Thursday, June 19, 2014
Afghan candidate alleges vote fraud
KABUL, Afghanistan
Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah demanded Wednesday that Afghan electoral authorities stop counting ballots from a weekend runoff vote, citing new allegations of widespread fraud. The election commission refused and appealed to all sides to await final results.
The discord set the stage for a showdown that could threaten Afghanistan’s first peaceful transfer of authority.
Abdullah, a onetime aide to a famed warlord during the Afghan anti-Soviet guerrilla campaign, said monitors deployed by his campaign to the polls had recorded massive ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities. He also announced his team was suspending relations with the Independent Election Commission, accusing it of interfering in the vote and inflating turnout figures.
Suspect in killing of agent is extradited
TUCSON, Ariz.
One of the five men accused in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent whose death exposed a botched federal gun sting has been extradited to the United States.
Jesus Leonel Sanchez-Meza, also known as Lionel Portillo-Meza, was arraigned in federal court in Tucson on Wednesday. He was flown in from Mexico on Tuesday.
Sanchez-Meza is only the second of the suspects to face justice in the U.S. in the slaying of Brian Terry, who was killed after a shootout with the men near the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 14, 2010.
Black bear, cubs steal lunch boxes
ANCHORAGE, Alaska
Witnesses say a black bear and two cubs that have been frequenting midtown Anchorage stole several lunch boxes at a children’s day camp on the Alaska Pacific University campus.
Katie Adrian, program manager at the summer program run by Camp Fire USA, tells The Anchorage Daily News the bears wandered onto the school’s soccer fields Monday, soon after the campers ate lunch at picnic tables and left behind some snacks. The bears carried a few lunch boxes into the woods and dug in.
The bears weren’t aggressive, and camp staff corralled the kids. After this, she says the campers will eat elsewhere and store their food indoors.
Judge rejects claim against mandate
MOBILE, Ala.
A federal judge in Alabama has dismissed a Catholic broadcaster’s legal claim that requiring employers to include contraception in their health care coverage is unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Callie Granade acted Wednesday on the lawsuit filed by the Eternal Word Television Network, which has studios in a Birmingham suburb.
The broadcasting group said it will appeal.
Dozens of church-related organizations have filed suit over the law across the country. Like those groups, EWTN contends the government is violating its rights by requiring employers to provide health care coverage that includes contraception.
Abbas defends policy with Israel
RAMALLAH, West Bank
The Palestinian president Wednesday defended his policy of security cooperation with Israel in a politically risky speech to senior Arab officials, even as Israeli forces escalated their most- extensive West Bank crackdown in years in response to the apparent abduction of three Israeli teenagers.
President Mahmoud Abbas’ comments quickly were condemned at home and shined a light on one of his most controversial policies — working with the Israeli military to keep the Hamas militant group, which Israel accuses of carrying out the kidnapping, in check.
Associated Press