https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/19/asia/afghanistan-kabul-wedding-attack-peace-talks-analysis-intl/index.html
2019-08-19 14:21:00Z
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Ehsan Popalzai contributing reporting from Kabul
Britain's Prince Andrew on Monday tried to bat back renewed scrutiny of his longtime friendship with accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, despite new video showing the royal at the disgraced financier's Manhattan mansion in 2010 -- two years after Epstein pleaded guilty to solicitation of prostitution involving a minor and was forced to register as a sex offender.
Epstein, 66, hanged himself in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Aug. 10 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy, the New York City medical examiner said in a report released Friday. The official results followed a week of speculation about the shocking death at the federal facility in Lower Manhattan. Epstein had pleaded not guilty to the latest charges and was being held without bail at the time of his death.
In the wake of the suicide, concerning allegations about the Duke of York's relationship with Epstein have reemerged, including accusations made by Virginia Giuffre, who claims Epstein paid her to have sex with the prince nearly two decades ago, when she was 17.
EPSTEIN'S ATTORNEYS 'NOT SATISFIED' WITH AUTOPSY RESULTS THAT CONCLUDED FINANCIER DIED BY HANGING
In a statement released Monday, Buckingham Palace said Andrew was "appalled by the recent reports of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged crimes."
“His Royal Highness deplores the exploitation of any human being and the suggestion he would condone, participate in or encourage any such behavior is abhorrent,” the Palace said.
The statement was released after the Mail on Sunday newspaper obtained a Dec. 6, 2010, video appearing to show Andrew inside Epstein's opulent Manhattan home as the prince waves goodbye to a young woman.
The video was recorded two years after Epstein's controversial deal in which he pleaded guilty to a Florida state felony charge of prostitution involving a minor. The terms of the deal included generous work release conditions for Epstein.
The duke was also photographed with Epstein in 2010 in New York's Central Park after Epstein had finished serving his 18-month prison sentence. The photos sparked controversy at the time and led Andrew to quit his role as a UK trade envoy in 2011, according to Sky News.
PAINTING OF BILL CLINTON IN BLUE DRESS AND HEELS WAS INSIDE JEFFREY EPSTEIN'S NYC MANSION: REPORT
A document dump on the Friday directly preceding Epstein's death came after a federal appeals court ordered the release of court papers in a defamation lawsuit Giuffre brought against Epstein’s former girlfriend and alleged "madam," Ghislaine Maxwell. The civil case was eventually settled.
Included in the documents, however, are portions of a deposition from Johanna Sjoberg, who said she was 21 years old in 2001 when Andrew grabbed her breast at Epstein’s mansion in New York.
Sjoberg testified the incident was sparked when "someone" suggested those gathered take a picture, at which point Sjoberg said she and Maxwell went to a closet and grabbed a puppet of Andrew.
"They told us to go get on the couch,” she said in the 2016 deposition. “And so Andrew and Virginia sat on the couch, and they put the puppet, the puppet on her lap. And so then I sat on Andrew’s lap, and, I believe on my own volition, and they took the puppet’s hands and put it on Virginia’s breast, and so Andrew put his on mine."
She added: “I knew it was Prince Andrew because I knew him as a person."
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The court papers also include a photograph that has been in circulation since 2015 showing Andrew with his arm around Giuffre's bare waist in London in 2001. Giuffre said she was 17 at the time the photo was taken.
Buckingham Palace has previously denied allegations the prince had sex with Giuffre, and told The Sun that Andrew was not a party to the U.S. proceedings in which his name had appeared and denied any illegality had occurred.
“Any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue," the palace said in a statement at the time.
Epstein's death caused public and official outrage over how such a high-profile prisoner could have gone unmonitored.
Fox News' Tamara Gitt, Robert Gearty, Nicole Darrah and Samuel Chamberlain, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
An Iranian tanker detained in Gibraltar last month is again underway after a court in the British territory rejected a request from Washington to formally seize the vessel for violating international sanctions.
The Grace 1, now renamed Adrian Darya 1, was intercepted by British Royal Marines on July 4, allegedly because it was carrying its cargo of 2.1 million barrels of light crude oil to Syria.
Iran has denied the ship was headed to Syria.
As of Monday afternoon in the Mediterranean, MarineTraffic, a site that tracks shipping by monitoring vessels' on-board beacons, showed the vessel steaming slowly on an easterly course.
As the tanker departed, Iran warned the U.S. not to stop the ship as it heads toward its next stop, reportedly at the Greek port of Kalamata.
"Such an action ... would endanger shipping safety in open seas," Abbas Mousavi, a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, told reporters. "We have issued a warning through official channels, especially the Swiss embassy."
On Thursday, a court in Gibraltar lifted a detention order, concluding that Iran's pledge that the cargo wouldn't be shipped to Syria satisfied the conditions of European Union sanctions.
However, a U.S. federal court quickly issued a warrant for the vessel and its cargo to be impounded for violating U.S. sanctions. The court in the British overseas territory said on Sunday that it was bound by EU, not U.S., law and ordered the ship to be released.
Two weeks after Grace 1 was detained, Iran retaliated by seizing a U.K.-flagged ship, the Stena Impero, which is still being held, reportedly at Bandar Abbas.
It wasn't clear whether the release of the Iranian ship would elicit a quid pro quo for the Stena Impero, but Mousavi, the foreign ministry spokesman, said Tehran had made "no commitment" in exchange for the Grace 1.
Protests over the Hong Kong democracy movement have spread across the globe, with rallies taking place in the UK, France, US, Canada and Australia.
In Vancouver, Toronto and London, demonstrators were confronted by pro-Beijing rallies.
Hundreds also protested in Sydney's Belmore Park on Sunday.
Some wore facemasks due to fears of alleged Chinese state surveillance of citizens who support Hong Kong from abroad.
On Sunday hundreds of thousands of people took part in pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong despite increasingly severe warnings from the Chinese central government.
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At least 63 people have been killed and scores wounded in an explosion targeting a wedding in the Afghan capital, officials said on Sunday, the deadliest attack in Kabul this year.
The suicide blast took place on Saturday evening in the men's reception area of the Dubai City wedding hall in western Kabul, in a minority Shia neighbourhood, packed with people celebrating a marriage.
Women and children were among the casualties, interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said on Sunday.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday.
The attack came as the Taliban and the United States are trying to negotiate an agreement on the withdrawal of US forces in exchange for a Taliban commitment on security and peace talks with Afghanistan's US-backed government.
The Taliban denied any involvement, calling Saturday's blast "forbidden and unjustifiable", but Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, said that the group "cannot absolve themselves of blame, for they provide platform for terrorists".
In a series of tweets on Sunday, Ghani strongly condemned the "inhumane attack" and called for an "extraordinary security meeting to review and prevent such security lapses".
I strongly condemn the inhumane attack on the wedding hall in Kabul last night. My top priority for now is to reach out to the families of victims of this barbaric attack. On behalf of the nation I send my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who were martyred.
— Ashraf Ghani (@ashrafghani) August 18, 2019
At least 63 people have been killed in the blast targeting a wedding in Kabul [ Wakil Kohsar/AFP]
The blast occurred near the stage where musicians were and "all the youths, children and all the people who were there were killed," witness Gul Mohammad told the Associated Press news agency.
In the aftermath of the attack, images from inside the hall showed blood-stained bodies on the ground along with pieces of flesh and torn clothes, hats, sandals and bottles of mineral water.
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Al Jazeera's Charlotte Bellis, reporting from an emergency hospital in central Kabul, where many of the injured were being treated, said: "Dozens of people are waiting for any news of loved ones."
"People have been ferried here all night, the wounded and also the dead, people caught up in this explosion," she added.
One witness, Sahi, said he was at the back of the wedding hall when the explosion happened.
"It was very big," he told Al Jazeera. "I fell down where I was. When I stood up I saw tables and people were scattered everywhere. The scene was awful. My brother was injured. Most of my friends were killed."
Injured men receive treatment in the hospital after the suicide blast at the wedding hall [Mohammad Ismail/Reuters]
Ahmad Omid, another survivor, told AP that about 1,200 guests had been invited to the wedding for his father's cousin.
"I was with the groom in the other room when we heard the blast and then I couldn't find anyone. Everyone was lying all around the hall."
Aftermath of Kabul Explosion pic.twitter.com/5KhGgXQLa5
— Muslim Shirzad (@MuslimShirzad) August 17, 2019
Sunni Muslim armed groups, including the Taliban and ISIL have repeatedly attacked the Shia Hazara minorities in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan over the years.
Fighters have periodically struck Afghan weddings, which are seen as easy targets because they frequently lack rigorous security precautions.
On July 12, at least six people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a wedding ceremony in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar. ISIL, which has a growing footprint in the region, claimed the blast.
At least 40 people were killed in an explosion at a wedding hall in Kabul in November 2018.
The latest attack shattered more than a week of relative calm in the Afghan capital.
On August 7, a Taliban car bomb aimed at Afghan security forces detonated on the same road, killing 14 people and wounding 145 - most of them women, children and other civilians.
Workers inspect the damaged wedding hall after the blast in Kabul [Mohammad Ismail/Reuters]
Messages of shock poured in on Sunday. "Such acts are beyond condemnation," the European Union mission to Afghanistan said.
"This heinous and inhumane attack is indeed a crime against humanity," Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said.
The violence comes against the backdrop of talks between the US and the Taliban, who have been holding regular meetings in Qatar since October to try to end the 18-year conflict.
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Expectations are rising for a deal in which the US would start withdrawing its approximately 14,000 soldiers from Afghanistan after a war that has gone on for nearly two decades and has turned into a stalemate.
In return, the Taliban would guarantee Afghanistan would not be a sanctuary for violent groups to expand and plot new attacks, both sides have said.
The Taliban are also expected to make a commitment to open power-sharing talks with the US-backed government and agree to a ceasefire.
Omar Zakhilwal, a former adviser to President Ghani and the President's Special Representative and Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, said a peace deal with the Taliban will take away such an environment which makes it easy to carry out "terrorist activities".
"Whenever peace talks heat up, such attacks increase," he told Al Jazeera from the Afghan capital.
"This should not deter those talks," Zakhilwal added. "If anything, they should strengthen the resolve for pushing forward with the peace talks."