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Monday, December 13, 2010

US drone attacks in North Waziristan this year


At least 675 persons were killed and 105 sustained injuries in the 100 US drone attacks in North Waziristan this year, officials and local residents said on Saturday. A total of 291 missiles were fired by the US drones, targetting more than 100 vehicles and 60 houses. Majority of those killed were local people, including women and children. Villagers complained that hundreds of residents died of diseases caused by the drone attacks in the area. They added that diseases relating to eyes, chest, throat and heart had also increased in the area as a result of these strikes. Five drone attacks were carried out in South Waziristan, which borders North Waziristan. Tribal elders Malik Nasrullah, Malik Mamoor Khan, Malik Qadir Khan, Maulvi Gul Ramzan, Hafiz Noorullah Shah, Malik Noor Mohammad and others appealed to the United Nations and human rights organisations to play their role in halting the drone attacks as most of the victims were innocent civilians.

Kosovo’s first parliamentary elections

Kosovo’s first parliamentary elections as an independent state unfolded on Sunday as a tight race between the two ruling parties that declared the territory’s secession from Serbia in February 2008. Hashim Thaci, prime minister since 2007 and a former guerrilla leader, called early elections after his Democratic Party of Kosovo quarrelled with the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) over their power-sharing deal. Voter turnout had reached 34.1 per cent among 1.6m eligible voters by 3.30pm local time, more than half way through the voting day, said Valdete Daka, chief election commissioner. The European Union hopes for a stable coalition soon in the mainly ethnic Albanian breakaway state, so that renewed negotiations with Serbia can begin by early next year. The EU hopes both states can eventually become members. Only 72 UN member states and 22 of the EU’s 27 members have recognised Kosovo. The latest opinion polls had put Mr Thaci’s party only narrowly ahead, with 30 per cent support compared with 28 per cent for its now bitter rival, the LDK. A new party leader, Isa Mustafa, replaced Fatmir Sejdiu, the LDK leader forced to resign as Kosovo’s president in September over a constitutional challenge by Mr Thaci’s allies. With neither frontrunner close to gaining an outright majority, Mr Thaci’s opponents hoped for high turnout as the best way to tip the balance against him. Turnout above 50 per cent – as opposed to the apathetic 42 per cent at the last, pre-independence polls – would leave the race wide open, said LDK advisers and independent analysts. Ramush Haradinaj, another ex-guerrilla party leader and pre-independence prime minister, has been in detention in The Hague for a retrial on war crimes charges.

Obama is praying for Holbrooke

President Obama says he is praying for special Afghanistan ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who remains in critical condition Sunday after a 20-hour heart operation. Holbrooke, 69, the president's envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, had emergency surgery this weekend to repair a tear in his aorta, the artery that moves blood from the heart. Holbrooke had collapsed Friday during a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.