March 3, 1999

Rabbani to head new anti-Taliban alliance in Afghanistan Wed 03 Mar 99 - 10:56 GMT
KABUL, March 3 (AFP) - Ousted Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani is to head a 40-member leadership council in the opposition-held areas to which will include Afghan technocrats and former mujahedeen commanders, an opposition spokesman said Wednesday.

Rabbani to head 'leadership council'
F.P. Report
PESHAWAR The Afghan opposition has announced formation of a 40-member leadership council led by ousted president Buhanuddin Rabbani, an opposition spokesman told.the Afghan Islamic Press here on Tuesday.

Leather Jackets Outlawed by Taliban
Wednesday, March 3, 1999; 11:16 a.m. EST
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Leather jackets are now the latest item prohibited by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban religious army.
 
Taliban release 70 prisoners from Balkh jail ISLAMABAD (NNI): Fifty-five political and fifteen criminal prisoners were released from Balkh jail on Tuesday, reports Bakhtar news agency.

Brahimi has no peace plan for Afghanistan
The News: Jang
By Ismail Khan
PESHAWAR: The UN Special Envoy on Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, told Afghan leaders and intellectuals on Tuesday that he had no plans or formula to help bring peace to Afghanistan. He, however, pinned high hopes in the
Six-plus-two meeting on Afghanistan hits snags
The News: Jang
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: The proposed six-plus-two conference in Tashkent for considering measures to end the Afghan conflict appears to have run into snags.
Brahimi to visit Iran on Friday ISLAMABAD (NNI): The UN special envoy on Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi is scheduled to visit Iran as second leg of his fresh peace mission, UN sources said on Tuesday.

Afghan opposition involved in drug-trafficking
Frontier Post
By AIMAL KHAN
PESHAWAR - The heroin production and trafficking in Tajik warlord Ahmad Shah Masoud-controlled areas is flourishing unabated and some key anti-Taliban opposition leaders are reportedly involved in the business.
Taliban crush two Afghan sodomists under mud wall Wed 03 Mar 99 - 07:26 GMT
KABUL, March 3 (AFP) - Two men convicted of sodomy by a Taliban-run Islamic court in Afghanistan were publicly crushed to death when a tank pushed a mud wall on top of them, the militia's Radio Shariat said Wednesday.

Arab dissident in Baghlan
By AIMAL KHAN
PESHAWAR - The millionaire Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden has reportedly shifted to Baghlan province, another Taliban-controlled area in northern Afghanistan, after a delegation of the student militia failed to convince him to return to Kandahar.

Osama's extradition is a US-Taliban issue: Kanju
Frontier Post
From SIKANDER HAYAT
ISLAMABAD - The government has cold-shouldered the US plea to intercede with the Taliban militia to extradite the Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, maintaining that it is a bilateral issue between Washington and Kabul.