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The United Nations says it will relocate around 600 non-Afghan workers, more than half of its foreign staff in the war-torn country, following an attack by Taliban militants in the capital last week in which five foreign UN workers were killed.The United Nations will relocate about 600 of its roughly 1,100 international staff working in Afghanistan. The move comes after an attack on a UN guesthouse in Kabul last week left five foreign workers dead. "The UN has already asked its employees to be more careful, to avoid travelling without a convoy in Kabul and in other parts of the country," said FRANCE 24's special correspondent in Kabul, Lucas Menget. "This is the logical next step."
The United Nations will relocate about 600 of its roughly 1,100 international staff working in Afghanistan. The move comes after an attack on a UN guesthouse in Kabul last week left five foreign workers dead.
"The UN has already asked its employees to be more careful, to avoid travelling without a convoy in Kabul and in other parts of the country," said FRANCE 24's special correspondent in Kabul, Lucas Menget. "This is the logical next step."
KABUL (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Thursday it would evacuate hundreds of its international staff from Afghanistan for several weeks due to deteriorating security, a sharp blow for Western efforts to stabilise the country. Spokesman Aleem Siddique said the United Nations would relocate about 600 of its roughly 1,100 international staff, with some being moved to safer sites within Afghanistan and the rest withdrawn from the country temporarily. The move, a week after five U.N. foreign staff were killed by militants in Kabul, complicates U.S. President Barack Obama's counter-insurgency war strategy, which foresees an influx of civilian assistance alongside extra troops.
KABUL (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Thursday it would evacuate hundreds of its international staff from Afghanistan for several weeks due to deteriorating security, a sharp blow for Western efforts to stabilise the country.
Spokesman Aleem Siddique said the United Nations would relocate about 600 of its roughly 1,100 international staff, with some being moved to safer sites within Afghanistan and the rest withdrawn from the country temporarily.
The move, a week after five U.N. foreign staff were killed by militants in Kabul, complicates U.S. President Barack Obama's counter-insurgency war strategy, which foresees an influx of civilian assistance alongside extra troops.
The gunman who killed five British soldiers in an attack in Afghanistan's Helmand province was today back with Taliban fighters who greeted him with flowers, sources close to the Afghan security forces said.The killer - identified only as a policeman called Gulbadin - was back under Taliban protection, the source said.British and Afghan commanders were undertaking an urgent investigation into the circumstances of the attack.The Ministry of Defence named the five soldiers who died in the attack as Warrant Officer Darren Chant, Sergeant Matthew Telford, Guardsman James Major, Acting Corporal Steven Boote and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith.
The gunman who killed five British soldiers in an attack in Afghanistan's Helmand province was today back with Taliban fighters who greeted him with flowers, sources close to the Afghan security forces said.
The killer - identified only as a policeman called Gulbadin - was back under Taliban protection, the source said.
British and Afghan commanders were undertaking an urgent investigation into the circumstances of the attack.
The Ministry of Defence named the five soldiers who died in the attack as Warrant Officer Darren Chant, Sergeant Matthew Telford, Guardsman James Major, Acting Corporal Steven Boote and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith.
The deaths prompted deep soul searching in Whitehall because Gordon Brown has put the training by the British army of a rapidly expanded Afghan security force at the heart of his exit strategy from Afghanistan.
Afghans are world famous fighters, in part because they have a knack for gravitating to the winning side, and they're ready to change sides with alacrity until they get it right. Recognizing that Afghans back a winner, U.S. military strategists are now banking on a counterinsurgency strategy that seeks to "clear, hold, and build" -- that is, to stick around long enough to win the Afghans over. But it's way too late for that to work. These days, U.S. troops sticking around look ever more like a foreign occupying army and, to the Taliban, like targets. Recently Karen DeYoung noted in the Washington Post that the Taliban now regularly use very sophisticated military techniques -- "as if the insurgents had attended something akin to the U.S. Army's Ranger school, which teaches soldiers how to fight in small groups in austere environments." Of course, some of them have attended training sessions which teach them to fight in "austere environments," probably time and time again. If you were a Talib, wouldn't you scout the training being offered to Afghans on the other side? And wouldn't you do it more than once if you could get well paid every time? Such training is bound to come in handy -- as it may have for the Talib policeman who, just last week, bumped off eight other comrades at his police post in Kunduz Province in northern Afghanistan and turned it over to the Taliban. On the other hand, such training can be deadly to American trainers. Take the case of the American trainer who was shot and wounded that same week by one of his trainees. Reportedly, a dispute arose because the trainer was drinking water "in front of locals," while the trainees were fasting for the Muslim holy month of Ramazan.
MAGDALENA, Argentina (Reuters) - Argentine cattle raiser Jose Trivino fears the end of a decade-long boom in feedlots that is changing the face of traditional ranching on the legendary Pampas plains. As the nation's farmers turn over more land to lucrative soybeans, cattle that once roamed freely over vast expanses are increasingly being reared in feedlots and fattened on grains instead of grass. The government, keen to keep prices low for steak-loving Argentines, has encouraged feedlot expansion with millions of dollars of subsidies. But producers like Trivino say a recent suspension of state payments risks putting them out of business.
MAGDALENA, Argentina (Reuters) - Argentine cattle raiser Jose Trivino fears the end of a decade-long boom in feedlots that is changing the face of traditional ranching on the legendary Pampas plains.
As the nation's farmers turn over more land to lucrative soybeans, cattle that once roamed freely over vast expanses are increasingly being reared in feedlots and fattened on grains instead of grass.
The government, keen to keep prices low for steak-loving Argentines, has encouraged feedlot expansion with millions of dollars of subsidies. But producers like Trivino say a recent suspension of state payments risks putting them out of business.
On a leafy street in Almaty, a few hundred miles from Kazakhstan's border with China, the elegant mansion of China National Petroleum Corporation is kept under close guard. Behind its closed shutters, Chinese oilmen have plotted a strategy to win a huge portfolio of Kazakh energy assets to feed their country's need for oil.China began discreetly buying Kazakh oilfields 10 years ago and now has more energy projects on the go in the central Asian nation than any other country. While the west's biggest oil groups agonise over the risks of undertaking expensive infrastructure developments in obscure locations, Beijing has boldly built a 3,000km pipeline to lock Kazakhstan's oilfields into its orbit.
On a leafy street in Almaty, a few hundred miles from Kazakhstan's border with China, the elegant mansion of China National Petroleum Corporation is kept under close guard. Behind its closed shutters, Chinese oilmen have plotted a strategy to win a huge portfolio of Kazakh energy assets to feed their country's need for oil.
China began discreetly buying Kazakh oilfields 10 years ago and now has more energy projects on the go in the central Asian nation than any other country. While the west's biggest oil groups agonise over the risks of undertaking expensive infrastructure developments in obscure locations, Beijing has boldly built a 3,000km pipeline to lock Kazakhstan's oilfields into its orbit.
Sombre oil executives fear they will never be able to compete with the deep pockets of China's government-backed companies and will be driven out of the few last available new oil patches. The predicament seems even more dire in light of warnings from authorities including the International Energy Agency, the rich countries' energy watchdog, that the world is heading towards another oil crunch by the middle of the coming decade. At a conference last month, Christophe de Margerie, chief executive of France's Total, challenged other oil executives to disprove his theory that the world would never be able to produce more than 100m barrels of oil a day - 20 per cent more than today - because so many of its remaining reserves lay in countries unwilling or unable to let international oil companies tap them.
The predicament seems even more dire in light of warnings from authorities including the International Energy Agency, the rich countries' energy watchdog, that the world is heading towards another oil crunch by the middle of the coming decade.
At a conference last month, Christophe de Margerie, chief executive of France's Total, challenged other oil executives to disprove his theory that the world would never be able to produce more than 100m barrels of oil a day - 20 per cent more than today - because so many of its remaining reserves lay in countries unwilling or unable to let international oil companies tap them.
Neo-Classical Economic training can seriously handicap western businesspeople in their dealings with China for this reason. Their expectations are often wrong. This would be a worthy subject for a Chaplinesque slap stick comedy were our personal and national welfares not taking the fall as well. The pull of the paradigm is such that all China had to do was appear to be adopting capitalist principles and many, many of those dealing with them thought: "Oh, good! Now I understand how to deal with them!" Wrong. Massive fail. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
WASHINGTON -- Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan have devised ways to cripple and even destroy the expensive armored vehicles that offer U.S. forces the best protection against roadside bombs by using increasingly large explosive charges and rocket-propelled grenades, according to U.S. soldiers and defense officials. At least eight American troops have been killed this year in attacks on so-called Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, and 40 more have been wounded, said a senior U.S. military official who, like others interviewed on the issue, declined to be further identified because of the issue's sensitivity. The insurgents' success in attacking the hulking machines, which can cost as much as $1 million each, underscores their ability to counter the advanced hardware that the U.S. military and its allies are deploying in their struggle to gain the upper hand in the war, which entered its ninth year last month.
At least eight American troops have been killed this year in attacks on so-called Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, and 40 more have been wounded, said a senior U.S. military official who, like others interviewed on the issue, declined to be further identified because of the issue's sensitivity.
The insurgents' success in attacking the hulking machines, which can cost as much as $1 million each, underscores their ability to counter the advanced hardware that the U.S. military and its allies are deploying in their struggle to gain the upper hand in the war, which entered its ninth year last month.
El Gobierno español considera que la creación de un Gobierno de unidad en Honduras sin representantes del presidente derrocado Manuel Zelaya constituye "un incumplimiento flagrante del acuerdo" que suscribiron el presidente 'de facto', Roberto Micheletti, y el propio Zelaya la semana pasada para poner fin a la crisis política que vive el país centroamericano desde el golpe de Estado del 28 de junio.
For English speakers. "Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne
