Jerusalem Post (EN)

Unknown assailants overnight on Monday punctured the tires of some 28 vehicles in the Arab village of Abu Ghosh, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, police said.

"Arabs out" was sprayed on the walls of the village.

Police are investigating the incident.

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama said on Monday that Iran's election of a moderate as its next president is a sign that Iranians want to move in a different direction, but he was uncertain whether it would lead to a breakthrough over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

In an interview with public television anchor Charlie Rose, Obama said the United States and its allies would be willing to hold talks with Iran over its nuclear program, as long as Tehran recognized that international sanctions would not be lifted unless Iran proved it is not building a nuclear weapon.

"As long as there's an understanding about the basis of the conversation, then I think there's no reason why we shouldn't proceed," Obama said.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of former leader Libyan Col Muammar Gaddafi, will be tried in August, the prosecutor's office announced on Tuesday.

It said the case against him and other senior regime members will include charges of forming criminal gangs, inciting rape and illegal detentions.

SAO PAULO - As many as 200,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Brazil's biggest cities on Monday in a swelling wave of protest tapping into widespread anger at poor public services, police violence and government corruption.

The marches, organized mostly through snowballing social media campaigns, blocked streets and halted traffic in more than a half-dozen cities, including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia, where demonstrators climbed onto the roof of Brazil's Congress building and then stormed it.

Monday's demonstrations were the latest in a flurry of protests in the past two weeks that have added to growing unease over Brazil's sluggish economy, high inflation and a spurt in violent crime.

WASHINGTON - Cliff Sloan has represented Jon Bon Jovi's band in legal matters and argued cases before the US Supreme Court. Now, he has perhaps his toughest assignment: Helping to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Washington attorney was named on Monday as the State Department's Guantanamo Bay envoy, a central player in President Barack Obama's renewed push to make good on a 2008 campaign promise to shut the installation where the United States holds terrorism suspects. Obama wants to close the facility because it is a legacy of the Bush administration that he feels has damaged the US reputation with allies around the world.

The most pressing demand for Sloan, who has deep legal skills but little foreign policy experience, will be to serve as the lead negotiator for the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees abroad, a task fraught with difficulty.

Obama last month lifted a ban on the transfer of prisoners to Yemen. Of 166 detainees at Guantanamo, 86 have been cleared for transfer or release and 56 of those are from Yemen, where al Qaeda has a dangerous foothold. Adding to the pressure to deal with the prison is the fact that more than 100 detainees are on a hunger strike.

The fear among many lawmakers is that those sent to Yemen or elsewhere would return quickly to the battlefield and plot attacks against the United States.

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama said on Monday he will meet soon with a privacy and civil liberties oversight board to discuss ways to balance the need for US surveillance while respecting people's right to privacy.

Obama, in an interview with PBS anchor Charlie Rose, said he believed there is plenty of transparency about the US government's top-secret monitoring of Americans' phone and Internet data but that he has asked the intelligence community to see if there is more that can be revealed about it to reassure people.

"What I've asked the intelligence community to do is see how much of this we can declassify without further compromising the program. ... And they are in that process of doing so now," he said.

Obama has come under fire for the scope of surveillance by the National Security Agency revealed by former government contractor Edward Snowden.

SAO PAULO - Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets of Brazil's biggest cities on Monday in a growing protest that is tapping into widespread anger at poor public services, police violence and government corruption.

The marches, organized mostly through snowballing social media campaigns, blocked streets and halted traffic in more than a half-dozen cities, including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia, where demonstrators swarmed past the Congress and Presidential Palace.

While peaceful, and unfolding mostly as a festive display of dissent, Monday's demonstrations were the latest in a flurry of protests over the past two weeks that have added to unease over Brazil's sluggish economy, high inflation and a spurt in violent crime.

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland - Russian President Vladimir Putin faced further isolation on the second day of a G8 summit on Tuesday as world leaders lined up to pressure him into toning down his support for Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Following an icy encounter between the Kremlin chief and US President Barack Obama late on Monday, the G8 leaders will seek to find resolution to a war that has prompted powers across the Middle East to square off on sectarian lines.

The sticking point again will be Putin, who faced a barrage of criticism from Western leaders for supporting Assad and the Syrian's president's attempt to crush a 2-year-old uprising in which at least 93,000 people have been killed.

CHICAGO - Nine people were killed, two by police officers, over the past three days in Chicago's most violent weekend of the year, amid a rise in gang violence in the city.

Homicides in Chicago drew international attention last year as they hit their highest since 2008, but the weekend violence comes as the city's overall rate of murder is declining, according to police.

The two people shot dead by police included a 15-year-old boy carrying a high-powered handgun in the city's troubled South Side Englewood neighborhood on Sunday night and a 24-year-old man. Each was threatening police with a firearm, said a representative for the city's police union.

The Knesset approved the 2013-2014 state budget in its first reading in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Israel Radio reported.

According to the report, 58 MKs voted in favor of the proposed cuts and 44 opposed.

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland - US President Barack Obama will announce more than $300 million in new humanitarian aid to address the Syrian crisis, with a little less than half going to Syria itself and the rest to neighboring countries struggling with an influx of refugees, the White House said on Monday.

Obama was set to announce the aid during a dinner with other leaders of the G8 nations, the White House said, noting that the money will be spent on food, medical equipment, water and shelter.

The United States has been the biggest donor of humanitarian aid during the two-year civil war in Syria, donating more than $800 million in total.

BOSTON - Nearly 250 people have applied to receive money from a $51 million charity fund set up for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, the fund's deputy administrator said on Monday.

Twin explosions at the finish line of the world-renowned race on April 15 killed three people and injured 264 others, many of whom lost legs in the blasts.

"We now have 247 applications, and I expect a few more to come in over the next couple of days," said Camille Biros. Applications had to be post-marked June 15 or earlier to be considered.

A red alert rocket warning sounded in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council area on Monday night was a false alarm, authorities stated.

No rockets were fired towards the area.

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland - US President Barack Obama, in a tense meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, said the two men had different views on the war in Syria but shared an interest in stopping violence and ensuring chemical weapons were not used.

Speaking to reporters during a meeting at a G8 summit in Northern Ireland, Obama said the two leaders had instructed their teams to work on a peace conference about Syria in Geneva.

Obama said he and Putin expressed cautious optimism about the ability to move forward on a dialogue with Iran after a moderate cleric was elected president there.

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland - Russia and the United States disagree on how to end the conflict in Syria but want the bloodshed to stop and the warring parties brought to the negotiating table, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

"Our positions do not fully coincide, but we are united by the common intention to end the violence, to stop the number of victims increasing in Syria, to resolve the problems by peaceful means, including the Geneva talks," Putin said after talks with US President Barack Obama at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland.

Looking tense and staring mostly at the floor alongside Obama, Putin added: "We agreed to push the process of peace talks and encourage the parties to sit down at the negotiation table, organize the talks in Geneva."

AMMAN - Washington's decision to arm opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad and reports of Gulf military aid to rebels have sent the Syrian currency plunging to a new record low, currency dealers and bankers said on Monday.

Traders across Syria reported widely fluctuating rates and two currency dealers in Damascus, where the pound appeared to be hit hardest, said it fell below 200 to the dollar for the first time in what one described as panic buying of the US currency.

On Monday evening the pound traded at 205 to the dollar, down 20 percent in four days and 77 percent down since the start of the anti-Assad uprising in March 2011 when it was at 47.

"It's total chaos. Demand for the dollar has increased with the news...of the Americans preparing military help to rebels," said Assem Salman, an exchange dealer in the bustling Sabaa Baahrat in downtown Damascus

"Anyone who gives you a price, don't take his word. The dollar has gone mad and reached the 200 level ... Nothing seems to stop this dollar chaos," he said by phone from Damascus.

Dealers said the turmoil was fueled by White House comments that Washington will step up military aid for Syrian rebels, hardening stances by the Arab world's heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and calls by Sunni Muslim clerics for holy war.

The Israel-United States Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD) determined at a board meeting earlier in June to provide $10.95 million worth of funding for 14 new projects between American and Israeli companies, the organization announced on Monday. In addition to receiving BIRD funding, the companies will also be receiving support from the private sector, bringing their total financing to $33 million.

Among the approved partnerships are several in  energy and water: a leakage cure system for urban water pipes, commercialization for diesel and methanol hybrid fuels and a low flow water detection system, according to BIRD. In the medical sector, some of the projects include asymmetric laser tool development for surgery, improved threshold indicators for monitoring quality in pharmaceutical products, non-invasive brain surgery for movement disorders, an aesthetic medical product using thermal technology and a molecular imaging system for melanoma detection. Other projects involve cyber security, electronic verification, refrigeration and enzyme technologies.

BRUSSELS - The United States is not asking NATO to back a Syria no-fly zone and the issue is not currently on the alliance's agenda, the outgoing US ambassador to NATO said on Monday.

"We are not pushing for a no-fly zone at NATO," Ivo Daalder said in response to questions after his farewell speech in Brussels.

As of today, he said: "the issue of a no-fly zone is not on the table at NATO. Whether it will (be) tomorrow or some other day, I don't know, but it isn't there yet. It isn't, as far as I know, on the table of any NATO member, including, so far the United States."

A group of haredim inside Likud urged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday to move an internal election inside the party that was set for June 25, on which observant Jews will be observing the Shiva-Asar Betamuz fast.

Netanyahu stalled elections for the party's institutions for more than a year until a district judge forced him to agree to hold the races by the end of the month. The Likud's election committee set a race for the chairman of the party's convention for June 25 and the heads of the Likud's secretariat, central committee, ideological bureau and internal court for June 30.

The Shiva Asar Betamuz fast marks the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem, which led to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

"It is a long and difficult fast that is observed by many Israelis, including central committee members," Haredi Likud campaign chairman Ya'acov Veeder said. "Holding the election on the fast day will harm many members who will not be able to take part in the democratic process."

Veeder initially appealed to the head of he Likud's election committee, Judge Yehoshua Gross, who said the date could not be moved because there was not enough time. Veeder said Gross's decision was insensitive.

TRIPOLI - Two former top associates of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi were acquitted on Monday of wasting public money, but remained in jail as part of a bigger investigation involving his spy chief and one of his sons.

Ex-foreign minister Abdel-Ati al-Obeidi and Mohammed Zwai, former head of the legislature, were accused of wasting funds by facilitating a $2.7 billion compensation payment to families of those killed in the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing.

It was the first trial verdict on officials close to Gaddafi, who was overthrown and then killed in a 2011 uprising.

Libya's new rulers are keen to try his family members and loyalists to draw a line under his 42-year dictatorship, but human rights activists fret a weak central government and shaky rule of law mean legal proceedings will not meet international standards.

"The court has acquitted the defendants of all charges against them," the judge said, without giving further details.

Obeidi and Zwai stood silently behind bars as the verdict was read, while their family members shouted "God is Greatest".