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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Blast in Peshawar Pakistan



A blast in Peshawar on Wednesday killed at least 8 people and wounding another 35, a police official said. ‘It was a huge bomb blast, heard in almost all the city,’ Anwar Shah told AFP by telephone. ‘We have 8 killed and 35 wounded. It was a car bomb blast,’ he added. Vehicles and shop fronts were damaged in the massive explosion. A large blaze broke out after the explosion.

Houses demolished in east Jerusalem



Israeli authorities have torn down several Palestinian houses in occupied east Jerusalem on grounds that the structures were built illegally. Gidi Schmerling, a Jerusalem municipality spokesman, said the affected houses and structures were in the neighbourhoods of Shuafat, Zur Baher, Silwan and Jabel Mukabar. "All the houses were demolished in accordance with a court order," he said on Tuesday in a statement to the AFP news agency. The Palestinians have long accused the municipality of discriminating against them and making it virtually impossible to get legal permits for new homes or extensions to existing ones. As a result, thousands of illegal structures were erected in recent decades with Israel issuing demolition orders and destroying dozens of houses each year. Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, had vowed to crack down on illegal construction in the city, including east Jerusalem, whose fate is one of the thorniest issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Earlier this year, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for a halt to home demolitions in East Jerusalem.

Is Afghanistan Obama's Vietnam?


U.S. President Barack Obama says the war in Afghanistan isn't going to end up like Vietnam. A majority of Americans don't agree and don't want to get in any deeper, but even they don't like the alternative. "Younger Americans, who probably learned about the Vietnam war only through textbooks don't necessarily see quite the same parallels," said CNN polling director Keating Holland. "But for older Americans they're really starting to get a little bit of a sense of deja vu." Our newest CNN Opinion Research poll finds that a majority of Americans oppose the war in Afghanistan and think it's turning into another Vietnam, the most divisive and painful defeat in modern American history. Obama has been struggling for weeks to set a new strategy for Afghanistan and is trying to decide whether to deploy more troops. A majority of Americans are opposed to that too. It's easy to be reminded of the way a generation of GIs who went to Southeast Asia, starting with a handful of advisers in the 1950s, rising to more than 500,000 troops by 1968. When Obama took office, there were about 38,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He's raised the number to 65,000 and is said to be considering adding another 40,000 more. And he resists the comparison between the two conflicts. "Each historical moment is different. You never step in the same river twice," Obama said in an interview last month. "And so Afghanistan is not Vietnam." The most important difference may be that the current war isn't being fought against the perceived threat of Communism half a world away, but as a result of the deadly 9/11 attacks on the U.S. itself. That's why despite all their doubts, Americans want the president to keep fighting. The poll we did that found a majority opposing the war in Afghanistan found an even bigger majority who believe it's necessary to keep the military there to prevent more terror attacks on the U.S. The best explanation may be this: Americans don't want to send more troops into Afghanistan and they don't want to keep fighting there. But they are afraid of what will happen if they leave the battlefield behind.

8 militants killed in operation Rah-e-Nijaat


At least 8 militants were killed when security forces bombed their hideouts in different areas of South Waziristan. According to official sources, eight militants were killed and five others injured in the bombing and shelling of gunship helicopters in Makeen, Saloshti, Mami Karama and Kanigaram. Many hideouts were also destroyed in the bombardment. Security forces are advancing towards Mami Karama and Kanigaram from Saloshti. Security forces are facing stiff resistance at Mami Karama. On the other hand, security forces also moving towards Sararoga from Kotki.

Taliban kill six foreigners in attack on Kabul UN hostel



Taliban suicide gunmen stormed a UN hostel in central Kabul Wednesday, killing at least six foreigners in an assault that the militants warned marked a bloody countdown to new Afghan elections. Gunfire and explosions rang out across the city in a smart residential district near Butcher Street close to popular shopping streets favoured by Westerners, and at least five foreigners were among those wounded. ‘Three suicide bombers have been killed during the police operation, they were armed suicide bombers,’ Afghan interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said. ‘Unfortunately six foreigners have been killed, five foreigners have been wounded,’ he told AFP, without giving further details. United Nations spokesman Aleem Siddique confirmed earlier that three UN staff members staying at the Bachter Guesthouse were killed. One police officer and one intelligence officer had also been killed, an Afghan soldier at the site of the attack said, adding that four men and one woman were among the dead. The attack came with tensions rising in Afghanistan ahead of the scheduled presidential second-round election on November 7, and after a string of high-profile suicide attacks in recent months. Police said the gunmen stormed the UN-approved guesthouse in the Shar-i-Now area of the capital around 5:30 am (0100 GMT), well before the start of the working day. Flames and heavy black smoke spewed into the sky from the area, where police closed off roads and surrounded the building.