegiance as the new supreme head of the reclusive country.
The declaration of the young Kim, believed to be about 27, as the country's top leader came at the end of the 13-day mourning period for his father, who died Dec. 17 after being at the helm of the impoverished, nuclear-armed Communist country for 17 years.
Tens of thousands of mostly soldiers pledged their allegiance to Kim Jong Un after Kim Yong Nam, the country's elderly ceremonial head of state, declared that he was now the "supreme leader of our party, military and people," who inherits the ideology, leadership and courage of his father.
The occasion was preceded by a memorial service to the departed leader.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the memorial service was designed to be an official proclamation that Kim Jong Un will lead the communist country.
Kim Jong Gak, a top military officer, announced the country's 1.1 million soldiers "will safeguard comrade Kim Jong Un with their lives," Yonhap reported. The new leader crucially needs the military's support to consolidate his power.
Yonhap said Kim Jong Un, wearing a black coat, made no public comment while watching the memorial service. Military and party leaders were with him.
The New York Times said while questions remain whether Kim Jong Un would be able to take control or depend on caretakers or regents, at least in the public eye he didn't seem he would share his power.
Analysts would also be watching how China, North Korea's main ally and supporter, takes to the new leadership.
Bachmann's Iowa chairman bolts for Paul
DES MOINES, Iowa, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- The Iowa campaign manager for Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann bolted from her campaign to Texas Congressman Ron Paul's camp.
State Sen. Kent Sorenson didn't tell U.S. Rep. Bachmann of Minnesota about his decision to leave until he was traveling to a Paul rally in Des Moines Wednesday, where he endorsed Paul, a U.S. representative from Texas, The Washington Post reported.
Sorenson said the decision to leave the Bachmann campaign was "hard" but that he thought Paul was the most conservative candidate who had a realistic chance of defeating former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to win the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
He also said Paul campaigned for him during his state Senate race and thought it was his duty "to come to his aid, just like he came to my aid during my Senate race, which was a very nasty race."
Paul's campaign hyped the endorsement in a release, saying that Sorenson's resignation from Bachmann's team was effective immediately.
"Kent is an old friend," Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton told the Post. "He said he has come to realize that this is a two-person race [and that] Ron is the only conservative alternative to Romney and the establishment status quo."
In a statement, Bachmann said Sorenson left for financial reasons and named Iowa state Rep. Brad Zaun as her new state chair.
"Kent Sorenson personally told me he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the Paul campaign," Bachmann told reporters. "Kent said to me yesterday that 'everyone sells out in Iowa, why shouldn't I,' then he told me he would stay with our campaign. The Ron Paul campaign has to answer for its actions."
Benton said the Paul campaign wasn't paying Sorenson.
New Occupy Oakland camp rousted
OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Oakland, Calif., police dismantled a new Occupy Oakland camp after the owner of the fenced-off property asked authorities to clear the area, officials said.
Police cleared more than a dozen tents and protesters from the latest Occupy Oakland encampment in West Oakland, citing and releasing 14 people and arresting one person for trespassing, the Oakland Tribune reported Thursday.
It was unclear how long the camp was in operation because it had been hidden behind a fence covered with slats and graffiti, officials said.
Since police dismantled Occupy Oakland's original tent city near City Hall in mid-November, the protesters have tried to establish a new base for the cause and a new encampment for the homeless who gravitated to the movement. However, authorities tore down the camps almost as quickly as they were set up.
Brian Collins, an owner of the property where the latest encampment was, said he learned of the encampment Wednesday and took "the appropriate steps to ask them to leave peacefully," the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.
"The property owner requested that Oakland police go in and remove the protesters from the property," Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said. "That's what we are doing."
One organizer said the site was to be a drug- and alcohol-free "winter camp" and "safe haven" for homeless people and activists.
In Washington, Occupy DC protesters were developing plans for several rallies once Congress returns in mid-January, Roll Call said.
"A lot of people took time to go home and rejuvenate during the holidays," said Kelly Canavan, a volunteer working at an information tent Wednesday. "But a number of people stayed. And we expect an influx of people from all over the country in January."
Canavan said she and others involved in Occupy DC were planning several rallies for January, including an "Occupy Congress" Jan. 17, "Occupy the Courts" Jan. 20 and a multi-city event Jan. 24.
Arms sale to Iraq on despite misgivings
WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- The United States plans to go ahead with a nearly $11 billion sale of arms and training to Iraq despite concerns about the country's future, officials said.
The sale of the weapons -- some of which have been delivered -- is proceeding even though Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, hasn't fulfilled an agreement that would have limited his ability to de-emphasize the Sunnis and turn the military into a sectarian force, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
U.S. diplomats, including Ambassador to Iraq James F. Jeffrey, have said they're concerned about the military relationship with Iraq, with some saying there could be political fallout if not managed properly by President Obama's administration.
"It is very risky to arm a sectarian army," Rafe al-Essawi, Iraq's finance minister and a Sunni politician, told the Times. "It is very risky with all the sacrifices we've made, with all the budget to be spent, with all the support of America -- at the end of the day, the result will be a formal militia army."
Officials in the Defense and State departments said the sales agreements come with conditions that allow inspectors to monitor how the arms are used to ensure the terms of the sale aren't violated.
"Washington still has considerable leverage in Iraq by freezing or withdrawing its security assistance packages, issuing travel advisories in more stark terms that will have a direct impact on direct foreign investment, and reassessing diplomatic relations and trade agreements," said Matthew Sherman, a former State Department official. "Now is the time to exercise some of that leverage by publicly putting Maliki on notice."
However, some analysts told the Times they think the U.S. economic situation gives Maliki leverage.
"I think he would like to get the weapons from the U.S.," said Kenneth Pollack, a national security expert at the Brookings Institution and a critic of the administration's Iraq policy. "But he believes that an economically challenged American administration cannot afford to jeopardize $10 billion worth of jobs."
30 killed in Turkish airstrike
ANKARA, Turkey, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Turkish warplanes killed some 30 people believing them to be terrorists in an overnight airstrike in southeastern Turkey officials said.
It appears the Air Force mistook a group of smugglers for members of Kurdistan's Worker's Party (PKK) and only after the deadly strike late Wednesday did it become apparent, Turkish media said Thursday.
"We have 30 corpses, all of them are burned. The state knew that these people were smuggling in the region," Fehmi Yaman the mayor of the Uludere in Sirnak province told Today's Zaman.
Vahdettin Ozkan the governor of Sirnak told the state run Anatolia news agency that according to initial information 20 people were killed, the Turkish daily said. Ozkan said a prosecutor and police were dispatched to the site to investigate the incident.
However, an unnamed Turkish security official dismissed the accusations.
"There were rumors that the PKK would pass through this region. Images were recorded of a group crossing last night, hence the operation was carried out," the official told Today's Zaman. "We could not have known whether these people were PKK members or smugglers," he said.
The Turkish newspaper noted that the PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and has conducted numerous attacks against Turkish forces in the southern eastern region of the country.
In October, PKK members killed 24 Turkish soldiers in raids on military posts, and following the attack Turkey vowed revenge, Today's Zaman said.
