Militants storm checkposts in Bajaur from Afghanistan Four soldiers killed

 

KHAR: Four soldiers were killed and four others sustained injuries when Afghanistan-based militants attacked the security forces checkposts in the Mamond Tehsil of Bajaur Agency, official sources said on Wednesday.
The sources said the militants attacked the security forces checkposts in Manro Zangal and Makha Top in Mamond Tehsil with heavy weaponry at 4am.

“Two soldiers were killed and three others sustained injuries in the attack in Manro Zangal while two soldiers were killed and another sustained injuries in an attack on a checkpost in Makha Top,” an official said.

The official sources claimed several militants were killed in the retaliatory fire by the soldiers manning the checkposts.However, the claim could not be confirmed from independent sources due to the inaccessibility of the area for journalists.

Local sources said the exchange of fire continued for several hours. The security forces sources said the militants escaped from the area after the forces returned the fire.It was the third such attack in Mamond Tehsil during the last two weeks. The sources said security forces had beefed up the security in the border villages.

Around 19 militants were killed and five Frontier Corps soldiers were injured in clashes between the security forces and militants on May 25 and 31.

APP adds: Pakistan condemned the unprovoked attacks from the Afghan side and the matter was raised with the Afghan government in Kabul and with their embassy in Islamabad.

The Foreign Office spokesperson, in a statement, said early Wednesday morning, two Pakistani border posts — Manro Zangal and Makha Tops in Bajaur Agency — were attacked by terrorists from Afghanistan.

The spokesperson said as a result of this unprovoked firing, two Pakistani soldiers were martyred and three others, including one officer, were injured.Pakistan said it was the third incident of cross-border attack in the last 10 days.

The spokesperson said it had been emphasized that Afghanistan must take concrete steps to stop the use of its territory against Pakistan. For its part, Pakistan remains committed to supporting all efforts for peace and stability in Afghanistan, said the spokesperson.

Ukraine commandos refuse to storm buildings

 

Members of the self-proclaimed government called 'Donetsk Republic' vote during their meeting at the regional administration building that they had seized earlier in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Thursday. Photo:AP

Ukraine’s leaders appear to have backed away from threats to use force to crush pro-Russian protests in the country’s eastern regions amid reports that elite anti-terror commandos refused to storm the buildings seized by the protesters.

The deadline set by Kiev for the protesters to free the occupied government offices in Donetsk and Lugansk expired on Friday morning, with security forces making no attempt to storm the buildings. Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov had earlier pledged to clear the buildings within 48 hours.

According to Ukrainian media reports, the elite Alfa counter-terrorism group has refused to attack the protesters.

“We will act strictly according to law,” Alfa commandos were reported to have said. “Our group has been set up to free hostages and combat terrorism.”

Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk promised to grant more powers to the regions, including the right to hold local referendums.

“In the framework of the changed constitution, we will be able to satisfy specific requests of every single region,” Mr Yatsenyuk said at a meeting with the governors and other officials of Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions in Donetsk on Friday.

Mr Yatsenyuk did not spell out details of the proposed reforms and his vague promise is unlikely to mollify the protesters. The Ukrainian government plans to unveil the new constitution on April 15, but it has flatly rejected the protesters’ demand of federalisation of Ukraine.

Mr Yatsenyuk refused to meet with the protesters during his one-day visit to Donetsk on Friday but promised to have a televised call-in conference with its residents.

The protesters in Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkiv initially demanded self-rule for Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, but after Kiev rejected their demands, they vowed to split from Ukraine and join Russia through a referendum similar to the one held in Crimea last month.

Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov has offered immunity from prosecution for hundreds of protesters holed up in government offices in Donetsk and Lugansk if they clear the seized buildings but the activists refused to climb down. On Thursday they received reinforcements from local coal mines.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia has no plans to annex Ukraine’s southeastern regions.

“We do not and cannot have such ambitions. This would go against Russia’s fundamental interests,” Mr Lavrov said in a TV interview on Friday.

“We want Ukraine to be united in its current borders, but with full respect for its regions. We call it federation, but we do not insist on using this term. The main thing for Ukraine is to carry out a constitutional reform with the participation of all its regions and to hold presidential, parliamentary and local elections on this basis, so that the regions elect their own legislatures and governors,” the Russian Foreign Minister said.

He expressed the hope that Mr. Yatsenyuk will honour his promise of reforms.

“It’s a good thing Yatsenyuk has visited the southeast… He should have done it much earlier, as we’ve been telling your American and European partners,” Mr Lavrov said.

Ukraine commandos refuse to storm buildings

 

Members of the self-proclaimed government called 'Donetsk Republic' vote during their meeting at the regional administration building that they had seized earlier in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Thursday. Photo:AP

Ukraine’s leaders appear to have backed away from threats to use force to crush pro-Russian protests in the country’s eastern regions amid reports that elite anti-terror commandos refused to storm the buildings seized by the protesters.

The deadline set by Kiev for the protesters to free the occupied government offices in Donetsk and Lugansk expired on Friday morning, with security forces making no attempt to storm the buildings. Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov had earlier pledged to clear the buildings within 48 hours.

According to Ukrainian media reports, the elite Alfa counter-terrorism group has refused to attack the protesters.

“We will act strictly according to law,” Alfa commandos were reported to have said. “Our group has been set up to free hostages and combat terrorism.”

Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk promised to grant more powers to the regions, including the right to hold local referendums.

“In the framework of the changed constitution, we will be able to satisfy specific requests of every single region,” Mr Yatsenyuk said at a meeting with the governors and other officials of Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions in Donetsk on Friday.

Mr Yatsenyuk did not spell out details of the proposed reforms and his vague promise is unlikely to mollify the protesters. The Ukrainian government plans to unveil the new constitution on April 15, but it has flatly rejected the protesters’ demand of federalisation of Ukraine.

Mr Yatsenyuk refused to meet with the protesters during his one-day visit to Donetsk on Friday but promised to have a televised call-in conference with its residents.

The protesters in Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkiv initially demanded self-rule for Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, but after Kiev rejected their demands, they vowed to split from Ukraine and join Russia through a referendum similar to the one held in Crimea last month.

Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov has offered immunity from prosecution for hundreds of protesters holed up in government offices in Donetsk and Lugansk if they clear the seized buildings but the activists refused to climb down. On Thursday they received reinforcements from local coal mines.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia has no plans to annex Ukraine’s southeastern regions.

“We do not and cannot have such ambitions. This would go against Russia’s fundamental interests,” Mr Lavrov said in a TV interview on Friday.

“We want Ukraine to be united in its current borders, but with full respect for its regions. We call it federation, but we do not insist on using this term. The main thing for Ukraine is to carry out a constitutional reform with the participation of all its regions and to hold presidential, parliamentary and local elections on this basis, so that the regions elect their own legislatures and governors,” the Russian Foreign Minister said.

He expressed the hope that Mr. Yatsenyuk will honour his promise of reforms.

“It’s a good thing Yatsenyuk has visited the southeast… He should have done it much earlier, as we’ve been telling your American and European partners,” Mr Lavrov said.

Ukraine commandos refuse to storm buildings

LAS VEGAS: An Arizona woman accused of throwing a shoe some 60 feet (18 meters) toward Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared aware during questioning by U.S. Secret Service agents of the allegation against her, authorities said Friday.

Alison Michelle Ernst, 36, was given a misdemeanor disorderly conduct summons and freed after she was booked at the Clark County jail, according to a Las Vegas police arrest report.

"Ms. Ernst appeared to be in an agitated state but aware of what she had just done," the report said.

Ernst could face up to a year in the county lockup if she is convicted of violating a county ordinance during the Thursday incident at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino.

She is accused of bypassing security and walking quickly toward a rope line about six rows from the front of a conference audience.

Police say she reached into a purse, removed the shoe and threw it overhand toward the stage.

Clinton ducked and wasn´t struck. She appeared startled but quickly cracked a couple of jokes before continuing her keynote speech to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.

The audience applauded. Ernst was ushered by security guards out of the ballroom with her hands in the air and sat calmly afterward on a sofa in a hallway.

She wore a blonde wig, blue dress and thong sandals. She told an Associated Press reporter she threw a shoe and dropped some papers but did not identify herself or explain the action.

Security officers ushered reporters and photographers away. A jail booking photo, taken later, shows Ernst with short brown hair.

She couldn´t immediately be reached Friday. It wasn´t clear if she had a lawyer.Brian Spellacy, Secret Service supervisory special agent in Las Vegas, said an orange and black athletic shoe was recovered from the stage.

Clinton has Secret Service protection because former presidents and their spouses are covered for their lifetime, Spellacy said.

Authorities said Ernst wasn´t a credentialed conference attendee and wasn´t supposed to have been in the ballroom, which had more than 1,000 people.

Obama warns Kremlin of 'costs' as 'several hundred' pro-Russian troops storm Crimea

"The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine," declares US President Barack Obama. PHOTO: FILE

SIMFEROPOL: Pro-Russian forces tightened their grip on airports and strategic sites on Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula Friday despite US President Barack Obama warning Moscow not to intervene.
Heavily armed troops in uniforms with no national insignia took up positions around government buildings and the airport in Simferopol, as Ukrainian officials accused Russia of “naked aggression.”
In Washington, a US defence official said Moscow is thought to have already sent “several hundred” more troops into the Russian-speaking region, where it already has a major military base.
In a hastily scheduled White House statement with echoes of former Cold War stand-offs, Obama warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to respect Ukraine’s independence.
“The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine,” he declared.
The US leader did not elaborate on the nature of these costs but, in an early sign of anger, aides warned that Obama might skip June’s G8 summit in Russia’s Sochi if the Kremlin’s troops enter Ukraine.
Ukraine’s interim president Oleksandr Turchynov, who took power after Russian-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych fled last week, directly addressed the Kremlin leader from Kiev.
“I personally appeal to President Putin to immediately stop military provocation and to withdraw from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea… It’s a naked aggression against Ukraine,” he said.
In New York, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis, but the talks broke up without a formal statement.
Council president Raimonda Murmokaite was able to say only that members expressed support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and for “inclusive political dialogue”.
‘Naked aggression’
A spokesperson for Russia’s Crimea-based Black Sea Fleet denied its forces were involved, but uniformed men with assault rifles, body armour and helmets were in evidence around Simferopol.
They sealed off the airport, where civilian flights were halted, and set up barricades to protect Crimea’s autonomous government.
Putin this week stoked concerns that Moscow might use its military might to sway the outcome of the standoff by ordering snap combat drills near the border involving 150,000 troops and nearly 900 tanks.
Crimea was attached to Ukraine in 1954 when both Russia and its smaller neighbour were part of the Soviet Union, and most of the population are still ethnic Russians.
Civilian defence groups have sprung up in Crimea since the street uprising in Kiev that last week ousted the pro-Russian president and installed a Western-leaning interim government.
They have torn down some Ukrainian flags, and are angrily preparing for what they fear may be an intervention by extremists from mainly Ukrainian-speaking western Ukraine.
“We’re here to prevent fascists or radicals from western Ukraine from coming here by plane,” said Vladimir, a 46-year-old former military officer in a group outside Simferopol airport.
Witnesses reported seeing armoured personnel carriers rumble across Simferopol’s main streets and at least eight cargo planes bearing the Russian flag landing at a Ukrainian military air base.
A senior official in Crimea, Sergiy Kunitsyn, told local television that 13 Russian cargo planes carrying nearly 2,000 troops had landed at the base by Friday night.
Yanukovych, meanwhile, defiantly surfaced in Russia after a week in hiding, and bitterly attacked the new authorities in Kiev.
The untested new team – made up in part of leaders of the protests that gripped Kiev for three months – is grappling not only with growing separatism fears but also the risk of a devastating debt default.
But IMF chief Christine Lagarde said there was no need to panic, playing down reports that Ukraine is in urgent need of up to $15 billion to maintain government payments.
Ukraine’s plunging currency rebounded from record lows after Lagarde moved to send a fact-finding mission to Kiev that could open the way for the quick release of about $2.5 billion in EU and US loans.
Yanukovych dramatically ended guesswork about his whereabouts by walking out on stage before 200 reporters in Rostov-on-Don – a Russian industrial city less than two hours’ drive from the border with Ukraine.
The 63-year-old vowed to continue to fight for Ukraine’s future but said he would boycott a snap presidential poll that the new Western-backed leadership has set for May 25.
He called the new leadership “young neo-fascists” and blamed the “irresponsible policies” of the West for the escalating crisis.
Yanukovych also revealed he had spoken by phone with – but had not met – Putin and expressed surprise that his ally had not yet spoken out on Ukraine since his flight.
The Kremlin issued a brief statement after Yanukovych’s comments, saying Putin had stressed in phone talks with EU leaders “the extreme importance of not allowing a further escalation of violence.”
Ukraine’s bloodiest crisis since independence in 1991 erupted in November when Yanukovych rejected a deal to open the door to eventual EU membership in favour of closer ties with Russia.
Swiss bank accounts
Switzerland meanwhile said it was freezing the assets of 20 Ukrainian figures – including Yanukovych and his multi-millionaire son Oleksandr – and also launching a money-laundering probe.
Austria and Liechtenstein announced similar moves against Ukrainian figures whom the new authorities say stole billions of dollars in state funds.