Tag: Afternoon Edition

Obama will unveil a political and military gamble aimed at reining in the Taliban insurgency and training the Afghan army in a globally awaited televised speech, after an exhaustive months-long policy review.

While announcing he will pitch 30,000 more troops into the eight-year war, Obama will set a “back-end” for their deployment, to signal the US mission will not be a “decade-long” operation, the official told AFP.

The Vatican joined Muslim leaders in expressing dismay after a referendum on Sunday voted for a constitutional ban on the construction of towers attached to mosques from where the faithful are traditionally called to prayer.

Some 57.5 percent of those who cast ballots supported the measure amid a high turnout by Swiss standards of 53 percent.

The attack occurred late Friday about 400 kilometres (250 miles) northwest of Moscow in a forest where the same train, the Nevsky Express, popular with tourists and commuters, was hit by a similar bomb attack in August 2007.

“We are indeed talking about a terrorist attack,” Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the federal investigative committee, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Investors had “headed for the exit door” after the Dubai government’s investment vehicle Dubai World sought to suspend debt payments for six months, IG Markets analyst Ben Potter said.

The price of oil slumped to a seven-week low point close to 72 dollars and the dollar struck a 14-year low against the yen.

The resignation, announced in parliament by Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg together with that of a senior ministry official, followed press revelations that a military report about the September 4 strike was suppressed.

The news came at an unfortunate time for Chancellor Angela Merkel, as parliament was debating extending the mandate for the German mission in Afghanistan. Even before the air strike it was opposed by a majority of voters.

The White House said Obama would offer to cut US emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 — less than calls by the European Union, Japan and UN scientists but the first numbers on the table by the world’s largest economy.

“The president going to Copenhagen will give positive momentum to the negotiations and we think will enhance the prospects for success,” Carol Browner, Obama’s top aide on climate policy, told reporters.

Police on Mindanao island pulled bullet-riddled bodies from shallow graves after gunmen allegedly hired by a local political chief abducted then shot dead a group of politicians from a rival clan and accompanying journalists.

As thousands of troops fanned out across the ultra-tense Maguindanao province on Mindanao, President Gloria Arroyo declared a state of emergency for the area that would allow curfews and road checkpoints to be imposed.

The official refused to be drawn on what that target would be but indicated that Obama would announce it in the next few days along with a decision on whether he will fly to the Danish capital to give added impetus to proceedings.

Sixty-five leaders, including from Germany, France and Brazil, have already committed to participating in the meeting, which seeks a global treaty on tackling climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

The attacks brought to 35 the number of people killed since Karzai was sworn in for another five years on Thursday, pledging to try to bring peace to the nation and take over security from foreign forces in five years.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck the capital of the southwestern province of Farah, killing 15 people near the governor’s home.

Karzai took the oath of office as the US-led war stretches into a ninth year, leaving record numbers of soldiers and civilians dead and with Taliban control extending deeper into the country after an election mired in fraud.

In a wide-ranging speech, he promised action on the worst problems that preoccupy his Western backers, who are weary after pouring more than 100,000 troops and billions of dollars of aid into Afghanistan with little in return.

The US leader also said Americans should not be “fearful” of the prospect that five men accused of masterminding the September 11, 2001 attacks will go on trial in New York City, a notion that has sparked vocal domestic opposition.

“Guantanamo — we had a specific deadline that was missed,” Obama told US-based NBC television, in one of a flurry of interviews he gave in Beijing as his Asia tour winds down.

TI’s annual corruption index showed how countries devastated by conflict have become overrun by graft with Iraq, Sudan and Myanmar accounting for the three other states in the bottom five of the chart.

The Berlin-based organisation said that countries whose infrastructure had been “torn apart” by conflict needed help from outside to prevent a culture of corruption taking root.