In this bulletin:

• Suicide bomber kills at least 11 in Kabul bus attack
• Taliban execute 15-year-old accused as spy
• Afghan man dies, child hurt after Canadian shooting
• US backs Karzai's offer to talk to Taliban
• Taliban leader to remain on UN blacklist
• India expresses concern over growing influence of Taliban
• Afghan FM meets Indian National Security Advisor
• Bernier calls for UN special envoy to Afghanistan
• Afghanistan: Karzai Tests Waters With New Peace Overture To Taliban
• Taliban split by offer of peace talks from Karzai
• Canada pushing for UN envoy to Afghanistan
• Norwegian troops in northern Afghanistan targeted by 2 bombs, no injuries
• Taliban, Al-Qaeda 'wanted' as scores killed in Afghanistan
• Karzais US visit a success: Afghan ambassador
• US focuses on provision of opportunities for Afghan women
• ADB okays 176 mln usd grant to complete construction of Afghanistan's Ring Road
• Afghan women get education, still threatened with violence from Taliban
• Al-Qaeda wants a part of Afghan talks
• Suicide bomber in burqa kills 16 in Pakistan
• Musharraf appoints successor as army chief

Suicide bomber kills at least 11 in Kabul bus attack

Reuters - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - KABUL: A suicide bomber blew himself up alongside a bus in Kabul on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people, including police officers and civilians, Afghan officials said. It was the second such attack in the capital in four days.

The front of the bus was blown apart by the blast at the start of the morning rush hour on a narrow road in a shopping district in the city's western outskirts.

Shop windows were shattered, and there were body parts and blood on the ground. A police officer at the scene said that women were among the dead and that he had picked up the bodies of a number of children.

"The report we have indicates that so far 12 police have been killed and 15 wounded," said a police official who declined to be named.

The Interior Ministry later said that 11 people - six police officers and five civilians, three of them children - had been killed.

The police had noticed the bomber as he tried to board the bus, the ministry said in a statement. He was shot and detonated his explosives outside the bus, it said.

A Taliban spokesman said the radical Islamic movement, which is fighting to topple the government and drive Western troops out of Afghanistan, was behind the attack.

"They are criminals," Health Minister Mohammad Amin Fatemi told reporters at the site. "They don't have any respect for humanity. Islam is totally against suicide. Islam is against the killing of human beings like this."

The Kabul head of criminal investigations said the police were still investigating casualty figures.

"I can't say anything at the moment, there are civilian casualties but we don't know for sure how many," General Ali Shah Paktiawal said. Ambulances rushed to the scene which was cordoned off by the police.

"I was walking down the road when I saw a big explosion," said Ajmal Shinwari, a witness. "I saw about 20 to 25 people dead on the bus."

At the hospital, Gul Haidar tried to get news of his nephew, who was missing after the blast. His sister-in-law, a policewoman and her child were killed in the attack.

Government workers often take their children with them to their offices and leave them in ministry care centers. In the worst suicide attack so far in Kabul, 28 soldiers and two civilians were killed in a similar attack on a bus on Saturday.

The past 20 months in Afghanistan has been the bloodiest period since U.S.-led coalition troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001. Some 8,000 people have been killed.

The latest victim was a soldier from the U.S.-led coalition force who was killed by small arms fire on Tuesday in the eastern province of Kunar, the U.S. military said in a statement. Three more soldiers from the force were wounded, it added.

Taliban execute 15-year-old accused as spy

IHT- Monday, October 1, 2007, Afghanistan: Taliban insurgents in the southern province of Helmand kidnapped a 15-year-old key maker, accused him of being a spy for the Afghan and foreign authorities, beat him severely, then hanged him from an electrical utility pole, Afghan officials said Monday.

In a final insult, the fighters took five $1 bills they had found in the boy's pocket and stuffed them into his mouth, the officials said. Dollars are commonly used in Afghanistan as a parallel currency to the afghani.

The attackers left a note with the body warning that if anyone else was caught spying, the person would suffer the same treatment, said Wali Muhammad, the police chief of Sangin, a district in Helmand where the killing occurred Sunday night.

Muhammad said relatives of the boy retrieved the body Monday morning and told the police that he had been falsely accused. "He was a poor boy working for his family," said Izatullah Mujahid, the top civilian administrator in Sangin. "He was not working for any organization."

The boy's relatives told Mujahid that the boy was on his way home from work in the Sangin bazaar when he was abducted and killed. The Taliban, which effectively controls parts of Helmand Province, has periodically used hanging as a tactic to terrorize the local population into cooperating with its fighters.

A new U.S. "most wanted" campaign is offering up to $200,000 for information on a dozen Taliban and Qaeda leaders held responsible for bombings and suicide attacks in Afghanistan, The Associated Press reported from Bagram, Afghanistan.

Posters and billboards are to go up around eastern Afghanistan with their names and pictures. Rewards ranging from $20,000 to $200,000 are available for information leading to their capture.

Afghan man dies, child hurt after Canadian shooting

Last Updated: Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - CBC News

An Afghan civilian riding a motorcycle was killed by Canadian gunfire Tuesday morning in Kandahar City and a child was hurt in the same incident, military officials said.

The shooting occurred during a resupply mission in the Afghan capital when a local man riding a motorcycle with a young boy as a passenger drove up to a Canadian armoured convoy.

Either because of a weapons malfunction or an accidental discharge, the Canadian gunshots killed the 35-year-old Afghan man, Canadian military officials said. The eight-year-old boy was injured.

Soldiers immediately administered medical aid and rushed both victims to a local hospital, where the adult was pronounced dead, officials said.

Military spokesman Wing Cmdr. Antony McCord told the Canadian Press that military police are investigating the incident, but that it was not triggered by any enemy action or threat.

The NATO military mission in Afghanistan has been subject to criticism as the number of civilian casualties at the hands of foreign troops has risen.

Tuesday's killing happened only hours after a suicide bomber set off a blast in Kabul, targeting Afghan police riding in a bus. At least a dozen officers were killed in the attack — the second such incident in four days.

Although police recognized the attacker beforehand, they could not stop him from detonating his explosives near the front of the bus, Deputy Chief Zalmay Khan told the Associated Press.

On Saturday in Kabul, another suicide attacker who disguised himself in a police officer's uniform blew himself up next to a police bus, killing 30 people.

US backs Karzai's offer to talk to Taliban

BERLIN (AFP) — The United States backs Kabul's offer to hold peace talks with the Taliban but believes negotiations with the radical "hard core" in Afghanistan would be hopeless, a senior US official said Tuesday.

The deputy head of the European and Eurasian Affairs office at the State Department, Kurt Volker, said Washington welcomed President Hamid Karzai's bid to sit down with radical Afghan groups, as long as they rejected violence.

"Those who formerly were fighters who want to return to society ought to be able to do so," Volker told reporters during a visit to Berlin.

"I think for the government of Afghanistan and President Karzai to want to reach out and work with people who renounce violence, who want to support the central government, who will support human rights, who will build peace and security and development in the country -- that's reconciliation, that's an important thing for the Afghan government to do and we support that."

But he warned against lowering the bar for an invitation to the negotiating table.

"There is a hard core in Afghanistan, people who don't believe in those things, people who don't want to see Afghanistan succeed, people who don't believe in human rights, who want to reimpose a very dark regime on Afghanistan and they are willing to use brutal, violence means to do that," he said.

"You can't negotiate with that kind of person -- they're aimed at a physical destruction of the country."

Karzai on Saturday made a direct offer of talks with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and radical warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, both of whom are wanted by Washington, even holding out the prospect of government posts if they gave up violence.

Both have rejected talks as long as there are foreign troops in Afghanistan. There are currently about 50,000, mainly Western soldiers in the country. The insurgency has claimed around 5,000 lives so far this year, most of them rebels, compared with about 4,000 last year.

The Taliban launched their uprising after regrouping following their ouster from government in late 2001 in a US-led invasion.

Volker said other countries serving in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force including Germany needed to do their share to avoid seeing the country slide further into extremism and violence.

"Within NATO and within the international community more broadly, there are some countries that are bearing a very hard load, like the Dutch, like the Canadians, like the Australians and others.

"They want to feel a sense of solidarity -- that there are other countries that support them, that work with them, that will come in to help them if they get into trouble, that will share some of that burden."

Germany has resisted pressure within NATO to send any of its 3,000 troops to troubled southern Afghanistan where US-led forces are fighting insurgents. Berlin has kept its contingent in the relatively calmer north and opted to focus on training security forces and rebuilding infrastructure.

Taliban leader to remain on UN blacklist

October 1, 2007 - KABUL (AFP) - Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and other top insurgents will likely remain on a UN "blacklist" even if they join peace talks proposed by President Hamid Karzai, the world body said Monday.

Karzai on Saturday made a direct offer of talks with Omar and radical warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, both of whom are wanted by the United States, even saying he would give them government posts if they gave up violence.

The Taliban and Hekmatyar have both rejected talks as long as there are international troops in Afghanistan. Karzai has refused demands that the troops leave before negotiations can take place.

However, the latest development has renewed interest in the chances of peace negotiations. "If talks bring peace, then we of course welcome that," United Nations spokesman in Afghanistan Adrian Edwards told reporters in Kabul.

"However, there are certain things that are not negotiable. The constitution is not up for discussion, nor is deviating from our duties under UN Security Council resolution 1267 on measures to do with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda," he said.

The resolution includes the UN Security Council's "Consolidated List," which establishes travel, arms and other sanctions against Taliban and Al-Qaeda individuals and groups. "No, I don't think they will be taken off the blacklist," Edwards said.

Omar and Hekmatyar are wanted by the United States as "terrorists" and carry multi-million-dollar rewards on their heads.

Their groups work alongside each other -- but apparently not in cooperation -- attacking mainly international and government targets as part of an insurgency launched after the Taliban government was toppled in late 2001.

India expresses concern over growing influence of Taliban

The Times of India- October 1, 2007 - NEW DELHI: India has expressed concern over the growing influence of Taliban militia and said it could "seriously jeopardise" the process of democratisation in Afghanistan.

"In a large number of southern districts of Afghanistan, the Taliban had regrouped themselves," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told TimesNow television channel.

He said the militia had established training camps along the southern border of Afghanistan which were being used as launching pads to push infiltrators across the border.

"The number of incidents of suicide attacks, the number of killings, number of violent incidents all have increased in the last few months," he said.

"So, it is a real danger that if Taliban is not put in check ... the process of democratisation which is going on in Afghanistan would be seriously jeopardised," Mukherjee said.

The minister said that a high level meeting chaired by Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon recognised the need for involvement of Pakistan to check infiltration from these porous borders and also cooperate with the international community to check Taliban.

Mukherjee said Karzai would require support and massive assistance for development of Afghanistan.

Afghan FM meets Indian National Security Advisor

Posted On MFA site: Sep 30, 2007

Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Dr. Spanta received visiting Indian National Security Advisor Mr.  M. K. Narayanan. The two exchanged views on latest developments in Afghan-Indian bilateral relations and also other issues of mutual interest and concern. Dr. Spanta expressed his satisfaction on the growing relations between the two countries and reiterated Afghanistan’s desire and determination to strengthen its relations with the Republic of India.

On his part, Indian National Security Advisor congratulated Afghanistan for its outstanding achievements in its efforts to overcome the legacies of three decades of wars and conflicts and reiterated India’s long-term commitment to Afghanistan’s peace, stability and prosperity.

Bernier calls for UN special envoy to Afghanistan

Updated Tue. Oct. 2 2007 11:43 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff

In his debut at the United Nations, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier urged member states to bolster their commitment to Afghanistan and called for the creation of a high level UN special envoy to the nation.

Bernier said Canada's vision is for an envoy who would help:

• raise awareness of NATO's work in the troubled nation;
• provide support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai;
• and help coordinate development and security efforts in the country.

Bernier didn't go into details, but he has reportedly already discussed the idea with representatives from several other countries and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Norway, France, Spain and the United States already back the initiative.

Bernier also touted Canada's efforts in Afghanistan, but warned those advances could easily be undone if UN nations don't step up. He said the reconstruction of Afghanistan depends on security, which in turn hinges on international support for the work.

"The challenge is great but the principles we defend are even greater," Bernier said.

"There can be no possible reconstruction without security: Democracy and political stability can not develop within a climate of terror. No health service or education can be provided where anarchy prevails. It's impossible to contribute to economic development where there is only chaos. Security is the crucial pillar on which everything rests."

Bernier said Canada's commitment to Afghanistan is based on the country's values of freedom, human rights, the rule of law and democracy.

"These values are the very core of our presence in Afghanistan, Haiti, Sudan and elsewhere," Bernier said, noting that Canada has increased its development projects, diplomatic presence and military engagement, all in the past year.

Bernier was appointed foreign minister in a cabinet shuffle in August.

Afghanistan: Karzai Tests Waters With New Peace Overture To Taliban

By Farangis Najibullah –

October 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- A spokesman for Taliban militants has publicly rejected Afghan President Hamid Karzai's latest offer of peace talks, saying foreign troops must first leave the country. But presidential sources insist that a growing number of militants would welcome negotiations to allow a return to the relative peace and comfort of family life.

Karzai had said on September 29 that he was ready to give militants a position in the government in exchange for peace. Taliban spokesman Qari Yosuf Ahmadi responded to the president's overture with a reiteration that there can be no such talks until U.S. and NATO troops leave Afghanistan.

But Karzai spokesman Humayun Hamidzada said the spokesman's position is not shared by all Taliban militants. Hamidzada told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that a significant number of those fighters do not rule out laying down their weapons and being included in peace talks.

"The information we have received from tribal elders indicates that different groups operating inside Afghanistan under the Taliban name are discussing this issue seriously," Hamidzada said. "In this case, we don't expect huge developments in the very near future, but we hope that those who want peace and stability in Afghanistan will come step by step to join the ongoing peaceful process."

President Karzai has set at least two preconditions for peace talks. He has said he would negotiate only with Afghan Taliban -- not with foreign fighters -- and he has ruled out including militants with links to Al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups.

Karzai has also said he would personally go and talk to fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar if he knew his whereabouts or "his phone number."

There was no response from Mullah Omar -- who is among the most-wanted men by U.S. authorities, with a multimillion-dollar bounty on his head. There has been no official U.S. reaction to reports of Karzai's peace offer.

Tim Foxley is a guest researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. In comments to RFE/RL, Foxley speculates that the president's willingness to engage extremist leaders like Mullah Omar will not be welcomed by his Western supporters -- particularly the United States.

"These are not people that, certainly, the American government would have any interest in talking to," Foxley says. "So I think it would risk making a split between Karzai and his Western allies."

Some of Karzai's other international supporters appear to have accepted the Taliban presence as a harsh reality, and indicated their willingness to back Karzai's diplomacy with them.

British Foreign Minister Des Browne has suggested that the Taliban will have to be involved in the country's peace process. Browne said the Taliban "are not going away more than I suspect Hamas are going away from Palestine."

Hamidzada said that during Karzai's trip to the UN General Assembly in New York last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and representatives of many countries sought a comprehensive strategy -- involving both military and diplomatic components -- in dealing with the Taliban.

Foxley says that -- in theory -- talking to moderate Taliban and separating them from hard-core fundamentalists and Al-Qaeda supporters would weaken the insurgency.

But he acknowledges that it is not easy to identify "moderate Taliban" and find their partner for discussion. Even Karzai has suggested that his government has had trouble finding a proper channel of communication with the Taliban.

"We are ready to negotiate to bring peace [to] this country," Karzai said. "Continuation of the war, explosions, and suicide attacks should be stopped in any way possible. There were some contacts with [Taliban] in the past. But there is no specific, clear-cut line of communication -- I mean, there is no official place for communication with the Taliban. I wish there were such a place."

So as Karzai sends out trial balloons for peace talks, the question remains as to how authorities will verify the authenticity -- and firmness -- of the responses.

Taliban split by offer of peace talks from Karzai

GRAEME SMITH - From Monday's Globe and Mail September 30, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Taliban were struggling for agreement among their leadership yesterday, after Hamid Karzai made his most brazen offer yet for negotiations with the insurgents.

Returning from meetings at the United Nations, the Afghan President suggested this weekend that he would like to meet with insurgent leaders and personally offer them spots in government.

His words were initially greeted with skepticism by the Taliban, who pointed out the first of many logistical hurdles: The United States still considers the top Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, one of the world's most-wanted terrorists.

“It's a joke,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told Reuters early yesterday. But the insurgents' spokesman sounded less confident about dismissing the idea of negotiations hours later, when contacted by The Globe and Mail.

“My bosses have not decided on a policy about this,” Mr. Ahmadi said by telephone from an undisclosed location. “They will think about it, and when the Taliban has a decision, I will call you right away.”

The fact that the Taliban's main spokesman could shift his position on such a crucial matter so quickly is an indicator of a larger conflict within the insurgent ranks about the idea of negotiations.

A member of the Taliban's ruling council recently told one of his guests in Quetta, Pakistan, that the council is divided about how to respond to Mr. Karzai's increasingly urgent calls for talks. A majority of senior Taliban oppose negotiations, the council member said, but they're having difficulty persuading the minority.

Gauging the attitudes of Taliban leaders is notoriously difficult, not least because the precise membership of the insurgents' council, or shura, isn't publicly known. One notorious member, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, the Taliban's former defence minister, was declared captured by Pakistani forces in March, but his name is still mentioned as a participant in the Taliban's top decision-making group. He is rumoured to favour negotiations.

Similarly, Afghan military officials announced the death of insurgent leader Mullah Berader, also known as Mullah Abdul Ghani, in Helmand province last month, but his name has surfaced as another player in the discussions.

A Taliban leader whose death is not disputed, Mullah Dadullah, also figures into the negotiation talks because his absence is so powerfully felt; described by Western analysts as a sadist, the aggressive Mr. Dadullah stood as a major obstacle to any negotiations until he was killed in May.

Even now, the publicly declared positions of the Afghan government and the insurgents leave the impression that Mr. Karzai does not have much to discuss with Mr. Omar. Spokesmen for the Taliban and their allied militias have repeatedly said that the insurgents demand the withdrawal of foreign soldiers as a condition for talks.

Mr. Karzai has predicted that pulling back the international troops would plunge his country into the darkest days Afghanistan has witnessed since the civil wars of the early 1990s, in which tens of thousands of people died.

The Afghan President has also stood firm against the other demand often cited by the insurgents, who call for a hazily defined rewrite of the country's constitution to make the document more strictly Islamist.

Still, Mr. Karzai appears to sense political gain in pressing an issue that divides the insurgents. “There is serious debate within their ranks,” Mr. Karzai's spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, told the Associated Press. “But this is a process that takes time.”

Canada pushing for UN envoy to Afghanistan

Updated Mon. Oct. 1 2007 The Canadian Press

WASHINGTON -- Canada wants the United Nations to appoint a high-level envoy to Afghanistan to raise awareness of the war and better co-ordinate stabilization efforts there.

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxine Bernier plans to make his pitch Tuesday in his first-ever speech to the UN General Assembly.

Bernier, who has already discussed the idea with representatives from several countries and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, says the envoy's role should be modelled on Tony Blair's work in the Middle East.

Blair has been concentrating on Mideast peace efforts since stepping down as Britain's prime minister earlier this year.

Canada has 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, most battling insurgents in war-torn Kandahar province. Seventy-one Canadian soldiers have died since Ottawa began its Afghan mission in 2002.

Bernier is also expected to raise several other issues in his speech, including Haiti and a UN resolution to toughen sanctions against Iran.

Norwegian troops in northern Afghanistan targeted by 2 bombs, no injuries

The Associated Press - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - OSLO, Norway: Two bombs exploded Tuesday, targeting Norwegian peacekeepers in northern Afghanistan, but no one was injured, the military said.

The roadside bombs — the second going off about two hours after the first — damaged two vehicles in the northern city of Maymana, where troops with the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, have a large operation under way, the Norwegian Joint Headquarters said.

"This incident shows the need for ISAF in northern Afghanistan," said Vice Admiral Jan Reksten, of the Norwegian headquarters.

The bombs went off about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from one another near the border of the Badghis and Faryab provinces — an area seldom visited by ISAF forces, the military said. The first bomb left a Norwegian vehicle damaged but still drivable, while the second bomb destroyed another vehicle, he said.

Reksten said there had been increased unrest in the area, including sporadic shooting on Sept. 26, and a Sept. 25 attack with explosives and handguns against 100 Afghan policemen, backed by Norwegian and Latvian troops. That incident left several Afghan officers dead.

Taliban, Al-Qaeda 'wanted' as scores killed in Afghanistan

Kabul (AFP) - The US military is planning a "wanted" poster campaign in the hope of reeling in key figures behind deteriorating security in Afghanistan which has claimed dozens more lives, officials said Monday.

Three of the dead were children, one a 15-year-old whom an Afghan official said was hanged by Taliban after a five-dollar note was found on him. Five Afghans working with the international community were meanwhile kidnapped.

The posters and billboards, offering between 20,000 and 200,000 dollars for the capture of a dozen "wanted" Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters, will be put up in eastern Afghanistan, US Sergeant Dean Welch told AFP.

"It is a campaign to put some people in the public view in the hope that maybe we can break up some mid-level Taliban cells," said Welch from the media office of the US-led coalition at Bagram, north of Kabul.

The east, along with the south, sees the worst of an insurgency led by the extremist Taliban movement which was in government between 1996 and 2001.

With insurgency violence at its highest, Afghanistan and its international allies are debating talks with the rebels to end the killing which has already left 5,000 people dead this year, most of them rebels.

The United Nations in Kabul said Monday it would support peace talks with insurgent leaders -- some of whom the United States has labelled "terrorists" -- but this did not mean they would be removed from a UN "blacklist."

The UN Security Council's "Consolidated List" establishes travel, arms and other sanctions against 142 Taliban-linked individuals, including Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The teenage boy was hanged in the southern province of Helmand, one of the strongholds of the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents, and a US bill stuffed into his mouth, an official said.

"Taliban simply hanged him because they found a five-dollar note in his pocket," Sangin district governor Mohammad Wali told AFP. "They said the boy was spying for foreign troops. But he was neither spying for foreign troops nor for us. He was just a kid."

The rebels also shot dead an elderly man from Sangin who had asked for government help to build a water channel, Wali said. Also on Sunday, a man was beheaded in the eastern border province of Paktika, provincial police chief Farouq Sangari said, also blaming Taliban fighters.

Two children were killed and five wounded in the eastern province of Khost after playing a toy car that was really a bomb, provincial spokesman Wazir Padshah Mangal said.

He said authorities suspected the bomb may have been planted by insurgents because "the father of the kids is working for the government."

At least eight policemen were meanwhile killed in intense fighting with Taliban insurgents in the southern province of Ghazni that started late Sunday and continued into early Monday, provincial police chief Alishah Ahmadzai said.

In Helmand, US-led coalition troops along with Afghan forces killed more than 20 Taliban rebels in an early morning raid on a suspected rebel hideout. Two more were killed in Zabul province and seven captured, the coalition said.

In adjoining Uruzgan province, soldiers were ambushed by more than 30 insurgents Monday and repelled the attack with return fire and air strikes, killing "numerous insurgents," a coalition statement said.

Separately, two Afghans working for a Danish non-governmental organisation was kidnapped Sunday in Logar, adjoining Kabul. A Bangladishi development worker was abducted in the same area September 15.

Three Afghan drivers of trucks supplying foreign military bases were kidnapped Monday in Wardak, also near Kabul, according to officials. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Karzais US visit a success: Afghan ambassador

NEW YORK, Sept 30 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan Ambassador to US Said T. Jawed has hailed as a success the just-concluded visit of President Hamid Karzai.

During the trip, not only did the president address the UN General Assembly and co-chair a high-level UN meeting on Afghanistan but also held crucial discussions with a number of world leaders.

His (Karzais) participation as a panelist in the Clinton Global Initiative (meeting) in the presence of more than 40 (present and past) heads of state only reflected his standing in the world community, Jawed told Pajhwok Afghan News in an interview.

The panel discussion was moderated by the former US president Bill Clinton. Among other key panelists were the Nobel Laureate Bishop Desmund Tutu and former US vice president Al Gore.

Jawed, who accompanied Karzai in the crucial meeting with US President George W. Bush, said a wide range of issues including the reconstruction effort - particularly the energy sector of Afghanistan, exploration of oil and gas as well as the security - were discussed.

Karzai briefed Bush on the Peace Jirga as well as some of the reforms that are underway in Afghanistan to enhance good governance, the ambassador added. Bush has been supportive of the peace jirga idea that was floated at a White House dinner Bush hosted for Karzai and Musharraf more than year ago.

We have been perusing that idea diligently and there is more and more interest on the part of NATO countries, he said. During his stay in New York, Karzai met head of states of a number of countries contributing to the development and progress of Afghanistan.

We have asked our partners in the United States to help us with police reform. President Karzai gave a briefing about some of the changes and reforms that have taken place with regard to the Ministry of Interior, the envoy continued.

Asked about Irans alleged support to Afghan militants, Jawed said the issue did not come up during Karzais meeting with President Bush. Afghanistan would like its partners to focus on our priorities, he added.

A significant portion of our money is going into building the security institutions. President Karzai explicitly asked for more resources for electricity, and energy generation, he concluded. Lalit K. Jha

US focuses on provision of opportunities for Afghan women

NEW YORK, Sept 30 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The United States is working build opportunities, specially for women, in Afghanistan, a senior Bush administration official has said.

Karen Hughes, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs told Pajhwok Afghan News the Bush administration was working to rebuild economic, health and educational opportunities for girls and women in Afghanistan.

Hughes, who has personally been to Afghanistan a number of times, said the country had done remarkable progress over the previous few years, but a lot was yet to be achieved.

"We have actually seen some great success in Afghanistan, which has one of the worst mortality in the world. There has been dramatic progress, still not enough, still a long way to go, but we have seen some great strides in improving health of babies who were born in Afghanistan and improving the

survival rates of the babies," she said.

She said Afghanistan was faced with numerous challenges. Only last week, she said, she had met a group of women entrepreneurs from Afghanistan. The women said that things were improving in the war-battered country, she informed.

Lalit K. Jha

ADB okays 176 mln usd grant to complete construction of Afghanistan's Ring Road

10.02.07, 6:36 AM ET - MUMBAI (Thomson Financial) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it has approved a new 176 mln usd grant to help fund the last remaining section of Afghanistans 'Ring Road' highway, which loops the country and connects its cities.

With the new grant, ADB will have contributed about 600 mln usd to reconstructing roads in Afghanistan.

The international community has already spent about 2 bln usd rebuilding roads and the only section of the 3000 km Ring Roads construction remaining to be funded is a 193 km stretch between the western towns of Bala Murghab and Amalick.

While ADBs grant will finance a 143 km section from Bala Murghab to Leman, the Islamic Development Bank and the Saudi Fund will co-finance the remaining 50 km section from Leman to Amalick. In addition, Afghanistans government is contributing 4 mln usd toward the construction.

Part of the total will also be used for the ongoing refurbishment of another part of the Ring Road, between the northwestern towns of Andkhoy and Qaisar, while some of the funds will be used for general road maintenance elsewhere.

The new Ring Road will link northern Afghanistan with the countrys western region. It will cut travel time between the country's northeast and southwest by 3-5 hours.

This will lead to significantly lower transport costs, not only domestically but also between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, the ADB release stated.

Completion of the Ring Road will allow travellers from the capital, Kabul, wishing to reach the western city of Herat, near the Iranian border, to travel via a northern route rather than through the southern city of Kandahar.

Since resuming operations in Afghanistan in 2001, ADB has approved more than 1 bln usd in assistance.

Afghan women get education, still threatened with violence from Taliban

(AFP ) - KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Sofia Nawabi studies hard and dreams of running her own business one day.

Not so long ago, the 21-year-old Afghan woman couldn't even show her face outside her home, as she does today. To go to school, let alone run a business, was unthinkable under the strict Islamic rule of the Taliban.

The classes are free but in this conservative Islamic province - an insurgent stronghold where the Taliban continue to hold much influence despite being ousted from power in late 2001 - there could well be a price to pay for the women who dare go to school.

Ehsan Ullah is the founder of the centre, which opened in March, and its predecessor the Sherzai Institute, and the recipient of one of the Taliban's notorious "night letters," dropped on the doorstep of the institute.

"We will bleed you," it warned. Teachers have been assassinated and students threatened but Ullah says the doors will remain open.

"We try to keep a low profile but we have not gone underground," he says. "We can't go underground. Here, men and women need education. Education is the only light that can make Afghanistan bright again."

A slight man of powerful words, 36-year-old Ullah blames illiteracy for the troubles that plague the nation.

"The warlords, the drug lords, the extremist elements; they are imposed on us because we are uneducated," he says, slapping his hands together in exasperation. "Education can be the solution to put an end to the killing."

Opened with a private donation from a Canadian citizen and money from Ullah's own pocket, the community centre survives on private donations and matching funds from the Calgary-based CADMUS Foundation. They operate on a shoe-string budget of $3,000 a month and are ever fishing for international funding.

The Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar has donated computer equipment and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology offers online courses via the Internet.

There are English classes for students' children, as well as an Internet cafe for students where they write to Canadian pen pals and find the world at their fingertips.

When students started dropping out because they couldn't afford even the bus fare, Ullah arranged a minibus to pick them up. "Women doctors and nurses and doctor's assistants are terribly needed," Ullah says.

With all the international funding flowing into Afghanistan, he wants the students ready to benefit by having computer and business skills and fluency in English.

The women pay rapt attention to the lessons, burkas draped over the back of their chairs. Although their presence here is proof that much has changed in Afghanistan, it has not changed enough for many.

Nawabi agrees to speak to The Canadian Press on the condition that her face not be shown. "For a woman, it's still really hard," she says. "A lot of families don't allow their girls to go outside."

Over 90 per cent of Afghan women are illiterate and 60 per cent of Afghan men, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Under the Taliban, even boys could only attend Islamic studies at mosques. Today, the Taliban campaign against education continues.

Since 2005, 36 schools have been burned down and 17 teachers killed in Kandahar province alone, according to the Afghan ministry of education. Fourteen schools were torched by insurgents in April and May.

In June, gunmen executed two schoolgirls as they left school in the central Afghan province of Logar. A female passer-by was also killed and four other girls wounded.

More than six million students, 38 per cent of them girls, had been registered for school across the Afghanistan but hundreds of schools have closed because of the threat of violence.

Three hundred schools did not reopen this fall in the volatile southern region alone, including Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces, according to the education ministry.

"In most of the districts, there is no school," Abdul Qadar Noorzai, head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Kandahar province, told The Canadian Press. "Where there are schools, the teachers cannot go there."

It's a problem that should be a priority for the Afghan government, he says.

"If it gets worse, there will be nothing left," Noorzai says. Afghan officials have appealed to local communities to defend the schools in their own communities.

"We do not want to protect schools with guns and military," Siddiq Patman, deputy minister of education, told a local news agency recently. "We want communities to protect their schools, students and teachers."

Nawabi's family would have preferred she go to school in Kabul, a safer city. But the university has only a handful of female students and it is not free.

"Most families can't afford for their daughters to study," she says. For a woman like Nawabi, getting in the door is only one hurdle. Jobs are scarce for women and keeping them dangerous.

Yet when asked what she will do when classes end, a defiant smile raises the edges of Nawabi's lips. "I just want to run my own business," she says.

Al-Qaeda wants a part of Afghan talks
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - While the Taliban and the Afghan administration of President Hamid Karzai play political football with the idea of peace talks, the stumbling block remains al-Qaeda, which is firmly opposed to any dialogue unless it can gain something for itself.

Over the past few weeks, the Taliban have responded positively to Karzai's offer of talks, but just when it appeared there might beprogress, there's a setback.

Speaking on his return from the United States on Saturday, Karzai said that he was ready to meet Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of another insurgency group, Hezb-e-Islami, for peace talks aimed at sharing power.

But on Sunday, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a Taliban spokesman, was quoted by Reuters as saying that peace talks with Kabul would not take place as long as the more than 50,000 foreign troops remained in the country. "The Karzai government is a dummy government. It has no authority so why should we waste our time and effort?" Yousuf was quoted as saying. Previously, the Taliban have said that they would talk without preconditions, and they could well revert to this position.

Coincidentally or not, Karzai made his offer hours after one of the biggest bomb attacks in six years killed 30 people in Kabul.

Karzai said that President George W Bush and Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, had both supported the idea of peace talks when he met them in the US. Karzai said he would allocate some government posts to the Taliban and that both Hekmatyar and Mullah Omar could stand in elections scheduled for 2009, if they wanted power.

Although Karzai has offered talks before, this was the first time since the Taliban's ouster in 2001 that the Washington-anointed leader had gone as far as to effectively legitimize the insurgency.

Recently, several top Taliban commanders met again in the Pakistani city of Quetta to hold talks with the Afghan government through Afghan tribal elders acting as go-betweens.

These talks are claimed by the Karzai government as proof of debate among Taliban commanders for peace. However, what is overlooked is the ideological strength of al-Qaeda, which has once again wrested control of the hearts and minds of the Taliban, at least in southeastern Afghanistan. And until al-Qaeda's leaders are drawn into the talks, any other dialogue is bound to fail.

Mushahid Hussain Syed, chairman of the foreign relations committee of the Pakistani Senate and also the powerful secretary general of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, told Asia Times Online: "Only a year ago when I made the proposal that if Mullah Omar is too hardline to talk too, and the Afghan government should start negotiations with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Afghan government was so upset that it officially protested to Pakistan. But I am happy that now Mr Karzai himself has endorsed the same proposal."

There is a delayed realization in the Western camp that the Taliban are a reflection of Afghanistan's majority Pashtun population and that their brand of Islam in fact blends strongly with conservative Pashtun traditions. Even after the Taliban defeat in 2001 by the US and its allies, that same brand of Islam is reflected in Afghan court decisions and in many other matters dealt with by the present administration.

The upshot is acceptance that the Taliban should be accommodated politically as well, yet the Western coalition still does not have the stomach to talk with al-Qaeda, which is exerting its influence from the Pakistani tribal areas of North Waziristan and South Waziristan.

People forget that the reason Afghanistan was invaded in the first place was because of the sanctuary that the Taliban offered al-Qaeda. The majority of Afghanistan's tribal and clerical councils recommended to expel Osama bin Laden after September 11, 2001, but al-Qaeda's influence prevailed.

The US and Pakistan, as partners in the "war on terror", made numerous efforts to split the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and at times they succeeded. Notably, there was major disagreement on strategies between the Taliban and al-Qaeda in 2006, which led to many al-Qaeda leaders leaving the Waziristans and Afghanistan. And this year, a Pakistani-sponsored massacre was carried out in South Waziristan against Uzbek militants by Pakistani Taliban commander Haji Nazeer. Prominent al-Qaeda commanders were expelled from the area, yet after a few months al-Qaeda had regained its influence and all Pakistan Taliban groups and al-Qaeda members are fighting side-by-side against the Pakistani armed forces.

If the al-Qaeda factor is to be neutralized, the group needs to be engaged, just as attempts are being made to embrace the Taliban. When Prince Turki al-Faisal (now ambassador to the United States) was the Saudi intelligence chief, the kingdom kept its channels of dialogue with al-Qaeda open, even after September 11, by using the Taliban leadership.

And recently, Saudi Arabia made a fresh approach at dialogue with al-Qaeda by sending an envoy to speak with it in North Waziristan. (See Military brains plot Pakistan's downfall Asia Times Online, September 26, 2007.)

These talks did not make too much progress, but al-Qaeda is certainly looking for some kind of "amnesty" for itself. Until this happens, the Taliban's commanders in southwestern Afghanistan might win some breathing space, but there can be no guarantee of any lasting political settlement in the region.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — A suicide bomber disguised in a woman's burqa blew himself up at a busy police checkpost in northwest Pakistan Monday, killing at least 16 people including four policemen, officials said.

The blast happened on the outskirts of Bannu, a key garrison town near Pakistan's troubled tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, where the army is battling Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

It was the latest in a string of deadly attacks in Pakistan since government troops stormed the Al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July, and comes days before President Pervez Musharraf seeks re-election.

"A man disguised in a burqa got out of an autorickshaw when police stopped the vehicle for a search at a checkpoint. He then blew himself up," police officer Asar Islam told AFP.

Examination of remains "confirmed that it was a male suicide bomber" wearing women's clothing, while initial reports of a possible female attacker had been discounted, Bannu police chief Ameer Hamza Mahsud said.

A doctor at the local hospital, Mohammad Usman, also confirmed that the attacker was a man.

Police sources said they had earlier received intelligence that male suicide bombers dressed in all-covering burqas, a common female garment in conservative northwestern Pakistan, would soon launch attacks.

They had beefed up security at all checkpoints and the vehicle carrying the bomber was intercepted as a result, but the attacker blew himself up before they could check it, one source said.

Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said 16 people were killed and 29 were wounded and that authorities were still investigating the blast. Officials said four policemen and four women were among those killed.

Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad confirmed that it was a suicide blast but dismissed earlier witness reports that the bombing targeted a military convoy passing through the town.

Also on Monday in Bannu more than 20 Pakistan troops went missing, feared kidnapped by militants after a gunfight.

Abdul Nawaz Khan, district officer of the Bannu frontier force, said more than 100 militants had surrounded a post and fired rockets and mortar shells. Communication with the troops had then been lost.

In a separate incident Islamic militants shot dead a paramilitary soldier before dawn in North Waziristan, the most conflict-hit of Pakistan's tribal zones, security officials said.

The rebels raided a checkpost in the border town of Datta Khel and fled in darkness after shooting the trooper, apparently using a gun fitted with a silencer, one official said.

Nearly 300 people have died in attacks in Pakistan blamed on Islamic militants, most of them suicide bombings, since the Red Mosque raid. Most of the attacks have targeted Pakistani security forces.

The mosque standoff also coincided with the breakdown of a controversial peace deal between the government and Islamic militants in the tribal belt.

Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden called on Muslims in Pakistan to wage holy war against the government of key US ally Musharraf and his armed forces in a new audio message issued less than two weeks ago.

Musharraf has been under mounting pressure from Washington to tackle militants, especially in the tribal border zones, where US officials have said that Al-Qaeda is regrouping to launch attacks on Western targets.

The president, whose popularity has slumped in recent months, is aiming for re-election for another five-year term in a parliamentary vote on Saturday.

Musharraf appoints successor as army chief

AFP - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Tuesday appointed a former intelligence chief to succeed him as head of the army in a move apparently aimed at ensuring his security if he becomes a civilian leader.

The military said the appointment of Lieutenant General Ashfaq Kiyani, a Musharraf loyalist, would be effective from Monday, two days after his current boss is due to seek re-election as president.

Musharraf, a key US ally in the "war on terror," has said he will step down as head of the powerful army by November 15, provided that he wins another five-year term on Saturday.

"Lieutenant General Ashfaq Kiyani has been appointed the chief of army staff-designate," top military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.

Musharraf has been under growing international and domestic pressure to give up his military role, which he has kept since he grabbed power in a bloodless coup on October 12, 1999.

Opposition grew after Musharraf tried to sack the country's independent-minded chief justice in March, a move that sparked mass protests and growing anger against the army for its interference in politics.

Analysts said Musharraf was keen to appoint a loyalist as his army successor to ensure that he himself does not fall victim to military intervention after stepping down.

Kiyani appears to fit the bill as a former head of the country's premier spy agency, Inter Services Intelligence, or ISI, which is engaged in the hunt for Al-Qaeda militants as well as providing internal security.

The chain-smoking career soldier was replaced in that role on September 21 by Lieutenant General Nadeem Taj in a batch of promotions.

"President Musharraf has made a very correct choice as a successor in Kiyani," retired general-turned-political analyst Talat Masood told AFP. "He will be a healer in the civil-military divide which exists today," Masood said.

"This will also help reduce the uncertainty surrounding Musharraf's announcement to shed his uniform and pacify those forces which were still sceptical that he would retain his army role."

A military statement said he joined the army in 1971 and commanded several infantry units. He is a graduate of Fort Leavenworth military college in the United States, among others.

"Imbued with the qualities of head and heart, the general is perceived to be a purposeful and pragmatic Commander and embodiment of professionalism," the statement said. "Excellence and perfection remain the hallmark of his personality."

The statement said Kiyani was a avid golfer and a keen sportsman, as well as president of the Pakistan Golf Association. He is married and has a son and daughter.

Musharraf announced in September that he would quit the army if he was re-elected and be sworn in as a civilian.

He has until now argued that he needed to be in control of the army to oversee Pakistan's continuing fight against Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels holed up in the country's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Musharraf put Kiyani personally in charge of the investigation after two assassination attempts on his life in December 2003, incidents in which both Al-Qaeda and rogue members of the armed forces were implicated.

In his autobiography, "In the Line of Fire", Musharraf praised Kiyani's ability to get Pakistan's often fractious intelligence agencies to pull together.

"When Kiyani got tough, the problems of coordination disappeared and the agencies started working like a well-oiled machine," Musharraf recalled.

[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.]