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Bombs hit Iraq govt building; 28 dead
Tripoli denies Russian report, says no talks on Gaddafi’s exit
Zuma calls for ‘urgent’ Libyan peace talks
US links ISI to Shahzad killing; Pak cries foul
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Hacking of dead girl’s phone shocks Cameron
London, July 5 Prime Minister David Cameron today condemned as "truly dreadful" allegations that a British tabloid hacked the voicemail of a missing teenage girl who was later found murdered.
DSK to counter-sue French writer over attempted rape claim
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Bombs hit Iraq govt building; 28 dead
The blasts struck a municipal office in the town of Taji, about 20 km north of the Iraqi capital, a day after a wave of attacks on police and soldiers that underscored Iraq’s fragile security as US troops prepare to leave by year-end. The explosions hit police, government workers and Iraqis lined up for national identity cards. Television footage showed bodies and body parts scattered across the open lot. “I was standing in a line when suddenly a powerful blast shook the ground. I immediately covered my face as shrapnel and shattered glass flew around,” said witness Karrar Abid, who acts as a middleman for people applying for identity cards. “I heard people screaming, ‘car bomb, car bomb, people killed’. I turned around to see four cars set ablaze, with smoke and dust filling the area ... The second blast awakened me from the shock, to see people covered with blood screaming for help.” Deputy Health Minister Khamis al-Saad said the bombs killed 28 persons and wounded 58. An Interior Ministry source put the toll at 35 dead. “It was a double explosion. The first was caused by a car bomb,” said Raad al-Tamimi, head of the Taji municipality. “The place was crowded with people who were going to process official papers and with police and employees.” More than eight years after the invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq is plagued by a stubborn insurgency that launches attacks on a daily basis. US military officials say Iraq sees an average of 14 attacks a day. Militants have targeted Iraqi police and soldiers for months as a way of undermining confidence in their ability to provide security when US forces withdraw by the end of December under a security agreement between the two countries. Taji, a mixed area of Shi’ites and Sunnis that was once a battlefield for Al-Qaida and the Mehdi Army militia, was struck in May by a suicide bomber who killed at least 11 soldiers. Tamimi said many of the wounded in Tuesday’s blasts were in serious condition at a hospital in the Kadhimiya district of northern Baghdad. At least 10 police and soldiers have been killed in a wave of attacks across Iraq over the past three days, with at least 22 others wounded. — Reuters
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Tripoli denies Russian report, says no talks on Gaddafi’s exit
Tripoli, July 5 Five months into a conflict that has embroiled NATO and become the bloodiest of the "Arab Spring" uprisings, there has been a flurry of reports about talks on Gaddafi ending his 41 years in power in exchange for security guarantees. Russia's respected Kommersant newspaper based its story on a high-level source in Moscow. But the report was denied in Tripoli and Italy said it believed talk of a deal was a ruse by Gaddafi's administration. "Information about negotiations about Gaddafi stepping down or seeking a safe refuge inside or outside the country is simply true," Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told euters. "Gaddafi is not negotiable, this is our position of principle, and the future of Libya will be decided by Libyans. Gaddafi is an historical symbol, and Libyans will die to defend him," said Ibrahim. Despite the talk of a peace deal, the fighting between government forces and rebels continues. A Reuters reporter in Misrata, 200 km east of Tripoli, said rebel positions in the Dafniya district on the city's western outskirts came under heavy artillery fire on Tuesday. The bodies of five rebel fighters were brought in to Misrata's al-Hekma hospital. Medical workers there said 35 fighters had been wounded. Many of them were in critical condition, and some would need to have limbs amputated, staff at the hospital said. Some analysts say that Gaddafi is starting to contemplate an exit plan as shortages of cash and fuel, the NATO bombing campaign and rebel military pressure shorten the odds on him being able to hold on to power. But Western diplomats caution that it is in Gaddafi's interests to send out conflicting signals about possible deals, in the hope that it will sow confusion among the rebels and the fragile Western alliance trying to push him out. Kommersant newspaper reported Western powers, including France, were receptive to a deal with Gaddafi if he agrees to step down.— Reuters
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Zuma calls for ‘urgent’ Libyan peace talks
Johannesburg: South African President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday called for Libya to urgently begin peace negotiations, after his talks with Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of a NATO meeting.
"We emphasised the importance of starting negotiations urgently, and we requested NATO to assist to persuade the TNC (the rebel's Transitional National Council) to remove some of the preconditions that are making it hard or impossible to start with the negotiation process," Zuma said. Zuma is part of a team leading efforts by the African Union to push a regional peace plan to end the conflict, a blueprint so far rejected by the rebels, who insisted that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi must first cede power. The AU plan calls for both sides in the Libyan conflict to hold talks and for a multinational peacekeeping force organised by the United Nations to supervise a ceasefire. During his visit to Sochi, Zuma also met with NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who was there for a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council.
— AFP
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US links ISI to Shahzad killing; Pak cries foul
Islamabad, July 5 "There is an international conspiracy to malign the law enforcement agencies and security forces. (These allegations) are part of that conspiracy," Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan told reporters on the sidelines of a SAARC seminar here. She was responding to a question about a report in The New York Times that quoted unnamed US administration officials as saying that "new classified intelligence" showed that senior ISI officials directed the attack on Shahzad in an "effort to silence criticism". Referring to the current impasse in Pakistan-US relations, she said friendship between any two countries is a bilateral matter and "everybody safeguards their own interests".
— PTI
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Hacking of dead girl’s phone shocks Cameron
London, July 5 Cameron said the police should investigate the claims about the News of the World, a Sunday tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International, in "the most vigorous way they can". However, Cameron made clear that the allegations about the case of 13-year-old Milly Dowler would not prompt him to intervene in the bid by the News of the World's parent company, Murdoch's News Corp., to take a majority stake in satellite broadcaster BSkyB. The allegations put pressure on Rebekah Brooks, News International's chief executive, who was editor of the newspaper at the time of the murder. But media reports said she had Murdoch's full support, and would not resign.
— AFP
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DSK to counter-sue French writer over attempted rape claim
New York, July 5 Strauss-Kahn, however, has now responded by saying he would sue her for defamation. Banon's lawyer said the legal proceedings would focus on the behaviour of Strauss-Kahn when she went to interview him in a Paris apartment in February 2002. Banon, who was 22 at the time, later spoke about the alleged assault on French TV and described Strauss-Kahn, then a leading member of France's Socialist party, as acting like a "rutting chimpanzee". "I can no longer hear that I am a liar because I haven't made a legal complaint. For eight years I have carried the weight of this incident alone, hearing rumours and lies about me," The Guardian quoted her, as saying. She said she did not want to give evidence in support of the maid because she did not know anything about her case. "If she lied about certain things, that doesn't necessarily mean she lied about the rape. For me it has become unbearable. And today, to see Strauss-Kahn no sooner free than eating in a luxury restaurant with friends makes me ill. I want only one thing. That he returns to France with his presumption of innocence so we can go before the court," Banon added. At the time of the alleged incident, Banon was reportedly stopped from taking legal action by her mother, Anne Mansouret, who is a local councillor for his Socialist party. Mansouret later admitted that she regretted her decision. — ANI
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Egyptian fenugreek prime suspect in E coli deaths Women MPs brawl in Afghan Parliament
Secret Service to probe ‘Obama killing’
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