Israel names 26 Palestinian prisoners set for release

Israel names 26 Palestinian prisoners set for release



JERUSALEM: Israel will release 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners ahead of renewed peace talks set for later this week, an official statement said late Sunday.

Following the government decision the Israel Prisons Service published the names of the 26 selected to be freed ahead of the talks.

The detailed list, published shortly after the announcement, includes the prisoners' names, felonies, date of arrest as well as the names of their victims.

Late on Sunday night, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a panel had decided upon the identity of the prisoners to be released within the next two days, the first of 104 long-term Palestinian and Arab Israeli prisoners to be freed in four stages, depending on progress in the talks.

"Following the government decision to renew peace talks with the Palestinians and appoint a ministerial committee to free prisoners during negotiations... the committee approved the release of 26 prisoners," a statement from Netanyahu's office read.

Fourteen of the prisoners will be transferred to the Gaza Strip and the other 12 to the West Bank.

"Eight of the prisoners on the list are set to be freed in the upcoming three years, two of them in the next six months," said the statement. "The release of the prisoners will take place at least 48 hours after publication of the list."

 

Sinkhole causes resort villa to partially collapse

Sinkhole causes resort villa to partially collapse





CLERMONT: As glass broke, the ground shook and lights went out, vacationers evacuated a central Florida resort building before a sinkhole caused a section of the structure to partially collapse early Monday.

About 30 percent of the three-story structure collapsed around 3 a.m., Lake County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Tony Cuellar said. The building — which had housed 105 visitors — was stable by midafternoon, said Paul Caldwell, the development's president. Two adjacent buildings, which each have 24 units, were evacuated as a precaution.

Caldwell said the resort underwent geological testing when it was built about 15 years ago, showing the ground to be stable, and that there were no signs before Sunday that a sinkhole was developing. He said all affected guests had been given other rooms and some guests — many of whom had to leave their wallets, purses and other belongings behind in the quick evacuation — had been given cash advances.

Resort workers were working to do "whatever we need to do to make it right," Caldwell said.

Technicians were on the scene Monday afternoon to inspect the structures, determine when anyone might be able to go back inside, and decide whether belongs would be recovered.

Security guard Richard Shanley had just started his night shift late Sunday when he heard what he thought was screaming from the building. He said he thought some sort of violence might be going on.

"I come to find it was actually the building being pulled apart," Shanley said.

He said the building seemed to sink by 10 to 20 inches and bannisters began to fall off the building as he ran up and down three floors trying to wake guests. One couple with a baby on the third floor couldn't get their door open and had to break a window to get out, he said.

"It's a scary situation," Shanley said.

Guests credited him with saving lives by knocking on doors as pieces of the building began to break off.

Witnesses said they could hear a cracking sound as the villa began sinking.

Luis Perez, who was staying at a villa near the sinking one, said he was in his room when the lights went off around 11:30 p.m. He said he was on his way to the front desk to report it when he saw firefighters and police outside.

"I started walking toward where they were at, and you could see the building leaning, and you could see a big crack at the base of the building," said Perez, 54, who was visiting from New Jersey.

Maggie Moreno, of San Antonio, was staying in a building next to the one that partially collapsed. She was awoken by firemen and police officers knocking on her door. She couldn't get the door to her unit open all the way.

"It sounded like popcorn," said Moreno, who was visiting with her husband, daughter and two grandchildren. "The building was just snapping."

Caldwell, the development's president, said a window popped in one of the rooms about 10:30 p.m. Sunday. A woman ran outside and flagged down a guard Shanley, who notified management. Another window then popped and a decision was made to immediately evacuate the building, Caldwell said. The process took 10 to 15 minutes, he said.

The section of the building sank into the ground over next five hours, said Amy Jedele, a resort guest who was staying with her fiancee, Darren Gade, in a building about 100 yards away. Residents who had been inside the building described hearing what sounded like thunder and then the sound of water, as if it were a thunderstorm, she said.

The first portions to sink were the walkways and the elevator shaft, Gade said.

"You could see the ground falling away from the building where the building started leaning," Gade said. "People were in shock to see a structure of that size just sink into the ground slowly. ... You could see the stress fractures up the side of the structure getting wider."

Caldwell said the partially collapsed building, with 24 three-story units, is a total loss, and he was waiting on further inspections to determine any damage to the second and third buildings. The resort has about 900 units spread over a large area about 10 miles west of Walt Disney World.

"No one is hurt," Caldwell said. "Thank God for that."

The sinkhole, which is in the middle of the villa, is about 40 to 50 feet in diameter, Cuellar said. He said authorities think it was getting deeper but couldn't tell early Monday if it was growing outward. A nearby villa was also evacuated as a precaution and that there had been a sign of a gas leak, but the gas had been shut off.

Summer Bay is described on its website as a luxury resort with condominiums, two-bedroom villas and vacation houses in addition to standard rooms. The site touts a clubhouse, atrium and poolside bar, and says the resort is on a secluded 64-acre lake.

Florida has a long, ongoing problem with sinkholes, which cause millions of dollars in damage in the state annually. On March 1, a sinkhole underneath a house in Seffner, about 60 miles southwest of the Summer Bay Resort, swallowed a man who was in his bed. His body was never recovered.

But such fatalities and injuries are rare, and most sinkholes are small. Sinkholes can develop quickly or slowly over time.

They are caused by Florida's geology — the state sits on limestone, a porous rock that easily dissolves in water, with a layer of clay on top. The clay is thicker in some locations making them even more prone to sinkholes.

Other states sit atop limestone in a similar way, but Florida has additional factors like extreme weather, development, aquifer pumping and construction. (AP)

 

Record temperature as Japan heatwave takes toll

Record temperature as Japan heatwave takes toll



TOKYO: Broiling temperatures in Japan saw the mercury hit a record 41 degrees Celsius (106 Fahrenheit) on Monday, after at least nine people died from heatstroke over the weekend.

The nation's weather agency issued heat warnings for 38 of Japan's 47 prefectures, telling people to keep hydrated and use their air conditioners.

Sweltering temperatures contributed to the deaths of at least nine people from heatstroke on Saturday and Sunday, Japanese officials and media reports said. Another heatwave last month claimed at least a dozen lives.

Japan's record temperature Monday was registered at 1:42 pm (0442 GMT) in Shimanto, a Pacific coast city on the western island of Shikoku, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

That broke the old high of 40.9 degrees Celsius in August 2007 registered in two central Japanese cities, the weather agency said.

Temperatures have soared above 40 degrees Celsius for the third straight day across parts of Japan as a Pacific high-pressure system covered most of the country.

Energy costs have rocketed after Japan shut down its nuclear reactors in the wake of the Fukushima atomic crisis two years ago.

The move forced Tokyo to turn to pricey fossil-fuel alternatives to plug the gap. In the bustling Tokyo shopping district of Ginza people were trying to guard against the scorching weather.

"I use a special deodorant. When you put it on it feels really fresh straight away. It sells everywhere in Japan," said Takenori Omori, a 27-year-old computer specialist.

Hiroko Mimura, a 63-year-old receptionist, added: "The sun is really strong. I use gloves to avoid getting sunburnt on the hands."

Another shopper, Aya Kida, said she wouldn't try to save electricity any longer, although the Japanese people are encouraged to do so after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant, stalling the country's nuclear power generation as a whole.

"It's too hot. The air conditioner is on all day and all night long at home," said the 25-year-old saleswoman.

Qaeda chief accuses US of ‘plotting’ Egypt Morsi ouster

Qaeda chief accuses US of ‘plotting’ Egypt Morsi ouster

CAIRO: Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri accused the US of “plotting” with Egypt’s military, secularists and Christians to overthrow Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, in an audio recording posted on militant Islamist forums.

In his first public comment on the July 3 military coup, the al Qaeda boss, himself an Egyptian, said: “Crusaders and secularists and the Americanised army have converged ... with Gulf money and American plotting to topple Mohamed Morsi’s government.”

In the 15-minute recording, Zawahiri also accused Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority of supporting the Islamist president’s ouster to attain “a Coptic state stripped from Egypt’s south.”

Zawahiri attacked Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Laureate and former UN nuclear watchdog chief who was an opposition leader during Morsi’s single year in office.

ElBaradei is the “envoy of American providence,” Zawahiri said, labelling the former International Atomic Energy Agency chief as “the destroyer of Iraq.”

Zawahiri, who belonged to the militant Egyptian Islamic Jihad group, criticised Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement for going soft on applying strict Islamic law.

Morsi’s “Muslim Brotherhood government strove to please America and the secularists as much as it could, but they were not satisfied with it,” said Zawahiri, who is believed to be hiding somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

“They did not trust it (Morsi’s government) because they did not forget the Brotherhood’s slogan: ‘Jihad is our war, and death in the path of God is our highest aspiration’,” he said.

“The Brotherhood abandoned that slogan, substituting it with the slogan ‘Islam is the solution,’ but the Crusaders and secularists did not forget,” he said.

“What happened is the biggest proof of the failure of democratic means to achieve an Islamic government,” he said of the coup. “I call for them to be united ... to make Islamic law rule.” afp

Diplomatic push to resolve Egypt crisis

Diplomatic push to resolve Egypt crisis

CAIRO: A US envoy met Egyptian officials on Saturday amid efforts to find a peaceful solution to the stand-off between supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and the army-installed interim government.

Deputy Secretary of State William Burns met Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, the official MENA news agency reported, hours after seeing members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party.

The talks come as tensions mounted over the looming break-up of two Cairo sit-ins by Morsi loyalists which have paralysed parts of the city and deepened divisions.

The interior ministry renewed its call for demonstrators to end their sit-ins, saying this would allow the Muslim Brotherhood to return to politics. “Your peaceful and safe exit will allow for the return of the Brotherhood to a role in the democratic political process,” the ministry said.

It warned that protesters’ “continued presence will expose them to legal action over their involvement in several criminal acts by some in the gatherings, including killing, torture, kidnap, carrying weapons... and incitement to violence”.

The ministry accused protest leaders of trying to “control the mind” of protesters by providing only selective information from podiums and cutting them off from the outside world.

Burns’s visit is his second since the army’s July 3 ouster of Morsi, and comes after EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton visited to help broker a peaceful solution.

EU Middle East envoy Bernardino Leon and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle also visited this week to urge both sides to compromise.

Morsi loyalists vowing to keep fighting for his reinstatement staged defiant rallies on Friday, but plans for four later marches fizzled out after police dispersed a new sit-in outside the Media Production City in a Cairo suburb.

Meanwhile, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egypt-born head of Al-Qaeda, accused Washington of “plotting” Morsi’s overthrow with Egypt’s military and its Christian minority.

In his first comments since the coup, Zawahiri also attacked Morsi’s secular opposition and Coptic Christians, who he said wanted a secessionist state in Egypt, and called for a mass movement to instal Islamic law.

Morsi supporters marched after Friday prayers, pouring out of several mosques in Cairo.

An early evening protest outside the media city descended into mayhem, with at least one protester wounded by birdshot.

Police fired tear gas at protesters who had set up tents and brick fortifications outside the compound. The protesters responded with stones.

“I am a Muslim, not a terrorist,” they chanted.

The interior ministry accused protesters of firing birdshot, wounding a conscript, and said police made 31 arrests.

Witnesses also reported clashes between residents in the Alf Maskan area and Morsi loyalists after they tried to establish a protest site.

Morsi supporters had announced Friday evening marches to several security facilities, including the Republican Guard headquarters where more than 50 demonstrators were killed last month.

While large crowds turned out to one march on the military intelligence headquarters, stopping short of the building and turning back after a brief protest, attempts to march to the Republican Guards appeared to have been called off.

Morsi’s supporters have remained defiant in the face of mounting threats from the interim government.

State-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported Friday that police had a plan to disperse the sit-ins but were holding out for a peaceful resolution.

Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei called for a halt to violence in an interview with the Washington Post.

“Once we do that, we immediately have to go into a dialogue to ensure that the Brotherhood understand that Mr Morsi failed. But that doesn’t mean that the Brotherhood should be excluded in any way.”

More than 250 people have been killed since Morsi’s ouster.

His supporters have been angered by comments from US Secretary of State John Kerry, who told Pakistani television that Egypt’s military was “restoring democracy” when it ousted him.

Morsi has been formally remanded in custody on suspicion of offences committed when he broke out of prison during the 2011 revolt that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

Prosecutors have also referred three top Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including supreme guide Mohamed Badie, for prosecution on allegations of inciting the deaths of demonstrators.

Morsi was detained hours after the coup and is being held at an undisclosed location.

His family has been unable to see him, but Ashton met Morsi on Tuesday and said he was “well”. afp

Rowhani officially takes office as Iran’s president

Rowhani officially takes office as Iran’s president

DUBAI: Hassan Rouhani took office as Iran’s president on Saturday promising “constructive interaction with the world” after eight years under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marked by diplomatic confrontation and damaging sanctions.

The politically moderate 64-year-old cleric’s resounding victory at June’s election raised hopes of a negotiated end to the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme and an easing of the sanctions that have hit the OPEC country’s oil exports.

That could avert a possible new war in the Middle East. Both the United States and Israel have said all options - including military action - are open to stop Iran getting nuclear arms. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorsed Rouhani’s election win in a statement read out to political, religious and military grandees assembled at a Tehran religious site.

Khamenei praised the “selection of a worthy individual who has more than three decades of service to the system of the Islamic Republic ... and who from the time of the revolutionary struggle ... has resisted the enemies of the Islamic Revolution.” Symbolising the handover of power, Khamenei took the presidential mandate from Ahmadinejad and handed the document to Rouhani.

Khamenei then kissed Rouhani on the cheek and the new president kissed the leader on his shoulder, a sign of supplication.

The start of Rouhani’s presidency puts an end to the Ahmadinejad era during which Iran grew more isolated and came under wide-ranging United Nations, US and European Union sanctions over its nuclear programme.

Rouhani faces enormous challenges, including inflation he put last month at 42 percent, unemployment, and political divisions between conservative, moderate and reformist factions.

“Moderation does not mean deviating from principles and it is not conservatism in the face of change and development. Moderation ... is an active and patient approach in society in order to be distant from the abyss of extremism,” Rouhani said in a short speech after becoming president. “In the international arena we will also take new steps to promote the Iranian nation towards securing national interests and removing sanctions. Although there are many limitations, the future is bright and promising,” he said.

“The orientation of the government is Iran’s economic salvation, constructive interaction with the world, and a restoration of morality.” Rouhani’s first test is persuading parliament to approve his list of proposed ministers, which he is expected to present on Sunday after he takes his oath of office in parliament. “Rouhani will certainly appoint more competent men and women to key economic ministries and institutions. He will also follow saner economic policies,” said Shaul Bakhash, an Iran historian at George Mason University in Virginia.

“But the economic problems are staggering ... Above all, without a serious easing of sanctions, it is difficult to see how Rouhani can get the economy moving again.”

Ahmadinejad defended his time in office, telling state television late on Friday his administration was the least corrupt in history, and blaming sanctions for economic problems.

“We promised to have clean hands; I say with confidence that this government is the cleanest government,” Ahmadinejad said, according to the Mehr news agency.

“The enemy has introduced heavy sanctions and the nation has faced problems. We have made our utmost effort but we couldn’t resolve all the pressures. This issue has been very difficult for us.”

Rouhani has said he will appoint ministers from all political factions, based on their ability, but hardliners have demanded the conservative-dominated parliament reject nominees associated with the “sedition”, their term for the months of protests that followed Ahmadinejad’s disputed 2009 re-election. Parliament’s confirmation of such candidates would be “a betrayal of the people and the system,” Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of the influential hardline daily Kayhan, wrote in an editorial this week.

A source close to Rouhani confirmed to Reuters that he will nominate Mohammad Javad Zarif, a US-educated former ambassador to the United Nations, as his foreign minister.

Another likely pick is Ali Jannati for culture minister, an influential post which oversees domestic and foreign press in Iran and vets cinema, theatre, literature and other arts. Jannati has served as ambassador to Kuwait and his father is Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a hardline cleric.

During Ahmadinejad’s presidency, press freedoms were curtailed, newspapers shut down, and this year about a dozen journalists were arrested in a crackdown on the press. In an interview with the reformist Bahar newspaper this week, Jannati sought to distance himself from his father’s views and indicated he would support more freedom for artists. “Intellectual matters are not hereditary,” Jannati said, according to Bahar. “I am hopeful that given my views on the fields of music, art, and film, the cultural and artistic atmosphere in the country will soften so that artists can breathe more easily.” reuters

Greek police arrest German on suspicion of spying

Greek police arrest German on suspicion of spying

ATHENS: A 72-year-old German man has been arrested on a Greek island on suspicion of spying for Turkey, police said on Saturday.

The man told police he had photographed barracks and other military-related buildings on the island of Chios for five people he believed were Turkish nationals who paid him up to 1,500 euros for each assignment. Police suspect the individuals worked for the Turkish secret services, a Greek police official who spoke on condition of anonymity said, adding that investigations were ongoing. reuters

The pope and the Stones, superstars of Copacabana

The pope and the Stones, superstars of Copacabana

RIO DE JANEIRO: Pope Francis on Thursday showed that his message of renewed faith in Jesus Christ can compete with the Rolling Stones and their Sympathy for the Devil.

Seven years after the rock legends lured throngs to Copacabana for an epic concert, organizers of a Catholic youth event say Pope Francis attracted 1.5 million to Rio de Janeiro's legendary beach.

Apart from New Year's fireworks that attract countless revelers to the crescent moon-shaped beach every year, nobody had brought so many people to Copacabana until Mick Jagger and Keith Richards came to town.

On February 18, 2006, the British superstars who sold millions of records drew the biggest crowd of their storied career.

Various estimates say between one million and 1.7 million people flooded the beach to see the bad boys of rock n' roll for their “Bigger Band” tour.

But 76-year-old Pope Francis showed that he commands just as much star power as Sir Mick, who turns 70 on Friday.

Crowds shrieked and chanted the pope's name as his jeep with open sides and a glass top took him to a giant white stage on the beach.

The pope, with his resplendent white robe, stood on a giant white stage with a towering cross illuminated by a blue light.

Large screens and speakers beamed his ceremony to people standing at the other end of the beach. Apart from the large stages and endless crowds, the comparison ends there.

The pope stood soberly on a podium while Jagger and the Stones danced the night away.

And the pontiff is staying in a quiet hillside residence, while “Their Satanic Majesties” spent their nights in the beachfront Copacabana Palace hotel.

Egypt's ousted Morsi 'well': EU's Ashton

Egypt's ousted Morsi 'well': EU's Ashton

CAIRO: EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Egypt's ousted president on Tuesday, saying he was “well,” but the country's political crisis seemed no closer to resolution despite her efforts.

Neither the interim government nor supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi showed any indication that they had shifted their positions after talks with Ashton, who left Cairo on Tuesday.

And Morsi loyalists said they would continue their demonstrations throughout the day, despite stern warnings from the military and National Defence Council and the deaths of 82 people at a protest on Saturday.

Ashton became the first person to officially visit Morsi since his July 3 ouster, holding two hours of talks with him at an undisclosed location early Tuesday.

“Morsi is well,” she told reporters.

“He has access to information in terms of TV, newspapers, so we were able to talk about the situation and we were able to talk about the need to move forward.

“We had a friendly, open and very frank discussion,” she added, declining to characterise Morsi's comments, or give details of where he is being held.

Morsi has not been seen in public since his ouster and is being held in custody on allegations related to his escape from prison during Egypt's 2011 uprising.

On her last visit on July 17, Ashton unsuccessfully requested to meet the ousted president, and this time she made meeting him a condition of her trip.

“I said that I would not come unless I could see him and that was freely offered to me.”But she said her talks with Morsi and a string of government officials and opposition representatives were not intended to push the two sides to the table.

“We want to help facilitate the bringing together of ideas,” she said, adding that she was hoping to find “common ground.””I don't come here to say somebody should do this, somebody should do that, this is your country,” she said.

On Sunday and Monday, Ashton met army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, interim president Adly Mansour and vice president Mohamed ElBaradei.

She also met representatives of the pro-Morsi coalition, which said that “no initiatives” to resolve the crisis had been discussed, adding that it remained committed to Morsi's reinstatement.

“We are ready to talk to anybody, but we don't see anything positive from the other side,” added Amr Darrag, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm.

ElBaradei, speaking at a news conference with Ashton after a second meeting with her Tuesday, insisted Morsi would play no role in Egypt's political process going forward.

“Mr. Morsi failed but the Brotherhood continues very much to be part of the political process and we would like them to participate in the political process,” he said.

ElBaradei stressed that ending violence was his “immediate priority.””I have always believed that violence is not the way, that we have to try every possible way to remove or to end polarisation,” he said.

Morsi loyalists have rallied daily for his return to office and the Anti-Coup Alliance leading the protests called for major demonstrations on Tuesday.

It urged Egyptians “to go out into the streets and squares, to regain their freedom and dignity, that are being usurped by the bloody coup, and for the rights of the martyrs assassinated by its bullets”.

The calls raised fears of new bloodshed, particularly after warnings from the military and National Defence Council about the consequences if demonstrators overstepped their rights.

On Monday night, the emergency services revised their toll of those killed in Saturday's violence to 82, including a police officer.

The incident was the bloodiest since Morsi's ouster, a period in which more than 200 people have died.

The bloodshed and the persistent deadlock have prompted growing international concern.

“We condemn the violence... We call for dialogue and for the release of president Morsi,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters on Tuesday.

The violence has also sparked domestic criticism of the interim authorities with a group of Egyptian human rights groups calling on Monday for interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim to be sacked.

Egypt's interim presidency has said it was “saddened” by the deaths, but called the protest area where they occurred a “terror-originating spot”.

Unrest continued in the Sinai Peninsula meanwhile, with two policemen and a conscript killed in three separate shootings overnight, a security source said.

Manning guilty of espionage but not 'aiding enemy'

Manning guilty of espionage but not 'aiding enemy'

FORT MEADE: A US military judge convicted Bradley Manning of espionage on Tuesday, leaving him facing a lengthy jail term despite clearing him on the most serious charge that he 'aided the enemy.'

 

Colonel Denise Lind found Manning guilty of 20 of 22 counts related to his leaking of a huge trove of secret US diplomatic cables and military logs to the WikiLeaks website.

She said she would begin sentencing hearings on Wednesday, at the Fort Meade military base outside Washington where the trial was held.

If Lind decides to impose penalties in the higher ranges permitted under the charges, the now 25-year-old Manning could face a de facto life sentence of more than 100 years in jail.

“On charge one, court finds you not guilty,” Lind told the hearing, before reading the long list of lesser counts on which Manning was found guilty of breaching the espionage act or disobeying orders.

The court was silent and Manning, a boyish young man in an army dress uniform and round glasses, showed no emotion before the live feed to the press room was cut.

Some freedom of information activists will welcome the news that he was at least cleared of knowingly aiding US foe al-Qaeda by leaking secrets to be published on the Internet.

But there have been warnings that the case, and the harsh penalties Manning could still face, could deter whistleblowers and have a chilling effect on future media investigations.

A few dozen protesters had gathered outside Fort Meade to support Manning and WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group set up by Australian cyber-activist Julian Assange, expressed fury at the verdict.

In a Twitter message, the WikiLeaks group said the court's decision reflected “dangerous national security extremism” on the part of US President Barack Obama's White House.

It also said the conviction of Manning set a “very serious new precedent for supplying information to the press.”

WikiLeaks is also working with a second American leaker, civilian former intelligence technician Edward Snowden, who is seeking asylum in Russia after revealing vast US electronic surveillance programs.

His supporters have cited Manning's trial as proof that Snowden was right to flee abroad with his leaks rather than face trial at home.

The best known US rights group, the American Civil Liberties Union, gave a measured response to the verdict, but reiterated its concern about the use of draconian anti-spying laws to curtail government whistleblowers.

“While we're relieved that Mr. Manning was acquitted of the most dangerous charge, the ACLU has long held the view that leaks to the press in the public interest should not be prosecuted under the Espionage Act,” said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.

“Since Manning already pleaded guilty to charges of leaking information, which carry significant punishment, it seems clear that the government was seeking to intimidate anyone who might consider revealing valuable information in the future.”

Private Manning was serving as a 23-year-old intelligence analyst in Iraq when he sent WikiLeaks a cache of secret diplomatic cables and classified military reports from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He had admitted giving the site some 700,000 documents and pleaded guilty to 10 lesser charges, while firmly denying that he had intended to help America's enemies.

In closing arguments last week, defense attorney David Coombs said Manning was no traitor but a “young, naive and good-intentioned” citizen who wanted to encourage public debate.

But the prosecution insisted Manning recklessly betrayed his uniform and his country by leaking documents he knew al-Qaeda would see and use.

“Your honor, he was not a whistleblower, he was a traitor,” lead prosecutor Major Ashden Fein told the court.

 

 

Pentagon: Afghan forces will need help beyond 2014

Pentagon: Afghan forces will need help beyond 2014

WASHINGTON:The Pentagon said Tuesday that ''substantial'' long-term military support will be needed to ensure that Afghans can hold off the Taliban insurgency after the US combat mission ends in December 2014.

The White House has not ruled out leaving no troops behind after 2014, although officials say the most likely option is a residual training force of roughly 9,000.

In its twice-a-year report to Congress on war progress, the Defense Department said Afghanistan's military is growing stronger but will require a lot more training, advising and foreign financial aid after the US and Nato combat mission ends.

The Obama administration has pledged to stand with the Afghans for the long term. But President Barack Obama has grown frustrated in his dealings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Peter Lavoy, the Pentagon's top Afghan policy official, told a news conference that a number of post-2014 options have been developed.

They take into account the Afghans' need for additional training and advising, plus what the Pentagon sees as a longer-term requirement for US counterterrorism forces in Afghanistan.

''In none of these cases have we developed an option that is zero,'' Lavoy said.

The US has not yet successfully negotiated a security deal with Kabul that gives the US a legal basis for having forces in Afghanistan after 2014.

Talks began last year but have made little recent progress.

Karzai suspended negotiations following a disagreement this month over a Taliban political office in the Gulf state of Qatar that was to host peace talks.

The office has the support of the United States and other countries, but it infuriated Karzai after the Taliban opened it with a display of the name and flag it used when it ruled Afghanistan.

Relations between Afghanistan and the United States plunged after that incident. There are currently about 60,000 US troops in Afghanistan, down from a 2010 peak of 100,000, and the total is to shrink to 34,000 by February.

The report painted a largely positive picture of progress in strengthening the Afghan army and police, but it offered cautionary assessments of the economic and political elements of its strategy for stabilizing the country.

The report said the amount of Afghan territory held by the insurgents has continued to shrink.

It called the Taliban ''less capable, less popular and less of an existential threat'' to the Kabul government.

And it said the number of ''insider attacks'' by Afghan forces against their US and other coalition partners has declined. But it said the insurgents still wield influence in several key rural areas that serve as avenues to attack urban areas, including certain districts adjacent to Kabul and in areas west of the southern city of Kandahar.

''Insurgents also used violence and assassination to undermine perceptions of the Afghan government's ability to provide security,'' the report said, ''including intimidation of tribal elders, local power brokers and Afghan government officials.''

Zawahri vows Al Qaeda to free Aafia, Guantanamo inmates

Zawahri vows Al Qaeda to free Aafia, Guantanamo inmates

 DUBAI: Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said the group would spare no effort to free Aafia Siddiqui as well as the hunger striking inmates at Guantanamo Bay, according to an audio recording posted on the Internet on Wednesday.

 

“The (hunger) strike by our brothers at Guantanamo unmasks the true ugly face of (the United States of) America,” Zawahri said in an audio recording posted on an Islamist website and whose authenticity could not be verified.

 

“We will spare no effort to free all our prisoners, on top of whom are Omar Abdel Rahman, Aafia Siddiqui, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and every oppressed Muslim everywhere...,” he added.

He did not elaborate on what Al Qaeda intended to do, but militants have in the past kidnapped Westerners and sought to trade them for jailed associates.

 

Al Qaeda has also claimed responsibility for simultaneous raids on two Iraqi prisons last week in which they said more than 500 inmates had been set free. And in Pakistan, Taliban broke over 175 prisoners out of a jail on Tuesday.

 

Some 166 men, most of whom were rounded up in counter-terrorism operations since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, are currently being held at a US military base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

 

Many have been on hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention, with some being force-fed.

Zawahri also denounced Washington's use of drone strikes targeting Islamists, saying it was a sign of the defeat of US campaigns in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

Drone strikes have been widely criticised by rights groups who say the strikes often miss their targets and hit civilians.

 

“These spying planes will not protect you from defeat, but rather are a sign of your failure and the repeated failure of your government,” Zawahri said, addressing US President Barack Obama.

Israelis, Palestinians to strive for deal in nine months: Kerry

Israelis, Palestinians to strive for deal in nine months: Kerry


WASHINGTON: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators agreed on Tuesday to meet again within the next two weeks, aiming to seal a final peace deal in nine months, US Secretary of State John Kerry said.
The two sides will meet in either Israel or the Palestinian territories and “our objective will be” to reach a “final status agreement over the course of the next nine months,” Kerry told reporters after Israelis and Palestinians ended a three-year freeze on talks.
After a morning of talks at the White House with President Barack Obama and at the State Department, the two sides had agreed that all the most contentious issues such as borders and refugees and the fate of Jerusalem would be on the table for discussion.
“The parties have agreed to remain engaged in sustained, continuous and substantive negotiations on the core issues,” Kerry said, flanked by Israeli chief negotiator Tzipi Livni and her Palestinian counterpart Saeb Erakat.
“They will meet within the next two weeks in either Israel or the Palestinian Territories in order to begin the process of formal negotiation.
“The parties have agreed here today that all of the final status issues, all of the core issues and all other issues are all on the table for negotiation,” Kerry insisted.
“And they are on the table with one simple goal: a view to ending the conflict, ending the claims. Our objective will be to achieve a final status agreement over the course of the next nine months.”
The top US diplomat also reiterated his view that time is running out for a two-state solution, insisting “there is no other alternative.
“We all need to be strong in our belief in the possibility of peace, courageous enough to follow through in our faith in it, and audacious enough to achieve what these two peoples have so long aspired to and deserve,” he said.
Erakat praised Kerry's dogged efforts to resume the talks, stalled for three years, saying “no one benefits more from the success of this endeavor than Palestinians.
“I'm delighted all issues are on the table and will be resolved without any exceptions. It's time for the Palestinian people to have an independent sovereign state of their own.”And Livni said she hoped that a “spark of hope” would emerge from the new talks.
“It is our task to work together so that we can transform that spark of hope into something real and lasting,” she said.
“I believe that history is not made by cynics. It is made by realists who are not afraid to dream. And let us be these people.”

Egypt orders police to clear protest camps

Egypt orders police to clear protest camps
CAIRO: Egypt's military-backed government on Wednesday ordered the police to clear two Cairo protest camps packed with supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, saying they posed a threat to national security and were ''terrorizing'' citizens.
The move signaled an imminent crackdown against the heavily barricaded sit-ins, one outside a mosque in eastern Cairo and another on the other side of the city near the main Cairo University campus and raised the prospect of more violence after clashes broke out during previous action against the mainly Islamist protesters.
More than 260 people have been killed since Morsi was ousted by the military on July 3, leaving the country between those calling for his reinstatement and millions who marched against him and his Muslim Brotherhood in a show of support for the new political order.
Police have been instructed to end the protests ''within the law and the constitution,'' Information Minister Dorreya Sharaf el-Din said in a televised statement, although she did not specify a timeframe.
Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police, said the disbanding of the sit-ins will be carried out in gradual steps according to orders from prosecutors.
''I hope they (Morsi supporters) resort to reason'' and leave without authorities having to move in, he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
In a parallel move, prosecutors also referred three top Brotherhood leaders, including its fugitive spiritual leader Mohammed Badie, to trial for allegedly inciting the killing of anti-Morsi protesters last month.
The other two, who already are in detention, are Badie's powerful deputy Khairat el-Shater and senior Brotherhood leader Rashad Bayoumi.
They are accused of inciting the killing of at least eight protesters outside the Cairo headquarters of the Brotherhood on the night of June 30 and early the next day.
No date has been set for the trial, which will be held before a criminal court. Morsi was overthrown after just one year in office by the military on July 3 after mass rallies in which millions of Egyptians calling for his ouster took to the streets.
Last week, millions of Egyptians rallied on the street again to give military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi a mandate to deal with violence and ''potential terrorism.''

Syrian rebels kill dozens in offensives in north and south

Syrian rebels kill dozens in offensives in north and south

BEIRUT: Syrian rebels say they have overrun army positions in the north and south of the country this week, including an offensive in which a rights monitoring group said 51 soldiers were executed.

Insurgents have focused on taking isolated army outposts, mostly in rural areas while forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have made gains in recent months around the capital Damascus and the central city of Homs.

One video, posted on YouTube on Wednesday by a rebel group calling itself the Supporters of the Islamic Caliphate, shows around 30 bodies of young men piled up against a wall. Blood is splattered on the wall and one corpse is smouldering.

“Tens of Assad’s (militia) killed,” says a man off camera. He said the footage was filmed in the area of the northern town of Khan al-Assal which was taken by rebels last week.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad monitoring group, cited activists on Friday in Khan al-Assal who said that more than 150 soldiers were killed on Monday and Tuesday in and around the town. The Observatory said that figure included 51 soldiers and officers who were executed. reuters

US assures Russia Snowden won’t be tortured or executed

US assures Russia Snowden won’t be tortured or executed

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON: The United States has made a formal promise to Russia not to torture or execute Edward Snowden if he is sent home to face charges of illegal disclosing government secrets, and the Kremlin said Russian and US security agencies are in talks over his fate.

The 30-year-old former US spy agency contractor has been stuck in the transit area of a Moscow airport for more than a month despite Washington’s calls to hand him over.

Russia has refused to extradite Snowden, who leaked details of a secret US surveillance programme including phone and Internet data, and is now considering his request for a temporary asylum.

In a letter dated Tuesday July 23 and released on Friday, US Attorney General Eric Holder wrote that he sought to dispel claims about what would happen to Snowden if he is sent home.

“Mr Snowden has filed papers seeking temporary asylum in Russia on the grounds that if he were returned to the United States, he would be tortured and would face the death penalty. These claims are entirely without merit,” Holder wrote.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s FSB and its US counterpart, the FBI, were in talks over Snowden, whose stay at the Moscow Sheremetyevo airport has further strained Moscow-Washington ties.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had expressed “strong determination”, he said, not to let relations suffer over the dispute “no matter how the situation develops”. Putin himself is not personally dealing with the problem, the spokesman said.

But he reiterated Moscow’s stance that Russia “did not hand over, does not hand over and will not hand over anybody”.

Putin, a former KGB spy, has said Snowden could only be granted sanctuary in Russia if he stopped actions that could harm the United States.

A US law enforcement official following the case confirmed the FBI has been in discussions with the FSB about Snowden for some time now but added he was not aware of any recent breakthroughs or imminent developments stemming from that.

A Russian security expert said the talks may be about how to secure a promise from Snowden to stop leaking if he were granted sanctuary in Russia.

“The United States maybe understands that they are not going to get Snowden, so my theory is that they are trying to save face and stop Snowden from publishing new exposes,” Andrei Soldatov said, adding that he was sceptical this could be done.

Snowden’s supporters have worried he could face the same fate as Private First Class Bradley Manning, the US soldier on trial for providing documents to WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group. On his arrest, Manning was placed in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day with guards checking on him every few minutes.

“Torture is unlawful in the United States,” Holder wrote, without explicit reference to Manning. “If he returns to the United States, Mr Snowden would promptly be brought before a civilian court.”

Snowden has been offered asylum by three Latin American countries but none of them is reachable directly on commercial flights from Moscow, where he flew in from Hong Kong on June 23. He has also had his passport revoked by the United States.

His hopes for leaving the Sheremetyevo airport transit zone, which Russia insists is formally not its territory, were dashed at the last minute on Wednesday, prompting a wave of speculation about possible political intervention or a hitch.

A Russian lawyer assisting Snowden in his asylum request, Anatoly Kucherena, who also sits on an advisory group to the Russian authorities, said his client feared he could face torture or the death penalty if returned to the United States.

Russia’s federal migration service has up to three months to consider Snowden’s temporary asylum request filed on July 16. An official was quoted on Friday as saying that could be extended to six months. reuters

Egyptians stage rival rallies as Morsi charges fuel tension

Egyptians stage rival rallies as Morsi charges fuel tension

CAIRO: Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets in rival mass rallies on Friday, hours after the state news agency said ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was being investigated for charges including murder.

In Cairo, huge crowds heeded a call by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to give him a popular mandate to confront violence unleashed by his July 3 overthrow of Morsi, many of them clutching pictures of the general in full ceremonial uniform.

Supporters of the deposed Islamist leader staged mass counter-demonstrations to demand his reinstatement, shrugging off fears of an imminent crackdown.

The army’s move against Egypt’s first democratically elected president has caused deep alarm in the West. 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 the United States.

Highlighting the potential for bloodshed, hospital officials said four people were killed in clashes in Egypt’s second city Alexandria - three stabbed and one shot in the head. More than 50 were wounded.

A Reuters reporter said hundreds of people fought a pitched battle in the city, with birdshot fired and men on rooftops hurling stones down at the crowds below. Seven protesters were also reported hurt in the Nile delta city of Damietta.

The capital was largely peaceful, but numbers were expected to peak in the evening, when clashes have broken out before. Close to 200 people have died in violence in the three weeks since the army deposed the president.

The army has made clear it sees Friday as a turning point in its confrontation with Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, which emerged from decades in the shadows to win successive elections after Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising against veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

It lasted a year in government, during which the economy floundered and Morsi’s popularity slumped.

“The Brothers stole our revolution,” said Salah Saleh, a horse trainer at a central Cairo rally, voicing widespread criticism that Morsi refused to share out power after taking office, and then failed to tackle Egypt’s many woes.

“They came and sat on the throne and controlled everything.”

Many thousands of men, women and children joined Brotherhood supporters at their round-the-clock vigil in northeast Cairo, which is close to army installations but far from Tahrir Square, focal point for the pro-army rally.

“It is either victory over the coup or martyrdom,” said senior Brotherhood politician Mohamed El-Beltagy told the pro-Morsi rally. “Our blood and our souls for Islam!” the crowds chanted.

The military had warned it would “turn its guns” on those who used violence. The Brotherhood, which has manned a month-long tent vigil in Cairo, warned of civil war.

It accuses the army and hired thugs of stoking trouble to justify a move against the Islamists.

In Cairo, helicopters repeatedly buzzed low over the pro-Morsi vigil before wheeling around Tahrir Square, and scattering Egyptian flags over the packed supporters.

“The Muslim Brotherhood has deviated from the path of real Islam,” said Gamal Khalil, a 47-year-old taxi driver as his wife and two daughters waved flags at passing cars on a bridge over the Nile.

“The army is the only honest institution in the country,” he said. “They’re keeping my whole family safe.”

The probe against Morsi centres on charges he conspired with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas to flee jail during the 2011 uprising against Mubarak, killing some prisoners and officers, kidnapping soldiers and torching buildings.

Morsi has previously said locals helped him escape from prison during the upheavals, and the Muslim Brotherhood denounced the series of accusations levelled against him. Hamas challenged investigators to find “one piece of evidence” that it had meddled in Egyptian affairs.

“At the end of the day, we know all of these charges are nothing more than the fantasy of a few army generals and a military dictatorship,” Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said. “We are continuing our protests on the streets.”

State news agency Mena said Morsi had been ordered detained for 15 days pending the probe.

Convulsed by political and economic turmoil, Egypt is deeply polarised, struggling to make the transition from the autocratic rule of the discredited Mubarak to free and open democracy.

Signalling its displeasure at recent events, Washington said this week it had delayed delivery of four F-16 fighter jets to Cairo and called on the Egyptian army to exercise “maximum restraint and caution” during Friday’s rallies.

One security source said the military wanted to calm the situation after realising that Sisi’s call to rally was not well received abroad. A military statement on Facebook said the protests did not represent a threat to the Brotherhood.

State television screened images on Friday of the celebrations that erupted the night Sisi announced Morsi had been deposed. The narrator declared it “the day of liberation from the Brotherhood occupation”. “Egypt against terrorism,” declared a slogan on the screen. reuters

Japan defence review could help contractors to compete globally

Japan defence review could help contractors to compete globally

TOKYO: Japan’s promised review of its longstanding ban on arms exports, as part of a push for a more robust military, could help make its defence contractors more globally competitive by reducing costs and expanding markets.

The defence Ministry said on Friday it would review a decades-old self-imposed ban on arms exports and take action as needed. Media reports have said Japan could issue new guidelines to replace the ban, which has already been eased several times.

A lack of clear guidelines on what arms gear could be sold, and to whom, by firms such as the builder of the wartime Zero fighter, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, submarine maker Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd and licensed Apache helicopter maker Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, has held up efforts to translate the policy shifts into actual deals.

“To improve the technology of our production base from the viewpoint of strengthening our international competitiveness, we will aggressively promote joint international development production with the United States, Britain and other countries,” the defence Ministry said in an interim report on its review.

The moves form part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s review of the nation’s long-term defence posture in the face of perceived threats from China and North Korea.

Allowing more arms exports and joint production could help Japan to forge a stronger military as its budget for new equipment dwindles. Japan’s defence spending has remained at around 1 percent of GDP for decades, but swelling maintenance costs have shrunk its procurement budget by a third over the past 20 years.

Industry sources say Japan often pays up to three times more for military gear than other nations, because of the small volumes its manufacturers, unable to sell overseas, produce.

A wider customer base for Japan’s military suppliers, particularly in the United States, where defence spending is ten times more, could help lower those costs and give the nation a bigger bang for its yen. But Japan is unlikely to find foreign customers lining up to buy its weapons, defence industry experts warn.

“The Japanese will find that exporting into the world defence market is going to be tough sledding for most, if not all makers,” said Lance Gatling, an aerospace and defence consultant at Nexial Research in Tokyo.

“It is an increasingly globally competitive market, and new entrants in Israel, Singapore, Korea, India, and East Europe make increasingly competent equipment at attractive prices.”

Instead, Japan may seek a place in the global supply chain of bigger global defence contractors, in the same way that Mitsubishi Heavy, Kawasaki Heavy and others are already major component suppliers for Boeing Co commercial aircraft. Lockheed Martin Corp, which helped Japan build its F-2 fighter and will supply it with F-35 fighters assembled locally by Mitsubishi Heavy, wants to widen its supply chain to Japan, in a move to cut costs amid tighter defence spending at home, through access to a larger pool of potential suppliers.

With fewer restraints on exports, Japanese firms could be ready to become suppliers to the whole F-35 program within four years, Richard Kirkland, Lockheed’s executive in charge of international business development, told Reuters in October.

But fitting the Japanese into the global consortium that builds the fighter would mean taking work away from others.

“We understand Japanese industry has the quality and has the processes to be an integral part of this, should they decide to participate,” Kirkland said.

Also interested in Japan as a supplier is Raytheon Co , which is seeing revived demand for its Patriot missile defence system. Tapping firms that make the system in Japan under license, with Mitsubishi Heavy as the prime contractor, could help keep down production at the US company.

The same logic could work for Boeing, too, as it revamps its twin-rotor Chinook transport helicopters. The aircraft, deployed by Japan’s Self-defence Forces, is built locally by Kawasaki Heavy.

The government’s immediate goal is to hash out guidelines for military exports, said Nexial’s Gatling, perhaps to allow an upgraded ship-based SM-3 missile to be sold to third countries beyond the United States and Japan. Designed jointly by Raytheon and Mitsubishi Heavy, it is meant to take out intercontinental ballistic missiles at the edge of space as part of a defence shield Japan is deploying to counter any potential threat from missile-armed North Korea.

To begin with, however, Japanese firms may find it easier to hawk dual-use technology to overseas military buyers, equipment they already sell, competitively, to commercial customers. reuters

‘Pink Panther’ jewel thief breaks out of Swiss jail

‘Pink Panther’ jewel thief breaks out of Swiss jail

GENEVA: A Bosnian from the “Pink Panther” gang of international jewel thieves escaped from a Swiss prison in a dramatic break-out involving a fellow inmate and two armed accomplices, police said Friday. Milan Poparic, who was serving a sentence of almost seven years for a 2009 robbery at a jewellery store, is the third “Pink Panther” to escape from a Swiss prison since May. Along with convicted Swiss kidnapper, arsonist and money-launderer Adrian Albrecht, Poparic broke out of the Orbe prison in western Switzerland on Thursday evening, local police said in a statement.

During an exercise period, the accomplices rammed a gate and barbed wire with a van, before using ladders to create an escape route across the prison’s fence. They set fire to the van and made off with Poparic and Albrecht in a second vehicle. Prison guards came under constant automatic weapons wire to stop them foiling the escape, but no-one was injured. Police said they had launched a manhunt involving more than a dozen patrols from various Swiss law enforcement agencies, as well as their French counterparts — Orbe lies just 16 kilometres from the border with France. afp

Derailed Spanish train was unable to break in time: report

Derailed Spanish train was unable to break in time: report

 

MADRID: The driver of a fast-moving train that flew off the tracks in northwestern Spain, killing at least 80 people, was unable to break in time, newspaper El Pais reported Friday.

The investigation into the cause of the nation’s deadliest rail disaster since 1944 has focused on a possible problem with the breaks and speeding by the driver, the newspaper said.

The accident happened Wednesday evening as the train entered a sharp curve known as “A Gandeira” about four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the station in the northern city of Santiago de Compostela.

Dramatic video footage from a security camera showed the train slamming into a concrete wall at the side of the track as the engine overturned, piling carriages on top of each other in a smouldering wreckage of mangled steel.

The train was reportedly travelling at twice the limit on a section of high-speed track that has a speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph).

“The railway warning systems detected that Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, the driver of the Alvia train that departed Madrid, was travelling at 190 kilometres an hour when it should not exceed 80,” El Pais wrote.

“The driver acknowledged that the alarm went off in the control panel and he tried to brake but was not able to avert the tragedy,” the newspaper added.

El Pais said Thursday that the driver stated immediately after the crash that he had been travelling at 190 km/h at the time of the derailment.

“I hope no one died because it will weigh on my conscience,” he reportedly told supervisors over the radio while trapped inside the cab after the eight-carriage train derailed.

Police are waiting to question the driver, who according to state train company Renfe has more than a decade of train driving experience.

He is in hospital under police surveillance as he undergoes treatment for light injuries sustained in the accident. afp

China executes killer of pregnant ghost bride

BEIJING: A man who murdered a pregnant woman in China to sell her corpse as a "ghost bride" has been executed, state media reported Thursday.

Wang Hairong was put to death earlier this week, the Legal Daily said citing a court in Yan'an in the northern province of Shaanxi.

Wang and two accomplices persuaded a woman, identified only by her surname Luo, to accept a lift in their car in May 2011 and strangled her, the report said. She was pregnant at the time.

They drove to a nearby town and sold Luo's body for 22,000 yuan ($3,600) to a family as a bride for their dead son in a "ghost marriage", it said.

Wang took 14,000 yuan, with the rest of the money divided between the other two, it added.

Marriage is an important part of Chinese society. While the practice is increasingly rare, "ghost" weddings are still carried out by some families in parts of Shaanxi and neighbouring Shanxi.

If a young adult son dies before having had a chance to marry, he will be buried next to a woman after a wedding ceremony of sorts, to prevent the man's spirit being lonely in the afterlife and bringing misfortune on his family.

In March Chinese media reported that four people had been jailed for digging up corpses to sell as ghost brides.

Cuban heavy metal band seeks asylum in United States

MIAMI: Six members of a Cuban heavy metal group requested political asylum after touching down in the United States, a band member told AFP on Wednesday.


The musicians, who left Havana on Sunday night, touched down in Miami in the early hours of Monday morning en route to a concert in Oakland, California.

"It's not something we had thought about until we got here," said bass player Fanny Tachin, confirming reports of the request which first appeared on Cafe Fuerte, a blog catering to Cuban immigrants in Florida.

Tachin said members of the band Hipnosis had lodged requests after lead singer Ramiro Pupo decided to seek asylum.

"Once we saw that we all decided to follow," Tachin said.

Tachin said the musicians had "sentimental, family and economic" reasons for seeking asylum, noting that Pupo's daughter already lived in Miami while the mother of another band member was also a US resident.

Thousands of Cubans try to flee their homeland every year for the United States, where they are guaranteed political asylum.

Tachin said the six band members planned to pursue their careers in the United States. (AFP)

Pakistan's air force has its first combat-ready female fighter Pilot. Flight Lieuten

Pakistan's air force has its first combat-ready female fighter Pilot. Flight Lieuten

Pakistan's air force has its first combat-ready female fighter pilot.
Flight Lieutenant Ayesha Farooq, 26, is the first of six female fighter pilots in the force to pass the final exams to qualify for battle.
She will now fly missions in a Chinese-made F7PG fighter jet alongside her 24 male colleagues in Squadron 20.
'I don't feel any different. We do the same activities, the same precision bombing,' said Flt Lt Farooq.
Speaking at the Mushaf base in north Pakistan this week, the fighter pilot, from Bahawalput, Punjab, said: 'In our society most girls don't even think about doing such things as flying an aircraft.'

British tennis player Keothavong retires

British tennis player Keothavong retires

LONDON: Former British number one Anne Keothavong announced her retirement from tennis on Wednesday. Keothavong in 2009 became the first British woman to reach the world’s top 50 for 16 years. Her other major career high point came at the 2008 US Open, where she reached the third round, while she made the second round at Wimbledon four times. But the 29-year-old, who made five WTA singles semifinals, saw her progress hampered by two serious knee injuries. She has endured a miserable season in 2013, with her ranking slumping to 285. Keothavong, who reached a career-high ranking of 48 four years ago, has decided to go into media work and is joining BT Sport as part of their team to cover the WTA Tour. afp

World Aquatic Championships : China continue diving domination

World Aquatic Championships : China continue diving domination

 

BARCELONA: Chinese diving duo Qin Kai and He Chong combined for gold in the men’s 3m synchronised springboard event on Tuesday as the Asian heavyweights continued to dominate on the fourth day of diving action in the World Aquatic Championships. Qin and He racked up 448.86 points to finish well clear of the Russian pair of Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilia Zakharov in second and Mexicans Jahir Ocampo and Rommel Pacheco in third. China have now won five of the six events so far in the Catalan capital and their incredible record in the 3m Synchronised Springboard World Championship finals was never in doubt thanks to the professional performance of the experienced Qin and He.

The duo now have a haul of 10 world championship gold medals between them, along with three Olympic gold's and He believes they are well-placed to team up for another shot at glory at the Rio Olympics in three years’ time. “We already perform very difficult combinations and we don’t want to change too much before the Olympics,” he said. “Otherwise, it will be very complicated to maintain the same quality and consistency.”

Earlier in the day, He Zi had also taken gold for China in the women’s 1m springboard final, but it was a much closer call for the 22-year-old as she had to produce an immaculate final dive to edge out Italy’s Tania Cagnotto by a mere tenth of a point with He’s compatriot Wang Han taking bronze. It was the smallest ever margin between a gold and silver medalist at a world championship event and He claimed that factor made victory all the sweeter. “Knowing that, I even give more value to my gold medal! “I was a bit surprised with the victory, but I am obviously very happy. Wang and I performed very consistently and the outcome was very positive.”

Out in the open water of the Moll de la Fusta harbour there was a one-two for Brazil in the women’s 10km race as Poliana Cintra Okimoto pipped Ana Marcela Cunha to victory as both women picked up their second medals of the championships. Okimoto and Cunha had finished second and third respectively behind American Hayley Anderson in Saturday’s 5km race and sent a strong message that they will be contenders for gold on home soil at the Rio Olympics in 2016. “I’m so excited. I have been training for this medal, even in freezing water, I have trained for this race, so this medal is priceless,” said Okimoto afterwards. “I am really happy to have my second medal in these world championships. I felt strong during the race.” afp

Pakistan important for secure, stable Afghanistan: US

Pakistan important for secure, stable Afghanistan: US

WASHINGTON: The US Department of State has said that Pakistan is an important partner in supporting a secure and stable Afghanistan, which is vital to the security of the region. Speaking at a daily media briefing the State Department’s spokesperson Jen Psaki said, “Pakistan’s own security and stability is tied to a successful outcome in Afghanistan and any steps that continue to build the relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan, in our view, are very important.” To a question she said that the US was aware that Pakistan’s Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz visited Afghanistan this past weekend. Without disclosing any specifics in terms of a date, she further said that US Secretary of State John Kerry was likely to visit Pakistan shortly. inp

Prince George: royal baby boy named at last

Prince George: royal baby boy named at last

 

LONDON: Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate on Wednesday named their baby boy George Alexander Louis, sticking firmly to royal tradition with a first name used by six previous monarchs.

George was the bookmakers’ clear favourite for the third-in-line to the throne as it pays apparent tribute to Queen Elizabeth II’s father King George VI, the infant’s great-great-grandfather, who died in 1952.

“The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to announce that they have named their son George Alexander Louis. The baby will be known as His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge,” Kensington Palace said in a statement.

The baby will not automatically be King George VII whenever he comes to the throne, however, as there have been reports that William’s father Prince Charles may take that title when he becomes king.

The announcement came just hours after the queen visited William and Kate at Kensington Palace, their London residence, and met her newborn great-grandson for the first time.

The 87-year-old monarch would have given final clearance for the name to ensure that it was in keeping with the traditions of the House of Windsor and a monarchy that has lasted more than 1,000 years.

Louis is one of William’s middle names and was also the first name of Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Viceroy of India and a mentor to Prince Charles. Mountbatten was killed in an IRA bombing in the 1970s.

Bookmakers had George and James as the favourites.

The naming was relatively quick by royal standards. Charles and his first wife Diana took a week to announce William’s name in 1982, while the world had to wait a month after Charles was born in 1948.

Under British law, parents have 42 days to register the birth — and the name — of their child. It is not clear whether William and Kate have officially done so yet.

The queen earlier spent just over half an hour at the palace, where the young couple spent the first night after leaving hospital with the baby, before she was driven away in a green Bentley limousine.

She has said she is “thrilled” about the latest addition to the family, who will one day succeed her as head of state of Britain and monarch of 15 Commonwealth realms around the globe.

A few hours later, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took the little prince to stay with his maternal grandparents in the village of Bucklebury west of London, arriving in a convoy of four-by-four vehicles with police outriders.

Carole and Michael Middleton, self-made millionaires from a party goods business, visited the baby in hospital on Tuesday, where Kate’s mother pronounced her first grandson “absolutely beautiful”.

Prince George’s uncle Prince Harry — William’s younger brother, who has been knocked down to fourth in line to the throne — and Kate’s sister Pippa Middleton made separate visits to the couple at the palace.

William is taking two weeks of paternity leave from his job as a Royal Air Force search-and-rescue pilot, and the couple, both 31, are expected to take some time away from the cameras.

“This is now private and quiet time for them to get to know their son,” a palace spokesman said.

Royal aides said the couple had no immediate plans to hire a nanny, and Kate is expected to rely on her mother for support in the early weeks.

The new baby was revealed to the world when the royal couple left St Mary’s Hospital in London on Tuesday evening to huge cheers from the international media massed outside.

When the queen met her new heir on Wednesday, she became the first British monarch to meet a third-generation direct heir since Queen Victoria a century ago. afp

US officials warn Congress not to curb data collection

US officials warn Congress not to curb data collection

WASHINGTON: US spy chiefs joined ranks on Wednesday against efforts in Congress to sharply curtail the National Security Agency’s vast data collection program, warning that would endanger an essential intelligence tool.

In an unusually public discourse on a secret spying program,

James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, joined the White House and senior Republican lawmakers who oversee the intelligence agencies in cautioning against cutting funding for NSA’s data collection.

Clapper, in a statement, urged an “open and candid discussion” about foreign surveillance efforts and “careful consideration of the potential effect of limiting the intelligence community’s capabilities” under the current law.

Intelligence officials are worried about a proposed amendment to the defence appropriations bill in the House of Representatives which would end the NSA’s broad authority to collect a vast number of communications records, including records on telephone calls.

The House was expected to consider it on Wednesday.

The measure proposed by Representative Justin Amash, a Tea Party-backed conservative Republican, is the first such move since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of surveillance programs that collect and store huge volumes of electronic communications like phone call records and emails.

Amash has expressed confidence the amendment will pass. Will Adams, a spokesman for the Michigan congressman, said, “We are optimistic that we will have the votes to get it across the finish line.”

Clapper’s statement came amid a push against the proposal by the White House and other senior intelligence officials, including Army General Keith Alexander, the head of the NSA, who visited lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to warn about the implications of the amendment.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement late on Tuesday that Obama welcomed a debate on safeguarding privacy, but opposed Amash’s amendment, saying it would “hastily dismantle one of our intelligence community’s counterterrorism tools.”

Senior House Republicans, including Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers and Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, circulated a letter to colleagues urging them to oppose the amendment.

“While many members have legitimate questions about the NSA metadata program, including whether there are sufficient protections for Americans’ civil liberties, eliminating this program altogether without careful deliberation would not reflect our duty ... to provide for the common defense,” they said. reuters

French rail firm says no new dangers detected after crash

French rail firm says no new dangers detected after crash

PARIS: France’s SNCF state rail company said Wednesday that no more safety risks had been detected during a nationwide probe of its network after a derailment that killed six people this month.

“The checks have not detected any situations that would threaten safety,” Pierre Izard, the SNCF’s general manager for infrastructure, told a press conference. The SNCF carried out extensive checks of its rail switch points after the accident on July 12 at the Bretigny-sur-Orge station, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of Paris.

The SNCF blamed the accident, which saw an intercity train derail as it sped through the station, crashing into the platform — on a connecting bar that had come loose at a rail switch point.

Izard said nearly 5,000 switch points had been checked since the accident. The SNCF said its findings had been handed over to judicial and transport safety authorities, who are carrying out their own investigations into the accident. SNCF chief Guillaume Pepy said it remained unclear how the connecting bar had come loose at the station. afp

Indonesia searches for missing Australia-bound boatpeople

Indonesia searches for missing Australia-bound boatpeople

CIDAUN: Rescuers searched for more survivors off Indonesia’s Java island Wednesday after an Australia-bound boat carrying asylum-seekers sank, leaving at least nine dead as 189 were saved.

Five children, including an 18-month-old baby, and a pregnant woman were among the nine confirmed dead, local police spokesman Achmad Suprijatna told AFP.

West Java province police spokesman Martinus Sitompul said 189 had now been rescued. He estimated around 200 people had been aboard the boat that began sinking Tuesday evening, but a survivor said the number was closer to 250.

The boat left Indonesia just days after Canberra announced a tough new policy — that asylum-seekers who arrive by boat will no longer be resettled in Australia, even if they are granted refugee status.

Instead, they could be resettled in poverty-stricken Papua New Guinea. Before the new policy announced Friday, new arrivals were already being taken to PNG or Nauru for processing of their asylum claims.

An AFP reporter who spoke to survivors said a group of 38, including women and children, had swum for their lives in darkness for up to four hours in high seas to reach the shore Tuesday night.

Ragunada, 30, from Sri Lanka said he and his children had used floats they found on the boat to help them swim to shore.

“I tried to save my children. They used floats and then tried to swim. After three or four hours, we arrived at the village,” he told AFP.

Others were plucked from the sea by fishermen and other rescuers.

Chief of the rescue operation Rochmali, who goes by one name, said the asylum-seekers had been given food and water and would later be questioned by immigration officials.

“We have to do proper checks, but they say they’re from Iraq, Iran and Sri Lanka,” he said.

Boats carrying rescued survivors continued to reach the shore off the small fishing village of Cidaun in the late afternoon.

“We are still waiting for two boats to return. We will continue to search until sunset,” Rochmali said, adding the search would continue in the morning.

The boatpeople had set off from southwestern Java before the vessel sank, Rochmali said, adding fishermen had reported the incident and tried to save the asylum-seekers.

Indonesia’s rescue agency was alerted to the incident by Australian authorities on Tuesday evening, Rochmali said.

The boat was headed for Australia’s Christmas Island when it began taking on water, 42-year-old Sri Lankan survivor Obijet Roy told AFP.

Speaking in broken English, he described how terrified passengers jumped into the sea.

“Water from bottom of the ship is going up and then the passenger panic. Then they down to the sea,” said Roy, who said he was with three friends.

Some asylum-seekers were wearing life vests, while others were clinging to pieces of wood when the boat went down, he said. afp

9 killed as Iraq police station hit by shells, gunfire

9 killed as Iraq police station hit by shells, gunfire

MOSUL: Militants attacked a police station in north Iraq on Wednesday with mortar rounds and automatic weapons, killing nine police, while six people died in other violence, security officers and doctors said.

The violence comes a day after an Al-Qaeda front group claimed brazen assaults on two prisons in Iraq that killed more than 40 people, among them 20 security forces members, and saw hundreds of inmates, including senior militants, escape.

Security forces are desperately hunting the prisoners who escaped during the assaults that began on Sunday night and continued into Monday, to prevent them rejoining the ranks of the militants and carrying out further attacks.

“Security forces are continuing their (deployment) in the areas surrounding the two prisons,” interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan said, adding that a “large number” of escapees had been apprehended, without specifying a figure.

Wednesday’s assault on the police station, which occurred about 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of the northern city of Mosul, also left two policemen wounded. aIt was followed by a roadside bomb explosion as emergency personnel travelled to the scene, wounding another two people.

In a separate incident, gunmen killed a soldier in Mosul itself, while armed men killed a man in Baquba, a city north of Baghdad.

On a highway in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, militants in vehicles mounted with machineguns attacked an army checkpoint and a joint army-police convoy in an apparent attempt to free a captured senior Al-Qaeda member who was being carried in the convoy.

The attack left four militants killed, while a soldier and a militant wounded.

Iraq has faced years of attacks by militants, but analysts say widespread discontent among members of its Sunni Arab minority, which the government has failed to address, has fuelled the surge in unrest this year.

Iraqi security forces are frequently targeted by militants opposed to the government in Baghdad.

With the latest unrest, more than 650 people have been killed so far in July, making it the deadliest month in a year marked by spiralling violence.

Iraq’s Sunni Arabs accuse the Shiite-led government of marginalising and targeting their community, including through unwarranted arrests and terrorism charges.

Protests broke out in Sunni-majority areas at the end of 2012 and are still ongoing.

In addition to the major problems with security, the government in Baghdad is also failing to provide adequate basic services such as electricity and clean water, while corruption is widespread. Political squabbling has further paralysed the government, which has passed almost no major legislation in years. afp

Firefighters battle blaze on Gulf of Mexico gas platform

Firefighters battle blaze on Gulf of Mexico gas platform

WASHINGTON: Firefighters on Wednesday battled a fire on a gas platform off the coast of Louisiana, not far from the scene of the massive 2010 Deep Horizon oil spill disaster.

The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said the fire broke out late Tuesday aboard the Hercules 265 Rig located some 55 miles (88 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast, in the Gulf of Mexico.

The fire ignited after a leak which prompted the evacuation of the rig’s 44 workers, authorities said. “The natural gas leaking from the well ignited at 10:50 pm CDT July 23, 2013. No one was on board at the time of the ignition and no one was injured,” the BSEE said in a statement to AFP.

“The source of the ignition is not known at this time,” the BSEE statement said. Authorities said that a firefighting vessel was trying to extinguish the blaze using water and foam. The US Coast Guard, which is providing safety management oversight, dispatched an 87-foot (27-meter long) cutter and crew, a helicopter, and a twin engine aircraft to the scene.

The BSEE said that the site operator, Walter Oil and Gas Corporation, will be conducting a site assessment prior to beginning any work on the well. British energy giant BP reached a $7.8 billion settlement last year with thousands of people and businesses hit by the Deep Horizon explosion and oil spill — the worst environmental disaster in US history. afp

Fresh Bulgaria turmoil as violence flares

Fresh Bulgaria turmoil as violence flares

 

SOFIA: Calls grew for fresh elections in the EU’s poorest country Bulgaria on Wednesday after a 40th straight day of anti-government protests turned violent, leaving at least 20 people injured.

The clashes broke out overnight as riot police tried to bring out a bus to evacuate some of the 109 ministers, MPs, journalists and others trapped inside parliament during a blockade by some 2,000 protesters.

Shouting slogans such as “Mafia”, the demonstrators hurled stones and water bottles at the bus, smashing several windows which were lined with police shields, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

Several hours later and after repeated attempts the stately parliament building in downtown Sofia was finally emptied at around 5:00 am (0200 GMT) after police with helmets, shields and batons broke up the crowd into smaller groups.

Eighteen people, including three police officers — one of whom suffered a concussion — were treated in hospital for head injuries and bruises. Several others were treated at the scene.

Heavy construction machinery moved in to tear down barricades made of park benches, garbage containers and paving stones as protesters dispersed, clearly outnumbered by police by daybreak.

Protests have been held in Sofia every evening since June 14 by thousands of people fed up with poverty and corruption and calling for the government to resign. Until now they have been peaceful.

The government, backed by the Socialists and headed by non-partisan Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski, has only been in office following elections on May 12.

The previous right-wing administration of Boyko Borisov resigned in February, brought down by nationwide protests that saw eight people set themselves on fire, six of whom died.

The new premier has so far resisted calls to resign and call yet another round of elections, saying doing so would exacerbate the crisis and further damage the fragile economy. But analyst Tsvetozar Tomov told AFP that fresh elections now seemed inevitable, though the result would most likely be similar to the May 12 vote.

“This would exacerbate the crisis,” Tomov said. “There is a political war being waged between the people and those in power.”

The head of the Socialists, Sergey Stanishev, slammed “the ugly scenes” outside parliament and urged the prosecution and interior ministry to punish the instigators and guarantee the normal functioning of the legislature.

At a news conference at party headquarters — while a small group of protestors demonstrated outside — Stanishev also accused Borisov and his GERB party of stirring up the rallies. Borisov has called for new elections.

Rifts inside the Socialist party ranks deepened however on Wednesday with party grandee and ex-foreign minister Ivaylo Kalfin — now an MEP — calling for an early vote for next May to coincide with European elections.

Bulgaria’s two main trade unions have also declared themselves in favour of early elections.

Speaker of parliament Mihail Mikov urged lawmakers to stay away from the legislature on Wednesday. The chamber had been due to debate a revised 2013 budget.

“Parliamentarians were not elected to work under ultimatums and pressure,” Mikov told a press conference.

Brussels has long taken former communist Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007, to task over its slow progress in tackling graft and organised crime.

One of the demonstrators’ key demands has been for changes to electoral laws in order to get new parties untainted by corruption represented, but progress has become bogged down and no such changes have been introduced yet.

The minority technocrat cabinet has support from just 120 Socialist and Turkish minority party lawmakers in the 240-seat legislature.

GERB has boycotted parliament for the past month and the passing of new legislation hinges on backing from the unpredictable ultra-nationalist Ataka party. The European Commission on Wednesday said it had followed Tuesday night’s events with “concern” and called on all sides “to show restraint”. afp

South Sudan calls for calm after president sacks cabinet

South Sudan calls for calm after president sacks cabinet

 

JUBA: Heavily armed South Sudanese security forces guarded key government institutions in the capital Juba Wednesday as radio broadcasts called for calm after the president suspended his cabinet and his main political rival.

Those removed by President Salva Kiir include two of the country’s most influential leaders — his rival vice-president Riek Machar Machar and Pagan Amum, the secretary-general of the ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

The sackings have sparked concern over potential instability in the fledgling nation, which is awash with guns, riven by ethnic rivalries and still reeling from decades of war. “We are asking our citizens, please do your duty and go to work,” said Barnaba Marial Benjamin, who until his suspension late Tuesday was the information minister and government spokesman.

All 29 ministers were suspended as well as their deputies, in addition to 17 police brigadiers. “Give the president a chance to form his government... he has already empowered the technocrats to see the day-to-day running of the administration,” Benjamin said in a broadcast on the UN-supported Radio Miraya.

Troops and armed police blocked several key roads in Juba, with a heavy deployment at the government ministry complex, but the city was reported calm, army spokesman Philip Aguer said.

“This is routine work, they are being deployed to protect the ministries,” Aguer told AFP.

Many of the ministers were key figures in the rebel SPLM or its armed wing that fought a brutal 1983-2005 war against the government in Khartoum, which led to a 2011 referendum in which South Sudan voted overwhelmingly to split from the north. Machar, from the Dok Nuer people from the key oil producing Unity state, is a controversial figure for many, but commands loyalty among many branches of the Nuer, which form an integral part of the footsoldiers of the new nation’s ex-rebel army. He has made no secret of his desire to challenge Kiir for the presidency in elections due in 2015. However, he fought on both sides of the civil war, leading a splinter SPLM faction that sided with Khartoum, battling troops commanded by Kiir, who comes from the Dinka people.

Machar’s troops are accused of a brutal massacre in the ethnic Dinka town of Bor in 1991.

“This latest move is part of an ongoing struggle in the highest levels of South Sudan’s political leadership,” said Akshaya Kumar of the US-based Enough Project, which campaigns for peace in the Sudans.

Last month, Machar led talks with Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir to ease tensions after Khartoum threatened to halt oil flows worth billions of dollars to both impoverished neighbours.

Amum was the top negotiator with arch-foe Sudan at long-running African Union-mediated talks over a raft of issues left unresolved at independence, including border demarcation and oil exports, currently under threat of suspension again, this time by Khartoum.

The suspended party leader is to be also investigated for alleged “mismanagement of the party” by a parliamentary committee, the presidential orders broadcast on state radio said.

However, Khartoum said the suspensions would not impact oil and security pacts reached between them.

“These are agreements between two countries” not individuals, said Abubakr Al-Siddiq, spokesman for Sudan’s foreign ministry.

Sudan has issued an August 7 deadline to shut down oil production — accusing Juba of backing rebels in the north, claims Juba denies — in the latest in a string of threatened cuts.

South Sudan’s oil minister Stephen Dhieu Dau, speaking Tuesday ahead of his suspension, said Juba will end its production by July 31, which would be the second major shutdown since independence two years ago.

No replacements have been announced, and it was not clear if any of those suspended would return, or if new blood would be brought in to the cabinet. afp