Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai calls for peace as politicians and foreign ambassadors gather for funeral of former president A surging crowd of mourners on Friday kissed the coffin of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani , killed by a suicide bomber claiming to carry a peace message from the Taliban, and railed against neighbouring Pakistan for allegedly fomenting conflict in their country. The outpouring of anger at a hilltop cemetery exposed the divisions and suspicion that plague Afghanistan after years of war, and followed a stately funeral ceremony at the palace of President Hamid Karzai, who hailed Rabbani as a tireless advocate for reconciliation. “It is our responsibility to act against those who are enemies of peace,” said Karzai, urging Afghans to shun despair over the death of Rabbani in an attack at his home on Tuesday, and instead escalate efforts to bring an end to the fighting that the US-led coalition seeks to exit by the end of 2014. One by one, lawmakers and foreign envoys stepped up to pay tribute before Rabbani’s casket, draped in a red, black and green national flag. A military band played the national anthem. Then the coffin was carried by uniformed servicemen with caps and white gloves, marching stiffly. A procession of vehicles, some bearing large portraits of Rabbani, showing him dignified in robes and with a long white beard, drove up a hill overlooking Kabul, the capital. There, the observances turned unruly. Gunfire erupted briefly, possibly because guards were jittery about the possibility of an attack. Supporters of the former president’s political faction, chanting and distraught, reached to touch the coffin. “Death to the foreign puppets,” they shouted. “Pakistan is our enemy.” The suicide attacker who killed Rabbani had a bomb in his turban, and gained entry to the former president’s home by convincing officials, including Karzai’s advisers, that he represented the Taliban leadership, based in the Pakistani city of Quetta, and wanted to discuss reconciliation. In Washington on Thursday, US Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency of backing extremists in planning and executing an assault on the US embassy in Afghanistan last week and a truck bomb attack that wounded 77 American soldiers days earlier . Mullen insisted that the Haqqani insurgent network “acts as a veritable arm” of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, undermining the uneasy US-Pakistan relationship forged in the terror fight and endangering American troops in the nearly 10-year-old war in Afghanistan. “Death to the ISI,” shouted mourners at Rabbani’s funeral. Pakistan rejected the American claims that it is supporting extremist attacks on US troops. Some analysts believe Pakistan seeks to bolster its influence in Afghanistan as a way to counter the regional influence of India, its longtime rival. Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar warned the US that it risked losing Pakistan as an ally and could not afford to alienate the Pakistani government or its people. “If they are choosing to do so, it will be at their own cost,” Khar told Geo TV on Thursday from New York, where she was attending a UN general assembly meeting. “Anything which is said about an ally, about a partner publicly to recriminate it, to humiliate it is not acceptable.” Khar’s comments were first aired in Pakistan on Friday. Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, responded to the US criticism by saying Washington was in a tough spot. “They can’t live with us. They can’t live without us,” Gilani told reporters on Friday in the southern city of Karachi. “So, I would say to them that if they can’t live without us, they should increase contacts with us to remove misunderstandings.” Rabbani’s mourners, many belonging to a political faction that opposes Karzai, gathered around the coffin as it was lowered into the ground and also lashed out at the Afghan government as well as the United States, which backs the Afghan president. The 70-year-old Rabbani was the leader of Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance, which helped overthrow Taliban rule during the US-led invasion in 2001. His death deepens rifts between the country’s ethnic minorities, especially between those who made up the Northern Alliance – including Tajiks like Rabbani – and the majority Pashtun, who make up the backbone of the Taliban. Karzai, who is Pashtun, had appointed Rabbani to Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, which was seeking to reconcile the country’s warring factions. It has made little headway since it was formed a year ago, but it is backed by many in the international community as helping move toward a settlement. US ambassador Ryan Crocker was among those attending the funeral ceremony at the presidential palace. Iran’s state media said Ali Akbar Velayati, a former Iranian foreign minister and confidant of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led the Iranian delegation. “Today we are witnessing one of the biggest and saddest events of this important political time in the history of the world,” said Salahuddin Rabbani, the former president’s son. He urged the Afghan government to aggressively investigate the killing. Also, Nato forces said two service members died following a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan on Friday. The deaths bring to 436 the number of international troops killed so far this year in Afghanistan. Afghanistan Hamid Karzai Taliban guardian.co.uk
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Former IMF chief and Tristane Banon, who accuses him of trying to rape her in 2003, must appear at judge’s chambers The former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the woman who accuses him of trying to rape her in 2003 have been ordered to appear before a judge as part of an investigation into the case, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Friday. Tristane Banon, a French writer, says Strauss-Kahn attacked her while she was interviewing him in 2003, when he was a senior figure in the opposition Socialist party. He has derided her version of the events as imaginary and sued her for slander. Strauss-Kahn has already undergone one legal battle this year after being charged with trying to rape a hotel maid in New York. Those charges were dropped, but not before he resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund and lost his chance to run in France’s forthcoming presidential election, in which he was considered a leading contender. He still faces a civil suit in that case. Banon lodged her complaint after Strauss-Kahn’s arrest in New York in May , saying her mother and others had discouraged her from speaking out earlier because Strauss-Kahn was so powerful. The prosecutor’s office is investigating the accusations, but has not yet decided whether to bring charges. It gave no date for the meeting, which is sometimes part of criminal investigations in France, particularly in cases that rest largely on conflicting testimony. Banon and Strauss-Kahn are asked to face each other in a judge’s chambers and recount their stories. They have already spoken to police. Dominique Strauss-Kahn France Europe guardian.co.uk
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Former IMF chief and Tristane Banon, who accuses him of trying to rape her in 2003, must appear at judge’s chambers The former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the woman who accuses him of trying to rape her in 2003 have been ordered to appear before a judge as part of an investigation into the case, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Friday. Tristane Banon, a French writer, says Strauss-Kahn attacked her while she was interviewing him in 2003, when he was a senior figure in the opposition Socialist party. He has derided her version of the events as imaginary and sued her for slander. Strauss-Kahn has already undergone one legal battle this year after being charged with trying to rape a hotel maid in New York. Those charges were dropped, but not before he resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund and lost his chance to run in France’s forthcoming presidential election, in which he was considered a leading contender. He still faces a civil suit in that case. Banon lodged her complaint after Strauss-Kahn’s arrest in New York in May , saying her mother and others had discouraged her from speaking out earlier because Strauss-Kahn was so powerful. The prosecutor’s office is investigating the accusations, but has not yet decided whether to bring charges. It gave no date for the meeting, which is sometimes part of criminal investigations in France, particularly in cases that rest largely on conflicting testimony. Banon and Strauss-Kahn are asked to face each other in a judge’s chambers and recount their stories. They have already spoken to police. Dominique Strauss-Kahn France Europe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Former IMF chief and Tristane Banon, who accuses him of trying to rape her in 2003, must appear at judge’s chambers The former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the woman who accuses him of trying to rape her in 2003 have been ordered to appear before a judge as part of an investigation into the case, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Friday. Tristane Banon, a French writer, says Strauss-Kahn attacked her while she was interviewing him in 2003, when he was a senior figure in the opposition Socialist party. He has derided her version of the events as imaginary and sued her for slander. Strauss-Kahn has already undergone one legal battle this year after being charged with trying to rape a hotel maid in New York. Those charges were dropped, but not before he resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund and lost his chance to run in France’s forthcoming presidential election, in which he was considered a leading contender. He still faces a civil suit in that case. Banon lodged her complaint after Strauss-Kahn’s arrest in New York in May , saying her mother and others had discouraged her from speaking out earlier because Strauss-Kahn was so powerful. The prosecutor’s office is investigating the accusations, but has not yet decided whether to bring charges. It gave no date for the meeting, which is sometimes part of criminal investigations in France, particularly in cases that rest largely on conflicting testimony. Banon and Strauss-Kahn are asked to face each other in a judge’s chambers and recount their stories. They have already spoken to police. Dominique Strauss-Kahn France Europe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Man allegedly raped six women held hostage in rooms he had dug under rented apartment, local newspaper reports A man in China has been detained on suspicion of keeping six women as sex slaves in underground rooms for two years and killing two of them, a state-owned newspaper has reported. The Southern Metropolis Daily said that over the past two years, Li Hao allegedly kidnapped women who worked as hostesses in karaoke bars and locked them in two small rooms he had dug beneath a rented basement in Luoyang city in Henan province. The secret rooms were located in a residential complex away from his home, where his wife and son lived unaware of the alleged kidnappings, the report said, citing unnamed police sources. A publicity official for the city’s police department confirmed that a man named Li Hao who works for the city’s technological supervision bureau had been taken into custody. The official declined to provide further details, citing an ongoing investigation. The newspaper reported that Li was a former firefighter and it claimed he regularly raped the women and would give them food only once every two days to keep them physically weak. It described the rooms the women ate, slept and defecated in as dank and smelly. Over time, some of the captives started competing with one another for his attention, the report said, and two of them ended up fighting. Li allegedly killed one of them with the help of another woman, the paper said. He also allegedly killed one of the other women who was said to have been “disobedient”, the report said, adding that he buried both bodies in the corner of one of the rooms. Li only let some of the women out when he wanted them to perform sexual services for other men to earn money for him, it said. It was on one of these outings that one of the women escaped and went to the police, the report said. Police caught him on 6 September as he tried to escape the city, it said. China guardian.co.uk
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High court judge is due to examine the case and rule on whether the eviction of Travellers at the Essex site can now take place The residents of Dale Farm are once again facing the prospect of imminent removal from their home as a judge prepares to rule on Friday morning whether the bailiffs can move in and mount one of the largest evictions in British history. Travellers at the site at Crays Hill, Essex, won an 11th-hour injunction on Monday that prevented authorities from clearing the land amid concerns about “over-enforcement” resulting in total clearance – including structures entitled to be there. But a judge at the Royal Courts of Justice is due to examine the case and rule on whether the eviction can now take place. Basildon council, which was ordered by Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart to serve a schedule on the residents specifying what was proposed for each of the 51 unauthorised plots, says it has now done that. Dale Farm residents, who had been told to remove the barricades to the site, have also complied with the court. Speaking on ITV’s Daybreak, Tony Ball of Basildon council said the council would “have no choice” but to mount its own appeal if the court rules against it at the hearing, expected at 11.30am. However in a separate interview he said that, if the injunction is lifted, authorities could be in a position to move in to the site on Saturday morning. “We need to get the site cleared,” Ball told the BBC. “Everyone agrees now that there has to be a resolution to this – the judges and the public at large and I think even the travellers.” On Monday, there was jubilation among travellers and protesters at the site when news reached them that Monday’s planned eviction had been halted, but they are now preparing for the high court judgment to go against them. Ball said that, since Monday, many Travellers had returned to the site in anticipation of being able to stay. There was a “concern”, he added, that the barricades could be moved back “very quickly” to form an obstacle for bailiffs. Basildon council’s fight to clear Dale Farm – and the 86 families who live there – has attracted considerable criticism in recent weeks . It emerged on Thursday that members of the International Expert Group Meeting on Forced Evictions, meeting at the UN Human Settlements Programme in headquarters in Nairobi, have written to the Traveller community expressing sympathy. The letter, signed by more than 30 representatives from different countries, said: “Repressive policies targeting Gypsies and Travellers disguised as planning regulations are discriminatory, whilst inclusive national strategies that are in line with human rights standards generate real progress in addressing issues of exclusion and marginalisation.” Dale Farm Roma, Gypsies and Travellers Lizzy Davies guardian.co.uk
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Police say 31-year-old walked into Manchester Royal Infirmary and ‘expressed concerns’ about welfare of her child A woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after her four-year-old daughter was found dead. The 31-year-old walked into Manchester Royal Infirmary at around 7.15pm on Thursday night and “expressed concerns” about the welfare of her child to doctors and nurses. Staff contacted police, who went to a house on Garthorne Close, in Moss Side, around two miles from the hospital. Officers discovered the child’s body at the address. It is understood there were no obvious signs of injury to the child, and a post-mortem examination will take place to establish cause of death. Sources said the arrested woman had gone into the hospital and told staff her daughter was dead. It is believed police are not looking for anyone else in relation to the death, and a source close to the inquiry described the incident as “sad and tragic”. A spokesman for Greater Manchester police said: “Police have launched a murder inquiry after the death of a four-year-old girl. “At 7.15pm on Thursday, police were contacted by staff at the Manchester Royal Infirmary after a woman came into the hospital and expressed concerns about the welfare of a four-year-old girl. “Officers then attended at a house … and found a four-year-old girl deceased. Inquiries to establish the circumstances surrounding her death are ongoing. “A 31-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody for questioning.” Crime guardian.co.uk
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Andrew Holmes, of Boise, Idaho, fired machine-gun at unarmed civilian ‘for sport’ A soldier among five charged in the “thrill” killings of Afghan civilians last year pleaded guilty to a murder charge on Thursday, confessing in court that he fired a heavy machine-gun at a startled, unarmed man from 15ft away after a co-defendant threw a grenade at him. “I knew I should have taken cover, but instead I pulled the trigger,” Private 1st Class Andrew Holmes, of Boise, Idaho, told the judge. The soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Seattle, were arrested in Afghanistan last year, after prosecutors said they killed three civilians for sport during patrols in January, February and May. Holmes, 21, was accused of directly participating in the first killing, and he was initially charged with conspiracy, premeditated murder and other charges. In a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to murder by an inherently dangerous act, possessing a finger bone from his victim, and smoking hashish. Holmes told the judge, Lt Col Kwasi Hawks, at the court in Joint Base Lewis-McChord, that one of the ringleaders of the plot, then-Cpl Jeremy Morlock, had frequently talked about killing civilians and suggested ways they could do it. As they left on patrol on 15 January, 2010, Morlock told Holmes to grab an illicitly obtained grenade out of his tent because “something might happen” – and Holmes complied: “I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I had a terrible feeling that Cpl Morlock was up to no good.” Later, as they patrolled a village in Kandahar, Morlock stood by a low wall along a field and called for Holmes. It was a cold day, Holmes said, and he was sweating and out of breath when he took a knee beside Morlock. He said he saw Morlock fiddling with something out of the corner of his eye. “I suspected it was the grenade, but I was hoping it was his radio,” he said. The grenade it was. Morlock tossed it at a young man standing near the other side of the wall – even though the man was obviously unarmed and posed no threat, Holmes said. Then, he ordered Holmes to shoot. “I looked at the young man. He was standing there like a deer in the headlights,” Holmes told the judge in a clear, steady voice. “I fired six to eight rounds at the man, and I’ve regretted it ever since.” Holmes and Morlock then posed for a photographs holding up the head of the victim. Holmes’ lawyer, Dan Conway, has insisted he was ordered to pose. Holmes was expected to be sentenced on Friday. No sentencing recommendations by prosecutors or the defence under the terms of the plea deal were immediately disclosed. Under military law, a person can be convicted of murder even if the act is not premeditated – if, for example, the actions of the defendant were taken in disregard of human life. The charges against the five soldiers from what was formerly known as the 5th Stryker Brigade – since renamed the 2nd Stryker Brigade – are among the most serious war crimes charges to emerge from the Afghan war. Prosecutors say that in addition to killing three men some of the defendants kept body parts severed from the corpses as well as photographs kept as war trophies. Drug use was rampant in the unit, and one soldier who blew the whistle on hash-smoking by his comrades was beaten up and threatened in retaliation. Morlock has admitted taking part in the three killings and agreed to testify against his co-defendants in exchange for a 24-year sentence. Staff Sgt Calvin Gibbs of Billings, Montana, is the highest ranking soldier charged in the killings, and Morlock and others said he was the mastermind. Gibbs denies wrongdoing. Spc Adam Winfield of Cape Coral, Florida, told his parents about the plot in Facebook messages after the first killing, and his father immediately reported it to Lewis-McChord. But the alert was not reported up the chain of command, and the plot did not come to light until months later, when two more victims had been killed. Winfield admitted participating in the last killing, saying he thought Gibbs might kill him if he didn’t, and he pleaded guilty this summer to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to three years. Holmes also pleaded guilty to drug use and keeping a finger bone severed from a corpse. He told the judge Gibbs gave him the finger, and he took it only because Gibbs insisted. Conway said it was a “tough pill to swallow” for Holmes to plead guilty to murder, but prosecutors would not agree to the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter. He blamed Holmes’ troubles on the unluckiness of being assigned to a unit with Morlock. “Andy Holmes joined the army as a healthy, good-natured, 18-year-old kid who liked to play golf and go fishing,” Conway said after court on Thursday. “He may be leaving the army as a felon.” US military United States Washington state Idaho Afghanistan guardian.co.uk
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Opposition leader nicknamed King Cobra ousts incumbent Rupiah Banda, whose party has run Zambia since 1991 The opposition leader Michael Sata has been declared the winner of Zambia’s presidential election, ousting the incumbent, Rupiah Banda. With 95% of constituencies counted, Sata had 1,150,045 votes, 43% of the total, compared to Banda’s 961,796. Sata’s supporters spilled into the streets of the capital, Lusaka, to celebrate the announcement. Banda’s Movement for Multi-party Democracy party has run Zambia since one-party rule ended in 1991. On Thursday youths fought running battles with riot police in the towns of Ndola and Kitwe, setting fire to vehicles and markets. Hackers hit the election commission’s website overnight, posting false results showing Sata on course for a landslide, adding to the confusion and tension of what was already a tight race between two old rivals. Sata lost to Banda by just 35,000 votes in 2008. Sata, 74, nicknamed King Cobra because of his venomous tongue, toned down his rhetoric against foreign mining firms in the closing stages of the six-week campaign but his victory could still cloud the investment outlook. Zambia is Africa’s biggest copper producer and Chinese companies have become key players in Zambia’s economy, with total investments by the end of 2010 topping $2bn, according to data from the Chinese embassy. Sata accused Chinese mining firms in the earlier stages of the campaign of creating slave labour conditions with scant regard for safety or the local culture. Zambia Africa guardian.co.uk
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Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded in June assassination attempt and fled to Saudi Arabia for treatment President Ali Abdullah Saleh returned to Yemen on Friday, state television reported, after spending three months in Saudi Arabia recovering from a June assassination attempt. Saleh’s return comes amid a surge of violence in the capital Sana’a, where there have been clashes between loyalist troops and forces backing a mass protest movement calling for his overthrow. Within minutes of the announcement loud bursts of gunfire and explosions were heard echoing through the capital. “Ali Abdullah Saleh, president of the republic, returned this morning to the land of the nation safely after a trip for treatment in Riyadh that lasted more than three months,” an urgent news break on Yemen Television said. A Reuters witness said the road to the Sana’a military airport was blocked on Friday morning. Saleh has clung to his 33-year rule despite pressure to sign a power transition deal and a bomb attack on his compound in June that left him severely wounded. Protesters took to the streets in January inspired by uprisings across the Arab world. The United States, Saudi Arabia and other powers fear al-Qaida’s Yemen wing could exploit the growing lawlessness in the country. Al-Qaida militants have already seized cities in a Yemeni province just east of a key oil shipping channel. Yemen Middle East guardian.co.uk
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