Karzai urges Pakistan to reconsider Bonn boycott

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai telephoned Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday to urge him to reconsider a boycott of the Bonn conference over a deadly Nato strike, officials in both countries said. Karzai’s deputy spokesman Siamak Herawi told AFP that Pakistan was an important participant in the conference aimed at bridging peace after 10 years of war against the Taliban, and expressed hope that they would ultimately attend. “President Hamid Karzai called Prime Minister Gilani and officially asked the Pakistan government to participate in the Bonn conference,” said Herawi. “We regard Pakistan as an important country and are optimistic they will attend the Bonn conference.” Pakistan said it would skip...

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Merkel ‘very sorry’ about Pakistan boycott of Afghan meet

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday she was “very sorry” about Pakistan’s announced boycott of a Bonn conference next week on the future of Afghanistan and would try to convince it to attend. Merkel said Germany would “see what could be done to change” Islamabad’s decision to stay away from the meeting in the western German city, taken in protest at Nato air strikes which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. “We are both interested in constructive development of Afghanistan,”Merkel, who will open the Bonn conference, told reporters at a joint press conference with visiting King Abdullah II of Jordan. “Which is why I consider the conference hosted by the (German) foreign minister to be very important. We always said...

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Seif now just a ‘helpless criminal’: Libya official

ZINTAN: Moamer Qadhafi’s once-powerful son Seif al-Islam is now just a “helpless criminal” in the Libyan hilltown of Zintan, where he can stay until he goes on trial, officials and town residents say. “For Zintan he is just a helpless criminal. He is not a danger. We have no problem in keeping him here and we can hold him until his trial begins if it is better for Libya,” said Ibrahim Turki, the National Transitional Council’s health coordinator in Zintan. “The Libyan authorities will decide his fate,” he said. Residents of Zintan, a southern Libyan town now famous for its high-profile captive, told AFP that Seif was being moved regularly from one secret location to another to ensure his safety and protect him from the...

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India’s Sonia Gandhi makes first speech since surgery

NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi, president of India’s ruling Congress party, returned to the political stage on Tuesday, making her first public speech since undergoing surgery in August. Gandhi, 64, was greeted by huge cheers as she spoke to a Congress youth rally in New Delhi organised by her son, Rahul Gandhi, who is taking an increasingly prominent role in domestic politics. Speculation over Sonia’s health and the future leadership of the Congress party has been mounting ever since she went to the United States in August to receive treatment for an undisclosed illness. She looked tired but spoke in a firm voice for more than 10 minutes to thousands of young party members. “You have the power to beat back the forces of oppression...

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EU expresses condolences over Nato strike in Pakistan

BRUSSELS: European Union chief diplomat Catherine Ashton expressed condolences to Pakistan on Tuesday over a Nato air strike that killed 24 Pakistani troops and voiced support for an investigation. Ashton “is closely following reports of the incident,” her office said after Saturday’s raid near the Afghan border, which prompted a furious Islamabad to cut off alliance supply routes to Afghanistan. “High Representative Catherine Ashton has offered her deepest condolences to the government and people of Pakistan for the loss of life and injuries resulting from the incident along the Afghan-Pakistani border at the weekend,” her office said in a statement. The EU official “supports Pakistan and Nato efforts to conduct a full...

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ISAF to retrain troops on civilian casualties: Kabul

KABUL: Nato’s US-led force in Afghanistan will retrain its troops by December 5 on how to avoid civilian casualties, following fresh accusations of civilian killings President Hamid Karzai’s office said on Tuesday. The move comes with Nato already facing uncomfortable fallout after an air strike killed 24 Pakistani troops near the Afghan border on Saturday. Karzai’s office quoted a letter from Commander General John Allen as saying he had issued orders “for all units to conduct retraining on our methods of employing force against insurgents while protecting Afghan civilians.” It added: “No later than 5 December, units will confirm to me that they have complied with these orders.” The International Security Assistance Force...

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Egypt hails election as successful ‘democracy test’

CAIRO: Egypt’s first post-revolution election entered its second day on Tuesday amid pride and triumphalism over the high turn-out and the orderly start to the country’s complex transition to democracy. “The birth of the new Egypt,” declared the state-owned Al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday, hailing the “huge turnout, free voting in a secure atmosphere” witnessed on Monday. “The people have passed the democracy test,” headlined the independent daily newspaper al-Shorouk on Tuesday. “On the road to democracy,” said English-language Egyptian Mail. Egyptians in Cairo and the port city Alexandria waited in long queues on Monday to cast ballots for a new parliament – the start of multi-stage elections that are the first since...

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Syrian forces killed, tortured 256 children: UN

BEIRUT: A UN investigation has concluded that Syrian forces committed crimes against humanity by killing and torturing hundreds of children, including a 2-year-old girl reportedly shot to death so she wouldn’t grow up to be a demonstrator. The results of the inquiry, released on Monday, added to mounting international pressure on President Bashar Assad, a day after the Arab League approved sweeping sanctions to push his embattled regime to end the violence. Syria’s foreign minister called the Arab move ”a declaration of economic war” and warned of retaliation. The report by a UN Human Rights Council panel found that at least 256 children were killed by government forces between mid-March and early November, some of them tortured...

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US general to head probe into Nato strike

WASHINGTON: The US military on Monday named an Air Force general to lead an investigation into allied air strikes that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead and provoked outrage in Islamabad. Pakistan has reacted with fury and cut off crucial supply routes to Nato-led forces in Afghanistan after Saturday’s incident near a checkpoint in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar. The chief of US Central Command appointed Brigadier General Stephen Clark, from Air Force Special Operations Command in Florida, as the investigating officer for the probe that will also include a Nato representative, officials said. The governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan “will be invited to participate,” Central Command said in a statement. Central Command,...

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‘Fatal Nato raid likely case of mistaken ID’

WASHINGTON: A US military account of a Nato air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers during the weekend suggests the deaths resulted from a case of mistaken identity, The Associated Press learned Monday. The AP has learned details of the raid, which began when a joint US-Afghan special operations team was attacked by militants just inside Afghanistan. It ended when Nato gunships and attack helicopters fired on two encampments they thought were used by militants but actually were Pakistan border posts, the military account said. US officials say the account suggests that the Taliban may have deliberately tried to provoke a cross-border firefight that would set back fragile partnerships between the US and Nato forces...

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