.
Paying the price with more innocent lives …
(BBC News) – Six foreign UN employees have been killed and nine wounded in an attack in Kabul, the deadliest on the UN in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s fall.
Three militants attacked a guesthouse used by the UN. They were later shot dead. Two Afghan security personnel and a civilian also died. The Taliban said they carried out the attack, which comes 10 days before the second round of presidential elections.
Later, rockets were fired at the city’s five-star Serena Hotel. One or two rockets were said to have landed in the grounds of the hotel, which is used by diplomats and other foreigners. No-one has been reported injured there, but about 100 people inside at the time were taken to secure rooms as smoke filled the lobby.
Afghan president’s sibling is suspected player in nation’s illegal opium trade
KABUL, Afghanistan – Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.
The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.
During Clinton’s visit to Pakistan …
(ABC News/AP) – As America’s top diplomat, Clinton arranged her three-day visit to get maximum public exposure. She planned to meet with students, business leaders, opposition figures and other elements of Pakistani society, pressing the case that the U.S. wants an enduring partnership with Pakistan.
“It is fair to say there have been a lot of misconceptions about what the United States intends for our relationship with Pakistan,” Clinton told reporters on her overnight flight, adding, “It is unfortunate there are those who question our motives. I want to clear the air.”
Visit coincides with deadly blast in Peshawar
ISLAMABAD (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton kicked off talks in Pakistan, as a car bomb ripped through a crowded market in the northwest city of Peshawar killing at least four people.
Clinton, promising new investments while fending off bitter criticism of Washington’s policies from within the anti-terror ally, arrived just hours before the blast that also wounded at least 35.
“It was a huge bomb blast, heard in almost all the city,” police official Anwar Shah told AFP by telephone.
A huge blaze erupted after the explosion
that hit a busy market in Peshawar (AlJazeera)
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
