Haji Abdul Qadir, governor of the eastern province of Nangahar, quit the talks on Afghanistan's future just as they were about to start picking names of leaders to be selected as deputies in a new interim parliament. Qadir was the second-ranked member in the delegation of the Northern Alliance. Ahmad Wali Masood, the Alliance's London representative, said Qadir had not told the delegation why he was leaving but had apparently complained to a radio reporter that Pashtuns were not sufficiently represented at the talks. The Northern Alliance has agreed to an outline deal with three exile groups for an interim parliament and executive including all factions. Masood said Pashtuns made up 58 percent of the Afghans at the U.N.-sponsored talks. The Pashtuns make up about 40 percent of the population, followed by the Tajiks -- the biggest group in the Northern Alliance -- at 25 percent.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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Gul Lali, a lieutenant to former Kandahar governor Gul Agha, said that his men had captured Jugnari district, to the east of Kandahar city, and taken 80 Taliban troops prisoners. Aided by American air power and ground troops, opposition forces have encircled and are on the verge of laying siege to the city.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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Fleeing Taliban plundered Afghanistan's national bank and made off with millions of dollars in cash during their retreat from Kabul. Staff at Bank Millie Afghan said its Taliban governor, Haji Mullah Mohammad Ahmadi, showed up with a posse of gunmen on the night of November 12, got out the key to the underground strongroom and made off with $5.3 million and 22 million Pakistani rupees ($360,000).
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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The Northern Alliance administration has lifted all religious restrictions imposed by the Taliban. Religious affairs minister Ataullha symbolically chose a 532-year-old Hindu temple in Kabul to make the announcement. Hindus and Sikhs, who account for about 500 families in all of Afghanistan, were forced by the Taliban to wear distinctive yellow markings to set them apart from Muslims.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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The Northern Alliance justice ministry has tossed out the Taliban lawbook, with its ruthless punishments, and guaranteed fair treatment of prisoners. Although the courts have not reopened since the hardline Taliban were forced out of Kabul, suspects arrested since then have been treated humanely and will be fairly sentenced, Noor Mohammad Amiri, said. Justice and Security Minister Mohammad Zia Noorkhil moved swiftly to reinstate the judicial system and laws developed during the 1970s under former President Mohammad Daud Khan.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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Up to 3,000 Taliban fighters who escaped form Kunduz are fighting Northern Alliance troops Char-Dara and the nearby Mount Erganaq, six miles west of the city. The Taliban force is largely made up of foreign mercenaries who escaped the city, but also includes Afghan Taliban who were allowed safe passage out of Kunduz after their commanders surrendered the city.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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The New York Police Department has ordered all 55,000 employees, including uniformed officers, to attend mental health counseling to relieve the stress and strain imposed by the attack on the World Trade Center and its aftermath. Hey. It's okay to cry.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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A "Million Santa March" has been scheduled to crash the tree-lighting ceremony in Kensington, People's Republic of Montgomery County, Maryland. Two families -- the Scrooges and the Grinches -- were "uncomfortable" at the presence of Santa Claus at the ceremony, and as a result he was disinvited. Maybe it was his pipe. R. Emmett Tyrrell points an appropriately scornful finger at the Mullahs authorities of this interesting area.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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Anthony Lewis thunders unconvincingly in the New York Times against President Bush's plans for military tribunals. Chuck Green, writing in the Denver Post rebuts with casual ease: "We are at war, a war that was unwanted and unsolicited but quite clearly declared by bin Laden and his army." Six in 10 agree with President Bush that suspected terrorists should be tried in special military tribunals. The accuracy of the polling is attested by the fact that Fresh Products, Inc. in Toledo and Impact Products Inc.each sell urinal mats showing bin Ladenâs face and have been making money hand over fist.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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Normality Watch: Trout Unlimited, a conservation group with nothing better to do sued the federal government for failing to protect the California golden trout, the official state fish, from interbreeding and cattle grazing.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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Democratic lawmakers in both houses of Congress unveiled legislation to require guards at the nation's 103 nuclear power plants to become federal employees.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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Iraq recalled its ambassador to Turkey after media reports linked him to meetings with members of the al Qaeda network. Ambassador Farouk Yahya al-Hijazi denied his departure from Turkey was in connection with allegations that he was involved in contacts between Mohammed Atta and Iraqi intelligence. Keep an eye on this boy. He knows someting. Bet he has a helicopter or auto accident soon.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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Iraq has warned that it could launch a missile attack against Israel if the United States attacks the regime of President Saddam Hussein. "We always expect evil and aggression from the American administration," Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan told Al-Jazeera. "Our preparations are always in place. Any nation that has attacked has the right to defend itself by any means. This is a legimate right."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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A French court convicted on terrorism charges 19 alleged members of the Armed Islamic Group, said to have been linked to Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden by the testimony of one of the accused. The French and French-Algerians, accused of supplying arms to the GIA, were found guilty of "conspiring to carry out a terrorist act" and handed sentences ranging from a suspended eight months to seven years in jail.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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Five members of Sri Lanka's Marxist People's Liberation Front party were arrested for possessing explosives in the run-up to elections next week, the first such discovery since the group renounced violence and entered mainstream politics.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba ruled out peace talks with Maoist rebels. At least 81 rebels were killed in encounters with security forces in western and southwestern Nepal on late Thursday.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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Iran and Pakistan pledged to work together for a broad-based government and reconstruction in their war-ravaged neighbor. "The sun is shining," a smiling Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar told a joint news conference with his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharrazi in Islamabad. "Pakistan and Iran today are rid of the shadow that existed over our relations." Watch the silverware, guys.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2001 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
