Taliban deny plan for Saudi talks with Afghan govt

KABUL: The Taliban militia leading a 10-year insurgency in Afghanistan on Wednesday denied that they would soon hold talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government in Saudi Arabia. “There is no truth in these published reports saying that the delegation of the Islamic Emirate would meet with representatives of the Karzai government in Saudi Arabia in the near future,” the Taliban said on their website. Afghan officials, requesting anonymity, had suggested that the two sides would hold talks in Saudi Arabia separate from planned negotiations in Qatar between the Taliban and the United States. But it was never clear whether the Taliban, who have so far resisted talks with the Afghan government, or the Saudis, who have...

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Posted in: INTERNATIONAL

Romney wins in Florida, turns sights on Obama

TAMPA: Mitt Romney clobbered Newt Gingrich by 14 percentage points in Florida’s Republican primary vote and moves on to the next state, Nevada, on Wednesday with a fat campaign bankroll and a renewed sense that he is the inevitable challenger to President Barack Obama in November. Ten days after Gingrich hammered Romney by a similar margin in South Carolina, one of the most conservative American states, the chaotic Republican nominating contest took another dramatic turn in Florida, which awards all of its party delegates to the top vote-getter and gives Romney momentum as the race heads to friendlier states out west. Florida also will be a key battleground in the general election later this year as a large and diverse state...

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Posted in: INTERNATIONAL