Afghan election result delayed due to fraud probe

The investigations have delayed the process slightly but are critical to the accuracy and integrity of final results. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

KABUL: Afghanistan’s presidential election result has been delayed by two days due to fraud investigations and will now be released on Saturday, officials said Wednesday as they vowed to sift out fake votes.

Partial results from the April 5 election to succeed President Hamid Karzai have already been released, with former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah ahead of his main rival Ashraf Ghani after half of the ballots were counted.

Hundreds of serious fraud allegations are being probed in an attempt to ensure a cleaner election than in 2009, when Karzai retained power in a vote marred by rampant cheating.

“Committed to determining results that reflect the will of Afghan voters, the IEC is conducting thorough investigations of all irregularities,” the Independent Election Commission said in a press release.

“While these investigations have delayed the process slightly, they are critical to the accuracy and integrity of final results.”

The latest partial results put Abdullah in the lead with 44.4 per cent followed by former World Bank economist Ghani on 33.2 per cent.

If no candidate gains more than 50 per cent, a second-round election between the two leading names is tentatively scheduled for May 28.

The IEC said further partial results would be announced on Thursday.

Overall turnout is set to be nearly seven million voters from an estimated electorate of 13.5 million people – far above the 2009 turnout.

The incoming president will have to lead the fight against a resilient Taliban insurgency as US-led combat troops leave Afghanistan this year, and must also strengthen an economy reliant on declining aid money.

Eight candidates ran in the election, with polling day hailed a success by Afghan officials and foreign allies as the Taliban failed to launch a major attack despite threats to disrupt the vote.

US, Iran take envoy row to UN

PHOTO:FILE

UNITED NATIONS: Iran and the United States brought their simmering row over Tehran’s proposed UN ambassador to United Nations headquarters on Tuesday but failed to make any headway.

US President Barack Obama signed into law Friday a bill designed to bar Iran’s pick for UN ambassador from US soil over his links to the 1979 American embassy hostage siege.

The spat over Hamid Aboutalebi’s nomination has blown up amid a cautious thaw in relations between the US and Iran as Tehran’s new leadership seeks to negotiate a nuclear treaty with global powers.

The United States, which hosts the UN, has said it would not issue a visa to Aboutalebi because he was involved in the hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran.

Iran, which does not want to select another candidate, asked the United Nations, in New York, to weigh in.

A committee on relations with the host country held a special session but failed to reach a conclusion.

“Iran and the US presented their views on the well-known incident concerning the denial of a visa to the new permanent representative of Iran,” said Nicholas Emiliou, the Cypriot Ambassador, who led the committee.

He added that “we will continue to be in touch with the relevant delegations,” but did not give a date on any potential further meeting and will monitor the diplomatic impasse.

In 1979, dozens of American diplomats and staff were held for 444 days by radical Iranian students at the embassy in Tehran.

The protracted standoff profoundly shocked the United States and led to the severing of all diplomatic ties between the US and Iran for the past three decades.

As the host government, the United States is generally obliged to issue visas to diplomats who serve at the United Nations.

Aboutalebi, a veteran diplomat who currently heads Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s political affairs bureau, has insisted he was not part of the hostage-taking in November 1979, when a Muslim student group seized the US embassy after the overthrow of the pro-Western shah.

He has acknowledged he served a limited role as a translator for the students who took the Americans hostage.

30 local officials quit in Indian Kashmir after rebel threats

Workers carry electronic voting machines (EVM) in a trunk as Indian security personnel stand guard at an election material distribution centre ahead of the sixth phase of the general election in the southern Indian city of Chennai. PHOTO: REUTERS

SRINAGAR: At least 30 fearful local officials have resigned in Indian Kashmir after rebels killed two colleagues and issued a warning against voting this week in the country’s elections, residents said Wednesday.

Hand-written notices announcing the resignations were posted in Tral area of the southern Kashmir valley where militants shot dead two officials and another man on Monday night, residents told AFP.

Notices also appeared in local newspapers, while local imams read out other resignation letters of officials from “panchayat” or village councils at mosques in Tral town, residents and local media reports said.

“We were misled that Panchayat elections are only meant for addressing local issues. It was a mistake on our part and we apologise for that,” one of the resignation letters seen by AFP read.

In some of the resignation letters, council members dissociated themselves from political parties taking part in the current election as well as denying involvement in the election process.

Tensions are running high ahead of voting in the area on Thursday, after rebels issued a warning against taking part in the mammoth general election underway throughout India.

Separatists have called for a boycott of the staggered election which ends next month when hardline Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi and his party are expected to vault to power after a decade of Congress-party rule.

Rebels often target council members as part of their insurgency, with at least a dozen killed since elections were held in 2010 in the region for “panchayat” or village councils.

A dozen rebel groups have been fighting since 1989 for the Muslim-majority region’s independence or for merger of the territory with Pakistan. The fighting has left tens of thousands of people, mainly civilians, dead.

Police were hunting for militants who killed one village council head in Tral area of Pulwana district on Monday. They killed another senior village official and his 24-year-old son about an hour later in the same area.

Local militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen put up posters in the area on Tuesday warning residents that “voting for tyrants will entail punishment.

U-turn: Modi condemns ‘evict Muslims’ statement

BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. PHOTO: AFP

NEW DELHI: 

In an attempt to lure Muslim voters, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) frontrunner Narendra Modi on Tuesday condemned virulent anti-Muslim remarks by a one-time associate as he sought to keep attention on his core message of development and corruption-free administration.

Praveen Togadia, head of the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), faces a police investigation after a video appeared to show him urging Hindus to evict Muslims from their neighbourhoods in western Gujarat state.

Speaking in Gujarat on Saturday, Togadia is heard saying: “We (Hindus) are in a majority – we should have the courage to intimidate (Muslims) by taking the law in our own hands.”

A lawyer for Togadia said the clip was ‘false, malafide and mischievous’.

Modi, a hardliner from the Hindu nationalist BJP, said he ‘disapproved’ of the statement from Togadia, an associate when both men were in grassroots Hindu political groups in the 1980s.

“Petty statements by those claiming to be BJP’s well-wishers are deviating the campaign from the issues of development and good governance,” Modi tweeted.

“I disapprove (of) any such irresponsible statement and appeal to those making them to kindly refrain from doing so,” he added.

Religious tensions, an undercurrent for much of India’s election campaign due to Modi’s polarising past, have been the subject of discussion in recent weeks following reported comments from hardliners.

Last week, Giriraj Singh, a BJP leader in eastern Bihar state, said critics of the 63-year-old leader ‘will have to go to Pakistan’.

Modi’s closest aide, Amit Shah, was temporarily banned from campaigning after he made inflammatory remarks in a constituency torn apart by anti-Muslim riots last September, urging supporters to seek ‘revenge’ at the ballot box.

On Tuesday, another BJP ally, Shiv Sena leader Ramdas Kadam said Modi would avenge the attacks on Indian soldiers by Pakistan once he became prime minister.

“Within six months of becoming the PM, Modi will take action against those Pakistanis who beheaded our soldiers,” he said.  However, Kadam later backtracked from the statement. “I said Modi would teach a lesson to Pakistan, not destroy Pakistan,” he explained.

Members of the BJP camp fear that Kadam’s barb will send a wrong signal among its supporters in Muslim community and minorities

Afghan vote was 'fair': Iranian official

"The Afghanistan presidential election was held very fairly and with complete security,"says Ali Akbar Velayati. PHOTO: AFP

TEHRAN: A top Iranian official declared Wednesday that Afghanistan’s presidential election was held fairly in a sign of progress for the country, despite final results being delayed because of fraud allegations.

The comments by Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, came after it was announced that the April 5 vote winner will be named Saturday, two days later than planned.

With half the ballots from the election to succeed Afghan President Hamid Karzai counted, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah is ahead of his main rival Ashraf Ghani.

But serious fraud concerns are being probed to try and ensure a cleaner election than in 2009, when Karzai retained power in a poll marred by rampant cheating.

Afghan officials have vowed to sift out fake votes.

However, Velayati, who was Iran’s foreign minister between 1981 and 1997, said the poll had been well-managed.

“The Afghanistan presidential election was held very fairly and with complete security,” he told Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

“It was part of other positive developments in that country,” he added.

Iran has the second-highest population of Afghan refugees after Pakistan, with 840,000 officially registered, according to the United Nations.

Iranian authorities say a further one million Afghan refugees are in the country illegally.

Palestinians in new unity push as Israel talks teeter

Amazon Will Now Offer Old HBO Content For Prime Customers

Amazon and HBO just announced a licensing agreement that will let Amazon Prime members watch HBO content. 

The first wave of HBO content — which includes old shows like "The Wire" and "The Sopranos" — will arrive on Prime Instant Video by May 21, with other, more recent shows like "Girls" and "Newsroom" rolling out later, about three years after they aired on HBO (sorry, no "Game Of Thrones"). 

HBO GO, the company's streaming service that gives access to its vast catalogue of new and old shows and movies, will also be available on Amazon's Fire TV by the end of the year. 

Last month, Amazon raised the price of its Prime memberships from $79 to $99. Prime members get unlimited free two-day shipping on many items as well as access to Amazon Instant Video. Besides this huge influx of HBO content, Amazon is also releasing a handful of original shows this year.

By beefing up its video content, Amazon is making Prime subscriptions more attractive to potential members, and the more people who sign up for Prime, the better for Amazon (people with Prime spend almost double the amount on Amazon as non-members). This news also comes hot on the heels of the release of Amazon's Fire TV streaming video box. The box costs $99.99, and Amazon likely hopes that adding more "free" content will persuade people to ditch AppleTV or Roku to buy it. 

Does this new deal mean bad news for Netflix? Not necessarily. While the partnership makes Amazon Instant Video's new catalog very enticing for binge-watchers and Amazon Prime an even better deal for members, Netflix has done a great job of creating original content that viewers love and wouldn't want to give up, like "Orange Is The New Black" and "House Of Cards." Because Amazon Prime offers much more than just TV and Netflix is still relatively inexpensive, it doesn't have to be a case of either/or. 

Here's the press release: 

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced a content licensing agreement with HBO, making Prime Instant Video the exclusive online-only subscription home for select HBO programming. The collection includes award-winning shows such as The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Big Love, Deadwood, Eastbound & Down, Family Tree, Enlightened, Treme, early seasons of Boardwalk Empireand True Blood, as well as mini-series like Band of Brothers, John Adams and more. Previous seasons of other HBO shows, such as Girls, The Newsroom and Veep will become available over the course of the multi-year agreement, approximately three years after airing on HBO.  The first wave of content will arrive on Prime Instant Video May 21. This is the first time that HBO programming has been licensed to an online-only subscription streaming service. This programming will remain on all HBO platforms.

In addition, HBO GO will become available on Fire TV, targeting a launch by year-end. HBO GO is HBO’s authenticated streaming service offering subscribers instant access to over 1,700 titles online including every episode of new and classic HBO series, as well as HBO original films, miniseries, sports, documentaries, specials and a wide selection of blockbuster movies. 

“HBO has produced some of the most groundbreaking, beloved and award-winning shows in television history, with more than 115 Emmys amongst the assortment of shows coming to Prime members next month,” said Brad Beale, Director of Content Acquisition for Amazon. “HBO original content is some of the most-popular across Amazon Instant Video—our customers love watching these shows. Now Prime members can enjoy a collection of great HBO shows on an unlimited basis, at no additional cost to their Prime membership.”

“Amazon has built a wonderful service—we are excited to have our programming made available to their vast customer base and believe the exposure will create new HBO subscribers,” said Charles Schreger, President of Programming Sales for HBO. 

“As owners of our original programming, we have always sought to capitalize on that investment. Given our longstanding relationship with Amazon, we couldn’t think of a better partner to entrust with this valuable collection,” said Glenn Whitehead, Executive Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs, who along with Schreger headed up HBO’s negotiating team. “We’re also excited to bring HBO GO to Amazon’s Fire TV. The features like unified voice search will provide a compelling experience for HBO customers.  

Beginning May 21, Amazon Prime members will have unlimited streaming access to:

-          All seasons of revered classics such as The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Rome and Six Feet Under, and of recent favorites such as Eastbound & Down, Enlightened and Flight of the Conchords

-          Epic miniseries, including Angels in America, Band of Brothers, John Adams, The Pacific and Parade’s End

-          Select seasons of current series such as Boardwalk Empire, Treme and True Blood

-          Hit original movies like Game Change, Too Big To Fail and You Don’t Know Jack

-          Pedigreed documentaries including the Autopsy and Iceman series, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib and When the Levees Broke

-          Hilarious original comedy specials from Lewis Black, Ellen DeGeneres, Louis CK and Bill Maher 

The multi-year deal will bring additional seasons of the current series named above, along with early seasons of other series like Girls, The Newsroom and Veep to Prime members over the life of the deal. 

Earlier this month, Amazon introduced Fire TV, a tiny box that plugs into your HDTV for easy and instant access to Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, SHOWTIME, low-cost video rentals, and much more. Fire TV also brings photos, music, and games to the living room. Meet Amazon Fire TV at www.amazon.com/FireTV.

 Prime Instant Video Exclusives

Prime Instant Video is the exclusive online-only subscription home for PBS series Downton Abbey and Mr. Selfridge, the CBS summer blockbuster series Under the Dome and Extant, and other hit TV series including 24,Veronica Mars, Orphan Black, The Americans, Justified, Falling Skies, Grimm, Workaholics, Suits and Covert Affairs. Prime Instant Video also offers an exclusive collection of kids shows from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. that customers won’t find on any other online-only subscription service, including favorites like SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Team Umizoomi, Blue’s Clues, and The Bubble Guppies. Airing now, Amazon’s first original series Alpha House and Betas can be found exclusively on Prime Instant Video as well. To sign up for Amazon Prime Instant Video, visit www.amazon.com/primeinstantvideo.

Amazon Prime members will be able to enjoy the episodes on hundreds of compatible Amazon Instant Video devices, including Fire TV, Kindle Fire HDX, Kindle Fire HD, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Roku, Xbox, PlayStation and the Wii. Prime Instant Video is the only U.S. online subscription streaming service that enables offline viewing—on a plane, on vacation, and anywhere else where you may not have Wi-Fi. Customers can download tens of thousands of Prime Instant Video titles to their new Kindle Fire HD or Kindle Fire HDX.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-hbo-2014-4#ixzz2ziwAxNzc