Afghan police commander, officers defect to Taliban

HERAT: An Afghan police commander and 12 junior officers have defected to the Taliban after poisoning seven comrades, government officials in the western province of Farah said on Tuesday.

The commander, named only as Mirwais, was in charge of a checkpoint in the Bala Boluk district when he and his unit defected to the Taliban and handed over their equipment and weapons, including military vehicles.

"He was a police commander for a checkpoint in Shewan village. He joined the Taliban with a Humvee, a Ranger (SUV), radios and 20 guns," said Abdul Rahman Zwandai, a spokesman for the Farah governor.

The seven police were poisoned because they refused to join the rebellion, he said. All were taken to the Farah hospital and an investigation would be launched.

Farah, bordering Iran, is one of western Afghanistan's most insecure provinces, although the west is relatively secure compared to insurgent strongholds in the east and south.

The defection was the first time that police had joined the Taliban and taken so much equipment with them, Zwandai said, and will worry Western backers looking to hand security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

But national intelligence officials denied reports in some Afghan media that two members of the country's High Peace Council, which leads government efforts to reconcile with the Taliban, had also defected to the insurgency.

"I'm not sure anyone from the HPC would have joined the Taliban," said National Directorate of Security deputy spokesman Shafiqullah Tahiri.

Mohammad Hashim Grani, who heads the Peace Council in southeast Zabul province, said earlier this week that HPC members Mawlavi Mohammad Aziz and Mawlavi Mohammad Zeba were still backing the government, despite going missing amid Taliban claims they had defected.

"They are in villages to infiltrate the Taliban and meet more and more people," Grani said. "Very soon they will turn back."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani premier Raja Pervez Ashraf said this week during talks in Kabul that Peace Council head Salahuddin Rabbani would soon travel to Pakistan for talks on the stalled Afghan peace process. (Reuters)

Coordinated suicide attacks rock Afghanistan

KABUL: Suicide bombers struck across Afghanistan in coordinated attacks Sunday, with explosions and gunfire rocking the diplomatic enclave in the capital as militants took over a hotel and tried to enter parliament.

Taliban insurgents claimed the attacks in Kabul with a spokesman saying by mobile phone text message that "a lot of suicide bombers" were involved.

Outside the capital, attackers also targeted government buildings in Logar province, the airport in Jalalabad, and a police facility in the town of Gardez in Paktia province.

Witnesses said suicide bombers had taken over the newly-built Kabul Star hotel, which was reportedly on fire in an area which includes a major US military base, the United Nations office and the presidential palace.

The area was sealed off by security forces.

Several other attackers tried to enter the Afghan parliament but were engaged by security forces and driven back, an official said.

They had taken cover in a building near the parliament and fighting was ongoing, parliamentary media officer Qudratullah Jawid told AFP.

Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoubi Salangi told AFP at least one attacker had been killed as fighting raged in several locations in the capital.

"Near the parliament, the first floor of a neighbouring building has been taken by police and one terrorist is dead," he said.

In two other areas of the city militants had taken positions in tall buildings and "are firing", he said.

A police spokesman said the areas under attack were the diplomatic enclave of Wazir Akbar Khan in the centre, parliament in the west and District Nine in the south.

South of Kabul in Logar province, several suicide attackers entered government buildings, including the offices of the provincial governor, police headquarters and a US base, deputy provincial police chief, Raees Khan told AFP.

In eastern Afghanistan two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates of Jalalabad airport, wounding several people, General Jahangir Azimi, the airport's head of police said.

In Gardez, also in the east, multiple Taliban gunmen -- believed to be armed with suicide vests -- launched an attack on a police training centre, Rohullah Samoon the provincial spokesman told AFP.

They occupied a building overseeing the facility and opened fire with machine-guns, he said, wounding four civilians.

As the Kabul attacks began, several large explosions and bursts of gunfire were heard near the United States embassy.

The embassy sounded alarms and warned staff to take cover, AFP reporters heard from their office near the embassy in the Wazir Akbar Khan area, which houses many diplomatic missions.

The incidents come as Taliban militants step up their attacks as part of their annual spring offensive, heralding the so-called "fighting season".

In September last year Taliban attacks targeting locations including the US embassy and headquarters of foreign troops in Kabul killed at least 14 during a 19-hour siege.

And in August, nine people, including a New Zealand special forces soldier, were killed when suicide bombers attacked the British Council cultural centre.

NATO has about 130,000 troops supporting the government of President Hamid Karzai against the Taliban insurgency, but they will pull out by the end of 2014, handing control of security to Afghan forces. (AFP)

UN chief says North Korea rocket launch 'deplorable'

GENEVA: UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday condemned North Korea's rocket launch as "deplorable" and a threat to regional stability.

"Despite its failure, the launch of a so-called 'application satellite' by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is deplorable as it defies the firm and unanimous stance of the international community," Ban's spokesman said in a statement.

North Korea launched on Friday a long-range rocket that appeared to have disintegrated soon after blastoff and fallen into the sea, South Korean and Japanese authorities said.

"The launch is in direct violation of Security Council Resolution 1874 and threatens regional stability," the statement said, referring to a 2009 resolution demanding the state halt further nuclear tests and any launches using ballistic missile technology.

Ban "urges the DPRK not to undertake any further provocative actions that will heighten tension in the region," the spokesman said.

"He reaffirms his commitment to working for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and helping the people of the DPRK, in particular, by addressing the serious food and nutrition needs of the most vulnerable." (AFP)

At least 105 killed in Syria as deadline looms

BEIRUT: At least 105 Syrians were killed on Monday in violence across Syria, a day before a UN planned peace plan is scheduled to start taking effect, a monitoring group said.

The toll included 23 members of the security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and eight rebel fighters, while the rest were civilians, according to figures provided by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

At least 35 Syrian civilians, including women and children, were killed in shelling that targeted the village of Latamna, in the country's central Hama province, the Observatory said.

Among the dead, 15 were under the age of 18 and eight were women, said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Observatory, describing the bombardment as a "new massacre by the Syrian regime."

The neighbouring village of Kfar Zeita was struck by army helicopters as regime forces clashed with rebels on the ground, the centre said.

In the province of Aleppo, 27 civilians were killed in shelling of the town of Tal Rifaat, where heavy clashes ensued between regime troops and rebels, the centre said.

Also in Aleppo province, rebel fighters besieged a checkpoint at the village of Salamah, on the border with Turkey, killing six members of the security and customs services, said the Observatory.

At least eight rebels who were wounded in the fighting fled across the frontier, said the Britain-based monitoring group.

Nine policemen were killed in clashes the neighbourhood of Sukari, in the northern city of Aleppo, the Observatory said.

But SANA state news agency gave a different version of the incident and a much higher toll.

It said 10 policemen and a civilians were killed and 11 others wounded, along with two civilians, when security forces came under fire at a demonstration in Sukari, in the northern city of Aleppo.

Police had gone to the area to provide protection for the rally, it added.

Four others were killed in attacks targeting patrols in the northern city, the Observatory said.

Six civilians were killed in the central city of Homs, and a woman was shot dead in Dabaa village, near the border town of Qusayr, while four others were killed in an explosion in the village of Bibila, outside Damascus, the Observatory said.

Eight rebel fighters were killed in the northern province of Idlib, it said.

The Observatory also reported that four soldiers were killed when an explosion struck a bus carrying troops near the village of Kawkab outside Damascus, while security forces launched a campaign of arrests in the capital's neighbourhood of Kfar Sousa.

In the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, regime forces stormed the village of Muhsen, while clashes took place in the neighbouring village of Al-Bou Amr, and gunfire was heard in the city of Deir Ezzor itself, the group said.

In Daraa, a civilian was shot dead in an ambush near the village of Saida, the Observatory said.

Almost 180 people, mostly civilians, were killed in weekend violence, ahead of the UN deadline of Tuesday for regime forces to cease fire, as agreed with special envoy Kofi Annan.

Under a peace deal brokered by the former UN chief, the Syrian army was scheduled to withdraw from protest cities on Tuesday, with a complete end to fighting set for 48 hours later.

But the truce appears in jeopardy after Damascus said it would only carry its side of the bargain if rebels first handed over written guarantees to stop fighting, a demanded rejected by rebel army chief Colonel Riyadh al-Asaad. (AFP)

Japan deploys missile defences in Tokyo

TOKYO: Japan has deployed missile batteries in Tokyo and dispatched destroyers carrying interceptor missiles as it boosts its defences against a planned North Korean rocket launch this month.

Pyongyang says it will launch a satellite for peaceful scientific research between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary on April 15 of the birth of founding leader Kim Il-Sung.

But the United States and its allies say it is a disguised missile test and that the launch would contravene UN sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea's missile programme.

Patriot missiles were Saturday deployed at three military facilities in the greater Tokyo region and the defence ministry dispatched three Aegis destroyers carrying sea-based interceptor missiles, reportedly to the East China sea.

"With the latest step, it completes the deployment of PAC3," said a duty officer at the defence ministry, referring to the Patriot missiles.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has given the green light to shoot down the North Korean rocket if it threatens Japan's territory.

In 2009, Japan also ordered missile defence preparations before Pyongyang's last long-range rocket launch which brought UN Security Council condemnation and tightened sanctions against the isolated communist state.

That rocket, which North Korea also said was aimed at putting a satellite into orbit, passed over Japanese territory without incident or any attempt to shoot it down.

Violence dims Syria truce hopes, over 100 killed

BEIRUT: Syrian troops pounded opposition areas, activists said, killing 74 civilians in an offensive that has sent thousands of refugees surging into Turkey before next week's U.N.-backed ceasefire aimed at staunching a year of bloodshed.

At least 15 rebels and 17 security force members were also killed, raising the death toll in violence to over 100.

Each side has accused the other of intensifying assaults in the run-up to the truce due to take effect early on Thursday if government forces begin pulling back from towns 48 hours earlier in line with U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan.

The military shelled Deir Baalba district in Homs, killing four people, the grassroots Local Coordination Committees opposition group said. Thirteen men were also found killed in cold blood in the same area, it said.

Amateur activist video showed scenes of carnage said to be the aftermath of the shelling. Mangled limbs and body parts in blankets were being loaded on a pick-up truck. A second video showed 13 men who appeared to have been tied up and executed.

No comment was immediately available from Syrian officials. The videos could not be independently verified. The government has placed tight restrictions on media access in Syria.

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For graphic on fighting link.reuters.com/zan47s

For Interactive on Syria link.reuters.com/pyt37s

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 74 civilians had been killed, including 40 in an army attack on al-Latmana, in Hama province, that began on Friday. The rebel Free Syrian Army lost 15 men in the battle, it said, and 17 members of the security forces were killed across the country.

In an activist video from al-Latmana, mourners held aloft the limp corpse of a child. A row of bodies lay on the ground.

The Observatory report said 12 were killed by shelling as the army swept through villages in Idlib province.

A rocket hit a bus travelling from Lebanon to Syria at Jousa just inside Syria, a Lebanese security source said. Witnesses said six Syrians were killed. Lebanese medics confirmed two dead and nine wounded. It was not clear who had fired the rocket.

Rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad attacked army posts north of Aleppo before dawn, killing an officer and two men, and assaulted a helicopter base, activists said.

Syrian commandos shot dead three rebels in an overnight raid on a "terrorist den", Syria's state news SANA agency reported.

Country towns north of Aleppo have endured days of clashes and bombardment, prompting 3,000 civilians to flee over the Turkish border on Friday alone - about 10 times the daily number before Assad accepted Annan's plan 10 days ago.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday the number of refugees entering Turkey was rising. Ankara fears an all-out war in Syria would unleash a flood of refugees.

"At the moment we have 24,000 Syrians who have entered Turkey. Of course this number is rising," Erdogan told reporters before departing on a trip to China.

"We are taking measures for this, though we will not close the gates. The United Nations, however, has to toughen its stance," he said. "In particular Kofi Annan has to hold firm. He announced a deadline of April 10. I believe that he should monitor the situation very closely."

BAATH PARTY ANNIVERSARY

The Syrian leader is fighting a popular uprising, which he blames on foreign-backed "terrorists", that has spawned an armed insurgency in response to violent repression of protests.

While many in Syria's Sunni Muslim majority back the revolt, especially in provincial areas, Assad retains support from his own minority Alawite sect and other minorities fearful that his overthrow would lead to civil war or Islamist rule.

In Damascus, thousands of flag-waving Assad supporters came out to mark the founding in 1947 of Syria's ruling Baath Party.

The bloodletting of the past week or so does not bode well for implementation of Annan's ceasefire plan.

This requires Assad to "begin pullback of military concentrations in and around population centers" by Tuesday.

Rebel Free Syrian Army commander Colonel Riad al-Asaad said his men would cease fire, provided "the regime ... withdraws from the cities and returns to its original barracks".

Syria has said the plan does not apply to armed police, who have played a significant role in battling the uprising in which security forces have killed more than 9,000 people, according to U.N. estimate. Syria says its opponents have killed more than 2,500 troops and police since the unrest began in March 2011.

Annan's plan does not stipulate a complete army withdrawal to barracks or mention police.

Satellite pictures published by U.S. ambassador Robert Ford showed Syrian artillery and tanks still close to communities.

"This is not the reduction in offensive Syrian government security operations that all agree must be the first step for the Annan initiative to succeed," Ford said in Washington.

A statement by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the April 10 timeline "is not an excuse for continued killing".

"The Syrian authorities remain fully accountable for grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. These must stop at once," Ban said on Friday. (Reuters)

Yemen leader sacks two military chiefs close to Saleh

SANAA: Yemen's President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi sacked two military chiefs close to his predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh, the official SABA news agency reported Friday, citing a presidential decree.

Air force chief General Mohamed Saleh al-Ahmar, Saleh's half brother, and head of the presidential guard General Tarek Mohamed Abdallah Saleh -- his nephew -- were both fired, said the decree.

There had already been calls from within the airforce for Ahmar to go.

Earlier Friday, a suicide bomber blew up a motorbike near intelligence

offices in eastern Yemen, without causing casualties.

That attack came after an aborted attack in the south, when two bombers died as their payload exploded short of their intended target, the defence ministry said.

The attack in the south was claimed by Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen, the self-proclaimed Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law).

The group has exploited a decline in central government control that accompanied Arab Spring-inspired protests that eventually forced president Ali Abdullah Saleh to cede power.

Suicide attacks targetting security forces have intensified since his successor, Hadi, took office in February, vowing to continue the US-backed fight against Al-Qaeda.

But critics of Saleh say he has been interfering in the smooth transition of power, and the reorganisation of the army is seen as being a key part of that transition. (AFP)

US will accept Iran civilian nuclear program: report

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama has told Iran the United States would accept Tehran having a civilian nuclear program if the Islamic state can prove it is not seeking atomic weapons, the Washington Post said Friday.

Obama sent such a message to Tehran via Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who delivered it to Iran's Supreme leader Ali Khamenei last week, said the newspaper's foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius.

"President Obama has signaled Iran that the United States would accept an Iranian civilian nuclear program if Supreme leader Ali Khamenei can back up his recent public claim that his nation 'will never pursue nuclear weapons'," said Ignatius.

"A few days before traveling to Iran, Erdogan had held a two-hour meeting with Obama in Seoul, in which they discussed what Erdogan would tell the ayatollah about the nuclear issue and Syria," he wrote.

The United States said Thursday that it still expected Iran to hold talks with six world powers on the Islamic republic's disputed nuclear program to go ahead next week, despite a dispute on the venue being Istanbul or Baghdad.

According to Ignatius, Obama asked Erdogan to tell Khamenei "that the Iranians should realize that time is running out for a peaceful settlement and that Tehran should take advantage of the current window for negotiations."

However, "Obama didn't specify whether Iran would be allowed to enrich uranium domestically as part of civilian program the United States would endorse. That delicate issue evidently would be left for the negotiations."

Turkey has told Iran it remains ready to host the talks between Iran and the P5+1 group, Iran's Al-Alam television station reported Friday, but the Islamic republic has said it wanted the meeting held in Baghdad or China instead.

Iran last held talks with the six powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- in January 2011 with no results.

Ignatius added that "the challenge for negotiators is whether it's possible to turn Khamenei's public rhetoric into a serious and verifiable commitment not to build a bomb." (AFP)

NATO fuel supplier blaze kills 7 in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR: Seven people were burnt to death in southern Afghanistan on Friday when a fuel tanker supplying a NATO base crashed and set their vehicle on fire, officials said.

Both the security chief of Panjwayi district in Kandahar and the provincial

police chief said there was no insurgent activity at the time, but residents

told AFP the tanker was attacked by Taliban using rocket-propelled grenades.

A US soldier serving in NATO's US-led International Security Assistance

Force (ISAF) was charged with 17 counts of murder last month following a

killing spree in the same district on March 11.

Sardar Mohammad, Panjwayi's security chief, told AFP: "A fuel tanker supplying fuel for ISAF overturned and caught fire, and simultaneously a civilian minivan was passing nearby also set ablaze."

Seven people were killed and three others injured, he said, who were taken to hospital.

Kandahar police chief Abdul Raziq confirmed the death toll, telling AFP: "This fuel tanker was coming from the city of Kandahar to Panjwayi district at high speed.

"On its way this tanker overturned and caught fire," he said. "A civilian minivan was passing on the way and the vehicle was also set ablaze."

Indian army movements raise 'coup fears'

NEW DEHLI: Two Indian army units that moved towards New Delhi on a January night without notifying the government raised an alarm in the capital, the Indian Express newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing several unidentified sources.

The newspaper report said the infantry unit of the 33rd Armoured Division based 150 km (90 miles) from Delhi and a unit of the airbourne 50 Para brigade based in Agra to the south reached the outskirts of Delhi before being ordered back.

Indian PM Manmohan Singh described as "alarmist" the report. These are alarmist reports and should not be taken at face value, Singh told journalists at parliament.

The army told the newspaper the units were engaged in routine training exercises to test their mobility in fog and did not need to warn the government in advance. Defence ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar told Reuters it was not true the manoeuvres had caused alarm in the ministry.

The troop movements happened at a time of high friction between Army Chief Vijay Kumar Singh and the government. The newspaper said the accepted view is there was a breakdown in communication rather than a plot of any kind.

The military in India is not known for conspiring against the government in a region plagued by instability.

On the night in question, lookouts confirmed the two units were travelling towards Delhi, the report said.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony was informed and the government ordered police to check all vehicles on roads to Delhi as a way of slowing traffic. The defence secretary, the ministry's top civil servant, cut short a trip to Malaysia to handle the situation.

The report highlights the deep rifts and tense atmosphere in recent months between the world's second largest standing army and the government.

On January 16, the day the exercises took place, Singh took a case against the government to the Supreme Court in a row about whether he could serve another year before retiring. He later lost the case.

The army chief has since said he was offered a $2.8 million bribe and accused the defence minister of not acting on information about corruption in the forces. He also wrote a letter to the prime minister in March saying the army was not in proper shape to defend the country. The letter was leaked. (Reuters)

Clinton warns of 'destabilizing' Iran options

WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Tuesday that a nuclear-armed Iran or a conflict over its ambitions would both destabilize the region as she pressed Tehran to make progress in key talks.

As Israel voices growing impatience over Iran, Clinton credited US sanctions with inflicting pressure on the Islamic republic but warned of the "very difficult situation that the world faces" moving forward.

"There is no clear path. We know that a nuclear-armed Iran would be incredibly destabilizing to the region and beyond. A conflict arising out of their program would also be very destabilizing," Clinton said.

"There is no way to balance this. You have two very difficult paths here," Clinton told a dinner in Norfolk, Virginia, on a day trip to visit the only NATO command in the United States.

Clinton, who traveled over the weekend to Turkey and Saudi Arabia, voiced concern that a nuclear Iran would trigger an arms race in the region.

"We're going to be looking for a way to try to convey the legitimate fears that people in the region have about what comes next. Because if Iran were ever to get a nuclear weapon, the countries in the region are going to buy their way to one as well," Clinton said.

The United States has been threatening sanctions to press other countries to stop buying Iranian oil, the country's chief money-maker, as Israel voices fears that the Islamic republic is developing a nuclear bomb.

Iranian officials insist that sensitive nuclear work is for peaceful purposes.

Iran is expected to resume talks shortly with six powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- in the first such negotiations in more than one year.

Clinton, speaking earlier Tuesday at the Virginia Military Institute, said that the talks offered a chance to resolve the nuclear row diplomatically but said that they should not be "open-ended."

"We expect to see concrete commitments from Iran that it will come clean on its nuclear program and live up to its international obligations," Clinton said. (AFP)

Nuclear summit to begin under N. Korean shadow

SEOUL: US President Barack Obama and dozens of other world leaders will begin a summit Monday on curbing the threat of nuclear terrorism, but North Korea's atomic plans will be in focus on the sidelines.

The two-day meeting in South Korea is a follow-up to an inaugural summit in Washington in 2010 hosted by Obama, which kick-started efforts to lock up fissile material around the globe that could make thousands of bombs.

Obama announced on the eve of the Seoul event, which will gather leaders or top officials from 53 nations, that Ukraine had fulfilled a pledge made two years ago to remove all highly enriched uranium from its territory.

"I believe it is a preview of the kind of progress we are going to see over the next two days in confronting one of the most urgent challenges to global security -- the security of the world's nuclear weapons and preventing nuclear terrorism," Obama said.

While North Korea's nuclear programme is not officially on the agenda in Seoul, it is expected to be intensely discussed on the sidelines as world leaders take advantage of the opportunity of face-to-face meetings.

Tensions have escalated in recent weeks after North Korea announced it would launch a long-range rocket in April.

The nuclear-armed North says its rocket will merely put a peaceful satellite into orbit. But the United States and many other countries believe the launch is intended to test a long-range missile that could one day deliver an atomic warhead.

Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak presented a united front against North Korea during a press conference on Sunday, warning it again against the rocket launch and further "provocative" actions.

"North Korea will achieve nothing by threats or by provocations," Obama said.

Lee added: "President Obama and I have agreed to respond sternly to any provocations and threats by the North and to continually enhance the firm South Korea-US defence readiness."

Obama also sought to step up pressure on China, North Korea's chief international ally, which has declined to speak out strongly against Pyongyang in relation to the planned rocket launch.

"My suggestion to China is that how they communicate their concerns to North Korea should probably reflect the fact that the approach they have taken over the last several decades has not led to a fundamental shift in North Korea's behaviour," Obama said.

Obama is scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday, and separately with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The United States, China and Russia, along with Japan and South Korea, are involved in long-running and currently stalled negotiations with the North aimed at convincing it to give up its atomic ambitions.

Iran's nuclear ambitions are similarly not on the agenda in Seoul but the leaders of the world powers may take the opportunity of their face-to-face meetings to discuss US-led efforts to curtail Tehran's programme.

Experts have acknowledged major progress on the fissile material front since the Washington summit.

They point to former Soviet republic Kazakhstan securing over 13 tonnes of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium since then, while Chile eliminated its entire HEU stockpile.

The United States and Russia also signed a protocol under which each will dispose of 34 tonnes of plutonium -- enough for 17,000 nuclear weapons.

But experts say much more must be done to end an apocalyptic threat. (AFP)

Manmohan Singh leaves for Seoul

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh Saturday morning set off on a three-day official visit of the Republic of Korea, according to Indian media.

During his visit, Dr Singh will attend the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul where President Barack Obama among leaders or senior officials from 53 nations will attend the Summit, with Interpol, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the European Union and the UN also taking part.

Indian PM will also hold bilateral talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

France defends handling of operation to catch gunman

PARIS: French officials rejected charges that intelligence failures let a young man kill seven people, as the crack police unit that finally killed the gunman faced criticism of their operation.

Several security experts in Israel were scathing of the French police's handling of the siege, with one specialist calling it a disgrace.

French investigators meanwhile were trying to establish whether Mohamed Merah, who murdered three Jewish children, a trainee rabbi and three soldiers in three separate attacks, had worked alone or with accomplices.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Friday that security officials had known Merah, who died in a hail of police bullets.

But there was no reason to suspect he was planning attacks, he said.

The intelligence services "did their job perfectly well. They identified Mohamed Merah when he made his trips," he told French radio.

Intelligence agents "watched him long enough to come to the conclusion that there was no element, no indication, that this was a dangerous man who would one day pass from words to acts," said Fillon.

The head of France's DCRI domestic intelligence agency, Bernard Squarcini, told Le Monde newspaper there was little more that security services could have done to prevent Merah's atrocities.

Merah, 23, had claimed to be an Al-Qaeda member who killed to avenge Palestinian children and punish France for sending troops to Afghanistan.

An Al-Qaeda linked group, Jund al-Khilafah, claimed responsibility on jihadist websites for Merah's killings.

But Squarcini said Merah had not followed the usual path taken by extremists. (AFP)

Soldier faces 17 murder counts in Afghan killings

WASHINGTON: Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, accused of killing Afghan civilians in a shooting rampage in Kandahar province last week, will be charged with 17 counts of murder, a U.S. official said.

Earlier accounts of the incident, which has damaged U.S.-Afghan relations, had tallied 16 victims, including nine children and three women.

Bales, a four-tour combat veteran, will also face other charges, including attempted murder, but the official was unable to say how many additional counts there would be.

Legal proceedings would likely take place at Bales' home base, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, close to Tacoma, Washington, the U.S. official said.

Bales, 38, is being held in solitary confinement at a military detention center in Leavenworth, Kansas. His civilian defense attorney, Seattle-based John Henry Browne, was not immediately available for comment.

Earlier this week, Browne said U.S. authorities had no proof of what occurred on the evening in question, and that Bales had "no memory" of the incident.

Browne, who has defended several multiple homicide suspects, including serial killer Ted Bundy, has indicated that stress may have played a role in his client's state of mind.

He is expected to evoke post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, as a factor in the trial, a technique he employed in the defense of a Seattle-area thief known as the "Barefoot Bandit." The U.S. Army said this week it was reviewing the way it diagnoses PTSD among troops.

Browne has said that Bales drank alcohol on the night of the shooting, but not enough to impair his judgment. He has denied that marital or financial problems may have negatively affected Bales, but he said his client was not happy at being sent on his fourth war-zone deployment after three tours of duty in Iraq, where he suffered two wounds.

Browne has played down the effect of Bales' financial problems, which include an abandoned property in the Seattle area and an unpaid $1.5 million judgment from his time as a securities broker.

Bales' wife, Karilyn, is being sheltered by the Army at Lewis-McChord. (Reuters)

Syria deaths pile up despite UN peace call

BEIRUT: Fierce clashes raged across Syria despite a UN Security Council peace call, with 10 civilians on a bus trying to flee to Turkey among at least 26 people killed on Thursday, monitors and activists said.

The bus, with women and children on board, was shot up near the town of Sermin in the northwestern province of Idlib, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, without identifying the assailants.

An opposition activist on the ground, Milad Fadl, contacted by AFP in Beirut, said the civilians were headed for Turkey to escape the bloodshed when regime forces opened fire.

The Britain-based Observatory said earlier that a 17-year-old boy was killed and dozens wounded in an army assault on Sermin itself.

Army forces attacked a string of towns, while rebel fighters struck army posts in several provinces and announced a command structure to coordinate hit-and-run strikes in and around the capital.

In the deadliest attack on the army, five soldiers were killed in a raid on a military checkpoint in the region of Latakia, said the Observatory.

The region has a large population of Alawites, members of the minority offshoot of Shiite Islam to which President Bashar al-Assad also belongs and which forms the backbone of his regime.

In the south, rebel fighters killed a soldier and wounded four others near the village of Saida in Daraa province, where Syria's year-old revolt against the regime erupted, said the monitoring group.

Army deserters killed two soldiers in the town.

It added three civilians were killed as troops sprayed heavy machinegun fire in Qusayr, a town in the flashpoint province of Homs, central Syria, where rebel forces killed four soldiers.

The reports could not be confirmed due to restrictions on the movements of foreign media.

The escalation came just hours after the Security Council passed a statement urging Assad and his foes to implement "fully and immediately" international envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan.

Annan's plan calls for Assad to pull troops and heavy weapons out of protest cities, a daily two-hour humanitarian pause to hostilities, access to all areas affected by the fighting, and a UN-supervised halt to all clashes.

A correspondent at the scene also reported violent clashes in and around Sermin, a village near the town of Binesh in Idlib, as army shelling and tank fire threw up thick plumes of black smoke.

At least four civilians, including two children, were killed and more than 30 wounded, according to rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) sources.

"Tanks have been posted on the Sermin-Binesh road blocking any evacuation of the wounded or villagers from fleeing the clashes," said another rebel fighter, Abu Salmu.

Monitors say more than 9,100 people have been killed in a revolt against Assad that started with peaceful protests before turning into an increasingly armed revolt, faced with a brutal crackdown costing dozens of lives each day.

On the rebel side, the FSA has set up a military council to coordinate hit-and-run strikes around Damascus, it announced in an online video.

"I, Colonel Khaled Mohammed al-Hammud, announce the creation of the military council for Damascus and the region that will be in charge of FSA operations in this region," an army officer who deserted says in the video.

Human Rights Watch charged Thursday that Syrian forces were using "Homs tactics" against Qusayr, which lies on the Lebanese border, by shelling residential areas, deploying snipers and attacking civilians trying to flee.

Citing 18 witnesses, HRW said similar tactics were employed by government forces in their capture of the cities of Idlib and Homs earlier this month.

Residents of Qusayr had told HRW that rebels who pulled out of the Baba Amr district of Homs on March 1 after a month-long shelling that monitors said cost hundreds of lives had joined FSA comrades in their town. (Reuters)

French police corner Al-Qaeda suspect after shootings

TOULOUSE: Shots rang out Wednesday as French police surrounded a self-declared member of the Al-Qaeda network holed up in a house after a series of shooting attacks that shocked the nation.

Police sources told that officers investigating three recent attacks in which a gunman killed three soldiers, three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi sealed off an address in the Cote Pavee residential district of Toulouse.

Six or seven shots rang out, but the area had been sealed off by police, including members of the RAID special weapons squad, and it was not immediately clear whether the siege was over.

"The suspect's mother was brought to the scene. She was asked to make contact with her son, to reason with him, but she did not want to, saying she had little influence on him," Interior Minister Claude Gueant said.

"This person has made trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the past ... and says he belongs to Al-Qaeda and says he wanted to avenge Palestinian children and to attack the French army," Gueant said, as the operation continued.

Briefing reporters near the scene, Gueant said that the suspect's brother had been arrested while checks are carried out, although he confirmed that only one suspect had been at the scenes of the shootings.

Two police were slightly wounded as the raids got underway, a source said.

A source close to the inquiry said earlier that the suspect had exchanged words with the RAID team and had declared himself to be a member of Al-Qaeda, the armed group founded by late Osama bin Laden.

He is thought to be a 24-year-old man who had previously travelled to the lawless border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan which is known to house Al-Qaeda safehouses, one of the officials told. (AFP)

Death of the Humanity

Rachel Corrie, beautiful soul, born in Olympia, Washington was no ordinary child, no ordinary 23 year old  student and no ordinary human being. And people, who are extraordinary, never die. They live for ever in the hearts and minds of their followers. They give direction to many and because of them, hope never dies. Because of such crazy and courageous, the ugliness of injustices is exposed.

 
Her 5th grade speech ‘I am here because I care’ revealed no small dreams. At such a tender age, she talked of the oppressed, the poor and hungry and resolved to eradicate the ugly realities by the year 2000. As a student, she was different and wanted to explore the world especially after 9/11, year 2001. Ditching a beautiful and colourful American dream which she could have lived like many of her age, she travelled thousands of miles to Gaza to act as a human shield, where mercy and humanity is butchered every day and night, where men, women and children are murdered as a part of ethnic cleansing program, where houses are bulldozed, olive trees are cut, help including food and medicines from the rest of the world is denied and flotillas travelling to help humanity are attacked.


‘’Anyway, I’m rambling. Just want to write to my Mom and tell her that I’m witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide and I’m really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature. This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore. I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my co-workers. But I also want this to stop. Disbelief and horror is what I feel. Disappointment! I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the people here asked for when they came into this world. This is not the world you and Dad wanted me to come into when you decided to have me.’’  (28.02.2003)


On the day she died (16.03.2003),  she was 23,  dressed in a fluorescent orange vest and with a megaphone in her hand she was trying to stop the demolition of a Palestinian home where she lived with the children who were considered family by her and vice versa. She was mercilessly crushed under a military Caterpillar bulldozer which came towards her, knocked her down, crushed her with its blade, backed up, and ran her over again and she died shortly afterwards. ’My back is broken’ were her last words.


What did she have in common with the Palestinian; faith, ethnicity, skin colour, language, social background? Absolutely nothing! What was common was humanity. She had eyes that could appreciate the truth, mind that wasn’t closed because of any bias, heart that would cry on injustice and brutality and a soul that would feel the pain of Nazi-style genocide.


Her emails to her family are a must read in which she accounts Israeli atrocities towards innocent Palestinians.


”I think, although I’m not entirely sure, that even the smallest of these children understand that life is not like this everywhere. An eight-year-old was shot and killed by an Israeli tank two days before I got here, and many of the children murmur his name to me, “Ali”–or point at the posters of him on the walls. The children also love to get me to practice my limited Arabic by asking me “Kaif Sharon?” “Kaif Bush?” and they laugh when I say “Bush Majnoon” “Sharon Majnoon” back in my limited Arabic. (How is Sharon? How is Bush? Bush is crazy. Sharon is crazy.)”


In 2003, Rachel’s news opened a new aspect of Palestinian cause to me. I learnt humanity existed above the boundaries of faith, ethnic origins and languages. I came to learn there are people on this earth who would risk their lives and everything for some other people despite absolutely no worldly strings attached between them. And it’s to date that I have explored a world that is cruel, unjust and merciless, but such people are a reason to live and resist. They give you direction, motivation and energy to challenge the ugly forces of the world.


For me, Rachel Corrie is not the name of a person. It’s a phenomenon which embodies humanity, resistance, courage and craziness. Yes, she was as crazy as it needs to be to shake the world and stir the plans of the handful of unjust men ruling this world. And it’s this craziness and madness which is the ultimate requirement to challenge falsehood and malice. Human beings live and die, but phenomena, missions and ideas never die. They’re like beacons of light for generations to come. Rachel Corrie, an American, a peace activist and a trailblazer, will always be my hero.


“Love you. Really miss you. I have bad nightmares about tanks and bulldozers outside our house and you and me inside. Sometimes the adrenaline acts as an anaesthetic for weeks and then in the evening or at night it just hits me again – a little bit of the reality of the situation. I am really scared for the people here’..“When I come back from Palestine, I probably will have nightmares and constantly feel guilty for not being here, but I can channel that into more work. Coming here is one of the better things I’ve ever done. So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible. “I love you and Dad…”  Email to parents ~ 27.02.2003


For me, Rachel Corrie is not the name of a person.  a phenomenon which embodies humanity, resistance, courage and craziness. Yes, she was as crazy as it needs to be to shake the world and stir the plans of the handful of unjust men ruling this world. And it’s this craziness and madness which is the ultimate requirement to challenge falsehood and malice. Human beings live and die, but phenomena, missions and ideas never die. They’re like beacons of light for generations to come. Rachel Corrie, an American, a peace activist and a trailblazer, will always be my hero.


“Love you. Really miss you. I have bad nightmares about tanks and bulldozers outside our house and you and me inside. Sometimes the adrenaline acts as an anaesthetic for weeks and then in the evening or at night it just hits me again – a little bit of the reality of the situation. I am really scared for the people here’..“When I come back from Palestine, I probably will have nightmares and constantly feel guilty for not being here, but I can channel that into more work. Coming here is one of the better things I’ve ever done. So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible. “I love you and Dad…”

Asia is world's top weapon importer: SIPRI

STOCKHOLM: Asia tops other regions when it comes to weapon imports, according to a study released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Over the past five years, Asia and Oceania accounted for 44 percent in volume of conventional arm imports, the institute said.

That compared with 19 percent for Europe, 17 percent for the Middle East, 11 percent for North and South America, and 9 percent for Africa, said the report.

India was the first world importer over the period, accounting for 10 percent in weapons volume.

It was followed by South Korea (6 percent), China and Pakistan (both 5 percent), and Singapore (4 percent), according to the independent institute which specialises in arms control and disarmament matters.

These five countries accounted for 30 percent of the volume of international arms imports, said SIPRI.

"India's imports of major weapons increased by 38 percent between 2002-2006 and 2007-11," SIPRI said.

"Notable deliveries of combat aircraft during 2007-11 included 120 Su-30MKs and 16 MiG-29Ks from Russia and 20 Jaguar Ss from the United Kingdom," it said.

While India was the world's largest importer, its neighbour and sometime foe Pakistan was the third largest.

Pakistan took delivery of "a significant quantity of combat aircraft during this period: 50 JF-17s from China and 30 F-16s," the report added.

Both countries "have taken and will continue to take delivery of large quantities of tanks," it also noted.

"Major Asian importing states are seeking to develop their own arms industries and decrease their reliance on external sources of supply," said Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme.

China, which in 2006 and 2007 was the world's top arms importer, has now dropped to fourth place.

"The decline in the volume of Chinese imports coincides with the improvements in China's arms industry and rising arms exports," according to the report.

But "while the volume of China's arms exports is increasing, this is largely a result of Pakistan importing more arms from China," it added.

"China has not yet achieved a major breakthrough in any other significant market."

China is however the sixth largest world exporter of weapons behind, the United States, Russia, Germany, France, and Britain.

In Europe, Greece was the largest importer between 2007 and 2011, the institute said.

Between 2002 and 2011, Syria increased its imports of weapons by 580 percent, while Venezuela boosted its imports over the same period by 555 percent, it reported.

Morocco saw its own imports increase by 443 percent, it added.

The volume of international transfers of major conventional weapons was 24 percent higher in the period 2007-11 compared to the 2002-2006 period. (AFP)

Money, career woes plagued massacre suspect

Bypassed for a promotion and struggling to pay for his house, Robert Bales was eyeing a way out of his job at a Washington state military base months before he allegedly gunned down 16 civilians in an Afghan war zone, records and interviews showed as a deeper picture emerged of the United States Army sergeant's financial troubles and brushes with the law.

While Bales, 38, sat in an isolated cell at Fort Leavenworth's military prison, classmates and neighbours from suburban Cincinnati, Ohio, remembered him as a "happy-go-lucky" high school football player who took care of a special needs child and watched out for troublemakers in the neighbourhood.

But court records and interviews show that the 10-year veteran - with a string of commendations for good conduct after four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan - had joined the Army after a Florida investment job went sour, had a Seattle-area home condemned, struggled to make payments on another and failed to get a promotion or a transfer a year ago.

His legal troubles included charges that he assaulted a girlfriend and, in a hit-and run accident, ran bleeding in military clothes into the woods, court records show. He told police he fell asleep at the wheel and paid a fine to get the charges dismissed, the records show.

Military officials say that after drinking on a southern Afghanistan base, Bales crept away on March 11 to two slumbering villages overnight, shooting his victims and setting many of them on fire. Nine of the 16 killed were children and 11 belonged to one family.

"This is some crazy stuff if it's true," Steve Berling, a high school classmate, said of the revelations about the father of two known as "Bobby" in his hometown of Norwood, Ohio.

Bales hasn't been charged yet in the shootings, which have endangered complicated relations between the US and Afghanistan and threatened to upend US policy over the decade-old war.

His former platoon leader said Bales was a model soldier inspired by 9/11 to serve who saved lives in firefights on his second of three Iraq deployments.

"He's one of the best guys I ever worked with," said Army Captain Chris Alexander, who led Bales on a 15-month deployment in Iraq.

"He is not some psychopath. He's an outstanding soldier who has given a lot for this country."

But pressing family troubles were hinted at by his wife, Kari, on multiple blogs posted with names like The Bales Family Adventures and BabyBales.  A year ago, she wrote that Bales was hoping for a promotion or a transfer after nine years stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Tacoma, Wash.



"We are hoping to have as much control as possible" over the future, Kari Bales wrote last March 25. "Who knows where we will end up. I just hope that we are able to rent our house so that we can keep it. I think we are both still in shock."

After Bales lost out on a promotion to E7 - a first-class sergeant - the family hoped to go to either Germany, Italy or Hawaii for an "adventure," she said. They hoped to move by last summer; instead the Army redeployed his unit - the 2nd Infantry Division of the 3rd Stryker Brigade, named after armoured Stryker vehicles - to Afghanistan.

It would be Bales' fourth tour in a war zone. He joined the military two months after 9/11 and spent more than three years in Iraq during three separate assignments since 2003. His attorney said he was injured twice in Iraq - once losing part of his foot - but his 20 or so commendations do not include the Purple Heart, given to soldiers wounded in combat.

Alexander said Bales wasn't injured while he oversaw him during their deployment - Bales' second in Iraq. He called Bales a "very solid" noncommissioned officer who didn't have more difficulty than his fellow soldiers with battlefield stress. Bales shot at a man aiming a rocket-propelled grenade at his platoon's vehicle in Mosul, Iraq, sending the grenade flying over the vehicle.

"There's no doubt he saved lives that day," Alexander said. The charges he killed civilians is "100 per cent out of character for him," he said.

Bales always loved the military and war history, even as a teenager, said Berling, who played football with him in the early 1990s on a team that included Marc Edwards, a future NFL player and Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots.

"I remember him and the teacher just going back and forth on something like talking about the details of the Battle of Bunker Hill," he said. "He knew history, all the wars".

Bales exulted in the role once he finally achieved it. Plunged into battle in Iraq, he told an interviewer for a Fort Lewis base newspaper in 2009 that he and his comrades proved "the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy".

Bales joined the Army, Berling said, after studying business at Ohio State University - he attended three years but didn't graduate - and handled investments before the market downturn pushed him out of the business. Florida records show that Bales was a director at an inactive company called Spartina Investments Inc. in Doral, Florida; his brother, Mark Bales, and a Mark Edwards were also listed as directors.

"I guess he didn't like it when people lost money," Berling said.

He was struggling to keep payments on his own home in Lake Tapps, a rural reservoir community near Seattle; his wife asked to put the house on the market three days before the shootings, real estate Philip Rodocker said.

"She told him she was behind in our payments," Rodocker told The New York Times. "She said he was on his fourth tour and it was getting kind of old and they needed to stabilise their finances."

The house was not officially put on the market until Monday; on Tuesday, Rodocker said, Bales' wife called and asked to take the house off the market, talking of a family emergency.

Bales and his wife bought the Lake Tapps home in 2005, according to records, for US$280,000; it was listed this week at US$229,000. Overflowing boxes were piled on the front porch, and a US flag leaned against the siding.

The sale may have been a sign of financial troubles. Bales and his wife also own a home in nearby community called Auburn, according to county records, but abandoned it about two years ago, homeowners' association president Bob Baggett said.

Now signs posted on the front door and window by the city warn against occupying the house.

"It was ramshackled," Baggett said. "They were not dependable. When they left there were vehicles parts left on the front yard...we'd given up on the owners."

The diverging portrait of the sergeant have rippled across the country.

"It's our Bobby. He was the local hero," said Michael Blevins, who grew up down the street from him in Norwood, Ohio. The youngest of five boys respected older residents, admonished troublemakers and loved children, even helping another boy in the area who had special needs.

In Washington state, court records showed a 2002 arrest for assault on a girlfriend. Bales pleaded not guilty and was required to undergo 20 hours of anger management counselling, after which the case was dismissed.

A separate hit-and-run charge was dismissed in Sumner, Washington's municipal court three years ago, according to records. It isn't clear from court documents what Bales hit; witnesses saw a man in a military-style uniform, with a shaved head and bleeding, running away.

When deputies found him in the woods, Bales told them he fell asleep at the wheel. He paid about US$1,000 in fines and restitution and the case was dismissed in October 2009.

Dan Conway, a military attorney who represented one of four Lewis-McChord soldiers convicted in the deliberate killings of three Afghan civilians in 2010, said whether legal scrapes affect a soldier's career depends in part on whether they prompt the Army to issue administrative penalties. The punishments are typically recorded in official personnel files.

Over the past decade, Conway said, the military has sometimes been lax in administering such punishments. As a result, soldiers who might be bad apples sometimes remain in service longer than they otherwise might have.

"It's something you want to note," Conway said. "The best predictor of future violence is past violence."

Bales' lawyer, John Henry Browne of Seattle, said he didn't know if his client had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the shootings, but said it could be an issue at trial if experts believe it's relevant.

He also said he didn't know if his client had been drinking the night of the massacre.

Browne didn't return telephone calls at the weekend. His legal team has said Browne will be meeting with Bales at Fort Leavenworth next week.