British Foreign Secretary David Miliband denied yesterday that the international community was failing in its mission in Afghanistan.
“Our true mission ... has been to use military power to create the space within which Afghan institutions can become strong enough to resist the Taliban. That mission is certainly not impossible,” Miliband wrote in the Sunday Times.
Responding to criticism in the newspaper of Britain’s role in Afghanistan, Miliband denied that Taliban insurgents were getting the upper hand over Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s administration.
10 PERCENT
He said the majority of Taliban activity was concentrated in 10 percent of Afghanistan’s districts, home to only 6 percent of the population, and he rejected suggestions that the capital, Kabul, was encircled.
“The Taliban lack the capacity to hold ground,” Miliband wrote.
Some insecurity stemmed from “growing criminality,” including the trade in heroin, Miliband said.
He hailed the decision by NATO defense ministers to allow their forces to do more to support the Afghan security forces in targeting drug facilities.
The fact that 18 provinces in Afghanistan were drug-free this year, up from 13 last year, was “progress. Not enough, but progress all the same.”
TRIBAL AREAS
On tribal areas of Pakistan, which he said were used to launch insurgent attacks in Afghanistan, Miliband said new Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari had promised to make cooperation with Afghanistan a priority “and he has been true to his word.”
“The role of the international community is not to wring its hands and go home, but to help the Pakistan government get a grip on its tribal areas,” he said.
This involved “doing better” in preventing attacks from suicide bombers and roadside bombs but also required “a massive economic effort with the help of the international community.”
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
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
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS