Illegal prisons still exist, Afghan’s Karzai claims
KABUL, Afghanistan – President Hamid Karzai accused British and U.S. forces Tuesday of continuing to operate “illegal” detention facilities in the country, another volley in the rancorous disagreement between the Afghan leader and his foreign backers over what to do with captured Taliban suspects.
A Karzai-appointed investigation panel found six Afghan detainees at a British-run facility at Kandahar Air Field in the south and another 17 at a British detention facility at Camp Bastion in Helmand province, according to commission leader Gen. Ghalum Farooq Barakzai. He said no detainees were found at the American facilities but said they should no longer even exist.
Official reaffirms NATO commitment to allies
LISBON, Portugal – A high-ranking NATO official says Europe must change its thinking from the times when international borders were considered permanent because the “paradigm has clearly changed” after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove says NATO is responding to the new and evolving military situation in Europe by increasing military maneuvers in Poland, Romania, the Baltic region and the Black Sea.
In an appearance Tuesday in Lisbon, Breedlove reaffirmed NATO’s commitment to collective defense, where an attack on one member is deemed an attack on all.
Russian official blasts new sanctions by West
HAVANA – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday rejected U.S. and European Union sanctions that seek to pressure Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine.
Speaking in Havana, where he met with Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez, Lavrov criticized the penalties after the EU named 15 additional people subjected to sanctions earlier in the day.
“We reject the sanctions ... imposed by the United States and the European Union against all common sense, in relation to the events in Ukraine,” Lavrov said.
Flight 370 searchers examining new claim
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – The countries searching for the missing Malaysian jet are assessing a claim by a resource survey company that it found possible plane wreckage in the northern Bay of Bengal, Malaysia’s defense minister said Tuesday.
The location is far from where the underwater and surface search has been concentrated for weeks. Australia-based GeoResonance Pty Ltd. stressed that it is not certain it found the Malaysia Airlines plane missing since March 8, but it called for its findings to be investigated.
The company uses imaging, radiation chemistry and other technologies to search for gas, oil or mineral deposits.
Associated Press
