January 25, 1999

Anti-Taliban brace for militia counter-attack in north
Mon 25 Jan 99 - 05:54 GMT
KABUL, Jan 25 (AFP) - Anti-Taliban troops in northwestern Afghanistan are bracing themselves for a militia counter attack after securing a 70 kilometre (42 mile) strip of highway, the opposition said Monday.

Power stoppage to Taliban-held city not political: Uzbekistan
Mon 25 Jan 99 - 13:02 GMT
TASHKENT, Jan 25 (AFP) - Uzbekistan's power supply to the Taliban-held city Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan was switched off earlier this month for economic and not political reasons, Uzbek officials said Monday.

UN opens Taleban channels
A senior United Nations aid official is visiting Afghanistan for the first time since the organisation withdrew expatriate staff from the country last year.

Turkmen formin in Pakistan for Afghan, gas talks
08:23 a.m. Jan 25, 1999 Eastern
ISLAMABAD, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Turkmen Foreign Minister Boris Shikhmuradov arrived in Islamabad on Monday for talks that were to focus on Afghanistan and a gas pipeline project blocked by the Afghan conflict, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

Taliban, Turkmen FM to hold talks in Islamabad
ISLAMABAD: A high level Taliban delegation is arriving in Islamabad for the scheduled talks with Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Boris Sheikh Muratov on peace in Afghanistan.

Northern Alliance mulls mly, political options
Frontier Post

By AIMAL KHAN

PESHAWAR - An important meeting of the Anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, held in Taluqan province of Afghanistan on Sunday, discussed both military and political options for keeping the hardline radical student militia

Osama to build world's second biggest mosque in Kandahar
LONDON: Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden is planning to construct the world second biggest mosque in Kandahar, reports BBC

Taliban rule out talks with US on Osama
ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan's ruling Taliban on Sunday ruled out talks with the United States on handing over of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden saying "Osama is the trust of Muslim Ummah with the Afghan nation".

Osama duping American leadership
Frontier Post
Dr JASSIM TAQUI
ISLAMABAD - The United States and its intelligence agencies have walked into the trap laid by Osama bin Laden, who is playing with them a deception game in order to divert their attention from a huge military operation inside the

Talbott to discuss 5-point agenda, Afghan issue
Dawn
ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: Pakistan and the United States will discuss a five-point non-proliferation agenda and Afghan problem during the forthcoming visit of US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott which begins on February 2,

Osama spreads tentacles in Bangladesh
Date: 25-01-1999 :: Pg: 14 :: Col: d
By Haroon Habib
The Hindu Online
DHAKA, Jan. 24.
Osama Bin Laden, whom the U.S. looking for in connection with the attack on its embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salam last August has several supporters in Bangladesh. Police, have came to the conclusion that the disciples of the

410 Taliban captured, says opposition
Dawn
KABUL, Jan 24: More than 410 Taliban troops have been captured and 62 men from both sides killed as fighting escalated in the far north, the Afghan opposition said on Sunday.

Russia to cut border guard presence in Tajikistan
08:47 a.m. Jan 25, 1999 Eastern
DUSHANBE, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Russia will cut the number of border guards it deploys in ex-Soviet Tajikistan by one third in 1999 after a similar percentage cut in 1998, a senior Russian army official said at the weekend.

Voice of America
INTRO: A U-N DELEGATION IS DUE TO VISIT AFGHANISTAN ON MONDAY TO CONTINUE NEGOTIATIONS WITH TALEBAN AUTHORITIES FOR THE RETURN OF INTERNATIONAL U-N STAFF. THE UNITED NATIONS

Russia calls for broad-based govt in Afghanistan
TEHRAN (NNI): Russia has called for end to war and establishment of a broad-based government in the war-shattered Afghanistan, reports Radio Tehran.

UN plans to confront Taliban on women's issues
By Anwar Iqbal
The News: Jang
January 24, 1999
ISLAMABAD: The United Nations has set up a gender coordinating unit (GCU) for Afghanistan, indicating that it is ready to confront the country's Taliban rulers who oppose all outside support for Afghan women. The unit will work

daily criticizes afghan leader's rejections of u.n. demand
tehran, jan. 23, irna -- the english language daily 'kayhan international' saturday castigated the taliban leader mullah omar's rejection of u.n.'s recent demand to halt afghan infighting and suggested that the sooner the steps are taken to

INTO THE BREACH
The religious opposition is lashing out at Pakistan's secular ruling elite - and winning wide support
By Anthony Davis
Asiaweek
Week of January 29, 1999
GREEN, BLUE AND WHITE banners streaming in the wind, the convoy sets out towards the jagged wall of mountains against the Afghan border. By the time it begins to wind through arid, iron-gray crags towards the Khyber