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Hospital Blast
July 29, 2013
A Somali police officer said a suicide car bomber has detonated explosives outside a Turkish hospital in Mogadishu killing at least one person and himself and wounding three others.
World
Malians Vote in Presidential Election Voters in Mali headed to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election it is hoped will they provide a fresh start to a country divided by a coup and a war in its desert north. Candidates wound up campaigns promising reconstruction and reconciliation but, underscoring security fears despite a successful French offensive against Al Qaeda-linked fighters, a group threatened to attack polling stations, Reuters reported. Separatist and rebels swept across the desert north of the former French colony last year shortly after soldiers ousted the president. Voters arrived early and long queues formed at many of the 21,000 polling stations across the Mali, from the bustling, lush riverside capital in the south to the remote desert garrison town of Kidal, which was at the heart of last year’s rebellion. Authorities instructed some 6.8 million eligible voters how to find their polling stations by sending SMS messages to designated numbers. Two former prime ministers--Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, known universally as IBK, and Modibo Sidibe--are expected to be among the top finishers.
In Focus Peru Police Clash With Student Protesters Police in Peru used tear gas and water cannons to repel student protesters marching to the National Congress in the capital city. The demonstration on Thursday turned violent after students tried to move through the centre of Lima in protest against a proposed education law that they said would take away the autonomy of universities. Local television showed police firing tear gas and water cannons against protesters, some of whom wielded sticks and were throwing rocks. Several injuries were reported in Lima and at similar protests in several provincial capitals. A student leader told reporters that several protesters were also detained after violent clashes with the police. The students were protesting against a law they believe would force thousands from their jobs and compromise the autonomy of Peru’s universities. According to the students, the new law would affect those who leave their studies for more than two years, because then they would end up outside the university system. President Ollanta Humala said the reform would improve the quality of sluggish government services and a lagging higher-education system. But Pedro Cotillo, the rector of the National University of San Marcos, earlier this week said the student community was upset that they and professors had not been consulted. “We want our voices to be heard, for the law to guarantee the excellence of higher education,” Cotillo said. Though the protests lacked the large size of recent demonstrations in Chile and Brazil that have defied political leaders, they could expose President Humala to renewed criticism after several months of relative calm.
Over 1,000 Escape in Libya Prison Break From Page 1 Thousands of Libyans protested earlier Saturday in Tripoli and Benghazi against parties including the Muslim Brotherhood blamed for the wave of violence in the east of the country. Protesters ransacked Tripoli offices of both the Brotherhood’s political wing, the Party of Justice and Construction (PJC), and its liberal rival, the Alliance of National Forces (NFA). In Benghazi, youths stormed and ransacked the building housing the PJC, after hundreds took to the streets on Friday night to condemn the assassination of Abdessalem Al-Mesmari, an antiIslamist lawyer who campaigned for a civil state. The demonstrators accuse the Brotherhood of being behind killings that have targeted dozens of officers, especially in Benghazi, the city that was the cradle of the 2011 armed uprising that ousted longtime leader Gaddafi. In Tripoli, hundreds of people gathered at Martyrs’ Square in the heart of the capital to demonstrate in “solidarity with Benghazi” and against the Islamist movement. Chanting “the blood of martyrs was not shed in vain,” the protesters converged on the square as they left mosques after morning prayers. About 100 youths then descended on PJC offices in the Ben Ashur district, smashing its windows and looting furniture. From the outset, the demonstrators chanted slogans against the Brotherhood, but they later also targeted the NFA which won July 2012 elections. Around 100 protesters converged on the alliance’s offices in Hay Al-Andalus neighborhood, invading the premises and throwing documents out of windows. Zeidan on Saturday also announced that a ministerial reshuffle will soon cut down the size of his cabinet “to increase efficiency”.
Bananas Thrown
Florida Hostage Standoff At Black Italian Minister Claims 7 Lives A gunman who had taken several people hostage in an apartment complex in the US state of Florida has been shot dead after killing 6 hostages. An hours-long standoff between police and the gunman started around 6:30 p.m. Friday in Hialeah near Miami, Florida, after police received a 911 call, Press TV reported. Police officers evacuated the apartment complex, shut down several streets in the neighborhood, and started negotiating with the gunman before a shootout broke out. “This is one of the worst shootings we’ve probably had ever in Hialeah,” police spokesman Carl Zogby told NBC News. A SWAT team killed the gunman after they found him barricaded on the fourth floor of the five-story building where he had still two hostages. “The end result: seven people have lost their lives in this incident, six innocent victims and the one shooter,” said Zogby. The victims were three men and three women. The bodies of the building manager and her husband were found in a hallway. Three other hostages, two women and one man, were found dead in one of the apartments. The body of another male victim was found in the lobby of a building across the street where the gunman reportedly spotted him and took aim.
Italian politicians have reacted with anger after the country’s first black minister had bananas thrown at her during a political rally. Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge, who has suffered racial abuse in the past, dismissed the act as “a waste of food”, BBC reported. But Environment Minister Andrea Orlando said on Twitter he felt the “utmost indignation” over the incident. Earlier this month an Italian senator apologized after saying Kyenge reminded him of an orangutan. Congolese-born Kyenge was speaking at a Democratic Party (PD) rally in Cervia on Friday when an unidentified spectator threw bananas towards the stage, narrowly missing her. Italian police said they are trying to find the culprit. Responding on Twitter, Kyenge called the incident “sad” and “a waste of food”. “The courage and optimism to change things has to come above all from the bottom up to reach the institutions,” she added. Italian politicians rallied behind her on Saturday with messages of support and condemnation.
Life ‘Intolerable’ for Majority of Bulgarians Almost three quarters of Bulgarians consider their country “intolerable”, according to a new survey released on Saturday by the Open Society Institute, following weeks of protest against the government and a worsening economy. The survey of 1,155 people by the public policy charity found that 72 percent thought Bulgaria’s political situation was “intolerable”, with 22 percent judging it was just “bearable”, AFP reported. Only two percent of those surveyed described the current state of the nation as normal. The 72 percent of respondents denouncing Bulgaria’s political quagmire is at a six-year high, and up 15 percentage points from July 2012. The survey also found that almost 40 percent of the population wanted the immediate resignation of the government of Plamen Oresharski, whose minority cabinet took office in late May. Two-thirds of Bulgarians said the economic situation had worsened in the last year, the Open Society report said, though 70 percent said they were happy to be members of the European Union. In contrast, 67 percent said they did not want Bulgaria to adopt the euro.
Thousands of Germans Protest Against US Spying P
eople took to the streets across Germany to protest against NSA spying. Berlin, meanwhile, has appointed a diplomat to defend Germany’s interests in cyberspace in the face of the NSA scandal. Thousands of people took to the streets of Germany on Saturday to protest against surveillance by the NSA. The Green Party, the Pirate Party, the global alliance “Stop Watching Us” and several NGOs called protests in more than 30 German cities. According to police, 2,000 people participated in demonstrations in Hamburg, while 1,000 turned out in Frankfurt am Main. Five-hundred people showed up in Berlin and Karlsruhe respectively. Hundreds more demonstrated in Dresden, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Tübingen and Ulm. “The people have had enough of the attempts by Angela Merkel and her government to cover up the scandal and placate the people,” said Malte Spitz, a member of the Green Party’s national committee. Meanwhile, the German Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday that it had established an office for cyber issues, confirming a report by the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has appointed diplomat Dirk Brengelmann to the new post. Brengelmann previously worked for NATO from 2008-2010 as an assistant secretary general of political issues and security policy. According to the foreign ministry, Brengelmann will represent Germany’s interests on cyber policy at the international level. The new position is modeled after the US State Department’s coordinator for cyber issues. Intelligence Agencies Deny Misconduct The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said on Saturday that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was not collecting data in Germany. The news magazine Der Spiegel had reported earlier in the week that the NSA had given German intelligence services access to a data collection program called “XKeyscore.” “XKeyscore is not a spy program, it’s an analysis program,” domestic intelligence chief Hans-Georg Maaßen told the daily Die Welt newspaper, adding that his agency was only “testing” the program. Maaßen went on to say that there was no substance to accusations of misconduct by German intelligence agencies regarding surveillance activities. But the political opposition has continued to hammer Chancellor Angela Merkel for not doing enough to protect German citizens’ privacy rights in the face of alleged snooping by US intelligence agencies. The center-left Social Democratic candidate for chancellor, Peer Steinbrück, accused Merkel of being uncritical of the US and having a lax approach toward the surveillance scandal. “There were massive violations of fundamental rights in Germany by foreign intelligence agencies,” Steinbrück said.
Lockerbie Bomber Release Linked to Arms Deal From Page 1 Blair flew to Tripoli to meet Gaddafi on June 10, in a private jet provided by the dictator, one of at least six visits Blair made to Libya after quitting Downing Street. The briefing, which runs to 1,300 words, contains revealing details about how keen Britain was to do deals with Gaddafi. It also suggests that: The release of Megrahi in August 2009 caused a huge furor, with the British government insisting he had been released on compassionate grounds because he was suffering from terminal cancer, and that the decision was taken
solely by the Scottish government. Megrahi had been convicted in 2001 of the murder of 270 people when PanAm flight 103 from London to New York blew up over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988. It remains Britain’s single worst terrorist atrocity. Libya had been putting pressure on the UK to release Megrahi and in May 2007, just before he left Downing Street, Blair travelled to Sirte to meet Gaddafi and Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi, Libya’s then prime minister. At that meeting, according to Sir Vincent’s email, Blair and Baghdadi agreed that Libya would buy the mis-
sile defense system from MBDA, a weapons manufacturer part-owned by BAE Systems. The pair also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA), which the Libyans believed would pave the way for Megrahi’s release. The British government initially intended the agreement to explicitly exclude Megrahi. However, ministers relented under pressure from Libya. In December 2007, Jack Straw, then justice secretary, told his Scottish counterpart that he had been unable to secure an exclusion, but said any application to transfer Megrahi under the agreement would still have to be signed off by Scottish ministers. With Blair returning in June 2008--as a guest of Gaddafi on his private jet--the government appears to have used the chance to press its case for the arms deal to be sealed. At the time, Britain was on the brink of an economic and banking crisis, and Libya, through the Libyan Investment Authority, had billions of pounds in reserves.