Powerful earthquake strikes off Japan island of Okinawa

A powerful earthquake has struck in the Pacific Ocean, about 80km (50 miles) off the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.

A tsunami warning was initially issued, but later lifted. There are no reports of major damage or casualties.

The Japan Meteorological Agency gave the strength as 6.9 while the US Geological Survey put it at 7.3.

Japan is often hit by earthquakes. In 1995, a magnitude-7.2 quake in the port city of Kobe killed 6,400 people.

The latest tremor occurred at 0531 on Saturday (2031 GMT on Friday).

BBC News website reader Ivan Brackin, who lives on Yoron Island, said it was the biggest quake he had felt in his 40 years in Japan but there had been no visible effects in his area.

"We're 30 yards [metres] from the sea and no sign of a tsunami," he said.

"I woke up to violent shudders that lasted about six seconds then a pause followed by a couple of sharp jumps. Jumpers are the most dangerous so that sent me under the desk."

Suicide bombings strike Afghan capital Kabul

The blast happened near a shopping centre in Kabul

At least nine people have died in a series of explosions and gunfire in the Afghan capital, Kabul, officials say.

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives and two other attackers were shot dead, a government official said.

A spokesman for the Taliban said the Islamist rebels claimed responsibility for the attacks, carried out close to a shopping centre and a hotel.

Kabul has been the target of sometimes deadly insurgent attacks, but has been relatively quiet for the past month.

On 18 January, Taliban bombers and gunmen attacked government targets and shopping malls in Kabul, killing 12 people.

Crying and shouting
The BBC's Martin Patience, in Kabul, says the first blast happened at 0630 local time (0200 GMT) on Friday, close to a large shopping centre.

Kabul police official Abdul Ghafor Sayedzada said two explosions happened near the nine-storey Kabul City Center shopping area, close to the Safi Landmark Hotel, the Associated Press reported.

A building in front of the hotel had caught fire, he said.

At least two smaller explosions were heard later along with gunfire.

Officials said two policemen had been killed in the attack, and there were reports of others injured. It was not clear whether any foreigners had been killed.

One eyewitness said that he saw one suicide bomber blowing himself up on the first floor of the hotel.

"I saw foreigners were crying and shouting. It was a very bad situation inside. God help me, otherwise I would be dead," one hotel worker, called Najibullah, said.

Sirens blared across the city and announcement from loudspeakers warned people to stay indoors.

It is not clear what exactly was the target of the attack or who carried it out, our correspondent says.

Although the shopping centre is in the heart of Kabul, our correspondent says the timing of the explosion - in the morning at the start of what is effectively the Afghan weekend - meant few people were likely to be in the area.

The violence comes as Nato and Afghan forces continue Operation Moshtarak, driving Taliban fighters from their strongholds in Helmand province, in the south of Afghanistan.

Nationwide Strike Paralyzes Greece

Clashes have broken out between police and protesters in Greece, as up to two million people continue to strike over austerity measures.

Police fired tear gas at a group of some 50 protesters on the edges of the rally.

It is the second general strike in two weeks and coincides with growing anger at the EU's response to the crisis.

More than half-a-million civil servants have reportedly abandoned their posts, leaving the country paralysed.

Trains and ferries have been cancelled, the country's airspace closed to all flights, and tourist attractions closed, leaving travellers stranded.

Bicycle Rigged as Bomb Kills 7 In Afghan Provincial Capital

A few miles away from where Marines battled sporadically with Taliban insurgents hidden in protected bunkers, a bicycle rigged as a bomb exploded in a bazaar here in the capital of Helmand Province, killing 7 people and wounding 14.

The explosion in the center of the city was a terrifying reminder of the continuing vulnerability of civilians in Helmand as American, Afghan and British soldiers waged sporadic gun battles on the 11th day of an offensive against the Taliban stronghold in Marja, a town a few miles away.

Several of those who lost relatives had recently fled Marja for what they believed would be the safety of the provincial capital. Rahmatullah Khan 30, was one of them.

“We actually escaped from Marja, and we thought this place would be safe,” he said. “But what happened, my cousin was killed and my brother had serious injuries inflicted and is now admitted to the emergency hospital.

“This is not a country,” he continued. “Actually this is a hell for us. Every day our people are burning, sometimes killed by I.E.D.’s and sometimes killed by foreign troops and sometimes killed by Taliban,” he said, referring to the homemade bombs that the military calls improvised explosive devices, which are the leading cause of allied casualties.

“We actually don’t know what’s going on in our country,” he said. “Why they are fighting? With whom are they fighting? And it is poor people who receive the casualties. They should fight each other. Why are they killing civilians?”

Muhammad Naseem, 26, a mechanic who lost his brother in Tuesday’s explosion in Lashkar Gah, arrived from Marja just before the Marine offensive began. “We thought this place will be safe, but here lies my brother Nazar Muhammad,” Mr. Naseem said.

A NATO service member died in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday when a bomb exploded nearby. A military spokesman said the explosion was unrelated to the offensive under way in Helmand.

NATO Airstrike Kills at Least 21 Civilians in Afghanistan

Afghan officials say a NATO airstrike has killed at least 21 civilians in southern Afghanistan.

An Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman says another 14 people were wounded in the strike Sunday in Uruzgan province.

NATO confirmed that civilians, including women and children, were killed in a strike in the province, but did not provide a casualty toll.

The U.S. commander of the international force, Stanley McChrystal, expressed regret for the incident, saying in a statement that killing or injuring civilians undermines the Afghan people's trust in NATO's mission. Uruzgan is just northeast of Helmand province, where NATO and Afghan forces are engaged in a major operation against Taliban insurgents.

So far, at least 16 civilians, about 120 insurgents and 13 NATO troops, including one who died in a roadside bombing Sunday, have been killed in the week-long offensive.

On Sunday, the head of the U.S. Central Command, responsible for all military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, said the ongoing offensive in southern Afghanistan is just the start of a long campaign against the Taliban.

General David Petraeus did not predict how long the operation in Marjah would last, but said allied troops will focus on taking away Taliban safe havens over the next 12 to 18 months.

Two other NATO soldiers were killed in a bomb blast in southern Afghanistan Sunday, but a NATO statement said neither casualty was related to the offensive.

In The Hague Sunday, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said he expects nearly 2,000 Dutch troops to leave Afghanistan in August, as scheduled.

Mr. Balkenende made the comment a day after his government collapsed, when a main coalition partner said it could not support extending the Afghan mission.

The controversy over the Dutch deployment follows U.S. requests for NATO allies to commit more troops and resources to the Afghan war effort.

Also Sunday, Fox News reported that police in northwestern Pakistan recently arrested one of the top 10 most wanted Afghan Taliban leaders, Mulvi Kabir. He was the governor of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province before the Taliban was ousted in 2001.

The cable TV channel said information leading to Kabir's capture was obtained from Afghanistan's top Taliban military commander Mullah Baradar, whose arrest in the Pakistani city of Karachi was announced last week.

Powerful quake hits near China-Russia border

An earthquake of magnitude 6.7 hit near the China-Russia border on Thursday, but its epicenter was extremely deep and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The quake, which occurred at 0113 GMT, was centered midway between the Russian city of Vladivostok and Chongjin, North Korea's third largest city. It struck at a depth of 563 km (350 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center put the coordinates at 42.7 north and 130.9 east. It said there was no danger of a tsunami.

Early estimates put the magnitude at 6.9. The USGS later put the figure at 6.7, a powerful quake but one with effects on the surface likely to be minimized by the extreme depth.

"As far as we know, there have been no reports of damage," an official at China's national seismological bureau told Reuters.

"There have been no reports of any damage here. Everything is calm," a spokesman for Russia's Emergencies Ministry in the Far East city of Vladivostok said by telephone.

"Since the earthquake was 560 km underground, there shouldn't have been much damage," Ham Young-mo at South Korea's National Earthquake Center said.

North Korea's official news agency carried no immediate reports on the quake.

Dubai narrows down six more suspects in Hamas assassination

Dubai police have narrowed down another six suspects behind the assassination of a Hamas commander last month, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, in addition to the 11 European passport-holders named earlier this week.

The names of the additional six have yet to be released and the actual identities of the other 11 suspects are still in question. Ireland has denied any record of the three suspects named as Irish passport-holders, and at least five Israelis who share the same names as the suspects claim their identities were stolen.

This combination image shows 11 suspects wanted in connection
with the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Dubai Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim announced on Monday that senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was murdered by an 11-member hit squad of mercenaries carrying European passports.
Tamim said that arrest warrants would be issued soon and while he did not accuse Israel directly, he did say it was possible that "leaders of certain countries gave orders to their intelligence agents."

"We do not rule out Mossad, but when we arrest those suspects we will know who masterminded it. We have not issued arrest warrants yet, but will do so soon," he told a press conference on Monday.

Two Palestinians have already been arrested in connection to the assassination.

The group was responsible for killing Mabhouh in his hotel room on January 20, a slaying that has elicited vows of revenge from the Palestinian militant group.

Twelve Taliban killed in NATO Offensive

The assault, one of NATO's biggest against the Taliban since the Afghan war began in 2001, is the first test of U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to seize insurgent-held areas ahead of a planned 2011 troop drawdown.

"There were bombardments in parts of Marjah and as a result 12 Taliban have been killed," Dawud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Helmand, told reporters.

The United States' top military officer on Sunday said the assault on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province had got "off to a good start."

"It's actually very difficult to predict (the end)," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters during a visit to Israel. "We have from a planning standpoint talked about a few weeks, but I don't know that."

The attack started on Saturday with waves of helicopters ferrying troops into Marjah and the nearby Nad Ali district. The next day, U.S. Marines came under intense fire in the heart of Marjah.

NATO rockets killed 12 Afghan civilians on Sunday in the second day of an offensive designed to impose Afghan authority on one of the last big Taliban strongholds in the country's most violent province.

The offensive has been flagged for weeks, to persuade Taliban fighters to leave so the area can be recaptured with minimal damage or loss of civilian life, in the hope that the roughly 100,000 people there will welcome the Afghan administration.

Iran hacking into broadcasts of at least 3 major news outlets

At least three major international media outlets have accused Tehran of interfering with their broadcasting, while cracking down on foreign programs aired in the Islamic Republic.

The BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America reported jamming that began as Iran marked the 31st anniversary of its Islamic revolution.

"We condemn any jamming of these channels. It contravenes international agreements and is interfering with the free and open flow of international transmissions that are protected by international treaties," the broadcasters said in a joint statement.

"The Iranian authorities are using the same satellite services to broadcast freely around the world including broadcasts in English and Arabic; at the same time they are denying their own people programs coming from the same satellites from the rest of the world," they added.

The United States on Thursday accused Iran of imposing a "near-total information blockade" over the course of the day. The State Department cited evidence that telephone networks had been silenced, SMS messages blocked and that the Internet had been "throttled." The Gmail email system had also been blocked, said sources.

Meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader on Thursday warned the West to stop putting obstacles in his country's path.

State Press TV reported on Friday that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei thanked the tens of millions who gathered to mark the anniversary of the revolution, saying it reflected the nation's strength. "It's time for foreign enemies to wake up and abandon futile efforts to subjugate Iran," he said.

Earlier Thursday, the State Department said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement that the country has succeeded at creating higher levels of uranium enrichment shows its nuclear intentions are "anything but peaceful."

Ahmadinejad said scientists had succeeded at producing a batch of uranium enrichment at a much higher level that it had previously accomplished. The amount was sufficient for running in nuclear power reactors, but still well below the levels needed for weapons grade uranium.

But Iran's nuclear ambitions continue to draw concerns from the United States and European allies who fear Iran is seeking the capability to build nuclear weapons. Iran has rebuffed diplomatic overtures to resolve the issue and is in defiance of UN Security Council demands that it suspend uranium enrichment.

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Pakistani police killed in suicide bomb attack

A suicide bombing killed at least 19 people, including 11 policemen, in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border Wednesday, an official said.

The bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a vehicle carrying the policemen in the tribal district of Khyber along a main highway leading to Afghanistan, said Sajid Khan, an official of the local administration.

According to Khan, eight security personnel from the tribal police, locally called Khasadar Force, and five civilians died on the spot in the bombing, said Khan.

Among those killed was Zarmat Khan, an officer who was recently honored with an award by the government for his efforts against Islamist insurgents.

Six more people - three policemen and three civilians - who were injured in the blast succumbed to their injured at a hospital hours later.

Khyber is plagued with Islamist militancy and has seen several deadly clashes between the Taliban fighters and government forces in the past. The rugged area hosts the main supply route for Western forces stationed in landlocked Afghanistan.

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Al-Qaida helping Taliban to destabilise Pak Government

Al-Qaida is helping the Pakistani Taliban to "destablise" the government in Islamabad and the US has evidence to suggest that the Osama Bin Laden's outfit is helping them plan attacks inside Pakistan, defence secretary Robert Gates has said.

Gates said the Obama Administration is comfortable with the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

"The al-Qaida is helping the Pakistani Taliban try to destabilise the Pakistani government there. There is evidence that al-Qaida is helping them plan these attacks, the targeting, the training on capabilities, and so on. These threats are all mixed together," he told FOX News.

"It's a syndicate. And (the United States is) trying to help the Pakistanis understand that if any of the three of these, or others such as the Haqqani network, are successful, it redounds to the benefit of the others. So we've got to attack this problem as a whole, rather than piecemeal," Gates said.

Gates said though he has no idea where the top al-Qaida leaders including Osama bin Laden are, but there could be opportunities once Pakistan forces start operation in the region and they start to move around.

"I think that the actions that the Pakistani government is taking in South Waziristan, one of positive -- on of the many positive aspects of that have been flushing some of these guys out of South Waziristan. And the minute they begin to move around, then there are some opportunities," Gates said.

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Man 'buried under rubble for four weeks' found alive in Haiti

A man who has been pulled alive from the rubble of a marketplace in Port-au-Prince may have been trapped there since the devastating earthquake struck the Haitian capital 28 days ago.

The 28-year-old, identified as Evans Muncie, was found under the remains of the Croix Bossal market where he sold rice. He had not been seen since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake levelled the city on January 12, killing over 200,000 people.

Mr. Muncie was discovered by people who had been digging at the marketplace. He was taken to an American field hospital in Port-au-Prince where he was treated for severe dehydration and malnutrition.

Doctors said Mr. Muncie was much disorientated and at times thought he was still under the rubble while he was being treated at the tent hospital.

It could not be confirmed exactly how long Mr Muncie was trapped but his family said he had been missing since January 12.

Dr Mike Connelly told CNN, the American news network: "He was emaciated. He hadn't had anything in quite some time. He had open wounds that were festering on both of his feet."

According to CNN, Mr. Muncie told doctors that somebody in a white coat had occasionally brought him water; however it is not known whether he had been hallucinating.

He also said he could hear bulldozers around him working to demolish damaged buildings while he lay underneath the rubble near by.

Dr Connelly said Mr. Muncie must have had access to water to have survived the entire four weeks trapped under a building.

The US network showed photographs of Mr.Muncie being treated by doctors.

Despite the Haitian Government calling for an end to search and rescue operations on January 23, survivors continued to be pulled from the rubble in the following days.

On January 27, 16-year-old Daline Etienne was rescued from beneath the debris of her house; 15 days after the earthquake had forced the building to collapse on top of her.

The rescue of the teenager, who appeared in relatively good health, was deemed a miracle.

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Iran to step up uranium enrichment

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during a ceremony to introduce the domestically produced Simorq propulsion system, for rockets to carry satellites into space, during a ceremony in Tehran February 3, 2010

Iran's president on Sunday ordered his atomic agency to significantly enrich the country's stockpile of uranium, angering Western nations who want to the Islamic republic to halt its nuclear program.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad maintained, however, that Iran was also still willing to follow a U.N. plan to export its uranium abroad for further enrichment. Refining uranium produces nuclear fuel for a power plant but if carried out far enough can create material for a weapon.

The mixed messages from Tehran have infuriated the U.S. and its European allies, who claim Iran is only stalling for time as it attempts to build a nuclear weapon. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called for the international community to pressure Iran into abandoning its nuclear program.

German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said: "Today's statement shows that farce is being played out just like we have seen in the past, that the outstretched hand of the international community has not only not been taken but pushed back."

By announcing that Iran would enrich the fuel on its own, Ahmadinejad appeared to reject the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency's deal — even though he had seemed to endorse it just days earlier.

Iran wants to enrich its stockpile of uranium to 20 percent, up from 3.5 percent, to power a research reactor to produce medical isotopes. But the international community has demanded a halt to all enrichment activity because the same process is used to produce weapons-grade material.

While material for a nuclear weapon is enriched to a level of 90 percent, just getting its stockpile to the 20 percent mark is a major step for the country's nuclear program.

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Taiwanese military orders German helicopters

Taiwan's US-made F-16 fighter jets release flares during war games

Taiwan's military will buy up to 20 helicopters from a German manufacturer, it was confirmed today, days after Beijing lashed out at a multibillion-dollar US arms deal with the island.

China has yet to respond to news of the agreement, thought to be the first European sale to Taiwan's armed forces since the early 90s.

Taiwan's defense ministry spokesman Martin Yu said the island would buy EC-225 search-and-rescue helicopters. The $111m contract with Eurocopter, a subsidiary of EADS, is for three helicopters, with an option to buy up to 17 more.

The move could fray Sino-European ties, already under strain over trade and currency issues. Yesterday China filed a complaint to the World Trade Organization over the EU's anti-dumping tariffs on shoes.

The arms deal could also affect Beijing's relations with Taipei, which have improved markedly since President Ma Ying-jeou took office on a platform of improving ties two years ago.

However, others believe that China could remain silent or issue only a muted response if it is satisfied that the helicopters are not for military tasks.

The Taiwanese defense ministry said it was not an arms order and the EC-225 is a civilian model. But the Taiwanese armed forces have bought non-military helicopters in the past and customized them with equipment suited to military models.

Defense News, which first reported the sale, said the contract would be signed within a few days.

China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to questions on the helicopter sale.
Calls to the Taiwan Affairs Office rang unanswered.

China hit back unusually hard following last week's announcement of the US's $6.4bn arms package, which includes Patriot missiles, naval minesweepers and Black Hawk helicopters. It warned of plans to impose sanctions on US firms that sell weapons to Taiwan and said it was "unavoidable" that co-operation on wider issues would be affected.

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13 dead as Pakistan bus, hospital bombed

The wounded from the first attack were being treated at the scene of the second blast

Two bombs exploded in Pakistan’s largest city Friday, one outside a hospital treating casualties from the first attack. At least 12 people were killed and more than 50 wounded.

The first blast targeted a bus carrying Shiite Muslim worshipers, most of them women and children.

Twelve people were killed in the attack, and 49 were injured, officials said.

The second bomb two hours later wounded several more people outside the entrance to the emergency ward at Jinnah Hospital, witness Imran Ahmad said.

Karachi has a history of religious violence and has been tense in recent weeks due to deadly clashes between rival political parties.

In late December, a bomb killed 44 Shiites attending a procession in the city, sparking riots.

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Pakistan Arrests 35 in U.S. Soldier’s Deaths

Dozens of school girls were injured in Wednesday's blast in North-West Frontier Province

Pakistani officials said Thursday they have arrested 35 suspects as part of their investigation into a bombing that killed three American soldiers and four Pakistanis on Wednesday in northwest Pakistan.

“They are all locals,” said the duty officer at the police station in the town of Balambat, where the bombing occurred, in the Lower Dir district.

The police made 30 arrests and five were made by members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, according to a senior official in the North-West Frontier Province.

“We are questioning them in an effort to trace those who orchestrated the suicide attack,” a police official, Naeem Khan, told The Associated Press. He added that police investigators believe the explosion was caused by a car bomber rather than a roadside bomb with a remote detonator.

Three of the Pakistani victims were schoolgirls, and two American soldiers also were wounded by the blast. The soldiers were part of a Special Operations team that has been training Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps in counterinsurgency techniques.

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54 killed as suicide bomber targets Shiite pilgrims in Iraq

A female suicide bomber detonated a vest rigged with explosives among a crowd of Shiite Muslim pilgrims Monday in northeast Baghdad, killing 54 people and wounding 109, the latest in a string of attacks that have unnerved the city as pivotal elections loom next month.

The bomber hid the explosives under her voluminous black abaya, or cloak, and detonated them among pilgrims gathered at a hospitality tent in the neighborhood of Bab al Shams. The dead included five women employed to search female pilgrims for bombs, police said.

Taxi driver Ahmad Najem, 30, who witnessed the attack, described seeing a huge fireball erupt from the tent, followed by the wails of the injured.

"I saw the bodies of women and children, and bags and slippers strewn all around in pools of blood," said Najem, who joined in helping evacuate people.

The pilgrims were among hundreds of thousands walking to the shrine city of Karbala to mark Arbaeen, the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, a 7th century figure revered by Shiites. Traditionally, residents set up hospitality tents to serve refreshments to the pilgrims.

Such public displays of Shiite religiosity were banned during Saddam Hussein's rule. Since his fall from power in 2003, millions have been making the journey on foot to the Karbala shrine. Just as regularly, insurgents have attacked them along the way, and Monday's bombing echoed one a year earlier in which a suicide attacker killed 40 pilgrims, at a hospitality tent.

But a recent pilgrimage had gone off almost without incident, drawing boasts from the government that the security forces were in full control.

Monday's bombing was the bloodiest of the year, and was the fifth suicide attack in Baghdad in a week. It coincided with widespread fear that insurgent groups are gearing up for a major onslaught in the weeks before the March 7 national elections.

A dramatic deterioration in security could affect the withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraq, set to take place by the end of August.

American commanders have said they intend to assess things after the elections and decide whether to send home an estimated 65,000 combat troops, leaving a force of about 50,000 in Iraq.

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Afghanistan conference eyes Taliban plan

London plays host Thursday to a crucial day-long international conference to chart the future of war-torn Afghanistan.

A central focus of the summit is a $500 million pay-for-peace proposal to bring Taliban fighters into the civilian fold if they promise to renounce violence.

The conference, which gathers more than 60 countries and organizations, reflects the urgency of international powers to find ways to strengthen the Afghan government in the face of a persistent Taliban and al Qaeda insurgency.

It is co-hosted by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Sworn in after a fraud-marred presidential election last year, Karzai vowed to tackle corruption and said he expected the country's security to be wholly in the hands of Afghan army and police by 2014.

The United States has said it wants to start bringing American troops home by 2011.

"Tomorrow's conference on Afghanistan comes at a critical moment," Ban told reporters Wednesday at U.N. headquarters in New York before leaving for London.

"The Afghan people want a larger say in their future. ... At the same time, Afghans need to know that the international community will support them, over the long term, in building their institutions of government."

Ban has named a veteran Swedish diplomat, Staffan de Mistura, as the new top U.N. official in Afghanistan. De Mistura, who begins his stint on March 1, was a former U.N. representative in Iraq.

At Thursday's summit, Karzai is expected to ask for $500 million for an initiative to offer jobs and homes to moderate Taliban fighters, helping them return to civilian life.

Ban has said he supports the plan, and Afghanistan's major international donors are expected to pledge the money.

A "thing to watch is whether or not President Karzai and we can come up with a program for reintegration of those lower-level Taliban, which will chip away at the power of the Taliban and help to support the efforts of the Afghan security forces," said U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat from Michigan and the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who just returned from Afghanistan.

U.S. commanders acknowledge the need to bring at least some lower-level Taliban leaders into the political and social fabric of Afghanistan.

When asked whether the Taliban could play a role in the future of Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. military commander there, said, "I think any Afghans can play a role if they focus on the future, and not the past."

U.S. military intelligence estimates that the Taliban now has shadow governments in 33 of 34 provinces, raising questions about whether insurgents will be motivated to reintegrate.

In a statement addressing the conference, the Taliban said the West has held conferences in the past to discuss Afghanistan's future, but there is only one solution to end the conflict: withdrawal.

"It is a matter of great sorrow that the invaders led by U.S.A. are bent on sticking to the military approach of the issue," the statement said.

"We want to say clearly, if the invaders want to save themselves from further financial and life losses, they should not deceive their people by illusory plans and strategies, nor they should waste time on them, or make our people face further sufferings and problems. They should accept the solution put forward by the Islamic Emirate, which is the full withdrawal of the invading forces from our country."

A second major gathering is expected to take place in a few months in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.

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Sri Lankan president leads in early results

Sri Lanka's president took a strong lead in early returns on Wednesday, but his main challenger said he feared arrest after troops surrounded the hotel where he and other opposition leaders were staying.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa led with 1.51 million votes against 983,022 for his former army commander, General Sarath Fonseka, with results from about a quarter of the votes cast in Sri Lanka's first post-war presidential poll officially released.

The two war victors turned to foes in a bloody campaign that culminated in a largely peaceful election on Tuesday, with independent observers putting turnout at between 70 and 80 percent of the Indian Ocean island's 14 million registered voters.

Fonseka, a political neophyte, delivered an election day shock by admitting he was not registered to vote. Rajapaksa's camp said it would challenge his eligibility after the Election Commission said that it did not disqualify him.

"The legal people are looking at it, but it may be only of academic interest if he loses," Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal told Reuters.

As the results came in, Rajapaksa's supporters lit celebratory firecrackers in the capital, Colombo.

The military intrigue built after a surprisingly close and bitter contest between two estranged allies who led Sri Lanka to victory over the Tamil Tiger separatists in May, after a 25-year civil war many had deemed unwinnable.

HOTEL SURROUNDED

Early on Wednesday, Fonseka said soldiers had surrounded the Cinnamon Lakeside hotel in Colombo where he was staying with former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the official opposition leader, and other opposition party heads.

"These people have surrounded the hotel with military and threatened my security people," Fonseka told Reuters by phone. "They had a plan to surround us and take us into custody and I don't know if this is that phase of that particular operation."

A Reuters reporter saw several hundred soldiers including commandos posted outside the hotel after blocking the road in front.

A military spokesman had no comment, but a senior military source and a top presidential aide said Fonseka had been put under watch to ensure he did not attempt to organise a coup with loyalists from an army he commanded just eight months ago. Fonseka in the final days of the campaign said the government had plans to either steal the vote or arrest him should he win. The government laughed it off, saying Rajapaksa would win the race cleanly and had no need to cheat.

The general on Tuesday said he expected to win by a million votes, but he did not even win his home electorate of Ambalangoda, tallying just 35.9 percent to Rajapaksa's 62.7 percent.

Rajapaksa called the poll two years early, hoping to capitalise on his post-war popularity to win a second six-year term to cement his legacy.

Fonseka as army commander ran a relentless counterinsurgency campaign to crush the Tigers, while Rajapaksa deflected an international push for a ceasefire and criticism over civilian deaths that prompted calls for a war crimes probe.

Whoever wins will take the reins of a $40 billion economy which has enjoyed a partial peace dividend, and is on the path to recovery with big Chinese and Indian investments into infrastructure and plans to put $4 billion into development.

Foreign investors have put more than $1.5 billion into government securities, and the Colombo Stock Exchange .CSE, turned in one of 2009's best returns at 125 percent.

Both Rajapaksa and Fonseka have pledged to dole out costly subsidies and public sector pay rises, which economists say will make it hard for Sri Lanka to meet its cost-cutting obligations under a $2.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan.

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Doctors: Haiti medical situation shameful

New York City -- Four years ago, the devastating Hurricane Katrina affected millions in the United States. The initial medical response was ill-equipped, understaffed, poorly coordinated and delayed. Criticism was fierce.

The response to Haiti has been the same. The point no one seems to remember is this: Medical response to these situations cannot be delayed. Immediate access to emergency equipment is also crucial.

Within 24 hours of the earthquake, Dr. David Helfet put together a 13-member team of surgeons, anesthesiologists and operating room nurses, with a massive amount of orthopedic operating room equipment, ready to be flown directly to Port-au-Prince on a private plane.

We also had a plan to replace physicians and equipment -- within 24 hours, we could bring in whatever was necessary on a private jet. We believe we had a reasonably comprehensive orthopedic trauma service; as trauma surgeons, we planned to provide acute care in the midst of an orthopedic disaster.


We expected many amputations. But we thought we could save limbs that were salvageable, particularly those of children. We recognized that in an underdeveloped country, a limb amputation may be a death sentence. It does not have to be so.

We thought our plan was a good one, but we soon learned we were incredibly naive. Disaster management in Haiti was nonexistent.

The difficulties in getting in -- despite the intelligence we had from people on the ground and Dr. Helfet's connections with Partners in Health and Bill and Hillary Clinton -- only hinted at the difficulties we would have once we arrived.

We started out Friday morning and got a slot to get into Port-au-Prince on Friday. That was canceled when we were on the runway and was rescheduled for the next day. We were diverted to the Dominican Republic and planned on arriving in Port-au-Prince on Saturday.

That Saturday morning slot also was canceled and postponed until the afternoon. The airport had one runway and hundreds of planes trying to land. But nobody was prioritizing the flights.

Once we finally landed, we were taken to the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince with our medical supplies. We had been told that this hospital was up and running with two functioning operating rooms.

Once we arrived, we saw a severely damaged hospital with no running water and only limited electrical power, supplied by a generator. Surgeries were being performed in the equivalent of a large storage closet, where amputations were performed with hacksaws.

This facility could not nearly accommodate our equipment nor our expertise to treat the volume of injuries we saw.

We quickly took our second option: Community Hospital of Haiti, about two miles away. There, we found about 750 patients lying on the floor. But the facility had running water, electricity and two functional operating rooms.

We found scores of patients with pus dripping out of open extremity fractures and crush injuries. Some wounds were already ridden with maggots.


About a third of these victims were children. The entire hospital smelled of infected, rotting limbs and death. Later on, we would judge our surgical progress by the diminishment of the stench.

In our naïveté, we didn't expect that the two anesthesia machines would not work; that there would be only one cautery available in the entire hospital to stop bleeding; that an operating room sterilizer fit only instruments the size of a cigar box; that there would be no sterile saline, no functioning fluoroscopy machine, no blood for transfusions, no ability to do lab work; and the only local staff was a ragtag group of voluntary health providers who, like us, had made it there on their own.

As we got up and running and organized the patients for surgery, we told our contacts in the United States what we needed. More supplies were loaded for a second trip. Those included a battery-operated pulse lavage, a huge supply of sterile saline and the soft goods we needed desperately in the operating room.

The plane landed as planned Sunday night, and the new equipment was loaded onto a truck. Then that truck, loaded with life-saving equipment, was hijacked somewhere between the airport and the hospital.

We had planned to run a marathon round-the-clock operation and leave at 11 p.m. Tuesday. We worked for 60-plus hours without stopping. The plane that would take us home would bring with it not only a new medical staff, but also equipment that was nonexistent in the hospital, or even the country.

These pieces of equipment, two of each, were urgently needed: portable anesthesiology machines; electrocautery machines to stop bleeding after amputations; portable monitors for the recovery room; autoclaves to sterilize equipment; and a lot of orthopedic equipment, which we were quickly using up. The other items were those that were on the previous flight and had been hijacked.

Officials at the Port-au-Prince airport canceled that plane's 6 a.m. Tuesday slot, and the plane never made it to us on time.

We had started to see daylight Monday night, having performed about 100 surgeries, which were mainly amputations, fixing broken limbs and soft tissue debridements. Many of the patients were children and babies.

But on Tuesday morning, a huge number of new patients arrived. The Haitians had heard we were trying to save limbs, and families were bringing their injured loved ones to us.

The hospital was forced to lock down, closing its gates to the angry and frustrated crowd outside. On Tuesday morning, we saw that many of the patients we had operated on were becoming septic and would require additional surgeries.


We finished operating at noon Tuesday, our last surgery assisting an obstetrician on a Caesarean section and helping to resuscitate a newborn who was not breathing.

We decided the situation was untenable. Our supplies were running out, our team was past exhaustion, safety was rapidly becoming a concern, and we had no firm plan to leave or resupply.

A hospital benefactor helped us get to the airport. First, Jamaican soldiers with M-16s escorted us out of the building as the crowd outside saw us abandoning the hospital. We made it to the airport on the back of a pickup, got onto the tarmac, hailed a commercial plane that had carried cargo to Haiti and was returning to Montreal, Canada, and had a private jet pick us up from there.

We were unprepared for what we saw in Haiti -- the vast amount of human devastation, the complete lack of medical infrastructure, the lack of support from the Haitian medical community, the lack of organization on the ground.

No one was in charge. We had the first hospital in the Port-au-Prince area with functioning operating rooms, yet no one came to the hospital to assess how we did it or offer help.

The fact that the military could not or would not protect the critical resupply medical equipment on Sunday, or allow the Tuesday flight to come in, is devastating and merits intense investigation.

There was no security at the hospital. We needed a much higher level of security with strong and clear support of the military from the very beginning.

The lack of support for our operation by the United States is shocking and embarrassing and shows how woefully unprepared we are for the realities of disasters. We came to understand that our isolated operation may work in a mission, but not in a disaster.

We first thought we would support those at the helm but soon realized we were almost the only early responders with the critical expertise and equipment to treat an orthopedic disaster such as this.

Still, nobody with a clear plan is in charge, and care is chaotic at best. Doctors are coming into the country with no plan of what they are going to do, and nobody directing them how to do it.

Surgeons who expect to show up and operate will be mistaken. Without a complement of support staff and supplies, they are of limited to no value.

We left feeling as if we abandoned these patients, the country and its people, and we feel terrible.

Our role back in New York is to expose the inadequacies of the system in the hopes of effecting change immediately. Patients who are alive and still have their arms and legs remain in jeopardy unless an urgent response is implemented.

The quickest and most efficient way to really help now and support the medical staff on the ground is to assess needs, provide equipment and personnel in necessary quantities, and bring them safely and expeditiously into the country and to the hospital units caring for patients.

Upon our departure, we witnessed pallets of Cheerios and dry goods sitting on the tarmac helping nobody. Yet our flight of critical medical equipment and personnel had been canceled, and the equipment that did get through was hijacked.

We implore an official organization to step up and take charge of the massive ongoing medical effort that will be necessary to care for the people of Haiti and their children. And to do it now.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Drs. Dean Lorich, Soumitra Eachempati and David L. Helfet.

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Trapped father survives with help of phone app

Alone in the darkness beneath layers of rubble, Dan Woolley felt blood streaming from his head and leg.

Then he remembered -- he had an app for that.

Woolley, an aid worker, husband, and father of two boys, followed instructions on his cell phone to survive the January 12 earthquake in Haiti.

"I had an app that had pre-downloaded all this information about treating wounds. So I looked up excessive bleeding and I looked up compound fracture," Woolley told CNN.

The application on his iPhone is filled with information about first aid and CPR from the American Heart Association. "So I knew I wasn't making mistakes," Woolley said. "That gave me confidence to treat my wounds properly."

Trapped in the ruins of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, he used his shirt to bandage his leg, and tied his belt around the wound. To stop the bleeding on his head, he firmly pressed a sock to it.

Concerned he might have been experiencing shock, Woolley used the app to look up what to do. It warned him not to sleep. So he set his phone alarm to go off every 20 minutes.

Once the battery got down to less than 20 percent of its power, Woolley turned it off. By then, he says, he had trained his body not to sleep for long periods, drifting off only to wake up within minutes.

Woolley's job keeps him tech savvy. He oversees interactive projects for the Christian child advocacy organization Compassion International in Colorado Springs, Colorado.


With his injuries tended to, he wrote a note to his family in his journal: "I was in a big accident, an earthquake. Don't be upset at God. He always provides for his children even in hard times. I'm still praying that God will get me out, but he may not. But even so he will always take care of you."

The journal is stained with his blood.

After more than 60 hours, Woolley was pulled from the rubble.

"Those guys are rescue heroes," he said of the crew that pulled him out.

Interactive map of where to find aid, hospitals in Haiti

His colleague David Hames has not been found. The two had been standing together when the earthquake struck and the Hotel Montana crumbled. They were making a film about poverty in Haiti and had just gotten back to the hotel, heading to the elevator in the lobby.

"Then all of a sudden just all craziness broke loose," Woolley said. "Convulsions of the ground around us, the walls started rippling and then falling on us. [Hames] yelled out, 'I think it's an earthquake!' I looked for someplace safe to jump to and there was no safe place."

When the shaking stopped, Woolley couldn't see. And his friend was not with him.

He turned on the focus light of a camera he was wearing around his neck, but he didn't have his glasses. "So I actually took some pictures and would look at the back of the lens of the camera and saw in one of those pictures the elevator that I ended up hobbling over to. And that became my safe place."

Once in the elevator, he used the app -- called "Pocket First Aid & CPR" from Jive Media -- to tend to his injuries. Woolley said his phone "was like a high-tech version of a Swiss Army knife that enabled me to treat my own injuries, track time, stay awake and stay alive."

Woolley heard voices of some other people trapped nearby, and they spoke with each other.

"About a day, maybe day and a half in, we heard rescuers, and they had a list of our names at that point, because they were able to talk to one of the people we were talking with. And so then it seemed like, OK, this is going to happen, we're actually going to get rescued.

"But then it just took a long time and there were times where I didn't hear anything or I'd hear drilling in a far part of the building and just didn't get any reassurance they were still coming for me," Woolley said.

"The scene outside was a lot more chaotic and less simple than I imagined in my head. ... But eventually they came for me and did an amazing rescue."

Back home now in Colorado Springs with his wife Christina and children Josh, 6, and Nathan, 3, Woolley said he's grateful to God for getting him through the ordeal.

"Happiness is a morning with ... family, filled with Legos, kissing boo-boos and normalcy."

Sri Lankans vote in historic election

Sri Lankans went to the polls on Tuesday in the island nation's first peacetime presidential election in 26 years, despite explosions and mortar fire in the capital of Northern Province hours before polls opened.

Once a stronghold for the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Northern Province city of Jaffna was a frequent battleground for the rebels and Sri Lankan government troops until a government offensive last year crushed the Tigers.

While it wasn't clear what the explosions were, they were nothing new for Jaffnans, who have lived under military control for decades.



More than 14 million Sri Lankans are expected to elect their sixth executive president to a six-year term.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is seeking a fresh mandate for his government, but he faces a tough challenge from his one-time confidante and former Army commander, retired General Sarath Fonseka.

Rajapaksa cast his vote in his ancestral town of Medamulana, near the southern town of Tangalle. "I am very confident of victory," he told journalists.

Fonseka was expected to visit a polling booth in Colombo.

Queues were large outside most polling booths in Colombo and principal towns, election officials said.

"I waited in a queue for 45 minutes before I could cast my ballot," said Damayantha Perera of the Colombo suburb of Maharagama.

"I also had to wait for almost an hour," said W. Ramiah, a resident of Nugegoda, also of Colombo.

Fonseka, who won wide acclaim for leading troops to military victory against the rebels, broke ranks with the Rajapaksa administration after he was elevated to the largely ceremonial post of chief of defense staff in July after retiring as Army commander.

After Fonseka announced his presidential bid, the main opposition parties -- with widely diverse political ideologies -- closed ranks behind him to make him their common candidate.

"There has been abuse of power, corruption and nepotism. We want to abolish the executive presidency and make the parliament more answerable to the people. The best person to do this is the one who defeated terrorism," Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of the United National Party, told CNN.

Many of Rajapaksa's family members, including his brothers, hold key positions in the government: Chamal is a Cabinet minister, Gotabhaya is Defense Secretary, and Basil is a member of parliament and senior presidential adviser. Other members of the family hold important positions locally and in Sri Lanka's diplomatic missions abroad.

The coalition of parties backing Fonseka includes a main opposition right wing party and a leftist Marxist outfit, as well as the Tamil National Alliance.

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the Center for Policy Alternatives, a branch of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence, said the situation in Sri Lanka, however, is "a picture of dysfunction and breakdown."

There have been allegations of interference with mail-in ballots, according to the group. Most of the complaints have been against members of Rajapaksa's government, it said.

There have been more than 700 reports of violence ahead of the election, with at least four deaths reported, Saravanamuttu said.

Sri Lankans are casting their ballots in more than 11,000 voting booths across the nation. Local leaders have urged a peaceful voting day amid the escalating violence, including the shooting deaths of two people -- one a supporter of the opposition and the other of the government.

A contingent of 85,000 police officers have been deployed to maintain law and order, said Mahinda Balasooriya, the inspector general of police. Each polling station has two to three police officers on duty, he said.

The spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last week that the U.N. chief was "concerned about the growing violence in the lead-up to the presidential election."

"The peaceful conduct of the first post-conflict national election is of the highest importance for long-term peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka," he added.

France moves closer to ban on burqas

Paris, France -- French lawJustify Fullmakers could recommend Tuesday that the fiercely secular country ban the burqa, the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy controversially told lawmakers in June that the traditional Muslim garment was "not welcome" in France.

"The problem of the burqa is not a religious problem. This is an issue of a woman's freedom and dignity. This is not a religious symbol. It is a sign of subservience; it is a sign of lowering. I want to say solemnly, the burqa is not welcome in France," Sarkozy said.

A day later, the French National Assembly announced the creation of an inquiry into whether women in France should be allowed to wear the covering.

A cross-party panel of 32 lawmakers has been studying whether the burqa poses a threat to France's constitutionally-mandated secularism. A ban could make it impossible for women who wear the burqa to receive any public services, from buying a bus ticket to picking up a child at school.

Some members of parliament want to go even further with a law that might make wearing a full veil subject to a $1,000 fine.

"You know, it is not only an article of clothing to hide your face," said parliamentary majority leader Jean-Francois Cope. "I am sorry, it's a choice which is not compatible with the rules of the republic."

Within days of Sarkozy's announcement, al Qaeda threatened to "take revenge" on France "by every means and wherever we can reach them," according to a statement posted on radical Islamist Web sites.

Connect the World: Is it right to ban the burqa?

"We will not tolerate such provocations and injustices, and we will take our revenge from France," said the statement, signed by Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, calling himself "commander of al Qaeda in North Africa [Islamic Maghreb]."

But more than half of French people support the ban, according to a recent opinion poll. The Ipsos poll for Le Point magazine found 57 percent of French people said it should be illegal to appear in public wearing clothes that cover the face, like the burqa.

That's despite government estimates that less than 2,000 women in the country actually wear the full Islamic veil.

France has about 3.5 million Muslims, representing about 6 percent of the population, according to research by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. The country does not collect its own statistics on religion in accordance with laws enshrining France's status as a secular state.

French lawmakers believe the burqa is a growing phenomenon beneath which lies a not-so-subtle message of fundamentalism.

Those who advocate the ban say women are often forced to wear full veils by the men around them -- husbands, fathers or brothers -- and that it is a sign of subjugation.

However, women who actually wear the veils deny that.

"You are going to isolate these women and then you can't say that it is Islam that has denied them freedom, but that the law has," said Mabrouka Boujnah, a language teacher of Tunisian origin.

Boujnah, who at 28 is about to have her first child, says she came to wearing a full veil gradually, after wearing headscarves as an teenager. She believes a law like the one being discussed will take away fundamental rights of Muslim women.

She and her friend Oumkheyr say they prefer to cover their faces out of piety.

Oumkheyr, in her 40s and unmarried, says she even has friends who wear full veils against the wishes of their husbands. Oumkheyr, who is from Algeria, would not give her last name.

The women, both French citizens, say they are only following their religious beliefs and France should respect that.

But even some Muslims here think the full veil goes too far.

There is nothing in Quran that directs women to cover their faces, said Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, who runs the Islamic center in Drancy, a Paris suburb. He said it is ridiculous to do so in France.

While French lawmakers from both left- and right-wing parties seem ready to pass at least a resolution discouraging the full veil in public places, it's a choice Boujnah and Oumkheyr say they will continue to make. They pair say they will willingly show their faces for identification purposes -- but if it comes to it, they will break any law that runs contrary to their religious beliefs..

At the very least any law directed at full veils is likely to be challenged in the courts both here and at the European level. What's more, even police find it hard to imagine how they could -- or would -- enforce such a ban.

In 2004, the French parliament passed legislation banning Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in state schools, prompting widespread Muslim protests. The law also banned other conspicuous religious symbols including Sikh turbans, large Christian crucifixes and Jewish skull caps.

In 2008, France's top court denied a Moroccan woman's naturalization request on the grounds that she wore a burqa.

France is not the only European Union country to consider banning the burqa. Dutch lawmakers voted in favor of a ban in 2005, although the government at the time left office before legislation could be passed.

'Chemical Ali' executed, Iraqi government spokesman says

Baghdad, Iraq -- Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed -- also known as Chemical Ali -- was executed Monday, an Iraqi government spokesman said.

He was hanged after having been convicted on 13 counts of killings and genocide, Ali al-Dabagh said.

Al-Majeed had been sentenced to death in four separate trials, including one that focused on his involvement in a poison gas attack against Iraqi Kurds that killed about 5,000 people.

His execution had been delayed for political rather than legal reasons. It is not clear what change, if any, led to the reported execution.

Al-Majeed had been held in United States custody since his capture in 2003. But he was handed over to the Iraqi authorities in the 24 hours before his execution, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill told CNN's Diana Magnay on Monday.

The 1988 poison gas attack on the village of Halabja, which earned al-Majeed his nickname, was part of the Anfal campaign, in which the Hussein regime killed at least 100,000 Iraqi Kurds. The campaign is believed to be worst poison gas attack on civilians ever.

Al-Majeed was sentenced to death separately for his role in putting down a Shiite uprising against Hussein in 1991, and for his part in putting down a Baghdad revolt in 1999.

Estimates of the Shiite death toll in the 1991 rebellion range from 20,000 to 100,000. Al-Majeed was convicted of playing a key part in the slaughter during the revolt in southern Iraq that followed the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

One of his co-defendants in the Anfal case, Sultan Hashem, is a prominent Sunni leader who is considered a key player in efforts to reconcile the country's once-dominant Sunni community with the Shiite majority that now wields political power.

Hashem was also sentenced to death, but Iraq's Sunni Arab Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi has long refused to sign his execution order. That delayed the execution of al-Majeed and another defendant as well.

Iraqi law requires all three members of the Iraqi presidency council -- the president and two vice-presidents -- to sign execution orders. It does not say what happens if they do not sign.