Extradited Taliban to be tried in Afghanistan 'soon'

Kabul (AFP) - Afghanistan will soon put on trial 14 members of the fundamentalist Taliban who became the first insurgents loyal to the government ousted four years ago to be extradited from Pakistan, officials said.

The men were being questioned by the national intelligence agency in Kabul, said presidential spokesman Khaleeq Ahmad. Pictures showed some of them arriving in the city on Wednesday blindfolded and handcuffed. "They will be put on trial... Soon, in the coming days, weeks," Ahmad said.

One of them is Abdul Latif Hakimi, a spokesman for the Taliban who was arrested in Pakistan this month. He frequently called the media to say the Taliban were responsible for attacks on Afghan and US-led forces and civilians.

Another was Mohammad Yasir, also a one-time spokesman for the Taliban who was reportedly arrested in August. Investigations would determine the charges the men would face, another presidential spokesman, Karim Rahimi, said. "After the investigations are completed they will be put on trial," he said.

Evidence against Hakimi included a recording of a telephone call in which he is allegedly heard to order killings, another government official said on condition of anonymity. The arrests showed "they can't hide inside Afghanistan and they can't hide outside Afghanistan. They will be caught no matter where they are," he said.

An intelligence official said Hakimi would in particular be questioned about his links to the Taliban leadership including Mullah Omar, the elusive one-eyed zealot who headed the hardline government that controlled most of the country from 1996 to 2001. "It could take a while," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Taliban loyalists fled over the border to Pakistan after the fundamentalist regime was forced out of power in a US-led campaign because they did not hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for the September 11, 2001 attacks. Many of the militants and their Al-Qaeda allies are believed to cross the porous border into Afghanistan to launch attacks before retreating to Pakistan.

President Hamid Karzai's office said the handover of the 14 Taliban militants was an important step in the relations between the neighbours. "It is the first time there has been such a handover and we hope there will be more in future," Rahimi said.

Pakistan has carried out several operations to root out the militants, but some officials in Afghanistan say it is not doing enough to round them up. An insurgency against the government by Taliban fighters and other rebels has already cost more than 1,400 lives this year, most of them militants.

Attacks linked to the insurgency mostly occur in southern and eastern Afghanistan, the areas on the border with Pakistan, where the bulk of a US-led force of about 20,000 soldiers is tasked with hunting down the militants. Two policemen and a militant were killed Thursday in some of the latest violence, officials said.

Suspected Taliban militants struck a police post guarding television masts on a hill about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital Kabul in the early hours of the morning, interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said. A policeman and a militant were killed in the attack near the city of Ghazni.

Militants were also blamed for a bomb blast in the volatile southern city of Kandahar that killed a policeman and wounded two civilians. The explosive was fixed to a bicycle and was detonated by remote-control as a police vehicle drove past, a police officer said.

Top Afghan opposition leader calls for vote recount - (AFP) - 27 October 2005

KABUL - A key opposition leader on Thursday demanded a recount of Afghanistan’s elections last month, saying widespread fraud undermined the legitimacy of the country’s first parliamentary vote in more than 30 years.

Yunus Qanooni, the chief rival to President Hamid Karzai in last year’s presidential ballot, said that if all the votes cast on September 18 could not be recounted, a partial recount could save the process.

“We propose three ways: one, we want a recount of the vote,” the influential politician told reporters. “The second proposal is to recount ballots in those provinces where the fraud was widespread and candidates have complained.”

The third option would be to recount the votes of a sample of the leading candidates and “those declared losers” to see if the tally had been accurate, he said. “This would help to secure the legitimacy of the elections,” he said.

Afghan court demands death for 2 over journalists' killing - Fri 28 Oct 2005 - Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL, Oct 28 (Reuters) - An Afghan court has ruled two brothers should be executed for their involvement in the 2001 killing of four journalists, including two from Reuters, a senior judge said on Friday.

Zar Jan and Abdul Wahid can both appeal the verdict which was announced at a trial on Thursday, the judge told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Five other men, accomplices of the pair, were each sentenced to 20 years in jail for other criminal acts such as highway robbery and theft, he said.

The brothers have confessed partial involvement in the killing of the journalists at Tangi Abrishum, about 90 km (55 miles) east of Kabul on Nov. 19, 2001, days after U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban government, the judge said.

The journalists were Australian television cameraman Harry Burton and Afghan photographer Azizullah Haidari, both Reuters employees, Spaniard Julio Fuentes of El Mundo newspaper and Italian Maria Grazia Cutuli of Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The judge described Zar Jan as the leader of a criminal gang and said he was also wanted on suspicion of armed robbery, kidnapping and other killings.

A third suspect in the killing, Reza Khan, who was arrested in November, has also been sentenced to death by two courts. Khan has said the gang had acted on the orders of a Taliban commander.

If the final court approves the death sentence for the trio, only President Hamid Karzai can decide their fate, on the basis of Afghanistan's law.

Afghanistan last year carried out its first execution since the Taliban's fall. Scores of people have been sentenced to death by the courts and are awaiting Karzai's decision, officials say.

NATO on target for Afghan expansion: NATO official - By Mark John Oct 27

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO has raised nearly all the troops it needs to expand to south Afghanistan next year and is confident of ending a dispute over command ties to the U.S.-led coalition there, an alliance official said on Thursday.

"We have some 85 percent of the 6,000," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, of a plan to expand the 9,000-strong ISAF peacekeeping force to 15,000 by early 2006. ISAF is currently present in the north, west and in the capital Kabul.

The expansion will require better coordination between NATO troops and U.S.-led forces fighting Taliban guerrillas in the south. It is also seen as the next step toward NATO taking over all foreign military operations in Afghanistan, a prospect backed by the United States.

France, Germany and others rejected a U.S. proposal last year for a merger of ISAF with the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), insisting that peacekeeping and the OEF's more dangerous counter-insurgency work remain separate.

However the official said there were signs they were warming to a compromise under which NATO would take overall command of operations but with counter-insurgency remaining mainly in the hands of the OEF.

"We are moving toward consensus. There is broad agreement on command arrangements," said the official, adding that final agreement could be reached by the end of the year, perhaps at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in December.

Under the expansion plan, British, Dutch and Canadian troops would lead NATO's move into the south, while Germany would take over in the more stable north. Italy and Spain already have set up bases in the west.

German Defense Minister Peter Struck hinted last month that Berlin could accept the compromise on command arrangements, calling it a "one-roof, two-pillar" model that kept peacekeeping and counter-insurgency tasks sufficiently separate. Some of France's concerns also appear to have eased.

"The important thing for us is that the two missions are distinct from each other," said a French official, stressing that some issues still had to be resolved.

After the expansion to the south, NATO is looking to assume command of the east. The timeframe for that has not been agreed but Washington is hoping it will happen by end-2006.

Under the compromise being discussed, overall control of foreign military operations would lie in the hands of an ISAF commander with three deputies -- one for peacekeeping work, one for air operations and one for "security."

That last deputy would continue to report to the U.S.-led coalition for counter-insurgency operations. That would mean U.S. forces continuing to take the brunt of the insurgency, although Britain for one has made it clear that any nation willing to be present in the south must be prepared to tackle insurgents.

SCO not to admit new members presently: Executive Secretary

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will not admit new members at this stage, SCO Executive Secretary Zhang Deguang said here on Thursday.

The SCO is not ready to admit new members presently because of the lack of "relevant legal basis", Zhang told a press conference after a meeting of prime ministers of the six member states of the SCO -- China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

However, the current activity of the SCO does not mean that the organization is to become an enclosed bloc, even politically, said Zhang. "The organization will never become a military bloc, which does not correspond to its objective," he said.

Heads of government of the six countries attended the meeting that opened here Wednesday, with discussions focused on issues of anti-terrorism and economic cooperation among SCO member countries.

Senior representatives of Mongolia, Pakistan, India and Iran also attended the conference for the first time as observers.

The SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Center is highly effective and its fight against terrorism is closely related to the combat against drug trafficking because terrorists might get funding from drug traffickers, said Zhang.

The fight against drug dealing, in Afghanistan in particular, is one of the tasks of priority for the SCO, said Zhang, adding that a draft on the creation of an SCO-Afghanistan contact has been submitted to the Afghan government.

Commenting on the call launched by the SCO early this year for the United States to set a date for the withdrawal of its military forces in Central Asia, the SCO executive secretary said the organization launched an appeal, not an ultimatum.

"The SCO launched the appeal because the active phase of the anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan was over," he said, "It is only a matter of deadlines. We wonder when the withdrawals will take place. This is not an ultimatum."

In July, the SCO called on the United States to establish a timetable for pulling out its military bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, set up in 2001 as part of the US-led military operations in Afghanistan.

The appeal should not be viewed with the logic of Cold War, said Zhang, "The Cold War is gone. We should fully abandon those stereotypes of thinking."

On the economic cooperation, Zhang said the SCO member states are planning a more active cooperation in energy, one of the priorities of the organization.

He added that the cooperation will comprise several aspects, from the construction of oil and gas pipelines, oil prospecting, development of production technologies to the use of water resources.

The SCO is at the beginning of the process to build a common strategy of cooperation in energy, the means of delivery and markets, he added.

The SCO was founded in June 2001, and inaugurated an Anti-Terrorist Center in the Uzbek capital Tashkent in June 2004. Source: Xinhua

Portuguese Troops Deploy to Farah For ISAF Reinforcement Exercise - Headquarters International Security Assistance Force Kabul, Afghanistan Release Date - 27 October 05

Farah, Afghanistan - This week a Portuguese platoon, from ISAF's Central Quick Reaction Force based in Kabul, has deployed to Farah to join the US-led NATO Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) as part of a joint training exercise with the Afghan National Army. The aim of the exercise is to demonstrate the capability and will of ISAF to reinforce its presence anywhere within its Area of Operations.

This concept involves testing the capability of moving quickly on short notice for Provincial reinforcement. The exercise will see ISAF forces rapidly deploy to the Northern and Western part of the country in the next three weeks. ISAF's Regional Area Coordinator (West), Air Brigadier General Umberto Rossi, underlined that "with this operation International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has shown the will to support more and more the Afghan Government and Afghan Security Forces, anywhere within ISAF's area of operations".

The Portuguese platoon will patrol in the vicinity of the city of Farah and will cooperate with local Authorities in order to extend the influence of the Afghan Government. The deployment will be complemented by airborne training with helicopters to prove the effectiveness of ground and aerial force coordination. This part of the exercise will conclude on October 30th.

This exercise will confirm the capability of ISAF to rapidly reinforce its presence, provide a secure environment in all the provinces of its Area of Operations and ensure that Afghan communities can benefit from its support in accordance with its United Nations security assistance mandate.

Human rights in Afghanistan 'of great concern': UN

Kabul (AFP) - Escalating violence, torture and force child marriages are some of the rights abuses still blighting Afghanistan four years after the removal of the fundamentalist Taliban government, the United Nations says.

While the country has made great strides since the Taliban were forced from power, the human rights situation "remains of great concern," a report released this month by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour says.

"Factional commanders and former warlords remain major power brokers, and the activities of anti-government entities and of the government and international forces combating them continue to take a toll on civilians," it says.

The Taliban took control of most of Afghanistan in 1996 when the country was torn apart by fighting between rival ethnic factions that killed tens of thousands of people.

The ultra-conservative Taliban imposed a brutal and intolerant version of Islam until they were removed in a US-led attack in late 2001. They have since vowed to topple the new government, playing a major role in an insurgency that has claimed about 1,400 lives this year. The report praises moves to ensure there is no amnesty for past abuses but says there is nonetheless a state of impunity.

"Little progress has been made to date towards bringing to account those most responsible for serious human rights violations during the decades of conflict, some of whom remain in positions of influence if not authority. "In addition, violations continue to be perpetrated with apparent impunity by armed strongmen in many parts of the country," it says.

Afghan and international security forces hunting down the insurgents are also implicated in abuses. "Arbitrary and prolonged pre-trial detention remains frequent throughout Afghanistan. Torture appears to be a common practice in order to secure confessions," the document says.

Detainees of the international coalition forces had reported having their property stolen, forced nudity and "a particularly harsh and arbitrary detention regime."

The formal justice system is meanwhile undermined by corruption and "the ominous influence of warlords and local commanders," according to the report. Detention facilities do not conform to international standards and some local authorities operate private prisons, including for women who are forced to work for their jailors.

The situation of women, denied basic education and health care under the Taliban, had improved only in certain respects, with more of them in the paid workforce and education system.

"However, the stark reality is that women in Afghanistan, especially outside of Kabul and urban areas, and particularly among the poor, are generally still viewed as the property of men," the report says.

Another major concern is child marriage, which some estimates say makes up more than 40 percent of all marriages in Afghanistan. "Girls as young as seven years of age are made to marry much older men, sometimes 30-40 years older," often to settle debts or disputes.

The practice is in part to blame for regular reports of cases of self-immolation, with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission saying there had already been 85 cases this year.

Women are also killed in the name of honour, forced into prostitution, raped and subjected to sexual and domestic violence, the report says. However their recourse to justice is limited and offenders rarely prosecuted.

Children also suffer: some as young as six have to work and boys are reportedly still being recruited by the Taliban. More than 4,750 child soldiers had however been demobilised since the beginning of 2004 in a project run by the UN children's programme, UNICEF.

The enrolment of boys in schools has risen to 67 percent but that of girls is among the lowest in the world: 40 percent overall and just 10 percent in secondary school, the report says.

Maternal mortality rates are also exceptionally high: about 1,600 out of every 100,000 Afghan mothers die while giving birth or because of related complications. And about 20 percent of Afghan children are dead before their fifth birthday, with most children dying from preventable diseases.

The report contains other dismal statistics: the life expectancy of Afghans is 44.5 years; one in five suffer from mental health problems; only 23 percent have access to safe water and only 12 percent to adequate sanitation.

It outlines steps the authorities could take to improve the situation, stressing elections such as last month's parliamentary vote, the first more than three decades, are not enough.

"No matter how many elections are held in Afghanistan, the people will not be able to enjoy their human rights until the rule of law is a fact, impunity is a feature of the past, state institutions are credible and effective, and women are treated equally with men," it says. "Enjoyment of human rights is a key indicator of the transition of a nation from a state of armed conflict to one of peace and stability."

THREE AFGHAN PROVINCES SEEK TO BUY POWER FROM PAKISTAN

KHOST CITY, Oct 28 Asia Pulse - Governors of three Afghan provinces have asked the central government and the international community to launch a reconstruction campaign in the southeastern region now that the security situation has improved. The demand came at a meeting of Khost, Paktia and Paktika governors in the southeastern city of Khost.

On day one, a number of provincial department heads and representatives of the reconstruction team (PRT), UNHCR, UNAMA and NGOs briefed the session that will conclude on Friday. Provincial authorities unanimously sought power purchase from Pakistan to electrify the southeastern region. They agreed the next meeting of the council on reviewing the overall situation would be held in Paktika.

Khost Governor Mirajuddin Patan, who chaired the meeting, threw light on the Greater Paktia Development Council, which works for the uplift of the three provinces. Paktika's Rural Development Department chief Engineer Khaled Khan Bahadur, addressing the participants, said they had completed a number projects costing $4 million under the National Solidarity Programme (NSP).

Some other schemes were in the process of execution, he added. Dispelling the impression that security in the province is on a nosedive, he insisted the overall situation was satisfactory. The director urged the Centre as well as the global fraternity to initiate reconstruction projects in Paktika.

Hakim Taniwal, governor of Paktia, demanded of the Karzai administration to build dams in Machalgho nd Ahmadkhel areas. He went on to draw the authorities' attention towards the dysfunctional health sector while underlining the need for the establishment of more hospitals and health clinics in his province.

Engineer Mohammad Omar, head of Khost's Rural Development Department, called for a new census in all the three provinces as all viable economic plans were worked out on the basis of population.

He stressed the imperative of building water reservoirs for irrigating cultivable lands and power generation, pavement of the Ghulam Khan-Khost road and the launch of housing schemes in districts to ease the increasing pressure on Khost's civic infrastructure and traffic congestion.

Speaking on the occasion, the UNAMA representative pointed out they were tasked with conducting the elections and launching reconstruction projects in the three provinces. (Pajhwok Afghan News)

Pakistan to export 40 MW of electricity to Afghanistan - By Khalid Mustafa, October 28, 2005  Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: WAPDA has confirmed to the government that 40 MW of electricity could be exported to Afghanistan in response to a request by Kabul for electricity in its Khost province, a senior official told Daily Times.

Afghanistan has been seeking the import of electricity from Pakistan for some time. The Ministry of Water and Power, at the request of the Planning Commission, asked WAPDA several months ago how much electricity could be exported to Afghanistan. WAPDA has given a positive response to the request and said it can export 40 MW of electricity to the Khost province of Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan, for the first time, asked for electricity to be imported from Pakistan when President General Pervez Musharraf and his cabinet members, including the WAPDA Chairman Lt Gen (retired) Zulfiqar Ali Khan, visited Kabul on April 3, 2002.” Since then the issue has not been discussed because of the law and order situation in Kabul and a degree of resentment for Pakistan in Afghanistan. Now the situation has changed and Pakistan’s experts are working on the project to export electricity.

WAPDA would lay down the transmission line from Miran Shah/Para Chinar to Khost and an expert team would finalize the plans with Kabul authorities for the transmission of the electricity from Miran Shah to Khost. However, both governments have not yet discussed the rates for electricity exported to Afghanistan.

The source said WAPDA would also lay down a 132 KV transmission line from the Landikotal grid to the Afghanistan area nearby, where the country’s infrastructure for transmitting electricity is located.

The official said that Afghanistan has also renewed its offer to WAPDA to rehabilitate the powerhouse and its workshop at Kabul and develop the country’s power distribution system. “WAPDA has agreed to execute all these projects,” he added .

First Modern Industrial Park Inaugurated In Kabul

KABUL, Oct 27 [Asia Pulse] - A modern park titled after the name of late Afghan minister for Mines and Industries Juma Mohammad Mohammadi was inaugurated Wednesday in the Bagrami district of the Kabul city, officials said.

The former Minister died in a plane crash in Karachi, Pakistan. Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) constructed the park over 22 acres of land.
United States donated $5 million assistance for the construction of the park.

AISA chief Omer Zakhel said canals and roads had already built in the park. The park would attract foreign investors and would help in boosting the country's economy.

This is one of the three modern US-funded industrial parks. Two others are to be built in southern Kandahar and northern Balkh province, he added. "The government and the US have done their duty and now we are going to assign the rest of the job to private sector," he informed.

Industrial parks both in Balkh and Kandahar provinces would be constructed in next months that would provide jobs to 10,000 Afghans.

Chief of the board of directors at Afghanistan International Chambers of Commerce and Industries Azarkhsh Hafizi termed the park construction as a good omen for higher investment.

However, he said "If the custom duty on importing of raw materials was not removed, the local investors would not be able to compete the foreign imported products." (Pajhwok Afghan News)

TAKHAR PLANS RESIDENTIAL SCHEME FOR RETURNING AFGHAN REFUGEES

TALOQAN, Oct 28 Asia Pulse - The government plans to launch the first residential scheme for more than 10,000 returning refugees in the northern Takhar province next month.

The project, scheduled to be started in this provincial capital, will shelter about 10,000 refugee families. A chunk of land measuring 1,000 acres has been allocated for the residential scheme, officials said.

Said Iqbal, head of the refugee department in the province, told Pajhwok Afghan News each family had to deposit 30,000 afghanis (US$700) to get a plot. He added 100 plots had already been distributed among the returnees and they would be able to start the construction work next month.

Explaining the residential plan, Iqbal said the amount so collected from refugees, would be spent on construction of mosques, parks, roads and hotels; sanitation system and provision of potable water. Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had also pledged to provide financial assistance to the returnees in their rehabilitation, he maintained.

Official estimates show that about 16,000 refugee families have returned from the neighbouring Pakistan and Iran since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001. Meanwhile, the returnees hailed the scheme and demanded of the government to implement it as soon as possible.

Mustafa, 36, who has been allotted a plot, said: "We are living in a rented house and paying 4,500 afghanis per month which is a burden on my meagre income."

He added: "The scheme will solve residential problems of many families." A 42-year-old widow, Amina, said her husband was martyred during jihad. "I sold my house and shifted to Pakistan, but after return, I have no shelter and am living in a single room in a relative's house along with my eight children." (Pajhwok Afghan News)

Afghanistan: Chief of police of Parwan hands over weapons - United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 27 Oct 2005

On October 26, Abdul Rrahman Siadkhel Mowlana, the chief of police of the province of Parwan, and also former commander of the 2nd Division, surrendered 119 weapons to the weapons collection team of the Afghanistan New Beginnings Programme (ANPB). The weapons, which included 6 heavy weapons, were immediately transferred to the cantonment site of Pol-e Charki where there are now under the surveillance of the Afghan National Army (ANA). The weapons will be either used by the elected Government of Afghanistan for the security of the country or – if not serviceable - destroyed.

Chief of Police Abdul Rrahman Siadkhel Mowlana voluntarily surrendered his weapons, thus actively participating in the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Group (DIAG) process. In the speech he gave during the hand over ceremony, Abdul Rrahman Siadkhel Mowlana said that he was “responding to the Government’s call to clean Afghanistan from weapons, disband illegal armed groups and bring stability and peace in the country”.

The DIAG process was launched on 11June, 2005 when officially announced by Vice President Khalili. So far, 13,439 weapons as well as 22,649 pieces of boxed and 38,771 pieces of unboxed ammunition have been handed over to and verified by ANBP collection teams in Afghanistan. 4,857 of the collected weapons have been handed over by 124 candidates to the parliamentary elections.

Ministry Waiting For Report On Arrest Of M'sian In Afghanistan

PUTRAJAYA, Oct 28 (Bernama) -- Wisma Putra is awaiting a report from the Malaysian High Commission in Pakistan over the alleged arrest of a Malaysian volunteer with the United Nations (UN) while he was trying to fly out of Afghanistan's main airport with 200gm of opium.

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said people should not jump to conclusions over the incident.

"I hope we can get the report as soon as possible. If it is true, it is very regrettable but let's not draw conclusions until we get the report," he told reporters here after presenting Malaysia's financial contribution of over US$1 million to the Pakistan and Afghanistan mission representatives for victims of the Oct 8 South Asian earthquake.

Syed Hamid said that generally Malaysian volunteers were responsible and trustworthy and would give their fullest attention to the task at hand.

"If there is one black sheep, we must just separate the black sheep from the rest," he said when commenting on a news report which quoted Afghanistan airport police commander Aminullah Khan as saying that the man was arrested on Thursday for carrying opium in his pockets.

A UN spokesman reportedly confirmed that the man was a Malaysian working for the UN volunteer programme in Herat.

On the fate of 131 Thai Muslims who fled their villages in Thailand's troubled south and entered Malaysia on Aug 30, Syed Hamid said there was no question of Malaysia stopping them from going back.

"That's why we have allowed the Thais (officials) to come and talk to them, convince them (to go back)," he said.

The minister said Malaysia could not simply bundle up the villagers and send them home as there were certain international standards and norms that it had to abide by with regard to people seeking refuge in another country.

On Thursday, Thailand gave its assurance that it would be safe for the villagers to return home, with Thai Deputy Prime Minister Chitchai Wannasathit saying that they faced no harm in Thailand.

Afghan-born artist endures - By alexander varty Date: 27-Oct-2005

Most of the time, repetition is boring. But as meditators and marathon runners well know, the act of repeating something over and over and over again can also bring a kind of liberation. When the mystic transcends the chains of consciousness or the athlete breaks through the wall of pain, they can experience a state of being that transcends quotidian cares—and that’s also the effect Lida Abdul hopes to achieve with performance works like the as-yet-untitled piece she’s bringing to Video In on Friday (October 28).

“Repetition can be a number of different things,” explains the Afghan-born performance artist, calling from her home in Los Angeles. “I’m very much influenced by the Sufi tradition in Islam, and by Islamic art—especially, for instance, the repetition in Arabic calligraphy. And praying itself is a repetitive act.…And yet, in a way, repetitive activity is an act of resistance as well.”

It’s also an act of endurance, something Abdul knows a little bit about. She was born in Kabul in 1973, and then, once her family fled their war-torn home, grew up in refugee camps in Germany and India. Knowing that, works in which she repeatedly presses her face into the pigment-smeared pages of an open book or uses her bare hands to slowly push a block of ice across a room take on considerable emotional weight. They’re about the patient longing of the refugee, about the frozen hopes of the exile, and, especially, about the constricted role of women in Afghan society—before, during, and after the Taliban’s reign.

“Some Afghan women that I know, that I’ve met in Kabul, are 25 years old and all they’ve known is war,” Abdul explains. “It’s an amazing thing that they’ve gone through that and continued to live their lives. Like, one woman that I met had a bullet go through her foot and now she doesn’t even think about it; she survived. So I’m thinking of that kind of endurance in this new piece.”

The parameters of Abdul’s new work, which she’ll present as part of the LIVE Biennial of Performance Art, remain fluid; she says she’ll only finalize the piece when she sees the room she’ll appear in. The fixed elements, however, will be time, ice, pain, and, tellingly, an intricately woven Afghan carpet. The latter, she says, is a physical memento of home; a treasured rug was all many refugees managed to salvage from their bombed, burnt-out, or overrun living quarters. But it’s also the product of the hard labour of women and children—and a material analogue of the way in which Abdul’s painful, repetitious, and oddly beautiful performances weave together all the threads of her life as an Afghan, a refugee, a woman, and an artist.

Iran leader defends Israel remark – BBC

Iran's president has defended his widely criticised call for Israel to be "wiped off the map". Attending an anti-Israel rally in Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his remarks were "just" - and the criticism did not "have any validity."

Last Wednesday's comment provoked world outrage. Israel has called for Iran's expulsion from the United Nations. Egypt said they showed "the weakness of the Iranian government". A Palestinian official also rejected the remarks.

Tens of thousands of Iranians took part in the rally in Tehran which Iran organises every year on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan to show solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.

Shouting "Death to Israel, death to the Zionists", the protesters dragged Israeli flags along the ground and then set them on fire.

Many carried posters and placards sporting the slogan "Israel should be wiped off the map". Joining the protest, Mr Ahmadinejad said: "My words were the Iranian nation's words. "Westerners are free to comment, but their reactions are invalid," Mr Ahmadinejad told the official Irna news agency.

But while most Muslim and Arab capitals have remained silent on the remarks, a few have spoken out - including Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat. "Palestinians recognise the right of the state of Israel to exist and I reject his comments," he told the BBC News website. "What we need to be talking about is adding the state of Palestine to the map and not wiping Israel from the map," he said.

Egypt, which has signed a peace treaty with Israel, also rejected the Iranian line. "In principle, we are way beyond this type of political rhetoric that shows the weakness of the Iranian government," said an official at the Egyptian embassy in London. Turkey's prime minister called on the Iranian president "to display political moderation".

While there is no sense that Iran is backing down, there are Iranians who are concerned that their country could become increasingly isolated under this new ultra-conservative government, reports the BBC Frances Harrison in Tehran.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom meanwhile said Israel would call for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. "We have decided to open a broad diplomatic offensive," Mr Shalom said.

So far no action has been taken at the UN, but Secretary General Kofi Annan took the unusual step of rebuking Iran for the comments.

Iran has dismissed the international furore as a means of pressing Iran to compromise on its nuclear programme. Negotiations have stalled between the EU and Iran over attempts to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

India opposes 'aggressive action' against Iran over nuclear program

Moscow (AFP) - India opposes "aggressive action" against Iran over its nuclear program, Foreign Minister Natwar Singh said during a visit to Moscow, quoted in Russian by the ITAR-TASS news agency.

Addressing students at Moscow's prestigious Mguimo university of international relations, Singh did not comment on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement calling for the destruction of Israel.

The remark was condemned by the international community, including Russia which described it as "unacceptable." "India is against aggressive action towards Iran," Singh said on Thursday.

Iran's nuclear programme "must exist purely in the framework defined by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), and must not exceed its limits," he added, but he said he opposed referring Iran to the UN Security Council over its nuclear activities, the Interfax news agency reported.

[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]