Enforce IED ban, UN tells Afghan Taliban

THE UN has urged Afghanistan's Taliban leadership to enforce their ban on improvised explosive devices, a day after 19 wedding guests were killed by a roadside bomb in the north of the country.

"Although the Taliban... leader Mullah Omar banned the use of anti-personnel landmines in 1998, denouncing such weapons as un-Islamic and anti-human, anti-government elements continue to use" them, a UN statement said.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan "calls on the Taliban leadership to publicly reiterate a ban on these weapons and to stop their use", it said, adding that IEDs caused "devastating harm to civilians".

The call comes a day after a roadside explosion killed 19 civilians, most of them women and children who were on their way to a wedding party in Dawlat Abad district of the northern Balkh province.

A Taliban spokesman on Saturday denied their involvement in the incident, saying their fighters were not present in the area, a claim that was contested by the UN.

"Taliban operatives active in Dawlat Abad... are suspected of planting the landmine-like pressure plate IED, which is consistent with documented patterns and tactics of choice by the Taliban," the statement said.

According to an earlier UN statement, 1145 civilians were killed in the war in the first six months of this year, with 80 per cent of the deaths blamed on insurgents.

More than half were caused by roadside bombs.

Last year as a whole, a record 3021 civilians died in the war, the UN has said.

It blames insurgents for 80 per cent of the civilian casualties in 2012, saying pro-government forces, which include US-led NATO soldiers, were responsible for 10 per cent.

Women and children accounted for about 30 per cent of this year's casualties, again mostly victims of roadside bombs.

IEDs are also responsible for a large percentage of the deaths among the NATO force helping fight the Taliban.

The foreign combat troops are due to withdraw by the end of 2014.

AF

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Somali pirates free ship after 2 years

A PIRATE commander in Somalia says that a cargo ship has been freed after being held captive for nearly two years.

Hassan Abdi said on Saturday that a $US600,000 ransom was paid for the MV Orna on Friday.

But he said six hostages are still being held by the pirates on land.

Pirates shot and killed one of the ship's crew members in August over delayed ransom payments.

Abdi said that other ships towed the vessel away because it had run out of fuel.

The MV Orna, which is owned by a UAE company, was hijacked 400 nautical miles northeast of the Seychelles in December 2010.

Indian Ocean pirate hijackings are down drastically this year thanks to improved on-board defences, but pirates still hold six ships and some 170 crew members.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Libya 'not fully liberated' after Gaddafi

THE new Libyan authorities say the country has not yet been "fully" liberated, exactly a year since the killing of Muammar Gaddafi and against the backdrop of clashes in one of his last bastions.

"The campaign to liberate the country has not been fully completed," Mohammed Megaryef, the head of Libya's national assembly, said in remarks broadcast on state television.

He singled out the oasis town of Bani Walid, scene of deadly clashes over the past week and one of the final strongholds of Gaddafi's dictatorial regime during the 2011 revolution that ousted and killed him.

Megaryef, president of the democratically elected General National Congress, gave a sombre assessment of the post-Gaddafi period and warned that remnants of the former regime still pose a threat.

He pointed to "delays and negligence" in the formation of a professional army and police force, and the failure to disarm and integrate former rebels into state institutions.

Megaryef stressed that delays in reactivating and reforming the judiciary had also hampered reconciliation in what marks a critical transition period for the oil-rich country.

"This situation has created a state of discontent and tension among different segments of society and contributed to the spread of chaos, disorder, corruption and weakness in the performance of various government agencies," Megaryef said.

This benefited "remnants of the former regime which have infiltrated the organs of the state, maybe even its leadership, and are plotting against the revolution with the help of others who are abroad".

The weakness of the state, he continued, has allowed groups with or without ties to the former regime to defy the law and carry out arbitrary arrests, torture, blackmail and looting.

"They even dared to establish their own prisons," Megaryef said in apparent reference to armed militias, some of which have their own detention centres and act as a law unto themselves.

Libya's top official reserved his sharpest criticism for the town of Bani Walid, which is seen by many as a hideout for regime loyalists and criminal gangs, and endorsed military operations there.

"Bani Walid's misfortune is that it has become a sanctuary for a large number of outlaws and anti-revolutionaries and mercenaries," Megaryef said.

Forces linked to the army, the majority of them former rebels, encircled the hilltop town this month in a bid to bring to justice the men who kidnapped and allegedly tortured an ex-rebel credited with capturing Gaddafi.

Fighting around Bani Walid this week has killed more than 10 people.

Megaryef stressed that the operations underway "do not target this brave city or its people, rather they target culprits, wanted people, the accused and infiltrators among its honourable residents".

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gaddafi ex-spokesman arrested: Libya govt

THE office of the Libyan prime minister says that slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's former spokesman has been captured at a checkpoint outside the besieged town of Bani Walid.

The statement carried by the state news agency on Saturday says Moussa Ibrahim was captured by the forces of the interim Libyan government at a checkpoint in the town of Tarhouna.

The statement says Ibrahim is being taken to Tripoli to be questioned.

It didn't specify when he was captured.

The urbane, English-speaking Ibrahim became the voice of the regime in its final year, often appearing on television defending it.

Libyan forces have surrounded Bani Walid, which they describe as a final bastion of sympathisers of Gaddafi's regime.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Austerity not holding back Ireland: IMF

THE International Monetary Fund has denied austerity measures are to blame for the sluggish Irish economy, saying that other factors are keeping growth flat.

Greece, Portugal and Ireland are complaining that the Fund underestimated the economic and social impact of drastic spending cuts and tax hikes in the bailout programs, but a senior IMF official said that was not the problem in Ireland.

The pace of the EU-IMF rescue program "has struck an appropriate balance and continues to do so for the period ahead, enabling Ireland to make steady progress in reducing fiscal imbalances while protecting the still fragile economic recovery," Ajai Chopra, deputy director in the IMF's European Department, said in a statement.

"With overburdened bank, household and SME (small and medium sized business) balance sheets, and weak growth in trading partners, a number of factors besides fiscal consolidation have been a drag on growth in Ireland," he said.

The IMF recently admitted that it had underestimated in Greece how deep the "fiscal consolidation," or austerity measures, in its bailout plan would force the economy into recession.

Critics say the severity of the measures are to blame for Greece's inability to get back to growth.

At issue was a revision of its "fiscal multiplier," which IMF economists use to estimate the impact of various actions, like spending cuts, on the economy.

The admission that the IMF got it wrong in Greece has been taken up by other countries undergoing IMF-European Union bailouts, with countries arguing for easier adjustment terms to cope with slower-than-expected growth.

Ireland sought an 85-billion-euro ($A108.01 billion) EU-IMF rescue package in November 2010 after it was devastated by the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

As part of the rescue, Ireland agreed to painful austerity measures including spending cutbacks, state asset sales and tax hikes.

But growth has not returned as soon as hoped - last month the IMF forecast the Irish economy would expand a bare 0.4 per cent this year, if growth picks up in the second half as expected.

Since the IMF reassessed its multiplier, Irish officials have called for less austere reform requirements to encourage faster growth.

But Chopra argued that "in the current discussion of the impact of fiscal adjustment on growth, it is important to note that no single fiscal multiplier is applicable to all countries and circumstances".

"And although there is uncertainty around any estimate of multipliers, there is no compelling evidence that a higher multiplier was at work in Ireland than the one assumed under the program."

The IMF has been fighting pressure to ease austere reform terms in all the countries undergoing bailouts since the review of the multiplier.

On Thursday, IMF's Portugal mission chief Abebe Aemro Selassie told Lisbon that there is no way around a new, strong budget squeeze to reduce debt and return to capital markets.

In the face of public anger over tax increases, Selassie said it was "imperative" to press on with further measures.

"Debt remains high, and to ensure full recovery, the country needs to contain it," he warned.

"Portugal also needs to ensure that it can finance itself again at reasonable rates. This means that fiscal adjustment is imperative and needs to continue."

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

ACT voters tipped to return Labor

ACT voters will head to the polls on Saturday, with Labor widely expected to be returned to power for an historic fourth consecutive term.

Betting markets were so sure the government would rack up another win, one bookmaker decided to pay out on Friday.

Sportsbet spokesman Shaun Anderson said his punters might as well enjoy their winnings a day early after Labor's odds to win firmed from $1.50 to $1.04 and support for the Liberals moved from $3.50 to $5.50.

Mr Anderson said 99 per cent of all bets Sportsbet took on the election had gone on Labor.

Labor appears set to keep its seven seats, leaving the Liberals with six in 17-member Legislative Assembly.

The ACT Greens emerged as kingmakers at the last election and are expected to continue in that role by retaining their four seats in this weekend's election.

Chief Minister Katy Gallagher's government has come under fire from the Liberal opposition for being "in coalition" with the Greens.

But Ms Gallagher says there have been plenty of times in the Legislative Assembly over the last term when the two parties disagreed.

Liberal leader Zed Seselja says territorians are disappointed with the Greens and ruled out offering them a ministry - unlike in 2008, when he put up both the deputy chief ministership and another ministry as incentives for their support.

Greens leader Meredith Hunter has told both sides her party is ready to negotiate, whatever the outcome.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bosnia scrap metal thief nicks iron bridge

A BOSNIAN scrap metal dealer raised his sights from stealing and illegally selling metal drain covers and made off with an entire iron bridge, local police in the northeast of the country say.

"A few hours after we were informed about this most unusual crime we detained a suspect, a man of 29, at his home," Mile Jurosevic of the police in Brcko in northeast Bosnia said.

"We also found in the courtyard in front of his house the metal structure of the bridge, cut in two to make it easier to transport."

He said that the bridge, which is 12 metres long and weighs several tonnes, was stolen on Wednesday night at Dizdarusa, a suburb of Brcko.

"The metal structure was unscrewed from its base and dragged several metres to the nearest road" before being loaded on to a truck, he said.

The bridge was in a farming area through which a small river runs and was regularly used by several families to reach their fields, Zejneba Pasalic, a local woman told the press.

She had been astonished to discover the disappearance of the bridge and alerted the police.

The bridge was built in the 1980s by local people using scrap railway tracks, she said.

Bosnia is one of Europe's poorest countries with an unemployment rate of 40 per cent.

Hundreds of people, including entire families, collect scrap metal which can be sold locally for 0.20 euros ($A0.25) a kilo.

The vanishing drain covers, stolen and sold on the local black market, pose a real problem for the local authorities.

23.46 | 0 komentar | Read More