GOP BENGHAZI HEARING FAILS TO RILE CLINTON
Photo: Ron Sachs/CNP/ZUMA
Democrat presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton kept her composure throughout an 11-hour congressional special hearing set up by the Republican majority Thursday on the deadly Benghazi attack that killed the U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three colleagues on Sept. 11, 2012. Clinton answered harsh Republican criticism about her handling of the situation amid a grilling that what widely regarded as a political attack, emerging largely unscathed from the political test, U.S. media outlets report.
- “Partisanship, not proof of any conspiracy by Clinton, was the dominant theme,” USA Today wrote.
- “Unsurprisingly, the hearing yielded no new information about the attacks. It quickly and predictably devolved into a partisan battle between Republicans intent on hurting Mrs. Clinton’s bid for the White House and Democrats who sought to make her look presidential,” The New York Times wrote.
- Republicans “also hurt their own cause at times. Several spent their 10-minute periods on peculiar lines of questioning: One pressed Clinton repeatedly about an e-mail exchange between two State Department staffers whom Clinton said she did not know,” The Washington Post reports.
- “The Benghazi committee has yet to produce findings 17 months after its formation,” the Boston Globe wrote, adding that “its most significant discovery has been Clinton’s practice of almost exclusively using a private email account for her official correspondence as secretary of state.”
RACISM BEHIND SWEDEN SCHOOL KILLING
The masked attacker who killed a teacher and a 17-year-old pupil and seriously injuring two others with a sword at a Swedish school yesterday, had “racist motives,” local authorities said today, daily Svenska Dagbladet reports. Police Chief Niclas Hallgren said they based this on the 21-year-old attacker’s apparent selection of victims based on their ethnicity, and what they found at his apartment. Swedish media have described the killer, who was shot dead by police yesterday, as opposed to Islam and immigration. He also reportedly had a YouTube account on which he posted videos glorifying Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. The attack was carried out at a school known to have many children of immigrants.
WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sparked outrage with his thesis that a Palestinian gave Adolf Hitler the idea to annihilate the Jews. It is, of course, utter nonsense. But from a German perspective, there’s another problem, Alan Posener writes for Die Welt.
Read the full article, Why Netanyahu’s Holocaust Theory Sounds So Ugly In Germany.
42 KILLED IN FRENCH ROAD ACCIDENT
At least 42 people died early this morning in a collision between a bus carrying elderly people and a truck, near Bordeaux in southern France. According to France TV info, it’s the deadliest road accident in the country since 1982.
NOT EXACTLY 007
The UK’s National Archives has for the first time made public dozens of MI5, MI6 and Foreign Office files, which tell tales of drunkenness, sex parties and cover-ups. The Irish Examiner has a list of seven shocking secrets the files reveal about the infamous Cambridge spy ring and the world of spies and double agents in the 1930-50s.
MY GRAND-PÈRE’S WORLD
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CALL FOR NEW PALESTINIAN “DAY OF RAGE”
Palestinian factions, backed by Hamas and Fatah, are calling for mass rallies against Israel in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in a new “day of rage” today, Reuters reports. This comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met in Berlin for talks yesterday about the recent violence in which at least 50 Palestinians and eight Israelis have been killed. Shortly after today’s announcement, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier in the West Bank, before being shot and wounded by other troops.
VERBATIM
“Let’s not play with words and divide the terrorists into moderate and not moderate,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday at a political conference in Sochi, accusing the West of double standards in its support for the Syrian opposition and using some rebel groups as pawns in the Middle East, Al Jazeera reports. “I would like to understand what is the difference. Perhaps some experts believe that moderate bandits behead people in moderate numbers or in some tender way,” Putin added. This comes ahead of talks on the Syrian crisis today in Vienna, Austria, between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his U.S., Saudi Arabian and Turkish counterparts.
1 DEAD IN U.S. UNIVERSITY SHOOTING
One person was killed and three others injured in a shooting on the Tennessee State University campus last night, The Tennessean reports. The incident is believed to have emerged from a dice game. The gunman is still reportedly on the loose.
ON THIS DAY
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The Smurfs (a.k.a. les Schtroumpfs, de Smurfen, die Schlümpfe or los Pitufos) were born 57 years ago today. This, and more, in your 57-second shot of history.
INDONESIA TO CANE GAYS FOR SEX
Starting today, Muslims caught having same-sex intercourse in Indonesia’s highly conservative province of Aceh will be punished with 100 strokes of a cane, the Bangkok Post reports. Religious tension has been brewing for months in Aceh, the only Indonesian region that has implemented Islamic sharia law.
ADELE’S BACK
Adele, the award-winning singer of “Rolling in the Deep,” “Someone like You” and “Skyfall,” is back with the first single of her highly anticipated third album, out on Nov. 20. The 27-year-old Brit enlisted Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan for the video of her new song “Hello”.
