U.S. POW's dad to Taliban: 'Let there be peace'

The father of the only American POW in Afghanistan sent a message to his son's Taliban captors on Saturday: "After 12 years, let there be peace. Can we push this forward and make it happen?"

And he sent a message to his son: "I will not leave you on the battlefield. You are not forgotten."
Updates about Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's case have been sparse sincehe was captured nearly four years ago after finishing a guard shift at a combat outpost.
Family members have remained reticent for fear of jeopardizing his safety.
But the 27-year-old soldier's parents spoke out at a rally in home state of Idaho on Saturday, just days after U.S. authorities said discussion of a possible prisoner exchange with the Taliban could be on the table during upcoming talks.
"We are feeling optimistic this week," mother Jani Bergdahl said. "So many of you have come from far away, and we appreciate the sacrifices you made to make this possible."
More than 1,000 people were in the crowd, including hundreds of war veterans who rode motorcycles into this town.
Throughout the event, they chanted, "Bring Bowe Home."
Local politicians, state senators and police officials also spoke at the event.
"We hope he will see this and know of you," his mother told the crowd. Then, she sent a message to her son, "We love you and are eagerly awaiting your return home."
In a statement released earlier this week through a family spokesman, the soldier's parents said they were encouraged by word that upcoming negotiations might lead to their son's freedom.
"That is encouraging news, especially after not much encouraging news over the past four years," Army Col. Tim Marsano said, adding that the Bergdahls have been talking with military and government agencies. "They know their son has not been forgotten. My brothers and sisters in uniform know we won't rest until Bowe Bergdahl is safely back with his family."
At Saturday's rally, father Bob Bergdahl sported a long beard, which he has grown out since his son's capture as a sign of solidarity. And he spoke briefly in Pashto, a language that he's studied during his son's captivity. He offered a message that he said was meant for the Taliban.
"May the peace of God and blessings of God be upon you," he said. "After 12 years, let there be peace. Can we push this forward and make this happen?"
Speaking in English, he offered a message in English that he said was meant for his son.
"Bowe, my son, if you can hear me. ... you are part of the peace process, you are part of ending the Afghan war. Have faith. Do good works. Tell the truth, and have the patience that can only come from God. We are being tested," Bob Bergdahl said.
On Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said the U.S. expects prisoner exchange to be a topic of talks with the Taliban, which are slated to take place "in the coming days," in Doha, Qatar.
No decisions have been made about transferring any Taliban detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Any such decision would have to be made with congressional approval and in accordance with U.S. law, she said.
It won't be the first time U.S. negotiators raise the issue of Bergdahl's release with the Taliban. The two sides held meetings in 2011 and 2012 that included the topic of Bergdahl's release, with sporadic discussions since then.
While the United States has been pushing for the return of Bergdahl -- captured in June 2009 in Afghanistan -- the Taliban has been pushing for the release of five of its own men from U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay. Psaki said the United States expects the Taliban will raise that issue again when the two sides meet.
In the meantime, Bergdahl's father said Saturday that he'll never stop pushing for his son's freedom.
"A father does not leave his son on the battlefield. I live in Afghanistan, my phone on Afghan time," he said. "I will not leave you on the battlefield. You are not forgotten. You will not be forgotten. We pray soon you will come home."

Police: Gunmen storm hotel in Pakistan, kill 9 foreigners

Gunmen burst into a hotel in northern Pakistan early Sunday, killing nine foreigners, the interior minister said.
The victims were six Ukrainians and three Chinese, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told parliament on Sunday. He said a Chinese man managed to escape and is safe.
"The attackers abducted two local guides and demanded they take them to where some foreigners are staying to carry out the attack," Khan said. "One (guide) was then killed, another escaped and has been detained by police for questioning."
Earlier, officials said 10 foreigners had been killed. Authorities said the death toll changed due to difficult communications and the area's remote location.
The attack took place between midnight and 1 a.m., said Ali Sher, a senior police official. "This was not a big hotel, just a small log/hut type lodge, so no major security," he added.
He said the violence occurred in Fairy Meadows in Gilgit Baltistan province. It's unclear how many attackers were at the scene.
Pakistani state TV reported that the interior minister has suspended the provincial chief secretary and the inspector general of police.
A spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan said an affiliated group carried out the attack.
The Pakistan Taliban targeted the foreigners because the international community supports drone strikes, said spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan.
The attack was also to avenge the killing of Emir Wali-ur-Rehman in a drone strike in Waziristan last month, the spokesman said.
Rehman was the Pakistan Taliban's No. 2 leader.

Singapore gets some relief from haze of choking fumes

Singapore breathed a sigh of relief Sunday as changing wind patterns created a pocket of clearer skies from a haze of choking fumes.
Pollution levels measured by the Singaporean government dipped sharply after all-time record levels hit Friday. The fumes were blamed on plantation fires in neighboring Indonesia.
Small pockets of people ventured back out to the streets in neighborhoods such as Ang Mo Kio, but many donned filter masks to help with the foul-smelling haze.
 Masks quickly sold out at stores when the pollution hit last week. But by Sunday, officials handed out emergency supplies of free masks at community centers.
Although haze levels have receded, officials warned that the smoke could make a strong comeback in the coming days, and may linger for months.
That could have serious health implications, said Philip Eng, a professor of respiratory medicine at Mt. Elizabeth Medical Centre.
"In my patients, I have seen an increase (in consultations) by about 30% or so," he said, particularly among older people with chronic conditions.
"But we are still in early days," he said. "If this thing drags on for a month, I won't be surprised if more people get hospitalized."
Many usually crowded cafes along the waterfront sat empty Saturday, with too few customers to stay open. But a scattering of tourists braved the haze to take photos at the city's iconic Merlion fountain.
The smell of the burning peat and wood was distinct.
"We're used to fog, but this was a real 'pea souper'," Briton expatriate Tom Fairburn said. "It smells like a pile of burning tires next to a bonfire, not pleasant."
It's hard to predict the final economic impact of the haze on Singapore's economy. One Asia-Pacific brokerage firm put the potential toll in the hundreds of millions.
CLSA said that the economy had taken a $300 million-hit in lost tourist income, closed offices and construction downtime in 1997 -- the previous all-time high in pollution. The current situation could be far more costly, it said.
Transport officials warned ships to be extra vigilant in the teeming straits between Singapore and Sumatra because the haze made it difficult to see other boats.
It is easy to see the neighboring island from the beaches in Singapore. But the view was not as clear in the past few days, with ships peeking in and out of the thick haze Saturday.
Local shop owners felt the crunch.
In one beach side shop, the owner looked forlornly into the horizon as bikes that would normally be rented out stood in stacks.

Brazil's president warns protesters against violence

In the aftermath of more than one million people taking to the streets in anti-government demonstrations, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff vowed Friday to talk with protest leaders but warned the government would not tolerate violence.
The warning came amid sporadic reports of looting, people breaking into public buildings and protesters setting fires during demonstrations that appeared to take the government by surprise this week.
The movement has brought together Brazilians angered by a government they say is shortchanging its duties to its citizens while spending lavishly on events such as the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.
"We cannot live with this violence," Rousseff said in a nationally televised address. She called on security forces to work within the framework of the country's law to prevent violence and vandalism.

Rousseff said she planned to meet with leaders of the protest movement, but did not publicly detail when or where the meetings would take place. Her remarks followed an emergency meeting with her Cabinet.
While most of the protests have remained peaceful, there have been reports of sporadic violence that have resulted in two deaths.
On Friday, state-run Agencia Brasil reported an employee of the city of Belem, who as cleaning the streets near the mayor's office, died after being "shocked" by clashes between police and protesters.
The news agency did not say how the woman died, but reported that she suffered from hypertension and was transported to a hospital, where she died Friday morning.
Another protest-related casualty reportedly occurred Thursday in Sao Paulo state, where a young man was run over by an SUV at an intersection during a demonstration, state police said.
Even after various state governments repealed the public transportation fare hikes that spurred the discontent, more than a million people took to the streets across the country on Thursday.
Until now, the government's position was to support the protests as peaceful freedom of expression, and it is unclear whether there will be a shift as violent incidents mount and the unrest continues.
"It's a very delicate balance, and it's not very simple," Roberto Jaguaribe, Brazil's ambassador to the United Kingdom, told CNN.
The government wants to protect protesters and property, while not being overbearing with its response.
It's presumptuous, Jaguaribe said, to assume that the government understands what is taking place on the streets and the forces behind it.
Protesters say they want to see more expenditures on education and health care, changes that cannot be done quickly. The majority of marchers are young and well-educated.
"One of the problems is that the normal democratic channels that are established are not followed by these people," Jaguaribe said. "They don't feel represented adequately by these channels. They want to to create something new."
"We have to understand that and see how it goes," he said.
The mood in Sao Paulo, one of the centers of the protests, was tense Friday. Many were anxious to hear a message from Rousseff.
The protests come amid the soccer Confederations Cup tournament, a friendly array of matches, in which the host country, Brazil, plays against a small group of national teams from around the globe. The cup serves as a precursor to the World Cup.

Edward Snowden leaves Hong Kong, aided by WikiLeaks

Edward Snowden left Hong Kong on Sunday for a third country "through a lawful and normal channel," the Hong Kong government said.
And he left with the help of WikiLeaks, who assisted with Snowden's "political asylum in a democratic country, travel papers (and) safe exit from Hong Kong." the group said on Twitter.
Snowden took off not long after the United States asked Hong Kong to extradite the man who leaked top-secret details about U.S. surveillance programs.
The U.S. government had also asked Hong Kong to issue a provisional arrest warrant for Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) said.
But officials said there were problems with the request.
"Since the documents provided by the U.S. government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law, the HKSAR government has requested the U.S. government to provide additional information," the Hong Kong government said in a statement. "... As the HKSAR government has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."
The statement did not say what additional information Hong Kong needed from the United States, nor did it say where Snowden was headed.
U.S. federal prosecutors have charged Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person.
The latter two allegations amount to espionage under the federal Espionage Act.
News of Snowden's departure followed a day of intense speculation over whether Hong Kong would extradite Snowden to the United States.
Hong Kong Executive Council member Regina Ip said authorities could arrest Snowden if his actions qualify as criminal under Hong Kong law, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported earlier Sunday. The executive council decides on policy matters for Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China.
But if the charges against him are deemed to be political in nature, the 30-year-old would not be extradited, Ip told Xinhua.
How the case unfolded
Snowden has admitted in interviews he was the source behind the leaking of classified documents about the NSA's surveillance programs. Those leaks were the basis of reports in Britain's Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post this month. The Guardian revealed Snowden's identify at his request.
The documents revealed the existence of the programs that collect records of domestic telephone calls in the United States and monitor the Internet activity of overseas residents.
The revelation of the leaks rocked the Obama administration and U.S. intelligence community, raising questions about secret operations of the NSA and whether the agency was infringing on American civil liberties.
Obama, top legislators and national security officials defend the surveillance programs as necessary to combat terrorism and argue that some privacy must be sacrificed in a balanced approach.
They say the law allows collection of metadata, such as the time and numbers of phone calls, and that a special federal court must approve accessing the content -- listening to the call itself.
In interviews this month, Snowden said he fled with the classified documents after taking a leave of absence from his job as an intelligence analyst for NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamiliton. The company has since fired him.
A series of blog posts this week purportedly by Snowden said he leaked classified details about U.S. surveillance programs because President Barack Obama worsened "abusive" practices, instead of curtailing them as he promised as a candidate.
Snowden said that he had to get out of the United States before the leaks were published by the Guardian and The Washington Post to avoid being targeted by the government.
In an interview published Sunday, Snowden told the South China Morning Post that the U.S. government is hacking Chinese mobile phone companies to steal millions of text messages. The Guardian also reported Snowden's latest claims.
Snowden had earlier told the Post that U.S. intelligence agents have been hacking computer networks around the world, including in China, for years.
Hong Kong has requested clarification from the United States on such reports. The HKSAR said it will continue to follow up on the matter so as to protect the legal rights of the people of Hong Kong.

Romania's orphans: Young adults leave horror behind

After Romania's dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown in 1989, the world learned of the shocking conditions in which many children lived in the country's orphanages. More than 20 years later, those children are adults - and for some of them at least, life is far, far better than it was.

To arrive in Siret is to arrive at world's end.
The train from Bucharest - clatter-boom, clatter-boom, through the night - goes only as far as Suceava. An historic city mauled by the communists.
Immediately after the revolution of 1989 I travelled from here to Siret in an elusive taxi.
Now Catalin - with his own car hire firm and a canary yellow cap - waits for me at the station, ostentatiously dusting down his Vauxhall Astra.
The drive, hurtling between cabbages and corn, horses with their carts and a pink sky that crashes into the Moldavian plains, is a reminder of how far you have come from the dusty fug of Bucharest's Gara de Nord.

Siret was a quiet border town, spitting distance from the vast expanse of the USSR.

Change came abruptly in 1990, when its secret was exposed on an international stage. In a four-storey former Austrian army barracks, Romania hid its largest gulag for abandoned and disabled children, far away from the capital.
Communists did not cope well with imperfection.
In came the foreign do-gooders. The broken orphans learned to cry and Siret's entrepreneurs sourced German beer for their prestigious newcomers.
Some charities lasted the course - others moved on with the rolling tide of news but amidst the global opprobrium Siret and many of its abandoned young stayed put.
They are adults now. Few were adopted - it turns out Westerners do not cope well with imperfection either.
Eventually the barracks was abandoned.

The 100-plus adults unable to live independently were moved to another austere stone building - smaller this time with wire-nettings and landings overlooking a concrete court yard.
Dribs and drabs of foreign money have paid for new sheltered accommodation for the lucky few.

But more than 20 years after the revolution the most vulnerable adults still rock back and forth in a building that resembles a human hen coop.

When they saw us the young adults ran over, euphoric, anticipating attention, touching the camera, hugging me and the other visitors, keen for a small shard of love.
A reminder of what it used to be like when the foreigners came to play.
Two decades on and the familiar smell of sweat and wet stone walls has not gone away, nor the disturbing noises of those unable to express themselves.
But there is a key difference between now and then.
He is called Tibi Rotaru - a man with his clear kind blue eyes and a crumpled shirt. He was there to meet me.
A local lad of just 17 when the first wave of foreigners came, Tibi was roped in as a translator.
The volunteers had found their first and most-important ally.
He went on to Bucharest then Germany and Holland to study psychology, before eventually moving back to Siret and taking over responsibility for the orphans.

It is this unassuming man who has turned a small community once scarred by a legacy of child abuse into an oasis of tolerance.
The young adults now wander freely about the town, they sweep the church steps, cadge cigarettes and laugh with the locals.
You can spot the ones from the hospital, they are smaller than everyone else, even the able-bodied are hunched - despite their tender years they have haggard faces and their stumbling gait gives away the horror story that was their childhood.
Tibi shakes his head. "Their lives were stolen from them, and still they don't have what they need," he says.
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"When I first walked into the large grey building at the heart of Siret, my immediate instinct was to walk straight back out again.
"Half-naked children leapt from every direction, clawing at my clothes, and there was an overpowering smell of urine and sweat that made me want to retch."

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His young adults, and make no mistake they are his - to watch him with them is to watch a father with an unruly loving brood - now have a bright shiny new home to move into.

The undignified rows of beds will at last be history.
"Of course," Tibi reminds us, "this building has been ready for over a year, sitting empty".
He knowingly points to the crow's feet in the corners of his eyes.
"I have travelled fortnightly to Bucharest in the hope of meeting a minister.
"A lot of funds have been spent on this project, but they couldn't find the money for a boiler."
He laughs: "How can I move the young people with no heating?"
But Tibi has the patience of a man born into a system he knows he must work with, not against.
Siret's young adults have now been told their new house will finally have heating and hot water.
In a town where the winter temperature drops -30C (-22F) Tibi has once again proved that dreams can come true - so long as you are prepared to wait 23 years.

Turkey's PM Erdogan and opponents hold mass rallies

                                  Riot police again used water cannon in Istanbul's Taksim Square

Turkish activists have held a mass protest in Istanbul, hours after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rallied his own supporters in a seaside resort.

Riot police used water cannon to disperse thousands gathered in Istanbul's Taksim Square.
Mr Erdogan told about 15,000 of his supporters that the protests were led by an international conspiracy.
Protests had eased since last Saturday, when police cleared Istanbul's Gezi Park, the focal point of unrest.
 One prayer'
A small protest over plans to redevelop the park began in May.
It exploded into nationwide anti-government unrest after the police used what activists said were heavy-handed tactics.
Mr Erdogan, who has become a hate figure for the protesters, initially appeared to want to placate his opponents, but later hardened his rhetoric.
On Saturday he told thousands of his supporters in the Black Sea city of Samsun how the protesters insulted Islam.
 Let them go into mosques in their shoes, let them drink alcohol in our mosques, let them raise their hand to our headscarved girls," he said.
"One prayer from our people is enough to frustrate their plans."
He also suggested an international conspiracy with financial interests that he termed the "interest-rate lobby" was behind the protests, though he did not elaborate.

 Just the beginning'
In Taksim Square, thousands had gathered to once again call for Mr Erdogan's resignation.
They chanted slogans such as "Dictator Tayyip" and: "This is just the beginning."
But riot police pushed the crowd out of the square, and deployed water cannon to remove stragglers.
TV images showed protesters putting up little resistance, and there appeared to be little violence.
By nightfall, hundreds of protesters continued to mill around on the edges of Taksim Square, with riot police occupying the central area.
The protesters argue that Mr Erdogan, who has been in power for a decade, has become increasingly authoritarian.
Many accuse him of pursuing an Islamist agenda, threatening Turkey's secular political tradition.
However, Mr Erdogan flags up Turkey's impressive economic performance since he became leader, and the large majorities he has won in three elections.
Mr Erdogan has also eradicated the coup culture that plagued Turkish politics, though his critics say he has silenced dissent in the process.