• by Steve Williams
• August 14

Despite the international community widely condemning Zimbabwe’s election results as fixed, President Robert Mugabe has told the opposition to “go hang” and has vowed that there will be no election re-run, sparking fears he may be preparing to amp up violence in the country in order to consolidate his power.

Speaking during a staged event to commemorate the veterans of Zimbabwe’s war for independence on Monday, 89-year-old President Mugabe said in typical bullish fashion that critiques in the West and his political opponents should commit suicide if they are not willing to accept his hotly contested re-election.

“Those who were hurt by defeat can go hang if they so wish,” Mugabe told the thousands attending the the rally. “If they die, even dogs will not sniff at their corpses. [...] Never will we go back on our victory.”

Regarding criticism from the West, Mugabe repeated this sentiment, saying, “We are delivering democracy on a platter. Will you take? We say take it or leave it. We will never go back on our victory.”

Mugabe was declared the winner of the Zimbabwe election in late July, apparently winning 61% of the vote against current Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s 34%. PM Morgan Tsvangirai has claimed that the election was rigged and, for his part, has launched a legal bid to expose what he claims was glaring abuses of the election process.

Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), lodged a legal challenge on Friday, July 9, with the Constitutional Court in an attempt to have the election rerun and break Mugabe’s 33-year rule.

Tsvangirai has previously called the election a “huge farce,” telling the press, “The credibility of this election has been marred by administrative and legal violations which affected the legitimacy of its outcome. It’s a sham election that does not reflect the will of the people.”

Indeed, Western observers noted reports of intimidation from Mugabe’s political party Zanu PF, flat out threats of violence and compromised election procedures. William Hague, Britain’s foreign secretary, said in a statement that the irregularities meant there were “serious question the credibility of the election.” Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry went so far as to to say, “The United States does not believe that the results announced today represent a credible expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people.”

The MDC alleges in its court case that it has concrete evidence of bribery, so-called “assisted voting” and manipulation of the electoral roll to favor the sitting president.

While those claims will have to be verified by the courts, they mirror concerns that were raised in 2008 when Mugabe and Tsvangirai found themselves in a similar position with Mugabe refusing to yield power despite concerns surrounding the election. It also follows plentiful evidence of President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party’s use of violence, intimidation and manipulation of the black liberation cause to further their aims and retain power since that time.

Mugabe’s appearance at the veterans commemoration gathering on Monday used much the same themes, promising that under his leadership Zimbabwe would move into the final phase of so-called ”Indigenisation.”

His previous efforts took the form of more often than not forcibly reclaiming white-owned farms, something that is a complex issue but is widely remarked on has having at least contributed in large part to Zimbabwe’s devastating economic collapse between 2000-2009 that saw starvation and extreme poverty take hold in the country.

Mugabe vowed that his administration “will do everything” to “ensure our objective of total indigenisation, empowerment, development and employment is realized.” Part of this drive will be demanding that foreign-owned companies operating in Zimbabwe be at least 51% locally owned, something that would appear counterproductive and drive away investors rather than welcome them in.

Mugabe, while currently operating as President, cannot officially be recognized as such until the MDC court case is resolved. How long that could take, and what effect this drawn out battle might have on Zimbabwe’s already fraught political situation, is not clear, but that Zimbabwe’s troubles are not yet over seems sadly all too obvious.

Read more: china, robert mugabe, ZANU-PF, zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Elections

Image credit: Al Jazeera English.

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A man watches Indian Navy submarine INS Sindhurakshak on fire in Mumbai late August 13, 2013. REUTERS/Vikalp Shah

By Sanjeev Miglani

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - - India's navy said on Friday divers had found the bodies of three sailors who were on board a submarine badly damaged by a fire and explosions and that it was unlikely any of 15 other missing crew members would be found alive.

Eighteen sailors were missing after weapons stored in the forward section of the Russian-built INS Sindhurakshak exploded in the middle of Tuesday night, causing a fire as it lay berthed in Mumbai, the navy's worst losses in more than four decades.

"The state of these bodies and conditions within the submarine leads to firm conclusion that finding any surviving personnel within the submarine is unlikely," the navy said in a statement.

"The damage and destruction within the submarine around the control room area indicates that the feasibility of locating bodies of personnel in the forward part of the submarine is also very remote as the explosion and very high temperatures, which melted steel within, would have incinerated the bodies too."

The sinking of the diesel-powered submarine is the biggest blow for the navy, both in terms of lives and the loss of a vessel, since a frigate was sunk in the 1971 war with Pakistan.

It has turned the spotlight on the navy's ageing submarine fleet even as it spends billions of rupees on aircraft carriers to counter the rising influence of the Chinese navy in the Indian Ocean.

The Sindhurakshak is a Kilo class vessel, which were built in former Soviet and later Russian shipyards for the Indian navy from 1985 to 2000. The navy has 10 of the submarines and four German HDW boats.

A defense source said the navy did not have a deep submergence rescue vehicle that other navies use to save trapped sailors, although in this case the incident occurred while it was docked and not in the deep seas.

The navy said divers couldn't enter the Sindhurakshak for more than 12 hours because of boiling water inside parts of the vessel. Access was "almost impossible due to jammed doors and hatches, distorted ladders, oily and muddy waters".

Only one diver could work at a time initially to clear a path inside the submarine. Divers are trying to reach further inside to find the remaining bodies, the navy said.

A naval board of inquiry has been ordered into how weapons went off while the vessel was berthed in the high-security Mumbai base.

Weapons on board such a submarine include torpedoes and missiles that are launched over long ranges above water.

(Editing by Paul Tait)

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt is bracing for more violence after the Muslim Brotherhood called for nationwide marches after Friday prayers and a "day of rage" to denounce this week's unprecedented bloodshed in the security forces' assault on the supporters of the country's ousted Islamist president that left more than 600 dead.

The government has authorized the use of deadly force against protesters targeting police and state institutions while the international community has urged both sides to show restraint and end the turmoil engulfing the nation.

At least 638 people were confirmed killed and nearly 4,000 wounded in Wednesday's violence, sparked when riot police backed by armored vehicles, snipers and bulldozers smashed the two sit-ins in Cairo where ousted President Mohammed Morsi's supporters had been camped out for six weeks to demand his reinstatement.

It was the deadliest day by far since the 2011 popular uprising that overthrew autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak and plunged the country into more than two years of instability.

The Health Ministry said that 288 of those killed were in the largest protest camp in Cairo's Nasr City district, while 90 others were slain in a smaller encampment in Giza, near Cairo University. Others died in clashes that broke out between Morsi's supporters and security forces or anti-Morsi protesters elsewhere in the Egyptian capital and other cities.

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A man sifts through debris at the burnt Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo's Nasr City, Egypt, Thursd …

Violence spread on Thursday, with government buildings set afire, policemen gunned down and scores of Christian churches attacked. An angry crowd stormed the governor's office in Giza, the city next to Cairo that is home to the pyramids. State TV blamed Morsi's supporters for the arson and broadcast footage showing firefighters evacuating employees from the larger building of Giza's government offices.

As turmoil spread, the Interior Ministry authorized the use of deadly force against protesters targeting police and state institutions. Egypt's military-backed government also pledged to confront "terrorist actions and sabotage" allegedly carried out by Muslim Brotherhood members.

The Brotherhood, trying to regroup after the assault on its encampments and the arrest of many of its leaders, called for a mass rally Friday in a challenge to the government's declaration of a monthlong state of emergency and a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

Also Thursday, the U.N. Security Council urged both the Egyptian government and the Muslim Brotherhood to exercise "maximum restraint" and work toward national reconciliation.

In Cairo, weeping relatives filled the mosque-turned-morgue near the gutted pro-Morsi protest camp in Nasr City, spilled into the courtyard and the streets. Inside, the names of the dead were scribbled on white sheets covering the bodies, some of them charred, and a list with 265 names was plastered on the wall. Heat made the stench from the corpses almost unbearable as the ice brought in to chill the bodies melted and household fans offered little relief.

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Egyptian firefighters battle flames at the Giza governorate building that was stormed and torched by …

Many people complained that authorities were preventing them from obtaining permits to bury their dead, although the Muslim Brotherhood announced that several funerals had been held Thursday.

A woman cradled the head of a slain man in her lap, fanning it with a paper fan. Nearby, an anguished man shouted, "God take revenge on you el-Sissi!" a reference to the powerful military chief, Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi.

Slumped over the body of his brother, Ihab el-Sayyed said the 24-year-old was getting ready for his wedding next week. "Last time I heard his voice was an hour or two before I heard of his death," he said, choking back tears.

Elsewhere on Thursday, a mass funeral was held in Cairo for some of the 43 security troops authorities said were killed in Wednesday's clashes. Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police, led the mourners. A police band played solemn music as fire engines bore the coffins draped in white, red and black Egyptian flags in a funeral procession.

Wednesday's deadly crackdown drew widespread condemnation from the Muslim world and the West.

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Egyptian relatives and colleagues of policemen who were killed during Wednesday's clashes carry coff …

President Barack Obama canceled joint U.S.-Egypt military exercises scheduled for next month, although he gave no indication that the U.S. planned to cut off its $1.3 billion in annual military aid to the country. The U.S. administration has avoided declaring Morsi's ouster a coup, which would force it to suspend the military aid.

"While we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back," Obama said, speaking from his weeklong vacation in Massachusetts.

Egypt's interim government issued a late night statement saying the country is facing "terrorist actions targeting government and vital institutions" by "violent militant groups." The statement expressed "sadness" for the killings of Egyptians and pledged to work on restoring law and order.

The statement also warned that Obama's position "while it's not based on facts can empower the violent militant groups and encourage them in its anti-stability discourse."

The biennial Bright Star maneuvers, long a centerpiece of the deep ties between the U.S. and Egyptian militaries, have not been held since 2009, as Egypt grappled with the fallout from the revolution that ousted Mubarak. Morsi, a member of the Brotherhood, was elected president in 2012 during Egypt's first democratic elections.

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People try to identify bodies of supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi at the El-Iman mosque …

Attackers also set fire to churches and police stations across the country for a second day Thursday.

In the country's second-largest city of Alexandria, Islamist protesters exchanged gunfire with an anti-Morsi rally, leaving scores injured, witnesses and security officials said. Attempts to storm police stations in the southern city of Assiut and northern Sinai city of el-Arish left at least six policemen dead and others injured.

Ishaq Ibrahim of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said his group had documented at least 39 cases of violence against churches, monasteries, Coptic schools and shops in different parts of the country on Wednesday.

Fearful of more violence Friday, some main streets were closed and people in many neighborhoods set up cement blocks and metal barricades. Residents checked IDs in scenes reminiscent of the 2011 revolution when vigilante-style groups set up neighborhood watches to prevent looting and other attacks.

The turmoil is the latest chapter in a bitter standoff between Morsi's supporters and the interim leadership that took over the Arab world's most populous country following a July 3 coup. The military ouster came after millions of Egyptians took to the streets to demand Morsi step down, accusing him of giving the Brotherhood undue influence and failing to implement vital reforms or bolster the ailing economy.

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Egyptian police officers participate in a funeral where coffins are seen covered with national flags …

Morsi has been held at an undisclosed location ever since. Other Brotherhood leaders, including several arrested Wednesday, have been charged with inciting violence or conspiring in the killing of protesters.

The Brotherhood has spent most of its 85 years as an outlawed group or enduring crackdowns by successive governments. The latest developments could prompt the authorities to once again declare it an illegal group and force it to go underground.

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A general view of the large former monitoring base of the U.S. intelligence organization National Security Agency (NSA) is pictured during sunrise in Bad Aibling south of Munich, August 6, 2013. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since 2008, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing an internal audit and other top-secret documents.

Most of the infractions involved unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by law and executive order, the paper said.

They ranged from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. emails and telephone calls, it said.

The Post said the documents it obtained were part of a trove of materials provided to the paper by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has been charged by the United States with espionage. He was granted asylum in Russia earlier this month.

The documents included a level of detail and analysis that is not routinely shared with Congress or the special court that oversees surveillance, the paper said. In one of the documents, agency personnel are instructed to remove details and substitute more generic language in reports to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

In one instance, the NSA decided it need not report the unintended surveillance of Americans, the Post said. A notable example in 2008 was the interception of a "large number" of calls placed from Washington when a programming error confused U.S. area code 202 for 20, the international dialing code for Egypt.

The Post said the NSA audit, dated May 2012, counted 2,776 incidents in the preceding 12 months of unauthorized collection, storage, access to or distribution of legally protected communications.

The paper said most were unintended. Many involved failures of due diligence or violations of standard operating procedure. It said the most serious incidents included a violation of a court order and unauthorized use of data about more than 3,000 Americans and green-card holders.

In 2008, the FISA Amendments Act granted NSA broad new powers in exchange for regular audits from the Justice Department and the office of the Director of National Intelligence and periodic reports to Congress and the surveillance court, the Post said.

"We're a human-run agency operating in a complex environment with a number of different regulatory regimes, so at times we find ourselves on the wrong side of the line," a senior NSA official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Post.

"You can look at it as a percentage of our total activity that occurs each day," he said. "You look at a number in absolute terms that looks big, and when you look at it in relative terms, it looks a little different."

In what the Post said appeared to be one of the most serious violations, the NSA diverted large volumes of international data passing through fiber-optic cables in the United States into a repository where the material could be stored temporarily for processing and selection.

The operation collected and commingled U.S. and foreign emails, the Post said, citing a top-secret internal NSA newsletter. NSA lawyers told the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that the agency could not practicably filter out the communications of Americans.

In October 2011, months after the program got underway, the court ruled that the collection effort was unconstitutional.

Some members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, including Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon, have been trying for some time to get the NSA to give some kind of accounting of how much data it collects "incidentally" on Americans through various electronic dragnets. The Obama administration has strongly resisted such disclosures.

(Writing by Eric Beech; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

Supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi shout slogans during a protest outside Al-Fath Mosque in Ramses square in Cairo August 16, 2013. Thousands of supporters of Mursi took to the streets on Friday, urging "Day of Rage" to denounce this week's assault by security forces on Muslim Brotherhood protesters that killed hundreds. The army deployed dozens of armoured vehicles on major roads in Cairo, and the Interior Ministry has said police will use live ammunition against anyone threatening state installations. Headband reads, "There is no God except Allah, and Mohammad is his messenger". REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

By Tom Perry and Alexander Dziadosz

CAIRO (Reuters) - Protests by supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi turned violent across Egypt on Friday, with witnesses reporting four dead in central Cairo and at least 12 killed in northern cities as the Muslim Brotherhood staged a "Day of Rage".

The army deployed dozens of armored vehicles on major roads around the capital after Mursi's Brotherhood movement called the demonstrations, and the Interior Ministry said police would use live ammunition against anyone threatening public buildings.

The violence followed Wednesday's assault by security forces on two Brotherhood sit-ins in Cairo that left hundreds dead, as security forces tried to end weeks of turbulence following the army's toppling of Mursi on July 3.

In Cairo gunshots echoed around the huge Ramses Square, focal point of Brotherhood protests in the capital, and police fired salvoes of tear gas. Four people were killed and many more wounded by gunshot and birdshot in the square, a witness said.

Nile TV showed footage of one gunman among Islamist protesters firing from a city center bridge. Injured men, one with a bloody wound in the middle of his chest, were rushed away on the back of a pick-up truck.

Emergency services also said eight protesters were killed in clashes in the Mediterranean town of Damietta, and four people died in the northeastern city of Ismailia. Violence was also reported in Egypt's second city Alexandria and in the Nile Delta city of Tanta.

A police conscript was killed in a drive-by shooting in the north of the capital, state news agency MENA reported.

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(Photo © Mosa'ab Elshamy) Violence erupted in Cairo and in locations across Egypt on Wednesday …

Deeply polarized after months of political turmoil, Egypt stands close to the abyss of chaos with Islamist supporters refusing to accept the toppling of Mursi, which followed mammoth rallies castigating his trouble-plagued, year-long rule.

They have demanded the resignation of army commander General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the reinstatement of Egypt's first freely elected president, who is in detention and has not been seen in public since his downfall.

"Sooner or later I will die. Better to die for my rights than in my bed. Guns don't scare us anymore," said Sara Ahmed, 28, a business manager, joining a march of thousands of demonstrators heading downtown from northeast Cairo.

"It's not about the Brotherhood, it's about human rights," said Ahmed, one of the few women not wearing a headscarf, a sign of piety for Muslim women.

When a military helicopter flew low over Ramses Square, protesters held up shoes chanting "We will bring Sisi to the ground" and "Leave, leave, you traitor."

As the sound of teargas canisters being fired began, protesters - including young and old, men and women - donned surgical masks, gas masks and wrapped bandannas around their faces. Some rubbed Pepsi on their faces to counter the gas.

"Allahu akbar! (God is Greatest)" the crowd chanted.

WASHINGTON DISPLEASURE

Families Search For Loved Ones Among Egypt's DeadPlay video."

Signaling his displeasure at the worst bloodshed in Egypt for generations, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday normal cooperation with Cairo could not continue and announced the cancellation of military exercises with Egypt next month.

"We deplore violence against civilians. We support universal rights essential to human dignity, including the right to peaceful protest," he said, but stopped short of cutting off the $1.55 billion a year of mostly military U.S. aid to Egypt.

The Brotherhood accuses the military of staging a coup when it ousted Mursi. Liberal and youth activists who backed the military saw the move as a positive response to public demands.

But some fear Egypt is turning back into the kind of police state that kept the disgraced Hosni Mubarak in power for 30 years before his removal in 2011, as security institutions recover their confidence and reassert control.

Friday prayers have proved a fertile time for protests during more than two years of unrest across the Arab world.

In calling for a "Day of Rage," the Brotherhood used the same name as that given to the most violent day of the uprising against Mubarak. That day, January 28, 2011, marked the protesters' victory over the police, who were forced to retreat.

Ironically, the epicenter of the anti-Mubarak protests, Tahrir Square, was deserted on Friday, sealed off by the army.

Underscoring the deep divisions in the most populous Arab state, local residents helped the army block access to Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque, the site of the main Brotherhood sit-in that was swept away during Wednesday's police assault.

Video Shows Egypt Forces Crushing Cairo Sit-inPlay video."

"We are here to prevent those filthy bastards from coming back," said Mohamed Ali, a 22-year-old business student.

The Egyptian presidency issued a statement criticizing Obama, saying his comments were not based on "facts" and would strengthen violent groups that were committing "terrorist acts".

Pro-army groups posted videos on the Internet of policemen they said had been tortured and killed by Islamist militants.

Washington's influence over Cairo has been called into question since Mursi's overthrow. Since then Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have pledged $12 billion in assistance, making them more prominent partners.

Obama's refusal so far to cut off U.S. aid to Egypt suggests he does not wish to alienate the generals despite the scale of the bloodshed in the army's suppression of Mursi supporters.

Egypt will need all the financial support it can get in the coming months as it grapples with growing economic woes, especially in the important tourism sector that accounts for more than 10 percent of gross domestic product.

The United States urged its citizens to leave Egypt on Thursday and two of Europe's biggest tour operators, Germany's TUI and Thomas Cook Germany, said they were cancelling all trips to the country until September 15.

On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council urged all parties in Egypt to exercise restraint, but did not assign blame.

"The view of council members is that it is important to end violence in Egypt," Argentine U.N. Ambassador Maria Cristina Perceval said after the 15-member council met on the situation.

(Additional reporting by Michael Georgy, Tom Finn, Yasmine Saleh, Mohamed Abdellah, Ahmed Tolba and Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Steve Holland and Jeff Mason in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Alistair Lyon and David Stamp)

'Day of rage' explodes in Egypt

Thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters pour out of mosques in Cairo in defiance of the military.
More protesters killed