Canada will decide by April whether or not to extend its mission in Afghanistan where 70 of its troops have died battling the Taliban, Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said late on Monday.
He said the decision would be made by the time of the NATO summit in Romania in April. "It will be necessary to communicate a final decision before that meeting," said MacKay, cited by media.
Two opposition parties to the conservative government -- the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois -- are demanding the mission not be renewed beyond February 2009 when its current mandate is due to expire.
A third, the New Democratic Party, has demanded an immediate withdrawal.
The issue is set to play a key role in a vote of confidence on Oct. 16 which could threaten the position of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's ruling conservative minority.
Harper has said he wants a consensus on the troops' deployment but also does not want to pull them out when he considers there job is not finished.
Canada has 2,500 troops in the south of the country, part of a large multinational presence patrolling the country and helping Afghans fight against the resurgent Taliban, who were toppled form power by the US-led 2001 invasion.
Since 2002, 70 Canadian troops have been killed in Afghanistan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai last week urged the Canadians to stay beyond the end of the current term to prevent more unrest.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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