Gazette 06-06-14

Friday June 6th 2014

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Afghan candidate Abdullah Abdullah survives Kabul bombs

The front-runner in Afghan's presidential election, Abdullah Abdullah, has survived a suicide bomb attack targeted at his convoy in Kabul.

Police told the BBC that six people were killed - including one of Mr Abdullah's body guards - and at least 22 injured when two blasts hit a rally.
He appeared live on television to reassure his supporters that he was unharmed in the attack.
The run-off round of the presidential election takes place next week.
No group has said it carried out the attack but the Taliban have repeatedly threatened to target the poll campaign.
The first blast was detonated by a suicide bomber in a car, a Kabul police spokesman told the BBC's Bilal Sarwary.
The spokesman said the second explosion was probably caused by what he described as a "sticky bomb" but our correspondent says details about it are still unclear.
The dead and injured include policemen and civilians.
Correspondents say that this appears to be the first attack on a presidential candidate since the campaign began.
Both the two presidential candidates are holding several rallies daily in Kabul and across Afghanistan.
Attack condemned The attack took place as Mr Abdullah was leaving an election gathering in a wedding hall.
Eyewitnesses described scenes of panic and chaos after two loud explosions were heard. Our correspondent says that Mr Abdullah and his colleagues narrowly escaped.
"Thank God, we have not suffered any injuries.," Mr Abdullah told national television. "However, regrettably, a number of security guards were wounded.
"Thank God, they are not in serious condition."

Explosion rocks Kosovo power plant, casualties reported, unclear how many

PRISTINA, Kosovo –  A huge explosion has rocked Kosovo's main power plant, causing casualties and damaging nearby houses.
Police could not immediately confirm whether there have been any deaths in the blast Friday at Kosovo A power plant outside the capital Pristina. They say at least a dozen people have been injured.

A black plume of smoke could be seen rising from the coal-fired plant, as ambulances ferried the injured to hospitals. Police sealed off the area, fearing more explosions could follow.
It was not immediately clear what caused the blast.

Putin Chats With Ukraine's President-Elect At D-Day Summit

OUISTREHAM, France (AP) — The American, Russian and incoming Ukrainian presidents spoke face-to-face about ending Ukraine's violence, a diplomatic turning point that played out Friday along the blood-soaked beaches where the Allies battled for Europe's peace 70 years earlier.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Ukrainian president-elect, Petro Poroshenko, called for the "soonest end to bloodshed in southeastern Ukraine and combat by both parties, the Ukrainian armed forces and supporters of the federalization of Ukraine," in a statement carried by Russian news wires.
In their eagerly anticipated contact, Putin and Poroshenko discussed how Russia could recognize the Ukrainian elections, and a possible cease-fire, said an official at French President Francois Hollande's office, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak publicly told The Associated Press.
The French official said their 15-minute discussion "included ways to de-escalate, including the manner in which Moscow could recognize Poroshenko's election, realizing that Putin is sending an ambassador to Kiev tomorrow."
Outside the building where world leaders met for lunch, reporters saw an animated conversation lasting about one minute which also included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who at a much more public commemoration at Sword Beach appeared to be shuttling back and forth between the men.
Peskov said that Putin and Poroshenko also "confirmed that there is no alternative to settling the situation by peaceful political means."

India Sikh groups clash at Golden Temple

Several people have been injured after Sikh groups brandishing swords clashed at India's Golden Temple as special prayers were held to mark the deadly military offensive there in 1984.

Reports said the fight at Sikhism's holiest shrine was over who would speak first at the ceremony and that a scuffle broke out over a microphone.
Footage showed men running down temple steps lashing out with their swords.
Reports said at least three people had been taken to hospital with injuries.
The Indian government says 400 people and 87 soldiers were killed during the 1984 military raid to flush out Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple at Amritsar, codenamed Operation Blue Star.
But Sikh groups say the number of casualties was much higher and estimate it closer to 1,000.
On Friday, hundreds of Sikhs had gathered at the shrine to remember those killed in the June 6 raid 30 years ago, but the ceremony soon erupted into chaos.

Yemen Army: 500 Al Qaeda Militants Killed In Military Campaign

SANAA, June 5 (Reuters) - Five hundred al Qaeda militants and 40 soldiers have been killed since the military launched an offensive against the group in April, the army said on Thursday.

Yemen's military mounted a campaign in the south of the country to try to crush the Islamist group that has killed hundreds of people, and in response the militants have stepped up attacks on government facilities after being driven out of strongholds in the southern Shabwa and Abyan provinces.

They have fled to the desert and the mountains from where they have been attacking army and government targets.

"I want to stress that the military operations will also include the areas where some militants have fled and where sabotage is taking place, which is the other face of terrorism," army spokesman, Colonel Saeed al-Faquih, told a news conference.

As well as those killed, 39 suspected militants were under arrest, he said, noting that there were preparations taking place in Maarib province for a major assault.

Militants from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and allies in its local Ansar al-Sharia affiliate fled to the mountains in the south in 2012 after Yemen's army, backed by the United States, drove them out of cities they had seized in 2011.

The insurgents have posed a challenge to government efforts to restore stability to the country since long-ruling president Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to step down in 2012 after months of pro-democracy protests.

China says 29 arrested in anti-terror crackdown in volatile Xinjiang region

BEIJING –  China says 29 people have been arrested in what it calls an anti-terrorism crackdown in the northwestern region of Xinjiang following a series of deadly attacks blamed on Muslim extremists.
The official Xinjiang online news network said Thursday the arrests were authorized by prosecutors in the capital of Urumqi prior to May 31.

It said those arrested were charged with crimes including incitement to separatism, organizing mobs to disturb social order, operating an illegal business, incitement to ethnic hatred, and ethnic discrimination.
Beijing says the attackers are religious extremists with ties to overseas Islamic terror groups, but has shown little evidence to support that. Activists among the native Turkic Uighur population say the unrest is fueled by resentment against settlers from China's Han majority and official discrimination and suppressive policies.

UN finds 'ample evidence' of war crimes committed in Central African Republic

Evidence suggests war crimes committed by both sides, but claims of ethnic cleansing and genocide are downplayed

The UN has found "ample evidence" of war crimes committed by both sides in the religious conflict that has devastated the Central African Republic (CAR), but is downplaying earlier claims that the country is in the throes of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Violence has engulfed CAR since March 2013 when the mainly Muslim rebels of the Seleka alliance seized the capital, Bangui, and installed the country's first Muslim president, Michel Djotodia.
The Seleka went on to terrorise the majority Christian population, killing men, women and children until they were forced from power five months ago. Predominantly Christian forces known as the anti-balaka (anti-machete) militia retaliated by slaughtering thousands of Muslims and forcing hundreds of thousands more from their homes.
In February, the UN high commissioner for refugees, António Guterres, said CAR was experiencing "massive ethnic-religious cleansing", while Amnesty International has warned of a "Muslim exodus of historic proportions". But in a report obtained by the Associated Press (AP) on Thursday, the UN's assessment is less bleak, describing talk of ethnic cleansing and genocide as premature.
"Ample evidence exists to prove that individuals from both sides of the conflict perpetuated serious breaches of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity as well as war crimes," it says.
"[But] the fact that there is an anti-Muslim propaganda from some non-Muslim quarters does not mean that genocide is being planned or that there is any conspiracy to commit genocide or even a specific intent to commit genocide." It adds that the displacement of Muslims is a matter of "protection and the preservation of human life, not a matter of ethnic cleansing".

Police quiz presidential hopeful Ben-Eliezer over funds just days before election 

Israeli police on Friday questioned Labor Party MK and presidential candidate Binyamin Ben-Eliezer under caution for allegedly receiving illicit money, law enforcement authorities announced.

Police said that Ben-Eliezer, who will stand for election for president in just four days, was questioned after the attorney general received information this past week suggesting that an investigation into the source of the funds he received was in order.

The attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein, asked the Intelligence and Investigations branch of the Israel Police to pursue the matter to determine whether a full-fledged criminal investigation is warranted.

Israel Police said on Friday that Ben-Eliezer was questioned for a total of five hours at the offices of the LAHAV 433 precinct. No other information was provided.

A decorated former soldier who rose through the political ranks to become Labor Party chairman and defense minister, Ben-Eliezer has been hounded in recent months by rumors regarding his allegedly lavish lifestyle.

In April, Channel 2's investigative news program Uvda aired a segment which claimed that Ben-Eliezer, who is affectionately known by his nickname Fouad, liked to frequent casinos in London during his stint as defense minister.

The report angered Ben-Eliezer, who accused his political rivals of spying on him.

Attacks in northern Iraq kill 20 people

BAGHDAD: A back-to-back car bombing targeting an ethnic minority in northern Iraq and militant attacks on Iraqi soldiers and police killed at least 20 people on Friday, officials said.

Since last year, militants have escalated attacks in Iraq, with violence surging to levels not seen since 2006 and 2007.

The double bombing struck in the morning in Tahrawa, a village inhabited by families from the Shabak ethnic group, killing seven members of the minority. The village is near the city of Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad. Police officials also said that 43 people were wounded in the explosions.

The Shabak have their own distinct language and belief system, which is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Most live in villages east of Mosul, the provincial capital of the ethnically mixed Ninevah province, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim.

The Shabak have been targeted in the past by Sunni extremists, who consider them apostates. A car bombing in April in another Shabak village near Mosul, Bay Boukh, killed nine.

Also Friday, clashes broke out in Mosul after gunmen attempted to seize an army ammunition depot. The attack was repelled, but six soldiers were killed and five others were wounded, police said.

Also in Mosul, clashes in several neighborhoods left seven members of the security forces dead, along with 16 militants who tried to take control of some neighborhoods in the city. By the afternoon, the clashes died out and the militants were forced to withdraw from the city, according to police officials. 

Gunmen posing as preachers kill dozens in northeast Nigeria: police

Suspected Islamist militants pretending to be preachers rounded up and killed at least 42 villagers in northeastern Nigeria, a police source said, as an escalating insurgency increasingly targets civilians.
The shootings on the outskirts of the city of Maiduguri late on Wednesday came a day after officials said raiders killed scores in three other settlements in Borno state, where the Boko Haram militant group first launched its campaign to carve out an Islamist caliphate.
The attackers, who were wearing military-style uniforms, drove into the village of Bardari, told people to gather for a sermon and opened fire, the police source told Reuters. “The people couldn’t identify them in time as terrorists,” the source added.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack. But Boko Haram has stepped up its revolt and mounted nearly daily attacks in the area since it made world headlines in April by abducting more than 200 schoolgirls in another part of the state.
The mass abduction, and Boko Haram’s fightback against a military offensive, has increased political pressure President Goodluck Jonathan, who has faced regular street protests by activists criticising his response.
Jonathan has accepted help from the United States and other foreign powers who are alarmed at the prospect of further turmoil in Africa’s largest economy and oil producer, and its potential impact on a fragile region. Borno state borders Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
After Wednesday’s shooting, militants then left, crossing a river and setting fire to houses in the neighbouring village of Kayamla, said the police source.
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US senators agree veterans health package

Senior US senators have agreed a package of measures aimed at addressing the problems that have engulfed the healthcare system provided to veterans.

The bill would allow former soldiers enduring long waits for care to seek medical help from private providers and government healthcare programmes.
A similar bill passed the House and the US Senate will now debate the package.
Meanwhile, the man tapped by the White House to be the agency's top health official has withdrawn his nomination.
Jeffrey Murawsky, health care chief for the Veterans Administration's (VA) Chicago regional office, feared a lengthy confirmation process, the White House said in a statement.
Eric Shinseki last week resigned as Veterans Affairs chief after a damning investigation uncovered "systemic" problems in delivering care to veterans across the country.
Republican Senator John McCain and liberal Independent Senator Bernie Sanders announced the new $2bn (£1.2bn) bill on Thursday, and urged the Senate to give it passage.
There was no immediate schedule for a vote, but Mr McCain said he hoped it could be introduced by early next week.
The bill gives the VA secretary expanded powers to fire senior regional executives and it would spend $500m on more doctors and nurses.

Bergdahl declared jihad in captivity, secret documents show

U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl at one point during his captivity converted to Islam, fraternized openly with his captors and declared himself a "mujahid," or warrior for Islam, according to secret documents prepared on the basis of a purported eyewitness account and obtained by Fox News.
The reports indicate that Bergdahl's relations with his Haqqani captors morphed over time, from periods of hostility, where he was treated very much like a hostage, to periods where, as one source told Fox News, "he became much more of an accepted fellow" than is popularly understood. He even reportedly was allowed to carry a gun at times.

The documents show that Bergdahl at one point escaped his captors for five days and was kept, upon his re-capture, in a metal cage, like an animal. In addition, the reports detail discussions of prisoner swaps and other attempts at a negotiated resolution to the case that appear to have commenced as early as the fall of 2009.
The reports are rich in on-the-ground detail -- including the names and locations of the Haqqani commanders who ran the 200-man rotation used to guard the Idaho native -- and present the most detailed view yet of what Bergdahl's life over the past five years has been like. These real-time dispatches were generated by the Eclipse Group, a shadowy private firm of former intelligence officers and operatives that has subcontracted with the Defense Department and prominent corporations to deliver granular intelligence on terrorist activities and other security-related topics, often from challenging environments in far-flung corners of the globe.
The group is run by Duane R. ("Dewey") Clarridge, a former senior operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1980s best known for having been indicted for lying to Congress about his role in the tangled set of events that became known as the Iran-Contra scandal. He was pardoned by the first President Bush in December 1992 while on trial.

Obama, Putin Spoke On Sidelines Of D-Day Event

BENOUVILLE, France, June 6 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin held brief talks on the sidelines of D-Day anniversary celebrations in Normandy, Hollande's office said on Friday.

A White House official confirmed that an "informal" meeting had taken place, saying it had lasted 10-15 minutes.

Harper won’t rule out Canada joining U.S. missile defence program

Stephen Harper addressed the revived debate about whether Canada should join the U.S. ballistic missile defence system, declining to rule out this country’s participation in light of shifting global events.
Speaking after a Group of Seven meeting in Brussels, the prime minister said Canada has not changed its position.
But, he added, Canada is taking note of “changes occurring in the world.”
“Policies like this are examined on an ongoing basis to see whether they serve the security interests of Canadians,” Mr. Harper told reporters in Brussels.
“It was our judgment in the past that Canadians did not need the security of participation in the anti-ballistic missile defence system. Obviously there are changes occurring in the world and we will continue to examine whether that does or does not serve Canadian interests and we will make whatever decision is in the best security and safety interest of Canadians.”
The governing federal Conservatives appear to be trying to gauge the Canadian public’s appetite for joining the U.S. missile defence program.
Speaking publicly last month, James Bezan, the Conservative parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Defence, said there is concern about the accuracy of missiles being developed by rogue states that might target the United States but end up striking Canada.
Tory-dominated committees in both the Senate and House have been examining the merits of the U.S. program, which former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin opted against joining in 2005.

America Rising counters Hillary’s ‘Failed Choices’ on Benghazi

AMERICA RISING COUNTERS HILLARY’S ‘FAILED CHOICES’ ON BENGHAZI
An exclusive first look at a new book from pro-GOP group America Rising counters central claims from 2016 Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton about the 2012 raid by Islamist militants on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. Clinton’s new narrative, included in her campaign kickoff book “Hard Choices,” attacks Republican-led investigations, praises her own response, defends President Obama’s decisions and laments in a chronological account of the attack, the confusion that surrounded the incident. Not so, says America Rising.

Minute-by-minute - From the soon-to-be-released America Rising book, with full footnotes at the link: “On the night of the attack, as armed assailants overran the State Department’s Benghazi facility, those under assault were not only outmanned, they were left with a facility that ‘was also severely under-resourced with regard to weapons, ammunition, [non-lethal deterrents], and fire safety equipment, including escape masks.’ Both men who were killed at the State Department facility, Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith, died of smoke inhalation, making the lack of basic security materials like escape masks even more unfortunate and disappointing in retrospect. A Libyan doctor who treated Ambassador Stevens reportedly said asphyxiation suffered from smoke inhalation was his only injury. Evacuating personnel fled to the CIA's Annex facility nearby. At 10:15 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, mortars began to hit the annex and heavy fighting began.  At 10:08 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, Secretary Clinton put out a written statement on the attack. In it, she assigned a motivation for the attack: anger toward ‘inflammatory material posted on the Internet...’ Secretary Clinton had already provided a suggested motive for the assailants in a statement to the press before the second attack was even over, with two of the American victims from that night still defending themselves.”
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