News Vs. Propaganda Report:
U.S.A. continues to Fight for empire Despite Persistent "Blowback"
AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ and PAKISTAN -- U.S.A. continues to fight to maintain her empire despite being slammed by "blowback" all the while...
U.S. Afghan review to be completed after election
Full article: http://www.reuters.com/
By Andrew Gray WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. government review of strategy for the war in Afghanistan has been delayed and will likely not be completed until after next month's presidential election, the Pentagon said on Thursday... "That just has taken longer than, I think, originally anticipated," Morrell said of the Bush administration's review. "This will likely not be something that is finalized until after the election."
German parliament votes to send more troops to Afghanistan
Full article: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/
Excerpt(s): BERLIN (AFP) - - The German Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, voted Thursday to extend Germany's participation in the NATO-led force in Afghanistan and increase the number of soldiers deployed there to 4,500. The government's proposals were approved by an overwhelming majority, with 442 parliamentarians voting in favour, 96 voted against and 32 abstentions... Polls indicate the deployment is highly unpopular in Germany, in part because of its indefinite nature, with a lack of clear goals that would justify a withdrawal at any given point in time. [Defence Minister Franz Josef] Jung reiterated that the mandate for elite German troops deployed since 2001 for US-led operations against Taliban militants was to be terminated. Such operations are highly controversial in Germany because of the heavy civilian casualties. The elite German troops will however continue to hunt militants with an international force in the Horn of Africa. In Afghanistan, German troops are deployed largely in the north of the country, which is comparatively calm, and Berlin is opposed to their involvement in fighting in the south of the country.
US-led strike kills 25 Afghan civilians
Full article: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.
Excerpt(s): At least 25 civilians including women and children have been killed in an air strike by US-led forces in volatile southern Afghanistan, reports say... A BBC reporter said he saw the bodies of women and the children - ranging in age from six months to 15 in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. The families took the bodies from their village in Nad Ali district -- where the air strike occurred-- to the governor's office to protest the killings. International forces in Afghanistan have come under increased criticism since Afghan and UN officials discovered that a US-led military operation in the village of Azizabad in August killed 90 civilians, including children. Seven years of western military presence in Afghanistan has led to more insecurity, a record opium production surge and a sharply upward sprial of civilian lives lost to errant American airstrikes and suicide bombers . More than 4,700 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in the country this year.
Villagers say 18 civilians killed in Nato air strike in Afghanistan
Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Excerpt(s): British defence officials said last night they were investigating reports that civilians, including women and children, were killed in an air strike by Nato forces in southern Afghanistan. Angry villagers took 18 bodies - including badly mangled bodies of women and children - to the governor's house in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah... A BBC reporter in Lashkar Gah said he saw the bodies - three women and the rest children ranging in age from six months to 15... In London the MoD said it was aware of an air strike in Helmand province "in support of ANSF [Afghan special forces] and ISAF [Nato-led] troops. This incident is being investigated and at this time we are unable to confirm any civilian casualties. However we take any reports of civilian casualties extremely seriously."... The growing number of civilian deaths in air strikes has provoked friction between Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and Nato countries. Britain recently raised the issue with the US, and Nato military commanders were ordered to change their rules of engagement. After the Afghan government said 90 civilians were killed during a US special forces raid in a village in the western Herat province in August, Karzai also ordered a review of US and Nato tactics.
Afghan Officials Say Allied Airstrike Killed Civilians
Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/
Excerpt(s): KABUL, Afghanistan — A NATO airstrike on Thursday on a village near the embattled provincial capital of Lashkar Gah killed 25 to 30 civilians, Afghan officials in the area said. While NATO confirmed that an airstrike had taken place in the area, where Taliban fighters have been battling NATO forces, it said that the reports were being investigated and that the command was “unable to confirm any civilian casualties.” Reliable information on the airstrike — whether it caused the deaths, as local officials and residents reported, and whether the number of civilian deaths was accurate — was elusive. But any substantial civilian death toll would further inflame an Afghan government and public already angered by a recent rise in civilian casualties from coalition airstrikes.
Larijani: US criminal in Iraq, Afghanistan
Full article: http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.
Excerpt(s): "The United States says it is seeking to bring democracy to the Middle East but it is moving in the opposite direction," Larijani [Iranian Majlis Speaker] said in a meeting with a number of Finnish lawmakers in Helsinki on Thursday. Noting that unilateral US policies are already discredited and defeated in the world, the Majlis speaker said the Americans should respect others' rights and stop their blatant violations of human rights in Iraq and Afghanistan... This five and seven years respectively since they occupied these war-shattered countries in the name of bringing democracy and freedom to the people there. Afghan deaths are counted in the tens of thousands with an untold figure of displacements running in the millions and spreadout within Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. The death toll used for Iraqi civilians is not less than 1m dead, several million domestically and internationally displaced civilians.
Suspected US strike inside Pakistan kills five: officials
Full article: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/
Excerpt(s): PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - - A suspected US drone fired two missiles into a Pakistani tribal area that is a known Al-Qaeda and Taliban hub, killing at least five people, security officials said on Thursday. The strike in South Waziristan came hours after a suicide bomb destroyed a police station in a separate area of northwest Pakistan, where the government is waging a military campaign against Islamic militants. "Two missiles were fired, completely destroying the house. Reports confirm five dead," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. There was no immediate confirmation of the strike from the Pakistani military or from the US-led coalition in neighbouring Afghanistan.
President Zardari, Chinese premier hold formal talks: China vows to bail out Pakistan
Full article: http://dailytimes.com.pk/
Excerpt(s): BEIJING: China vowed on Thursday to do what it could to help cash-strapped Pakistan avert financial disaster as President Asif Zardari continued an official visit aimed at rustling up crucial Chinese investments. The promise came as Premier Wen Jiabao met Zardari and said during formal talks China is ready to advance strategic co-operation with Pakistan. “As a long friend of Pakistan, China understands it is facing some financial difficulties,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters at a briefing. “We’re ready to support and help Pakistan within our capability.”... It said the two countries also agreed to step up their Five Year Development Programme on Economic Co-operation and “make full use of their free trade agreement . . . and Pakistan-China Joint Investment Company”. They agreed to convene a meeting of Pakistan-China Economic Co-operation Group soon, the statement said.
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