Afghan authorities yesterday played down fears of the Taliban wrecking next week’s presidential election run-off and tried to assuage worries of a repeat of the rampant fraud that tarred the first round.
As the international community insisted a Taliban attack on a Kabul hostel, which killed at least five foreign UN staff, would not disrupt the Nov. 7 poll, Afghan officials said the threat from the Islamists had lessened.
And election organizers said they had agreed to a demand from Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, for 20,000 of his observers to be accredited to help prevent vote rigging.
“We will try our best to avoid the mistakes made in the first round to hold a transparent and fraud-free election,” Independent Election Commission (IEC) deputy chief electoral officer Zakaria Barakzai said.
The attack on the Bekhtar guesthouse in Kabul, carried out by three Taliban fighters who blew themselves up after a two-hour gunbattle, brought home the stark reality that the several thousand foreigners based in Kabul are now in the militia’s crosshairs.
The UN said its head of mission in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, had spoken to the Afghan interior minister, who had given assurances that security would be enhanced in the wake of the attack.
The UN was also holding a review of all of its security measures, with spokesman Dan McNorton acknowledging that “it’s not business as usual.”
The Afghan defense ministry, however, played down the prospects of widespread Taliban attacks ahead of and during the runoff election.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also insisted the organization’s focus would not be deflected but offered no detail about how to secure hundreds of its staff.
Also See: Obama meets Afghan war dead
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not