In this Bulletin:

• President Karzai Condemns the Terrorist Attack in Kandahar Province
• President Karzai Receives a Phone Call from the Prime Minister of Norway
• Afghan government pulls licenses from more than 1,600 NGOs
• Afghanistan Welcomes Debt Cancellations
• Cabinet names members to monitor Afghanistan Compact
• Four die in Afghan cartoon riot
• Islamic Groups Call for End to Riots
• Bomb kills Turkish engineer, Indian and driver in Afghanistan
• ISAF SHOWS RESTRAINT DURING VIOLENT DEMONSTRATIONS IN MEYMANEH
• Norway will remain in Afghanistan
• Denmark worried about troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Rumsfeld, NATO Ministers To Discuss Afghanistan and Rapid Reaction Force
• Afghanistan: NATO Troops Apply 'Robust' New Rules Of Engagement
• Afghan avalanches kill 19 villagers
• Pak, Afghanistan ink agreement on construction of science block at Nangarhar University
• Opium farmers seek MPs' support
• India energy minister says New Delhi committed to Iran pipeline

President Karzai Condemns the Terrorist Attack in Kandahar Province - Date of Release: 07 February 2006

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, strongly condemned today’s terrorist attack in Kandahar province, which killed 13 people and wounded a dozen people.

In his reaction to the news the President said, “The Taliban have been resorting to killing our Ulemas, teachers, students and innocent Afghan civilians since their defeat and their brazen admission that they carried out today’s terrorist attack in Kandahar unveils their hidden agendas to the people of Afghanistan.”

“The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to hinder Afghanistan’s progress towards peace and democracy by disrupting the peace process in our country. Today’s heinous act of terrorism is against the values of Islam and humanity.”

The President expressed his heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims and prayed for the full recovery of the injured.

Released by the Office of the Spokesman to the President - Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

President Karzai Receives a Phone Call from the Prime Minister of Norway - Date of Release: 07 February 2006

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, received a phone call from H.E. Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway this afternoon.

The President and the Prime Minister discussed the blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), which was published in some European newspapers.

Prime Minister Stoltenberg expressed his regret at this unfortunate incident and his concern at today’s demonstrations in Faryab province of Afghanistan which involved an attack on Norwegian soldiers operating under the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT).

The President strongly condemned the blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad and expressed his regret at the unfortunate incident in the province of Faryab and said, “The people of Afghanistan realize that European soldiers serving in Afghanistan have nothing to do with the publishing of the blasphemous cartoons and it is the responsibility of the people of Afghanistan to ensure the security of the international soldiers who are helping the people of Afghanistan with stability and reconstruction.”

Released by the Office of the Spokesman to the President - Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Afghan government pulls licenses from more than 1,600 NGOs - DPA 02/07/2006

Kabul - The Afghan government on Tuesday de-licensed more than 1,600 national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), accusing them of committing economic fraud and corruption.

Speaking at a press conference in Kabul, Minister for Economics Mohammad Amin Farhang told reporters that most of the NGOs have taken money from the donor countries and have not implemented the work for which they were funded.

According to Farhang, only 123 de-licensed NGOs were international and the rest were domestic, adding that some of the people running NGOs have fled the country after receiving funds from donors.

"We will prosecute (those running NGOs who have fled) and bring them to justice if they are inside the country and if they are outside the country, the Afghan government will seek the help of Interpol," Farhang said.

According to Farhang, the distribution and management of international aid money for Afghanistan was a major issue at the recent London Donor Conference on Afghanistan.

Farhang said that the Afghan government is fully determined to regulate the NGOs and make them accountable and transparent. Corruption amongst NGOs has been a hot topic of political debate for the past year.

Just before the Afghan presidential election in October 2004, Ramazan Bashar, the former Afghan planning minister, resigned from his position after the Karzai cabinet did not approve his plan to dismiss hundreds of NGOs.

Recently Afghan president Hamid Karzai said that some of the money provided by the international donors has been wasted by foreign organizations and NGOS and claimed that the money were being spent for luxurious vehicles and expensive houses.

At the recent London conference, where Afghanistan received the pledge of 10.5 billion dollars, the Afghan government insisted on disbursing at least 50 per cent of the money on its own so that it can check on the mismanagement of the funds.

Afghanistan Welcomes Debt Cancellations - By DANIEL COONEY AP - Feb 8, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan on Wednesday lauded a decision by the United States, Russia and Germany to cancel its debts to the three countries, totaling more than $10 billion.

"After 30 years of devastation, we are starting from nothing and any move such as this helps the reconstruction of Afghanistan," said Khaleeq Ahmed, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai. The Bush administration said Tuesday it will forgive the entire $108 million that Afghanistan owes to the United States.

"The government and people of Afghanistan are working diligently to build a sustainable market economy despite many challenges," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. The debt will be canceled through the procedures of the Paris Club, an informal group of creditor nations which also includes Russia and Germany.

Russia said Monday it would write off $10 billion owed by Afghanistan if the country fulfills the requirements of a World Bank program aimed at reducing poverty and takes steps to develop economic and trade ties with creditor nations. "We call on other bilateral creditors to join our decision," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Karzai's government has not recognized the debt to Russia, which dates back to the Soviet era. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, installing a pro-Moscow Communist government. The decade-long occupation ended with a withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989 under relentless pressure by U.S.-backed mujahedeen rebels.

Germany has also said it will forgive $44 million in trade debts owed by Afghanistan. The announcement came at a conference last week in London where nearly 70 nations and international bodies pledged $10.5 billion to help Afghanistan fight poverty, improve security and crack down on the drug trade.

The pledges were intended to fund the goals set out in a five-year plan delegates signed Tuesday for Afghan redevelopment. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week praised the progress Afghanistan has made since a U.S.-led coalition toppled the hard-line Taliban regime in 2001. The United States plans to give $1.1 billion in aid next year.

"The transformation of Afghanistan is remarkable but incomplete," Rice said at a conference on Afghanistan in London. "And it is essential that we all increase our support for the Afghan people."

The debt cancellation will remove a big worry from Karzai's government, installed following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 and later winner of national elections. Karzai is struggling to deal with an upsurge in violence in recent months.

More than 1,600 people have died in the past year as militants have stepped up attacks. About 20 suicide attacks have been reported across Afghanistan in the past four months.

Cabinet names members to monitor Afghanistan Compact

KABUL, Feb 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Afghan cabinet Monday named members that will monitor implementation of the Afghanistan Compact, singed in the landmark London Conference.

It also decided to send ministers to main provinces to inform public about the importance of the recently concluded London Conference and the pact signed there early this month.

UN Secretary General's special envoy to Afghanistan will head the international part of the Afghanistan Compact that will ensure that objectives of the five-year plan are met and the process is going in the right direction.

The cabinet named ministers of foreign affairs, economic affairs, rural rehabilitation and development, justice and the intelligence directorate's head under chairmanship of Mohammad Ishaq Naderi, advisor to President Hamid Karzai in Economic Affairs.

The joint committee is formed according to earlier accord in order to ensure smooth spending of aid for developmental purposes. Head of the international part of the committee is Kofi Annan's special representative to Kabul, while other members will be appointed with President Hamid Karzai consent.

Karzai directed ministers to travel the major provinces of the country, including Herat, Bamyan, Paktia, Nangarhar, Kunduz, Kandahar and Balkh.

However, the Information and Culture Ministry was asked to translate the Afghanistan Compact into Pashto and Dari soon and distribute its copy to members of the parliament. Danish Karokhel and Waheed Rahmani

Four die in Afghan cartoon riot – BBC

At least four people have been killed and up to 20 injured in a violent protest in Afghanistan over cartoons satirising the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. Police shot into a crowd of rioters in the town of Qalat as they tried to march on a nearby US military base.

It brings to 11 the number of people killed in Afghan protests over the cartoons in recent days. The incident happened as a French magazine became the latest publication to carry the controversial caricatures.

The magazine, Charlie Hebdo, won the backing of a French court on Tuesday, after several Islamic organisations had complained that publication would amount to an insult to their religion.

The magazine features all 12 cartoons of Muhammad that originally appeared in a Danish paper last year - including one that shows Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban. Religions other than Islam are caricatured as well. Several religious groups had tried to block the cartoons' publication, but the injunction failed on a technicality.

French President Jacques Chirac criticised newspapers for reprinting the caricatures, saying freedom of expression must be used responsibly. "I condemn all manifest provocation that might dangerously fan passions," he told his cabinet, according to a government spokesman.

The president of the French Muslim Council has appealed for calm and warned people not to be provoked, but several of the magazine's managers have been given police protection as a precaution. The BBC's Alasdair Sandford in Paris says the newsagents he visited had the magazine discreetly turned face down. In other developments:

• Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen tells the BBC his countrymen are upset and worried by the deepening crisis, but must stand together
• Several hundred people march on the Italian embassy in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, but are blocked by police
• About 300 Palestinian protesters attack an international observers' mission in the West Bank town of Hebron, throwing rocks and bottles and trying to torch one of its buildings
• Thousands demonstrate in Pakistan's Dara Adam Khel tribal region, bordering Afghanistan
• The United Nations, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the European Union issue a joint statement calling for restraint from all sides

Afghanistan's top council of Muslim clerics has called for an end to several days of violent demonstrations over the cartoons.

In the Afghan town of Qalat, at least 400 people joined the latest protest, some of them burning vehicles and hurling stones at police who tried to block their way to a US military base, local police chief Abdul Bari said.

Police initially responded by firing into the air, but were forced to then fire into the crowd, Mr Bari said. As well as demonstrators injured by gunfire, a number of Afghan soldiers and police were hurt by flying stones.

The police chief of Zabul province, Nasim Mullah Khel, told the BBC the demonstration had turned violent at the instigation of foreign construction workers from Pakistan and that some of the demonstrators had weapons. However, one demonstrator told the BBC the group had been unarmed.

Islamic Groups Call for End to Riots

Kabul (AP) - Police shot four protesters to death Wednesday to stop hundreds from marching on a southern U.S. military base, as Islamic organizations called for an end to deadly rioting across the Muslim world over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.

"Islam says it's all right to demonstrate but not to resort to violence. This must stop," said senior cleric Mohammed Usman, a member of the Ulama Council — Afghanistan's top Islamic organization. "We condemn the cartoons but this does not justify violence. These rioters are defaming the name of Islam."

Other members of the council went on radio and television Wednesday to appeal for calm. It followed a statement released Tuesday by the United Nations, European Union and the world's largest Islamic group urging an end to violence.

"Aggression against life and property can only damage the image of a peaceful Islam," said the statement released by Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the EU chief Javier Solana.

Meanwhile, a U.S. military spokesman said the United States and other countries are examining whether extremist groups may be inciting protesters to riot around the world because of the cartoons that have been printed in numerous European papers.

"The United States and other countries are providing assistance in any manner that they can ... to see if this is something larger than just a small demonstration," Col. James Yonts told reporters when asked whether al-Qaida and the Taliban may have been involved in days of violent demonstrations in Afghanistan.

The Afghan protests have involved armed men and have been directed at foreign and Afghan government targets — fueling the suspicions there's more behind the unrest than religious sensitivities. But Yonts stressed they had no evidence to support suggestions that al-Qaida or Taliban are linked to the riots in Afghanistan.

Hundreds rioted outside the U.S. military base in the southern city of Qalat on Wednesday, throwing rocks at Afghan police. Police tried to clear the crowd by firing shots in the air, then were forced to fire into the crowd, said Ghulam Nabi Malakhail, the provincial police chief. Four people were killed and at least 20 were wounded, he said.

The protesters then set fire to three fuel tankers that were waiting to deliver gas to the base, Malakhail said. He said U.S. troops fired warning shots into the air. A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Mike Cody, said he had no details on the incident.

Eleven people have been killed in the past week as thousands have taken to the streets in a dozen Afghan cities and towns to march against the cartoons, which have been reprinted in various European media after first appearing in a Danish newspaper in September.

The drawings — including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb — have touched a raw nerve among Muslims. Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.

The caricatures were first published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Culture editor Flemming Rose told CNN on Wednesday he came up with the idea after several local cases of self-censorship involving people fearing reprisals from Muslims.

"There was a story out there and we had to cover it," Rose said. "We just chose to cover it in a different way, according to the principal: don't tell it, show it."

Rose also said his paper was trying to contact a prominent Iranian newspaper that said it would hold a competition for cartoons on the Holocaust to test whether the West extends the principle of freedom of expression to the Nazi genocide as it did to the Muhammad caricatures. Rose said Jyllands-Posten wants to publish those cartoons on the same day the Iranian paper Hamshahri does.

Elsewhere, about 300 Palestinians attacked an international observer mission in the West Bank city of Hebron and tried to set one of the buildings on fire in a protest against the cartoons.

Sixty members of the mission were inside at the time, said Gunhild Forselv, a spokeswoman for the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, or TIPH, which serves as a buffer between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the volatile city.

Eleven Danish members of TIPH left more than a week ago after protests against the cartoons began sweeping across the Muslim world, Forselv said. The protesters chased away outnumbered Palestinian police stationed outside the mission, Forselv said. Reinforcements were called in to quell the disturbance.

Indonesia's foreign minister said Wednesday that radical groups around the world were exploiting public anger over the cartoons.

"The cartoons have hurt the Islamic community, so it has added to ammunition for (global) radical groups to exploit the situation and the whole thing has got out of proportion," Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters.

In France, President Jacques Chirac asked media to avoid offending religious beliefs as another French newspaper on Wednesday reprinted the prophet caricatures. Chirac said during a Cabinet meeting that he condemned "all obvious provocations likely to dangerously kindle passions."

In Copenhagen, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen showed no sign of diverting from his government's stance that it cannot apologize for the actions of an independent newspaper, as demanded by governments in several Muslim nations. Fogh Rasmussen called the protests "a growing global crisis," as Iran suspended all trade and economic ties with Denmark.

There were several other small protests across Afghanistan on Wednesday, including one in Kabul. Hundreds of university students, including women, marched peacefully through the capital, chanting "Death to the Danish! Death to Americans!"

More than 1,000 people also rallied Wednesday in Muslim-majority Bangladesh's capital, burning Danish and Italian flags. There were no immediate reports of violence.

Muslims also demonstrated for the third straight day in Indian-controlled Kashmir. In Turkey, police using armored vehicles blocked some 500 ultranationalist Turks from reaching the Danish Embassy and the demonstrators dispersed peacefully.

Bomb kills Turkish engineer, Indian and driver in Afghanistan – AFP 02/07/2006

KABUL - A Turkish engineer, an Indian national and their driver were killed in western Afghanistan when a bomb struck their vehicle, a provincial governor and a company official said.

The bomb hit the vehicle of a Turkish construction company in the western province of Farah on the main highway between the cities of Herat and Kandahar, Farah governor Azatullah Wasifi said on Tuesday.

"A bomb exploded involving a Turkish construction company vehicle in which one Turkish engineer died," said Wasifi. "We have sent police down to the site to get more accurate information." The explosion involved the Ankara-based Kolin construction company, a company official confirmed, requesting anonymity.

"As far as we know an explosion involving Kolin reconstruction company happened on the Herat-Kandahar highway in which one of our engineers lost his life," he told AFP. "As per the information we got, one Indian guy and their driver, whose nationality we don't know, also lost their lives," he said.

ISAF SHOWS RESTRAINT DURING VIOLENT DEMONSTRATIONS IN MEYMANEH - NR 2006-009 Release Date - 07 February 2006 Meymaneh Afghanistan -

On 7 February, a demonstration involving around 300 people took place outside ISAF's Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) compound in Meymaneh, Northern Afghanistan. 5 Norwegian troops were injured during today's incident, two have been evacuated to an ISAF medical facility in Mazar-e-Sharif, for further treatment; all five are now in a stable condition.

As events unfolded, the demonstrators became more hostile and when they tried to enter the PRT compound, ISAF troops used passive measures, releasing tear gas, in an attempt to disperse the crowd who were initially throwing stones. However, the violence by the demonstrators increased, setting alight a vacant neighbouring government building and ISAF vehicles, then firing shots and throwing grenades towards the PRT compound. As a result, ISAF troops fired warning shots into the air; avoiding any danger to the crowd.

At no stage have NATO forces used lethal force; and ISAF troops have exercised maximum restraint in order to calm the situation. ISAF is aware, that during this incident there were a number of civilian casualties, however at this stage we have no confirmed information regarding the nature and number of those injured and killed. Quick Reaction Forces (QRF) from Mazar-e Sharif were deployed to Meymaneh to secure the airfield and to provide additional support to the PRT.

Throughout this incident, ISAF has been supported by local Afghan National Police, who helped to secure the compound during the incident and tonight are providing the security patrols around the PRT. There is no reason to think that Norwegian troops, in particular, were targeted. Demonstrations in Kabul and Herat also occurred; and this was a manifestation of a phenomenon that is taking place beyond Afghanistan as well, unrelated to the performance or image of particular NATO troops. ISAF has built a strong relationship of trust with the Afghan people and we are confident that that trust remains.

There should be no doubt of NATO's determination to carry forward the expansion of ISAF to the south this summer. The Alliance has made a long-term commitment to the people of Afghanistan, and that commitment will not waver.

Norway will remain in Afghanistan

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg says the Norwegian forces in Afghanistan will remain despite the attacks on Norwegian soldiers on Tuesday. A Norwegian support force will arrive at the base shortly.

At a press conference on Tuesday Stoltenberg praised the Norwegian forces, saying they had carried out their duty in Afghanistan in a good and responsible manner.

- Our forces in the region are trained for situations just like these, and they are deployed in order to create calm and stability in connection with the rebuilding of the country. We will therefore not bow to this type of pressure and violence which the Norwegian soldiers were exposed to today, the Norwegian Prime Minister said.

On Wednesday it was announced that a Norwegian support force is on its way to the Maymana (Meymaneh) base. (NRK)

Denmark worried about troops in Iraq and Afghanistan - 07 Feb 2006

COPENHAGEN, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Denmark said on Tuesday that Muslim protests over a Danish newspaper's cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad raised concerns for the safety of its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan but that it had no plans to withdraw them.

On the day troops from nearby Norway, which has also attracted Muslim wrath after a newspaper there reproduced the drawings, were attacked by a mob in Afghanistan, Denmark's defence minister said his troops were taking extra precautions.

"Of course it affects our soldiers both in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have to change the patterns of how they patrol and take precautions to make sure we don't put them in danger," Danish Defence Minister Soren Gade told Reuters.

"The demonstrations in Afghanistan also affect the security of our soldiers there," said Gade, adding that Denmark had not discussed withdrawing its garrison of 500 troops from Iraq or its 178-strong contingent from Afghanistan. "We have not discussed a withdrawal of Danish troops ... but it's a serious, dangerous situation for our soldiers," he said.

A Danish patrol in Iraq came under fire on Sunday in an attack that Denmark said might have been connected to the cartoon row. Iraq's government has protested against the cartoons by freezing contracts with Denmark and Norway.

Rumsfeld, NATO Ministers To Discuss Afghanistan and Rapid Reaction Force - By Al Pessin Washington 08 February 2006

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be in Italy Thursday and Friday for an informal meeting of NATO defense ministers that is expected to focus on final preparations for expanding the alliance's role in Afghanistan and for the creation of the NATO rapid response force. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Al Pessin will be traveling with the secretary and filed this report on what is expected at the meeting.

A senior defense department official who spoke on condition of anonymity says the expansion of NATO operations in Afghanistan to cover the southern part of the country will present more challenges to alliance troops. NATO activity in Afghanistan has been in the north and west, where the situation is relatively quiet, and troops have focused on stability and nation-building operations. But the south has had increased insurgent activity in recent months, and the official who spoke Tuesday said the NATO troops will have to deal with that.

The deployment will add 6,000 troops to the 9,000 NATO already has in Afghanistan. It was delayed by internal political debate in the Netherlands, which will provide a substantial part of the new force, but that dispute has now been resolved.

The senior U.S. official says the NATO mission in Afghanistan must succeed in order to prove that the organization's reforms are succeeding. The official says reform will also be an important topic of discussion at the meeting in Italy, including the need for the 26 NATO members to make their forces available to the alliance without too many restrictions attached. The official says progress has been made in that regard, but more needs to be done, and more members need to be convinced that NATO's mission of providing security for Europe requires more operations outside of the continent.

In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations committee Tuesday, the NATO commander, U.S. Marine General James Jones, called for the same thing. "My feeling is, we're moving in the right direction. We need to accelerate it but, generally, this is a new concept. And I think we have two kinds of transformation in the alliance, one physical and the other cultural. What do you do with the forces you have? What is NATO willing to do with it? Are we really willing to be a pro-active alliance, which I think is really the destiny of our future operations," he said.

General Jones said NATO has made important progress in developing creative command structures and rules for participation in missions. The new procedures are designed to enable the organization to take on new missions like the one in Afghanistan, and operate effectively, while still enabling members to have some say over their own roles.

The other senior defense official, who spoke anonymously, said that is true for the new NATO rapid response force. The official says the force will have a major exercise in West Africa in June, and is supposed to be declared operational in October. But the official says NATO members have committed only about 80 per cent of the troops needed for the force, and Secretary Rumsfeld will be pressing for more commitments at this week's meeting.

The official says the Italy meeting will also include a session with the Russian defense minister, and another one with defense ministers from the seven members of NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue group.

In the Russia meeting, the official says the main issues will be the sharing of radar information, strategy for fighting the drug trade in Central Asia and Afghanistan and concern over Russia's recent withholding of natural gas supplies from Ukraine in a political dispute.

The official says Russia and three of the Dialogue countries will participate for the first time later this year in a NATO counter-terrorism naval operation in the Mediterranean. The three regional countries will be Morocco, Algeria and Israel, representing what the official called a "not insignificant" moment of cooperation between Israel and the two Arab countries.

Afghanistan: NATO Troops Apply 'Robust' New Rules Of Engagement

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - NATO forces being deployed across Afghanistan as part of the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are operating under new rules. The "rules of engagement" approved recently by the alliance are said to be "more robust" than in the past -- allowing NATO troops to take preemptive action against perceived threats. Those rules were quickly put to the test today amid violent protests over newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

PRAGUE, 7 February 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Reports from Maymana in northwestern Afghanistan suggest that four people were killed today when hundreds of demonstrators stormed the gates of a Norwegian military facility there. There were conflicting reports about who was responsible for the casualties.

Reuters reported that Afghan police fired on the crowd. Mohammad Latiff, the governor of Faryab Province, said the Norwegian soldiers began shooting after some demonstrators fired guns and threw hand grenades. Some correspondents reported that injuries were caused by the demonstrators.

Norwegian defense officials in Oslo were quoted as saying that their troops fired teargas and rubber bullets at the crowd and then called for support from two Dutch F-16 fighter jets that flew over the crowd and fired two warning shots. NATO officials also said they had sent an undisclosed number of British troops to reinforce the facility. Meanwhile, the United Nations has ordered an evacuation of all nonessential staff from the Maymana.\

Ian Kemp, an independent London-based defense analyst, says this case provides a good illustration of the new rules of engagement approved for NATO troops in Afghanistan.

"Rules of engagement are applied in any operation," Kemp says. "And they describe the situation in which the security forces can use lethal force either to defend their lives, or the lives of colleagues, or the lives of civilians."

NATO spokesman James Appathurai tells RFE/RL that the rules of engagement apply to all of the UN-mandated ISAF troops in Afghanistan -- not just the NATO soldiers being sent to the south, where fighting against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban continues.

"In essence, these expanded or updated rules of engagement make it clear to ISAF forces what they can do when they encounter challenges to their safety or their mission," Appathurai says. "And they make it very clear that ISAF forces will not be sent with one arm tied behind their backs. They can engage to defend their mission [and] to defend themselves. If that means they see a threat looming in the hills, they do not have to wait to be attacked [and] to take casualties. They can take action to defend themselves -- including, if necessary, preemptively."

Military analysts say the rules could have allowed the Norwegian troops to fire earlier than they reportedly did -- before the protesters began using weapons.

Kemp tells RFE/RL that NATO's rules of engagement could be interpreted even more broadly -- for example, allowing ISAF troops at a checkpoint to shoot a car that is speeding toward them.

"The NATO forces are going to be allowed to fire when they feel they are going to come under attack. And generally speaking, this means that the attackers need to be identified with some form of weapon -- either rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, Molotov cocktails," Kemp says. "This is where it comes into a question of interpretation. Certainly, a vehicle being driven at speed at soldiers at a checkpoint is often felt to be a life-threatening situation in which soldiers could use lethal With Afghan Government

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has asked soldiers from both the U.S.-led antiterrorism coalition and the NATO-led ISAF mission stop searching homes of ordinary Afghans without prior approval from the government in Kabul.

The United States has rejected that request for Operation Enduring Freedom. But spokesman Appathurai says NATO troops will only conduct such search operations under extraordinary circumstances.

"ISAF, the NATO-led mission, will not be engaged in search and destroy missions for terrorist leaders as a principle mission," Appathurai says. "That is Operation Enduring Freedom's job. They are hunting terrorist leadership and terrorists. Operation Enduring has its own rules of engagement. They are quite broad, of course. Where ISAF may encounter insurgents who might impede them from carrying out their mission, then they can take action."

Appathurai stresses that ISAF's mission is to support the Afghan government. He says support includes help to train the fledgling Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police. He says NATO troops also could be embedded into Afghan security forces as part of the training effort.

NATO also has a clear mandate to help the Afghan government with counternarcotics operations -- including the transport of Afghan anti-drug police across the country.

Appathurai says most of the 6,000 NATO troops being deployed into southern Afghanistan this year will protect and support Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Those are joint military-civilian teams that carry out security patrols, work on reconstruction projects, and can even broker political arrangements between warring militia factions.

Afghan avalanches kill 19 villagers

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Avalanches swept away 10 homes in     Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains, killing 19 people, most of them children, a provincial official said on Wednesday.

The avalanches struck in remote parts of Sar-i-Pul province on Monday and Tuesday after heavy snow over the weekend, said the province's governor, Sayed Iqbal Munib. "Nineteen people have died and nine were injured," he told Reuters.

Last month, about 20 people were killed in avalanches in Badakshan province, in the northeast. NATO-led peacekeepers have airlifted emergency supplies into the mountainous area.

India sends police to guard workers in Afghanistan – Reuters - 8 February 2006

The government official said about 40 armed police from the Indo-Tibetan

Border Police were already in Afghanistan, mainly to guard the Indian mission in Kabul and its consulates around the country.

The extra police were being sent to guard Indian engineers and support staff working on various development projects, especially a key highway project, around the war-torn country.

"It has been decided to upgrade the level to about 250 in the coming weeks," the government official said.

In the latest violence, a roadside blast killed a Turk, an Indian and their

Afghan driver in the west of Afghanistan on Tuesday, a provincial governor

said. The victims were working on a road construction project in Farah province, said the governor, Izatullah Wasifi.

Last November, Indian engineer Maniyappan Raman Kutty was kidnapped and

beheaded by the Taliban militia, who want the withdrawal of all Indian

workers from Afghanistan.

Pak, Afghanistan ink agreement on construction of science block at Nangarhar University - (Pak Tribune)

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will construct a science block in Nangarhar university in Jalalabad with the cost of Rs 256.5 million and the agreement between Planning commission and NLC has been signed in this regard.

NLC commander brigadier Zulfiqar Hussain and deputy chief planning commission Irfan Qureshi signed on the agreement here on Tuesday. The project will be executed by NLC.

Earlier Pakistan had signed two agreements including the project of Allama Iqbal faculty of Arts in the city of Jalalabad that will be completed with the cost of Rs 411 million.

Pakistan in an other project will construct kidney center worth Rs 395 million and two other projects are under negotiating process between the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Pakistan will undertake the project of Lungs center in Mazar Sharif whose cost has been estimated to the tune of Rs 240 million, design is being finalized to establish general hospital in Kabul, and it will be finalized soon. The cost of project has been estimated amounting to Rs 1.2 billion.

Opium farmers seek MPs' support - BBC News, 6 February 2006

Afghan farmers are warning Britain that plans to destroy their opium crops could ruin livelihoods. An extra 3,300 UK troops are heading to Helmand province as part of a Nato-led force to help boost security and combat trafficking in drugs.

Despite international efforts, the opium trade still makes up about a third of Afghanistan's economy. The farmers, who met MPs at the House of Commons, want opium production to be licensed for use in medicines.

Labour MP Chris Mullin, a former Foreign Office minister, is among those backing a proposal from the Senlis Council, an international drug policy think tank.

It suggests a system that would see farmers sell their crops for use in painkillers such as morphine and codeine. A similar form of licensing is used in India and Turkey.

Afghanistan still supplies almost 90% of the world's opium. The international community set up drug eradication programmes in Afghanistan after the Taleban were ousted in 2001.

And Defence Secretary John Reid has said the presence of more British troops will allow aid workers to help opium growers develop new areas of income. But opium farmers said on Monday they were facing ruin.

"We want the British people to understand that we are very poor people and if our crops are destroyed we will be ruined," explained one farmer, Akramullah Said, after the meeting in London.

"We are frightened about our future and our children's lives. If our crops are destroyed we cannot feed our children. "Surely there must be an alternative to this that can be found."

India energy minister says New Delhi committed to Iran pipeline

New Delhi (AFP) - India's new oil minister reiterated New Delhi's commitment to a multi-billion-dollar natural gas pipeline from Iran and said talks with Pakistan on the project would resume next week.

"Pakistan's oil minister (Amanullah Khan Jadoon) is visiting us February 17 and I will welcome him," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said, adding talks during his trip would focus on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project. "We are committed to making the project happen as we need the gas from Iran and we will continue to pursue the pipeline project," he told reporters.

Deora was named petroleum minister in a cabinet shuffle earlier this month, replacing Mani Shankar Aiyar, who media reports said had ruffled US feathers with his vocal championing of the pipeline to which Washington is opposed. Analysts had suggested Deora, who is regarded as having close ties with Washington, might be less outspoken in his support of the pipeline.

Washington, which accuses Iran of seeking to build a nuclear bomb and being a state sponsor of terrorism, has said it is "absolutely opposed" to the seven-billion-dollar trans-Afghan project.

Deora's statement came after the United States won approval last Saturday from the International Atomic Energy Agency to report Iran over its nuclear programme to the Security Council which could eventually impose sanctions. Deora said the technical-level talks on the 2,600-kilometre (1,600-mile) pipeline from Iran's Pars field would be comprehensive.

"The agenda of the talks would be project structure, framework agreement, technical and legal issues and political insurance of the pipeline. We are sincere and keen that the project comes through," he said.

The project would help overcome the nation's chronic fuel shortage. "There are hurdles but we are committed," Deora said.

India plans to initially draw 60 million cubic metres (78 million cubic yards) of gas from the pipeline and increase the quantity to 90 million cubic metres within two to three years. Pakistan has estimated its initial demand at 30 million cubic metres which would double by 2013.

The pipeline talks come at a delicate time as India is seeking to cement a nuclear co-operation agreement with the US that would see Washington assist India with a civilian nuclear energy programme.

New Delhi, which is seeking new sources of fuel to feed its booming economy, has been denied access to nuclear technology for over two decades since testing a nuclear weapon and refusing to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

India's hopes of importing gas piped across Pakistan gained ground after the nuclear-armed rivals, who have fought three wars, began a peace process in 2004.

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