Keeping Mullah Omar's death secret a military decision: Taliban

Key Taliban members decided to keep the death of their leader a secret for more than two years because the war in Afghanistan was entering a critical phase and most foreign troops were preparing to withdraw at the time, the group said on Monday.

News of Mullah Omar's death leaked last month amid confusion over where and when the one-eyed militant leader died, but on Monday the Taliban for the first time revealed April 23, 2013 as the date of his death.

The announcement came in a document of nearly 5,000 words published on the Taliban's official website as an "introduction" to his successor, Mullah Mansour, a longtime deputy of the dead leader. His selection has been contested by senior members of the group.

The Taliban, who have not previously detailed the reason for the decision to keep Omar's death a secret, did not say who was party to the agreement.

"One of the main reasons was the fact that 2013 was considered the final year of power testing between the mujahidin and foreign invaders," the Taliban said in the document.

The Islamist insurgent group was ousted by a U.S.-led military coalition in 2001, and is waging an increasingly violent war against Afghanistan's foreign-backed government.

"It was for these jihadi considerations that this depressing news was concealed in an extraordinary way up until July 30, 2015," the Taliban added.

Most NATO troops withdrew in 2014 and the remaining contingent is involved mostly in training efforts.

The U.S. military has scaled back its involvement in combat to limited airstrikes and a separate counter-terror mission involving several thousand troops.

The statement on the website, controlled by Mansour's supporters, played down the prospect of a serious rift within the Taliban leadership, saying religious scholars and hundreds of thousands of "ordinary people" backed his appointment.

It gave details of Mansour's life, from his birth in Kandahar in 1968 to his early studies, which were interrupted by the Soviet invasion in 1979.

The statement presented him as a capable military leader, twice wounded in combat, who helped rebuild the Afghan air force when the Taliban were in power.

It also described him as an attentive listener, who dresses neatly and avoids extravagance.

 

Violent protests rock Kiev

Grenade explodes killing one officer; more than 100 injured.

A grenade exploded outside Ukraine’s parliament during a nationalist protest against a vote to give greater powers to separatist regions in the east, killing one police officer and injuring more than 100, the interior ministry said.

The clashes marked the worst outburst of violence in the capital since the government took power in February 2014.

The decentralisation of power was a condition of a truce signed in Minsk in February aimed at ending the fighting between Ukrainian government troops and Russia-backed separatists that has left more than 6,800 dead since April 2014. But some Ukrainians oppose changing the constitution, saying that it would threaten the country’s sovereignty and independence.

In a televised address, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the bill, which was adopted on Monday as “a difficult but a logical step toward peace,” and insisted that it wouldn’t give any autonomy to the rebels.

The officer who was killed in the clashes on Monday was a 25-year-old conscript, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told reporters. He said that of 122 people hospitalised, most were officers, but the number also included Ukrainian journalists and two French reporters.

No injuries were immediately reported among several hundred protesters including 100 die-hard activists, most of whom were members of Svoboda, a nationalist party that holds only a handful of seats in parliament. The protesters were carrying sticks and truncheons. Some of them were masked.

Avakov said that about 30 people have been detained, including the person who threw the grenade. Avakov identified the grenade thrower as a Svoboda member who fought in the east in one of the volunteer battalions which are loosely controlled by the government.

Poroshenko described the clashes outside the parliament as an attack on him and pledged to prosecute “all political leaders” who were behind the clashes.

“There’s no other way to describe what occurred outside the Rada other than a stab in the back,” he said of the clashes outside parliament.

Poroshenko said the vote confirmed Ukraine’s “position as a trusted partner which fulfills its international obligations” and the country would have risked losing the support of the West and being left “alone with the aggressor.”

A total of 265 deputies in the 450-seat parliament gave preliminary approval Monday to the changes proposed by President Poroshenko. Three parties that are part of the majority coalition in parliament, however, opposed the constitutional changes.

“This is not a road to peace and not a road to decentralization,” said the leader of one of those parties, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. “This is the diametrically opposite process, which will lead to the loss of new territories.”

Parliamentary speaker Vladimir Groisman denied that the changes would lead to the loss of the Donetsk region, where there have been clashes with separatists.

With the decentralisation bill, Poroshenko found himself in a tight spot. While Ukrainian nationalists fear that the bill would incite separatism, Russia-backed rebels in the east and Moscow say the bill doesn’t give regions enough powers and is short of the pledges Kiev made in Minsk.

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, in a live address on television, called for life imprisonment for the person who threw the grenade and said the right-wing protesters were “worse” than the separatist rebels because they are destroying the country from within “under the guise of patriotism.”

“The cynicism of this crime lies in the fact that while the Russian federation and its bandits are trying and failing to destroy the Ukrainian state on the eastern front, the so-called pro-Ukrainian political forces are trying to open another front in the country’s midst.”

A final vote on the constitutional changes will be held during parliament’s fall session, which begins on Tuesday. No specific date has yet been set.

Avakov blamed the clashes on the Svoboda party, which polled under 5 percent in last year’s parliamentary election, and its leader, Oleg Tyahnybok, who stood side by side with Avakov during the anti-government protests which toppled then-president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.

“No political differences can justify what you did outside the Rada today,” Avakov said, referring to the parliament.

Svoboda blamed the government, saying that it “provoked Ukrainians to protest” by presenting a bill which is tantamount to “capitulation to the Kremlin.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in comments to Russian news agencies, voiced Moscow’s concern about the clashes in Kiev, but wouldn’t comment on the bill.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called the clashes “worrying” and said the vote “will facilitate the implementation of the Minsk Agreements.”

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she’s open to holding a new summit with the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and France on the settlement in eastern Ukraine.

 

K Kumar is now Czech Republic Ambassador

 Krishna Kumar has been appointed as the next India’s Ambassador to Czech Republic, Bureaucracy Today has learnt.

Presently he is India’s Ambassador to Morocco. Kumar is a 1984-bacth IFS officer.

India is only external threat: Pak military

Pakistan military has told a parliamentary committee that India is the only external threat to the country and the situation with regard to ties was volatile in the wake of the suspended Indo-Pak dialogue.

The Senate defence committee led by Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed yesterday visited military's Joint Staff Headquarters in Rawalpindi, where it was briefed by chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Rashad Mahmood and his team.

The military officials shared the perceived threat with members of the Senate that India had over the last couple of years purchased weapons worth USD 100 billion, 80 per cent of which were Pakistan-specific, the Dawn reported.

The Indian army's 'shopping spree', it was said, was continuing and over the next five years it would be buying weapons worth another USD 100 billion.

India, which is the world's second largest arms importer, has more than doubled its military spending over the last decade. Delhi's defence budget for this year was USD 40.07 billion, the paper said.

This requires a continuous evaluation of the situation and upgradation of the response mechanism, the members were told.

The committee was also informed that the situation was volatile in view of the suspended dialogue between India and Pakistan and the absence of any conflict resolution mechanism.

They were also informed on how the Joint Staff Headquarters worked as a higher defence organisation and Strategic Plans Division, which is the custodian of the nuclear programme.

Talking about the non-traditional security challenges, the military officials said threats in cyberspace were posing a major challenge and urged the government to establish an Inter-Services Cyber Command to combat cyber-attacks and cyber-warfare.

Greece's new PM names caretaker cabinet 

Greece's new prime minister, a top judge who is the country's first female premier, named the members of her caretaker government today as the country heads to early elections next month, the third time Greeks will go to the polls this year.

The appointments come a day after Supreme Court head Vassiliki Thanou was sworn into office.

The 65-year-old was appointed after outgoing prime minister Alexis Tsipras resigned last week, barely seven months into his four-year mandate, following a rebellion by members of his radical-left Syriza party who objected to his agreement with the conditions of Greece's third international bailout.

The finance ministry post went to Giorgos Houliarakis, an academic who had been on Greece's negotiating team during talks with creditors. Popular Greek pop singer Alkistis Protopsalti was named tourism minister. The new cabinet was to be sworn in later today.

Elections are widely expected to be set for September 20.

Tsipras has said he needs a stronger mandate to implement the tough austerity measures accompanying the three-year, 86 billion euro bailout, but an opinion poll published in the left-leaning Efimerida ton Syntakton newspaper today found small support for his move.

Sixty-four per cent said Tsipras' decision to call the snap poll was wrong, compared to 24 per cent who considered it correct. The remainder took no position or did not reply.

Sixty-eight per cent said they believe the country should remain within the euro even if it means further austerity measures and sacrifices. Asked whether the government got the best deal it could for the third bailout, 48 per cent said yes and 45 per cent disagreed.

The poll showed Syriza supported by 23 per cent, compared to 26 per cent in an early July survey by the same company.

The conservative New Democracy party stood at about 20 per cent compared to 15 per cent in July.

The small nationalist Independent Greeks, Syriza's partner in the seven-month coalition government, were backed by 2 per cent, below the 3 per cent threshold for to enter Parliament.

Tsipras has ruled out forming a coalition with any of the center-right or center-left parties if he fails to win a majority to govern outright, meaning he would be unable to form a government unless a party that didn't make it into parliament last time manages to win above 3 per cent.

Follow India's role in Afghan:US to China

Lauding India's constructive role in Afghanistan, the US has asked China to follow the Indian model of engagement and developmental efforts in the war-torn country.

"India has played a constructive role over the last several years inside Afghanistan, and we would look to other nations like China to do the same," State Department Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters yesterday.

India has so far given financial assistance worth over USD 2 billion to Afghanistan and has been involved in massive developmental efforts in this war-torn country.

"We want Afghanistan to be a good neighbour in the region. And they have many neighbours, and China and India are some of them," he said in response to a question.

"I think everybody in the international community could benefit from an Afghanistan that is secure and stable and prosperous. Our message to the other partners is the same as it's always been, which is we want to make sure that we're all pulling on the same oars here to get Afghanistan to that better future," Kirby said.

He said that the US wants a secure and stable Afghnistan.

"What we want to see and what we've been working toward for going on 15 years now, or close to it, is an Afghanistan that is secure and stable, a good neighbour in the region, and prosperous. And that remains the goal," he said.

Kirby said the way this gets done is by healthy, strong institutions inside Afghanistan to include security forces, which is of course the focus of the Resolute Support mission.

"Right now help Afghan National Security Forces continue their leadership of the security mission inside Afghanistan," he said.

"Nobody's under any illusion of how difficult that's going to be. President (Ashraf) Ghani, back to institution building, has been working very hard at this to try to strengthen Afghan institutions from just such an end, and we are contributing to the NATO mission that's designed to help Afghan National Security Forces continue to advance," he said.

"I am not minimising at all our condemnation of the continued attacks that we've been seeing, certainly in the last week or so. You ought to be mindful that just this week, you know, Resolute Support two, resolute service members two more were killed. Two more," he said.

‘Runaway cork’ forces emergency landing 

The EasyJet plane made the emergency landing when the champagne cork smashed ceiling panels after a stewardess opened the bottle for a customer.

High spirits of passengers on board a Turkey-bound plane from London soon ran out of fizz when the aircraft had to make an emergency landing in Italy after being damaged by a popping champagne cork.

The EasyJet plane made the emergency landing when the champagne cork smashed ceiling panels after a stewardess opened the bottle for a customer. It caused oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling.

The plane was halfway through a four-hour flight from London Gatwick to Dalaman, Turkey. The pilot was forced to make the emergency landing in Italy for repairs.

“It wasn’t very funny at the time but I can see the lighter side now,” a passenger was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

“All that hassle, delay and money wasted by EasyJet — all over a champagne cork! No one on the flight could believe it and people I have spoken to have found it hilarious,” the passenger said.

The flight, which took off at 4-20 p.m. on August 7, was diverted via Milan so the masks could be reset.

“EeasyJet can confirm that flight EZY8845 from London Gatwick to Dalaman on August 7 diverted to Milan Malpensa as a precautionary measure due to a technical issue with the cabin crew oxygen masks,” an easyJet spokesman said.

In line with safety procedures the captain took the correct decision to divert so that the cabin crew oxygen masks could be reset.

The flight continued to Dalaman 1 hour and 7 minutes later once this had happened.