Archive for August 2013

Wednesday, 7 August 2013
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Five things to know Wednesday


Jay Leno interviews Obama on 'Tonight'
Making his sixth appearance on Leno — his fourth as president — President Obama and Jay Leno stuck to serious subjects as the president promoted his economic and heath care policies, discussed terrorist threats in the Middle East, and defended National Security Agency surveillance programs. "We don't have a domestic spying program," Obama said, describing the NSA efforts as "mechanisms that can track a phone number or an e-mail address that is connected to a terrorist attack ... That information is useful."
Ariel Castro's home to be demolished Wednesday
The Cleveland home where Ariel Castro held three young women for more than a decade will begin to be demolished this morning. The demolition comes less than a week after he was sentenced. After Castro's sentencing, Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Prosecutor Tim McGinty said the plan was to raze the house as soon as possible.
Massive fire closes Kenya's Nairobi airport
The arrivals hall of East Africa's largest airport -- where passengers pass through immigration and retrieve their luggage -- was destroyed after a fire broke out early Wednesday. As emergency teams battled the blaze, dark black smoke billowed up into the sky across much of Nairobi. No injuries or casualties were reported. The incident occurred on the 15th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy bombings in Nairobi and neighboring Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. No immediate signs of terrorism have been reported.
Report: Broker says Johnny Manziel was paid $7,500
While the NCAA investigates a report that Johnny Manziel accepted a "five-figure flat fee" with an autograph broker for signing memorabilia, ESPN reported another broker paid Manziel cash for signing approximately 300 mini and regular-sized helmets on Jan. 11. The latest ESPN report, citing a broker who spoke on the condition of anonymity, claims Manziel was paid $7,500 while signing memorabilia on Jan. 11-12 while attending the Walter Camp Football Foundation in New Haven, Conn.
Obama to meet troops at Camp Pendleton
Thanking service members and military families for their dedication, President Obama will visit California's sprawling Marine Corps base, the White House says. This will be Obama's final stop on a two-day West Coast trip that included the rollout of his principles for overhauling the nation's mortgage finance industry.
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Location: United States
Tuesday, 6 August 2013
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Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar vows no power grab

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar has said that his fighters will not seek to monopolise power when foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan next year.
In a speech marking the Muslim festival of Eid, he said the Taliban will try to reach an understanding with the Afghan people for "an inclusive government based on Islamic principles".
Mullah Omar also reiterated his disdain for elections, scheduled for next year.
He has been in hiding since 2001 and has a $10m (£6.5m) bounty on his head.
The BBC's Karen Allen in Kabul says that Mullah Omar's statement has been described as "genuine" by analysts.
In it, Mullah Omar said: "As to the deceiving drama under the name of elections 2014, our pious people will not tire themselves out, nor will they participate in it.
He said selection in the polls, "de facto, takes place in Washington... participation in such elections is only a waste of time, nothing more".
The elections are being seen as a key test of Afghanistan's progress since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, says our correspondent.
The Taliban in previous elections have called on Afghans to boycott voting, deploying fighters to block roads to polling stations and targeting candidates and activists.
Mullah Omar has relayed a message to the Afghan people annually for several years in the days before Eid al-Fitr, a three-day Islamic holiday celebrating the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Correspondents say that while it is commonly believed that he lives in Pakistan, he has made no public appearances or speeches since fleeing Afghanistan in 2001 when US-led forces toppled the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks in the US.
Location: United States
Monday, 5 August 2013
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U.S. intercepted al Qaeda communications

A Yemeni policeman stands at a check point in the capital Saana on August 3, 2013. The United States issued a worldwide warning that Al-Qaeda may attack in August as it ordered shut its embassies across the Islamic world. Britain also said it would temporarily close its embassy in Yemen as US lawmakers said the threat likely involved Al-Qaeda's franchise in the country. AFP PHOTO/ MOHAMMED HUWAIS (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images)
A Yemeni policeman stands at a check point in the capital Saana on August 3, 2013. The United States issued a worldwide warning that Al-Qaeda may attack in August as it ordered shut its embassies across the Islamic world. Britain also said it would temporarily close its embassy in Yemen as US lawmakers said the threat likely involved Al-Qaeda's franchise in the country. AFP PHOTO/ MOHAMMED HUWAIS (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images) / MOHAMMED HUWAIS

The terrorism threat that prompted the U.S. government to close nearly two-dozen embassies and consulates surfaced when intelligence analysts intercepted electronic communications between top al Qaeda leaders, CBS News' Bob Orr has learned.
Al Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri and Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), were discussing "something big," sources say. It's rare for veteran al Qaeda leaders to break operational security by openly discussing possible plots, and the interception stunned U.S. officials.
Sources confirm for CBS News that the intercepted electronic conversation occurred between the top leadership of core Al Qaeda in the tribal areas of Pakistan and the head of Yemen based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Nassir al-Wuhayshi
One source said that the tone of the conversation was serious and had a sense of urgency, reports CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton.
The source said the sense of the directive from al Qaeda leadership was pushing for AQAP to move forward with an attack. The source said that the urging was to have the attack coincide with the conclusion of Ramadan and to ensure that it was a "big" attack.
However there were no specifics discussed, making it unclear whether AQAP was being urged to execute a plot already in the works or to develop one and then carry it out.
AQAP, the most active and charged among the al Qaeda network, "is of particular concern" to the U.S., White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday. The affiliate, he said, "has demonstrated both an interest in and a willingness to attempt serious attacks on the United States, our allies and our people."
AQAP been battered by drone strikes. Deputy commander Saed al-Shihri was killed earlier this year, CBS News Orr reports. But, counter-terrorism officials warn AQAP remains dangerous and capable of inflicting serious damage.
While the U.S. intercepted the communications, the intelligence remains incomplete, leaving it unclear what the planned attack may entail. American embassies and consulates will remain closed in 19 Middle Eastern and African countries through Saturday.
Location: United States
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Mamnoon arrives in Karachi

KARACHI, Aug 5: PML-N leader Mamnoon Hussain arrived here from Islamabad on Monday, first time after his election as president last week.
Outside the arrival lounge of Quaid-i-Azam International Airport, the president-elect was received by a moderate number of PML-N workers, who welcomed him with slogans and garlands.
Mr Hussain did not talk to the media persons, apparently because of lack of coordination between the PML-N workers and the security administration.
“Later in the evening, PML-N leaders called on Mr Hussain at the State Guest House,” said a PML-N leader. The leaders who met him included MPA Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Imdad Chandio and Islahuddin.
Mr Hussain is scheduled to meet some senior leaders and workers of the PML-N on Tuesday.
Location: Pakistan
Saturday, 3 August 2013
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Robert Mugabe re-elected in disputed Zimbabwe vote

Robert Mugabe re-elected in disputed Zimbabwe vote
Mugabe, 89, appeared poised to extend his 33-year rule with a seventh term in office after trouncing his long-standing political rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, in Wednesday's election.
HARARE: President Robert Mugabe won a landslide victory in Zimbabwe's disputed election, officials results showed on Saturday, as opponents vowed to challenge the poll which the US said was not "credible".
Mugabe, 89, appeared poised to extend his 33-year rule with a seventh term in office after trouncing his long-standing political rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, in Wednesday's election.
Official results showed Mugabe won 61 per cent of the presidential vote and a super-majority in parliament, routing Tsvangirai who trailed heavily with 34 per cent.
But 61-year-old Tsvangirai, who has unsuccessfully tried to unseat Mugabe three times, condemned the vote as "fraudulent and stolen".
US Secretary of State John Kerry meanwhile issued a statement Saturday describing the election as "deeply flawed".
"The United States does not believe that the results announced today represent a credible expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people," Kerry said.
Tsvangirai vowed to challenge the result in court and said his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would boycott government institutions.
"We will not join government," he said. "We will go to court."
"The fraudulent and stolen election has plunged Zimbabwe into a constitutional, political and economic crisis."
He defended the MDC's decision to enter into an uneasy power-sharing government with Mugabe, who has had him arrested, beaten and charged with treason.
"Our participation rescued this country. Schools had closed, hospitals had closed. We were using the Zimbabwe dollar which was worthless, there were no goods in the shops, everyone was desperate," he said.
But furious at the alleged scale of rigging this time round, Tsvangirai said the days of cohabitation were over.
The MDC now has until Wednesday to present evidence of fraud to the high court, but finding a smoking gun may prove difficult.
Tsvangirai said he would submit a dossier of "all irregularities and all the illegalities" to the influential 15-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) and called for an urgent summit.
Kerry said there had been irregularities in the provision and composition of the voters roll, adding: "The parties had unequal access to state media. The security sector did not safeguard the electoral process on an even-handed basis."
British foreign secretary William Hague added his own "grave concerns" over the conduct of the vote in the former colony.
The European Union, which had been moving toward easing long-standing sanctions, expressed concern about "incomplete participation, as well as the identified weaknesses in the electoral process and a lack of transparency".
But Emmerson Mnangagwa, defence minister and a key Mugabe lieutenant, hit back at these accusations and argued the result was a game-changer.
"The West will now have to climb down, they must find a ladder and climb down... A democratic election has taken place in Zimbabwe," he said.
Zimbabwe's neighbours have given the vote qualified approval.
The SADC, which engineered the power-sharing government, said it was "free and peaceful".
"We did not say it was fair ... we didn't want to jump to a conclusion," said top SADC election observer Bernard Membe.
However, the poll's credibility was further called into question by the resignation of one of the nine official electoral commissioners.
In a letter seen by AFP, Mkhululi Nyathi quit over "the manner" in which the polls "were proclaimed and conducted".
"While throughout the whole process I retained some measure of hope that the integrity of the whole process could be salvaged along the way, this was not to be, hence my considered decision to resign," she said.
Tsvangirai stopped short of calling his supporters onto the streets, fearing a repeat of the bloody crackdown that followed his win in the first round of 2008 polls.
And in Harare late on Saturday, there was calm, with little sign of protests or pro-Mugabe victory rallies.
"In 2008 we voted in anger, but this time we knew what we were doing, having experienced the two leaders -- we now know who has the qualities to be a leader," said barber Right Chirombe, 28.
Even before the official election results, Mugabe followers were planning how to use a parliamentary majority.
"The new constitution will need cleaning up," said justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, referring to a text overwhelmingly approved in March that introduced term limits and curbed presidential powers.
Chinamasa said Mugabe's government would also press on with controversial efforts to bring firms under black ownership.
Investors have expressed fears that may mean rolling back the power-sharing government's efforts to stabilise the economy after crippling hyperinflation and joblessness.
"It's back to extreme volatility," Iraj Abedian, the CEO of Pan African Investments, told AFP from Johannesburg.
"We can expect fairly radical positions that will have populist support, but which will have huge implications."
Location: United States
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Climber buried by avalanche on Mount Hood

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A snowboarder traveling through an ice tunnel with six other people was buried when the tunnel collapsed and an avalanche struck while they traversed a glacier on Mount Hood on Saturday afternoon, officials said.
The six other members of his party escaped without injury. The man has not yet been identified.
Hood River Sheriff's Office Sgt. Pete Hughes said the other climbers called in the incident at about 4 p.m.
"It trapped one person in the tunnel, (but) we're not sure if he was the last one out or it just caught him," Hughes said. "It sounds like there's a significant amount of ice and snow that fell."
An airplane was dispatched to survey the area, along with crews from local sheriff's offices.
Hughes said it will "take some doing" to reach the area where the climber was buried on the White River Glacier, which begins about 6,000 feet up the south side of the mountain.
Hughes says it's unclear at what elevation the avalanche buried the climber.
Search and rescue crews were assessing whether it was safe late Saturday afternoon to get to the snowboarder's elevation and try to rescue him before dark.
Location: United States
Friday, 2 August 2013
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Putin Shows Global Mojo to Russians as U.S. Fumes Over Snowden

Russian President Vladimir Putin is showing his gamesmanship on a global stage by giving his voters what they want with the asylum granted to ex-U.S. contractor Edward Snowden, while leaving the White House flustered.
Enlarge imagePutin Shows Global Mojo to Russians as U.S. Fumes Over Snowden
Russian President Vladimir Putin fishing in the Tyva region on July 20, 2013 during his vacation. Photographer: Alexey Druzhinin/AFP via Getty Images
Enlarge imagePutin Shows Global Mojo to Russians as U.S. Fumes Over Snowden
A woman watches a footage on her computer which shows Edward Snowden's one-year asylum permit, presented by his lawyer at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow on August 1, 2013. Source: AFP/Getty Images
The decision is backed by almost twice as many Russians as those against it and those who view Snowden’s role as positive outnumber negative assessments three to one. While the case risks derailing U.S.-Russian relations, it gives Putin a chance to rally support at home and deflect attention from his own human-rights record, said Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin adviser who heads the Effective Policy Foundation in Moscow.
“Domestically, he got what he can,” Pavlovsky said by phone yesterday. “His main propaganda message domestically will be that things are similar everywhere: the CIA and the FBI violate human rights just like everybody else.”
Putin, who used Russia’s oil-powered wealth accumulation to build support for his 13-year rule, is facing an economy that threatens to slide into recession. Over the past two years, he also stared down the biggest opposition rallies since he came to power and has been the target of criticism for cracking down on protest leaders.
Opposition organizer Alexey Navalny last month received a five-year prison sentence, which he is appealing while he campaigns for Moscow’s mayoral elections next month. Economist Sergei Guriev and former chess champion Garry Kasparov, critics fearing prosecution, fled Russia this year.
Three members of all-female punk group Pussy Riot were convicted last August after a protest targeting Putin. One was later freed on appeal.

Slowing Growth

The backdrop for authorities going after opposition voices is a darkening economic picture. Growth slowed to half of last year’s pace in the first six months, according to the Economy Ministry. Manufacturing unexpectedly shrank last month, HSBC Holdings Plc. (HSBA) said yesterday, citing data compiled by London-based Markit Economics.
There’s a 30 percent chance of a recession next year, up from 20 percent a month ago, according to the median estimate of 13 economists in a Bloomberg survey published July 25.
While Russia lacks the economic power that China or the West wield, it strives to be treated as an equal and the Snowden affair gave Putin an opportunity to show that, according to Lilit Gevorgyan, senior analyst for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent stats at IHS Global Insight.
“Russia continues to seek a role in what it sees as a small club of world players,” she said by e-mail yesterday. Returning Snowden to the U.S. “would undermine Russia’s bid to promote globally an image of a major geopolitical player offering an alternative to the western-dominated world.”

Russian Opinion

That plays well with Putin’s domestic audience, according to a survey released by the polling company Levada Center on July 31. Forty-three percent backed giving Snowden asylum in a July 18-22 poll of 1,601 Russians, compared with 29 percent against it, according to the poll.
Fifty-one percent approve of the former security contractor’s decision to reveal secret surveillance programs in the U.S., while 17 percent disapprove, it showed. The results had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
The move was “absolutely forced,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the research group Foreign and Defence Policy Council in Moscow. The U.S. refusing to allow Snowden to seek asylum in a third country left Russia with little choice, he said.
“Russia can’t give him to the U.S. for political and moral reasons,” Lukyanov said by phone yesterday. “Russia doesn’t need Snowden -- nobody knows what to do with him. But no other solution was available.”

Summit Threatened

Snowden’s presence in Russia has raised tensions with its former Cold War foe before U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to make his first visit to Russia since Putin was re-elected to a third Kremlin term in March 2012. The two leaders are due to meet in Moscow in early September during Obama’s trip to Russia for a meeting of Group of 20 nations.
The one-year asylum, which ended the former U.S. contractor’s 39-day stay in the transit area of Moscow’s Shremetyevo airport, prompted Obama to weigh the cancellation of the summit.
The U.S. is evaluating the “utility” of the meeting, according to White House spokesman Jay Carney, who said the president is personally “extremely disappointed.” Putin’s spokesman,Dmitry Peskov, declined to comment.
The tension over Snowden threatens to scupper Russia’s plans to use the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg to shore up investor confidence, according to Chris Weafer, senior partner at Macro Advisory in Moscow.

Bad Timing

“The timing couldn’t be worse,” Weafer wrote in a report yesterday. “The Kremlin had hoped to use the G-20 as a platform to try, once again, to position Russia as an attractive investment opportunity.”
While Putin himself was taken hostage by the events to a certain extent and the decision to grant Snowden asylum is “absolutely irrational” from the perspective of international relations, Russia “decided to make use of Snowden” to put pressure on the U.S., Alexei Malashenko, an analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center, said by phone yesterday.
“The pressure is to show that we weren’t born yesterday,” Malashenko said. “That’s the Russian sentiment on everything, whether it’s Iran, Syria or relations with China.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Ilya Arkhipov in Moscow at iarkhipov@bloomberg.net; Olga Tanas in Moscow at otanas@bloomberg.net





Location: United States
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Former Ohio captive Michelle Knight says she knew she'd escape

CLEVELAND –  Free and safe, one of three women kidnapped and raped over a decade in a ramshackle home smiled lightly as her tormentor was led out of court in chains, a method he had used to control them.
Michelle Knight, the first of the victims kidnapped after accepting a ride from Ariel Castro, spoke in a soft but determined voice Thursday in front of a judge who followed a plea deal and gave Castro life in prison without parole plus 1,000 years.
"We said we'll all get out alive someday, and we did," Knight said.
"You took 11 years of my life away, and I have got it back," she said in the hushed courtroom. "I spent 11 years in hell. Now your hell is just beginning."
Knight, who spoke just a few feet from Castro in the courtroom, finished her statement and returned to her seat without looking at him. Earlier, he had tried to make eye contact, but deputies quickly stepped into his line of vision.
Knight, 32, belittled Castro's routine of going to church and returning to abuse the women in the darkened Cleveland home, which was equipped with chains, locked doors and windows boarded up from the inside.
 "What does God think of you hypocritically going to church each Sunday and then coming home to torture us?" she said. "The death penalty would be the easy way out. You don't deserve that.  We want you to spend the rest of your life in prison."
Castro, a 53-year-old former school bus driver, pleaded guilty last week to 937 counts including aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape and assault. A deal struck with prosecutors spared him from a possible death sentence for beating and starving Knight until she miscarried.
Castro apologized to his victims briefly in a rambling, defiant statement before he was sentenced, quibbling with the judge on whether rape is a violent crime. As people in the gallery watched wide-eyed, Castro repeatedly blamed his sex addiction, his former wife and others while claiming most of the sex was consensual and the women he held were never tortured.
"These people are trying to paint me as a monster," he said. "I'm not a monster. I'm sick."
He pointed out that the FBI was once close to him when agents talked with his daughter, who was walking home with victim Gina DeJesus on the day she disappeared.
"The FBI let these girls down when they questioned my daughter," he said. "They failed to question me."
He also said he was never abusive until he met his former wife, who is now dead.
"I am not a violent person," Castro said repeatedly.
Assistant prosecutor Anna Faraglia said Knight's appearance in court showed her resilience.
"She will survive, but she has gone through a lot of physical and emotional pain," Faraglia said.
All three women were willing to testify at trial about their ordeals if needed, she said.
The three women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. Each had accepted a ride from Castro. They escaped May 6, when Amanda Berry, now 27, broke part of a door to Castro's house in a tough neighborhood and yelled to neighbors for help. Castro was arrested that evening.
The escape electrified Cleveland, where photos of the missing women still hung on utility posts. Elation turned to despair as details of their ordeal emerged.
At the sentencing, prosecutors detailed Castro's repeated sexual assaults and how he chained the women and denied them food or fresh air. They displayed photos that gave a first glimpse inside the rooms where the women lived.
Stuffed animals lined the bed and crayon drawings were taped to the wall where Berry lived with her young daughter, who was fathered by Castro. One of the drawings on a shelf said, "Happy Birthday."
But in the room, the window was boarded shut and door knobs had been removed and replaced with multiple locks. Saucer-size holes in inside doors were meant for circulation.
Another room, shared by Knight and DeJesus, had a portable toilet, a clock radio and several chains.
Prosecutors said the women were chained to a pole in the basement and to a bedroom heater. One woman had a motorcycle helmet placed on her head while chained in the basement; later, when she tried to escape, she had a vacuum cleaner cord wrapped around her neck.
FBI agent Andrew Burke said Castro would occasionally pay his victims after raping them. But he then would require them to pay him if they wanted something special from the store.
Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said in a court filing that the women kept diaries.
"The entries speak of forced sexual conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner of war ... of being treated like an animal," the filing said.
Knight was lured into Castro's house with the promise of a puppy for her young son. She said she cried every night and her years in captivity "turned into eternity."
"He tormented me constantly, especially on holidays," Knight said. "Christmas was the most traumatic day because I didn't get to spend it with my son."
She sat quietly as Castro claimed the women lived happy lives with him.
"We had a lot of harmony that went on in that home," Castro said.
Castro called his daughter with Berry a "miracle child" and argued with the judge that he didn't commit a violent crime.
Once Castro finished, Judge Michael Russo thanked Knight for showing "remarkable restraint" during his statement. The judge then dismissed Castro's claims that the women lived happy lives with him.
"I'm not sure there's anyone in America that would agree with you," he said.
None of Castro's relatives was in the courtroom. Berry and DeJesus also stayed away. Instead, their family members read statements on their behalf.
"We stand before you and promise you that our beloved family member thrives," said Sylvia Colon, DeJesus' cousin. "She laughs, swims, dances and, more importantly, she loves and is loved."
Outside court, assistant prosecutor Blaise Thomas responded to Castro's claim of creating a harmonious family life for the women by recounting how Castro cried several days ago when he signed over the deed to his house as part of the plea deal. Castro was sorry to lose the house and mentioned "the many happy memories" he had there with the three women, Thomas said.
"That's how he views the world," she said. "That's how distorted and twisted he is."
The house, a drive-by attraction, has been fenced off and under police guard since the women escaped and will be demolished.
The women have begun emerging from the privacy they had sought after they escaped to freedom.
Berry made a surprise onstage appearance at a rap concert last weekend, and DeJesus made a few televised comments as a privacy fence was being erected around her house.


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