December 3, 2001

Breakthrough at Afghan talks
Tuesday, 4 December, 2001, 02:21 GMT BBC News
The four Afghan factions holding talks in Bonn have reached agreement on a United Nations blueprint for rebuilding the country's political system.

Afghan Factions Agree U.N. Text but No Names Yet
Monday December 3 7:51 PM ET
BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Rival Afghan factions meeting in Germany reached agreement on Tuesday on a U.N. text to establish an interim post-Taliban government, but had not yet

Powell Departs on 10-Nation Afghan Rebuilding Tour
By Elaine Monaghan
Monday December 3 4:00 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell left on a grueling 10-nation Afghan reconstruction tour to Europe and Central Asia on Monday despite some of the worst bloodshed

Human Rights Watch calls for trial of three Taliban commanders
Brussels, Dec 3, IRNA -- The Human Rights Watch Monday urged the United States and Britain to take immediate measures to ensure that three Afghan Taliban commanders alleged

Tribal forces 'close in' on Kandahar
Monday, 3 December, 2001, 18:13 GMT BBC News
Tribal forces in southern Afghanistan, backed by American air strikes, say they are closing in on the last remaining Taleban stronghold of Kandahar from different directions.

Family Fears for Fate of American Taliban Fighter
Monday December 3 4:31 PM ET
FAIRFAX, Calif. (Reuters) - The family of a young American who fought for the Taliban and survived a bloody prison uprising near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif is ''terrified''

US denies bombing civilians
Tuesday, 4 December, 2001, 01:47 GMT BBC News
Bin Laden may be hiding in the Tora Bora complex
The Pentagon has denied reports that US bombing south of Jalalabad missed intended targets and killed civilians.

Kabul's papers go to press again
Monday, 3 December, 2001, 17:03 GMT BBC News
At one point the presses had more than 1,300 workers
By BBC News Online's Marcus George in Afghanistan
In a back street near to one of Kabul's modern Russian-built neighbourhoods, a solitary printing press whirs away, spitting out an edition of Anis, one of the city's major newspapers.

Former Afghan president Mujaddadi returns to Pakistan
Islamabad, Dec 3, IRNA -- Former Afghan president Sibghatullah Mujaddadi, the chief of Afghan National Liberation Front (ANLF) arrived in Pakistan on Monday

Nangrahar admin team arrives in Kabul
Frontier Post 12/3/2001 9:35:12 AM
PESHAWAR (NNI): The political relations between the newly Kabul administration and Nangrahar Province are increasing while a delegation of Eastern Shoora from Nangrahar in Afghanistan

Iran,Pakistan must take practical steps for Afghans future: Analyst
Islamabad, Dec 3, IRNA -- A senior analyst has called on Tehran and Islamabad to act quickly to contribute towards a safe and stable political future of Afghanistan in the post-Taliban period.

'No pressure on refugees to go back'
Frontier Post 12/3/2001 9:35:12 AM
TEHRAN (NNI): Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi on Sunday rejected any forcible repatriation of the Afghan refugees living in Iran.In reaction to a claim made

Unease on the streets of Kabul
Monday, 3 December, 2001, 19:59 GMT BBC News
The Northern Alliance presence is increasingly evident
Nick Childs BBC foreign affairs correspondent
The underlying mood in Kabul is still that the Bonn talks are inching towards some sort of agreement and that the international community will lean on the different factions sufficiently

Afghan Women's Summit for Democracy in Brussels
Brussels, Dec 4, IRNA -- A 2-day  Afghan Women's Summit for Democracy will start in Brussels Tuesday morning to discuss in particular about women's participation

Art lover saved Kabul paintings
Monday, 3 December, 2001, 10:53 GMT BBC News
The Taleban destroyed much Afghan cultural heritage
By the BBC's Alan Johnston in Kabul
It has emerged that an Afghan art lover managed to save a cache of paintings that the Taleban were thought to have destroyed.

40 American coffins flown home
Fakhar-ur- Rehman
Frontier Post 12/3/2001 9:35:12 AM
ISLAMABAD : While the intense bombing on the Taliban positions in and around Kandahar continued incessantly day and night on Sunday amid reports of gun battle between the Taliban fighters

US top spy visits Kabul
Islamabad, Dec 3, IRNA -- US top spy visited Kabul on Sunday to focus attention on problem of weapons of mass destruction, reported a local newspaper here on Monday.

Mothers queue to give their children up to the comforts of an orphanage
By Patrick Cockburn in Kabul
Independent Digital (UK)  04 December 2001 03:40 GMT
Shepherding her two bright-eyed daughters in front of her, Zargona, her face behind a blue veil, explained why she was desperate to place them in Kabul's only orphanage.

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Late Talks but Days of Work Ahead in Afghan Talks
By Adam Tanner
Monday December 3 7:36 AM ET
BONN, Germany (Reuters) - After talking late into the night, bleary-eyed Afghans rose before dawn on Monday for a seventh day of negotiating a post-Taliban government

Final deal in sight on Afghan future, new hitch within Northern Alliance
by Michael Anders
BONN, Dec 3 (AFP) - Afghan groups including the powerful Northern Alliance and supporters of the former king of Afghanistan looked close Monday to clinching a power-sharing

Rabbani Flexible on Who Should Lead Afghan Govt.
By Sayed Salahuddin
Monday December 3 7:31 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Northern Alliance leader Burhanuddin Rabbani will accept any one of four possible nominees to lead an interim Afghan administration, his spokesman said on Monday.

Alliance Leader Floats New Idea On Afghan Future
By Peter Baker and Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 3, 2001; Page A01
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 2 -- As negotiations on the future of Afghanistan dragged on inconclusively in Germany, the leader of the Northern Alliance today proposed an interim government

U.S. Marines Patrol Southern Afghan Desert
By Claudia Parsons
Monday December 3 7:37 AM ET
DESERT AIRSTRIP, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. Marines drove out of a desert airstrip in southern Afghanistan on Monday after their warplanes bombed targets overnight.

Tribesmen, U.S. Bombers Hit Last Taliban Bastion
Monday December 3 7:35 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan tribal fighters backed by U.S. bombers pressed in on the Taliban's last stronghold of Kandahar Monday as rival factions meeting in Germany sought to complete a power-sharing deal.

More than 3,000 Taliban held in Afghan prison: ICRC
Monday December 3, 5:50 PM  AFP
More than 3,000 Taliban fighters captured during fighting around Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz are being held in a northern Afghanistan prison.

Taliban Threaten Last Stand, Opponents Haggle
By Adam Tanner and Claudia Parsons
Monday December 3 7:24 AM ET
BONN/NEAR KANDAHAR (Reuters) - Afghan factions haggled in Bonn on Monday over who should sit in a new interim government as Afghanistan's former rulers threatened to mount a bloody

Al-Qaeda's spokesman Abu Ghaith seriously wounded
Monday December 3, 5:34 PM
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a spokesman for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network, has reportedly been wounded, possibly fatally, during recent fighting in Afghanistan.

Bombing Around Bin Laden Hideout Said to Kill 58
Monday December 3 5:13 AM ET
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. jets bombed a mountain region killing 58 people in eastern Afghanistan where Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden is suspected of having a hideout

Factional Fighting Erupts in Afghan North
Monday December 3 12:24 PM ET
By Michael Steen
KABUL (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Monday factional fighting had prompted it to pull its international staff out of the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, in the latest sign of worsening security

U.S. Medics in Afghanistan Learn From History
Monday December 3 1:26 PM ET
By Claudia Parsons
DESERT AIRSTRIP, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Doctors at an Afghan desert airstrip seized by the U.S. Marines say they have learned from history--three in four of the Soviets who fought

Afghan traffic police survive 23 years of war
By Paul Holmes
Monday December 3, 10:08 PM
KABUL (Reuters) - Twenty-three years of war may have wrecked most national institutions in Afghanistan, but it has not dented the pride of the country's traffic police.

U.S. Bombers Target Taliban Bastion, Bin Laden Lair
Monday December 3 12:13 PM ET
By Zeeshan Haider and Sayed Salahuddin
CHAMAN, Pakistan/KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. aircraft bombed targets near the last Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan and a suspected mountain lair of Osama bin Laden on Monday

Afghan Women Hired to Help Conduct Kabul Survey
Monday December 3 9:48 AM ET
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The U.N. World Food Program has hired 2,400 Afghan women to help conduct a house-to-house survey in the war-torn capital Kabul and issue food coupons.

Taliban Leader Omar 'Will Fight to Death'-Defector
Monday December 3 4:38 AM ET
By Paul Holmes
KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar will fight to the death in Kandahar, his last bastion, rather than surrender to the United States or Afghan rivals

American Taliban fighter says he followed his heart
Monday December 3, 9:07 PM
KABUL (Reuters) - A 20-year-old American who fought for the Taliban and survived a bloody prison uprising near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif last week said his

Burqa a garment of choice for generations
ASIA LETTER/Miriam Donohoe:
 Irish Times (Dec 3, 2001)
It was hot and stuffy. I felt claustrophobic. The cloth in front of my mouth was damp from my breathing. I had to walk slowly as I had no vision to my right or my left. I could only see out through

Bombs Reportedly Kill Taliban Foes
Campaign: Villagers also die, witnesses say. Afghan officials question American intelligence data.
By MEGAN K. STACK
Los Angeles Times (Dec 3, 2001)
JALALABAD, Afghanistan -- Eight tribal soldiers who were helping the United States hunt fugitive terrorists and hard-line Taliban in the rugged mountains near Tora Bora were killed

US says its ground troops may be thrown into battle for Kandahar
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
The Independent (UK) (Dec 3, 2001)
A senior US Marine commander stationed within striking distance of the Taliban's last stronghold of Kandahar said yesterday that the war was approaching its final stage

Radio Free Europe Hopes to Expand in Afghanistan
By PETER S. GREEN
The New York TImes
PRAGUE, Dec. 2  Radio Free Europe is a new front line in the American war in Afghanistan. By early February, if Congress approves, the network will resume broadcasting to Afghanistan

Villagers Yearn for the Old, Eternal Afghanistan
By TIM WEINER
The New York Times
AMLA, Afghanistan, Dec. 1 The farmer says his name is Suffer. It means journey in Pashto. His village lies in a place called Dar-i-Noor. It means Valley of Light.

UNICEF chief worries about impact of flight from Kandahar on children
QUETTA, Pakistan, Dec 3 (AFP) - The long trek of refugees fleeing the conflict in Kandahar is putting the lives of an increasing number of children at risk, the head of the UN's children's fund said Monday.

All smiles, Afghan girls go back to school
Christian Science Monitor
Jalalabad Girls' School No. 2 has no books and can't pay its teachers, but students are eager to pick up educations suspended by the Taliban.

8,000 Pakis either dead or missing in Afghanistan: Pak officials
Hindustan Times December 3, 2001
(PTI) Washington, December 2
In what could be an embarrassment to the Musharraf government, senior officials of his military regime have admitted that as many as 8,000 Pakistani citizens who went to Afghanistan

Kabul too hostile for Pakistan to open embassy: NYT
The News: Jang (Pakistan)
December 3, 2001
WASHINGTON: The mood against Pakistan is so hostile in Kabul that Pakistan would not dare open its embassy there, says a report in The New York Times. India, one of the first countries

Taliban command structure crumbles
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
The News:ÝJang (Pakistan)
December 3, 2001
PESHAWAR: Following their hasty retreat from northern, western and eastern Afghanistan and the loss of Kabul as a result of one of the most intense aerial strikes by the US in recent decades

Leading Taliban officers 'ready to surrender'
By Alex Spillius in Chaman
The Daily Telegraph (UK)
December 3, 2001
MORE than 20 high-ranking Taliban figures led by the justice minister were said to be on the verge of surrender yesterday, as opposition forces closed in on Kandahar

Ivanov says Russia won't send troops to Afghanistan
Monday, December 03, 2001 1:30 PM EST
SAMARA, Dec 03, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia has no plans to take part in combat actions in Afghanistan.