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THE STANS
Taliban claims to leak Afghan jirga security plan
by Staff Writers
Kabul (AFP) Nov 14, 2011


The Taliban in Afghanistan have published what they claim is a top-secret government security plan for a major meeting of elders this week, but officials deny the document is genuine.

The "loya jirga" or traditional meeting is due to start in Kabul on Wednesday and will feature about 2,000 elders discussing Afghanistan's long-term relationship with the US plus efforts to make peace in the country.

The alleged plan, published on the Taliban's website late Sunday, features a satellite map of the venue where the event will take place, mobile phone numbers of top security officials and details of security force deployments.

"The vigilant mujahideen of the Islamic emirate (the Taliban) have acquired the security plans, maps and other documents related to the upcoming supposed loya jirga," the militant group said in a statement sent to media.

The Taliban said the documents were seized "by means of its personnel embedded inside the enemy ranks".

The militant Islamists, leaders of a 10-year insurgency in Afghanistan, have already threatened to target the meeting, and struck at Afghanistan's last loya jirga in 2010.

But Afghan government officials and the international military say it is a fake.

"We strongly dismiss this and there is no truth in it," Abdul Rahman Rahman, the deputy interior minister responsible for security and police matters, told a press conference in Kabul.

"If this document were real, they would have used it to attack the loya jirga and later leak it out. If it's real why would you publish it?"

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), William Truelove, called the document a "fabricated piece of propaganda" and said it was "an attempt to disrupt this peaceful jirga".

Separately, interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told journalists that a man believed to be one of the Taliban's main media spokesmen, Zabiullah Mujahid, had been captured in southeast Afghanistan Monday.

However, ISAF spokesman Sergeant Christopher DeWitt cited the deputy governor of Paktika province as saying that while the individual captured had the same surname as the spokesman, it was not the same person.

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India, Pakistan look to implement trade deal
New Delhi (AFP) Nov 9, 2011 - Top officials from India and Pakistan began talks on Monday to flesh out an agreement on opening up trade between the countries, part of a warming of ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Pakistan's Commerce Secretary Zafar Mahmood met his Indian counterpart Rahul Khullar at the start of the two-day talks in New Delhi aimed at implementing a deal to double annual trade in the next three years to $6 billion.

The visit followed Pakistan's decision on November 2 to grant "most favoured nation" (MFN) status to India, reciprocating a move made by India to Pakistan in 1996.

"We have to fully normalise our relationship and you cannot fully normalise the trade relationship without invoking the MFN principle (and) so we will be working on that," Mahmood told reporters after reaching New Delhi on Saturday.

The status will remove discriminatory higher pricing and duty tariffs that stand as barriers to exports between the South Asian neighbours, analysts say.

The prime ministers of the two countries met last week on the sidelines of a South Asian summit in the Maldives, saying they expected to open a "new chapter" in bilateral talks.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them triggered by their territorial dispute over Kashmir, which remains a major hurdle in any future comprehensive peace deal.

A fully-fledged peace dialogue -- suspended by India after the 2008 Mumbai attacks blamed on Pakistan-based militants -- was resumed in February this year.



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THE STANS
Turkey bombs north Iraq: PKK
Arbil, Iraq (AFP) Nov 13, 2011
Turkish warplanes bombed the Qandil border area in Iraqi Kurdistan on Sunday for about an hour, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatist group said. Dozdar Hammo said that Turkish jets began bombing the area, in which the PKK has bases, around 11:00 am (0800 GMT) and continued for about an hour. He did not provide any additional details. The Turkish military laun ... read more


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