Palestinians blame Israel for death of minister
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian government blamed Israel on Thursday for the sudden death of a Cabinet minister, citing preliminary autopsy results — disputed by Israeli pathologists — that he died from a blow during a confrontation with Israeli troops.
The contradictory interpretations of a joint autopsy on the minister, Ziad Abu Ain, threatened to further inflame tensions between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, amid demands from an angry Palestinian public to halt security cooperation with Israeli forces in the West Bank.
Pathologists disagreed on the main cause of death, with Palestinian doctors saying the 55-year-old Cabinet minister died from a blow to the body and Israeli doctors saying he had a heart attack.
“The results of the autopsy show that the ones who killed the martyr Ziad Abu Ain are the Israeli occupying forces,” Palestinian Health Minister Jawad Awad said.
Despite the findings, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appeared in no rush to comply with demands to halt security coordination with Israeli forces. The policy is highly unpopular, particularly at times of heightened tensions. However, the alliance of Israeli and Palestinian security forces against a shared foe, the Islamic militant Hamas, has helped insure Abbas’ continued rule in the autonomous areas of the West Bank.
Demonstrators sing to protest police killings of unarmed black men
BERKELEY, Calif. — Stop. Hey, what’s that sound? Protest songs are taking their place alongside chants of “I can’t breathe” and “Hands up, don’t shoot” as demonstrators raise their voices to condemn the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police. There’s something happening here.
The killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown have inspired a musical outpouring perhaps unseen in the U.S. since Pete Seeger helped make “We Shall Overcome” a civil-rights standard in the 1960s. Older songs are being redeployed for a new generation. New compositions are being widely shared, including some from major-label artists. And holiday classics are being rewritten, such as a barbed spin on “White Christmas.”
“Facts aren’t fueling this fire. Feeling is what is fueling this fire, and until we express those feelings and those feelings are understood, we aren’t going to get too far,” said Daniel Watts, a Broadway performer who starred in a professionally choreographed Times Square flash mob in response to Eric Garner’s death on Staten Island. He’s also written two more spoken-word pieces about police brutality that others set to music.
Suicide bomber targets French high school in Kabul
KABUL, Afghanistan — A teenage suicide bomber attacked a French-run high school in Kabul on Thursday, walking into a packed auditorium during a theater performance and killing a German citizen, Afghan officials said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the performance underway was immoral. Ironically, the subject of the musical play was the aftermath of a bombing.
It was the first attack on a foreign target in the Afghan capital in more than a week and came after a series of insurgent bombings in the past month targeted foreigners, killing a British embassy security and three members of a South African family.
Acting interior minister, Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said the person killed was German, while police chief Gen. Abdul Rahman Rahimi identified the victim as a man, without giving more details.
The attack took place inside the auditorium of the French Cultural Centre, which is on the grounds of a high school known as Lycee Estaqlal, run under contract by the French government.
By wire sources