Pakistan military says 34 'terrorists' killed in Khyber offensive (Aljazeera) -MJ Gillis

Pakistan's military on Wednesday said it killed 34 “terrorists" in airstrikes on a tribal region near the mountainous Afghan border as part of a major offensive against armed fighters that began last year.

Fighter jets pounded positions in the Tirah Valley in the Khyber tribal region, west of the city of Peshawar, in "precise strikes," the military said in a statement.

"The local population had fled their homes and villages when the operation was launched against the terrorists there," a security official told Reuters.

Another security official said those killed belonged to the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan —better known as the Pakistani Taliban — and an allied group, Lashkar-e-Islam.

Both groups are based in Khyber, one of seven autonomous tribal districts along Pakistan's western border, which became a hideout for armed groups following the U.S.-led invasion of neighboring Afghanistan in 2001.

The Pakistani Taliban are allied with the Afghan group of the same name and share a similar ideology. However, they operate as a separate entity, focused on toppling the Pakistani state and establishing strict Islamic rule in the nuclear-armed nation.

The officials who spoke to Reuters said there were strong indications that the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Maulana Fazlullah, was in the area at the time of the strikes.

Six killed in suicide bomb near Afghan presidential palace (Reuters) -MJ Gillis

Six people were killed and more than 30 wounded in a suicide bombing in Kabul on Wednesday that struck close to the presidential palace in the heart of the Afghan capital, the Interior Ministry said.

The suicide bomber had been traveling in a vehicle packed with explosives and it was not immediately clear what the target of the attack had been.

"It was a suicide attack and I saw someone lose a limb and another person lose a hand," said Mohammad Tahir, a driver, whose hands were covered in blood as he fled the area.

The blast interrupted a period of relative peace in the city, after a bomb targeted an influential provincial police chief visiting Kabul from Uruzgan province last week.

The capital and strategic provinces across the country are on high alert ahead of the expected start of the yearly Taliban spring offensive.

The militant group ousted by the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 is waging an insurgency against the Afghan government and its foreign backers. It did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack and a spokesman could not be reached by phone.

The attack was swiftly condemned by President Ashraf Ghani, who is currently on his first trip to the United States, in a statement released from his office.

As expected, U.S. president Barack Obama on Tuesday announced his decision to agree to an Afghan request to slow the drawdown of troops from Afghanistan. The United States will maintain a force of 9,800 through to the end of 2015, while sticking to a 2017 exit plan.

Almost 3,700 civilians were killed and more than 6,800 were wounded in the conflict last year as fighting intensified and foreign troops withdrew, formally ending their combat role in December last year.

Obama slows withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan (Reuters) -MJ Gillis

President Barack Obama on Tuesday granted Afghan requests to slow the drawdown of U.S. troops from Afghanistanand said he would maintain a force of 9,800 through the end of 2015 while sticking to a 2017 exit plan.

Capping a day of VIP treatment for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the White House, Obama said the U.S. force would be kept at its current strength to train and assist Afghan forces, who took over responsibility for the fight against Taliban and other Islamic militants at the start of the year.

Obama said the pace of the U.S. troop reduction in 2016 would be established later this year and the goal remained to consolidate U.S. forces in the country in a presence at the Kabul embassy at the end of 2016.

 

 

Under a previous plan U.S. forces were to have been cut to about half of the current level of just under 10,000 by the end of 2015, but U.S. officials said improved relations with Afghan leaders contributed to a revision of the plan.

"It was my assessment as commander in chief that it made sense for us to provide a few extra months for us to be able to help on things like logistics," Obama said during a joint news conference with Ghani at the White House.

"The date for us to have completed our drawdown will not change," he said. "Providing this additional timeframe during this fighting season for us to be able to help the Afghan security forces succeed is well worth it."

A senior U.S. official told Reuters last week the U.S. military bases in Kandahar and Jalalabad were likely to remain open beyond the end of 2015.

Since arriving on Sunday, Ghani has been feted by the Obama administration and is due to address Congress on Wednesday. The welcome contrasts sharply with frosty relations that developed between Washington and Ghani's predecessor Hamid Karzai.

GHANI THANKS U.S. MILITARY

Ghani has repeatedly expressed gratitude to the American military and at the White House spoke about meeting the widow of Major General Harold Greene, the highest-ranking U.S. officer killed during the 13 years Americans fought in Afghanistan.

"The 2,215 Americans that have died, must not die in vain. They must leave behind a legacy of a stable Afghanistan," Ghani said.

Some U.S. lawmakers had also called for a slower drawdown of troop levels. U.S. Representative Mac Thornberry, a Republican who leads the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said the decision announced on Tuesday was "appropriate."

"Iraq has shown us the consequences of leaving a fragile ally too early," he said in a statement. "The bottom line is that our own security is at stake."

Ghani and Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah met at the presidential retreat at Camp David on Monday with top U.S. officials including Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who said Washington would fund Afghan security forces at least into 2017.

Pakistan military holds first Republic Day parade in seven years (Reuters) - Jessica Bae

Pakistan military holds first Republic Day parade in seven years

 (Reuters) - Pakistan held its first Republic Day parade in seven years on Monday, full of flag-waving pomp and aerial military expertise, a symbolic show of strength in the war against the Taliban months after a militant attack on a school killed 132 children.

The Pakistan Day parade, complete with a 31-gun dawn salute, was held amid tight security. Cellular phone networks were blocked as a precaution to thwart militants, who have often used mobile phone signals to trigger bombs.

No parades had been held since 2008, following an escalation in the military's conflict with the Pakistani Taliban.

India arrests hundreds over Bihar school cheating (BBC) - Jessica Bae

India arrests hundreds over Bihar school cheating

About 300 people have been arrested in the Indian state of Bihar, authorities say, after reports emerged of blatant cheating in school exams.

Parents and friends of students were photographed climbing school walls to pass on answers.

Many of those arrested were parents. At least 750 students have been expelled.

An estimated 1.4m students are taking their school leaving exams in Bihar alone - tests seen as crucial for their chances of a successful career.

The authorities have clearly been embarrassed by the cheating, the BBC's Jill McGivering says, with the episode prompting ridicule on social media.

Students were seen copying answers from smuggled-in note sheets, and police posted outside test centres were even seen being bribed to look the other way.

On top of the arrests, in four centres further exams have been cancelled.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar condemned the cheating but said the images were not the "whole story" of his state.

He warned parents that helping their children cheat would only harm them in the long run.

State Education Minister PK Shahi said it would be difficult to conduct fair exams without help from parents, given the potential number of people involved.

"Three to four people helping a single student would mean that there is a total of six to seven million people helping students cheat," he said.

"Is it the responsibility of the government alone to manage such a huge number of people and to conduct a 100% free and fair examination?"

Troop pullout on agenda for Afghan president's US visit (Al Jazeera) - Jessica Bae

Troop pullout on agenda for Afghan president's US visit

Ashraf Ghani to meet with President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry in his first trip to Washington as president.

The timeline for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan is expected to be high on the agenda during Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's first visit to Washington this week.

Ghani, who arrived in the US on Sunday, is due to meet US President Barack Obama on Tuesday and will also hold meetings with Secretary of State John Kerry and Defence Secretary Ashton Carter during his four-day visit.

Fearing Islamic State, some Afghan Shi'ites seek help from old enemies (Reuters)--Lelia Busch

Even by Afghanistan's standards of often-shifting alliances, a recent meeting between ethnic Hazara elders and local commanders of the Taliban insurgents who have persecuted them for years was extraordinary.

    The Hazaras – a largely Shi'ite minority killed in the thousands during the Taliban's hard-line Sunni Islamist rule of the 1990s – came to their old enemies seeking protection against what they deemed an even greater threat: masked men operating in the area calling themselves "Daish", a term for Islamic State in the region.

    In a sign of changing times, the Taliban commanders agreed to help, said Abdul Khaliq Yaqubi, one of the elders at the meeting held in the eastern province of Ghazni.

    The unusual pact is a window into deepening anxiety in Afghanistan over reports of Islamic State (IS) radicals gaining a foothold in a country already weary of more than a decade of war with the Taliban.

Indian Maoists attack election officials (al Jazeera)--Lelia Busch

Maoist rebels have killed 12 people in two poll-related blasts in the instability-hit region of central India, police said, highlighting security threats aiming to disrupt a marathon election in the world's biggest democracy.

Saturday's attacks came as Indians cast ballots in the resort state of Goa and in the far-flung northeast in another round of the multi-phase polls that wind up on May 12 with results due on May 16.

Six polling team officials were killed when Maoists blew up their bus in the state of Chhattisgarh, senior police officer Gurjinder Pal Singh told the AFP news agency.

Forcing children to fight in India's restive northeast (al Jazeera)--Lelia Busch

Lohardaga, India - At the sight of a stranger, a visibly frightened 10-year-old boy ran crying, "Grandma save me. They have come, they have come for me again."

Mahavir Birja was not always petrified of uninvited guests. But his dramatic abduction by Maoist fighters and equally dramatic escape from their clutches has robbed him of his childhood innocence and filled his heart and mind with fear. 

Hiding behind his grandmother's tattered sari, the boy with piercing dark eyes recounted his horror story.

"A group of armed men suddenly barged into our home and told my parents that they were taking me along. When my father opposed, they hit him on the head with the rear of a rifle," he said.

The impact was so hard that he fell to the ground with blood pouring from his head. Unmoved, the intruders dragged Mahavir off to their camp - where he remained for nearly a year. 

Police-run children's lodges rehabilitate those traumatised by Maoist rebels [Sanjay Pandey/Al Jazeera]

Mahavir's father subsequently died from the attack, his mother abandoned the children and eloped with another man.

The responsibility to raise Mahavir and his 14-year-old sister fell on the frail shoulders of their 60-year-old grandmother, Parvat. 

India Struggles to Contain Worst Swine Flu Outbreak Since 2009 (Voice of America) -MJ Gillis

India is struggling to contain a wave of swine flu. The death toll has surpassed 1,500 since the infection took hold in mid-December.

About 26,000 people have tested positive for the virus, and health officials say infections are continuing to spread as current unseasonal rains and high humidity that allow the virus to thrive.

Indian health ministry officials said this week that they are cooperating with state governments to better combat the H1N1 virus.  The ministry has asked the states to study the patterns of the infection and mortality rates, to devise a better strategy.

Health care experts complain that poor infection prevention measures are driving the surge of H1N1 cases across the country, and that delays in diagnoses are also contributing to the rise in the death toll.

Half of the swine flu deaths in the past three months have occurred in western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, and in the past week the first cases of H1N1 were reported in the remote northeastern states of Nagaland and Manipur, which border Myanmar.

Officials say bombings across Afghanistan kill 13 (AP) -MJ Gillis

 A series of bombings across Afghanistan, including one targeting a police checkpoint in the country's south, killed at least 13 people Tuesday, authorities said.

The day's deadliest attack targeted the checkpoint on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, killing eight people and wounding 23, said Omar Zwak, the spokesman for the provincial governor. The dead included six civilians and two police officers, he said.

Alam Yar, a doctor at a hospital in Lashkar Gah, said 20 wounded people and four dead bodies had been brought there.

A separate roadside bombing killed four people and wounded five, police said.

Afghanistan's army has been fighting to clear large parts of Helmand of Taliban militants. The insurgents have retaliated in recent days with a series of suicide attacks in towns and villages across the province.

In Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan, another bomb exploded near a hospital, killing one civilian and wounding 16, a senior police official said. The official said that the target of the bomb in the provincial capital, Puli Khumri, was a police vehicle, though no police officer was wounded.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to speak to journalists.

Amnesty decries Iran draft law to boost population (Al Jazeera) -MJ Gillis

Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group, has denounced Iran for proposing draft laws aimed at boosting the country's population, saying the legislation would "reduce Iranian women to baby-making machines".

Amnesty warned on Wednesday that a first bill, which has already been approved once by parliament, would restrict access to contraception, forcing women into unsafe backstreet abortions.

It said the second draft law, which is to go before parliament next month, would close many jobs to women who choose not to or are unable to have children.

"The proposed laws will entrench discriminatory practices and set the rights of women and girls in Iran back by decades," said Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

"The authorities are promoting a dangerous culture in which women are stripped of key rights and viewed as baby-making machines rather than human beings with fundamental rights to make choices about their own bodies and lives."

The draft legislation comes in response to a call by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to double Iran's population to 150 million within 50 years.

Gunmen kill six in attack on Sufi place of worship in Kabul (France 24)--Lelia Busch

Attackers with guns fixed with silencers killed six people after storming a Sufi place of worship in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday evening, according to a government statement.

 

Several men attacked the religious building in the western part of the capital during evening prayers, said the statement released by the Ministry of Interior.
Five people were wounded. The gunmen escaped the scene, and police arrested five suspects on Saturday evening in connection with the attack.
The rare sectarian attack comes hours after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani pledged his government would pursue peace efforts in a speech before parliament.
Afghan security forces have been struggling to defeat the insurgency after most foreign troops withdrew at the end of last year.
Last week, a suicide bomber rammed a car laden with explosives into a vehicle belonging to NATO’s top envoy in Afghanistan in Kabul, killing one Turkish soldier.
Sufism is a non-violent form of Islam involving mystical rituals that has been practiced in the region for centuries. Islamic extremists, however, see Sufis as irredeemable heretics.

Angry Indians lynch rape suspect after breaking into jail (BBC News)--Lelia Busch

A mob of thousands of people lynched a suspected rapist after breaking into a prison in north-east India, police say.

Farid Khan was stripped naked by the crowd, beaten and dragged through streets before being hanged in Dimapur, the main city in Nagaland state.
Police officers opened fire to try to stop the mob, wounding several people.
Tensions in the country are high following the government's decision to ban India's Daughter, a film about the 2012 gang rape of a student.
The Hindustan Times newspaper reports that the crowd "tore down two gates and took custody" of the suspect, before dragging him to the town's landmark clock tower.
Police say the man was a Bengali-speaking Muslim trader from neighbouring Assam state. He was arrested in February on charges of rape.
Ethnic tensions There have been recurring tensions in some parts of north-eastern India between Bengali speakers, accused of being immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, and local ethnic groups.
Local groups began protests on Wednesday demanding action against the alleged rapist.
Vigilante justice is not unheard of in India but it is rarely seen on this scale. A curfew has been imposed in Dimapur following incidents of arson in some parts of the city.
India's rape crisis has been pushed back to the forefront of public discourse by the decision of the government to ban the BBC documentary India's Daughter, which examines the 2012 gang rape of a young student in Delhi.
The documentary features an interview with one of the men sentenced to death for the attack.
His lack of remorse and suggestions that the victim might have survived if she had not resisted has drawn international outrage and sparked protests across India.
The film was broadcast in the UK on Wednesday night.

Iraqi forces retake key town of Al-Baghdadi from ISIL (al Jazeera)--Lelia Busch

Iraqi government forces and allied tribal fighters have retaken the town of Al-Baghdadi from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, according to the US military.
A statement from the headquarters of the US-led coalition on Friday said security forces and tribal fighters from the Anbar region had successfully cleared Al-Baghdadi of ISIL fighters, retaking both the police station and three Euphrates River bridges.
The US-led coalition, which is conducting air strikes in Iraq and Syria against ISIL targets, said it had ordered 26 air strikes around the town since February 22.

Indian widows break tradition and celebrate Holi (Al Jazeera) - Jessica Bae

Indian widows break tradition and celebrate Holi

Shunned women attend festivities in Vrindavan, one of two north Indian cities known as the "cities of widows".

Vrindavan, India - Breaking the centuries-old custom of widows not celebrating festivals, Tukni Devi, a 90-year-old, took part in Holi celebrations for the first time in 66 years. Widowed at the age of 24, Devi was shunned by her family and lived as a recluse in an ashram in the holy Indian city of Varanasi.

India's Maharashtra state bans beef (Al Jazeera) - Jessica Bae

India's Maharashtra state bans beef

Sale or possession of beef is punishable by up to five years in jail in western state - home to financial hub Mumbai.

Maharashtra, one of India's most populous states, has introduced a ban on beef so strict that even possession could land a person in jail for five years, officials have said.

The country's Hindu majority considers cows sacred, and several states have already banned their slaughter.