A convoy carrying Afghan President Hamid Karzai's vice presidential running-mate came under attack yesterday in northeastern Afghanistan, the presidential palace and other officials said. It was the third attack on Karzai's supporters ahead of landmark weekend elections.
The vice presidential hopeful, Ahmed Zia Massood, was not injured, said Khalik Ahmed, a spokesman at the palace. But Badakhshan Governor Said Ikramudin Masumi was among those injured. Mutaleb Beg, a local police official, said one person was killed and four others injured.
The convoy was apparently attacked by a roadside bomb or mine, presumably set off by remote control as it passed along a road near Faisabad, the capital of the province, Ahmed said.
The area is not considered a haven for Taliban rebels and had been relatively peaceful in the past. It is, however, a center of Afghanistan's booming opium and heroin trade, with poppy fields dotting the landscape.
Ahmed would not comment on who might be behind the attack, but said they would not succeed in derailing Saturday's vote. He said the governor's injuries were minor.
Ahmed Zia Massood is the brother of slain Northern Alliance commander Ahmed Shah Massood. Karzai selected him as a running-mate over current Vice President and Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, a Tajik faction leader.
Meanwhile, the Afghan government, supported by the US and UK, is to mount an all-out push over the next six months against officials and warlords involved in the drugs trade, according to Afghan and western officials involved in counternarcotics.
It will pit the Afghan government, supported by the US and other NATO forces, against the private armies of warlords who still control much of the country.
Mirwais Yassini, head of counter-narcotics for the transitional Afghan government, said: "The 10-year strategy [75 percent reduction in five years and complete eradication in 10] is too long. You go after the high-value targets and we will do that within the next six months."
The targets would include corrupt ministers and governors in the existing government. Yassini said there could be no political reform or security in Afghanistan without tackling them.
The push comes after US impatience with Britain, which is the lead government on drugs control in the NATO-led force occupying Afghanistan, for failing to reduce drug production over the last three years.
A UN report out at the end of the month or early November will show an increase in land under poppy cultivation rising from 80,000 hectares last year to more than 100,000 this year. Three-quarters of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan and is worth billions.
Production last year was 3,600 tonnes, with Afghan farmers receiving US$100 a kilo.
According to the officials, the drive will see the new president, to be elected on Saturday but widely expected to be a confirmation of the transitional president, Hamid Karzai, begin by cleaning out of his cabinet those ministers involved in the drug trade and the warlords and governors either running the drugs trade in their provinces or collecting "taxes" from traffickers.
Many of them have private armies, but the Afghan army and anti-narcotics units will be supported on the ground and in the air by US and NATO forces.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
RSS