 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
Gates proposes Afghan troop hike for 2009 elections
by Daphne Benoit Fri Oct 10, 1:49 PM ET
ON BOARD US MILITARY AIRCRAFT (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he has urged NATO allies to temporarily increase force levels in Afghanistan next year to protect the 2009 presidential elections.
Will the Afghan Taleban join peace talks?
BBC News, UK By Martin Patience Thursday, 9 October 2008
Newspapers are writing about it and Afghan officials and foreign diplomats are discussing it - talks with the Taleban.
Intelligence official killed in Afghanistan
Press TV (Iran) Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:09:48 GMT
A district director of Afghan national security service has been killed in a bomb attack in Afghanistan's eastern Province of Khost.
FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan
Reuters October 10, 2008
KHOST - A suicide bomber on foot killed a provincial intelligence officer and wounded three other policemen in the Baak district of Khost province some 150 km (90) - (Reuters) - Following are security
Nato to attack Afghan opium labs
BBC News Friday, 10 October 2008
Nato has agreed its troops will be allowed to attack opium factories for the first time in Afghanistan.
Embassy attack due to increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan: US report
Lalit K Jha NDTV (India) Friday, October 10, 2008, (Washington)
The terrorist attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, by pro-Pakistan elements, has been mainly due to the increasing Indian influence on Afghanistan, a Congressional report has said.
Nations balk at US anti-drug plan for Afghanistan
By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press Thu Oct 9, 3:01 PM ET
BUDAPEST, Hungary - A number of NATO countries are balking at the United States' request that their troops in Afghanistan do more to confront drug lords whose money helps bankroll the Taliban
Afghan outlook darkens
Associated Press Pamela Hess Friday, October 10, 2008
WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence draft cites alarming decline in past 2 months, risk of 'downward spiral' into violence, chaos.
Brother of Afghan President to Give Up Seat in Parliament
By TIMOOR SHAH The New York Times October 9, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — An older brother of President Hamid Karzai who has one of the worst attendance records in Afghanistan’s Parliament said Thursday that he was giving up his legislative seat.
Pavarotti tribute concert on sunday
Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) October 10, 2008
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 10 October 2008, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Student's bodyguards shoot high school teacher
www.quqnoos.com Written by Abdullah Anwari Thursday, 09 October 2008
Police arrest men accused of shooting an educational manager at school
THE BODYGUARDS of a student in Kabul have shot and injured an educational manager after he demanded to know where the student’s books were, officials said.
Back to Top
Gates proposes Afghan troop hike for 2009 elections
by Daphne Benoit Fri Oct 10, 1:49 PM ET
ON BOARD US MILITARY AIRCRAFT (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he has urged NATO allies to temporarily increase force levels in Afghanistan next year to protect the 2009 presidential elections.
"I suggested that we consider a temporary further increase in troops next year in connection with the elections in Afghanistan to help the Afghans provide security," Gates told reporters.
"I just laid out a marker that I thought we should think about that going forward. We didn't really discuss it," he added.
The elections, which are supposed to be held in late 2009, will be a key test of the viability of a struggling, seven-year-old US and NATO-led effort to build a democratically elected central government in Afghanistan.
Gates' comments on the flight home from Budapest followed a two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers who agreed to step up operations against a flourishing Afghan drug trade that is fueling a Taliban insurgency.
It was held amid warnings in Washington that Afghanistan is on a downward spiral, dragged down by corruption, drugs and insurgent violence.
US commanders in Afghanistan have asked for four more combat brigades and support troops -- as many as 20,000 more troops -- to counter the insurgency.
The United States has some 33,000 troops in Afghanistan, about 13,000 of them in a 50,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
Gates said he was satisfied with the NATO debate on drug trafficking which gave the International Security Assistance Force the go ahead to attack drug labs and traffickers.
"It is just going to be part of regular military operations. This is not going to be a special mission," Gates said, adding that the counter-drug effort was likely to focus on the southern part of the country.
"It starts with the commander of ISAF, and then it would a question of what forces are available. Obviously the United States and the UK are interested in doing this I think several others would but didn't speak out," he said.
Gates said he was pleased with other decisions reached by the defense ministers in Budapest.
He said a proposal he had made last year to increase the deployability of NATO forces from 40 to 50 percent was agreed to by the ministers.
NATO has 3.7 million active duty troops under arms, including nearly 1.4 million American troops.
Gates, who last month warned that Europe has gone too far in demilitarizing, also reported movement on long-standing US calls for higher levels of defense spending by US allies.
"There wasn't any formal action taken on it but a number of countries told me that they were working on a proposal we made to increase their defense budgets over period of five years," he said.
Only seven NATO members spend at least two percent of their Gross Domestic Product on defense: the United States, Greece, the United Kingdom, France, Bulgaria, Croatia and Albania.
"I am fairly optimistic about the future," Gates said. "There is also an understanding that NATO can't fail in Afghanistan."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Will the Afghan Taleban join peace talks?
BBC News, UK By Martin Patience Thursday, 9 October 2008
Newspapers are writing about it and Afghan officials and foreign diplomats are discussing it - talks with the Taleban.
Now President Hamid Karzai's own brother has confirmed a BBC report that he met former members of the Taleban in Saudi Arabia last month as part of a first step towards peace talks.
The conflict in Afghanistan has been running now for seven years and by almost every indicator, the security situation is getting worse.
There has been an unmistakable mood shift in the Afghan capital, Kabul and the notion of reconciliation with the fundamentalist Islamic movement appears to be gathering momentum as a way of reining in the violence.
But if there were to be direct talks with the senior leaders of the Taleban, what would this actually mean in practice?
Well, first of all, the term Taleban is often used as a catch-all-phrase for the insurgents - it's far more complex than that.
Military veteran
The anti-government forces are far from being a monolithic block - there are competing egos, strategies and aims at work.
The only point that all the groups categorically agree upon is that they oppose the Afghan government.
Yes the Taleban is a significant part of the insurgency, but there are a number of other significant players. Best known, of course, is al-Qaeda.
There's also the Hezb Islami network run by the former mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as well as a grouping led by another Afghan military veteran, Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose men were linked to a deadly attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul this July.
In order to end the conflict completely you probably would need to try and reach an agreement with all the groups - not just the Taleban.
That is an impossible order, particularly as almost everyone agrees that you cannot negotiate with al-Qaeda.
But let's stick with the Taleban - if you can cut a deal with the movement then you would stand a good chance at substantially reducing the conflict.
As with insurgencies in the past, there's a growing recognition that you need to deal with your enemy - in this case - the Taleban.
Political suicide
The movement commands a lot of support in the south of the country where Pashtun nationalism - which often feeds into the Taleban - is strong.
But any potential talks with the Taleban are not going to be easy.
The spiritual leader, Mullah Omar, has repeatedly demanded that all 70,000 or so foreign troops leave the country.
The Afghan President Hamid Karzai cannot agree to this as it would be an act of political suicide - his government would collapse and it's possible that the Taleban would then overrun large parts of the country.
And there's the question of who do you speak to within the movement? Is it possible to speak to the senior leaders? In order to get an agreement that would stick, you would need to have these men on board.
And do the Taleban even want to hold peace talks?
From their point of view, it could be argued that things are going quite well.
The insurgency is spreading and the government is regarded as weak, corrupt and ineffective by many Afghans. Some of these people would prefer a Taleban alternative.
Influential
Some analysts believe, however, that there are a number of senior Taleban leaders who could be won over having spent the last seven years living in harsh and dangerous conditions.
But there are also Afghans who are suspicious of President Karzai's recent overtures to the movement. They suspect it has more to do with trying to shore up his Pashtun support ahead of the planned presidential elections next year.
Another problem is that by trying to reconcile with the Taleban you could end up alienating other groups in Afghanistan.
There's often been deadly rivalries between Afghanistan's various ethnic groups.
In the north of the country, for example, there are many Tajiks and Uzbeks, who fought against the Taleban during the 1990s and who were backed by Western governments to overthrow the Taleban government in 2001.
The Northern Alliance - as it was then called - is influential in the Afghan government, and it would be doubtful if they would stomach a Taleban return to the fold.
In a worse-case scenario, they could end up fighting against any government that included Taleban members.
The issue of negotiations may be on the table, but, for now, there has been no significant developments. It's not even clear whether the Afghan government has a coherent strategy on the issue.
Most Afghans believe that the insurgency will run for a long time yet - and that any possible deal will not come any time soon.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Intelligence official killed in Afghanistan
Press TV (Iran) Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:09:48 GMT
A district director of Afghan national security service has been killed in a bomb attack in Afghanistan's eastern Province of Khost.
The incident took place Friday at around 8:00 a.m. (0330 GMT) in Baak district when a bomber with explosive material strapped to his body blew himself up near the district intelligence chief on his way to work, the provincial governor Arsala Jamal told Xinhua.
Jamal, however, did not provide the name of the ill-fated intelligence official, but said that the explosion also left a civilian dead.
"Two others were wounded including an intelligence service member," he added. No group or individual has taken responsibility for the attack.
The long-term occupation of Afghan land by the US-led forces the extensive bombing and its overwhelmingly civilian casualties, and the lack of social and political reform have led to an increase of violence in Afghanistan.
Conflicts and spiraling insurgency have claimed the lives of over 4,000 people with around 1500 civilians so far this year.
Back to Top
Back to Top
FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan
Reuters October 10, 2008
KHOST - A suicide bomber on foot killed a provincial intelligence officer and wounded three other policemen in the Baak district of Khost province some 150 km (90) - (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 2 p.m. British time on Friday:
KABUL - A convoy belonging to international troops fired on a civilian car wounding three people including a woman in the centre of Kabul city Friday, a police official and witnesses said.
KHOST - A suicide bomber on foot killed a provincial intelligence officer and wounded three other policemen in the Baak district of Khost province some 150 km (90) miles east of Kabul Friday, the provincial district chief said.
NENGARHAR - A suicide bomber targeted a foreign military convoy wounding two soldiers and an interpreter in the eastern city of Jalalabad some 115 km (71) miles east of Kabul on Friday, a provincial official said. Most of the soldiers operating in eastern Afghanistan are Americans.
GHAZNI - Five Taliban insurgents were killed and two Afghan policemen and two other militants were wounded during a gun battle in the Andar district some 200 km (125) miles southwest of Kabul Thursday, the provincial district chief said.
FARAH - Taliban insurgents ambushed a convoy belonging to the U.S. security firm USPI killing two guards and setting fire to eleven trucks in the Bala Boluk district some 635 km (395) miles west of Kabul Thursday, a provincial police officer, Juma Khan said. USPI carries supplies for foreign troops in Afghanistan. (Compiled by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Nato to attack Afghan opium labs
BBC News Friday, 10 October 2008
Nato has agreed its troops will be allowed to attack opium factories for the first time in Afghanistan.
Alliance spokesman James Appathurai said troops will act with Afghan forces "against facilities and facilitators" using drugs to finance the Taleban.
Such counter-narcotics operations have until now been carried out by Afghan forces. The US wants more aggressive tactics against the opium trade.
Nato defence ministers reached agreement at a meeting in Budapest.
Nato's International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf) and US-led troops have until now concentrated on eradicating poppy crops, rather than attacking opium factories and distribution networks.
Some Nato members have been wary of the anti-drug mission, fearing that any crackdown would prompt a violent backlash against allied troops.
Mr Appathurai said participation would be "subject to the authorisation of respective nations".
He gave few further details. Nato defence ministers will review the mission in February.
Nato is also stressing this is only a temporary expansion of the Nato mission until Afghan security forces are deemed able to do the job on their own.
Afghanistan supplies more than 90% of the world's illicit opium, the main ingredient of heroin.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates welcomed the Nato decision.
"Secretary Gates is extremely pleased that... Nato has decided to allow Isaf forces to take on the drug traffickers who are fuelling the insurgency, destabilising Afghanistan and killing our troops," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.
On Thursday Afghanistan's Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak addressed the Nato meeting.
"We've asked Nato to please support us, support our effort in destroying the labs and also the interdiction of the drugs and the chemical precursors that are coming from outside the country for making heroin," he told reporters afterwards.
'Scourge'
Nato's top operations commander, Gen John Craddock, also attended the Budapest talks to push for more concerted action by alliance members.
He told them the Afghan opium trade is bankrolling the Taleban insurgency to the tune of $100m (£57m) a year.
"You cannot have a safe and secure environment with a scourge of narcotics rampant," he told Reuters news agency on Thursday.
His remarks come amid anxiety that opium production far exceeds global demand and that international drug cartels must have stockpiled huge quantities.
The head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, is urging the international community to "find the missing opium".
"These stockpiles are a time bomb for public health and global security," he has said.
It is estimated that bumper poppy harvests have yielded twice as much opium as needed to satisfy every known heroin user on the planet.
British law enforcement officers working undercover in southern Afghanistan are reporting seizures of "enormous quantities of precursors" - the chemicals required to process opium - suggesting vast amounts of heroin may be hidden in the lawless region.
The UN said in August that poppy production in Afghanistan was down this year after a record-breaking harvest in 2007.
But the southern region of Helmand, a Taleban stronghold, accounts for nearly 66% of all Afghan opium, from which heroin is obtained.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Embassy attack due to increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan: US report
Lalit K Jha NDTV (India) Friday, October 10, 2008, (Washington)
The terrorist attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, by pro-Pakistan elements, has been mainly due to the increasing Indian influence on Afghanistan, a Congressional report has said.
The massive suicidal car bomb attack on July 7 this year had resulted in the death of more than 40 people including a senior Indian Diplomat and injuring more than 100. This was the first ever attack on an Indian embassy abroad.
The attack and the possible reasons for it finds mention in the latest Congressional report on the security situation in Afghanistan. The report has been prepared by the Congressional Research Service - a research wing of the US Congress - for internal use of the US lawmakers.
"The growing Indian financial and political influence might have been a cause of the July 7, 2008 attack on India's embassy, presumably by pro-Pakistan elements that want to limit India's influence," CRS said in its 75-page report.
India is majorly involved in reconstruction and development work in Afghanistan in the post-Taliban era. So far it has funded projects worth about $750 million and another $300 million with the Asian Development Bank to bring electricity from Central Asia.
It has helped in the renovation of the well-known Habibia High School in Kabul and is building the Afghan Parliament. Besides, a large number of India-financed reconstruction projects are under way throughout Afghanistan, including a road to the Iranian border in remote Nimruz province.
Pakistan considers this as an increasing strategic depth of India, its arch-rival, in Afghanistan. It has openly accused India of using its nine consulates in Afghanistan to spread Indian influence.
The Congressional report said the attack has triggered more debate in India about whether it should deploy more security forces in Afghanistan to protect its construction workers, diplomats, and installations.
India, the report said, apparently decided in August 2008 to improve security for its officials and workers in Afghanistan, but not to send actual troops there, either as protection forces or as part of the NATO-led coalition.
Congressional report says India and Pakistan are working against each other in Afghanistan. India, which has been a victim of cross border terrorism, sees Taliban and Al-Qaida in Afghanistan as a threat to because of Al-Qaida's association with radical Islamic organizations in Pakistan dedicated to ending Indian control of parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Nations balk at US anti-drug plan for Afghanistan
By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press Thu Oct 9, 3:01 PM ET
BUDAPEST, Hungary - A number of NATO countries are balking at the United States' request that their troops in Afghanistan do more to confront drug lords whose money helps bankroll the Taliban, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.
But he told reporters that several options are on the table for further discussion, including allowing some nations who are opposed to the plan to "opt out" without blocking others from participating.
"It's been a good conversation, it's been a frank one. I think people are listening to one another," said Gates, adding that he was not particularly surprised or frustrated by the plan's lukewarm reception. "How it will come out, I'm not certain at this point."
Some countries, including Germany, Italy and Spain, have expressed concerns that doing a more aggressive counter-drug effort would lead to a backlash against international troops serving in Afghanistan. And they also fear that broadening the mission there would overburden the troops, and give the Afghan government less incentive to fight the drug problem on its own.
Gates said he argued that the U.S. is not pressing for a counter-narcotics strategy, and instead is talking about giving troops greater freedom to track down the networks that are funding the Taliban.
The issue was discussed at length Thursday at a NATO meeting of defense ministers, and Gates says he is hopeful a resolution may be reached, even possibly Friday.
NATO allies have been struggling to find the troops and equipment needed to combat escalating violence, and growing threats from the Taliban and militants coming across the border from Pakistan. Commanders have said that a key way to fight back would be to target the drug money that fuels the insurgency.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Gates acknowledged that opposing allied leaders expressed legitimate worries about the plan.
"I think that there are some concerns and I think there's merit to them," Gates said. One, he said, is whether escalating the fight will further antagonize the Afghan people — many of whom rely on the poppy trade for their livelihood.
Also, he said, there is a concern that "if we take this on, that it will send a signal that we're relieving the Afghan government of responsibility for this problem. Of course, we tried to present a contrary view."
According to officials, the drug trade is concentrated in seven of the country's 34 provinces, but the heroin industry pours an estimated $100 million into the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies each year. Earlier this week, NATO's top commander, U.S. Army Gen. John Craddock, called it a cancer that fuels the insurgency.
Craddock is the one who first broached the plan that Gates endorsed and defended to the allies.
"It was a very respectful decision. Each of us understood where the other was coming from ... the question is, what do we do about it?" Gates said. Asked if there was a chance it could be resolved Friday, he responded, "I hope. I pray."
Gates also said that his recent endorsement of efforts to reach out to members of the Taliban and other militants who could be considered reconcilable does not apply to al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
And he said that such a program, modeled after the one used by U.S. forces in Iraq that led to a decline in violence there, must also be based on conditions set by the Afghan government. Winning over those who are fighting the government, he said, "is how most wars are won."
Gates, who at times has been critical of the NATO alliance — from restrictions that country's place on their troops to their sometimes lackluster counterinsurgency efforts — offered a broad defense of the recent effort.
The nations, he said, have met the commitments they made to provide additional troops, helicopters and other assistance. The real challenge, he agreed, will be to meet the growing requirements laid out by the commanders for even more troops, trainers and aircraft.
The seven-year-old Afghan war has seen recent spikes in violence, and a spate of U.S. attacks that killed a number of civilians, enraging the Afghan people. Gates said a new effort by the U.S. to do more to diminish civilian casualties, and to respond more quickly when such incidents are reported, should help.
But overall, he insisted that the tone of Thursday's meeting was more optimistic than recent reports would suggest, including a British general's comments that "we're not going to win this war."
Leaders at the meeting, Gates said, are cautiously optimistic about the war. Although, he added, "We know we face a lot of challenges."
___
Associated Press Reporter Paul Ames contributed to this report.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan outlook darkens
Associated Press Pamela Hess Friday, October 10, 2008
WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence draft cites alarming decline in past 2 months, risk of 'downward spiral' into violence, chaos.
The situation in Afghanistan now is the worst since the U.S.-led invasion of 2001 and the country is in danger of a "downward spiral" into violence and chaos, according to an intelligence report draft.
The nearly completed National Intelligence Estimate, the work of 16 intelligence agencies, says Afghanistan's deterioration has accelerated alarmingly in past two months. Bush administration officials say privately that Afghanistan is now the single most pressing security threat in the fight against terrorism.
"We are doing a review to look to see what more we can do," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters Thursday. "We are looking to see where some of the strengths are and how we can support those strengths and also how we can help the Afghans when there are weaknesses."
A senior U.S. commander with recent experience in Afghanistan characterized the situation as "stagnant" rather than deteriorating.
"We're not making progress. And we're not making progress because of a lack of capability in the government and because the Taliban have a safe haven from which to plan, train and launch attacks into Afghanistan," said the commander, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive material.
A second military commander, who read the draft of the intelligence report, said it warns that action is needed quickly to prevent Afghanistan from heading into the "downward spiral." The secret report is expected to be completed by mid-November, and some conclusions could change.
Military figures show that Afghanistan has become far more dangerous for American troops than Iraq. More than twice as many Americans have died in Afghanistan than in Iraq since May, even though there are more than five times the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.
The White House has accelerated a review of how to reverse the security slide and shore up Afghan President Hamid Karzai's struggling government.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Brother of Afghan President to Give Up Seat in Parliament
By TIMOOR SHAH The New York Times October 9, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — An older brother of President Hamid Karzai who has one of the worst attendance records in Afghanistan’s Parliament said Thursday that he was giving up his legislative seat. The brother, Abdul Qayum Karzai, cited kidney problems as the cause.
He spoke at a news conference in this southern Afghan city.
The 249-member legislature has often been unable to muster a quorum to conduct its sessions since elections in 2004. The parliamentary speaker, Yunis Kanooni, began publishing regular attendance tallies this summer.
New parliamentary elections are scheduled for late next year.
Hamid Karzai, who also faces re-election in 2009, has come under increasing criticism in recent months from western nations, including the United States, that sustain his government with troops and financial aid. The government’s popular support has plunged amid widespread allegations of high-level corruption and a failure to tackle fast-rising food costs and deteriorating security at a time when the Taliban is resurgent.
Western diplomats say the Afghan president has also come under pressure to deal with criticism of some of his brothers, including Abdul Qayum Karzai, the legislator and a businessman who has spent long periods outside Afghanistan since the Taliban government was toppled in 2001.
But the most controversial of the brothers has been Ahmed Wali Karzai, now chief of the Kandahar Provincial Council, who was named in a report in The New York Times on Sunday as a focus of concern among American officials as a result of allegations that he has benefited from heroin trafficking.
The article said American officials in Kabul and Washington were concerned that perceptions that President Karzai might be protecting his brother were damaging the president’s credibility and undermining American efforts to support his government. President Karzai and Ahmed Wali Karzai have dismissed the allegations as baseless and described them as politically motivated attacks by longtime foes.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Pavarotti tribute concert on sunday
Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) October 10, 2008
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 10 October 2008, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
This weekend, a memorial ceremony and tribute charity concert will be held in Petra, Jordan, in commemoration of the late Italian tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, who died a little over a year ago.
Under the patronage of HRH Princess Haya Bint al Hussein of Jordan, a UN Messenger of Peace, the concert at the renowned archeological site at Petra will generate funds for projects in Afghanistan by UNHCR and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) as well as to the Petra National Trust.
Some of the world's biggest classical and pop music names – many of them veterans of the "Pavarotti & Friends" concerts – will take part in the Sunday event, coinciding with Pavarotti's birthday. They include Sting, Andrea Bocelli, Jovanotti, Laura Pausini, Zucchero, Angela Gheorghiu, Andrea Griminelli, Cynthia Lawrence, Roberto Alagna and José Carreras. U2 lead singer Bono will join through a video-link. The concert will be conducted by Eugene Kohn.
Since 2002, more than 5 million Afghans have returned to their country from Pakistan, Iran and elsewhere. The joint WFP/UNHCR projects will focus on the most vulnerable of them – especially women and children – and pay to construct schools, provide health, skills and literacy training, and build micro-hydropower and irrigation canals to bring electricity and improve agricultural production. The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has so far announced a donation of 2.1 million Euros (about $2.9 million) to UNHCR and WFP projects in Afghanistan.
For over 10 years, until his death in September 2007, Pavarotti actively supported UNHCR projects in Kosovo, Pakistan, Zambia, and Iraq. For his continuous commitment to refugee causes, he received UNHCR's Nansen Refugee Award and was named a UN Messenger of Peace.
Short feeds from the memorial event and tribute concert will be distributed by APTN. Donation information, latest updates and background information can be found on www.thepavarottitribute.com.
In Italy, donations can be made through the toll free number, 800 900 067.
A media package on the concert is available on UNHCR's media site.
Contact Cristina Gatti for more information.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Student's bodyguards shoot high school teacher
www.quqnoos.com Written by Abdullah Anwari Thursday, 09 October 2008
Police arrest men accused of shooting an educational manager at school
THE BODYGUARDS of a student in Kabul have shot and injured an educational manager after he demanded to know where the student’s books were, officials said.
The student, who studies at Saidal Nasiri High School in the capital, is now in police custody, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said.
The educational manager and other teachers at the school want to see the student and his bodyguards severely punished for the shooting.
Some Members of Parliament condemned the attack and urged the government to put the student and his bodyguard on trial.
Families have expressed concern in recent weeks about students who bring light weapons into schools in the capital.
Back to Top
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).