Category: World

KABUL: The Taliban said Sunday they remain committed to peace talks but insisted a “genuine Islamic system” in Afghanistan was the only way to end the war and ensure rights — including for women.

Talks between the militants and the Afghan government have been deadlocked for months and violence has surged across the country since May when the US military began its final withdrawal. Fears are also growing that if the Taliban return to power they will reimpose their harsh version of Islamic law. Despite the rise in violence, Taliban co-founder and deputy leader Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar said Sunday that the group was committed to the peace talks.

“Our very participation in the negotiations… indicates openly that we believe in resolving issues through (mutual) understanding,” Baradar said in a statement.

He said the only way to end the conflict in Afghanistan was to establish an Islamic system after the departure of all foreign forces. “A genuine Islamic system is the best mean for solution of all issues of the Afghans,” Baradar said, according to international media reports.

His statement acknowledged the fears in Afghanistan and abroad about the kind of system that would emerge — and its impact on women — saying that fell “within the ambit of the intra-Afghan negotiations”.

Baradar also assured that the rights of all Afghans including women would be accommodated in that system, according to “the glorious religion of Islam” and Afghan traditions.

Ascot, United Kingdom-Queen Elizabeth II visited Royal Ascot without her late husband Prince Philip for the first time on Saturday.
The 95-year-old monarch, dressed in powder blue, arrived by limousine into the paddock where an army band belted out a rendition of the national anthem.
The crowd roared its approval as she stepped from the car at the meeting she is so closely associated with.
Heir to the throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla — who is a keen turfiste and horse owner — attended earlier in the week with Princess Anne also deputising for her mother.
The monarch has watched the racing through the week from nearby Windsor Castle.
Her racing manager John Warren says she begins each day reading the Racing Post and paying keen attention to the breeding of all the winners.
The queen could leave the racetrack very content as she has several runners, beginning with Reach For The Moon in the opening race, the Chesham Stakes.
She has enjoyed plenty of success at the meeting through the decades, most notably in 2013 when Estimate won the flagship race, the Ascot Gold Cup.

WASHINGTON: Female soldiers at Army bases in Texas, Colorado, Kansas and Kentucky face a greater risk of sexual assault and harassment than those at other posts, accounting for more than a third of all active-duty Army women sexually assaulted in 2018, according to a new Rand Corp. study.

The study, released Friday, looked at Army incidents, and found that female soldiers at Fort Hood and Fort Bliss, both in Texas, faced the highest risk, particularly those in combat commands or jobs such as field artillery and engineering. And units with more frequent deployments to war also saw higher risk. Other bases with high risk were Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Fort Carson in Colorado and Fort Riley in Kansas, said the study which reviewed assault data from previous years.

Rand’s study provides greater detail on the rates of sexual assault and misconduct across the Army, a chronic problem that military leaders have been struggling to combat. And it comes a year after the killing of Spc. Vanessa Guillén, who was missing at Fort Hood for about two months before her remains were found late last June.

Guillen was killed by a soldier, who her family says sexually harassed her, and who killed himself as police sought to arrest him. Her death put a spotlight on violence and leadership problems within the Army. The Rand report also confirmed one of the Army’s conclusions about the impact of command climate, finding a lower risk of sexual misconduct in units with more positive supervisor scores.

The Fort Hood violence prompted an independent review which found that military leaders were not adequately dealing with high rates of sexual assault and harassment at the post. Christopher Swecker, the chairman of the review panel, told Congress that the base leaders were focused on military readiness and completely neglected the sexual assault prevention program. As a result, he said, lower-level unit commanders didn’t encourage service members to report assaults, and in many cases were shaming victims.

According to the Rand study, the risk of assault for women at Fort Hood was nearly a third higher than the average risk faced by all women in the Army. Overall, Rand said that the risk across the Army varied widely depending on the female soldiers’ base, unit, career field, age, and even whether they were at posts with a higher number of civilians.

For example, female soldiers in medical or personnel jobs have the lowest risk, while those in field artillery face the highest risk. Field artillery jobs were among some of the last Army combat specialties opened to women — coming in 2015. Other jobs that lagged behind were infantry, armor and special operations.

James A. Helis, director of the Army Resilience Directorate, said the study “sheds light on the environmental and occupational factors that contribute to the risk of sexual assault and sexual harassment for our soldiers and, in turn, will help inform future prevention and response efforts.”

WASHINGTON: Videos released under court order provide a chilling new look at the chaos at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, including body camera footage that shows a man charging at a police officer with a flagpole and tackling him to the ground.

Federal judges ordered the release of the videos after media organizations, including the media, went to court to request that the Department of Justice provide access. The videos are being presented as evidence in prosecutors’ cases against three men charged with assaulting police.

The new videos show a Marine Corps veteran and former New York City police officer wielding a flagpole as he attacks police, as well as rioters crushing another officer into a door as he screams in pain. Still another video shows a New Jersey man punching an officer in the head.

The release comes at a time when Republican lawmakers in Washington increasingly try to downplay the siege, portraying the breach of the Capitol as a mostly peaceful protest despite the shocking violence that unfolded.

Supporters of former President Donald Trump fought past police lines to storm the building and interrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s election win over Trump.

The Justice Department has brought hundreds of criminal cases against the rioters. This week, a man linked to the antigovernment Three Percenters extremist movement was indicted on a new charge that he brought a semi-automatic handgun with him to the Capitol.

Body camera video released in the case against former New York City policeman Thomas Webster shows the man holding a flagpole and shouting profanities at officers standing behind a metal barricade. Webster pushes the barricade and swings toward an officer with the flagpole. There’s a violent scuffle, the officer manages to take the flagpole away from the man, and Webster appears to tackle the officer to the ground.

Other images in court documents show Webster pinning the officer to the ground and grabbing at his face.

Webster’s lawyer wrote in court documents seeking his release from jail while he awaits trial that his client got upset when he saw police using pepper spray on the crowd. The lawyer, James Monroe, wrote that “as a former US Marine and a member of law enforcement, defendant’s moral instinct was to protect the innocent.”

Monroe said the officer provoked Webster by reaching across the barrier and punching him. The lawyer says Webster never actually struck the officer with the flagpole.

Other footage released in the case against Patrick McCaughey III, a Connecticut man charged with assault, show police wearing helmets and face shields gathered in a Capitol doorway as the crowd pushes aggressively forward and shouts at them.

PARIS: The double-cheeked embrace that was a customary greeting in France before the coronavirus pandemic saw it largely abandoned as a potential kiss of death is back with a presidential seal of approval.

French President Emmanuel Macron made the return of “la bise” all but official Friday by giving warm cheek-to-cheek embraces to two World War II veterans at an award ceremony.

The French leader wore a face mask. The veterans — Leon Gautier, 98, and Rene Crignola, 99 — did not. But both seemed comfortable, and reciprocated, as Macron reached in and put his cheeks to theirs.

Macron is vaccinated against the coronavirus and also suffered a moderate bout of COVID-19 in December.

The gesture put Macron’s seal of approval on what is still a slow, hesitant and not always welcome return of embraces. They became frowned upon as COVID-19 infections ravaged France, which counts 110,000 dead from the disease.

With 60% of France’s adults now having had at least one jab, embracing family and friends again has been one of the joys of vaccination for those who are quickly falling back into the habit.

But others are clinging to the hope that its disappearance during the height of the pandemic might still become permanent, particularly in workplaces.

Even before the pandemic, “la bise” was a source of division. Having to do rounds of kisses with colleagues was regarded as an awkward and tedious chore by some, a pleasant, relationship-affirming exercise by others.

Macron’s embraces for the veterans as he awarded them the Legion of Honor, the country’s highest award, marked another step toward France feeling like its former self again.

Face masks also came off this week — no longer required attire outdoors in most circumstances. And a nighttime curfew is ending on Sunday.

WASHINGTON: A message in a bottle that travelled more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) has received a response – three years after beginning its epic journey.

Sean Smith, who is now 16, had sent out the missive while on holiday in Rhode Island on Thanksgiving in 2018.

A note inside read: “It is Thanksgiving. I am 13 and visiting family in Rhode Island. I am from Vermont. If found email messageinabottle2018@gmail.com.”

Fast forward to 2021, and the message was discovered by Christian Santos, a 17-year-old in the Azores, a small Portuguese archipelago.

He explained that he regularly picks up trash floating in the water in an attempt to help the environment – and decided to follow the instructions within the Powerade bottle.

Christian’s email nearly fell on deaf ears because Sean had forgotten that he had sent out the bottle as a child, and couldn’t remember the password to the email account.

Thankfully, Sean realised that his bottle had been found after a Facebook post was made by Christian’s mother Molly.

The pair have now met on Zoom for the very first time, and plan to stay in contact.

“I think it’s cool that somebody similar in age found it so far away and we were actually able to get in touch,” Sean said.

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon said Friday it was cutting the number of troops and air defense units deployed to the Middle East, confirming a Wall Street Journal report that eight Patriot batteries were being moved out from the region. The move comes as President Joe Biden”s administration seeks to ease tensions with Iran after they heated up in 2019 and saw a strong escalation in the US military presence across the region. The Wall Street Journal said the Patriot anti-missile batteries were being removed from Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and that a separate anti-missile system, called THAAD, was being transferred from Saudi Arabia as well. Each battery requires hundreds of troops and civilians to operate and support them. Pentagon spokesperson Commander Jessica McNulty said that some of the units were being  redeployed to other countries and some were returning to the United States for maintenance. She would not say where the redeployed units were being moved to. “This decision was made in close coordination with host nations and with a clear eye on preserving our ability to meet our security commitments,” she said in an email. “We maintain a robust force posture in the region appropriate to the threat and are comfortable that these changes do not negatively impact our national security interests,” McNulty said.

UNITED NATIONS: A desperate move by the aspirants of permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council — India, Brazil, Germany and Japan — to scuttle the UN process to reform the 15-member body appears to be heading toward a collapse. The move by the four countries, known as the Group of Four, followed their consistent failure to mobilize enough support among U. N. ”s 193 members to make a formal bid to secure seats for themselves at UN”s high table, reflecting significant opposition to adding more permanent members to the council. The Italy/Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus (UfC) has been in the forefront of opposing the enlargement of “centres of privilege” on the ground that the Security Council would become dysfunctional. Instead, UfC advocates for more elected (non-permanent) seats to make it more effective, representative and accountable. The Security Council, which is responsible for maintaining international peace and security, has 15 seats. It includes 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms that come from all regions of the world, and there are five permanent members with veto power whose support is essential for any reform to be adopted — the U. S. , Russia, China, Britain and France. The process to restructure the Security Council is being conducted since 2009 in the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN), a forum established by the UN General Assembly, which operates on the basis of consensus. The negotiations have made little progress because of G-4”s refusal to show any flexibility.