Greek national kidnapped from Kalash museum

CHITRAL: Gunmen kidnapped a Greek national from his residence in Kalash valley after killing his guard early on Tuesday morning.

Police said the Greek national (identified only as Athunasius) was sleeping in his room inside the Kalash museum when about 20 masked men broke into the building and whisked him away.

A policeman deployed for his security was killed when he put up resistance.

Mr Athunasius has been living in the valley for 15 years and working on a project for development of the Kalash community. He worked for the construction of a three-storey building to preserve and promote the unique culture of area.

The building also housed a primary school where Mr Athunasius worked as a teacher.

The government had deployed five policemen for his security, but at the time of the incident only two of them were said to be on duty, the others having been sent on leave.

Another teacher of the school, Ajmer Khan Kalash, was also inside the building, who was tied to a pillar by rope.

The valley is adjacent to the Nooristan area of Afghanistan and it is believed that Mr Athunasius has been taken to Nooristan.

The funeral prayer for the slain policeman was offered in the Shahi Masjid ground and he was laid to rest in his village Kosht in upper Chitral.

Chitral’s new DPO Mohammad Jafar Khan and district nazim Maghfirat Shah attended the funeral.

Pukhtunkhwa Province: What’s in a name?

What’s in a name?
PML (N) guru LUHAR Nawaz Sharif’s referendum proposal on Frontier province’s renaming is though itself evasive and eyewash, reeking as it does of sheer political expediency and lack of courage to take a clear-cut position on the contentious issue. But the ANP clan’s own reaction is crude, churlish and a vulgar show in theatrics. Do the Pakhtuns really need just a name change of an abode for their recognition or identification? Aren’t they known worldwide for their valour and bravery, for their independence-mindedness and intolerance of subjugation, for their inviolable code of honour and dignity, and for their unrivalled hospitality and congeniality? And haven’t they commanded this repute in all the ages and through all the times, generations after generations? Doesn’t history recall with awe the victories of their redoubtable warriors and heroes on the battlefield and their chivalry off the battlefield? Aren’t their venerated poets’ verses still recited with delight alike by literary buffs and critics as also ordinary poetry lovers here at home as also abroad? And aren’t their saints remembered with reverence widely for their message of human love and affection, compassion and mercy, and brotherhood and humanity? Aren’t their eminent personalities’ accomplishments in statecraft and swordsmanship, professions and vocations, trades and skills, and arts and crafts residing warmly in the people’s living memories near and afar? But what then is in a name? A country or a province acquires fame not for its name but for its people’s quality of life, their toils and labours and what they produce in their factories and on their farms. A city is known not for its nomenclature but for its civic services. A hospital gets its reputation not what is written on its signboard but from the standard of its healthcare facilities and devotion of its doctors, paramedics and staff to serve the ailing public. And a school makes its name for the quality of its teaching and standards of its education. What has the ANP clan put in by way of performance to give plausibly a name change to the province? It is now in a headlong chase to hit the second year in rule. What has it accomplished in these two years? Lawlessness and criminality are still raging ferociously, keeping the entire province in their vicious grip. The provincial metropolis of Peshawar is virtually emptied out of big businessmen, traders and industrialists, all having migrated to other places for fear of being kidnapped for ransom. Sick industries are lying sick unattended and uncured, and collapsed industrial estates are still lying in ruins, all crying for revival. No policy has the clan unfolded to salvage the rotten state schooling and public healthcare systems. Nothing has it put in place for the fructification of tremendous Pakhtun youth talent and potential. Having the field day on the clan’s watch is only its ineptitude and mismanagement, with its klansmen setting an all-time-record in sleaze and corruption. The clan is showing itself for being incorrigible devotees of the goddess of wealth, possessed of a rapacious passion for self-enrichment. Spicy stories are feverishly making the rounds of the grapevine, speaking of their honchos’ stunning money-minting by means foul in heaps and mounds. They are building to themselves palatial homes even overseas, with a special craze for establishing their households in the Gulf states. Their offspring they are sending out to India and other select destinations for higher education. And if the clan’s predecessor priestly orders employed their spurious piety and calculated religiosity as a camouflage of their avaricious money-making errands, the clan is using its pretentious Pakhtun championship and secularism to this effect for the same moneymaking pursuit. But its pretences to both Pakhtun nationalism and secularism stand exposed, all torn to shreds by its acts over these times in rule. By caving in to the “fanatical” Swati thugs and their allied imposters for quite a time until the clan was retrieved by the army, the klansmen have conclusively demonstrated that neither are they secular as they deceptively style themselves to be nor are they the kind of true Pakhtuns they project themselves to be. Indeed, by hitting a demeaning retreat with their tails between the legs in the face of those marauding thugs, they even have insulted the glorious name of Pakhtuns reputed to keep fighting on even a giant but surrendering not in any event. So the clan can earn not a name in history by manipulating a name change for the Frontier. That repute takes what this clan definitely has not in it. What a misfortune of this swindling pack!

Afghan refugees creating socio-economic problems

PESHAWAR : For more than three decades Pakistan had been hosting the largest number of Afghan refugees on its soil in a unique gesture of Islamic brotherhood and regional harmony. Pakistan’s this courtesy not only won acknowledgement in the region but also across the globe. This large chunk of refugees had to leave their homeland due to the then USSR in 1979 plunging a peaceful country into chaos also threatening solidarity and security of its neighbors. Though, being a hospitable neighbour, Pakistan welcomed Afghan brothers to its soil and extended them all possible assistance and hospitality. But, the people of Pakistan did not know they would suffer a lot due to large influx of Afghan refugees. Pakistani people today face variety of issues due to prolonged Afghan unrest, like narcotics, militancy and Kalashnikov culture. “Nobody in Pakistan knew about subversive activities like blasts, suicide bombing and taking life of innocent people,” an independent analysis said. They put extra load on Pakistan’s economy and the employment opportunities for local people continued shrinking. Though, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had arranged temporary camps for the refugees, but the Pakistan government had to bear the major brunt of their stay in the country. Though they were earlier restricted to these camps but large number among them gradually shifted to settled areas with many getting Pakistan’s Identity Cards and Passports. Side by side small cities their focus had also been big cities like Peshawar, Lahore, Islamabad, Quetta and Karachi and also started their own businesses. According to an independent economists, these Afghan refugees dominated the businesses specially in NWFP due to their expertise in the illegal trade and businesses. Some experts view that most of these migrants have been found involved in illegal activities like drug peddling, arms smuggling and incidents of terrorism in the country. The country passing through the terrible phase of war against terrorism is also more or less linked to Afghan problem and settlement of Afghan and exotic fighters. Like some previous governments, Cabinet members of the present government like Minister for States and Frontier Regions Najamuddin Khan is critical of such a long stay of Afghan refugees in the country. “Though we bore the associated problems but now the issue seemed to be aggravating more than the past,” Najamuddin said. “The government never budge from its stance to cater to the needs of a such large number of refugees. But as normalcy is returning to Afghanistan, these refugees ought to be repatriated without any delay,” he added. He said the international community should play its role and ensure early return of these people to their homeland. Referring to related problems, he pointed out, the Afghan people residing in different parts of the country especially in NWFP have sprawled their businesses to the deprivation of local people. Under the current situation when the whole nation is united in fighting against terrorism, a number of Afghan nationals have been nabbed or killed in military operations in restive parts of NWFP. “Presence of refugees population also served as safe heaven for terrorists and extremists elements from Afghanistan,” he added. He also described the response from international community as less encouraging, particularly when the country was already facing economic problems. He strongly recommended to have strict check on Afghans coming back to pakistan after repatriation to their country. “They daily cross into Pakistan for the business or other purposes.” The decades long civil war among the warlords and presence of Taliban insurgents was another problem. But, Pakistan faced this challenge with commitment and resilience and waited the situation in Afghanistan to improve. According to the UNHCR representative Asif Shahzad, presently over 1.7 million registered Afghans refugees are living in Pakistan and it was estimated that over one million refugees remained in camps in Peshawar and Balochistan. In addition to it, an unknown but substantial number of Afghans are known to live in Pakistan’s urban areas. It was decided by the Tripartite Commission including Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR to close three of the camps established after September 11, 2001, early in 2004. Now, whatever the case, there is dire need for the Afghan government to call back their residents as in changing scenario, Pakistan could not be able to further host them and suffer in the name of courtesy. Dwellers of these camps had shifted to Pakistan in several waves starting from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The last refugee wave - nearly 300,000 Afghans—reached Pakistan after September 11, 2001 attacks. Conditions for Afghan refugees in Pakistan differ greatly. Some still live in tents, others in mud house settlements that look like the villages they left behind. International agencies like UNHCR and WFP have been contributing to the government efforts to meet the needs of Afghan refugees. Largest number among them; 1.5 million refugees; were repatriated in 2002, with Pakistan still carrying the load of hundreds of thousands refugees.

College closure: Future of 430 students at stake

PESHAWAR: The closure of Cadet College, Razmak in North Waziristan has put the future of around 430 students at stake, as the government is still indecisive about reopening the prestigious institution.

The college was closed in haste by the government in June last and the students and teachers were escorted out the restive tribal area, only to be kidnapped by militants and then freed through the intervention of a jirga.

Government and military officials at that time had argued that the students and teachers of Cadet College, Razmak were not safe as militants affiliated with Baitullah Mahsud could target the government and army installations in the area after a military operation was launched against them in the adjoining South Waziristan.

The picturesque Razmak Valley is located on the border between South and North Waziristan while the Cadet College is located in a military base. Keeping in view previous attack on the college by the militants from nearby Makeen town in South Waziristan in 2007 in which a science laboratory was damaged, the military authorities feared the militants could target it again. Hence, they had decided to close the college and asked students and the teachers to leave the area.

As no proper security arrangements were put in place for their security, Baitullah men kidnapped some of the students and teachers near the Bakkakhel area of FR Bannu. The Torikhel people, who live in Razmak area, later raised a 300-member tribal lashkar that raided villages in the nearby South Waziristan and recovered vehicles and luggage of the kidnapped students. Led by Abdul Halim Khan, a noted Torikhel elder-cum-militant commander of Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led militants, the lashkar warned Baitullah to release the students and their teachers or face the consequences.

The pressure worked and Baitullah decided to release the students and even met the cadets. Since June, the college has been closed and an entire academic year of the students could be lost. Parents of the cadets are seriously worried about uncertain future of their children.

A retired subedar of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC), Mohammad Iqbal is one among several other concerned fathers. He said he was hoping for a bright future for his son after getting him admitted to the Cadet College but was now a worried man as there is no indication when the college would reopen.

Sources told The News that NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani had constituted a committee to select a safe place where the college could be temporarily set up. One of the committee members, who wished not to named, told The News that they inspected three places including the newly constructed building of Government Degree College at Shankar in Mardan, Elementary College Charsadda and another building in Swabi district for accommodating the college temporarily. He said the committee was keeping its work secret as the Torikhel tribe was opposing shifting of the college from Razmak.

The member said the committee had sent its recommendations to the governor and was waiting for approval of one of the buildings to start classes. He said only three chapters of the course had been taught to the students of Grade VIII and IX while second-year classes were yet to be started.

The governor had ordered an inquiry against the officials who closed the college and then shifted the students to Peshawar without proper security. But neither an inquiry was conducted nor any official was punished for negligence.

As Vote Count Gives Karzai a Majority, a Recount Is Ordered

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan election officials declared that President Hamid Karzai had won a majority of the vote based on preliminary results announced Tuesday, even as the United Nations-backed commission serving as the ultimate arbiter of the elections said it had found “clear and convincing evidence of fraud” in a number of polling stations and ordered a partial recount.

Afghan election officials said that with votes from 91.6 percent of the polling places counted, Mr. Karzai had 54.1 percent, and his main challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, had 28.3 percent. The tally, if certified, would mean that Mr. Karzai would be declared the victor without a runoff because he received more than 50 percent of the vote.

But international election officials and observers immediately cast doubt on those figures, warning that the new results were severely tainted by large-scale ballot stuffing. Hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes are included in the count, they said — an amount that could prove to be the margin Mr. Karzai needs to win the election outright.

The United Nations-backed Electoral Complaints Commission, an Afghan and international panel, on Tuesday ordered a recount of ballot boxes where turnout was exceptionally high or where one candidate won 95 percent or more of votes at polling stations that had at least 100 ballots cast.

One Western official said that had the Afghan Independent Election Commission not decided on Monday to undo a decision it made the day before to enforce stricter safeguards, Mr. Karzai’s vote total would still be under 50 percent, forcing him into a second election against Mr. Abdullah.

The election commission had moved on Sunday to carry out precautions intended to catch a number of voting irregularities. But as it became clear that those safeguards would prevent Mr. Karzai from surpassing the 50 percent threshold, the decision was reversed Monday, and the election commission announced that it had no legal authority to exclude the ballots, the Western official said.

“He was below 50 percent when you exclude the obviously fraudulent votes,” said the official, who spoke anonymously according to diplomatic protocol.

Some United Nations staff members were so “disgusted” by the election commission’s refusal to enforce more reasonable safeguards that most of the normal complement of staff members who would have attended the commission’s news conference on Tuesday boycotted the event instead, said one staff member, who spoke anonymously because of the delicacy of the matter.

The election commission’s deputy chairman, Daoud Ali Najafi, denied any partisanship on Tuesday. He also rejected the suggestion that the commission was rushing out a result to show that Mr. Karzai was ahead, and insisted that all fraud would be investigated once the preliminary results were complete.

Reports of egregious fraud have marred the Aug. 20 presidential election and raised serious questions about the legitimacy of the Afghan political process as Mr. Karzai seeks a second five-year term.

The developments also put the Obama administration in a difficult position as it seeks to shore up domestic and international support for the expanding Afghan war. American officials have said little publicly about how they would respond to the vote-rigging accusations, but some Western and Afghan officials have said there was broad misconduct.

The complaints commission is investigating over 700 cases of suspected voting fraud that are considered serious enough to alter the result. But the task may take weeks, and the final results will not be certified until all complaints have been adjudicated.

The complaints commission is the ultimate arbiter of election results. But Western officials say they worry that any decision the commission makes that affects Mr. Karzai adversely will be met with accusations that foreigners are disenfranchising Afghans.

The Abdullah campaign denounced Tuesday’s tally as illegitimate. “We do not accept these results,” said Fazal Sancharaki, the campaign’s spokesman, who characterized the numbers as fraudulent. A Karzai campaign spokesman did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Nader Nadery, chairman of the Fair and Free Election Foundation of Afghanistan, the country’s largest election observer, said the election commission had issued a number of conflicting statements about the results that undermined the panel’s credibility.

“You cannot at all consider this result as final,” Mr. Nadery said of the figures released Tuesday.

Mr. Karzai made light of the problem of fraud in an interview published Monday in the French newspaper Le Figaro. “There was fraud in 2004, and there is today, and there will be tomorrow,” he said. “It is, alas, inevitable in a growing democracy.” He promised to accept the result whatever it would be.

According to the results released Tuesday, Mr. Karzai has 2,959,093 votes, or about 225,000 more than needed to top 50 percent of the preliminary tally released so far. Those numbers do not include results from more than 600 polling centers already excluded from the preliminary count.

Mr. Karzai enjoys a commanding lead over Mr. Abdullah, but if his final tally were to fall below 50 percent — after the complaints commission reviews all evidence of fraudulent voting — he would be forced to face off against Mr. Abdullah again.

Only months ago, polls showed that support for Mr. Abdullah was in the single digits. But he steadily gained strength as the campaign progressed — despite what he has described as coordinated efforts by Mr. Karzai’s government to throw the race to the incumbent through vast “state engineered” fraud.

Although Mr. Karzai has always been the strong front-runner in the race, he could be vulnerable in a second round if his predominance is shaken and political allies shift away from him.

Military Disputes Raid Account

WASHINGTON — United States military officials disputed a Swedish aid agency’s account of a raid by American soldiers at an Afghan hospital last week.

Capt. Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for the United States Central Command, said Tuesday the soldiers were searching for an insurgent commander responsible for the detonation of an explosive device. The troops believed that the commander might be hiding in the hospital, in Wardak Province in east-central Afghanistan, he said.

“At no time did they threaten the patients or the staff, and at no time did they tie anybody up,” Captain Hanzlik said.

The Swedish agency, the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, reported on Monday that American soldiers had stormed the hospital, broken down doors and tied up hospital staff members and visitors.

President Barack Obama Back to School Event

www.whitehouse.gov
The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.
So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.
That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Bara peace conditions

The Statesman

Named as ‘Biya daraghlam’, the Bara military operation entered into its 7th day on Monday. The security forces used Air Force jets and the gunship helicopters in remote parts of the tribal Khyber Agency to hit the training camps and the hideouts of the militants. Partly due to the operation getting prolonged but chiefly due to the strafing, a mediatory jirga comprising members of the local peace committee and tribal elders met the political tehsildar of Bara to see if the operation could be brought to an early end. Remarkable thing about the Bara parleys was that the political administration on its part did not show any indecent haste in initiating any move to slow down, put off or stop the operation. The administration told the jirga that before concluding any peace deal the militants will have to surrender 68 of their accomplices most wanted by the law enforcing agencies. Moreover, they will acknowledge the writ of the government and not use FM transmitters or publicly carry arms. The administration also told the jirga that as punishment for the breach of previous peace agreement and as surety for the future deal, the amount of fine had been enhanced from Rs30 to 60 million.
Bara was once the hub of peaceful trade activities. Visitors from outside envied the prosperity of the traders, the general rush on roadside stalls of food and drinks the activism of transporters. The entire stretch of road was so peaceful that a teenager in the middle of night could drive alone up to Bara and back. So sudden indeed has been the twist in the turn of events that a group of friends armed with guns would now think twice before travelling to Bara even at midday. The mediatory jirga should meet the government demands at the earliest so that the displaced persons can return home soon and celebrate the Eidul Fitr with their near and dear ones.

Afghan President Accuses US of Trying to Undermine Him

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he believes the United States is denouncing his family and political allies in an effort to undermine his position.

In an interview with the French daily Le Figaro published Monday, Mr. Karzai said the United States is using "underhanded" tactics to undermine him.

He said he believed that recent U.S. criticism of his running mate, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, was actually aimed at him. He also said accusations that his brother is corrupt are unfounded.

Mr. Karzai also said there might have been incidents of fraud during last month's presidential election. But he dismissed them as "inevitable" in a newly created democracy.

Earlier Monday, a report in a major U.S. newspaper outlined allegations of massive vote fraud committed to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai win re-election.

The New York Times quoted unnamed Afghan and Western officials as saying Mr. Karzai's supporters created as many as 800 fake polling stations that produced hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes.

The newspaper says the votes counted for Mr. Karzai at some polling stations may be 10 times higher than the number of people who actually voted.

Meanwhile, the Karzai campaign has accused other candidates of manipulating votes.

Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission says votes from nearly 500 polling stations across the country have been invalidated due to allegations of widespread fraud.

The commission also says it will have to clear 650 serious complaints before the results of the voting can be certified this month.

Partial election results show Mr. Karzai has 48.6 percent of the vote, while his main challenger Abdullah Abdullah has 31.7 percent. The count is based on returns from about 75 percent of the country's polling sites.

A candidate needs to win more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off.

Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission has received more than 2,000 allegations of fraud or abuse from the August 20 presidential election. It says that some of the complaints, if true, would affect the final result.

Once there is a clear winner, international leaders are expected to convene a United Nations conference to discuss Afghanistan's future. A formal call for such a meeting has now been made by Britain, France and Germany.

Sudanese journalist jailed after refusing to pay fine for wearing trousers

www.timesonline.co.uk
The Sudanese woman put on trial for wearing trousers was spared the lash yesterday but was sent to jail after refusing to pay a £130 fine imposed for indecency.

Lubna Hussein, 34, a widow whose trial exposed draconian Islamic laws in Sudan, was taken to prison in the same trousers that she wore when she was arrested with 12 other women at a Khartoum restaurant in July.

“I will not pay a penny, I’d rather go to prison,” she declared after hearing the verdict. She will serve a one-month sentence in Omdurman.

The judge, who was aware of the worldwide interest in the case, tried to be lenient. His punishment fell short of the maximum penalty under Article 152 of Sudan’s penal code, which prescribes 40 lashes and an unlimited fine for women dressed in an indecent or obscene manner in public.

Ten of the other women arrested with Ms Hussein had pleaded guilty to the charge of indecency already and been flogged. Unlike thousands of other women arrested in similar circumstance every year, Ms Hussein, a journalist who worked for the United Nations, refused to accept her summary punishment.

“Lubna has bravely sacrificed her freedom to free other women from the oppression of the law,” Ahmed Elzobier, one of Ms Hussein’s supporters, said. “She is not guilty but the police, the court and the Government are the guilty ones. Although Lubna is going to prison, the rest of her supporters will keep challenging these laws.”

The strict law was implemented in 1991 by President al-Bashir, two years after he took power in an Islamist-inspired coup. A peace agreement in 2005, signed between Khartoum and the southern rebels, enshrined human rights in the constitution, prompting campaigners, including Amnesty International, to call for the repeal of Article 152.

At the hearing yesterday dozens of men in traditional Islamic clothing confronted about 150 of Ms Hussein’s mostly female supporters.

As the women chanted “No to whipping!” the men shouted that women in trousers were prostitutes and demanded harsh punishment for Ms Hussein. Riot police intervened and about 40 women were arrested and later released. At least one woman was taken to hospital after being beaten.

Ms Hussein has been using the website Facebook to rally worldwide support.

Obama exhorts kids to pay attention in school

In a speech that drew fire even before he delivered it, President Barack Obama is telling the nation's schoolchildren he "expects great things from each of you."

"At the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world," Obama said. "And none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities."

The White House posted Obama's remarks on its Web site at midday Monday. He's scheduled to deliver the talk from Wakefield High School in suburban Arlington, Va., Tuesday. It will be broadcast live on C-SPAN and on the White House Web site.

Obama's planned talk has proven controversial, with several conservative organizations and individuals accusing him of trying to pitch his arguments too aggressively in a local-education setting. White House officials, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have said the allegations are silly.

In a Labor Day speech in Cincinnati, Obama mentioned his upcoming address. "I'm going to have something to say tomorrow to our children telling them to stay in school and work hard 'cause that's the right message to send."

"It's a sad state of affairs that many in this country politically would rather start an "Animal House" food fight rather than inspire kids to stay in school, to work hard, to engage parents to stay involved, and to ensure that the millions of teachers that are making great sacrifices continue to be the best in the world," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday. "It's a sad state of affairs."

In the prepared remarks, Obama tells young people that all the work of parents, educators and others won't matter "unless you show up to those schools, pay attention to those teachers."

Obama made no reference in his prepared remarks to the uproar surrounding his speech. Nor did he make an appeal for support of tough causes like health care reform. He used the talk to tell kids about his at-times clumsy ways as a child and to urge them to identify an area of interest, set goals and work hard to achieve them.

The president also warned students that if they quit on school, "you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country."

Obama acknowledged that "being successful is hard," but told the students the country badly needs their best effort to cope in an increasingly competitive global economy.

"What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country," Obama says. "What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future."

The president noted that he was raised by a single mother, who made him buckle down and work harder at times. He said he's glad she did.

Some conservatives have urged schools and parents to boycott the address. They say Obama is using the opportunity to promote a political agenda.

Schools don't have to show the speech. And some districts have decided not to, partly in response to concerns from parents.

Duncan's department has also taken heat for proposed lesson plans distributed to accompany the speech.

On Sunday, the secretary acknowledged that a section about writing to the president on how students can help him meet education goals was poorly worded. It has been changed.

"We just clarified that to say write a letter about your own goals and what you're going to do to achieve those goals," Duncan said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Former Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush delivered similar speeches to students, the White House has said.

Many adults cannot read, write.

PESHAWAR: People across the country will celebrate International Literacy Day today (September 8) with special focus on literacy needs. This year, International Literacy Day will put the spotlight on the empowering role of literacy and its importance for participation, citizenship and social development. Literacy and Empowerment is the theme for the 2009-2010 biennium of the United Nations. Public and private departments will mark the day with seminars, workshops and conferences to highlight the importance of literacy. On International Literacy Day each year, UNESCO reminds the international community of the status of literacy and adult learning globally. Despite many and varied efforts, literacy remains an elusive target: some 776 million adults lack minimum literacy skills which means that one in five adults is still not literate; 75 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out. September 08 was proclaimed International Literacy Day by UNESCO on November 17, 1965. It was first celebrated in 1966. Its aim is to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies. Literacy is a cause for celebration since there are now close to four billion literate people in the world. However, literacy for all, children, youth and adults is still an unaccomplished goal and an ever moving target. Education is the main vehicle for socio-economic development but, unfortunately about half of adult population in Pakistan cannot read and write. Pakistan is sixth most populous country of the world. Due to rapid population growth and inability of the formal education system to bring all children into school, illiterate population has increased from 22 million in 1961 to 48 million by 2005. It is feared that by 2015, illiterate population in Pakistan may rise to 52 million. In the area of education, Pakistan is lagging behind other countries of South Asia, even lower than Nepal, Bangladesh and Maldives. Pakistan has been spending less on education as compared to other countries in the region. According to Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2008 by UNESCO, Pakistan is spending 2.4 per cent of its GDP on education against the UNESCO recommended norm of a minimum of 4 per cent and against 3.8 per cent spent by India, 7.5 per cent by Maldives, 4.7 per cent by Iran and 3.4 per cent by Nepal. Out of 2.4 per cent only 1.93 per cent of GNP is being spent on education in real terms and only 11 per cent of the total education budget is allocated for the higher education sector. The total education budget is needed to be increased to a minimum of six per cent as recommended by UNESCO for developing countries with at least one-third of it going to the higher education sector. Though, 16 major political parties of the country on February 5 this year had committed in a Joint Declaration on “Education For All in Pakistan” to increase the present allocation of the education budget from 2.4 per cent to 4 per cent of the GDP within the next three years. But the ruling coalition contrary to its claims after coming into power slashed 5.7 billion from the fourth quarter of the last year’s budget of Higher Education Commission (HEC). The unexpected cut in the HEC’s budget badly affected the universities which had no savings and even the salaries for the months of April and May 2008 had been paid after withdrawing money from Pension Funds, Students Fund, Reserve Fund and taking loans. Literacy is the ability to read, write, listen and comprehend, and speak a language. In modern contexts, the word refers to reading and writing at a level adequate for communication or at a level that lets one understand and communicate abstract ideas. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has drafted a definition of literacy as the "ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.

Pakistan has highest school dropout rate in world.

PESHAWAR: Pakistan has one of the highest school dropout rates in the world, thanks to corporal punishment. Beatings at school are considered culturally acceptable to ensure obedience, and legislation banning this practice is hence poorly implemented. According to a NGO advocating the rights of children, 35,000 high school pupils in Pakistan drop out of the education system each year due to corporal punishment.Such beatings at schools are also responsible for one of the highest dropout rates in the world, which stands at 50 percent during the first five years of education. It is said that culturally accepted form of child abuse also contributed to the high dropout rate among children and the fact that 70,000 street children were present in the country. Yet, despite growing awareness regarding the issue, many schoolteachers remain convinced that some degree of corporal punishment is necessary to instruct children. “The teacher needs to ensure obedience and ensure children receive proper guidance. For this, an occasional light beating or other physical admonishment is necessary,” Abdul Akbar, 40, who teaches at a boy's private school at Hayatabad, told The Frontier Post. The government of the NWFP had banned corporal punishment in primary schools in 1999. A year later, the governments of Balochistan and Punjab issued directives to all teachers not to use corporal punishment on children, and followed up with disciplinary action against three teachers. The Sindh government also issued similar orders in 2007. But the fact is that, despite a campaign at government level and awareness-raising efforts by NGOs, the directives remain poorly implemented. Most children at schools across the country, both girls and boys, are beaten. "The law, as it exists now, permits parents or guardians, including teachers, to beat a child in “good intent”. This prevented police from acting on complaints of physical abuse. It is also a matter of attitude. Teachers say they need to beat children to teach them, but there is a need to educate teachers and pupils about child rights. In 2005, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) with Save the Children and the Pakistan government, conducted the first in-depth survey to determine how many children were subjected to corporal punishment. All 3,582 children interviewed said they had been beaten at school. Seven percent said they had suffered serious injury as a consequence. It is widely believed the situation is even worse at the hundreds of unregulated seminary schools, or `madrasas’, scattered across Pakistan. The Pakistan Paediatric Association found last year that over 88 percent of school-going children surveyed reported suffering physical abuse. Experts believe inadequate teacher training, the lack of legislation banning corporal punishment and the perception that it must be used to teach children, are all factors behind the widespread existence of corporal punishment.

Four killed in drone attack in North Waziristan

MIRANSHAH: A US missile hit a house and a religious school in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border Monday killing at least four people and wounding six others, security officials said.

'The strike targetted a madrassa and an adjoining house in Machikhel village in North Waziristan,' a Pakistani security official told AFP.

'At least four people were killed and six others injured,' the official said. Two other security officials in the area also confirmed that the missile was fired from a US drone. The identities of the victims were not immediately clear.

A local administration official said that the local tribesmen had cordoned off the destroyed house and madrassa and were searching for bodies.

Washington alleges Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels who fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion are holed up in the semi-autonomous tribal belt.

The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy drones in the region.

Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone attack on August 5 in neighbouring South Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistan at ‘extreme food security risk’

PARIS: Most of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are facing extreme or high risk of food shortages, according to a Food Security Risk Index ranking of 148 nations.

Pakistan, ranked 11th on the index, is at ‘extreme risk’, while Bangladesh and India are both at ‘high risk’, ranked 20th and 25th.

The United States is least at risk followed by France, Canada, Germany and the Czech Republic, according to the study by Maplecroft, a Britain-based firm that provides risk intelligence for businesses.

Food stress jumped towards the top of the global agenda after soaring commodity prices in 2007 and 2008 sparked riots in 30 countries, including many tottering on the brink of severe shortages or widespread hunger.

The World Bank estimates that food inflation during the period pushed an additional 100 million people into deep poverty, on top of a billion that were already scraping by on less than a dollar a day.

Poverty was a major source of food vulnerability, but not the only one, said the new report.

‘Food security is also affected by agricultural development, trade flows, foreign aid as well as government policies on nutrition,’ said Alyson Warhurst, a professor at Warwick Business School and co-director of Maplecroft.

‘Added to these are the impacts of population growth and climate change,’ she told AFP.

The five countries topping the risk list —Angola, Haiti, Mozambique, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo —are all mired in poverty, but other factors also boost vulnerability.

‘India may be one of the world’s key emerging economies, but it is finding itself under increasing pressure from food security issues,’ the report concluded.

Two-thirds of India’s 1.1 billion people depend on farming as their main income source.

But acreage of land under cultivation has dropped by more than a fifth since August last year, because of dwindling water resources, deforestation and an uneven rainy season in July this year.

The Indian government has said it will soon introduce a National Food Security Act to ensure adequate distribution of food.

‘But the Indian government will need to overcome challenges to distribution as well as financing the subsidies,’ said Fiona Place, a senior risk analyst at Maplecroft. China, Russia and Brazil —the other three major emerging economies —all face medium risk, ranking between 100 and 114 on the index.

In China, food self-sufficiency and avoiding price and supply shocks have long been national policy. In addition, Beijing has in recent years bought huge tracts of arable land in Africa to grow staple crops for consumption back home.

The US and France rank highest in food security in large measure because of their status as the world’s top two exporters of cereals, the study said

Woman faces up to 40 lashes for wearing pants

CNN -- The trial of a woman who wore clothing that Sudan deemed indecent got under way Monday.Throngs of people waited outside the courthouse in the Khartoum as Lubna al-Hussein made her way in. In addition to the group of lawyers defending her, al-Hussein is also being represented by two Egyptian defense attorneys, she said.
Al-Hussein faces up to 40 lashes for wearing pants considered too tight and a blouse deemed too sheer.She insisted on going on trial in order to have the law deemed unconstitutional, her lawyer said.Al-Hussein -- a journalist who worked for the media department of the United Nations mission in Sudan -- resigned from her U.N. position to avoid the immunity afforded to international workers.Her trial has been delayed once before, which "disappointed" her, said her lawyer Nadil Adib."She wanted to have her case tried in order to clear her name and have the law announced unconstitutional," he said.The human rights organization Amnesty International called for the charges to be dropped."The manner in which this law has been used against women is unacceptable, and the penalty called for by the law -- up to 40 lashes -- abhorrent," Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of Amnesty International's Africa program, said in a statement.Al-Hussein was arrested along with 18 other women on July 3 at a Khartoum restaurant when police burst in and checked women for their clothing."I don't think she was targeted specifically," Adib said. "They attack public and private parties and groups. They are called 'morality police' and she was just a victim of a round-up." Put your questions to Dutch activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali here.At the time of her arrest, she said, she was wearing pants, a blouse and a hijab, or head scarf. Police accused her of wearing trousers that were too tight and a blouse that was too sheer, she said.Scores of protesters gathered outside the courtroom in Khartoum to support al-Hussein in early August, when she was last scheduled to be tried.The demonstrators carried banners and wore headbands with the messages, "No return to the dark ages" and "No to suppressing women." Others demanded an amendment to the country's public order law that human rights activists say is vague on what constitutes indecent dress.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said he is concerned about al-Hussein's case.
"The United Nations will make every effort to ensure that the rights of its staff members are protected," Ban said in July. "The flogging is against the international human rights standards. I call on all parties to live up to their obligations under all relevant international instruments."

Roadside bomb hits army convoy, two dead

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Intelligence and army officials say a powerful roadside bomb has killed two Pakistani soldiers in a militant stronghold near the Afghan border.
The three officials say two soldiers also were wounded Monday when the bomb went off near the convoy traveling from Shakai to Wana, the main town in South Waziristan tribal region.

The officials, two of whom work for Pakistani intelligence, requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media on the record.

Pakistan has deployed thousands of troops in its northwest to flush out Taliban, al-Qaida and their local supporters. The militants are suspected of using Pakistan as a safe haven to plan attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.

U.S.-German rift emerges over Afghan deaths case

www.usatoday.com
An airstrike by U.S. fighter jets that appears to have killed Afghan civilians could turn into a major dispute for NATO allies Germany and the United States, as tensions began rising between them Sunday over Germany's role in ordering the attack.
Afghan officials say up to 70 people were killed in the early morning airstrike Friday in the northern province of Kunduz after Taliban militants stole two tanker trucks of fuel and villagers gathered to siphon off gas.

Afghan and NATO investigations are just beginning, but both German and U.S. officials already appeared to be trying to deflect blame.

U.S.: General confirms civilians hurt in Afghan airstrike
German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said the Taliban's possession of the two tankers "posed an acute threat to our soldiers." German officials have said the tankers might have been used as suicide bombs.

"If there were civilian casualties or injuries, of course we deeply regret that. At the same time, it was clear that our soldiers were in danger," Jung said in comments to German broadcasters. "Consequently, I stand clearly behind our commander's decision" to order the air strike.

Meanwhile, Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, the top U.S. and NATO spokesman in the country, said German troops let too many hours pass before visiting the site of the bombing Friday.

He explained that it's important to hold the ground after a strike and determine what happened before the enemy comes out with its own version of events.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, visited the site Saturday where two charred trucks and yellow gas cans sat on a riverbed. He asked a top commander in Regional Command North about the response time.

"Why didn't RC-North come here quicker?" McChrystal asked Col. Georg Klein, the commander of the German base in Kunduz.

"I can honestly say it was a mistake," Klein answered, in a discussion witnessed by an Associated Press reporter.

On Sunday, Smith said that in McChrystal's judgment the response time "was probably longer than it should have been."

German troops in Afghanistan have long been criticized for avoiding combat operations, even as militants have increasingly infiltrated northern Afghanistan the last year, destabilizing the once-peaceful region.

Taliban militants stole two fuel tankers late Friday that became stuck on a riverbed outside Kunduz. Villagers — either forced by the militants or enticed by offers of free fuel — gathered near the trucks, even as U.S. jets patrolled overhead.

German commanders watching images from the U.S. aircraft could see about 120 people, McChrystal said Saturday. The commanders decided that the people were militants and ordered the airstrikes, Smith said, even though images provided by the U.S. aircraft would have been grainy and difficult to see.

Whether the German commanders or the U.S. pilot are at fault for any civilian casualties may turn into an inner-NATO tussle.

Smith said the ground force commander "is the decision maker for close air support. That's doctrine." But he also conceded that a pilot can refuse an order to drop a bomb.

Klein, in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, declined to say whether images provided by the U.S. jets had been clear enough for weapons to be seen among Afghans on the ground, citing the ongoing investigation.

A German Joint Terminal Air Controller, or JTAC, who spoke on condition that his name not be used because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly, said the rules for ordering an attack clearly state that the ultimate decision rests with the ground commander.

But rules also require that both the pilot and the JTAC get a good positive identification of the target before the commander can order a weapon deployed, the JTAC said.

"Only when both are sure that what we see is a target, only then will the pilot drop the bomb," the JTAC said.

The German Defense Ministry, meanwhile, pushed back against a story published in the Washington Post that German officials said painted their commander in a poor light and played up the U.S. version of events. The ministry said the article "will definitely influence at least the preliminary investigation by the various bodies."

"The Defense Ministry is very surprised about the unusual procedure of using a journalist as a source to reveal initial investigation results," the ministry said.

Kris Coratti, director of communications for the Washington Post, said in an e-mail: "The story speaks for itself."

Smith said a trip to Kunduz by military officials from Kabul was not an official investigation but a fact-finding trip.

"And I think it's much, much better for people to understand the facts," he said of the decision to allow a journalist to witness the discussion among military officials.

No NATO officials will yet say how many civilians they think may have died. Smith on Saturday said the preliminary overall death toll was believed to be 56. Afghan officials say it's in the low 70s.

Smith said he hopes a U.S.-German rift does not develop over the strike. "I hope everyone allows the investigation to proceed and we'll determine what we know more precisely and move on from there," Smith said.

The director of an Afghan human rights group criticized NATO's International Security Assistance Force for the deaths. "It was carelessness in terms of ISAF using force without doing enough to investigate whether this is a civilian location," Ajmal Samadi of Afghan Rights Monitor said.

German troops have long been criticized for restrictions that limit the battle their troops see. A U.S. based military analyst, Anthony Cordesman, said German troops don't have "the situational and combat experience" to confront Taliban on the ground.

"They're as oriented toward staying in their armored vehicles as any group I've met," Cordesman said. "They're not active enough to present much of a threat to the Taliban most of the time."

Klein rejected the claim that his troops lacked combat experience.

"Since I arrived here we have unfortunately seen many combat situations and my soldiers performed very well," he said.

"But the thing that's always given us a very good reputation in the civilian society here is that we tried as best as possible to exclude any civilian casualties, and I've got very good feedback on that from the Afghan people," he said

Khyber Pass comes under Pakistani attack

The latest military operation against insurgents in Pakistan’s north-western Khyber tribal region has seen thousands of people flee into surrounding areas.

Pakistan is cracking down on insurgents along its border with Afghanistan, especially the Khyber tribal belt which militants use as a safe haven from where they can launch attacks across the border.

Khyber has been of particular interest as it is the area in which al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is suspected to be hiding.

Militants frequently attack vehicles along the famed Khyber Pass, which is where trucks filled with supplies for US troops pass into Afghanistan.

On the weekend the Pakistani military destroyed houses and centres for the training of militants.

One militant was killed and nine more taken into custody, while two people kidnapped by militants were rescued.

Officials have admitted the Taliban-affiliated group, Lashkar-e-Islam, the group responsible for the Mumbai bombings, has been a main target of the latest offensive.

"Capitalism is evil," says new Michael Moore film

Reuters
VENICE - Capitalism is evil. That is the conclusion U.S. documentary maker Michael Moore comes to in his latest movie "Capitalism: A Love Story," which premieres at the Venice film festival Sunday.

Blending his trademark humor with tragic individual stories, archive footage and publicity stunts, the 55-year-old launches an all out attack on the capitalist system, arguing that it benefits the rich and condemns millions to poverty.

"Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil," the two-hour movie concludes.

"You have to eliminate it and replace it with something that is good for all people and that something is democracy."

The bad guys in Moore's mind are big banks and hedge funds which "gambled" investors' money in complex derivatives that few, if any, really understood and which belonged in the casino.

Meanwhile, large companies have been prepared to lay off thousands of staff despite boasting record profits.

The filmmaker also sees an uncomfortably close relationship between banks, politicians and U.S. Treasury officials, meaning that regulation has been changed to favor the few on Wall Street rather than the many on Main Street.

He says that by encouraging Americans to borrow against the value of their homes, businesses created the conditions that led to the crisis, and with it homelessness and unemployment.

Moore even features priests who say capitalism is anti-Christian by failing to protect the poor.

"Essentially we have a law which says gambling is illegal but we've allowed Wall Street to do this and they've played with people's money and taken it into these crazy areas of derivatives," Moore told an audience in Venice.

"They need more than just regulation. We need to structure ourselves differently in order to create finance and money, support for jobs, businesses, etc."

GREEN SHOOTS?

Amid the gloom, Moore detects the beginnings of a popular movement against unbridled capitalism, and believes President Barack Obama's rise to power may bolster it.

"Democracy is not a spectator sport, it's a participatory event," he told a news conference. "If we don't participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy. So Obama will rise or fall based not so much on what he does but on what we do to support him."

Moore also warned other countries around the world against following the recent U.S. economic and political model.

The film follows factory workers who stage a sit-in at a Chicago glass factory when they are sacked with little warning and no pay and who eventually prevail over the bank.

And a group of citizens occupies a home that has been repossessed and boarded up by the lending company, forcing the police who come to evict them to back down.

The film re-visits some of Moore's earlier movies, including a trip to his native Flint where his father was a car assembly line worker and was able to buy a home, a car, educate his children and look forward to a decent pension.

But he brings it up to date with an examination of the financial crisis, demanding to speak to the bosses of companies at the center of the collapse and demanding that banks give back the hundreds of billions of bailout dollars to the country.

And he interviews an employee of a firm which buys up re-possessed, or "distressed" properties at a fraction of their original value and which is called Condo Vultures.

Healthcare speech puts Obama at center of debate

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama hopes to use a major speech next week to revitalize his push for healthcare reform -- and his success or failure could help define the rest of his term and perhaps his presidency.

When he addresses a rare joint session of Congress on September 9, Obama must persuade lawmakers, and an increasingly skeptical public, that he can pay for the nearly $1 trillion plan without boosting the huge U.S. budget deficit or cutting health insurance coverage for those who already have it.

The Democratic president must also offer specifics and overcome issues that opponents have used to exploit anti-reform sentiments -- such as charges the reform plan would finance abortions, create bureaucratic "death panels" to decide who gets care or guarantee healthcare to illegal immigrants.

Obama's speech comes as flagging opinion poll numbers have convinced the White House it is time to find a new strategy for striking a deal.

"In every presidency there are critical moments that become turning points and this could easily be one for Obama, because he has put so many chips on to healthcare reform, and it's been getting away from him in a major way," said Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia.

Aides have said the administration is open to compromise, but insist the president still supports the "public option," a proposed government-run health insurance plan as an alternative option to private insurance that is heavily supported by Obama's liberal base.

The insurance industry strongly opposes the public option, and has spent millions lobbying against it.

In the quest for a middle ground, White House officials are talking to Senator Olympia Snowe, a moderate Republican from Maine, a state that backed Obama in the November 2008 presidential election.

SNOWE SOUGHT

Snowe is seen as Obama's best bet for winning any Republican Senate support at all for healthcare reform. The White House has said repeatedly it wants the plan to pass with support from members of both parties, although Democrats have the political power to push changes through unilaterally.

Snowe supports a compromise plan that would not initially include a public option, but would "trigger" the creation of a government program if insurance companies failed to meet cost and quality benchmarks.

"Conversations are taking place on her safety-net fallback option as they have throughout the debate this year, as well as other approaches to make certain people have access to affordable options," Julia Wanzco, Snowe's spokeswoman, said.

Healthcare reform is one of the long list of problems on Obama's agenda, but unlike the recession and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which he inherited from his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, healthcare is a defining issue for Obama, who has made it his top domestic policy priority.

"This is a chance to bring it back together and to make his partisans in Congress stand up and cheer. That's really what it's about," Sabato said.

Obama knows he is unlikely to win over more than the one or two moderate Republicans, so he has to unite Democrats, Sabato said. "Basically, I think his message to Democrats is, it's me or it's chaos," he said, referring to 1994, when then-President Bill Clinton's failed bid for healthcare reform helped cost the Democrats control of Congress.

OBAMA INJECTS SELF INTO DEBATE

A top Democrat, asking not to be identified by name, said Snowe's plan "is our best hope" for healthcare reform. The Democrat said it could draw some Republican support and keep that of some Democrats.

Some conservative Democrats have balked at the potential cost of reform, and expressed concern that the public option was too much government interference in the private insurance industry.

By making the speech, Obama is injecting himself squarely into the center of the debate after months leaving it largely to members of Congress and other surrogates to formulate a strategy and sell the overhaul to the public.

"His timing is perfect," said Jim Kessler of Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank. He said that after letting Congress lead the debate in the first nine months and shape the legislation, Obama can step in and push through a solution, now that lawmakers have hit some major sticking points.

Obama has broad goals of reducing healthcare costs and bringing medical insurance to the 46 million Americans who do not have it. But opponents have used suggestions that the plan would fund abortions, provide healthcare for illegal immigrants or deny treatment to older Americans to fuel public distrust.

Opponents also contend that the "public option" is a step toward socialism -- virtually taboo in U.S. politics.

With conservatives within the party shaping up as a formidable obstacle to the reform push, Democrats need to take their debate over the public option behind closed doors, analysts said.

"We just need to get back to having a real discussion about healthcare. It's not about abortion or immigration or euthanasia," said Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Without those issues, "We'll be left with the question - do people want to pay for near universal coverage? And that's a debate worth having," he said.

Thousands flee Khyber operation

PESHAWAR: Thousands of civilians are fleeing the latest military operation against insurgents of banned militants group Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) in Khyber Agency, a government official said Sunday.
The military destroyed two training centres and 15 militant homes of LI militants on Sunday, paramilitary troops said. One militant was killed and nine more taken into custody, a written statement from the Frontier Corps said, adding that two people kidnapped by militants had also been recovered.
The region is largely off-limits to journalists, making it difficult to verify the information independently.
Farooq Khan, a government official in Khyber, said hundreds of families had been fleeing the region since authorities relaxed a curfew on Friday.
"A few thousand, I think," he told The Associated Press by phone when asked how many civilians have so far fled.
He said there were no procedures in place to register the fleeing civilians, making impossible to reach an exact number. He said there were no plans for refugee camps and security forces were "keeping a strict eye" out for any militants trying to blend in.
Three villages in Khyber have been hard hit by the operation. While some families in Malik Din Khel, Sipah and Kambar Khel have left for other villages in the tribal area, most appeared to be leaving Khyber altogether, Khan said. Most of those families were heading to Peshawar.
There have been several army operations in past in the Khyber region that have always concluded with announcements by authorities that the area was cleared of all militants.
The Taliban-affiliated group Lashkar-e-Islam has been a main target of the latest offensive, which authorities say has killed about 90 alleged militants.

Fake Afghan Poll Sites Favored Karzai, Officials Assert

NewYorkTimes
KABUL, Afghanistan — In the days before the disputed presidential election, Afghan election workers loyal to President Hamid Karzai set up hundreds of fictitious polling sites, where no one voted but that still registered hundreds of thousands of ballots toward the president’s re-election, according to senior Western and Afghan officials here.

The fake sites, as many as 800, existed only on paper, said a senior Western diplomat in Afghanistan who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political delicacy of the vote. Local workers reported that hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of votes for Mr. Karzai came from each of those places. That pattern was confirmed by another Western official based in Afghanistan.

“We think that about 15 percent of the polling sites never opened on Election Day,” the senior Western diplomat said. “But they still managed to report thousands of ballots for Karzai.”

Besides the fake sites, Mr. Karzai’s supporters also took over approximately 800 legitimate polling centers and used them to fraudulently report tens of thousands of additional ballots for Mr. Karzai, the officials said.

The result, the officials said, is that in some provinces, the pro-Karzai ballots may exceed the people who actually voted by a factor of 10. “We are talking about orders of magnitude,” the senior Western diplomat said.

The widening accounts of fraud pose a stark problem for the Obama administration, which has deployed 68,000 American troops here to help reverse gains by Taliban insurgents. American officials hoped that the election would help turn Afghans away from the Taliban by giving them a greater voice in government. Instead, the Obama administration now faces the prospect of having to defend an Afghan administration for the next five years that is widely seen as illegitimate.

“This was fraud en masse,” the Western diplomat said.

Most of the fraud perpetrated on behalf of Mr. Karzai, officials said, took place in the Pashtun-dominated areas of the east and south where officials said that turnout on Aug. 20 was exceptionally low. That included Mr. Karzai’s home province, Kandahar, where preliminary results indicate that more than 350,000 ballots have been turned in to be counted. But Western officials estimated that only about 25,000 people actually voted there.

Waheed Omar, the main spokesman for Mr. Karzai’s campaign, acknowledged Sunday that there had been cases of fraud committed by different candidates. But he accused the president’s opponents of trying to score political points by making splashy accusations in the news media. “There have been cases — we have reported numerous cases — and our view is the only place where discussion can be held is in the Election Complaints Commission,” he said.

American officials have mostly kept a public silence about the fraud allegations. A senior American official said Sunday that they were looking into the allegations behind the scenes. “An absence of public statements does not mean an absence of concern and engagement on these issues,” the official said.

But a different Western official in Kabul said that there were divisions among the international community and Afghan political circles over how to proceed. This official said he believed the next four or five days would decide whether the entire electoral process would stand or fall. “This is crunch time,” he said.

Adding to the drumbeat, on Sunday the deputy director of the Afghan Independent Election Commission said that the group was disqualifying all the ballots cast in 447 polling sites because of fraud. The deputy director, Daoud Ali Najafi, said it was not clear how many votes had been affected, or what percentage they represented of the total. He gave no details of what fraud had been discovered.

With about three-quarters of the ballots counted in the Aug. 20 election, Mr. Karzai leads with nearly 49 percent of the vote, compared with 32 percent for his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent, the election goes to a runoff.

Officials in Kabul say it will probably take months before the Election Complaints Commission, which is dominated by Westerners appointed by the United Nations, will be able to declare a winner. Such an interregnum with no clear leader in office could prove destabilizing for a country that is already beset by ethnic division and an increasingly violent insurgency.

One opposition candidate for president, Ashraf Ghani, the former finance minister, said that the scale of the fraud on Election Day had deeply damaged the political process that was being slowly built in Afghanistan.

“For five years Mr. Karzai was my president,” he said in an interview at his home in Kabul. “Now how many Afghans will consider him their president?”

Since ballots were cast last month, anecdotal evidence has emerged of widespread fraud across the Pashtun-dominated areas of southern and eastern Afghanistan, where Mr. Karzai has many allies. Many of the allegations come from Kandahar Province, where Mr. Karzai’s younger brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, is the chairman of the provincial council and widely regarded as the most powerful man in the region. Last week, the governor of Shorabak District, which lies in Kandahar Province, claimed that Hamid Karzai’s allies shut down all the polling centers in the area and falsified 23,900 ballots for Mr. Karzai.

Two provincial council candidates in Kandahar, both close to the government, confirmed that widespread pro-Karzai fraud had occurred, in particular in places where poor security prevented observers and candidates’ representatives from watching.

“Now people will not trust the provincial council and the government system,” said Muhammad Ehsan, the deputy head of the provincial council, who was running for re-election. “Now people understand who has come to power and how.”

Hajji Abdul Majid, 75, the chief of the tribal elders council in Argestan District, in Kandahar Province, said that despite the fact that security forces opened the town’s polling place, no one voted, so any result from his district would be false.

“The people know that the government just took control of the district center for that day of the elections,” he said. “People are very frustrated. They don’t believe in the government.”

He added: “If Karzai is re-elected, people will leave the country or join the Taliban.”

More evidence of fraud has emerged in the past few days. In Zangabad, about 20 miles west of Kandahar, local residents say no voting took place on Aug. 20. The village’s single polling site, the Sulaiman Mako School, is used by Taliban guerrillas as their headquarters, the residents said. The area around Zangabad is one of the most contested in Afghanistan. Despite the nonexistent turnout, Afghan election records show that nearly 2,000 ballots were collected from the Sulaiman Mako School and sent to Kabul to be counted by election officials.

The allegations in Zangabad are being echoed throughout the Panjwai District. Official Afghan election records show that 16 polling centers were supposed to be open on Election Day. But according to at least one local leader, only a fraction of that number actually existed.

Haji Agha Lalai is a senior member of the provincial council in Kandahar, where Panjwai is located. As a candidate for re-election, he sent election observers across the area, including to Panjwai. In an interview, Mr. Lalai said that only “five or six” polling centers were open in Panjwai District that day — far fewer than the 16 claimed by the Afghan government.

So far, the Independent Election Commission has released results from seven of Panjwai District’s polling centers. The tally so far: 5,213 votes for Mr. Karzai, 328 for Mr. Abdullah.

Provincial status for FATA demanded

PESHAWAR: The FATA Reforms Movement (FRM) has demanded provincial status for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) after approval of a self-governance reforms package for the Northern Areas.
“Like Gilgit-Baltistan, the federal government should make such an arrangement under which FATA could have its own governor, chief minister and 75-member independent assembly,” FFM President Asad Afridi told a press conference at Peshawar Press Club. He demanded that the government give a province’s status to FATA and appoint SAFRON minister as its governor. He claimed that independent province’s status for FATA would not only bring the tribal areas into the country’s mainstream politics but also FATA people would get their identity.
Flanked by FRM Secretary General Mohammad Tahir Shah Safi and Spokesman Zar Ali Musazai, Asad Afridi said that the federal government should also focus on FATA women’s representation in the country’s politics and allocate seats for them in Senate. Besides, he also demanded of the government to increase the number of National Assembly seats for each FATA agency from one to two. The FRM also demanded allocation of a seat for each Frontier Region (FR) in the National Assembly. Terming the federal government’s reforms package for FATA as insufficient, he said the president’s announced reforms package was unclear.
He said that though the president announced extension of Political Parties Act to FATA, but problems of FATA people were neglected in the recently announced package. Criticising the black law Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), he said the law empowered only one man (political agent) who at the same time was a ruler as well as a judge.
He said executive should be separated from judiciary in tribal areas; otherwise, people would have no other option but to go to Taliban courts for justice rather than to file their cases in political agents and assistant political agents’ courts. He said that if the government wanted to end the influence of Taliban, it must concentrate on winning hearts and minds of the people by redressing their grievances, providing them cheap and speedy justice and creating employment opportunities for them.

Five foreign airlines suspend Peshawar flights

Five out of six foreign airlines flying to Peshawar have suspended their flights due to security concerns following the recent rocket attacks on the Peshawar International Airport, an official said yesterday. The suspension of several international flights is causing difficulties for passengers. Following the latest rocket attack on the Peshawar airport in mid-August, five Gulf-based airlines suspended their flights to Peshawar. These include Saudi Arabian Airlines, Emirates Airlines, Gulf Air, Air Arabia and Etihad Airways. Qatar Airways in the only foreign airline still flying to Peshawar. It operates two flights a week on the Doha-Peshawar sector.

U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan

The Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy announced in March promised increased resources and coordination in a war Obama described as shortchanged by the Bush administration. He authorized deployment of an additional 21,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, a surge of hundreds of civilian officials and a significant boost in military and aid funding for both countries.The results so far have been uncertain. The Pakistani military has rousted the local Taliban from the Swat Valley area, and missiles launched from unmanned U.S. aircraft have killed a number of insurgent leaders in the Pakistan tribal areas along the Afghan border. But no progress has been reported on Obama's main goal of destroying al-Qaeda's sanctuary in the border area.The stepped-up U.S. effort in Afghanistan has shown few results over a summer marked by an expanding Taliban presence and the highest U.S. casualty rate of the eight-year war. Obama appointed a new commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who has assessed the situation as "serious" and is expected to ask for more troops. As Congress has grown increasingly restive and opinion polls show falling public support, the administration has said real progress must be visible within 12 to 18 months.

President Hamid Karzai takes 100% of votes in opposition stronghold

www.timesonline.co.uk
In the southern Afghan district of Shorabak, the tribesmen gathered shortly before last month’s presidential election to discuss which candidate they would back. After a debate they chose to endorse Abdullah Abdullah, President Hamid Karzai’s leading opponent.

The tribal leaders prepared to deliver a landslide for Abdullah – but it never happened. They claim Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president’s brother and leader of the Kandahar provincial council, detained the local governor and closed all the district’s 46 polling sites on election day.

The ballot boxes were taken back to the district headquarters where, tribal leaders allege, they were stuffed with ballots by local policemen. A total of 23,900 ballots were finally sent off to Kabul, the capital – every one of them a vote for Karzai.

The alleged fraud, which Ahmed Wali Karzai denies, was the most blatant example among hundreds of incidents that have threatened to make a mockery of the election.

The sheer scale and audacity of the cheating, which includes supposedly “state-sponsored” ballot-stuffing, vote burning, intimidation and the closure of polling stations in antigovernment areas, has overwhelmed the country’s fledgling Electoral Complaints Commission.

Its staff are battling with more than 2,600 reports of vote-rigging, including at least 650 deemed serious enough “materially” to influence the result.

“This is a blatant violation of the procedure and I think it is stealing in daylight,” Abdullah said yesterday.

His aides say privately that if Karzai wins the 50.1% of votes needed for victory in the first round, they won’t accept the result. Abdullah said he intended to use all legal means to challenge any Karzai victory; his supporters talked menacingly of “Iran-style protests with Kalashnikovs”.

In the Spin Boldak district in the south of the country, the fifth-ranked candidate, Mirwais Yasini, accused pro-Karzai agents of taking out his votes and burning them.

“Democracy is dead in Afghanistan,” he said. “It’s buried. I’m not even bothering to get my results any more because it’s completely rigged. It’s completely biased.”

In the southern province of Oruzgan, pro-Karzai staff tried to bar election observers from entering the polling stations. Abdul Raziq waited three hours outside one station in Tarin Kowt, while election officials questioned his credentials as an observer. He watched 60 to 80 voters go into the Sayed Al-Khan high school, while he argued with the supposedly independent officials.

“Finally, when they let me in, I saw all the ballot boxes were full,” he said. He had arrived at 8am, an hour after the polls opened. “No one was voting because there were rockets, but when I went in, there were eight boxes, all of them full of votes.”

Sher Mohammed Khan, a tribal elder from Oruzgan and an Abdullah supporter, said three of his observers were arrested. “In Derawut district the police chief, Omar Khan, told observers not to come near the polling stations. His henchmen threatened to kill anyone who tried to get in,” he said.

Insecurity in Kandahar and Helmand stopped election observers from visiting all but a handful of polling sites. The country’s Independent Election Commission (IEC), which is counting the votes, is supposed to spot substantial irregularities.

Yet in the Kandahar village of Torzai, the results showed that Karzai had won every vote. At four of its eight polling stations, he received exactly 500 votes. At a primary school in Dahani, Helmand, Karzai also won 100% of the votes.

A row within the IEC over what to do with the suspect ballots has held up the announcement of further results for the past four days. Its last tally on Wednesday showed Karzai three points short of his 50.1% target. He may yet face a divisive second round run-off against Abdullah.