Karzai escapes assassination
KABUL, Afghanistan, April 27 (UPI) -- Taliban insurgents attempted to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday during national celebrations but he escaped unharmed, officials said.
Afghan officials said the attack killed one person and injured 11 others. Karzai later appeared on a state-run television broadcast, The New York Times said.
Local media reports showed gunfire erupting near the grandstands as Karzai presided over a military ceremony during national Mujahedin Day celebrations honoring those who fought the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
The Taliban issued a statement immediately following the attack, claiming responsibility, CNN reported.
"Six of our fedayeen martyrs entered to the stadium for the ceremony. They were heavily armed with mortars and machine guns. This was an organized attack. When the national anthem started, they started the attack. Three were killed and three have survived," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahed said.
Taliban sources said their fighters were about 90 feet from Karzai and other dignitaries at the time of the attack.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said authorities captured an undisclosed number of assailants.
Torture 'relevant' Bush lawyers say
WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) -- The U.S. Justice Department sought to expand the legal boundaries of harsh interrogation tactics against alleged terrorist suspects, a letter indicates.
"The fact that an act is undertaken to prevent a threatened terrorist attack, rather than for the purpose of humiliation or abuse, would be relevant to a reasonable observer in measuring the outrageousness of the act," said Brian A. Benczkowski, a deputy assistant attorney general, said in a letter obtained by The New York Times.
Staff from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee leaked the letter to the press in seeking more information from the Justice Department.
The Geneva Conventions ban "outrages upon personal dignity" but the Benczkowski letter implies interrogation methods should be weighed against the threat to national security by considering the Geneva Conventions on a "sliding scale," The Washington Post said Sunday.
U.S. President George Bush signed an executive order in 2007 outlining new guidelines for interrogations, but while it bans practices such as sexual degradation, it does not specify what techniques are permissible.
Lawmakers passed a measure last year that restricted interrogation methods further, but Bush vetoed the bill arguing harsh interrogation tactics thwarted several undisclosed terrorist attacks.
Army starts probe in fraudulent arms deal
WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) -- A fraud case involving a private arms dealer prompted a U.S. Army review of the process used to supply overseas forces with foreign arms, officials say.
Army officials initiated a review of procedures used to supply foreign-made arms to forces in Afghanistan and Iraq following allegations AEY Inc. of Miami Beach delivered Chinese rifle cartridges it claimed were Hungarian, The New York Times reported Sunday.
As part of a $298 million contract, AEY delivered more than 120 million rounds of ammunition to Afghanistan to forces fighting al-Qaida and the Taliban. The rounds came in flimsy cardboard boxes and official documents suggest they date from the 1960s.
Efraim Diveroli, 22, runs the company. He faces a felony charge of obtaining a false drivers license. Federal authorities say they suspect Diveroli of engaging in an international arms deal with suspects on a federal watch list and for corrupt practices in Albania.
U.S. law requires dealers to outline all parties involved in overseas arms shipments though a loophole exempts dealers under U.S. contract.
International arms analysts said the bids delivered by AEY, sometimes 10 percent of the market price, and the links to Albania should have tipped them off.
Army officials said they launched a broad review of contracting standards in response.
Obama refuses Clinton debate challenge
INDIANAPOLIS, April 27 (UPI) -- Sen. Barack Obama refused a challenge from rival Democratic presidential contender Sen. Hillary Clinton to a one-on-one debate, representatives say.
"I'm offering Senator Obama a chance to debate me one-on-one, no moderators. ... Just the two of us going for 90 minutes, asking and answering question. We'll set whatever rules seem fair," Clinton, D-N.Y., said.
In an interview Sunday with Chris Wallace of Fox News, Obama, D-Ill., said there have been enough debates in the presidential contest so far, CNN said.
"I'm not ducking one. We've had 21," Obama said. "We want to make sure we're talking to as many folks possible on the ground taking questions from voters."
Obama spokesman David Axelrod told reporters Saturday debates have taken up "a full work week of time already ... and we have 10 days, nine days left to meet voters in two important and large states."
"We want to use our time in that way. I don't think the public is clamoring for more debates," he added.
Voters in Indiana and North Carolina hold their primaries May 6.
Food crisis multidimensional, analysts say
UNITED NATIONS, April 27 (UPI) -- The rise in worldwide food prices left traders in Chicago scrambling to keep up with orders and Egyptians rioting for bread, economists say.
Economists say a severe drought in Australia and the increased planting of corn for biofuels instead of wheat for food on U.S. farms caused much of the inflationary effect, The Washington Post said Sunday.
The prices have had a ripple effect on world markets, sparking riots in Egypt and forcing the prime minister from office in Haiti. The United Nations says average consumers may soon feel the effects of the 80 percent rise in global food prices since 2005. "This crisis could result in a cascade of others ... and become a multidimensional problem affecting economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.
The collapse of the Soviet Union ushered in an era of global economic integration, the Post said, but the same factors that brought a global equilibrium to manufactured goods are absent in the government subsidized food market.
But some European leaders began to sound warnings of the market influence over human necessities.
"We must not leave the vital issue of feeding people to the mercy of market laws and international speculation," said French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier.
