World/Nation Briefs 6.13.2012
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
MOGADISU, Somalia (AP) — Mogadishu is losing a label it never wanted in the first place: The World’s Most Dangerous City.
The seaside Somali capital is enjoying a peace that, except for the infrequent attack, has lasted the better part of a year. Somalis who fled decades of war are coming back, as are U.N. workers who long operated out of Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya.
Embassies are reopening and a U.S. assistant secretary of state visited here on Sunday, the highest-ranking U.S. official to set foot in Mogadishu since the infamous Black Hawk Down battle of 1993.
Minnesota resident Abdikhafar Abubakar fled Somalia in 1992, leaving behind his mother, three siblings and other family members. He planned to visit twice in previous years, but each time his mother warned it was too dangerous.
Last week, he finally returned to Mogadishu, where he saw his mother for the first time in two decades. This time she said it was safe and she welcomed him home with tears of joy. He later walked the streets with his brother.
———
Officials: Coordinated car bombs in 4 Iraqi cities kill at least 63 during Shiite pilgrimage
BAGHDAD (AP) — Coordinated car bombs struck mainly Shiite pilgrims in several Iraqi cities Wednesday, killing at least 63 people and wounding dozens more in one of the deadliest attacks since U.S. troops withdrew from the country.
The bloodshed was a stark reminder of the political tensions threatening to provoke a new round of sectarian violence that once pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war. The pilgrims were headed to the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah to mark the anniversary of the death of a revered Shiite saint who is interred there.
The first bomb struck a procession at around 5 a.m. in the town of Taji, north of Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 2, two police officers said.
That was followed by four more morning blasts that hit other groups of pilgrims across the capital, killing 25 people and wounding more than 70, according to police and health officials.
South of Baghdad, two car bombs exploded minutes apart at dawn in the center of the city of Hillah, killing 21 people and wounding 53, according to two police officers and one health worker.
———
Survivor of shooting spree that ended congresswoman’s career wins her seat in special election
PHOENIX (AP) — Ron Barber, who almost lost his life in the Arizona shooting rampage that wounded former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, won a special election to succeed her, giving Democrats a psychological boost after last week’s failed effort to recall Wisconsin’s Republican governor.
Appearing with Giffords at a Tucson hotel after his victory Tuesday night, Barber told supporters, ‘‘Life takes unexpected turns and here we are, thanks to you.’’ Giffords hugged him and kissed his forehead.
Barber defeated Republican Jesse Kelly, who narrowly lost to Giffords in 2010 in a competitive district that Republicans have won in the last two presidential elections. Giffords has made few public appearances since resigning in January to focus on her recovery, but she dashed back to Tucson during the campaign’s final days to help her former district director.
Democratic officials were quick to argue that the victory sets the stage for them to win back control of the House.
‘‘This campaign previewed the message fight that will play out across the country in November: Democrats committed to protecting the middle class, Social Security and Medicare versus misleading Republican attacks on Obamacare and national Democrats,’’ said Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
———
High-profile attention awaits Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi on 5-country European tour
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — When Aung San Suu Kyi last saw Europe, it was still divided into the democratic West and communist East. Her homeland of Myanmar was still under oppressive military rule.
The long-time democracy activist set out Wednesday on her first European trip since 1988 to make a long-awaited acceptance speech for the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize and at a time when Myanmar is making tenuous democratic progress.
Her scheduled return to Myanmar by the end of the month gets her back in time to attend the July 4 reconvening of Parliament, which was announced Tuesday night on state television. The parliamentary session will be considering crucial legislation, including media regulation and foreign investment.
Cheerful and energetic at Yangon’s airport, Suu Kyi waved to journalists and passengers as she headed to the departure lounge. Asked about her trip, Suu Kyi told reporters she expects it to be eye-opening.
‘‘Each country will be different. I will know how backward (Myanmar) is when I reach the other countries,’’ Suu Kyi said.
———
Sandusky jurors hear of 2 more alleged victims, including incident with still unidentified boy
BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — Jerry Sandusky displayed no visible emotion as more witnesses testified for the prosecution, one an alleged victim who fought back tears describing how the famous assistant football coach at Penn State, who entered his life as a mentor and father figure, turned into a demanding pedophile who stalked him at home and school.
Jurors on Tuesday also heard from Mike McQueary who in much anticipated testimony stood firmly by his claim that he saw Sandusky, naked in a team shower late one Friday night, in a position that he remains convinced meant Sandusky was sodomizing a child of about 10.
So-called ‘‘Victim 1,’’ the boy whose mother alerted authorities to suspicions of abuse in 2008, launching the investigation that eventually led to the 52 criminal charges Sandusky faces, struggled to retain his composure while recounting the humiliation and fear that accompanied the alleged abuse at Sandusky’s hands.
The boy, now 18 and a recent high school graduate, said sleepovers in a bedroom in the basement of Sandusky’s State College home escalated into alleged kissing, fondling and oral sex. Eventually, he testified, Sandusky said it was his turn to reciprocate the act of his alleged molester. He said he could not resist.
‘‘I don’t know how to explain it, I froze,’’ he said. ‘‘My mind is telling me to move but I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t move.’’
———
Turkey fears Syrian conflict could spill across border as 1,400 more refugees flee the country
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey says that Syrian conflict could spill over its borders as the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey increased to more than 29,000.
Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru told state-run TRT television Wednesday that ‘‘we are disturbed by the possibility that it could spread to us.’’
Koru did not comment on accusations by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that Moscow was sending attack helicopters to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime but said Syrian conflict is an issue that ‘‘concerns our security.’’
Koru said 1,400 more Syrian refugees arrived in the past two days increasing the total number to more than 29,000.
———
Lawyer says Mubarak fears prison doctors want to kill him
CAIRO (AP) — Hosni Mubarak’s condition stabilized Tuesday but his lawyer said the 84-year old former president does not trust his doctors in the prison hospital and fears they are out to kill him.
There have been conflicting reports about Mubarak’s condition since a court convicted him on June 2 of failing to prevent the killings of protesters in the uprising that ousted him last year. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Since his arrival at the prison, the 84-year old Mubarak has been suffering from high blood pressure and breathing difficulties and is diagnosed with deep depression, according to security officials at Torah prison. On Monday, doctors used a defibrillator on him twice after they could not find a pulse.
In a late night TV program Monday, Mubarak’s lawyer Farid el-Deeb said he had asked concerned authorities to transfer Mubarak to a better equipped military hospital because of his fragile health. El-Deeb painted a picture of a paranoid man who does not trust the medical team in the prison and who has at times resisted their instructions. He was speaking on CBC, a private TV station.
‘‘Mubarak doesn’t trust anyone anymore. He was surprised to find new doctors treating him, not the ones who treated him before, and is afraid to take anything from anyone. He doesn’t recognize the faces around him. This is a big problem for him,’’ el-Deeb said.
———
Fearing Islamists, many Egyptian Christians back Mubarak-era politician vowing stability
CAIRO (AP) — In the small southern Egyptian town of Azaziya, where almost all the residents are Christians, few doubt that nearly everyone who can is going to vote for Ahmed Shafiq, ousted leader Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister and his longtime friend, in this weekend’s presidential election.
Shafiq’s candidacy has dismayed many Egyptians who believe the Mubarak-era veteran will preserve the old regime’s authoritarianism. But even if some Christians share those reservations, they view his opponent in the race as far worse: Mohammed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt’s Christian minority fears will turn the country into an Islamic state.
‘‘Our goal is a civil state. We don’t see anyone else who can protect this except for him,’’ Montaser Qalbek, the son of Azaziya’s town leader, said of Shafiq.
In last month’s first round of the presidential election, which narrowed the field from 13 candidates to two, Shafiq received nearly all of the 4,500 votes cast in Azaziya, a town in the southern province of Assiut. Qalbek said he expects more than twice that number to turn out for the Saturday-Sunday run-off and that they will again overwhelmingly back Shafiq.
That determination is likely to be mirrored across the Christian community, which makes up 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 85 million. Many Christians see the vote as a clear-cut choice between a secular state and one in which an Islamist agenda slowly takes root. Leaders of the Orthodox Coptic Church, to which most Egyptian Christians belong, and Christian activists have been working hard to get the community to the polls, said Yousef Sidhom, editor of the weekly Watani newspaper and a Coptic Church official.
———
Republicans say special counsel — not US Attorneys — should run leak probes; Holder resists
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday fended off Republican demands that he appoint a special counsel outside of the Justice Department to look into national security leaks.
Holder said both he and FBI Director Robert Mueller have already been interviewed by the FBI as part of a fast-moving Justice Department leak investigation.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said they want the attorney general to appoint a special counsel to look into the leaks, rather than Holder’s choices, U.S. Attorneys Ron Machen and Rod Rosenstein, who hold political appointments.
Graham and Grassley were referring to a procedure by which a special counsel appointed from outside the Justice Department conducts the leak investigations.
Holder praised the two U.S. attorneys as experienced and highly respected.
———
Suspect in shooting near Auburn University that killed 3, turns himself in to authorities
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The three-day hunt for a man charged with killing three people near Auburn University ended with the suspect walking up the steps of an Alabama courthouse and peacefully turning himself in to a U.S. Marshal waiting inside.
Hours after his surrender, Desmonte Leonard was being held early Wednesday in a Montgomery jail. He’d been on the run since Saturday, when authorities said he opened fire after a fight over a woman at a pool party. The manhunt was vexing for authorities who first dealt with misinformation from people who know Leonard, then narrowly missed catching him at a Montgomery house they searched inch-by-inch for nine hours.
‘‘It’s been a trying case for all law enforcement involved,’’ Auburn Police Chief Tommy Dawson said at a news conference announcing the arrest Tuesday night.
Investigators said they believe the pressure of being on the run had finally gotten to Leonard. A Montgomery defense attorney said she arranged for him to surrender after getting word that his family wanted her help.
Leonard, 22, is charged with three counts of capital murder and he’s accused of wounding three others. The dead included two former Auburn football players, and a current player was among the injured.
[[In-content Ad]]
MOGADISU, Somalia (AP) — Mogadishu is losing a label it never wanted in the first place: The World’s Most Dangerous City.
The seaside Somali capital is enjoying a peace that, except for the infrequent attack, has lasted the better part of a year. Somalis who fled decades of war are coming back, as are U.N. workers who long operated out of Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya.
Embassies are reopening and a U.S. assistant secretary of state visited here on Sunday, the highest-ranking U.S. official to set foot in Mogadishu since the infamous Black Hawk Down battle of 1993.
Minnesota resident Abdikhafar Abubakar fled Somalia in 1992, leaving behind his mother, three siblings and other family members. He planned to visit twice in previous years, but each time his mother warned it was too dangerous.
Last week, he finally returned to Mogadishu, where he saw his mother for the first time in two decades. This time she said it was safe and she welcomed him home with tears of joy. He later walked the streets with his brother.
———
Officials: Coordinated car bombs in 4 Iraqi cities kill at least 63 during Shiite pilgrimage
BAGHDAD (AP) — Coordinated car bombs struck mainly Shiite pilgrims in several Iraqi cities Wednesday, killing at least 63 people and wounding dozens more in one of the deadliest attacks since U.S. troops withdrew from the country.
The bloodshed was a stark reminder of the political tensions threatening to provoke a new round of sectarian violence that once pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war. The pilgrims were headed to the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah to mark the anniversary of the death of a revered Shiite saint who is interred there.
The first bomb struck a procession at around 5 a.m. in the town of Taji, north of Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 2, two police officers said.
That was followed by four more morning blasts that hit other groups of pilgrims across the capital, killing 25 people and wounding more than 70, according to police and health officials.
South of Baghdad, two car bombs exploded minutes apart at dawn in the center of the city of Hillah, killing 21 people and wounding 53, according to two police officers and one health worker.
———
Survivor of shooting spree that ended congresswoman’s career wins her seat in special election
PHOENIX (AP) — Ron Barber, who almost lost his life in the Arizona shooting rampage that wounded former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, won a special election to succeed her, giving Democrats a psychological boost after last week’s failed effort to recall Wisconsin’s Republican governor.
Appearing with Giffords at a Tucson hotel after his victory Tuesday night, Barber told supporters, ‘‘Life takes unexpected turns and here we are, thanks to you.’’ Giffords hugged him and kissed his forehead.
Barber defeated Republican Jesse Kelly, who narrowly lost to Giffords in 2010 in a competitive district that Republicans have won in the last two presidential elections. Giffords has made few public appearances since resigning in January to focus on her recovery, but she dashed back to Tucson during the campaign’s final days to help her former district director.
Democratic officials were quick to argue that the victory sets the stage for them to win back control of the House.
‘‘This campaign previewed the message fight that will play out across the country in November: Democrats committed to protecting the middle class, Social Security and Medicare versus misleading Republican attacks on Obamacare and national Democrats,’’ said Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
———
High-profile attention awaits Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi on 5-country European tour
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — When Aung San Suu Kyi last saw Europe, it was still divided into the democratic West and communist East. Her homeland of Myanmar was still under oppressive military rule.
The long-time democracy activist set out Wednesday on her first European trip since 1988 to make a long-awaited acceptance speech for the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize and at a time when Myanmar is making tenuous democratic progress.
Her scheduled return to Myanmar by the end of the month gets her back in time to attend the July 4 reconvening of Parliament, which was announced Tuesday night on state television. The parliamentary session will be considering crucial legislation, including media regulation and foreign investment.
Cheerful and energetic at Yangon’s airport, Suu Kyi waved to journalists and passengers as she headed to the departure lounge. Asked about her trip, Suu Kyi told reporters she expects it to be eye-opening.
‘‘Each country will be different. I will know how backward (Myanmar) is when I reach the other countries,’’ Suu Kyi said.
———
Sandusky jurors hear of 2 more alleged victims, including incident with still unidentified boy
BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — Jerry Sandusky displayed no visible emotion as more witnesses testified for the prosecution, one an alleged victim who fought back tears describing how the famous assistant football coach at Penn State, who entered his life as a mentor and father figure, turned into a demanding pedophile who stalked him at home and school.
Jurors on Tuesday also heard from Mike McQueary who in much anticipated testimony stood firmly by his claim that he saw Sandusky, naked in a team shower late one Friday night, in a position that he remains convinced meant Sandusky was sodomizing a child of about 10.
So-called ‘‘Victim 1,’’ the boy whose mother alerted authorities to suspicions of abuse in 2008, launching the investigation that eventually led to the 52 criminal charges Sandusky faces, struggled to retain his composure while recounting the humiliation and fear that accompanied the alleged abuse at Sandusky’s hands.
The boy, now 18 and a recent high school graduate, said sleepovers in a bedroom in the basement of Sandusky’s State College home escalated into alleged kissing, fondling and oral sex. Eventually, he testified, Sandusky said it was his turn to reciprocate the act of his alleged molester. He said he could not resist.
‘‘I don’t know how to explain it, I froze,’’ he said. ‘‘My mind is telling me to move but I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t move.’’
———
Turkey fears Syrian conflict could spill across border as 1,400 more refugees flee the country
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey says that Syrian conflict could spill over its borders as the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey increased to more than 29,000.
Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru told state-run TRT television Wednesday that ‘‘we are disturbed by the possibility that it could spread to us.’’
Koru did not comment on accusations by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that Moscow was sending attack helicopters to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime but said Syrian conflict is an issue that ‘‘concerns our security.’’
Koru said 1,400 more Syrian refugees arrived in the past two days increasing the total number to more than 29,000.
———
Lawyer says Mubarak fears prison doctors want to kill him
CAIRO (AP) — Hosni Mubarak’s condition stabilized Tuesday but his lawyer said the 84-year old former president does not trust his doctors in the prison hospital and fears they are out to kill him.
There have been conflicting reports about Mubarak’s condition since a court convicted him on June 2 of failing to prevent the killings of protesters in the uprising that ousted him last year. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Since his arrival at the prison, the 84-year old Mubarak has been suffering from high blood pressure and breathing difficulties and is diagnosed with deep depression, according to security officials at Torah prison. On Monday, doctors used a defibrillator on him twice after they could not find a pulse.
In a late night TV program Monday, Mubarak’s lawyer Farid el-Deeb said he had asked concerned authorities to transfer Mubarak to a better equipped military hospital because of his fragile health. El-Deeb painted a picture of a paranoid man who does not trust the medical team in the prison and who has at times resisted their instructions. He was speaking on CBC, a private TV station.
‘‘Mubarak doesn’t trust anyone anymore. He was surprised to find new doctors treating him, not the ones who treated him before, and is afraid to take anything from anyone. He doesn’t recognize the faces around him. This is a big problem for him,’’ el-Deeb said.
———
Fearing Islamists, many Egyptian Christians back Mubarak-era politician vowing stability
CAIRO (AP) — In the small southern Egyptian town of Azaziya, where almost all the residents are Christians, few doubt that nearly everyone who can is going to vote for Ahmed Shafiq, ousted leader Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister and his longtime friend, in this weekend’s presidential election.
Shafiq’s candidacy has dismayed many Egyptians who believe the Mubarak-era veteran will preserve the old regime’s authoritarianism. But even if some Christians share those reservations, they view his opponent in the race as far worse: Mohammed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt’s Christian minority fears will turn the country into an Islamic state.
‘‘Our goal is a civil state. We don’t see anyone else who can protect this except for him,’’ Montaser Qalbek, the son of Azaziya’s town leader, said of Shafiq.
In last month’s first round of the presidential election, which narrowed the field from 13 candidates to two, Shafiq received nearly all of the 4,500 votes cast in Azaziya, a town in the southern province of Assiut. Qalbek said he expects more than twice that number to turn out for the Saturday-Sunday run-off and that they will again overwhelmingly back Shafiq.
That determination is likely to be mirrored across the Christian community, which makes up 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 85 million. Many Christians see the vote as a clear-cut choice between a secular state and one in which an Islamist agenda slowly takes root. Leaders of the Orthodox Coptic Church, to which most Egyptian Christians belong, and Christian activists have been working hard to get the community to the polls, said Yousef Sidhom, editor of the weekly Watani newspaper and a Coptic Church official.
———
Republicans say special counsel — not US Attorneys — should run leak probes; Holder resists
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday fended off Republican demands that he appoint a special counsel outside of the Justice Department to look into national security leaks.
Holder said both he and FBI Director Robert Mueller have already been interviewed by the FBI as part of a fast-moving Justice Department leak investigation.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said they want the attorney general to appoint a special counsel to look into the leaks, rather than Holder’s choices, U.S. Attorneys Ron Machen and Rod Rosenstein, who hold political appointments.
Graham and Grassley were referring to a procedure by which a special counsel appointed from outside the Justice Department conducts the leak investigations.
Holder praised the two U.S. attorneys as experienced and highly respected.
———
Suspect in shooting near Auburn University that killed 3, turns himself in to authorities
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The three-day hunt for a man charged with killing three people near Auburn University ended with the suspect walking up the steps of an Alabama courthouse and peacefully turning himself in to a U.S. Marshal waiting inside.
Hours after his surrender, Desmonte Leonard was being held early Wednesday in a Montgomery jail. He’d been on the run since Saturday, when authorities said he opened fire after a fight over a woman at a pool party. The manhunt was vexing for authorities who first dealt with misinformation from people who know Leonard, then narrowly missed catching him at a Montgomery house they searched inch-by-inch for nine hours.
‘‘It’s been a trying case for all law enforcement involved,’’ Auburn Police Chief Tommy Dawson said at a news conference announcing the arrest Tuesday night.
Investigators said they believe the pressure of being on the run had finally gotten to Leonard. A Montgomery defense attorney said she arranged for him to surrender after getting word that his family wanted her help.
Leonard, 22, is charged with three counts of capital murder and he’s accused of wounding three others. The dead included two former Auburn football players, and a current player was among the injured.
[[In-content Ad]]
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092