US war drones keep flying despite computer virus
WASHINGTON: The US government's unmanned Predator and Reaper drones are continuing to fly remote missions overseas

despite a computer virus that has infected the plane's US based cockpits, according to one source familiar with the infection.

Government officials are still investigating whether the virus is benign, and how it managed to infect the heavily protected

computer systems at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, where US pilots remotely fly the planes on their missions over Iraq,

Afghanistan and elsewhere.

"Something is going on, but it has not had any impact on the missions overseas," said the source, who was not authorized to

speak publicly.

Armed tactical unmanned planes have become an increasingly valuable tool used by the US government to track and attack

individuals and small groups overseas, but the virus
underscores the vulnerability of such systems to attacks on the computer networks used to fly them from great distances.

Wired magazine first reported the virus infection on its website on Friday and said it was logging pilots' every keystroke as they

remotely flew missions over Afghanistan and
elsewhere.

Wired said the problem was first detected nearly two weeks ago by the US military's Host-Based Security System, but there

were no confirmed incidents of classified information
being lost or sent to an outside source.

The virus had resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech's computers, Wired said, quoting network security specialists.

The US military and intelligence communities have used Predator and Reaper drones, built by privately held General Atomics

in San Diego, to carry out increasingly precise attacks
on top Al Qaeda officials and other US targets in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen.(Reuters)

serious dialogue, Zardari urges Washington
WASHINGTON: President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday asked the United States to resume a “serious” dialogue with Pakistan on the way forward in the

relationship and counter-terror efforts, both of which have been hurt by recent anti-Pakistan rhetoric emanating from Washington. He wrote in The

Washington Post that “terrorists who threaten both our country and the United States, have gained the most from the recent verbal assaults by some in

America, made against Pakistan.” “This strategy is damaging the relationship between Pakistan and the United States and compromising common goals

in defeating terrorism, extremism and fanaticism,” Zardari said. The opinion piece appeared in the wake of a series of controversial assertions made by

the now-retired American military leader Mike Mullen on Pakistani backing for Afghan Haqqani militants, caused a furore in ties and hurt sentiments of

the South Asian nation that continues to pay a heavy price in the fight against terror. “It is time for the rhetoric to cool and for serious dialogue between

allies to resume,” Zardari underscored in an article titled “Talk to, not at, Pakistan.” Islamabad, he said, remains unswerving in its quest for a better

future for its youth

Afghans accuse Pak of Rabbani murder
KABUL: Afghanistan’s intelligence service says it has handed Pakistani authorities evidence showing former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani’s assassination was planned in Pakistan.

Lutifullah Mashal, a spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service, says the plot originated near Quetta.

Mashal told reporters on Saturday that investigators provided addresses, photos and maps to the Pakistani embassy in Kabul.

Rabbani was trying to broker peace with the Taliban when he was killed by a suicide bomber.

At the UN last week, Afghan officials said the killing was plotted for four months by the Afghan Taliban’s governing council, the Quetta Shura.

The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for Rabbani’s death. (AP)

 Egypt army chief to meet party heads after protest
CAIRO  Egypt's military chief of staff Sami Enan was due to meet party leaders on Saturday, a day after protesters converged on Cairo's central

Tahrir Square to demand reforms.

Enan, who is also the number two in the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), invited a range of parties, including the Muslim

Brotherhood and the liberal Wafd, the state-owned Al-Ahram newpaper reported.

Saturday's meeting comes a day after thousands flocked to Tahrir to demand an end to military trials of civilians, cleansing institutions of former regime

remnants, amendment to a recently published electoral law and social justice.

SCAF has been in power since president Hosni Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising in February and has repeatedly stressed its commitment to

democracy.

But protesters have been gathering in Tahrir on an almost weekly basis to express anger and frustration at the military's handling of the transition.

Several arrests were made on Friday after some of the protesters attempted to head to the defence ministry and were blocked by military police.

Others declared they would remain in the square until their demands were met.

On Tuesday, SCAF laid out the timetable for the first post-Mubarak elections, which will start on November 28 and take place over four months.

A presidential election is expected to be held next year.

The Democratic Coalition, which groups dozens of parties including the Muslim Brotherhood and Wafd, has threatened to boycott the vote.

They fear the electoral law will help old regime figures to return to parliament.

Under Mubarak, candidates affiliated with his party used patronage or pressure to garner votes.

Activists say that a proportional list system would help avoid that, because voters would be electing candidates based on a party's political platform,

circumventing candidates' personal power and influence.

The Syrian 'opposition' does not have to prove itself
The Syrian 'opposition' does not have to prove itself
We do not do justice to the Syrian people when we use the term "opposition" to describe those who are in revolt against the Assad regime. What is

now being called the opposition is in reality Syrian political society that has been hijacked for decades – and it is from this society with all its rich

diversity that a new government and its opposition will emerge after the fall of the regime.

Using the terminology of a regime in power and an "opposition" against it ultimately legitimises the regime itself and puts the onus on that opposition to

prove its own legitimacy. This is not just an academic or semantic distinction; it is easy to become trapped in a framework that lends a sense of

normality to what is happening in Syria.

The regime is keen to present a certain narrative: that there is no viable alternative to its rule; that beyond it is total chaos with Islamic fundamentalism,

sectarian tension, partition, violence and civil war. It accuses the protesters of being manipulated and armed by foreign powers, and claims, on its part,

to be pursuing stability and reform.

By normalising the situation we impose the burden of proof on the protesters who assert that they are united, non-sectarian, nonviolent and

independent. No matter how many such peaceful demonstrations occur, all it takes is for a couple of incidents of violence or a sectarian interpretation

of tension to be reported for the world to start buying into the regime's narrative.

Moreover, we cannot require protesters to confirm their unity; it is natural that they are not united. Diversity is their strength, not their weakness. Nor

can we expect them to prove that they are a viable alternative; the Syrian regime has survived by allowing no such alternatives to emerge or to seem

viable. It is precisely because of this that the regime is being opposed. If it had allowed for a credible opposition to be visible, there would be no need to

change it.

The simple fact is that any person who had the potential to constitute a challenge to the power of the regime has been eliminated, is out of the country,

in jail, or dead. Many have been forced to compromise or were co-opted through blackmail or to protect their family. The security services have often

created their own alternatives as decoys to trap opponents of the regime.

The result is an atmosphere of extreme suspicion and intrigue. Thus one cannot accuse the exiles of being exiles, nor those who have stayed of being

collaborators. They are all victims of the same system and we are imposing on them impossible conditions if we ask them to prove that they are a viable

opposition.

Obama Hails Death of Radical US-born Cleric in Yemen
U.S. President Barack Obama has hailed the killing of radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki as a significant milestone in the fight against al-Qaida in

the Arabian Peninsula.

Awlaki was killed early Friday, along with several other militants, in a suspected CIA drone strike in eastern Yemen.

Mr. Obama said the U.S.-born cleric was responsible for planning and directing efforts to kill innocent Americans. He said the death of Awlaki is a major

blow to al-Qaida's most active operational affiliate. The president also acknowledged Yemen for their cooperation in the killing.

Western news organizations quote U.S. officials as saying the raid was coordinated by the CIA and led by U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, the

counterterrorism unit that led the May operation that killed Osama bin Laden.

Several other militants were also killed in the operation, including Samir Khan, the American editor of an al-Qaida magazine.

Awlaki was wanted by both the U.S. and Yemen for his suspected role in terrorist attacks. A senior U.S. defense official said that over the years,

Awlaki had become an operational figure who was increasingly focused on launching attacks against the U.S. and its allies.

Those attacks included the December 2009 attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner en route to the U.S. city of Detroit. Authorities believe Awlaki advised

the suspected bomber, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Mumtaz Qadri awarded two times death sentence in Taseer murder case
A local Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) here in Rawalpindi Saturday awarded two times death sentence to Mumtaz Qadri, who

killed former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer. The case was heard by judge Pervez Ali Shah in Adiala Jail here. According to details, the court

announced in its verdict during final proceedings that no one could be given the license to kill anyone in any condition. Therefore, the killer cannot be

pardoned as he has committed a heinous crime by murdering the former governor, the court said.

Mumtaz Qadri has the right to appeal against the verdict in the high court within seven days, the lawyers of Mumtaz Qadri said.
Mumtaz Qadri who was on guard duty in Taseer’s elite force guards at the time of killing, shot the governor down for his views on the blasphemy law

outside a restaurant in Islamabad, Jan 4, 2011.
Qadri was arrested on the spot with the weapon. He confessed killing Taseer under oath.
Qadri confessed to killing Taseer, saying he had killed Punjab governor Salman Taseer for his ‘blasphemous’ statements.
During the in-camera hearing of the Taseer murder case, the ATC said that the murder, being a heinous crime, had no justification to it.
Assassin Mumtaz, a constable in the Punjab Police Elite Force, tried to justify the murder by stating that he had killed him for supporting Aasia Bibi, a

Christian woman who Taseer had projected as having been wrongly convicted of committing blasphemy.
Judge Pervez Ali Shah announced the verdict at the court behind closed doors in the high-security Adiyala prison in Rawalpindi.

Kabul says Pakistan plotted Rabbani’s murder
Afghani intelligence obtained the addresses and photos of those complicit in the assassination and handed them over to the Pakistani embassy in Kabul.

A spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service, Lutifullah Mashal, pinpointed the town of Satellite, near Quetta, as the place from where the plot

originated.

On Friday, current President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai claimed that Rabbani's killing was plotted in the Pakistani city of Quetta and promised that an

Afghani investigation team would travel to Pakistan to investigate the murder.

Karzai has told Islamabad that if it fails to cooperate in the investigation, the evidence will be handed over to the Americans.

Afghanistan's Ministers of Defense and Interior, the Chief of National Directorate of Security and the Attorney General’s office have all been drafted

onto the commission investigating Rabbani’s death.

Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed by a suicide bomber on September 20 while conducting peace negotiations with the Taliban.

The Taliban has not claimed responsibility for his death.

According to BBC News, President Hamid Karzai has said that if it is found that the Taliban were behind the assassination, “then there is no need to

continue the peace negotiations with them.”

On Saturday, Afghanistan officially announced a halt to all contacts with the Taliban, cancelling a meeting in Kabul scheduled for October 8.

Afghanistan’s deputy national security adviser, Shaida Mohammad Abdali, said that from now on Kabul will have a “trust but verify” approach toward

Islamabad, particularly when dealing with peace talks.

This comes as bad news for the US which has been trying to calm tensions between the neighbors for some time as it prepares for the withdrawal of

coalition troops from Afghanistan in 2014.

Hope for 18 missing in Indonesia plane crash
JAKARTA: There were hopes Friday there could be survivors from an Indonesian plane that crashed with 18 people aboard, the government said, after

rescuers spotted the fuselage intact and a door open.

The Casa 212 turboprop plane, carrying 14 passengers including four children, and four crew, went down in Sumatra island on Thursday after

departing Medan city, in Sumatra, for the nearby province of Aceh.

But the commercial flight run by Nusantara Buana Air sent a distress signal soon after and crashed at 1,100 metres (3,600 feet) in the mountainous

Bohorok area, around 70 kilometres (40 miles) northwest of Medan.

A search-and-rescue team determined Thursday that the fuselage was largely undamaged and early Friday morning they reported from a helicopter

that a door to the aircraft had been opened.

"They saw an open door, which makes us think that some passengers may be alive, so we are hopeful," transport ministry aviation head Herry Bakti

told, adding that there were no foreigners on the flight.

The rescue team were unable to reach the site Thursday because of poor access to the area and difficult terrain.

"The first thing we'll do today is place an emergency helipad at the site, and hopefully we can get on the ground soon," Bakti said.

Local daily newspaper Kompas reported that families of the missing had begun a search mission themselves, frustrated with the slow response.

US-born al Qaeda cleric Awlaki killed
SANAA: Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born cleric linked to al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, has been killed, Yemen's Defence Ministry said on Friday.

"The terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed along with some of his companions," it said in a statement sent by text message to journalists, but gave

no details.

A Yemeni security official said Awlaki, who is of Yemeni descent, was hit in an air raid and said those killed with him were suspected al Qaeda

members.

It was not immediately clear if Yemeni forces had carried out the raid or if Awlaki had been killed by a US drone strike. A US drone aircraft targeted but

missed Alwaki in May.

US officials were not immediately available for comment.

Awlaki had been implicated in a botched attempt by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to bomb a US-bound plane in 2009. US authorities have

branded him a "global terrorist" but Sanaa had previously appeared reluctant to act against him.

No Afghanistan solution without Pakistan: Mullen

WASHINGTON: There can be no solution to the conflict in Afghanistan without Pakistan, the top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, said Friday as

he stepped down from his post.

"I continue to believe that there is no solution in the region without Pakistan, and no stable future in the region without a partnership," Mullen said at a

ceremony to handover to the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey.

"I urged Marty to remember the importance of Pakistan to all of this, to try and do a better job than I did with that vexing and yet vital relationship," Mullen

added in remarks.

"Our strategy is the right one. We must keep executing it."

Last week Mullen accused Pakistan of exporting violence to Afghanistan through proxies and charged that the Haqqani network, an Al-Qaeda-linked

group, was a "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence.

His comments triggered new tensions with Washington's uneasy ally, Islamabad, with Pakistani leaders closing ranks against US pressure for action

against the Haqqanis and refusing to be pressured into doing more in the war on terror.

Mullen also told Dempsey at the ceremony at Fort Myers in Virginia that "his biggest challenge is going to be Afghanistan" where more than 100,000

American troops are due to hand over responsibility for security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

The challenge would be "in seeing this critical transition through to its completion, in making sure that the security gains we have made are not

squandered by the scourge of corruption or the lack of good governance that still plagues the country," Mullen said.(AFP)

Awlaqi death a "major blow" to Qaeda: US

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama said Friday the killing of US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi was a "major blow" to Al-Qaeda's Yemeni outfit and

vowed to be relentless in destroying global terror networks.

Notching another success in his pursuit of top terror leaders, Obama said Awlaqi was the leader of external operations for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian

Peninsula (AQAP) and had plotted the murder of innocent Americans.

"The death of Awlaqi is a major blow to Al-Qaeda's most active operational affiliate. (It) marks another significant milestone in the broader effort to

defeat Al-Qaeda and its affiliates," Obama said.

He said Awlaqi's killing in an air raid in Yemen was a tribute to the US intelligence community and to Yemen's cooperation with the United States in a

common anti-terror campaign.

That appeared to be a hint that there may be truth to reports CIA intelligence and drone aircraft may have been used in the killing, though the White

House would not be drawn into details of the operation.

US officials believe Awlaqi played a significant role in the attempt to bring down a US airliner over Detroit by an assailant with explosives sewn into his

underwear on December 25, 2009.

He was also believed to have coordinated the thwarted 2010 plot to blow up cargo aircraft bound for the United States and had called for attacks

against Arab and US governments across the world.

Obama also warned, during a retirement ceremony for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, that though "weakened," AQAP

was still "dangerous."

The president also appeared to preview an expanded US sweep against extremists, following action against terror suspects in recent months in

Yemen, Pakistani tribal regions and Somalia, by Washington and its allies.

"Going forward, we will remain vigilant against any threats to the United States or our allies and partners," Obama said. (AFP)

Taliban spokesman said that the captives were released on the occasion of Eid.



Four Turkish engineers kidnapped by Taliban more than eight months ago were freed overnight, their abductors and officials said.



The men, taken captive last December in eastern Afghanistan s Paktia province, were handed to the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) in the neighboring province of Ghazni, reported a news agency.



"We were kidnapped by the Taliban eight and a half months ago. We re released on the occasion of the Eid by Ameer-ul Momineen Mullah Mohammad Omar," one of the captives said, referring to the Taliban leader.

The Turk, who gave his name only as Imam, said "no ransom was paid" and "we were not tortured" while in captivity, before being rushed to Ghazni city.



Authorities refused to give details but Haji Zahir, a Ghazni province tribal elder who facilitated the release, said that the Taliban freed the four "only on the occasion of Eid."



Eid al-Fitr is a major Muslim festival which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. The release of prisoners at this time is an Afghan tradition.



"Yes we freed the four Turkish engineers on the occasion of the Eid," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said.



Turkey has hundreds of military troops operating under the US-led NATO force in Afghanistan, in a deadly decade-long conflict.

BB evaluated NS weak inept: WikiLeaks
WASHINGTON: Former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto thought Nawaz Sharif a weak and not much capable person, but she disliked more NS’s brother Shahbaz Sharif, who to her appeared more intelligent than NS, but much more cruel.

According to WikiLeaks, US embassy in a diplomatic analysis sent on August 31, 1998 referring to Benazir views said that Shabaz Sharif in her views was though more intelligent than his brother, but much more cruel than NS. And in this connection she quoted the instance of that bureaucrat, whom Shabaz had ordered to keep standing in the stinking water. She didn’t think NS’s fiddling with Islamisation merely a political opportunism instead she was of the view that this reflected the inner side of NS, as his father was in league with the Lahore Ulema besides NS was upbringing his offspring on the same lines.

Japan's typhoon death toll rises to eight
TOKYO: The death toll from Typhoon Talas rose to eight in western Japan with another 33 missing after the powerful storm brought heavy rains and fierce winds to the region, a report said Sunday.

Talas, which made landfall on Saturday, packed gusts of up to 108 kilometres (68 miles) per hour, flooding rivers and causing landslides as it cut across the main island of Shikoku and the western part of Honshu island.

Public broadcaster NHK reported at least eight people died and 33 were missing, while another 94 people were injured.

The powerful typhoon was slowly moving north into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) on Sunday morning, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

In Nara prefecture's Totsukawa village, a gushing river washed away housing complexes, leaving at least two people dead and seven missing, the local government said. Officials in Wakayama prefecture reported three people dead and 10 missing.

Iran says India paid all $5 bln of oil debts IRNA
TEHRAN: India has paid off all oil debts accumulated this year due to a sanctions-related problem, Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani told the official IRNA news agency on Sunday.

"Although all the $5 billion of India's oil debt has been cleared, because of selling oil again Iran will always be a creditor of that country," Bahmani said, adding the payment was received in cash and not in kind through a bartering system. "So far, Iran has not had a bartering system with India for receiving oil debts but if it happens it would be for those products which are of a high quality and are needed by Iran," he said.

Narayanan was obstructionist on Kashmir U.S.
NEW DELHI: The exit of M K Narayanan as the National Security Adviser (NSA) in January 2010 was seen as a “positive” development by the US which considered his view on Kashmir as “obstructionist“.

In a cable to the U.S. State Department, then American Ambassador Timothy Roemer said that India’s Kashmir policy became “more consolidated” under the “more forward leaning Home Minister P Chidambaram”.

At the outset, Mr. Roemer mentions that Mr. Narayanan’s exit was a “plus side” as he played a “dominant, conservative and often obstructive role in GoI policy on Kashmir“.

“The exit of M K Narayanan from the National Security Advisor position in the Prime Minister’s Office has potentially important implications for India policy on Kashmir,” he observed in a cable on February 1, last year.

The communication is part of the over 2.5 lakh cables released by WikiLeaks.

“Narayanan cast a huge shadow over decision-making on internal security issues and, due to his intelligence and security background as well as his ties to the Nehru-Gandhi family, he seldom lost a bureaucratic or policy battle,” the U.S. envoy wrote back to Washington.

“Narayanan’s natural instinct on Kashmir (and Pakistan) was cautious, conservative, and obstructionist,” Mr. Roemer said.

He observed that with Mr. Narayanan’s departure, Mr. Chidambaram will become the primary source of decision-making on Kashmir.

“In the last six months, he (Chidambaram) has shown that he is willing to be a risk-taker on this intractable issue,” Mr. Roemer said.

Former Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon took over as the National Security Adviser on January 23, 2010 after Narayanan was appointed as governor of West Bengal.

India was never serious about Headley extradition'
NEW DELHI: In December 2009, national security adviser M K Narayanan had told then US ambassador to India Timothy Roemer that New Delhi's demand for extraditing Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley was mere posturing to mislead the Indian public, and the government was not seeking his extradition "at this time".

A secret cable - which is part of the latest tranche of diplomatic correspondence released by the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks - sent a day after Narayanan's telephonic conversation with Roemer on December 16, 2009 said the Indian government would be "in the hot seat if it were seen as relinquishing extradition" of the Lashkar-e-Taiba operative.

Narayanan said that it was "difficult not to be seen making the effort". He was responding to a demand by Roemer that India should refrain from requesting Headley's extradition.

Roemer explained that US hopes to secure crucial information from Headley, but the latter may clam up because of India's insistence that he be extradited to them. "He (Roemer) explained that the threat of extradition to India could cause Headley's cooperation to dry up, but that allowing the US judicial process to unfold or securing a plea agreement that both reflects his overall culpability and ensures his continued cooperation would maximize our ability to obtain further information from Headley," the cable said.

Headley had pleaded guilty to all charges in a Chicago court last year, and is now awaiting sentence. The extradition treaty's prohibition on an individual being extradited to face trial for the same conduct or offence might be an obstacle, the envoy had told Narayanan. "If Headley were convicted, an extradition request by India would not be considered until his sentence in the United States was fully served, which could be decades, if ever," he had said.

Roemer also complained about the leakage of information on the Headley case provided by the US authorities. "He stressed that the Indian government's discretion in protecting this sensitive information was of critical importance, calling attention to recent media speculation containing details of the FBI briefing sourced to unnamed Indian government officials, which could compromise our ability to obtain further cooperation and information from Headley," the cable added.

Narayanan had dismissed media reports as "preposterous".

Strauss-Kahn returns home to uneasy silence
PARIS: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, once a favourite to be the next French president, came home on Sunday to an expected icy greeting from party allies after a legal odyssey in New York that reshaped France’s political landscape.

His long-awaited homecoming marks the end of a long struggle through New York’s criminal court system nearly four months after he was pulled off a plane by police, accused of attempting to rape a Guinean maid in a luxury hotel suite.

Days after New York prosecutors dropped their case against him, the former head of the International Monetary Fund was being showered with applause at the fund’s office in Washington D.C., where he apologised to his one-time staffers.

But Strauss-Kahn is unlikely to get the hero’s welcome in Paris, where his reputation has suffered badly despite initial shouts of joy that he would avoid prosecution in a legal system widely seen in France as too hasty and too harsh.

The discomfort is most palpable in the Socialist Party, which is gearing up for a primary in October after reconfiguring itself around two leading candidates in the run-up to France’s presidential election in April, 2012.

A day before his homecoming, Socialists were maintaining an uneasy silence about his future role, and public attention in France was more focused on the upcoming trial of former president Jacques Chirac.

Many Socialists had already distanced themselves from the one-time presidential front-runner, reflecting widespread distaste for his reputation as a womaniser even in a country known for tolerating adultery among politicians.

Francois Hollande, the leading Socialist candidate, has spoken vaguely of a role for Strauss-Kahn in the election with no mention of a ministerial post. Rival Martine Aubry, also the party’s leader, was similarly equanimous this week when she told Canal+ television that she agreed with other women when it came to Strauss-Kahn’s attitude toward the opposite sex.

Of his closest allies, Pierre Moscovici, a former Socialist minister, has dropped him to become campaign coordinator for Hollande. Veteran leftist Jean-Christope Cambadelis is backing Aubry.

Former Socialist prime minister Michel Rocard, taking a shot over the bow for which he later apologised, said on Monday that Strauss-Kahn “has a mental illness … He’s out of the game.”

Adding to his troubles, Strauss-Kahn still faces a civil case in New York and an accusation of attempted rape by a woman 30 years his junior in France.

Gunmen kill former Afghan Mujahideen commander
HELMAND: Unknown gunmen on Saturday killed an auxiliary police commander in Lashkar Gah city, the capital of southern Helmand province, the governor of the district where the police commander served told Reuters.

Abdul Ali, a former Mujahideen commander, was a powerful auxiliary police commander in Helmand’s Marjah district, said Marjah district governor Abdul Mutalib