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US identifies Afghan massacre suspect
Twin bombings in Damascus kill 27
Wikileaks’ Assange plans to run for Australian senate
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In his last days, Osama planned to kill Obama
Al-Qaida chief asks Pakistanis to revolt against govt, army
Uganda responds to Kony 2012 video
Armed clashes erupt in south Yemen port city
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US identifies Afghan massacre suspect
Washington, March 17 Bales, a four-tour veteran, is suspected of walking off his base in southern Afghanistan on Sunday and gunning down the 16 civilians, including nine children and three women, in a massacre that sent American-Afghan relations into a tailspin. "The Army confirms that Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Bales is being held in pre-trial confinement," the Army said in a statement. The 38-year-old soldier, whose military unit is based south of Tacoma, Washington, had been held in Kuwait after he was flown out of Afghanistan on Wednesday. Bales has not yet been charged. "I would assume he'll be charged pretty fast," said Jeffrey Lustick, a defence attorney and former Air Force military prosecutor and defense attorney in Bellingham, Washington. Bales is expected to face justice under U.S. military rules, but it is not clear where any trial would take place. Photos of a soldier identified as Bales, wearing camouflage and battle gear, appeared in an article about training for soldiers headed for Afghanistan on a web publication linked to Fort Irwin, a California military base. According to the website, the photos were taken in August. Bales' wife and two young children have been moved to Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle for protection, said Bales' Seattle-based lawyer, John Henry Browne. The Army said Bales will be held in "special housing in his own cell" in the Fort Leavenworth detention center, which it described as a "medium/minimum custody facility." Bales, who completed a two-year associate college degree in 1992, joined the Army in 2001, the Army said. His home of record was listed as Jensen Beach, Florida. His military training included education in sniper skills, military leadership and a course called "combat life savers." The Baleses' off-white, spacious wood home sat dark on Friday night in a neighborhood now filled with news media in the town of Bonney Lake east of Tacoma. A children's playset was in the backyard, situated about a block from Lake Tapps. Few neighbours were present. At one house backing on to Bales' property, a handwritten sign addressed to media was posted on the door, reading: "We don't know Bales, so don't ask." Beau Britt, staying at his parents' house across the street, said he did not know Bales or his family. "It's not the sort of area where you just walk up to a house and start talking to them," Britt said.
— Reuters
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Twin bombings in Damascus kill 27
Beirut, March 17 Syrian television reported that cars packed with explosives had targeted an intelligence centre and a police headquarters premises at 7.30 am (0530 GMT), blowing the front off one building and sending debris and shattered glass flying through the streets. Gruesome images from the sites showed what appeared to be smouldering bodies in two separate vehicles, a wrecked minivan smeared with blood, and severed limbs collected in sacks. At least 27 people were killed and 97 were wounded, another television channel said, quoting Health Minister Wael al-Halki. “We heard a huge explosion. At that moment, the doors in our house were blown out ... even though we were some distance from the blast,” one elderly man, with a bandage wrapped round his head, told a public television channel. No one claimed responsibility for the coordinated detonations, which echoed similar attacks that have struck Damascus and Syria’s second city Aleppo since December. The explosions came just two days after the first anniversary of the uprising, in which more than 8,000 people have been killed and about 2,30,000 forced to flee their homes, according to United Nations figures. They also coincided with a joint mission by the Syrian government, the United Nations and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation that was due to start assessing humanitarian needs in towns across Syria which have suffered from months of unrest.
— Reuters ‘saudi arabia sends aid to syria rebels’ Dubai: Saudi Arabia is delivering military equipment to Syrian rebels in an effort to stop bloodshed by President Bashar al-Assad's regime, a top Arab diplomat said on Saturday. “Saudi military equipment is on its way to Jordan to arm the Free Syrian Army,” the diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity. “This is a Saudi initiative to stop the massacres in Syria,” he added. — AFP
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Wikileaks’ Assange plans to run for Australian senate
Australian-born Assange, 40, is currently under house arrest in Britain and fighting extradition to Sweden for questioning over alleged sex crimes. “We have discovered that it is possible for Julian Assange to run for the Australian Senate while detained. Julian has decided to run,” WikiLeaks tweeted on Saturday. The earliest Senate election would not be until late 2013. The group also tweeted that it plans to field a candidate to run against Prime Minister Julia Gillard in her home seat of Lalor in Victoria. The Swedish warrant stems from Assange’s encounters in August 2010 with two women who were then WikiLeaks volunteers. They accuse him of sexual assault. He says they consented. WikiLeaks burst onto the global news agenda in 2010 when it released secret footage and classified US military files and diplomatic cables about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, drawing a furious response from the US
government. — Reuters
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In his last days, Osama planned to kill Obama
Washington, March 17 “Tapping away at his computer in the study of the suburban compound in Abbottabad... Osama wrote memos urging his followers to continue to try to attack the US, suggesting, for instance, they mount assassination attempts against President Obama and Gen David Petraeus,” CNN’s National Security Analyst Peter Bergan wrote. At
that time, Petraeus was the commanding general of NATO forces in Afghanistan. “Bin Laden noted snidely that killing Obama would pave the way for Vice-president Joe Biden to assume the presidency. The Al-Qaida leader said Biden was totally unprepared for the job,” Bergan wrote, based on background briefing he received from the administration officials this week.
— PTI
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Al-Qaida chief asks Pakistanis to revolt against govt, army
Believed to be in deep hiding, Zawahiri surfaced for the first time in months to post a ten-minute video uploaded to jihadist forums, saying the Pakistan army was in “partnership with America” in a war against Islam. “Cannot a million free people rise from amongst the Muslims of Pakistan to stage a protest against the Generals of Pakistan Army so as to force them to stop their treachery?” Zawahiri, 60, said in the video. The Egyptian cleric now heading the Al-Qaida said his groups would not release an elderly American developmental expert Warren Weinstein, captured in Pakistan last month.
— PTI
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Uganda responds to Kony 2012 video Kampala, March 17 Uganda, making efforts to find the suspected war criminial whose global profile soared after a YouTube video went viral, wants to show the world Kony is not in the country and it is doing all it can to find him. Wanted by International Criminal Court, Kony is accused of abducting children to use as fighters and sex slaves and is said to have a fondness for hacking off limbs. After founding his Lord's Resistance Army in 1980s, Kony terrorised large parts of Uganda but his reign of terror has subsided since 2005 and he is now believed to command a few hundred followers, scattered in remote jungle hideouts in neighbouring countries. "The Kony 2012 campaign fails to make one crucial point clear. Joseph Kony is not in Uganda," PM Amama Mbabazi said in a video. — Reuters internet sensation The video uploaded on YouTube made by California-based filmmaker Jason Russell has been viewed by tens of millions of people, promoted on Twitter with tags that include #Kony2012 and endorsed by the likes of Justin Bieber, George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey. Russell’s video racked up nearly 80 million hits on YouTube and rased global awareness.
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Armed clashes erupt in south Yemen port city
March 17, Aden The gunfight erupted in the city's Mualla neighbourhood a day after a member of the Al-Qaeda-linked Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law) was arrested in the same district, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "Two members of the security forces and a civilian were wounded in the shootout," he said.
— AFP
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