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THE Afghan government has lashed out at US efforts to broker peace with the Taliban, suspending security talks with Washington and threatening to boycott contacts with the insurgents.
Kabul issued two strongly worded statements threatening to sabotage US efforts to start talks with the Taliban, just one day after its Islamist foes opened an office for dialogue in the tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar.
With the US-led NATO combat mission due to end next year, US officials are determined to resume talks with the Taliban after tentative contacts limited to a prisoner swap collapsed last year.
But President Hamid Karzai, who heads the US-backed Afghan government that took over in Kabul in the wake of a 2001 US-led invasion that brought down the then Taliban regime, opposes bilateral US-Taliban talks.
On Wednesday he broke off ongoing Afghan-US talks on an agreement that would allow Washington to maintain soldiers in Afghanistan after a NATO combat mission ends next year.
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A few hours later the US State Department dismissed earlier reports which said the United States had scheduled talks with the Taliban for this week.
“Reports of a meeting being scheduled or on the books aren’t accurate,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, saying Washington had “never confirmed” the date and place of any specific meeting.
“We are now in consultations with the Afghan leadership and the High Peace Council on how to move forward,” she said.
Hopes of peace were given a further reality check when the Taliban claimed an overnight rocket attack that killed four US troops at the largest US-led military base in Afghanistan.
In response to the talks suspension, US President Barack Obama said he always expected “friction” at Afghan reconciliation talks but voiced hope that “despite those challenges the process will proceed”.
But Mr Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi told AFP there was a “contradiction between what the US government says and what it does regarding Afghanistan peace talks”.
The row centred on the Taliban office calling itself the “Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan” — the formal name of its 1996-2001 government — and an entity which Kabul insists does not exist, officials said.
A follow-up statement from Kabul threatening to boycott prospective talks in Qatar unless they were “Afghan-led” exposed a wider rift and criticised the US involvement outright.
“The latest developments show that foreign hands are behind the Taliban’s Qatar office and, unless they are purely Afghan-led, the High Peace Council will not participate in talks,” it said.
The High Peace Council is the government body in charge of leading peace efforts with the Taliban.
“The opening of Taliban office in Qatar, the way it was opened and messages it contained, contradicts the guarantees given by the US to Afghanistan,” the statement said.
On Wednesday, Ms Psaki insisted the United States did not recognise the name of the Taliban’s new office, adding that US Secretary of State John Kerry had made that clear in two phone calls in the past 24 hours with Mr Karzai.
Troubled relations between Mr Karzai and Washington have degenerated into public spats in the past, but many Afghans also reacted with scepticism to news that the Taliban could be ready to enter peace talks.
“It is a historic mistake by the US government, recognising and giving legitimacy to a terror network who are killing every single day Afghan civilians, women and children,” Shukria Barakzai, a moderate female lawmaker told AFP.
Mr Karzai initially seemed to embrace the opportunities presented by the opening of the Taliban office in Qatar on Tuesday, when NATO formally transferred responsibility for security to Afghan forces.
About 100,000 foreign combat troops, 68,000 of them from the US, are due to withdraw by the end of next year.
But a continued American military presence is considered vital to support the Kabul government, hence the security talks now suspended.
The Taliban have said their new office would “open dialogue between the Taliban and the world”, but made no direct reference to peace talks.
Office spokesman Mohammed Naim said Qatar will be a mediator in negotiations. “We trust Qatar’s capability and expertise in dealing sincerely with regional conflicts,” he said.
But a divided insurgency is likely to complicate talks, amid doubts as to whether the Haqqani network of warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former CIA asset turned al-Qa’ida ally, is ready to embrace dialogue.
A Taliban spokesman in Qatar, Mohammad Sohail Shaheen, confirmed that the armed group would continue to attack US targets in Afghanistan at the same time as holding any talks.
“There is no ceasefire (with the US) now. They are attacking us and we are attacking them,” Shaheen told Al-Jazeera news channel.
Mr Obama has insisted the Taliban will have to renounce ties to al-Qa’ida, halt violence and commit to the protection of women and minorities. He has warned that NATO forces remained “fully committed” to battling al-Qa’ida.
The Taliban were driven from power by US-backed rebels after the September 11, 2001 attacks. They have since mounted a guerrilla war against the Afghan government and maintain rear bases in Pakistan.
In opening their mission, the Taliban did not explicitly renounce al-Qa’ida, which they refused to expel after the 9/11 attacks, but did vow to prevent attacks being launched from Afghanistan.
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A British national who won TV show Gladiators and became Angelina Jolie’s stunt double has become the first person to sue News Corp in the US over alleged phone-hacking.
Eunice Huthart, who triumphed in the show in 1994, filed a suit in Los Angeles accusing the now-defunct News Of The World of intercepting her voicemail messages.
The 46-year-old, who worked as Jolie’s double in films including Salt, claims her phone was hacked “as a means to get information” about the Tomb Raider star.
Ms Huthart worked as Angelina Jolie’s stunt double on several films
The complaint, filed in a federal court, seeks “maximum statutory actual damages” and punitive damages against News Corp, its News International and News Group Newspapers subsidiaries and other unidentified individuals.
It said Ms Huthart, who is godmother of Jolie’s first biological child, lost numerous phone messages in 2004 and 2005 – including some from the actress – while working on films including Mr & Mrs Smith.
Her mobile phone number, account number and personal code appeared in the notes of Glenn Mulcaire, who was imprisoned in Britain for six months in 2007 for intercepting phone messages at the request of the News Of The World.
The civil lawsuit accuses the defendants of violation of the US wiretap act, the stored communications act and invasion of privacy.
Ms Huthart, from Liverpool, said she received numerous complaints that she did not respond to phone messages in 2004 and 2005.
She also claimed she failed to get messages from her teenage daughter and that her husband suspected her of having an affair when she did not return his calls.
The case is the first known US litigation in relation to the News Corp phone-hacking scandal.
News Corp is involved in a series of civil and criminal cases in connection with alleged phone-hacking in Britain.
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The name of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s newborn baby girl has reportedly been revealed by a nurse at Los Angeles’ Cedars Sinai Hospital.
According to the Media Takeout website, Kardashian and her rapper boyfriend have named their child Kaidence Donda West – a tribute to West’s late mother Dr Donda West.
It is also a Kardashian tradition to use names starting with the letter “K”.
The star of reality TV series Keeping Up With The Kardashians, which also follows the lives of her sisters Kourtney and Khloe, gave birth to her baby girl over the weekend – about a month premature.
Khloe wrote on Twitter after the birth. “I can not even begin 2describe the miracle that is now a part of our family. Mommy/baby are healthy &resting. We appreciate all of the love,” she tweeted on Sunday.
The couple had initially kept the baby’s gender a secret
“More info will come when the time is right! Thank you all for understanding! We love you all dearly! Overwhelmed with love right now.”
Kim’s mother Kris Jenner told E! at the Daytime Emmys on Sunday that her daughter was “extremely happy and thrilled for the new baby and she’s doing great and she’s beautiful”.
Kardashian and West had initially kept the baby’s gender a secret, but the sex was revealed earlier this month during one of Kardashian’s doctor appointments on Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
West cancelled an event to promote his new album on Friday after Kardashian had complained of feeling a “little off”, entertainment website TMZ said, and was present at the birth.
Secrecy had surrounded the birth, with all of the weekend’s media reports attributed to anonymous sources.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, West said he did not like talking about his family or the arrival of his child.
“Like, this is my baby. This isn’t America’s baby,” he said
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Jill Treanor and Nicholas WattView all 63 comments
George Osborne has signalled he is ready to start the sell-off of the taxpayer’s stake in Lloyds Banking Group, but said he is to consider whether to break up the Royal Bank of Scotland, in a move that could delay the bailed out bank’s return to the private sector.
In his annual speech to City grandees at Mansion House on Wednesday night, the chancellor said he was “actively considering options for share sales in Lloyds”, in which the government has a 39% stake. Speculation is mounting that a partial sell-off of the state’s Lloyds stake could take place within months.
But he played down expectations of an immediate “Tell Sid” style privatisation, as implemented by the Conservatives during the 1980s.
Big City institutions are likely to be offered a chunk of shares first as an “institutional placement is likely to be the most effective way of managing risk and getting value”. He added: “And for later share sales, we will consider a retail offering to the general public.”
The chancellor also used his strongest language yet to signal his confidence that the economy is recovering nearly five years after the banking crisis forced taxpayers to pump £65bn into the two banks. He said: “We are moving from rescue to recovery. But while Britain has left intensive care, we still need to secure the recovery – and make sure we continue to treat the ailments that brought us low in the first place.”
Osborne told top bankers and City figures assembled at Mansion House that the move to a share sell-off was a sign of this recovery, but he refused to set out a time table. He stressed that bailed-out banks needed to support the economy through more lending to businesses and that a sell-off must generate an acceptable return for the taxpayer.
Osborne was speaking hours after the parliamentary commission on banking standards, chaired by Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie, called on the government to consider an RBS break-up and introduce new rules to jail bankers for “reckless misconduct”.
Both those ideas were embraced by the government on Wednesday. David Cameron told MPs the financial services banking reform bill would be amended to introduce a new criminal offence for reckless misconduct, while Osborne used the cover of the commission’s report to change his view on an RBS break-up. Only four months ago he had appeared to reject a break-up, but he said last night that “with hindsight I think splitting RBS into a good bank and bad bank was probably what should have happened in 2008″.
Osborne added: “That is with hindsight. I wasn’t in office. I didn’t suggest it opposition. And I’m not criticising my predecessor [Alistair Darling] who had to act quickly in a desperate situation.”
On the 81% stake in RBS, bought for £45bn in 2008 and 2009 to stop the Edinburgh-based bank collapsing, Osborne said the sale was “some way off”, despite the resignation of the bank’s boss Stephen Hester last week in a move intended to speed up a sell-off.
Any privatisation will be delayed by the review to look at whether a “bad bank” should be set up to house the Ulster Bank subsidiary and UK commercial property loans granted by RBS before its bailout.
However, Osborne took steps last night that the City regards as essential to kick off an RBS share sale by announcing talks to remove a special share – known as a dividend access share – put into RBS at the time of its bailout which prevents the bank paying dividends. It is estimated that the bank will have to pay the government as much as £2bn to buy the share.
External advisers will be appointed to conduct the three-month review of RBS.
The chancellor stressed that no more taxpayer money would be pumped into the bank. The review may also be seen as a victory for Sir Mervyn King, who has been calling for a break-up of RBS.
In his last speech as governor of the Bank of England, King told the Mansion House audience: “I welcome your announcement that Lloyds Banking Group will be returned to private hands soon. And I very much support your plans for a full review of the structure of RBS.”
Banks, he said, needed to make a real contribution to the economy: “It must be time for decisive action”.
King, who will be replaced by Canadian Mark Carney at the end of the month, said there were “clear signs of recovery in the UK, albeit modest, under way”. But he appeared far less confident about the strength of the economy, saying “the need to support the recovery remains”.
Osborne’s upbeat language on the economy was a careful attempt to avoid the ridicule that one of his predecessors, Lord Lamont, had faced in 1991 after claiming “green shoots of economic spring” were appearing in the middle of a recession.
Other aspects of the banking commission report were accepted on Wednesday. A study of competition in the small business sector was launched while Cameron also voiced support for the commission’s recommendation to force bankers to wait up to 10 years for bonuses.
At prime minister’s questions Ed Miliband seized on figures from the Office for National Statistics, which showed a 64% increase in bonuses over the past year, to attack the prime minister for giving bankers a tax cut. The cut in the top rate of income tax from 50p to 45p was introduced in April. Cameron said bonuses were a fifth of the size they were under Labour. Miliband retorted: “He cannot deny the figures I read out to him. He doesn’t even know the facts. Bonuses are up so that people can take advantage of his massive tax cut.”
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Wimbledon champion Serena Williams sparked controversy today after claiming a 16-year-old drunk girl who was raped by two high school football players “shouldn’t have put herself in that position”.
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, the world number one and 16-time Grand Slam champion, said to a reporter that the girl was “lucky”, claiming it “could have been much worse”.
After watching a news report about the case in Steubenville, Ohio, in which one of the boys photographed her naked, she conceded the players “did something stupid” but afterwards asked: “Do you think it’s fair, what they got?”
Williams, 31, who is in England for the start of Wimbledon next week, added: “I’m not blaming the girl, but if you’re a 16-year-old and you’re drunk like that, your parents should teach you – don’t take drinks from other people.”
Williams is also quoted as saying: “She’s 16, why was she that drunk where she doesn’t remember? It could have been much worse. She’s lucky. Obviously I don’t know, maybe she wasn’t a virgin, but she shouldn’t have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that’s different.”
The tennis star made the insensitive remarks, which appear in an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone magazine, with journalist Stephen Rodrick.
After sharing her remarks on the case, Rodrick said her take on it “isn’t her only rightward lean”, attributing her “no-safety-net political philosophy” to her childhood in Compton.
The pair were each sentenced to a year in juvenile detention in March for raping the teenager.
Her comments have caused a backlash on social media as fans vented their disappointment and anger on Twitter.
Jamil Smith, tweeted: “Pro tip for @serenawilliams or others discussing rape: if “I’m not blaming the girl, but…” exits your mouth, stop there. There is no ‘but.’”
Sabrina Siddiqui wrote: “Disappointing that powerful woman like Serena Williams, who many young girls look up to, blames the victim.”
Meanwhile, Kate R tweeted: “Seems Serena Williams needs a muzzle. Or compassion for a teenage rape victim?” Another wrote: “Hopefully Serena Williams realises her mess & fixes it. So many women look up to her.
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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s baby will be born in the same London hospital wing as William and he will be present at the birth, the Standard can reveal this afternoon.
Kate, 31, will give birth at the private Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, just like Diana in 1982. The due date is mid-July.
Royal doctors Marcus Setchell, 69, and the Queen’s gynecologist, Alan Farthing, 47, whose fiancée Jill Dando was murdered 13 years ago, will deliver the baby.
Informed sources say despite speculation, William — who is 31 on Friday — and his wife still do not know their unborn child’s sex and have not asked to know.
Due to changes in the law the child, who will be third in line after William and Charles, will one day be monarch irrespective of its sex. Prince Charles was the first royal to be present at the births of both of his sons.
Kate is now off royal duties and no engagements have been scheduled until further notice. William, a search and rescue pilot with the RAF, will take two weeks paternity leave.
St James’s Palace – while recognising the birth is a time of national celebration — has asked for the media to respect the privacy of the couple during this period.
Sources say the palace will only announce the birth of the baby once the Queen has been told.
And they will only announce Kate is in hospital once she has gone into labour. She is not expected to be in hospital more than a couple of days and will receive visitors.
Future British sovereigns were traditionally born at Buckingham Palace but Princess Diana changed that. She did not like the idea of giving birth in such an ornate setting so she chose the Lindo Wing.
To maintain the “theatre and tradition” of the birth of a future monarch the announcement will be made in the old fashioned way.
The baby’s sex and weight will be written on a piece of headed foolscap Buckingham Palace paper.
If the baby has any particular characteristics — William was described as a “lusty baby”— this will be written down too. A royal aide will take the notice to a waiting car outside the hospital where hundreds of press will be waiting.
It will then be taken to Buckingham Palace and placed on an easel — the same one used to announce William’s birth. The birth will also be announced on the official news wires, the Palace website and even on Twitter.
Under past rules, a girl born to William and Kate would have been styled “Lady” and not known as “Her Royal Highness” as only a first-born boy would automatically become a prince. But if they have a baby girl she will be titled “Princess”
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There’s really no way to name an album Yeezus without ruffling a few feathers, so Kanye West probably saw this coming. A lyric from one of his songs is causing controversy over its mention of Parkinson’s and now the country’s largest organization dedicated to fighting the disease, is hitting back. The American Parkinson Disease Association is upset with West, calling him “obviously ignorant” for making light of the degenerate disorder that cause extreme shaking. On the track “Out of Sight” from his new album Yeezus, ” the Chicago MC likens Parkinson’s disease to a good time: “A monster about to come alive again/Soon as I pull up and park the Benz/ We get this b—- shaking like Parkinson’s.” The APDA’s vice president Kathryn Whitford was not amused. “We find these lyrics distasteful and the product of obvious ignorance,” she said. This isnt’ the first time West has come under fire over his music and physical disorders. He was forced to slap a warning on the video for his 2010 single “All of the Lights,” after it was found to cause epileptic seizures due to the flashing lights.In regards to the Parkinson’s rhyme, ‘Ye hasn’t offered an explanation and may be too preoccupied with the new lady in his life. Kim Kardashian gave birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter, last weekend. Get ready for the BET Experience, featuring Beyoncé, Snoop Dogg, R. Kelly, Erykah Badu, Kendrick Lamar and many more. Go here for more details and info on how to buy tickets. Sign-up now to attend free film screenings, celebrity basketball games and more ,
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