World News

10 killed in Taliban siege on Afghan court complex

2015-04-10T15:04:00.000+05:00

At least 10 people died Thursday when Taliban insurgents wearing military uniforms mounted a six-hour gun and grenade siege on a court complex in northern Afghanistan, in an assault highlighting the country’s fragile security situation.

The attack in the usually tranquil city of Mazar-i-Sharif occurred just before the start of the Taliban’s traditional spring offensive, set to be the first fighting season when Afghan security forces battle insurgents without full NATO support.
Explosions rang out as the assailants lobbed grenades and exchanged gunfire with Afghan security forces, setting ablaze one of the buildings in the compound, according to officials and an AFP reporter at the scene.
Dozens of people were left wounded, with reports emerging of blood shortages in hospitals and urgent appeals for donors circulating on social media.
“Around noon four assailants dressed in military uniforms breached the main gate of the Appeals Court in Mazar-i-Sharif and started firing gunshots and throwing hand grenades inside the complex,” said Abdul Raziq Qaderi, the acting provincial police chief of Balkh province.
“Five security personnel and five civilians were killed and 66 others were wounded,” he added.
Noor Mohammad Faiz, a senior doctor at the local public hospital, confirmed the toll, adding that some of the wounded were in critical condition.
“Police, prosecutors, court staff, women and children are among those wounded,” Faiz told AFP.
The insurgents were holed up inside the complex for six hours, surrounded by a large number of Afghan security forces before they were taken down.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which underscores Afghanistan’s precarious security situation as US-led foreign troops pull back from the frontlines after a 13-year war against the Taliban.
“Our mujahideen have carried out a martyrdom attack... in Mazar-i-Sharif city,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP by telephone.
Militant attacks are relatively rare in Mazar-i-Sharif, a city well-known as a melting pot of diverse cultures and religious influences where liberal attitudes coexist with conservative traditions.
The United States’ embassy in Kabul strongly condemned Thursday’s “horrific attack”.
It “reminds us of the risks that police, prosecutors and judges face in going about their daily work pursuing impartial justice and rule of law in Afghanistan,” the embassy said in a statement.
The attack comes a day after an American soldier was killed by an Afghan counterpart in eastern Afghanistan, the first insider attack since Washington announced a delay in troop withdrawals from the country.
NATO’s combat mission formally ended in December but a small follow-up foreign force has stayed on to train and support the local security forces.
President Barack Obama last month reversed plans to shrink the US force in Afghanistan this year by nearly half, an overture to the country’s new reform-minded leader, President Ashraf Ghani.
Hosting Ghani at the White House for their first presidential head-to-head, Obama agreed to keep the current level of 9,800 US troops until the end of 2015.
The Taliban, who have waged a deadly insurgency since they were ousted from power in late 2001, warned that the announcement would damage any prospects of peace talks as they vowed to continue fighting.
Taliban insurgents have already stepped up suicide attacks on government targets, which are also taking a heavy toll on ordinary Afghans.
The number of civilians killed and wounded in Afghanistan jumped 22 percent in 2014, a recent UN report said, as NATO troops withdrew from combat.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan attributed the rise to an intensification in ground fighting, resulting in a total of 10,548 civilian casualties last year.
Afghan forces are currently bracing for what is expected to be a bloody summer push by the Taliban and the government has also raised the ominous prospect of the Islamic State making inroads into Afghanistan. (AFP)

Italy rocked by deadly court shooting, 3 killed

2015-04-10T15:01:00.001+05:00

MILAN - An armed man on trial for bankruptcy fraud gunned down a judge and lawyer in a Milan court Thursday in an attack which left three dead and sent shockwaves through Italy.

The man, named as Claudio Giardiello, 57, escaped on a scooter but was captured by police in Vimercate, a town some 25 kilometres (15 miles) outside Milan.
"This is a moment of great pain, of sadness," Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said, adding that it was "unthinkable someone should be able to enter a court with a weapon."
He promised "the government will shed the utmost light on the event" and described the police who had chased down and arrested the man as heroic.
The dead were named as judge Fernando Ciampi, and Giardiello's former lawyer, 37-year old Lorenzo Alberto Claris Appiani, who was in court as a witness in the case.
A third person was found dead on the stairs inside the building after apparently suffering a heart attack, probably brought on by the shooting, emergency services said.
The attack "has sparked great alarm and concern throughout the country", speaker Laura Boldrini told parliament.
Giardiello likely used a false pass to enter the court through a side door reserved for judges and lawyers, who are not obliged to have their belongings scanned by a metal detector, Milan public prosecutor Edmondo Bruto Liberati said.
He fired at his lawyer and one of his co-defendants during a hearing, before heading to the floor below, according to reports from court sources. There, he shot dead the judge, who had been trying to protect a female colleague.
Police said Giardiello fired 13 rounds in total. Two people were injured in the shootout and one is in a serious condition.
Giardiello was caught on video surveillance cameras fleeing the court and police traced him via his numberplate.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told a press conference it appeared the man "was ready to kill others in Vimercate," following reports Giardiello had been heading towards another co-defendant, who was not present in court.
Valerio Maraniello, who once acted as a lawyer for the shooter, told AFP his ex-client was "an aggressive person, a little paranoid."
"He was always convinced people were trying to cheat him. He never listened to advice," he said, adding that he was "not completely surprised" by the deadly attack.
Leaders across the political sphere expressed shock that a gunman had managed to get into the court building.
"The fact that we're not talking about an organisation which surveyed the place first makes it even more perturbing," said the head of the Lombardy region, Roberto Maroni.
Alfano - in Milan for a meeting on public order and safety ahead of the 2015 Milan expo which opens in May - promised to investigate what he described as "serious errors" in security.
"If this is the level of security in Expo Milan imagine what potential terrorists can think of doing," said Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigration Northern League party.
The sound of shots had sparked widespread panic, with lawyers bolting for the exit while police officers went floor to floor searching for the gunman, who was initially thought to be still inside the building.
"All of a sudden we heard at least three or four shots," lawyer Marcello Ilia told AFP outside the court.
"There were suddenly lots of police officers who told us not to leave the room. They told us someone in a suit and tie was armed and at large in the court," he said.
The Palace of Justice is in the historic centre of Milan, only a few streets away from the city's cathedral and shopping district.
Judge Gherardo Colombo told journalists outside the court that he had known the murdered judge well. "It's absurd that one can die like that, while you're doing your job," he said, suggesting "an anti-judiciary climate" may be to blame.
Giardiello owned 55 percent of a real estate company which went under in 2008, media reports said. (AFP)

Bangladesh JI leader on death row faces final plea

2015-04-10T14:59:00.003+05:00

DHAKA - A Bangladesh Islamist leader has a final chance Thursday to avoid the gallows by appealing to the president for clemency against his death sentence for war crimes, an official said.

Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, the third most senior figure in the Jamaat-e-Islami party, lost his last legal appeal on Monday against hanging for overseeing a massacre during the country's 1971 war.

Bangladesh's junior home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said the Islamist leader would be asked later Thursday whether he would seek presidential clemency, adding that prison authorities were prepared for his execution.

"A magistrate will go to him (Thursday) and ask him finally whether he would seek a mercy pardon," Khan told AFP.

"If he decides to seek presidential mercy, we will send his appeal to the president.
But if he declines to seek clemency, we will execute the verdict," the minister also told reporters.

The UN on Wednesday urged Bangladesh against carrying out the sentence, saying his trial conducted by a domestic war crimes tribunal in 2013 did not meet "fair international" standards.

"The UN Human Rights Office has long warned that, given serious concerns about the fairness of trials conducted before the tribunal, the government of Bangladesh should not implement death penalty sentences," the UN's rights office said in a statement.

Kamaruzzaman was convicted of abduction, torture and mass murder including a slaughter in a remote northern hamlet that has since become known as the "Village of Widows".

If the execution is carried out, Kamaruzzaman would become the second Islamist hanged so far for war crimes, even though several others have been handed death sentence.

Officials at Dhaka Central Prison read out Monday's Supreme Court judgement to Kamaruzzaman in his cell late on Wednesday and also sought his decision on seeking clemency, his lawyer Shishir Manir said.

Bangladesh suffered its deadliest chapter of political violence in 2013 after the tribunal handed down a series of death sentences on Jamaat leaders for their role in the 1971 conflict.

Jamaat says the trials are mainly aimed at silencing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's opponents rather than delivering justice.

Hasina's secular government says the trials - which lack any international oversight - are needed to heal the wounds of the conflict. (AFP)

US man arrested for allegedly supporting IS

2015-04-10T14:59:00.001+05:00

WASHINGTON - A Wisconsin man has been charged with providing support to Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria, where he allegedly planned to join the extremist group, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Joshua Ray Van Haften, 34, of Madison, Wisconsin, was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare airport as he returned from Turkey on Wednesday.
He left the United States on August 26, 2014 for Istanbul, according to a Justice Department statement.

Van Haften is charged with “attempting to provide material support and resources, namely himself as personnel, to a foreign terrorist organization,” the statement said.

Turkey, which borders Syria, is a popular entry point for foreigners seeking to join the Islamic State group, which has taken over swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin said preventing people from joining the Islamic State group was a key goal.

“Stemming the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq and Syria and holding accountable those who attempt to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations remains a top priority for the National Security Division,” he said.

Officials said they hope the arrest will deter others from joining extremist groups.

“We hope this arrest will serve as a deterrent for others who may be terrorist sympathizers here in Wisconsin, across the nation or abroad,” special agent Robert Shields said.

“They will be held accountable for support of terrorism against our citizens and our international partners.
”
Van Haften is set to appear in court Thursday.
He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted.

At least 11 Americans have been arrested this year for allegedly supporting or plotting to join the Islamic State group.

US intelligence officials warned in February that more than 20,000 volunteers from around the world, including more than 150 Americans, had gone to Syria to link up with extremists. (AFP)

2 Philippine soldiers killed in Qaeda-linked clash

2015-04-10T14:58:00.001+05:00

Philippine soldiers clashed with about 200 fighters of a Al Qaeda-linked militant group on Thursday, leaving two soldiers and six guerrillas dead, a military spokeswoman said.

The soldiers were on patrol in the strife-torn island of Jolo when they encountered fighters of the Abu Sayyaf group, army spokeswoman Captain Rowena Muyuela said.
“The firefight lasted for two hours resulting in a big number of casualties to the bandits,” she told reporters.

Ten Abu Sayyaf fighters and 15 soldiers were also wounded in the encounter before the militants fled, she added.

The Abu Sayyaf, set up with seed funds from Al-Qaeda in the early 1990s, has been blamed for many of the deadliest militant attacks in the Philippines, including the 2004 firebombing of a ferry on Manila Bay that claimed more than 100 lives.

A key leader of the group posted video footage of himself and other gunmen last year pledging allegiance to Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq.

The government has recently mounted major operations against Muslim extremist groups in different parts of the southern Philippines.

A raid by police commandos in January killed Malaysian Zulkifli Abdhir, who is listed on the FBI’s list of “Most Wanted Terrorists”.

Forty-four police commandos were also killed in the operation, embarrassing President Benigno Aquino’s government and casting a shadow on his efforts to forge a peace accord with other mainstream Muslim rebels.

A massive operation from February to March against another Muslim armed group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), killed 140 militants, the military said.
Six soldiers also died.

The BIFF is opposed to the peace talks and its leaders have also pledged allegiance to the Islamic State movement.

The largely-Christian Philippines has been struggling for years with various Muslim armed groups seeking independence in the south which they consider their ancestral homeland. (AFP)

Mortar fire kills 11 civilians in Egypt’s Sinai

2015-04-10T14:55:00.001+05:00

CAIRO - Mortar fire has killed 11 civilians, all but one of them women and children, in Egypt’s North Sinai, where the government is battling an Islamist insurgency, police and medics said Thursday.

The mortar rounds, which hit two houses in a village southeast of the provincial capital El-Arish Wednesday night, also wounded six people, the officials said without specifying who was behind the attack.

Sinai is a hotbed of a militant group once known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which changed its named to Sinai Province after pledging allegiance last year to the Islamic State (IS) group.
In a separate incident in the same area, a roadside bomb targeting an armoured personnel carrier killed two police and wounded three, police said.

On April 2, Sinai Province claimed a series of simultaneous attacks that killed 15 soldiers and two civilians in the restive peninsula.

The group has killed scores of security personnel since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
It says its attacks are in retaliation for the brutal crackdown against Islamists that left hundreds dead and thousands jailed.

As its name implies, the group wants to turn Sinai into a province of the self-declared IS “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq. (AFP)

Playing games in sync can make kids more empathic

2015-04-10T14:53:00.002+05:00

Washington: In an example of how a physical activity performed in unison helps children feel more positively toward one another, researchers have found that even a video game played together in sync on a computer could increase their empathy.

The study showed that eight-year-olds reported a greater sense of similarity and closeness immediately after playing the video game in sync, those who played the same game but not in a synchronous way did not report the same increase in connection.

"Synchrony is like a glue that brings people together -- it is a magical connector for people," said lead author Tal-Chen Rabinowitch, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington.

Synchrony occurs when people interact together in time. It is a fundamental prerequisite for activities such as playing music, dancing and rowing.

In adults, synchrony has been linked to increased cooperation and teamwork, making work more efficient and productive, but a few studies have examined whether the same is true among children.

In the experiment, Rabinowitch tested 74 eight-year-old children in pairs of two boys and two girls.

The children were made to sit side by side in front of a video screen. An animated soccer ball bounced on both halves of the screen, and the children pressed a button whenever the ball on their side of the screen hit the floor.

For some pairs of children, the balls bounced in sync, so their fingers tapped the buttons simultaneously. Other pairs of children had out-of-sync bouncing, so they had asynchronous finger tapping.

Children in the synchronous group reported a greater sense of similarity and closeness.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS ONE, suggest that time-based synchronised activities, including in music, dance and sports, could be useful tools in bringing children closer together. (IANS )

Facebook's clout not waning among teenagers: Survey

2015-04-10T14:52:00.001+05:00

Despite threats from mobile messaging services, the social networking site Facebook is not going into history books, at least for now.

Facebook remains the most popular social network among teen-agers of 13 to 17 years, according to a new Pew survey.

Though such sites as Instagram and Snapchat increasingly appeal to teenagers, Facebook is still a "dominant force", the survey found.

Among the more than 1,000 teenagerss surveyed, 71 percent said they use Facebook, while 41 percent said Facebook is the site they use the most frequently over all other social networks.

Instagram and Snapchat scored as the second and third most frequently used sites, respectively, CNET reported.

Some surveys had concluded that Facebook's popularity among teenagers has dropped over the past few years.

According to the new Pew survey, most teenagers spend their time on more than one social network.

But among the 22 percent who still use only one site, 66 percent pick Facebook, 13 percent use Google+, 13 percent Instagram and 3 percent Snapchat.

Boys were more likely than girls to say they visit Facebook most often (45 percent of boys versus 36 percent of girls).

Girls polled were more likely than boys to say the same for Instagram and Tumblr.

Older teens from 15 to 17 years old were more likely than younger teens aged 13 to 14 to point to Facebook as their most used site (44 percent of older teens versus 35 percent of younger teens).

Younger teens were more keen on Instagram than were older teens.

But that's not going to hurt Facebook as it has already acquired Instagram for one billion dollars in 2012.

Pew also questioned teens about their number of Facebook friends. Among those polled, the typical teenager has 145 friends on the network. (IANS)

Amazon unveils new storage service Amazon EFS

2015-04-10T14:49:00.003+05:00

Amazon has announced the launch of its new storage service, Amazon Elastic File System (EFS), which provides a common file system for multiple (Elastic Compute Cloud) EC2 virtual machines on Amazon Web Services (AWS) through the standard NFSv4 protocol.

Amazon said that the new service will launch into preview in the near future.

According to the TechCrunch web site, EFS will work with most existing file system tools and applications, because it supports the standard NFS protocol, so developers can simply mount and manage them with any standard file system tool.

Andy Jassy, Amazon's head of AWS pointed out that the company's customers have been asking for this kind of service for some time now.

Companies can manage their entire file systems in a similar manner as to how they now treat objects on AWS with EFS.

All EFS storage is SSD-based, so throughput and latency shouldn't be an issue. Data is also automatically replicated across different availability zones.

Like with other AWS services, users only have to pay for the storage they actually use.

Amazon says that at the time of release of the service, the price for using EFS will be USD 0.30 per gigabyte per month. (ANI)

Microsoft partners Dropbox to allow edit of Office files in Dropbox using Office Online

2015-04-10T14:49:00.001+05:00

Microsoft in partnership with Dropbox has announced a new integration that will now allow users to view and edit their Microsoft Office files, including Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents, in Dropbox using Office Online using the web.

For users to use the new feature, when they are previewing the file on the web, then they will have the option to edit the file when they click the "Open" button from their web browser using Office Online. The option is available to Dropbox for Business customers who have an Office 365 license as well as Dropbox Basic and Pro users, and those who are on the free tier of Office Online. The company says that the only requirement for using the free tier of Office Online is creating a free Microsoft account.

According to the TechCrunch web site, Customers can start using the new integration from today.

Also, users will be able to save new files to Dropbox without leaving Office Online.

Dropbox pointed out that the potential impact for its user base is large. The company says there are over 35 billion Office documents stored in its service at present, and the integration will allow millions of users to take advantage of the new functionality. In total, including desktop installations, Microsoft has over 1.2 billion Office users, 9.2 million of which are Office 365 Home and Personal subscribers.

Microsoft and Dropbox first announced a strategic partnership in November, that began to offer users the ability to edit Office docs from Dropbox's mobile app, the ability to access Dropbox docs from Office apps and better support for Dropbox within Office and vice versa. Also, users can now also use Dropbox on Windows Phones and tablets. (ANI)

Dust-covered belts of glaciers made of frozen water found on Mars

2015-04-10T14:48:00.001+05:00

Astronomers have found dust-covered belts of glaciers made of frozen water on Mars.

Mars has distinct polar ice caps, but Mars also has belts of glaciers at its central latitudes in both the southern and northern hemispheres. A thick layer of dust covers the glaciers, so they appear as surface of the ground, but radar measurements show that underneath the dust there are glaciers composed of frozen water.

New studies have now calculated the size of the glaciers and thus the amount of water in the glaciers. It was equivalent of all of Mars being covered by more than one meter of ice.

Several satellites orbit Mars and on satellite images, researchers have been able to observe the shape of glaciers just below the surface. For a long time scientists did not know if the ice was made of frozen water (H2O) or of carbon dioxide (CO2) or whether it was mud.

Using radar measurements from the NASA satellite, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers have been able to determine that it was water ice.

A group of researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute have now calculated this using radar observations combined with ice flow modeling.

Using radar measurements from the NASA satellite, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers have been able to identify thousands of glacier-like formations on Mars.

The study is published in the scientific journal, Geophysical Research Letter. (ANI)

Basic building blocks of life found around distant young star

2015-04-10T14:47:00.001+05:00

Astronomers were recently able to detect the presence of complex organic molecules, the building blocks of life, in an infant star system for the first time ever.

It suggested once again that the conditions that spawned our Earth and Sun are not unique in the universe.

This discovery, made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), revealed that the protoplanetary disk surrounding the million-year-old star MWC 480 was brimming with methyl cyanide (CH3CN), a complex carbon-based molecule.

Both this molecule and its simpler cousin hydrogen cyanide (HCN) were found in the cold outer reaches of the star's newly formed disk, in a region that astronomers believe was analogous to the Kuiper Belt, the realm of icy planetesimals and comets beyond Neptune.

Scientists understood that comets retain a pristine record of the early chemistry of our solar system from the period of planet formation. As the planets evolved, it's believed that comets and asteroids from the outer solar system seeded the young Earth with water and organic molecules, helping set the stage for life to eventually emerge.

The star MWC 480, which is about twice the mass of the Sun, is located approximately 455 light-years away in the Taurus star-forming region.

The molecules ALMA detected are much more abundant than would be found in interstellar clouds. According to the researchers, there's enough methyl cyanide around MWC 480 to fill all of Earth's oceans. This tells astronomers that protoplanetary disks are very efficient at forming complex organic molecules and that they are able to form them on a relatively fast timescale.

This rapid formation was essential to outpace the forces that would otherwise break the molecules apart. Also, these molecules were detected in a relatively serene part of the disk, roughly 4.5 to 15 billion kilometers from the central star. Though incredibly distant by our solar system's standards, in MWC 480's scaled-up dimensions; this would be squarely in the comet-forming zone.

As this solar system continues to evolve, astronomers speculated, it's likely that the organic molecules safely locked away in comets and other icy bodies will be ferried to environments that would be more nurturing for life. (ANI)

NASA's chief scientist claims to find signs of alien life by 2025

2015-04-10T14:46:00.001+05:00

NASA's chief scientist has claimed that they could find evidence of alien life in the universe as early as 2025.

Ellen Stofan said during a panel discussion that focused on the space agency's efforts to search for habitable worlds and alien life that they are going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years, as they now know where and how to look, Fox News reported.

Former astronaut John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, shared Stofan's optimism, predicting that signs of life will be found relatively soon both in the Earth's solar system and beyond.

Recent discoveries suggested that the solar system and broader Milky Way galaxy teem with environments that could support life as we know it, he further added.

Hunting for evidence of alien life is a much trickier proposition than identifying potentially habitable environments. But researchers are working steadily toward that more involved and ambitious goal.

For example, the agency's next Mars rover, scheduled to launch in 2020, will search for signs of past life and cache samples for a possible return to Earth for analysis.

NASA also aims to land astronauts on Mars in the 2030s.

NASA is also planning out a mission to Europa, which may launch as early as 2022. The main goal of this 2.1 billion dollars mission will be to shed light on the icy moon's potential habitability, but it could also search for signs of alien life: Agency officials are considering ways to sample and study the plumes of water vapor that apparently erupt from Europa's South Polar Region. (ANI)

Suicide blast hits EU vehicle in Kabul, passer-by killed

2015-01-06T20:57:00.002+05:00

KABUL - A Taliban suicide bomb hit a European Union police vehicle in Kabul on Monday, killing at least one passer-by but not wounding any passengers, officials said, days after the NATO combat mission ended in Afghanistan.

The blast, which was heard across the city, was the first major attack since the New Year when US-led NATO forces downgraded from a combat mission to support and training duties helping the Afghan army and police.
The European Union Police Mission in Afghanistan (EUPOL) works to improve the country’s civilian police force, one of the many efforts to try to boost security as international troops withdraw.
“A EUPOL vehicle was involved in a vehicle-borne suicide attack whilst it was travelling east on the Jalalabad Road in Kabul,” the mission said in a statement.
“The vehicle’s occupants were uninjured.”
“Six civilians were wounded, one later died of his wounds in hospital,” Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanakzai told AFP.
The Taliban, who have waged an insurgency against the international intervention in Afghanistan since 2001, claimed responsibility for the blast via a recognised Twitter account.
EUPOL was established in 2007 and has 240 international staff and 187 local staff in Afghanistan.
Kabul’s Jalalabad Road, where many military bases, security facilities and foreign compounds are housed, has been hit by regular suicide blasts over the last year.
In November, a blast on the road killed a British bodyguard and an Afghan employee as well as injuring at least 30 passers-by.
A NATO convoy was also targeted on the same stretch of road in October.
The Taliban have claimed the end of NATO’s combat mission marked the defeat of US-led forces, vowing that no peace talks can happen before all foreign troops leave the country.
About 17,000 foreign soldiers, most of them from the US, will still be deployed in Afghanistan this year.
But US troop numbers are set to halve within 12 months and fall to almost nothing in two years. President Ashraf Ghani and US military leaders have been pushing President Barack Obama to extend US involvement. “There should be willingness to reexamine (the) deadline,” Ghani told the CBS news channel in an interview broadcast Sunday.
Ghani has struggled to form an administration since emerging as leader of the “unity government” after an election marred by fraud. He will mark 100 days in power on Tuesday, but has yet to name any new ministers. According to the United Nations, civilian casualties hit a new high in Afghanistan last year with about 10,000 non-combatants killed or wounded - 75 percent of them by the Taliban. (AFP)

Deadly violence erupts in Bangladesh on polls anniversary

2015-01-06T20:45:00.001+05:00

DHAKA - Deadly clashes erupted on the streets of Bangladesh Monday on the first anniversary of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s controversial re-election as police besieged the main opposition leader in her office.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused her besieged opposition rival of trying to trigger anarchy as she countered that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief was responsible for a wave of violence that left at least four people dead in the volatile South Asian nation. “I am urging the BNP leader to stop these bomb and grenade attacks, these acts of sabotage, and killings, of arson and damage to property,” Hasina said in a televised address to the nation, exactly a year after she was re-elected in what was effectively a one-horse race.

Hasina warned against efforts to create “anarchy and instability” on a day of widespread violence that also saw riot police clash with BNP supporters when Zia tried to break a siege of her headquarters.
Police in the northern district of Rajshahi fired live rounds at hundreds of protesters after they attacked them with firearms, petrol bombs and rocks, said local police chief Alamgir Kabir. “One person was killed in the firing,” he told AFP.
Two BNP activists were shot dead during clashes with supporters of Hasina’s Awami League in another northern town, Natore, a local inspector said, adding at least 15 people were injured. In the nearby town of Kansat another protester died of his wounds after clashes with police and border guards, police said.
In Dhaka hundreds of pro-opposition lawyers joined the protests at the sprawling complex which houses the Supreme Court, where they waved black flags to signal the death of democracy. Police locked the gates into the main building, confining protesters to the grounds outside. Clashes also erupted at the national press club where the BNP’s deputy leader spoke at a rally.
When dozens of Zia’s supporters tried to break the siege, riot police fired pepper spray at them. Television footage showed BNP members wiping away tears after they tried to prise open the compound gates. Zia could be seen sitting in her car, with the engine revving. She later spoke to journalists who managed to sneak over the wall. “This government is illegal because it was not elected by the people. They sprayed pepper at us. It is not a normal situation. Is the country facing a war?” said the two-time former prime minister, calling the government “illegal” and urging people to join protests.
“They want to hang on to power people by bullets, tear gas and bombs.”“The protests will continue... No dictator can cling onto power like this,” she added despite her apparent failure to break the blockade of the compound in Dhaka’s upmarket Ghulshan district.
“Not only am I prisoner, but the whole of the country is being held captive. What kind of country are we living in?” said Zia.
The two women, who have ruled Bangladesh for most of the last three decades, are bitter rivals.
Zia issued the call for mass protests from inside her office, where she has been confined since Saturday night after police cordoned off the area.
Authorities stepped up their siege Monday by parking 11 trucks outside her office in a blockade designed to thwart any attempt by her to head protests in person.
The trucks, laden with sand and bricks, were wedged outside the gates of Zia’s office in the upmarket Gulshan district and at the mouth of the road leading to the building.
The BNP was one of 20 opposition parties which boycotted last year’s election, claiming that the outcome would be rigged.
Hasina, in power since 2009, had refused to step down before the election so the poll could be organised by a neutral caretaker administration.
The boycott meant most members in the 300-seat parliament were returned unopposed, handing Hasina another five years in power.
Voting was overshadowed by firebomb attacks on polling booths and clashes which left around 25 people dead.
Twelve months on, there were similar scenes in cities and towns around the country.
The election day violence last year was the culmination of the bloodiest year of political unrest in Bangladesh’s short history, with tensions also heightened by the death sentences passed on leading Islamists over their role in the 1971 war. More than 500 people were killed in political violence in 2013. (AFP)

China urges 'relevant parties' to avoid tension on Korean peninsula

2015-01-05T17:21:00.001+05:00

China on Monday called on "relevant parties" to avoid action that would escalate tension on the Korean peninsula after the United States imposed more sanctions on North Korea last week.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the remarks at a daily news briefing. The sanctions came in the wake of a cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, which the White House has said was supported by the reclusive country.

"The relative stability on the Korean peninsula has not come easy," Hua said. "We hope that the relevant parties act with caution and avoid taking measures that could worsen or escalate the current situation."

The U.S. government named three entities, including North Korea's military intelligence agency, and sanctioned 10 people with links to weapons sales and proliferation last week.

Financial sanctions have been effective in bringing pressure on Iran and Russia, but they have had limited impact on North Korea, which has been sanctioned by the United States for more than 50 years.

North Korea has denied involvement in the cyberattack. The United States said there was no evidence that any of the three entities or the individuals were linked to it. (Reuters)

Two Saudi guards killed in attack on Iraq frontier: Saudi ministry

2015-01-05T17:17:00.002+05:00

Riyadh: A suicide bomber killed two Saudi guards Monday on the border with Iraq, where Daesh militants have seized a swathe of territory, the interior ministry said.

The blast in the Arar region followed a firefight between the border patrol and the assailants, one of whom was shot dead, a ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
“A border patrol in Suwayf, in the northern Arar region, came under fire by terrorist elements,” the spokesman said.
As forces killed one of the assailants, another attacker “detonated an explosive belt he was carrying” killing himself and two guards and wounding another.
The ministry did not specify how many assailants in total were involved in the dawn attack or their motives. It said an investigation was under way.
In July, three shells fired from inside Iraq hit the Arar area, without causing any casualties.
In November, Iraqi Shiite group Jaish Al Mukhtar claimed it had fired six mortar rounds into a remote area of northeastern Saudi Arabia as a “warning” to the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia shares a more than 800 kilometre (500 mile) border with Iraq.
The kingdom has been taking part in US-led air strikes against Daesh in Syria, in a move that has drawn threats of retaliation from the militants.
In a purported audio recording released on social media networks last month, Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi warned Saudi leaders they would see “no more security or rest.” (AFP)

Blast targets Houthi base in Yemen capital

2015-01-05T17:16:00.002+05:00

SANAA: A large blast targeted a building belonging to Yemen’s Shi’ite Muslim Houthi militia in a western district of the capital Sanaa early on Monday, residents said, but it was not clear if there were casualties.

The Houthis, who control large swathes of Yemen and are regarded as enemies by Sunni militants including those in Al Qaeda’s Yemeni wing, sealed off the area soon afterwards to prevent access to it.
The explosion left a hole in the wall of the building, which was used as a base by the Houthis, witnesses told Reuters.
Photographs posted on Yemeni social media accounts, which could not be immediately verified, showed the front of a building in which the windows had been blown out and bricks were missing from around the door.
Turmoil in Yemen accelerated in September after the Houthis seized control of Sanaa and expanded into central and western parts of the country, leading to direct fighting between them and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in some areas.
A series of bomb attacks by AQAP in recent weeks have struck Houthi targets, including a guesthouse in which four people were killed on Sunday and a street celebration in which 26 were killed on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Eight presumed dead after ship sank off Scotland

2015-01-05T17:14:00.002+05:00

Edinburgh: Eight crew members onboard a cargo ship that sank off the coast of Scotland were presumed dead on Monday, two days after the vessel capsized in stormy weather.

An extensive search effort involving aircraft and boats was suspended on Sunday evening and will not be restarted, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said.

"The search won`t be resumed," a spokeswoman told AFP.

She said that vessels in the area were being asked to keep a look out, but conceded there was little chance that the crew had survived.

Seven Poles and one Filipino were on board the Cypriot-registered Cemfjord, a cargo ship carrying cement, when it capsized on Saturday around 15 miles (24 kilometres) from Wick on the northeast tip of Scotland.

An investigation is underway but Tony Redding, a spokesman for German shipping company Brise of Hamburg, which manages the ship, said the weather was likely to blame.

"We look for abnormalities and at the moment we don`t have any apart from the fact that there was severe weather at the time," he said.

He added: "It will take some time to put the picture together because, sadly, we`re not in a position to interview the crew and the vessel is submerged in around 68 metres (223 feet) of water."

Built in 1984, the 83-metre vessel was last inspected in December.

It was carrying a cargo of 2,000 tonnes of cement from Aalborg in Denmark to Runcorn near Liverpool on the northwest English coast. (AFP)

Runaway North Korean soldier kills four Chinese: Reports

2015-01-05T17:11:00.002+05:00

Seoul: A North Korean believed to be a runaway soldier killed four Chinese during a robbery after he crossed the border into China in search of food, media reports said Monday.

The young North Korean crossed the border in late December and stole money and food at a house before killing four residents in China`s northeastern city of Helong, South Korea`s Yonhap news agency and Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said.

Both cited sources in the border areas between China and the North.

The victims were either shot dead or beaten to death, Dong-A said, adding he was later shot and captured by Chinese authorities.

"Killing several Chinese nationals... is a major crime, so there are good possibilities that China, unlike other runaway North Korean soldiers captured before, will not hand him over to the North," said an unnamed Seoul official quoted by Yonhap.

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China "has already lodged representations with North Korea", when asked about the report at a regular press briefing. She refused to give any further details.

"Relevant departments will deal with this case in a lawful manner," she added.

All able-bodied young men in the North are subject to 10 years of military service. Many army bases are known to suffer food shortages and starving troops often cross the border to China in search of food.

Private markets cropping up across the North in recent years have helped ease starvation among ordinary citizens.

Seoul`s unification ministry which handles North Korea affairs declined to comment on the incident.

"Chinese authorities have already reached an agreement with the North not to officially announce it," Yonhap quoted the Seoul official as saying.

Dong-A said the victims were two elderly ethnic Korean couples. Koreans make up for about 30 percent of the population in China`s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture that borders the North.

"It has become pretty common for the past decade that North Korean soldiers sneak across the border at night to seek food here," Dong-A quoted one resident of the area as saying.

An official with the Yanbian police told AFP he had no knowledge of the reported incident.

The border with China is a major escape route for North Koreans fleeing poverty and repression. They also cross the border temporarily to find food and jobs.

Most of those wishing to leave permanently secretly cross into China and later travel to a third country before seeking resettlement in the South. (AFP)

Indonesia naval captain says may have located missing plane's tail section

2015-01-05T16:47:00.003+05:00

An Indonesian naval patrol vessel found on Monday what the captain said could be the tail of a missing AirAsia jet, the section where the crucial black box voice and flight data recorders are located.

Ships and aircraft seeking debris and bodies from the Airbus A320-200 widened their search area to allow for currents eight days after Flight QZ8501 plunged into the water en route from Indonesia's second-biggest city Surabaya to Singapore with 162 people on board.

"We found what has a high probability of being the tail of the plane," Yayan Sofyan‎, captain of the patrol vessel, told reporters. However, the Indonesian search and rescue agency is yet to confirm the discovery.

Indonesia's meteorological agency has said seasonal tropical storms probably contributed to the Dec. 28 crash and the weather has persistently hampered efforts to recover bodies and find the cockpit voice and flight data recorders that should explain why the plane crashed into the sea.

The main focus of the search is about 90 nautical miles off the coast of Borneo island, where five large objects believed to be parts of the plane - the largest about 18 meters (59 feet) long - have been pinpointed in shallow waters by ships using sonar.

Peter Marosszeky, a senior aviation research fellow at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said the weather was squarely to blame for the delay in finding the black box recorders, which are designed to emit pings that can be detected by sonar for a month after a crash.

"The seas haven’t been very friendly, but the black boxes have a 30-day life and they will be able to find them, particularly in the shallow waters,” he said. “It’s the weather that is causing the delay.”

Indonesia AirAsia, which is 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia, has come under pressure from authorities who have suspended its Surabaya-Singapore license, saying the carrier only had permission to fly the route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Flight QZ8501 took off on a Sunday.

It was not immediately clear what difference, if any, the day of the week had on the Dec. 28 flight, and Djoko Murjatmodjo, acting director general of air transportation, made clear that the investigations of the route and the crash were separate.

"Please differentiate between the probe into flight licenses and the air crash investigation," he said, adding, however, that any other airline that flew on a day it did not have permission to do so would have its license frozen.

"AirAsia is clearly wrong because they didn't fly at a time and schedule that was already determined," Murjatmodjo told reporters. "...we hope to finish investigation soon on whether anything went wrong."

A joint statement from Singapore's civil aviation authority and Changi Airport Group said that AirAsia had the necessary approvals to operate a daily flight between Surabaya and Singapore.

Nine ships from four countries have converged on the crash site area, with teams of divers including seven Russian experts standing ready, but strong winds and four-meter high waves have kept progress agonizingly slow.

Thirty-four bodies of the mostly Indonesian passengers and crew have so far been recovered, including some still strapped in their seats. Many more may be still trapped in the body of the aircraft.

The crash was the first fatal accident suffered by the AirAsia budget group, whose Indonesian affiliate flies from at least 15 destinations across the sprawling archipelago. (Reuters)

Hollande rules out French intervention in Libya

2015-01-05T16:47:00.001+05:00

President Francois Hollande said Monday that France would not intervene unilaterally in Libya and urged the international community to take action to stem the deepening crisis in the country.

"We are acting to contain terrorism in the south, but France will not intervene in Libya because it's for the international community to live up to its responsibilities," Hollande told French radio.

Asked if France would take action in a United Nations-mandated operation, Hollande said there would have to be a "clear mandate", "clear organisation" and the "political conditions" would have to be in place.

"We're not yet going down that road," added Hollande.

The president of neighbouring Niger said on Friday that a solution to the crisis in Libya was not possible without international intervention.

"I do not see how the armed terrorist militias can create the conditions for reconciliation among Libyans," said President Mahamadou Issoufou.

"An international intervention is essential to the reconciliation of all Libyans," including supporters of former dictator Moamer Khadafi, who himself was deposed and killed in 2011 after an international military intervention.

Since the overthrow of Khadafi's regime, Libya has collapsed into a chaos of warring militias and rival governments, and is awash with weapons that travel in an arc of unrest through northern Mali and Niger.

Later Monday, ambassadors from the Arab League will meet to discuss the Libyan crisis, at the request of Libya's internationally recognised government.

French Defence Minister Yves Le Drian recently visited the region and paid a surprise visit to northern Niger, to see a base being built to combat the growing flow of weapons and jihadists from Libya.

Le Drian said his visit demonstrated France's "determination... against the jihadists, terrorism and those who want to transform this ancient caravan route into a route of violence and trafficking. (AFP)

Iraq asks Australian PM for more military aid

2015-01-05T16:46:00.003+05:00

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday asked Australian counterpart Tony Abott to step up military assistance to aid Baghdad’s fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) jihadist group.

Australia is part of a U.S.-led coalition carrying out air strikes against IS, which spearheaded an offensive that overrun swathes of Iraq, and has also deployed special forces to assist Iraqi troops.

Abbot visited Baghdad on Sunday to discuss bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Abadi “called on the Australian side to increase the arming and speed up the training and distribution of what is needed by the Iraqi forces to decide the battle and eliminate the (ISIS) organization,” his office said.

The ISIS-led offensive in Iraq began last June, and the group’s rapid expansion and brutality in areas it controls in Iraq and neighboring Syria eventually sparked an international campaign against it.

Australia was one of the first countries to confirm its support for the U.S.-led campaign of air strikes against ISIS.

Dozens of Australians are fighting for Islamic militant groups overseas, raising fears that they could return home and carry out attacks. (AFP)

Afghan president says U.S. withdrawal timetable should be 're-examined'

2015-01-05T16:46:00.001+05:00

President of Afghanistan said in a television interview scheduled to air Sunday night that the U.S. should "re-examine" its troop withdrawal deadline.

"Deadlines concentrate the mind. But deadlines should not be dogmas," President Ashraf Ghani told Lara Logan of 60 Minutes. "If both parties, or, in this case, multiple partners, have done their best to achieve the objectives and progress is very real, then there should be willingness to re-examine a deadline."

When Logan asked if President Obama knew this, Ghani replied, "President Obama knows me. We don't need to tell each other."

The statement comes a week after NATO announced a formal end to its combat operations in Afghanistan after 13 years of war that cost the lives of 2,356 U.S. and 1,129 coalition military personnel, as well as approximately $1 trillion.

The Taliban declared victory after NATO's announcement. "We consider this step a clear indication of their defeat and disappointment," the group said.

A slew of Taliban attacks induced chaos in Kabul and other areas in recent months, signalling anticipation of the NATO withdrawal.

At the height of the war over 140,000 coalition troops were stationed in the country. Now about 10,000 remain in Afghanistan for training and support purposes -- a number scheduled to be cut in half during 2015. President Barack Obama announced last year that all U.S. service personnel would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2016.

Despite 2014 being the deadliest year for Afghan security forces, with over 5,000 being killed at the hands of the Taliban, Gen. John Campbell, commander of remaining forces in Afghanistan, expressed confidence in the Afghan military.

"It's the number one respected institution in Afghanistan," Campbell told CBS. "Couple years ago, I probably wouldn't have said that but today it is." (UPI)

Former S. Korea presidential aide indicted over 'fake' document

2015-01-05T16:35:00.000+05:00

A former aide to South Korean President Park Geun-Hye has been charged with leaking a document on the president's personal life which triggered defamation suits against domestic and foreign media, prosecutors said Monday.

The internal presidential office document claimed that another former Park aide, Jeong Yun-Hoe, meddled in state affairs by receiving regular briefings from presidential officials despite having no official position in the administration.

Cho Eung-Cheon, a former presidential aide who quit the president's office last month, was charged with leaking the document, according to prosecutor Yoo Sang-Bum.

"Our investigation showed it (the document) was based on fabricated allegations," Yoo told a televised briefing.

The document was apparently authored by a police officer who worked in the president's office. The officer has been arrested and charged with copying the document and giving it to a businessman who eventually leaked it to the media.

The Segye Times, a Seoul-based daily, cited the document in November when it reported that Jeong had received regular briefings from senior presidential officials despite lacking an official position.

The presidential Blue House has insisted the document is inaccurate.

The latest charges come weeks after a trial opened against a Japanese journalist charged with criminal libel over an article written in August.

Tatsuya Kato, who until October 1 was bureau chief of Japan's conservative Sankei Shimbun newspaper, had written about Park's whereabouts on the day the Sewol passenger ferry sank in April with the loss of 300 lives.

The story picked up rumours circulating in the South Korean media and stock broker houses that unmarried Park had disappeared for a tryst with the same former aide, Jeong, at the time of the sinking.

South Korean defamation law focuses on whether what was said or written was in the public interest -- rather than whether it was true.

Media freedom group Reporters Without Borders has criticised the trial of the Japanese journalist, arguing that his report was clearly in the public interest. (AFP)