Candidate Abdullah Abdullah has claimed widespread fraud in his run-off election with Ashraf Ghani. He has accused Ghani and Hamid Karzai of engineering the results. If this is not resolved, it could plunge Afghanistan into deeper conflict. “Rejecting the process laid out under Afghan electoral law, Mr. Abdullah called on the election commission to halt all vote counting and immediately investigate and identify inflated ballot totals — steps that are designed to come after partial vote results are announced in the next few weeks. Mr. Abdullah also withdrew his observers from the vote-counting process and suspended his cooperation with the election commission, which his campaign says is biased.” (NYT http://nyti.ms/1vTk8CN)
Iraq: A Battle at Major Oil Refinery…Also, there is word that dozens of foreign workers have been kidnapped, including 15 Turks. “Fighters of the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant began their attack on the Beiji refinery, some 155 miles north of the capital, Baghdad, late Tuesday night, the security official said…The Beiji refinery accounts for a little more than a quarter of the country’s entire refining capacity — all of which goes toward domestic consumption for things like gasoline, cooking oil and fuel for power stations.” (LAT http://lat.ms/1lA0BoX)
And Obama has not ruled out a request by the Iraqi government to use American air assets to fight ISIS. (Now Media http://bit.ly/1lzZfdW)
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Africa
An Ebola outbreak continues to spread in three West African countries, and the death toll in the outbreak has risen to more than 330, the World Health Organization said. (AP http://yhoo.it/1qt2FRD)
The ICC’s chief prosecutor asked the United Nations to investigate allegations that its Darfur mission had been covering up crimes by Sudanese forces against civilians and peacekeepers. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1sofyhQ)
Dozens of people in Guinea were hospitalised after eating rice cooked with petrol. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1iGJMmv)
UN education envoy Gordon Brown pledged that a school from where more than 200 girls were kidnapped by Islamist militants will be rebuilt, as he visited Nigeria for talks on boosting security. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1qsYjKb)
Uganda’s government has been struggling to find new sources of income since Western donors cut funding over the anti-homosexuality bill passed late last year. (VOA http://bit.ly/1qt6LZZ)
More than 1.1 million people have been successfully vaccinated against meningitis in eastern Guinea, according to the country’s Ministry of Health, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization. (VOA http://bit.ly/1qt6WEG)
MENA
The Israeli army has re-arrested 51 former Palestinian prisoners as part of a furious search for three missing Israeli teens believed to have been abducted in the West Bank. (Bloomberg http://buswk.co/1lA2phI)
UNICEF accused Yemen’s Al-Qaeda affiliate of sexually exploiting children, pointing to incidents in the south in 2012 in a report. (AP http://yhoo.it/1sofRJt)
Al-Jazeera reporter on over 100-day hunger strike to protest his detention in Egypt goes free. (AP http://yhoo.it/1vSkJEN)
The United States should not talk to Iran about jointly helping the Iraqi government fend off insurgents who have been overrunning large swaths of that country, the Republican leader of the House of Representatives said. (AP http://yhoo.it/1qt4jma)
Girls in Yemen continue to lag behind boys, with fewer chances to go to school and reach their potential and increased vulnerability to early marriage and maternal mortality, according to new research. (UNICEF http://bit.ly/1vTnw0s)
Asia
A top U.N. humanitarian official said she witnessed “appalling conditions” and the worst human suffering she has ever seen in camps for stateless Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s violence-torn Rakhine State. (AP http://yhoo.it/1iGJFHL)
Indonesia’s promises to tackle the upcoming annual “haze” season with a $30 million fund and limited military equipment have been called into question by experts anticipating worse pollution levels than last year due to the El Nino weather pattern. (AP http://yhoo.it/1vT56x2)
Residents of a Taliban-infested region in northwest Pakastani where the military launched a major offensive began to flee on Wednesday after authorities lifted a curfew there, officials said. (AP http://yhoo.it/1qt2upv)
Citing fears of fuelling sectarian tensions, Myanmar’s human rights film festival said it had cancelled the screening of a documentary about a friendship that crossed religious divides during deadly anti-Muslim violence. (VOA http://yhoo.it/1qt5LVA)
India’s government has announced measures to control rising food prices. As inflation in the month of May climbed to six percent, the government promised immediate action to keep a lid on food prices. (VOA http://bit.ly/1vTpZbj)
The Americas
Cuban health authorities on Wednesday confirmed the country’s first six cases of chikungunya fever, a debilitating, mosquito-borne virus that is suspected of afflicting tens of thousands across the Caribbean since its arrival in the region last year. (AP http://yhoo.it/1vTjhlJ)
Opinion/Blogs
Ugandan and Thai LGBT activists describe continued rights violations (Humanosphere http://bit.ly/1iaIVQy)
Overcoming the Twin Hurdles of Inequality and Climate Change (IPS http://bit.ly/1vTkbP0)
World Cup Fiascos Might Prove a Human Rights Win (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/T7HTc6)
You don’t fight corruption by “fighting corruption” (Campaign for Boring Development http://bit.ly/T7HUN3)
Are you a humanitarian? Why? (How Matters http://bit.ly/T7I3QH)
Impact Investing Landscape: Trends to Watch (Center for Financial Inclusion blog http://bit.ly/1iaJ9qL)
How to Understand A Massacre in DR Congo (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/T7I9Ib)
Research/Reports
The world’s costly drift away from peace continued last year, with nations spending an estimated $9.8 trillion on containing and dealing with violence, according to the latest annual Global Peace Index. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1qt6y9a)