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France summons US diplomat over spy claims, seeks answers
US Ambassador to France Charles H
Rivkin leaves the Foreign Ministry office in Paris on Monday. — AP
Westgate Mall attack |
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Pak train blast kills seven
People looks at derailed train in Balochistan. — Reuters Maldives Prez polls
Chemical mission boss in Syria
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France summons US diplomat over spy claims, seeks answers
Luxemberg/ Paris, October 21
The allegations that the agency collected tens of thousands of French phone records tested France’s relations with Washington just as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Paris for the start of a European tour over Syria. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Le Monde’s report on Monday that 70.3 million items of French telephone data were recorded by the NSA between December 10, 2012 and January 8, 2013 were “unacceptable”. The NSA’s targets appeared to be individuals suspected of links to terrorism, but also people tied to French business or politics, the report said. “We have extremely useful cooperation with the US in the struggle against terrorism, but this cooperation does not justify everything,” Fabius told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with EU counterparts in Luxembourg. “So we’ve asked the US to provide clarifications, explanations and justifications extremely quickly,” he added. The US embassy in Paris said Ambassador Charles Rivkin had promised Fabius’s chief of staff that he would convey France’s concerns to Washington. Rivkin declined immediate comment but stressed that US-French ties were close. “This relationship on a military, intelligence, special forces ... level is the best it’s been in a generation,” Rivkin said as Kerry arrived in Paris. In July, Paris prosecutors opened preliminary inquiries into the NSA’s programme, known as Prism, after Germany’s Der Spiegel and Britain’s The Guardian revealed wide-scale spying by the agency leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Despite initial criticism that overshadowed the start of US-EU free-trade talks that month, France’s politicians have until now remained relatively quiet as the scale of the NSA’s alleged spying efforts became apparent. But Fabius said two meetings earlier this year between US and EU officials on data protection had not dispelled his government’s concerns and did not go far enough. — Reuters
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Video shows Kenyan soldiers looting mall
Kampala/Nairobi, October 21 Kenyan security forces walked out of a store in Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, holding plastic bags heavy with unknown items after Islamic extremists staged an attack. Others looked behind counters and lifted items. In a security camera video seen by The AP yesterday, some members of Kenya’s armed forces appeared to loot a store during the four-day siege of Nairobi’s most upscale mall. At least 67 persons were killed in the attack by Islamic extremists. Kenya’s security forces have previously denied any wrongdoing. Soon after the attack began on September 21, Kenyan officials put a security cordon around the mall, allowing only security forces and a few government personnel to pass through. When the attack was over, some who owned shops inside the mall complained of looting. Mobile phones were ripped from displays, cash registers emptied, and even alcohol stocks plundered, according to AP reporters at the scene after the siege ended. A team of Kenyan lawmakers that investigated the looting allegations cleared soldiers of any wrongdoing.— Agencies Four Terrorists’ bodies retrieved
Nairobi: The Kenyan government has said the four bodies recovered from the Westgate shopping mall were of the terrorists who were behind the deadly attack. The Cabinet Secretary in charge of Internal Security said three bodies were retrieved from the site on Thursday and a fourth one was recovered on Sunday. — IANS |
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Pak train blast kills seven
Seven persons were killed and 16 injured after a bomb hit a Quetta-bound passenger train in Naseerabad district of restive Balochistan on Monday. Quetta Superintendent of Police (Railways) Riaz Ahmed said the bomb was planted on the track which went off when the train reached Notal, adding that three brothers were among the dead. Balochistan Home Secretary Asad Gilani said militants targeted the Jaffar Express using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the Notal area of Naseerabad district. “When the train reached Notal, there were huge explosions,” Gilani was quoted by Dawn TV as saying. He said the blasts damaged a portion of the railway track and three bogies of the train. The incident led to the suspension of railway traffic between Balochistan and other parts of Pakistan. No group has taken the responsibility for the attack. However, senior police officials suspected that Baloch rebels were responsible for it. The banned Baloch Republican Army is active in the area and has been targeting national installations, including gas pipelines, power pylons and security forces, in the area for more than a decade.
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Maldives Prez polls Male, Oct 21 In a message posted on a social networking site, Elections Commission President Fuwad Thowfeek said, "Dear all, first round of presidential elections to be held on Nov 9 and second round on Nov 16." According to the provisions of the Maldivian Constitution, the election process should be completed in such a manner that a new President takes over on November 11. After the first democratically elected President, Mohamed Nasheed, resigned under duress in February last year, he was succeeded by Mohammed Waheed, who was then Vice-President. — PTI
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Chemical mission boss in Syria
Damascus, October 21 "Today, the Special Coordinator, Ms Sigrid Kaag arrived in Damascus," to head up a joint mission of the United Nations and the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The Dutch UN official leads a team tasked with inspecting more than 20 sites by the end of the month and destroying Syria's chemical stockpiles by mid-2014. — AFP
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Female suicide bomber
kills six on bus in Russia Storm caused leaks at Japan N-plant Pak Prez okays anti-terror ordinance Gandhi’s relics to be auctioned in UK Pak singer Zubaida Khanum dies at 78 US school shooting: Two dead |
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France summoned the US ambassador on Monday after a report in Le Monde newspaper underlined the scale and breadth of alleged spying on French citizens by the US National Security Agency.
The allegations that the agency collected tens of thousands of French phone records tested France’s relations with Washington just as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Paris for the start of a European tour over Syria.
Seven persons were killed and 16 injured after a bomb hit a Quetta-bound passenger train in Naseerabad district of restive Balochistan on Monday.
Quetta Superintendent of Police (Railways) Riaz Ahmed said the bomb was planted on the track which went off when the train reached
Notal, adding that three brothers were among the dead.
